Jim Jones

Overview

James Warren "Jim" Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was the American founder of the Peoples Temple group, which became synonymous with group suicide after the November 18, 1978 mass suicide by poison in their isolated agricultural intentional community called Jonestown, located in the country of Guyana. Jones was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head among the 909 corpses there.

Background

Jones was born in Lyn, Indiana to Lynetta Putnam and James Thurman Jones. He graduated from high school at Richmond High School in Richmond, Indiana. He became a preacher in the 1950s.

He obtained a bachelors degree at Butler University in 1961, and after graduate school from Indiana University in Bloomington, IN, Jim sold pet monkeys door-to-door to raise the money to fund his own church that would be named Wings of Deliverance. He later renamed his church the Peoples Temple, located in Indianapolis. He gained respectability when he became an ordained minister in 1964 in- the mainstream Christian denomination, Disciples of Christ.

The church was exceptional for its equal treatment of African Americans and many of them became members of the church. He started a struggle for racial equality and social justice, which he dubbed apostolic socialism.

Jones authored a booklet, called "The Letter Killeth" pointing out what he felt were the contradictions, absurdities, and atrocities in the Bible, but the booklet also stated that the Bible contained great truths. He claimed to be an incarnation of Jesus, Akhenaten, Buddha, Lenin, and Father Divine and performed supposed miracle healings to attract new members. Members of Jones' church called Jones "Father" and believed that their movement was the solution to the problems of society and many did not distinguish Jones from the movement.

The group gradually moved away from the mainstream.

The offence

Jonestown and mass murder-suicide

In the summer of 1977, Jones and most of the 1000 members of the Peoples Temple moved to Guyana from San Francisco after an investigation into the church for tax evasion was begun. Jones named the closed settlement Jonestown after himself. His intention was to create an agricultural utopia in the jungle, free from racism and based on quasi-communist principles.

People who had left the organization prior to its move to Guyana told the authorities of brutal beatings, murders and of a mass suicide plan, but were not believed.

Around 70% of the inhabitants of Jonestown were black and impoverished. The religious scholar Mary McCormick Maaga argued that Jones' authority waned after he moved to the isolated commune, because there he was not needed anymore for recruitment and he could not hide his drug addiction from rank and file members. Consequently, he lost some of his power to inner-circle members.

In November 1978, U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan led a fact-finding mission to the Jonestown settlement in Guyana after allegations by relatives in the U.S. of human rights abuses. Ryan's delegation arrived in Jonestown on November 15 and spent three days interviewing residents. They left hurriedly on the morning of Saturday November 18 after an attempt was made on Ryan's life.

The delegation members later told police that, as they were boarding planes at the airstrip, a truckload of Jones' armed guards arrived and began to shoot at them. At the same time, one of the supposed defectors, Larry Layton, drew a weapon and began to fire on members of the party. When the gunmen left, six people were dead: Representative Ryan, Don Humphrey, a reporter from NBC, a cameraman from NBC, a newspaper photographer, and one defector from the Peoples Temple. The former California State Senator Jackie Speier, a staff member for Rep. Ryan in 1978, Richard Dwyer, the Deputy Chief of Mission from the U.S. Embassy at Georgetown and allegedly an officer of the Central Intelligence Agency, and a producer for NBC News, Bob Flick, survived the attack.

Later that same day, around 913 of the remaining inhabitants of Jonestown, 276 of them children, died in what has commonly been labeled a mass suicide, although many who died were murdered.

While some followers obeyed Jones' instructions to commit "revolutionary suicide" by drinking cyanide-laced grape flavored Flavor Aid (often misconstrued as Kool-aid), others died by forced cyanide injection or by shooting. Jones was found dead sitting in a deck chair with a gunshot wound to the head, although it is unknown if he had been murdered or committed suicide.

The autopsy on his body showed levels of the barbiturate pentobarbital that could have been lethal to humans who have not developed physiological tolerance. His drug usage (including various LSD and marijuana experimentations) was confirmed by his son, Stephan, and Jones's doctor in San Francisco.

Jones was called "Father" or "Dad" by the adults as well. Armed guards patrolled the compound day and night to enforce obedience to Jones. Children, surrendered to communal care, addressed Jones as "Dad" and were only allowed to see their real parents briefly at night.

