On November 18, 1978, the Leader of the People's Temple, Jim Jones, ordered all believers living in Jones, Guyana, to commit suicide en masse, ordering them to drink a highly toxic drink. On that day, a total of 918 people died, almost a third of them children.
Do you know about Kuroku brand beverages? If someone says "have a cup of kombat", do you have any ideas?
"Drink a cup of cool" is now a commonly used Idiom in the United States, referring to any one person or group of people who have a predestined or dangerous idea due to the pressure of their peers. The phrase often carries a negative connotation when used in individuals or groups, but can also be used in satire or humorous ways to refer to the act of accepting an idea or changing preferences because of popularity, peer pressure, or persuasion.
This phrase first came from the Jonestown Massacre on November 18, 1978. In the disaster, more than 900 members of the People's Temple, all followers of Jim Jones, committed suicide by drinking a cool drink that was packed with cyanide, tranquilizers, fina root, and chloral hydrate, and another group of believers, including 89 infants and the elderly, were forced to die of poisoning.
So what exactly was the Jonestown massacre?
The Jonestown massacre on camera
Prior to 9/11, the Jonestown Massacre was the largest number of deaths and injuries caused by unnatural disasters in U.S. history, and the only time in U.S. history that a member of Congress was killed while on a mission.
In 1978, adherents of the People's Temple committed mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, under the direction of cult leader Jim Jones
A suicide scene filmed from the air
His life: Jim Jones and the People's Temple
Leader of the People's Temple, Jim Jones
The faithful of the People's Temple
Jim Jones was born in 1931 in Lynn, a small town of just over 900 residents near Indianapolis. His childhood wish was to be a pastor and to give speeches. When he was playing games with children, he always liked to play the role of a priest, standing there and chanting something to everyone. He is said to have gathered a dozen or so friends at the age of seven or eight, giving them speeches, setting rules for them to do as he pleased, and sometimes beating them with wooden sticks. He also used to describe to them how those who sinned without listening to the advice of the priest would be burned by terrible fires in hell in the future.
In 1949, Jim Jones entered Indiana University. It is said that it took him ten years, intermittently, to attend lectures before he finally obtained a bachelor's degree. He went to work in a hospital and met nurse Marceline Baldwin, who was also an avid Believer. They soon fell in love and married.
Jim Jones began working at the Methodist Church in Indianapolis shortly after his marriage, only to be ostracized by some die-hard conservatives within the church. So Jones decided to build his own church, a church of true freedom and equality, a church that blacks could enter. In 1953, at the age of 22, Jones finally built a chapel on North New Jersey Street, named "National Public Church", and made himself pastor. It is said that all that went to this church were poor and helpless poor people. No one knows when this church no longer carries the beauty it wanted.
In 1965, Jim Jones founded the People's Temple, fully known as the People's Temple Christian (Believer) Church. Jones describes himself as the "Messiah" (the Christian term for the savior) of the "Revelation" and "Revelation". He said he was Jesus Christ and said, "I have long lived in this world." I came into the world for a special purpose, and those who follow me are my chosen people. Most of you followed Me before I incarnated. I incarnated as a Buddha thousands of years ago, and later, in a short time, I incarnated as a babu, that is, the person who established the Baha'i faith. I was born as Jesus Christ in the world, and I incarnated for the last time as Vladimir Lenin of Russia. He also concocted many "miracles," claiming to have been "born on another planet, like Superman, and therefore possessing divine powers"; his followers believed he had "camera-like memory"; and that he "miraculously overtook the car on a narrow and overcrowded mountain road." In a meeting, he would conjure up a rabbit out of his hat." His followers later recalled, "He just had to tell us what kind of nonsense the Bible was, and then perform a terrible set of miracles that even the Bible did not dare to write, so that people would listen to him completely." Jones created a mysterious aura for himself through various forms, and with this holy aura, it also attracted many admirers. In the People's Temple, Jones was fanatically worshipped and believed by the faithful.
Jones's original idea was to create a communist community where people could live in harmony while working for a common goal. He did in California, but later he dreamed of building a community outside the United States, hoping that it would be completely under his control, and that all the people's Templars in the community would help each other and stay away from any interference from the U.S. government.
Jonestown: The "perfect" choice in Guyana, South America
Map of Jonestown, Guyana
Aerial photo of Jonestown
Jones eventually found such a land in Guyana, South America, that met his requirements.
In 1973, he leased some land from the Government of Guyana and asked workers to begin clearing the jungle. Because all the construction materials need to be transported from the outside to Jonestown, the construction process is somewhat slow. At the beginning of 1977, there were only about 50 people living there, and Jones himself was still in the United States.
But that all changed when Jones received news that a former believer would be interviewed and exposed to his evil deeds. The night before the interview was published, Jim Jones flew directly to Guyana with hundreds of People's Templars and moved to Jonestown.
Changes in Jonestown: From Utopia to Human Purgatory
Jonestown was supposed to be a utopia, but when the believers arrived in Jonestown, everything didn't go as they expected. Since there were not enough houses to accommodate the faithful, each room was crowded with bunk beds. Gender differences also require living apart, so some married couples have to be forced to separate.
The heat and humidity of Jonestown were almost suffocating, and many believers were sick. At the same time, believers are asked to work long hours in hot flashes, 11 hours a day.
In town, all believers can hear Jones clearly through a single speaker. Unfortunately, Jones was always talking endlessly through the loudspeaker, even at night. After a long day of hard work, many believers had to listen to Jones's voice and try their best to fall asleep.
