The Strange Story of The Heaven's Gate Cult

Founded in the 1970s, Heaven’s Gate was a cult that brought together New Ageism, science fiction, and Christianity.

The leaders, nicknamed Do and Ti, hated media exposure and kept the group away from the public.

But in the spring of 1997, the whole world knew about their existence after the cult members decided to take their own lives.

Who was Marshall Applewhite?

Marshall Herff Applewhite Jr. was born in Spur, Texas, on May 17th, 1931. His father was a Presbyterian minister, so Applewhite and his three siblings grew up in a religious environment.

According to friends and neighbors, the Applewhite family was caring, and the children grew up in a loving home. Applewhite’s older sister described her brother as an intelligent, charismatic boy who enjoyed singing.

Applewhite’s family moved around, mainly in the South Texas area. His father’s occupation was building churches and bringing together communities with the help of religion.

After graduating from Corpus Christi High School, Applewhite enrolled in Austin College. He continued to be a social butterfly in college and was a member of various student organizations on campus, including the choir.

In 1952, Applewhite earned a Bachelor’s Degree in philosophy and continued his education at Union Presbyterian Seminary, where he studied theology.

Around the time of his graduation, Applewhite met and married Anne Pearce. However, he soon changed his mind about becoming a minister and wanted to pursue a music career.

He was a talented singer with a baritone voice. But his plans were derailed in 1954 when the United States Army drafted Applewhite. His wife moved with him to Salzburg, Austria, and then to White Sands, New Mexico.

The couple welcomed two children together. Applewhite was honorably discharged two years later and ready to continue his education.

He was accepted to the University of Colorado, where he earned a Master’s Degree in music.

Feeling confident about his future, Applewhite packed his bags and moved to New York City, thinking he would have more career options. But making it in the Big Apple proved too difficult for the ambitious singer.

He needed to support his family, so Applewhite found work at the University of Alabama, where he taught music. He was fired from his position after it was revealed Applewhite had started a gay relationship with one of his students.

Applewhite’s family was shocked, and he received psychological help. This revelation led to the separation and divorce from his wife.

Applewhite’s next destination was Houston, Texas, where he worked at the University of St. Thomas. He arrived in the city in 1965 and became well-known in the arts community. During his time in Texas, Applewhite had relationships with women, too.

He was seemingly open about his bisexuality, but it was clear he felt guilty about his sexual orientation. His divorce was finalized in 1968, which resulted in a depressive episode.

**Photo of a young Marshall Applewhite. Image via Find a Grave.**

Applewhite left the University of St. Thomas in 1970, citing depression and emotional problems as the reason for his resignation. The staff noticed a change in Applewhite’s behavior months prior. He began to talk about UFOs and aliens constantly.

After the death of Applewhite’s father in 1971, he fell into an even deeper depression.

At that point, he met a nurse interested in astrology and theosophy named Bonnie Lu Nettles. This strange union was a catalyst for the events that would shock the world more than two decades later.

The Relationship With Nettles

Bonnie Lu Nettles was born in Houston, Texas, on August 29th, 1927. Like Applewhite, she grew up in a religious family but was more interested in mysticism and spirituality as a teenager.

Nettles became a nurse and married her husband, Joseph Segal Nettles, in 1949. The couple had four children together, and everything seemed fine with their marriage until 1972 when Nettles became obsessed with New Age spirituality and seances.

She visited mediums and hosted seances once a week at her home. Nettles was convinced she was connected to a 19th-century monk named Brother Francis. The ghost was her guide and advisor.

Later on, she became interested in fortune-telling, and it was revealed that a tall man with white hair would change her life forever.

Soon after, Nettles met Applewhite. Nobody knows how the two became friends, as several versions of the story exist.

Applewhite himself claimed they saw each other for the first time when he was visiting a friend at a hospital.

However, Applewhite’s older sister claimed they met after Applewhite’s heart operation. Nettles was one of the nurses at the hospital that day, and when he woke up from anesthesia, she informed Applewhite that God had a mission for him.

Nettles created a natal chart for Applewhite and realized their stars aligned perfectly. Combined with what she had heard from the fortune teller, she was confident that Applewhite was the man who would change her life.

They became inseparable and spent hours sharing ideas and talking about topics such as religion, science fiction, the Bible, and more.

