Speaker 1: Everybody, it's Emily. You know how sometimes you finish an
Speaker 1: episode and you're left craving more of those spine tingling
Speaker 1: moments that make you question everything. Well, I've discovered something
Speaker 1: that's going to scratch that itch. There's this incredible new
Speaker 1: podcast from Crime House called Conspiracy Theories, Cults and Crimes,
Speaker 1: and honestly, it's everything we true crime lovers have been
Speaker 1: waiting for. Vanessa Richardson takes you on these mind banding
Speaker 1: journeys into the absolute darkest corners of human behavior. We're
Speaker 1: talking mass suicides, political assassinations, secret government experiments, and u
Speaker 1: FO cults that will leave you staring at the ceiling
Speaker 1: at three am. If you're like me and you live
Speaker 1: for those stories that seem too twisted to be real
Speaker 1: but absolutely are, this show is about to become your
Speaker 1: new obsession. Coming up. I've got a preview from their
Speaker 1: debut episode, diving into the Heaven's Gate Cult, and trust me,
Speaker 1: it's Matt. Make sure you follow Conspiracy Theories, Cults and
Speaker 1: Crimes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you
Speaker 1: get your podcasts.
Speaker 2: Sometimes the most shocking stories have the most ordinary beginnings.
Speaker 2: That was certainly the case for Heavensgate and its leader.
Speaker 2: Marshall Applewhite born in nineteen thirty two in the small
Speaker 2: city of spur, Texas. Marshall had a typical All American upbringing,
Speaker 2: and religion was a very important part of his childhood.
Speaker 2: His father was a well known Presbyterian minister in the area,
Speaker 2: and he encouraged Marshall to live a life of virtue,
Speaker 2: one that his family and God would be proud of.
Speaker 2: Marshall was eager to please growing up. He attended church
Speaker 2: regularly and wanted to become a minister just like his father.
Speaker 2: But while Marshall was a staunch Christian, he was also
Speaker 2: interested in looking elsewhere for the answers to life's biggest questions.
Speaker 2: So when it was time for him to go to
Speaker 2: college in the late nineteen forties or early fifties, Marshall
Speaker 2: decided to study philosophy at Austin College in Sherman, Texas,
Speaker 2: and he made a splash on campus right away. Classmates
Speaker 2: remembered Marshall as an extrovert with a magnetic personality. Along
Speaker 2: with joining the Association of Prospective Presbyterian Ministers, Marshall was
Speaker 2: a talented singer who led the school's a cappella group.
Speaker 2: It seemed like whatever Marshall set his mind to, he
Speaker 2: would achieve it, and when it came time to graduate
Speaker 2: in nineteen fifty two, the twenty year old decided to
Speaker 2: follow in his father's footsteps. That year, he enrolled at
Speaker 2: Virginia's Union Theological Seminary, but even though he enjoyed diving
Speaker 2: deeper into Presbyterian theology, he still felt like something was missing,
Speaker 2: so after two years he decided to change course. He
Speaker 2: dropped out and studied music and voice instead. Marshall had
Speaker 2: an undeniable gift. For a while, he even dreamed of
Speaker 2: a career in opera or acting, but life had other plans.
Speaker 2: Ever since high school, Marshall had been dating a woman
Speaker 2: named Anne Pierce. She was a fellow Texan who shared
Speaker 2: Marshall's religious beliefs, and despite being long distance while Marshall
Speaker 2: was at seminary school, they both stayed loyal. In nineteen
Speaker 2: fifty two, around the same time Marshall dropped out and
Speaker 2: studied music, he and Anne got married. Before long, they'd
Speaker 2: settled down in suburban Houston and had two children. At
Speaker 2: this point, Marshall knew he'd never be a big star,
Speaker 2: but he could use his voice to support his family.
Speaker 2: Soon he became the choral director at Houston's Saint Mark's
Speaker 2: Episcopal Church, as well as a music professor at the
Speaker 2: University of Saint Thomas, also in Houston. He was good
Speaker 2: at what he did, but deep down, Marshall was restless
Speaker 2: and unhappy because there was one thing he'd never told anyone.
