Cult’s Members Enjoyed Many Earthly Pleasures

Even as they prepared to commit suicide because life in this world was no longer bearable, members of the Heaven’s Gate cult enjoyed some earthly pleasures: Gambling in Las Vegas, visiting Sea World, Mexico and San Diego’s Wild Animal Park, and taking a bus trip through scenic parts of Northern California and southern Oregon.

In Las Vegas, the cultists visited the Stratosphere Hotel amusement park in late February and won more than $20 at the slot machines. Dedicated penny-pinchers, cult members ate at hotel buffets rather than restaurants.

The group may have been drawn to the gambling mecca not by the lure of easy money or roller-coaster thrills but by a public meeting to discuss Area 51, that part of the Nevada desert thought by ufologists to be where the Air Force has kept an alien spacecraft under wraps for decades.

Beyond the slots, the group had another stroke of good fortune. One cultist found $20 and dutifully turned it over to the communal treasury.

Finding lost money was an obsession. The final entry in Heaven’s Gate meticulously kept financial ledger was from March 21, five days before the corpses were found. The entry indicated that two cultists had found 6 cents.

The ledger, now in the hands of San Diego County officials, provides a vivid glimpse into the cult’s final days and weeks before they killed themselves in hopes that a spaceship would take them to the “next level.”

One entry indicates that some of the cultists belonged to a group dental plan. Several paid to have their teeth cleaned in the weeks before they killed themselves by drinking vodka and eating phenobarbital-laced pudding and applesauce.

Although celibate and teetotalers, the cultists satisfied their cravings for candy, maple syrup, cookies, soda pop and pizza. When investigators found the 39 corpses at the mansion on Colina Norte, they also found seven quarts of Starbuck’s Java Chip ice cream in the freezer.

The ledger and other documents belonging to the cult indicate that even after the group made the fateful decision to commit mass suicide, cult members still attended to small household chores: paying rent, paying a $2.50 library fine, and stocking groceries.

Even the farewell tapes made March 19 did not seem to disrupt the group’s mania for cleanliness, orderliness and financial tidiness. After making the tapes, the group enjoyed a trip to a pizza parlor--tab: $417.27--and attended the movie “Secrets & Lies,” where they drank $75 worth of soda.

The final days of Heaven’s Gate appear to have been a combination of fun outings and mundane chores. The entire cult membership went to Las Vegas. In March they visited the Wild Animal Park, spending $664.95 for admission, $81.94 for ice cream and $80 for food to feed the animals. (The park allows visitors to feed the ducks and animals at the “petting zoo.”)

Later, several went to Mexico, probably to Tijuana. About that time, cultists saw a homeless person and gave him $2.

Four cultists went on a bus trip through Santa Rosa, Sacramento, and Gold Beach, Ore., before returning through Santa Clarita, where they stopped to eat at Burger King. The ride must have been smooth. The bus driver was given a $10 tip.

Judging from the truckloads of belongings seized by county officials, life in Heaven’s Gate was orderly and structured (there was a master list for haircuts) but not severe or without fun.

“These were people who had to make no decisions about their lives,” said Susan Jamme, deputy public guardian/administrator for San Diego County, whose job has taught her how to reconstruct the lives of the newly departed based on what they leave behind. “Everything was very orderly and programmed.”

Like many an American family, Heaven’s Gate apparently made television the centerpiece of its social life--television usage that was highly regimented.

Each cultist was assigned a seat near the 72-inch television, the largest of the six televisions found in the mansion. Only approved shows were allowed on the big set.

Cheryl Elaine Butcher, 43, who joined the group in 1976, was in charge of approving all television watching, possibly with a veto by cult leader Marshall Applewhite.

On the approved list for one week were a PBS documentary about Thomas Jefferson and the movies “Chain Reaction” with Keanu Reeves, “The Frighteners” with Michael J. Fox, and “Eddie” with Whoopi Goldberg.

Rejected for viewing were “GoldenEye” with Pierce Brosnan, “The Island of Dr. Moreau” with Marlon Brando, and “Multiplicity” with Michael Keaton. No reasons for the rejections were included and none apparently was needed for the cult members to obey.

A note attached to the approved viewing list seems to indicate the cult’s disbelief in the official explanations of matters involving outer space. A documentary about the U.S. space program is approved but with the wry comment, “This might prove to be a few laughs. This is the official version of NASA’s Apollo moon mission.”

Former cultists have said the group, by Applewhite’s order, would arise before sun-up to meditate and gaze at stars. But the cult also tried to stay current with news events. The CBS show “60 Minutes” was on the approved list, and the cult subscribed to the San Diego Union-Tribune and the Galactic Observer newsletter.

The cultists were not readers. They were television and video watchers and movie lovers. Only a few dozen books were found in the mansion--mostly Christian Bibles, books about home remedies and cures, tracts about UFOs, and three copies of Applewhite’s rambling manifesto, “How & When Heaven’s Gate (The Door to the Physical Kingdom Above Human) May Be Entered.”

Several boxes of videos were found, including the “farewell” videos made a week before the bodies were found.

Jamme was struck both by the orderliness of the house and by the lack of personal items: no pictures of the families or lives that the cultists had left behind and almost no pictures of the cultists, save the eerie, androgynous images on the videos. “The dishes were washed, the glasses were lined up, the silverware was polished, the trash was taken out,” Jamme said. “They were clean. They were beyond clean.”

Although money was apparently tight, the cult was not bankrupt. The ledger indicates a balance of $12,183.21 in an unnamed account, and investigators found $5,400 at the mansion.

Under county policy, the cult’s belongings will be sold at auction by the public guardian’s office, probably next month, to pay for the costs of handling the case.

Among those things to be sold will be humidifiers, rugs, lawn furniture, the cots and bunk beds where the bodies were found, a vacuum cleaner, a massage table, Flintstones lunch boxes, a mini-trampoline and a T-shirt with the picture of an alien and the logo “FARFROMHOME.”

More prized items could be two “Star Wars” hats with the logo “May the Force Be With You.”