Jim Jones

==Jonestown==
{{main|Jonestown}}

===Publicity problems===
Jones began to receive negative press beginning in October 1971 when reporters covered one of Jones's divine healing services during a visit to his old church in Indianapolis. The news report led to an investigation by the Indiana State Psychology Board into Jones's healing practices in 1972.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=209}} A doctor involved in the investigation accused Jones of "quackery" and challenged Jones to give tissue samples of the material he claimed fell off people when they were healed of cancer. The investigation caused alarm within the Temple.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=211}}

Jones had been performing faith healing "miracles" since his joint campaigns with William Branham.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=61481 |title= The Intersection of William Branham and Jim Jones |author1=Collins, John|author2= Duyzer, Peter M. |date=October 20, 2014 |website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple |publisher=San Diego State University |access-date=August 15, 2017}}</ref> "On several occasions his healings were revealed as nothing but a hoax."<ref name = whig/> In one incident, Jones drugged Temple member Irene Mason, and while she was unconscious, a cast was put on her arm. When she regained consciousness, she was told she had fallen and broken her arm and taken to the hospital. In a subsequent healing service, Jones removed her cast in front of the congregation and told them she was healed.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=17067|author=Wise, David Parker|title=25 Years Hiding From A Dead Man|accessdate=March 16, 2022|date=March 9, 2013|publisher=San Diego State University|website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple}}</ref> In other instances, Jones had someone from his inner circle enter the prayer line for healing of cancer. After being "healed" the person would pretend to cough up their tumor, which was actually a chicken [[gizzard]].<ref name = whig>{{cite web|url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=17067|author=Svendsen, Ann Kristin|title=White Nights In Guyana: Leadership, conformity and persuasion in Jonestown and Peoples Temple|accessdate=March 16, 2022|date=July 25, 2013|publisher=San Diego State University|website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple}}</ref>

Jones also pretended to have "special revelations" about individuals which revealed supposed hidden details of their lives.<ref name = whig/>

{{blockquote
|Jones had coworkers who called at the potential recruits' homes, and asked detailed questions in the cover of doing an unrelated examination. This provided Jones with inside information that would make him seem clairvoyant and being in possession of superhuman powers.<ref name = whig/>
|author=Ann Svendsen
}}

Jones was fearful that his methods would be exposed by the investigation. In response, Jones announced he was terminating his ministry in Indiana because it was too far from California for him to attend to and downplayed his healing claims to the authorities.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=211}} The issue only escalated however, and [[Lester Kinsolving]] ran a series of articles targeting Jones and Peoples Temple in the ''[[San Francisco Examiner]]'' in September 1972. The stories reported on Jones's claims of divinity and exposed purported miracles as a hoax.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=211-212}}

In 1973, Ross Case, a former follower of Jones, began working with a group in Ukiah to investigate Peoples Temple. They uncovered a staged healing, the abusive treatment of a woman in the church, and evidence that Jones raped a male member of his congregation.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=217}} Reports of Case's activity reached Jones, who became increasingly paranoid that the authorities were after him. Case reported his findings to the local police, but they took no action.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=218}}

Shortly after, eight members of Peoples Temple made accusations of abuse against the Planning Commission and Peoples Temple staff members. They accused members of Planning Commission of being homosexuals and questioned their true commitment to socialism, before leaving the Peoples Temple.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=225}} Jones became convinced he was losing control and needed to relocate Peoples Temple to escape the mounting threats and allegations.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=225}}

On December 13, 1973, Jones was arrested and charged with lewd conduct for allegedly [[masturbation|masturbating]] in the presence of a male [[undercover operation|undercover]] [[Los Angeles Police Department|LAPD]] [[Vice squad|vice officer]] in a movie theater restroom near Los Angeles's [[MacArthur Park]].<ref name="wise">{{cite web|first=David|last=Wise|url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=17014|title=Sex in Peoples Temple|website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple|publisher=San Diego State University|location=San Diego, California|date=March 9, 2013}}</ref> On December 20, 1973, the charge against Jones was dismissed, though the details of the dismissal are not clear. The court file was sealed, and the judge ordered that records of the arrest be destroyed.<ref name="Montreal Gazette Arrest Article, March 28, 1979">{{cite web |title=Lewd case against Jones a puzzle|author=UPI |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19790328&id=xZYuAAAAIBAJ&sjid=haEFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2637,1586106&hl=en |publisher=The Montreal Gazette |access-date=September 24, 2021}}</ref>

=== Escape to Guyana ===
{{Location map many
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| caption=Peoples Temple Agricultural Project (Jonestown, Guyana).
}}

