Jim Jones, who had led … Sunday 18 November is the 40th anniversary of the notorious Jonestown massacre where more than 900 people died at a settlement run by Christian cult leader Jim Jones. We found members who had film stuffed in the back of their closets and had never showed it to anybody. “One parent wanted to leave; the other wanted to stay, and the child was caught between.” Leaving Jonestown Residents gathered outdoors watching the truck with Ryan and the defectors leave Jonestown. How could they actually believe this stuff” the psychology of self-justification provides some insight. They were in the middle of nowhere. There's an amazing amount of video and audio footage in the film. Soon after he escaped, Stoen started raising awareness of what was happening in Jonestown. At the same time, Timothy Stoen, a member who had previously escaped the cult, returned to Guyana and started a legal battle over the custody of his son, who had remained with Jones. Jim Jones, leader of the Peoples Temple, receives a Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award from Glide Memorial Church, San Francisco January 1977. Since there weren't enough cabins built to house people, each cabin was filled with bunk beds and overcrowded. You have 4 free articles remaining this month, Sign-up to our daily newsletter for more articles like this + access to 5 extra articles. Jim Jones, an American, committed suicide by drinking poisoned punch.The mass suicide immediately followed the murder of Rep. Leo J. Ryan (D-Calif.), who was visiting Guyana to investigate Jonestown and was ambushed along with several others at the Port Kaituma airstrip. Only seven members of the delegation managed to survive, as well as most of the members of the cult who wanted to leave with the Congressman. Forty years ago, more than 900 Americans were killed at an agricultural settlement in Guyana known as Jonestown. As Jim's behavior became more deviant, people went along with it because it was a small part of their lives. Stanley Nelson: The project started three years ago, on the 25th anniversary of Jonestown. We have to ask ourselves, why did 918 people leave this country and go with Jim Jones to Guyana? But in the film, you show how Jones’s behaviors toward the congregation became deviant and bizarre. Once inside the Peoples Temple, getting out was discouraged; defectors were hated. From the other side, people looking in on Jonestown were getting suspicious things weren't quite what they seemed, but they thought someone else would do something. The mass suicide in Jonestown was the second largest loss of American civilian life from a deliberate act until the September 11 attacks. In her interview, O’Shea explained how she managed to escape only three weeks before the 18th of November. . After struggling for two years, the Joneses returned to California, where “the prophet” continued his teachings. Jones agreed. Jonestown, Guyana was the scene of one of the most harrowing tragedies in American history. They had one son together and six adoptees of different races. I think that new religious movements are taking hold all the time. He was married to Marceline Baldwin Jones in 1949. It’s unfortunate that God’s unable to save a child’s life considering that children can’t pick who they’re born to. It was during the 1960s when one such charismatic character, Jim Jones, founded the People’s Temple in San Francisco, and its members would go on to commit mass suicide with cyanide, an infamous event that became known as the Jonestown massacre. Jim Jones was the cult leader of the Peoples Temple. Although it is only an educated guess, the person most likely responsible for sending … There were a lot of people who joined the Peoples Temple who were really not necessarily looking for Christ, or religion. They didn't speak out, so they changed a little more. His church turned into a cult temple where members were recruited. During their stay, Jones didn’t show any signs of wanting to keep his followers against their will and he even let 15 leave with Ryan after he asked if anybody wanted to go. He looked at that as a betrayal, so for Jim, 20 people out of 900 people made it seem like this thing was collapsing. For example, if a member vocally desired a food that was not available, they could be beaten. Hours later, Jones instructed the group to drink cups of grape Flavor-Aid laced with cyanide. It was there before Congressman Ryan arrived. Israel Has a Legal and Moral Responsibility to Vaccinate Palestinians, Fake International Law Is the Newest Anti-Israel Libel. Leo Ryan, a California congressman, led the delegation, and was killed by Jones's guards when he attempted to fly defectors out of the site. As Jim's behavior became more deviant, people went along with it because it was a small part of their lives. I thought people gave God credit when someone’s life is saved. It was almost impossible to avoid drinking the deadly