Cult of Death: Heaven's Gate

This episode contains discussions of mass suicide. Listener discretion is advised Planet Earth. Planet Earth about to be recycled. Your only chance to evacuate is to leave with us Planet Earth. A bit picture this. You see you a piece of paper taped on a wall at your college. It reads UFOs in San Francisco area. Why are they here? Who they have come for? When they will land? Who would go to this thing? You think to yourself. Some of the other material on the flyer says that two individuals were sent from the level above human and will return in a spaceship within the next few months. It states that it is not a religon just or philosophical organization recruiting membership, and they give the details for the meeting Sunday, September fourteenth, two pm at Bayshore Inn, Walsport, Oregon. People actually attended and eventually it turned deadly. Today we have one of the most requested and tragic stories of the podcast, Heaven Skate. My name is Edwin and here's a horror story. The flyer I was talking about was made by the Heaven Skates cult during their Harvest era, that is, when they were actively trying to recruit more members. Only they didn't call themselves a cult obviously, back then, they didn't even call themselves Heaven's Gate. But for most of us who have heard of Heaven's Skates but are not aware of a lot of it and what it meant, I'm going to start at the very beginning. The cult and known today as Heaven Skate, had two leaders, Bonnie Nettles and Marshall Applewhite. They would later adopt their names T and Doe, so Bonnie was T Marshall was Dough. Marshall was born and raised in Texas on May seventeenth, nineteen thirty one. He grew up in a devout Christian home. His father was a Presbyterian minister. He admired his father, and after high school and community college, he wanted to follow in his footsteps. Marshall got a bachelor's degree in philosophy and then planned to be a minister just like his dad. He then enrolled in seminary school, but did not finish the course. He also got married around this time and had two children. He left seminary school and pursued music instead. He became the music director of a Presbyterian church in nineteen fifty four, he was drafted into the US Army. He served some time in Austria and then was stationed in New Mexico the Army in nineteen sixty five. Up until this point, Marshall seems like just a normal guy. He enrolled in the University of Colorado earned a master's degree in music. He then went to New York City with his family to chase his dreams, and, like everything else in his life, he then quit that as well. He then moved and taught music at the University of Alabama again. That also didn't last. He was let go after rumors that he was having an affair with a male graduate student, and he left. Because of this, his wife divorced him and moved away with her two children. In nineteen sixty six, Marshall Lapplewhite moved to Houston to teach music at the University of Saint Thomas. During a rehearsal, he had a psychotic episode and was hospitalized. In nineteen seventy, he left his university job again, this time citing depression and emotional problems. It was a hard period of time for him. His father had passed away, which triggered his depression. For the next few months, Marshall bounced around the US without a plan. In nineteen seventy two, while in a hospital, possibly seeking help for his own mental health, Marshall came across Bonnie Nettles. She was working at the hospital as a nurse. He felt an immediate and intense connection to Bonnie, and the two bonded over their interest in astrology. Bonnie had been born on August twenty ninth in nineteen twenty seven, also growing up in a somewhat religious household to a conservative Baptist home in Houston, Texas. She used to go to church every week, but she was really there to socialize with friends. She always felt more connected to New Age ideas like astrology, mediumship, and UFOs. She got married at twenty two and had four children, three boys and one girl. She also became a nurse during this time. Her daughter Terry, had a special bond with her mom. In the documentary Heaven Skate The Cult of Cults, Terry said she would lay on the roof with her mother and they would stare at the sky and dream about a spaceship coming to pick them up. Terry said that her mother never felt like she fit in in nineteen seventy two. As Bonnie dove deeper into her eccentric interests, her marriage was falling apart. She found relief in the occult, mediumship and spirituality. She would perform seances in her living room against her husband's wishes. She believed she could speak with the spirit named Brother Francis and another spirit who would guide her. She went to several fortune tellers and they all told her something similar, that she was going to meet a tall, mysterious man with light hair and a fair complexion. That description just happened to match Marshall Appewhite. Not long after that, they met in the hospital and they really hit it off. Marshall felt like he had known Bonnie for his entire life. She did a card reading for him, after which they were inseparable. They felt like they had known each other during a past life, and as they became closer, Bonnie separated herself more and more from her family. Her divorce was finalized and she didn't have custody of the younger kids. Marshall then moved in with her, and Bonnie told Marshall that their meeting had been foretold by extraterrestrials and that they had a purpose together. On January first, nineteen seventy three, the two left together. They packed very little and left everything behind and hit the road. They were searching for that purpose. They read everything they could get their hands on. They each knew the Bible like the palm of their hands, but they also read about various religions, everything New Age related, in a lot of sci fi. They opened up a bookstore called Christian Arts Center, which sold books from different spiritual beliefs. They also opened No