Cult Bought Alien Abduction Insurance

LONDON —  The 39 Heaven’s Gate cult members who committed suicide last week had insured themselves against being abducted, impregnated or killed by aliens, an insurance agent who specializes in unusual policies said Sunday.

The cult bought a policy Oct. 10 that would pay out $1 million to each member’s beneficiaries, said Simon Burgess, managing director of Goodfellow Rebecca Ingrams Pearson, an insurance brokerage.

The 39 took their own lives last week at a home on the outskirts of San Diego, seeking redemption in a spaceship trailing Comet Hale-Bopp.

Burgess told Press Association, the British news agency, that the group paid $1,000 annually for the coverage.

The brokerage said it has insured 4,000 people against abduction by aliens. But “there has never been a genuine claim for alien abduction,” Burgess said.