One of the major unanswered questions about the Heaven's Gate cult is exactly how and when the music professor and amateur astrologer who started the group steered the group into its embrace of computing as a way to pay the bills.
There are hints, though: A 1975 New York Times article on the group by James S. Phelan included an interview with a man called David.
David told Phelan he had left a prosperous San Francisco Bay Area computer business after meeting Marshall Herff Applewhite, a former music professor, and Bonnie Lu Nettles, the amateur astrologer, in Oakland.
The Washington Post on Friday carried another hint: the story of David Geoffrey Moore, 41, who joined the cult in 1975 and was identified as one of those who died with Applewhite and 37 others in a San Diego County mansion. It was not known Friday whether Phelan's David and Moore were the same person.
In an interview published Friday, Moore's mother told the Washington Post she had seen her son only twice during his 21 years with the group.
"I had no idea where they've ever lived. There's never been an address," said Nancie Brown of Carmel, California. "The Web page was the most concrete thing in 21 years. That was very comforting. I could look up and read their beliefs."
David Moore grew up in Los Gatos, near San Jose, lagging behind in public school and then attending an alternative, private high school that emphasized hands-on teaching. He graduated, and when he was 19 heard of a meeting held by the sect in a neighborhood park.
"The two visits I had with him were very satisfactory. He was very open, he was obviously very devoted. It was very clear: This is what he chose," she recalled. "I did come to a turning point some years ago - I accepted he was free to choose. As long as he was not harming himself or others, I wouldn't interfere."
Although Moore had no education beyond high school, Brown told the Post, he was intelligent and he learned about computers from other members of the group with whom he shared everything: income, food, shelter. She learned through a member who left the group that Moore had become a certified network engineer for Novell computers. "I was so proud of him that he'd done this, he'd studied hard and passed the test," she said.
With his computer knowledge, Brown said, Moore applied and got a job last September at Comp-x Computer Systems, a computer store in San Diego. Mike Afshin, the store manager, said Moore and another employee from the cult were always honest and punctual.
Other developments in the case: Applewhite sent a videotape and letter to a Michigan minister that detailed the group's plan to leave "the bodies that we were wearing for our earthly task."
A news assignment editor there said reporters obtained the tape and letter from Rik Strawcutter, a minister in Adrian, Michigan, about whom the station had produced a story on a separate matter.
The items were mailed to Strawcutter. He turned them over to a TV station in Toledo, Ohio, on Thursday. Within hours, the tape was being played on national television.
"By the time you receive this, we'll be gone - several dozen of us," a letter that accompanied the tape said.
"We came from the Level Above Human in distant space and we have now exited the bodies that we were wearing for our earthly task, to return to the world from whence we came - task completed. The distance space we refer to is what your literature would call the Kingdom of Heaven, or Kingdom of God."
In the tape, a shaven-headed Applewhite, who was known as "Do" by his followers, delivers an infomercial-style lecture and urges people to "follow quickly."
It also depicts several followers, including one woman who is shown in an outdoor setting apparently discussing her decision to follow Applewhite's suggestion and end her life.
"Maybe they're crazy for all I know," she said. "But I don't have any choice but to go for it, because I've been on this planet for 31 years and there's nothing here for me.
"And they were saying to the person I was with that they felt the last, final ingredient would be for the vehicles to be dead, you know, what humans call 'dead.' And so I said, 'Great. You know if that's what it takes, that's better than being around here with absolutely nothing to do.'
Authorities investigating the case said during a nationally televised press conference Thursday that the deaths were meticulously arranged and carried out over a period of as long as two days by teams of group members garbed in black shirts, pants, and athletic shoes.
San Diego County Medical Examiner Brian Blackbourne said the 39 Heaven's Gate cultists - 21 women, 18 men, and all but seven over 40 years old - died in three separate groups on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. He said some of the bodies found Wednesday afternoon in the Rancho Santa Fe mansion had been dead from 24 to 36 hours, others appeared to have been dead for as long as three days.
"It seemed to be a group decision," Blackbourne said. The act "seemed to be very well planned," he said, pointing to the "immaculate" nature of the death scene and the fact the group had apparently been organized into teams. He said the victims apparently died in separate groups: 15 the first day, 15 the second, and the remaining 9 the third day.
Blackbourne said no certain cause of death had been determined. He said results of first four autopsies showed the presence of alcohol and phenobarbital, a lethal combination in high enough concentrations.
Investigators found a scrap of paper in the residence that apparently contained a recipe for a combination of drugs that would prove lethal to the victims.
"The paper said, take the pudding or apple sauce, eat a couple of tablespoons to make room for the medicine, stir in the medicine, then eat it fairly quickly and drink the vodka," Blackbourne said. The note then advised those who ingested the mixture to lay back and relax.
The InterNIC registrations of the Web sites run by the cult members bore fake names and addresses, but InterNIC doesn't mind: it got paid. The www.highersource.com site was registered on 12 August and was last updated 12 November, which means it went through a complete payment cycle. InterNIC spokesman Chris Clough says someone paid the bill for that site as well as for the www.heavensgate.com site, which was last updated on 28 February. Clough was surprised at the notion of someone faking their identity on their registration, but, he said, "We're not in the business of verifying where people live." Anyone can register a domain, he said, "as long as they send their payment in on time."
