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Jonestown

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For other uses, see Jonestown (disambiguation)
Houses in Jonestown

Jonestown was a communal settlement in Guyana established by Peoples Temple cult leader Jim Jones. It was located about six to eight miles (10 to 12 km) from Port Kaituma (7°44′N 59°53′W / 7.733°N 59.883°W / 7.733; -59.883). At Jones' directions, the inhabitants committed mass suicide in 1978.

The beginning of Jonestown

The Peoples Temple formed in Indianapolis, in the U.S. state of Indiana, during the late 1950s. Jones and his 140 followers then moved to Redwood Valley in Mendocino County, California, as they believed that they would be safe from nuclear fallout in case of a nuclear attack on the United States. In the late 1960s, members of Jones' congregation had dwindled to fewer than a hundred and were on the verge of collapse but Jones managed to secure an affiliation with the Disciples of Christ and in turn kept the survival of the Temple. Jones's affiliation with the church boosted the Temple's reputation and spread his influence in the West Coast area. Jones then moved his congregation again to his main church in San Francisco in 1971 and opened another one in Los Angeles.

After several scandals and investigations in San Francisco, Jones decided that by creating a utopian community in Guyana, he could further cement his absolute power over his members far away from the intervention of US authorities — or members' worried relatives. In 1974, he leased over 3000 acres (12.1 km²) of land from the Guyanese government and members of the People's Temple started the construction of Jonestown, under the supervision of senior members who were assigned by Jones to oversee the construction. Jones then went back to California before he encouraged all of his followers to move to Jonestown in 1977. Jonestown's population increased greatly from 50 members in 1977 to over 900 at its peak in 1978.

Jonestown

Many of the Peoples Temple members believed that Guyana would be, as Jones promised, a paradise. Instead, everyone (including children) ended up raising food and animals for the "Peoples Temple Agricultural Project" six days a week from seven in the morning to six in the evening, often when the temperature was as hot as 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius).

According to some, meals for the members consisted of nothing more than rice and beans while Jones ate meat and other refrigerated foods separated from the others. Medical problems such as severe diarrhea and high fevers struck half the community in February 1978. Other former members of the organization dispute that members received inferior or different food from Jones.

Members considered to have serious disciplinary problems were imprisoned in a 6 by 4 by 3 foot (1.8 by 1.2 by 0.9 m) plywood box.

File:Jim Jones' Cabin.jpg
Jim Jones's Cabin

Members who attempted to run away were drugged to the point of incapacitation. Armed guards patrolled the compound day and night to ensure that Jones's orders were followed.

Children, surrendered to communal care, addressed Jones as "Dad" and were only allowed to see their parents briefly at night.  Jones was called "Father" or "Dad" by the adults as well.

Local Guyanese, including a police official, related horror stories about harsh beatings and a "torture hole," a well into which Jones had "misbehaving" children thrown in the middle of the night.  Jones had terrified the children by making them believe that there was a monster living at the bottom of the well, where in fact it was Jones's henchman who pulled and tugged their legs as they descended into the well.

Older children were said to have been tied naked and electrical shocks would be administered to their genitalia.  Guyanese officials had attempted to investigate these allegations but they were denied entry to the compound.

The mass suicides that were to make Jonestown notorious were rehearsed during so called white nights.  In an affidavit, defector Deborah Layton wrote that during one of these white nights, people were told that they would die, and were forced to drink unsweetened Flavor Aid that they thought contained poison.  The few who were hesitant to drink were engaged in a debate and quickly complied.  Only after everyone drank the concoction were they informed that there was no poison, and that it was all just a test of loyalty and faith in Jones. [1]

On Tuesday November 14, 1978, Congressman Leo Ryan, a Democrat from San Francisco, California, flew to Jonestown, Guyana, along with a team of 18 people, consisting of officials, media representatives and members of the group "Concerned Relatives of Peoples Temple Members". The purpose of the visit was to investigate allegations made by escaped members and relatives of members still at Jonestown that human rights were being violated daily, people were being held against their free will, had their money and passports taken and held, and that rehearsals of mass suicide were being conducted.

