The lone survivor of the 1997 Heaven’s Gate mass suicide in Rancho Santa Fe, in a television interview that aired Friday, said he left the cult a month before 39 people took their own lives so he could stay behind and tell the group’s story.

“I’m the last Heaven’s Gate member on Earth, so there must be a reason why I’m still here. But although I still want to live like them, dying like them definitely isn’t part of my plan.”

Ten years ago 39 Heaven’s Gate religious cult members killed themselves inside a Southern California mansion, believing their souls would board a spaceship that was supposedly trailing the Hale-Bopp comet. It remains America’s worst mass suicide.

The Heaven’s Gate cult had existed for more than two decades. Its recruiting drives were followed by periods spent in near hiding. In its final years, its message was spread through the Internet. Here is a timeline of the group’s history.

Ten years ago, 39 members of the Heaven’s Gate cult committed mass suicide inside a Rancho Santa Fe mansion. First responders are still haunted by the gruesome discovery.

Seven years ago Friday, 39 members of the Heaven's Gate cult were found dead in a Rancho Santa Fe mansion after a mass suicide.

The incredible sage of how a charismatic former music teacher and 38 androgynous followers killed themselves in order to hook up with a UFO.