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[[Image:Jonestown Houses.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Houses in Jonestown]] |
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'''Jonestown''' was the communal settlement made in northwestern [[Guyana]] by the [[Peoples Temple]], a [[cult]] from [[California]]. Jonestown was founded in the mid-[[1970s]] by the cult leader, [[Jim Jones]], for whom it was named, but it was occupied only for a few years. It stood amidst jungle, about seven miles (11 km) southwesterly from [[Port Kaituma]]. |
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Jonestown gained lasting international notoriety in [[1978]], when nearly its whole population died in a mass murder-and-suicide ordered by Jones, who was among the slain, numbering somewhat over nine hundred men, women and children. |
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== Conspiracy theory == |
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Early reports claimed that about 400 Temple members had been killed, and the remainder had fled into the jungle; see headlines in the ''[[New York Post]]''<ref>New York Post, Nov 28, 1978: "Cult Dies in South American Jungle: 400 Die in Mass Suicide, 700 Flee into Jungle."</ref> and stories in the ''[[New York Times]]''<ref>New York Times, Nov 21, 1978; Nov 22, 1978; Nov 23, 1978</ref> and ''[[San Francisco Examiner]]''.<ref>San Francisco Examiner, Nov 22, 1978</ref> |
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This death count was revised over the next week until the final total of more than 900 was reached. In explaining the discrepancies, U.S. officials first claimed that Guyanese officials "couldn’t count"<ref>New York Times, Nov 25, 1978</ref> (despite the fact that locals were charged with the task of puncturing the abdomen of each corpse to prevent their swelling and possibly exploding in the heat), then that bodies had been heaped in piles, hiding one another, though no explanation was made how 400 bodies could hide another 500. |
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According to the ''New York Times'',<ref>New York Times, Dec 14, 1978</ref> the first official on the scene, Guyanese [[Coroner]] Dr. Leslie C. Mootoo, determined that all but three of the people in Jonestown had been [[murder]]ed: 80-90% had been injected with poison, while the remainder were shot or strangled. The coroners for the few autopsies of Jonestown victims conducted in [[Delaware]] were not informed of Dr. Mootoo’s findings<ref>New York Times Nov 26, 1978</ref> |
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The bodies were left to rot in the Guyanese jungle for up to a week before being flown to [[New Jersey]]. Relatives and New Jersey officials complained about being kept from the remains, and according to the ''New York Times''<ref>New York Times, December 12, 1978</ref> Dr. Sturmer, President of the [[National Association of Medical Examiners]], sent an [[open letter]] to the U.S. Army, complaining about the handling of remains, and the illegal cremations of most of the Jonestown victims. |
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On September 27, 1980, a column by respected investigative reporter [[Jack Anderson]] was published under the title "[[CIA]] Involved In Jonestown Massacre."<ref>Anderson, Jack, "CIA Involved In Jonestown Massacre, September 27, 1980</ref> This was the first allegation of CIA involvement in the Jonestown incident. According to Anderson, both Richard Dwyer and Jim Jones had ties to the CIA, with Dwyer's ties dating to at least 1959; when quizzed directly about this alleged CIA involvement, Dwyer responded "no comment." At one point on the sound-recording made during the mass suicide, Jones' own voice commands, "Take Dwyer on down to the east house" and a short time later, Jones says "Get Dwyer out of here before something happens to him."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/Tapes/Tapes/DeathTape/Q042fbi.html|title=Jonestown Audiotape Primary Project : Transcripts, Tape Number : Q 042, the so-called "Death Tape"|accessdate=2007-03-08}}</ref> This is considered by some to be evidence that Richard Dwyer, a U.S. embassy official, was really a CIA operative.{{fact|date=March 2007}} |
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In [[1987]], ''[[The Jonestown Carnage]]: A CIA Crime'' (1978) by S.F. Alinin, B.G. Antonov and A.N. Itskov was published in the [[USSR]]. The book says Jones' group was not religious but rather [[socialist]], opposing [[imperialism]] and the US government. Alinin and the other authors argued the inhabitants of Jonestown decided to emigrate to the USSR and sent an official request to the Soviet embassy in Guyana. Then the members of the cult were assassinated by CIA agents and mercenaries to prevent further political emigration from the USA and to repress the opposition to the US regime. The Soviet embassy head in Guyana, Feodor Timofeyev, visited Jonestown earlier in 1978, praising it for being a socialist haven, wagging its collective finger in the face of the US government. |
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== Bibliography == |
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* {{cite book |author=Renardo Barden, |title=Cults (Troubled Society series) |publisher=Rourke Pub Group |location= |year= |isbn=0-86593-070-8 |oclc= |doi=}} |
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* {{cite book |author=Sean Dolan |title=Everything you need to know about cults |publisher=Rosen Pub. Group |location=New York |year=2000 |isbn=0-8239-3230-3 |oclc= |doi=}} |
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* {{cite book |author=Jack Sargeant, |title=Death Cults: Murder, Mayhem and Mind Control (True Crime Series) |publisher=Virgin Publishing |location= |year=2002 |isbn=0-7535-0644-0 |oclc= |doi=}} |
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* ''Jonestown Carnage: A CIA Crime'' - S.F. Alinin, B.G.Antonov, A.N.Itsko (Gives USSR version of the Jonestown massacre, argues that it was a crime committed by CIA.) |
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* {{cite book |author=Rebecca Moore |title=A sympathetic history of Jonestown: the Moore family involvement in Peoples Temple |publisher=E. Mellen Press |location=Lewiston |year=1985 |isbn=0-88946-860-5 |oclc= |doi=}} |
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* {{cite book |author=Charles A. Krause; with exclusive material by Laurence M. Stern, Richard Harwood and the staff of The Washington Post; with 16 pages of on-the-scene photos. and commentary by Frank Johnston |title=Guyana massacre: the eyewitness account |publisher=Berkley Pub. Corp |location=[New York] |year=1978 |isbn=0-425-04234-0 |oclc= |doi=}} |
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* {{cite book |author=Shiva Naipaul |title=Journey to nowhere: a New World tragedy |publisher=Penguin |location=Harmondsworth [Eng.] |year=1982 |isbn=0-14-006189-4 |oclc= |doi=}} (published in the UK as ''Black and White'') Shiva Naipaul |
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* {{cite book |author=Phil Kerns, |title=People's Temple, People's Tomb |publisher=Logos Associates |location= |year=1978 |isbn=0-88270-363-3 |oclc= |doi=}} |
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* ''Raven: The Untold Story of the Reverend Jim Jones and His People'' by Tim Reiterman with John Jacobs |
