View source for Jonestown

{{Short description|Peoples Temple cult settlement in Guyana}}
{{Other uses}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox settlement
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<!-- Basic info  ---------------->| official_name      = Peoples Temple Agricultural Project
| other_name         = "Jonestown"
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{{Location map many|Guyana|label=Jonestown
|label_size=115
      | pos=bottom
      | lat=7.66 |long=-60.187
      | label2=Georgetown
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| label3=Port Kaituma
| label3_size=100
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| width=200|float=right
 |background=
 |caption=The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project's places of interest in Guyana
|pos2=bottom|marksize=5}}

The '''Peoples Temple Agricultural Project''', better known by its informal name "'''Jonestown'''", was a remote settlement in [[Guyana]] established by the [[Peoples Temple]], an American religious movement under the leadership of [[Jim Jones]]. Jonestown became internationally infamous when, on November 18, 1978, a total of 918<ref name="auto">{{cite news|title=Inside the Jonestown massacre|url=http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/11/12/jonestown.factsheet/index.html |publisher=CNN|access-date=May 14, 2015|date=November 13, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150525233226/http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/11/12/jonestown.factsheet/index.html |archive-date=May 25, 2015|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=35368 "How many people died on November 18?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107055132/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=35368 |date=November 7, 2017}}. ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref> people died at the settlement; at the nearby [[Port Kaituma Airport|airstrip]] in [[Port Kaituma]]; and at a Temple-run building in [[Georgetown, Guyana|Georgetown]], Guyana's capital city. The name of the settlement became synonymous with the incidents at those locations.<ref name="off">{{cite web|title=The Trauma of Marriage to a Temple Survivor|url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=16972 |department=Official website of the project – Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple |publisher=University of San Diego|access-date=March 20, 2019}}</ref>

A total of 909 individuals died in Jonestown itself,<ref name="auto"/> all but two from apparent [[cyanide]] poisoning, a significant number of whom were injected against their will. Jones and some Peoples Temple members referred to the act as a "revolutionary suicide" on an audio tape of the event, and in prior recorded discussions. The poisonings in Jonestown followed the murder of five others, including [[Member of Congress#United States|U.S. Congressman]] [[Leo Ryan]], by Temple members at Port Kaituma, an act that Jones ordered. Four other Temple members committed [[murder–suicide|murder-suicide]] in Georgetown at Jones' command.

Terms used to describe the deaths in Jonestown and Georgetown have evolved over time. Many contemporary media accounts after the events called the deaths a [[mass suicide]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/clip/32699562/the_salina_journal/|title=Mass suicide follows massacre|date=November 20, 1978|website=The Salina Journal|language=en|access-date=June 10, 2019|agency=United Press International}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/clip/32700225/the_boston_globe/|title=Woman, 76, slept through mass suicide|date=November 24, 1978|website=The Boston Globe|language=en|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=June 10, 2019|agency=Associated Press}}</ref> In contrast, later sources refer to the deaths with terms such as mass murder-suicide,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/event/Jonestown-massacre|title=Jonestown {{!}} History, Facts, Jim Jones, & Survivors|website=Encyclopaedia Britannica |language=en|access-date=June 10, 2019}}</ref> a [[massacre]],<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/17/an-apocalyptic-cult-900-dead-remembering-the-jonestown-massacre-40-years-on|title=An apocalyptic cult, 900 dead: remembering the Jonestown massacre, 40 years on|last=Conroy|first=J. Oliver|date=November 17, 2018|work=The Guardian|access-date=June 10, 2019|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite magazine|url=https://time.com/longform/jonestown-aftermath/|title='Can't Sleep.' 'Beyond Imagination.' What It Was Like to Work on the Jonestown Massacre Clean-Up|magazine=Time|language=en|access-date=June 10, 2019}}</ref> or simply [[mass murder]].<ref>In the documentary ''Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple'', former member Stanley Clayton refused to "use the term 'suicide'" because "that man [Jones] was killing us"; another member, Tim Carter, said that the victims were "fucking slaughtered" and that their deaths had nothing to do with "revolutionary suicide".</ref><ref>[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=31976 "Murder or Suicide: What I Saw" by Tim Carter] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304112137/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=31976|date=March 4, 2016}}. ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref> Seventy or more individuals at Jonestown were injected with poison, a third of the victims were minors, and armed guards had been ordered to shoot anyone who attempted to flee the settlement as Jones lobbied for suicide.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1979/02/25/archives/why-900-died-in-guyana.html "Why 900 Died in Guyana" by Carey Winfrey] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170617062014/http://www.nytimes.com/1979/02/25/archives/why-900-died-in-guyana.html|date=June 17, 2017}}. The New York Times, February 25, 1979</ref><ref>[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=35332 "How many children and minors died in Jonestown? What were their ages?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161105161326/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=35332|date=November 5, 2016}} ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Department of Religious Studies, San Diego State University.</ref><ref name=":1"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1997-05-10-9705100253-story.html|title=Guyanese Jungle Reclaiming Jonestown|first=Laurie|last= Goering |website=chicagotribune.com |date=May 10, 1997 |language=en-US|access-date=June 10, 2019}}</ref>

== Origins ==
{{Main|Peoples Temple|Jim Jones|Peoples Temple in San Francisco}}
{{Location map many | California
|label=[[Los Angeles]]
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| label7_size=80
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| width=200 | float=right
 |caption=Some of the Peoples Temple [[California]] locations
}}

The Peoples Temple was formed by Jim Jones in [[Indianapolis, Indiana|Indianapolis]], [[Indiana]], in 1955.<ref>{{cite book|first=Catherine|last=Wessinger|year=2000|title=How the Millennium Comes Violently: From Jonestown to Heaven's Gate|isbn=978-1889119243|pages=31–34|publisher=Seven Bridges Press }}</ref> The movement purported to practice what it called "[[Four Marks of the Church#"Apostolic" as a mark of the Church|apostolic]] [[socialism]]."<ref>{{cite book|last=Dawson|first=Lorne L|title=Cults and new religious movements: a reader|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|isbn=978-1405101813|year=2003|page=[https://archive.org/details/cultsnewreligiou0000unse/page/194 194]|url=https://archive.org/details/cultsnewreligiou0000unse/page/194}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=Time|url=http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1859872_1799879,00.html|title=Mass Suicide at Jonestown: 30 Years Later|year=2008|access-date=April 10, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130825114438/http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1859872_1799879,00.html|archive-date=August 25, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref> In doing so, the Temple preached that "those who remained drugged with the opiate of religion had to be brought to enlightenment{{snd}}socialism."<ref name="Layton 1998 53">{{Harvnb|Layton|1998|p=53}}</ref><ref name="q1053">Jones, Jim. [http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27318 "Transcript of Recovered FBI tape Q 1053."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205021417/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27318|date=February 5, 2015}} ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref> Jones had held an interest in [[Joseph Stalin]], [[Mao Zedong]] and [[Adolf Hitler]] from a young age, and would later frequently praise Stalin and [[Vladimir Lenin]] as heroes.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What was Peoples Temple's plan to move to the Soviet Union? – Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple|url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=35388|access-date=2022-04-27|language=en-US}}</ref> He was also upset with persecution against the [[Communist Party USA]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Graham |first=Ben |date=12 May 2021 |title=Jonestown Massacre: How conman Jim Jones' final words caused 900 deaths|url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/jonestown-massacre-how-conman-jim-jones-final-words-caused-900-deaths/H7TRYOAK2NJZAHDTQJWSDJSMOI/|access-date=30 March 2022|work=New Zealand Herald}}</ref> In the early 1960s, Jones visited Guyana – then a [[British Guiana|British colony]] – while on his way to establishing a short-lived Temple mission in [[Brazilian military dictatorship|Brazil]].<ref name="raven78">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=78}}</ref>

[[File:Peoples Temple logo.svg|right|thumb|200px|The logo of The [[Peoples Temple]], led by [[Jim Jones]], which controlled the commune until late 1978.]]
[[File:Rev. Jim Jones, 1977 (cropped)2.jpg|right|thumb|200px|[[Jim Jones]], founder of [[Peoples Temple|The Peoples Temple]].]]
After Jones received considerable criticism in Indiana for his [[integrationist]] views, the Temple moved to [[Redwood Valley, California|Redwood Valley]], [[California]], in 1965.<ref name="lib_vir">{{cite web|url=http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/Jonestwn.html|title=The Religious Movements Homepage Project: Peoples Temple|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060908190148/http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/Jonestwn.html|archive-date=September 8, 2006}}</ref> In the early 1970s, the Temple opened other branches in [[Los Angeles]] and [[San Francisco]], and would eventually move its headquarters to San Francisco.<ref>{{Harvnb|Layton|1998|pp=64–65}}</ref>

With the move to San Francisco came increasing political involvement by the Temple and the high levels of approval they received from the local government.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Krause|first1=Charles|last2=Layton|first2=Deborah|title=Introduction – Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the Peoples Temple|publisher=Anchor Books}}</ref> After the group's participation proved instrumental in the mayoral election victory of [[George Moscone]] in 1975, Moscone appointed Jones as the Chairman of the [[San Francisco Housing Authority]].<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/jonestown/filmmore/pt.html ''Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple''.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090314080911/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/jonestown/filmmore/pt.html|date=March 14, 2009}} PBS.org.</ref> Increasing public support in California gave Jones access to several high-ranking political figures, including vice presidential candidate [[Walter Mondale]] and [[First Lady of the United States|First Lady]] [[Rosalynn Carter]]. Guests at a large 1976 testimonial dinner for Jones included [[Governor of California|Governor]] [[Jerry Brown]], [[Lieutenant Governor of California|Lieutenant Governor]] [[Mervyn Dymally]] and California Assemblyman [[Willie Brown (politician)|Willie Brown]], among others.<ref>{{Harvnb|Layton|1998|p=105}}</ref>

==Jonestown established==
===Selection and establishment of Guyanese land===
[[File:Jonestown cottages 2.jpg|thumb|Jonestown Cottages]]
In the fall of 1973, after critical newspaper articles by [[Lester Kinsolving]] and the defection of eight Temple members, Jones and Temple attorney Timothy Stoen prepared an "immediate action" contingency plan for responding to a police or media crackdown.<ref name="reiterman237">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=237}}</ref> The plan listed various options, including fleeing to Canada or to a "Caribbean missionary post" such as Barbados or Trinidad.<ref name="reiterman237"/> For its Caribbean missionary post, the Temple quickly chose Guyana, conducting research on its economy and [[extradition]] treaties with the United States.<ref name="reiterman237"/> In October 1973, the directors of the Temple passed a resolution to establish an agricultural mission there.<ref name="reiterman237"/>

The Temple chose Guyana, in part, because of the group's own socialist politics, which were moving further to the [[political left|left]] during the selection process.<ref name="reiterman237"/><ref name="paranoia">[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,919897-1,00.html ''Paranoia And Delusions''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100910041607/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,919897-1,00.html|date=September 10, 2010}}, ''Time'', December 11, 1978</ref> Former Temple member Tim Carter stated that the reasons for choosing Guyana were the Temple's view of a perceived dominance of racism and multinational corporations in the U.S. government.<ref name="carter">{{cite web |last=Carter |first=Tim. |url=http://www.opb.org/radio/archives/2007/04/there_was_no_ch_1.php |title=Interview on Oregon Public Broadcasting Radio (Clip#3)|date=9 April 2007|publisher=OPB Radio |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070426045331/http://www.opb.org/radio/archives/2007/04/there_was_no_ch_1.php |archive-date=April 26, 2007}}</ref> According to Carter, the Temple concluded that Guyana, an English-speaking, socialist country with a government including prominent black leaders, would afford black Temple members a peaceful place to live.<ref name="carter"/>

Later, [[Prime Minister of Guyana|Guyanese Prime Minister]] [[Forbes Burnham]] stated that Jones may have "wanted to use [[cooperative]]s as the basis for the establishment of socialism, and maybe his idea of setting up a [[commune (intentional community)|commune]] meshed with that."<ref name="paranoia"/> Jones thought that Guyana was small, poor and independent enough for him to easily obtain influence and official protection.<ref name="reiterman237"/> He proved skillful in presenting the Guyanese government the benefits of allowing the Temple to establish a settlement in the country. One of the main tactics was to speak of the advantages of their American presence near Guyana's [[Guyana–Venezuela territorial dispute|disputed border]] with Venezuela; this idea seemed promising to the Burnham government, who feared a military incursion by Venezuela.<ref>Poster 2019</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Poster|first1=Alexander|title=Jonestown: An International Story of Diplomacy, Detente, and Neglect, 1973–1978|journal=Diplomatic History|date=2019|volume=43|issue=2|page=307|url=http://web.a.ebscohost.com|access-date=13 April 2020}}</ref><ref>''Seconds From Disaster'', "Jonestown Cult Suicide", aired 5 November 2012</ref>

