Goes to show what a bit of emotionally hyped up sensationalism combined with ignorance can do to people.
It just takes one or two individuals who personally strives to make themselves into a public notable figure by propagating appealing ideas and you can create a following of people .
C T Russell in all of ignorance and personal endeavors created a following of 8 million mentally seduced subjective slaves created by him and the adjoined followers of him by their writings drawn out by the writings of ancient mythology within the bible.
One might say JWS today are going through the Great Disappointment as Miller's followers once did.