WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.419 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we are tackling 00:00:02.419 --> 00:00:06.559 a subject that sits in a very strange place in 00:00:06.559 --> 00:00:09.160 our collective memory. It's a story that almost 00:00:09.160 --> 00:00:12.119 everyone feels like they know, or at least they 00:00:12.119 --> 00:00:14.880 know the ending. It's an event that has literally 00:00:14.880 --> 00:00:17.879 entered our language as a shorthand for blind 00:00:17.879 --> 00:00:20.670 obedience. You are referring, of course, to the 00:00:20.670 --> 00:00:23.070 phrase drinking the Kool -Aid. Exactly. It's 00:00:23.070 --> 00:00:24.989 used so casually now. I mean, you hear it all 00:00:24.989 --> 00:00:27.289 the time. Someone buys into a corporate strategy 00:00:27.289 --> 00:00:29.989 a little too much or they're maybe too enthusiastic 00:00:29.989 --> 00:00:31.969 about a new tech trend. And we say, oh, they're 00:00:31.969 --> 00:00:34.469 drinking the Kool -Aid. But when you actually 00:00:34.469 --> 00:00:36.869 look at the stack of sources we have for today, 00:00:36.969 --> 00:00:38.850 specifically the history of the People's Temple, 00:00:38.990 --> 00:00:42.710 the reality behind that phrase is just, well, 00:00:42.770 --> 00:00:45.130 it's gut -wrenching. It's not a joke. And as 00:00:45.130 --> 00:00:46.909 we'll find out, it wasn't even Kool -Aid. It 00:00:46.909 --> 00:00:49.009 certainly wasn't a joke. And frankly, the popular 00:00:49.009 --> 00:00:51.990 understanding of the People's Temple is often 00:00:51.990 --> 00:00:56.289 quite shallow. We tend to view it as this inexplicable 00:00:56.289 --> 00:00:59.090 explosion of madness in the South American jungle. 00:00:59.350 --> 00:01:01.570 We picture a group of zombies following a man 00:01:01.570 --> 00:01:03.289 in sunglasses. I think that's the caricature. 00:01:03.429 --> 00:01:05.150 That's the one. But the sources we're looking 00:01:05.150 --> 00:01:08.769 at today paint a very... different, much more 00:01:08.769 --> 00:01:11.129 complex picture. This wasn't just a sudden death 00:01:11.129 --> 00:01:12.769 cult that popped up out of nowhere. I mean, this 00:01:12.769 --> 00:01:15.230 was a political movement, a religious organization 00:01:15.230 --> 00:01:18.310 and a social experiment that spanned decades. 00:01:18.489 --> 00:01:20.730 And that's really the mission for this deep dive. 00:01:20.829 --> 00:01:23.469 We want to move past that caricature of Jim Jones 00:01:23.469 --> 00:01:26.329 and really unpack the how and the why. Because 00:01:26.329 --> 00:01:28.730 when you look at the numbers, this scale of this 00:01:28.730 --> 00:01:31.769 tragedy is just staggering. It is. Let's just 00:01:31.769 --> 00:01:33.890 establish the gravity of the finale before we 00:01:33.890 --> 00:01:35.590 go back to the beginning to see how we even got 00:01:35.590 --> 00:01:40.269 there. November 18th, 1978, Jonestown, Guyana, 00:01:40.390 --> 00:01:45.500 918 people died. 918. That number is... It's 00:01:45.500 --> 00:01:47.640 just hard to even visualize. It is. And to put 00:01:47.640 --> 00:01:49.299 that in perspective for you, until the attacks 00:01:49.299 --> 00:01:52.280 on September 11, 2001, this was the single largest 00:01:52.280 --> 00:01:54.379 loss of American civilian life in a deliberate 00:01:54.379 --> 00:01:56.840 act. And that number included the murder of a 00:01:56.840 --> 00:01:59.400 U .S. congressman, Leo Ryan, on a foreign airstrip. 00:01:59.500 --> 00:02:02.140 It's just, it's unbelievable. But to understand 00:02:02.140 --> 00:02:05.180 how we got to that horrific day in 1978, we have 00:02:05.180 --> 00:02:08.280 to go back much, much further to a time and place 00:02:08.280 --> 00:02:10.750 that might surprise you. Yeah, this is the first 00:02:10.750 --> 00:02:12.409 hook that really grabbed me in the research. 00:02:12.650 --> 00:02:15.550 You expect this story to start in some, I don't 00:02:15.550 --> 00:02:18.330 know, some spooky, isolated compound or maybe 00:02:18.330 --> 00:02:21.090 the foggy counterculture streets of San Francisco 00:02:21.090 --> 00:02:23.710 in the late 60s. Right. But it actually starts 00:02:23.710 --> 00:02:26.550 in the 1950s in the heart of the Midwest, Indiana. 