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I remember when they all drank the Kool Aid. I was in High school and it was an unforgettable TIME MAGAZINE cover. More than 900 people, many of them children, died in a mass murder-suicide in 1978 by drinking cyanide-laced punch at the order of cult leader Jim Jones
The people of Jonestown, some acceptant and serene, others probably coerced, queued to receive cups of cyanide punch and syringes. The children – more than 300 – were poisoned first, and can be heard crying and wailing on the commune’s own audio tapes, later recovered by the FBI.
Jones’s paranoia worsened, and he was convinced that soldiers would storm Jonestown. Insisting mass suicide was the only way out, he gathered residents and told them to drink what he said was poison—it wasn’t; it was a test to prove their loyalty, and to prepare them for what was to come. Jonestown residents went along with it because they had performed these suicide drills in California, and these The drills may have desensitized Jonestown residents them to what Moore called a “ritualized” ceremony.
On November 18, 1978, Jones directed the people of Jonestown to act out what they had rehearsed. After a visit from U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan, Jones decided the end times had come. He compelled his congregation to consume a cyanide cocktail. Some may have willingly taken it, but many were likely coerced into the act, perhaps fearing that they would be killed if they refused. Others, including children, were forced to drink it, or it was injected into their bloodstream with syringes. When the commune fell silent, over 900 men, women, and children were dead.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/jonestown-bio-jones/
Jim Jones
Jim Jones attracted a large following to his Peoples Temple through sermons on tolerance, social responsibility and community. As the church grew, however, the sermons on equality and tolerance were belied by his own increasing demands for personal loyalty and obedience. The extent of his authority meant that his eventual breakdown transformed a personal tragedy into one of the largest mass deaths in American history.
Childhood
Jones’ parents were James Thurman Jones, a veteran of the Great War and
victim of mustard gas who lived on disability payments, and the much
younger Lynetta Jones, a feisty, independent woman who would eventually
follow her son to Guyana. James came from Baptist and Quaker lineages
but Lynetta had doubts about a “sky god” and laughed off the neighbors
who were sure she “was going to hell straighter than a bird could fly.”
Jones’ father was emotionally absent and his mother was constantly
working, so neither had much time or desire to discipline their son. “I
didn’t have any love given to me — I didn’t know what the hell love
was,” he later told his congretion.
Young Memories
Much of what is known about Jones’ early life came from his own later
recollections. He described being a young hellion in his Indiana
hometown: “I was considered the trash of the neighborhood.” He
identified with the underdog, fighting off kids who bullied other
children, rescuing stray pets, and taking home beggars. He explored
every church in town — Quaker, Nazarene, Methodist, Apostolic and the
Church of Christ — throwing himself into their particular rituals before
becoming disillusioned and moving on to the next.
Born to Preach
Jones had the skills to be a preacher. Phyllis Wilmore, who dated him in
high school, remembered a pep rally before a basketball game. “Jimmy
decided to stage an elaborate funeral for the other school. He got up
and started preaching and did an incredible job. He had the control and
inflection. It was like the real thing, but was all intended to be a
joke. He was very self-assured on stage. He had that coal black hair and
piercing eyes that would look right through you.”
A Church of His Own
Jim graduated from high school with an interest and aptitude for
medicine. While working as a hospital orderly, Jones met Marceline
Baldwin, a nursing student, and they married in 1949. In Indianapolis,
he served as a student pastor in the Methodist Church in 1952 but chose
to found his own church, Peoples Temple, in 1956. The Temple joined the
Disciples of Christ in 1960 and Jones was ordained in 1964.
Inspired by Father Divine
Religious leader George Baker, also known as Father Divine, founded the
Universal Peace Mission Movement in the 1920s. In the late 1950s, Jones
made visits to see Father Divine, a charismatic black preacher with a
multiracial congregation. Divine, who had known Marcus Garvey, promoted
economic empowerment for his Harlem flock through redistributive
cooperative enterprises. Members worked for low or no wages, pooled
their resources and benefited from the common good. Divine held unusual
spiritual beliefs, claiming that he was God and demonstrating
supernatural powers.
Integrationist
A major source of Jones’ unhappiness with various mainstream churches
was segregation. During the 1950s and early 1960s, segregation was
widespread across the country, and many religious congregations followed
the practice of keeping the races separate. Having grown up an
outsider, Jones empathized with the downtrodden, the poor, the
non-whites in society. He preached integration and racial equality, and
his own family reflected these beliefs. He and Marceline adopted a
part-Native American child named Agnes, three Korean children,
Stephanie, Lew and Suzanne, and in 1961 were the first white couple in
Indianapolis to adopt a black child, a boy they named James Warren
Jones, Jr. The Joneses also had a biological son, Stephan Gandhi, and
later adopted a white son named Tim from a Peoples Temple mother. They
were, according to Jones, a rainbow family. “Integration is a more
personal thing with me now. It’s a question of my son’s future.”
Creating Social Change
Peoples Temple participated directly in the social shifts of the
emerging civil rights movement. As the head of the Indianapolis Human
Rights Commission, Jones desegregated movie theaters, restaurants, the
telephone company, hospitals and the city police department. The Temple
ran a free restaurant, and homes for the elderly and mentally ill.
Targets of Abuse
Jones’ actions were ahead of his time, and residents who felt threatened
by integration targeted Jones and the Temple with intimidation and
assaults. Strangers spat on Marcie as she walked with her multiracial
family. Letters arrived announcing that people were “praying for [Jim,
Jr.] to die.”
Escaping Nuclear Danger
In the midst of this antagonism, Jones began to consider larger issues
of the Cold War. An article in Esquire magazine listed the places on
earth where one might survive a nuclear war. Taking the list to heart,
Jones moved his family to Brazil for a while before returning to the
United States and settling in Northern California.
Playing a Part
The next time a childhood acquaintance, Max Knight, saw Jones in Indiana
was many years later. “Jim Jones had his hair combed back, and he had
on — not a zoot suit — but certainly not a suit that was 'Indiana.’ He
had big sunglasses sitting up on top of his head and a goon on each side
of him … “ 'Jim,’ I said, 'I’m curious. Why the change? Why the
sunglasses? The bodyguards?’ He grinned and said, 'Max, when you reach
the top, you’ve got to play the part.’”
In California, Jones had either reached the top — or was playing the part.
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