# Zizians
The Zizians are a small ideological group that formed around the computer programmer Jack "Ziz" LaSota as a splinter of the Bay Area [rationalist community](https://www.edgepedia.org/rationalist-community) in the late 2010s, and that has been linked by authorities to six violent deaths in California, Pennsylvania, and Vermont between 2022 and 2025.[1](https://theinfoweb.org/organizations/the-zizians/) The group drew public attention in January 2025, when a shootout near the Vermont–Canada border killed a U.S. Border Patrol agent.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/global/ng-interactive/2025/mar/05/zizians-artificial-intelligence) Its members are mostly young, highly intelligent computer scientists who met online, shared anarchist beliefs, practiced militant veganism, and were largely transgender; authorities describe the group as cultlike, a label LaSota's lawyers reject.[3](https://apnews.com/article/bf599db6b9ec354c68ed5ff4d5701b84) • [1](https://theinfoweb.org/organizations/the-zizians/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Founder figure | Jack "Ziz" LaSota, a transgender woman and computer scientist who blogged under the name Ziz; authorities describe her as the group's apparent leader[4](https://apnews.com/article/519a90fe037bd6e232243daf60533813) |
| Origin | Splinter of the Bay Area rationalist movement, forming in the late 2010s around LaSota's blog[1](https://theinfoweb.org/organizations/the-zizians/) |
| Core beliefs | Militant veganism, anarchism, gender identity, and extreme conclusions drawn from artificial intelligence and decision-theory debates[2](https://www.theguardian.com/global/ng-interactive/2025/mar/05/zizians-artificial-intelligence) • [3](https://apnews.com/article/bf599db6b9ec354c68ed5ff4d5701b84) |
| Linked deaths | Six deaths in California, Pennsylvania, and Vermont between 2022 and 2025, including a Border Patrol agent and a landlord killed days before testifying[1](https://theinfoweb.org/organizations/the-zizians/) • [5](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-02-23/vegan-computer-savant-zizians-linked-to-deaths-across-u-s) |
| Landmark incident | January 20, 2025 Vermont traffic-stop shootout that killed Border Patrol Agent David Maland and Zizian associate Felix Bauckholt[5](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-02-23/vegan-computer-savant-zizians-linked-to-deaths-across-u-s) |
| Arrests | LaSota, Michelle Zajko, and Daniel Blank arrested February 16, 2025 in western Maryland after a landowner reported box trucks on his property[6](https://apnews.com/article/2d6910e2380a98dd40c898510a55f78a) |
| Legal status (early 2026) | Seven members jailed in three states awaiting trial; the Justice Department seeks the death penalty against Teresa Youngblut for the agent's killing[7](https://apnews.com/article/b29fcd7f16d2de82cc0d35f0af147aef) • [8](https://apnews.com/article/0ee569f9835e5e6a67707dfb281f4c9a) |
## Background: the rationalist community
The Zizians emerged from the rationalist movement, a niche but influential community of AI theorists and tech bloggers who apply rigorous, mathematically informed thinking to AI, philosophy, and psychology, and whose preferred arena of debate is dense blogposts.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/global/ng-interactive/2025/mar/05/zizians-artificial-intelligence) The movement grew around the blog [LessWrong](https://www.edgepedia.org/lesswrong), founded in 2009 by [Eliezer Yudkowsky](https://www.edgepedia.org/eliezer-yudkowsky), and around two Berkeley organizations: the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), a nonprofit focused on the safe development of artificial intelligence, and the Center for Applied Rationality (CFAR).[2](https://www.theguardian.com/global/ng-interactive/2025/mar/05/zizians-artificial-intelligence) • [5](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-02-23/vegan-computer-savant-zizians-linked-to-deaths-across-u-s) Rationalist ideas about decision theory, the alignment problem, and hypotheticals such as "Roko's basilisk" (rationalist thought experiment about a future AI punishing its doubters) formed the intellectual vocabulary from which LaSota's writings drew.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/global/ng-interactive/2025/mar/05/zizians-artificial-intelligence)
