Jonestown

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Jonestown was a short-lived settlement made in northwestern Guyana by the Peoples Temple, a cult from California. Jonestown became lastingly and internationally notorious in 1978 when over 900 people died in a mass murder-suicide orchestrated by their leader, Jim Jones. To the extent the actions in Jonestown were viewed as a mass suicide, it is one of the largest such mass suicides in history, perhaps the largest in over 1,900 years and the largest mass suicide of United States citizens by at least an order of magnitude. The event also involved the murder at a nearby airstrip of, among others, Congressman Leo Ryan, the first and only Congressman murdered in the line of duty in the history of the United States. The name of the settlement thus also became a term for the incidents at Jonestown and a nearby Port Kaituma airstrip.

Named after Jones, Jonestown was founded on his initiative in the mid-1970s as an agricultural commune. It stood amidst jungle, about seven miles (11 km) southwesterly from Port Kaituma. At its height, Jonestown's population consisted of about one thousand Peoples Temple members, but most residents lived there for under a year.

In November 1978, United States Congressman Leo Ryan led reporters and a delegation of concerned relatives of Peoples Temple members on a visit to Jonestown to investigate allegations of abuses there. The visit ended in the murders of Ryan and four others by members of the Peoples Temple, shot at the Port Kaituma airstrip as they were about to fly out. That evening, November 18, Jones led the Peoples Temple members in a mass murder-suicide. Approximately nine hundred men, women and children perished, along with Jones, who died from a gunshot wound.

Jonestown was shortly abandoned by the collapsing remnant of the Peoples Temple. Afterward, it was at first tended by the Guyanese government, which allowed its re-occupation by Hmong refugees from Laos for a few years in the early 1980s, but it has since been altogether deserted.^[1] It was looted but otherwise avoided by the local Guyanese and mostly destroyed by a fire in the mid-1980s, leaving the site as an abandoned ruin.

The Peoples Temple was formed in Indianapolis, Indiana, during the mid-1950s.^[2] In the 1960s, the congregation had dwindled to fewer than a hundred members and was on the verge of collapse when Jones managed to secure an affiliation with the Disciples of Christ.^[3] This new association bolstered the Temple's reputation, increased its membership, and spread Jones' influence.

The Peoples Temple purported to practice what it called "apostolic socialism."^[4] In doing so, the Temple preached to established members that "religion is an opiate of the people."^[5] Accordingly, "those who remained drugged with the opiate of religion had to be brought to enlightenment -- socialism."^[6] In that regard, Jones also openly stated that he "took the church and used the church to bring people to atheism."^[7] Jones mixed those concepts, such as preaching that "If you're born in this church, this socialist revolution, you're not born in sin. If you're born in capitalist America, racist America, fascist America, then you're born in sin. But if you're born in socialism, you're not born in sin."^[5]

In 1961, Jones helped to integrate churches, restaurants, the telephone company, the police department, a theater, an amusement park, and the Methodist Hospital and became the executive director of the Indianapolis Human Rights Commission.^[8]

Jones received considerable criticism in Indiana for his integrationist views.^[9] In 1965, Jones left Indiana, moving the Peoples Temple to Redwood Valley, California.^[10][3] This was based, in part, on Jones belief that they would be safe from nuclear fallout if there were a nuclear attack on the United States.^[11]

In 1972, Jones moved his congregation to San Francisco, California, and opened another church in Los Angeles, California. There, Jones vocally supported prominent political candidates, was appointed to city commissions and made grants to local newspapers with the stated goal of supporting the First Amendment. Partly inspired by the eccentric preacher Father Divine, he began charity efforts with the goal of recruiting the poor.^[12]

At the same time, 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, in the heat of the 1976 Presidential Campaign, Jones met with Vice Presidential Candidate Walter Mondale on his campaign plane.^[13] Likewise, First Lady Rosalynn Carter personally met Jones for a private dinner at the Stanford Court Hotel.^[13] Mrs. Carter later called Jones personally.^[14] At the 1976 grand opening of the San Francisco Democratic Party Headquarters, Jones packed the audience with Temple members and garnered louder applause when he spoke than Mrs. Carter.^[15] Governor Jerry Brown, Lieutenant Govenor Mervyn Dymally and Assemblyman Willie Brown, among others, attended a large testimonial dinner in honor of Jim Jones during September 1976.^[16] At that dinner, Willie Brown referred to Jones as "a combination of Martin King, Angela Davis, Albert Einstein, and Chairman Mao."^[17] By mid-1977, Willie Brown had visited the Temple perhaps a dozen times, some by invitation and some on his own, and Jerry Brown had visited at least once.^[18][19] After the Peoples Temple participation was instrumental in the Mayoral election victory of George Moscone in 1975, Moscone appointed Jones as the Chairman of the San Francisco Housing Commission.^[20]