In the fall of 1973, Jones and the Planning Commission devised a plan to escape from the United States in the event of a government raid, and they began to develop a longer-term plan to relocate Peoples Temple. The group decided on Guyana as a favorable location, citing its recent revolution, socialist government, and the favorable reaction Jones received when he traveled there in 1963.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=236–237}} In October, the group voted unanimously to set up an agricultural commune in Guyana. In December, Jones and James traveled to Guyana to find a suitable location.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=288}}

In a newspaper interview, Jones indicated that he would rather settle his commune in a communist country like China or the [[Soviet Union]], and was saddened about his inability to do so.<ref name="goodlett">{{cite book|last=Goodlett|first=Carlton B.|author-link=Carlton Benjamin Goodlett|year=1989|pages= 43–51|url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/The-Need-for-a-Second-Look-at-Jonestown.pdf|title=The Need for a Second Look at Jonestown|editor1-last=Moore|editor1-first=Rebecca|editor2-last=McGehee|editor2-first=Fielding M.|publisher=[[Edwin Mellen Press]]|location=[[Lewiston, New York]]; [[Queenston]], and [[Lampeter]]|isbn=0-88946-649-1}}</ref> Jones described [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]] and Stalin as his heroes, and saw the Soviet Union as an ideal society.<ref name="sdsuwhatwas">{{Cite web |title=What was Peoples Temple's plan to move to the Soviet Union?|url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=35388|publisher=San Diego State University |access-date=April 27, 2022 |language=en-US|date=July 25, 2013|website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple}}</ref>{{sfn|Guinn|2017|pp=391, 408}}

By the summer of 1974, land and supplies were purchased in Guyana.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=242}} Jones was put in charge of the project and oversaw the installation of a power generation station, clearance of fields for farming, and the construction of dormitories to prepare for the first settlers.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=246}} In December 1974, the first group arrived in Guyana to start operating the commune that would become known as Jonestown.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=247}}

Jones left James to oversee Jonestown while he returned to the United States to continue his efforts to combat the negative press. He was largely unsuccessful and more stories of abuse in Peoples Temple were leaked to the public. In March 1977, [[Marshall Kilduff]] published a story in [[California (magazine, defunct 1991)|''New West'' magazine]] exposing abuses at the Peoples Temple. The article included allegations by Temple defectors of [[Physical abuse|physical]], [[Psychological abuse|emotional]], and [[sexual abuse]].<ref name="kilduff" />{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=314}}{{sfn|Layton|1998|pp=324–325}}

The article convinced Jones that it was time to permanently relocate to South America, and he began to compel members of Peoples Temple to make the move with him. Jones promoted the commune as a means to create both a "socialist paradise" and a "[[sanctuary]]" from the media scrutiny in San Francisco.{{sfn|Hall|1987|p=132}} Jones purported to establish it as a model communist community, adding that the Temple comprised "the purest communists there are".<ref name="q50">{{cite web|author=Jones, Jim|url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27298|title=Transcript of Recovered FBI tape Q50|website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple|publisher=San Diego State University|access-date=November 12, 2021}}</ref> Once they arrived in Jonestown, Jones prevented members from leaving the settlement.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=451}} Entertaining movies from Georgetown that the settlers had watched were mostly cancelled in favor of [[Propaganda in the Soviet Union|Soviet propaganda]] shorts and documentaries on American social problems. Lessons on Soviet affiliations, Jones' crises, and the alleged "mercenaries" dispatched by Tim Stoen, who had defected from the Temple and turned against the group, were the topic of adult midnight lectures and classroom discussions of Jones' discourses about revolution and adversaries.{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}}

Jonestown had about 50 settlers at the start of 1977 who were expanding the commune, but it was not ready to handle a large influx of settlers.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=312}}{{sfn|Chidester|2004|p=9}} Bureaucratic requirements after Jones' arrival sapped labor resources for other needs. Buildings fell into disrepair and weeds encroached on fields. James warned Jones that the facilities could only support 200 people, but Jones believed the need to relocate was urgent and determined to move immediately. In May 1977, Jones and about 600 of his followers arrived in Jonestown; about 400 more followed in the subsequent months.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=231}} Jones began moving the Temple's financial assets overseas and started to sell off property in the United States. The Peoples Temple had over $10 million (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|10000000|1977|2020}}}} in 2020) dollars in assets at the time.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=334}} Despite the negative press prior to his departure, Jones was still well respected outside of Peoples Temple for setting up a racially integrated church which helped the disadvantaged; 68% of Jonestown residents were black.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=35666|title=The Demographics of Jonestown|author1= Moore, Rebecca |author2-link=Anthony B. Pinn |author2=Pinn, Anthony |author3=Sawyer, Mary|year=2004|pages=57–80|quote=From Peoples Temple and Black Religion in America: Demographics and the Black Religious Culture of Peoples Temple|location= Bloomington|publisher= [[Indiana University Press]]}}</ref>