00:02:27.129 --> 00:02:29.460 Precisely. And it didn't start with a message 00:02:29.460 --> 00:02:31.919 of death or control. It started with a message 00:02:31.919 --> 00:02:35.379 of racial integration and social justice. And 00:02:35.379 --> 00:02:37.139 this is where it gets really fascinating because 00:02:37.139 --> 00:02:39.500 the man at the center of it, Jim Jones, wasn't 00:02:39.500 --> 00:02:41.819 your typical preacher. In fact, based on his 00:02:41.819 --> 00:02:43.939 own admissions later in life, he might not have 00:02:43.939 --> 00:02:45.979 been a believer in the traditional sense at all. 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:48.060 OK, this is the part that just blew my mind. 00:02:48.139 --> 00:02:50.319 We have this quote from a biographical recording 00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:53.120 Jones made. He's talking about his mindset in 00:02:53.120 --> 00:02:56.099 the early 1950s. He was interested in communism. 00:02:56.699 --> 00:02:59.139 But you have to remember, this was the absolute 00:02:59.139 --> 00:03:01.800 height of the Red Scare in America. Oh, absolutely. 00:03:01.919 --> 00:03:04.819 The McCarthy era. If you were a communist or 00:03:04.819 --> 00:03:06.759 even just suspected of being a sympathizer, you 00:03:06.759 --> 00:03:08.680 were basically public enemy number one. You could 00:03:08.680 --> 00:03:10.319 lose your job, your social standing, everything. 00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:13.520 It was a very paranoid time. Totally. So you 00:03:13.520 --> 00:03:15.300 couldn't just go out and be a loud and proud 00:03:15.300 --> 00:03:17.919 Marxist without getting into some serious trouble. 00:03:18.780 --> 00:03:22.919 So listen to this quote from Jones himself. I 00:03:22.919 --> 00:03:26.400 decided, how can I demonstrate my Marxism? The 00:03:26.400 --> 00:03:29.939 thought was, infiltrate the church. Wow. That 00:03:29.939 --> 00:03:32.240 phrase, infiltrate the church, that's the key. 00:03:32.520 --> 00:03:34.780 That's the key to understanding everything that 00:03:34.780 --> 00:03:37.340 follows. It changes the entire lens through which 00:03:37.340 --> 00:03:39.639 we view his early career. It really does. It 00:03:39.639 --> 00:03:42.000 sounds like the plot of a spy novel. He viewed 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:44.319 the entire structure of the church not as a place 00:03:44.319 --> 00:03:48.240 of worship, but as a vehicle. A Trojan horse. 00:03:48.479 --> 00:03:50.659 Exactly. It was a purely utilitarian approach 00:03:50.659 --> 00:03:53.300 to religion. He saw that the church had a captive 00:03:53.300 --> 00:03:56.099 audience, an existing hierarchy, a way to mobilize 00:03:56.099 --> 00:03:58.740 people. He figured if he could wrap his Marxist 00:03:58.740 --> 00:04:00.960 ideology in the language of Pentecostal Christianity, 00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:03.819 he could reach people who would never, ever step 00:04:03.819 --> 00:04:06.020 foot in a communist meeting hall. He basically 00:04:06.020 --> 00:04:08.680 saw the church as a delivery system for a political 00:04:08.680 --> 00:04:11.060 virus. That's a great way to put it. And he actually 00:04:11.060 --> 00:04:13.419 found help doing this. The source mentions a 00:04:13.419 --> 00:04:15.599 Methodist superintendent who helped him get his 00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:17.740 start in the church, even though the superintendent 00:04:17.740 --> 00:04:21.110 knew Jones was a communist. Wait, really? The 00:04:21.110 --> 00:04:23.509 superintendent knew. That's a detail that often 00:04:23.509 --> 00:04:26.430 gets overlooked, but it's crucial. It suggests 00:04:26.430 --> 00:04:29.350 that even back then, Jones had this charisma 00:04:29.350 --> 00:04:32.589 that made people overlook the massive red flags. 00:04:32.670 --> 00:04:34.750 Or maybe the superintendent thought Jones's energy 00:04:34.750 --> 00:04:37.889 could be, you know, fixed or directed. He probably 00:04:37.889 --> 00:04:39.509 thought, well, he's radical, but he's passionate 00:04:39.509 --> 00:04:41.490 about helping the poor. So maybe we can use that. 00:04:41.850 --> 00:04:44.009 A dangerous gamble. A very dangerous gamble. 