Coming up on 40 years since the Jonestown massacre

[someoneyouknow]

In two months it will be four decades since Jim Jones ordered the murder of over 900 people at The Peoples Temple in Guyana. Between cyanide-laced Kool Aid (where the term comes from) to stabbings and gunning people down, Jones had the record for the most deliberate killing of Americans until the September 11 attacks. Jones killed himself with a bullet to the head.

Tonight, ABC will have a broadcast with Jim's two sons who escaped the massacre because they were away playing basketball.

As both sons relate, Jones became more emphatic in his notion people were out to get him, which is one of the reasons he leased land in Guyana. He wanted to start fresh.

As Stephan and Jim Jr., got older, they each came to have a different perceptions of their father, who former members said grew to become more extreme, manipulating his congregants with blackmail and administering humiliating beatings to those who displeased him. Former members also said Jim Jones abused drugs and alcohol.

“My experience with my father was he was more an actor than genuine, almost always. He was always aware of eyes on him,” Stephan said. “Because all that mattered to my father was his perception of other people's perceptions of him.” (sound familiar?)​

Read more:

https://abcnews.go.com/US/40-years-jonestown-massacre-jim-jones-surviving-sons/story?id=57997006

 

[nowisthetime]

I've always been horribly fascinated with the Jonestown tragedy. What is at first described as a willing suicide looked to be more like murder-suicide, many of these victims were shot and forced to drink the poison, or injected with the solution.

I still shudder listening to the tapes of the woman, with her strong and resonant voice, protesting at Jones telling them that they were going to die.

He targeted the desperate, the vulnerable, and the poor. He ended up convincing everyone to pool their social security checks and government assistance into their commune, and once the government caught wind that's when they moved to Guyana.


I believe he started out as a well-meaning preacher, during a time full of hatred, then something went terribly wrong down the line, particularly when he started dabbling in so much drugs.

On a side note, he really wanted that Congressman dead, he was shot around 45 times. Maddening!

 

[Not Normal]

We learned about this in High School. Such a crazy story.

 

[IG_88]

Fucking kids.
I watched this shit when it was breaking news. Leo Ryan dead, Arial shots of the bodies, the numbers simply staggering at the time. Still are really but we weren't desensitized back then.

 

[Kirkrapine]

FTR, the poison was in knockoff-brand Flavor-Aid.

 

[FGB]

I remember.

I was twelve or thirteen at the time.

Yet.

People still will not say he was evil and that evil exist at all.

I have never understood why people think crazy people can't be evil or evil people can't be crazy.

 

[SpeareChucker]

Even people who earn PhDs can be a bit..., "off."