CentralNotice From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation , search This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (October 2014) The logo used by the Heaven's Gate group Heaven's Gate was an American UFO religious Millenarian group based in San Diego, California , founded in the early 1970s and led by Marshall Applewhite (1931–1997) and Bonnie Nettles (1927–1985). [ 1 ] On March 26, 1997, police discovered the bodies of 39 members of the group who had committed mass suicide [ 2 ] in order to reach what they believed was an alien space craft following Comet Hale–Bopp . [ 3 ] 1 History 2 Belief system 3 Structure 4 Mass suicide and aftermath 5 Media coverage prior to suicide 6 See also 7 Referenc...