Peoples Temple

===Aftermath===
{{See|Drinking the Kool-Aid}}

[[File:Former First Church of Christ Scientist, Los Angeles.JPG|thumb|upright=1|Temple building at 1366 S. Alvarado St., Los Angeles]]

The Temple's San Francisco headquarters was besieged by the national media and the relatives of the Jonestown victims.<ref name="raven573">Reiterman 1982. p. 573</ref> The mass killing became one of the best-known events in U.S. history as measured by the [[Gallup (company)#Gallup Poll|Gallup poll]] and appeared on the cover of several newspapers and magazines, including ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', for months afterward.<ref name="hall289">Hall, John R. ''Gone from the Promised Land: Jonestown in American Cultural History''. 1989. {{ISBN|978-0887388019}}. p. 289.</ref>

In addition, according to various press reports,<ref>Spencer, Duncan, "Cult's Ukiah Community in Fear of Vengeful Death Squads", Washington Star-News, November 23, 1978</ref><ref>"Police Seek Out Cult 'Hit Squads'", San Francisco Examiner, November 22, 1978</ref> after the Jonestown suicides, surviving Temple members in the U.S. announced their fears of being targeted by a "hit squad" which would be composed of Jonestown survivors. Similarly, in 1979, the [[Associated Press]] reported a U.S. Congressional aide's claim that there were "120 white, brainwashed assassins out from Jonestown awaiting the trigger word to pick up their hit."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/mass/jonestown/connections_5.html |title=Jonestown Massacre: A 'Reason' to Die |access-date=2007-05-22 |last=Steel |first=Fiona |publisher=CrimeLibrary.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110515191531/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/mass/jonestown/connections_5.html |archive-date=May 15, 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Temple insider Michael Prokes, who had been ordered to deliver a suitcase which contained Temple funds which were supposed to be transferred to the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]],<ref name="reit580">Reiterman 1982. pp. 561–580.</ref><ref name="timofeyev">[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/letter_toFeodorTimofeyev.pdf "Letter to Feodor Timofeyev."] ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University. {{cite web |url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/PrimarySources/financialLetters/letter_toFeodorTimofeyev.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2012-11-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501035601/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/PrimarySources/financialLetters/letter_toFeodorTimofeyev.pdf |archive-date=May 1, 2011 }}</ref> killed himself in March 1979, four months after the Jonestown incident. In the days leading up to his death, Prokes sent notes to several people, together with a thirty-page statement he had written about the Temple. Caen reprinted one copy in his ''Chronicle'' column.<ref name="prokes" /> Prokes then arranged for a press conference in a [[Modesto, California]] motel room, during which he read a statement to the eight reporters who attended. He then excused himself, entered a restroom, and fatally shot himself in the head.<ref name="prokes">[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13683 "Statement of Michael Prokes."] ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. San Diego State University: Jonestown Project. Retrieved September 22, 2007. {{cite web |url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/PrimarySources/Prokes_statement.htm |title=Jonestown |access-date=2012-11-12 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101207165457/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/PrimarySources/Prokes_statement.htm |archive-date=December 7, 2010 }}</ref>

Before the tragedy, Temple member Paula Adams engaged in a romantic relationship with Guyana's Ambassador to the United States, Laurence "Bonny" Mann.<ref>Reiterman 1982. pp. 274–2745, 418.</ref> Adams later married Mann.<ref name="WP">Weingarten, Gene. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/18/AR2006011801434_5.html "The Peekaboo Paradox."] ''The Washington Post''. January 22, 2006. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501131330/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/18/AR2006011801434_5.html |date=May 1, 2011 }}</ref> On October 24, 1983, Mann fatally shot both Adams and the couple's child, and then fatally shot himself.<ref name="WP" /> Defecting member Harold Cordell lost twenty family members on the evening of the poisonings.<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/jonestown/peopleevents/p_people.html ''The Congregation of Peoples Temple''.] PBS.org. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225194625/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/jonestown/peopleevents/p_people.html |date=February 25, 2009 }}</ref> The Bogues family, which had also defected, lost their daughter Marilee (age 18), while defector Vernon Gosney lost his son Mark (age 5).<ref>[http://www.culteducation.com/reference/jonestown/jonestown58.html ''Who Died at Jonestown?''] Ross Institute. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101219233458/http://rickross.com/reference/jonestown/jonestown58.html |date=December 19, 2010}}</ref>

The mass suicide of the Peoples Temple has helped embed the idea that all [[new religious movement]]s are destructive in the public's mind. [[Bryan R. Wilson]] argues against that point of view by pointing out that only four other such events have occurred within similar religious groups: the [[Branch Davidians]], the [[Order of the Solar Temple|Solar Temple]], [[Aum Shinrikyo]] and [[Heaven's Gate (religious group)|Heaven's Gate]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.scribd.com/document/115621228/Why-the-Bruderhof-is-not-a-cult-by-Bryan-Wilson|title=Why the Bruderhof is not a cult – by Bryan Wilson {{!}} Cult And Sect {{!}} Religion And Belief|website=Scribd|language=en|access-date=2017-07-07}}</ref>