Investigation
Officials and investigators from a number of different agencies were dispatched to The Dalles to investigate the cause of the outbreak. Dr. Michael Skeels, Director of the Oregon State Public Health Laboratory at the time, explained that the incident provoked such a large public health investigation because "it was the largest food-related outbreak in the U.S. in 1984". The investigation identified the bacteria responsible as Salmonella enterica Typhimurium and concluded that the outbreak had been due to food handlers' poor personal hygiene, as workers preparing food at the affected restaurants had fallen ill before most patrons had.
Oregon Democratic Congressman James H. Weaver continued to investigate because he felt the officials' conclusion did not adequately explain the facts. He contacted physicians at the CDC and other agencies and urged them to investigate Rajneeshpuram. According to Lewis F. Carter's Charisma and Control in Rajneeshpuram, "many treated his concern" as paranoid or as an example of "Rajneeshee bashing". On February 28, 1985, Weaver gave a speech on the floor of the United States House of Representatives in which he accused the Rajneeshees of sprinkling salmonella culture on salad bar ingredients in eight restaurants. As events later showed, Weaver had presented a well-reasoned, if only circumstantial, case, whose circumstantial elements were confirmed by evidence when investigators gained access to Rajneeshpuram several months later.
In the week starting Monday, September 16, 1985, Rajneesh, who had recently emerged from a four-year period of public silence and self-imposed isolation at the commune, convened press conferences where he stated that Sheela and 19 other commune leaders, including Puja, had left Rajneeshpuram over the weekend and gone to Europe. Following their departure, he said, he had received information from residents that Sheela and her team had committed a number of serious crimes. Calling them a "gang of fascists", he said they had attempted to poison his doctor and his female companion, as well as the Jefferson County district attorney and the water system in The Dalles. He added that he believed they had poisoned a county commissioner and Judge William Hulse, that they may have been responsible for the salmonella outbreak in The Dalles, and invited state and federal law enforcement officials to come to the Ranch and investigate. His allegations were initially greeted with skepticism by outside observers.
Oregon Attorney General Dave Frohnmayer established a task force among the Wasco County Sheriff's office, the Oregon State Police, the FBI, the INS and the National Guard that set up headquarters on the Ranch to investigate the allegations. Feeling they would need greater authority to perform an effective search, and fearing that evidence might be destroyed, they obtained search warrants and subpoenas; 50 investigators entered the Ranch on October 2, 1985. Dr. Skeels found glass vials containing salmonella "bactrol disks" in the laboratory of a Rajneeshpuram medical clinic. Analysis by the CDC lab in Atlanta confirmed that the bacteria at the Rajneesh laboratory were an exact match to those that sickened individuals who had eaten at local restaurants. The investigation also revealed prior experimentation at Rajneeshpuram with poisons, chemicals and bacteria, in 1984 and 1985. Dr. Skeels described the scene at the Rajneesh laboratory as "a bacteriological freezer-dryer for large-scale production" of microbes. Investigators found a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook, and literature on the manufacture and usage of explosives and military biowarfare. Investigators also believed that similar attacks had previously been carried out in Salem, Portland, and other cities in Oregon. According to testimony, the plotters boasted that they had attacked a nursing home and a salad bar at the Mid-Columbia Medical Center, but no such attempts were ever proven in court. As a result of the bioterrorism investigation, law enforcement officials discovered that there had been an aborted plot by Rajneeshees to murder Charles Turner, a former United States Attorney for Oregon.
Read more about this topic: 1984 Rajneeshee Bioterror Attack