On the afternoon of March 26, 1997, the San Diego County Sherrif’s Department received an anonymous call through 911 reporting a mass suicide at an address in Rancho Santa Fe, California. A single sheriff’s deputy was dispatched to the address and knocked on the front door, but got no response. Finding a side door to the home unlocked, the deputy entered the house and was horrified to discover nearly forty bodies of adults, all of whom appeared to have taken their own lives in what appeared to be some kind of ritual.

Not since the terrible mass deaths at Jonestown decades earlier had Americans seen such a bizarre and ultimately tragic occurrence and few were able to understand how such a thing could have happened in the modern age. What could have caused so many people to willingly give up their lives, and who was he enigmatic man who’d convinced them to do it?

References

Ayers, B. Drummon. 1997. "Families learning of 39 cultists who died willingly." New York Times, March 29.

CNN. 1997. Applewhite sought cure for his homosexual urges. March 29. Accessed January 6, 2026. https://www.cnn.com/US/9703/29/applewhite/.

Lamotte, Greg. 1997. Heaven's Gate 911 call eerily calm. April 18. Accessed January 5, 2026. https://www.cnn.com/US/9704/18/cult.911/index.html.

Locke, Michelle. 1997. "Comet cult's stairway led to downfall." Record Searchlight (Redding, CA), March 31: 1.

Miller, Craig. 1997. "Web page business supported sect's life." North Country Times (Oceanside, CA), March 28: 1.

Perry, Tony. 1997. "Cult left no survivors, police say." Los Angeles Times, April 1: 3.

Perry, Tony, Michael Granberry, and Anne-Marie O'Connor. 1997. "39 dead in apparent suicide." Los Angeles Times, March 27: 1.

Purdum, Todd. 1997. "Videotapes left by 39 who died described cult's suicide goal." New York Times, March 28.

Steinberg, Jacques. 1997. "From religious childhood to reins of a U.F.O. cult." New York Times, March 29.

Weinraub, Claire, Christina Ng, Acacia Nunes, and Haley Yamada. 2022. Surviving member of Heaven's Gate cult reflects on mass suicide 25 years ago: 'It meant everything'. March 14. Accessed January 7, 2026. https://abc7.com/post/cult-next-door-diane-sawyer-special-heavens-gate-2020/11642749/.

Wilkens, John. 2017. "Cilt sought to 'exit' via spaceship." Los Angeles Times, March 20: B2.

Zeller, Benjamin. 2014. Heaven's Gate: America's UFO Religion. New York, NY: New York University Press.

—. 2014. "Anatomy of a mass suicide: The dark, twsited story behind a UFO death cult." Salon, November 15.

Cowritten by Alaina Urquhart, Ash Kelley & Dave White (Since 10/2022)

Produced & Edited by Mikie Sirois (Since 2023)

Research by Dave White (Since 10/2022), Alaina Urquhart & Ash Kelley

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Listener Tale Video Edited by Aidan McElman (Since 6/2025)

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