This Day in History: 18 November 2020
18 November 1978
42 years ago, today, Jim Jones, the founder of the Peoples Temple, led hundreds of his followers to commit mass suicide in Jonestown. Many of them willingly ingested a poison-laced drink while others were forced to do so at gunpoint. The final death toll at Jonestown that day was 909; a third of those who perished were children. He had commanded everyone to gather in the main pavilion and commit what he termed a 'revolutionary act'. The youngest members of the Peoples Temple were the first to die, as parents and nurses used syringes to poison the children. Adults then lined up to drink the poison while armed guards surrounded the pavilion.
People Temple was a Christian sect that preached against racism, attracting many African Americans. The church was accused by the media of financial fraud, physical abuse and mistreatment of children in the 1970s, causing Jones to move the congregation to Guyana, where he promised a socialist utopia. When Guyanese officials arrived at the Jonestown compound the next day, they found it carpeted with hundreds of bodies. Many people had perished with their arms around each other. A few residents managed to escape into the jungle as the suicides took place, while at least several dozen more Peoples Temple members, including several of Jones' sons, survived as they were in another part of Guyana at the time.
Want to find out more about the Jonestown massacre? Click here for more information, or here for more about how Jones spread his message of death.
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