Origins Edit

Jonestown established Edit

Events in Jonestown before Ryan visit Edit

Deaths in Jonestown Edit

Before leaving Jonestown for the airstrip, Ryan had told Garry that he would issue a report that would describe Jonestown "in basically good terms". Ryan stated that none of the 60 relatives he had targeted for interviews wanted to leave, the 14 defectors constituted a very small portion of Jonestown's residents, that any sense of imprisonment the defectors had was likely because of peer pressure and a lack of physical transportation, and even if 200 of the 900+ wanted to leave, "I'd still say you have a beautiful place here."[139] Despite Garry's report, Jones told him, "I have failed." Garry reiterated that Ryan would be making a positive report, but Jones maintained that "all is lost."[140] Peoples Temple "Death Tape" Problems playing this file? See media help. A 44-minute cassette tape, known as the "death tape",[141][142] records part of the meeting Jones called under the pavilion in the early evening. Before the meeting, aides prepared a large metal tub with grape Flavor Aid, poisoned with Valium, chloral hydrate, cyanide[143] and Phenergan.[144] When the assembly gathered, referring to the Ryan delegation's air travel back to Georgetown, Jones told the gathering one of those people on that plane is gonna shoot the pilot, I know that. I didn't plan it but I know it's gonna happen. They're gonna shoot that pilot and down comes the plane into the jungle and we had better not have any of our children left when it's over, because they'll parachute in here on us. Parroting Jones' prior statements that hostile forces would convert captured children to fascism, one temple member states: "The ones that they take captured, they're gonna just let them grow up and be dummies."[141] On the tape, Jones urged Temple members to commit "revolutionary suicide".[141] Such an act had been planned by the Temple before and, according to Jonestown defectors, its theory was "you can go down in history, saying you chose your own way to go, and it is your commitment to refuse capitalism and in support of socialism."[145] Temple member Christine Miller argued that the Temple should alternatively attempt an airlift to the Soviet Union. Jim McElvane, a former therapist who had arrived in Jonestown only two days earlier, assisted Jones by arguing against Miller's resistance to suicide, stating "Let's make it a beautiful day" and later citing possible reincarnation. After several exchanges in which Jones argued that a Soviet exodus would not be possible, along with reactions by other Temple members hostile to Miller, she backed down. However, Miller may have ceased dissenting when Jones confirmed at one point that "the Congressman has been murdered" after the airstrip shooters returned.[141] When the Red Brigade members came back to Jonestown after Ryan's murder, Tim Carter, a Vietnam War veteran, recalled them having the "thousand-yard stare" of weary soldiers.[146] After Jones confirmed that "the Congressman's dead," no dissent occurs on the death tape. Directly after this, Jones stated that "the Red Brigade's the only one that made any sense anyway," and, "the Red Brigade showed them justice." In addition to McElvane, several other Temple members gave speeches praising Jones and his decision for the community to commit suicide, even after Jones stopped appreciating this praise and begged for the process to go faster.[141] According to escaped Temple member Odell Rhodes, the first to take the poison were Ruletta Paul and her one-year-old infant. A syringe without a needle fitted was used to squirt poison into the infant's mouth, after which Paul squirted another syringe into her own mouth.[147] Stanley Clayton also witnessed mothers with their babies first approach the tub containing the poison. Clayton said that Jones approached people to encourage them to drink the poison and that, after adults saw the poison begin to take effect, "they showed a reluctance to die."[148] The poison caused death within five minutes.[149] After consuming the poison, according to Rhodes, people were then escorted away down a wooden walkway leading outside the pavilion. It is not clear if some initially thought the exercise was another White Night rehearsal. Rhodes reported being in close contact with dying children.[147] In response to reactions of seeing the poison take effect on others, Jones counseled, "Die with a degree of dignity. Lay down your life with dignity; don't lay down with tears and agony." He also said, I tell you, I don't care how many screams you hear, I don't care how many anguished cries...death is a million times preferable to 10 more days of this life. If you knew what was ahead of you – if you knew what was ahead of you, you'd be glad to be stepping over tonight. Rhodes stated that while the poison was squirted in some children's mouths, there was no panic or emotional outburst and the assembled Temple members looked like they were "in a trance".[150] This statement is contradicted by the cries and screams of children heard throughout the majority of the tape.[141] Jones was found dead lying next to his chair between two other bodies, his head cushioned by a pillow.[151] His death was caused by a gunshot wound to his left temple that Guyanese Chief Medical Examiner Leslie Mootoo stated was consistent with being self-inflicted.[152] The events at Jonestown constituted the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a deliberate act until the incidents of September 11, 2001.[153] Survivors and eyewitnesses Edit Three high-ranking Temple survivors claimed they were given an assignment and thereby escaped death. Tim Carter and his brother Mike, aged 30 and 20, and Mike Prokes, 31, were given luggage containing $550,000 in U.S. currency, $130,000 in Guyanese currency, and an envelope, which they were told to deliver to the Soviet embassy in Georgetown.