Can murder, moonshine and tax evasion be excused for religious beliefs? Some cults with Alabama ties believed so.

Since its beginnings in 1819, Alabama has had its share of people who started cults, joined their membership or became victims of cult crimes.

Here is a look at 5 strange Alabama ties to cults and religious sects:

Barkerites of Limestone County

The story of a religious sect started by the Rev. John S. Barker in Limestone County begins with an oft-repeated legend that sounds more like a horror movie plot: One day in the 1910s, a Limestone County father took a walk to the barn with his pre-teen son. Suddenly, he forced the boy inside a stall with a mule known for being temperamental and capable of bodily harm. His intention? Have the vicious animal kick his son to death.

The boy managed to escape but why would a father act in this way? Because his preacher, the Rev. Barker, told the father his child "had the devil in him." Barker's followers were known as Barkerites and had a community in the western part of the county.

According to Sally Hess, a descendant of Barker's, the preacher felt there was a devil in every family, and the possessed needed to be killed.

"He knew the Bible from cover to cover and could quote any part of it. But he used it for his purpose and not the purpose of God." Hess said in a 2010 interview. Hess's father was one of Barker's nephews. Barker never married.

Barker advised his congregation that making whiskey was legal as long as it was sold to "non-believers," that a husband and wife of different religious beliefs should separate, and that his followers must "donate" to the church, although in reality he sent thugs to their homes to collect money, according to the 1973 book "A History of Limestone County" by Robert Henry Walker.

In 1915, Barker advised his followers the world would end in 1917, leading some to sell their belongings and turn over the proceeds to Barker. When Armageddon failed to occur, some followers began to catch on that Barker was not a prophet and he decided to move to Oklahoma.

His nephew and the nephew's son accompanied him and rumors of the son's death soon filtered back to Limestone County. The nephew was reportedly charged with his son's murder but served time on a lesser charge after no body was produced. People wondered, of course, if the nephew did kill his son and if he did so on the advice of his religious advisor, Barker.

Barker died Feb. 17, 1934, and is buried in western Limestone County in the Barker family cemetery.

Marshall Herff Applewhite of Heaven's Gate

Marshall Herff Applewhite came to teach chorale students at the University of Alabama in 1961. He was described as handsome, charming and "affable," and was well liked by students, according to a 1975 article in the Tuscaloosa News.

Dr. Wilbur Rowan was interviewed about his former colleague after Applewhite became leader of a cult in the early 1970s and convinced a group of believers in Oregon to follow him into the Colorado desert in 1975 to await the arrival of a UFO that would take away the chosen ones.

Applewhite met Bonnie Lu Trousdale Nettles around 1970 and it was apparently her belief in "salvation by spaceship" that swayed Applewhite into forming the group that eventually would become known as Heaven's Gate.

Nettles and Applewhite said they were "The Two" referred to in Revelation and felt earthly laws did not apply to them. While spending time in jail for credit card theft, Applewhite formulated his UFO theory.

No spaceship arrived in 1975 and the group remained out of the limelight for years before resurfacing in the early 1990s. In 1997, as the Hale-Bopp comet approached, Applewhite saw it as a sign that it was time to go to the Next Level. That March, he and 38 of his followers, all dressed in purple robes, drank a concoction of vodka and barbiturates. Their bodies were discovered on March 26 at their compound in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.

Manson Family member Patricia Krenwinkel and victim Jay Sebring

Patricia Dianne Krenwinkel was born Dec. 3, 1947, in Los Angeles, Calif., but her parents divorced when she was 17 and her mother moved to Mobile, Ala. Krenwinkel moved to Mobile briefly to attend Spring Hill College but soon dropped out and returned to California.

In 1967, Krenwinkel met Charles Manson on a trip to Manhattan Beach. The charismatic leader of the group known as the Manson Family convinced her to move his commune at Spahn Ranch.

According to court records, Krenwinkel was 21 years old on Aug. 9, 1969, when she accompanied Susan Atkins and Charles "Tex" Watson to 10050 Cielo Drive in Los Angeles, where they would murder the occupants. Krenwinkel dragged coffee heiress Abigail Folger, who was visiting actress Sharon Tate at the home, into the living room and began stabbing her. When Folger escaped and ran onto the lawn, Krenwinkel caught her and continued stabbing until Folger was dead.

The next night, Krenwinkel accompanied Manson and family members to the home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. Watson, Krenwinkel and Van Houten participated in the stabbing deaths of the couple while the other family members waited outside, court records show.

When the Manson family became suspects in the murders, Krenwinkel returned to Mobile to live with her mother, where she was arrested in December 1969. Krenwinkel fought extradition to California after her attorney claimed she was arrested before warrants were received charging her with the crimes. In February 1970, Krenwinkel waived extradition and voluntarily returned to California to stand trial.

According to the book "Helter Skelter" by Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, Krenwinkel's mother Dorothy testified at the penalty phase of the trial, saying, "I did love my daughter; I will always love my daughter and no one will ever convince me she did anything horrible or terrible."