Place to teach theosophy and Mysticism, but these didn't last. One month later, in February of nineteen seventy three, they closed Christian Arts Center and No Place and hit the road again. The two worked odd jobs to pay for food and gas, and they often skipped out on their motel bills, but they continued to read. In May of nineteen seventy four, just over a year of traveling, the pair made a stop in Texas. They were visiting their friend Sharon Morgan, and they started preaching to her. Marshall would preach for three hours at a time with Bonnie at his side. They started calling Sharon Chella, which means students in Sanskrit. And she was enthralled by their teachings. She became their first student and left her kids and husband to join the two, and they traveled together and use her credit cards with her permission. But after four months, their first student to mister family and left them to go back home. It was during this time that they solidified their beliefs and began referring to themselves as the Two. While camping at Gold Beach, Oregon, the two had a moment of enlightenment. According to the pair, the Bible had been misinterpreted and in reality, God and Jesus were really aliens. Aliens had previously come to Earth, and everything that was written in the Bible was evidence of their visits to the Earth. People back then did not have the language we do now to explain what aliens were. When the Bible said that angels were seen coming down in chariots, they actually meant aliens came down in UFOs. Miracles was the word used to describe alien technology, since people in the past were not able to accurately explain or describe alien technology or medicine. God was an alien, and so was Jesus, and therefore Heaven is really space. The Book of Revelations says two witnesses will be sent by God to testify before the end of times, but the world will reject their message that people will rejoice in their deaths, and then three days later they'll be resurrected and ascend to Heaven in a cloud. Marshall and Bonnie believe they were these two witnesses. They believed they would be martyred, brought back to life, transformed, and then transported to heaven to call this the demonstration, and after this the apocalypse would happen. Unfortunately, their new revelation was interrupted. The two had gotten the first follower, Sharon, and then she left back to her husband and her family. But when she came back, the husband noticed the charges on that credit card and he was not okay with any of it. He pressed charges for credit card fraud. The charges were eventually dropped, but the investigation uncovered that Marshall stole a rental car, which he had returned after nine months. Marshal was arrested for it, and his defense he said that he had God's authority to keep the car. Of course, this did not matter to the police, so he was arrested and extradited to Missouri, where he spent six months in jail. The time behind bars gave Marshal time to really think about his mission, and after getting out, he united again with Bonnie. He told her about his thoughts while he was in jail. He told her that if they were God's witnesses, then they were already members of the next level. They had already transformed and ascended. They were already aliens. Now it was time to spread their message and help others reach their next level, so they had to become leaders. They brought up a summary of their beliefs and set out to California. They would set out flyers from what whatever hotel that were staying in. The flyers called for meetings where they were recruiting members, and these members were called the Crew. At these meetings, they introduced themselves as Guinea and Pig. They invited people to become part of the experiments and those who did would achieve higher evolution. They called their organization Anonymous Sexaholics Celibate Church, but they would later change the name to Human Individual Metamorphosis. One. Other meetings in Los Angeles during April nineteen seventy five had over eighty attendees. Marshall addressed a group, as we are the two prophesied in revelation. God had sent us here as an experiment, so you might call us Guinea and Pig. This is who we are. If our message speaks to you, then follow us. If you follow, then you must obey everything we say. That includes giving up your possessions, your family, your entire identity. Marshall preached about the next level, about reaching Heaven in a spaceship, and more. After that meeting, twenty five people had joined their cult, and they traveled up and down the West Coast all around California and Oregon, holding these types of meetings. Within a few months, they had gathered one hundred followers. One of their most successful meetings took place on September fourteenth in Walport, Oregon. Just over one hundred people attended. Bonnie and Marshall were dressed alike and with the same haircut. During the meeting, Marshall told attendees that they were representative from outer space, sent by God. The spaceship was coming, and if anyone wanted to join them, evacuate the Earth and transcend to the next level, then they would have to commit to transforming and leaving their old human bodies. Over twenty people decided to join, but this shook up the small town. Everyone noticed when a large number of their people packed up and left, and this launched a police investigation and gained attention in the national media. Walter Cronkite reported, quote, A score of persons from a small Oregon town have disappeared. It's a mystery whether they've been taken on a so called trip to eternity or simply been taken. The New York Times reported quote, twenty missing an Oregon After talking of a higher life, Bonnie and Marshall went into hiding. Members were left with occasional notes from their leaders until Bonnie re emerged and announced no more new members. The harvest period was over. The rest of the story continues right after this stay with me. Eventually the cult was reunited in the Wyoming Forest in June nineteen