During the week of March 24th, 1971, notorious cult leader Charles Manson was sentenced to death for orchestrating the vicious attacks known as the Manson Family Murders. Driven by delusional beliefs and his manipulation of vulnerable followers, Manson’s crimes shocked the world and cemented his place in true crime history.

That same week in 1997, authorities learned about the mass suicide of the Heavens Gate cult. Led by a man named Marshall Applewhite, the Heaven's Gate cult members believed their souls would ascend to a spaceship trailing the Hale-Bopp comet.

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