Only a few years later he returned to Heaven’s Gate, explaining “I want to join my heavenly father and my classmates.” He even persuaded his half sister Danato join the cult, although Dana did not join the group in 1997.In Saint Gabriel City, there are the Four Families, and there are those who are owned by them. Afterwards he did live outside the cult briefly, working as a computer programmer in Denver and living with his half sister Dana before starting a complicated relationship with two different women. After dropping out, he married then divorced once he found Heaven’s Gate.įor 14 years he didn’t see his family at all, only resurfacing to say goodbye to his mother before she passed. Gary was a voracious reader, a straight A high school student, but dropped out of college because he didn’t like the impersonality of institutionalized higher education. Gary’s questioning worsened after their parents divorced and the two moved in with their mother.

He claimed “a force from beyond the earth has made me keep this car.” The second was a national headline for the original members completely disappearing from the public view as part of their initiation into the group.Īlong with other members, Gary always wondered about the deep questions on life, even driving his mother to the point of insanity. It was during this time that the group made headlines, once for Applewhite failing to return a rental car while traveling across country promoting his religion. The duo maintained a nonsexual relationship touring the US recruiting members. It was while walking on the beach in Galveston, TX that the two had the epiphany to form Heaven’s Gate. In 1976, Applewhite met a nurse named Bonnie Nettles, whom he claimed was 'his soul mate'. Like Jim Jones, Applewhite had a significant presence in the 1970s Houston arts scene and less ostensibly, its gay community. This led him to move to Houston and become a part of the music scene there. He continued as a music professor for a different college before resigning from the profession entirely due to rejection by a young woman he had been courting. He faced a divorce during the 60s due to the discovery of an affair with a male student that also caused him to lose his job as a professor.

Instead, he was the son of a Presbyterian preacher, was twice a music professor, and faced great adversity by the schools and the public for his open homosexuality. Applewhite, son of a Presbyterian preacher, was a unique cult leader in that he did not share the stereotypical traits of other similar leaders, like Jim Jones.

Storm the Gates by Elizabeth Dear