For the first several months, Temple members worked six days a week, from approximately 6:30&nbsp;a.m. to 6:00&nbsp;p.m., with an hour for lunch.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=322}}</ref> The work week was shortened to eight hours a day for five days a week in the middle of 1978 after Jones' health started to fail and his wife started taking on more of the management of Jonestown's activities. After the day's work ended, Temple members would attend several hours of activities in a pavilion, including classes in socialism. Jones compared this schedule to the North Korean system of eight hours of daily work followed by eight hours of study.<ref>Jones, Jim. FBI tape Q 320.</ref><ref>Martin, Bradley K. ''Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader''. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2004. {{ISBN|0312322216}}, p. 159.</ref> This also comported with the Temple's practice of gradually subjecting its followers to sophisticated [[mind control]] and [[behavior modification]] techniques borrowed from [[North Korea|Kim Il-sung's Korea]] and [[History of the People's Republic of China (1949–76)|Mao Zedong's China]].<ref name="raven280">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=163–164}}</ref> Jones would often read news and commentary, including items from [[Radio Moscow]] and [[Radio Havana]], and was known to side with the Soviets over the Chinese during the [[Sino-Soviet split]].<ref>See for example Jim Jones, [http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27358 Transcript of Recovered FBI tape Q 182] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205012159/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27358 |date=February 5, 2015 }}. ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University. ".... in China, when their foreign policy's so bad, they ''still'' have self-criticism and group criticism. Unfortunately, not enough about their foreign policy. But in the Soviet Union, they have it.... The sale of nearly 30,000 pounds of copper to China has been announced by the Ministry of Mining in Industry of Chile. Another blunder of China's foreign policy, supporting fascist regimes... In spite of the beauty of China, what it's done domestically, getting rid of the rats, the flies... ''nothing'' justifies this kind of uh, inexcusable behavior. That's why we're pro-Soviet. That's why we stand by the Soviet Union as the avant-garde, because this is a ''hellish'' thing to do, to support one of the most brutal fascist regimes, who has tortured ''dark'' members{{snd}}the black members of its population, presently more than any other color on up to how white your skin determines your rank in Chilean society."</ref>

Jones' news readings usually portrayed the U.S. as a "capitalist" and "imperialist" villain, while casting "socialist" leaders, such as [[Kim Il Sung]],<ref name="q216">Jim Jones, [http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27379 ''Transcript of Recovered FBI tape Q 216''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205013606/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27379 |date=February 5, 2015 }}. ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref> [[Robert Mugabe]],<ref name="q322">Jim Jones, [http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27422 ''Transcript of Recovered FBI tape Q 322''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170516162440/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27422 |date=May 16, 2017 }}. ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref> and [[Joseph Stalin]]<ref name="q161">Jim Jones, [http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27349 ''Transcript of Recovered FBI tape Q 161''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205013922/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27349 |date=February 5, 2015 }}. ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref> in a positive light. Recordings of commune meetings show how livid and frustrated Jones would get when anyone did not understand or find interesting the message Jones was placing upon them. Jones forced every member of the Peoples Temple to say they were [[homosexuality|homosexual]], while proclaiming himself the only [[heterosexuality|heterosexual]]. In spite of this, Jones was [[bisexuality|bisexual]], having sex with both male and female followers in Jonestown. Women who slept with him claimed he was the best lover they ever had; Peoples Temple member Tim Cater felt Jones "put them up to that kind of talk."<ref name=nyt>{{cite web|last1=Ordheimer|first1=Jonn|title=I Never Once Thought He Was Crazy'
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/11/27/archives/i-never-once-thought-he-was-crazy-claims-of-superiority-unlimited.html|website=The New York Times|access-date=November 28, 2023|date=November 27, 1978|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231122061229/https://www.nytimes.com/1978/11/27/archives/i-never-once-thought-he-was-crazy-claims-of-superiority-unlimited.html|archive-date=November 22, 2023}}</ref>

=== Mounting pressure and waning political support ===
{{Further|Timothy Stoen}}
[[File:JIMJONES1977.jpg|thumb|300px|Rev. [[Cecil Williams (pastor)|Cecil Williams]] and Jones protest evictions at the [[International Hotel (San Francisco)|International Hotel]] in San Francisco, January 1977.|alt=Cecil White and Jim Jones, both wearing trench coats, stand together in front of a doorway.]]

