The Nineties in America - Salem Press (2009)

suicide themselves. That former member went to
the mansion on March 26 and then alerted police.
Charles Humphrey, “Rkkody,” a member since
1975, was not present at the mass suicide. He served
as a spokesman for the “Away Team” in the months
following the incident. Following a botched suicide
attempt in May, 1997, that left another member
dead, he killed himself in February, 1998, dressed
identically to the thirty-nine members who had died
the previous year.

Impact News of the mass suicide and the castra-
tions of some cult members astounded the nation.
Two sociologists, Robert Balch and David Taylor,
studied the cult in the 1970’s and the 1980’s; their re-
search provided important insights into the process
of creating the sort of group coherence that could
lead to mass suicide.
The belief system promulgated by Heaven’s Gate
has baffled civil authorities and ordinary people,
seeming poignant to some and ridiculous to many.
Such beliefs, however, hold a strong appeal to those
who have difficulty in finding meaning in their lives.
One message of the suicides at Rancho Santa Fe,
therefore, is the degree to which such personalities
may be willing to subject themselves to the visions
and wills of others.

Further Reading
Balch, Robert. “The Evolution of a New Age Cult:
From Total Overcomers Anonymous to Death at
Heaven’s Gate.” InSects, Cults, and Spiritual Com-
munities, edited by William Zellner. Westport,
Conn.: Praeger, 1998. A sociologist who studies
charismatic leadership, Balch joined Heaven’s
Gate as an observer-participant for two months in

1975. His work follows the cult from 1975 to 1997.
      Lalich, Janja.Bounded Choice: True Believers and Char-
      ismatic Cults. Berkeley: University of California
      Press, 2004. A sociologist specializing in cults uses
      Heaven’s Gate as a major example of how cult
      leaders bind their members to them, even to the
      point of committing suicide.
      Wessinger, Catherine.How the Millennium Comes Vio-
      lently: From Jonestown to Heaven’s Gate. New York:
      Seven Bridges Press, 2000. Contains a lengthy sec-
      tion on Heaven’s Gate with details about Apple-
      white’s and Nettles’s lives and the founding of
      their cult. Offers insights into how a group can be
      motivated into committing mass suicide.
      Frederic J. Baumgartner

See also Hale-Bopp comet; Religion and spiritual-

ity in Canada; Religion and spirituality in the United

States.

 Heroin chic

Definition Drug-glamorizing fashion style

In the mid-1990’s, the look of pale, sickeningly thin fashion

models became popular in the fashion industr y. Heroin

overdoses among fashion photographers and criticism from

the public and politicians ended the craze.

Before the 1990’s, heroin chic was promoted by pho-

tographers like Nan Goldin and Larry Clark (writer-

director ofKids, 1995). The look was reinvented by

New York fashion photographers Mario and Davide

Sorrenti, whose work glamorized the fashion trend

more than their predecessors had. Their photo-

graphs first appeared in British tabloids and later in

American high fashion magazines. Connected with

Seattle’s grunge music scene, the Sorrenti brothers

believed their work visually documented the coun-

terculture that thrived on Western consumerism.

The models had exhausted facial expressions and

unnaturally thin figures and sometimes wore torn

stockings. Major designers, most notably Calvin

Klein, regularly featured waiflike models in their

clothing advertisements. Fashion models Kate Moss

and, in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, Gia Carangi

(the tragic precursor to heroin chic who became ad-

dicted to heroin and died of AIDS in 1986) were the

most prominent models to portray the heroin chic

look. Kurt Cobain, lead singer for the grunge band

Nirvana, was the most closely linked entertainer to

heroin chic counterculture.

Impact Davide Sorrenti died of a heroin overdose

in February, 1997. His death had a strong impact on

the New York fashion industry. In May,The New York

Timespublished a series of articles on the heroin chic

trend. President Bill Clinton criticized the fashion

industry for claiming that the advertisements were a

form of artistic expression. Some Republicans

claimed they were another method used by the lib-

eral media to corrupt American morals. Films such

as Pulp Fiction (1994) and Trainspotting (1996),

which dealt with heroin addiction, also drew criti-

cism for allegedly glamorizing the drug. Within

weeks of politicians’ speeches shunning such adver-

The Nineties in America Heroin chic
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