A former Texas music teacher and choir leader, Marshall Applewhite was the founder of the Heaven’s Gate, a religious group which organized the largest American mass suicide since Jonestown. Applewhite lured and brainwashed willing followers with promises that extraterrestrials would grant them new bodies for spiritual enlightenment. In 1985, Applewhite and his followers rented a mansion in San Diego and planned a mass suicide they deemed as the “Final Exit”. They proceeded to end their lives by voluntarily suffocating themselves with plastic bags and overdosing on drugs.
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