After several scandals on and an investigation for tax evasion^[21] in San Francisco, Jones began planning a relocation of the Temple. According to the American Journal of Economics & Sociology, Jones considered locations in California and Brazil before settling on Guyana. In 1974, he leased over 3,800 acres (15.4 km²) of jungle land from the Guyanese government.^[22]

Former Temple member Tim Carter attributed the reason for this move to the Temple's view of creeping fascism, the perception of growing influence of large corporations on the government, and racism in the U.S. government.^[23] Carter said the Temple concluded that Guyana, a predominantly black, English-speaking socialist country, would afford black members of the Temple a peaceful place to live.^[23]

Members of the Peoples Temple began the construction of Jonestown under the supervision of senior Temple members. Jones then went back to California where he encouraged his followers to move to Jonestown, which he called the "Peoples Temple Agricultural Project", in 1977.^[22] Jonestown's population increased from 50 members in 1977 to more than 1000 at its peak in 1978.

Jones purported to establish Jonestown as a benevolent communist community stating, "I believe we’re the purest communists there are." ^[24] Marceline Joness described Jonestown as "dedicated to live for socialism, total economic and racial and social equality. We are here living communally."^[24] Jones wanted to construct a model community and claimed that Prime Minister of Guyana Forbes Burnham "couldn’t rave enough about us, uh, the wonderful things we do, the project, the model of socialism."^[25] In that regard, like the restrictive emigration policies of the Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea and other communist republics, Jones did not permit members to leave Jonestown.^[26]

In the summer of 1977, Jones and several hundred Temple members moved to Jonestown after building pressure from media investigations.^[27] Jones left during 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.^[27][28]

Many of the Peoples Temple members believed that Guyana would be, as Jones promised, a paradise. At first, work was performed six days a week, from six thirty to seven in the morning to six in the evening, with an hour lunch, in Guyana's equatorial climate.^[29] 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.^[23]

After their daily work, Temple members would attend several hours activities in a Pavilion structure, including classes in socialism.^[30] Jones described this study as like that of the North Korean system of eight hours of daily work followed by eight hours of study.^[31][32] Jones would often also read news and commentary, including some from news from Radio Moscow and Radio Havanna.^[33]

Jones' recorded reading of the news was part of the constant broadcasts over Jonestown's tower speakers such that all members could hear them throughout the day and night. ^[34] Jones' reading of the news usually portrayed the United States as a "capitalist" and "imperialist" villain, while casting "socialist" leaders such as former North Korean dicatator Kim Il-sung ("great leader of the revolution, is in the vanguard of the Korean working class"), Robert Mugabe ("long known for his communist inspiration to the people of Zimbabwe and one of the revolutionary heroes") and Joseph Stalin (disturbed by people criticizing Stalin) in a positive light. ^[35]

The members lived in small communal houses eating meals reportedly consisted of nothing more than rice and beans on many days (more on others).^[36] 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 and it reportedly contained a small refrigerator containing, at times, eggs, meat, fruit, salads, and soft drinks.^[36] Medical problems such as severe diarrhea and high fevers struck half the community in February 1978.

Although Jonestown contained no 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 6x4x3-foot (1.8 x 1.2 x 0.9 m) plywood box and forcing children to spend a night at the bottom of a well, sometimes upside-down.^[2] For some members who attempted to escape, drugs such as Thorazine, sodium pentathol, chloral hydrate, Demerol and Valium were administered until they "came to their senses," with detailed records being kept of each person’s drug regimen; .^[37] 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.^[38]

Up to $65,000 in monthly welfare payments from government organizations in the United States to Jonestown residents were signed over to the Temple.^[39] In 1978, officials from the United States Embassy in Guyana interviewed Social Security recipients on multiple occasions to make sure they were not being held against their will.^[40] None of the 75 people the Embassy interviewed stated that they were being held against their will, were forced to sign over welfare checks or wanted to leave Jonestown. ^[41]

The Temple's wealth was estimated in late 1978 to be approximately $26 million.^[42]

Regarding Jonestown's safety, Jones made addresses to Temple members including statements that the CIA and other intelligence agencies were conspiring with "capitalist pigs" to destroy Jonestown and harm its members.^[43]

In Georgetown, the Peoples Temple conducted frequent meetings with the embassies of the Soviet Union, North Korea, Yugoslavia and Cuba.^[44] Their negotiations with the Soviet Union included extensive discussions of possible resettlement there and the Temple produced memoranda discussing potential places within the Soviet Union in which they might settle.^[44]

