Human Experiments and Murder Sprees: Andy Ngo on Why America’s Tech Oligarchs Are Joining This Cult
In a Nutshell
Andy Ngo's investigation traces the Zizians, a radical cult blending effective altruism, rationalism, trans ideology, and anarchist politics, to eight violent deaths across the US and Canada. The group allegedly conducted human experimentation using sleep deprivation to "jailbreak" members' brains, killed an elderly landlord who tried to evict them, murdered a US Border Patrol agent, and carried out execution-style killings of parents. Media and institutions have obscured the perpetrators' trans identities through preferred pronouns and names while some activists celebrated the violence as justified.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Andy Ngo began investigating the Zizians after a US Border Patrol agent was shot dead in Vermont on inauguration day in January 2025. The incident occurred in a rural area near the Canadian border. Two people were dead including one alleged shooter, another alleged shooter was injured but survived, and Border Patrol agent David Christopher Mullen was ambushed and killed.
Ngo noted that media often uses preferred names, preferred pronouns, and preferred aliases when reporting on criminal matters involving gender. This practice means readers may not realize that a person identified as a woman in reports is actually a man. Ngo learned this through years of reporting on leftist violence where trans-identifying individuals were involved in violent cases.
When Ngo investigated the Vermont shooting, he discovered the surviving alleged attempted murderer had applied for a marriage license in Seattle with a man who had just been arrested for attempted murder. That man was an elderly key witness for an attempted murder trial in Solano County, California. Several years earlier, the elderly man had survived a brutal attack by trans suspects where he was impaled dozens of times and had his eye gouged out.
Five years prior, Ngo received a book blurb from Tucker Carlson for his first book "Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy." His path from reporting on Antifa to trans violence seemed disconnected but was logically connected. During 2020-2021 riots after George Floyd's death, Ngo documented arrests in Portland and noticed a disproportionate pattern of trans-identifying suspects including male-to-female, female-to-male, and non-binary individuals.
In 2019, Ngo was brutally beaten in downtown Portland while reporting on Antifa, suffering a subarachnoid brain hemorrhage. The Portland police closed the case without arresting anyone. In his civil lawsuit against individuals involved in the attack and a 2021 incident, three of the six individuals identified were trans-identifying. This was another data point about trans violence.
The Zizians is a cult with roots in effective altruism and rationalism. As members became radicalized, they incorporated trans ideology, transhumanism, and leftist anarchist politics. The group recruited in the Bay Area and has been linked to eight violent deaths in the United States and another country. The investigation spanned a year and a half.
The cult used human experimentation in hideouts across the US where they built their own labs in medical-like environments and administered their own hormones and medication. The story involves rampant cross-sex hormone use, radical ideology, and protection from media and institutions enabling deadly violence over nearly a decade.
Jack Amdus Loda, known as Ziz, was born in Fairbanks, Alaska and raised in a liberal family with his father involved in Democrat politics. He had two younger sisters and was very smart with interests in Dungeons and Dragons, Star Trek, and computer science. He graduated magna cum laude from University of Alaska Fairbanks and was accepted into a graduate engineering program at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Many Zizians can be described as geniuses or very brilliant people from STEM backgrounds. Members had degrees in engineering and bioinformatics, with work experience at NASA and Google. Some earned hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in quantitative trading. It was a highly selective small group.
Ziz became interested in rationalism and effective altruism while at university. Rationalism is a modern philosophical movement about using logic, reason, and evidence to find truth. Effective altruism uses rationalist thinking to maximize good. These communities are active in Silicon Valley among tech and AI workers who are typically atheists and highly educated.
Effective altruists spent significant time discussing the welfare of shrimp and prawns, believing that if 10% have sentience, billions of farmed shrimp are needlessly suffering. Since they are not Christians, they view animal life as equal to human life. Many in these communities are autistic or have Asperger syndrome, which correlates with high intelligence.
Ziz's original research interest was studying corona expulsions from the sun at NASA. He became involved in online forums like LessWrong discussing rationalism and effective altruism, dropped out of his engineering program, and moved to Silicon Valley around 2015 to join the rationalist community of hundreds to thousands of people.