Among the followers Jones took to Guyana was John Victor Stoen. John's birth certificate listed [[Timothy Stoen]] and Grace Stoen as his parents. Jones had a sexual relationship with Grace Stoen, and claimed he was the biological father of John.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=130–131}} Grace Stoen left Peoples Temple in 1976, leaving her child behind.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=445}} Jones ordered the child to be taken to Guyana in February 1977 to avoid a [[Child custody|custody dispute]] with Grace.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=377}} After Timothy Stoen also left Peoples Temple in June 1977, Jones kept the child at his own home in Jonestown.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=324}}{{sfn|Chidester|2004|p=7}}

In January 1977, Jones travelled to Cuba with Carlton Goodlett in order to establish an import-export trading relation with Cuba for a San Francisco Bay Area company that he had founded. While visiting Goodlett's business contacts and touring schools and other facilities, Jones was annoyed that President Fidel Castro had not consented to see him, and remarked that Castro had to be living better than the people. While in Cuba, Jones visited the residence of Huey Newton in Havana for an hour, and they talked about Newton's family members who had attended the Peoples Temple. They also discussed his desire to return to the United States. Jones commented that Newton only "missed his luxurious apartment and his favorite bars in Oakland".{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=284}}

In the autumn of 1977, Timothy Stoen and other Temple defectors formed a "Concerned Relatives" group because they had family members in Jonestown who were not being permitted to return to the United States.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=408}} Stoen traveled to [[Washington, D.C.]], in January 1978 to visit with [[United States Department of State|State Department]] officials and members of [[United States Congress|Congress]], and wrote a [[white paper]] detailing his grievances against Jones and the Temple and to attempt to recover his son.{{sfn|Hall|1987|p=227}} His efforts aroused the curiosity of California Congressman [[Leo Ryan]], who wrote a letter on Stoen's behalf to [[List of prime ministers of Guyana|Guyanese Prime Minister]] [[Forbes Burnham]].{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=458}} The Concerned Relatives began a legal battle with the Temple over the custody of Stoen's son.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=}}{{sfn|Chidester|2004|p=8}}

Most of Jones's political allies broke ties after his departure,<ref>{{cite news|author=Liebert, Larry|date=November 20, 1978|title=What Politicians Say Now About Jones|publisher=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]}}</ref> though some did not. Willie Brown spoke out against the Temple's purported enemies at a rally that was attended by Harvey Milk and Assemblyman [[Art Agnos]].{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=327}} Mayor Moscone's office issued a press release saying Jones had broken no laws.{{sfn|Moore|1985|p=143}} On April 11, 1978, the Concerned Relatives distributed a packet of documents, letters, and [[affidavit]]s to the Peoples Temple, members of the press, and members of Congress which they titled an "Accusation of Human Rights Violations by Rev. James Warren Jones".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13080|title=Accusation of Human Rights Violations by Rev. James Warren Jones|website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple|publisher= San Diego State University|date= April 11, 1978}}</ref>

In June 1978, Deborah Layton, a Peoples Temple member who escaped Jonestown six months before the massacre, provided the group with a further affidavit detailing crimes by the Temple and substandard living conditions in Jonestown.<ref name="laytonaff" /> Layton's affidavit stated that Jonestown residents were being deliberately undernourished:<ref name="laytonaff" /> "There was rice for breakfast, rice water soup for lunch, and rice and beans for dinner. On Sunday, we each received an egg and a cookie. Two or three times a week we had vegetables. Some very weak and elderly members received one egg per day." Jonestown stood on poor soil, so it was not self-sufficient and had to import large quantities of commodities such as wheat. However, Layton noted that Jones did not rely on the same diet as his followers. Instead, he consumed more substantial meals that frequently contained meat while "claiming problems with his blood sugar". He also permitted a few chosen members of his inner circle to eat from his personal supplies, and they appeared to be in much better health than the other residents.

Jones was facing increasing scrutiny in the summer of 1978 when he hired [[John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories|JFK assassination conspiracy theorists]] [[Mark Lane (author)|Mark Lane]] and [[Donald Freed]] to help make the case of a "grand conspiracy" against the Temple by [[United States Intelligence Community|U.S. intelligence agencies]]. Jones told Lane that he wanted to "pull an [[Eldridge Cleaver]]", referring to a [[fugitive]] member of the [[Black Panthers]] who was able to return to the U.S. after rebuilding his reputation.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=440}}

