Jonestown was the informal name for the
Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, an
intentional communityAn intentional community is a planned residential community designed to have a much higher degree of teamwork than other communities. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, or spiritual vision and often follow an alternative lifestyle. They...
in northwestern
GuyanaGuyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
formed by the
Peoples TemplePeoples Temple was a religious organization founded in 1955 by Jim Jones that, by the mid-1970s, included over a dozen locations in California including its headquarters in San Francisco...
led by
Jim JonesJames Warren "Jim" Jones was the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, which is best known for the November 18, 1978 mass suicide of 909 Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana along with the killings of five other people at a nearby airstrip.Jones was born in Indiana and started the Temple in...
. It became internationally notorious when, on November 18, 1978, 918 people died in the settlement as well as in a nearby airstrip and in
GeorgetownGeorgetown, estimated population 239,227 , is the capital and largest city of Guyana, located in the Demerara-Mahaica region. It is situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the mouth of the Demerara River and it was nicknamed 'Garden City of the Caribbean.' Georgetown is located at . The city serves...
, Guyana's capital. The name of the settlement became synonymous with the incidents at those locations.
A total of 909 Temple members died in Jonestown, all but two from apparent
cyanideA cyanide is a chemical compound that contains the cyano group, -C≡N, which consists of a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom. Cyanides most commonly refer to salts of the anion CN−. Most cyanides are highly toxic....
poisoning, in an event termed "revolutionary suicide" by Jones and some members on an audio tape of the event and in prior discussions. The poisonings in Jonestown followed the murder of five others by Temple members at a nearby Port Kaituma airstrip. The victims included United States
CongressmanThe United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
Leo RyanLeo Joseph Ryan, Jr. was an American politician of the Democratic Party. He served as a U.S. Representative from California's 11th congressional district from 1973 until he was murdered in Guyana by members of the Peoples Temple shortly before the Jonestown Massacre in 1978.After the Watts Riots...
, the first member of Congress
assassinatedTo carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
in the line of duty in the history of the United States. Four other Temple members died in Georgetown at Jones' command.
To the extent the actions in Jonestown were viewed as a mass murder, it is the largest such event in modern history and resulted in the largest single loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the events of September 11, 2001.
Origins
The Peoples Temple was formed in
Indianapolis, IndianaIndianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
, during the mid-1950s. It purported to practice what it called "
apostolicPentecostalism is a diverse and complex movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, has an eschatological focus, and is an experiential religion. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, the Greek...
socialismSocialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
". In doing so, the Temple preached to established members that "those who remained drugged with the opiate of religion had to be brought to enlightenment — socialism."
After Jones received considerable criticism in
IndianaIndiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
for his integrationist views, the Temple moved to
Redwood Valley, CaliforniaRedwood Valley is a census-designated place in Mendocino County, California. It is located southwest of Potter Valley, at an elevation of 722 feet . It comprises the northern portion of the Ukiah Valley. It is about 8 mi north of Ukiah and 12 mi south of Willits. Potter Valley is to...
in 1965.
In the early 1970s, the Peoples Temple opened other branches in California, including in
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
and San Francisco. In the mid-1970s, the Temple moved its
headquarters to San FranciscoThe Peoples Temple, the organization at the center of the Jonestown incident, was headquartered in San Francisco, California, from the early to mid-1970s until the Temple's move to Guyana....
.
After the Temple's move to San Francisco, it became more politically active. After Peoples Temple participation proved instrumental in the mayoral election victory of
George MosconeGeorge Richard Moscone was an American attorney and Democratic politician. He was the 37th mayor of San Francisco, California, US from January 1976 until his assassination in November 1978. Moscone served in the California State Senate from 1967 until becoming Mayor. In the Senate, he served as...
in 1975, Moscone appointed Jones as the Chairman of the San Francisco Housing Authority Commission. Unlike other figures considered as cult leaders, Jones enjoyed public support and contact with some of the highest level politicians in the United States. For example, Jones met with Vice Presidential Candidate
Walter MondaleWalter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale is an American Democratic Party politician, who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States , under President Jimmy Carter, and as a United States Senator for Minnesota...
and
Rosalynn CarterEleanor Rosalynn Carter is the wife of the former President of the United States Jimmy Carter and in that capacity served as the First Lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981. As First Lady and after, she has been a leading advocate for numerous causes, perhaps most prominently for mental...
several times. Governor
Jerry BrownEdmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr. is an American politician. Brown served as the 34th Governor of California , and is currently serving as the 39th California Governor...
, Lieutenant Governor Mervyn Dymally, and Assemblyman
Willie BrownWillie Lewis Brown, Jr. is an American politician of the Democratic Party. He served over 30 years in the California State Assembly, spending 15 years as its Speaker, and afterward served as the 41st mayor of San Francisco, the first African American to do so...
, among others, attended a large testimonial dinner in honor of Jones in September 1976.
Selection and establishment of Guyanese land
In the fall of 1973, after critical newspaper articles by
Lester KinsolvingCharles Lester Kinsolving is a political talk radio host, currently heard on WCBM in Baltimore, Maryland. He is better known, however, as a White House correspondent for WorldNetDaily...
and the defection of eight Temple members (the "Gang of Eight"), Jones and Temple member Timothy Stoen prepared an "immediate action" contingency plan for responding to a police or media crackdown. The plan listed various options, including fleeing to
CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
or to a "
CaribbeanThe Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
missionary post", such as
BarbadosBarbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
or
TrinidadTrinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
. For its "Caribbean missionary post", the Temple quickly chose
GuyanaGuyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
. The Temple then researched Guyana's economy and
extraditionExtradition is the official process whereby one nation or state surrenders a suspected or convicted criminal to another nation or state. Between nation states, extradition is regulated by treaties...
treaties with the United States. In October 1973, the directors of the Peoples Temple passed a resolution to establish an agricultural mission there.
The Temple chose Guyana, in part, because of its socialist politics, which were also moving further to the left during the selection process. Former Temple member Tim Carter stated that the reasons for choosing Guyana were the Temple's view of
creeping fascismCreeping fascism is a political term documented in various forms during the first half of the 20th Century, especially after World War II ....
, the perceived dominance of multinational
corporationA corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
s on the government, and perceived
racismRacism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
in the U.S. government. Carter said the Temple concluded that Guyana, a predominantly Indian,
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
-speaking socialist country, would afford black members of the Temple a peaceful place to live. Later, Guyanese Prime Minister
Forbes BurnhamLinden Forbes Sampson Burnham was the leader of Guyana from 1964 until his death, first as Premier from 1964 to 1966, then as the Prime Minister from 1966 to 1980 and finally as President from 1980 to 1985....
stated that what may have attracted Jones was that "he wanted to use cooperatives as the basis for the establishment of socialism, and maybe his idea of setting up a
communeA commune is an intentional community of people living together, sharing common interests, property, possessions, resources, and, in some communes, work and income. In addition to the communal economy, consensus decision-making, non-hierarchical structures and ecological living have become...
meshed with that." Jones also thought it was important that Guyana's leadership consisted of several black leaders and that the country was small and poor enough for Jones to easily obtain influence and official protection.