In Silicon Valley, Ziz encountered the debate about AI existential risk. The concern is that AI could become superintelligent and if unaligned with human interests, would destroy the world and kill everyone. This debate has been ongoing for over a decade.
Ziz kept an active blog called "sin seriously" (portmanteau of "sin" and "seriously") where he wrote about believing that trans people, particularly trans women, have special cognitive abilities. He believed he was born trans, that trans people are born that way in the brain, and that he was part of the vanguard who would save the world from AI destruction.
The Zizians have been compared to the Charles Manson cult. Like Manson, Ziz is alleged to have influenced other members to carry out attacks rather than committing murders himself. Ziz transitioned, started taking cross-sex hormones and testosterone suppressors, and met other trans people in the Bay Area.
According to Ziz's writings, he believed trans women have special cognitive abilities and that transitioning would make him more effective at saving the world. He wrote about sexual experiences with another man but described himself in asexual terms, viewing his penis as an "alien appendage" and believing going through puberty was like part of his soul dying.
Ziz named himself after a fictional monster creature from an online serial story. In that story, the monster influences people to become walking time bombs that are destructive later. Ziz picked this name nearly a decade ago.
Ziz met Jasper Danielson, who used the name Gwen, and recruited this person as the first member. Together they established the groundwork of the Zizians.
The Zizians' main theory holds that the brain's two hemispheres correspond to different identities that can be male or female, different sexes, in opposition to one another, and good or evil. Ziz described himself as female in the brain with both hemispheres good, claiming to be one of the rare people born "double good."
The Zizians believed the two hemispheres needed to be separated through experimentations. They recruited trans-identifying rationalists and encouraged them to go through experimentations to "jailbreak" themselves and become part of the world-saving mission. Ziz sought out other rationalists who were trans and tested their openness to these experimentations.
The Zizians believed they could separate brain hemispheres through sleep deprivation. Ziz kept details of these experimentations secretive in his writings. The experimentations involved various kinds of sleep deprivation and manipulating members into states of psychosis for easier manipulation. Sleep deprivation has been used by many cults and governments.
The Zizians incorporated leftist anarchist politics and did not want to submit to the capitalist system. They established a "rat fleet" (rationalist fleet) by buying old boats to live on without paying rent. They bought an old World War II tugboat from Alaska and drove it to Half Moon Bay, squatting there for years on humanitarian grounds.
Ziz bounced between programming jobs while other members had part-time employment. They pooled their money into these projects. The rat fleet arrangement eventually collapsed as unrealistic.
In late 2019, the group including Google engineer Amir Bohanian (who used the name Emma) moved to Vallejo, California. They lived on land belonging to elderly man Curtis Lind, whom they had befriended in Half Moon Bay. They used California pandemic laws under Governor Gavin Newsom to avoid paying rent for years, squatting on his land and living in box trucks while conducting more experimentations.
Two members who joined the group and later left died by suicide in brutal ways. The first victim jumped off a building in Poland. The second person ended their life violently in Colorado using a shotgun through the mouth.
Before any murders occurred, rumors circulated among rationalists that Ziz and his group were strange. This predated the later violence.
Two transgender men lived on a boat, squatted on land, and people who crossed paths with them died suddenly or took their own lives.
Two people who joined the group and underwent experimentation allegedly had their brain hemispheres separated through sleep deprivation. Ziz had a term for this: debucketing. At least six members lived on property belonging to an elderly man.
The elderly man attempted to evict the group after years of non-payment. They originally offered $2,000 to rent a large portion of the lot to park their vans, which they converted into tiny homes called slack mobiles with solar panels for autonomous living.
Days before the scheduled eviction, 79-year-old Curtis Lint was lured to one of their trailers and bashed on the head, smashing his skull. He regained consciousness and was surrounded by Zizians. He was repeatedly stabbed with swords and impaled through the chest. The blade protruded through his chest but narrowly missed vital organs. He had a gun for self-protection, shot one person dead, injured another, and ran out of ammunition. The third backed off. He survived but lost an eye. His eye was cut up and mutilated during the attack.
The November 2022 attack received no attention and was treated as tenant-related violence in California. The arrested suspects were referred to using she/her or they/them pronouns and aliases.
