PORTS
Still on top
The Nebraska men’s gymnastics team beat Okla
homa and California in the MPSF Championships
over the weekend. PAGE 9
KIJkjf_E_
\ in the USA
Brad Pitt stars as a gunrunner for the Irish Re
publican Army who finds a home with a New York
City cop in “The Devil’s Own.” PAGE 12
MON IAY
March 31, 1997
See The Light
Bright and breezy, high 70. Clear tonight, low 43.
X
VOL. 96 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 127
keeping the
Out of Harms Way
. .. ..... ....... i ... .... .... . . . .... ii .. ..
Matt Miller/DN
CANDI HARMS was an 18-year-old freshman at UHL when she was kidnapped and murdered in 1992. During
the painful years that followed, her parents Stan and Pat Harms relied on their faith in God to relieve their
grief. As Stan says, “We felt like many times during this ordeal we were being carried because we definitely
weren’t walking.”
Loved ones turn to God, each other
to cope with 18-year-old’s murder
Editor’s Note: This week the
Daily Nebraskan will focus on the
stories of those who grieved over
the death of a loved one.
Each story shows how family
and friends dealt with their grief
and may be an inspiration or
bring understanding to those who
are grieving or those who may
some day face a similar situation.
By Chad Lorenz
Senior News Editor
For years, Stan and Pat Harms
had to ask themselves many questions
about the 1992 murder of their 18
year-old daughter Candice Harms.
The mystery of Candi’s disap
pearance during the first semester
of her freshman year at the Univer
sity of Nebraska-Lincoln created
many questions, but produced few
answers.
Almost five years later, they say
one question still prevails. “Why
can’t she be here today?” Stan said
he frequently asks himself.
Please see HARMS on 3
Heaven’s Gate
came to IINL
In the 1970s
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
© Daily Nebraskan 1997
Disciples of the Heaven’s Gate cult
were in Lincoln in the mid-1970s ask
v ing University of Nebraska-Lincoln stu
dents and faculty to join them toward
their “second level.”
Followers of Marshall Herff
Applewhite were on campus in Janu
ary 1976 to try and recruit new mem
bers. Applewhite was the leader of a
cult who, with 37 others, committed
suicide Wednesday.
Two disciples — a man by the name
of Reach and a woman who called her
self Hickory — talked to about 100
people at the UMHE Commonplace
Chapel, which is now the Culture Cen
ter at 333 N. 14th St.
Stories from the Daily Nebraskan
in 1976 said 15 people gave the dis
ciples their names and phone numbers
for further contact.
Now, 21 years later, it is unclear if
Reach and Hickory were among the 39
dead at the group’s posh Rancho Santa
Fe mansion outside San Diego.
At the time of their visit to UNL,
the Heaven’s Gate cult was in its early
stages.
In 1976, the cult had not yet
adopted its now infamous Heaven’s
Gate name, but the recruiters talked
about their leaders Bo and Peep —
names which have recently been re
ported to be aliases for Applewhite and
Nettles. The philosophy they described
in 1976 was identical to the Heaven’s
Gate group.
They also talked about a meeting
in Oregon — the birthplace of the
Heaven’s Gate cult and the place
Applewhite and Nettles inducted their
first recruits.
The two, and a third who called
himself Tuna, did not reveal their birth
names to the Daily Nebraskan — they
said they gave up their identity for the
cult.
Authorities have now identified and
notified most of the cultists’ next of kin.
One of the families they notified was
that of retired U.S. District Court Judge
Lyle Strom of Omaha. His daughter,
Susan Strom, was one of the 39 dead
in San Diego. She had only briefly vis
ited her family over the last 21 years,
the last in 1987.
Members of the group, some of
whom were castrated, committed sui
cide by consuming barbiturate-laced
pudding and alcohol and putting plas
tic bags over their heads.
The group believed that a UFO,
trailing the Hale-Bopp comet, was
coming to take them to the “next level.”
Ron Hunter, an attorney in
Omaha, was a freshman on campus
in 1976 when the members came to
recruit. __
Twenty-one years later, he recog
nized the original poster they used
to get people to their meetings — a
poster that mentioned nothing about
cults and religion — in the news.
“It was just weirdo UFO stuff,”
Hunter said. “You just thought, 'Oh this
is really strange.”’
Hunter and some friends decided to
check out the lecture, but when they
started talking about cult-like activity
and religion, they left.
The recruiters said that a higher
power told them where to recruit, but
the Daily Nebraskan reported two
former cult members as saying the re
cruiters targeted several cities, but
mainly college towns.
Documents from the group’s
website show many cities were targeted
in 1975 and 1976, and mentions both
Lincoln and Scottsbluff, home of West
ern Nebraska Community College.
Hunter said it was the television
and the World Wide Web that jarred
his memory of the cult’s visit to Lin
coln.
“It just amazes me that 20-years
later, they managed to get followers.”
For excerpts of the stories that
ran in the Daily Nebraskan in 1976,
please see page 7. For the latest news
about the cult from San Diego,
please see page 2.
Neighborhood safe after violence, resident says
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
Tee Joy thinks his is a fair neighborhood.
There are some bad people here and there, he
said, and they do come and cause trouble some
times.
But, he said, while standing outside his house
on the 2800 block of Starr Street, he and his
wife are not leaving because of the trouble a few
people can cause.
Joy’s neighborhood is quiet now, and has
been for almost four days. But that has not been
the case this last week.
The troubles in the area started when a sim
mering dispute with alleged gang ties and re
gional influences boiled over into street violence
and gunfire last week.
The dispute turned sour the night of March
19, when as many as 35 people were involved in
a fight near 29th and Dudley streets. Some of
the people were armed with clubs and rocks.
Seven people were cited — six formally
charged—for disturbing the peace after the fight
was broken up by Lincoln police. Three people
were taken to the hospital for injuries sustained
in the fight.
Police, some with riot gear ready, were on
standby in the neighborhood over the weekend.
On March 24, police arrested and jailed three
people in connection with a shooting incident on
the 400 block of South 19th Street. Another man
was later cited for being an accessory to a felony.
Police reports said DeAndra Brown, 18,
Terrance Watford, 18, and J-Twan Overstreet,
18, shot at two people coming out of a house.
Police believe that one of the people was among
those involved in the street brawl. The shots hit
no one, but struck a car, causing $75 damage.
Each of the three was charged Wednesday in
Lancaster County Court with two counts of
making terroristic threats and use of a weapon
to commit a felony. Their next court appearance
is April 14.
Eleven people were arrested or cited in the
last week for incidents surrounding the fight.
After the storm
Following days of fights, arrests and reports
Please see QUIET on 8
Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World Wide Web at http:/lwww.unl.edu/DailyNeb