Taurio Carbieri
Taurio Arcolindo Carbieri, often referred to as his alias Padre Toro, is an Acirian cult leader, domestic terrorist and former priest. Coming from a very religious family, he had a bright future with the Catholic church after graduation and prior to his mental breakdown in 1987, which is when he allegedly was contacted by Jesus Christ and was tasked with bringing the Kingdom of God to Earth and given instructions how to achieve it. His time as a cult leader started in 1988 after the release of his book Heaven On Earth and How To Achieve It and his secret preachings after dark at the church he worked at. The cult began a series of terrorist attacks beginning in 1990, with at least 358 fatalities attributed to Carbieri's orders.
Taurio Carbieri | |
|---|---|
 Carbieri's mugshot from his initial arrest in 1992 | |
| Born | Taurio Arcolindo Carbieri January 18, 1958 |
| Other names | Padre Toro |
| Occupation | Priest |
Notable work | Heaven On Earth and How To Achieve It (1988), Nation of God (2006) |
| Relatives | Arcolindo Carbieri (father), Fiorda Carbieri (mother) |
| Conviction(s) | Treason, conspiracy to commit murder, ethnic agitation |
| Details | |
Span of crimes | 1990–Present |
| Killed | At least 358 |
| Injured | Unknown |
Date apprehended | March 1, 1992 |
Starting in 1988, he began personally inviting attendees of the church he worked at to join him in after dark prayers at the church, where he detailed to them his vision, and slowly managed to expand his followers, being referred to as "Padre Toro", Father Bull, to avoid attention directly on himself. Aciria was seen as the gateway to Heaven, interpreting the ancient belief of the door to the Golden City existing at the top of Mount Ocot as the pre-Christian understanding of door to Heaven. The Emperor of Aciria was seen as the antichrist and was a needed sacrifice to establish himself as Envoy of God, and that the people that would die in their attacks would be demons in disguise, and real humans with pure spirits would survive the attacks.
Carbieri went under the radar of the PAI for two years due to the suicidal nature of the attacks and his followers referring to him as just Padre Toro. Eventually in 1992 he was apprehended following an anonymous tip, and his sewer-palace where he stayed was raided. Carbieri's trial was widely reported by various news outlets and followed by over a million people on TV, eventually being found guilty of treason, conspiracy to commit murder, and ethnic agitation. He was given life imprisonment, which only lasted until 2007, when his followers managed to raid the jail he was held at. Carbieri's whereabouts since are unknown.
Early life
Childhood
Taurio Carbieri was the first child to Arcolindo and Fiorda Carbieri. When he was 4, his parents had a daughter who tragically died two years later after being hit by a car before Carbieri's eyes. The Carbieri household were devout Catholics, regularly attending mass and basing their everyday life around the Bible. Carbieri was brought to talk to the priests at the Santa Aradela Cathedral in Soleramo about the death of his sister as his parents had noted his behaviour had changed following the event. According to Carbieri, he was inappropriately touched by the priests at Santa Aradela.
School
He attended a Catholic all-boys school in the educational district of Soleramo for primary, middle and high school. His former classmates describe him as a loner due to his strange behaviour, and a common victim of bullying due to him reporting his peers to teachers when they broke rules of the school.
University
He eventually attended the University of Soleramo where he studied theology with the intent of becoming a priest, following his fathers wishes. Carbieri's peers still ostracized him in university, with his peers describing him the same way as in high school; unusual. The bullying he was a victim prior wasn't present at university, but he still had only a few friends. Carbieri graduated with a masters degree in Theology in 1983, and was appointed as a priest at the Santa Aradela Cathedral.
Santa Aradela Cathedral
Located on the outskirts of Soleramo, Carbieri initially rented a home near the cathedral for a short commute. The pay of a priest was lacking, and paired with the gambling addiction he had acquired during his time at the University of Soleramo, he eventually was unable to pay rent, making him homeless. Carbieri was ashamed by both the gambling addiction and his homeless status, deciding to keep it a secret and moved into the basement of the cathedral.
On the third year of his stay in the basement of the cathedral, Carbieri had a dream where Jesus Christ appeared before him, taking the form of a bull before telling his sins would be forgiven if he would establish the Kingdom of God on Earth, appointing him the Envoy of God. Carbieri was also given the instructions on how to do this, but he never detailed these steps. He slowly began creating interpersonal relationships with those who would attend mass, and eventually began inviting them to after dark meetings at the Cathedral, being able to let them in due to him staying in the basement.
To make his teachings easier, Carbieri began to compose his first book Heaven On Earth and How To Achieve It, finishing it in four months and beginning to pass it onto his followers. He also encouraged his followers to recruit others they thought brave enough to join their mission, which quickly grew the follower base of Carbieri, now beginning to go only by Padre Toro to his followers.
Cult
His teachings were spread rather peacefully for two years, until 1990, when Carbieri's Phase One started. He was going to assassinate the Emperor of Aciria during his visit to Soleramo using IEDs and a gas attack. Carbieri created a task force of fifteen loyal followers who were ready to not only take the potential punishment if they were caught, but were willing to die for the cause, being promised a place in the Heavenly Congress. The attack was to take place on June 15th 1990 during the Imperial visit to the city, with stopping the motorcade with IEDs to guide the Emperor to the nearby police station for safety. A police officer employed there was to put the gas into the air vents and activate them once the Emperor would enter, killing the Emperor and everybody inside.
The plan was foiled to the IEDs exploding before they were meant to, killing 27 civilians and injuring many more, which then prompted the Emperor to simply change their path instead of taking refuge in the nearby police station. The gas attack was still taken, which ended up gassing five police officers and two drunks in the drunk tanks of the police station. One of the five police officers was Carbieri's follower.
The attack on the Emperor sparked an immediate PAI investigation for the perpetrators. Carbieri ordered his followers to target various locations of the country with terror attacks, citing that Christ Almighty would protect the innocent, and the only ones to perish and be hurt would be demons in disguise. Eventually Carbieri also claimed that the Montanaro people were spawns of Satan after a new vision, telling his followers to target Montanaro communities around the country.
Apprehension
The two years following the attempt on the Emperor's life were characterised by fear due to the nature of the attacks seeming to target anyone. The perpetrators often died in the attacks, or the ones that were captured alive never gave up Carbieri's name, out of either loyalty or really not knowing him as nothing more than Padre Toro. In early 1990 an anonymous tip to PAI gave them the current whereabouts of Padre Toro, and revealed his real name to be Taurio Carbieri. Carbieri was found to have created a palace in the sewers of Soleramo, in the unused sector of the sewers built in antiquity.
A firefight between his followers and PAI agents followed, and reportedly Carbieri himself was armed with a bomb vest which simply didn't fire when it was intended to. His trial began two weeks after his apprehension.
Escape from prison
He was jailed in 1992 and was meant to serve a life sentence, but the decentralized nature of his cult meant that his followers were able to coordinate an attack on the jail to free him in 2007. Carbieri's cult had managed to gain a foothold in the jail when an unnamed guard was hired there two years prior in 2005, who went onto let the armed followers in and released all the prisoners to distract the guards from protecting Carbieri, allowing easy extraction of Carbieri by his followers. Following his escape, nobody knows of the status or location of Carbieri.