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Jonestown: The Full Story

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Uploaded by on Nov 22, 2008

Almost three decades ago an unusual series of events led to the deaths of more than 900 people in the middle of a South American jungle. Though dubbed a "massacre," what transpired at Jonestown on November 18, 1978, was to some extent done willingly, making the mass suicide all the more disturbing.
The Jonestown cult (officially named the "People's Temple") was founded in 1955 by Indianapolis preacher James Warren Jones. Jones, who had no formal theological training, based his liberal ministry on a combination of religious and socialist philosophies.
A New, Isolated Community
After relocating to California in 1965, the church continued to grow in membership and began advocating their left-wing political ideals more actively. With an I.R.S. investigation and a great deal of negative press mounting against the radical church, Jones urged his congregation to join him in a new, isolated community where they could escape American capitalism—and criticism—and practice a more communal way of life.
In 1977, Jones and many of his followers relocated to Jonestown, located on a tract of land the People's Temple had purchased and begun to develop in Guyana three years earlier.
Relatives of cult members soon grew concerned and requested that the U.S. government rescue what they believed to be brainwashed victims living in concentration camp-like conditions under Jones's power.
The Visit of Congressman Ryan
In November 1978, California Congressman Leo Ryan arrived in Guyana to survey Jonestown and interview its inhabitants. After reportedly having his life threatened by a Temple member during the first day of his visit, Ryan decided to cut his trip short and return to the U.S. with some Jonestown residents who wished to leave. As they boarded their plane, a group of Jones's guards opened fire on them, killing Ryan and four others.
Some members of Ryan's party escaped, however. Upon learning this, Jones told his followers that Ryan's murder would make it impossible for their commune to continue functioning. Rather than return to the United States, the People's Temple would preserve their church by making the ultimate sacrifice: their own lives. Jones's 912 followers were given a deadly concoction of a purple drink mixed with cyanide, sedatives, and tranquilizers. Jones apparently shot himself in the head.

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Uploader Comments (guamorbust)

  • i am working hard to get if not this song another song by the same artist that woiuld go great with this video.

  • wtf sorry i didnt kno the sound got disabled but i cant put it back on cuz they say its copyrighted

  • the song is sound of madness by shinedown

  • sorry this is my first time doing slide show with text. i will try to revise it and make it easier to read.

Top Comments

  • YEAH! PEOPLE KILLED THEMSELVES SO THATS HARDCORE! I'LL PUT METAL MUSIC WITH THE VIDEO! What a jackass.

  • Make no mistake people, Jim Jones was CIA and so were most of his henchmen. Leo Ryan was lured to Guyana and assassinated by the CIA for attempting to limit their powers (look up the Hughes-Ryan amendment). Most of those 900 plus "witnesses" were shot in the back trying to flee or they were injected between their shoulder blades! Don't take my word for it, do the research! Thank God for the freedom of information act!

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All Comments (23)

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  • Thanks for posting this. it is an accurate discription of what happens when people believe liberal nonsense and lies much like they are nowadays all over the United States.:(

  • @guamorbust I think you did a good job...

  • Jim Jones was nothing but a psychopath...

  • fuck religion its pure mind control

  • it actually wasnt grape KOOLaid but a cheaper generic knock off brand, say what you want about ol jimbo, he knew how to stretch a buck

  • why did his members drink the poison :S ?

  • That's why I don't drink that goddamned coolaid!

  • we need reality marketing and medical monsters are trying to take that away

  • @Phonehed The connection between the CIA and Jim Jones from the internet:"the most mysterious connection that Jim Jones had was his childhood friend, Dan Mitrione. Mitrione later became Chief of the Richmond PD... Mitrione was later was recruited into the CIA, under State Department cover, in May of 1960, and was trained in counter-insurgency and torture techniques. Coincidentally, Mitrione had traveled to Brazil as an OPS adviser at the U.S. Consulate not long before Jones had arrived.

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