Jim Jones

=== 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" />