On March 26th, 1997 in Rancho Santa Fe, California, 39 people were found dead by mass suicide. They all donned the same uniform; black sweat suit, fresh black-and-white Nike Decades, and an armband patch reading ‘Heaven’s Gate Away Team.’ But what lead to this bizarre and horrific passing of otherwise normal citizens. The answer lies in Heaven’s Gate, founded by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles. 

Heaven’s Gate was considered a new religious movement which incorporated everything from New Age spirituality, Ufology and aspects of Christianity. Applewhite was an unsuccessful singer and teacher at the University of Alabama, having lost his job due to an alleged sexual relationship with a student. Applewhite, met Bonnie Nettles in 1972, after her marriage was starting to fail as she started to hold seances at their house.

The two became the leaders of a cult following called Heaven’s Gate, and took several nicknames for themselves. Some of these included ‘Bo and Peep’, ‘The Two’ and, most notably, ‘Ti and Do’ after the notes on a scale. They ventured across the country, with Applewhite himself getting arrested for trying to steal a car.

Recruiting members along the way, the group was highly influenced by the 1990’s UFO mania and shows such as Star Trek and X-Files. They denounced mainstream religion and developed their own theology and cosmology. Group members all gave themselves three letter names with the suffix ‘-ody’, such as Elaineody or Qstody. 

Nettles sadly died in 1985 of liver cancer, twelve years before the group was to commit its most horrendous act yet. On March 19 to 20 1997, Applewhite taped himself in ‘Do’s Final Exit’ and spoke how a comet passing over Earth would represent the closure of the gate to Heaven. The followers were to use this as their exit from their ‘physical’ bodies. Dubbed the ‘Away Team’, the members filmed themselves stating why they were about to engage in a mass suicide – the clips can be found edited together on YouTube. 

The members took phenobarbital mixed with apple sauce or pudding and then washed it down with vodka. Plastic bags were taped around their head to induce asphyxiation. Mysteriously, all members had a five-dollar bill and three quarters in their uniform pockets. The Nike shoes were chosen because there was an alleged good deal on the shoes. The members died over three successive days, with the later groups managing and sorting out the prior group deaths.

 In an event hauntingly similar to Jones Town, which saw the deaths of 918 people on November 18, 1978, the Heaven’s Gate tragedy captured the attention of many as a cultural fixation on cults captivated the world. But it also serves as a cautionary tale of how everyday individuals can be recruited into such horrific groups and situations. 

#MaltaDaily