Jim Jones was a complex man . A sideburned commie and occasional Methodist minister , fond of tinted glasses , he found his own pseudo - church service in Indianapolis in the late 1950s , the Peoples Temple Full Gospel Church , get it on in myopic as the Peoples Temple . While Jones called it a church , it was more like his reading of a Marxist commune , with a handful of Christian references thrown into his magnetic sermons . The Peoples Temple call for serious commitment ( and financial backup ) from its phallus , most of whom were people of color in the church ’s other days , and many were all too happy to support Jones ’s message or racial harmony , especially at a prison term when segregation and favoritism were ubiquitous across the U.S.
Jones and his married woman Marceline , who were whitened , were strongly in favor of racial integration , and they adopted several children from different racial background . The Joneses were the first white syndicate in Indiana to adopt a fateful American son , and also adopted three Korean American youngster , a Native American kid , and a handful of white kid . ( They also had one biologic child . ) Jones called his adopted retinue the “ rainbow home , ” a metaphor for his own view for the world , and he made a name for himself mix various institution in Indiana .
The Road to Jonestown
As the Peoples Temple grew throughout the 1960s , Jones ’s preaching became much more dystopian . He set out to preach about an at hand nuclear Revelation of Saint John the Divine ( which , during theCold War , may not have seemed that strange ) . He even specified a day of the month for annihilation — July 15 , 1967 — and suggested that afterwards , a socialist Eden would exist on Earth . Jones pick out the remote town of Redwood Valley , California , for that new Eden , and moved the Peoples Temple and its members there in 1965 .
In the following years , Jones empty all pretenses of show Christian teaching and discover himself to be an atheist with demagogic tendencies . “ Those who continue drug with the opiate of faith had to be brought to enlightenment — socialism , ” he said . His following bosom the idea of re-start civilization with utopian ideals , complimentary of racial discrimination and capitalistic strictures .
As medium scrutiny increased and his public profile got more complicated , Jones became concerned that the Peoples Temple ’s tax - exempt position as a church service in the U.S. would finally be revoked . He was also paranoid about the U.S. intelligence information biotic community surveilling his action . So , in 1977 , Jones again affect the Temple and about 1000 of his following , this time to a settlement he had been building since 1974 in the South American nation of Guyana . He named it Jonestown .
Occupying near 4000 estate of jungle , Jonestown had poor grime and limited invigorated water , making factory farm hard . The commune was overcrowded , red-hot , and loony , and Temple penis were pressure to ferment long hours to keep the organization run . Jones reckon his people could farm the state in this new Zion . Though Jones was affluent , he did not share ( or even apply ) his assets to make life in Jonestown easier . Jones himself lived in a small share house with few luxuries .
The Massacre
While Jones ’s followers were homesteading in Guyana , their relatives in the U.S. were becoming increasingly concerned about their love ace ’ whereabouts and lack of communication . Some felt that Jones was holding his followers enwrapped in an opprobrious office or had brainwashed them . The relatives asked Congressman Leo Ryan , a Democrat make up California ’s 11th District , to look into reports of alleged human right field misdemeanor and other effectual issuing touch to Jonestown .
Ryan lead a delegation to Jonestown in November 1978 . He was accompanied by his adjutant Jackie Speier , NBC News correspondent Don Harris , various other member of the media , and concerned house fellow member of Jonestown house physician . While visiting Jonestown , Ryan converge a more than a dozen Temple members who want to entrust ( include a couplet who travel by a note , read “ Please help us get out of Jonestown , ” to Harris , err him for Ryan ) .
While process paperwork to avail Temple members return to the U.S. , Ryan was attacked by knife - wielding Temple fellow member Don Sly , but the would - be assassin was restrained before he could injure Ryan . Eventually , the entire Ryan party , plus the group of Jonestown defectors , were see by Jones ’s armed “ Red Brigade ” animal foot soldiers , to drove to a nearby airstrip . As the commission room plane to leave the chemical compound , the Red Brigade opened fervor , killing Ryan , one Temple defector , and three members of the media . Eleven others were injured , include Speier ( who later served in Congress from 2007 to 2023 ) . Those who survived fled into the hobo camp .
When the shooters returned to Jonestown and reported their actions , Jones quickly called a “ White Night ” meeting , tempt all Temple members . But this was n’t the first White Night . On various occasions prior to the murders , Jones had hosted White Night confluence in which he suggested that U.S. intelligence operation agencies would soon attack Jonestown ; he had even give away imitation attackers around Jonestown to add an air of pseudo - naturalism to the proceedings . Jones adumbrate that Jonestown was being invade and offered Temple member these choices : stick around and fight the imaginary invaders , head for the USSR or the smother jungle , or affiance in “ revolutionary suicide ” ( taking their lives as an enactment of political protest ) .
On premature occasion when Temple member mock - voted for the third choice , Jones test them : Members were given small cupful of liquid purportedly hold poison , and were asked to drink it . They did . After a while , Jones revealed that the liquid state did n’t contain poisonous substance — but that one day it would .
On the final White Night , Jones was not testing his Temple follower . He was killing them all .
Don’t Drink the Flavor Aid
Jim Jones had beenstockpiling cyanideand scores ofother drugsfor year prior to the fatal night . Now , he regularise his followers to make a fruity drink containing nitrile , diazepam , Phenergan , chloral hydrate , and Flavor Aid , a grape - season powder interchangeable to Kool - Aid .
Jones urged Temple members to take their life to make a political tip . Debate ensued . An alternating architectural plan put forth by extremity Christine Miller involved flying people to the USSR , but Jones reign after repeatedly telling his followers that Congressman Ryan was dead , and that would institute the authorities presently . Jones importune that mothers squirt poisonous substance into the mouths of their children using syringes . As their children cash in one’s chips , the mother were dosed from cups of the fruity drink . The victims wandered onto the ground and eventually drop dead—900 in all , admit more than 300 children . Only a smattering of members who happened to be away on errands orplaying basketballescaped the carnage .
Jones , his married woman , and other members of the Temple forget will stating that their asset should go to the Communist Party of the USSR . Jones himself did not drink toxicant ; he go bad from a gunfire to the psyche , though it ’s not readable whether it was self - visit . Toxicology reports found high levels of barbiturate in his blood . Jones was reportedly hooked on a variety of substances , possibly the effort of his increasingly mercurial demeanour over the decades .
But nothing could adequately explain Jim Jones ’s hold over his follower , or decipher their determination to end their lives , or assuage the calamity for their love ones .
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A interpretation of this story was published in 2012 ; it has been update for 2025 .
