The 4 Most Terrifying Cult Leaders in History

3. Marshall Applewhite

Applewhite is the founder of Heaven’s Gate, a cult that believed a spaceship that was following the Hale-Bopp comet would pick them up, and as a result, they would become part of a higher plane of this existence.

The date this comet was the closest to the Earth was March 22, 1997. As you would expect, since we are talking about cult leaders, things turned dark very quickly. On March 26, 1997, Applewhite and other 38 members of Haven’s Gate were found dead in a mansion in Rancho Santa Fe.

All 39 of them were dressed in brand-new identical black shirts and sweat pants and were also wearing new black-and-white Nike Decades. In the pockets of each individual were found a five-dollar bill and three-quarters.

Police ruled out that this was a mass suicide, and all of the members drank a mix of drugs and applesauce. It all happened after the group gathered at a restaurant and had the last meal together. All ordered the same dish.

Applewhite was born in Texas in 1931, and before becoming the founder of this cult, he used to be a music teacher. Heaven’s Gate was a secluded group of people who believed in various UFO concepts and combined them with ideas from the Bible.

Recruits believed that the next step in their life would be to be biologically and chemically transformed into extraterrestrial beings, and then they would be transported into a spaceship.