It is fascinating that the Heaven's Gate website is up after nearly 30 years

The kool aid dudes?

Mass suicide

In October 1996,[37] the group rented a large house which they called "The Monastery", a 9,200 square feet (850 square meters) mansion located near 18341 Colina Norte (later changed to 18239 Paseo Victoria) in Rancho Santa Fe, California. They paid $7,000 per month, in cash.[38] The same month, the group purchased alien abduction insurance that would cover up to fifty members and would pay out $1 million per person (the policy covered abduction, impregnation, or death by aliens).[39] Prior to this, in June 1995 they had purchased land near Manzano, New Mexico and began creating a compound out of rubber tires and concrete, but had left abruptly in April 1996.[40]
On March 1920, 1997, Marshall Applewhite taped himself in Do's Final Exit , speaking of mass suicide and "the only way to evacuate this Earth". After asserting that Comet HaleBopp was the sign that the group had been looking for, as well as speculation that an unidentified flying object (UFO) may have been trailing the comet, Applewhite and his 38 followers prepared for ritual suicide so their souls could reach the Next Level before the closure of "Heaven's Gate". Members believed that after their deaths a UFO would take their souls to another "level of existence above human", which Applewhite described as being both physical and spiritual. Their preparations included each member videotaping a farewell message.[41]
To kill themselves, members took phenobarbital mixed with apple sauce or pudding and washed it down with vodka. After ingesting the applesauce/pudding mix, they secured plastic bags around their heads to induce asphyxiation. All 39 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" (one of many instances of the group's use of the nomenclature of the fictional universe of Star Trek ).[ citation needed ] Each member carried a five-dollar bill and three quarters in their pockets.[42] According to former members, this was standard for members leaving the home for jobs and "a humorous way to tell us they all had left the planet permanently"; the five-dollar bill was for covering the cost of vagrancy laws and the quarters were for calling home from pay phones,[43] although another former member known as "Sawyer" stated that it was a reference to a Mark Twain story which said $5.75 was "the cost to ride the tail of a comet to heaven."[44] No such passage from the writings of Twain is known to exist.[45] After each one died, a living member would arrange the body by removing the plastic bag from the person's head, followed by posing the body so that it lay neatly in its own bed, with faces and torsos covered by a square purple cloth for privacy. In an interview with Harry Robinson, the two surviving members said that the identical clothing was a uniform representing unity for the mass suicide, while the Nike Decades were chosen because the group "got a good deal on the shoes".[46] Applewhite was also a fan of Nikes "and therefore everyone was expected to wear and like Nikes" within the group. Heaven's Gate also had a saying 'Just Do it,' echoing Nike's slogan. They pronounced Do as Doe, to reflect Applewhite's nickname.[47]
The 39 adherents, 21 women and 18 men between the ages of 26 and 72, are believed to have died in three groups over three successive days, with remaining participants cleaning up after each prior group's deaths.[48] The suicides occurred in groups of fifteen, fifteen, and nine, between approximately March 22 and March 26.[48][49][50][51][52] Among the dead was Thomas Nichols, brother of the actress Nichelle Nichols, who was best known for her role as Uhura in the original television series of Star Trek .[53] Leader Applewhite was the third to last member to die; two people remained after him and were the only ones found with bags over their heads and not having purple cloths covering their top halves. Before the last of the suicides, similar sets of packages were sent to numerous Heaven's Gate affiliated (or formerly affiliated) individuals,[48] and at least one media outlet, the BBC department responsible for Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends , for which Heaven's Gate had earlier declined participation.
Among those in the list of recipients was Rio DiAngelo. The package DiAngelo received on the evening of March 25,[41] as other packages sent had,[48] contained two VHS videotapes, one with Do's Final Exit , and the other with the "farewell messages" of group followers.[41] It also contained a letter, stating that among other things, "we have exited our vehicles, just as we entered them."[54] DiAngelo informed his boss of the contents of the packages and then received a ride from him from Los Angeles to the Heaven's Gate home in Rancho Santa Fe so he could verify the letter. DiAngelo found a back door intentionally left unlocked to allow access,[54] and used a video camera to record what he found. After leaving the house, DiAngelo's boss, who had waited outside, encouraged him to make calls alerting the authorities.[41]
The San Diego County Sheriff's Department received an anonymous tip through the 911 system at 3:15 p.m. on March 26,[37] suggesting they "check on the welfare of the residents".[55] Days after the suicides, the caller was revealed to be DiAngelo:[41][54]

Caller: Yes, I need to report an anonymous tip, who do I talk to?
Sherriff's Department: Okay, this is regarding what?
Caller: This is regarding a mass suicide, and I can give you the address ...
undefined posted...

The lone deputy who first responded to the call entered the home through a side door,[55] saw ten bodies, and was nearly overcome by a "pungent odor".[37] (The bodies were already decomposing in the hot Southern California spring.)[37] After a cursory search by two more deputies found no one alive, they retreated until a search warrant could be procured.[55] All 39 bodies were ultimately cremated.