- 3 months ago
- #heavensgate
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- #truecrime
Taking a deep dive into the Heaven's Gate Cult and what lead to their mass suicide in 1997.
#heavensgate #cult #truecrime
#heavensgate #cult #truecrime
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Dark Mystery Lounge.
00:03Today we are going to take a deep dive into one of the cults that I mentioned in the previous episode, Heaven's Gate.
00:09Most people know them because of the mass suicide back in 1997, and of course their leader Doe,
00:14who seems to smile at awkward times and really doesn't blink much, which adds to the unsettling nature of this group.
00:21Despite the leader being a bit odd, this cult is very fascinating.
00:24Not just how it formed and their beliefs, but all the things that were left behind for us to explore.
00:30So we're going to take a look at Heaven's Gate, but to do that, we have to start at the very beginning.
00:40Marshall Herff Applewhite Jr. was born on May 17, 1931 in Spur, Texas, to Marshall Herff Applewhite Sr. and his wife Louise.
00:48He had three siblings. Applewhite Sr. was a Presbyterian minister, and so he grew up in a religious home.
00:56Applewhite attended Corpus Christi High School and Austin College.
01:00He earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1952, then enrolled in Union Presbyterian Seminary to study theology, helping to become a minister.
01:08Around that time, he married Ann Pierce and had two children, Mark and Lane.
01:13During his studies, he decided to switch his career to music, becoming the music director of a Presbyterian church in North Carolina.
01:20He had a fantastic baritone singing voice.
01:23In 1954, Applewhite was drafted by the United States Army and served in Austria and New Mexico as a member of the Army Signal Corps.
01:32He left the military in 1956 and enrolled at University of Colorado, where he earned a master's degree in music and focused on musical theater.
01:41After graduating, Applewhite tried and failed to launch a professional singing career.
01:46He then took a job at University of Alabama.
01:48He was described as very laid-back, had a lot of charisma.
01:52He didn't act like your normal professor.
01:54He had the ability to transform a normal group of students into a group of extraordinary performers.
02:00Applewhite lost his position due to an affair he was having with one of his male students.
02:06He separated from his wife in 1965 and got divorced a few years later.
02:10He left Alabama for Houston to serve as a chair of the music department at the University of St. Thomas.
02:17He also was attempting a career on the opera stage at Houston Grand Opera.
02:22He landed his biggest role as Olin Blitch in the opera Susanna, but then he had a psychotic episode and had to be hospitalized.
02:30That was supposedly how he met Bonnie Nettles, but there are different stories on how they met.
02:34Applewhite said he met her while visiting his sick friend, who is to be believed we will never know to this day.
02:41Bonnie Nettles was born August 29, 1927 and raised in Houston, Texas in a Baptist family.
02:48As an adult, she moved away from religion.
02:50After becoming a registered nurse, she married businessman Joseph Nettles in December 1949.
02:56Their marriage remained mostly stable until 1972, at which time she began attempting contact with a deceased spirit by conducting regular seances
03:07and came to believe that a 19th century monk named Brother Francis frequently spoke with her and gave her instructions.
03:16She also visited multiple fortune tellers who told her that she was soon to meet a mysterious man who was tall with light hair and a fair complexion.
03:25Descriptions which were fairly close to Applewhite's appearance, Nettles also studied astrology, theosophy, and the occult.
03:33Nettles told Applewhite that she was an astrologer and she could do his chart.
03:37She did and found that they were a perfect match.
03:39They became a couple, but was strictly platonic.
03:42They were just spiritual partners.
03:44Nettles divorced and lost custody of her kids.
03:47Applewhite and Nettles opened a bookstore known as the Christian Art Center, which carried books from a variety of spiritual backgrounds.
03:54They also launched a venture known as Known Place to teach classes on theosophy and mysticism.
04:01The pair closed these businesses a short time later.
04:04In 1973, the two decided it was time to hit the road and go on their own spiritual journey.
04:09They had to take odd jobs while on the road and selling their blood to blood banks just so they could have food or to fix the car.
04:16They mainly ventured out to the western states, eventually ending up on the Oregon coast.
04:21And while camping out one night, Nettles had a vision.
04:24They were the two witnesses described in the Book of Revelations.
04:27They formed their own doctrine, which was a mix of Christianity, UFOs, and New Age beliefs.
04:33In this vision, they were to recruit as many members as possible to take to the next level via a UFO, picking them up physically and taking them away.