Speaker 2: He was bisexual. From a young age, Marshall had been
Speaker 2: taught to hide who he was or face the wrath
Speaker 2: of people like his father. For decades. He'd succeeded, but
Speaker 2: it had put a wall between him and those around him.
Speaker 2: By the mid sixties, Marshall felt alienated from his wife
Speaker 2: and kids and resentful of his quiet, suburban life. Eventually,
Speaker 2: he couldn't repress those feelings any longer, and it would
Speaker 2: cost him everything. Sometime in nineteen sixty five, when Marshall
Speaker 2: was thirty three years old, he allegedly began an affair
Speaker 2: with a male student at the University of Saint Thomas.
Speaker 2: The details are murky, but eventually Ann found out. She
Speaker 2: was furious and immediately separated from Marshall. Three years later,
Speaker 2: in nineteen sixty eight, the couple officially divorced and got
Speaker 2: custody of their two children. Not long after that, in
Speaker 2: nineteen seventy, the university learned about Marshall's rumored relationship with
Speaker 2: the student, and he was fired. Feeling lost and alone,
Speaker 2: spent two years drifting around the country searching for his purpose.
Speaker 2: Because of the Presbyterian Church's stance on sexuality, Marshall no
Speaker 2: longer felt welcome there. It was a huge blow to
Speaker 2: his sense of self. For his whole life, Marshall had
Speaker 2: found meaning and community through his congregation, and he still
Speaker 2: yearned for that feeling of belonging, but now he'd have
Speaker 2: to find it outside of conventional religion. Soon, he found
Speaker 2: a new sense of spirituality in the form of more
Speaker 2: eccentric subjects, including astrology, science fiction, ancient mysticism, and UFOs.
Speaker 2: While exploring these ideas, Marshall supported himself by dabbling in
Speaker 2: small ventures. At some point, he even ran a sandwich
Speaker 2: shop in New Mexico, but nothing seemed to stick. So
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy two, forty year old Marshall returned to Houston.
Speaker 2: He was looking for a fresh start, for someone to
Speaker 2: build his life with, because despite his newfound interests, he
Speaker 2: was still very much alone. He had no partner and
Speaker 2: no relationship with his two children, fifteen year old Mark
Speaker 2: and thirteen year old Lane. It seemed like Marshall would
Speaker 2: never feel whole again, and then he met Bonnie lu Nettles.
Speaker 2: On the surface, Bonnie was just as ordinary as Marshall.
Speaker 2: Born in Houston in nineteen twenty seven, she was the
Speaker 2: second of three children in a working class Baptist family.
Speaker 2: She married young, built a life as a nurse, and
Speaker 2: raised four children in the suburbs. But as the years
Speaker 2: went by, she felt increasingly out of place in the
Speaker 2: tidy routines of family life. Like Marshall, Bonnie felt like
Speaker 2: an outsider. Her daughter described her as someone who never
Speaker 2: really fit into society. She was a dreamer who liked
Speaker 2: to stare at the night sky and pretend a UFO
Speaker 2: would take her away. So it wasn't a surprise that
Speaker 2: Bonnie turned to New Age spirituality for answers. She explored astrology, theosophy,
Speaker 2: and fringe ideas about life and the universe. Her nights
Speaker 2: were filled with study groups and seances, which often left
Speaker 2: her straight laced husband bewildered for perspective. She once told
Speaker 2: him that she was getting life advice from a dead
Speaker 2: monk named Brother Francis. By nineteen seventy two, it was
Speaker 2: clear that forty four year old Bonnie and her husband
Speaker 2: weren't a good fit. It was a difficult moment for Bonnie.
Speaker 2: Her marriage was failing and her future felt uncertain. All
Speaker 2: she knew was that a fortune teller had predicted a tall,
Speaker 2: fair skinned man would one day change her life. That
Speaker 2: person came in the form of Marshall Applewhite.
Speaker 1: It was just a taste of what Vanessa and the
Speaker 1: team have in store for you. If that left you
Speaker 1: wanting more, and I know it did, go hunt on
Speaker 1: conspiracy theories, cults and crimes wherever you listen to podcasts.
Speaker 1: We've got the link waiting for you in the show notes,
Speaker 1: because honestly, you're gonna wanna binge this immediately.