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Quick Facts
- NAME: Bonnie Lu Nettles
- OCCUPATION: Cult Leader, Nurse
- BIRTH DATE: c. 1927
- DEATH DATE: January 20, 1985
- EDUCATION: Hermann Hospital of Professional Nursing
- PLACE OF DEATH: Dallas, Texas
- Originally: Bonnie Lu Trusdale
Best Known For
Bonnie Nettles is known as one of 'The Two' who started the so-called UFO cult often referred to as Heaven's Gate with Marshall Applewhite.
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Play NowBonnie Lu Nettles. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 01:08, May 22, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/bonnie-lu-nettles-236028.
Bonnie Lu Nettles. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/bonnie-lu-nettles-236028 [Accessed 22 May 2013].
"Bonnie Lu Nettles." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 22 2013, 01:08 http://www.biography.com/people/bonnie-lu-nettles-236028.
"Bonnie Lu Nettles," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/bonnie-lu-nettles-236028 [accessed May 22, 2013].
"Bonnie Lu Nettles," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/bonnie-lu-nettles-236028 (accessed May 22, 2013).
Bonnie Lu Nettles [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 22] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/bonnie-lu-nettles-236028.
Bonnie Lu Nettles, http://www.biography.com/people/bonnie-lu-nettles-236028 (last visited May 22, 2013).
Bonnie Lu Nettles. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/bonnie-lu-nettles-236028. Accessed May 22, 2013.
They worked as a team with Applewhite as the speaker and Nettles as the sage. Known by many names, including "Guinea" and "Pig," "Bo" and "Peep," and "The Two," the messianic figures from outer space attracted a lot of media attention, as well as followers. They made the national news in 1975 and were the subject of a book, U.F.O. Missionaries Extraordinary,
Contents
the following year. Both Nettles and Applewhite were overwhelmed by the scrutiny that came with their raised public profile.
That same year, Nettles and Applewhite decided that they would stop adding new members. They set out to reduce their followers to include only the most dedicated. Reaching the "level above human" required refraning from earthly needs, desires and addictions, such as sex or drugs or possessions or even the ego. To the two, the body was just a "vehicle."
Early Death
In 1983, Nettles' "vehicle" was beginning to break down, losing an eye to cancer. She died two years later in Dallas after the cancer had spread to her liver. Applewhite told their followers that she had returned to the Next Level. Fourteen years later, he and 38 Heaven's Gate members committed suicide, believing that they too would ascend using the Hale-Bopp comet.
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