Heavens Gate

  • Start

    Employed by St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Houston, Texas
  • Bonnie Lu

    Applewhite meets Bonnie Lu Nettles, a nurse and astrologer involved in Theosophy and reincarnation.
  • Bookstore

    Nettles leaves her husband and four children to be with Applewhite. They open a New Age bookstore in Houston, Texas.
  • Spiritual Mission

    Applewhite and Nettles close their bookstore and set out to find their spiritual mission.
  • Travel

    Nettles and Applewhite travel around the country, camping in parks and skipping out on motel-room bills. During this time they become convinced they are the "Two Witnesses" mentioned in book of Revelation.
  • Charges

    Nettles and Applewhite are arrested in Harlingen, Texas, on charges auto theft and credit card fraud. The charges are dropped for Nettles but Applewhite has to spend six months in jail.
  • Recruitment

    Applewhite and Nettles go to Ojai. where they get their first converts and take the names Bo and Peep.
  • Growth

    80 people meet at a Hollywood Hills home to hear Applewhite and Nettles. Twenty-four people from that meeting agree to meet in Gold Beach, Ore., with Applewhite and Nettles two weeks later.
  • Canada College

    Applewhite and Nettles make a public appearance at Canada College in Redwood City.
  • Waldport Ore

    The group meets in Waldport, Ore., expecting a spaceship to land. No spaceship shows up, but more than 30 people agree to join the group. The cult gets its first negative publicity over the fiasco.
  • Nettle

    Nettles dies of liver cancer.
  • Mansion

    the cult moves into a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe.
  • Dead

    39 cult members killed themselves. They did this in a mansion.