In 1974, after traveling to an area of northwestern Guyana with Guyanese officials, Jones and the Temple negotiated a lease of over {{convert|3,800|acres|ha}} of land in the jungle located {{convert|150|mi|km}} west of the Guyanese capital of [[Georgetown, Guyana|Georgetown]].<ref name="pbs">[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/jonestown/timeline/timeline2.html ''Timeline: The Life and Death of Jim Jones''.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090219184320/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/jonestown/timeline/timeline2.html|date=19 February 2009}} PBS.org. Retrieved 9 April 2007.</ref> In 1976, Guyana approved the lease (retroactive to April 1974).<ref name="raven340"/> The site, located near the disputed border with Venezuela, was isolated and had soil of low fertility.<ref name="raven340">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=275}}</ref> The nearest body of water was {{convert|7|mi|km|spell=on}} away by muddy roads.<ref name="raven340"/>

=== Jonestown before mass migration ===
[[File:Jonestown Houses.jpg|thumb|Houses in Jonestown]]
As five hundred members began the construction of Jonestown, the Temple encouraged more to relocate to the settlement.<ref name="walliss">Walliss, John, ''Apocalyptic Trajectories : Millenarianism and Violence in the Contemporary World'', Oxford, New York, 2004, {{ISBN|0820472174}}{{page?|date=April 2025}}</ref> Jones saw Jonestown as both a "socialist paradise" and a "sanctuary" from media scrutiny.<ref name="hall293"/> Jones reached an agreement to guarantee that Guyana would permit Temple members' mass migration. To do so, he stated that they were "skilled and progressive," showed off an envelope he claimed contained $500,000 and stated that he would invest most of the group's assets in Guyana.<ref name="raven337"/> The relatively large number of immigrants to Guyana overwhelmed the government's small but stringent immigration infrastructure in a country where immigrants had outweighed locals.<ref name="raven337">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=337}}.</ref> Guyanese immigration procedures were compromised to inhibit the departure of Temple defectors and curtail the [[travel visa|visa]]s of Temple opponents.<ref name="housereport">United States Congress House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Staff Investigative Group (1979) "The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana, Tragedy. Report of a Staff Investigative Group to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives", U.S. Government Printing Office.</ref>

Jonestown was held up as a benevolent [[communism|communist]] community, with Jones stating: "I believe we're the purest communists there are."<ref name="q050">Jones, Jim. [http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27298 "Transcript of Recovered FBI tape Q 50."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170425072201/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27298|date=25 April 2017}} ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref> Jones' wife, Marceline, described Jonestown as "dedicated to live for socialism, total economic and racial and social equality. We are here living communally."<ref name="q050"/> Jones wanted to construct a model community and claimed that Burnham "couldn't rave enough about us, the wonderful things we do, the project, the model of socialism."<ref>Jones, Jim. [http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27599 "Transcript of Recovered FBI tape Q 833."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205013356/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27599|date=February 5, 2015}} ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref> He did not permit members to leave Jonestown without his express prior permission.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=451}}</ref>

The Temple established offices in Georgetown and conducted numerous meetings with Burnham and other Guyanese officials.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=274–275, 281}}</ref> In 1976, Temple member Michael Prokes requested that Burnham receive Jones as a foreign dignitary along with other "high ranking U.S. officials."<ref name="raven285">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=285}}</ref> Jones traveled to Guyana with Dymally to meet with Burnham and Guyanese Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Willis.<ref name="raven285"/> In that meeting, Dymally agreed to pass on the message to the [[United States Department of State|U.S. State Department]] that Guyana wanted to keep an open door to cooperation with the U.S.<ref name="raven285"/> He followed up that meeting with a letter to Burnham stating that Jones was "one of the finest human beings" and that Dymally was "tremendously impressed" by his visit to Jonestown.<ref name="raven285"/>

Temple members took pains to stress their loyalty to Burnham's [[People's National Congress Reform|People's National Congress Party]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Hall|1987|p=195}}</ref> One Temple member, Paula Adams, became romantically involved with Laurence "Bonny" Mann, Guyana's ambassador to the U.S. Jones bragged about other female Temple members he referred to as "public relations women" giving all for the cause in Jonestown.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=274–275, 418}}</ref><ref name=group>After the tragedy at Jonestown, Adams married Mann. On 24 October 1983, Mann fatally shot both Adams and the couple's child, and then fatally shot himself. (Weingarten, Gene. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/18/AR2006011801434_5.html "The Peekaboo Paradox."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501131330/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/18/AR2006011801434_5.html|date=1 May 2011}} ''The Washington Post''. January 22, 2006.)</ref> Burnham's wife [[Viola Burnham|Viola]] was also a strong advocate of the Temple.<ref name="paranoia"/>

Later, Burnham stated that Guyana allowed the Temple to operate in the manner it did on the references of Moscone, Mondale and Rosalynn Carter.<ref name="moore173">{{Harvnb|Moore|1985|pp=173–174}}</ref> He also said that, when Deputy Minister [[Ptolemy Reid]] traveled to [[Washington, D.C.]] in September 1977 to sign the [[Torrijos-Carter Treaties|Panama Canal Treaties]], Mondale, by this point the [[Vice President of the United States|U.S. Vice President]], asked him, "How's Jim?", which indicated to Reid that Mondale had a personal interest in Jones' well-being.<ref name="moore173"/>

=== Investigation and mass migration ===
{{Further|Peoples Temple in San Francisco}}
[[File:PTinGuyana Cen image001.gif|thumb|upright=1.6|Migration to Jonestown ([http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=35655 Migration figures after June 1978 are not known], Jonestown Report)]]
In the summer of 1977, Jones and several hundred Temple members moved to Jonestown to escape building pressure from San Francisco media investigations.<ref name="layton113">{{Harvnb|Layton|1998|p=113}}</ref> Jones left the same night that an editor at ''New West'' magazine read to him an article to be published by [[Marshall Kilduff]] detailing allegations of abuse by former Temple members.<ref name="layton113"/><ref>Kilduff, Marshall and Phil Tracy.[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=14025 "Inside Peoples Temple."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101217064220/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/PrimarySources/newWestart.htm|date=December 17, 2010}} ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University. August 1, 1977.</ref> After the mass migration, Jonestown became overcrowded.<ref name="raven390">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=390–392}}</ref> Jonestown's population was slightly under 900 at its peak in 1978.

=== Jonestown life after mass migration ===
Many members of the Temple believed that Guyana would be, as Jones promised, a paradise or [[utopia]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Hall|1987|p=133}}</ref> After Jones arrived, however, Jonestown life significantly changed.<ref name="raven390"/> Entertaining movies from Georgetown that the settlers had watched were mostly canceled in favor of [[Soviet propaganda]] shorts and documentaries on American social problems.<ref name="raven390"/>

Bureaucratic requirements after Jones' arrival sapped labor resources for other needs.<ref name="raven390"/> Buildings fell into disrepair and weeds encroached on fields.<ref name="raven390"/> School study and nighttime lectures for adults turned to Jones' discussions about revolution and enemies, with lessons focusing on Soviet alliances, Jones' crises and the purported "mercenaries" sent by Stoen, who had defected from the Temple and turned against the group.<ref name="raven390"/>

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> In mid-1978, after Jones' health deteriorated and his wife began managing more of Jonestown's operations, the work week was reduced to eight hours a day for five days a week.<ref name="carter"/> After the day's work ended, Temple members would attend several hours of activities in the settlement's central pavilion, including classes on socialism.<ref name="Layton 1998 53"/>

Jones compared Jonestown's work 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 [[Brainwashing|mind control]] and [[behavior modification]] techniques borrowed from Mao Zedong and [[Kim Il-sung]].<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]],<ref name="manytapes"/> and was known to side with the [[Soviet Union|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>

"Discussion" about current events often took the form of Jones interrogating individual followers about the implications and subtexts of a given news item, or delivering lengthy and often confused monologues on how to "read" certain events. In addition to Soviet documentaries, political thrillers such as ''[[The Parallax View]]'' (1974), ''[[The Day of the Jackal (film)|The Day of the Jackal]]'' (1973), ''[[State of Siege]]'' (1972) and ''[[Z (1969 film)|Z]]'' (1969) were repeatedly screened and minutely analyzed by Jones. Recordings of commune meetings show how livid and frustrated Jones would get when anyone did not find the films interesting or did not understand the message Jones was placing upon them.<ref name="manytapes"/>

Jonestown had a [[closed-circuit television]] system, but no one could view anything in the way of film or recorded TV, no matter how innocuous or seemingly politically neutral, without a Temple staffer present to "interpret" the material for the viewers. This invariably meant damning criticisms of perceived [[capitalism|capitalist]] propaganda in Western material, and glowing praise for and highlighting of [[Marxist–Leninist]] messages in material from communist nations.<ref name="manytapes">[https://web.archive.org/web/20150205014504/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=43837 "FBI Summaries of Peoples Temple Tapes Q 155, Q 160, Q 190, Q 198, Q 200, Q 203 and Q 242."] ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref>

Jones's recorded readings of the news were part of the constant broadcasts over Jonestown's tower speakers, such that all members could hear them throughout the day and night.<ref>"[https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/jonestown/filmmore/pt.html ''Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090314080911/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/jonestown/filmmore/pt.html |date=March 14, 2009}}" (Documentary also airing on PBS including numerous interviews).</ref> His news readings usually portrayed the U.S. as a "capitalist" and "imperialist" villain, while casting "socialist" leaders, such as Kim,<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> 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> and [[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> in a positive light.

Jonestown's primary means of communication with the outside world was a [[shortwave radio]].<ref name="moore292">{{Harvnb|Moore|1985|p=292}}</ref> All voice communications with San Francisco and Georgetown were transmitted using this radio, from mundane supply orders to confidential Temple business.<ref name="moore292"/> The [[Federal Communications Commission]] (FCC) cited the Temple for technical violations and for using amateur frequencies for commercial purposes.<ref name="moore292"/> Because shortwave radio was Jonestown's only effective means of non-postal communication, the Temple felt that the FCC's threats to revoke its operators' licenses threatened Jonestown's existence.<ref name="moore293">{{Harvnb|Moore|1985|p=293}}</ref>

Because it stood on poor soil, Jonestown was not self-sufficient and had to import large quantities of commodities such as wheat.<ref name="hall236"/> Temple members lived in small communal houses, some with walls woven from [[Manicaria saccifera|Troolie palm]], and ate meals that reportedly consisted of nothing more on some days than rice, beans, greens and occasionally meat, sauce and eggs.<ref name="hall236">{{Harvnb|Hall|1987|p=236}}</ref><ref name="layton">{{Harvnb|Layton|1998}}</ref> Despite having access to an estimated $26&nbsp;million by late 1978,<ref>Reiterman, Tim, "Peoples Temple's $26 million financial empire", ''San Francisco Examiner'', January 9, 1979.</ref> Jones also lived in a tiny communal house, though fewer people lived there than in other communal houses.<ref name="layton"/> His house reportedly held a small refrigerator containing, at times, eggs, meat, fruit, salads and soft drinks.<ref name="layton"/> Medical problems, such as severe [[diarrhea]] and high fevers, struck half the community in February 1978.