04:46They recruited people through meetings they would hold at various places.
04:52They would post flyers for their meetings about UFOs and how they were sent from the next level from another planet.
04:59The biggest meeting they had was in 1975 in Walport, Oregon, where a large number of people were recruited.
05:05And the story made it onto the TV news and in newspapers.
05:09Two people decided they were going to go undercover and find out what this group was all about.
05:14After spending four or five months in, they went home and wrote a series of academic papers that made it to the Psychology Today magazine.
05:22And it blew up in the media again.
05:24Most people made fun of the two, known at that time as Bo and Peep.
05:28And because of all the negative attention, the meetings became smaller and smaller.
05:33Until one day in 1976, Nettles stood up at their final meeting and said,
05:38The harvest is closed.
05:39After that, she told the members that stayed that you made the first cut.
05:43Then the group went underground.
05:45They moved from campground to campground, but eventually they had to move in the houses.
05:50They used one of the members' trust funds until it ran out to be able to live in these houses.
05:55A lot of the members had jobs and were helping the group as much as possible.
05:59Now, in the early years of the group, they expressed their message of how they will be picked up by a UFO at any time now.
06:07And that if you believe in their message, and if you feel like you are spiritually drawn to them,
06:12and you believe that they are speaking the truth,
06:15then you are one of those people that has an alien soul that they failed to recruit during Jesus' time.
06:21He explained things that were in the Bible, talking about the two witnesses being picked up by a cloud of light,
06:27while 1st century, 2nd century, wouldn't know how to describe a UFO, so they would call it a cloud.
06:33Also that Mary was impregnated with Jesus by UFOs, rather than just plain virgin birth.
06:38But their main objective was to transform their members, or crew as they called them,
06:43was shedding everything that makes you human.
06:46Members were constantly instructed to renounce friends, family, media, drugs, alcohol, jewelry, facial hair, and sexuality.
06:55A list of guidelines were issued to mold the crew into that perfect person.
06:59Everything was an exact duplicate, learning how to restrain yourself like making noises or running to do things.
07:06When you opened and closed the door, you had to do it quietly.
07:09If you needed to speak to either T or Doe, you would write a note to them with your question or request to speak with them.
07:16If you noticed in the HBO docuseries Cult of Cults, during their Christmas party,
07:21one of the members comes back and they're waving at him.
07:24They were excited, but are not shouting or making a whole lot of noise.
07:28Sexuality, or sensuality as they refer to it as, was a big sin.
07:33That had to be restrained as well.
07:34The women of the group wore no makeup, and everyone had a unisex look to them.
07:39They were becoming like a monastic order, and as these rules were being enforced, more people left.
07:44But as the group was getting smaller, the energy inside the group became stronger,
07:49weeding out those people who really didn't want to be there.
07:52With all this change happening, those in the class took another name.
07:56The first name would be three letters, all consonants.
08:00Then the last name would always end in Odie.
08:02So say you wanted to take on the name Alex.
08:05It would be spelled A-X-L, all capitals, then O-D-Y, also in capitals.
08:10Odie means a little member, and when they graduate, they would drop the Y.
08:14So they would be the family of odd, which was next level humor because they were kind of odd.
08:19To reinforce the rules, they had what was called a check partner system.
08:22You were paired up with a person you would least likely want to be with.
08:26Most of the time, the partner system was male-female couples.
08:30Because they had an excess of women, they were paired up as well.
08:33But these check partners would switch up after a short bit of time.
08:37So you didn't form much of an attachment to any one person.
08:41Phone calls were monitored as well as letters.
08:43The group was constantly on the move for quite a long time.
08:47Tia and Doe believed that the government was tracking them, and also the families of the class were tracking them as well.
08:53Then all of a sudden, tragedy struck.
08:56In 1983, Bonnie, or Tia as she was called, in the group, was showing signs of illness.
09:01She was diagnosed with cancer of the eye and had her eye removed.
09:05But by that point, it was too late.
09:07The cancer had already spread.
09:08She didn't believe the doctors when they told her that she doesn't have much more time to live.
09:13And she reassured the group that they were all going to ascend to the next level together.
09:18See, what a lot of people didn't know, that a lot of the mystical beliefs in the group, and a lot of the core doctrine, was really crafted by Tia.
09:27Doe was just the mouthpiece.
09:28The charming front man, if you will.
09:30The reason why they changed their names to Doe and Tia, was because of Tia's favorite movie, The Sound of Music.