seventy six. Members were met with stricter leaders, who now call themselves T and Dough. Members were no longer allowed to do drugs or be intimate with each other. The number of followers went from around two hundred to less than one hundred. They were going to go into isolation and By October of nineteen seventy six, they were down to seventy. Bonny and Marshall had rules for their crew now absolutely no sex were allowed to have sexual thought, no hugging, no handholding or affection because these are signs of being human. No drug use, a strict diet and exercise regime. Report every twelve minutes to a central post at camp to ask if Dough and t need anything. To leave behind their human names and get next level names. Their new names had to be capitalized letters six of them and had to end in od y so od. Some of the names that peop who chose were her Cody, Jimodi, and de Livoti. People left if they couldn't stick to the rules or they were cut. One time, nineteen students were dismissed. At the same time, this purge became a cautionary tale for the rest of the members. No one was allowed to act better than the other or to have their own personalities. Everyone was genderless, everyone had a short haircut. At the same outfit. Members had to break their attachment to food because in the next level they couldn't eat, they just absorbed energy, so in order to get used to that, they followed a strict diet they expected their members to behave in a very specific way. One of their handbooks contained the following questions. Can you follow instructions without adding your own interpretation? Can you deliver instructions as you receive them or do they change according to your computer? Do you participated and consider it conversation polluting the ears of others while you and your partner work things out. Can you understand and review in your mind all the ways in which members of the next level are sensitive. If you can, you have no excuse for not working on improving in these areas. At all times. When your teachers have asked someone to do a task and it relates to you, do you treat that task and its deliverers with as much respect as you would if it came directly from your teachers? Just a bunch of questions like that. Bonnie and Marshall added more rules in nineteen eighty eight. Deceit of any kind sensuality and thought or action, or breaking any instruction or procedure knowingly was not allowed. Members couldn't be lazy, aggressive, jealous, express negativity, or criticize other members of the group. They also had very specific words that were used in place of others. For example, instead of food, you would say fuel. Instead of eating, you would say consumption. Kitchen was a neutral ad. Breakfast was known as a first experiment, Lunch and dinner were second experiments, and third experiment. Dwelling was the craft short for spacecraft. Bedrooms were rest chambers, laundry rooms were fiber labs, and the body was a vehicle. The mind a computer. Sex was sensuality. At some point, they moved from camping to renting houses, first in Denver, then Colorado, then Texas. No matter where they were, the group was very secretive, though they usually rented two to three houses and they were always boarded up. Members lived in houses together, and Bonnie and Marshall had their own. By nineteen eighty there were about eighty members and Bonnie and Marshall became less strict. They allowed occasional phone calls to families and even allowed their cult members to visit their moms on Mother's Day in nineteen eighty three. This newfound harmony the group fallen into didn't last. Bonnie's health was declining. In nineteen eighty three, she had an eye removed due to cancer. She lived for two more years and passed away in nineteen eighty five. She spent the last bit of her life bedridden. Her children weren't even contacted about her death. She also wasn't supposed to die, at least not according to the very doctrine they had been preaching to their members. Marshall told his followers that Bonnie was too mentally advanced for her quote vehicle. Her mind had rejected her body, and she was now in heaven, he said. Bonnie told him that she felt like she was meant to help him set up the group and handed to him and then go back home to space to heaven. He turned Bonnie into a godlike being that watched over them. Since Bonnie was now like God, this meant Marshal was like Jesus. Looking back at this time in the cult, it's clear that Bonnie was the mastermind. Marshall was changing things and becoming more paranoid. The group began to hate humans. They believed that humans were not worth saving, especially since they themselves were aliens and outsiders. Marshall believed the cult would be attacked on the street just for their beliefs, so the group purchased two rifles three to revolvers and two semi automatic pistols in the following year. This led Marshall to start thinking what if they were responsible for their own exit instead of waiting to be murdered. He kept those thoughts private for some time. The group traveled around for nine months and put out an ad on USA Today. This ad and a thirteen part video series they had released brought back several members that had left, so now they were at forty five members. In September nineteen ninety five, the cult moved to San Clemente, California. This is where he called the meeting that put the cults on a deadly path. He told them he had done some research about suicide. There were ways to make it painless. He asked every single member of the same question, does anyone have calms about such a death? Those who said yes left that day. Marshall said it was only a test, but still the seed had been planted. In nineteen ninety six, the group rented a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California. One night, a member was listening to Art Bell's French paranormal show Coast to Coast. Someone was calling in and telling Art that they had taken a picture of the Hail Bob comet. There was something strange in the