In 1974, after Jones and Temple members traveled to an area of Northwest Guyana with Guyanese officials, the Temple and Guyanese officials negotiated a lease of over 3,800 acres (15.4 km²) of jungle land from the Guyanese government. The site was isolated, with soil of poor fertility, even by Guyanese standards. The nearest body of water was seven miles (11 km) away by muddy roads.
Jonestown before mass migration
500 members began the construction of Jonestown. The Temple encouraged some of its members to move to Jonestown, which was formally named the "Peoples Temple Agricultural Project". Jones saw Jonestown as both a "socialist paradise" and a "sanctuary" from media scrutiny. In 1976, Guyana finally approved the lease it had negotiated (retroactive to April 1974) with the Temple for the over 3000 acres (12.1 km²) of land in Northwest Guyana on which Jonestown was located.
In 1974, Guyanese government officials granted the Temple permission to import certain items "duty free." Later payoffs to Guyanese customs officials helped safeguard shipments of firearms and drugs through Guyanese customs. The relatively large number of immigrants to Guyana overwhelmed the Guyanese government's small but stringent immigration infrastructure in a country where most people wanted to leave. Jones reached an agreement to guarantee that Guyana would permit Temple members' mass migration. To do so, he stated that Temple members were "skilled and progressive", showed off an envelope he claimed had $500,000 and stated that he would invest most of the church's assets in Guyana. Guyanese immigration procedures were also compromised to inhibit the departure of Temple defectors and curtail the visas of Temple opponents.
Jones purported to establish Jonestown as a benevolent communist community, stating: "I believe we’re the purest communists there are." Marceline Jones described Jonestown as "dedicated to live for
socialismSocialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, total economic and racial and social equality. We are here living communally." Jones wanted to construct a model community and claimed that Prime Minister Burnham "couldn’t rave enough about us, uh, the wonderful things we do, the project, the model of socialism." In that regard, like the restrictive emigration policies of the
Soviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
,
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
,
North KoreaThe Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
and other communist republics, Jones did not permit members to leave Jonestown.
The Temple established offices in
GeorgetownGeorgetown, estimated population 239,227 , is the capital and largest city of Guyana, located in the Demerara-Mahaica region. It is situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the mouth of the Demerara River and it was nicknamed 'Garden City of the Caribbean.' Georgetown is located at . The city serves...
and conducted numerous meetings with Burnham and other Guyanese officials. In 1976, Temple member Michael Prokes requested that Guyana's Prime Minister
Forbes BurnhamLinden Forbes Sampson Burnham was the leader of Guyana from 1964 until his death, first as Premier from 1964 to 1966, then as the Prime Minister from 1966 to 1980 and finally as President from 1980 to 1985....
receive Jones as a foreign dignitary along with other "high ranking U.S. officials." Jones traveled to Guyana with California Lieutenant Governor Mervyn Dymally to meet with Burnham and Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Willis. In that meeting, Dymally agreed to pass on the message to the U.S. State Department that socialist Guyana wanted to keep an open door to cooperation with the United States. Dymally followed up that meeting with a letter to Burnham stating that Jones was "one of the finest human beings" and that Dymally was "tremendously impressed" by his visit to Jonestown.
Temple members took pains to stress their loyalty to Burnham's Peoples National Congress Party. One Temple member, Paula Adams, was involved in a romantic relationship with Guyana's Ambassador to the United States, Laurence "Bonny" Mann. Jones bragged about other Temple members he referred to as "public relations women" giving all for the cause in Jonestown. Viola Burnham, the Guyanese Prime Minister's wife, was also a strong advocate of the Temple.
Later, Burnham stated that Guyana allowed the Temple to operate in the manner it did on the references of Mondale, Rosalynn Carter, and San Francisco Mayor
George MosconeGeorge Richard Moscone was an American attorney and Democratic politician. He was the 37th mayor of San Francisco, California, US from January 1976 until his assassination in November 1978. Moscone served in the California State Senate from 1967 until becoming Mayor. In the Senate, he served as...
. Burnham also said that, when Deputy Minister
Ptolemy ReidDr. Ptolemy Alexander Reid was a Guyanese veterinarian and politician who served as Prime Minister of Guyana from 1980 to 1984....
traveled to Washington in September 1977 to sign the
Panama Canal TreatiesThe Torrijos–Carter Treaties are two treaties signed by the United States and Panama in Washington, D.C., on September 7, 1977, which abrogated the Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty of 1903...
, Mondale asked him "How's Jim?", which indicated to Reid that Mondale had a personal interest in Jones' well being.
Investigation and mass migration
In the summer of 1977, Jones and several hundred Temple members moved to Jonestown to escape building pressure from San Francisco media investigations. Jones left the same night that an editor at New West magazine read Jones an article to be published by Marshall Kilduff detailing allegations by former Temple members. Jonestown's population was just under 1,000 at its peak in 1978.
Jonestown life after mass migration
Many members of the Peoples Temple believed that Guyana would be, as Jones promised, a paradise, or a
utopiaUtopia is an ideal community or society possessing a perfect socio-politico-legal system. The word was imported from Greek by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book Utopia, describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean. The term has been used to describe both intentional communities that attempt...
. After the mass migration, Jonestown became overcrowded.
After Jones arrived, Jonestown life significantly changed. Entertaining movies from Georgetown that the pioneers had watched were eliminated in favor of propaganda shorts on
SovietThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
life provided by the Soviet embassy and documentaries on problems such as elderly life in the U.S. and returning Vietnam veterans' adjustment to civilian life. Bureaucratic requirements after Jones' arrival sapped labor resources for other needs. Buildings fell into disrepair and weeds encroached on fields. School study and night time lectures for adults turned to Jones' discussions about revolution and enemies, with lessons focusing on Soviet alliances, Jones' crises and the purported "mercenaries" of
Timothy StoenTimothy Oliver Stoen , is best known for his central role as a member of the Peoples Temple and later opposition to the group in a multi-year custody battle over John Stoen that led to an investigation of the Peoples Temple's settlement at Jonestown, Guyana...
.
For the first several months, Temple members worked six days a week, from approximately 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., with an hour for lunch. In mid-1978, after Jim Jones' health deteriorated and Marcy Jones began managing more of Jonestown's operations, the work week was reduced to eight hours a day for five days a week.
After the day's work ended, Temple members would attend several hours of activities in a pavilion structure, including classes in socialism. Jones described this study as like that of the North Korean system of eight hours of daily work followed by eight hours of study. This also comported with the Temple's practice of gradually subjecting its followers to sophisticated mind control and behavior-modification techniques borrowed from post-revolutionary
People's Republic of ChinaChina , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
and
North KoreaThe Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
. Jones would often read news and commentary, including some from Radio Moscow and Radio Havana, though concerning the
Sino-Soviet splitIn political science, the term Sino–Soviet split denotes the worsening of political and ideologic relations between the People's Republic of China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics during the Cold War...
he often criticized Chinese foreign policy initiatives he (and often the Soviet Government) viewed as anti-Soviet.
"Discussion" around the topics raised often took the form of Jones interrogating individual followers about the implications and subtexts of a given item, or delivering lengthy and often confused monologues on how his people should 'read' the events. In addition to Soviet documentaries,
conspiracy theoryA conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
movies such as Executive Action, written by Temple attorneys
Mark LaneMark Lane is an American lawyer who has written many books, including Rush to Judgment, one of two major books published in the immediate wake of the John F. Kennedy assassination that questioned the conclusions of the Warren Commission. Another book, Plausible Denial, published in 1991, continued...
and
Donald FreedDonald Freed is an American playwright, novelist, screenwriter, and actor. He is associated with writing programs at the University of Southern California, and was Artist in Residence at the Workshop Theatre, University of Leeds, UK , and Playwright in Residence at York Theatre Royal ,...
