As reporters and health officials walked onto the grounds of the mass suicide in Guayana, they were in shock over what they were seeing; hundreds of bodies face down on the ground, dead. One person who was at the site said that the amount of dead bodies was appalling, “it was depicted as not American, not religious, not sane, and ultimately not human.”1 Over 550 bodies of the 900 were unclaimed for almost six months until US Officials decided to cremate them. Once they brought the bodies back to the United States from Guayana, many Americans didn’t think it was right to have these bodies spread out on American soil because of the act they made. US Officials then decided to scatter the ashes of the dead bodies away from the United States border lines.
It all started with Jim Jones. Jones was a religious/political cult leader who had established the People’s Temple as a sect in Indianapolis in the 1950s. His cult focused on themes of communism, and the fight against racism, attracting many African Americans. He moved his cult to San Francisco in 1971, but it would not remain there for long. Soon after the group moved there, Jones was accused of financial fraud, physical abuse of his cult’s members, and mistreatment of children. After Jones was accused, in 1973, he became paranoid that someone would try to destroy his cult, so he moved his entire group to Guayana, South America, to build a socialist utopia known as Jonestown.
Once the cult moved to Guayana, people started to question even more the accusations being made against Jim Jones. Members who had left or escaped the cult were worried for the people still in the cult, so they convinced U.S. Congressmen Leo Ryan of California to fly to Guyana. “In November 1978, Ryan along with a group of journalists and relatives of cult members went to investigate the charges.”2 Jones did not like the idea of people coming to investigate, so he ordered his followers to have Ryan and his investigators assassinated. He ordered the attack on the group as they were returning to the airstrip to leave. A journalist named Charles Krause reported that that morning Ryan was attacked by a man with a knife, although he was not hurt by the incident. “Later that same day, Ryan and his party were attacked by assassins at the Port Kaituma Airstrip. Ryan and four others were killed and ten were injured.”3 While these killings were going on, Jones feared that he would lose his cult members and they would turn against him. He then proceeded to lead his people through a mass suicide, which was something the members had repeatedly practiced since the early 1970s.
These practices were called “White Nights” and consisted of members drinking a liquid that they believed was poisonous as a loyalty test to Jones.4 During these “White Nights,” people were woken up by a loud speaker, and they would assemble for the ritual of passing around a drink of kool-aid, which they were told was poison. Unfortunately, this time was not a test. Hundreds of adults and children lined up to drink this colorful, fruit-flavored punch, which contained cyanide and tranquilizers. Most of them thought they were just proving their loyalty as before, but as more people began to die, they realized that this time it was real. “Over 260 children, for example, had the poison given to them, while only about 40 adults escaped.”5 For those who died willingly though, collective suicide held a religious significance in the context of the worldview that had been established in Jonestown.
Collective suicide was a ritual that signified a purity of commitment to the community. On the night that they all drank this poison, Jim Jones announced “that the members of the community were united as black, proud socialists.”6 Collective suicide also promised release from a world dominated by what Jones perceived as American racism, capitalism, and fascism. He did not want to be captured and taken back to America, so instead he urged his followers to drink the poison, and “step out of the world.”7 Jones had told his followers that they were not committing suicide, but rather they were performing an act of freeing themselves from the harsh world that they lived in. There are later reports that when officials went to Jonestown, Jim Jones was found with gunshot wounds, raising the speculation that either he had committed suicide or someone else had killed him.
The Jonestown Massacre was the largest mass suicide in modern history and resulted in the largest single loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the September 11 attack in 2001. The mass suicide resulted in over 900 deaths of innocent lives. Once the bodies were found, the Guyanese government asked the United States to take the bodies back. US Officials decided to start sending a few people over to identify bodies so they could decide what to do with them. Over 500 bodies were unclaimed and that is when the United States decided to have the US Air Force come in to take the bodies back to the United States.”8 To this day, families of loved ones are still trying to find a memorial place for the lost lives.
- Encyclopedia of Religion, 2005, s.v. “Jonestown and Peoples Temple,” by David Chidester. ↵
- Dictionary of American History, 2003, s.v. “Jonestown Massacre,” by Carolyn Bronstein. ↵
- Dictionary of American History, 2003, s.v. “Jonestown Massacre,” by Carolyn Bronstein. ↵
- Dictionary of American History, 2003, s.v. “Jonestown Massacre,” by Carolyn Bronstein. ↵
- Encyclopdeia of Religion, 2005, s.v. “Jonestown and Peoples Temple,” by David Chidester. ↵
- Encyclopdeia of Religion, 2005, s.v. “Jonestown and Peoples Temple,” by David Chidester. ↵
- Encyclopdeia of Religion, 2005, s.v. “Jonestown and Peoples Temple,” by David Chidester. ↵
- Encyclopdeia of Religion, 2005, s.v. “Jonestown and Peoples Temple,” by David Chidester. ↵
150 comments
Ernie Sano
This tragedy showcases the weakness of the human mind. We as people are all capable of assessing immediate danger, yet the difficulties of preventing it are forever bound to us as death is certain, yet random. Victims of this horrendous crime were the subjects of a madman’s ability to corrupt and influence those who are not capable of properly assessing a potentially dangerous situation. Devotion and deceit play on the minds of the victims and create awful events such as this.
