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SPEAKER_05: Hey, it's Jenny. We're currently gearing up for a brand new season of Womanica. Until then, we're bringing you our favorite episodes featuring villains, troublemakers, magic, and mystery in honor of October. Tune in next month for a month of Peace Builders. Now, onto the episode.
SPEAKER_04: Before we get started, just a warning that this episode contains some mentions of suicide. Hello, from Wonder Media Network, I'm Aria Goodman, graphic designer at WMN. And I'm so excited to be introducing this best of episode of Womanica. This episode was originally part of our August 2019 theme, Villanesses. In the late 1990s, a horrific event shocked America, the Heaven's Gate mass suicide. The details of this event, both odd and gruesome, earned it a permanent spot in pop culture. But Heaven's Gate wasn't always a suicidal cult. And today, we're talking about the woman responsible for its evolution. The story is something I had heard of generally, but I never knew how much of it was attributed to this one powerful and influential woman. Now, here's host Jenny Kaplan to talk about Bonnie Nettles.
SPEAKER_00: ["The Heaven's Gate Mass Suicide"]
SPEAKER_05: In the late 1990s, a horrific event left America shocked and confused, the Heaven's Gate mass suicide. Its iconic imagery and unusual nature led it to become both a chilling horror story and the butt of dark jokes on programs like Saturday Night Live. But it took decades for Heaven's Gate to become a suicidal cult. Today, we're talking about the woman who laid the groundwork for that evolution, Bonnie Lou Nettles. Bonnie Nettles was born on August 29, 1927, in Houston, Texas. She was raised Baptist. In 1948, at the age of 21, she graduated from the Hermann Hospital of Professional Nursing and started working as a registered nurse. The following year, she married a businessman, and the two had four children. For 23 years, Bonnie's marriage seemed relatively stable. That is, until her interest in the occult started to grow. She believed she was regularly receiving instructions from a 19th-century monk named Brother Francis. She conducted weekly seances at her house, joined the Houston Lodge of the Theosophical Society, and went to see multiple fortune tellers who supposedly foretold her meeting with a tall, bare-skinned man. Then, in 1972, while working as a nurse, Bonnie met Marshall Applewhite. Bonnie's marriage was nearing divorce, and Marshall had already been divorced and lost his teaching job after having an affair with a student. Together, Bonnie and Marshall created the Christian Art Center, where they offered classes in religion, art, and music. Bonnie introduced Marshall to her many Theosophical and occult beliefs. The Christian Art Center became what they called the No Place, a metaphysical center for teaching Bonnie's religious ideas. In 1973, Bonnie and Marshall left Houston and traveled west, developing their beliefs along the way. They formed the basis of their cult from a mixture of Bible readings and contemporary science fiction. They believed that Marshall, who went by either doe or bow, was a reincarnation of Jesus who had ascended to what they called the evolutionary level above human. Bonnie, who went by T or Peep, was supposedly the Heavenly Father in human form. They thought their claims would be publicly confirmed during what they called the demonstration, where they would be killed, restored to life, and physically transported into a spaceship. Calling themselves the Two, or the UFO Two, they visited church after church in an attempt to spread their message. Unsurprisingly, very few people initially believed them. However, they managed to gather some followers in Los Angeles and set out on a tour of the country. Bonnie and Marshall promised that anyone who followed them would find deliverance from Earth in a spaceship. In 1976, Bonnie announced that the tour was over. The door to heaven was closed. The cult became more insular as Bonnie and Marshall focused on teaching their new followers. One of the cult members received a large inheritance in 1977, allowing them to rent communal houses and further cut off members from their families. In the early 1980s, Bonnie was stricken with cancer. She had one eye removed in an attempt to stop the disease from spreading, but it didn't work, and the cancer spread to her liver. In 1985, Bonnie passed away in Dallas, Texas. Bonnie's death shook Marshall's belief system. The doctrine initially stated that members would be physically transported into a spaceship with their bodies sometime before the Earth was, quote, recycled in 2027. But following Bonnie's death, Marshall changed his teachings to suggest that members would need to shed their human bodies in order to ascend to the next level. The group continued operating for another decade. Then, in 1997, Marshall and 38 followers taped farewell messages.
SPEAKER_00: I've been looking for this for so long. There's just no way of describing how great it's been. How much we're looking forward to what's ahead for us now.
SPEAKER_05: The next level's very generous and fair. They donned identical black shirts, sweatpants, and Nike sneakers, and in three waves, they ate applesauce or pudding mixed with barbiturates and chased it with vodka. They placed plastic bags on their heads to induce asphyxiation, and then remaining members laid the dead in beds with purple shrouds over their faces and torsos. 21 women and 18 men between the ages of 26 and 72 died. The Heaven's Gate suicide remains the largest mass suicide to occur on American soil. Though the Heaven's Gate cult only turned truly suicidal after Bonnie Nettles died, she and Marshall Applewhite together formed the toxic cult doctrine that allowed the mass suicide to occur. All month, we're bringing you the best of villainy, magic, and mystery. Tune in tomorrow for another of our favorite episodes. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator. Talk to you tomorrow.
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