Although Jonestown contained no dedicated prison and no form of [[capital punishment]], various forms of punishment were used against members considered to have disciplinary problems. Methods included imprisonment in a {{convert|6|x|4|x|3|ft|1|adj=on}} plywood box and forcing children to spend a night at the bottom of a [[Water well|well]], sometimes upside-down.<ref name="cnn_jones">{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/US/9811/18/jonestown.anniv.01/|title=Jonestown massacre + 20: Questions linger|publisher=CNN|access-date=April 9, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070421021859/http://www.cnn.com/US/9811/18/jonestown.anniv.01/#2|archive-date=April 21, 2007}}</ref> This "torture hole", along with beatings, became the subject of rumor among local Guyanese.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=502}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Layton|1998|p=176}}</ref> For some members who attempted to escape, drugs such as [[Thorazine]], [[sodium pentathol]], [[chloral hydrate]], [[Demerol]] and [[Valium]] were administered in an "extended care unit."<ref>King, Peter. [http://www.maebrussell.com/Jonestown/How%20Jones%20Used%20Drugs.html "How Jones used drugs."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080417053452/http://www.maebrussell.com/Jonestown/How%20Jones%20Used%20Drugs.html |date=April 17, 2008}} ''San Francisco Examiner''. December 28, 1978. Archived.</ref><ref>{{cite news |editor1-first=David |editor1-last=Muir |editor1-link=David Muir |editor2-first=Kimberly|editor2-last=Godwin|publisher=[[American Broadcasting Company (ABC)]]|publication-place=[[New York City]], [[New York (state)|New York]], United States of America|work=[[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]]|first1=Laura|last1=Effron|first2=Monica|last2=DelaRosa|first3=Muriel|last3=Pearson|title=40 years after Jonestown massacre, ex-members describe Jim Jones as a 'real monster'|date=26 September 2018|access-date=27 June 2021|url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/40-years-jonestown-massacre-members-describe-jim-jones/story?id=57933856|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181001152427/https://abcnews.go.com/US/40-years-jonestown-massacre-members-describe-jim-jones/story?id=57933856|archive-date=1 October 2018}}</ref> Armed guards patrolled the area day and night to enforce Jonestown's rules.

Children were generally surrendered to communal care, and at times were only allowed to see their biological parents briefly at night. Jones was called "Father" or "Dad" by both adults and children.<ref>[http://www.guyana.org/features/jonestown.html ''An Analysis of Jonestown''.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070426204301/http://www.guyana.org/features/jonestown.html |date=April 26, 2007}} Guyana.org. Retrieved April 9, 2007.</ref> The community had a nursery at which thirty-three infants were born.<ref name="reitermantimes">Reiterman, Tim, [https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19981118/2784066/for-those-who-were-there-jonestowns-a-part-of-each-day ''For Those Who Were There, Jonestown's A Part Of Each Day''], ''Los Angeles Times'', November 18, 1998</ref>

For a year, it appears the commune was run primarily through [[Social Security (United States)|Social Security]] checks received by members.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=35666|title=The Demographics of Jonestown|last1=Moore|first1=Rebecca|website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple|publisher=San Diego State University|access-date=March 20, 2019}}</ref> Up to $65,000 in monthly welfare payments from U.S. government agencies to Jonestown residents were signed over to the Temple.<ref>{{Harvnb|Layton|1998|p=103}}</ref> In 1978, [[List of diplomatic missions of the United States|officials from the U.S. embassy]] in Georgetown interviewed Social Security recipients on multiple occasions to make sure they were not being held against their will.<ref name="pear">Pear, Richard. "State Explains Response to Cult Letters." ''Washington Star News''. November 26, 1978.</ref> None of the seventy-five people interviewed by the embassy stated that they were being held captive, were forced to sign over welfare checks or wanted to leave Jonestown.<ref name="pear"/><ref>Wessinger, Catherine. ''How the Millennium Comes Violently: From Jonestown to Heaven's Gate''. 2000. {{ISBN|978-1889119243}}.{{page?|date=April 2025}}</ref>

===Demographics===
[[African Americans]] made up approximately 70% of Jonestown's population.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=XuKB_2ll27wC&dq=%22Demographics+and+the+Black+Religious+Culture+of+Peoples+Temple%2C%22+in+Peoples+Temple+and+Black+Religion+in+America&pg=PA57 "Demographics and the Black Religious Culture of Peoples Temple," in Peoples Temple and Black Religion in America], edited by Rebecca Moore, Anthony Pinn and Mary Sawyer (Bloomington: Indiana Press University, 2005), p. 59.</ref> 45% of Jonestown residents were black women.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XuKB_2ll27wC&q=%22Demographics+and+the+Black+Religious+Culture+of+Peoples+Temple,%22+in+Peoples+Temple+and+Black+Religion+in+America&pg=PA57|title=Peoples Temple and Black Religion in America|last1=Moore|first1=Rebecca|last2=Pinn|first2=Anthony B|last3=Sawyer|first3=Mary R|date= 2004|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0253110831|page=58|language=en}}</ref>
{|class="wikitable"
|+ Jonestown Demographic Breakdown, 1977<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=35666|title=The Demographics of Jonestown – Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple |access-date=March 27, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180315114200/https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=35666|archive-date=15 March 2018 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Figure-3.pdf|title=Figure 3 |access-date=27 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180328040922/https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Figure-3.pdf|archive-date=28 March 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>
|-
!
! Female
! Male
! Total
|-
! Black
| style="text-align: right;" | 460
| style="text-align: right;" | 231
| style="text-align: right;" | '''691'''
|-
! White
| style="text-align: right;" | 138
| style="text-align: right;" | 108
| style="text-align: right;" | '''246'''
|-
! Mixed
| style="text-align: right;" | 27
| style="text-align: right;" | 12
| style="text-align: right;" | '''39'''
|-
! Other
| style="text-align: right;" | 13
| style="text-align: right;" | 10
| style="text-align: right;" | '''23'''
|-
! Total
| style="text-align: right;" | '''638'''
| style="text-align: right;" | '''361'''
| style="text-align: right;" | '''999'''
|-
|}
<!--
This is my first wiki table... original text below, however note that one of the percentage values shown below is incorrect. --ashleedawg
* Black female = 460 (45%)
* Black male = 231 (23%)
* White female = 138 (13%)
* White male = 108 (11%)
* Mixed female = 27 (3%)
* Mixed male = 12 (1%)
* Other female = 13 (1%)
* Other male = 10 (1%)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=35666|title=Archived copy|access-date=27 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180315114200/https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=35666|archive-date=15 March 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Figure-3.pdf|title=Archived copy|access-date=27 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180328040922/https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Figure-3.pdf|archive-date=28 March 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>
-->

==Events in Jonestown before the arrival of Leo Ryan==
===White Night and the Six Day Siege===
Jones' [[paranoia]] and [[drug abuse]] increased in Jonestown as he became fearful of a government raid on the commune, citing concerns that the community would not be able to resist an attack.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=390}} He made frequent addresses to Temple members regarding Jonestown's safety, including statements that U.S. intelligence agencies were conspiring with "capitalist pigs" to destroy the settlement and harm its inhabitants.<ref name="q322"/><ref>Jim Jones, [http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27387 Transcript of Recovered FBI tape Q 234] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170516171446/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27387|date=May 16, 2017}}. ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref><ref>Jim Jones, [http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27299 Transcript of Recovered FBI tape Q 051] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170516161638/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27299|date=May 16, 2017}}. ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref>

Jones was known to regularly study Adolf Hitler and [[Father Divine]] to learn how to manipulate members of the cult. Divine told Jones personally to "find an enemy" and "to make sure they know who the enemy is" as it would unify those in the group and make them subservient to him.<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/LvJtjSD0J2g Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20200217035547/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvJtjSD0J2g&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvJtjSD0J2g|title=Jonestown Survivor Laura Johnston Kohl – AllOutAttack Podcast w/ Harry Robinson – #2|last=Robinson|first=Harry|date=14 February 2019|website=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

After work, when purported emergencies arose, the Temple sometimes conducted what Jones referred to as "White Nights."<ref>{{Harvnb|Layton|1998|p=178}}</ref> During such events, Jones would call, "Alert, Alert, Alert" over Jonestown's tower speakers to call the community together in the pavilion, which was then surrounded by guards armed with guns and [[crossbow]]s.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=390}} On several occasions, Jones then gave his followers four options: attempt to flee to the Soviet Union, commit "revolutionary suicide", stay in Jonestown and fight the purported attackers or flee into the jungle.<ref>Jones, Jim. The White Nights were originally called 'Omegas', denoting their finality, but when Jones decided that the events more properly marked a new beginning and an evolution to a higher form of socialist consciousness, they were briefly renamed 'Alphas'. This second title was only briefly used, and 'White Night' was adopted soon thereafter. Jones refers to an 'Omega' on one tape recorded at Jonestown, the only known time when this title was used. Confusingly, this mention came after the switch to 'White Night' had been made.
[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27514 "Transcript of Recovered FBI tape Q 642."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205011646/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27514|date=5 February 2015}} ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref>

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>

One drill lasted for six days. Known as the "Six Day Siege," this ordeal was used thereafter by Jones as a symbol of the community's indomitable spirit. For days on end, frightened settlers ringed the commune, armed with [[machete]]s and whatever crude tools would serve as weapons. Surrounding them, Jones claimed, were mercenaries bent on murder, as well as the abduction of Jones' son John Victor Stoen and others. Marceline and others outside of the commune engaged in interminable shortwave radio conversations with Jones, seeking to dissuade him from ordering a mass suicide. The panic reached such a point that an ''[[ad hoc]]'' evacuation was ordered by Jones, with dozens of settlers hastily loaded onto boats on the George River for a purported exodus to Cuba. Several people fell into the river, suffering injuries. At last, Jones bowed to pressure, and the drill ended. Veterans of the "Siege" were held in high regard in Jonestown, and in numerous addresses Jones tearfully recalled their stoic courage on the "front line."{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=390}}

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=4 December 2008}} CNN, 12 November 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=5 February 2015}}. Carter, Tim. Retrieved 1 August 2013.</ref>

===Stoen custody dispute===
{{Main|Timothy Stoen}}
In September 1977, former Temple members Tim and Grace Stoen battled in a Georgetown court to produce an order for the Temple to show cause why a final order should not be issued returning their five-year-old son, John.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=361}}</ref> A few days later, a second order was issued for John to be taken into [[protective custody]] by authorities.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=366}}</ref> The fear of being held in [[contempt of court|contempt]] of the orders caused Jones to set up a false [[sniper]] attack upon himself and begin the "Six Day Siege."<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=360–372}}</ref>

Jonestown rallies began to take an almost surreal tone as black activists [[Angela Davis]] and [[Huey Newton]] communicated via radio-telephone to the settlers, urging them to hold strong against the "conspiracy."<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=369}}</ref> Jones made radio broadcasts stating "we will die unless we are granted freedom from harassment and [[right of asylum|asylum]]."<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=367}}</ref> Reid finally assured Marceline that the [[Guyana Defence Force]] would not invade Jonestown.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=370}}</ref>

=== Exploring another potential exodus ===
Following the "Six Day Siege," despite Reid's assurances, Jones no longer believed the Guyanese could be trusted.<ref name="raven371">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=371}}</ref> He directed Temple members to write to over a dozen foreign governments inquiring about immigration policies relevant to another exodus by the Temple.<ref name="raven371"/> He also wrote to the State Department, inquiring about North Korea and [[Socialist People's Republic of Albania|Albania]], then enduring the [[Sino-Albanian split]].<ref name="raven371"/> In Georgetown, the Temple conducted frequent meetings with the embassies of the Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea and [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]].<ref name="moore165"/> Negotiations with the Soviet embassy included extensive discussions of possible resettlement there. The Temple produced memoranda discussing potential places within the Soviet Union in which they might settle.<ref name="moore165">{{Harvnb|Moore|1985|p=165}}</ref>

Sharon Amos, Michael Prokes, Matthew Blunt, Timothy Regan<ref>{{citation|last=Ryans|first=Larry|title=Jonestown History}}</ref> and other Temple members took active roles in the "Guyana-Korea Friendship Society," which sponsored two seminars on the revolutionary concepts of Kim Il-sung.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=416}}</ref> In April 1978, a high-ranking correspondent of the Soviet news agency [[TASS]] and his wife visited Jones.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Moore|first=Rebecca|date=2013|title=Rhetoric, Revolution and Resistance in Jonestown, Guyana|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5840/jrv2013134|journal=Journal of Religion and Violence|volume=1|issue=3|pages=303–321|doi=10.5840/jrv2013134|issn=2159-6808|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Q759 Transcript – Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple|url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27581|access-date=2021-08-23|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Edith Roller Journals: April 1978 – Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple|url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=35695|access-date=2021-10-23|language=en-US}}</ref> On 2 October 1978, Feodor Timofeyev, the Soviet [[Consul (representative)|consul]] in Georgetown, visited Jonestown for two days and gave a speech.<ref name="q352">Jones, Jim. [http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27428 "Transcript of Recovered FBI tape Q 352."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304094827/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27428|date=March 4, 2016}} ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref> Jones stated before the speech, "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="q352"/> Timofeyev opened the speech stating that the Soviet Union would like to send "our deepest and the most sincere greetings to the people of this first socialist and communist community of the United States of America, in Guyana and in the world".<ref name="q352"/> Both speeches were met by cheers and applause from the crowd in Jonestown.<ref name="q352"/>