Jones attempted to negotiate for his commune to resettle in the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=371-372}} In October 1978, Feodor Timofeyev, Soviet [[Consul (representative)|consul]] to Guyana, visited Jonestown for two days and gave a speech. Jim Jones stated beforehand, "For many years, we have let our sympathies be quite publicly known, that the United States government was not our mother, but that the Soviet Union was our spiritual motherland."<ref name="q3522">{{cite web|author=Jones, Jim.|url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27428|title=Transcript of Recovered FBI tape Q 352|date=March 4, 2016|accessdate=March 4, 2016|publisher=San Diego State University}}</ref> Timofeyev declared Jonestown in "harmony of theory" with "Marx, Engels, Lenin" and the "practical implementation of... some fundamental features of this theory," and personally thanked Jim Jones.<ref name="q3522" />{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=371-372}}

=== White Nights ===
Jones's paranoia increased in Jonestown as he became fearful of a government raid on the commune. Concerned the community would not be able to resist an attack, he began holding drills to test their readiness. He called the drills "White Nights".{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=390}} Jones would call "Alert, Alert, Alert" over the community loudspeaker to call the community together in the central pavilion. Armed guards with guns and crossbows surrounded the pavilion.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=390}}

The community members would remain at the pavilion throughout the drill, in which Jones told them that their community had been surrounded by agents who were about to destroy them. Jones led them in prayers, chanting, and singing to ward off the impending attack.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=392}} Sometimes he would have his guards hide in the forest and shoot their firearms to simulate an attack. Jones's terrified followers were only told they were participating in a drill when the event was over. One drill, in September 1977, lasted for six days.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=391}} Known as the 'Six Day Siege', this ordeal was used thereafter by Jones as a symbol of the community's indomitable spirit.

The drills served to keep the members of Jonestown fearful of venturing outside of the commune.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=397}} Following two visits by United States Embassy personnel to check on the situation at Jonestown, and an IRS investigation in early 1978, Jones became increasingly convinced that the attack he feared was imminent.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=399–400}} In one 1978 White Night drill, Jones told his followers he was going to distribute poison for everyone to drink in an act of suicide. A batch of fruit punch was served to everyone in the pavilion who sat by weeping and waiting for their death. After some time passed, Jones informed his followers that it was only a drill and there was not any poison in their drink.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=391}}<ref name="laytonaff">{{cite web|url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13072|title=Affidavit of Deborah Layton Blakey|website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple|publisher= San Diego State University}}</ref> Through the White Nights, Jones convinced his followers that the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) was actively working to destroy their community and conditioned them to accept suicide as a means of escape.{{sfn|Wessinger|2000|p=42}}

On at least two occasions during White Nights, after a "revolutionary suicide" vote was reached, a simulated [[mass suicide]] was rehearsed. Temple defector Deborah Layton described the event in an [[affidavit]]:

<blockquote>Everyone, including the children, was told to line up. As we passed through the line, we were given a small glass of red liquid to drink. We were told that the liquid contained poison and that we would die within 45 minutes. We all did as we were told. When the time came when we should have dropped dead, Rev. Jones explained that the poison was not real and that we had just been through a loyalty test. He warned us that the time was not far off when it would become necessary for us to die by our own hands.<ref name="laytonaff" /></blockquote>

The situation at Jonestown was deteriorating in 1978. The community was exhausted and overworked. Most were required to perform manual labor from early morning until evening. Loudspeakers were installed around Jonestown and sermons were played on a constant loop for the entire community to listen to. Jones began to propagate his belief in what he termed "Translation" once his followers settled in Jonestown, claiming that he and his followers would all die and live blissfully together in the afterlife.<ref>{{cite web|author=Edmonds, Wendy M|year=2014|url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=30807|title= Followership in Peoples Temple: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly|website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple|location=US|publisher=[[San Diego State University]]}}</ref> Meals were meager and workers were often hungry. After spending all day working, the community gathered each evening at the central pavilion to listen to Jones preach. His sermons generally lasted for several hours; most of the community was sleep deprived.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=370–389}} According to Teri Buford O'Shea, one of the few escapees from Jonestown, sleep deprivation was one of the most effective methods of controlling Jones's followers. O'Shea said, "One time Jim said to me... 'Let's keep them poor and tired, because if they're poor they can't escape and if they're tired they can't make plans.'" O'Shea also reported that Jones would maintain his control of Peoples Temple members using punishments such as keeping them in a coffin-shaped box several feet underground, while other members were assigned to constantly berate and reprimand them for their perceived slights against the cult.<ref>[https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=29478 Wunrow, Rose. The psychological massacre: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple: An Investigation]</ref>

The majority of the community members were minors or the elderly, and the fewer people of working age found it difficult to keep up with the workload required to support the community. Healthcare, education, and food rations were all in limited supply and the situation was worsening.{{sfn|Wessinger|2000|p=45}} Jones's orders were increasingly erratic. He was seen staggering and urinating in public, but this was due to prostatitis for a short time towards the end of Jonestown in late October 1978, not the entirety of Jonestown. He found it difficult to walk without assistance around this time, but it cleared up by Leo Ryan's visit.{{sfn|Wessinger|2000|p=46}}{{sfn|Chidester|2004|p=10}}

