James Warren Jones (13 May 1931 – 18 November 1978) was the leader of the Peoples Temple religious cult from the 1950s to the 1970s. He moved to California in the mid-1960s, and his cult gained notoriety for its activities in San Francisco during the 1970s. The cult later relocated to Guyana, where he committed a mass murder-suicide of 918 of his followers (304 of whom were children), almost all of whom drank poisoned Flavor Aid. He was among the dead, having shot himself after overseeing the mass suicide of the other cultists.
Biography[]
Jones during the 1950s
James Warren Jones was born in Crete, Indiana in 1931, and he grew up in a shack in the small town of Lynn. His mother, a factory worker, was the family's breadwinner. Jones felt excluded as a youth, and he decided to join a Pentecostal church, where most of the outcasts congregated. He became a fiery preacher, supporting social justice, racial equality, and socialism during the 1950s. He started the multiracial Peoples Temple during the 1950s, and he was attacked for insisting that his congregation was integrated, being an unusual man during his era. He housed the homeless, opened a daycare, medical clinic, and soup kitchen, and inspired several people to join his temple. He and his wife (whom he married when he was eighteen) adopted several children from different races, attempting to mirror his views on racial equality; he referred to his household as a "Rainbow Family".
Migration to California[]
Jones preaching to a crowd
In 1965, he decided to leave the unwelcome climate in Indiana to Redwood Valley, California with 150 of his devout followers. The valley was listed as one of the nine places that people would want to be in the event of a nuclear holocaust, so he decided to go there to ensure that his followers would survive any fallout. He established a commune with his followers, all of whom lived in a socialist utopia. During the late 1960s, he gained notice for supposedly raising the dead and performing "faith healing", and he became known as a con man. In 1971, he moved to San Francisco, where he became involved with local politics. He was able to get large numbers of his people to vote in local elections, becoming a political powerbroker; he soon began to covet power and attention. Jones became a control freak, playing his worshippers against each other and forcing people to sign false confessions as a means to blackmail them against leaving the cult. Jones began to preach his sexual proclivities about both women and men, and he also attempted to come onto young people. For him, sex was a means of dominance, controlling his followers' bodies and minds.
Cruel streak[]
Jones began to use drugs such as uppers and downers during the early 1970s, and his behavior became totally irrational. He also had a large cruel streak, with punishment becoming a normal feature of daily life; punishment could include public beatings at meetings, during which he was known to give a sick giggle and be amused. His cult began to have defectors, who told the world about his abuses; they revealed that Jones saw defectors as "traitors" who deserved to be killed. Jones claimed that the FBI and CIA were starting to monitor him, becoming paranoid. In 1973, he told members of his movement to plan their deaths for the victory of their people, as well as "for socialism, for communism." He also began to stage joking "suicide drills" to test the loyalty of his followers.
Move to Guyana[]
Jones at Jonestown
Jones decided to slowly colonize Guyana in South America, where land was cheap, the country had a socialist lean, and a colony would be untouchable. He supported the fact that Guyana had a black president, and he flew with 50 people to Guyana in 1976. There, Jones decided to create a socialist utopia, with the cultists creating a new community, "Jonestown". The people grew crops, had a large kitchen and a large supply of livestock, and lived off the land, and many of his followers felt that they were having adventures. However, the cultists could not produce enough food to feed the hundreds of cultists, and he started having all of his Peoples Temple members get passports and fly to Guyana from different airports in America. The church ran away and hid itself in the jungle of Guyana, where it was hidden from the rest of the world. The members of the Temple were forced to hand over their passports, and many people realized that going to the humid, hot Jonestown, protected by armed guards, was a mistake.
During his time in Guyana, Jones grew even more crazy, and even his own followers knew that something had flipped. Jonestown became a work camp, and Jones spoke to his followers over the loudspeakers in the town. People were not allowed to eat or speak with their family, communicate with anyone, or look at people in the eyes, and people ate rice with powdered milk for breakfast. It's inaccurate to say Jones grew fat in Jonestown because he was fat long before he moved there permanently, but he did gain even more weight while he was there, having an air-conditioned apartment with cold Pepsis, concubines, and his own food. Soon, his punishments grew worse, with dissenters being taken from meetings and injected with drugs before being put into another unit. Other dissenters were forced to work for sixteen hours a day, treating them cruelly. He soon became obsessed with mass suicide, saying that it was good for people to not be afraid to die for what they believe; he also said that there was nothing wrong with killing yourself for a cause. He soon motivated many cultists to peer pressure each other into agreeing to "revolutionary suicide", breaking people down emotionally and spiritually.
Ryan's investigation[]
Jones with a toucan
Soon, Congressman Leo Ryan became interested in the reports of human rights abuses in Guyana; having previously investigated conditions at Folsom Prison, he decided to investigate Jonestown. By May 1978, the cyanide for the mass suicide at Jonestown had been purchased, and the massacre was being planned. Ryan and some staffers, journalists, and concerned relatives travelled down to the jungle of Guyana, where they interviewed several locals. Some defectors attempted to coax their family members to leave, but many of them had been brainwashed into believing that they lived in paradise. At a musical night full of food and singing, Ryan gave a speech in which he said that some people believed that they were living in paradise; just then, there was a staged standing ovation, celebrating that statement. However, Ryan received a note that suggested that some people were afraid to leave, and Jones grew sweaty and concerned when Ryan presented him with the note. Jones grew terrified of Ryan and the outside world, with many people becoming terrified and seeking to leave. By the point that Jones could not convince Mrs. Parks and her family to stay, his charade was over. Families were divided, and chaos broke loose. Ryan had a knife held to his neck by a cultist, but the cultist later left him alone.
On 18 November. Ryan left with the defectors, but Jones sent his armed bodyguards and thugs after them at the airstrip at Port Kaituma. The plane was too small to carry all of the people, so they had to call a second plane, which took too long to arrive. When the other plane landed, Ryan had the defectors load up, but a red wagon and tractor then arrived. Three people walked out, stood up with assault rifles, and began firing on the people. Ryan, NBC reporter Don Harris, NBC cameraman Bob Brown, San Francisco Examiner photographer Greg Robinson, and Temple member Patricia Parks were killed, and the attackers were caught on camera by the survivors of the group. Future congresswoman Jackie Speier survived six bullet wounds, and others survived by playing dead.
Suicide[]
Jones told the people of Jonestown that the Congressman was dead, and that the US was likely to respond; he told the people that, if they could not live in peace, they could die in peace. They then prepared the vat of Flavor Aid, which was mixed with cyanide. First, the cultists had the parents kill their children with needles and cyanide. Some people tried to run away but were shot in the back or stabbed with cyanide syringes. Jones claimed that the suicide was protesting the conditions of an inhumane world, and Jones proceeded to shoot himself in the head, taking the easy way out. His own son said that his main motivation was that he didn't want to go alone. Over 900 people died, being piled on top of each other; their bodies were taken to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where they remained unclaimed for six months, as no cemetery wanted to bury the cultists.