What to Watch Friday: Diane Sawyer examines Heaven’s Gate cult in new 20/20
Dateline (9 p.m., NBC) - A mystery in the Caribbean unfolds when a young British woman, Sarm Heslop, vanishes from her boyfriend’s luxury yacht in the U.S. Virgin Islands. New details emerge on the case that made international headlines and left investigators with more questions than answers.
20/20: The Cult Next Door (9 p.m., ABC) - Diane Sawyer looks at the mystery behind Heaven’s Gate cult and their dramatic exit from earth — the largest mass suicide ever on American soil. The members of the cult, led by Marshall Applewhite, believed a UFO would carry them to a higher level of existence for eternity. So in March 1997, 39 people in the Heaven’s Gate home in Rancho Santa Fe, California, took their own lives. Sawyer looks at the secrets and backstory of Applewhite and his followers, plus a follow-up interview (the first being in 1997) with Rio DiAngelo, a member who left the group before the tragedy. The special features “exclusive never-before-seen tapes and intimate audio recordings of the cult leader, his followers, interviews with former members emerging from the shadows, loved ones of deceased followers and authorities who worked on the grisly case.” Two survivors also share their experiences in the cult for the first time.
The Thing About Pam (10 p.m., NBC) - If you missed the premiere of this earlier this week, here’s a chance to catch up before Ep 2 drops next week. This is a dramatization of a true story about Pam Hupp’s involvement in her friend Betsy Faria’s murder in Missouri, and the conviction of Betsy’s husband Russ for her death. The case was the subject of a very popular Dateline NBC podcast series, and as true crime capers go, this one is a doozy. It stars Renee Zellweger as Pam Hupp and Josh Duhamel as defense attorney Joel Schwartz.
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