Jonestown: the city of "universal happiness" and the most mass suicide
Jim Jones
In November 1978, a terrible news: in the small town of Johnstown, in Guyana, more than 900 members of the Peoples Temple sect committed suicide at the same time, including 276 children. How could this happen and what exactly prompted the sectarians to take such a desperate step?
Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple
The religious organization "Temple of the Peoples", which would later be called a sect, arose in 1955 in the US state of Indiana. Its founder was 24-year-old preacher Jim Jones. He preached the ideas of social and racial equality, promised any help to his parishioners.
In his organization, he accepted people of very different social status: they were former and current alcoholics, drug addicts, the homeless, as well as many who had problems in the family or were simply disappointed in the world around them. A third of the members of the organization were black, which was not typical for Indiana at the time, where racist views flourished.
Already in 1956, Jones purchased a small church building in Indianapolis, where he held meetings. They often practiced "miraculous healings" of supposedly sick people, which aroused unprecedented public interest. Once, Jones, who had a good acting talent, even played an attempt on himself, after which he allegedly “resurrected”.
In the 1960s, against the background of the Cold War, the fear of nuclear war was very common in American society. Jones skillfully took advantage of these sentiments. He told his parishioners that he allegedly had visions of a nuclear apocalypse, that entire cities would be subjected to nuclear attacks and completely destroyed. And, of course, only the elect will be saved, including members of the sect.
Over time, the sect grew. If in the early years there were only a few dozen people in it, then by the beginning of the 1970s, the “Temple of the Peoples” already numbered from three to five thousand people.
Sectarians traveled around the country, held performances in different cities, collected donations. Jones opened a canteen for the poor, which attracted new supporters. Also, the “Temple of the Peoples” opened a kindergarten, provided medical and legal services to receive benefits.
Jones' First Church in Indianapolis
Gradually the sect became more and more totalitarian. Jones demanded that members of the organization rewrite property on him, and also paid more attention to the sect than to their own families.
In 1965, after declaring that Indianapolis would be destroyed in a coming nuclear war, Jones announced the relocation of the Peoples Temple to California. A more likely reason for the move was the increased criticism of the sect from relatives of its members.
In California, Jones won the support of some local politicians. At any moment, he could bring at least several hundred of his people to a rally in their support. So, once he supported the election of the mayor of San Francisco, George Moscone, after which he received a high position in the municipality of the city.
By the mid-1970s, Jones was considered a highly respected person in California. Among his acquaintances was the state governor Jerry Brown, and once Jones even met with US First Lady Rosalynn Carter.
By this time, the scale of the activities of the "Temple of the Peoples" had also grown. The organization had nine nursing homes, six private schools for children. Numerous printed materials were also produced, the organization's monthly circulation reached 30 copies.
But along with the successes, new problems soon came. Relatives of members of the sect massively began to file lawsuits, stating that Jones was zombifying their relatives, defrauding them of money. In the press, publications criticizing the sect appear one after another, journalists claimed that people were kept in it by force, and cruel punishments followed for any offenses.
Unable to withstand so much criticism, Jones decides that a new move is needed, and this time outside the United States.
"City of dreams and universal happiness"
The place of relocation was chosen very unusual: Guyana, located on the northern coast of South America. There, in the middle of the jungle, the construction of a new settlement began on a rented plot of land. Jones named it after himself - Jonestown.
In 1977, Jones, along with over 900 other members of the Peoples Temple, moved to Jonestown. There they worked 11 hours a day, building new buildings and ennobling the area. Johnstown has its own kindergarten, nursery, club and sawmill.
Jones, in his speeches at the general meetings that took place every evening, repeatedly said that the new settlement would soon become "heaven on earth" and a place of "universal happiness." Here, Jones assured, they safely hid from all the evil that exists in the rest of the world.
Jonestown. Photo 1979
It is also known that Jones and his closest associates kept in touch with the Soviet consul in Guyana, Fyodor Timofeev. There is a version that Jones' goal was to move the entire sect to the USSR in order to avoid further persecution by the US authorities and relatives of sectarians.
Relatives sounded even more alarm. They even created their own organization, which they called Concerned Relatives, and called for an immediate full investigation into Jones's activities. Finally, their demands were heard by the authorities.
