© Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
(Seattle, WA) – A Maryland court has ordered a blogger and the alleged leader of an online cult to be held without bail. Jack LaSota was arrested this past weekend, along with two associates, Michelle Zajko and Daniel Blank. LaSota, 34, goes by the online pseudonym “Ziz” and her followers, the so-called “Zizians”, have been tied to six killings across the country.
The first case is tied to an attempted homicide on a landlord in November 2022, where a California woman died, then the targeted landlord was killed a couple months later. In December of 2022, a couple was found shot dead in their Pennsylvania home. They were the parents of one of LaSota’s followers, 32-year-old Michelle Zajko. Most recently, the group was tied to a shootout near the Canadian border in Vermont that killed a Zizian member along with US Border Patrol Agent David Maland. The survivor of that shooting, Teresa Youngblut, is being held in federal prison on weapons charges.
The group is made up of people in their 20s and 30s. Many of them are tech-savvy computer scientists. They share anarchist beliefs and are vehemently opposed to artificial intelligence. The group first made headlines following arrests at a demonstration against an AI summit in California. Actual end goals of the group are not exactly clear. Leader LaSota, or Ziz, has written that she is a transgender woman. The online blog began as a self-help column, eventually evolving into tackling ethical and social theories. LaSota has even faked her own death in the past. LaSota was charged with gun charges in her latest arrest, Zajko was charged with resisting arrest and carrying a handgun. All three were charged with trespassing and obstructing law enforcement.
