On March 26, 1997, 39 bodies belonging to the religious cult Heaven's Gate were discovered in a Rancho Sante Fe, CA. mansion. They were found on bunk beds and cots/mattresses throughout the residence and were dressed identically in a track suit covered in a purple shroud w/ Nike sneakers (the exact make was discontinued after this) and all members had $5.75 in their pockets.

They did not believe they were killing themselves, they were "exiting their vehicles" so their alien form could be picked up on a UFO following Comet Hale Bopp.




I was 12 when this happened, but I remember this "crazy old man" on the cover of all of the newspapers and magazines at the time.

What's bizarre is that, to this day, their website remains just as it was right before the suicides and there are 2 former members who run it. Reportedly, they will answer your questions if you e-mail them.

https://www.heavensgate.com/

I remember it. It was co-founded by Marshal Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles, both of whom were raised Christian but wanted something else.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven%27s_Gate_(religious_group)

I do remember this, also remember when the Jonestown Massacre was in the news, I was 8 when that happened.

There's a 1982 film titled The Mysterious Two, John Forsythe played a character that was inspired by Marshall Applewhite.

I do remember this, also remember when the Jonestown Massacre was in the news, I was 8 when that happened.

There's a 1982 film titled The Mysterious Two, John Forsythe played a character that was inspired by Marshall Applewhite.

I don't know if you were living in Oregon at the time, but there was an incident in Sept. 1975 where Applewhite and Nettles gave a meeting at an inn in Waldport.

20 meeting attendants left their families and jobs to join the group and "went missing".

https://offbeatoregon.com/1606a.heavens-gate-ufo-cult-394.html

I don't know if you were living in Oregon at the time, but there was an incident in Sept. 1975 where Applewhite and Nettles gave a meeting at an inn in Waldport.

20 meeting attendants left their families and jobs to join the group and "went missing".

https://offbeatoregon.com/1606a.heavens-gate-ufo-cult-394.html

Didn't start living in Oregon until the late 90s. That's interesting, I don't think I heard about that, been to Waldport a few times.

I was living in Los Angeles at the time that this happened. I had mentioned a few months earlier to my mother, who was living in the Midwest, that I had developed an interest in flying saucer lore.

The night this happened, we were "vacationing" on Catalina Island, and my mother convinced herself that I might have fallen prey to this madness, 3 days later I just called her to tell her how beautiful Catalina was, and spent the next 45 minutes diffusing her dread.

Curiously, I had a boss at the time whose name was Jim Jones.He spent a lot of time for a few weeks fielding foolish questions that had no relevance to him personally.
So, it was a "fun time" for all of us.

Another interesting fact is that "Star Trek" actress Nichelle Nichols' brother, Thomas Nichols, was a member and among the deceased.

She gave an interview with Larry King Live at the time saying that she had no contact with her brother for some years and, "He made his choices, and we respect those choices."

Didn't start living in Oregon until the late 90s. That's interesting, I don't think I heard about that, been to Waldport a few times.

Many of these cults and new age groups seem to have started out of the West Coast during the 1960's through the 1970's.

Oregon was also the location of Rajneeshpuram, the community following Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh, in Wasco County from 1981-88. Rajneesh was deported from the U.S. after terrorist attacks done in his name and died in India in 1990.

I'm not sure if it's a documentary or a docu-series, but there is something currently on Netflix about him and his group.

Believe it or not, there was some fairly recent pseudo-documentary claiming that the Rajneeshis were set up by the feds to weed out real cults like Jim Jones' "People's Temple" and others.

I kind of wish that were true, but I can't.

Interesting thing about Rajneesh, is that he challenged traditional Hindu philosophy on a lot of issues.