On March 19–20, 1997, Marshall Applewhite taped himself speaking of mass suicide and asserted it was the only way to evacuate this Earth. After claiming that a spacecraft was trailing the comet Hale–Bopp, Applewhite convinced 38 followers to commit suicide so that their souls could board the supposed craft. Applewhite believed that after their deaths, an unidentified flying object (UFO) would take their souls to another level of existence above human, which he described as being both physical and spiritual. This and other UFO-related beliefs held by the group have led some observers to characterize the group as a type of UFO religion. In October 1996, the group purchased alien abduction insurance to cover up to 50 members at a cost of $10,000. The group rented a 9,200-sq.-ft. (850 square meters) mansion, located at 18241 Colina Norte (later changed to Paseo Victoria) in a gated community of upscale homes in the San Diego–area community of Rancho Santa Fe, from Sam Koutchesfahani, paying $7,000 per month in cash. Thirty-eight Heavens Gate members, plus group leader Applewhite, were found dead in the home on March 26, 1997. In the heat of the California spring, many of the bodies had begun to decompose by the time they were discovered. Autopsies were carried out on the corpses, and medical examiners found the people had taken cyanide and arsenic. The bodies were later cremated. The members took phenobarbital mixed with apple sauce, washed down with vodka. Additionally, they secured plastic bags around their heads after ingesting the mix to induce asphyxiation. Authorities found the dead lying neatly in their own bunk beds, faces and torsos covered by a square, purple cloth. Each member carried a five-dollar bill and three quarters in their pockets-- said to be for interplanetary toll. All 39 were dressed in identical black shirts and sweat pants, brand new black-and-white Nike Decades athletic shoes, and armband patches reading Heavens Gate Away Team (one of many instances of the groups use of the Star Trek fictional universes nomenclature). The adherents, between the ages of 26 and 72, are believed to have died in three groups over three successive days, with remaining participants cleaning up after each prior groups deaths. Fifteen members died on March 24, fifteen more on March 25, and nine on March 26. Leader Applewhite was the third to last member to die; two women remained after him and were the only ones found without bags over their heads. Among the dead was Thomas Nichols, brother of the actress Nichelle Nichols, who is best known for her role as Uhura in the original Star Trek television series. Only one of the groups members, Rio DiAngelo/Richard Ford, did not kill himself: weeks before the suicides, in December 1996, DiAngelo agreed with Applewhite to leave the group so he could ensure future dissemination of Heavens Gate videos and literature. He videotaped the mansion in Rancho Santa Fe; however, the tape was not shown to police until 2002, five years after the event. The mass death of the Heavens Gate group was widely publicized in the media as an example of mass suicide. Two former members of Heavens Gate, Wayne Cooke and Charlie Humphreys, later committed suicide in a similar manner. Humphreys survived a suicide pact with Cooke in May 1997, but ultimately killed himself in February 1998.
Posted on: Thu, 15 May 2014 03:04:07 +0000
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