**LaSota's path.** LaSota moved to the [San Francisco Bay Area](https://www.edgepedia.org/san-francisco-bay-area) after earning a computer science degree from the [University of Alaska Fairbanks](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-alaska-fairbanks) in 2013 and interning at NASA.[3](https://apnews.com/article/bf599db6b9ec354c68ed5ff4d5701b84) Arriving in 2016 amid an influx of young people hoping to study AI risks, she struggled to find work and afford housing, and began blogging under the name Ziz, a reference to a villain in the web serial *Worm*.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/global/ng-interactive/2025/mar/05/zizians-artificial-intelligence) Her posts combined rationalist jargon with increasingly extreme conclusions about confrontation and retaliation, and attracted a following among young trans women in the scene; an opponent coined the name "Zizians" for her school of thought.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/global/ng-interactive/2025/mar/05/zizians-artificial-intelligence) With fellow rationalist Gwen Danielson she pursued low-cost living on boats, including the World War II-era tugboat *Caleb*, sailed from Alaska to Half Moon Bay in 2017; the boat was declared a public health threat by the Coast Guard and later sank.[5](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-02-23/vegan-computer-savant-zizians-linked-to-deaths-across-u-s)
The rift with the larger community became public in November 2019, when LaSota, Danielson, Emma Borhanian, and another member were arrested outside a CFAR retreat at Westminster Woods in Sonoma County, dressed in black robes and [Guy Fawkes](https://www.edgepedia.org/guy-fawkes) masks and distributing fliers asserting the center no longer taught "the true path of rationality".[5](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-02-23/vegan-computer-savant-zizians-linked-to-deaths-across-u-s)
## Ideas and writing
LaSota's blog treated abstract ideas from AI research with increasing literality. She described a theory that the two hemispheres of the brain could hold separate values and genders and "often desire to kill each other".[3](https://apnews.com/article/bf599db6b9ec354c68ed5ff4d5701b84) She came to believe that a future AI would subject her personally to damnation, took [Roko's basilisk](https://www.edgepedia.org/rokos-basilisk) seriously when most rationalists dismissed it, and used decision theory, in the words of one rationalist, "as a prop and a pretext" for conclusions she was reaching for regardless.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/global/ng-interactive/2025/mar/05/zizians-artificial-intelligence) Her veganism was framed in stark terms: Zizians call meat-eating "carnism" and non-vegans "flesh-eating monsters", and she styled her personal look a "vegan Sith lord".[2](https://www.theguardian.com/global/ng-interactive/2025/mar/05/zizians-artificial-intelligence)
## The violence
**Vallejo, 2022.** The first deaths came at the trailer lot of Curtis Lind, an 80-year-old landlord in [Vallejo, California](https://www.edgepedia.org/vallejo-california), who had rented space to members of the group living in box trucks.[5](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-02-23/vegan-computer-savant-zizians-linked-to-deaths-across-u-s) In the early hours of November 13, 2022, after an eviction dispute, tenants attacked Lind with a samurai sword, slashing his body and destroying an eye; Lind drew a gun and shot back, killing Borhanian and wounding Alex "Somni" Leatham.[5](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-02-23/vegan-computer-savant-zizians-linked-to-deaths-across-u-s) Leatham and Suri Dao were charged with assaulting Lind and with felony murder of Borhanian; LaSota was present but was not charged.[5](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-02-23/vegan-computer-savant-zizians-linked-to-deaths-across-u-s) Lind survived and was preparing to testify when a man in black and purple killed him outside his property on January 17, 2025; Maximilian Snyder, who had applied for a marriage license with Vermont defendant Teresa Youngblut months earlier, was charged with the murder.[5](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-02-23/vegan-computer-savant-zizians-linked-to-deaths-across-u-s)
**Pennsylvania, 2022–23.** Less than two months after the Vallejo attack, Rita Zajko, 69, and Richard Zajko, 72, were shot in their Chester Heights, Pennsylvania home, discovered on January 2, 2023.[5](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-02-23/vegan-computer-savant-zizians-linked-to-deaths-across-u-s) Their daughter Michelle Zajko, a Zizian associate, was named a person of interest; in June 2026, Delaware County prosecutors charged her with first-degree murder and conspiracy, saying doorbell-camera footage, ballistics, and cellphone records left them certain she had arranged her parents' deaths, and that she had not acted alone.[9](https://apnews.com/article/4d7019022a2b5076ad06b51d1d6be6bf)
**Faked death.** In August 2022, LaSota was reported to have fallen from a boat into [San Francisco Bay](https://www.edgepedia.org/san-francisco-bay); after a nearly 30-hour search her body was never found, an obituary appeared in an Alaska newspaper, and she was declared lost at sea. She had faked the drowning and gone underground.