Madness Of Heaven's Gate Cult

A new documentary reveals how two Star Trek-obsessed Texans persuaded 39 followers to “exit their human vessels” in the largest mass suicide in American history

- Tate Delloye

In the afternoon of 26 March 1997, the San Diego county sheriff ’s department received an anonymous tip-off. “This is regarding a mass suicide, and I can give you the address,” said the person on the line.

First responders could have never imagined the ghoulish scene that awaited them at the mega-mansion in the suburb of Rancho Santa Fe. Thirty-nine bodies in identical black clothing were carefully staged in bunk beds.

Their heads were shaved but neatly covered with a purple shrouds. They wore matching black tunics and fresh out-of-the-box Nike sneakers.

Each had exactly $5,75 cash in their pocket and a travel bag next them on the floor. Triangular arm patches on all the bodies read: “Heaven’s Gate Away Team.”

Investigators were confounded. Meanwhile, computer screens all over the mansion flashed “Red Alert”.

It was a plot ripped straight from the scripts of Star Trek and it would soon become apparent just how heavily influenced the outer-space obsessed cult was with the sci-fi drama.

Things got weirder when police uncovered video manifestos explaining that disciples of the Heaven’s Gate cult were “exiting their human vessels” to enter the “Next Level” via an extra terrestrial-piloted spaceship that was apparently zipping along in the wake of comet Hale-Bopp on its close cruise over planet earth.

Now, 23-years later, HBO has released a four-part documentary series titled Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults. The show examines how the bewitched UFO death cult led by two unassuming middle-aged Texans named Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles (a music teacher and former nurse) ended in the largest mass suicide event on American soil.