After work, when puported emergencies arose, Jones sometimes conducted what he referred to as "White Nights."^[45] During such events, Jones would sometimes give the Jonestown members four choices: (1) attempt to flee to the Soviet Union; (2) commit "revolutionary suicide"; (3) stay in Jonestown and fight the purported attackers or (4) flee into the jungle.^[46]

On at least two occasions, after a "revolutionary suicide" vote was reached, a simulated mass suicide was rehearsed during these White Nights. In an affidavit, Peoples Temple defector Deborah Layton describes the event:

"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."^[36]

After pressure increased in the United States for investigations into Jonestown, on February 19, 1978, Harvey Milk wrote a letter of support for the Peoples Temple to President Jimmy Carter.^[47] Therein, Milk wrote that Jones was known "as a man of the highest character."^[47] 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."^[47]

On April 11 1978, the a group of relatives of Temple members often referred to as 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.^[48] In June of 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. ^[49]

During the summer of 1978, Jones hired famous JFK assassination conspiracy theorists Mark Lane and Donald Freed to help make the case of a "grand conspiracy" by intelligence agencies against the Peoples Temple.^[50] Jones told Lane he wanted to "pull an Eldridge Cleaver", referring to a fugitive Black Panther that was able to return to the United States after repairing his reputation.^[51] In September of 1978, Lane spoke to the residents of Jonestown, providing support for Jones' theories and drawing parallels between Martin Luther King and Jim Jones.^[52] 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 Templye by "intelligence organizations," naming the CIA, FBI, FCC and even the U.S. Post Office.^[53] Though Lane represented himself as disinterested, Jones was actually paying him $6,000 per month to generate such theories.^[54]

On October 2 1978, Feodor Timofeyev from the Soviet Union embassy in Guyana visited Jonestown for two days and gave a speech.^[55] 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.^[55] 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.^[55] 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."^[55]

By October of 1978, Temple members met almost weekly with Timofeyev discussing a potential exodus to the Soviet Union.^[44]

On November 1 1978, Congressman Leo Ryan announced that he would visit Jonestown. ^[56] 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.^[57] Over the following months, Ryan's interest was further aroused by the complaints of the Concerned Relatives and the allegations following the defection of Deborah Layton.^[58]

On Tuesday November 14, 1978, Congressman Leo Ryan, a Democrat representing a district in Northern California, flew to Georgetown, Guyana (250 miles 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 Ryan, his legal advisor Jackie Speier (now a Congresswoman), Neville Annibourne, representing Guyana's Ministry of Information, Richard Dwyer, Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy to Guyana at Jonestown (who some believe to have been a CIA officer,^[59]) reporters Tim Reiterman (San Francisco Examiner) and Don Harris (NBC), Greg Robinson, Steve Sung, Bob Flick, Charles Krause, Ron Javers, Bob Brown, and Concerned Relatives representatives Anthony Katsaris, Jim Cobb, Sherwin Harris, and Carolyn Houston Boyd.

Ryan and the others intended to investigate allegations that included daily human rights violations, charges of false imprisonment and the forced confiscation of money and passports, mass suicide rehearsals, and the murder of seven attempted defectors.^[60]

From the time Ryan and the others arrived in Georgetown, the capital city of Guyana, at midnight before Wednesday November 15, there were signs that things would not run smoothly. Previously booked hotel rooms were occupied, and the group had to find other lodgings. In the days that followed, Jones' lawyers, Mark Lane and Charles Garry, refused to allow Ryan's party access to Jonestown.

During his stay, Ryan visited the Temple headquarters in the suburb of Lamaha Gardens. At a rear patio, Ryan spoke with Temple members Laura Johnston Kohl and others, who showed him around the house's first floor. Ryan asked to speak to Jones by radio, but Sharon Amos, the highest-ranking Temple member present, told Ryan that he could not because his present visit was unscheduled.

By late morning on Friday, November 17, Ryan informed Lane and Garry that he would leave for Jonestown at 2:30 p.m., 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. 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 in how to receive Ryan's delegation in order to convince them that everyone was happy and in good spirits.

On the night of Ryan's arrival, there was a reception and concert held for the Ryan delegation. Temple members, carefully selected by Jones, accompanied individual visitors around the compound. Two Peoples Temple members (Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby) made the first move for defection that night. 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."^[61]

That night, the Ryan delegation (Ryan, Speier, Dwyer, and Annibourne) stayed in Jonestown. The entire 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, more than a dozen Temple members sensed danger enough to walk out of the colony toward train tracks and to take a train to Matthew's Ridge, in the opposite direction of the airstrip at Port Kaituma. These defectors included the members of the Evans family and Wilson family (the family of Jonestown's head of security, Joe Wilson).^[62]. Later, when the reporters and Concerned Relatives had arrived, Marceline Jones, wife of Jim Jones, gave a tour of the settlement for the visiting reporters. There was a dispute outside a small dormitory building where elderly black female temple members were living. The windows and doors were all shut, and Jones loyalists accused the press of being racist for trying to invade the privacy of the elderly women. The journalists replied that they wanted to know about the living conditions.