The religious training and communal practices included “white nights” rehearsals of mass suicides. In an affidavit, Peoples Temple defector Deborah Layton explained how these were rehearsed:

"Everyone, including the children, was told to line up. As we passed through the line, we were given a small glass of red liquid to drink. We were told that the liquid contained poison and that we would die within 45 minutes. We all did as we were told. When the time came when we should have dropped dead, Rev. Jones explained that the poison was not real and that we had just been through a loyalty test. He warned us that the time was not far off when it would become necessary for us to die by our own hands."

During the mass murder-and-suicide period, Jones called a meeting under the pavilion as night fell. It was announced as another "white night". Dr. Laurence Schacht, Nurse Annie Moore, and others mixed cyanide and Valium into a metal vat full of grape Flavor Aid. Before the murder-suicide got under way, Jones argued with two Temple members who actively resisted his decision for the whole congregation to die:

• Christine Miller, who repeatedly suggested alternative strategies, such as taking all the children to Russia along with Jones himself.
• Marceline, Jones' wife.

Jones assured his followers that CIA-sponsored mercenaries or Guyanese soldiers would soon emerge from the jungle and slaughter all of them. Loyalists with crossbows and firearms formed a circle around the area where the poison was being injected into children's mouths with plastic syringes and distributed in paper cups. When families assembled and arrived at the head of the line, the children were poisoned first.

Stephan Jones asserted afterward that, to many, it would have been impossible to carry on living after seeing so many children die. According to eyewitness Stanley Clayton, families were escorted away from where the poison vat was located and told to lie down together along walkways and areas out of the close vision of the people who were still being dosed, because anyone present who believed that this was just another rehearsal would not believe so any longer after seeing people convulsing and dying.

The poison was described as extremely effective, causing death within about five minutes to everyone who drank it. Four people intended to be poisoned decided not to cooperate and survived: Hyacinth Thrash (76), Odell Rhodes (36), Stanley Clayton (25), and Grover Davis (79). Thrash and Davis were recovered by Guyanese soldiers on Sunday morning. Rhodes and Clayton left for Port Kaituma.

Five people were given assignments by Jones or his staff that did not call them to their deaths. His two lawyers, Charles Garry and Mark Lane, were escorted to "the East House", used to accommodate visitors, far away from the pavilion. Tim Carter (30), Mike Carter (20), and Mike Prokes (31) were given luggage containing money and documents, which they were told to deliver to Guyana’s Soviet Embassy.

Garry and Lane walked through the jungle during the night and eventually made it to Port Kaituma, hearing cheering and then gunshots. Stanley Clayton and Odell Rhodes were also described as looking for a Guyanese family they knew near Jonestown on the way to Port Kaituma.

Evidently, Jones and his immediate staff, after having organized and supervised the "white night", came together and killed themselves and each other with handguns, after giving a final cheer. However, it was described that the only two people killed by gunfire were Jones and Annie Moore. It was stated as unknown whether Jones shot himself or was shot by someone else, and that Moore left a suicide note before shooting herself inside Jones' cabin. Recovery workers entering Jones' cabin found the door blocked by her body.

As a means of escaping the slow death endured by his followers, it was believed by his son Stephan that Jim Jones chose to be shot rather than poisoned. Other non-suicides were described as having had the poisonous brew injected into them between the shoulder blades by unknown persons.

Moore left a note in part:

"I am at a point right now so embittered against the world that I don't know why I am writing this. Someone who finds it will believe I am crazy or believe in the barbed wire that does NOT exist in Jonestown."

Another last note was left, unsigned, either by Richard Tropp or by Marceline Jones.

Jones himself was among those who died, with 913 dead bodies found.

Investigation

The FBI investigated Ryan's murder under the code name "RYMUR".

Arrest, charge, trial, and sentencing related to Ryan’s murder

In 1986, Lawrence John Layton was found guilty in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, of several federal violations, including conspiracy to murder a congressman.

Larry Layton had opened fire aboard the Cessna and was later arrested and extradited to the USA, where he was put in prison. It was stated that he was the only person ever to have been held responsible for the events at Jonestown. He was paroled in 2002.

