Jonestown

For other uses, see Jonestown (disambiguation).

Peoples Temple Agricultural Project
"Jonestown"
Mission
The entrance to Jonestown
The entrance to Jonestown
Map
Coordinates: 7°41′22″N 59°57′0″W / 7.68944°N 59.95000°W / 7.68944; -59.95000
Country Guyana
Region Barima-Waini
Population
 (1978)
 • Total1,005
Jonestown is located in Guyana
Jonestown
Jonestown
Georgetown
Georgetown
Port Kaituma
Port Kaituma
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The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project's places of interest in Guyana

The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, better known by its informal name "Jonestown", was a remote settlement in Guyana established by the Peoples Temple, an American cult under the leadership of Jim Jones. Jonestown became internationally infamous when, on November 18, 1978, a total of 918[1][2] people died at the settlement, at the nearby airstrip in Port Kaituma, and at a Temple-run building in Georgetown, Guyana's capital city. The name of the settlement became synonymous with the incidents at those locations.[3]

A total of 909 individuals died in Jonestown itself,[1] all but two from apparent cyanide poisoning, a significant number of whom were injected against their will, in an event termed "revolutionary suicide" by Jones and some Peoples Temple members on an audio tape of the event, and in prior recorded discussions. The poisonings in Jonestown followed the murder of five others by Temple members at Port Kaituma, including U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan, an act that Jones ordered. Four other Temple members committed murder-suicide in Georgetown at Jones' command.

Terms used to describe the deaths in Jonestown and Georgetown have evolved over time. Many contemporary media accounts after the events called the deaths a mass suicide.[4][5] In contrast, later sources refer to the deaths with terms such as mass murder-suicide,[6] a massacre,[7][8] or simply mass murder.[9][10] Seventy or more individuals at Jonestown were injected with poison, and a third of the victims were minors.[11][12] Guards armed with firearms and crossbows had been ordered to shoot anyone who attempted to flee the settlement as Jones lobbied for suicide.[8][13]

  1. ^ a b "Inside the Jonestown massacre". CNN. November 13, 2008. Archived from the original on May 25, 2015. Retrieved May 14, 2015.
  2. ^ "How many people died on November 18?" Archived November 7, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.
  3. ^ "The Trauma of Marriage to a Temple Survivor". Official website of the project – Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. University of San Diego. Retrieved March 20, 2019.
  4. ^ "Mass suicide follows massacre". The Salina Journal. United Press International. November 20, 1978. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
  5. ^ "Woman, 76, slept through mass suicide". The Boston Globe. Associated Press. November 24, 1978. Retrieved June 10, 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "Jonestown | History, Facts, Jim Jones, & Survivors". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
  7. ^ Conroy, J. Oliver (November 17, 2018). "An apocalyptic cult, 900 dead: remembering the Jonestown massacre, 40 years on". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
  8. ^ a b "'Can't Sleep.' 'Beyond Imagination.' What It Was Like to Work on the Jonestown Massacre Clean-Up". Time. Retrieved June 10, 2019.
  9. ^ In the documentary Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, former member Stanley Clayton refused to "use the term 'suicide'" because "that man [Jones] was killing us"; another member, Tim Carter, said that the victims were "fucking slaughtered" and that their deaths had nothing to do with "revolutionary suicide".
  10. ^ "Murder or Suicide: What I Saw" by Tim Carter Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.
  11. ^ "WHY 900 DIED IN GUYANA' by Carey Winfrey Archived June 17, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. The New York Times, February 25, 1979
  12. ^ "How many children and minors died in Jonestown? What were their ages?" Archived November 5, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple. Department of Religious Studies, San Diego State University.
  13. ^ Goering, Laurie (May 10, 1997). "Guyanese Jungle Reclaiming Jonestown". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved June 10, 2019.