, and
The Parallax ViewThe Parallax View is a 1974 American thriller film directed by Alan J. Pakula and starring Warren Beatty, Paula Prentiss, Hume Cronyn and William Daniels. The film was adapted by David Giler, Lorenzo Semple Jr and an uncredited Robert Towne from the 1970 novel by Loren Singer...
(incorrectly attributed by Jones to Lane and Freed) were screened and minutely dissected by Jones as primers on the 'true nature' of the Temple's capitalist enemies.
Jones' recorded readings of the news were part of the constant broadcasts over Jonestown's tower speakers, such that all members could hear them throughout the day and night. Jones' news readings usually portrayed the United States as a "capitalist" and "imperialist" villain, while casting "socialist" leaders, such as former North Korean dictator
Kim Il-sungKim Il-sung was a Korean communist politician who led the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from its founding in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of Prime Minister from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to his death...
("great leader of the revolution, is in the vanguard of the Korean working class"),
Robert MugabeRobert Gabriel Mugabe is the President of Zimbabwe. As one of the leaders of the liberation movement against white-minority rule, he was elected into power in 1980...
("long known for his communist inspiration to the people of
ZimbabweZimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
… one of the revolutionary heroes") and
Joseph StalinJoseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
(disturbed by people criticizing Stalin), in a positive light.
Jonestown's primary means of communication with the outside world was a shortwave radio. All voice communications with
San FranciscoSan Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
and
GeorgetownGeorgetown, estimated population 239,227 , is the capital and largest city of Guyana, located in the Demerara-Mahaica region. It is situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the mouth of the Demerara River and it was nicknamed 'Garden City of the Caribbean.' Georgetown is located at . The city serves...
were transmitted using this radio, from mundane supply orders to confidential Temple business. The FCC cited the Temple for technical violations and for using amateur frequencies for commercial purposes. Because shortwave radio was Jonestown's only effective means of non-postal communication, the Temple felt that the FCC's threats to revoke its operators' licenses threatened Jonestown's existence.
Jonestown, being on poor soil, was not self-sufficient and had to import large quantities of commodities such as wheat. Temple members lived in small communal houses, some with walls woven from Troolie palm, and ate meals which reportedly consisted of nothing more on some days than rice, beans, greens and sometimes meat sauce and eggs (more on others). Despite theoretically having access to millions of dollars in Temple funds, Jones also lived in a tiny communal house (pictured below), though fewer people lived there than in other communal houses. His house reportedly held a small refrigerator, containing, at times, eggs, meat, fruit, salads and soft drinks. Medical problems, such as severe
diarrheaDiarrhea , also spelled diarrhoea, is the condition of having three or more loose or liquid bowel movements per day. It is a common cause of death in developing countries and the second most common cause of infant deaths worldwide. The loss of fluids through diarrhea can cause dehydration and...
and high fevers, struck half the community in February 1978.
Although Jonestown contained no dedicated prison and no form of capital punishment, various forms of punishment were used against members considered to be serious disciplinary problems. Methods included imprisonment in a 6 x 4 x 3-foot (1.8 x 1.2 x 0.9m)
plywoodPlywood is a type of manufactured timber made from thin sheets of wood veneer. It is one of the most widely used wood products. It is flexible, inexpensive, workable, re-usable, and can usually be locally manufactured...
box and forcing children to spend a night at the bottom of a well, sometimes upside-down. For some members who attempted to escape, drugs such as Thorazine, sodium pentathol,
chloral hydrateChloral hydrate is a sedative and hypnotic drug as well as a chemical reagent and precursor. The name chloral hydrate indicates that it is formed from chloral by the addition of one molecule of water. Its chemical formula is C2H3Cl3O2....
, Demerol and Valium were administered in an "extended care unit." Armed guards patrolled the area day and night to enforce Jonestown's rules. Some local Guyanese, including a police official, related stories about harsh beatings and a "torture hole", the well into which the children were placed when they were perceived to have misbehaved.
Children generally surrendered to communal care, addressed Jones as "Dad" and some at times were only allowed to see their real parents briefly at night. Jones was called "Father" or "Dad" by the adults as well. The community had a nursery at which 33 infants were born.
Up to $65,000 in monthly welfare payments from government organizations in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
to Jonestown residents were signed over to the Temple. In 1978, officials from the United States Embassy in Guyana interviewed
Social SecurityIn the United States, Social Security refers to the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program.The original Social Security Act and the current version of the Act, as amended encompass several social welfare and social insurance programs...
recipients on multiple occasions to make sure they were not being held against their will. None of the 75 people interviewed by the Embassy stated that they were being held against their will, were forced to sign over welfare checks, or wanted to leave Jonestown.
The Temple's wealth was estimated in late 1978 to be approximately $26 million.
White Nights
Jones made frequent addresses to Temple members regarding Jonestown's safety, including statements that the CIA and other intelligence agencies were conspiring with "capitalist pigs" to destroy Jonestown and harm its members. After work, when purported emergencies arose, the Temple sometimes conducted what Jones referred to as "White Nights". During such events, Jones would sometimes give the Jonestown members four choices: (1) attempt to flee to the
Soviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
; (2) commit "revolutionary suicide"; (3) stay in Jonestown and fight the purported attackers or (4) flee into the jungle.
On at least two occasions during White Nights, after a "revolutionary suicide" vote was reached, a simulated mass suicide was rehearsed. Peoples Temple defector Deborah Layton described the event in an affidavit:
"Everyone, including the children, was told to line up. As we passed through the line, we were given a small glass of red liquid to drink. We were told that the liquid contained poison and that we would die within 45 minutes. We all did as we were told. When the time came when we should have dropped dead, Rev. Jones explained that the poison was not real and that we had just been through a loyalty test. He warned us that the time was not far off when it would become necessary for us to die by our own hands."
The Temple had received monthly half-pound shipments of
cyanideA cyanide is a chemical compound that contains the cyano group, -C≡N, which consists of a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom. Cyanides most commonly refer to salts of the anion CN−. Most cyanides are highly toxic....
since 1976 after Jones obtained a jeweler's license to buy the chemical, purportedly to clean gold.
Stoen custody dispute
In September 1977, former Temple members
Timothy and Grace StoenTimothy Oliver Stoen , is best known for his central role as a member of the Peoples Temple and later opposition to the group in a multi-year custody battle over John Stoen that led to an investigation of the Peoples Temple's settlement at Jonestown, Guyana...
battled in a
GeorgetownGeorgetown, estimated population 239,227 , is the capital and largest city of Guyana, located in the Demerara-Mahaica region. It is situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the mouth of the Demerara River and it was nicknamed 'Garden City of the Caribbean.' Georgetown is located at . The city serves...
court to produce an order for the Temple to show cause why a final order should not be issued returning their son, John (five years old at the time), to his mother Grace. A few days later, a second order was issued for the arrest of John by authorities.