00:04:44.430 --> 00:04:46.910 But Jones ran into roadblocks almost immediately. 00:04:47.170 --> 00:04:50.850 In 1952, he was a student pastor at a Methodist 00:04:50.850 --> 00:04:53.970 church, but he left. Do you recall why? Yeah. 00:04:54.009 --> 00:04:56.269 And this is where the story gets so morally complicated, 00:04:56.410 --> 00:04:58.689 because he left for a reason that actually sounds, 00:04:58.790 --> 00:05:01.709 well, noble. He wanted to integrate the church. 00:05:01.810 --> 00:05:03.629 He wanted African -Americans in the congregation. 00:05:04.089 --> 00:05:06.529 And the white church leadership just said no. 00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:09.800 flat out correct and this is the paradox of jim 00:05:09.800 --> 00:05:11.540 jones that we have to wrestle with throughout 00:05:11.540 --> 00:05:14.759 this entire deep dive here he is fighting for 00:05:14.759 --> 00:05:17.980 racial equality in 1950s indiana which was a 00:05:17.980 --> 00:05:21.439 very segregated time and place so in 1954 he 00:05:21.439 --> 00:05:24.720 says fine i'll do it myself he founded his own 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:27.329 church It went through a few names, but eventually 00:05:27.329 --> 00:05:29.730 became the People's Temple Full Gospel Church, 00:05:29.930 --> 00:05:32.829 specifically to be a racially integrated congregation. 00:05:33.250 --> 00:05:35.470 And he was aggressive about it. He didn't just, 00:05:35.509 --> 00:05:37.029 you know, open the doors and hope people showed 00:05:37.029 --> 00:05:39.329 up. He went out and actively recruited African 00:05:39.329 --> 00:05:41.930 -Americans. The membership shifted from something 00:05:41.930 --> 00:05:44.689 like 15 percent black to nearly 50 percent black. 00:05:44.829 --> 00:05:46.470 And it wasn't just talk. This is so important 00:05:46.470 --> 00:05:48.670 to understand. They opened soup kitchens. They 00:05:48.670 --> 00:05:50.790 were doing job placement. They were buying coal 00:05:50.790 --> 00:05:52.889 for people to heat their homes in the winter. 00:05:52.970 --> 00:05:55.449 So it was tangible help. Exactly. We have to 00:05:55.449 --> 00:05:58.350 understand the context of the attendees. If you 00:05:58.350 --> 00:06:00.910 were a marginalized person in Indianapolis in 00:06:00.910 --> 00:06:03.709 1955, maybe you were struggling to pay rent. 00:06:03.829 --> 00:06:05.589 Maybe you couldn't find a job because of the 00:06:05.589 --> 00:06:08.410 color of your skin. The People's Temple didn't 00:06:08.410 --> 00:06:11.009 look like a sinister cult. It looked like a savior. 00:06:11.269 --> 00:06:13.769 It looked like the only institution in town that 00:06:13.769 --> 00:06:15.589 actually gave a damn about whether you froze 00:06:15.589 --> 00:06:18.600 to death. But... And here's the massive but that 00:06:18.600 --> 00:06:21.420 always comes with Jim Jones. There was a manipulation 00:06:21.420 --> 00:06:24.319 happening right alongside all that charity. It 00:06:24.319 --> 00:06:26.800 wasn't just benevolence. No, it was a means to 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:29.480 an end. And that brings us to the healings. The 00:06:29.480 --> 00:06:31.980 healings. The source material details this, and 00:06:31.980 --> 00:06:35.120 it is genuinely gross. Jones realized very quickly 00:06:35.120 --> 00:06:37.220 that to draw a big crowd, and more importantly, 00:06:37.300 --> 00:06:40.069 to draw in money, you needed a spectacle. He 00:06:40.069 --> 00:06:42.689 had observed a Seventh -day Baptist faith healing 00:06:42.689 --> 00:06:45.170 service and basically saw the financial potential. 00:06:45.350 --> 00:06:48.069 He saw the economics of faith. He realized that 00:06:48.069 --> 00:06:50.790 a dry sermon on Marxism draws, what, 10 people? 00:06:50.870 --> 00:06:53.730 But a miracle, a supposed miracle, draws 1 ,000. 00:06:53.889 --> 00:06:56.730 So he decided to fake it. But not just, you know, 00:06:56.730 --> 00:06:58.870 lay hands on someone and say you're cured. He 00:06:58.870 --> 00:07:02.120 went for a full theatrical scam. He did the infamous 00:07:02.120 --> 00:07:05.000 chicken liver technique. I could not believe 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:06.939 this when I read it. Break that down for us because 00:07:06.939 --> 00:07:09.540 it sounds completely insane. Well, it is gruesome, 00:07:09.540 --> 00:07:12.319 but it was disturbingly effective for his purposes. 