Jim Jones

== Early life ==
James Warren Jones was born on May 13, 1931, in the rural community of [[Crete, Indiana]], to James Thurman Jones (October 21, 1887 – May 29, 1951) and Lynetta Putnam (April 16, 1902 – December 10, 1977).{{sfn|Rolls|2014|p=100}}{{sfn|Hall|1987|p=3}}{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=9–10}} Jones was of Irish and Welsh descent; he and his mother both claimed to also have some [[Cherokee]] ancestry,{{sfn|Kilduff|1978|p=10}} but there is no evidence of this.{{sfn|Kilduff|1978|p=10}}{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=10}} Jones' father was a disabled [[World War I|World War{{nbsp}}I]] veteran who suffered from severe breathing difficulties due to injuries which he sustained in a [[Chemical weapons in World War I|chemical weapons]] attack.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=11}} He tried to augment his income by occasionally working on neighborhood road repair projects because the military pension he earned due to his wounds was insufficient to support his family.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=11}}

His father's illness led to financial difficulties, which in turn resulted in intense marital problems between Jones's parents.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=11}} In 1934, in the midst of the [[Great Depression]], the Jones family was evicted from their home for failure to make mortgage payments. Their relatives purchased a [[shack]] for them to live in at the nearby town of [[Lynn, Indiana|Lynn]]. The new home, where Jones grew up, lacked plumbing and electricity.{{sfn|Hall|1987|p=5}}{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=15}} In Lynn, the family attempted to earn an income through farming, but again met with failure when Jones' father's health further deteriorated. The family often lacked adequate food and relied on financial support from their extended family. They sometimes resorted to foraging in the nearby forest and fields to supplement their diet.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=13}}{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=15}}

According to multiple Jones biographers, his mother had "no natural maternal instincts" and she frequently neglected her son.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=14}} When Jones started to attend school, his extended family threatened to cut off their financial assistance unless his mother got a job, forcing her to work outside her home. Meanwhile, Jones's father was hospitalized multiple times due to his illness.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|pp=15, 20–21}} As a result, Jones' parents were frequently absent during his childhood.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=15}} Although his aunts and uncles lived close by and gave him some supervision, Jones often wandered the streets of the town, sometimes naked.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|pp=24-25}}{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=13}}{{sfn|Guinn|2017|pp=24–25}} Jones was cared for by the female residents of Lynn, and they frequently invited him into their houses to give him food, clothing, and other gifts.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=25}}

===Early religious and political influences===
Myrtle Kennedy, the wife of the [[Church of the Nazarene|Nazarene Church]]'s pastor, developed a special attachment to Jones.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=25}} She gave Jones a [[Bible]] and encouraged him to study it, teaching him to follow the [[Holiness movement|holiness code]] of the Nazarene Church.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=26}}{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=13–14}} As Jones grew older, he attended services at most of the churches in Lynn, often going to multiple churches each week, and he was baptized in several of them.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=27}} Jones developed a desire to become a preacher as a child and he began to practice preaching in private.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=29}} His mother claimed that she was disturbed when she caught him imitating the pastor of the local [[Apostolic Church of Pentecost|Apostolic Pentecostal Church]] and she unsuccessfully attempted to prevent him from attending the church's services.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=42}}{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=18}}

Although they had sympathy for Jones because of his poor circumstances, his neighbors reported that he was an unusual child who was obsessed with religion and death.<ref name="pbs.org">{{cite news |year=2007 |title=Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple |publisher=[[PBS]] [[American Experience]] |location=US |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/jonestown/ |access-date=June 20, 2020}}</ref> Jones regularly visited a casket manufacturer in Lynn and held mock funerals for [[roadkill]] that he collected.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=32}} One neighbor of the Jones family even stated that Jones killed a cat with a knife for one of these funerals. When he could not get any children to attend his funerals, he would perform the services alone.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=29}}{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=19}} Jones claimed to have unique abilities, such as the capacity to fly. He once leaped off a building's roof to demonstrate his abilities to others, but he fell and broke his arm. He nonetheless persisted in saying he had exceptional abilities despite the fall.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=32}} At times, he would put other children into life-threatening situations and tell them he was guided by the [[Destroying angel (Bible)|Angel of Death]].{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=32}} Jones allegedly committed countless sacrilegious pranks in the churches he attended as a boy, according to claims he made in adult life. He claimed that he had stolen the Pentecostal minister's Bible and had covered [[Acts 2:38]] with cow manure. He also asserted that he substituted a cup of his own urine for the holy water once at a [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] church.{{sfn|Chidester|2004|p=2}}

