The man who on Friday shot and killed former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a speech in the city of Nara told cops he believed Abe was linked to the Japanese branch of the Unification Church, aka The Moonies, the Washington Post reports. The Moonies, nicknamed for their founder, the late Sun Myung Moon, who thought he was Jesus and that Korean people were the master race (a belief that the church’s non-Korean membership willingly agrees with), are a serious financial suck on their adherents, and the shooter, 41 year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, believed his mother was bankrupted by her devotion to the Unification Church and took it out on Abe.

The Moonies have deep links to the American Conservatives, roping in Vice Former Guy Mike Pence to speak at their global forum in Seoul earlier this year (with disgraced ex-President Trump also addressing them via video), and owning the Washington Times, among other newspapers. Abe himself has spoken at Moonies events, most recently addressing them via video in September 2021, so Yamagami wasn’t entirely wrong to believe Abe was “linked” to the evil cult.

The best part of this story might be a statement from the US branch of the Moonies, condeming the assassination and saying “guns have no place in our religious beliefs or practices,” which might be technically correct about their mainline branch. However it’s a flat out lie when you consider the Pennsylvania sub-sect called the “Church of the Iron Rod,” founded by one of Moon’s sons, and whose religious beliefs and practices often feature a golden, jewel-encrusted AK-47. Republican Pennsylvania governor candidate Doug Mastriano considers himself a friend of the Iron Rod crew.