00:07:13.019 --> 00:07:15.779 Jones and his inner circle, his confederates, 00:07:15.819 --> 00:07:18.720 would get animal tissue, often chicken livers 00:07:18.720 --> 00:07:21.920 or gizzards. So during a service, Jones would 00:07:21.920 --> 00:07:25.740 claim to remove a cancer or a tumor from a congregant's 00:07:25.740 --> 00:07:28.100 body. So he's operating on them right there on 00:07:28.100 --> 00:07:31.139 stage. Through sleight of hand, a nurse might 00:07:31.139 --> 00:07:33.339 pass him a towel with a tissue hidden in it or 00:07:33.339 --> 00:07:35.779 he'd have it palmed. He'd pretend to reach into 00:07:35.779 --> 00:07:38.019 their body and then pull out this bloody tissue 00:07:38.019 --> 00:07:40.959 as physical proof that the sickness had been 00:07:40.959 --> 00:07:43.240 pulled out of them. Oh, my God. So imagine being 00:07:43.240 --> 00:07:45.160 in that audience. You're desperate. Maybe you're 00:07:45.160 --> 00:07:47.699 sick or you're poor. And you see this man literally 00:07:47.699 --> 00:07:49.819 pull a tumor out of someone. You see the blood. 00:07:50.279 --> 00:07:52.740 You see the tissue. You'd think he was a god. 00:07:53.000 --> 00:07:55.959 And that was the point. It generated resources. 00:07:57.019 --> 00:07:59.360 They admitted later that they knowingly faked 00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:01.439 these healings to fund their social programs. 00:08:01.699 --> 00:08:04.839 It's a classic ends justify the means mentality. 00:08:05.180 --> 00:08:09.329 We are scamming you, but hey. We are using your 00:08:09.329 --> 00:08:12.009 money to feed the poor. Jones justified it to 00:08:12.009 --> 00:08:14.569 himself as a necessary evil to build the movement. 00:08:14.790 --> 00:08:17.069 It's just so incredibly manipulative. And it 00:08:17.069 --> 00:08:18.810 worked. He hooked up with the Latter Rain movement. 00:08:18.850 --> 00:08:22.430 Yes. This was a post -World War II healing revival 00:08:22.430 --> 00:08:25.250 movement. Jones connected with a man named William 00:08:25.250 --> 00:08:27.870 Branham, who was a massive, massive figure in 00:08:27.870 --> 00:08:30.250 that world. Branham endorsed Jones. They held 00:08:30.250 --> 00:08:32.409 these huge joint conventions. And suddenly Jones 00:08:32.409 --> 00:08:35.149 went from being a local Indiana preacher to a 00:08:35.149 --> 00:08:37.409 guy filling auditoriums with 11 ,000 people. 00:08:37.580 --> 00:08:39.259 And he was using other tricks there, too, wasn't 00:08:39.259 --> 00:08:41.200 he? Like telling people their addresses and social 00:08:41.200 --> 00:08:44.559 security numbers. Classic mentalist tricks. His 00:08:44.559 --> 00:08:46.259 team would go through people's garbage. They 00:08:46.259 --> 00:08:48.620 actually called it trash sifting. Or they'd use 00:08:48.620 --> 00:08:51.100 private detectives to find this information beforehand. 00:08:51.980 --> 00:08:54.120 Then Jones gets up on the pulpit and reveals 00:08:54.120 --> 00:08:58.100 it as a prophetic word. There is a woman here, 00:08:58.179 --> 00:09:01.200 Sarah. You live at 123 Elm Street. Your social 00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:03.659 security number ends in 45. And the person in 00:09:03.659 --> 00:09:05.549 the crowd just thinks. How could he possibly 00:09:05.549 --> 00:09:09.529 know that? It must be God. Exactly. It solidified 00:09:09.529 --> 00:09:12.490 his authority as someone with supernatural insight. 00:09:12.730 --> 00:09:15.850 It made him unquestionable. You can't argue with 00:09:15.850 --> 00:09:17.409 a man who knows the contents of your wallet. 00:09:17.649 --> 00:09:19.830 So let's just pause and look at the board here. 00:09:19.909 --> 00:09:22.600 You have this growing empire in Indiana. He's 00:09:22.600 --> 00:09:24.799 got money flowing in from the fake healings. 