[154] The envelope contained two passports and three instructional letters, the first of which was to Timofeyev, stating: Dear Comrade Timofeyev, The following is a letter of instructions regarding all of our assets that we want to leave to the Communist Party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Enclosed in this letter are letters which instruct the banks to send the cashiers checks to you. I am doing this on behalf of Peoples Temple because we, as communists, want our money to be of benefit for help to oppressed peoples all over the world, or in any way that your decision-making body sees fit.[154][155] The letters included listed accounts with balances totaling in excess of $7.3 million to be transferred to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.[155][156][157] Prokes and the Carter brothers soon ditched most of the money and were apprehended heading for a Temple boat at Kaituma. It is unknown how they were supposed to reach Georgetown, 150 miles (240 km) away, since the boat had been sent away earlier that day.[154] The brothers were given the task before the suicides began, and soon abandoned it when they realised what was about to happen; Tim Carter desperately tried to search for his wife and son, discovering his son in time to witness him being poisoned, and his wife killing herself in despair. At this point, Carter had a nervous breakdown, and was pulled away from the village by his equally distraught brother. Just before the start of the final meeting in the pavilion, Garry and Lane were told that the people were angry with them. The lawyers were escorted to a house used to accommodate visitors. According to them, they talked their way past two armed guards and made it to the jungle, before eventually arriving in Port Kaituma. While in the jungle near the settlement, they heard gunshots.[158] This observation concurs with the testimony of Clayton, who, having previously fled into the jungle, heard the same sounds as he was sneaking back into Jonestown to retrieve his passport.[148] Rhodes volunteered to fetch a stethoscope and hid under a building.[147] Four more people who were intended to be poisoned managed to survive.[154] Grover Davis, 79, who was hearing-impaired, missed the announcement to assemble on the loudspeaker, lay down in a ditch, and pretended to be dead.[25][159] Hyacinth Thrash, 76, realized what was happening and crawled under her bed, only to walk out after the suicides were completed.[25][159] Medical examinations Edit The only medical doctor to initially examine the scene at Jonestown was Mootoo, who visually examined over 200 bodies and later told a Guyanese coroner's jury to have seen needle marks on at least 70. However, no determination was made as to whether those injections initiated the introduction of poison or whether they were so-called "relief" injections to quicken death and reduce suffering from convulsions from those who had previously taken poison orally. Mootoo and American pathologist Lynn Crook determined that cyanide was present in some bodies, while analysis of the contents of the vat revealed several tranquilizers as well as potassium cyanide and potassium chloride.[160] Plastic cups, Flavor Aid packets, and syringes, some with needles and some without, littered the area where the bodies were found. Mootoo concluded that a gunshot wound to Annie Moore could not have been self-inflicted, though Moore had also ingested a lethal dose of cyanide.[161] Guyanese authorities waived their requirement for autopsies in the case of unnatural death. Doctors in the United States performed autopsies on only seven bodies, including those of Jones, Moore, Lawrence Schacht, and Carolyn Layton. Moore and Layton were selected among those autopsied, in part, because of the urging of the Moore family, including Rebecca Moore, the sister of the two victims, who was not a Temple member herself.[160] Notes from deceased residents Edit Found near Marceline Jones' body was a typewritten note, dated November 18, 1978, signed by Marceline and witnessed by Moore and Maria Katsaris, stating: I, Marceline Jones, leave all bank assets in my name to the Communist Party of the USSR. The above bank accounts are located in the Bank of Nova Scotia in Nassau, Bahamas. Please be sure that these assets do get to the USSR. I especially request that none of these are allowed to get into the hands of my adopted daughter, Suzanne Jones Cartmell. For anyone who finds this letter, please honor this request as it is most important to myself and my husband James W. Jones.[162] Moore also left a note, which in part stated: "I am at a point right now so embittered against the world that I don't know why I am writing this. Someone who finds it will believe I am crazy or believe in the barbed wire that does NOT exist in Jonestown." The last line ("We died because you would not let us live in peace.") is written in different color ink. No other specific reference is made to the events of the day. Moore also wrote, "JONESTOWN—the most peaceful, loving community that ever existed." In addition, she stated, "JIM JONES—the one who made this paradise possible—much to the contrary of the lies stated about Jim Jones being a power-hungry sadistic, mean person who thought he was God—of all things." And "His hatred of racism, sexism, elitism, and mainly classism, is what prompted him to make a new world for the people—a paradise in the jungle. The children loved it. So did everyone else."[163] Found near Carolyn Layton's body was a handwritten note signed by Layton, witnessed by Katsaris and Moore, dated November 18, 1978, stating, "This is my last will and testament. I hereby leave all assets in any bank account to which I am a signatory to the Communist Party of the U.S.S.R."[164]

