The Zizians are best understood as a loosely defined social circle—not a proven formal organization with settled membership. Evan Ratliff’s February 2025 WIRED feature traces the circle’s conflicts, disappearances and links reported by authorities to later deaths and criminal cases, while stressing that accounts of key events are disputed and the evidence is uneven. Subsequent reporting through June 2026 added significant legal developments, but does not establish the outcome of every case.
Who are the Zizians?
“Zizians” became a name used in rationalist circles for people associated with Ziz LaSota, whom WIRED described as the group’s perceived leader. The label does not establish formal membership, a fixed organizational structure or shared responsibility for crimes. Authorities and commentators have used stronger descriptions, including “cult”; those are attributed characterizations, not neutral findings about every person linked to the circle.
The story also touches rationalist and effective-altruist communities. The reported connections should not be stretched into an implication that those broader communities were involved in the later criminal cases.
Why the WIRED story is difficult to pin down
Ratliff’s feature is a reported history, not a court judgment. It follows events from a 2019 California protest into later disappearances, deaths, arrests and hearings, but notes that agreed-upon facts become thinner in parts of the account. Ratliff summed up the reporting challenge this way: “The trouble, as I went along, was separating the truth from the delirium.”
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That distinction matters throughout the story. A record, a witness’s account, an official’s statement, an allegation by a participant and a defense lawyer’s argument are different kinds of evidence. An arrest or charge is not a conviction, and a reported association between a person and a death is not proof that a group collectively caused it.
The 2019 protest and the conflicts around it
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WIRED recounts a protest at Westminster Woods in California involving Emma Borhanian, Gwen Danielson, Ziz LaSota and Alex Leatham. The arrests that followed became the start of a prolonged dispute over police conduct, identification, searches and how the protesters were treated. The protesters later brought a civil-rights complaint. Their claims and the authorities’ accounts should be understood as competing positions, not as settled findings simply because they appear in the chronology.
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Disputes involving MIRI
The feature describes participants’ fixation on allegations concerning the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), including a belief that the organization had mishandled allegations about a former staff member. WIRED also reports that MIRI’s president disputed serious allegations in 2019. The available account does not make those underlying allegations adjudicated facts.
Deaths, investigations and criminal proceedings
WIRED’s February 2025 account described six people killed and two others presumed to have died by suicide. That is the feature’s dated description of the known toll, with “presumed” applying to the two deaths it identifies that way. In February 2026, the Associated Press described six deaths linked to the Zizians story. These are differently framed reported counts, not a statistical finding or proof of collective responsibility.
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The feature recounts the 2022 deaths of Richard and Rita Zajko in Pennsylvania and later investigations involving Michelle Zajko, Daniel Blank and Ziz LaSota. Subsequent criminal proceedings have involved different people and jurisdictions; they should not be collapsed into one case or treated as a single finding about the circle.
What later reports add
| Report | Person or matter | What it reported | What that establishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Associated Press, February 14, 2026 | Cases across three states | The AP reported that seven people identified as Zizians were jailed awaiting trial in three states. | A dated snapshot of people awaiting trial, not their eventual outcomes or a finding of guilt. |
| Associated Press, March 12, 2026 | Jack LaSota; firearms case | A federal judge ordered a competency evaluation. The AP reported that the evaluation could affect the anticipated state-trial schedule. | A procedural development, not a determination of guilt or a complete update on all proceedings. |
| VTDigger, June 25, 2026 | Michelle Zajko; deaths of her parents | VTDigger reported that Zajko had been charged in connection with her parents’ deaths and summarized other homicide investigations associated with people identified as Zizians. | A report of charges and allegations, not a conviction. |
The matters described in the reporting span California, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Maryland and other proceedings. A charge, hearing or investigation in one jurisdiction does not resolve a separate case elsewhere. The accounts available through June 2026 do not establish the complete status of every Zizian-related case as of October 8, 2026.
What the story does—and does not—show
- It documents a reported social circle and a chronology of conflict, deaths and criminal investigations; it does not establish a definitive membership list.
- It includes disputed accounts of the 2019 protest and contested allegations involving MIRI; those remain attributed claims in the reporting.
- It describes deaths and cases that authorities and journalists have linked to people identified as Zizians. That linkage is not, by itself, proof of group-wide coordination or guilt.
- Its later procedural developments are time-bound: AP’s February 2026 count, its March competency report and VTDigger’s June charges do not supply a complete October docket update.
Why the distinction matters
The word “Zizian” can make a complicated collection of personal relationships and separate legal cases sound like a single, clearly bounded organization. The reporting supports a more careful reading: follow the named people, the jurisdiction, the date and the source of each claim. In the Pennsylvania proceeding described by WIRED, LaSota’s attorney Daniel McGarrigle argued, “Annoying or frustrating the police is not a crime.” That is a defense argument, not a judicial ruling—and a useful reminder that allegations, advocacy and findings must remain distinct.