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/global/ng-interactive/2025/mar/05/zizians-artificial-intelligence)
**Vermont, 2025.** On January 20, 2025, Border Patrol agents stopped a Prius on Interstate 91 near the Canadian border. Teresa Youngblut, 21, allegedly drew a handgun and fired; in the exchange of fire, Agent David Maland, 44, and Felix "Ophelia" Bauckholt, a German national and former quant trader, were killed.[5](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-02-23/vegan-computer-savant-zizians-linked-to-deaths-across-u-s) Michelle Zajko had purchased the firearms the pair used, according to a federal criminal complaint.[5](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-02-23/vegan-computer-savant-zizians-linked-to-deaths-across-u-s) In August 2025 a superseding indictment added Maland's murder, and the Justice Department filed notice that it would seek the death penalty against Youngblut, the first such pursuit of the second Trump administration.[1](https://theinfoweb.org/organizations/the-zizians/) • [8](https://apnews.com/article/0ee569f9835e5e6a67707dfb281f4c9a)
## Arrests and legal proceedings
On February 16, 2025, Maryland police arrested LaSota, Zajko, and [Daniel Blank](https://www.edgepedia.org/daniel-blank) after a landowner near Frostburg reported that three people had parked box trucks on his property and asked to camp there; they were charged with trespassing, obstructing law enforcement, and illegal gun possession.[6](https://apnews.com/article/2d6910e2380a98dd40c898510a55f78a) Police quickly connected the three to homicide investigations in California, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.[7](https://apnews.com/article/b29fcd7f16d2de82cc0d35f0af147aef) By February 2026, seven members were jailed in three states awaiting trial, though Blank was bailed out after posting $15,000.[7](https://apnews.com/article/b29fcd7f16d2de82cc0d35f0af147aef) • [10](https://apnews.com/article/a02fb8290dd6370b97f474576e9db258) In March 2026, a federal judge granted LaSota a competency evaluation after her lawyer reported reason to believe she was mentally incompetent to stand trial; she had refused to speak with a jail doctor and had told a prior hearing that the judge led an "organized crime ring".[11](https://apnews.com/article/b0f5f91f8aa4933e914e47abd2a8fd19) • [1](https://theinfoweb.org/organizations/the-zizians/) LaSota has not been charged in any of the killings, and her attorneys say she eschews the term Zizian and denies forming a cult.[2](https://www.theguardian.com/global/ng-interactive/2025/mar/05/zizians-artificial-intelligence) • [9](https://apnews.com/article/4d7019022a2b5076ad06b51d1d6be6bf)
## References
1. [The Zizians, The Info Web](https://theinfoweb.org/organizations/the-zizians/)
2. [J Oliver Conroy (2025). "They wanted to save us from a dark AI future. Then six people were killed." The Guardian.](https://www.theguardian.com/global/ng-interactive/2025/mar/05/zizians-artificial-intelligence)
3. ["Police arrest apparent leader of cultlike 'Zizian' group linked to multiple killings in the US." Associated Press.](https://apnews.com/article/bf599db6b9ec354c68ed5ff4d5701b84)
4. ["Judge allows members of Zizians group to work together on defense ahead of Maryland trial." Associated Press.](https://apnews.com/article/519a90fe037bd6e232243daf60533813)
5. [Jessica Garrison and Brittny Mejia (2025). "Vegan computer savants with Bay Area ties linked to deaths across U.S." Los Angeles Times.](https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-02-23/vegan-computer-savant-zizians-linked-to-deaths-across-u-s)
6. ["New gun charges filed against the leader and 2 followers of cultlike Zizian group tied to killings." Associated Press.](https://apnews.com/article/2d6910e2380a98dd40c898510a55f78a)
7. ["A year after border agent's killing, 7 Zizians fight criminal charges in 3 states." Associated Press.](https://apnews.com/article/b29fcd7f16d2de82cc0d35f0af147aef)
8. ["Prosecutors seek death penalty against Zizians member charged with murdering Vermont border agent." Associated Press.](https://apnews.com/article/0ee569f9835e5e6a67707dfb281f4c9a)
9. ["A member of the cultlike Zizians group is charged in the killings of her parents in Pennsylvania." Associated Press.](https://apnews.com/article/4d7019022a2b5076ad06b51d1d6be6bf)
10. ["Member of Zizians group linked to deaths in several states bailed out in Maryland." Associated Press.](https://apnews.com/article/a02fb8290dd6370b97f474576e9db258)
11. ["Competency review ordered for leader of cultlike Zizians group that has been linked to 6 deaths." Associated Press.](https://apnews.com/article/b0f5f91f8aa4933e914e47abd2a8fd19)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Social life and human behavior › Communities and populations › Minorities and social groups › Subcultures and social stereotypes*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license