Krenwinkel was found guilty in 1971 and sentenced to death. When California outlawed the death penalty in 1972, her sentence was commuted to life in prison. She is currently the longest-incarcerated female inmate in California.

One of the victims of the Manson Family was also from Alabama: Jay Sebring, who was staying with Sharon Tate, his former fiancee, the night of the murders. Sebring was born in Birmingham, but his family would soon move to Michigan. Sebring would become a celebrity hairstylist with clients that included the Doors' Jim Morrison, Steve McQueen, Warren Beatty and Kirk Douglas.

He was 35 years old when he was brutally murdered.

Alabama mom who thought son died at Jonestown

When Jerry Bibb Balisok disappeared from Huntsville in 1978, his mother, Marjorie grew concerned. Jerry left town because he was facing 13 counts of forgery resulting from alleged fraud at his motorcycle business but still Marjorie worried, even as police and FBI agents searched for her son.

That November, when Majorie Balisok saw a photo on the cover of LIFE magazine of cult members who died in the mass suicide at Jonestown, Guyana, under the leadership of Jim Jones, she thought she recognized one of the faces in the photo as that of her son.

State Department officials assured Mrs. Balisok her son was not among the unclaimed victims who were buried in Oakland, Calif. Because identifying the bodies that had been returned to the United States was extremely difficult, Mrs. Balisok refused to believe the report and waged a battle, largely in the media, to have her son's body returned so she could bury him in Maple Hill Cemetery in Huntsville.

In 1980, she installed a headstone on an empty plot in the historic cemetery that reads: "Jerry Bibb Balisok, born Sept. 8, 1955. Murdered in Guyana Nov. 18, 1978. Buried in Oakland Cal. May 1979. DAMN THE STATE DEPT."

She died three years later and was buried beside her son's headstone, still believing the information etched upon it. However, in 1990, a man being tried for attempted murder in Seattle, Wash., under the alias "Ricky A. Wetta" was discovered to be Jerry Bibb Balisok. Click here to read more about the case.

Read more about the grave and other strange tales of Alabama gravesites here.

Bob Sims of the Simsites and Choctaw County War

Robert Bruce Sims and his family lived on a farm in Choctaw County in the mid-1850s. Sims, a Confederate veteran who fought with the Twenty-Second Alabama Infantry, was injured and imprisoned by Union troops before returning to the Womack Hill community of Choctaw County and serving as county road surveyor.

At some point, Sims grew angry with the court system and its insistence on having him take swear an oath, which he said violated the laws of God. The family attended the local Methodist church but as Sims' beliefs grew more divergent from standard teachings, he became at odds with local pastors.

In 1877, he purportedly was attending Womack Hill Methodist Church until one Sunday he suddenly proclaimed the church was abusing the Gospel and caused such a scene that he was convicted of disturbing a church service, a crime at the time, and fined 75 dollars.

Sims began his own church and preached a strict adherence to the Old Testament and observed Sabbath on Saturdays. According to legend, his ability to remember and quote Biblical passages was nothing short of astonishing. Eventually, he would amass more than 100 followers, including his family. He began publishing a pamphlet called "The Veil is Rent," which became his church's doctrine. In one article, Sims calls for the destruction of civil authority because it is the devil's work.

Believing God's was the only true law, Sims did not follow man's laws and believed he did not have to pay taxes on land or goods or the liquor he made illegally. Not only did pastors of other local churches disapprove of his teachings, they felt liquor was the Devil's work and loudly preached against its evils at every opportunity.

The fighting began in 1891 when the Rev. Richard Bryant Carroll was killed and Simsites were accused. Click here to read more about Sims' outlaw ways in "5 notorious outlaws from Alabama's Wild West days."

After several other shootings, residents of Choctaw County grew weary of the man they called "Bloody Bob Sims." On Christmas Eve, an angry mob approached the Sims home, which by that point was fortified with weapons and supplies.

The local sheriff was doing his best to orchestrate a surrender. The angry mob waited throughout Christmas Eve and into Christmas Day for Sims to come out of his homestead until they threatened to bring a cannon from town and shoot Sims out.

On Dec. 27, 1891, the New York Times would report: "When Sims heard of this preparation to blow his stronghold to splinters he looked at his women folk and his heart misgave him. He began a parley with the Sheriff at 2 o'clock, he said he would surrender if the posse would do him no injury an if the posse would protect him from mob violence."

The sheriff took Sims into custody, along with some followers.

Escorted by a posse of 25 men for protection, two wagons headed for the jail, one carrying the men and another with the women. Soon, the angry mob caught up to the wagon and the four men were jerked from inside and strung up on nearby trees.

Within minutes, the four men were dead. The women, however, were spared.

Sims' family and followers who were lynched that Christmas season were eventually buried in Sims Cemetery, where their tombstones remain a testimony to the war begun by Bloody Bob Sims.

Join al.com reporter Kelly Kazek on her weekly journey through Alabama to record the region's quirky history, strange roadside attractions and tales of colorful characters. Find her on Facebook or follow her Odd Travels and Real Alabama boards on Pinterest.