The fear of being held in contempt of the orders caused Jones to set up a false sniper attack upon himself and begin his first series of White Nights, called the "Six Day Siege", where Jones spoke to Temple members about attacks from outsiders and had them surround Jonestown with guns and machetes. The fiery rallies took an almost surreal tone as
Angela DavisAngela Davis is an American political activist, scholar, and author. Davis was most politically active during the late 1960s through the 1970s and was associated with the Communist Party USA, the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panther Party...
and Huey Newton communicated via radio-telephone to the Jonestown crowd, urging them to hold strong against the "conspiracy." Jones made radio broadcasts stating "we will die unless we are granted freedom from harassment and asylum." Guyana Deputy Minister Ptolemy Reid finally assured Jones' wife Marceline that the
Guyana Defence ForceThe Guyana Defence Force is the military service of Guyana.-History:The GDF was formed on November 1, 1965. Members of the new Defence Force were drawn from the British Guiana Volunteer Force , Special Service Unit , British Guiana Police Force BGPF and civilians...
would not invade Jonestown.
Exploring another potential exodus
After the Six Day Siege, Jones no longer believed the Guyanese could be trusted. Jones directed Temple members to write to over a dozen foreign governments inquiring about immigration policies relevant to another exodus by the Temple. He also wrote to the U.S. State Department inquiring about
North KoreaThe Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
and Albania, then enduring the
Sino-Albanian splitThe Sino-Albanian split in 1978 saw the parting of the People's Republic of China and People's Socialist Republic of Albania, which was the only Eastern European nation to side with the PRC in the Sino–Soviet split of the early 1960s.-History:...
.
In Georgetown, the Peoples Temple conducted frequent meetings with the embassies of the
Soviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
,
North KoreaThe Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
,
YugoslaviaThe Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
and
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
. Their negotiations with the
Soviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
included extensive discussions of possible resettlement there and the Temple produced memoranda discussing potential places within the
Soviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
in which they might settle. Sharon Amos, Michael Prokes and other Temple members took active roles in the "Guyana-Korea Friendship Society", which sponsored two seminars on revolutionary concepts of North Korean leader Kim Il Sung.
On October 2, 1978, Feodor Timofeyev from the
Soviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
embassy in Guyana visited Jonestown for two days and gave a speech. Jones stated before the speech that "For many years, we have let our sympathies be quite publicly known, that the United States government was not our mother, but that the Soviet Union was our spiritual motherland," which was followed by extended cheers and applause from the Jonestown crowd. Timofeyev opened the speech stating that the USSR would like to send "our deepest and the most sincere greetings to the people of this first socialist and communist community of the United States of America, in Guyana and in the world," followed by cheers and applause from the crowd. Timofeyev also stated "I’d like to wish you, dear comrades, all the successes to your great, to your very big work you’re doing here."
By October 1978, Temple members met almost weekly with Timofeyev discussing a potential exodus to the
Soviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
.
Concerned relatives
Meanwhile, in late 1977 and early 1978,
Tim and Grace StoenTimothy Oliver Stoen , is best known for his central role as a member of the Peoples Temple and later opposition to the group in a multi-year custody battle over John Stoen that led to an investigation of the Peoples Temple's settlement at Jonestown, Guyana...
participated in meetings with other relatives of Jonestown residents at the home of
Jeannie MillsJeannie Mills was an early defector from the Peoples Temple cult, author of the book Six Years with God , and co-founder of the Concerned Relatives of Peoples Temple Members organization and the Human Freedom Center...
, and they collectively called themselves the "Concerned Relatives." Tim Stoen engaged in letter writing campaigns to the Secretary of State and the government of Guyana, and traveled to Washington to attempt to begin an investigation. In January 1978, Stoen wrote a "white paper" to Congress detailing the problems and requesting that Representatives write Forbes Burnham; 91 Congressmen wrote such letters, including Congressman
Leo RyanLeo Joseph Ryan, Jr. was an American politician of the Democratic Party. He served as a U.S. Representative from California's 11th congressional district from 1973 until he was murdered in Guyana by members of the Peoples Temple shortly before the Jonestown Massacre in 1978.After the Watts Riots...
.
Feeling pressure from the United States, on February 17, Jones submitted to an interview with San Francisco Examiner journalist Tim Reiterman. Reiterman wrote a story the next day in the San Francisco Examiner about Stoen's attempts to gain custody of his son that prompted the immediate threat of a lawsuit by the Temple. The repercussions were devastating for the Temple's reputation, and made most former supporters even more suspicious of the Temple's claims that it was being subjected to a "rightist vendetta."
One day later, on Sunday February 19, 1978,
Harvey MilkHarvey Bernard Milk was an American politician who became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors...
wrote a letter of support for the Peoples Temple to President
Jimmy CarterJames Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
. Milk wrote that Jones was known "as a man of the highest character". Regarding defecting Temple members pressing for an investigation of the Peoples Temple, Milk wrote "they are attempting to damage Rev. Jones' reputation" with "apparent bold-faced lies".
On April 11, 1978, the Concerned Relatives distributed a packet of documents, including letters and affidavits, that they titled an "Accusation of Human Rights Violations by Rev. James Warren Jones" to the Peoples Temple, members of the press and members of Congress. In June 1978, Peoples Temple defector Deborah Layton provided the group with a further affidavit detailing alleged crimes by the Peoples Temple and substandard living conditions in Jonestown.
Tim Stoen represented three members of the Concerned Relatives in lawsuits filed in May and June 1978 against Jim Jones and other Temple members seeking in excess of $56 million in damages. The Temple, represented by
Charles R. GarryCharles R. Garry was an American civil rights attorney who represented a number of high-profile clients in political cases during the 1960s and 1970s, including representing the Peoples Temple in Jonestown during the 1978 tragedy that occurred at that location.-Early life:Born in Bridgewater,...
, filed a suit against Tim Stoen on July 10, 1978 seeking $150 million in damages.
Digging in
During the summer of 1978, Jones hired JFK assassination
conspiracyA conspiracy theory explains an event as being the result of an alleged plot by a covert group or organization or, more broadly, the idea that important political, social or economic events are the products of secret plots that are largely unknown to the general public.-Usage:The term "conspiracy...
theorists
Mark LaneMark Lane is an American lawyer who has written many books, including Rush to Judgment, one of two major books published in the immediate wake of the John F. Kennedy assassination that questioned the conclusions of the Warren Commission. Another book, Plausible Denial, published in 1991, continued...
and
Donald FreedDonald Freed is an American playwright, novelist, screenwriter, and actor. He is associated with writing programs at the University of Southern California, and was Artist in Residence at the Workshop Theatre, University of Leeds, UK , and Playwright in Residence at York Theatre Royal ,...
to help make the case of a "grand conspiracy" by intelligence agencies against the Peoples Temple. Jones told Lane he wanted to "pull an
Eldridge CleaverLeroy Eldridge Cleaver better known as Eldridge Cleaver, was a leading member of the Black Panther Party and a writer...
", referring to a fugitive
Black PantherThe Black Panther Party wasan African-American revolutionary leftist organization. It was active in the United States from 1966 until 1982....
who was able to return to the United States after repairing his reputation. In September 1978, Lane spoke to the residents of Jonestown, providing support for Jones' theories and drawing parallels between
Martin Luther King, Jr.Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
and Jim Jones. Lane then held press conferences stating that "none of the charges" against the Temple "are accurate or true" and that there was a "massive conspiracy" against the Temple by "intelligence organizations," naming the CIA, FBI, FCC and even the U.S. Post Office. Though Lane represented himself as disinterested, Jones was actually paying him $6,000 per month to generate such theories.
