Marshall Applewhite, Death Toll: 41. Marhsall Applewhite was the founder of the bizarre "Heaven's Gate" cult, one of the first 'computer cults'. His teachings were based on a mix of theosophy, UFO/Alien mysticism, pseudo-science, and Christianity. He claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus, and that he and his wife were actually 'highly evolved' beings in contact with extra-terrestrials. He demanded that his followers operate at a 'higher level' of consciousness by completely avoiding all sexual activity, and encouraged several of his male members to castrate themselves to achieve this higher state. In his teaching, higher level beings were asexual, and only inferior "luciferan" humans had genders and sexual lust. His group did not recruit massively like many other cults; he wanted a group that was exclusive, and his membership were mostly high-IQ highly-educated individuals. They lived communally and in the later years of the cult the group mostly made their money by working in computing and website design. When the Hale-Bopp comet was due to arrive, Applewhite (then calling himself "Do") claimed that this was actually an 'escape pod' sent by extraterrestrials for his followers to be rescued from the impending destruction of the world. The group, including Applewhite and 38 followers, committed mass suicide by overdose and asphyxiation. They were wearing Nike sneakers and black uniforms with patches identifying themselves as the "Heaven's Gate Away Team", a Star Trek reference. Ironically, one of the victims of the cult was the younger brother of Star Trek actress Nichelle Nichols (Uhura in the original series). Over the next couple of years, two other followers who had not been at the compound at the time of the suicide also killed themselves.