After learning that he might have a lung infection in 1978, Jones told his followers that he actually had lung cancer in an effort to gain their compassion and increase their level of support.<ref>Goodlett, Carlton B. [http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=16978 ''Notes on Peoples Temple''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205013831/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=16978 |date=February 5, 2015 }}, ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University. Excerpted from ''The Need For A Second Look At Jonestown'', Rebecca Moore and Fielding M. McGehee, III, editors. [[Lewiston, New York]]: [[Edwin Mellen Press]], 1989.</ref> Jones was said to be abusing valium, [[quaalude]]s, [[stimulant]]s, and [[barbiturate]]s.<ref name="reiterman446">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=446}}</ref> Audio recordings of meetings held in Jonestown in 1978 attest to the commune leader's deteriorating health. Jones complained of [[high blood pressure]] that he had had since the early 1950s, small [[strokes]], [[weight loss]] of 30 to 40 pounds in the last two weeks of Jonestown, temporary [[blindness]], [[convulsions]], and in late October to early November 1978 while he was ill in his cabin, grotesque swelling of the [[Limb (anatomy)|extremities]].<ref name="reiterman446" />

=== Murder of Congressman Ryan ===
[[File:1973 Congressional Pictorial Leo Ryan.jpg|thumb|200px|Congressman [[Leo Ryan]] was shot and killed on Jones's orders as he and others attempted to leave Jonestown in November 1978.|alt=Leo Ryan, a middle aged man wear a suit and tie.]]

In November 1978, Congressman Ryan led a [[Trier of fact|fact-finding]] mission to Jonestown to investigate allegations of human-rights abuses.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=481}} His [[delegation]] included relatives of Temple members, an [[NBC]] camera crew, and reporters for several newspapers.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=476–480}} The group arrived in the Guyanese capital of [[Georgetown, Guyana|Georgetown]] on November 15.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=481}}

Two days later, they traveled by airplane to [[Port Kaituma]], then were transported to Jonestown.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=487–488}} Jones hosted a reception for the delegation that evening at the central pavilion in Jonestown, during which Temple member Vernon Gosney passed a note meant for Ryan to NBC reporter [[Don Harris (journalist)|Don Harris]], requesting assistance for himself and another Temple member, Monica Bagby, in leaving the settlement. Tensions began to rise as news spread through the community that some members were attempting to leave. Ryan's delegation left hurriedly the afternoon of November 18 after Ryan narrowly avoided being stabbed by Temple member Don Sly.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=519–520}} Ryan and his delegation managed to take along 15 Temple members who expressed a desire to leave,{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=524}} and Jones made no attempt to prevent their departure at that time.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=516}}

Marceline Jones announced on the public address system that everything was fine and urged locals to go back to their houses after Ryan left Jonestown for Port Kaituma. During this time, aides prepared a large metal tub with grape [[Flavor Aid]], poisoned with [[diphenhydramine]], [[promethazine]], [[chlorpromazine]], [[chloroquine]], [[chloral hydrate]], [[diazepam]],<ref>{{Harvnb|Hall|1987|p=282}}</ref> and [[cyanide]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/CarolynMooreLayton.pdf|title=Jonestown Autopsies: Carolyn Moore Layton|date=April 18, 1979|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304051255/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/CarolynMooreLayton.pdf|archive-date=March 4, 2016|url-status=live|access-date=September 9, 2015}}</ref>

As members of Ryan's delegation boarded two planes at the Port Kaituma [[airstrip]], Jonestown's Red Brigade of armed guards arrived and began shooting at them.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=527}} The gunmen killed Ryan and four others near a [[Guyana Airways]] [[Twin Otter]] aircraft.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=529–531}} At the same time, one of the supposed defectors, Larry Layton, drew a weapon and began firing on members of the party inside the other plane, a [[Cessna]], which included Gosney and Bagby.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=533}} NBC cameraman Bob Brown was able to capture footage of the first few seconds of the shooting at the Otter, just before he himself was killed by the gunmen.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=529}}

The five killed at the airstrip were Ryan, Harris, Brown, ''[[San Francisco Examiner]]'' photographer Greg Robinson, and Temple member Patricia Parks.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=529}} Surviving the attack were future Congresswoman [[Jackie Speier]], a Ryan staff member; Richard Dwyer, [[Deputy Chief of Mission]] from the U.S. Embassy in Georgetown; Bob Flick, an NBC producer; Steve Sung, an NBC sound engineer; [[Tim Reiterman]], an ''Examiner'' reporter; Ron Javers, a ''Chronicle'' reporter; Charles Krause, a ''[[The Washington Post|Washington Post]]'' reporter; and several defecting Temple members. They escaped into the jungle to avoid being killed.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=529}}

=== Mass murder-suicide in Jonestown ===

[[File:Jonestown Houses.jpg|thumb|300px|Houses in Jonestown, Guyana, the year after the mass murder-suicide, 1979.|alt=Dozens of small white buildings lined in rows at the edge of a jungle.]]