concoction, although a few managed to run into the jungle. Jones had previously established the Temple in Indiana, but then strategically moved to the “noisiest” place in the U.S. at that time, one where he knew he would attract many followers. That was one of the main reasons why he, with many of his followers, left the U.S. and moved to Guyana in 1977, where they established Jonestown. They were looking to be part of this social experiment and change the world. We have to ask ourselves, why did 918 people leave this country … . After everyone drank their share of poison, guards went around with stethoscopes and if there was anyone with a heartbeat, they shot them. This was at least as potent a motive for staying as were the stories spread by Jones and his inner clique that there would be no point in seeking help in Georgetown, for the Peoples Temple had its agents there too. In 1955, while still in Indianapolis, Jones founded a Pentecostal church, the Wings of Deliverance, that would later become known as the People’s Temple. People are less likely to do something the more people are around. That's why sane people joined and stayed. On the 17th, 16 people traveled to Jonestown, where Jones hosted a reception. However, under no circumstances did Jones permit children to leave Jonestown. However, he was always a rather paranoid character, and during this time his fear of nuclear war made him relocate his church to California. This is the great myth of Jonestown: that only the feeble-minded could be convinced to kill themselves. On Nov. 18, 1978, in Jonestown, Guyana, more than 900 members of the Peoples Temple cult, led by Rev. As Jim’s behavior became more deviant, people went along with it because it was a small part of their lives. He had rehearsals where he would give his congregation a drink and then he would say, "What I just gave you was poison," just to see how they would react. Jones had been a regular church goer since his childhood, and in 1961, after he graduated from Butler University, Indianapolis, he decided to become a minister. When the Guyanese troops arrived at Jonestown the next day, they found 909 people dead. The congressman died along with four other people. We have to ask ourselves, why did 918 people leave this country … I think part of it depended on what you went into Jonestown looking for. While in Guyana, O’Shea became one of Jones’ secretaries, most of whom he had a sexual relationship with. 40 years after the Jonestown massacre: Jim Jones' surviving sons on what they think of their father, the Peoples Temple today "There's somethings about Jonestown … In the more than 40 years since the tragedy, most stories, books, films and scholarship have tended to … Once someone tries to stab a congressman, you're about to be in trouble. Do you think Jones was a man who became corrupted by power, or was the massacre part of his plan? San Francisco was the center of many movements, some of which changed the culture, and some that left a dark mark on American history. Five more people were shot by Temple security at a nearby airstrip trying to flee, and a mother killed herself and her three children at the Temple’s house in the capital of Georgetown. Friends and family members were left to wonder why they had done it. The cabins were also segregated by gender, so married couples were forced to live apart. Jonestown Mass Suicide: Revisiting The Cult That Ended With The … Instead she escaped to New York, where she changed her name until FBI agents tracked her down as a witness. They might have been in a meeting that was very weird, and had some kind of weird sexual content, but that might have happened only once a year. Nearly 1,000 men, women, and children died at Jonestown, in Guyana, on November 18, 1978. But Jonestown was an important part of American history, and it's been marginalized. Ordered to drink poison by the charismatic and delusional cult leader Jim Jones, his followers were a part of the People’s Temple, a Christian organization that integrated anything that Jones wanted to use, from Marxist theories to faith healing. However, when members arrived at Jonestown, things were not as they expected. . I found that the survivors that we talked to differ, from one who now is the pastor of a small storefront church and is very religious, to people who don't seem to be very religious at all. In a post-Jonestown America, do you think it's possible for new religious movements to take hold? It wasn't a doomsday church at first. But there were people who left. I don't think the Peoples Temple was a function of its time at all. Why didn't more people leave Jonestown? It wasn't a mass exodus. He told people to invest their welfare check or Social Security check and he would turn it into something that would be so much better than being taken care of by the government, and he did that. However, Jones soon started diverting from Christianity and the Bible, which he