On March 26, 1997, Rio DiAngelo, previous name, Richard Ford, entered the 9,200 square foot mansion that his friends rented in Rancho Santa Fe, California. Upon entering, he found all 39 people inside dead and made a call to 911 wanting to make an anonymous tip of a religious group’s suicide. He used a nearby payphone and told the dispatchers that he wanted to report a mass suicide. They didn’t even believe him at first and didn’t act on it right away.
For part One, click here!
Heaven's Gate
Then in June of 1985 Bonnie Lu Nettles died of cancer. She had been admitted to the hospital under a made up name and Applewhite didn’t even stay with her nor did he let her family know that she was ill. Terrie was just a few hours away when her mother died alone in a hospital. Nettles’ death was kind of a problem for Applewhite’s storyline. See, they had previously told the members that they would be taken aboard the UFOs in their current “vehicles.” Nettles dying made it necessary to revise the original statement. He had to back pedal and say that, just kidding, we have to leave these “vehicles” behind and transcend spiritually.
In 1992, the cult re-emerges for a few months. Their numbers have decreased down to a few dozen and they need to try and recruit. They produced a video called Beyond Human that aired on TV one Saturday. While it didn’t bring in any new members, they did manage to coax back some members who had previously left. In 1993, the cult was making upwards of $400,000/year through their new computer business “Higher Source” designing websites. Applewhilte used some of their funds and placed a half-page ad in USA Today that he titled “‘UFO Cult’ Resurfaces with Final Offer.”
Then, as if they hadn’t said multiple times that they were done recruiting, in 1994, Applewhite sent out members to recruit again. According to one article, members were “mostly free to defect at will” because they were held there by “persuasive power” instead of fear. One member, 19-year-old David Moore joined and left his mom confused and determined. Nancy began a newsletter for the other left behind families of the members.
Applewhite found out and was obviously not excited about it. He said she was making trouble and was a meddler, but he decided that he would allow members to contact their families. This contact would be highly controlled and mostly left on answering machines. David was allowed to call his mom and left her a message saying that they would be happy to facilitate a conversation between the families and their family members inside the cult. David would end up being one of the 39 bodies found in the mansion.
In 1995, they went back into seclusion and hid behind the computer to reach the people. In September they posted their first exit statement on their website. In October, they posted a second exit statement to clarify that first statement. In the summer of 1996, the whole “family” moved to San Diego County. In October, they began renting a $1.6 million, 9,200 square-foot mansion for $7,000/month in Rancho Santa Fe. When 1997 came, the group posted their exit statements again and sent letters to their clients about the Hale-Bopp comet that was coming. This was their sign to leave Earth.
This was a perfect storm for Applewhite. The millennium was getting close, there was a fascination with UFOs around this time, AND the Hale-Bopp comet was going to be visible for the first time in 2000 years. Humans were weeds in the “Garden” (Earth) and the “Garden” was damaged beyond repair. It needed to be recycled.
On March 19th, they filmed their farewell messages. In their “exit video” each member had about 5 minutes to speak their final thoughts. They wore baggy clothes and had buzzed heads, but all appeared calm and coherent. Applewhite said it was “suicide to NOT leave.” March 23rd was the closest the Hale-Bopp comet would be to Earth and this was the day their plan was set in motion. On this day, the group went to a local restaurant that they frequented and had 39 identical meals: turkey pot pie, blueberry cheesecake, and iced tea.
15 members of Heaven’s gate committed suicide with 9 other members assisting. They drank vodka, ate pudding or applesauce that was loaded with barbiturates, specifically, phenobarbital they bought from Mexico, and some put plastic bags over their heads. They laid down in their black tracksuits and $10 Nikes and covered themselves in purple shrouds. Near or on their bodies were the instructions for their suicidal concoctions, a $5 bill, 3 quarters, and their ID card. The $5.75 was said to be the toll of the international transportation.
On March 24th, 15 more members followed the same routine with 9 members assisting.
On March 25th, the final 9 helped each other follow the same routine. Marshall Applewhite was the 7th to die on this day. Then 2 final female followers completed the mission. (According to investigators and the Escondido Grapevine article.)
On March 26th, Rio Diangelo received a package from his former cult friends, and he knew they were gone. He knew the plan, but he went to the house to confirm anyway. Rio filmed what he saw as he walked through the house. One person on each mattress scattered throughout the house. He said the stench was enough to confirm they were dead, but he also yelled out as he went through the house to see if anyone was still alive. There were splatters of blood throughout the house as well which was thought to be from people coughing up blood before dying as well as from the bodies just being there long enough to….breakdown…. Do was in the master bedroom alone.
He called in a, not so, anonymous tip to 911.
The detective that was one of the first on the scene said that every corner they turned was another body. He said that he’d never seen anything like it and hasn’t since. The 39 people in the mansion consisted of 18 men and 21 women between the ages of 26 and 72 and were people who had been divorced or were lost in some way. They were people looking for a change in their lives after traumatic events or who were sad and lonely.
Not long after the mass suicide became public, so did a video created by Applewhite and his followers where he rants and raves about his beliefs. The video was originally created in 1996 to warn people about the need to evacuate Earth.
Chuck Humphrey was a member of the cult since the 70s, but he wasn’t one of the 39. He expressed his joy that the 39 of them had left their vehicles and his sadness that he hadn’t been with them. In one interview after the suicides he said, “I wish I was with them” and that he was kicking himself. Exiting their vehicles was like graduating for them. The black tracksuits and the patches Rio designed were all an homage to graduating. Rio said that he didn’t have any plans to follow his peers because when he left the cult after 3 years, he did so in order to share his experience. He still firmly holds to the thought that Do was the second coming of Jesus and Rio had actually been given Applewhite’s blessing to leave since his goal was to spread the word.