As Applewhite dove deeper into these subjects, he concluded that UFOs are essentially angels described in the Bible. He frequently went on solo retreats where he allegedly experienced visions.

Meanwhile, Nettles had left her family and moved in with Applewhite. Their relationship was completely platonic, and that was exactly what Applewhite needed. When he learned that Nettles was living with another man, her husband filed for a divorce.

The connection with Applewhite enchanted her, and she didn’t even try to fight for the custody of her four children. The two opened a bookstore in Houston where they offered New Age and other religious books.

The bookstore also served as a space for teaching classes on theosophy and mysticism. But customers weren’t into it, and the pair had to close the business.

With nothing to lose, Applewhite and Nettles decided to travel across the United States, study religious texts along the way, and try to find more people with the same interests.

They didn’t have money, so the two camped outside and worked odd jobs to finance their trips. The New Testament became their source of inspiration, and after months spent on the road, they had the first tenets of their new religion.

According to them, Nettles and Applewhite were the two witnesses from the Book of Revelations. They were sent by God, who had given them a higher intelligence. However, they would be killed, resurrected, and transported onto a spaceship.

Several Christian churches invited them as speakers, but months passed without anyone joining the duo. However, everything changed in May 1974 when a real estate agent from Houston became the first follower.

The Birth Of A Cult

Sharon Morgan joined Nettles and Applewhite in their travels and left her husband and two children at home. According to Morgan, Applewhite had revolutionary ideas and shared them in a very engaging way.

On the other hand, he wasn’t as approachable when Morgan asked questions about religion. Furthermore, she wasn’t supportive of Nettles and Applewhite stealing food and not paying for their meals.

As she spent more time with the two on the road, Morgan began questioning her decision to join them. She even gave them her credit card so that they could buy food.

In Dallas, Texas, Morgan stopped by her friend’s house and was greeted by her husband and two children. That meeting was enough to convince Morgan to come back home.

What she didn’t know was that her husband contacted the police regarding her credit card statement. Nettles and Applewhite were arrested for credit card fraud.

The husband agreed to drop the charges, but the police discovered Applewhite stole a car from a rental service in St. Louis nine months ago and was still using the vehicle.

Applewhite spent six months in jail, which gave him enough time to think about the direction of his religion. He decided to add more science fiction but make it palatable for mainstream Christians.

The budding cult leader planned to find like-minded individuals who wanted to become the best version of themselves through his guidance.

Applewhite and Nettles were supposed to have the same fate as Jesus, which in their minds meant they would be killed and then resurrected by a UFO.

After Applewhite’s release from prison, the two relocated to California. They dedicated their time to printing promotional materials and sending out flyers to churches in their area.

The two presented themselves as beings from another planet looking for their crew. Those who wished to join them would be capable of reaching a higher evolutionary level.

In April 1975, Applewhite and Nettles met a metaphysical group in Los Angeles, and 25 people joined them on their mission. In September of the same year, the group welcomed 20 more people from Waldport, Oregon.

The new followers were supposed to sell everything they owned and say goodbye to their families before joining Applewhite and Nettles. As more followers signed up, Applewhite and Nettles gave themselves new names – Do and Ti.

Almost one hundred people were traveling with them and living on the streets. Families of several followers tried to track down their loved ones, but the cult successfully avoided law enforcement.

In the mid-1970s, the group was called Human Individual Metamorphosis or HIM and continued to move around the United States, recruiting new members.

But by April 1976, they stopped accepting new followers. Applewhite and Nettles focused on setting new guidelines for their existing followers, including banning illicit substances and intercourse.

Members were between the ages of 19 and 79. They were highly intelligent but longed to belong somewhere. Some were enamored with the hippie subculture and were struggling with their view of Christianity as they turned more toward the New Age teachings. HIM offered exactly what they needed at the time.

Life At Heaven’s Gate

Applewhite carefully included science and technology into his ideas, which was expected considering it was the 1970s and science-fiction was all the rage.

However, negative media coverage made the group go silent and refuse any interviews. They became even more careful in covering their tracks and avoiding communicating with outsiders.

Additionally, Applewhite and Nettles worked on isolating the members by dividing them into smaller groups, also known as star clusters.