09:36Where they learned the notes in the musical scale.
09:38Even with the denial of her illness, she finally checked herself into a hospital in Dallas, Texas.
09:44Where she died a few days later, on June 19, 1985, of liver cancer.
09:50This shook everyone to the core.
09:51Doe was hit especially hard, because this wasn't the plan.
09:55This wasn't how they were going to leave the earth.
09:57This also shook the class to his core as well.
10:00At that point, they were being taught that in order to go to the next level, you had to be alive, and that you cannot die and reach that level.
10:07If they were really spiritual beings, sent from another planet, then why did Tia die from a very human death of cancer?
10:14Another person got hit pretty hard too, Tia's oldest daughter, Terry, who was 20 years old when her mother left to form this group.
10:21Two of the class members came and told Terry in person about Tia's death nine months after she died.
10:27Tia's one wish was not to tell Terry, because she knew how much it would have hurt her.
10:32Terry was very upset.
10:33She tried to contact Doe, but with no response.
10:36Finally, he sent her an audio cassette tape, apologizing for not telling her earlier about Tia being ill, and that he loved her and will pray for her to hopefully ease her suffering.
10:47Terry lost her mother, her best friend, and it left a big hole in her heart.
10:52There was no memorial ceremony for Tia.
10:54Her body was cremated, and her ashes were scattered.
10:57Now that Tia was gone, Doe didn't know whether or not to continue with the class by himself.
11:02So he decided to send everyone out to visit their families for a couple of weeks while he tried to figure things out.
11:09All but one came back.
11:10From 1985 to 1991, the class was still underground, but the group started to get smaller.
11:21Either because they became disillusioned with the doctrine changing again, or because they got kicked out for breaking the rules.
11:27The doctrine changed in a drastic way.
11:29Doe took out the New Age things that Tia put in, and added more biblical ideas.
11:34Like that Doe is actually the spirit of Jesus incarnate, and that Tia was his father.
11:39Kind of like demonic possession, but with alien spirits.
11:42So the spirit that was in Jesus is the same spirit that's in Doe.
11:46Plus, any authority figures like police or government are lower forces or products of Lucifer.
11:51What I forgot to mention earlier, that they really don't identify with the body, which they refer to as a vehicle.
11:58Like the mind is Doe, but the body is Marshall Applewhite.
12:02The class also experimented with different diets and fasting, just trying to overcome their humanness.
12:07The hardest part was overcoming sensuality.
12:10It was becoming a major issue with men especially.
12:13Even Doe was having trouble with it.
12:15Siroti suggested to Doe that the idea of getting surgically castrated in order to finally control this once and for all.
12:22So Doe agreed.
12:24The first one was done in a sterile room performed by a fellow classmate who was a nurse.
12:28Siroti was the first patient.
12:30The surgery went really bad after he was finally stitched up.
12:34So Siroti was taken to a hospital for observation, but turned out okay.
12:39After that almost botched procedure, Doe found a surgeon who would agree to perform the operation on anyone who wants it.
12:46In total, seven to nine men were castrated, including Doe.
12:50But because of that, another person left.
12:52With the group getting smaller and Doe felt like it was time to spread the word again.
12:57So the class split up into groups and held meetings all over the country to do one final sweep.
13:04They took out a huge full-page ad in the USA Today paper, talking about their message and putting a P.O. box calling themselves Total Overcomers Anonymous.
13:14And members responded to the letters that were pouring in.
13:17In 1992, they had a satellite television series called Beyond Human, The Last Call.
13:23They paid for 14 hours of time.
13:25The message was more of the end is near.
13:28All their efforts, the class was able to get some new members and some old ones back.
13:33But for the most part, was rejected by most people.
13:36The best example of this was Doe's Usenet postings.
13:39For those too young to remember, Usenet was an online bulletin board.
13:43There were a wide range of topics.
13:44Well, after putting out his message, Doe was met with cyberbullying.
13:48They were able to become self-sufficient by starting a business building webpages and websites called Higher Source.
13:55This was during the internet's infancy, when there weren't a whole lot of people building webpages.
14:00They also built their own website, putting all their information out there for the world to see.
14:05They earned enough to rent a mansion for like $7,000 a month in San Diego, California.
14:10Before that, they lived in New Mexico.
14:12After all the heckling and laughing, Doe decided it was just time to give up on this planet and prepare for the end.
14:24Doe and the class started discussing their exit.
