The Fountain of the World
The Assassination of Krishna Venta
Shortly after lunchtime on Monday, Dec. 8th, 1958 a secretary working for James H. Movy, a special agent attached to the California Attorney General’s office, rang through an odd message.
“Two men are here who would like to lodge a complaint against Jesus Christ.”
Movy agreed to see them. Clad in austerely cut khaki robes, the men introduced themselves as “Brother Jeroham” and “Brother Elizibah”. They claimed to come from a place called “the Fountain of the World”, run by “Krishna Venta”, the literal Second Coming.
Movy listened politely and took notes. He was actually already aware of this “Venta" character. An open file, KB-1610, kept at the request of Sacramento headquarters, identified him as a drifter, Francis H. Pencovic. He was guilty of sexual coercion, Jeroham and Elizibah said, referencing “spiritual wives,” that included under-age girls and their own spouses, who he had seduced. Followers died, they also claimed, after Venta forbade outside doctors, and he had instituted commune tithes— used to make up for his significant losses in Nevada crap games.
When the agent asked them what remedy they expected, the meeting took a darker turn. “It would be good for society,” Brother Jeroham said, “if he could be eliminated.”
Movy may have assumed “eliminated” was rhetorical, or it’s possible he didn’t know how to respond to this at all. He settled on assuring the strange men that any admissible evidence they could provide would be helpful. “The Bureau,” he said, “had launched a preliminary inquiry.” He sent them away with a perfunctory promise that investigators would reach out soon.
Unconvinced they had been taken seriously, Brother Jeroham and Brother Elizibah checked into a cheap Tarzana motel that evening. They packed an improvised explosive device— 20 sticks of dynamite, blasting caps, batteries and cable— into an army duffel. “Within the next four hours,” Jeroham intoned on a tape discovered later by police, “we will drive to Box Canyon… This may be our last night in the world.”
The Road to Box Canyon
Francis Herman Pencovic, born in early 20th century San Francisco, spent the Great Depression wandering around committing petty-crimes. After the Second World War, he recast himself as a cosmic figure, who hailed from the planet Neophrates and landed on earth 240,000 years earlier. He legally adopted the name “Krishna Venta” in 1948, preaching that a race war and an invasion by the Soviet Union would soon occur in America. His followers— who surrendered all their worldly belongings, went barefoot and grew long hair and beards— would be the only survivors. Thus, it was on them to rebuild the world.
Francis “Krishna Venta” Pencovic
A 23-acre communal oasis in Box Canyon was established by the end of the decade. Despite the apocalyptic rhetoric, the WKFL (“Wisdom, Knowledge, Faith, Love”) gained good press coverage for their rescue work. Venta and his robed acolytes were first on the scene of the Standard Airlines crash in July 1949, and fought California wild-fires alongside county crews.
But, cracks appeared in the mid-50s. Court records exposed Venta’s unpaid child-support, gambling jaunts to Vegas and— as the members who visited Agent Movy complained— sexual liaisons between the Master and their wives. Brothers Jeroham and Elizibah, who’s real names were Ralph Muller and Peter Duma Kamenoff respectively, left the commune but could not convince their wives to follow.
Around 1:30 AM on December 10th, 1958 they parked beneath a WKFL sign.
YE WHO ENTER HERE UPON HOLY GROUND
Inside the monastery, Brother Martin overheard raised voices as Venta and his lieutenant “Cardinal Gene” Shanafelt confronted a young man with a bag. Minutes later the monastery roof lifted skyward; the shock was felt twenty miles away and blew the engine-room door off the nearest volunteer fire station, delaying first responders.
Casualties and Chaos
The dynamite killed Venta, the bombers Muller and Kamenoff, Cardinal Gene, two adult pilgrims and three children. The youngest were seven-year-old Keela Baker and eleven-year-old Elwyn Shanafelt. Thankfully, eleven other children sleeping twenty feet away managed to escape their burning dormitories.
Flames raced up the canyon slopes. When the smoke cleared, Los Angeles County coroner pathologists relied on dentures and a fragment of jaw to identify Venta, the FBI matched a severed thumb to one bomber. Survivors, among them Venta’s widow “Mother Ruth” buried their leader in Valhalla Cemetery and posted a sign on the ruins promising his resurrection in 1965. Coincidentally, the abandoned site briefly hosted a more infamous prophet— Charles Manson— whose talk of racial Armageddon in the late 1960s echoed the late Krishna Venta’s sermons.