Jonestown Massacre

Jonestown was the informal name for the "Peoples Temple Agricultural Project," a group in Guyana in South America, formed by Jim Jones, who claimed to have created a Utopian society.http://wwrn.org/articles/29013/?§ion=branch-davidians On November 18, 1978, the largest mass suicide in history took place at the Jonestown compound when 914 people died in an event termed "revolutionary suicide" by Jones. While most voluntarily drank a drink laced with cyanide and sedatives, some members were forced into it and some were shot.http://www.documentingreality.com/forum/f181/jonestown-massacre-photos-18-november-1978-a-11317/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008wlpw

The mass poisoining was linked to the earlier killings of five people, including U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan, on a airstrip near the compound. Most of the dead were members of the People's Temple Christian Church who had followed Jones from San Francisco, following an investigation into the church for tax evasion.http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/18/newsid_2540000/2540209.stm

Jones started his ministry in 1953 as an independent minister in Indianapolis. He was ordained in 1964 by the Disciples of Christ, and by the end of 1971, he had moved his congregation to California. His main church was in San Francisco, and a second was opened in Los Angeles. Though racially diverse, most of the "People's Temple" followers were African-American.http://www.documentingreality.com/forum/f181/jonestown-massacre-photos-18-november-1978-a-11317/ Despite Jones being a respected community activist who set up a racially-mixed church which helped the disadvantaged, negative reports about him were leaked in the summer of 1977.http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/18/newsid_2540000/2540209.stm http://www.documentingreality.com/forum/f181/jonestown-massacre-photos-18-november-1978-a-11317/

Although Jones had moved his church to another continent in response to the rumors, continued complaints from former members and families led to requests for an official investigation.http://www.documentingreality.com/forum/f181/jonestown-massacre-photos-18-november-1978-a-11317/ The BBC reported at the time that people who had left the organisation relayed stories of brutal beatings, murders, and a mass suicide plan to authorities.http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/18/newsid_2540000/2540209.stm

Californian congressman Leo J. Ryan received many complaints and concerns for family members who were followers of Jim Jones and responded with an investigation.http://www.documentingreality.com/forum/f181/jonestown-massacre-photos-18-november-1978-a-11317/ After getting permission from Jones, Ryan visited the Jonestown compound on November 14, 1978, and spent three days interviewing residents.http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/18/newsid_2540000/2540209.stm He met with Jones and toured the compound, and when secretly asked the next day to take members with him when he left, he agreed. Gunmen, apparently under the order of Jones, opened fire on Ryan and his party at an airstrip on November 18.http://www.documentingreality.com/forum/f181/jonestown-massacre-photos-18-november-1978-a-11317/ Ryan and four others - a reporter and cameraman from NBC, a newspaper photographer and a People's Temple "defector" - were immediately killed.http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/18/newsid_2540000/2540209.stm

Anticipating his own arrest and the end of his church, Jones ordered a "state of emergency." A carefully rehearsed mass suicide took place, with those who did not die voluntarily either murdered or escaping into the surrounding jungle. The body of Jones was found with a fatal gunshot wound to the head.http://www.documentingreality.com/forum/f181/jonestown-massacre-photos-18-november-1978-a-11317/ The bodies of 412 people who committed suicide were never claimed by relatives and buried in a mass grave in Oakland, California.http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/18/newsid_2540000/2540209.stm