Belene Cuellar
This article was informative and engaging at the same time, the author did a good job in keeping the reader engaged with interesting facts and details. I had no idea that this massacre was caused by a cult. Before today I didn’t even know the true story of what made so many people commit suicide. It breaks my heart knowing so many children were victims to this cult and many bodies were unidentified and cremated.
Andrea Delgado
I had only heard bits and pieces of the Jonestown Massacre so it was interesting to finally read and find out what really happened. It is horrible to picture how Jim Jones preyed on certain minorities to abuse, brainwash, and ultimately kill them. As I was reading, I was also focusing on the pictures and it gave me chills looking at how the story came alive. Unfortunately, Jones isn’t the only cult leader that has been responsible for murder/suicide tragedies; there is Charles Manson, Jefferey Lundgren, and Carl Drew for example. This article was great, good work!
Amanda Figueroa
This was such an interesting article to read. I have never heard of this massacre; however, the article gave me enough information to understand and know what had happened. It’s scary to see how one person could have convinced so many people to commit suicide. This article was depressing to read, but with the way it was written I was still intrigued.
Zeresh Haman
This is a very sad article. It’s hard to imagine over 900 people dead due to suicide. It is truly amazing how one person can cause so much destruction. I think its really unfortunate to think of all the children that were just doing what they though was normal, and it resulting in their death. How terrible of Jones to manipulate these people into thinking that they were just showing their loyalty. They had no idea that they would end up dead. I cant imaging what it was like for the reporters and police to see all of the bodies lying everywhere.
Mariet Loredo
Before reading this article I only knew the basics of the Jonestown Massacre, how a cult committed mass suicide. When I first read about this I just thought about how crazy it was that so many people agreed to commit suicide. There has been many theories talking about this “suicide” not being a suicide. Many people think that the leader, Jim Jones secretly killed everyone. I would like to learn more abput the Jonestown Massacre, it is a very interesting story.
Khoa Tran
Very informative article. It is so sad to see what racism and discrimination did to people. A lot of innocents lost their lives, but some people died willingly is which scared me. I will never understand how dying is “freeing” according to some. About Jones particularly, It is unacceptable for him to takes others lives as a form of loyalty. Thank you for a great article nonetheless!
Josemaria Soriano
The case of the Jim Jones sect, eloquently written in the article, is a case full of controversy and demonstrates human characteristics that I would like to highlight. The first one is freedom of religion/ideology. We live in a world where freedom to decide what to believe in is imperative, since the Berlin Wall fell, and social freedoms were promoted internationally. Product of this is our present world, in which any person who attacks the freedom of genre, ideology or religion is considered an abomination. However, is this productive for society? In my opinion, freedom is not a quality that we all deserve (do not misunderstand me, keep reading the comment). The foregoing must sound very strong and characteristic of a Latin American dictator, but I am referring to ideological/religion freedom. Ideologies or religions that undermine the rights of others can not be allowed at all. We all know the atrocities against women committed in some countries guided by laws with religious bases (I will not give any concrete example to not hurt susceptibilities). We all know how the followers of Jim Jones ended. So, why should we give them the freedom to propagate an ideology that promotes machismo or massive suicide? This can not be tolerated, that is the limit of freedom. Since this argument of freedom is used by groups such as the white supremacists, I believe that we should investigate the teachings and ideologies propagated today, in order to avoid another massive suicide like that of Guyana.
Karla Chavana
This article brought to life information that infuriated me. I had never heard of a cult like this, this also reminded me of Charles Manson. However, it is known now that this man actually gave his “girls” and his “family” small doses of LSD while preaching to them, and inculcating his dogmas. Yet, it is almost unbelievable that these people were willingly taking his poison on these “white nights” to prove their dedication to him. Jim Jones was definitely a sick, weak, cowardly man, that needed to convince and kill hundreds of people for him to feel validation for his cult.
Gabriela Serrato
I was actually eagerly waiting for an article to be written about this incident. I am glad it is now written because I have been wanting to learn more about it. I still cannot wrap my head around how people will follow another through anything. It is sad that so many hundreds of lives were lost just because of one man’s influence. This incident really makes me think one thing. Disbelief. It is hard to believe that this occurred although it really did.