State prosecutors have closed the books on the strange, 17-year-old murder of the self-described chief apostle to Brother Julius Schacknow, a Connecticut cult leader who turned his claim to divinity into a multimillion-dollar business and real estate empire in the 1970s and ‘80s.
New Britain State’s Attorney Brian W. Preleski dismissed murder charges against against 77-year old accused killer Rudy Hannon, who died last month in prison after contracting COVID-19 while awaiting trial. Last week, Hannon’s co-defendant in the murder case, Sorek Minery, 45, was sentenced to 20 years in prison suspended after nine years.
The two men were accused of beating to death, freezing, dismembering and burying Paul Sweetman, who was second in command of the religious cult known as “The Work,” founded by the charismatic Schacknow, who died in 1996 at age 71. Preleski has said in court that Hannon and Minery — who turned on one another after their arrests, each accusing the other — committed the crime at a time when there was a struggle among cult leaders for control after Schacknow’s death.