Later the same day, November 18, 1978, Jones received word that his security guards failed to kill all of Ryan's party. Jones concluded the escapees would soon inform the United States of the attack and they would send the military to seize Jonestown. Jones called the entire community to the central pavilion. He informed the community that Ryan was dead and it was only a matter of time before military commandos descended on their commune and killed them all.<ref name="tape">{{cite web|url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=29084|title=Jonestown Audiotape Primary Project|publisher=San Diego State University|accessdate=March 22, 2022|website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple}}</ref>

Jones told Temple members that the Soviet Union would not give them passage after the airstrip shooting.<ref name="tape"/> Jones said, "We can check with Russia to see if they'll take us in immediately; otherwise, we die," asking, "You think Russia's gonna want us with all this stigma?"<ref name="sdsu042">{{Cite web |title=Q042 Transcript, by Fielding M. McGehee III|website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple|publisher=San Diego State University |url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=29079 |access-date=April 27, 2022 |language=en-US}}</ref>

{{listen |filename=Peoples Temple Cult Death Tape Q042.ogg |title=Peoples Temple "Death Tape" | }}

With that reasoning, Jones and several members argued the group should commit "revolutionary suicide".<ref name="sdsu042" />{{efn|Although Temple films show Jones opening a storage container full of [[Kool-Aid]], empty packets found at the scene indicate that it was Flavor Aid that was used in the murder-suicide.}} Jones recorded the entire death ritual on audio tape. One Temple member, Christine Miller, dissented toward the beginning of the tape.<ref name="tape"/> Cries and screams of children and adults were also easily heard on the tape recording made.<ref name="tape"/> The Temple had received monthly half-pound shipments of [[cyanide]] since 1976 after Jones obtained a jeweler's license to buy the chemical, purportedly to clean gold.<ref>[http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/11/12/jonestown.cyanide/index.html "Jones plotted cyanide deaths years before Jonestown"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081204082147/http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/11/12/jonestown.cyanide/index.html |date=December 4, 2008 }} CNN, November 12, 2008</ref> In May 1978, a Temple doctor wrote a memo to Jones asking permission to test cyanide on Jonestown's pigs, as their [[metabolism]] was close to that of human beings.<ref>[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=31349 Thirty Years Later] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205014036/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=31349 |date=February 5, 2015 }}. Carter, Tim. Retrieved August 1, 2013.</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/11/12/jonestown.cyanide/index.html|title= Jones plotted cyanide deaths years before Jonestown|author= Polk, Jim|publisher= Cable News Network|date=November 12, 2008|access-date=March 19, 2021}}</ref> A drink mixture of Flavor Aid and cyanide was handed out to the members of the community to drink. Those who refused to drink were injected with cyanide via syringe.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=80811|title=The Forensic Investigation of Jonestown Conducted by Dr. Leslie Mootoo: A Critical Analysis|author=Moore, Rebecca|accessdate=March 16, 2022|date=August 10, 2018|publisher=San Diego State University|website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple}}</ref> The crowd was also surrounded by armed guards, offering members the basic [[dilemma]] of death by poison or death by a guard's hand.

Ruletta Paul and her one-year-old child were the first to consume the poison, according to escaped Temple member Odell Rhodes. The child's mouth was filled with poison using a syringe without a needle, and Paul then injected more poison into her own mouth.<ref name="odellinquest">[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/GuyanaInquest.pdf ''Guyana Inquest – Interview of Odell Rhodes''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205013735/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/GuyanaInquest.pdf |date=February 5, 2015 }}. ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref> According to Rhodes, after ingesting the poison, people were taken down a wooden walkway that led outside the pavilion. As parents watched their children perish from the poison, Rhodes described a scene of panic and confusion. He added that many of the assembled Temple members "walked around like they were in a trance" and that the majority "quietly waited their own turn to die." Over time, as more Temple members perished, the guards themselves were called in to die by poison.<ref name=":2" />

