From: Masinaigan@aol.com
Date: Sun, 30 Mar 1997 14:10:41 -0500 (EST)
To: updates@globalserve.net
Subject: Fwd: UFO ROUNDUP, Volume 2, Number 13
Volume 2, Number 13
March 30, 1997
Editor: Joseph Trainor

39 UFO SECT MEMBERS FOUND DEAD IN SAN DIEGO

Thirty-nine members of a UFO sect called Heaven's Gate were found dead Wednesday at their rented mansion, Rancho Santa Fe, in San Diego County, California.

The group had rented the home last October and were led by Marshall Herff Applewhite, 66, aka Father John, aka Do (pronounced Doe), formerly "Bo" of "Bo and Peep," aka "the Two," itinerant UFO apostles who first became prominent in the 1970s. (See Newsweek magazine for October 20, 1975.)

Applewhite's consort, Bonnie Lu Truesdale Nettles, aka "Peep," died of liver cancer in 1985.

The victims ranged in age from 26 to 72. All but four have been identified. Among the victims were Thomas Nichols, brother of actress Nichelle Nichols, who starred in TV's original Star Trek, and David Van Sinderen, son of a former chairman of the Southern New England Telephone Co. (SNET).

The official cause of death has not yet been determined, but Det. Lt. Jerry Lipscomb of the San Diego County Sheriff's Dept. said there was no suspicion of anything but suicide.

"Overdose and suffocation, self-inflicted," Lipscomb said, "Nothing in this investigation that would suggest anything but." (See the New York Post for March 29, 1997, page 3)

Dr. Brian Blackbourne, San Diego County medical examiner said toxicological tests on five of the victims showed that three had lethal levels of phenobarbitol. "Since the lethal level is 6 grams, it would take 50 tablets of 135 milligrams each to commit suicide." (New York Post, March 29, 1997, page 2)

Yet puzzling discrepancies remain in the official version concerning the original discovery of the crime scene.

On Tuesday, March 25, Richard Ford, aka Rio DiAngelo, a former member of the group, received a videotape in which the 39 members, including 18 women and 21 men, said farewell, announcing their intent "to shed their physical containers" and be lifted up to a UFO reported to be following the comet Hale-Bopp. Also receiving a tape was Rev. Rick Strawcutter, pastor of a nondenominational Christian church in Adrian, Michigan.

(Editor's Note: The Hale-Bopp "companion," aka "the Saturn-like object" or SLO and the "Hale Mary," was first spotted in November 1996 by amateur astronomer Chuck Shramek. Professional astronomers dismissed Shramek's claim, contending that the object was an eighth-magnitude star, SAO 141894, that had been photographed out of focus. However, other observers sighted and photographed "an anomalous object" an estimated 2,000 kilometers behind the comet until January 10. Also, the SOHO satellite, which photographed the solar tsunami that day, caught an image of an oval-shaped object above the sun. A week later, a NASA press release described the SOHO image as "a proto-comet." There have been no further sightings of the Hale Mary or any other anomalous object since January 10.)

The following morning, Wednesday, March 26, Ford told his employer, Nick Matzorkis, 34, of Beverly Hills about the tape and expressed fears that Applewhite's group may have comitted suicide. The two men then drove to San Diego, arriving at about 11 a.m.

"DiAngelo (Ford), who left the cult five weeks earlier, entered the palatial Spanish-type home where his former computer-whiz comrades lived and worked. Matzorkis told him to be out in ten minutes."

"' I didn't want to sit there so I took a five-minute drive and a five-minute drive back and he still wasn't in front of the house,' the businessman recalled."

"I'm wondering, 'What's happening? Is he dead in there, too? Then I finally saw him walk out. He was white as a sheet.'"

"'You trying to tell me there are dead bodies in there?' Matzorkis asked."

"'Yes.'"

"'Where are they?'"

"'They're laying in the beds and cots.'" (See the New York Post for March 28, 1997, page 6)

Incredibly, after viewing the dead, Ford did not telephone the San Diego County Sheriff's Dept. for over an hour. "Only after he leaves the mansion of mass suicide does he call the local cops at 1:34 p.m."

"DiAngelo (Ford) returns with Matzorkis to L.A. closely listening to news radio and hears nothing of what he tipped the cops to."