ultimately wanted to destroy. Back in November 1978, Americans were shocked by newspaper headlines about the deaths of more than 900 people in the South American nation of Guyana, in what appeared to be a combination of mass murder and suicide by poison. The Peoples Temple Members Were a Racially-Mixed Family Dedicated to Improving the World. From the other side, people looking in on Jonestown were getting suspicious things weren't quite what they seemed, but they thought someone else would do something. It's difficult to understand why people didn't leave. Why didn’t they take me, too?’” ... the truck with Ryan and the defectors leave Jonestown. In grappling with the most perplexing questions “Why didn't more people leave the ministry? Excerpts: NEWSWEEK: What made you want to do a documentary about Jonestown? Jonestown, Guyana was the scene of one of the most harrowing tragedies in American history. Since there weren't enough cabins built to house people, each cabin was filled with bunk beds and overcrowded. They included over 200 murdered children. That was one of the main reasons why he, with many of his followers, left the U.S. and moved to Guyana in 1977, where they established Jonestown. There is nostalgia as never before for the San Francisco of the 1960s and the 1970s. People could “leave whenever they wanted,”but were abused when they brought it up (Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple, 2017). So by the time they got to that final day in Guyana, they were very different people. In the life of the Peoples Temple, there were a lot of people who visited and decided it wasn't for them. Those people didn't go in for spiritual reasons, so they tend not to be spiritual today. who would 'get them'. Nothing upset Jim Jones so much; people who left became the targets of his most vitriolic attacks and were blamed for any problems that occurred. But in the film, you show how Jones's behaviors toward the congregation became deviant and bizarre. They were allowed to come and go as they pleased? His religious teachings began to be framed in a form of communist propaganda rather than any form of spiritualism. But, on the 18th of December, as soon as the delegation started boarding two planes at the airstrip, Jones’ armed guards arrived and started shooting. Author: Nancy Wong CC BY-SA 4.0. I heard Peoples Temple members on the radio and became fascinated with the Peoples Temple and their story because it was so different from the story that I had always heard and thought I knew. Jones was born on May 13, 1931 in Indiana. Peoples Temple members attend an anti-eviction rally at the International Hotel, San Francisco, January 1977. A few members of Ryan’s staff, several newspaper reporters, an NBC TV team, and 17 relatives of cult members joined Ryan and left Washington, D.C. on the 14th of November. Some members from Jonestown who decided to leave with him were severely injured in the shooting. Do you think the effort to get people out could have been handled better? However, when members arrived at Jonestown, things were not as they expected. She explained how Jones invented the mass suicide rehearsals, which he called White Nights. But Jim just panicked. That’s a big question. I'd originally thought that these were 900 people who had gone into Guyana to follow this madman to their deaths. She described them as good and hard-working people. Jim sent his lawyer back to the U.S. to handle the situation, and O’Shea proposed that she should go with Mark and help him, rather than involve another person from the outside. Offers a look at the Jonestown holocaust and explains why 13 years later, we should still be afraid. In the mid-1970s, there were growing accusations that Jones was illegally diverting the income of the cult members for his own purposes. The processes that induced people to join and to believe in Greater Grace made use of strategies involved in propaganda and persuasion. This kind of tragedy is something that has happened over and over again. Sixteen people asked to leave, and Ryan volunteered to stay behind as the truck made its first run to the airstrip. But after hearing them on the radio, I started thinking that they must not have all been crazy. That's what started me off. O’Shea revealed that she was always afraid of Jones, from the very first moment she met him, but she still followed him. If he announced, “White Night” on the loudspeakers, which were everywhere, people were supposed to hide in the pavilion because their lives were in danger, or so Jones informed them. But Jonestown was an important part of American history, and it's been marginalized. [2] The cult members didn’t know, but Jones had arranged for people to fire shots in the surrounding jungle to provoke fear among his followers. It was formally known as an agricultural project, guarded by people with machine guns, while inside it was ruled under communist-type laws, and there were