Declining health
Jones' health significantly declined in Jonestown, and a doctor who examined Jones in 1978 told him that he might have a lung infection. Jones was said to be abusing injectable Valium, Quaaludes, stimulants, and barbiturates. His once sharp voice later sounded slurred, words ran together and Jones would not finish sentences even when reading.
Journalist Tim Reiterman was surprised by the severe deterioration of Jones' health when Reiterman first saw Jones in Jonestown on November 17, 1978. After covering Jones for 18 months for the San Francisco Examiner, Reiterman thought it was "shocking to see his glazed eyes and festering paranoia face to face, to realize that nearly a thousand lives, ours included, were in his hands."
Ryan delegation's initial investigation in Georgetown
On November 1, 1978,
CongressmanThe United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
Leo RyanLeo Joseph Ryan, Jr. was an American politician of the Democratic Party. He served as a U.S. Representative from California's 11th congressional district from 1973 until he was murdered in Guyana by members of the Peoples Temple shortly before the Jonestown Massacre in 1978.After the Watts Riots...
, who represented a
district in Northern CaliforniaCalifornia's 11th congressional district is a congressional district located in the U.S. state of California. Based in Northern California, it encompasses parts of San Joaquin, Alameda, Contra Costa, and Santa Clara counties....
, announced that he would visit Jonestown. Ryan was friends with the father of Bob Houston, whose mutilated body was found near train tracks on October 5, 1976, three days after a taped telephone conversation with Houston's ex-wife in which leaving the Temple was discussed. Over the following months Ryan's interest was further aroused by the complaints of the Concerned Relatives represented by
Timothy StoenTimothy Oliver Stoen , is best known for his central role as a member of the Peoples Temple and later opposition to the group in a multi-year custody battle over John Stoen that led to an investigation of the Peoples Temple's settlement at Jonestown, Guyana...
and the allegations following the defection of Deborah Layton.
On November 14, 1978, Ryan flew to
Georgetown, GuyanaGeorgetown, estimated population 239,227 , is the capital and largest city of Guyana, located in the Demerara-Mahaica region. It is situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the mouth of the Demerara River and it was nicknamed 'Garden City of the Caribbean.' Georgetown is located at . The city serves...
(150 miles (241.4 km) from Jonestown), along with a team of 18 people consisting of government officials, media representatives and some members of the Concerned Relatives. The group included Congressman Ryan; Ryan's legal adviser,
Jackie SpeierKaren Lorraine Jacqueline "Jackie" Speier is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2008. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes the northern two-thirds of San Mateo County and the southwest quarter of San Francisco.She is also a former member of the California State...
(now a Congresswoman); Neville Annibourne, representing Guyana's Ministry of Information; Richard Dwyer, Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy to Guyana; Tim Reiterman, San Francisco Examiner reporter; Don Harris,
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
reporter; Greg Robinson, San Francisco Examiner photographer; Steve Sung, NBC audio technician; Bob Flick, NBC producer; Charles Krause, Washington Post reporter; Ron Javers, San Francisco Chronicle reporter; Bob Brown, NBC video operator; and Concerned Relatives representatives, including
Tim and Grace StoenTimothy Oliver Stoen , is best known for his central role as a member of the Peoples Temple and later opposition to the group in a multi-year custody battle over John Stoen that led to an investigation of the Peoples Temple's settlement at Jonestown, Guyana...
, Steve and Anthony Katsaris, Beverly Oliver, Jim Cobb, Sherwin Harris, and Carolyn Houston Boyd.
The Peoples Temple's lawyers,
Mark LaneMark Lane is an American lawyer who has written many books, including Rush to Judgment, one of two major books published in the immediate wake of the John F. Kennedy assassination that questioned the conclusions of the Warren Commission. Another book, Plausible Denial, published in 1991, continued...
and
Charles GarryCharles R. Garry was an American civil rights attorney who represented a number of high-profile clients in political cases during the 1960s and 1970s, including representing the Peoples Temple in Jonestown during the 1978 tragedy that occurred at that location.-Early life:Born in Bridgewater,...
, initially refused to allow Ryan's party access to Jonestown.
Ryan delegation visits Jonestown
By late morning on Friday, November 17, Lane and Garry informed Jones that Ryan would likely leave for Jonestown at 2:30 pm, regardless of Jones' schedule or willingness. Ryan's party did so at roughly that time, accompanied by Lane and Garry, and came to Port Kaituma airstrip, 6 miles (10 km) from Jonestown, some hours later. Because of aircraft seating limitations, only four of the Concerned Relatives were allowed to accompany the Ryan delegation on its flight into Jonestown. Only Ryan and three others were initially accepted into Jonestown, but the rest of Ryan's group was allowed in after sunset. It was later reported (and verified by audiotapes recovered by investigators) that Jones had run rehearsals on how to convince Ryan's delegation that everyone was happy and in good spirits.
That night, the Ryan delegation attended a reception in the pavilion. While the party received a friendly reception, Jones said he felt like a dying man and ranted about government conspiracies and martyrdom as he decried attacks by the press and his enemies. Two Peoples Temple members, Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby, made the first move for defection that night. In the pavilion, Gosney passed a note to Don Harris (mistaking him for Ryan), reading "Dear Congressman, Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby. Please help us get out of Jonestown."
That night Ryan, Speier, Dwyer, and Annibourne stayed in Jonestown. Other members of the Ryan delegation, including the press corps and members of Concerned Relatives, were told that they had to find other accommodations, and so they went to Port Kaituma and stayed at a small café.
In the early morning of November 18, eleven Temple members sensed danger enough to walk out of the colony toward train tracks to take a train to Matthew's Ridge, which is located in the opposite direction from the airstrip at Port Kaituma. Those defectors included members of the Evans family and the Wilson family (the family of Jonestown's head of security, Joe Wilson). When reporters and Concerned Relatives arrived in Jonestown later that day, Jim Jones' wife Marceline gave them a tour of the settlement.
That afternoon, two families stepped forward and asked to be escorted out of Jonestown by the Ryan delegation. They were the Parks and the Bogue families, along with Christopher O'Neal and Harold Cordell, who were partners of women in the two families. When Jones' adopted son Johnny attempted to talk Jerry Parks out of leaving, Parks told him "No way, it's nothing but a communist prison camp."
Jones gave the two families, along with Gosney and Bagby, permission to leave. Under the Pavilion, Don Harris of NBC handed Jones the note written by Vernon Gosney while other reporters huddled around Jones. Jones told those reporters that, like others who left the community, the defectors would "lie" and destroy Jonestown.
After a sudden violent rainstorm started, some emotional scenes developed between family members. Al Simon, an
American IndianNative Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
member of the Peoples Temple, attempted to take two of his children to Ryan to process the requisite paperwork for transfer back to the United States. Al's wife, Bonnie, summoned on the loudspeakers by Temple staff, loudly denounced her husband. Al pleaded in vain with Bonnie to return to the U.S., but Bonnie rejected his suggestions.
