In Netflix's landmark six-part documentary "Wild Wild Country," longtime investigative reporter Les Zaitz talks about a 20-part series he co-wrote for The Oregonian about Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and how his followers took over an Oregon town in the early 1980s. The series revealed the religious sect's secrets, paranoia and criminal actions.

The Oregonian series goes into great detail about many of the events covered in "Wild Wild Country," including the poisoning of many people in The Dalles, attempts to rig Wasco County elections by busing in homeless people to vote, and murder plots against public officials and Zaitz himself. The series also includes many details not covered in the documentary. The story of the Rajneeshees is that complex.

The reporting by Zaitz and other Oregonian writers was done in the pre-internet era, but you don't have to search historical archives or microfilm to read the series. Here are links to all 20 parts. It's an epic tale of sex, lies, corruption and crime that unfolded against the sleepy backdrop of Antelope, Oregon.

Ma Anand Sheela poses in front of the Antelope sign in 1982.

Part 1: How followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh came to Oregon from India, and transformed eastern Oregon's Big Muddy Ranch into Rancho Rajneesh.

Part 2: How a small-town Indian boy became a religious guru that followers compared to Jesus Christ, Buddha and Krisna.

Part 3: Before coming to Oregon, the Bhagwan built his following in Poona, India, attracting disciples from around the world.

Part 4: What are the real reasons the Rajneeshees left India for Oregon? Rising tensions with the Indian government and police, and a lot of unpaid taxes.

Part 5: Tales of smuggling – gold, money and drugs – dogged the Rajneesh movement since the late 1970s, and continued when they arrived in the United States.

Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh gestures to his disciples during his daily drive at Rancho Rajneesh.

Part 6: Somewhere between India and Oregon, the life-or-death melodrama surrounding Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh's failing health dissipated like a contrail against a summer sky.

Part 7: How Ma Anand Sheela used family ties to help purchase the land for the Rajneeshees' Oregon commune.

Part 8: Ma Anand Sheela was much more than the guru's personal secretary. She was a tigress of the two-minute TV interview, and wielded words like weapons.

Part 9: To turn Racho Rajneesh from farmland to a city, the Rajneeshees needed to incorporate. It was a blurring of church and state that caught the eye of Oregon Attorney General Dave Frohnmayer.

Part 10: While followers talked about free love, the Rajneeshees armed themselves with assault weapons, grenade launchers and submachine guns, turning Rajneeshpuram into one of the most-heavily armed places in the state.

Part 11: Followers of the Bhagwan saw their ranch as a place of peace, but the universal bliss was laced with threats of violence and threads of paranoia.

Part 12: Antics by the Rajneeshees during legal proceedings – including making faces and obscene gestures – confounded lawyers and judges.

Followers welcome the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh's motorcade during a daily driveby.

Part 13: Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh hardly led a humble life, with his diamond-encrusted Rolex watches and fleet of 74 Rolls-Royces.

Part 14: The Rajneesh financial machine reached around the globe, and channeled millions of dollars to its Oregon headquarters.

Part 15: How a lust for money propelled the Rajneesh movements into the arms of Big Business.

Part 16: Ma Anand Sheela and other ranch officials kept a tight grip on followers.

Part 17: Rajneesh used various techniques – some of them strong-armed – to separate followers from their cash, property and jewelry.

Part 18: Rajneeshees bristled at the word "cult," but it was clearly one according to religious experts.

Part 19: Of all the threats to the Rajneesh movement, an immigration fraud investigation that was four years in the making loomed the largest, and focused on arranged marriages and fake relationships.

Part 20: The Rajneeshees took advantage of sleepy immigration officials to sneak followers into the United States. The government then bungled cases, and irritated potential witnesses to the point that they no longer cooperated.

On the 25th anniversary of the demise of the Rajneesh movement, reporter Les Zaitz revisited the story with a five-part series that told the story of what happened after the original 20-part series was published.

-- Grant Butler

503-221-8566; @grantbutler