Jim Jones: The People's Temple
Jim Jones and the People's Temple
James Warren Jones (1931-1978)
Degrees from Indiana University and Butler University
Ordained in the Christian Church/Disciples of Christ.
The Peoples Temple was initially structured as an inter-racial mission for the sick, homeless, and jobless. He assembled a large following of over 900 members in Indianapolis IN during the 1950's. "He preached a 'social gospel' of human freedom, equality, and love, which required helping the least and the lowliest of society's members. Later on, however, this gospel became explicitly socialistic, or communist, in Jones' own view, and the hypocrisy of white Christianity was ridiculed while 'apostolic socialism' was preached."
When an investigation began into his cures for cancer, heart disease, and arthritis, he decided to move the group to Ukiah in Northern California. He preached the imminent end of the world in a nuclear war; Ukiah was judged to be as safe as any when war broke out. They later moved to San Francisco and Los Angeles.
After an expose during the mid 1970's in the magazine New West raised suspicions of illegal activities within the Temple, he moved some of the Temple membership to Jonestown, Guyana. The Temple had leased almost 4,000 acres of dense jungle from the government. They established an agricultural cooperative there, called the "Peoples Temple Agricultural Project." They raised animals for food and assorted tropical fruits and vegetables for consumption and sale. Jones developed a belief called Translation in which he and his followers would all die together and would move to another planet for a life of bliss. Mass suicides were practiced in which his followers pretended to drink poison and fell to the ground.
During the late 1970's, Jones had been abusing prescription drugs and appears to have become increasingly paranoid. Rumors of human rights abuses circulated. This motivated Leo Ryan, a Congressman, to visit Jonestown in Nov. 1978 for a personal inspection. At first, the visit went well. Later, on NOV-18, about 16 Temple members decided that they wanted to leave Jonestown with the visitors. This came as quite a blow to both Jones and the rest of the project. While Ryan and the others were waiting at the local airstrip, some heavily armed members of the Temple's security guards arrived and started shooting. Congressman Ryan and four others were killed; 11 were wounded. Fearing retribution, the project members discuss their options. They reach a consensus to commit group suicide. 638 of his adult followers and 276 children died. Some committed suicide by drinking cyanide-laced kool-aid. Others appear to have been murdered by poison injection or by being shot. A few fled into the jungle and survived. The bodies were in a state of extensive decay when the authorities arrived. There was no time to conduct a thorough investigation.
The Peoples Temple organization did not survive the mass suicide/murder in Guyana. Their former headquarters building in San Francisco was demolished by the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989.