Marshall Applewhite - Final Exit

Final Exit

In October 1996, the group rented a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe, California. That year, they recorded two video messages in which they offered their viewers a "last chance to evacuate Earth". Around the same time, they learned of the approach of the Comet Hale–Bopp. Applewhite believed that Nettles was aboard a spaceship trailing the comet, and that she planned to rendezvous with them. He told his followers that the vessel would transport them to an empyrean destination, and that there was a government conspiracy to suppress word of the craft. In addition, he stated that his deceased followers would be taken by the vessel as well, a belief that resembled the Christian pretribulation rapture doctrine. It is not known how he learned of the comet or why he believed that it was accompanied by extraterrestrials.

In late March 1997, the group isolated themselves and recorded farewell statements. Many members praised Applewhite in their final messages; Davis describes their remarks as "regurgitations of Do's gospel". Applewhite recorded a video shortly before his death, in which he termed the suicides the "Final exit" of the group and remarked, "We do in all honesty hate this world". Lewis speculates that Applewhite settled on suicide because he had said that the group would ascend during his lifetime and thus appointing a successor was unfeasible.

Religious scholar Catherine Wessinger posits that the suicides began on March 22. Most members took barbiturates and alcohol and then placed bags over their heads. They wore Nike shoes and black uniforms with patches that read "Heaven's Gate Away Team". A bag that contained a few dollars and a form of identification was placed beside most bodies. The deaths occurred over three days; Applewhite was one of the last four to die. Three assistants helped him commit suicide, then killed themselves. An anonymous tip led the sheriff's department to search the mansion; they found 39 bodies there on March 26. It is the largest group suicide that has occurred inside the U.S. Applewhite's body was found seated on the bed of the mansion's master bedroom. Medical examiners determined that his fears of cancer had been unfounded, but that he suffered from coronary atherosclerosis.

The deaths provoked a media circus, and Applewhite's face was featured on the covers of Time and Newsweek on April 7. His final message was widely broadcast; Hugh Urban of Ohio State University describes his appearance in the video as "wild-eyed rather alarming". Applewhite was later satirized in an episode of the American animated sitcom Family Guy, which depicted him luring teenagers into a cult and poisoning them.