Amir Bohanian was shot dead during the attack. His family started a GoFundMe framing him as a victim of anti-trans violence and raised tens of thousands of dollars. Various trans organizations eulogized Bohanian as a trans victim in a supposed trans genocide. US Senate Democrats officially honored Bohanian among other names in the Capitol.
There was no evidence Bohanian was shot because he was transgender. He was shot because he was stabbing an elderly man with a sword. Zizian members wrote about their belief in an ongoing trans genocide and encouraged one another to stockpile firearms and prepare for violence.
As of the interview, three suspects from a Trantifa cell were federally charged in Huntsville, Alabama for stockpiling and making 3D printed firearms for violence against federal agents. A trans suspect from Washington State was federally charged for allegedly helping the trans mass shooter who killed eight women and children in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, Canada. The American suspect is named James Melody Bryant.
In February, a trans shooter killed eight women and children at a property and school in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia. Canadian authorities described the deceased gunman as a female in a dress with brown hair and withheld pictures. American authorities released photos showing trans pride symbols on the guns used. The victims were killed at the barrel of trans pride symbols.
None of the two suspects in the Curtis Lint attack have been convicted. Trial has not occurred as of late 2026. The Zizians used every tactic to delay the case year after year. Curtis Lint was 79 when attacked and is now in his 80s.
Ziz was found by law enforcement responding to the shooting death of Bohanian and attempted murder of Curtis Lint. While waiting to be questioned in the police station lobby, Ziz pretended to be unconscious, collapsed in his chair, and was sent to hospital without a police escort. He regained consciousness and slipped out, becoming a fugitive for years.
Ziz reemerged in Pennsylvania after recruiting more members. He had previously faked his death by pretending to drown in Bay Area waters. Court declarations from Amir Emma Brohannian and Naomi Lassota stated he fell off their boat, triggering a massive air and water search. He was found in Vallejo, California after the attack on Curtis Lint, but no officer ran a records check for active warrants.
Ziz faced pending felony charges from a Zizian protest in Westminster Woods where they allegedly donned robes and masks, creating a hostage situation where children at the camp believed there was an active shooter.
On New Year's Eve 2022, Richard and Rita Ziko, parents of Zizian member Michelle Ziko, were killed in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. A car pulled up at night. Individuals were seen entering their home according to a neighbor's Ring camera footage. Yelling occurred inside. Two figures were seen leaving. Days later, during a welfare check for Rita's elderly mother, Pennsylvania state police found the bodies in pools of blood in Michelle Ziko's former childhood bedroom. They had been shot execution-style in the head.
Michelle Ziko was charged with her parents' murder a few months before the interview. The prosecutor stated she was not alone but stopped short of naming accomplices. Video shows two figures leaving the property at the believed time of execution. Ziz has never been charged with the murders.
Michelle Ziko is a biological woman who uses the names Jamie or Alex and has used they/them pronouns. She was questioned after the double homicide, not charged at the time, and disappeared with another Zizian named Daniel Blank.
Against his children's urging, Curtis Lint returned to his property. In January 2025, someone waiting in the shadows stabbed him repeatedly, pulled his head back, slit his throat, and he bled out at age 82. He was never able to testify as the trial never occurred.
Maximleian Snyder was arrested days after Curtis Lint's murder. Snyder is in a relationship with the woman accused of the ambush shooting of a Vermont Border Patrol officer.
Ziz is in federal custody in Philadelphia, charged only with being a fugitive in possession of firearms. Eight victims are attributed to the group as of the interview, with no convictions.
Andy Ngo traveled to the Bay Area and North Carolina, visiting the last established hideout base. The property felt unsettling with remnants of their lives, including clothes, hair, and workstations where they conducted experiments on one another.
The book contains a large section of previously unrevealed pictures of hideout bases and Zizians. Every person and associate is identified by their birth name in the investigation.
Booking photos are increasingly not released by police departments. Liberal jurisdictions make legal name changes extremely easy with one court document, obscuring criminal histories. Oregon Democrats passed a law banning law enforcement from releasing booking photos absent conviction after Andy Ngo's 2020 Antifa mugshot reporting.