Following the visit, Temple members met almost weekly with Timofeyev to discuss a potential Soviet exodus.<ref name="moore165"/> However, Jones eventually had a change of heart, stating that he preferred to stay within the Guyanese borders because of the [[sovereignty]] it afforded them.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Poster |first1=Alexander |title=Jonestown:An International Story of Diplomacy, Detente, And Neglect, 1973–1978|journal=Diplomatic History|date=2019|volume=43|issue=2|pages=305–331|doi=10.1093/dh/dhy072}}</ref>

===Concerned Relatives===
Meanwhile, in late 1977 and early 1978, the Stoens participated in meetings with other relatives of Jonestown residents at the home of [[Jeannie Mills]], another Temple defector. Together, they called themselves the "Concerned Relatives."<ref name="raven408">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=408}}</ref> Tim Stoen engaged in letter-writing campaigns to the [[U.S. Secretary of State]] and the Guyanese government, and traveled to Washington, D.C. to lobby for an official investigation.<ref name="sims">Sims, Hank, [http://www.northcoastjournal.com/092503/cover0925.html ''Tim Stoen's Story''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080515144942/http://www.northcoastjournal.com/092503/cover0925.html|date=15 May 2008}}, North Coast Journal, September 25, 2003</ref> In January 1978, Stoen wrote a [[white paper]] to [[United States Congress|Congress]] detailing his grievances and requesting that [[Member of Congress#United States|congressmen]] write to Burnham; ninety-one congressmen, including [[Leo Ryan]], wrote such letters.<ref name="raven458">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=458}}</ref><ref name="hall227">{{Harvnb|Hall|1987|p=227}}</ref>

On 17 February 1978, Jones submitted to an interview with ''[[The San Francisco Examiner|San Francisco Examiner]]'' reporter [[Tim Reiterman]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=380–383}}</ref> Reiterman's subsequent story about the Stoen custody battle prompted the immediate threat of a lawsuit by the Temple.<ref name="raven383">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=383}}</ref> The repercussions were devastating for the Temple's reputation, and made most former supporters more suspicious of the Temple's claims that it was the victim of a "[[political right|rightist]] vendetta."<ref name="raven383"/> Still, others remained loyal. On the day after Reiterman's article was published, [[Harvey Milk]] – a member of the [[San Francisco Board of Supervisors]] who was supported by the Temple – wrote a letter to [[President of the United States|President]] [[Jimmy Carter]] defending Jones "as a man of the highest character" and stating that Temple defectors were trying to "damage Rev. Jones' reputation" with "apparent bold-faced lies."<ref name="milk_let">Milk, Harvey [http://www.brasscheck.com/jonestown/milk.jpg ''Letter Addressed to President Jimmy Carter, Dated February 19, 1978''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429202656/http://www.brasscheck.com/jonestown/milk.jpg|date=29 April 2011}}</ref>

On 11 April 1978, the Concerned Relatives distributed a packet of documents, including letters and affidavits, that they titled an "Accusation of Human Rights Violations by Rev. James Warren Jones" to the Peoples Temple, members of the press and members of Congress.<ref>[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13080 "Accusation of Human Rights Violations by Rev. James Warren Jones. April 11, 1978.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205012738/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13080 |date=February 5, 2015}} ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref> In June 1978, Layton provided the group with a further affidavit detailing alleged crimes by the Temple and substandard living conditions in Jonestown.<ref name="laytonaff">[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13072 "Affidavit of Deborah Layton Blakey."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205013358/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13072|date=February 5, 2015}} ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref>

Tim Stoen represented three members of the Concerned Relatives in lawsuits filed in May and June 1978 against Jones and other Temple members, seeking in excess of $56 million in [[damages]].<ref name="moore259">{{Harvnb|Moore|1985|p=259}}</ref> The Temple, represented by [[Charles Garry]], filed a suit against Stoen on 10 July 1978, seeking $150 million in damages.<ref name="moore268">{{Harvnb|Moore|1985|p=268}}</ref>

===Conspiracism===
During July and August of 1978, Jones sought the legal services of [[Mark Lane (author)|Mark Lane]] and [[Donald Freed]], both [[John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories|Kennedy assassination conspiracy theorists]], to help make the case of a "[[conspiracy theory|grand conspiracy]]" by U.S. intelligence agencies against the Temple.<ref name="reiterman440">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=440}}</ref> Jones told Lane he wanted to "pull an [[Eldridge Cleaver]]" and return to the U.S. after repairing his reputation.<ref name="reiterman440"/> In September, Lane spoke to the residents of Jonestown, providing support for Jones' theories and comparing him to [[Martin Luther King Jr.]]<ref name="reiterman440"/> Lane then held press conferences stating that "none of the charges" against the Temple "are accurate or true" and that there was a "massive conspiracy" against the Temple by "intelligence organizations," naming the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]], and even the [[U.S. Postal Service]].<ref name="reiterman440"/> Though Lane presented himself as a disinterested party, Jones was actually paying him $6,000 per month to generate such theories.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=441}}</ref><ref>
{{cite journal
  | last = Moore
  | first = Rebecca
  | title = Reconstructing Reality: Conspiracy Theories About Jonestown
  | journal = Journal of Popular Culture
  | volume = 36
  | issue = #2
  | date = Fall 2002
  | pages = 200–220
 | doi = 10.1111/1540-5931.00002
 | url = http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=16582
  | access-date = 1 July 2007
| url-access = subscription
  }}
</ref>

===Jones' declining physical and mental health===
Jones' health significantly declined in Jonestown. In 1978, he was informed of a possible lung infection, upon which he announced to his followers that he had [[lung cancer]] – a ploy to foster sympathy and strengthen support within the community.<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 injectable Valium, [[Quaalude]]s, [[stimulant]]s and [[barbiturate]]s.<ref name="reiterman446">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=446}}</ref> Audio tapes of 1978 meetings exhibit Jones complaining of [[high blood pressure]], small [[stroke]]s, [[weight loss]] of thirty to forty pounds within the span of two weeks, temporary [[blindness]], [[convulsions]] and, in his final month, grotesque swelling of the [[Limb (anatomy)|extremities]].<ref name="reiterman446"/> During meetings and public addresses, Jones' once-sharp speaking voice often sounded slurred; words ran together or were tripped over. He would occasionally not finish sentences even when reading typed reports over the commune's speaker system.<ref name="reiterman446"/>

Reiterman was surprised by the severe deterioration of Jones' health when he saw him in Jonestown on November 17, 1978.<ref name="reitermantimes"/> After covering Jones for eighteen months for the ''Examiner'', he thought it was "shocking to see his glazed eyes and festering paranoia face to face, to realize that nearly a thousand lives, ours included, were in his hands."<ref name="reitermantimes"/>

==Leo Ryan visit==
===Initial investigation===
[[File:Leo Ryan.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Congressman [[Leo Ryan]]]]
Leo Ryan, who represented [[California's 11th congressional district]], was friends with the father of Bob Houston, a Temple member in California whose mutilated body was found near train tracks on October 5, 1976, three days after a taped telephone conversation with Houston's ex-wife in which leaving the Temple was discussed.<ref>Moore, Rebecca. [http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=16581 ''American as Cherry Pie''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141029130010/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=16581 |date=October 29, 2014}}, Jonestown Institute, San Diego State University</ref><ref name="reiterman299457">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=299–300, 457–458}}</ref> Over the following months, Ryan's interest was further aroused by the allegations put forth by Stoen, Layton and the Concerned Relatives.<ref name="reiterman299457"/>

On November 14, 1978, Ryan flew to Georgetown, along with a delegation<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=481}}</ref> that included:
* [[Jackie Speier]], Ryan's then-legal adviser;
* Neville Annibourne, representing Guyana's Ministry of Information;
* Richard Dwyer, [[Deputy Chief of Mission]] of the U.S. embassy to Guyana;
* Tim Reiterman, ''San Francisco Examiner'' reporter;
* Greg Robinson, ''Examiner'' photographer;
* [[Don Harris (journalist)|Don Harris]], [[NBC]] reporter;
* Bob Brown, NBC camera operator;
* Steve Sung, NBC audio technician;
* Bob Flick, NBC producer;
* Charles Krause, ''[[The Washington Post|Washington Post]]'' reporter;
* Ron Javers, ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'' reporter;

and Concerned Relatives representatives, including:
* Tim and Grace Stoen,
* Steve and Anthony Katsaris,
* Beverly Oliver,
* Jim Cobb,
* Sherwin Harris, and
* Carol Houston Boyd.

===Visits to Jonestown===
====November 17, 1978====
[[File:Jonestown Guyana Airways plane 1.jpg|thumb|Photo of the DHC-6 Twin Otter before attack.]]
When the Ryan delegation arrived in Guyana, Jones' attorneys Lane and Garry initially refused to allow them access to Jonestown.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=484–485}}</ref> However, by the morning of November 17, they informed Jones that Ryan would likely leave for Jonestown that afternoon regardless of his willingness.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=485}}</ref> Ryan's party, accompanied by Lane and Garry, came to an airstrip at [[Port Kaituma]], six miles (10&nbsp;km) from Jonestown, some hours later.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=487}}</ref> Because of lack of room on the plane, only four of the Concerned Relatives – Anthony Katsaris, Beverly Oliver, Jim Cobb and Carol Boyd – accompanied Ryan, Speier and the journalists to Port Kaituma and ultimately to Jonestown. It was felt that the presence of the Stoens would unnecessarily antagonize Jones, and Harris wanted to remain in Georgetown because he hoped to spend time with his daughter Liane, who was staying at the Temple's headquarters there.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=476–480}}</ref>

Only Ryan, Speier, Lane and Garry were initially accepted into Jonestown, while the rest of Ryan's party was allowed in after sunset.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=488–490}}</ref> That night, they attended a musical reception in the pavilion.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=491}}</ref> While the party was received warmly, Jones said he felt like a dying man and ranted about government conspiracies and [[martyrdom]] as he decried attacks by the press and his enemies.<ref name="reitermantimes"/> It was later reported – and verified by audio tapes recovered by investigators – that Jones had run rehearsals on how to convince Ryan's delegation that everyone was happy and in good spirits.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hall|1987|p=270}}</ref>

Two Temple members, Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby, made the first move for defection that night. In the pavilion, Gosney mistook NBC reporter Don Harris for Ryan and passed him a note, reading, "Dear Congressman, Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby. Please help us get out of Jonestown."<ref>{{Harvnb|Hall|1987|p=271}}</ref> A child nearby witnessed Gosney's act and verbally alerted other Temple members.<ref>Vernon Gosney interview, ''Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple'' (2006)</ref> Harris brought two notes, one of the Gosney's, to Ryan and Speier. According to Speier in 2006, reading the notes caused her and the congressman to realize that "something was very, very wrong."<ref>Jackie Speier interview, ''Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple'' (2006)</ref>

Ryan, Speier, Dwyer and Annibourne stayed the night in Jonestown while other members of their party, including the press corps and members of Concerned Relatives, were told that they had to find other accommodations. They went back to Port Kaituma and stayed at a small café.<ref name="raven498">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=489–499}}</ref>

====November 18, 1978====
In the early morning of November 18, eleven Temple members sensed danger enough to walk out of Jonestown and all the way to the town of [[Matthew's Ridge]], in the opposite direction from the Port Kaituma airstrip.<ref name="cnnsurvivor">[http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/11/12/jonestown.survivors/index.html?iref=newssearch ' Survivors of the Tragedy'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105170703/http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/11/12/jonestown.survivors/index.html?iref=newssearch|date=5 November 2012}}, CNN</ref><ref name="cnnslavery">[http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/11/12/jonestown.wilson.excerpt/index.html?iref=newssearch 'Slavery of Faith': Survivor recounts escape from Jonestown] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081210102703/http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/11/12/jonestown.wilson.excerpt/index.html?iref=newssearch |date=December 10, 2008}}, Leslie Wilson, CNN reprint of excerpt</ref> Those defectors included the wife and son of Joe Wilson, Jonestown's head of security.<ref name="cnnsurvivor"/><ref>{{cite web|last=Knapp |first=Don |url=http://www.cnn.com/US/9811/19/jonestown.anniversary.01 |title=Jonestown massacre memories linger amid rumors of CIA link|publisher=CNN|date=19 November 1998|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010608055211/http://www.cnn.com/US/9811/19/jonestown.anniversary.01/ |archive-date=June 8, 2001}}</ref><ref>[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=31941 ''Obituary announcement of Julius Evans (references his escape with family)''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205012808/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=31941|date=5 February 2015}}, Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Hall|1987|p=272}}</ref> When journalists and members of the Concerned Relatives arrived in Jonestown later that day, Jones' wife Marceline gave them a tour of the settlement.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=505}}</ref>