14:27They had this discussion many times in the past, but now it seems like they were taking it more and more seriously.
14:32After seeing what happened at Ruby Ridge and Waco, they felt like they would be the next targets for the lower forces to come and kill them.
14:40In a way, they wanted it to happen so that they could finally exit their vehicles without having to commit suicide.
14:46But others in the class didn't really like that idea.
14:49It was too violent, and it wasn't guaranteed that all of them would die.
14:52So they came up with another plan.
14:54Take a strong barbiturate with alcohol and a plastic bag over their head.
14:58It would be the least painful way to go.
15:00After having these discussions, some people did leave, including Sawyer, or Soyoti as he was called, but it was for a different reason.
15:08Doe wanted to wait for the right time.
15:10He claimed that he was still spiritually in contact with T, and he asked for a sign.
15:15This was in late 1994.
15:17Well, in November of 1996, they finally got the sign they were looking for.
15:21The Hale-Bopp comet was making its closest pass to Earth.
15:24It was so bright you could see it in the sky, even without a telescope.
15:28The last time a comet this bright came within our sights, it was 1577.
15:33It had this beautiful tail.
15:35It was just amazing to see.
15:37Well, to Doe and the class, this was the sign they were looking for.
15:40Most of the class had been in for over 20 plus years, and they all felt a sense of relief.
15:45See, they fell for the conspiracy theory that there was a flying saucer following the tail of the Hale-Bopp comet.
15:51They even bought an expensive telescope and didn't see this companion following Hale-Bopp, but still believed that the comet itself was the marker.
15:59The reason why they chose March was because that's when the comet would be closest to Earth and also was around Easter.
16:07Hence also why they chose purple shrouds that were placed over their bodies, and it was also for privacy as well.
16:13Now, they didn't treat this like it was a sad event.
16:16They had their Christmas party and did a talent show during that party.
16:19They took a trip to Gold Beach, Oregon, which is where T and Doe had their big revelation.
16:25They also took a trip to SeaWorld, San Diego's Wild Animal Park, Mexico, and the Stratosphere Hotel in Las Vegas where they gambled and won $20.
16:35They uploaded the last of the material to their website in fear that it would be shut down by their American hosts.
16:41They sent floppy disks to people they knew in Brazil and Poland so that it could be hosted there just in case.
16:48They also delegated the task of keeping up with the website to a pair of ex-members they trusted.
16:54They had a sort of last supper at Marie Callender's restaurant.
16:58They all had the same thing.
16:59Garden salad with tomato vinaigrette dressing, turkey pot pie, cheesecake with blueberries on top, and an iced tea.
17:06On March 20, 1997, the class recorded their final statement.
17:10Some were in groups of two or three.
17:12Sometimes, it was just one person talking.
17:15And they all pretty much gave similar final messages.
17:18That they were excited about leaving.
17:20They can't wait to see T again.
17:22Others had a message of, if you want to know more, go to our website and giving the web address.
17:28Remember, this was back in the day before Google was a thing.
17:31You had to write down your web addresses if you wanted to go directly to them.
17:35The night before, on March 19, they had recorded their meeting in the same uniform that they would be discovered in later when their bodies were found.
17:45All black uniforms with black Nike shoes, wearing patches that say Heaven's Gate Away Team on their arm.
17:52Doe was excited about leaving and choked up when talking about meeting up with T.
17:57So, these people that had been in the class anywhere from 21 years to 6 months were all displaying the same behavior as Doe, or their older member as they called him at times.
18:08So, they were very much brainwashed.
18:10They had a sign-out sheet with their names, date, and time of leaving.
18:14On the column for E.T.R., or Estimated Time of Return, they put things like Never, or a question mark, or a dash, and one person wrote Hasta la vista, baby, and the person below him said Ditto.
18:27The suicides were very precise, once again having very strict instructions.
18:32Consume pudding laced with barbiturates quickly, chase it down with the vodka, then lay quietly on your bunk, while having a plastic bag over your head.
18:41Once the first group died, the second group would help clean up the first group, taking off the bag, placing their hands at their sides, and put the purple cloth over them.
18:50And this continued from approximately March 23rd through the 26th, and Doe was in the second group.
18:56Until they were down to only two people left, and they didn't have the purple cloth on them.
19:01In the group, there were 21 women and 18 men between the ages of 26 and 72.
19:07On March 26th, Rio, who left the group a week prior to the suicides, got a package instructing him to go inside the house and film everything that he saw.
