JIM JONES AND THE JONESTOWN CULT

Ever heard of Jonestown? Well, it’s this little tropical paradise in the middle of the jungle in a country called Guyana. Inhabitants of Jonestown receive free food, housing, medical attention, and religious teachings. In return they are only expected to work from dawn to dusk, give up anything and everything they own including their families, plus give all their trust and devotion to Jonestown leader known as ‘father’ or Rev. Jim Jones. Sound like a fair deal? At least 914 people thought so and were willing to live and die in Jonestown, as long as it was what ‘father’ said was best.

Jim was born in Indiana to a Native American mother and a father who shared many beliefs with the Ku Klux Klan. As a boy he liked to pretend he was a preacher. He’d stand on his front porch and preach the ear off of any willing to listen to him. His mother thought it was cute and made him a clerical robe to encourage his dream of becoming a preacher. Little Jimmy even walked kids down to the local creak and ‘baptized’ them for their pocket change. It was a sure sign of the greedy and swindling preacher he was to become.

By age 17 he had married a nurse and become an apprentice Methodist minister. He soon decided to leave the Methodist church to preach his own beliefs. He made money as a door to door salesman. Once he earned enough money he rented a small store and hung a small sign that read ‘the People’s Temple’, and so marks the beginning of his (and many of his unfortunate followers ) end. In 1959 he had a son and named him Stephen. He also adopted two Asian and 1 Black baby.

Due to the messages he preached and his fight for equal rights he attracted many African followers. However, it was strange that Jones would be so adamant in his fight for equal rights seeing as he himself was a white man. He responded to such inquiries with a mention of his mother’s Native American roots, yet he rarely spoke of his father. Regardless, Jim had begun to accumulate quite a congregation. Posters were hung around town urging more people join his ‘church’. He offered food, beds, and employment to any interested. As a result Jones collected many convicts and runaways.

The naïve people who joined him to fight oppression were being used themselves for cheap labor, earning money that would be turned over to Jim anyway for his future temple. The collection plate always made its rounds and fund raisers were held constantly. His followers were expected to turn over everything they owned from welfare checks to real estate. But, to the public he portrayed himself as a saint. In fact the neighbors were so fond of him that in 1961 he was appointed director of the city human rights commission. Soon Jim began wearing flashy clothes and surrounding himself with body guards. He drove expensive cars and took expensive trips.

He sermons became more and more frantic. He performed ‘healings’ on paid actors for an excited and flabbergasted audience. He had spies who told him the secrets about the personal lives of his followers. He’d then use these secrets to prove that he ‘knew all’ and was indeed a prophet by calling out a members name a humiliating them in front of everyone with their secret. He once faked an assassination on himself by coming out covered in pigs blood and ‘dying’ in front of everyone. Afterwards he ‘miraculously’ rose from the dead. He continuously gained control of his followers and his cult grew larger and larger.

But, soon the town began to gossip about the constant fund raisers along with his ever increasing flashy lifestyle.

Shortly after the gossip began Jones heard from God himself, he said, that a nuclear holocaust was fast approaching and that there were only a select few locations where Jim and his followers could be safe. So with Jim in the lead with his black Cadillac, him and 100 followers left for Ukiah, CA. A new People’s Temple was up and running in no time. His new church ran much the same as his old one had. He consistently advertised and recruited followers. Amongst the cult he was to be referred to as ‘Father’ and addressed as such in each and every sentence spoken to him.

Jones grew bored with Ukiah and his new temple quickly and decided it was time to move again. This time he headed to San Francisco where he dropped ½ a million on his new temple. In the 70’s San Francisco had a mass pool of easily recruit able and open-minded youngsters.

Jim again portrayed himself to the public as a saint, doing all he could to contribute to society. He again offered food, beds and employment to his followers, but this time he also set up a free health clinic, a drug treatment clinic, along with child and senior citizen programs. He joined community boards an taught community night school classes. Posters were hung again calling Jim a teacher and a prophet. Those attending his Sunday services could enjoy his 185 member choir and a free banquet. Newspapers, magazines, and reporters raved of his social services. Once he even had a private dinner with Rosalynn Carter, wife of president Jimmy Carter. All the while he gained more and more followers.

In church he didn’t hide the fact that he was bi-sexual and had a strong sexual appetite. He was even arrested once for soliciting a male prostitute while high on cocaine. Yet he demanded abstinence of his followers. Even married couples had to ask his permission to have sex. He separated married couples and chose new partners for them. He’d also separate children from parents..

