Jonestown conspiracy theories

The entrance to Jonestown.

The death of 918 members of the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, better known by its informal name "Jonestown", on November 18, 1978 have spurred numerous conspiracy theories. These include the alleged involvement of outside forces in the deaths, including the Central Intelligence Agency and the Soviet Union. These theories often include the assertion that the events that occurred in Jonestown were a result of CIA experiments in mind control or similar methods of social experimentation. The proponents of these theories often state their belief that these mind control experiments which were, according to them, responsible for the deaths at Jonestown were a covert example of Project MKUltra in practice. According to Rebecca Moore, "In the twenty-three years since the deaths in Jonestown, conspiracy theories have blossomed in number and sophistication."

Discrepancies during investigation

While the total number of settlers living in Jonestown at the time of the massacre has never been properly verified, based on the population estimates there could be anywhere between 20 and 120 followers not accounted for. Conspiracy theorists and at least one Congressional aide claimed these people formed the so-called "Red Brigade", which was armed guards (or perhaps brainwashed assassins) who carried out the attack at the airport as well as providing more typical duties maintaining security along the roads and around the compound.

According to the New York Times, the first trained medical official on the scene was the Guyanese coroner Dr. Leslie C. Mootoo. He and his assistants examined over 100 of the bodies during a 32-hour period and found that the adults had all been injected with cyanide in places which they could not have reached without assistance, such as between the shoulder blades, and that many of them had also been shot. (Charles Huff, one of the first U.S. soldiers on the scene, also reported having seen "many gunshot victims", as well as other victims who had been shot with a crossbow, all of whom appeared to have been attempting to flee.) Mootoo also felt that the children were incapable of consenting to suicide. Based on his preliminary findings, Mootoo speculated that the majority of those who died in Jonestown may have been murdered.

Despite Guyana law requiring an autopsy for any unnatural death, the Americans insisted that the cause of death was readily apparent and additional inquiry was not necessary. Relatives and officials back in the United States complained about being kept from the remains, and according to the New York Times, Dr. Sturmer, then 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. For a number of reasons, some legal and some merely logistical, the bodies were not flown out of the remote jungle location of Jonestown for up to a week before being flown to New Jersey, which allowed significant decomposition to occur. Ultimately seven autopsies were conducted but the medical examiners were not informed of Dr. Mootoo's preliminary findings and the corpses were far too decayed for injection sites or other wounds to remain identifiable during the procedures.

CIA conspiracy theory

Joseph Hollinger, a former aide to Congressman Leo Ryan who was killed at Jonestown, claimed that Jonestown was a "mass mind control experiment" conducted by the CIA. Columnist Jack Anderson also claimed that the CIA was involved in the Jonestown Massacre and speculated that Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy to Guyana Richard Dwyer had ties to the CIA. In 1980, the U.S. House permanent select committee on intelligence found no evidence of CIA activity in Jonestown.

Soviet Union disinformation

In 1987, The Jonestown Carnage: A CIA Crime (1978) (Russian: Гибель Джонстауна - преступление ЦРУ) was published in the Soviet Union, claiming that group members were assassinated by CIA agents and mercenaries to prevent further political emigration from the U.S. as well as suppress opposition to the U.S. regime. Political scientist Janos Radvanyi cites the book as an example of Soviet active measures during the 1980s that "spread both disinformation stories and enemy propaganda against the United States", adding, "It's hard to imagine that anyone could believe so ridiculous a story".

Bibliography

• Renardo Barden (1990). Cults (Troubled Society series). Rourke Pub Group. ISBN 0-86593-070-8.
• Sean Dolan (2000). Everything you need to know about cults. New York: Rosen Pub. Group. ISBN 0-8239-3230-3.
• Jack Sargeant (2002). Death Cults: Murder, Mayhem and Mind Control (True Crime Series). Virgin Publishing. ISBN 0-7535-0644-0.
• 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.)
• Rebecca Moore (1985). A sympathetic history of Jonestown: the Moore family involvement in Peoples Temple. Lewiston: E. Mellen Press. ISBN 0-88946-860-5.
• 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 (1978). Guyana massacre: the eyewitness account. [New York]: Berkley Pub. Corp. ISBN 0-425-04234-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
• Shiva Naipaul (1982). Journey to nowhere: a New World tragedy. Harmondsworth [Eng.]: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-006189-4. (published in the UK as Black and White) Shiva Naipaul
• Phil Kerns (1978). People's Temple, People's Tomb. Logos Associates. ISBN 0-88270-363-3.
• Raven: The Untold Story of The Rev. Jim Jones and His People by Tim Reiterman with John Jacobs
• Marshall Kilduff; Ron Javers (1978). The suicide cult: the inside story of the Peoples Temple sect and the massacre in Guyana. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-12920-1.
• Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple a film by Stanley Nelson
• Snake Dance: Unravelling the Mysteries of Jonestown by Laurie Efrein Kahalas, Trafford Publ 1998. ISBN 978-1-55212-207-5. Controversial 'insider' material.
• Michael Meiers (1989). Was Jonestown a CIA Medical Experiment?: A Review of the Evidence. Edwin Mellen Pr. ISBN 978-0889460133.

External links

• Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones at IMDb
• Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple at IMDb