Jim Jones

James Warren "Jim" Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was the American founder of the People's Temple church that developed into a group with cult-like beliefs, power structures and practices. On November 18, 1978, most of Peoples Temple's members followed Jones' advice to commit collective suicide by drinking poison in their isolated intentional community called Jonestown, located in the jungle of Guyana. Jones was found dead with a shot in his head among the 914 corpses there.

Jonestown and mass suicide

Main Article: Jonestown

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In the summer of 1977, Jones and most of the 1,000 members of the People's Temple moved to Guyana from San Francisco after an investigation began into the church for tax evasion. Jones named the closed settlement Jonestown after himself. His intention was to create an agricultural utopia in the jungle, free from racism and based on communist principles. Jones told his followers to think of him as the incarnation of Christ and God.

Related Topics:
1977 - Tax evasion - Jonestown - Utopia - Christ - God

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People who had left the organization prior to its move to Guyana told the authorities of brutal beatings, murders and of a mass suicide plan, but were not believed. In spite of the tax evasion allegations, Jones was still widely respected for setting up a racially mixed church which helped the disadvantaged. Around 70% of the inhabitants of Jonestown were black and impoverished.

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It has been argued that Jones' authority waned after he moved to the isolated commune, because there he was not needed anymore for recruitment and he could not hide his drug addiction from rank and file members. 1 Consequently, he lost some of his power to inner-circle members.

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In November 1978, U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan led a fact-finding mission to the Jonestown settlement in Guyana after allegations by relatives in the U.S. of human rights abuses. Ryan's delegation arrived in Jonestown on November 14 and spent three days interviewing residents. They left hurriedly on the morning of Saturday November 18, a few days after their arrival after an attempt was made on Ryan's life. They took with them roughly 20 People's Temple members who wished to leave. Delegation members later told police that, as they were boarding planes at the airstrip, a truckload of Jones' armed guards arrived and began to shoot at them . When the gunmen left five people were dead: Rep. Ryan, a reporter from NBC, a cameraman from NBC, a newspaper photographer and one "defector" from the People's Temple. A producer for NBC News, Bob Flick, survived the attack.

Related Topics:
1978 - U.S. Congressman - Leo Ryan - November 14 - November 18 - NBC - Bob Flick

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Later that same day, the remaining 914 inhabitants of Jonestown, 276 of them children, committed mass suicide that Jones referred to as "revolutionary suicide" on Jones's instructions by drinking cyanide-laced Flavor Aid, by forced cyanide injection, or by shooting. Jones was found dead with a shot in the head, sitting in a deck chair. The autopsy on his body showed levels of medicine that are lethal to humans who have not developed physiological tolerance.

Related Topics:
Cyanide - Flavor Aid - Autopsy - Physiological tolerance

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