Sometimes after a night of drinking he’d insist everyone gather to his stage to listen to his latest prophecies. He’d be wearing dark sunglasses and exercising demons from so called possessed individuals. Or, sometimes he’d be punishing ‘troublemakers’ in a wide variety of embarrassing and degrading methods. Members could be punished for any number of reasons. Sometimes something as minor as forgetting to call him Father could land you on his stage being beat with a wooden paddle and made to say “thank you Father” for each whack.

And, soon came the typical cult leaders theory. He believed that after they committed mass suicide they would be transported to another planet. After the deranged theory came out, some members decided to count their loses (as they’d given Jones everything including their homes) and leave. Many had to start their lives all over again, but they were the lucky ones. Remaining members were held with guilt and fear. The ones who left were visited often by counselors demanding they return and their homes were mysteriously burglarized all the time.

A group of former Jonestown residents along with some relatives to the current Jonestown residents formed together and called themselves Concerned Relatives. They began to spill the truth about Jim Jones. Most of the media would hear none of it. They had already publicly praised Jones, and didn’t want to come out looking foolish. One reporter, Marshall Kildruff, did listen and published an article about Jones in New West exposing him for what he really was.

No sooner had the article been published that Jones again decided it was time to move on. This time the move was out of the country to Guyana, a little known, predominantly black country, covered in jungle. This was to be the final location of the People’s Temple. He claimed that he was there to cure hunger in Guyana, and they fell for his story fast and hard.. The area for his temple had to be cleared. Tin roof structures were raised to house his people. Originally he called it Jonestown Agriculture and Medical Mission, but the name was quickly shortened to simply Jonestown. And, soon Jonestown began to resemble a concentration camp. Members rose at dawn, roll was taken, and when they returned from their daily dose of hard labor, roll was taken again. Workers were carefully monitored and any who spoke a harsh word would be punished or in other words, publicly humiliated. The loyal followers who had given their all to Jones were over worked and under paid, not to mention under fed with scraps of old food, and dropping dead due to hard and constant labor, malnourishment, and unsanitary living conditions.

Punishments grew worse too. Troublemakers were beat with fist or straps. Some would be grabbed by their arms and legs and ‘stretched’ until they passed out. Females would be forced to stand naked, perform oral sex, or masturbate in front of the congregation. Some were beaten or drugged to a stupor and then ‘resurrected’ by Jones. Children could be locked in a box for weeks at a time, made to eat hot pepper until they threw up and then made to eat the vomit. Others would be held underwater or tortured with poisonous snakes. Jim would stand close by with his microphone to broadcast his victims complaints, screams, or cries of “thank you Father.”

Jonestown was forbidden to watch or read any outside news. Jim would read out loud so called news reports describing a collapsing America, deeply involved in warfare. And, he said, seeing as the world was collapsing the time for their mass suicide was drawing near. They would need practice. So, Jones began having ‘White Nights’. On these occasions members who had worked hard all day and would be rising again early the next morning were forced out of bed with wailing sirens and a loudspeaker chiming “Alert! Alert!” Everyone was made to pile into the congregation hall and hear Jim rant and rave of how they were under attack and how near they were to the end. Then Flav-or-aide was passed out. Members were told the drink was poisoned and that they must drink it. The obedient people did as they were told and drank what they believed was death in a cup. They would then wait for the poison to take it’s inevitable toll. However, the drinks were not poisoned. It was just a cruel prank. White Nights often ended in this way.

Then on November 15, 1978, congressman Leo Ryan, who’d heard enough about Jonestown, decided to go investigate matters for himself. A day before he made his trip he was visited by a representative of Jonestown with a petition signed by 600 people saying they wished for Leo, and all outside contact for that matter, to leave them alone. Ryan disregarded the petition and went along with things according to plans.

Upon his initial examination, all looked normal. Members looked happy, meals looked healthy, even Jones managed to hold his composure and act out the part of a gracious host. Leo left that night on good terms, but when he returned the next morning he was greeted by an entirely different Jonestown. The people were shut up in there shacks with windows and doors shut and locked and the shades drawn. When Leo asked why, on such a hot day, the people were all cooped up like that, Jones responded that they were scared of Leo and his men. Leo persisted on getting inside a bunkhouse and eventually Jones gave in. Aside from the excessive heat inside, Ryan found nothing too out of place, but then a women slipped Leo a note. She pleaded for his help for herself and 5 of her relatives.