Timeline

• May 13, 1931 — Jim Jones was born in Lyn, Indiana.
• 1961 — Jones obtained a bachelors degree at Butler University.
• 1964 — Jones became an ordained minister in the mainstream Christian denomination Disciples of Christ.
• December 13, 1973 — Jones was arrested in MacArthur Park, Los Angeles, and charged with soliciting a man for sex in a movie theater bathroom known for homosexual activity.
• 1974 — Jones leased over 3,800 acres (15.4 km²) of jungle land from the Guyanese government.
• Summer 1977 — Jones and most of the members of the Peoples Temple moved to Guyana from San Francisco.
• November 15, 1978 — Ryan's delegation arrived in Jonestown.
• November 18, 1978 — Ryan was shot and killed at Port Kaituma airstrip; Jones was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head among the 909 corpses at Jonestown.
• 1986 — Lawrence John Layton was found guilty in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California.
• 2002 — Lawrence John Layton was paroled.
• 1999 — Rebecca Moore hosted a website about the disaster.

Other details

People and relationships

Jones was married to Marceline Jones. They had two sons together, one biological and one adopted. Their biological son, Stephan Gandhi Jones, did not take part in the mass suicide because he was away, playing with the Peoples Temple basketball team in a game against the Guyanese national team. Jones' adopted son, Jim Jones Jr., was African American. Jim and Marceline were described as the first white couple in Indiana to adopt an African American child.

Jones claimed to be the biological father of John Victor Stoen, who was the legal son of Grace Stoen and her husband Timothy Stoen. The custody dispute over Stoen intensified the conflict with opponents including a group called the "Concerned Relatives".

Arrest in MacArthur Park, Los Angeles

Jones was arrested and charged with soliciting a man for sex in a movie theater bathroom known for homosexual activity. The man was described as an undercover Los Angeles Police Department vice officer. Jones was on record as later telling his followers that he was "the only true heterosexual". It was also stated that at least one account existed of his sexually abusing a male member of his congregation in front of the followers, ostensibly to prove the man's own homosexual tendencies.

Although the charges were dismissed, Jones was required to sign a document admitting that there was good reason for the arrest.

Disciples of Christ and political/social stance

He gained respectability by becoming ordained in 1964 in Disciples of Christ. He started a struggle for racial equality and social justice, dubbed apostolic socialism. He later was described as Christianizing political beliefs and supporting socialist ideas. In 1972, he moved his congregation to San Francisco, and opened another church in Los Angeles.

Drug use and autopsy information

His drug usage was confirmed by his son, Stephan, and Jones's doctor in San Francisco. The autopsy on his body showed levels of the barbiturate pentobarbital that could have been lethal to humans who had not developed physiological tolerance.

Death count and aftermath reporting

Early reports claimed about 400 Temple members had been killed, and the remainder had fled into the jungle. This death count was revised over the next week until the final total 909 was reached.

It was reported that in 1980 the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence investigated the Jonestown mass suicide and announced that there was no evidence of CIA involvement at Jonestown. Most government documents related to Jonestown remained classified.

CIA involvement theories and other claims included in the case narrative

Various theories circulated that the CIA was involved. A congressional aide claim via Associated Press was included: ".. 120 white, brainwashed assassins out from Jonestown awaiting the trigger word to pick up their hit." It was stated that the account also questioned the official count and the lack of identified armed guards in Jonestown who could come and go. It was also described that Charles Huff said: "We saw many bullet wounds as well as wounds from crossbow bolts."

Jonestown site and later description

Jonestown became a "ghost town" after 1978 and was mostly destroyed by a fire in the mid-1980s, after which the ruins were left to decay. It was stated that there remained little to mark the site. The buildings and grounds were not taken over by local Guyanese people because of social stigma. The Jonestown deaths were described as undermining cults or "new religious movements" in the United States between about 1978 and 1982.

Individuals in the airport violence

The shooting at Port Kaituma airstrip killed Congressman Leo Ryan, news team members Brown, Robinson, and Harris, and 44-year-old Jonestown defector Patricia Parks. Jackie Speier was injured by five bullets. Steve Sung and Anthony Katsaris were also badly wounded. The deaths were described as occurring during a few minutes of shooting.

Surviving defectors and rescue

Five teenage members of the Parks and Bogue families, with one boyfriend, were told by defector Gerald Parks after the shooting to hide in the adjacent jungle until help arrived and their safety was assured. They went into the jungle but got lost for three days and nearly died, until they were found by Guyanese soldiers.

A Guyananese government plane came to evacuate the wounded the following morning.

Mara Moore and notes

An autopsy was performed on Moore at the insistence of her family. Moore's sister Rebecca Moore was described as having hosted a website about the disaster since 1999. Moore left a suicide note, and it was stated that another last note was left unsigned, either by Richard Tropp or by Marceline Jones.