It is not clear if some initially thought the exercise was another White Night rehearsal. When members wept and showed signs of dissent, Jones counselled, "Stop these hysterics. This is not the way for people who are [[Socialism|socialists]] or [[Communism|communists]] to die. No way for us to die. We must die with some dignity." Jones can be heard saying, "Don't be afraid to die", adding that death is "just stepping over into another plane", and adding that death is "a friend".<ref name="tape"/> Jones directed that the children be killed first. Then the other adults poisoned themselves after the children had died. At the end of the tape, Jones concludes, "We didn't commit suicide; we committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhumane world."<ref name="tape"/>

In the early evening of November 18, Temple member Sharon Amos in Georgetown received a radio message from Jonestown telling the members there to exact vengeance on the Temple's foes before committing revolutionary suicide.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=522–523}}</ref> Later, after police arrived at the headquarters, Sharon escorted her children, Liane, Christa, and Martin, into a bathroom.<ref name="reiterman544">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=544–545}}</ref> Wielding a kitchen knife, Sharon first killed Christa, and then Martin.<ref name="reiterman544" /> Then Liane assisted Sharon in cutting her own throat, after which Liane killed herself.<ref name="reiterman544" />

Eighty-five members of the community survived the event.{{sfn|Wessinger|2000|p=31}} Some slipped into the jungle just as the death ritual began; one man hid in a ditch. One elderly woman hid in her dormitory and slept through the event, awaking to find everyone dead. Three high-ranking Temple members were given an assignment to transfer the Peoples Temple's funds to the Soviet Embassy and thereby escaped death (one of them, Michael Prokes, would commit suicide four months later during a press conference in which he sought to reaffirm the Peoples Temple leadership's position justifying the mass murder-suicide and blaming it on the United States government).<ref>[https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13683 The Death of Michael Prokes. Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple. San Diego State University.]</ref> The Jonestown basketball team was away at a game and survived.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Valiente |first=Alex |last2=DelaRosa |first2=Monica |date=September 28, 2018 |title=40 years after the Jonestown massacre: Jim Jones' surviving sons on what they think of their father, the Peoples Temple today |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/40-years-jonestown-massacre-jim-jones-surviving-sons/story?id=57997006 |access-date=November 15, 2023 |website=ABC News |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Fish |first=Jon |last2=Connelly |first2=Chris |date=October 3, 2007 |title=Grandson of Jonestown founder is making a name for himself |url=https://www.espn.com/espn/news/story?id=3047543 |access-date=November 15, 2023 |website=ESPN.com |language=en}}</ref> Others hid in the dormitories or were away from the community on business when the death ritual unfolded.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=572}}{{sfn|Wessinger|2000|p=31}} 

Survivor Tim Carter has suggested that, like a previous practice, that day's lunch of [[grilled cheese sandwiches]] may have been tainted with sedatives to subdue members of the cult.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/clip/32717269/wisconsin_state_journal/|title=Jonestown Death Ritual Described by Survivor|date=November 25, 1978|website=Wisconsin State Journal|page=1|language=en|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=June 10, 2019|agency=Associated Press}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/clip/32717287/wisconsin_state_journal/|title=Jonestown Death Ritual Described by Survivor|date=November 25, 1978|website=Wisconsin State Journal|page=2|language=en|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=June 10, 2019|agency=Associated Press}}</ref> Furthermore, in a 2007 interview with [[forensic psychiatrist]] Dr. [[Michael H. Stone]] for the program ''[[Most Evil]]'', Carter stated his belief that Jones had his guards pose the dead bodies of the Jonestown residents to make it appear that more people had willingly committed suicide.

The mass murder-suicide resulted in the deaths of 909 inhabitants of Jonestown,<ref name = "Who died">{{cite web|url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?post_type=who_died|title=Who Died?|website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown|publisher=San Diego State University|access-date=November 12, 2021|archive-date=August 5, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160805234017/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=690|url-status=dead}}</ref> 276 of them children, mostly in and around the central pavilion.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/18/newsid_2540000/2540209.stm|title=1978: Mass suicide leaves 900 dead|publisher= BBC|date=November 18, 2005}}</ref> This resulted in the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a deliberate act until [[September 11 attacks|the attacks of September 11, 2001, in New York and Washington]].<ref>{{cite news|first=Richard|last=Rapaport|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/11/16/INGEM3070J1.DTL&type=printable|title=Jonestown and City Hall slayings eerily linked in time and memory|newspaper=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]|location=San Francisco, California|date=November 16, 2003}}</ref> Another four members residing in Georgetown died.<ref name = "Who died"/> The FBI later recovered the 45-minute audio recording of the mass poisoning in progress; the recording became known as the "Death Tape".<ref>{{cite web|first=Jim|last=Jones|url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=29079|title=Transcript of Recovered FBI tape Q 42|website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple|publisher= San Diego State University}}</ref>