From the time they arrived in Georgetown, at midnight, before Wednesday the 15th, there were signs that things would not run smoothly. Previously booked hotel rooms were mysteriously occupied and most members of the team had to sleep in the lobby. In the days that followed Mr. Lane and Mr. Garry (Jones's representatives in Georgetown) refused to allow Ryan's party access to Jonestown. Finally, by late Friday morning Ryan advised Lane and Garry that he was leaving for Jonestown at 2:30 p.m., regardless of Jones's willingness to grant him access. They left (including Lane and Garry) for Jonestown at approximately that time, Friday, November 17, Guyana time (12:30 p.m., EST, Washington, D.C.) and came to Port Kaituma airstrip, 10 km. from Jonestown, some hours later.  After more trouble, where only Ryan and 3 others were initially accepted, they finally all got into Jonestown, after dark.

It was later reported that Jones had run rehearsals in how to receive Ryan's delegation, to convince them that everyone was happy and in good spirits. On the night before Ryan's arrival, Jones warned everyone, with the exception of a few trusted people, not to speak to Ryan's party. Some were angry and saw the Congressman's visit as trouble brought in from outside. A few quietly complained of the dire situation within the compound.

When Jones learned about some of his followers' reactions and that some of them wished to leave, he was angry and believed that those who wanted to leave the community would "lie" and destroy Jonestown. Jones and many other members of the Peoples Temple saw themselves as a family that had the right and the duty to stay together. Like most families they felt that they had the duty to defend themselves against people who tried to take away their members. At first Jones was angry, but then was reassured when other members told him it was actually a compliment that out of over 1,000 people only a few dozen wished to leave. Jones then 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.

Because more people were leaving than was expected and the limited amount of seats available on the Cessna, Ryan was going to send the first group to Georgetown and stay behind with the rest when Don Sly, a member of the Temple, possibly acting directly under Jones's orders, attacked the congressman with a knife. Although he wasn't hurt in the attack, he realised that the visiting party and the defectors were in danger. Ryan's party and 16 ex-Temple members left Jonestown and reached the nearby Port Kaituma airstrip at 4:30pm, where they planned to use two planes, a six-passenger Cessna and a twin-engine Otter, to fly to Georgetown, the capital of Guyana. At the last minute a fanatic follower, Larry Layton, demanded to join the group. The rest of the defectors voiced their suspicions about the motive for Larry joining the group but Ryan insisted that anyone who wanted to go would go.

Before the Cessna took off, Layton took out a gun and started shooting at the passengers. He killed two people, including defector Monica Bagby, before his gun was taken away by another defector. Jones's armed guards, or "Red Brigade," then emerged in a tractor pulling a wagon, pulled up within 30 feet of the Otter, and proceeded to open fire while circling the plane. Leo Ryan, three journalists, and one 18-year-old Jonestown defector were killed in the five minute shooting, which was captured on camera. Camera operator Robert Brown was among the dead while Jackie Speier was injured from five bullets. The Cessna was able to take off and fly to Georgetown, leaving behind the gunfire-damaged Otter. They carried with them filmed footage of the surprise attack, a first glimpse of Jonestown for the outside world[2].

Mass murder suicide

Shortly after the shootings, Jones decided to conduct the mass murder/suicide, as he knew that the Guyanese Defence Force would be coming for him once they got word of the shootout at the airstrip.  Jones had the mass murder/suicide recorded on a cassette tape in which it would seem there were only a few people who were reluctant to go through with the suicide, but they were convinced otherwise by other members and Jones himself.

On November 18, 1978, two metal buckets of grape Flavor Aid laced with Valium and cyanide were brought into the assembly hall and the mixture was dispensed in small paper cups.[citation needed] Babies and children were the first ones to ingest the mixture as it was squirted into their throats with a syringe. The elderly followed, and then the adults. Many blindly drank it even after watching their children die. The rest had the mixture poured down their throats after resisting drinking.[citation needed]

Bodies also bore the marks of hypodermic needles with which the poison was injected. Some sources assert there were injections into unwilling victims ([3], [4], [5], [6]), although the numbers vary widely.  The precise circumstances are the focus of a number of conspiracy theories (see, for example, [7]).

Those who tried to hide were tracked down and killed by Jones's armed guards but some survivors did manage to escape into the jungle.[citation needed] Jones's only natural son, Stephan Jones, who happened to be away during the suicide, asserted in an interview that people were probably not coerced but wanted to remain loyal to the group and its ideals and did not want to be seen as traitors.[citation needed]

Jones himself was killed by a gunshot to his head while sitting in a deckchair.  Some speculate whether it was suicide or that he may have been killed by an escaping cult member.

Hours after news of the mass suicide got out, local authorities found 913 of the 1,110 inhabitants dead, including 276 children. One of the survivors, Laura Johnston Kohl, escaped the mass suicide as she was away from Jonestown at that time, [8].