Mugshots of Zizians show a certain look - people who appear filled with weird chemicals, not robust specimens, appearing to be dying. Some members alleged abuse, though a pattern exists of recasting normal childhood experiences as extremely abusive situations to justify actions against families.
The Zizians pulled in grievance politics. A thinker used the term wound collecting to describe how they recast experiences as abuse. The killing of one's parents was part of Zizian ideology.
Ziz, Michelle Zeo, and Daniel Blank were found hiding in box trucks in a rural area of Allegheny County, western Maryland during a snowstorm in January or February. Police body camera footage shows them claiming "I haven't done anything wrong" during their arrest. If state and federal accusations prove true, the Zizians believe they have done nothing wrong because their effective altruist worldview justifies killing anyone who obstructs their goal of maximizing good. They view themselves as the vanguard saving the world, with anyone impeding them deserving vengeance.
Some actions by the Zizians, including murders, received praise from mainstream leftists and trans activists. This sympathy was particularly evident regarding the murder of the border patrol officer.
Two Zizian members, Felix Balultt (using the name Oilia, a German national) and Terresa Younglute (age 20 from Seattle), were observed acting suspiciously in Vermont's rural northeastern kingdom. They wore all black tactical gear and carried firearms when checking into a motel. Hotel staff called law enforcement due to their appearance. Federal agents questioned them near the Canadian border but released them without charges. They were later pulled over by US Border Patrol officer David Christopher Mulland. According to the investigation, Mulland was shot dead when approaching their vehicle. Backup officers engaged in a shootout, killing Felix Balultt while Terresa Younglute survived with an arm injury. She is the only one federally charged with murder.
The Zizians demonstrated strategic decision-making throughout their legal proceedings. Pennsylvania state prosecutors took nearly four years to charge Michelle Zeo. Ziz himself has never been charged with murder or attempted murder. The felonies he faces in Maryland relate only to firearm possession offenses. He has no criminal convictions despite multiple outstanding cases. The Maryland state case against Ziz, Michelle Zeo, and Daniel Blank was recently suspended for unclear reasons. Daniel Blank is currently free. People online continue being radicalized by Ziz's writings.
The pitch for joining involves people drawn to rationalist and effective altruist communities who view AI as posing an existential risk requiring immediate action. Many attracted individuals are autistic with documented Asperger syndrome diagnoses. Their thinking tends to be systematic and ordered, relying on mathematical models to determine optimal outcomes. Ziz's grooming process through his writings pulls in people who believe they can be heroes. The calculation model justifies killing one person to save billions of animals, including shrimp and prawns.
The Zizians represent one example within a larger pattern of alleged trans killers carrying out violence across the United States over the past decade. Research difficulties included finding contemporaneous reporting that accurately described perpetrators as trans, as media often used preferred pronouns and names. Andy Ngo visited Nashville, Tennessee, where Audrey Hale (using the name Hayden) carried out a mass shooting at a church. The FBI released scans of Hale's journals showing complete radicalization through inability to accept biological reality, leading to violence against children at the school.
Trans violence is being denied by institutions in Canada and by law enforcement through erroneous use of preferred names, pronouns, and sex designations for criminals. The Zizians exploited the legal system for years by making civil rights accusations in court filings and civil claims alleging violations against trans people. They received backing from organized trans groups and leftist attorneys. They solicited donations for their legal defense fund and obtained private legal representation.
The effective altruist and rationalist communities in Silicon Valley are diverse, including libertarians, conservatives, and radical leftists. Zizian beliefs are not widely endorsed by these communities, though introspection about what such environments produce appears limited. Trans groups have not distanced themselves from trans murderers and some celebrate convicted trans killers' actions.
Mia Bailey (biological male) was convicted and sentenced in Utah this year for killing his parents. During police interrogation, Bailey stated his mother was insufficiently supportive of his transition and had allegedly contacted a hospital before planned trans surgery to inform them her son was dealing with issues. Bailey also attempted to kill his brother by shooting through a door. Trans Antifa-aligned activists (termed "trifa") viewed the murders as justified, believing unsupportive individuals should be eliminated.
Tyler Robinson faces ongoing criminal charges for assassinating Charlie Cook, motivated according to investigators by love and support for his trans furry partner. Trans activists online have expressed sympathy for Robinson.
