March 26, 1997
A Last Stop Before Heaven
On March 26, 1997 thirty-nine members of the Heaven's Gate cult were found dead in Rancho Santa Fe, California, victims of a mass suicide.
The suicides took place in a plush mansion seemingly at odds with the cult's asceticism and self-denial.
Isolated in a usually clubby community, the cult members came and went in groups of up to 15 people, going to appointments in vans.
When it came time to shed their "containers", they traveled the same way, dying in waves over three days with meticulous precision.
"This is regarding a mass suicide..."
An Anonymous Tip
Rio DiAngelo, cult member until a few weeks ago, receives a FedEx package at work, containing a letter and two videotapes.
The next day, DiAngelo tells his boss, Nick Matzorkis, that he thinks the group is dead. Matzorkis drives him to the mansion.
DiAngelo discovers the bodies inside the mansion. Matzorkis and DiAngelo call the police anonymously to tell them to check the house.
Deputies Robert Brunk and Laura Gacek of the San Diego County Sheriff Department arrive at the mansion. Opening a side door, they smell a pungent odor and call for backup after counting 10 bodies.
More officers arrive at the scene. Reporters and photographers start surrounding the Rancho Santa Fe mansion as word gets out. Brunk and Gacek had discovered the largest mass-suicide to ever occur on American soil.
Authorities, now with a search warrant, go back inside the house and count a total of 39 bodies. The dead were scattered throughout the two-story mansion, but there were no obvious signs of violence.
The police and media report the victims as members of a religious group called "Heaven's Gate". As the corpses begin to get identified, the families receive the tragic news.
18241 Colina Norte
Rancho Santa Fe Mansion
39 bodies
How They Were Found
Bodies lay on bunk beds, cots and mattresses, most of them covered with purple shrouds, arms at their sides or folded serenely.
Dressed in black with an arm patch reading "HEAVEN'S GATE AWAY TEAM". The last two to die wore no shrouds, but had plastic bags over their heads, secured with elastic bands.
Suitcases found at their feet. Pockets containing identification, spiral notebooks, $5.75 in cash and lip balm.
The Level Above Human
Heaven's Gate Members
Out On The Road
Public Meetings
"Harvest" is the term used by the group to refer to the two periods during which they went around the country, hosting public meetings in search of potential recruits.
Comet Hale–Bopp
"The Marker"
Bonnie Lu Nettles «Ti», the co-founder of Heaven's Gate, was deeply fascinated by the concept of extraterrestrial beings. She frequently envisioned escaping Earth aboard a spaceship, driven by her obsession with life beyond the stars.
Although she had passed away years earlier, she remained a central figure and guiding presence for the cult until the end.
The discovery of Comet Hale–Bopp played a pivotal role in the cult's decision to end their lives. They interpreted its appearance as a "marker" from «Ti» calling them to join her aboard her spaceship.
Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp discovered the "Great Comet of 1997" separately on July 23, 1995, before it became visible to the naked eye.
Art Bell was an American broadcaster and author, best known as the founder and original host of "Coast to Coast AM", a paranormal-themed radio program. The show frequently explored topics such as UFO sightings and extraterrestrial life.
Through his radio program, cult members learned about the Hale–Bopp comet and the possibility of a companion object traveling in its tail.
The group had previously delved into imagining the appearance of "The Next Level" beings and their spaceship, using art and literature to bring their vision to life.
They believed that a physical spacecraft would transport them from Earth to the Heavenly Kingdom, leaving their physical bodies behind.
Just another Saturday and just another estate sale — except that the stuff in this estate was left by the 39 Heaven's Gate cultists who committed suicide in March 1997. Proceeds from the auction ($32,707) will be split among the families of the 39.
Heaven's Gate estate sale draws the curious and bargain hunters
It was a diverse group that came to a county government warehouse Saturday to bid on the earthly possessions left behind by the cultists as they embarked on what they believed was a trip to join a spaceship riding on the tail of the Hale-Bopp comet.
The more cultish items, such as the purple shrouds, the "Away Team" arm patches and the artwork of extraterrestrial beings, were removed from the estate after a protracted court battle with two former cult members.
A former follower of the Heaven's Gate cult, Charles Edward Humphrey, was found in a tent near a small town in the Arizona desert.
He was wearing black sweatpants and a black t-shirt with a patch on the sleeve saying "Heaven's Gate Away Team".
Next to Humphrey in the tent was a purple shroud, an item found with the cult members who killed themselves in March 1997.
Humphrey unsuccessfully attempted suicide two months after the group in a hotel room a few miles from the Rancho Santa Fe mansion. That time, he was with Wayne Cooke, also an ex-member, who succeeded.
Three people who followed a mysterious couple for four months in search of a higher life are home again, broke, disillusioned but convinced that "The Two", as they were known, believed they were who they said they were.
As many as 400 people were recruited at meetings held across the country by the couple. Recruits were urged to sign away their worldly goods and give up their relationships with others in preparation for a UFO trip to an undefined higher level of being.
Followers were told to save their energy for reaching the higher level of being
Described as a life of poverty, reading matter generally limited to the words of Jesus in the Bible and survival by asking for food, money and gasoline at various churches as they worked their way across the country seeking converts. Sex was discouraged.
An estimated 20 people may have followed a mysterious couple known as "The Two" to a secret camp in Colorado on promises of celestial bliss and a trip in a UFO unidentified flying object.
Criminal investigator for the Oregon State Police said the names of the couple are Marshall Herff Applewhite, 44 and Bonnie Lu Trousdale Nettles, 48, addresses unknown.
Applewhite, a native of Spur, Tex. said he was the son of a Presbyterian minister
WALDPORT, Ore. — Authorities identified Thursday the mysterious couple called "The Two" as Texans who persuaded at least two dozen people to give up their possesions to follow them to a higher life in the heavens via a UFO.
The meeting at Waldport, on the coast 16-miles south of Newport, was held Sept. 14, at the Bayshore Inn resort hotel, from which 24 people later were reported to have left on the mission they believed would lead them into eternity.