Joseph Léonce Di Mambro (19 August 1924 – 5 October 1994) was a French esotericist who founded and led the Order of the Solar Temple with Luc Jouret.

Joseph Léonce Di Mambro was born 19 August 1924 in Pont-Saint-Esprit, a town in the Gard department of France, the oldest of three siblings.

[5] When some of his associates became resistance fighters, he distanced himself from them, while also trying to avoid being incorporated into the STO (the Vichy France compulsory work program for the unemployed).

[6] Towards the end of the war, the occupying Germans attempted to hunt down the remaining resistance fighters and those who refused to participate in the work program, and many went into hiding.

[6] Possibly in an effort to avoid forced labor and being moved to Germany during the occupation, Di Mambro married Jeannine Saltet on 11 March 1944, having a single child in the relationship, Bernard.

[9] He opened a jewelry store, where he fixed watches and surrounded himself with luxury goods, noted to be obsessed with appearances.

[12] Believing that his past actions had been forgotten, Di Mambro moved back to Pont-Saint-Esprit in 1972, and acted as a psychologist.

Soon after, he was sentenced to six months in prison for writing bad checks, breaching patient trust, and for impersonating a psychiatrist.

As Duplessis was Di Mambro's wife, she quickly gained power within the community and was distant and cold to the rest.

[2] Orchestral conductor Michel Tabachnik attended, enjoyed the atmosphere, and became a member,[27] where in 1977, he met Di Mambro, who suggested he take over the community and structure it.

[30] Di Mambro had actually impregnated Dominique Bellaton, a former manicurist, who was well known in Geneva and had previously had several affairs with businessmen.

Having noticed Luc Jouret's good elocution and communication skills, Di Mambro decided to meet him, and was charmed.

[38] Di Mambro variously claimed to be a reincarnation of Osiris, Akhenaten, Moses, and the Italian occultist Cagliostro.

[39] Beginning in the late 1980s, several members began to doubt Di Mambro, and several scandals and issues rocked its membership.

[23] In the 1990s, Jouret, having given up his profession as a homeopath to devote himself fully to the OTS, began lecturing on personal development at various companies, universities and banks in several countries.

[47] Di Mambro had previously forbidden Nicky from having children following a miscarriage, but after she left the group, she and Antonio had a son, who they named Christopher Emmanuel.

Though she had been raised from birth to be a messiah figure, by the age of 12 she had become uncooperative, rejecting her role in the group and taking an interest in typical teenage pop culture.

[49][41] Bellaton was also irritated with him using her home to throw parties without her permission; she also was engaging in a non-cosmic relationship with OTS member Patrick Vuarnet.

It was to mean a voluntary departure of the members to another dimension in space, or an act of consent to bring the "germ of life" to another planet.

[51] They conceptualized the transit as a ritual involving magic fire, where they would undergo a spiritual voyage to the star Sirius.

[54] This original transit was intended to take place at a luxury house in the village of Saint-Sauveur in the Laurentians in Canada, where the OTS had an underground ceremonial crypt.

After the police raid Di Mambro ordered OTS members to destroy the crypt and empty the house, viewing it as having been ruined by the intrusion; the transit plans were then postponed and moved to Switzerland.

[55] In one letter, they harshly criticize the allegations the OTS had received in several countries (Australia, Switzerland, Martinique, Canada, and France) as "deceitful", but especially complain about their SQ and the Q-37 investigation.

[63] On 4 October the Genouds set incendiary timers to go off and, while wearing robes and medals, laid out on a bed, dying of asphyxiation from smoke inhalation when the fires began.

[66][67] Following the deaths in Cheiry, Jouret was recorded as calling Di Mambro, possibly to inform him that it had been a success, and shortly after so did Egger.

[68] By this time Di Mambro may have already had his son Elie killed as a "traitor", the first death in Salvan: his body was found alone, off to the side from the others.

[69] In a final, fifth note found in Di Mambro's chalet, blame for the Cheiry killings was shifted onto Jouret.

[70] Separately, the passports of Di Mambro and his wife were mailed to French Minister of the Interior Charles Pasqua.

A note found on Di Mambro's body, written by him, declared: "Your Transit must be assured of total success, but that depends on you.

[75] Jocelyne Di Mambro died in a similar manner, her body found in a room of the upper floor of the same building.