That afternoon, the Parks and the Bogue families, along with Christopher O'Neal (who was the boyfriend of one of the Parks' daughters) and Harold Cordell (who was living with Mrs. Bogue), stepped forward and asked to be escorted out of Jonestown by the Ryan delegation.<ref name="cnnsurvivor"/><ref name="raven512">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=512}}</ref><ref>Stephenson, Denice. [https://books.google.com/books?id=YrEUGmFQs-0C ''Dear People: Remembering Jonestown''.] Heyday Books, 2005. {{ISBN|1597140023}}.</ref> When Jones' adopted son Johnny attempted to talk Jerry Parks out of leaving, Parks told him, "No way, it's nothing but a communist prison camp."<ref>{{Harvnb|Hall|1987|p=273}}</ref> Jones gave the two families, along with Gosney and Bagby, permission to leave. Before leaving, Gosney was forced to sign a statement stating that he was leaving his four-year-old son behind of his own free will.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=516}}</ref> When Harris handed Gosney's note to Jones during an interview in the pavilion, Jones stated that the defectors were lying and wanted to destroy Jonestown.<ref name="raven515">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=515}}</ref>

After a sudden violent rainstorm started, emotional scenes developed between family members.<ref name="raven516">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=516–517}}</ref> Al Simon, a [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] Temple member, attempted to take two of his children to Ryan to process the requisite paperwork for transfer back to the U.S.<ref name="raven516"/> Simon's wife, Bonnie, summoned over the speakers by Temple staff, loudly denounced her husband.<ref name="raven516"/> Simon pleaded with Bonnie to return to the U.S., but Bonnie rejected his suggestions.<ref name="raven516"/>

=== Port Kaituma airstrip shootings ===
{{Infobox civilian attack
| title = Port Kaituma airstrip shootings
| image = File:BobBrownKaituma.jpg
| caption = NBC footage taken by Bob Brown, showing gunmen exiting a tractor and trailer at the airstrip
| location = [[Port Kaituma Airport]], Guyana
| coordinates =
| target = Congressman [[Leo Ryan]] and party; defectors from the [[Peoples Temple]] at Jonestown
| date = November 18, 1978
| time = 5:20 p.m.–5:25 p.m.
| timezone = [[UTC-4]]
| type = [[Assassination]]<br />[[Mass shooting]]
| fatalities = 5<ref name="amerexper-11181978">{{Cite web|date=20 February 2007|title=The Events of 18 November 1978|publisher=PBS: American Experience, Jonestown|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/jonestown/peopleevents/e_nov.html|access-date=7 December 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016163218/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/jonestown/peopleevents/e_nov.html|archive-date=16 October 2007|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref>
| injuries = 11<ref name="amerexper-11181978"/>
| perps = Larry Layton (Cessna attack), Peoples Temple "Red Brigade" (attack on Twin Otter)
| perp =
| weapons = Handguns, shotguns, rifles
}}

While most of Ryan's party began to depart on a large dump truck to the Port Kaituma airstrip, Ryan and Dwyer stayed behind in Jonestown to process any additional defectors. Shortly before the dump truck left, Temple loyalist Larry Layton, the brother of Deborah Layton, demanded to join the group. Several defectors voiced their suspicions about Larry's motives.<ref name="raven518">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=518}}</ref>

Shortly after the dump truck initially departed, Temple member Don "Ujara" Sly grabbed Ryan while wielding a knife.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=519–520}}</ref> While Ryan was unhurt after others wrestled Sly to the ground, Dwyer strongly suggested that the congressman leave Jonestown while he filed a criminal complaint against Sly.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hall|1987|p=276}}</ref> Ryan did so, promising to return later to address the dispute.<ref  name="housereport" /> The truck departing to the airstrip had stopped after the passengers heard of the attack on Ryan, and took him as a passenger before continuing its journey towards the airstrip.<ref name="raven524">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=524}}</ref>

The entourage had originally scheduled a nineteen-passenger [[Twin Otter]] from [[Guyana Airways]] to fly them back to Georgetown. Because of the defectors departing Jonestown, the group grew in number and now an additional aircraft was required. Accordingly, the U.S. embassy arranged for a second plane, a six-passenger [[Cessna]].<ref name="housereport"/><ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=525}}</ref> When the entourage reached the airstrip between 4:30&nbsp;p.m. and 4:45&nbsp;p.m., the planes had not appeared as scheduled. The group had to wait until the aircraft landed at approximately 5:10&nbsp;p.m.<ref name="housereport"/> Then the boarding process began.

Larry was a passenger on the Cessna, the first aircraft to set up for takeoff.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=526}}</ref> After the Cessna had taxied to the far end of the airstrip, he produced a handgun and started shooting at the passengers. He wounded Bagby and Gosney, and tried to kill Dale Parks, who disarmed him after the gun misfired.<ref name="raven533">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=533}}</ref>

Meanwhile, some passengers had boarded the larger Twin Otter. A tractor with a trailer attached, driven by members of the Temple's Red Brigade security squad, arrived at the airstrip and approached the aircraft.<ref name="raven527">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=527}}</ref> When the tractor neared within approximately {{convert|30|ft|m|0}} of Ryan's party, at a time roughly concurrent with the shootings on the Cessna, the Red Brigade opened fire with handguns, shotguns and rifles while at least two shooters circled the plane on foot.<ref name="housereport"/> There were perhaps nine shooters whose identities are not all certainly known, but most sources agree that Wilson, Stanley Gieg, Thomas Kice Sr. and Ronnie Dennis were among them.<ref>{{Harvnb|Hall|1987|p=278}}</ref> Jones had instructed Larry Layton, as well as those aboard the tractor, to ensure that none of the members of Ryan's party, nor the defectors, were to leave Jonestown.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Krause |first1=Charles A. |title=Survivor: 'They Started with the Babies' |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1978/11/21/survivor-they-started-with-the-babies/ec559372-be60-4355-a5fc-f5e306370992/ |work=The Washington Post |date=21 November 1978}}</ref>

{{External media|float=left|video1=[https://www.c-span.org/video/?454232-1/qa-representative-jackie-speier ''Q&A'' interview with Jackie Speier on her book ''Undaunted: Surviving Jonestown, Summoning Courage, and Fighting Back'', November 18, 2018], [[C-SPAN]]}}
The first few seconds of the shooting were captured on [[U-Matic]] [[electronic news-gathering|ENG]] videotape by NBC cameraman Bob Brown, who was killed along with Robinson, Harris and Temple defector Patricia Parks in the few minutes of shooting. Ryan was killed after being shot more than twenty times.<ref name="raven529"/> Speier, Reiterman, Katsaris, Steve Sung, Richard Dwyer, Charles Krause, Ron Javers, Carolyn Houston Boyd and Beverly Oliver were the nine injured in and around the Twin Otter. After the shootings, the Cessna's pilot, Tom Fernandez, along with the pilot and co-pilot of the Twin Otter, Captain Guy Spence and First officer Astil Rodwell Paul, as well as the injured Bagby, fled in the Cessna to Georgetown. The damaged Twin Otter and the injured Ryan delegation members were left behind on the airstrip.<ref name="raven529">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=529–531}}</ref>

==Deaths in Jonestown==
[[File:Jonestown, Guyana bodies.jpg|left|thumb|An aerial view of the dead in Jonestown]]
{{anchor|Mass_murder-and-suicide}}
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 sixty relatives he had targeted for interviews wanted to leave, the fourteen 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."<ref name="hall275">{{Harvnb|Hall|1987|pp=275–76}}</ref> 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."<ref name="hall273">{{Harvnb|Hall|1987|pp=273–274}}</ref>

After Ryan's departure from Jonestown towards Port Kaituma, Marceline made a broadcast on Jonestown's speaker system, giving assurances and asking settlers to return to their homes.<ref name=":3"/> During this time, aides prepared a large metal tub with grape [[Flavor Aid]] (which was [[Drinking the Kool-Aid|misidentified as Kool-Aid]]), poisoned with [[diphenhydramine]], [[promethazine]], [[chlorpromazine]], [[chloroquine]], [[diazepam]],<ref>{{Harvnb|Hall|1987|p=282}}</ref> [[chloral hydrate]] and [[cyanide poisoning|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>

The concoction was prepared with the help of Jonestown's in-house doctor, Larry Schacht, a former [[methamphetamine]] addict who got sober with the help of Jones, who subsequently paid for his college education to become a doctor. Schacht had been researching the best ways for a person to die in advance of the foreseen mass suicide.<ref name="HouPress">{{cite news |first=Craig |last=Malisow |title=Jonestown's Medicine Man |date=30 January 2013 |access-date=27 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150823114023/https://www.houstonpress.com/news/jonestowns-medicine-man-6602703 |archive-date=23 August 2015 |work=Houston Press |editor1-first=Margaret |editor1-last=Downing |editor2-last=Candler |language=English |editor2-first=Jessica |editor3-last=Folb |editor3-first=Stuart |editor4-last=Breiter |editor4-first=Russell |publisher=Houston Press, LP. (Voice Media Group, LLC) |url=https://www.houstonpress.com/news/jonestowns-medicine-man-6602703 |publication-place=[[Houston]], [[Texas]], United States of America}}</ref> About thirty minutes after Marceline's announcement, Jones made his own, calling all members immediately to the pavilion.<ref name=":3"/>

{{listen|filename=Peoples Temple Cult Death Tape Q042.ogg|title=Peoples Temple "Death Tape"}}
A forty-four-minute cassette tape, known as the "death tape,"<ref name="tape">[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=29084 "Jonestown Audiotape Primary Project."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101205014628/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/Tapes/Tapes/DeathTape/death.html|date=December 5, 2010}} ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. San Diego State University.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/ptc1978-11-18.flac16|title=The Jonestown Death Tape (FBI No. Q 042) (November 18, 1978)|date=November 18, 1978|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170405140837/https://archive.org/details/ptc1978-11-18.flac16|archive-date=April 5, 2017|url-status=live|access-date=August 24, 2013}}</ref> records part of the meeting Jones called inside the pavilion in the early evening of November 18. When the assembly gathered, referring to the Ryan delegation's journey back to Georgetown, Jones told the gathering:

<blockquote>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.</blockquote>

Jones urged Temple members to commit "revolutionary suicide."<ref name="tape"/> Such an act had been hypothesized by Jones as far back as the Temple's existence in San Francisco 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."<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=566}}</ref>

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.<ref name="tape"/>

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.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=178}}</ref> After Jones confirmed that "the congressman's dead," no dissent is heard on the death tape. By this point, armed guards had taken up positions surrounding the pavilion. 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.<ref name="tape"/>

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.<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> 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."<ref name="claytoninquest">[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/GuyanaInquest.pdf ''Guyana Inquest – Interview of Stanley Clayton''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205013735/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/GuyanaInquest.pdf|date=5 February 2015}}. ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref>

The poison caused death within five minutes for children,<ref>[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,919893-1,00.html "Another Day of Death."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501133353/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,919893-1,00.html|date=1 May 2011}} ''Time''. 11 December 1978.</ref><ref name=":3"/> less for babies and an estimated twenty to thirty minutes for adults.<ref name=":3"/> 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.<ref name="odellinquest"/>

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,

<blockquote>I tell you, I don't care how many screams you hear, I don't care how many anguished cries&nbsp;... death is a million times preferable to 10 more days of this life. If you knew what was ahead of you{{snd}}if you knew what was ahead of you, you'd be glad to be stepping over tonight.</blockquote>

