Today in True Crime

As the days count down to Hale-Bopp’s arrival, 39 people prepare for ascension. They’d abandoned their old lives, embraced a new ideology, weathered the death of a beloved leader… and finally, made themselves worthy of the Next Level. Now, the comet was coming. And with it, the spaceship that would ferry them onward. In March of 1997, they left everything behind. From Cults, a Spotify Original from Parcast.

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The group’s belief system had never been infallible. There had been adjustments along the way; revisions meant to keep the wheels turning whenever prophecies didn’t manifest. But then, in 1985, Bonnie Lu Nettles died. And her passing threw Heaven’s Gate’s whole world askew. From Cults, a Spotify Original from Parcast.

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1976 was a turning point for Heaven’s Gate. The spaceship that was promised had not arrived. Members were defecting. Nettles and Applewhite gathered their truest believers in Wyoming and made it clear: Things were going to be different from here on out. Much different. From Cults, a Spotify Original from Parcast.

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This week, we’re sharing a special four-part series from Cults on one of the most notorious cults in American history. In March 1997, a police officer responding to a 911 call discovered 39 bodies in a Rancho Santa Fe mansion. Twenty-five years later, we’re taking a deep-dive into the so-called “UFO cult” to understand who they were, what they believed, and why they died. 

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16-year-old Laura Beyerly vanished after leaving her 1st period class at Los Altos High School. Her body was found a year later in the Santa Cruz mountains. 

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Maurizio Gucci was gunned down in the foyer of his office building in Milan, Italy. His murder went unsolved for two years before an informant shed light on the fatal shooting.

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The theoretical physicist vanished after sending a cryptic letter to his employer. Seventy years later, a man came forward with new information that changed everything.

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Sarah Chesham was executed for a series of murders she swore she didn’t commit. Was she a victim of England’s poison panic?

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The passenger aircraft crashed into the Alps, killing everyone on board, after the co-pilot locked the pilot out of the cockpit and sabotaged the flight. 

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After claiming to be the victim of an obsessed sex worker, Joey Buttafucco was charged with the statutory rape of 16-year-old Amy Fisher. He was released after 4 months. Guest hosted by Kate Leonard from Dictators, a Spotify Original from Parcast. Hear their latest series on World Conquerors, free and only on Spotify!

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