11/18/78

On this date in 1978, there occurred one of the most shocking events during my lifetime.


A man named Jim Jones was the leader of a cult known as the Peoples Temple. He had lured many into his cult and homemade religion in California near San Francisco. The cult was being investigated by the Federal Government for several scandals and for tax evasion in the early 1970's. While the investigation was heating up in 1974, he moved the whole cult to a jungle location in Guyana, South America. There they built a communal village he called Jonestown.


In 1978, reports got to a US Congressman named Leo Ryan that some people were being held there against their wishes, that money had been swindled from some members, that drugs were prevalent and that abuse was becoming widespread. Some reports cited that people had been killed trying to leave. The congressman and 18 others including his aides and some media flew into Jonestown on the morning of November 15 to investigate these charges.


Ryan interviewed many of the cult members during his two days there and several asked to be taken out. There became too many for his small plane to carry and some cult members took this time to try to leave on foot. One of those that asked to be taken out was a loyalist of Jim Jones. When they reached the nearby air field, he pulled a gun and killed Congressman Ryan and several others. A number of other armed cult members arrived and killed more of the group. One reporter with a video camera was killed while he was filming and his camera continued to record the attack after his death. It was something to see.


That night, Jim Jones gathered all the people together at the compound, informed them that the investigators had probably been killed and that Jonestown and their way of life would certainly be destroyed by the US Government. He said there was no hope for them and that suicide was their only escape. He spiked a large vat of grape cool-aid with Valium and cyanide. Cult members walked to the vat, drank the potion and were assisted to another area to lay down and die. Those that escaped recounted that they had all been forced to practice this mass suicide ritual many times in case it ever became necessary.


Over 900 people died that night including 287 children. It's hard to believe they all committed suicide. Certainly, you can't call the children's deaths suicide. No one escaped that could give an accurate, complete account of what actually happened.