While there are some believers who enjoy living in Jonestown, there are still others who are eager to leave. With the entire town of Jones surrounded by large areas of jungle and many armed guards patrolling the area, the faithful had to get Jones's consent to leave. Jones, on the other hand, didn't want anyone to leave.
Alarming U.S. politics: Congressman Ryan visits Jonestown
Leo Ryan, a congressional representative from San Mateo, California, heard about all the evils that had happened in Jonestown and decided to come to Jonestown himself to find out the truth. He was accompanied by his advisers, members of NBC's working group, and the families of people's Templars who were concerned about the truth of the incident.
At first, everything looked good to Ryan and his team, but after one night of feasting, while everyone was dancing, someone secretly stuffed an ABC staff with the names of some believers who wanted to leave. Only then did it become clear that some people had been forced to stay in Jonestown.
The next day, November 18, 1978, Ryan announced that he was willing to take believers who wanted to leave back to the United States. Fearing Jones' reaction, only a handful accepted Ryan's offer.
Gunshots rang out: airport attacks
When it was time to leave, the People's Templars, who had indicated they were fleeing Jonestown, climbed into a truck with Ryan's team. The car didn't drive far, and Ryan decided to stay at the end to make sure he didn't leave any of the believers who wanted to leave, and he was attacked by the People's Templars.
The attackers failed to kill Ryan, but it became clear that Ryan and the others were in danger, and Ryan returned to the truck and left Jonestown with everyone.
The truck successfully and safely drove to the airport, waiting for the plane to take off. At this moment, a tractor trailer kept approaching them, and out of the trailer jumped a lot of People's Templar believers, and they began to shoot at Ryan's team. On the runway, multiple people were killed, including Congressman Ryan. Many other members of the entourage were seriously injured.
The investigative team that was shot and some of the faithful
Leo Ryan was killed in an ambush in northern Guyana after visiting the jungle headquarters of Jim Jones' controversial religious denomination in 1978 with 3 news crews
The U.S. military disposes of the body
Jonestown staged a mass suicide: drinking a toxic liquid
People's Temple Leader Jones is preaching
Back in Jonestown, Jones knew he was guilty and ordered everyone to assemble in the hall. After everyone had assembled, Jones began to speak. He looked a little panicked and agitated, and he was frustrated by the departure of some believers.
He told the faithful that Ryan's team had been attacked and that Jonestown was no longer safe because of the attack. Jones was sure that the U.S. government would react strongly to the attack on Ryan's team. He told the faithful: "When the government sends people to land from the air, they will surely strafe our innocent children." ”
Jones told his followers that the only way out was revolutionary suicide. One of the women objected, but jones refuted it, urging the faithful to commit suicide, saying, "If the people of the U.S. government land here, they will torture our children, the elderly." We can't let that happen. ”
In the hall were many huge kettles filled with grape-flavored liquids, filled with cyanide and tranquilizers. The children were brought first, and the poisonous juice was fed into their mouths through syringes. Then it was the mothers who drank the toxic liquid. This was followed by other believers.
If someone did not cooperate, the guards with guns and crossbows would persecute them. It took each person about 5 minutes from drinking the venom to dying.
The scene of the suicide is full of corpses
The scene of the suicide
Shocking: the death toll is nearly a thousand, and children are also victims
On 18 November 1978, 912 people, 276 of them children, drank poison and died. Jones died of a shot in the head and it remains unclear whether he committed suicide.
Only a small percentage survived, either because they escaped into the jungle or by hiding somewhere in Jonestown. In all, a total of 918 people died at the airport and in Jonestown.
The scene of the suicide
A monument to the suicide
The far-reaching effects of the Jonestown massacre
The Jonestown massacre had a profound impact on all aspects of people's lives:
A lot of movies use this as a theme. For example, the 2006 documentary "Jonestown Massacre: The Rise and Fall of the People's Templars", produced by Firelight Media and directed by Stanley Nelson, attracted a lot of attention as soon as it was released, and also won the Best Documentary Award in the Bay Area at the San Francisco Film Festival, the Outstanding Documentary Achievement Award at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2006, and the Nomination Award for documentary Society International in 2006. Another film is based on "Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. by a former San Francisco Auditor" reporter. Jim Jones and His People) invited Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan as writer and executive producer, with Michelle McLaren directing. Another example: In January 2016, Inside Stories Productions, an Oscar-nominated and famous American film star, produced a cult series in conjunction with A&E cable/satellite channel A&E Studios, which aimed to demystify jonestown in the first season. Gyllenhaal said: "Jim Jones is a complex character who has confused so many believers in his own way. We want to focus on the undeniable appeal of this fanatic, and the dangers that come with that charisma. ”
Many books also use the case as a model for what happened. For example, the book "Jonestown Survivors" recommended by the website of the Visaliatimesdelta.com in California, the author of the book is Laura Johnston Cole, a survivor of the mass suicide of that year. Cole saw Jim Jones as a father-like figure at the time; another book, Called The Cult of Fire Wheels, was inspired by Laura Johnston Cole's personal experiences in the cult, featuring a 17-year-old girl, Corrie, who was also captivated by the charisma of the cult leader, Promis.
Creatives built computer games based on the Jonestown massacre, including the anti-cult-themed, stealthy online game The Church in The Darkness, by renowned online game designer Richard Lothar III and his studio. The game's webpage emphasizes that no one is forced to join a cult; a cult welcomes you, it understands your mind, makes you feel mysterious, until you fall under the lie and leave you with nowhere to escape.
The "free town" of superficial idyllic life
Liberty Town is an isolated settlement
Killing in the game
Source: Chinese anti-cult