00:09:24.799 --> 00:09:26.960 He's got a devoted, integrated following because 00:09:26.960 --> 00:09:29.340 of the genuine social work. But then as we move 00:09:29.340 --> 00:09:32.220 into the 1960s, the theology itself starts to 00:09:32.220 --> 00:09:33.840 shift. He starts pivoting away from anything 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:36.340 resembling standard Christianity. This brings 00:09:36.340 --> 00:09:38.720 us to part two of our outline, this concept of 00:09:38.720 --> 00:09:41.240 apostolic socialism. This is really important 00:09:41.240 --> 00:09:43.440 to understand. Jones didn't just wake up one 00:09:43.440 --> 00:09:46.159 day and say, worship me. It was a gradual erosion 00:09:46.159 --> 00:09:49.179 of their previous beliefs, piece by piece. He 00:09:49.179 --> 00:09:51.779 started by attacking what he called flyaway religion. 00:09:51.980 --> 00:09:56.279 Right. He derided the idea of a sky god. That 00:09:56.279 --> 00:09:58.299 was his mocking term for the traditional Christian 00:09:58.299 --> 00:10:01.259 god, who promises rewards in the afterlife while 00:10:01.259 --> 00:10:04.500 you suffer here on Earth. Jones argued that the 00:10:04.500 --> 00:10:07.019 Bible was a paper idol used to oppress women 00:10:07.019 --> 00:10:10.100 and non -whites. He basically told them, you 00:10:10.100 --> 00:10:12.159 are suffering right now, and this book tells 00:10:12.159 --> 00:10:14.120 you to just take it and wait for heaven. I'm 00:10:14.120 --> 00:10:16.870 telling you to change things now. There's a dramatic 00:10:16.870 --> 00:10:19.169 account in the sources where he literally throws 00:10:19.169 --> 00:10:21.490 the Bible down on the ground during a service. 00:10:21.690 --> 00:10:23.970 He throws it down, he stomps on it, and he yells 00:10:23.970 --> 00:10:25.730 that he has to destroy this paper idol because 00:10:25.730 --> 00:10:28.690 it's a tool of oppression. Now think about that. 00:10:28.750 --> 00:10:31.409 That is a bold, dangerous move for a pastor. 00:10:31.610 --> 00:10:33.149 It's incredible that people stayed. I mean, you 00:10:33.149 --> 00:10:34.990 go to church on Sunday and the pastor stomps 00:10:34.990 --> 00:10:37.450 on the Bible. That's a line for most people. 00:10:37.529 --> 00:10:40.059 But you have to remember the Trojan horse. By 00:10:40.059 --> 00:10:41.740 this point, he had already convinced them that 00:10:41.740 --> 00:10:43.740 he was the one providing for them, not the sky 00:10:43.740 --> 00:10:46.299 god. He was the one who got them a job. He was 00:10:46.299 --> 00:10:48.039 the one who paid their rent. He had the food, 00:10:48.059 --> 00:10:51.100 the heating coal, the community. So when he replaced 00:10:51.100 --> 00:10:54.179 the Bible, he replaced it with himself. He started 00:10:54.179 --> 00:10:56.220 teaching that the divine principle was the true 00:10:56.220 --> 00:10:59.039 God. What even is that? It was intentionally 00:10:59.039 --> 00:11:02.120 vague. He created this kind of transitive property 00:11:02.120 --> 00:11:04.600 of theology. It was very clever. He said, the 00:11:04.600 --> 00:11:08.039 divine principle is God. Okay. Then he said, 00:11:08.100 --> 00:11:11.490 the divine principle is love. And then love is 00:11:11.490 --> 00:11:14.570 socialism. Therefore, God is socialism. Exactly. 00:11:14.570 --> 00:11:17.830 And if God is socialism and Jim Jones is the 00:11:17.830 --> 00:11:19.970 leader of the socialist movement. Then he's God. 00:11:20.429 --> 00:11:22.509 He eventually just said it. He told the congregation, 00:11:22.870 --> 00:11:26.009 I am come as God's socialist. He positioned himself 00:11:26.009 --> 00:11:28.490 as a messianic figure, a living embodiment of 00:11:28.490 --> 00:11:30.769 their belief system. And he structured the community 00:11:30.769 --> 00:11:33.669 to reflect that, borrowing heavily from a man 00:11:33.669 --> 00:11:35.570 named Father Divine and the peace mission movement. 00:11:35.909 --> 00:11:38.049 This is where the religious communalism kicks 00:11:38.049 --> 00:11:39.990 in. Right. This is the part where the isolation 00:11:39.990 --> 00:11:42.909 really starts to ramp up. The deal was you give 00:11:42.909 --> 00:11:45.250 the temple everything, your house, your car, 00:11:45.389 --> 00:11:48.139 your savings account, your entire life. And in 00:11:48.139 --> 00:11:50.740 exchange, the temple takes care of all your needs. 