TOKYO — The day before Shinzo Abe was assassinated, Tetsuya Yamagami sent a letter saying that the Unification Church had ruined his life, “destroying my family and driving it into bankruptcy.”

Mr. Yamagami’s mother had been a member of the church for over two decades, making prodigious donations over her family’s objections. “It’s no exaggeration to say that my experience with it during that time continues to distort my whole life,” he wrote to a blogger who covered the church. The Japanese police have confirmed that he sent the letter.

The next day, Mr. Abe was dead, shot at close range with an improvised gun while campaigning in the city of Nara.

The police have charged Mr. Yamagami with murder, saying he was angry at a “certain group” and decided to target Mr. Abe, the former prime minister of Japan. The authorities haven’t named the group, but a Unification Church spokesman said that Mr. Yamagami was most likely referring to them. It remains unclear why Mr. Yamagami directed his animus at Mr. Abe.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/23/world/asia/japan-unification-church-lawsuits.html

I'm surprised this hasn't happened with the Mormons, although never say never. The article is pretty long, going into some detail about the Unification Church (aka The Moonies). Paywalled if you are over your free article limit.

The Moonies are even weirder than the Mormons, and that's saying something.

The Mormons are far from being the weirdest church. Some of those evangelical ministers make wearing a baker’s hat and a green apron look sane in comparison.

In the past, Abe reportedly gave a lecture to the Moonies. It's a very loose connection, but apparently it was enough for the murderer.

Abe's grandfather was arrested as a war criminal in 1945 but somehow managed to evade imprisonment and became prime minister in, I think, 1954. That father had a relationship with Reverend Moon born in part in hostility to communism.

That relationship continued into the second and third generation. It's probably political concurrence that kept the relationship alive but Japan's electoral financing is both murky and venal, so there could be more substantive ties as well. And yes, Abe did give a couple of brief presentations at Unification events.

There's more than enough to justify, in a madman's mind, holding Abe responsible for his own misfortunes.

Thanks. I didn't know that there were other ties as well.

A man walked into a Mormon church building once and asked to see the bishop. When the bishop identified himself, the man shot and killed him. I don't know what the motivation was.

https://www.heraldextra.com/news/2010/aug/31/man-who-killed-lds-bishop-was-former-member/

"Mike Ward told the Times-Delta that his brother didn’t know Sannar. He says his brother had been a church member in the 1980s and was upset by a bishop then who had “shunned him to hell.”

https://www.thechurchnews.com/2010/9/1/23227905/bishop-slain-in-meetinghouse-while-helping-troubled-stranger

"Ward, a former member, reportedly suffered from mental illnesses and harbored hostile feelings toward the Church"

Parley P. Pratt married the wife of another man (she became one of Pratt's plural wives). That man killed Pratt.