"He then becomes such a responsible citizen that he calls the Beverly Hills Police Department at 3 p.m. and they referred him to the San Diego Sheriff's Office, which said it knew nothing." (Steve Dunleavy's colum, New York Post, March 30, 1997, page 6)

Arriving at the crime scene at 3:30 p.m. were Deputy Sheriff Robert Brunk and Deputy Sheriff Laura Gacek. From the moment, the officers pulled up to the manion, Deputy Brunk "knew something was wrong. The drapes were pulled, the windows were closed and the outdoor lights were burning in the sunshine." (New York Times, March 30, 1997, page 1)

During the CNN news conference at 7 p.m. Pacific time, Deputy Brunk said he found the front door locked, circled the house, found the windows all closed, and found a side door unlocked. He also said, "I was the first to enter the building."

Deputy Brunk then "sensed the unmistakable stench of death. Dreading his instincts and hoping against hope, he radioed his partner, Laura Gacek, and waited." (New York Times, March 30, 1997, page 1)

When Deputy Gacek confirmed the odor, the officers entered the darkened room, spotted "the bodies, all white and ages 18-24" who "bore no signs of trauma." (See USA Today, March 27, 1997, page 1) At the news conference, Deputy Brunk said he and Gacek then left the premises and radioed for backup.

According to San Diego Sheriff's Commander Alan Fulmer, "deputies wearing surgical masks 'encountered a noxious, pungent odor,' and two were sent to the hospital for blood tests. A hazardous materials (Hazmat) crew was on the scene." (USA Today, March 27, 1997)

At the news conference, Deputy Brunk said he and Gacek were given a blood test. The results of the blood test were not released. Nor were the results of any chemical tests performed by the Hazmat crew at the crime scene.

A videotape aired on KCOP-TV shows a deputy in a yellow jacket wearing a respirator, not a surgical mask. (See USA Today for March 28-30, 1997, page 1)

An AP photo of the house shows an open window on the right-hand side (facing the front door), just around the corner about 40 feet (12 meters) from the door. (See the Boston Herald for March 28, 1997, page 3) The window's white drape is clearly visible.

"The foul smell deputies encountered when they entered the house was not nerve gas but the odor of decomposing bodies, officials said."

"'There were no gas fumes in the house. The only smell coming out of that house was that of dead bodies,' said Cmdr. Alan Fulmer." (See the New York Daily News for March 28, 1997, page 3)

APPLEWHITE GROUP LINKED TO BLAVATSKY, TWAIN

Heaven's Gate, the UFO group headed by Marshall Herff Applewhite, had links to 19th Century occultists, including Madame Blavatsky and novelist Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain.

The house at 18241 Colina Norte is just down the street from the San Dieguito Reservoir, a favorite spot of Mrs. Katherine A. Tingley, a disciple of Madame Helena P. Blavatsky. Mrs. Tingley moved to San Diego in 1896 and founded an ashram of the Theosophical Society at Point Loma. The center opened February 25, 1897, with a ceremony attended by several prominent people in San Diego, including the mayor. (See the San Diego Union for February 26, 1897)

Like Applewhite, Mrs. Tingley believed that a major cataclysm would sink most of California and end Western civilization. She predicted that San Diego would survive to become the capital of an island nation called "Nueva California."

She also had an interesting vision of alabacore tuna swimming through the drowned halls of the Assembly building in Sacramento.

Another one of Madame Blavatsky's disciples had a vision in India in 1907 of San Diego in the year 2100 as "a gleaming white city and capital of the New Age world."

Interestingly enough, in 1907, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, aka Mark Twain, wrote a short story entitled "Extract from Captain Stormfield's Trip to Heaven," in which the hero leaves Earth for "an extended excursion among the heavenly bodies" on the tail of a comet.

In the story, the hero has his passport on him, plus five dollars and three 25-cent pieces for the fare.

Many of the Heaven's Gate victims had their passports on their persons and $5.75 in their hands. (See New York Post, March 29, 1997, page 6)

In a strange twist, the comet Hale-Bopp has the same initials as Helena Blavatsky.

Also, the acronym for Evolutionary Level Above Human (ELAH) spells HALE backwards. (See the Boston Herald for March 29, 1997, page 3)

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