Heaven's Gate was a cult founded in the 1970s by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles, later known as Ti (Bonnie), and Do (Marshall). Applewhite and Nettles believed that they were the two witness mentioned in the Book of Revelation 11:3. They began preaching that the Earth would soon be 'recycled' or 'wiped clean', and that the only way to survive was to leave planet Earth with them. Followers had to give up all worldly and human needs and possessions in order to achieve 'the next evolutionary level of existence'.
In 1985 Nettles died of liver cancer, and in 1997 Applewhite convinced his thirty-nine followers that there was a UFO on the tail of Comet Hale-Bopp, and that Bonnie and her "crew" were awaiting them to bring them on the next level of existence. Members in their "exit" statements concluded that they did not believe that they were committing suicide, but rather something of a religious sacrifice. All thirty-nine members that were present, including Applewhite, commit suicide by making applesauce laced with lethal consumables, then the members consumed it and washed it down with vodka.