6 weeks later, in May, Chuck Humphrey (56-years-old) and another former member, Wayne “Nick” Cooke (54-years-old) were found in a San Diego motel. They were wearing the black tracksuits and Nikes, their bags were packed, and they each had a $5 bill and 3 quarters on them. They did the same combination of vodka and barbiturates, but while Nick succeeded in his suicide, Chuck was rescued. Unfortunately, Chuck was determined and in the summer of 1997, he successfully joined his friends when he put a bag over his head that was connected by a hose to the exhaust pipe of his car. Bringing the total to 41 cult members dead. However, Princess Diana died around this time, and Chuck’s story was overshadowed.
The owner of the house where the cult took their lives allowed for a short tour from Inside Edition and though they weren’t allowed in the bedrooms, the reporter was shown many of the main living spaces. There were still bloodstains on the wallpaper and on the floor. They said there were urine stains all over the house, and the tour guide said that they were renovating the house of even things that weren’t damaged but were too obviously linked to the suicides, like a window that was above one of the bodies and is present in the crime scene pictures. He said that the surveyors estimated there was about 6 figures worth of damage, but since the mass suicide on the property the price of the house has actually decreased. It has since been destroyed and rebuilt.
A psychiatrist that spoke with a local station, KTTV, said that she felt that Applewhtie showed many signs of manic-depression. He was the leader of the largest mass suicide in American history and the “first well-known American cult of the internet age.” (According to Rolling Stone)
One year later, there was a legal battle over the belongings that were left behind. The officials in San Diego County wanted to auction off their belongings as a way to earn money for reimbursing the families of the deceased cult members to help them pay funeral expenses. Mark and Sarah King are 2 of the few members of the religious group still active and during this legal battle, they wanted to protect all of the documents and writings and such. They negotiated a deal where they paid $2,000 for all of this and they would agree not to profit off of any of the materials.
There are also 2 people that go by “Telah” and “we” that get the contact emails from the website. Apparently they are pretty prompt responders.
In Hollywood, California, in the Museum of Death, the purple shrouds, bunk beds, and the tracksuits and Nikes are on display. Mannequins are dressed in the clothes and covered in the shrouds, laying on their backs on the bunks just like the cult members.
Otherwise, there are very few people that still follow the religious teachings of Heaven’s Gate, but if you have any questions I’m sure that “Telah” and “we” will give you a completely unbiased answer if you contact them through the Heaven’s Gate website. There is also a statememt regarding their stance on suicide.
Our Position Against Suicide
We know that it is only while we are in these physical vehicles (bodies) that we can learn the lessons needed to complete our own individual transition, as well as to complete our task of offering the Kingdom of Heaven to this civilization one last time. We take good care of our vehicles so they can function well for us in this task, and we try to protect them from any harm.
We fully desire, expect, and look forward to boarding a spacecraft from the Next Level very soon (in our physical bodies). There is no doubt in our mind that our being “picked up” is inevitable in the very near future. But what happens between now and then is the big question. We are keenly aware of several possibilities.
It could happen that before that spacecraft comes, one or more of us could lose our physical vehicles (bodies) but to “recall,” accident, or at the hands of some irate individual. We do not anticipate this, but it is possible. Another possibility is that, because of the position we take in our information, we could find so much disfavor with the powers that control this world that there could be attempts to incarcerate us or to subject us to some sort of psychological or physical torture (such as occured at both Ruby Ridge and Waco).
It has always been our way to examine all possibilities, and be mentally prepared for whatever may come our way. For example, consider what happened at Masada around 73 A.D. A devout Jewish sect, after holding out against a siege by the Romans, to the best of their ability, and seeing that the murder, rape, and torture of their community was inevitable, determined that it was permissible for them to evacuate their bodies by a more dignified, and less agonizing method. We have thoroughly discussed this topic (of willful exit of the body under such conditions), and have mentally prepared ourselves for this possibility (as can be seen in a few of our statements). However, this act certainly does not need serious consideration at this time, and hopefully will not in the future.
The true meaning of “suicide” is to turn against the Next Level when it is being offered. In these days, we are focused on two primary task: one – of making a last attempt at telling the truth about how the Next Level may be entered (our last effort at offering to individuals of this civilization the way to avoid “suicide”); and two – taking advantage of the rare opportunity we have each day – to work individually on our personal overcoming and change, in preparation of entering the Kingdom of Heaven.
sources for this episode
17 Scary Wikipedia Pages About Cults That Are For Adults Only
Heaven’s Gate (religious group)
Heaven’s Gate cult members found dead
Heaven’s Gate 20 Years Later: 10 Things You Didn’t Know
WashingtonPost.com: Heaven’s Gate Interactive Timeline: Overview
Suicide, Nikes, and comet space ships: the story of the Heaven’s Gate cult
Heaven’s Gate – How and When It May Be Entered
Another Heaven’s Gate Suicide / Cultist found dead in Encinitas hotel
I didn’t know about Heavens Gate cult until I visited Museum Of Death & something about that display that left me feeling violated. It was behind a glass room & it did give me a lot of emotions. I’m a horror, murder junkie but that museum left me a bit shook.
We totally agree! That is just taking it too far. Even for all of us seasoned crime listeners and watchers, it just felt disrespectful on some level to do that.