November 18, 1978 (36 years ago today) Peoples Temple cult leader Jim Jones leads his followers to a mass murder-suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, hours after cult member killed Congressman Leo J. Ryan of California. - James Warren Jim Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American sect leader and community organizer. Jones was the founder and the leader of the Peoples Temple, best known for the mass suicide in November 1978 of 909 of its members in Jonestown, Guyana, and the murder of five individuals at a nearby airstrip, including Congressman Leo Ryan who was there to investigate after rumours spread that many were being held there against their will. Over 300 children were murdered at Jonestown, almost all of them by cyanide poisoning. Jones died from a gunshot wound to the head; it is suspected his death was a suicide. This resulted in the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a deliberate act until the September 11 attacks. The FBI later recovered a 45 minute audio recording of the suicide in progress. Jones tells Temple members that the Soviet Union, with whom the Temple had been negotiating a potential exodus for months, would not take them after the Temple had murdered Ryan and four others at a nearby airstrip. The reason given by Jones to commit suicide was consistent with his previously stated conspiracy theories of intelligence organizations allegedly conspiring against the Temple, that men would parachute in here on us, shoot some of our innocent babies and theyll torture our children, theyll torture some of our people here, theyll torture our seniors. Parroting Jones prior statements that hostile forces would convert captured children to fascism, one temple member states the ones that they take captured, theyre gonna just let them grow up and be dummies. Given that reasoning, Jones and several members argued that the group should commit revolutionary suicide by drinking cyanide-laced grape-flavored Flavor Aid. Later released videos made to show the best of Jonestown show Jones opening a storage container full of Kool-Aid in large quantities. However, empty packets of grape Flavor Aid found on the scene show that this is what was used to mix the potion (as was referred to in several statements obtained by the FBI in the final tape recordings) along with a sedative. One member, Christine Miller, dissents toward the beginning of the tape. When members apparently cried, Jones counseled, Stop this hysterics. This is not the way for people who are Socialists or Communists to die. No way for us to die. We must die with some dignity. Jones can be heard saying, Dont be afraid to die, that death is just stepping over into another plane and that its a friend. At the end of the tape, Jones concludes: We didnt commit suicide; we committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhumane world. According to escaping Temple members, children were given the drink first and families were told to lie down together. https://youtube/watch?v=kJFaqrU3HfQ ~ Donna Mass suicide photos, then one of the cult leader Jim Jones.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 03:03:27 +0000
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