Rhodes described a scene of both hysteria and confusion as parents watched their children die from the poison. He also stated that most present "quietly waited their own turn to die" and that many of the assembled Temple members "walked around like they were in a trance." Survivor Tim Carter later suggested that, like a previous practice, that day's lunch of grilled cheese sandwiches may have been tainted with sedatives. The crowd was surrounded by armed guards, offering members the basic [[dilemma]] of death by poison or death by a guard's hand.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/clip/32717269/wisconsin_state_journal/|title=Jonestown Death Ritual Described by Survivor|date=25 November 1978|website=Wisconsin State Journal|page=1|language=en|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=10 June 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=25 November 1978|website=Wisconsin State Journal|page=2|language=en|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=10 June 2019|agency=Associated Press}}</ref> Cries and screams of children and adults are audibly heard on the death tape.<ref name="tape"/> As more Temple members died, eventually the guards themselves were called in to die by poison.<ref name=":2"/>

Jones was found dead lying next to his chair in the pavilion between two other bodies, his head cushioned by a pillow.<ref name="raven33">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=565}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":3">{{cite web|url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/GuyanaInquest.pdf|title=Guyana Inquest – Interviews of Cecil Roberts, Cyril Mootoo, Odell Rhodes, and others|date=22 September 1978|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151123185308/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/GuyanaInquest.pdf|archive-date=23 November 2015|url-status=live|access-date=9 September 2015}}</ref>

===Survivors and eyewitnesses===
Three high-ranking Temple survivors claimed they were given an assignment and thereby escaped death. Carter and his brother Mike, aged 30 and 20 respectively, and Mike Prokes, aged 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.<ref name="reit580"/> The envelope contained two [[passport]]s and three instructional letters, the first of which was to Timofeyev, stating:

{{Blockquote|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.<ref name="reit580"/><ref name="timofeyev">[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/letter_toFeodorTimofeyev.pdf "Letter to Feodor Timofeyev."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501035601/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/PrimarySources/financialLetters/letter_toFeodorTimofeyev.pdf|date=1 May 2011}} ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref>}}

The letters included listed accounts with balances totaling in excess of $7.3&nbsp;million to be transferred to the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union]].<ref name="timofeyev"/><ref>[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/AnnieMcGowan_1.pdf "Letter from Annie McGowan."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205012201/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/AnnieMcGowan_1.pdf|date=5 February 2015}} ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref><ref>[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/AnnieMcGowan_2.pdf "Another Letter from Annie McGowan."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205014539/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/AnnieMcGowan_2.pdf|date=February 5, 2015}} ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref> Prokes and the Carter brothers soon ditched most of the money and were apprehended heading for a Temple boat at Port Kaituma. It is unknown how they reached Georgetown, {{convert|150|mi|km}} away, since the boat had been sent away earlier that day.<ref name="reit580"/> The brothers were given the task before the suicides began, and soon abandoned it when they realized 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.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}}

Jones' sons, Stephan, Jim Jr. and Tim, were in Georgetown with Jonestown's basketball team to play in a tournament with the [[Guyana men's national basketball team|Guyanese national team]].<ref name="jonestown.sdsu.edu">{{cite web | url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=68416 | title=Who was on the Jonestown basketball team and why were they in Georgetown on November 18? – Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple }}</ref> In the moments before the suicide, Jones contacted Stephan with orders to "get revenge" on enemies of the Temple in Georgetown before committing suicide themselves. Stephan not only refused to do so but then contacted the Temple's headquarters in San Francisco and told them not to do anything without his permission.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=34352 | title=The Courage of Dissent – Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple }}</ref>

Just before the start of the final meeting in the pavilion, Garry and Lane were told that the community was angry with them and 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.<ref name="reit541">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=540–542}}</ref> 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.<ref name="claytoninquest"/> Rhodes volunteered to fetch a [[stethoscope]] and hid under a building.<ref name="odellinquest"/>

Two more people who were intended to be poisoned managed to survive.<ref name="reit580">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=561–580}}</ref> Grover Davis, aged 79, who was hard-of-hearing, missed the announcement to assemble on the loudspeaker, laid down in a ditch and pretended to be dead.<ref name="hall293">{{Harvnb|Hall|1987|p=132}}</ref><ref name="reit578">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=578}}</ref> Hyacinth Thrash, aged 76, realized what was happening and crawled under her bed, only to walk out after the poisonings were completed.<ref name="hall293"/><ref name="reit578"/>

===Medical examinations===
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 of having seen needle marks on at least seventy. 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 U.S. 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]].<ref name="rites"/>

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.<ref name="guyanainquest">[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/GuyanaInquest.pdf ''Guyana Inquest – Interviews of Cecil Roberts & Cyril Mootoo''] {{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>

Guyanese authorities waived their requirement for [[autopsy|autopsies]] in the case of unnatural death. Doctors in the U.S. performed autopsies on only seven bodies, including those of Jones, Moore, 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.<ref name="rites">[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=16585 "Last Rights."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205011836/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=16585|date=5 February 2015}} ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University. 8 March 2007.</ref>

===Notes from deceased residents===
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:MarcyJonesNote.jpg|thumb|right|[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/letter_fromMarceline.pdf Will of Marceline Jones] from the Jonestown Institute.]] -->
Found near Marceline Jones' body was a typewritten note, dated November 18, 1978, signed by Marceline and witnessed by Moore and [[Maria Katsaris]], stating:

{{Blockquote|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 [[Scotiabank|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.<ref>[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/letter_fromMarceline.pdf "Letter from Marceline Jones."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205014650/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/letter_fromMarceline.pdf|date=5 February 2015}} ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref>}}

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{{snd}}the most peaceful, loving community that ever existed."<ref name="moore"/>

In addition, she stated, "JIM JONES{{snd}}the one who made this paradise possible{{snd}}much to the contrary of the lies stated about Jim Jones being a power-hungry sadistic, mean person who thought he was God{{snd}}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{{snd}}a paradise in the jungle. The children loved it. So did everyone else."<ref name="moore">[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13938 "Last Words – Annie Moore."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205021415/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13938|date=February 5, 2015}} ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref>

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 USSR."<ref>[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/letter_fromCarolyn.pdf "Letter from Carolyn Layton."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205021723/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/letter_fromCarolyn.pdf |date=February 5, 2015}} ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.</ref>

==Deaths in Georgetown==
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 in Georgetown to take revenge on the Temple's enemies and then commit revolutionary suicide.<ref>{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=522–523}}</ref> Later, after police arrived at the Georgetown premises, Amos escorted her children, Liane (21), Christa (11) and Martin (10), into a bathroom.<ref name="reiterman544">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=544–545}}</ref> Wielding a kitchen knife, Amos first killed Christa and then Martin.<ref name="reiterman544"/> Then Liane assisted Amos in cutting her own throat, after which Liane killed herself.<ref name="reiterman544"/> Jones' sons Stephan, Tim and Jim Jr. later found the bodies.<ref name="jonestown.sdsu.edu"/>

==Aftermath==
{{Further|Peoples Temple in San Francisco}}
[[File:Jonestown Memorial Service Pictures.jpg|thumb|Pictures of those who died in Jonestown laid out at a 2011 memorial service.]]
[[File:Peoplestemplememorialgravesite.jpg|thumb|The grave site at [[Evergreen Cemetery (Oakland, California)|Evergreen Cemetery]] in Oakland, California, and the memorial plaques.]]
At Port Kaituma, Reiterman photographed the aftermath of the airstrip shootings.<ref name="raven568">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=568–570}}</ref> Dwyer assumed leadership at the scene and, at his recommendation, Larry Layton was arrested by Guyanese police.<ref name="raven534">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=534–538}}</ref> Dwyer had been grazed by a bullet in his buttock during the shootings.<ref name="raven534"/> It took several hours before the eleven wounded and others in their party gathered themselves together.<ref name="raven534"/> Most of them spent the night in the Port Kaituma café.<ref name="raven534"/> The more seriously wounded slept in a small tent at the airstrip.<ref name="raven534"/> A Guyanese government plane arrived the following morning to evacuate the wounded.<ref name="raven568"/>

Five teenage members of the Parks and Bogue families, with one boyfriend, followed the instructions of defector Gerald Parks to hide in the adjacent jungle until help arrived and their safety was assured.<ref name="raven567">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=566–567}}</ref> Thereafter, that group was lost for three days in the jungle and nearly died. One of them, Thom Bogue, had been wounded in the leg. Guyanese soldiers eventually rescued them.

After escaping Jonestown, Rhodes arrived in Port Kaituma on the night of November 18.<ref name="odellinquest"/> That night, Clayton stayed with a local Guyanese family and travelled to Port Kaituma the next morning.<ref name="claytoninquest"/> Prokes and the Carter brothers were put into protective custody in Port Kaituma; they were later released in Georgetown.<ref name="reit580"/> Rhodes, Clayton, Garry and Lane were also brought to Georgetown. Prokes died by suicide on March 14, 1979, during a press conference, four months after the Jonestown incident.<ref name="prokes">[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13683 "Statement of Michael Prokes."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101207165457/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/PrimarySources/Prokes_statement.htm|date=7 December 2010}} ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. San Diego State University: Jonestown Project. Retrieved 22 September 2007.</ref>

914<ref>{{Cite book|last=Smith|first=Jonathan Z|title=Imagining Religion From Babylon to Jonestown|publisher=The University of Chicago Press|year=1982|location=Chicago|pages=102–120}}</ref> of the 918 dead, including Jones himself, were collected by the U.S. military in Guyana, then transported by military cargo plane to [[Dover Air Force Base]] in [[Delaware]], a location that had been used previously for mass processing of the dead from the [[Tenerife airport disaster]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a115592.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190608170611/https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a115592.pdf|url-status=live|archive-date=June 8, 2019|title=Emotional Effects on USAF Personnel of Recovering and Identifying Victims from Jonestown, Guyana|last1=Jones|first1=David R|last2=Fischer|first2=Joseph R|date=1 April 1982}}</ref><ref name=Tribune/> The last shipment of bodies arrived early on the morning of November 27. The base's [[mortuary]] was tasked with fingerprinting, identifying and processing the bodies.<ref name=Tribune>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/clip/32199833/the_tampa_tribune/|title=Jonestown's Dead: Many Lost Identities Along With Lives|date=November 27, 1978|website=The Tampa Tribune|language=en|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=June 3, 2019|agency=AP}}</ref> The base's resources were overwhelmed, and numerous individuals tasked with moving or identifying the bodies suffered symptoms of [[post-traumatic stress disorder]].<ref name=":0"/> In many cases, responsibility for [[cremation]] of the remains was distributed to Dover area funeral homes.

In August 2014, the never-claimed cremated remains of nine people from Jonestown were found in a former funeral home in Dover.<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/dh72SXgjWcU Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20170810143852/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh72SXgjWcU Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{Cite web|last=Associated Press|title=Jonestown Massacre Remains Discovered in Del.|website=[[YouTube]]|date=August 7, 2014|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh72SXgjWcU|access-date=June 3, 2019}}{{cbignore}}</ref> As of September 2014, four of their remains had been returned to next-of-kin, and the remaining five had not. Those five were publicly identified in the hope that family would claim their remains; all five remain unclaimed by family and have been interred at the Jonestown Memorial at Evergreen Cemetery in [[Oakland, California]], along with the remains of approximately half of those who perished on November 18, 1978.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Officials-Release-Names-of-5-Jonestown-Massacre-Victims-Whose-Remains-Were-Found-in-Defunct-Delaware-Funeral-Home--275195291.html|title=5 Jonestown Massacre Victims Found in Del. ID'd|last=Chang|first=David|website=NBC 10 Philadelphia|date=September 15, 2014 |language=en|access-date=3 June 2019}}</ref>

Larry Layton, who had fired a gun at several people aboard the Cessna, was initially found not guilty of attempted murder in a Guyanese court, employing the defense that he was "brainwashed."<ref name="laytonlife">Bishop, Katherine. [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE7DE113DF937A35750C0A961948260 "1978 Cult Figure Gets Life Term in Congressman's Jungle Slaying."] ''The New York Times''. 4 March 1987.</ref> Acquittal in a Guyanese court did not free Layton, however, who was promptly [[deportation|deported]] back to the U.S. and arrested by the [[U.S. Marshals Service]] upon arrival in San Francisco. Layton could not be tried in the U.S. for the attempted murders of Gosney, Bagby, Dale Parks and the Cessna pilot on Guyanese soil and was, instead, tried under a federal statute against assassinating members of Congress and internationally protected people (Ryan and Dwyer).<ref name="laytonlife"/> He was convicted of [[conspiracy (crime)|conspiracy]] and of [[aiding and abetting]] the murder of Ryan and of the attempted murder of Dwyer.<ref name="laytonlife"/> [[Parole]]d in 2002, Layton is the only person ever to have been held criminally responsible for the events at Jonestown.<ref>{{cite book |last=Coleman |first=Loren |author-link=Loren Coleman |title=The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines |title-link=The Copycat Effect|publisher=[[Paraview Pocket Books]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-7434-8223-3 |language=en}}</ref>