Deaths in Georgetown Edit

In the early evening of November 18, at the Temple's headquarters in Georgetown, Temple member Sharon Amos received a radio communication from Jonestown instructing the members at the headquarters to take revenge on the Temple's enemies and then commit revolutionary suicide.[165] Later, after police arrived at the headquarters, Sharon escorted her children, Liane (21), Christa (11), and Martin (10), into a bathroom.[166] Wielding a kitchen knife, Sharon first killed Christa, and then Martin.[166] Then Liane assisted Sharon in killing herself with the knife, after which Liane killed herself with the knife.[166]

Aftermath Edit

Former site Edit

Now deserted, the compound at Jonestown was first tended by the Guyanese government following the deaths.[183] The government then allowed its re-occupation by Hmong refugees from Laos for a few years in the early 1980s.[183] The buildings and grounds were looted by local Guyanese people, but were not taken over because of their association with the mass killing. The buildings were mostly destroyed by a fire in the mid-1980s, after which the ruins were left to decay and be reclaimed by the jungle.[184] During a visit to tape a segment for the ABC news show 20/20 in 1998, Jim Jones Jr., the adopted son of the cult leader, discovered the rusting remains of an oil drum near the former entrance to the pavilion. Jones recognized the drum, originally adapted for use during meal times, as the drum used for drink mixtures during the White Night exercises, and which he believed was used to hold the beverage mix of poison and grape-flavored punch during the events of November 18, 1978.[185] In 2003, with the help of Gerry Gouveia, a pilot involved with the Jonestown cleanup, a television crew recording a special for the 25th anniversary of the event returned to the site to uncover any remaining artifacts.[186] Although the site was covered with dense vegetation, the team uncovered a standing cassava mill (possibly the largest remaining structure), the remains of a tractor (speculated to be the same tractor used by the airstrip shooters), a generator, a filing cabinet, an overturned truck near the site of Jones' house, a fuel pump, and other smaller miscellaneous items. Gouveia also led the team to the former site of the pavilion, where they found the remains of a steel drum, an organ, and a bed of daisies growing where the bodies once lay.[186][187]

See also Edit

Notes Edit

References Edit