One Jones biographer suggested that he developed his unusual interests because he found it difficult to make friends.{{sfn|Kilduff|1978|p=10}} Although his strange religious practices stood out the most to his neighbors, they reported that he misbehaved in more serious ways. He frequently stole candy from merchants in the town; his mother was required to pay for his thefts.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=31}} Jones regularly used offensive [[profanity]], commonly greeting his friends and neighbors by saying, "Good morning, you son of a bitch" or "Hello, you dirty bastard", {{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=14}}{{sfn|Chidester|2004|p=2}} similar to his mother Lynetta, who frequently swore in public and found amusement in people's offence at a woman cursing.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=35}} Jones's mother usually beat him with a leather belt in order to punish his misbehavior.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=31}}

Jones also developed an intense interest in social doctrines. He became a voracious reader who studied [[Adolf Hitler]], [[Joseph Stalin]], [[Karl Marx]] and [[Mahatma Gandhi]].{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=24}} Jones would tell his wife that [[Mao Zedong]] was his hero. He spent hours in the community library, and he brought books home so he could read them in the evenings.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=14}} Although he studied different political systems, Jones did not espouse any radical political views in his youth{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=24}} but as [[World War II]] started, Jones developed an intense interest in the [[Nazi Party]]. He was fascinated by their pomp, their cohesion, and Hitler's total power. The members of his neighbourhood found it disconcerting that he extolled [[Nazi Germany]].{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=34}} Jones acted as a dictator over the other kids, ordering them to [[goosestep]] together and beating those who disobeyed.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=34}} One childhood friend recalled Jones shouting "Heil Hitler!" and giving the [[Nazi salute]] to German prisoners of war who were travelling through their town on their way to a detention facility.<ref name="pbs.org"/>

Commenting on his childhood, Jones stated:{{blockquote|"I was ready to kill by the end of the third grade. I mean, I was so aggressive and hostile, I was ready to kill. Nobody gave me love, any understanding. In those days a parent was supposed to go with a child to school functions. There was some kind of school performance, and everybody's parent was there but mine. I'm standing there, alone. Always was alone."{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=16–17}}}} Tim Reiterman, a journalist and biographer of Jones, wrote that Jones's attraction to religion was strongly influenced by his desire for a family.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=22}} Jones went to see the Kennedy family in 1942 when they spent the summer in [[Richmond, Indiana]]. They took part in services four times a week while attending a summer religious convention at a nearby Pentecostal church.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=29}} When Jones returned to Lynn in the fall, he upset his neighborhood by explaining sexual reproduction in detail to young children. Jones's mother was urged to control his behavior by many individuals in Lynn, but she refused. Many parents decided to keep their kids away from Jones as a result of the issue. He had established himself as an outcast among his friends by the time he started [[Secondary school|high school]] and was progressively despised by the locals.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=35}}

===Education and marriage===
In high school, Jones continued to stand out from his peers.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|pp=35–36}} Jones went by the nickname 'Jimmy' during his youth,{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=20}} and almost always carried his Bible with him.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=41}} Jones was a good student who enjoyed debating with his teachers. He also had the habit of refusing to respond to anyone who spoke to him first and only engaged in conversations when he started them. In contrast to his peers, Jones was known to dress in his Sunday church clothes every day of the week.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|pp=35–36}} His religious views alienated him from other young people. He frequently confronted them for drinking beer, smoking, and dancing.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=25–27}} At times, he would even interrupt other young people's events and insist that they read the Bible with him.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=25–27}}