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* {{cite book |author=by Marshall Kilduff and Ron Javers |title=The suicide cult: the inside story of the Peoples Temple sect and the massacre in Guyana |publisher=Bantam Books |location=New York |year=1978 |isbn=0-553-12920-1 |oclc= |doi=}} |
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* ''Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple'' a film by Stanley Nelson |
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== External links == |
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{{wikisource|Congressman Tom Lantos' Remarks on the 25th Anniversary of the Tragedy at Jonestown and the Death of Congressman Leo Ryan}} |
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* [http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1509317 ''Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown''] - Airing in 1981, this 90 minute audio documentary was based on hundreds of hours of audio tape acquired under the Freedom of Information Act. Winner of the Dupont Columbia Award, the National Headliner Award and the Prix Italia. |
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* [http://www.jonestownlegacy.com/ 'Jonestown Legacy'] - Jonestown Legacy is a site run by David Wise, a former Pastor of the Los Angeles Branch of the Peoples Temple. David Wise turned against Jim Jones when Jones began to lose his mind and was hunted down by Jones and found twice. He spent twenty five years hiding out because Jones alleged to have taken a contract out on Wise's life. He is now writing a book with the same title. |
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* [http://brasscheck.com/jonestown/ 'Jonestown and Official San Francisco: The Untold Story'] - Documents the enormous support Jim Jones received from San Francisco politicians during both the period he built his "Church" in that city and afterwards when questions were raised about his project in Guyana. |
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* [http://www.archive.org/details/ptc1978-11-18.flac16 'Audio recording of mass suicide'] - An audio recording of the mass suicides in [[MP3]] and [[FLAC]] formats |
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* [http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/WhoDied/whodied_list.htm List of who died at Jonestown] |
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* [http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/ ''Alternative considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple'', San Diego State University], documented attempts to gain U.S. government information, personal recollections, and essays. |
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* [http://web.archive.org/web/19990428190751/http%3A//www.icehouse.net/zodiac/ The Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy] - The contents of US Government archives on the subject obtained through the [[Freedom of Information Act]]. The original website has disappeared, so this link is via web.archive.org; unfortunately the scanned pages are missing. |
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* [http://employees.oneonta.edu/downinll/mass_suicide.htm Transcript of Jim Jones' final speech] in which he announces that suicide is now the best solution. |
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* [http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial4/jonestown/ Crime Library - The Jonestown Massacre] |
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* [http://www.cnn.com/US/9811/18/jonestown.anniv.01/ CNN.com - Jonestown massacre + 20: Questions linger] - Touches on the alleged involvement of the CIA. |
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* [http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/11/17/jonestown.anniversary/ CNN.com - Jonestown survivors recall fateful day] |
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* [http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/11/17/cnna.kohl/index.html CNN.com - Jonestown survivor: 'Wrong from every point of view'] |
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* [http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/11/17/jonestown.timeline.ap/index.html CNN.com - Timeline: Road to tragedy in Jonestown] |
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* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/18/newsid_2540000/2540209.stm BBC On This Day - 1978: Mass suicide leaves 900 dead] |
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* [http://www.geocities.com/oldsayville/jones.htm Jim Jones inspiration for his ideology and cult control techniques (no author)] |
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* [http://www.ideajournal.com/02EnglishSpeech.html ''Masters and Slaves: The Tragedy of Jonestown'', by Fanita English] - Idea Journal article, addresses mind control (& compares to Nazi Germany) |
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* [http://www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/p/peoplestemple/jonestown_doc_1.htm Report to the committee on Foreign Affairs, May 1979] |
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* [http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/JohnJudge/Jonestown.html The Black Hole of Guyana, by John Judge] article by researcher [[John Judge]] |
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* [http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/JonestownReport/Volume6/tapeyohnk.htm The Truth About Jonestown, by Shelia Yohnk] |
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* [http://www.wordspy.com/words/drinktheKool-Aid.asp The Word Spy - drink the Kool-Aid] |
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* {{imdb title|id=0080832|title=Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones}} |
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* {{imdb title|id=0762111|title=Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple}} |
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[[Category:1978]] |
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[[Category:Cause of death disputed]] |
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[[Category:Cult suicides]] |
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[[Category:Ghost towns in South America]] |
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[[Category:History of Guyana]] |
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[[Category:Intentional communities]] |
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[[Category:Peoples Temple]] |
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[[Category:Religious people who committed suicide]] |
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[[Category:Destructive cults]] |
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[[de:Jonestown]] |
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[[es:Tragedia de Jonestown]] |
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[[he:ג'ונסטאון]] |
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[[nl:Jonestown]] |
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[[pt:Jonestown]] |
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[[ro:Sinuciderea în masă din Jonestown]] |
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[[ru:Джонстаун]] |
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[[fi:Jonestown]] |
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