The Simultaneous Suicide Of 38 People From The Gate Of Heaven Sect Who Worshiped Aliens

  The son of a Presbyterian minister and a former soldier, Marshall Applewhite began his foray into Biblical prophecy in the early 1970s. After being fired from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, over an alleged relationship with one of his male students, he met Bonnie Nettles, a 44-year-old married nurse with an interest in theosophy and Biblical prophecy, in March 1972. The circumstances of their meeting are unclear. According to Applewhite's writings, the two met in a hospital where she worked while he was visiting a sick friend there. It has been rumored that it was a psychiatric hospital, but another account had Nettles substituting for a nurse working with premature babies in the nursery. Applewhite later recalled that he felt that he had known Nettles for a long time and concluded that they had met in a past life. She told him their meeting had been foretold to her by extraterrestrials, persuading him that he had a divine assignment