This is the 29th of September 1996.

I'm Doe.

The purpose of this tape is to warn you that this planet is about to be recycled and

that it's going to happen very soon.

There's a parable in the Bible about a merchant who finds a pearl of great price.

It's the most beautiful thing he's ever seen.

So he sells everything, his house, his business, his entire life, just to own it.

The point of the story is supposed to be about faith, about what you're willing to sacrifice for something you believe in. The members of Heaven's Gate knew this parable well.

They've referenced it in their own writings.

They sold everything, their careers, their families, their names, and in the end, they sold their lives too.

I'm Harvey Guillen, and this is Killer Story. It's 1972.

Watergate is leaking into every headline.

The Vietnam War is still dragging on.

America's homes are full of avocado green carpet and wood-paneled walls.

The country feels tired in that specific heavy way that comes from realizing

the future you were promised isn't quite materializing, which makes this a very good moment for a story

about escape. Marshall is 41 and by most conventional measures, his life is falling apart.

His marriage is over. He just got fired from his job as a music professor. He's struggling with his identity,

with his purpose, with questions he doesn't know how to answer. See, Marshall grew up in Texas,

the son of a Presbyterian minister. For a while, Marshall tried to stay inside that structure.

He studied theology. He considered becoming a minister himself.

Then he doesn't. The reasons aren't tidy, but one truth sits under almost everything that comes

...