The Port Kaituma airstrip shootings
While most of the Ryan delegation began to depart on a large dump truck to the Port Kaituma airstrip, Congressman Ryan and Dwyer stayed behind in Jonestown to process any additional defectors.
Shortly before the dump truck departed for the airstrip, Temple loyalist Larry Layton, the brother of Deborah Layton, demanded to join the group. Several defectors voiced their suspicions about his motives.
Shortly after the dump truck initially departed, Temple member Don Sly (nicknamed "Ujara") grabbed Ryan while wielding a knife. While Congressman Ryan was unhurt after others wrestled Sly to the ground, Dwyer strongly suggested that Ryan leave Jonestown while Dwyer filed a criminal complaint against Sly. Ryan did so, promising to return later to address the dispute.
The truck departing to the airstrip had stopped after the passengers heard of the attack on Ryan. Ryan then boarded the truck and reached the airstrip later that afternoon.
The entourage had originally scheduled a 19-seat Twin Otter to fly them back to Georgetown. Because of the defectors departing Jonestown, the group grew in number and now an additional aircraft was required. Accordingly, the U. S. Embassy arranged for a second plane, a six-passenger Cessna.
When the entourage reached the Port Kaituma airstrip between 4:30 p.m. and 4:45 p.m., the planes were supposed to be there, but they had not appeared yet. The group had to wait, until the aircraft landed at approximately 5:10 p.m. Then the boarding process began.
Larry Layton was a passenger on the Cessna, the first aircraft to set up for takeoff. After the Cessna had taxied to the far end of the airstrip, Layton produced a gun and started shooting at the passengers. He wounded Monica Bagby and Vernon Gosney, and tried to kill Dale Parks, who disarmed him.
At this time, some passengers had boarded the larger Twin Otter. A tractor with a trailer attached driven by members of the Temple's Red Brigade security squad approached the Otter. When the tractor neared within approximately 30 feet (9.1 m) of the Otter, roughly concurrent with the shootings on the Cessna, the Red Brigade opened fire on the aircraft while at least two Red Brigade members circled the plane on foot. There were perhaps nine shooters whose identities are not all certainly known, but most sources agree that Joe Wilson, Jones' head of security, Thomas Kice Sr., and Ronnie Dennis were among them.
A few seconds of the shooting were captured on
ENGENG is a broadcasting industry acronym which stands for electronic news gathering. It can mean anything from a lone broadcast journalist reporter taking a single professional video camera out to shoot a story, to an entire television crew taking a production truck or satellite truck on location...
videotapeA videotape is a recording of images and sounds on to magnetic tape as opposed to film stock or random access digital media. Videotapes are also used for storing scientific or medical data, such as the data produced by an electrocardiogram...
by
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
cameraman Bob Brown. Congressman Ryan, cameraman Bob Brown, photographer Greg Robinson, NBC reporter Don Harris and Temple defector Patricia Parks were killed in the few minutes of shooting.
Jackie SpeierKaren Lorraine Jacqueline "Jackie" Speier is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 2008. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes the northern two-thirds of San Mateo County and the southwest quarter of San Francisco.She is also a former member of the California State...
, Steve Sung, Richard Dwyer, Tim Reiterman and Anthony Katsaris were among the nine injured in and around the Twin Otter. After the shootings, the Cessna's pilot, along with the pilot and copilot of the Otter, fled in the Cessna to Georgetown, leaving behind the gunfire-damaged Otter and the injured Ryan delegation members.
Deaths in Jonestown
Before leaving Jonestown for the airstrip, Congressman Ryan had told Temple attorney
Charles GarryCharles R. Garry was an American civil rights attorney who represented a number of high-profile clients in political cases during the 1960s and 1970s, including representing the Peoples Temple in Jonestown during the 1978 tragedy that occurred at that location.-Early life:Born in Bridgewater,...
that he would issue a report that would describe Jonestown "in basically good terms." Ryan stated that none of the sixty relatives Ryan had targeted for interviews wanted to leave, the 14 defectors constituted a very small portion of Jonestown's residents, that any sense of imprisonment the defectors had was likely because of peer pressure and a lack of physical transportation, and even if 200 of the 900+ wanted to leave "I'd still say you have a beautiful place here." Similarly, Washington Post reporter Charles Krause stated that, on the way back to the airstrip, he was unconvinced that Jonestown was as bad as defectors had claimed because there were no signs of malnutrition or physical abuse, while many members appeared to enjoy Jonestown and only a small number of the over 900 residents elected to leave.
Despite Garry's report, Jones told him "I have failed." Garry reiterated that Ryan would be making a positive report, but Jones maintained that "All is lost."
A 44-minute cassette tape (the "
death tapeThe death tape or "Q042", is the final tape recorded by Jim Jones before the mass suicide of the residents of Jonestown in Guyana, in 1978....
"), recorded at least part of a meeting Jones called under the pavilion in the early evening. Before the meeting, aides prepared a metal vat with
Flavor AidFlavor Aid is a non-carbonated soft drink beverage made by Jel Sert in West Chicago, Illinois, introduced in 1929. It is sold throughout the United States as an unsweetened powdered concentrate drink mix, similar to Kool-Aid drink mix.-Flavors:...
, poisoned with
ValiumDiazepam , first marketed as Valium by Hoffmann-La Roche is a benzodiazepine drug. Diazepam is also marketed in Australia as Antenex. It is commonly used for treating anxiety, insomnia, seizures including status epilepticus, muscle spasms , restless legs syndrome, alcohol withdrawal,...
,
chloral hydrateChloral hydrate is a sedative and hypnotic drug as well as a chemical reagent and precursor. The name chloral hydrate indicates that it is formed from chloral by the addition of one molecule of water. Its chemical formula is C2H3Cl3O2....
,
cyanideA cyanide is a chemical compound that contains the cyano group, -C≡N, which consists of a carbon atom triple-bonded to a nitrogen atom. Cyanides most commonly refer to salts of the anion CN−. Most cyanides are highly toxic....
, and Phenergan.
When the assembly gathered, referring to the Ryan delegation's air travel back to Georgetown, Jones told the gathering "one of the people on that plane is gonna shoot the pilot, I know that. I didn't plan it but I know it's going to happen. They're gonna shoot that pilot and down comes the plane into the jungle and we had better not have any of our children left when it's over, because they'll parachute in here on us." Parroting Jones' prior statements that hostile forces would convert captured children to Fascism, one temple member states: "The ones that they take captured, they're gonna just let them grow up and be dummies."
On the death tape, Jones urged Temple members to commit "revolutionary suicide". Such "revolutionary suicide" had been planned by the Temple before and, according to Jonestown defectors, its theory was "you can go down in history, saying you chose your own way to go, and it is your commitment to refuse capitalism and in support of socialism."
Temple member Christine Miller argued that the Temple should alternatively attempt an airlift to Russia. Jim McElvane, a former therapist who had arrived in Jonestown only two days earlier, assisted Jones by arguing against Miller's resistance to suicide, stating "Let's make it a beautiful day" (followed by applause from Temple members) and later citing possible reincarnation. After several exchanges in which Jones argued that a Soviet exodus would not be possible, along with reactions by other temple members hostile to Miller, Miller backed down. However, Miller may have ceased dissenting when Jones confirmed at one point that "the Congressman has been murdered" after members of his "Red Brigade" squad returned from the airstrip after shooting Ryan.