The events at Jonestown were covered heavily by the media, and photographs pertaining to it adorned newspaper and magazine covers for months after its occurrence. The Peoples Temple was labeled a "cult of death" by both ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' and ''[[Newsweek]]'' magazines.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Jorgensen|first1=Danny L|title=The Social Construction and Interpretation of Deviance: Jonestown and the Mass Media|journal=Deviant Behavior|date=April 1, 1980|volume=1|issue=3–4|pages=309–312|doi=10.1080/01639625.1980.9967531|issn=0163-9625}}</ref> In February 1979, 98% of Americans polled said that they had heard of the tragedy.<ref name="hall289">{{Harvnb|Hall|1987|p=289}}</ref> [[George Gallup]] stated that "few events, in fact, in the entire history of the Gallup Poll have been known to such a high percentage of the U.S. public."<ref name="hall289"/>

After the deaths, both the [[House Committee on Foreign Affairs]] and the State Department itself criticized the latter's handling of the Temple.<ref name="multiref1">{{Harvnb|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=576}}</ref> Guyanese political opposition seized the opportunity to embarrass Burnham by establishing an [[inquest]] which concluded that the prime minister was responsible for the deaths at Jonestown.<ref name="multiref1"/>

The [[Cult Awareness Network]] (CAN), a group aimed at [[deprogramming]] members of cults, was formed soon after the deaths at Jonestown. The group, which included Ryan's daughter Patricia, was involved in various personal, social and legal battles with a range of religious organizations, from [[The Family International]] and [[Scientology]] to [[David Koresh]]'s [[Branch Davidians]], where they were found to be influential on law enforcement's concerns for children in the eventual [[Waco siege]] in 1993. After a slew of legal and fiscal issues, CAN went bankrupt in 1996.

In late February 1980, Al and [[Jeannie Mills]] (co-founders of the Concerned Relatives) and their daughter Daphene were shot and killed execution style in their [[Berkeley, California]], home.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/clip/32683055/mills_murder_part_1_of_2/|title=Hit Squad? Temple Defectors Slain|date=27 February 1980|website=The Press Democrat|page=1|language=en|access-date=10 June 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/clip/32683146/mills_murder_part_2_of_2/|title=Hit Squad? Temple Defectors Slain|date=February 27, 1980|website=The Press Democrat|page=12|language=en|access-date=June 10, 2019}}</ref> Eddie Mills, their son, was believed to be involved to the extent that he was arrested in 2005, but charges were not filed against him.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2005/12/09/son-wont-be-charged-in-1980-slayings/|title=Son won't be charged in 1980 slayings|date=December 9, 2005|website=East Bay Times|language=en-US|access-date=June 10, 2019}}</ref> The case has not been solved. In 1984, former Temple member [[Tyrone Mitchell]], who had lost both of his parents and five siblings at Jonestown, fired upon students at a Los Angeles elementary school from his second-story window, killing two people and injuring twelve; Mitchell then turned his weapon on himself and committed suicide.<ref name=LATimes2>{{cite news|title='Almost Like a Guilt': Sniper Escaped Jonestown but Not Its Horror|date=February 25, 1984|first=Eric|last=Malnic|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|page=A1}}</ref><ref name=NYTimes>[https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/25/us/girl-killed-11-shot-at-school-on-coast-suspect-found-dead.html Girl killed, 11 shot at school on coast; suspect found dead], ''[[The New York Times]]'' (25 February 1984)</ref>

The sheer scale of the event, as well as Jones' socialism, purported inconsistencies in the reported number of deaths, allegedly poor explanation of events related to said deaths and existence of classified documents<ref>{{cite news|first1=Michael|last1=Taylor|first2=Don|last2=Lattin|work=San Francisco Examiner|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1998/11/13/MN107219.DTL&hw=Most+Peoples+Temple+Documents+Still+Sealed&sn=002&sc=468|title=Most Peoples Temple Documents Still Sealed|access-date=August 24, 2008 |date=November 13, 1998 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081025004946/http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fc%2Fa%2F1998%2F11%2F13%2FMN107219.DTL&hw=Most+Peoples+Temple+Documents+Still+Sealed&sn=002&sc=468|archive-date=25 October 2008|url-status=live}}</ref> led some conspiracy theorists to suggest [[Jonestown Conspiracy Theory|CIA involvement]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Meier|first=M|title=Was Jonestown a CIA Medical Experiment?: A Review of the Evidence|publisher=[[Edwin Mellen Press]]|year=1989|location=[[Lewiston, New York]]|isbn=978-0889460133}}</ref><ref name="reconstructing">Moore, Rebecca, [http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=16582 ''"Reconstructing Reality: Conspiracy Theories About Jonestown''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170628073014/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=16582|date=28 June 2017}}, Journal of Popular Culture 36, no. 2 (Fall 2002): 200–220</ref><ref>''See'', ''e.g.'', Anderson, Jack, ''CIA Involved In Jonestown Massacre'', September 27, 1980</ref> including a Soviet-published book a decade later.<ref>''See'', ''e.g.'', Alinin, S.F., B.G. Antonov and A.N. Itskov, ''The Jonestown carnage{{snd}}a CIA crime'', Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1987</ref> The [[House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]] investigated the event and announced that there was no evidence of CIA involvement at Jonestown.<ref name="Knight2003"/> Others suggested [[KGB]] involvement, beyond the attested visits of Soviet diplomatic personnel to Jonestown and the overtures made by Jim Jones to the USSR.<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Krause|first1=Charles A.|last2=Rose|first2=Gregory|date=1979-02-01|title=Guyana Exploits KGB Tie to Jonestown|language=en-US|newspaper=Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1979/02/01/guyana-exploits-kgb-tie-to-jonestown/c1f28c13-f8be-4471-8db3-3dab6dc52f4f/|access-date=2021-08-23|issn=0190-8286}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=What The Military Didn't Do: Debunking One Conspiracy Theory – Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple|url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=30370|access-date=2021-08-23|language=en-US}}</ref>

The bodies of over 400 of those who died are buried in a mass grave at [[Evergreen Cemetery (Oakland, California)|Evergreen Cemetery]] in Oakland, California. In 2011, a memorial to them was erected at the cemetery.<ref>{{cite news|last=Jones|first=Carolyn|date=May 29, 2011|title=Jonestown memorial unveiled after 32 years|url=http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Jonestown-memorial-unveiled-after-32-years-2369376.php|newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle|access-date=5 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140811150714/http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Jonestown-memorial-unveiled-after-32-years-2369376.php|archive-date=11 August 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>

Although Jones used poisoned Flavor Aid, the drink mix was also commonly (mistakenly) referred to as [[Kool-Aid]]. This has led to the phrase "[[drinking the Kool-Aid]]", referring to a person or group holding an unquestioned belief, argument, or philosophy without critical examination.<ref name="stop saying">{{cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/11/stop-saying-drink-the-kool-aid/264957/|title=Stop Saying 'Drink the Kool-Aid'|last=Higgins|first=Chris|date=8 November 2012|website=The Atlantic|access-date=7 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140528091602/http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/11/stop-saying-drink-the-kool-aid/264957/|archive-date=28 May 2014|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Conspiracy theories===
According to religious studies scholar Rebecca Moore, "In the twenty-three years since the deaths in Jonestown, conspiracy theories have blossomed in number and sophistication."<ref name="Moore">{{cite web|last1=Moore|first1=Rebecca|title=Reconstructing Reality: Conspiracy Theories About Jonestown|url=https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=16582|website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple|publisher=Department of Religious Studies. [[San Diego State University]]|access-date=9 December 2020}}</ref>

In 1979, Joseph Hollinger, a former aide to Ryan, claimed that Jonestown was a "mass mind control experiment" conducted by the CIA. A 1980 newspaper column by [[Jack Anderson (columnist)|Jack Anderson]] also claimed that the CIA was involved in the massacre, and speculated that Dwyer had ties to the agency.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Anderson|first1=Jack|title=Ryan's kin believe U.S. aware of Jonestown peril|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=COFLAAAAIBAJ&pg=5321%2C4212685|website=Google.com/newspapers|publisher=[[The Free Lance–Star]], Fredericksburg, Virginia|date=27 September 1980|access-date=9 December 2020}}</ref> In 1980, an investigation by the [[United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence]] found no evidence of CIA activity in Jonestown.<ref name="Knight2003">{{cite book|author=Peter Knight|title=Conspiracy Theories in American History: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qMIDrggs8TsC&pg=PA379|year=2003|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1576078129|pages=379–}}</ref>

In 1987, ''The Jonestown Carnage: A CIA Crime (1978)'' (Russian: ''Гибель Джонстауна – преступление ЦРУ'') was published in the Soviet Union, claiming that group members were assassinated by CIA agents and mercenaries to prevent further political emigration from the U.S. as well as suppress opposition to the U.S. regime. Political scientist [[Janos Radvanyi]] cites the book as an example of Soviet [[active measures]] during the 1980s that "spread both [[disinformation]] stories and enemy propaganda against the United States," adding, "It's hard to imagine that anyone could believe so ridiculous a story."<ref name="Radvanyi1990">{{cite book|author=Janos Radvanyi|title=Psychological Operations and Political Warfare in Long-term Strategic Planning|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DUZJcDOUKtsC&pg=PA53|year=1990|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0275936235|pages=53–}}</ref>

==Former site==
Now deserted, the compound at Jonestown was initially tended by the Guyanese government following the deaths.<ref name="faqq8"/> The government then allowed its re-occupation by [[Hmong people|Hmong]] refugees from Laos for a few years in the early 1980s.<ref name="faqq8">[http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=35367 "What happened to Jonestown?"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150205023226/http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=35367 |date=February 5, 2015}} ''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. San Diego State University: Jonestown Project. 8 March 2007</ref> The buildings and grounds were looted by local Guyanese but were [[Stigmatized property|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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bradtguides.com/articles/jonestown/|title=Articles – Jonestown &#124; Bradt Travel Guides|access-date=February 7, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150701011552/http://www.bradtguides.com/articles/jonestown|archive-date=1 July 2015|url-status=live}}</ref>

During a visit to tape a segment for the [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] news show ''[[20/20 (US television show)|20/20]]'' in 1998, Jim Jones Jr. 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 massacre.<ref name="garysmith">{{cite magazine|last=Smith|first=Gary|url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/magazine/12/24/jonestown1231/index.html |title=Escaping Jonestown|magazine=Sports Illustrated|date=24 December 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080130174047/http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/magazine/12/24/jonestown1231/index.html|archive-date=30 January 2008}}</ref>

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.<ref name="youtube.com">Guyana TV (2003), "Lets Talk", [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohurOmA-6BY ''Jonestown, 25 Years Later (clip #2)''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170414000849/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohurOmA-6BY |date=April 14, 2017}}, including interview with pilot Gerry Gouveia and visit to former Jonestown site.</ref> 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, a 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 [[Asteraceae|daisies]] growing where the bodies once lay.<ref name="youtube.com"/><ref>Guyana TV (2003), "Lets Talk", [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fbCwTdp974 ''Jonestown, 25 Years Later (clip #3)''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170414081328/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fbCwTdp974|date=14 April 2017}}, including interview with pilot Gerry Gouveia and visit to former Jonestown site.</ref>