Jones did not enjoy participating in sports because he detested losing, so he coached teams for younger children instead. Jones was disturbed by the treatment of the African Americans who were in attendance at a baseball game he attended in Richmond, Indiana.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=41}} The events at that baseball game brought [[Racism against Black Americans|discrimination against African Americans]] to Jones's attention and influenced his strong aversion to [[racism]].{{sfn|Hall|1987|p=5}} Jones's father belonged to the [[Indiana Klan|Indiana branch]] of the [[Ku Klux Klan]], which enjoyed considerable support in Indiana during the Great Depression. Jones described how he and his father had a disagreement about race and added that they had not spoken for "many, many years" as a result of his father forbidding one of Jones' black friends from entering his home. Ultimately, Jones' involvement in organising baseball leagues ended when he callously killed a dog in front of players by dropping it from a window.{{sfn|Hall|1987|p=5}}

Jones' parents [[marital separation|separated]] in 1945 and they eventually divorced.{{sfn|Chidester|2004|p=3}} Jones moved to Richmond, Indiana with his mother, where he graduated from [[Richmond High School (Richmond, Indiana)|Richmond High School]] in December 1948 early and with honors.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=27}}{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=43}} Jones and his mother lost the financial support of their relatives following the divorce.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=44}} To support himself, Jones began working as an orderly at Richmond's [[Old Reid Hospital|Reid Hospital]] in 1946. Jones was well-regarded by the senior management, but staff members later recalled that Jones exhibited disturbing behavior towards some patients and co-workers. Jones began dating a nurse-in-training named Marceline Mae Baldwin while he was working at Reid Hospital.<ref name="pbs.org" />{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=30}}

Jones moved to [[Bloomington, Indiana]] in November 1948, where he attended [[Indiana University Bloomington]] with the intention of becoming a doctor, but changed his mind shortly thereafter.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|pp=45, 52}} During his time at University, Jones was impressed by a speech which [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] delivered about the plight of African-Americans, and he began to espouse support for [[communism]] and other radical political views for the first time.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=33–38}}<ref name="pbs.org" />

Jones and Baldwin continued their relationship while he attended college, and the couple married on June 12, 1949. Their first home was in Bloomington, where Marceline worked in a nearby hospital while Jones attended college.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=36}} Marceline was [[Methodist]], and she and Jones immediately fell into arguments about church. Jones's strong opposition to the Methodist church's racial segregationist practices was an early strain on their marriage, and throughout the duration of their relationship, Jones frequently emotionally and psychologically abused Marceline.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=34}}{{sfn|Guinn|2017|pp=53–54, 57}} Jones insisted on attending Bloomington's Full Gospel Tabernacle, but eventually compromised and began attending a local Methodist church on most Sunday mornings. Despite attending churches every week, Jones privately pressed his wife to accept [[atheism]].{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=57}}{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=37}}

Through the years, Jones's marriage was affected by his insecurity. He often felt the need to test Marceline's love and loyalty, and at times he used sadistic methods to do so. One recurring tactic he used was to tell her that one of her close friends or family members had suddenly died, and then comfort her over the loss, before finally admitting to her the story was untrue.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=38}}

After attending Indiana University for two years, the couple relocated to [[Indianapolis]] in 1951. Jones took night classes at [[Butler University]] to continue his education, finally earning a degree in secondary education in 1961.<ref>{{cite web|author=Knoll, James|year= 2017|url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=33164|title= Mass Suicide & the Jonestown Tragedy: Literature Summary|website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple|location= US|publisher= [[San Diego State University]]}}</ref> In 1951, the 20-year-old Jones began attending gatherings of the [[Communist Party USA]] in Indianapolis.{{sfn|Wessinger|2000|p=32}} Jones and his family faced harassment from government authorities for their affiliation with the Communist Party during 1952. Jones later asserted that in one event, his mother was harassed by [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agents in front of her co-workers because she had attended a communist meeting with her son.<ref name="q134">{{cite web|author=Jones, Jim|year= 1999|url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27339|title= Q134 Transcript|website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple|location=US|publisher=San Diego State University}}.</ref> Jones became frustrated with the [[Red Scare#Second Red Scare (1947-57)|persecution]] of communists in the U.S.<ref name="horrock">{{cite news|author=[[Nicholas M. Smith Jr.|Horrock, Nicholas M.]]|date= December 17, 1978|title=Communist in 1950s|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> Reflecting back on his participation in the Communist Party, Jones said that he asked himself, "How can I demonstrate my [[Marxism]]? The thought was, infiltrate the church."{{sfn|Wessinger|2000|p=32}}<ref name="q134"/>