After the airstrip shooters arrived back in Jonestown, Tim Carter, a Vietnam war veteran, recalled the shooters having the "
thousand-yard stareThe thousand-yard stare or two-thousand-yard stare is a phrase originally coined to describe the limp, unfocused gaze of a battle-weary warrior...
" of weary soldiers.
After Jones confirmed that "the Congressman's dead" no dissent occurs on the death tape. Directly after this, referring to his Red Brigade security squad that shot Ryan, Jones stated, "But the Red Brigade's the only one that made any sense anyway" and, "Red Brigade showed them justice." In response to reactions of seeing the poison take effect on others, Jones counseled, "Die with a degree of dignity. Lay down your life with dignity; don't lay down with tears and agony." In addition to Jim McElvane, several other temple members gave speeches praising Jones and his decision for the community to commit suicide, even after Jones stopped appreciating this praise and begged for the process to go faster.
According to escaped Temple member Odell Rhodes, first to take the poison were Ruletta Paul and her one-year-old infant. A syringe with its needle removed was used to squirt poison into the infant's mouth and then Paul squirted another syringe into her own mouth. Stanley Clayton also saw mothers with their babies first approach the table containing the poison. Clayton said that Jones approached people to encourage them to drink the poison and that, after adults saw the poison begin to take effect, "they showed a reluctance to die."
The poison caused death within around five minutes. After consuming the poison, according to Rhodes, people were then escorted away down a wooden walkway leading outside the Pavilion. It is not clear if some initially thought the exercise was another "White Night" rehearsal. Rhodes reported being in close contact with dying children.
Jones made reference to the cries and screams: "I tell you, I don't care how many screams you hear, I don't care how many anguished cries...death is a million times preferable to ten more days of this life. If you knew what was ahead of you – if you knew what was ahead of you, you'd be glad to be stepping over tonight." However, survivor Odell Rhodes stated that while the poison was squirted in some children's mouths, there was no panic or emotional outburst and people looked like they were "in a trance". His statement is questionable, as screaming children are audible throughout the "death tape."
Jones was found dead lying next to his chair between two other bodies, his head cushioned by a pillow. His death was caused by a gunshot wound to his left temple that Guyanese coroner Cyrill Mootoo stated was consistent with a self-inflicted gun wound.
The events at Jonestown constituted the greatest single losses of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the incidents of September 11, 2001.
Survivors/eyewitnesses
Three high ranking Temple member survivors claim they were given an assignment and thereby escaped death. Brothers Tim and Mike Carter, 30 years old and 20 years old respectively, and Mike Prokes, 31, were given luggage containing $550,000 in US currency, $130,000 in Guyanese currency and an envelope, which they were told to deliver to Guyana’s
SovietThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
Embassy, in Georgetown. The envelope contained two passports and three instructional letters, the first of which was to Feodor Timofeyev of the Embassy of the Soviet Union in Guyana, stating:
The letters included listed accounts with balances totaling in excess of $7.3 million to be transferred to the
Communist Party of the Soviet UnionThe Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
. The Carters and Prokes soon ditched most of the money and were apprehended heading for the Temple boat (Cudjo) at Kaituma. It is unknown how they were supposed to reach Georgetown, 150 miles (241.4 km) away, since the boat had been sent away by Temple leadership earlier that day.
Just before the start of the final meeting in the pavilion, lawyers Charles Garry and
Mark LaneMark Lane is an American lawyer who has written many books, including Rush to Judgment, one of two major books published in the immediate wake of the John F. Kennedy assassination that questioned the conclusions of the Warren Commission. Another book, Plausible Denial, published in 1991, continued...
were told that the people were angry at them. The lawyers were escorted to a house used to accommodate visitors. According to the lawyers, they talked their way past armed guards and made it to the jungle, before eventually arriving in Port Kaituma. While in the jungle near the settlement, they heard gunshots. This observation concurs with the testimony of Clayton, who heard the same sounds as he was sneaking back into Jonestown to retrieve his passport.
Five more people who were intended to be poisoned managed to survive. Grover Davis, 79, who was hearing impaired, missed the announcement to assemble on the loudspeaker, lay down in a ditch and pretended to be dead. Hyacinth Thrash, 76, realized what was happening and crawled under her bed, only to walk out after the suicides were completed. Odell Rhodes, 36, a Jonestown teacher and craftsman, volunteered to fetch a stethoscope and hid under a building. Stanley Clayton, 25, a kitchenworker and cousin of
Huey P. NewtonHuey Percy Newton was an American political and urban activist who, along with Bobby Seale, co-founded the Black Panther Party for Self Defense.-Early life:...
, tricked security guards and ran into the jungle. The fifth survivor, a 5 year old boy known only as "Michael", escaped by hiding in the surrounding forest. Upon his rescue (by Guyanese government officials) he was returned to the United States, adopted, and is believed to have been raised in or around
Portland, MainePortland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
.
Medical examinations
The only medical doctor to initially examine the scene at Jonestown was Guyanese Chief
Medical ExaminerA medical examiner is a medically qualified government officer whose duty is to investigate deaths and injuries that occur under unusual or suspicious circumstances, to perform post-mortem examinations, and in some jurisdictions to initiate inquests....
Dr. Leslie Mootoo. Mootoo visually examined over 200 bodies and later told a Guyanese coroner's jury that he saw needle marks on at least 70. However, no determination was made as to whether those injections initiated the introduction of poison or whether they were so-called "relief" injections to quicken death and reduce suffering from convulsions from those who had previously taken poison orally. Mootoo and American pathologist Dr. Lynn Crook determined that cyanide was present in some of the bodies, while analysis of the contents of the vat revealed several tranquilizers as well as
potassium cyanidePotassium cyanide is an inorganic compound with the formula KCN. This colorless crystalline compound, similar in appearance to sugar, is highly soluble in water. Most KCN is used in gold mining, organic synthesis, and electroplating. Smaller applications include jewelry for chemical gilding and...
and
potassium chlorideThe chemical compound potassium chloride is a metal halide salt composed of potassium and chlorine. In its pure state, it is odorless and has a white or colorless vitreous crystal appearance, with a crystal structure that cleaves easily in three directions. Potassium chloride crystals are...
.
Plastic cups, Flavor Aid packets and syringes, some with needles and some without, littered the area where the bodies were found. Mootoo concluded that the gunshot wound to Annie Moore could not have been self-inflicted, though Moore had also ingested a lethal dose of cyanide.
Guyanese authorities waived their requirement for autopsies in the case of unnatural death. Doctors in the United States performed autopsies on only seven bodies, including those of Jim Jones, Dr. Lawrence Schact, Annie Moore and Carolyn Layton. Annie Moore and Carolyn Layton were selected among those autopsied, in part, because of the urging of the Moore family, including the two victims' sister, Rebecca Moore, who was not a Temple member herself.
Deaths in Georgetown
In the early evening of November 18, at the Temple's headquarters in
GeorgetownGeorgetown, estimated population 239,227 , is the capital and largest city of Guyana, located in the Demerara-Mahaica region. It is situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the mouth of the Demerara River and it was nicknamed 'Garden City of the Caribbean.' Georgetown is located at . The city serves...