00:11:51.039 --> 00:11:53.559 He used a very clever mix of Marx and the Bible 00:11:53.559 --> 00:11:56.340 to sell it. He'd quote Marx's From Each According 00:11:56.340 --> 00:11:58.779 to His Ability to Each According to His Need. 00:11:59.080 --> 00:12:01.159 But then he'd immediately tie it to the Book 00:12:01.159 --> 00:12:03.639 of Acts, Chapter 4, where the early apostles 00:12:03.639 --> 00:12:06.360 held all things in common. It made the communism 00:12:06.360 --> 00:12:08.940 sound biblical. It made it palatable to his Christian 00:12:08.940 --> 00:12:11.279 followers. But it wasn't just financial isolation. 00:12:11.539 --> 00:12:14.460 It was social isolation. He started demanding 00:12:14.460 --> 00:12:17.840 that members spend Holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas 00:12:17.840 --> 00:12:20.419 with their temple family, not their blood relatives. 00:12:20.639 --> 00:12:22.740 And that is a hallmark of high control groups. 00:12:22.960 --> 00:12:25.399 You have to sever the external ties. If your 00:12:25.399 --> 00:12:27.360 biological family disagrees with the temple, 00:12:27.500 --> 00:12:29.419 well then they are the enemy. They're part of 00:12:29.419 --> 00:12:31.519 the corrupt capitalist system. You create an 00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:34.600 us versus them mentality. And nothing builds 00:12:34.600 --> 00:12:37.379 us versus them better than fear. Which leads 00:12:37.379 --> 00:12:40.919 us to the big move out west. The exodus. So Indiana 00:12:40.919 --> 00:12:43.580 wasn't enough anymore. And Jones had a vision. 00:12:43.720 --> 00:12:47.480 Or a vision. Right. In 1961, he claimed to have 00:12:47.480 --> 00:12:49.659 a vision that Chicago and Indianapolis would 00:12:49.659 --> 00:12:52.379 be destroyed in a nuclear attack. And remember, 00:12:52.539 --> 00:12:54.679 this is the height of the Cold War. The Cuban 00:12:54.679 --> 00:12:56.980 Missile Crisis was right around the corner. The 00:12:56.980 --> 00:12:59.740 fear of the bomb was very, very real in the American 00:12:59.740 --> 00:13:01.960 psyche. People were building fallout shelters 00:13:01.960 --> 00:13:05.159 in their backyards. So he's tapping into a very 00:13:05.159 --> 00:13:09.299 real existing fear. But the source of his safety 00:13:09.299 --> 00:13:11.639 information is just hilarious in a really dark 00:13:11.639 --> 00:13:13.820 way. He didn't get it from God. He got it from 00:13:13.820 --> 00:13:17.460 a magazine. Esquire magazine, January 1962. They 00:13:17.460 --> 00:13:19.340 published an article listing the nine safest 00:13:19.340 --> 00:13:22.019 places to survive a nuclear war based on wind 00:13:22.019 --> 00:13:24.879 patterns and geography. One was Belo Horizonte 00:13:24.879 --> 00:13:26.919 in Brazil, where Jones actually visited for a 00:13:26.919 --> 00:13:29.460 while. And another was the area around Ukiah 00:13:29.460 --> 00:13:32.200 in Northern California. You're kidding. Esquire. 00:13:32.299 --> 00:13:34.879 You can't make it up. His divine revelation about 00:13:34.879 --> 00:13:36.840 where to lead his people to safety came from 00:13:36.840 --> 00:13:39.460 a men's lifestyle magazine. So purely based on 00:13:39.460 --> 00:13:41.659 that magazine article, he uses this apocalyptic 00:13:41.659 --> 00:13:44.559 fear to pack up the loyalists, about 140 of his 00:13:44.559 --> 00:13:46.799 most dedicated followers, and they move to Redwood 00:13:46.799 --> 00:13:50.679 Valley near Ukiah, California in 1965. And this 00:13:50.679 --> 00:13:54.299 was a critical filter, a brilliant manipulative 00:13:54.299 --> 00:13:57.200 move. By moving them across the country, he separated 00:13:57.200 --> 00:14:00.480 the casual attendees from the diehard followers. 00:14:01.440 --> 00:14:03.240 If you just liked the soup kitchen, you stayed 00:14:03.240 --> 00:14:05.779 in Indiana. If you were willing to uproot your 00:14:05.779 --> 00:14:07.820 entire life and move to California with him, 00:14:07.860 --> 00:14:09.899 you were all in. You were completely dependent 00:14:09.899 --> 00:14:12.360 on him in a strange new place. And once he gets 00:14:12.360 --> 00:14:14.659 to California, a recruitment machine just goes 00:14:14.659 --> 00:14:16.679 into overdrive again. Yeah. The guy was relentless. 