Gardens of Evil: Inside the Zion Society Cult, what it is and where to subscribe

If you’ve just found this podcast, welcome. If you’ve been with us since Episode 1, thank you. Gardens of Evil: Inside the Zion Society Cult is a true crime series built around one hard promise, we’re going to tell this story with care, accuracy, and respect for the people who lived it.

And before we get into the details, here’s the headline a lot of you are asking about. This podcast has been ranked by @ApplePodcasts worldwide as #1 in New Shows, #1 in Top Series, #4 in True Crime, and #17 in All Shows. That kind of response doesn’t happen without you listening, sharing, and pushing the story out into the light. I don’t take it for granted.

Gardens of Evil is an investigative series about the Zion Society cult, the people drawn into it, the system of control that kept them trapped, and the law enforcement operation that ultimately brought it down. This isn’t a “spooky cult story” told for clicks. It’s about real victims, real trauma, real consequences, and the hard work it takes to untangle what happened decades later.

You’re going to hear three kinds of voices throughout this series. First, survivor voices. People who were there, who endured it, and who are now ready to talk about what they remember and how it shaped their lives.

Second, investigators and professionals. Law enforcement perspectives, investigative decision points, and what the evidence actually does and does not say. If you’re used to social media certainty, this will feel different. We slow down, we separate rumor from record, and we keep the focus where it belongs.

Third, the community context. This story didn’t unfold in a vacuum. The place, the relationships, the culture, and the public narrative all mattered. You’ll hear how that environment influenced what people reported, what they feared, and what was hidden in plain sight.

A lot of cult content gets framed like it’s a museum exhibit. “Look how strange that was.” That’s not what this is. The tactics you’ll hear about in Gardens of Evil are the same tactics you see in coercive control today: isolation, intimidation, dependency, secrecy, surveillance, and punishment disguised as “love” or “protection.” The names change. The settings change. The playbook doesn’t. If you care about true crime, you already know this. The behavior patterns repeat.

You can subscribe at: https://go.gamutpodcasts.com/americannightmareseries

You can get my book about the case, Deceived, An Investigative Memoir of the Zion Society Cult on Amazon or in the USA, get signed copies at www.ProfilingEvil.com

If you’re the kind of listener who likes to share episodes with a friend, that helps more than you think. These stories don’t travel unless regular people push them. And let me pull back the curtains a little on some of my research for the case. A big part came from Newspapers.com. And I’m not talking about quick headline scans. I mean going page by page through original reporting, back when the story was unfolding in real time, and before everything became a copy-and-paste rewrite of somebody else’s summary. Today, a lot of what we call “reporting” is really aggregation. One outlet rewrites another outlet, agencies repeat what’s already been said, and the end result can look polished while still being shallow. Sometimes it’s not even wrong on the facts, it’s just missing the texture that tells you what was really happening on the ground.

With Newspapers.com you get journalists who were physically there, talking to neighbors, watching the response, hearing the community rumors, and capturing details that never make it into later official summaries. You also get local journalists who often had deep familiarity with the area and real relationships with people connected to the story. For true crime work, that’s gold. It helps you reconstruct how information moved, who knew what when, what the public was told, and what was left out.

I use Newspapers.com constantly for case research, not just for this series. And on a personal note, I also use it for things that matter in my own life. One of the most meaningful projects I’ve done there is tracking down newspaper articles related to my father’s World War II service. Those pieces of ink-and-paper history are sometimes the only surviving “first draft” of a family story.

If you want to try it, I’ve got a special discount link for you. Use this link to access my Newspapers.com discount: https://www.newspapers.com/profilingevil

And thanks for considering Gardens of Evil. Did you know that my proceeds are going towarad child advocacy issues and a criminal justice scholarship at Weber State University? Listening is free but the benefit is long lasting.