1931-1997 aka
Bo,
Do, "The One That Was
Jesus", and the "Present Representative".
Marshall Herff Applewhite and 38 of his followers in what was known as the Heaven's Gate cult killed themselves with a mix of vodka and phenobarbital over the course of three days in the end of March 1997. Applewhite had convinced his band of otherwise intelligent followers that a spaceship was hiding behind the Hale-Bopp comet and would carry away their immortal souls in a kind of cosmic rapture if they were brave enough to leave their physical body "vessels" behind on Earth. The members of Heaven's Gate joined the cult with the ultimate intent of dying, and the unidentified flying object seen near Hale-Bopp appeared to be the mothership that they had been awaiting for many years. Many of the members who committed suicide even filmed cheerful goodbye videos for their friends and families.
Until 1972, Applewhite led a relatively normal life as a professional theater singer, university music teacher, and choir director, in addition to being a husband and father of two. Applewhite met Bonnie Lu Nettles, a nurse, in a Houston hospital and believed her extraordinary assertions that Applewhite had escaped death in order to help her spread an important message of extraterrestrials, salvation, and the apocalypse. They traveled across the southwestern U.S., calling themselves "Bo" and "Peep", preaching to converts about an imminent visit from a spaceship that would transport them to heaven. In 1974, the pair were arrested in Harlingen, Texas for stealing credit cards and a car from a cult member's husband. In 1975, Bo, Peep, and 20 converts from Waldport, Oregon traveled to Colorado to rendezvous with a spaceship which never arrived. Nettles died of cancer in 1985, and would be posthumously referred to as "Ti" (to Applewhite's "Do").
Applewhite began recruiting new members in 1993, but this time funded cult operations from members' salaries instead of larceny. The Higher Source graphic design company was the cult's legitimate business front, which saw much work in the Web boom of the mid 1990s. In late 1996, the cult moved into a large group house in Rancho Santa Fe, California, where the 39 men and women lived (and ultimately died) as cosmic monks - matching outfits, androgynous haircuts, celibacy, and even optional castration.