Jim Jones woke late on the morning of November 18, and the NBC crew handed him Vernon Gosney's note. Jones was angry and said that those who wanted to leave the community would "lie" and destroy Jonestown. Then 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.^[63] 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."^[64] Cordell lost 20 family members that evening during the poisonings. ^[65] The Bogues lost their daughter Marilee (age 18), and Gosney lost his son Mark (age 5).^[66]

Jones gave them permission to leave, with some money and their passports. Jones also told them they would be welcome to come back at any time. That afternoon, there was a very long negotiation under a pavilion, during which Jones was upset by news that the Evans and Wilson families had defected on foot.

While negotiations proceeded under the pavilion, some new emotional scenes developed between family members. Al Simon, an American Indian member of the Peoples Temple, walked toward Ryan with two of his small children in his arms and asked to go back with them to the U.S., but his wife Bonnie was summoned on the loudspeakers by Jones' staff, and she loudly denounced her husband.^[67] He pleaded with her to return to the US and consult with their family, but she bitterly rejected his suggestion.

Port Kaituma airstrip shootings
The tractor and trailer driven by the Twin Otter shooters, as recorded by Bob Brown of NBC News. One shooter is visible in front of the vehicle, having just fired a shot.
Location	Port Kaituma, Guyana
Date	November 18, 1978 5:20 p.m. – 5:25 p.m. (UTC-4)
Target	Congressman Leo Ryan and party; defectors from the Peoples Temple at Jonestown
Attack type	Mass murder
Weapons	Firearms
Deaths	5[68]
Injured	11[68]
Perpetrators	Larry Layton (Cessna attack)

More people were leaving Jonestown than had been expected, and this would require a second aircraft. Congressman Ryan's plan as of approximately 3:00 PM on Saturday was to send a small group to the airstrip, to allow them to depart, and to stay behind with the rest of the entourage until another flight could be chartered.^[69]

Shortly after the first group left by truck transport, Temple member Don Sly (nicknamed "Ujara"), acting directly under Jones' orders, attacked Ryan with a knife while Ryan attempted to resolve a family dispute.^[69] While Congressman Ryan was unhurt, Deputy Chief of Mission Dwyer ordered Ryan to leave Jonestown. Ryan promised to return later to address the dispute.^[70]

Shortly before the departure of Congressman Ryan and the rest of his group, Jones loyalist Larry Layton demanded to join the group. Several Jonestown defectors voiced their suspicions about Layton's motives, suspicions which Ryan and Speier disregarded. Ryan's party and 16 ex-Temple members left Jonestown and reached the Port Kaituma airstrip between 4:30 and 4:45 p.m.

The entourage planned to use two planes (the six-passenger Cessna and a slightly larger Twin Otter) to fly to Georgetown. The planes were not ready for departure when the group arrived; the group had to wait at the airstrip until approximately 5:10 p.m.^[70]

Larry Layton was a passenger on the Cessna, which was the first aircraft to set up for takeoff. At approximately 5:20 p.m, just as the Cessna had taxied to the far end of the airstrip, Layton produced a gun he had hidden under his poncho and started shooting at the passengers. He wounded Monica Bagby and Vernon Gosney, and he tried to kill Dale Parks, who disarmed Layton.

Meanwhile, the larger Twin Otter was partially boarded with passengers including Congressman Ryan. At about the same time the Cessna shooting was underway, a tractor with trailer attached appeared at the airstrip, driven by members of Jones's armed guards. This tractor got within about 30 feet of the plane, and the Jones loyalists opened fire on the aircraft while circling the plane on foot.^[70] A few seconds of the shooting were captured on camera by NBC cameraman Bob Brown, whose camera kept rolling even as he was shot dead. Congressman Ryan, news team members Brown, Robinson, and Harris, and 44-year-old Jonestown defector Patricia Parks were killed in the few minutes of shooting. Jackie Speier, Steve Sung, and Anthony Katsaris were among the 9 injured in and around the Twin Otter. In the confusion, the Cessna was able to take off and fly to Georgetown, leaving behind the gunfire-damaged Otter (whose pilot and copilot also flew out in the Cessna).

The murder of Congresman Ryan was the first and only murder of a Congressman in the line of duty in the history of the United States. ^[71]

Journalist Tim Reiterman, who had stayed at the airstrip, 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, at the airstrip.

