Quick Facts
Biography
Ma Anand Sheela (Gujarati: માં આનંદ શિલા; born 28 December 1949 as Sheela Ambalal Patel in India), is an Indian–American–Swiss criminal who in 1985 pleaded guilty to attempted murder and assault for her role in the 1984 Rajneeshee bioterror attack. She was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison and paroled after 29 months.
From 1981 through 1985, she managed the Rajneeshpuram ashram in Wasco County, Oregon. She was the former chief assistant for the Indian mystic Rajneesh. Sheela moved to Switzerland, where she married, purchased two nursing homes, and was subsequently convicted of "criminal acts preparatory to the commission of murder".
Early life and education
Sheela was born Sheela Ambalal Patel in 1949 at Baroda in India; the youngest of six children of the Gujarati couple Ambalal and Maniben Patel. At age 18 she moved to the United States and attended Montclair State College in New Jersey.
Adult life
Sheela married Marc Harris Silverman, an American native of Highland Park, Illinois and took the name Sheela P. Silverman. She moved to India in 1972 to pursue spiritual studies with her husband. They became disciples of the Indian guru Rajneesh and Sheela took the name Ma Anand Sheela. After her husband died, Sheela married a fellow Rajneesh follower, John Shelfer.
Career
In 1981 Sheela became Rajneesh's personal assistant and convinced him to leave India and establish an ashram in the United States. In July 1981, Sheela purchased the 64,000-acre (260 km2) Big Muddy Ranch in Wasco County, Oregon which became the site for the development of the Rajneeshpuram commune. She became president of Rajneesh Foundation International, managed the commune and met daily with Rajneesh to discuss business matters. According to Sheela, Rajneesh was complicit in and directed her involvement in criminal acts she later committed.
When asked by a reporter for Australia's 60 Minutes about local objections to Rajneesh's expansion into Western Australia, Sheela replied, "What I can say; Tough titties". In interviews for US television Sheela referred to local government officials as "bigoted pigs" and "fascists" causing one reporter to describe her as having an "acid tongue".
Crimes
By 1984 the ashram was coming into increasing conflict with local residents and the county commission (Wasco County Court). Sheela attempted to influence the Wasco County Court's November election and capture the two open seats by busing in hundreds of homeless people from within Oregon as well as outside, and registering them as county voters. Later, when that effort failed, Sheela conspired, in 1984, to use "bacteria and other methods to make people ill" and prevent them from voting. As a result, the salad bars at ten local restaurants were infected with salmonella and about 750 people became ill.
On September 13, 1985, Sheela left the ashram and went to Europe. A few days later Rajneesh "accused her of arson, wiretapping, attempted murder, and mass poisonings." He also asserted that Sheela had written the Book of Rajneeshism and published it under his name. Subsequently Sheela's robes and 5,000 copies of the Book of Rajneeshism were burned in a bonfire at the ashram.
After US authorities found wire-tapping networks and a bioterror lab in Sheela's Oregon house she was arrested in West Germany in October 1986. Sheela was extradited to the US in February on charges of immigration fraud and attempted murder. The Oregon Attorney General prosecuted for crimes related to the poisoning of Commissioner Matthew and Judge Hulse while the US Attorney prosecuted crimes related to the restaurant poisonings. Sheela pleaded guilty on 22 July 1985 to first-degree assault and conspiracy/assault against Judge Hulseand later to second-degree assault and conspiracy/assault against Commissioner Matthew. Sheela pleaded guilty to setting fire to a county office and wire-tapping at the commune. For these crimes Sheela was sentenced to three, 20 year terms in federal prison, to be served concurrently. In addition she was fined $470,000.
Sheela was sent to the Pleasanton, California prison for nonviolent white-collar criminals. While there she announced plans to make a "controversial documentary" about her life. In December 1988, she was released on good behavior after serving twenty-nine months of her 20-year sentence and moved to Switzerland.
Later life
Sheela married Swiss resident, Urs Birnstiel, a fellow Rajneesh follower. There she bought and managed two nursing homes.
In 1999 she was convicted by a Swiss court for "criminal acts preparatory to the commission of murder" but did not serve any prison time.
In 2008 Sheela collaborated with David Woodard and Christian Kracht on an art exhibition at the Zürich Cabaret Voltaire, birthplace of the Dada movement.