physical punishments for breaking those rules. Yes. I think that one thing we have to understand about Jim Jones is that he delivered on his promises for a long time, and that's how he was able to build a congregation and keep them. So it was 250 miles straight into the jungle. They talked about this church that was very socially active, about this church that was trying to change the world and about the church members they still loved. Richard Dwyer. It's difficult to understand why people didn't leave. He believed a lot of what he was saying, and it made me understand that kind of personality and how that kind of thing can catch on, because he was not totally evil. Jim Jones receives a Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian award from Pastor Cecil Williams, 1977. Author: Nancy Wong CC BY-SA 3.0. I do think that he had a fascination with death, and he certainly ordered the cyanide. Houses in Jonestown, Guyana, 1979. How do the Jonestown survivors feel about religion and faith now? One issue is that Congressman Ryan had no idea what he was going into, and hadn't done enough research to understand what he might face in Jonestown or the madness of Jim Jones and the lengths to which he would go to protect his colony. He died of a gunshot wound to the head, most likely self-inflicted. As Jim's behavior became more deviant, people went along with it because it was a small part of their lives. What more could have been done? He was not normal. Offers a look at the Jonestown holocaust and explains why 13 years later, we should still be afraid. The people in Jonestown knew things were going wrong, but they thought that someone else will contact the outside or do something so they didn't need to. So I think that it was something in the back of his mind, if things got too bad, an option was for them to commit suicide. We even got 400 audiotapes of Jim Jones starting from 1953, when he had first started as a preacher, until the last moments of Jonestown as he's encouraging people to drink the poison and to "die with dignity." Why didn't more people leave Jonestown? It was something that was sane, rational and made people feel good. They were the first white couple in Indiana to ever adopt a black child. Author: Fielding McGehee and Rebecca Moore CC BY-SA 3.0. . One of the biggest attractions of the Peoples Temple was the promise of integration, that people would be able to live in a truly integrated community, and he provided that. He was very magnetic, worked with the homeless, and was an open-minded churchman who vocally advocated for racial integration. But I don't think Jim Jones ever decided to go down to Guyana and kill everybody on a predetermined date. In the mid-1970s, there were growing accusations that Jones was illegally diverting the income of the cult members for his own purposes. Jones first settled in Ukiah in 1965 and six years later in San Francisco. Religion has assumed incredible importance in the United States, much more than anyone would have believed 30 years ago. The International Hotel at 848 Kearny Street in San Francisco stood empty for years after the 1977 eviction. Its founder was a charismatic American religious leader, the Rev. Family members would turn each other in to Jones for talking about leaving—a crime that was punished by scrutiny and public humiliation. Back in Jonestown, Jones gathered all his members for an emergency meeting. Author: Indytnt CC BY-SA 3.0. But he had a thing about people leaving. Why was so much of what happened at the Peoples Temple being documented? In the film, we go back to his childhood and talk to his childhood friends who say that at 5 or 6 years old that he was "off." She had been a 19-year-old homeless woman when she became involved in the People’s Temple, where she remained for seven years. According to O’Shea, his paranoia was growing, and he started reminding her of her mother, who had suffered from schizophrenia. Members of a U.S. military team prepare aluminum coffins for shipment to the United States, following the more than 900 deaths in the mass suicide staged in Jonestown by members of the People… Ryan was shot dead. Is that what made him so attractive as a leader? Unfortunately, he didn’t make it back to the US because he ended up being shot by Jones’s security team. It’s difficult to understand why people didn’t leave. Sure, I think that it could have been handled in a different way. They worked long days in the fields and failed to get enough food. In the mid-1970s, there were growing accusations that Jones was illegally diverting the income of the cult members for his own purposes. Just two years later, on Nov. 18, 1978, those words became reality when more than 900 people, one-third of them children, died during what would be known as the Jonestown … Read another story from us: The event which coined the word ‘genocide’: The Ottoman massacre of the Armenians, In her interview, published in The