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Marshall H. Applewhite known as "Do" and Bonnie Nettles know as "Ti" met and soon became convinced that they were the two “endtime” -
They began preaching a message that they were send my space aliens that attracted hundreds of followers as well as coverage by the New York Times and CBS News. The new members ha to sell all "worldly" possessions and had to leave their loved ones behind, the group vanished from the hotel and from the public eye.
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Their beliefs had molded into a basic outline. They concluded that they had been chosen to fulfill biblical prophecies, and that they had been given higher-level minds than other people. They visited churches or other spiritual groups to speak of their identities, often referring to themselves as "The Two", or "The UFO Two" -
After Do didn't have Bonnie as his support system anymore the class became is support. He became even more obsessed with control. He had a ceremony to where the class was each marrying him. During this time the group stayed secluded
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They lived a quiet communal existence traveling around and practicing disciplines that they believed would prepare them for the eventual movement to a “higher level” of existence. They had few contacts with outsiders and stated secluded from the outer world. It wasn't until Ti's death of cancer that the ways of the group changed. -
They were slowly losing members that they started spreading their message through videos, public meetings, newspaper advertisements and the Internet.
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They moved up to San Diego where they settled down in a half a million dollar mansion house. They supported themselves by creating sites on the Web for Internet users and established their own Web site to offer readers a gate to heaven
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As the approach of the comet it led group members to believe the apocalypse was near. Do taped himself in Do's Final Exit, speaking of mass suicide and "the only way to evacuate this Earth". After asserting that a spacecraft was trailing Comet Hale–Bopp and that this event would represent the "closure to Heaven's Gate"
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This day 39 members died by suicide and "graduated" they believed that the spaceship would arrive to take them to a better place. All were dressed in identical black shirts and sweat pants, brand new black-and-white Nike Decades athletic shoes, and armband patches reading "Heaven's Gate Away Team" Each member had on their person a five-dollar bill and three quarters in their pockets: this was in reference that it costs five dollars and seventy-five cents to ride the tail of a comet to heaven. -
911 got an anonymous tip that informed them of a mass suicide. The person that called was a former member that received a letter in the mail stating what happened and he needed to go to the Mansion and film what happened. He recorded all the members laying in beds with a purple sheet over their head. The media went crazy. -
Three former members of Heaven's Gate ultimately died by suicide themselves in the months after the mass suicide event. Two formers members still run the website.
