Customer Reviews

Heaven's Gate: Cult Suicide in San Diego

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This paperback was published less than a month after the Heaven's Gate mass suicide in March, 1997. It is a tossed-togather quickie "written" by the staff of the New York Post. In typical Post sensationalistic style, it covers the history of the cult and the mass suicide. As such it records useful information, but I'm amazed that no full length scholarly work has yet appeared on the Heaven' Gate episode.

Interestingly, I was in graduate school in Eugene, OR in 1975 when "Bo" and "Peep", the future Heaven's Gate leaders, came through town. I recall seeing ads for their presentation but, for lack of time, didn't go. Wish I had as I have a strong interest in why people believe in the type of pseudoscientific and paranormal crap Bo and Peep used to later lead dozens to their deaths.

But back to the book. It was clearly a rush job and abounds in errors and inconsistencies. On page 11 Hollywood is described as a place where stars "grinded" out films. GRINDED? The last time I checked, ther past tense of the verb "to grind" was "ground". On page 124 a "local" radio station in the area is described as receiving calls from "around the country". Still, what can one expect from New York Post writers? This is probably the best they could do.

In summary, this book does provide the basic details of the events of the Heaven's Gate cult suicide, and for that it has some value.