A chilling cult convinced 39 people to end their lives to “board an alien spaceship” for a new life among the stars.

The leader of Heaven’s Gate filled the minds of his followers with strange beliefs and, after an anonymous tip-off, police arrived at a mansion in a posh San Diego neighbourhood on this day (March 26) in 1997 to discover a horrifying scene.

Inside, they found the bodies of 39 men and women, all dressed identically.

The leader, Marshall Applewhite, had persuaded them that they…