00:14:16.740 --> 00:14:19.179 He gets a job as a teacher. Yes, adult education. 00:14:19.559 --> 00:14:21.879 And he used the classroom to recruit. He'd plant 00:14:21.879 --> 00:14:24.440 loyal temple members in the class to nod along 00:14:24.440 --> 00:14:27.220 and agree with his Marxist lectures. It creates 00:14:27.220 --> 00:14:30.700 what psychologists call social proof. If everyone 00:14:30.700 --> 00:14:32.519 else in the room is nodding and saying amen, 00:14:32.779 --> 00:14:35.159 you start to think, well, maybe he's right. He 00:14:35.159 --> 00:14:37.480 recruited 50 new members just from his classes 00:14:37.480 --> 00:14:39.539 very quickly. And they expanded. They weren't 00:14:39.539 --> 00:14:41.919 just staying in the woods of Ukiah. They moved 00:14:41.919 --> 00:14:44.700 into the cities, San Francisco and Los Angeles. 00:14:45.379 --> 00:14:46.860 This is where I want to talk about the buses. 00:14:46.879 --> 00:14:49.539 I've seen pictures of these. The fleet of Greyhound 00:14:49.539 --> 00:14:52.470 cruisers. The Temple Cruisers, they had a fleet 00:14:52.470 --> 00:14:56.029 of 10 to 15 of these huge buses. They would tour 00:14:56.029 --> 00:14:58.830 the state, even the country, recruiting and fundraising. 00:14:59.409 --> 00:15:02.190 Jones wrote in bus number seven. Which was special, 00:15:02.230 --> 00:15:04.549 right? It was modified. It was lined with metal 00:15:04.549 --> 00:15:07.169 plates for protection. He was already paranoid, 00:15:07.330 --> 00:15:09.370 or at least he was projecting paranoia to his 00:15:09.370 --> 00:15:11.669 followers. He told them he was a target. They 00:15:11.669 --> 00:15:14.529 were out to get him, the capitalists, the fascists, 00:15:14.529 --> 00:15:17.049 the CIA. And the money just kept rolling in. 00:15:17.440 --> 00:15:20.440 The source says they were netting $15 ,000 to 00:15:20.440 --> 00:15:23.919 $25 ,000 a week just in Los Angeles. That is 00:15:23.919 --> 00:15:26.080 a massive amount of money in the early 70s. We're 00:15:26.080 --> 00:15:29.850 talking millions in today's money. Massive. And 00:15:29.850 --> 00:15:31.950 they were selling trinkets, too. Healing oils, 00:15:32.250 --> 00:15:34.929 keychains, blessed photos of Jones. And again, 00:15:34.990 --> 00:15:36.929 the hypocrisy is just stunning. Jones is preaching 00:15:36.929 --> 00:15:39.529 against idol worship and capitalism. But if he 00:15:39.529 --> 00:15:42.149 could sell a blessed photo of himself to pay 00:15:42.149 --> 00:15:44.429 for the gas and the buses, he'd do it in a heartbeat. 00:15:44.710 --> 00:15:47.070 So they have the money, they have the members, 00:15:47.269 --> 00:15:50.269 and now they are in the big city, San Francisco. 00:15:50.330 --> 00:15:52.990 This brings us to part four of our outline, the 00:15:52.990 --> 00:15:55.690 San Francisco years. And this is the part that 00:15:55.690 --> 00:15:59.820 really challenges that fringe cult. Because in 00:15:59.820 --> 00:16:01.820 San Francisco, they weren't on the margins at 00:16:01.820 --> 00:16:04.299 all. They were players. They were a political 00:16:04.299 --> 00:16:07.509 machine. By the mid -70s, the temple claimed 00:16:07.509 --> 00:16:10.769 to have 20 ,000 members. Now, historians think 00:16:10.769 --> 00:16:13.210 the reality was probably closer to 3 ,000 or 00:16:13.210 --> 00:16:16.129 maybe 5 ,000 active members, but that doesn't 00:16:16.129 --> 00:16:18.210 really matter. What mattered was mobilization. 00:16:18.649 --> 00:16:21.169 Jones could snap his fingers and have 2 ,000 00:16:21.169 --> 00:16:23.970 volunteers ready to walk precincts, stuff envelopes, 00:16:23.970 --> 00:16:26.309 or show up at a protest within six hours. That 00:16:26.309 --> 00:16:28.610 is a politician's absolute dream. You can't buy 00:16:28.610 --> 00:16:30.769 that kind of loyalty or that kind of manpower. 00:16:30.990 --> 00:16:33.330 Exactly. And that political power bought him 00:16:33.330 --> 00:16:35.559 mainstream legitimacy. He wasn't some weirdo 00:16:35.559 --> 00:16:37.759 on the outside looking in anymore. He was instrumental 00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:39.960 in getting George Moscone elected as mayor of 00:16:39.960 --> 00:16:43.379 San Francisco in 1975. It was a super tight race. 00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:45.799 And the temple volunteers stuffing envelopes 00:16:45.799 --> 00:16:47.539 and getting out the vote likely made the difference. 