It took several hours before the 10 wounded and others in their party gathered themselves together and spent the night in a café, with the more seriously wounded in a small tent on the airfield. A Guyanese government plane came to evacuate the wounded the following morning.

Five teenage members of the Parks and Bogue families, with one boyfriend, were told by defector Gerald Parks after the shooting to hide in the adjacent jungle until help arrived and their safety was assured. They went into the jungle but got lost for three days and nearly died, until they were found by Guyanese soldiers.

Before leaving Jonestown for the airstrip, Congressman Ryan had actually told Temple attorney Charles R. Garry that he would issue a report that would describe Jonestown "in basically good terms", that none of the sixty relatives Ryan had targeted for interviews wanted to leave, that the 14 other people that did leave were a very small portion of Jonestown's residents, that even if 200 of the 900+ wanted to leave "I'd still say you have a beautiful place here" and that any sense of imprisonment the 14 leaving had was likely because of peer pressure and a lack of physical transportation. ^[72] 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, many members appeared to enjoy Jonestown and only a small number of the over 900 residents elected to leave.^[73]

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."^[74]

Despite the existence of an audio recording, three witness accounts, a handful of autopsies and some suicide notes, not all is known about what happened in Jonestown on the evening of November 18, 1978. What is known is that Jim Jones called a meeting under the pavilion in the early evening. Before the meeting, aides prepared a metal vat with grape Flavor Aid, poisoned with Valium, chloral hydrate, and presumably (though not certainly) cyanide. When the assembled gathered, 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..."

The reason given by Jones to commit suicide was consistent with Jones' previously stated conspiracy theories of intelligence organizations allegedly conspiring against the Temple, that men would "parachute in here on us", "shoot some of our innocent babies" and "they'll torture our children, they'll torture some of our people here, they'll torture our seniors."^[75] 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."^[75]

Before any deaths occurred, Jones argued with at least one Temple member who actively resisted the decision for Temple members to commit what they had long referred to as "revolutionary suicide."^[75] Christine Miller dissents, arguing to attempt an alternative airlift to Russia. 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's ceasing of dissent might also have been caused by Jones confirming announcement at one point that "the congressman is dead" after members of his "Red Brigade" squad returned from the airstrip after shooting Ryan.^[75]

After the airstrip shooters arrived back in Jonestown, Tim Carter, a Vietnam war veteran^[76], recalled the shooters having the "thousand-yard stare" of weary soldiers. The shooters numbered about nine, and their identities are not all certainly known, but most sources agree that Joe Wilson, Jones's head of security, Thomas Kice Sr., and Albert Touchette were among them.

After Jones' confirmation that "the congressman is dead", no dissent occurs on the death tape.^[75] Directly after this, referring to his Red Brigade security squad that shot Ryan, Jones stated "What the Red Brigade doin' one bit that made any sense anyway" and "Red Brigade showed them justice."^[75] When people later perhaps cried or became apprehensive after seeing the poison take effect on others, Jones commanded "Stop this hysterics. This is not the way for people who are Socialists or Communists to die. No way for us to die. We must die with some dignity." ^[75]

According to escaped Temple member Odell Rhodes, first to take the poison were Ruletta Paul and her one year old infant.^[77] A syringe without a needle was used to squirt poison into Ruletta's infant's mouth and then Ruletta squirted another syringe into her mouth.^[78] Stanley Clayton also saw mothers with their babies first approach the table containing the poison.^[79] 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."^[80]

The poison caused death within around five minutes.^[81] After consuming the poison, according to Rhodes, people were then escorted away down a wooden walkway leading outside the Pavilion.^[82] It is not clear whether or not some initially thought the exercise was another "White Night" rehearsal. Rhodes reported being in close contact with dying children.^[83]

While the tape contains no direct audio of screaming or crying, at least one statement by Jones perhaps indirectly references the existence of such events: "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."^[75] However, surivor Odell Rhodes stated that while the poison was squirted in some childrens' mouths, there was no panic or emotional outburst and people looked like they were "in a trance." ^[84]

Most television and print media reported the event as a mass suicide, but in recent years, variations of the term "murder-suicide" have popped up. Factors frequently discussed by people considering characterization of the events are the potential implied coercion by the existence of armed guards surrounding the Pavilion, the inabiity of the over 280 children to consent to suicide, the psycholgoical state of Jonestown residents and whether injection marks on some bodies indicated initial poisoning via injection or so-called "relief" injections to ease convuslion suffering after oral ingestion of the poision had already occurred.

Four people who were intended to be poisoned managed to survive.^[85] Grover Davis, 79, who was hearing impaired, missed the announcement on the loudspeaker to assemble, laid down in a ditch and pretended to be dead. Hyacinth Thrash, 76, hid under her bed when nurses were going through her dormitory with cups of poison. 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 Newton, tricked security guards and ran into the jungle.

