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On November 18,
1978 a cult leader by the name James Warren Jones ordered more than 913 of
his 1100 followers drink a cyanide poisoned punch. Anyone who refused to
drink the poison was ordered to be shot at gunpoint by guards. |
From left to right top: Kim Uneii - murdered in
Jonestown John-John Stoen (baby being held by Uneii) - murdered in
Jonestown Phil Lacey - survivor. His mother and sister were murdered in
Jonestown Dorothy Buckley - murdered in Jonestown Name withheld - survivor
Darrin Swinney - murdered in Jonestown |
| James Warren Jones was born in Lynn, Indiana in 1931. He became a preacher in Indianapolis. When he preached he stood behind black glasses often stoned out of his mind on amphetamines and other drugs. He would preach for hours on the evils of capitalism, solidarity with the people of Vietnam, support for liberation struggles in the third world, and rail against racism in the U.S. He also spreader these messages through the Peoples Temple own radio program and their printing plant which published the Peoples Forum (one of the largest circulation newspapers in the entire bay area). Jones held degrees from both Indiana University and Butler University. He opened the first Peoples Temple, a Christian cult group made up of mostly black Americans, in Indianapolis, Ind. in the late 50's. After he opened it he left for nearly a year in 1961 and lived in prosperous and somewhat mysterious circumstances in Belo Horizontal (a small country city on the Brazilian coast). On his return to Indiana he announced the temples move to Northern California. In 1971 they moved to San Francisco. When he was accused of defrauding church members and magazine articles detailing ex-members stories of beatings and forced donations he moved to Guyana, later to be known as " Jonestown," in 1977. | |
| Guyana is a tiny country on South Americas northern coast. The groups plan was to create an egalitarian agricultural community, but members learned it was more like a prison than anything else. Offenders would sweltered in a 6x4ft. underground enclosure known as "The Box." Misbehaving children would be dangled head first into a well late at night. In May 1978 Deborah Layton, a trusted financial lieutenant for Jones, slipped out of Guyana and went to the United States consulate and later to the newspapers with a warning that Jones was conducting drills for a mass murder suicide. There was hardly and government action until later when U.S. states congressman Leo Ryan, who was contacted by a number of relatives worried about their friends and family in the Peoples Temple, that he decided to lead an investigation of reporters and relatives to Jonestown. Ryan did a lot of research and talked to ex-members and family members. One family member he talked to was Sam Houston. Sam believes that his son Bob was killed because he had decided to announce that he was going to leave the temple. Sam was also concerned about his two granddaughters who were sent to New York for a vacation and somehow ended up in Guyana and never returned. Ryan also found that there were claims of social security, irregularities of human rights, and that people were being held against their will. He also found Jones was under at least a dozen investigations before his events in 1978. He had involvement in drug smuggling, gun running in the Caribbean, kidnapping, arson, money laundering, customs violations, welfare fraud, illegal broadcast if coded messages, abuse of tax-exempts status, forging trust deeds and even murder. Yet, somehow he still apparently managed to live a charmed life, and each of these inquiries was abandoned, stalled, botched, or compromised until it was to late. Jones also had more than twelve million dollars in cash amounts in the U.S., Canada, England, Switzerland, Panama, Venezuela and Jamaica with couriers shuffling suitcases of cash back and forth. | |
| The original Peoples Temples church, in Ukiah, had become a paramilitary camp complete with guard towers and armed sentries. The temples in San Francisco and Los Angeles boasted a combined membership of several thousand mostly black members with a mostly white leadership cadre. | |
| On November 17, 1978 Ryan and the crew members left to Guyana. It was decided that all but one media representative could go. Gordon Lindsay, a NBC consulter, had to stay because of an article he wrote that had criticized the peoples temple. | |
| Upon their arrival at "Jonestown" the delegation was served dinner and entertainment by a musical presentation by peoples temple members. During the evening of the night a "Jonestown" member passed a note to NBC reporter, Don Harris, indicating that he and his family wished to leave. This happened a few more times this night. Back at Port Kaituma local guyanese, including one police official who told stories of beatings and at "Jonestown" approached a media representative, they complained that the guyanese officials were denied entry to the compound and had no authority there. They also described a "torture hole" in the compound. | |
| By 3:00 p.m. on November 18,1978 there were a total of 15 temple members climbing into trucks with the delegation to drive to Port Kaituma airport, Ryan had intended to stay, but was attacked by peoples temple member Don Sly, with a knife. Luckily he was not hurt, but he then decided to go. As the delegation boarded the planes to leave a gunshot opened out and then there were shots going off everywhere. The shooting lasted between 4-5 minutes and the larger plain was disabled. Ryan and 4 others were killed. The attackers left the airport soon after while survivors took cover. | |
| According to the official report the mass murder suicide began at about 5:00 p.m. Members were ordered to drink a cyanide-poisoned punch and anyone who refused to drink it would be shot at gunpoint. 913 of 1100 members died that day including Jones who was shot. More than 270 of them were children. Outside the war the Jonestown massacre was the biggest mass murder in American history. | |
| The greatest lie about Jonestown was that 913 people committed suicide. Dr. Leslie Mootoo, a pathologist and the chief medical examiner of Guyana, was the first doctor to arrive on the scene and conduct 70 autopsies. He clearly said that at least 700 of the victims were murdered. Many were injected with poison by hypodermic. Hundreds more were forced to drink the cyanide poison at gunpoint, and many were shot. Infants and small children were the first to be killed as means of breaking their parents will to live surely can't be considered suicide. Survivors were airlifted to U.S. air force medical evacuation aircraft in Georgetown. | |
| There has never been an investigation on the Ryan assassination or the Peoples Temple massacre. Only a watered down public report was issued with 5,000 pages classified and withheld from retrease. A group of Jonestown survivors fled a 50 million dollar civil rights action against the Federal government alleging such involvement, but their case was thrown out almost immediately on procedural grounds and all subsequent appeals were turned down. | |
| Justin Ramsey
8th American History Rossville Jr. High Jonestown Massacre May 2002 |