Jonestown itself became a "ghost town" after 1978 and was mostly destroyed by a fire in the mid-1980s, after which the ruins were left to decay. Today there remains little to mark the site where one of the most notorious known mass suicides in history occurred. The buildings and grounds were not taken over by local Guyanese people because of the social stigma associated with the murders and suicides.

The Jonestown deaths were among several incidents from about 1978 to 1982 that greatly undermined cults in the United States. Another one was an incident where Synanon "Imperial Marines" placed a rattlesnake in the mailbox of an attorney named Paul Morantz, causing him to be seriously injured.[9]

Conspiracy theories

Various conspiracy theories exist that offer alternative explanations as to what actually happened at Jonestown. One popular theory suggests that Jones himself was a CIA agent and that Jonestown was a mind control experiment gone wrong. Drugs found at the premises, such as Quaaludes, Valium, morphine, Demerol, and chloral hydrate, have been offered as evidence for this theory, as well as the late revelation that many of the supposed suicide victims were actually killed by gunfire and lethal injection.

Another conspiracy theory suggests that the CIA used this opportunity to assassinate Leo Ryan, as he was a harsh critic of the CIA and had authored the Hughes-Ryan Act, which if passed would have required the CIA to report its planned covert missions to Congress for approval. Under this theory, the murder of the Jonestown members was to cover up the real reason for Leo Ryan's murder. Another proposed scenario is that Ryan was on the verge of exposing the CIA presence at Jonestown, prompting his murder and that of the Jonestown inhabitants.

Among the wounded at Jonestown was U.S. embassy official Richard Dwyer, who was also an agent of the CIA. At one point on the taped audio recording, as the killings began, Jones's own voice commands, "Take Dwyer on down to the east house" and a short time later, "Get Dwyer out of here before something happens to him.".

According to an article in the San Jose Mercury News, Jim Jones's neighbors in Belo Horizonte, Brazil (where he lived before moving to Rio De Janeiro), remembered his claim to be a retired navy man who "received a monthly payment from the U.S. government." They also remembered that Jones "lived like a rich man." "Some people here believed he was an agent for the American CIA," one neighbor reported.

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. But the fact that all government documents relating to Jonestown remain classified has helped keep conspiracy theories and rumours about Jonestown alive [10]. [11]

The idiom drink the Kool-Aid, defined by Wordspy as "To become a firm believer in something; to accept an argument or philosophy wholeheartedly or blindly," is a product of the Jonestown massacre, despite the fact that the beverage consumed by the Jonestowners was actually Flavor Aid.

A made-for-tv movie was released in 1980, called Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones that chronicles the Jonestown mass suicides.

In the book More Tales of the City (1980) writer Armistead Maupin has a character go to Guyana with her female lover and her two children. In Further Tales of the City (1982), they are first thought to have died in the Jonestown mass murder/suicide. Later, however, it turns out that they could escape shortly before.

In his fiction Novel "Before the Frost" (2002, trans. 2005) in the Kurt Wallander series, Henning Mankell prominently features a character who has escaped from the Jonestown Massacre and centres around a theme of cults and religious fanaticism.

In the movie Road Trip, one of the main characters ends up spawning a cult and bringing his followers down to South America. Apparently, he drank the Kool-Aid before everyone else so his followers decided to not drink it. This is an intended joke on Jim Jones and the Jonestown mass suicide.

An episode of the animated comedy Family Guy entitled "Chitty Chitty Death Bang" parodies a mass suicide as one of the characters, Meg Griffin, attends a cult party in which some members drink a poison-laced punch drink in the fashion of the Heaven's Gate cult.

Two days after the mass suicide, punk band The Misfits showered their audience with grape flavored Kool-Aid.

The Vapors, best known for their hit "Turning Japanese," released a song about cult leader Jim Jones ("Jimmie Jones") on their 1981 album Magnets.

The song "Welcome to Guyana" by Disposable Thumbs is based on the Jonestown Massacre and contains several clips of Jim Jones' speeches.

Vagina Dentata Organ issued a picture-disc LP named "The Last Supper", a compilation of recordings of Jones' sermons, as well as the tape recordings from the Jonestown Massacre. This release was issued in an edition of 913, one for each victim of the tragedy.