Trans-identified individuals face arrest and charges weekly with minimal media attention. Two factors contribute: many people remain unaware suspects are trans, and legacy media actively covers up these cases. The AP style guide instructs journalists not to use terms like biological female or biological male, not to mention transgender status unless deemed relevant, and to use preferred names and pronouns.
Legacy media reporting on the Zizians refers to Ziz using she/her pronouns and portrays the group as concerned about AI risk. Some reporting has been sympathetic to Zizians. The irony exists that individuals concerned about AI harming people murder individuals unconnected to AI development, while these perpetrators work in Silicon Valley and contribute to AI advancement.
Similar justification patterns appear in death threats against Elon Musk following federal aid cuts, where leftists called for his murder because his agenda allegedly causes deaths. This calculation—that someone harming a political agenda should be eliminated—is not considered fringe among radical leftists.
The Zizians and rationalist effective altruists are atheists, but Zizians incorporated occult elements including cursing people with spells and hexes. This parallels Antifa militants who profess radical anarchism and atheism while embracing witchcraft and pagan beliefs.
The Trump administration designated Antifa as domestic terrorists through executive order. The State Department banned European Antifa groups as designated foreign terrorist organizations. A White House Antifa roundtable included Ngo speaking with the president and cabinet members about left-wing violent extremism. An international summit on left-wing terrorism involved officials from dozens of countries. The State Department designated additional Antifa-aligned groups, including an Italian organization providing online infrastructure for Antifa websites posting attack tactics and claims of responsibility.
A federal prosecution in Texas charged 16 members of the North Texas Antifa cell with providing material support to terrorism, attempted murder, and other felonies. The case stemmed from a July 4, 2024 shooting attack on an ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas. Seven defendants pleaded guilty, some providing testimony, while nine went to trial and were convicted. Sentences collectively total around 500 years, with the ringleader receiving 100 years. This marked the first federal prosecution and convictions of accused Antifa members in US history.
Additional federal prosecutions continue against accused Antifa members in Minnesota for organizing anti-government violence and attacks on federal agents earlier this year targeting ICE. Fifteen individuals total have been federally prosecuted and accused in charging documents of belonging to Antifa networks.
New Antifa cells form easily because the ideology spreads and receives legitimacy from many Democrats. After ten years of reporting on left-wing political violence, the conclusion is that Democrats are comfortable using these militants as foot soldiers. Antifa has substantial financial support through mutual aid donations covering housing, food, and legal defense, funded by wealthy donors and small-dollar contributions from large groups.
A chapter in Ngo's book examines academic literature on physiological effects of cross-sex hormones. Limited research exists due to academic capture, lack of funding, and professional destruction of researchers asking such questions. Available Canadian research indicates transgender identity as a predictor of violent radicalization among those prone to radicalization.
The discussion addresses the phenomenon of transgenderism and the huge explosion in people identifying as transgender in the last 5 to 10 years, when the numbers before were tiny. The need for academic research on this phenomenon is emphasized.
The conversation explores how hormone surges affect thinking and behavior. The teenage years, menopause, and radical reduction in testosterone levels in men are mentioned as times when such effects occur. The physiological effects of massive doses of the wrong hormones are questioned in relation to cross-sex hormone therapy.
Research on Mood Effects
Some research has been conducted on the effects of mood through cross-sex hormone therapy in transgender-identifying individuals. Increased aggression has been observed as a result. The discussion notes that anyone undergoing treatment for prostate cancer, where testosterone levels are often lowered, experiences this effect.
Men undergoing prostate cancer treatment are essentially chemically castrated. This is described as voluntary and potentially worthwhile for medical reasons, but the individuals who go through it report that it totally changes them. The physiological effects of these chemicals are highlighted as a consideration.
The discussion asks questions about what happens when hormone therapy is merged with an ideology that tells people to collect wounds and grievances. The potential for this combination to lead individuals to take out firearms to get revenge is raised. Narcissism is identified as making people violent.
The conversation concludes with thanks to Andy for the discussion, wishes for good luck with the book, and acknowledgment of the real security implications involved in writing it.
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