Bonnie Nettles
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
August 29, 1927
Bonnie Nettles | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Bonnie Lu Trousdale August 29, 1927 Houston, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | June 19, 1985 (aged 57) Dallas, Texas, U.S. |
| Other names | Ti, Peep, Pig, Shelly West |
| Occupation | Registered nurse |
| Known for | Co-leader of Heaven's Gate |
| Spouse |
Joseph Segal Nettles
(m. 1949; div. 1973) |
| Children | 4 |
Bonnie Lu Nettles (née Trousdale; August 29, 1927 – June 19, 1985), later known as Ti (/tiː/; TEE), was an American religious leader and nurse who was co-founder and co-leader along with Marshall Applewhite of the Heaven's Gate new religious movement. Nettles died of melanoma metastatic to the liver in 1985 in Dallas, Texas, twelve years before the group's mass suicide in March 1997.[1]
Bonnie Nettles was born on August 29, 1927, and raised in Houston, Texas, into a Baptist family.[2] As an adult, she moved away from the religion. After becoming a registered nurse, she married businessman Joseph Segal Nettles in December 1949, with whom she had four children. Their marriage remained mostly stable until 1972, at which time, according to The New York Times, she began attempting to contact deceased spirits by conducting regular seances and came to believe that a 19th-century monk named Brother Francis frequently spoke with her and gave her instructions. She also visited multiple fortunetellers who told her that she was soon to meet a mysterious man who was tall with light hair and a fair complexion, descriptions which were fairly close to Marshall Applewhite's appearance.[2] Nettles also studied astrology, Theosophy, and the occult.
Introduction to Applewhite
Nettles met Marshall Applewhite in March 1972, though where they met is uncertain. In his writings, Applewhite claimed to have been "visiting a hospitalized friend when Mrs. Nettles entered the room and their eyes locked in a shared recognition of esoteric secrets." However, Applewhite's writings were prone to hyperbole or relaying everything as some occurrence of fate. Terrie Nettles, Bonnie's daughter, worked at a theater where Applewhite produced weekend children's shows and taught in an in-house drama school. She has stated that "someone got hurt at the drama school in the theater that Herff [Applewhite] worked at. Herff accompanied the injured person to the hospital where he met Bonnie."[2] Joe Nettles, one of Bonnie's sons, was not entirely sure how they met or whether their first meeting was at the theater.[3]
Nettles agreed to perform an astrological reading for Applewhite. They had an almost instantaneous "spiritual" connection; Applewhite decided that Nettles was "to be the sage, he the speaker." They left together on New Year's Day of 1973. Nettles' three youngest children were left to remain with their father, while her oldest daughter, Terrie, then aged 20 and skeptical of her mother's ideas, fended for herself.[4] Nettles and Applewhite established Heaven's Gate together as equals, with Nettles running the group and Applewhite speaking for her. Nettles claimed to have communicated with aliens about the Next Level and told Applewhite to tell their followers. In 1976, Applewhite recognized Nettles as higher up on the level of command than he was.