Three more survivors claim they were given an assignment by Maria Katsaris, a top lieutenant of Jones, 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 US currency, $130,000 in Guyanese currency and a envelope, which they were told to deliver to Guyana’s Soviet Embassy, in Georgetown.^[86] 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:

Dear Comrade Timofeyev,
The following is a letter of instructions regarding all of our assets that we want to leave to the Communist Party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Enclosed in this letter are letters which instruct the banks to send the cashiers checks to you. I am doing this on behalf of Peoples' Temple because we, as communists, want our money to be of benefit for help to oppressed peoples all over the world, or in any way that your decision-making body sees fit.^[87][88]

The letters included listed accounts with balances totaling in excess of $7.3 million to be transferred to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ^[87][89][90] The Carters and Prokes soon ditched most of the money and were apprehended heading for the Temple boat (Cudjo) at Kaituma.^[85] It is unknown how they were supposed to reach Georgetown, 250 miles away, since the boat had been sent away by Temple leadership earlier that day.^[85]

At the start of the meeting, lawyers Charles Garry and Mark Lane were told that the people were angry at them. The lawyers were escorted to "the East House", which was used to accommodate visitors, far from the pavilion. According to the lawyers, they talked their way past armed guards and made it to the jungle, before eventually arriving in Port Kaituma.^[91] While in the jungle near the settlement, they heard cheering, then 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.

The only medical doctor to initially examine the scene at Jonestown while the bodies were still present was Guyanese Chief Medical Examiner 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.^[92] However, no determination was made whether those injections intiated 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 tranquilizers and two poisons: potassium cyanide and potassium chloride.^[92]

Plastic cups, Flavor-Aid packets and syringes, some with needles and some without, littered the area where the bodies were found. ^[93] On some of the syringes with needles, some of those needles were bent. Bent needles could suggest struggles among unwilling adults. However, no investigation was made to determine whether any needle was bent during an injection or later by others walking upon needles lying on the ground.

Mootoo also concluded that the gunshot wound to Annie Moore could not have been self-inflicted, though Moore had also ingested a lethal dose of cyanide. ^[94]

Guyanese authorities waived their requirement for autopsies in the case of unnatural death, with the result that only seven bodies were autopsied, including those of Jim Jones, Annie Moore, and Dr. Lawrence Schact.^[92] Those autopsies were performed due to the insistence of the Moore family, including Rebecca Moore, sister of Peoples Temple leaders Annie and Carolyn Moore, herself not a Peoples Temple member.^[92]

Found near Marceline Jones' body was a typewritten note, dated November 18 1978, signed by Marceline Jones and witnessed by Annie Moore and Maria Katsaris, stating:

I, Marceline Jones, leave all bank accounts in my name to the Communist Party of the USSR. The bank accounts are located in the Bank of Nova Scotia, Nassau, Bahamas.

Please be sure that these assets do get to the USSR. I especially request that none of these are allowed to get into the hands of my adopted daughter, Suzanne Jones Cartmell.

For anyone who finds this letter, please honor this request as it is most important to myself and my husband James W. Jones.^[95]

Annie Moore left a final note, which in part stated: "I am at a point right now so embittered against the world that I don't know why I am writing this. Someone who finds it will believe I am crazy or believe in the barbed wire that does NOT exist in Jonestown."^[96] The last line ("We died because you would not let us live in peace.") is written in different color ink. No other specific reference is made to the events of the day. Moore also wrote, "JONESTOWN — the most peaceful, loving community that ever existed."^[96] In addition, she stated,"JIM JONES — the one who made this paradise possible — much to the contrary of the lies stated about Jim Jones being a power-hungry sadistic, mean person who thought he was God — of all things."^[96] And "His hatred of racism, sexism, elitism, and mainly classism, is what prompted him to make a new world for the people — a paradise in the jungle. The children loved it. So did everyone else."^[96]

Another note was found, 25 years later, buried among reams of unrelated paperwork. The document, titled "Last Words", unsigned, was attributed most likely to Richard Tropp.^[97] The note also contained references to the events of the last day:

We did not want it this way. All was going well as Ryan completed [his] first day here. Then a man tried to attack him, unsuccessfully at some time, several set out into jungle wanting to overtake Ryan, aide, and others who left with him. They did, and several killed. When we heard this, we had no choice. We would be taken. We have to go as one, we want to live as Peoples Temple, or end it. We have chosen. It is finished.^[97]

A note likely written by Tish Leroy stated:

Dad

I see no way out - I agree with your decision - I fear only that without you the world may not make it to communism - Tish