, Temple member Sharon Amos received a radio communication from Jonestown instructing the members at the headquarters to take revenge on the Temple's enemies and then commit revolutionary suicide. Later, after police arrived at the Temple headquarters, Sharon Amos escorted her children, Liane (21), Christa (11) and Martin (10), into a bathroom. Wielding a kitchen knife, Sharon first killed Christa and then Martin. Then Liane assisted Sharon in killing herself with the knife, after which Liane killed herself with the knife.
Aftermath
At the airstrip, journalist Tim Reiterman photographed the aftermath of the violence. Dwyer assumed leadership at the scene and, at his recommendation, Layton was arrested by Guyanese state police. Dwyer was grazed by one bullet in his buttock during the airstrip shootings. It took several hours before the ten wounded and others in their party gathered themselves together. Most of them spent the night in a café. The more seriously wounded slept in a small tent on the airfield. A Guyanese government plane arrived the following morning to evacuate the wounded. Five teenaged members of the Parks and Bogue families, with one boyfriend, followed the instructions of defector Gerald Parks to hide in the adjacent jungle until help arrived and their safety was assured. Thereafter those members were lost for three days in the jungle and nearly died. Guyanese soldiers eventually found them.
After escaping Jonestown, Odell Rhodes arrived in Port Kaituma on the night of November 18, 1978. That night Stanley Clayton stayed with a local Guyanese family and travelled to Port Kaituma the next morning. The Carter brothers and Michael Prokes were put into
protective custodyProtective custody is a type of imprisonment to protect a prisoner from harm, either from outside sources or other prisoners. Many administrators believe the level of violence, or the underlying threat of violence within prisoners, is a chief factor causing the need for PC units...
in Port Kaituma. They were later released in Georgetown. Rhodes, Clayton and the two lawyers (Garry and Lane) were also brought to Georgetown. Michael Prokes committed suicide on March 14, 1979, four months after the Jonestown incident.
Larry Layton, who had fired a gun at several people aboard the Cessna, was originally found not guilty of attempted murder in a Guyanese court, employing the defense that he was "brainwashed". Layton could not be tried in the United States for the attempted murders of Vern Gosney, Monica Bagby, the Cessna pilot and Dale Parks on Guyanese soil and was, instead, tried under a federal statute against assassinating members of Congress and internationally protected people (Ryan and Dwyer). He was convicted of conspiracy and of aiding and abetting the murder of Congressman Leo Ryan and of the attempted murder of Richard Dwyer. Paroled in 2002, he is the only person ever to have been held criminally responsible for the events at Jonestown.
The event was one of the stories most heavily covered by the media and photographs pertaining to it adorned newspaper and magazine covers for months after its occurrence, including being labeled "cult of death" by
TimeTime is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
and
NewsweekNewsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
magazines. In February 1979, 98% of Americans polled said that they had heard of the tragedy. George Gallup stated that "few events, in fact, in the entire history of the Gallup Poll have been known to such a high percentage of the U.S. public."
After the deaths, both the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the State Department itself criticized the State Department's handling of the Temple. Political opposition seized the opportunity to embarrass Guyanese Prime Minister Burnham by establishing an inquest which concluded that Burnham was responsible for the deaths at Jonestown.
The sheer scale of the event, as well as Jones' socialism, purported inconsistencies in the reported number of deaths, allegedly poor explanation of events related to deaths at Jonestown, and existence of classified documents led some to suggest
CIA involvementFrom the moment the story of Jonestown broke, conspiracy theories began to surface which could allegedly reveal the truth of what happened there and explain the events leading up to the massacre...
, though the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence investigated the Jonestown mass suicide and announced that there was no evidence of CIA involvement at Jonestown.
Former site
Now deserted, the compound at Jonestown was first tended by the Guyanese government following the deaths. The government then allowed its re-occupation by
HmongThe Hmong , are an Asian ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Hmong are also one of the sub-groups of the Miao ethnicity in southern China...
refugees from
LaosLaos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
for a few years in the early 1980s. The buildings and grounds were looted by local Guyanese people, but were not taken over because of their association with the mass killing. The buildings were mostly destroyed by a fire in the mid-1980s, after which the ruins were left to decay and be reclaimed by the jungle.
During a visit in 1998 to film a segment for the
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
news show 20/20, Jim Jones, Jr. discovered the rusting remains of an oil drum near the former entrance to the Pavilion. Jones recognized the drum, originally adapted for use during meal times, as the drum used for drink mixtures used during the "white night" exercises, and which he believed was used to hold the poison and Flavor Aid liquid used on November 18, 1978.
In 2003, with the help of Gerry Gouveia, a pilot involved with the Jonestown Massacre cleanup, a television crew filming a special for the 25th anniversary of the event returned to the original site of Jonestown with the intent to uncover any remaining artifacts. Although covered with dense vegetation, after searching for several hours the team uncovered a standing cassava mill (possibly the largest remaining structure), the remains of a tractor (speculated as the same tractor used by the airstrip shooters), a generator, a filing cabinet, an overturned truck near the site of Jim Jones' house (claimed to be his favorite vehicle by Gouveia), a fuel pump, and other smaller miscellaneous items. The former pilot also led the team to the site where the pavilion once was, and they found the remains of a steel drum, an organ, and a bed of
daisiesBellis perennis is a common European species of Daisy, often considered the archetypal species of that name. Many related plants also share the name "Daisy", so to distinguish this species from other daisies it is sometimes qualified as Common Daisy, Lawn Daisy or occasionally English daisy. It is...
growing where the bodies had once lain.
In 2011, a local man asked the government to make the site a tourist attraction .
See also
- Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, is a 2006 documentary film made by Firelight Media. The documentary reveals new footage of the incidents surrounding the Peoples Temple and its leader Jim Jones who led over 900 members of his Cult to a settlement in Guyana called Jonestown, where he...
, a 2006 documentary film
- Jonestown: Paradise Lost
Jonestown: Paradise Lost was a 2007 documentary played on the History Channel about the final days of Jonestown, the Peoples Temple, and Jim Jones. From eyewitness and survivor accounts, the program recreates the last week before the mass murder-suicide on November 18, 1978....
, a 2007 Discovery Channel Documentary
- Jonestown conspiracy theory
From the moment the story of Jonestown broke, conspiracy theories began to surface which could allegedly reveal the truth of what happened there and explain the events leading up to the massacre...
- United States Congress members killed or wounded in office
Further reading
Based on interviews with Odell Rhodes. (published in the UK as Black and White)
External links
- Alternative considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple, an extensive resource on the topics, sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies at San Diego State University
- "Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple", website for the film broadcast on PBS includes video interviews with survivors from 2006
- "The Jonestown Death Tape (FBI No. Q 042) (November 18 1978)", an unofficial web-publishing (digital) of the "Death Tape" seemingly made just before and during the mass slaying, Time magazine cover story, Monday, December 4, 1978
- Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown, a 1981 audio documentary produced by NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
(90 minutes)
- 'Jonestown Legacy' website run by David Wise, once a Pastor of the Los Angeles Branch of the Peoples Temple, but latterly an opponent of Jim Jones., the contents of US Government archives on the subject obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. (web-archived copy of the original website, no longer extant; unfortunately the scanned pages are missing)
- "The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy", excerpt from: Report of a Staff Investigative Group to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives, May 15, 1979