Atlantic, O’Shea said: “Jonestown was an important part of American history, and it’s been marginalized. In November 1978, 913 people died in a shocking mass murder-suicide, and 28 years later, the Jonestown Massacre still remains the most chilling example of faith turned against the faithful. Author: Mercurywoodrose CC BY-SA 3.0. As soon as the two arrived in San Francisco, O’Shea said that she was going to the dentist. In a challenging new documentary that opens in limited release this week, "Jonestown: The Life and Death of the Peoples Temple," acclaimed filmmaker Stanley Nelson reconstructs the Jonestown story. Why didn’t they take me, too?’” ... the truck with Ryan and the defectors leave Jonestown. Jonestown was meant to be a utopia. Okay. It didn’t take long for some followers to grow disenchanted. 40 years after the Jonestown massacre: Jim Jones' surviving sons on what they think of their father, the Peoples Temple today "There's somethings about Jonestown … The more you knew, the higher up you were in the church, the harder it was. This was at least as potent a motive for staying as were the stories spread by Jones and his inner clique that there would be no point in seeking help in Georgetown, for the Peoples Temple had its agents there too. A congressman of California, Leo Ryan, became curious about the situation, and on the 1st of November, he announced that he was going to visit Jonestown. Are they still faithful people or have they been soured by that experience? People are less likely to do something the more people are around. I mean why was the cyanide there? He had a fascination with death. Nazi Germany kept some of the best documentation of the Holocaust because they thought what they were doing was wonderful. People know that there was a group down in Jonestown that died that day at the urgings of their leader, some people think of it as a murder, but many more see it as an example of a large-scale brainwashing, that when the people were ordered to commit suicide, and that they did … Then came the shouts. As Jim’s behavior became more deviant, people went along with it because it … His evolving fear of nuclear war prompted Jones to move to Belo Horizonte in Brazil with his family, because he read that in a case of such a war, that city would still be a safe place. Author: Nancy Wong CC BY-SA 4.0. Its founder was a charismatic American religious leader, the Rev. Fearing that the survivors would bring back authorities to Jonestown, Jones ordered all of his followers to drink punch containing cyanide. Nobody could escape easily, and there were only a few who managed to do so by running into the jungle. Almost all members of Jones’ family were among the dead, including the man himself. Jonestown was meant to be a utopia. The Cult Was Led by Jim Jones. That was one of the main reasons why he, with many of his followers, left the U.S. and moved to Guyana in 1977, where they established Jonestown. See why nearly a quarter of a million subscribers begin their day with the Starting 5. As things progressed it was harder to come and go. Jonestown was 250 miles away from Georgetown, the capital of Guyana. Ryan stated that none of the 60 relatives he 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." Jim Jones, who had led … Certainly by the time you reached Guyana, it was impossible to leave. But a seemingly random knife attack by a sect member caused significant injuries to Ryan. They didn't say no, so they changed a little. On November 18, 1978, at the direction of charismatic cult leader Jim Jones, 909 members of the People's Temple died, all but two from apparent cyanide poisoning, in a "revolutionary suicide." The cabins were also segregated by gender, so married couples were forced to live apart. You can hear the people screaming in the background. A new generation filled the streets with a message of love and peace, great musicians rocked the scene, youths brought a world of color to Haight-Ashbury with their fashion, drugs were taken freely, and a feeling of hopeful innocence permeated. That's important, because the change that took place in the members of Peoples Temple happened little by little. The footage came from a number of different sources, but there was a lot of footage in the film that did come from Peoples Temple. It was because they would again be left without hope. But the story we know is of the people who went to Jonestown and stayed, and that's the story we care about. He then moved the group to the San Francisco area, and ultimately to a desolate area of Guyana, where the tragedy played out as a concerned group showed up to investigate. But the deaths of some 900 people at Jonestown on Nov. 18, 1978 was not mass suicide. When organizations are doing things that they think are really great, they document them. And it wasn’t hard. It's difficult to understand why people didn't leave. And why they had followed the man at the head of it all: Jim Jones.