In December 2024, it was announced that there were plans to open the old site as a tourist attraction, with the first tourists scheduled to arrive in January 2025, paying $650 per person.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Rudy |first1=Gabriella |last2=Venegas |first2=Guad |title=Jonestown Massacre site to reopen as tourist destination in Guyana |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/jonestown-massacre-site-reopen-tourist-destination-guyana-rcna183953 |access-date=13 January 2025 |work=NBC News |date=12 December 2024 |language=en}}</ref> The scheme is supported by the Guyanese government.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Méndez |first1=Chris Malone |title=Infamous Cult Site Opening to Tourists in 2025 |url=https://www.mensjournal.com/news/jonestown-opening-tourists |access-date=13 January 2025 |work=Men's Journal |date=12 December 2024 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Guyana considers making Jonestown a tourist attraction |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2024/12/08/travel/guyana-jonestown-tourist-attraction-murder-suicide/index.html |access-date=13 January 2025 |work=CNN |date=9 December 2024 |language=en}}</ref> The move to open the Jonestown site for tourism was opposed by several Guyanese figures, including [[University of Guyana]] lecturer Neville Bissember<ref>{{cite news |title=Jonestown massacre site to reopen as a tourism destination|url=https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2024/12/12/jonestown-massacre-site-reopen-tourism-destination/ |access-date=13 January 2025 |work=www.jamaicaobserver.com |agency=Jamaica Observer |date=12 December 2024}}</ref> and former spokesperson of the [[Government of Guyana]] during the Jonestown massacre [[Kit Nascimento]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Nascimento |first1=Kit |title=The Jonestown massacre |url=https://www.kaieteurnewsonline.com/2024/12/07/the-jonestown-massacre/ |access-date=13 January 2025 |work=Kaieteur News |date=7 December 2024 |language=en}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Guyana|United States}}
'''Media depictions:'''
* ''[[Jonestown: Paradise Lost]]'', a 2007 documentary broadcast on The History Channel
* ''[[Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple]]'', a 2006 documentary film
* ''[[Guyana: Cult of the Damned]]'', a 1979 exploitation film based on the Jonestown tragedy
* ''[[Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones]]'', a 1980 television movie based on the life of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple
* ''[[Seconds from Disaster]]'', a documentary television series that covered the events at Jonestown in Season 6, Episode 2 ("Jonestown Cult Suicide")
* ''[[The Sacrament (2013 film)|The Sacrament]]'', a thriller whose plot borrows heavily from the events of Jonestown

'''Mass suicides:'''
* [[Heaven's Gate (religious group)|Heaven's Gate]] in [[San Diego]], [[California]]
* [[Order of the Solar Temple]] in Canada and Switzerland
* [[Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God]] in Uganda
* [[Puputan]], mass ritual suicide in [[Bali]], [[Indonesia]]
* [[Malindi cult]] in [[Kilifi County]], [[Kenya]]
* [[Sinasa massacre]], mass poisoning and massacre in Davao City, Philippines
* [[Suicide in Guyana]]

'''Additional:'''
* [[List of United States Congress members killed or wounded in office]]

== Citations ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== General and cited references ==
* {{Cite book
 | last        = Hall
 | first       = John R
 | title       = Gone from the Promised Land: Jonestown in American Cultural History
 | publisher   = Transaction Publishers
 | location    = New Brunswick, New Jersey
 | year        = 1987
 | isbn        = 978-0887381249
 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D8MCb1xqqo8C&pg=PA282
}}
* {{Cite book
 | last        = Layton
 | first       = Deborah
 | author-link = Deborah Layton
 | title       = Seductive Poison
 | publisher   = Anchor Books
 | location    = New York
 | year        = 1998
 | isbn        = 978-0385489843
| title-link       = Seductive Poison
 }}
* {{Cite book
 | last        = Moore
 | first       = Rebecca
 | title       = A Sympathetic History of Jonestown: the Moore Family Involvement in Peoples Temple
 | publisher   = [[Edwin Mellen Press]]
 | location    = [[Lewiston, New York]]
 | year        = 1985
 | isbn        = 978-0889468603
 }}
* {{Cite book
 | last1       = Reiterman
 | first1      = Tim
 | last2       = Jacobs
 | first2      = John
 | title       = Raven: The Untold Story of Rev. Jim Jones and His People
 | publisher   = Dutton
 | year        = 1982
 | isbn        = 978-0525241362
| title-link      = Raven (Reiterman book)
}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book|author=Brailey, Jeffrey|title=The Ghosts of November: Memoirs of an Outsider Who Witnessed the Carnage at Jonestown, Guyana|publisher=J & J Publishers|location=San Antonio, Texas|year=1998|isbn=978-0966786804}}
* {{cite book|author=Chidester, David|title=Salvation and Suicide|publisher=Indiana University Press|location=Bloomington |year=1988|isbn=978-0253350565 |url=https://archive.org/details/salvationsuicide00chid}}
* {{cite book|author=Dolan, Sean|title=Everything You Need to Know About Cults|url=https://archive.org/details/everythingyounee0000dola|url-access=registration|publisher=Rosen Pub. Group|location=New York|year=2000|isbn=978-0823932306}}
* {{cite book|author=Feinsod, Ethan|title=Awake in a Nightmare: Jonestown: The Only Eyewitness Account|publisher=W.W. Norton & Co|location=New York|year=1981|isbn=978-0393014310}} Based on interviews with Odell Rhodes.
* Fondakowski, Leigh (2013). ''Stories from Jonestown''. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. {{ISBN|978-0816678082}}. Based on interviews with survivors and family members.
* {{cite book|author=Galanter, M|title=Cults: Faith, Healing, and Coercion|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|year=1999|isbn= }}{{ISBN?}}
* {{cite book|author=Kahalas, Laurie Efrein|title=Snake Dance: Unravelling the Mysteries of Jonestown|publisher=Red Robin Press|location=New York|year=1998|isbn=978-1552122075}}
* {{cite book|author=Kerns, Phil|title=People's Temple, People's Tomb|publisher=Logos Associates |year=1978 |isbn=978-0882703633}}
* {{cite book|author1=Kilduff, Marshall |author2=Ron Javers |title=The Suicide Cult: The Inside Story of the Peoples Temple Sect and the Massacre in Guyana|publisher=Bantam Books |location=New York|year=1978|isbn=978-0553129205|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/suicidecultinsid0000kild}}
* {{cite book|author1=Klineman, George|author2=Sherman Butler|title=The Cult That Died|publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons|year=1980|isbn=978-0399125409}}
* {{cite book|author=Kohl, Laura Johnston|title=Jonestown Survivor: An Insider's Look|publisher=New York: IUniverse, 2010}}
* {{cite book|author=koq|title=Recordead: The Jonestown Tapes|publisher=Kindle Direct Publishing |year=2014}}
* {{cite book|last1=Krause|first1= Charles A|first2= Laurence M |last2=Stern|first3= Richard|last3= Harwood|title=Guyana Massacre: The Eyewitness Account|publisher=Berkley Pub. Corp|location=New York|year=1978|isbn=978-0425042342|url=https://archive.org/details/guyanamassacreey00krau}}
* {{cite book|author=Lane, Mark|title=The Strongest Poison|publisher=Hawthorn Books|location=New York|year=1980|isbn=978-0801532061 |url=https://archive.org/details/strongestpoison00lane}}
* {{cite book|author=Maaga, Mary McCormick|title=Hearing the Voices of Jonestown|publisher=Syracuse University Press |location=Syracuse |year=1998 |isbn=978-0815605157}}
* {{cite book|author=Mills, Jeannie|title=Six Years with God: Life Inside Rev. Jim Jones's People's Temple |publisher=A&W Publishers |location=New York |year=1979 |isbn=978-0894790461 |url=https://archive.org/details/nnie00jean}}
* {{cite book|author=Moore, Rebecca|title=In Defense of Peoples Temple|location=[[Lewiston, New York]]|publisher=[[Edwin Mellen Press]] |year=1988}}
* {{cite book|author=[[Shiva Naipaul|Naipaul, Shiva]]|title=Journey to Nowhere: A New World Tragedy|publisher=Penguin|location=Harmondsworth, UK|year=1982|isbn=978-0140061895 |url=https://archive.org/details/journeytonowhere00naip}} (published in the UK as ''[[Black & White (book)|Black & White]]'')
* {{cite book|author=Reston, James Jr|title=Our Father Who Art in Hell: The Life and Death of Jim Jones|publisher=Times Books |location=New York|year=1981|isbn=978-0812909630 |url=https://archive.org/details/ourfatherwhoarti00rest}}
* {{cite book|author=[[Julia Scheeres|Scheeres, Julia]]|title=A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown|publisher=[[Free Press (publisher)|Free Press]] |location=New York|year=2011|isbn=978-1416596394|title-link=A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Jonestown}}
* {{cite book|author=Stephenson, Denice|title=Dear People: Remembering Jonestown|publisher=[[Heyday Books]]|year=2005|isbn=978-1597140027}}
* {{cite book |last1=Thielmann |first1=Bonnie |title=The Broken God |date=1979 |publisher=D. C. Cook Pub. Co. |location=Elgin, Ill. |isbn=9780891911807}}
* {{cite book |last1=Thrash |first1=Catherine |last2=Towne |first2=Marian Kleinsasser |title=The Onliest One Alive: Surviving Jonestown, Guyana |date=1995 |publisher=M.K. Towne |location=Indianapolis, Ind |isbn=9780964266612}}
* {{cite book|author=Wagner-Wilson, Leslie|title=Slavery of Faith|publisher=Universe|location=New York|year=2009}}
* {{cite book|author=Wooden, Kenneth|title=The Children of Jonestown. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981}}
* {{cite book|author=Wright, Lawrence|title=The Sons of Jim Jones|publisher=The New Yorker 69, no. 39 (November 22, 1993): 66–89}}
* {{cite book|last2=Yee|first2= Min S |last1=Layton|first1= Thomas N|title=In My Father's House|publisher=New-York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981|isbn=}}{{ISBN?}}

==External links==
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{{Wikisource|Congressman Tom Lantos' Remarks on the 25th Anniversary of the Tragedy at Jonestown and the Death of Congressman Leo Ryan}}
* [https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?post_type=who_died List of Jonestown massacre victims]
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46241372/ Jonestown: Rebuilding my life after surviving the massacre.] By Georgina Rannard & Kelly-Leigh Cooper. ''BBC News''. The story of Laura Johnson Kohl. Includes pre-event information & photos.
* [http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/ ''Alternative considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''], an extensive resource on the topics, sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies at San Diego State University
* [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/jonestown/ "Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226013021/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/jonestown/|date=26 February 2009}}, website for the film broadcast on PBS includes video interviews with survivors from 2006.
* [https://archive.org/details/ptc1978-11-18.flac16 "The Jonestown Death Tape (FBI No. Q 042) (November 18 1978)"], an unofficial web-publishing (digital) of the death tape seemingly made just before and during the mass slaying
* {{cite magazine
| title = Nightmare in Jonestown
| date = 4 December 1978
| magazine = [[Time (magazine)|Time]]
| url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,912249,00.html
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071114005753/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,912249,00.html
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = 14 November 2007
| access-date = 5 August 2008
}}, ''Time'' magazine cover story, Monday, December 4, 1978
* [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1509317 ''Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown''], a 1981 audio documentary produced by [[NPR]] (90 minutes)
* [http://www.jonestownlegacy.com/ ''Jonestown Legacy''] website run by David Wise, once a pastor of the Los Angeles Branch of the Peoples Temple, but latterly an opponent of Jim Jones.
* {{cite web|url=http://www.icehouse.net/zodiac/|title=''The Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy: Primary Source Materials from the U.S. Department of State'' |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990428190751/http://www.icehouse.net/zodiac/ |archive-date=April 28, 1999}}, the contents of U.S. Government archives on the subject obtained through the [[Freedom of Information Act (United States)|Freedom of Information Act]]. (web-archived copy of the original website, no longer extant; unfortunately the scanned pages are missing)
* {{cite web|url=http://freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/p/peoplestemple/jonestown_doc_1/|title=The Assassination of Representative Leo J Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy|access-date=13 July 2011|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110309152611/http://freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/p/peoplestemple/jonestown_doc_1/|archive-date=9 March 2011}}, excerpt from: ''Report of a Staff Investigative Group to the Committee on Foreign Affairs'', U.S. House of Representatives, May 15, 1979
* [http://kdrt.org/audio/davisville-8414-listening-survivor-and-story-jonestown/ "Davisville, 8/4/14: Listening to a survivor, and the story, of Jonestown"]. Radio interview with Julia Scheeres, author of ''A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Jonestown'' and Thom Bogue, one of the survivors, KDRT, August 2014.
* [https://archive.org/details/Jonestown-FBI "Jonestown FBI Files"] at Internet Archive
* [https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=80838 The Downfall of Jim Jones] by Larry Lee Litke. Published at [http://jonestown.sdsu.edu The Jonestown Institute]. Originally published 1980.
* [https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=78282 The Black Hole of Guyana:The Untold Story of the Jonestown Massacre] by John Judge, 1985
* ''[https://vimeo.com/373653092 605 Adults 304 Children]'' – 2019 Documentary about Jonestown filmed entirely by The Peoples Temple

{{Peoples Temple}}
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