For my part - I am more than tired of this wretched, merciless planet & the hell it holds for the masses of so many beautiful people - thank you for the only life I've known.^[98]

Found near Maria Katsaris' body was a handwritten note signed by Katsaris, dated November 18 1978, wintessed by Jim McElvane and Marilee Bogue, stating, "I Maria Katsaris leave all of the money in the Banco Union de Venezuela in Caracas to the Communist Party Soviet Union."^[99]

Found near Carolyn Layton's body was a handwritten note signed by Carolyn Layton, witnessed by Maria Katsaris and Annie Moore, dated November 18 1978, stating, "This is my last will and testament. I hereby leave all assets in any bank account to which I am a signatory to the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R."^[100]

• Hyacinth Thrash, one of four on-the-scene survivors, said in her autobiography that she was given a meal on Sunday morning, perhaps before the Guyanese army arrived sometime late Sunday morning. ^[70]

• At 4:44 a.m. local time (just about 8 hours after the deaths) the CIA's National Operations and Intelligence Watch Officers Network broadcast news of "mass suicides" at Jonestown, according to an official report from January 1979.^[101] While this originally caused some confusion given that it was purportedly before Guyanese soliders first arrived in Jonestown, one researcher originally puzzled by the timing has since learned that James Adkins, the CIA Station Chief for Guyana, had learned of the suicides prior to the broadcast through a police report based on an interview of escapee Odell Rhodes, who had witnessed the deaths.^[102]

• It is unknown whether Jones shot himself or was shot by someone else. It is a contact wound in a location and angle consistent with being self-inflicted.^[103] However, Jones' son Stephan believes Jim Jones may have directed someone else to shoot him.^[104]

• President Bill Clinton signed a bill into law in the 1990s, mandating the expiration of secrecy in documents after 25 years. It has been nearly 30 years since the mysterious mass deaths in Jonestown. The majority of Jonestown documents remain classified, despite Freedom of Information requests from numerous people over the past three decades.^{[105][106][107]}

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Jones' health significantly declined in 1977 and 1978, and a doctor that examined Jones in 1978 told him that he might have a lung infection.^[108]

Another factor that affected Jones’ behavior in the Guyana incident was his heavy dependence on alcohol and drugs. Jones was said to abuse injectiable Valium, Quaaludes, uppers and barbiturates.^[109] His once sharp voice later sounded slurred, words collided with each other and Jones wouldn't finish sentences even when reading.^[110]

To the extent Jones believed the statements he made on the death tape of non-existent men on the way to "parachute in" to "torture" Jonestown's residents, such fear of non-existent threats might be categorized as paranoia.^[75] That Jones saw himself as a the ruler of a sovereign city-state might be indicia of delusions of grandeur.^[111] Regarding these possible characteristics Marc Galanter comments: "The belief that one is unique and supreme creates a need for leaders to retain total control over their followers, which in turn facilitates paranoia. This paranoia then reinforces delusions of persecution, motivating leaders such as Jones to construct a 'siege mentality' to protect the group from its dangerous outside enemies."^{[citation needed]}

Some former members claim that Jones "had a deep hatred in his heart."^[2] Questions still linger as to why members committed suicide in the supposedly utopian community known as Jonestown.^[2]

After escaping Jonestown, Rhodes arrived in Port Kaituma on the night of November 18, 1978.^[112] Clayton stayed with a local Guyanese family on the night of November 18 and arrived in Port Kaituma in the morning of November 19, 1978.^[113]

The Carter brothers and Michael Prokes were put into protective custody in Port Kaituma but were released in Georgetown. Rhodes, Clayton, and the two lawyers were also brought to Georgetown.

Michael Prokes committed suicide in March 1979, four months after the Jonestown incident. In the days leading up to his death, Prokes sent notes to several people, together with a thirty-page statement he had written about Peoples Temple. One note went to Herb Caen, who reprinted it in his column in the San Francisco Chronicle.^[114] Prokes then arranged for a press conference, held in a motel room in Modesto, California, at which he read a statement to the eight reporters who attended. He then excused himself, went to the bathroom and fatally shot himself in the head.^[114]

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."^[115] 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).^[116] He was convicted for conspiracy and aiding and abetting the murder of Congressman Leo Ryan and Richard Dwyer.^[117]. He is the only person ever to have been held criminally responsible for the events at Jonestown. He was paroled in 2002. ^[118]

The first headlines claimed that 407 Temple members had been killed and that the remainder had fled into the jungle. This death count was revised several times over the next week until the final total of 909 was reached.

