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These aliens stink, because demons stink.
And that's what these aliens are.
-Norm Franz
in his Globalism/Iron Mt./UFO's sermon
http://www.thegospel.com/catagory/prophecy/html/pg10.htm %*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*%*
To: forteana@primenet.com
Subject: Suicide connection
Sender: owner-forteana@ftp1.primenet.com Precedence: bulk
Reply-To: forteana@ftp1.primenet.com
Published Friday, March 28, 1997
Eden Prairie service provider was host for
Heaven's Gate site
Jonathan Gaw / Star Tribune
The Higher Source group that committed
mass suicide had its
Heaven's Gate World Wide Web site
based with an Internet service
provider in Eden Prairie for more than
a year, suggesting that the
group had ties to the Twin Cities
before moving to Southern
California.
The site had been hosted by SpaceStar
Communications using the
Web domain heavensgatetoo.com,
according to SpaceStar's
president, Ed Deppe. Internet records
showed the domain was
registered on June 17, 1996, to Sister
Francis Michael, who gave a
Burnsville address.
"We didn't really know what [the site]
was until we looked at it this
morning," said Deppe, whose company
has more than 3,000
customers. "We don't police Internet
sites anyway, so there's no
reason to look at it."
The Web site details the
organization's religious beliefs. It includes
a 72-chapter book. The organization
also posted religious
messages on the bulletin board-like
area of the Internet called
Usenet.
The Burnsville address given by
Michael to the InterNIC, a Herndon,
Va., organization that manages
registration of domain names on
the Internet, turned out to be a Red
Roof Inn.
A desk clerk there said she did not
know of an employee by that
name but could not comment further. A
spokeswoman for Red
Roof, based in Ohio, said there was no
record of Michael having
registered as a guest at the
Burnsville inn. Michael also gave
InterNIC a Colorado telephone number,
which was not operational
Thursday.
Deppe said he had never met Michael or
anyone else associated
with the account because he
communicated with them only by
phone and electronic mail. It is
possible for Michael to have been
anywhere to set up the Internet
account with SpaceStar, but
because all of SpaceStar's modems are
located in Minnesota and
Wisconsin, Michael would have had to
be nearby to avoid
long-distance phone charges while
dialing into the service with her
computer.
"They called out of the blue; I don't
know how they found us," Deppe
said. "Out of the thousands of
customers we have, they're just
another customer that paid their bills
on time."
Deppe took down the site Thursday
because large numbers of
visitors were tying up the system.
Before Wednesday's mass
suicide, there had been little
noticeable traffic. "When I walked into
work this morning, I didn't expect
this," Deppe said. "We were
getting a million hits in a matter of
five minutes."
SpaceStar initially was the host of
two of the group's Web sites, the
other advertising the organization's
business, Higher Source
Contract Enterprises, which designed
Web sites for others. Several
months ago, a person called about
moving both sites to another
Internet provider, Deppe said, but
only the business site was
moved, to an Internet provider in Denver.
Eden Prairie Police Lt. Dan Carlson
said that he did not know of the
connection and that the police had not
been contacted by anyone
relating to the investigation of the
mass suicide.
-- Staff writer Sally Apgar
contributed to this report.
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