Tensions remained high between the Rajneeshees and the Wasco County Commission throughout 1983 and 1984, with the two sides repeatedly at loggerheads over the sect’s expansion efforts. Finally, in the summer of 1984, the Rajneeshees decided that the only way to obtain the building permits they needed was to take over Wasco County in November’s election.

But the group’s followers accounted for less than 10 percent of the county’s population. Unseating at least two of the three sitting commissioners and replacing them with Rajneeshees would require more drastic measures. They hatched a two-pronged plan. First, the Rajneeshees would try to depress turnout among regular voters by poisoning thousands of residents with Salmonella, thus incapacitating them on Election Day. Second, the group would round up thousands of homeless people from nearby cities, entice them with promises of food and shelter, and register them to vote.

They started small. When two of the three county commissioners visited the compound one hot August day, a resident dressed in hospital garb offered the men glasses of water. Both happily accepted. The next morning, they became violently ill; one went to the hospital for four days and would have died without treatment. The Salmonella attack had begun. Though the Rajneeshees denied any involvement in this poisoning, subsequent investigations showed they hoped it would strike enough fear in the county commissioners to ensure smooth sailing going forward. However, when building permits continued to be denied, the Rajneeshees launched a larger operation.

One morning in September, teams of two left the compound, traveled to nearby restaurants in The Dalles, and, when nobody was looking, poured Salmonella-tainted liquid on items in the salad bar. The Rajneeshees hit a total of 10 restaurants, as well as a handful of other public areas. Within hours, emergency rooms were flooded with sick patients. A total of 751 people were stricken with Salmonella poisoning in what is still the largest bioterrorism attack in American history. Miraculously, no one died.

The Rajneeshees had also considered a much worse plan of attack: poisoning the local water supply and crashing a plane loaded with bombs into the county courthouse. They ultimately decided against both ideas.

Meanwhile, the Rajneeshees began implementing part two of their scheme: exploiting homeless people to pack the voter rolls. Under the auspices of a humanitarian “Share-a-Home” program, the Rajneeshees chartered dozens of buses and promised homeless people food, clothing, and shelter if they came to the compound. Their efforts were wildly successful, bringing in more than 2,300 people, all of whom were forced to register to vote when they get off the bus. They could stay with one condition: They had to vote for the Rajneeshees’ commissioner candidates.