Jonestown

The 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. Jonestown became internationally infamous when, on November 18, 1978, a total of 909 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.

In total, 918 individuals died in Jonestown, 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 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. In contrast, most sources today refer to the deaths with terms such as mass murder–suicide, a massacre, or simply mass murder. Seventy or more individuals at Jonestown were injected with poison, and a third of the victims (304) were minors. Guards armed with guns and crossbows had been ordered to shoot anyone who attempted to flee the settlement as Jones lobbied for suicide.

Origins

The Peoples Temple was formed by Jim Jones in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1955. Though its roots and teachings shared more with Christian revival movements than with Marxism, it purported to practice what it called " apostolic socialism". In doing so, the Temple preached that "those who remained drugged with the opiate of religion had to be brought to enlightenment—socialism."Jones, Jim
"Transcript of Recovered FBI tape Q 1053."
''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University. Jones had an interest in Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Adolf Hitler from a young age, and would later frequently praise Stalin and Vladimir Lenin as heroes. He was also upset with persecution against the Communist Party USA and was fascinated with the influence of religion. In the early 1960s, Jones visited Guyana – then a British colony – while on his way to establishing a short-lived Temple mission in Brazil.

After Jones received considerable criticism in Indiana for his integrationist views, the Temple moved to Redwood Valley, California, in 1965. In the early 1970s, the Temple opened other branches in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and would eventually move its headquarters to San Francisco.

With the move to San Francisco came increasing political involvement by the Temple and the high levels of approval they received from the local government. After the group's participation proved instrumental in the mayoral election victory of George Moscone in 1975, Moscone appointed Jones as the Chairman of the San Francisco Housing Authority Commission. Increasing public support in California gave Jones access to several high-ranking political figures, including vice presidential candidate Walter Mondale and First Lady Rosalynn Carter. Guests at a large 1976 testimonial dinner for Jones included Governor Jerry Brown, Lieutenant Governor Mervyn Dymally, and California Assemblyman Willie Brown, among others.

Jonestown established

Selection and establishment of Guyanese land

In the fall of 1973, after critical newspaper articles by Lester Kinsolving and the defection of eight Temple members, Jones and Temple attorney Tim Stoen prepared an "immediate action" contingency plan for responding to a police or media crackdown. The plan listed various options, including fleeing to Canada or to a "Caribbean missionary post" such as Barbados or Trinidad. For its Caribbean missionary post, the Temple quickly chose Guyana, conducting research on its economy and extradition treaties with the U.S. In October 1973, the directors of the Temple passed a resolution to establish an agricultural mission there.

The Temple chose Guyana, in part, because of the group's own socialist politics, which were moving further to the left during the selection process.''Paranoia And Delusions''
, ''Time'', December 11, 1978 Former Temple member Tim Carter stated that the reasons for choosing Guyana were the Temple's view of a perceived dominance of racism and multinational corporations in the U.S. government. According to Carter, the Temple concluded that Guyana, an English-speaking, socialist country with a predominantly indigenous population and with a government including prominent black leaders, would afford black Temple members a peaceful place to live.

Later, Guyanese Prime Minister Forbes Burnham stated that Jones may have "wanted to use cooperatives as the basis for the establishment of socialism, and maybe his idea of setting up a commune meshed with that". Jones also thought that Guyana was small, poor, and independent enough for him to easily obtain influence and official protection. He was skillful in presenting the Guyanese government the benefits of allowing the Peoples Temple to establish a settlement in the country. One of the main tactics was to speak of the advantages of their American presence near Guyana's disputed border with Venezuela. This idea seemed promising to the Burnham government, who feared a military incursion by Venezuela.

In 1974, after traveling to an area of northwestern Guyana with Guyanese officials, Jones and the Temple negotiated a lease of over of land in the jungle located west of the Guyanese capital of Georgetown.''Timeline: The Life and Death of Jim Jones''.
PBS.org. Retrieved April 9, 2007. The site, located near the disputed border with Venezuela, was isolated and had soil of low fertility, even by Guyanese standards. The nearest body of water was away by muddy roads.

Jonestown before mass migration

As 500 members began the construction of Jonestown, the Temple encouraged more to relocate to the settlement.Walliss, John, "Apocalyptic Trajectories : Millenarianism and Violence in the Contemporary World", Oxford, New York, 2004, Jones saw Jonestown as both a "socialist paradise" and a "sanctuary" from media scrutiny. In 1976, Guyana finally approved the lease it had negotiated (retroactive to April 1974) with the Temple for the over of land in northwest Guyana on which Jonestown was located.

In 1974, Guyanese officials granted the Temple permission to import certain items "duty free". Later payoffs helped safeguard shipments of firearms and drugs through Guyanese customs.

Jones reached an agreement to guarantee that Guyana would permit Temple members' mass migration. To do so, he stated that they were "skilled and progressive", showed off an envelope he claimed contained $500,000, and stated that he would invest most of the group's assets in Guyana. The relatively large number of immigrants to Guyana overwhelmed the government's small but stringent immigration infrastructure in a country where immigrants had outweighed locals.. Guyanese immigration procedures were compromised to inhibit the departure of Temple defectors and curtail the visas of Temple opponents.

Jonestown was held up as a benevolent communist community, with Jones stating: "I believe we're the purest communists there are."Jones, Jim
"Transcript of Recovered FBI tape Q 50."
''Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple''. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University. Jones' wife Marceline described Jonestown as "dedicated to live for socialism, total economic and racial and social equality. We are here living communally." Jones wanted to construct a model community and claimed that Burnham "couldn't rave enough about us, the wonderful things we do, the project, the model of socialism". Jones did not permit members to leave Jonestown without his express prior permission.

The Temple established offices in Georgetown and conducted numerous meetings with Burnham and other Guyanese officials. In 1976, Temple member Michael Prokes requested that Burnham receive Jones as a foreign dignitary along with other "high ranking U.S. officials". Jones traveled to Guyana with Dymally to meet with Burnham and Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Willis. In that meeting, Dymally agreed to pass on the message to the State Department that socialist Guyana wanted to keep an open door to cooperation with the U.S. Dymally followed up that meeting with a letter to Burnham stating that Jones was "one of the finest human beings" and that Dymally was "tremendously impressed" by his visit to Jonestown.

Temple members took pains to stress their loyalty to Burnham's People's National Congress Party. One Temple member, Paula Adams, was involved in a romantic relationship with Guyana's ambassador to the U.S., Laurence "Bonny" Mann. Jones bragged about other female Temple members he referred to as "public relations women" giving all for the cause in Jonestown.After the tragedy at Jonestown, Adams married Mann. On October 24, 1983, Mann fatally shot both Adams and the couple's child, and then fatally shot himself. (Weingarten, Gene
"The Peekaboo Paradox."
''The Washington Post''. January 22, 2006.) Viola Burnham, the wife of the prime minister, was also a strong advocate of the Temple.

Later, Burnham stated that Guyana allowed the Temple to operate in the manner it did on the references of Moscone, Mondale, and Rosalynn Carter. Burnham also said that, when Deputy Minister Ptolemy Reid

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