A serious investigation into the activities of the Peoples Temple was launched by Congressman Leo Ryan. He decided to check everything on the spot, and for this purpose, on November 17, 1978, he personally arrived in Jonestown along with several journalists.
Leo Ryan
Arriving at the place, they saw that, in general, the life of the settlers proceeded calmly. However, there was an incident: one of the settlers attacked Ryan, putting a knife to his throat. In addition, 16 settlers wanted to leave Jonestown and return home.
The next day, while returning to the airport, Ryan, the journalists accompanying him and expressing a desire to return to the United States, the settlers were attacked by Jonestown guards. Here is how Charles Krause, one of the surviving journalists, describes this moment:
"Hey, look! someone exclaimed, pointing into the distance. A truck and a tractor with a platform were driving across the runway. Meanwhile, three unknown people were approaching the planes. They looked aggressive...
But I wasn't too worried because the local police were here...
Bob Brown and Steve Sung aimed their cameras at three approaching men who pushed off several Guyanese... snatched a rifle from a dumbfounded Guyanese policeman...
And then the shooting started. There were screams. I ran around the tail of the plane, passed the NBC crew filming, and hid behind the wheel...
Someone fell on me and rolled down... I realized that I was wounded... Another body fell on me and rolled down... I lay helplessly... I was waiting for a shot in the back. The shooters did their job well, finishing off the wounded at close range ...
How I got past death, I will never understand... There was another plane on the runway that was supposed to deliver... "concerned relatives" and those who left the commune. After the start of the shooting, the plane tried to take off. But Larry Leighton opened fire in the cabin. He wounded Monica Bagby and Vernon Gosnay. Then the gun jammed and Parks was able to knock it out of Leighton's hands."
But I wasn't too worried because the local police were here...
Bob Brown and Steve Sung aimed their cameras at three approaching men who pushed off several Guyanese... snatched a rifle from a dumbfounded Guyanese policeman...
And then the shooting started. There were screams. I ran around the tail of the plane, passed the NBC crew filming, and hid behind the wheel...
Someone fell on me and rolled down... I realized that I was wounded... Another body fell on me and rolled down... I lay helplessly... I was waiting for a shot in the back. The shooters did their job well, finishing off the wounded at close range ...
How I got past death, I will never understand... There was another plane on the runway that was supposed to deliver... "concerned relatives" and those who left the commune. After the start of the shooting, the plane tried to take off. But Larry Leighton opened fire in the cabin. He wounded Monica Bagby and Vernon Gosnay. Then the gun jammed and Parks was able to knock it out of Leighton's hands."
Layton is one of the settlers who wanted to return home. In all, five people were killed during this attack, including three journalists, one settler, and Leo Ryan.
mass suicide
That same evening, Jones held the last meeting of his sect. He said that now that the American congressman and journalists have died, they all have only one way out: to commit suicide. Interestingly, out of the entire crowd of more than 900 people, only one girl found the courage to object to him, saying that suicide was not an option, and it was better to try to contact the Soviet consul again in order to escape to the USSR. But Jones turned down the offer.
Several barrels were filled with grape juice, to which a mixture of potassium cyanide and diazepam was added. Each settler was given a plastic cup of poisoned juice in turn. First, the parents gave their children a drink, after which they drank themselves. It is assumed that some were forced to drink by force. Jones himself was later found shot through the head. A total of 918 people died in Jonestown, including 276 children.
At the site of the tragedy
There are still blank spots in the Jonestown mass suicide case. Subsequently, this gave rise to a number of conspiracy theories. One of them, for example, says that the Johnstown sectarians did not commit suicide, but were killed by the CIA. However, all serious researchers of those events reject this version.
The fact is that every meeting of the "Temple of the Peoples", including the last one, was recorded on tape, thanks to which we know what they were talking about. And Jones' last speech was entirely devoted to the coming act of suicide.
About 80 sectarians, who left the settlement the day before and did not get to the last meeting, eventually escaped and went home. The Temple of the Peoples sect itself was banned in the United States only in the following 1979.
Jonestown has become a ghost town. Because of its gloomy fame, no one else settled there, and in the mid-1980s, as a result of a fire, most of the settlement burned down. The remaining ruins remain uninhabited to this day.
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