22 Facts About Jonestown

Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, better known by its informal name "Jonestown", was a remote settlement in Guyana established by the Peoples Temple, a U S –based cult under the leadership of Jim Jones.

The poisonings in Jonestown followed the murder of five others by Temple members at Port Kaituma, including Congressman Leo Ryan, an act that Jones ordered.

Seventy or more individuals at Jonestown were injected with poison, and a third of the victims were minors.

Jonestown was upset with persecution against the Communist Party USA and was fascinated with the influence of religion.

Jonestown was skillful in presenting the Guyanese government the benefits of allowing the Peoples Temple to establish a settlement in the country.

Related searches

Jonestown's population was slightly under 900 at its peak in 1978.

Jonestown's primary means of communication with the outside world was a shortwave radio.

Jones made frequent addresses to Temple members regarding Jonestown's safety, including statements that the CIA and other intelligence agencies were conspiring with "capitalist pigs" to destroy the settlement and harm its inhabitants.

Jonestown warned us that the time was not far off when it would become necessary for us to die by our own hands.

Rallies took an almost surreal tone as black activists Angela Davis and Huey Newton communicated via radio-telephone to the Jonestown crowd, urging them to hold strong against the "conspiracy".

Jonestown directed Temple members to write to over a dozen foreign governments inquiring about immigration policies relevant to another exodus by the Temple.

Jonestown wrote to the State Department inquiring about North Korea and Albania, then enduring the Sino-Albanian split.

Jonestown had stated that he preferred to stay within the Guyanese borders because of the sovereignty it afforded them.

In September 1978, Lane spoke to the residents of Jonestown, providing support for Jones' theories and comparing him to famed civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Jonestown wounded Bagby and Gosney, and tried to kill Dale Parks, who disarmed him after the gun misfired.

Jonestown stated that most present "quietly waited their own turn to die", and that many of the assembled Temple members "walked around like they were in a trance".

Jonestown's death was caused by a gunshot wound to his left temple that Guyanese Chief Medical Examiner Leslie Mootoo stated was consistent with being self-inflicted.

Only medical doctor to initially examine the scene at Jonestown was Mootoo, who visually examined over 200 bodies and later told a Guyanese coroner's jury of having seen needle marks on at least 70.

Jonestown was convicted of conspiracy and of aiding and abetting the murder of Ryan and of the attempted murder of Dwyer.

In 1984, former Temple member Tyrone Mitchell, who had lost both of his parents and five siblings at Jonestown, fired upon students at a Los Angeles elementary school from his second-story window, killing two people and injuring twelve; Mitchell then turned his weapon on himself and committed suicide.

In 1979, Joseph Hollinger, a former aide to Congressman Leo Ryan, claimed that Jonestown was a "mass mind control experiment" conducted by the CIA.

Now deserted, the compound at Jonestown was first tended by the Guyanese government following the deaths.