Leo confronts Jim with this note and he responded that whoever wrote that note was a liar. He claimed members had the right to come and go as they pleased, and even offered to pay the way for any wishing to return to America. Fifteen people in all had approached Leo or one of his men pleading for an escape route and all 15 were being led to a truck that would take them out of there, Edith Parks (the woman who had slipped Leo a note) stood by Leo looking sad and nervous. She had been a follower of Jones since his Indiana days. Jim begged her to stay but she refused telling him he was not the man she once knew. Then suddenly, Leo is grabbed from behind and just as fast a knife is to his throat. Ryan’s two lawyers managed to pull the attacker off Leo and in the struggle the guards hand was slashed. After a tense conversation, Jones agreed to let the unhappy members leave.

The escapees, Ryan and his men all piled into the truck and left for the airport. The former cult members were paranoid out of their minds and saying “He’s going to kill us..” Needless to say the entire group wanted out of Guyana as fast as possible. But, when they got to the airstrip, their plane(which would now have to make 2 trips to transport all the unexpected passengers) was not there. News crews took advantage of the extra time to interview, film, and photograph the former cult members. Leo arranged for an extra plane, but even still one plane would have to make 2 trips. During the hustle and bustle of who was on which plane and which trip a tractor pulling a flatbed pulled up and 3 Jonestown guards jumped out and began firing at everyone with automatics. Edith Parks daughter was killed, a photographer was shot point blank and killed, a reporter was shot in the shoulder. One NBC cameraman was hiding behind a plane wheel and filming the whole thing when he was first shot in the leg, then approached and shot execution style. Ryan and one of his lawyers who were injured were also hiding when they were approached by a man who shot both of them in the face. The man then went to Ryan’s other lawyer and shot him in the face too, but he had already been dead. Afterwards they jumped back in their tractor and left. One of the planes had been disabled by bullets. In all five were killed and 11 were injured. The wounded victims had to wait, bleeding and shivering, in the cold all night until another plane was able to come and rescue them.

Jones took the shootout as a sign that the time had come. All members were informed that if they tried to leave they would be shot. Everyone was told to dress their very best and report to the pavilion. Jones sat in his ‘high alter’ with a microphone and a tape recorder to record his final sermon. He told everyone that the end to their long journey had begun. He demanded that the children and babies must die first. The loud speakers warned that anyone doing anything suspicious would be shot. Jim preached that because of people and their lies, his and their lives had been made impossible. The insanely devoted followers danced and sang their praises to ‘Father’ as they awaited their turn to die. He urged them along faster because he claimed that soon a retaliation of the shootout would be made. He told them that what they were doing was a revolution. Then he asked if anyone had something to say. One asked why the children must die first. He answered, “If the children are left were going to have them butchered.” Someone else asked why they couldn’t just relocate. Jim said it was too late for that now. A mother protested that the children deserved to live. He stopped his tape recorder long enough to say, “I’m going to see that you die.”

His people were made to form a line as a washtub full of poisoned Flav-or-aid with cups and syringes for the babies were set out. He lied to everyone one last time saying that is was a simple death with no convulsions. One man frantically jumped up on stage to say he was ready to die for his ‘Father.’ Many of the other members felt differently and grumbled their complaints. The guards who heard quickly silenced them by beating them and then shoving them back into line.

“Hurry up. It will not hurt, my children.” Jones lied, “I tried to prevent this. I don’t think we should sit here and endanger our children any longer.”

A mother with a young girl in her arms was first in line. She grabbed a paper cup, dunked it into the poisoned drink and gave a sip to her daughter, then finished the drink herself. They then walked into a corner to die. Within moments they convulsed, screamed, foamed blood out of their mouths, and were still. After them the members moved along drinking and dying. Some had to be coaxed to drink at gunpoint, some still refused and had to be shot or have their throats slashed. A few did escape in the confusion and watched the carnage from afar. After drinking members were told to lie face down on the ground in rows. Jones grew impatient and became annoyed with the death cries of his loyal followers. He wailed out about death not being something to fear and urges members to move it along faster.

“Are we Black, proud and socialist or what?”, cried their white leader.

The next morning the piles of dead bodies were found by Guyanese troops who’d surrounded Jonestown, guns drawn and expecting another shootout. Instead they found 638 dead adults and 276 dead children. Jim Jones was found with a bullet in his head. He had ordered another Jonestown member to shoot him through the side of the head.