Heaven’s Gate

Marshall Applewhite and his wife Bonnie Lu Nettles who called themselves “Ti and Do” started Heaven’s Gate in 1974, based on the belief that they came from heaven and took human bodies. According to the Heaven’s Gate Recruitment Tapes, they believed that the planet was “about to be recycled.”

They warned people in the tape. “This is the last chance to evacuate planet earth before it is recycled,” said Do on Sep. 19, 1996. 

Strangely, the “students” all had names that end in -ody. Qstody, Srrody, Wknody, Yrsody, Lvvody, and Jnnody… to name a few.

They left two VHS tapes titled, “Do’s final exit” and  “Students before the exit,” in which the members as well as Do talk about how happy they are to be “graduating.”

On  March 26, 1997, a group of police officers got an anonymous tip, leading them to enter a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, an exclusive suburb in San Diego, California. They found 21 women and 18 men dead, victims of a mass suicide. They were found lying peacefully in matching dark clothes and Nike sneakers and had no noticeable signs of blood or trauma.

After consuming a deadly concoction of vodka and phenobarbital, Applewhite and 38 of his supporters laid down to die in the hopes of escaping their body containers, boarding the alien spacecraft, and entering Heaven’s Gate to enter a higher plane of existence.

These are only a few of the many deadly cults that have existed throughout time.

This article on cults is part 1 of 3 where Beacon Behind Bars will be discussing and dissecting Jonestown and the Branch Davidians.