Jonestown Cult - 912 Suicides
Friday, November 14, 2008
Almost three decennia ago an unusual series of events led to the deaths of more than 900 people in the middle of a South American jungle. Though nicknamed a "massacre," what transpired at Jonestown on November 18, 1978, was to some extent done willingly, making the mass suicide all the more troubling.The Jonestown Cult (officially named the "People's Temple") was founded in 1955 by Indianapolis sermonizer James Warren Jones. Jones, who had no formal theological training, based his liberal ministry on a combination of religious and socialistic doctrines.
After moving to California in 1965, the Jonestown cult continued to grow in membership and began advocating their left-wing political ideals more actively. With an I.R.S. probe and a great deal of negative press mounting against the radical church, Jones urged his faithful to join him in a new, isolated community where they could escape American capitalism—and criticism—and practice a more communal way of life.
In 1977, Jones and many of his followers resettled to Jonestown, located on a tract of land the Jonestown cult had purchased and begun to develop in Guyana three years earlier.
Relatives of Jonestown cult members soon grew worried and requested that the U.S. government rescue what they believed to be brainwashed victims living in concentration camp-like conditions under Jones's authority.
In November 1978, California Congressman Leo Ryan arrived in Guyana to inspect Jonestown and interview its inhabitants. After reportedly having his life threatened by a Temple member during the first day of his sojourn, Ryan decided to cut his trip short and return to the U.S. with some Jonestown residents who wished to exit. As they boarded their plane, a group of Jones's guards opened fire on them, shooting down Ryan and four others.
Some members of Ryan's group escaped, however. Upon discovering this, Jones told his followers that Ryan's murder would make it impossible for their commune to continue functioning. Rather than go back to the United States, the Jonestown cult would conserve their church by making the ultimate sacrifice: their own lives. Jones's 912 followers were given a deadly mixture of a purple drink mixed with cyanide, sedatives, and tranquilizers. Jones seemingly shot himself in the head.
Posted byParvez Ahmed at 2:53 AM
Labels: crime and criminals, People
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i am a guyanese and i had visited the site a few times. you can still see the ruins of small shack like buildings and basketball courts and most importantly the mass grave that jones buried the followers in.