19:18There was an unlocked door on the side of the house that he could go through.
19:22The smell hit him, and as he was walking around recording, he yelled out,
19:26Is anyone alive?
19:28But all he got in return was an eerie silence.
19:30They finally done it.
19:31They finally graduated.
19:33They finally did it.
20:03After his recordings, Rio made a phone call to the police to report the mass suicide.
20:11It became the largest story in the country.
20:14People couldn't believe what they were seeing.
20:16It just seemed so bizarre.
20:17The medical examiners said that they all looked like they were sleeping.
20:21They had a peaceful look on their faces.
20:23It was also reported that they all packed a bag like they were getting ready to go on a trip.
20:28They each had $5.75 on them.
20:30Why that amount of money, you might be wondering?
20:33Well, it comes from the old Mark Twain story that $5.75 was the cost to ride the tail of a comet to heaven.
20:40It took some time, but the bodies did get claimed by family members and were either buried or cremated, including Doe.
20:48Oh, and one of the cult members' sister is actress Nichelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Yohura on the original Star Trek show.
20:56Now, the media were not too kind when it came to this event.
20:59Most basically wrote them off as idiots, as fools.
21:02SNL did a tasteless skit about them, and Conan O'Brien also did a tasteless skit with a talking teddy bear.
21:09Some former members gave interviews trying to give the correct story, but no one seemed to care.
21:14Three other former members committed suicide following this event, hoping that they could catch up to the rest of the class.
21:21The families were just heartbroken that they lost their loved ones, and pissed off that Doe led them to this kind of end.
21:27In 1998, there was a Heaven's Gate reunion, and everyone seemed to be getting along really well.
21:33Until Terry, Bonnie Ortiz's daughter, read some of the letters that her mother had been writing to her the whole time she was in the group.
21:41A lot of them were absolutely dumbfounded, and others were just pissed off.
21:45Here they were, told that they had to cut off all ties.
21:49But here was their leader, still writing to her daughter, signing it with Love Mom or Love Always.
21:54To this day, it seems like there is constant conflict between ex-members.
21:59Some hate the group outright, others still hold to their beliefs, and others have just moved on with their lives.
22:05Make no mistake, the way this group ended was truly tragic.
22:08But they were not morons, idiots, or fools.
22:11They simply had different beliefs than normal mainstream religion.
22:14But these beliefs ultimately led them to their...
22:17Wow. Well, I know there was a lot to cover here.
22:19The way these people lived their lives, and the strange way that they left, was just nothing short of bizarre.
22:25If you are curious, yes, their website is still up and running.
22:28And if you have a question, or if you want to buy what they call the purple book,
22:32you can email them, and they will give you a polite response.
22:36Now, if you do, please be respectful.
22:38There is no need to be mean or nasty.
22:41That's just going to lead you nowhere, and you will just sound like an ass.
22:44Also, if you're curious about the videos they left behind, you can find them on their YouTube channel.
22:49The channel is called Heaven's Gate Database.
22:52All one word.
22:53I honestly believe that if Doe would have gotten some kind of therapy to help him with his problems,
22:58maybe we wouldn't have had the Heaven's Gate cult.
23:00I also believe that they are never going to make a comeback of any sort.
23:04None of the ex-members are on the same page with each other.
23:07There are also documentaries out there if you'd like to watch them.
23:10Cult of Cults on HBO Max is probably the best one, in my opinion.
23:13There's also The Day After, which is also on their channel.
23:18There was one other, but I could only find one part of it.
23:21It was called Inside Heaven's Gate.
23:23I have to say, this is one of my favorite cults to research,
23:27because the information is just all out there to see.
23:30No real secrets to search for.
23:31But it was kind of very well watching the HBO docuseries,
23:34when they would have someone talking,
23:36and it would have their name and former member,
23:39so you know they are alive.
23:40But then they show someone they were connected to,
23:43and they would show their names,
23:45and it would say member below,
23:47and you knew that they were one of the 39.
23:49It also showed more of a human element to this cult,
23:52not just strange names and faces.
23:54It puts a backstory to them.
23:56If you made it this far into the video, thank you.
23:59Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe,
24:01and tickle that little bell icon,
24:03so you don't miss the next episode.
24:05You never know who I will cover next.
24:07Thank you for hanging out with me in the Dark Mystery Lounge.
24:10This is Phoenix, signing out.
24:12Have a good evening, and stay safe.
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