Their daily lives consisted of rituals similar to meditation and watching Star Trek together. At one point, Applewhite claimed he was receiving messages through the sci-fi show.

As the 1970s came to a close, the group received a large donation from one of the former members and could finally afford housing.

Heaven’s Gate rented large mansions, and followers were paired up. These platonic couples were supposed to keep each other accountable.

Relationships weren’t allowed, and followers needed to remain genderless. The obsession with sexuality went so far that several members, including Applewhite, were castrated.

The situation started to relax a bit in the 1980s. Applewhite and Nettles allowed several members to find employment, most of whom ended up working in IT. The communication ban was lifted, and followers visited their families in 1983.

**Members of Heaven’s Gate. Photo via Reddit.**

But that same year, Nettles discovered she had cancer. Her eye was removed, and Nettles learned that the disease had spread throughout her body. Of course, she refused to believe the doctors and didn’t accept any treatment.

The cancer spread to her liver, and Nettles passed away on June 19th, 1985. The loss led to confusion within the cult because Applewhite and the followers were convinced the UFO would come for Nettles’ body. When that didn’t happen, Applewhite had to come up with the explanation.

The followers were informed that Nettles’ soul had ascended to the next level, but her body was left behind. Applewhite’s mental state worsened, and Nettle’s passing likely put in motion everything that would happen a decade later.

Heaven’s Gate was financially fine at the beginning of the 1990s, but members began leaving. Those who stayed worked as programmers and were early adopters of the Internet. They started a small business designing websites for various clients and launched the Heaven’s Gate website.

The rise of technology allowed the group a wider reach, and their website became popular among people exploring the Internet.

Applewhite knew the group needed more members, so they began actively recruiting again. He invested money in major newspaper advertisements, and some former members returned instantly.

Comet Hale–Bopp

Comet Hale-Bopp was discovered on July 23rd, 1995, and the early Internet became obsessed with tracking it. Meanwhile, Applewhite was in a bad place and began preaching to his followers about evil aliens that were planning to recycle Earth.

The fact that the comet was visible to the naked eye led him to the conclusion that Nettles had returned. According to Applewhite, she was in a spacecraft trailing the comet.

Heaven’s Gate rented a large mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California, in October 1996 and started preparing for their ascension. A total of 38 followers agreed to go with Applewhite, and they began filming their exit videos. Followers talked about their lives at Heaven’s Gate and seemed happy to be leaving the Earth.

The majority knew that taking their own life would be shocking to people outside the cult. The followers said their goodbyes to family and friends, proclaiming they needed to reach the Next Level before Heaven’s Gate closed.

The Tragic End

The ritual suicides took place between March 22nd and March 26th, 1997. Members were divided into groups and used phenobarbital mixed with pudding or apple sauce.

They drank vodka afterwards and then place plastic bags over their heads. After passing, a living member would remove the bag and cover the upper body with a purple cloth.

Applewhite and 38 of his followers (21 women and 17 men) were dressed in the same clothes – black shirts, black sweatpants, and black and white Nike shoes.

**The house where the tragic incident occurred.**

Each member had a patch reading “Heaven’s Gate Away Team” – a nod to the group’s love of Star Trek. They carried $5.75 in their pockets, and the true meaning behind this detail has never been confirmed.

Before the mass exit event, the group sent packages with the exit tapes to former members. One of them was Rio DiAngelo, who received the tapes on March 25th. He lived in Los Angeles at the time, and his boss drove him to Rancho Santa Fe.

The mansion’s back door was left unlocked, and DiAngelo went inside with a camera. He called law enforcement anonymously, asking them to perform a welfare check at 18341 Colina Norte.

A deputy who was first on the scene entered the house alone and was overwhelmed by the sight and smell of decomposing bodies. A second patrol car arrived, and it was confirmed that all the members of Heaven’s Gate had taken their own lives.

Aftermath

The tragic ending of Heaven’s Gate is still one of the most mysterious cult-related events. Several copycat suicides happened weeks and months after the bodies were discovered. Most of them were by former members of the cult who wanted to join their friends.

Curiously, the Heaven’s Gate website is still online and is maintained by two members from Phoenix, Arizona, who refused to participate in the tragic event. They answer questions related to the cult and don’t shy away from engaging with curious visitors.