Media1997

Heaven's Gate deaths tied to Hale-Bopp UFO belief

When: 26 Mar 1997
Where: Rancho Santa Fe, CA
Sources: 2 public sources

A 1993 flyer for a Heaven's Gate recruitment meeting in Berkeley, California Heaven's Gate, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

San Diego County authorities found 39 members of the Heaven's Gate group dead in a Rancho Santa Fe mansion after a planned mass suicide. Officials and people who knew the group said members believed a UFO trailing Comet Hale-Bopp would take them away.

Sources

PressMass suicide involved sedatives, vodka and careful planning (opens in a new tab)CNN / 1997-03-27
PressStreet Where Cultists Died to Be Renamed (opens in a new tab)Los Angeles Times / 1997-04-26

How sources are chosen and tiered

How the story came out

This reports on Hale-Bopp 'companion' claim spreads from Art Bell's radio show (Nov 1996).

See it on the timeline: happened vs became public

Where it fits

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