The Doomsday Cult That Made These Nike’s Sell Out

This is the story of the Heaven’s Gate cult, which operated on America’s West Coast for around 22 years until the members took part in the largest mass suicide in American history. The infamous alien-obsessed spiritual group would somehow lead 39 members to commit mass suicide, with one aspect of the event leading to an interesting fashion trend.

People can quite easily be taken advantage of in the name of whatever religion they believe. This is exactly what happened with Heaven’s Gate. Unfortunately, many of its members were met with more than just a loss of time or finances — they lost their lives.

The Early Beginnings of Heaven’s Gate

Marshall Herff Applewhite Jr. was born on May 17, 1931, to a Presbyterian family in Spur, Texas. Actually, his father was a Presbyterian minister, so he grew up heavily around religion. He initially enrolled to study as a Minister but changed his mind and went into Music. He did a brief stint in the US army corps from 1954 to ’56. By 1959 he had obtained his Masters in Music from the University of Colorado. He would then go on to teach music at several different universities. However, in 1970 he was dismissed for ‘health reasons of an emotional nature’.