picture. It looked like there was something behind it. The color believed it was a UFO. Here's amodia. A real lack of pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope or any big observatories. And so that got me all the more curious. I can smell when they're why would you? Why would they do that? Perhaps they saw something they felt might disturb people, and now maybe you've got it on film. Yeah, although this thing. Marshall told the group that the object trailing behind the comet was a spaceship, and inside the spaceship their beloved Tea Bonnie was in there. She was coming to get them so they could join her the next level. So the group went into isolation. In January of nineteen ninety seven, they began to plan their exit. They chose the date March twenty second, nineteen ninety seven, because that's when the Hell Bob comment would make its closest approach to Earth. They sold their real estate assets, They rented a bus and headed to Oregon, and there they visited the location where t and Doe had their initial enlightenment. They spent their last bit of time on Earth going to casinos, visiting SeaWorld, and dining at restaurants. For their exit, they decided to wear thick black material. They sewed pants and buttoned down shirts and attached a triangle shaped patch that read Heaven's gate Away Team. The patch included a constellation of stars and the Hillbop Comet in the background. They wore the same shoes, thirty nine matching pairs of black and white Nike Decades. Marshall light how they looked and was able to get a good deal when he ordered them in bulk, and then thirty five members each recorded their farewell messages, Take my life, I mean we looking for this for so long. Some would would probably sit here, and I mean somebody on the other side of this camera watching this tape would probably say, what's what's going on? You know, you all must not have a life, or you're you're diluted, or you or you're brainwashed, or whatever they're thinking might be. If people would just know that we're not forced into this in any way. It's you know, our own choosing to do it. And I'm really happy that I made this choice because there was a lot of things kind of working against me, not to I'm sure. I mean, I know there was people in the world who thought that I had completely lost. We're looking forward to meeting yes next love of beautiful that we have no fear. We're proud and looking forward to what's ahead, and we believe all the classmates feel the same way. And I'm embarrassed that I can express, uh without getting emotional, how good I feel about what I'm doing, and how good I feel about being here and being given this opportunity to go to the next level. Just the opportunity, that way of describing great expand how much we're looking forward to what's ahead for us now because it's just what we've been working for all these years. It's just the answer to all of our prayers. Many, including Marshall, repeatedly stated that this was not suicide and that they were simply ascending. One member, Rio D'Angelo, was worried about the plan, but when he told Marshall about his doubts, he was asked to leave. Later, Rio D'Angelo received videos and floppy discs with the members exit tapes, as well as Heaven's Gate documents. On March twenty sixth, Rio went to the mansion to see if the group really made their exit. After that, he called nine with an anonymous tip about the mass suicide. Hello, Yes, I need to report an anonymous tip. W I talk. Okay, this is regarding what this is regarding a mass fir side and I can give you the a draft. But police discovered on scene Rock the Nation. San Diego Sheriff's deputy stumble into a house of death, a multi million dollar mansion filled with dozens of bodies, the site of a grim mass suicide. Anything Thirty nine people were found dead inside. This was the largest mass suicide in the United States still is. It was uncovered that the group died by suicide in three phases. Fifteen members in the first group, fifteen members in a second group, and then nine members in the last. They used phenobarbitals a sleeping aid. It was mixed with food and then eaten as fast as possible. Then they drank vodka and laid down, and after they fell asleep, another member would put a bag over their head and suffocate them. Marshall exited the second group and his body was found alone on a bed. Three months after the mass suicide. Two former members attempted to join their former classmates. One of them succeeded, the other was revived, but nine months later was found dead in the Arizona Desert. So in total, forty one heaven Scaped members were dead. The nation was shocked and many had questions, especially the family members of the deceased. Many had tried to get their daughters, sons, spouses, and parents to leave Heaven's Gate and return home, but instead all they had were the videos left behind by their loved ones. New age ideas and eccentric beliefs flourished during this time period. Most of Heavenscape members were already living outside of mainstream society. They were already interested in the occult, already searching for that something. It was natural for them to be drawn to the two. Every single member truly believed in what they were doing and really thought that they were ascending, But for those they left behind, it was a tragic end. The content in this episode was a little difficult for me to read because I used to know of someone who severed a friendship with me because of these types of beliefs, and I often wonder what they did and how they ended up. I might share that story at one point. This episode was produced and written by Cristina Lumagghi and myself Edwin Kovarubiez, with research from the Scary FM team. Thank you for suggesting ideas about aliens and cults. This one had been mentioned time and time again. At free and support the show. Try out Scary Plus for free right now. A review is just as good, so drop some stars for me on your favorite app. Thank you very much for listening. Let's see you soon.