An indispensable guide,Cults, Conspiracies, and Secret Societiesconnects the dots and sets the record straight on a host of greedy gurus and murderous messiahs, crepuscular cabals and suspicious coincidences. Some topics are familiarthe Kennedy assassinations, the Bilderberg Group, the Illuminati, the Peoples Temple and Heavens Gateand some surprising, like Oulipo, a select group of intellectuals who created wild formulas for creating literary masterpieces, and the Chauffeurs, an eighteenth-century society of French home invaders, who set fire to their victims feet.