The Rajneeshee salmonella attack in Oregon

It sounds almost impossible that a local election could become the motive for a bioterror attack, but that's what happened in The Dalles, Oregon, in 1984. Members of the Rajneeshee movement deliberately contaminated salad bars at ten restaurants with Salmonella, causing 751 people to become ill.

The reason behind it was political. A leading group of followers wanted to incapacitate enough local voters to influence the outcome of the 1984 Wasco County elections and help their preferred candidates win. Instead of trying to persuade voters, the plan was to make people too sick to show up at the polls.

The attack is remembered as the first and largest bioterrorist attack in United States history. What makes the case particularly disturbing is how ordinary the setting was, restaurants and salad bars in a small Oregon community, while the actual objective was to manipulate a democratic election through deliberate poisoning.