The History of Jonestown
In 1978, 913 followers of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple committed
a mass suicide in northern Guyana at a site called, Jonestown. The
charismatic leader of Jonestown, was Jim Jones, a preacher who set
up the Peoples Temple in San Francisco and ultimately moved his
followers to a more clandestine site in Guyana. While Jones was
preaching in San Francisco, he helped out many local and even national
campaigns and was seen as a healer which much power in the community.
However, once he had all of his members in Jonestown, his personality
changed. Away from the constraints of American soil, Jonestown and
its members became very cultish. Jones heightened regulations on
his followers and their engagement to the sect. Eventually, Jones
began to claim his true divinity. "Jones, for example now claimed
to be the reincarnation of Jesus, as well as Ikhnaton, Buddha, Lenin,
and Father Divine."(Galanter, 1989) Paranoia and complete control
became Jones' personality, once he obtained such a close knit group.
Jones began to stage rehearsals of his eventual mass suicide plan
that he would eventually enact. These drills, called "white
nights" began with sirens going off in the middle of the night
and none of the members of Jonestown would know if it was real or
not. "A mass meeting would ensue... we would be told that the
jungle was swarming with mercenaries... 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."(Galanter,
1989)
In 1978, U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan went to Jonestown to investigate
supposed abuses by the People's Temple onto its members. After staying
for a day, Ryan tried to leave, taking four of the cult members
who had decided to defect. Realizing this, Jones ordered them killed,
as was done. Sensing that his utopia in the jungle would surely
come to an end after word got back to the states about Ryan; Jones
decide to put his suicide plan into action. Telling his subjects
that it was a "revolutionary death," he had a large quantity
of fruit punch laced with cyanide prepared. After making all 276
children at Jonestown drink the punch, all the adults proceeded.
In the end, after Jones apparently killed himself with a gunshot
to the head, 914 people had died. |
