Cult Members Pursued Earthly Fun

RANCHO SANTA FE, Calif. - Even as they prepared to commit suicide, members of the Heaven's Gate cult enjoyed some earthly pleasures: gambling in Las Vegas, visiting Sea World, Mexico and San Diego's Wild Animal Park, and taking a bus trip through scenic parts of Northern California and to Gold Beach, Ore.

In Las Vegas, the cultists visited the Stratosphere Hotel amusement park, which resembles the Space Needle, in late February and played the slot machines. Dedicated penny-pinchers, cult members ate at hotel buffets rather than restaurants.

The group may have been drawn to the gambling mecca not by the lure of easy money or roller-coaster thrills but by a public meeting to discuss Area 51, that part of the Nevada desert thought by believers in UFOs to be where the Air Force has kept an alien spacecraft under wraps for decades.

Finding lost money was an obsession. One cultist found $20 in Las Vegas and dutifully turned it over to the communal treasury. The final entry in Heaven's Gate's meticulously kept financial ledger was from March 21, five days before the 39 corpses were found. The entry indicated that two cultists had found 6 cents.

Although celibate and teetotalers, the cultists satisfied their cravings for candy, maple syrup, cookies, soda pop and pizza. When investigators found the corpses at the mansion here, they also found seven quarts of Starbucks Java Chip ice cream in the refrigerator.

The ledger and other documents belonging to the cult indicate that even after the group decided to commit mass suicide, cult members still attended to small household chores: paying rent, paying a $2.50 library fine and stocking groceries.

The final days of Heaven's Gate appear to have been a combination of fun outings and mundane chores. In March they visited the Wild Animal Park, spending $664.95 for admission, $81.94 for ice cream, and $80 for food to feed the animals. Later, several went to Mexico, probably to Tijuana, and four cultists went on a bus trip through Santa Rosa, Sacramento and Gold Beach, Ore.