According to various press reports,^[119][120] surviving Temple members in the U.S. announced their fears of being targeted by a "hit squad" of Jonestown survivors. Similarly, in 1979, the Associated Press reported the claim of a U.S. Congressional aide that there were "...120 white, brainwashed assassins out from Jonestown awaiting the trigger word to pick up their hit."^[121]

The sheer scale of the event, as well as Jones' socialist leanings, led some to suggest CIA involvement. In 1980 the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence investigated the Jonestown mass suicide and announced that there was no evidence of CIA involvement at Jonestown. Most government documents relating to Jonestown remain classified.^[122][123]

After the deaths at the Peoples Temple compound, Jonestown was at first tended by the Guyanese government, which allowed its re-occupation by Hmong refugees from Laos, for a few years in the early 1980s, but it has since been altogether deserted.^[124] The buildings and grounds were looted but not taken over by local Guyanese people 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. There is now little left, including an old oil tank turned on its side and very little indication at all of the former settlement, other than aging fruit trees that were part of the Jonestown orchard.^[125] A visit by Guyanese TV program "Let's Talk" in 2003, with a former pilot who had visited Jonestown in 1978, found a metal cut half-drum near the former entrance to the Pavilion that the pilot thought could have been the drum used to hold the poison and Flavor-Aid liquid used on November 18 1978. They also found an abandoned truck that was presumably owned by Peoples Temple. The former pilot then led the host of the show where the pavilion once was and they found daisies growing where the bodies had once lay. While they were out in the jungle earlier in the show they had found a desk drawer while searching around. ^[126] The spot where the pavilion supposedly was located has been cleared in preparation for a marble monument, which, according to a local guide, is the project of an American affiliated with the People's Temple.^{[citation needed]}

• Heaven's Gate (religious group), a religious group that ended in mass suicide in the mid 1990s
• Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, a 2006 documentary film
• Seductive Poison, a book by Deborah Layton, a survivor of the Peoples Temple
• Waco Siege, an incident which resulted in the deaths of nearly all members of the religious group involved.
• Jonestown: Paradise Lost, a 2007 History Channel Documentary

• Barden, Renardo Barden. Cults (Troubled Society series). Rourke Pub Group. ISBN 0-86593-070-8.
• Dolan, Sean (2000). Everything You Need to Know About Cults. New York: Rosen Pub. Group. ISBN 0-8239-3230-3.
• Galanter, M. (1999). Cults: Faith, Healing, and Coercion. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Kerns, Phil. (1978). People's Temple, People's Tomb. Logos Associates. ISBN 0-88270-363-3.
• Kilduff, Marshall and Ron Javers. (1978). The Suicide Cult: The Inside Story of the Peoples Temple Sect and the Massacre in Guyana. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-12920-1.
• Klineman, George and Sherman Butler. (1980). The Cult That Died. G.P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN 0-399-12540-X.
• Krause, Charles A. with Laurence M. Stern, Richard Harwood and the staff of The Washington Post (1978). Guyana Massacre: The Eyewitness Account. [New York]: Berkley Pub. Corp. ISBN 0-425-04234-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Moore, Rebecca. (1985). A Sympathetic History of Jonestown: the Moore Family Involvement in Peoples Temple. Lewiston: E. Mellen Press. ISBN 0-88946-860-5.
• Naipaul, Shiva. (1982). Journey to Nowhere: A New World Tragedy. Harmondsworth [Eng.]: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-006189-4. (published in the UK as Black and White)
• Reiterman, Tim, Tom Reiterman, and John Jacobs. Raven: The Untold Story of Reverend Jim Jones and His People. Dutton, 1982. ISBN 0-525-24136-1.
• Sargeant, Jack. (2002). Death Cults: Murder, Mayhem and Mind Control (True Crime Series). Virgin Publishing. ISBN 0-7535-0644-0.
• Sorell, W. E. (1978). Cults and Cult Suicide. International Journal of Group Tensions.

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Congressman Tom Lantos' Remarks on the 25th Anniversary of the Tragedy at Jonestown and the Death of Congressman Leo Ryan

• 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
  • "FBI Audiotape Project", summaries and transcripts of many of the over 900 audio tapes discovered in Jonestown, mostly recorded in the year before the mass slaying, and including the "Death Tape" seemingly made just before and during the mass slaying
  • "Who Died?", a list of who died at Jonestown
• "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
• "Nightmare in Jonestown, Time magazine cover story, Monday, December 4, 1978
• Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown, a 1981 audio documentary produced by NPR (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 Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy: Primary Source Materials from the U.S. Department of State, 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 Jonestown Massacre" in Crime Library
• "Jonestown massacre + 20: Questions linger", CNN.com, November 18, 1998
• "Timeline: Road to tragedy in Jonestown" CNN.com, November 17, 2003
• "1978: Mass suicide leaves 900 dead" BBC, On This Day: 18 November
• "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