 In August 1974 , Applewhite was arrested in <unk> , Texas , for failing to return a car that he had rented in Missouri . He was <unk> to St. Louis and jailed for six months . At the time , he maintained that he had been " divinely authorized " to keep the car . While jailed , he pondered theology and subsequently abandoned discussion of occult topics , in favor of extraterrestrials and evolution . 
