Applewhite followed his father into the seminary, married and had two children. He became a college music professor and was a soloist with the Houston Grand Opera. But as The Post has reported, behind this life lie a secret: Applewhite had been engaging in homosexual relationships.

Seeking to be "cured" of his homosexuality, Applewhite checked into a Houston psychiatric hospital where he met nurse Bonnie Lu Trousdale Nettles.

After spending time together, they came to believe space aliens had sent them to this planet to fulfill a divine prophecy. Nettles, a married mother of four and an amateur astrologer, left her family to join Applewhite. He was 44 and she was 48.

A Heaven's Gate account of the months that followed describes their developing philosophy, their travels around the country and scrapes with the law.

Sometime in the early 1970s, Applewhile and Nettles stopped using their given names. They began referring to themselves as "The Two," Bo and Peep, Do and Ti, and Tiddly and Wink.

In March of 1975, they sent what they called their "First Statement" to ministers around the world. Using the metaphor of the caterpillar, they claimed that humans are like larvae undergoing a metamorphosis to a higher form. They said Jesus of Nazareth was the first to realize and demonstrate this by rising from the dead.

According to the couple's account, the statement resulted in their first public speaking engagement at Canada College in the San Francisco Bay Area, then soon after in Waldport, Oregon, where The Post reported that they lured some 20 followers.

Posters like this one outlined their message. During a whirlwind year-long tour to cities across the U.S., they quickly attracted national attention.

Some engagements drew as many as 700 people, enough to make small towns take notice. The New York Times profiled the group in 1976, The Post reported their run-ins with the law and Walter Cronkite mentioned them on a news broadcast, saying:

"A score of persons from a small Oregon town have disappeared ... It's a mystery whether they've been taken on a so-called trip to eternity ... or simply been taken."

By 1976, the group had grown to a core of 100. But at an April meeting in a Manhattan, Kansas, college auditorium, Nettles announced that no new students would be admitted to the class, and the group's numbers began to dwindle. Those who persevered were given new names, all of which ended with the letters "ody."

The Post interviewed several cult members who had parted ways with the group after a "traumatic experience."

The remaining group members claimed to move from house to house every six months to a year, living once on a trust fund belonging to one student, but usually taking outside jobs. Later in 1976, the group dropped out of sight.

Go to the next section: 1976-92: In Seclusion

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