The verses of "White Nights" by Psychic TV, from their 1983 "Dreams Less Sweet" album, consist entirely of quotes/paraphrased quotes from Jones' final speech. The chorus - "Santa Claus is checking his list, going over it twice/To see who is naughty and who is nice" - was a rhyme used by Jones to teach children paranoia.

Frank Zappa wrote a chilling piece entitled "Jonestown" which is featured on his 1984 album The Perfect Stranger.

The heavy metal band Manowar released a song on their 1984 album Sign Of The Hammer entitled "Guyana (Cult Of The Damned)", the lyrics are about the Jonestown incident.

In 1993, the Los Angeles based band Concrete Blonde released an album called Mexican Moon that featured a track entitled Jonestown and opens with audio clips from speeches of Jim Jones.

The band 'The Brian Jonestown Massacre' got their name by combining the name of Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones with a reference to the incident.

British alternative band Black Box Recorder released a song entitled "Kidnapping an Heiress" which references the Jonestown events.

In 1997, the hard-core band Integrity released the album "Seasons In The Size Of Days" featuring the song "Burning Flesh Children To Mist" which contained audio clips from the suicide tapes laid over tribal drums.

The Team Sleep demo track which was recorded with guest vocalist Mike Patton, "Kool-Aid Party" supposedly refers to the events of the mass murder suicide.

The death metal band Deicide released a song on their (1990) debut album "Deicide" entitled, 'Carnage In The Temple Of The Damned'. The song begins with a clip of Jim Jones instructing his followers.

The punk rock band Guyana Punchline got their band name from the events.

The Bloodhound Gang song "Boom" contains the line "Like the Jim Jones cult, I'll take you out with one punch."

In 1981, rock band The Judy's released the album "Washarama" on Wasted Talent Records. The song "Guyana Punch" references these events.

The At the Drive-In song "Ticklish" from the album Acrobatic Tenement contains the lines "Get some medication... It's simple" and "We must die with [some] dignity", which reference (and nearly quote) Jones' final speech from the suicide tape.

The song "Oh My God" by Michael Franti & Spearhead refers to the possible CIA connection to Jim Jones, saying: "CIA runnin' like they're Jones from Indiana/ but they still won't talk about that Jones in Guyana."

Post Hardcore Rock band, Privacy Statement, released the event inspired song "Guyana" on their latest album, "Privacy Statement Sampler II".

The song "Mao Tse Tung Said" by Alabama 3 contains samples of a speech by Jim Jones[12]. The song is on the album Exile On Coldharbour Lane.

The song "Wolves In Wolves' Clothing" by NOFX contains the lines "We are followers of Jimmy Jones, cutting in the kool-aid line".

The band Don Salsa recorded an album called "Koolaid Moustache in Jonestown".

Scottish rock band The Almighty released a song entitled "Jonestown Mind" in 1995 as a single. It also appeared on the band's "Crank" album.

Otep released a song called Jonestown Tea on their album Sevas Tra.

Hierosonic released a song called Guyana in reference/memorial to the mass suicide.

Jim Jones is a rapper, likely named after the cult leader.

The song "White Coats" by New Model Army, released in 1987, references Jonestown and suicide pacts.

Bibliography

  • Troubled Society (series): Cults by Renardo Barden
    Discusses in general, the different types of cults, how they begin and prosper, deprogramming, the 60s, and detailed examination of events surrounding cult leaders Charles Manson and Jim Jones.
  • The Need to Know Library (series): Everything You Need to Know About Cults by Sean Dolan
    Existence of cults, what it is and what it does, understanding cults, process of joining and leaving cults, glossary, where to go for help, and recommended further readings.
  • True Crime (series): Death Cults by various authors, edited by Jack Sargent
    A book compiling 12 in-depth essays from a variety of experts on cults. These includes the usual sects like Aum Shinrikyo in Japan to the Thugs in British Colonial India and relatively unknown sects like the Russian Skoptsy castration sect.
  • Jonestown Carnage: A CIA Crime - S.F.Alinin, B.G.Antonov, A.N.Itskov
    Gives USSR version of the Jonestown massacre, that it was a crime committed by CIA.
  • A Sympathetic History of Jonestown Rebecca Moore
  • Guyana Massacre: The Eyewitness Account Charles Krause
  • Journey To Nowhere: A New World Tragedy (published in the UK as Black and White) Shiva Naipaul
  • People's Temple, People's Tomb Phil Kerns
  • Raven: The Untold Story of the Reverend Jim Jones and His People Tim Reiter
  • The Suicide Cult Marshall Kilduff and Ron Javers
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