Mass Suicide Part II - Jonestown

In the 1970's Jim Jones led his followers of the People's Temple to a remote area surrounded by forest in Guyana and settled in a place they called Jonestown.

Jones preached anti-communist messages under an affiliation of the Disciples of Christ, gaining more and more support, especially from the working poor. In the 1970's, the church began a plan of relocation, where People's Temple members moved to the site in Guyana and began building. Jones himself moved to the site in 1977, where 900 others joined him.

Published in Newsweek

The people were dedicated to the group, bringing them a sense of belonging and a "meaningful" life.

On random nights, Jones would call out "White Night" over the speaker phone, calling all the members to the pavilion (a tent-covered area where he gave sermons). During these "white nights", Jones and his followers would rehearse a mass suicide.

On November 18, 1978 Jones would call out the final "white night". That day, over 900 people (including over 200 children) would be killed or give their lives willingly on the command of Jones himself.

Weeks earlier, democratic Congressman Leo Ryan traveled to Guyana on a plane with 18 other people, including government officials, reporters, and members of the group "Concerned Relatives of Peoples Temple Members". All had joined in visiting the settlement, with the motive to ensure people were not being held against their will, and bring those who wanted to leave back home to San Fransisco.

Two days after landing, on Novermber 17, 1978, and after a few legal battles with the Jonestown lawyers and Jones himself, Ryan and the team of reporters were allowed to visit.

During this visit, only a few dozen people expressed their wish to leave. For many of them, this meant leaving other family members behind.

Jones was enraged by the "deserters" and, unknowing to the other faithfuls, ordered some of the loyal Temple members to follow the truck of deserters and shoot to kill anyone boarding the planes. These men were successful in killing Congressman Ryan, some of the reporters and deserters, while others ran and hid in the surrounding jungle.

Back at the pavilion, loyal doctors and nurses of the church mixed cyanide and Valium into a tub of grape-flavored juice. Children were forced the mix through injections into their mouths and many adults had to be forced as well, while others drank the juice willingly.

Jones did not kill himself willingly, he had to be shot by one of his loyalists.

Below is a video from YouTube, showing many pictures and video never seen in the public eye before.

This is the cover of Time magazine on December 14, 1978.

Jonestown in Film

In 2006, two feature-length films have been produced based on the events. One is a documentary called Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple, produced by Firelight Media Inc. The film will air in the US on PBS nation-wide on April 9, 2007.

Below is a trailer for the film, nominated for three awards, as it is seen on YouTube.



Cineflix, based in Montreal, Quebec produced the docudrama Jonestown: Paradise Lost, which mixes recreated drama with archival footage of the events and interviews close members, including Jim Jones' son Stephan Jones. The docudrama aired in the US on the History Channel and on Vision TV in Canada, earlier this month.