Who Caused The Jonestown Massacre?

The event often called the Jonestown Massacre refers to the mass suicide of the members of a cult led by the founder of the Peoples Temple, Jim Jones, in November 1978. A total of 918 cult members died in Jonestown, Guyana, making the Peoples Temple the most prominent suicide cult in American history. In fact, some historians point out that the Jonestown Massacre was the largest mass suicide in world history. The reason we can justly refer to the events in Jonestown as a massacre, is because chilling audio tapes recovered from the settlement in Guyana clearly show that many cult members were coerced into committing suicide, despite their apprehensions, by their leader.

The Early Days

The Peoples Temple was a communist organization, loosely based on Christian beliefs in social justice. Established by Jim Jones in 1955 and originally based in Indianapolis, the church was among the city’s first racially integrated congregations. Jones had long sympathized with left-wing, socialist causes and opposed the suppression of American communists, and also rejected the segregation of African Americans, before the Civil Rights movement spread throughout the United States.

Jones’ church had very little money at first, but he was able to convince some of his earlier followers to participate in staged healings with him, in order to raise much needed funds. During these healing exercises, church members even used props, such as chicken livers, to convince local residents that the church’s pastor had miraculously removed tumours from the bodies of those seeking a divine cure for their ailments. Within a year, the Peoples Temple had grown considerably, thanks to the fact that an ever increasing crowd of both white and black Americans were fascinated by Jones’ alleged special powers, including healing capabilities and also clairvoyance.

The Christ of Revolution

In the Peoples’ Temple, the emphasis was much more heavily placed on left-wing social issues and campaigns, than on actual theology. In fact, it is questionable whether Jones even believed in God in the first place, with some researchers arguing that the pastor was probably agnostic, and possibly an atheist. Jones believed that Jesus Christ was a communist and gradually encouraged church members to live a communal, rather than individualistic life. In fact, starting in the early 1960s, members were demanded to participate in communal Christmas celebrations, rather than private family dinners.

The church also got involved in the world of politics, in an attempt to promote a socialist agenda. Jones was especially pleased when Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba and turned his island national into a communist country. Jones ultimately visited Cuba in 1960, shortly after Castro took over, in the hope of attracting new followers for his church. Since Jesus was also a communist, in the pastor’s eyes, Jones taught that he himself was a type of modern-day Christ. In fact, Jones would often refer to himself as the “Christ of Revolution.” While he and his church stood on the side of social justice, Jones argued that the US was essentially the Anti-Christ and that the capitalist system was nefarious. Jones was also critical of the Bible, arguing that Christian Scriptures were evil, as they played a role in discrimination against both women and African Americans.

The California Era

Although the Peoples Temple was becoming increasingly successful in Indianapolis, in 1961 Jones announced that the church would move to a new location, after having predicted that the Midwest would be destroyed by a nuclear attack. At first, Jones hoped to transfer his congregation to Brazil, which he believed would be less affected by a possible nuclear attack, but ultimately chose Redwood Valley, in California, as the new location in 1965. The Peoples Temple did very well in its new location, and even attracted high-ranking supporters, such as the area’s deputy district attorney.

Thanks to this success and growing membership, Jones established a presence for his group in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, starting in 1970. San Francisco was home to a range of left-wing communes, as well as Eastern religious cults during the 1970s, attracting large numbers of university students and hippies. The Peoples Temple was certainly part of this same trend. By 1975, the Peoples Temple counted more than 3,000 members.

The Peoples Temple controlled the actions, words and thoughts of members quite significantly in the 1970s, and the congregation was required to participate in extensive fundraising drives, throughout California. In fact, Jones expected for his church to have an annual income of $1 million, through fundraising efforts. The organization also received positive political and media attention, after it organized a bus trip to Washington, DC, where church members helped clean the parks and public areas around the US Capitol. The Temple continued to grow until its dramatic demise in November 1978. At its peak, the church had 5,000 members.

Although the Peoples Temple had a very sinister—and ultimately deadly side—it did perform important social work in California, in keeping with its socialist beliefs. For example, members of the Peoples Temple would embrace those living on the fringes of society, such as drug addicts, the poverty stricken and a range of minority groups. The congregation even opened up several homes for retirees and the disabled, as well as a foster care service for orphans, or children originating from broken families.

Despite all the charitable work, the church had a very dark side, which would partially foreshadow the horror that was to come. Once you decided to become a member of the church, it was very difficult to leave. Those who tried to depart often faced threats and all kinds of abuse. In 1973, eight people did, however, manage to escape and fled to Canada. Jones became so paranoid, that he ordered a small airplane to monitor some of the major highways, to stop the members from leaving. After the successful escape, however, Jones became disenchanted and suggested to over two dozen church members that they should all commit suicide, so as to protest what he saw as American society’s attack against socialist ideals.

Jonestown--a "socialist paradise"

Jones decided to rent a large plot of land in Guyana starting in 1974, but only a small handful of followers actually moved to the Latin American country at this early stage. Named after Jones himself, the Jonestown settlement was supposed to turn into a “socialist paradise” and was referred to by church members as the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project. Jim Jones himself moved to Guyana in 1977, after the American media became increasingly critical of the prominent organization’s activities and as the danger of further defections loomed large.

It appears as though a large section of Jones’ congregation was willing to follow their pastor to Guyana. By 1978, Jonestown’s population stood at over 900 residents. But Jones could not escape entirely from the US, where a growing scandal surrounding emotional and physical abuse in the church prompted Congressman Leo Ryan to travel down to the settlement and investigate what was really going on. Ryan arrived in Guyana on November 17, 1978 and after meeting with several church members, the politician discovered that some of them wanted desperately to leave Jonestown and return to America. Ryan was disturbed by what he heard and decided to take back one of the church members who wanted to leave with him to the US. This almost succeeded on November 18, 1978, but Jones ordered security guards who worked for the Peoples Temple’s Red Guard—a paramilitary group--to stop them. The guards ended up shooting and murdering the Congressman, as well as an NBC journalist who came with Ryan to cover the trip, an American photographer and one of the defectors.

The Death Tape

After the murders and a belief that Ryan had written a report which was critical of Jonestown, Jones decided to gather together all of his followers in a pavilion, where the members were to drink a poisonous beverage consisting of Flavor Aid, cyanide and Valium. A cassette player recorder most of this final, deadly meeting and the sound recording that was created has since been labelled the “Death Tape.” Jones gave a muddled speech—recorded on this tape—in which he claimed that Ryan’s delegation would return and parachute troops into Jonestown, in order to steal the community’s children and raise them in a capitalist environment. Jones told his followers that their best option was to commit “revolutionary suicide,” in order to avoid giving up their children to capitalists. But as people began taking the poisonous drink, other followers became frightened as they saw their friends die. People started screaming and crying, while Jones urged them to continue with the suicide and not become hysterical. It is not clear what happened to Jones after the mass suicide, but Guyanese officials found his body hunched over on a chair. It appears as though Jones shot himself in the head once his followers had died. Later documentation revealed that some of the members left wills, in which they donated all of their personal belongings to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.