00:16:47.759 --> 00:16:51.120 And Moscone rewarded him for it. He appointed 00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:53.299 Jim Jones as the chairman of the San Francisco 00:16:53.299 --> 00:16:55.559 Housing Authority Commission. I mean, let that 00:16:55.559 --> 00:16:57.899 sink in for a second. The guy who would later 00:16:57.899 --> 00:17:00.940 order the death of over 900 people was in charge 00:17:00.940 --> 00:17:03.450 of public housing in a major American city. It 00:17:03.450 --> 00:17:05.650 creates a massive cognitive dissonance, doesn't 00:17:05.650 --> 00:17:08.089 it? He was a bureaucrat. He sat in meetings. 00:17:08.210 --> 00:17:10.849 He banged a gavel. And look at the list of supporters. 00:17:11.190 --> 00:17:14.190 The source names them explicitly. Governor Jerry 00:17:14.190 --> 00:17:17.009 Brown, Willie Brown, who is one of the most powerful 00:17:17.009 --> 00:17:19.529 politicians in California, and most famously, 00:17:19.670 --> 00:17:22.150 Harvey Milk. Harvey Milk wrote letters supporting 00:17:22.150 --> 00:17:24.710 Jones. He spoke at temple rallies. He did. He 00:17:24.710 --> 00:17:27.670 even wrote a to whom it may concern letter defending 00:17:27.670 --> 00:17:29.809 Jones against accusers, calling him a man of 00:17:29.809 --> 00:17:32.839 the highest character. Jones met with First Lady 00:17:32.839 --> 00:17:35.559 Rosalind Carter. He met with Vice President Walter 00:17:35.559 --> 00:17:38.980 Mondale. Why? I mean, did they not see the cracks? 00:17:40.440 --> 00:17:42.660 You have to look at the public face versus the 00:17:42.660 --> 00:17:46.380 private face. Publicly, the People's Temple was 00:17:46.380 --> 00:17:49.430 this... integrated, progressive army that ran 00:17:49.430 --> 00:17:52.029 care homes for the elderly, foster homes for 00:17:52.029 --> 00:17:55.250 kids, and rehab programs for addicts. They were 00:17:55.250 --> 00:17:57.930 doing the hard, messy social work that the government 00:17:57.930 --> 00:18:00.029 was struggling to do. They were a charismatic 00:18:00.029 --> 00:18:02.950 bureaucracy. That's the term sociologist John 00:18:02.950 --> 00:18:05.769 Hall uses, and it's perfect. They function like 00:18:05.769 --> 00:18:08.609 a social service organization, but one oriented 00:18:08.609 --> 00:18:11.890 entirely around the charisma of one single leader. 00:18:12.220 --> 00:18:14.420 The politicians saw the results. They saw the 00:18:14.420 --> 00:18:16.779 votes and they saw the social services and they 00:18:16.779 --> 00:18:18.460 chose to ignore the rumors. They thought, well, 00:18:18.519 --> 00:18:20.259 OK, maybe he's a little eccentric, but look at 00:18:20.259 --> 00:18:21.859 all the good work they're doing. But while the 00:18:21.859 --> 00:18:23.759 mayor and the governor are heaping praise on 00:18:23.759 --> 00:18:26.960 him, the reality inside the temple was getting 00:18:26.960 --> 00:18:29.700 dark, really, really dark. This is the hidden 00:18:29.700 --> 00:18:32.859 reality. The structure was incredibly hierarchical 00:18:32.859 --> 00:18:36.359 and. racially stratified. At the top, you had 00:18:36.359 --> 00:18:38.720 the staff, mostly college educated white women. 00:18:38.839 --> 00:18:40.660 They were the administrators, the managers, the 00:18:40.660 --> 00:18:42.460 secret police. They managed the money and all 00:18:42.460 --> 00:18:45.400 the secrets. And the rank and file, the troops, 00:18:45.480 --> 00:18:48.579 as they were called, were 70 to 80 percent black 00:18:48.579 --> 00:18:51.299 working class members. So you have this white 00:18:51.299 --> 00:18:54.279 socialist leadership essentially living off the 00:18:54.279 --> 00:18:57.160 labor and the donated assets of a largely black 00:18:57.160 --> 00:19:00.099 congregation. It's a deeply disturbing dynamic 00:19:00.099 --> 00:19:03.299 that mirrors the very plantation system Jones 00:19:03.299 --> 00:19:06.460 claimed to be fighting against. It's a huge contradiction. 00:19:06.819 --> 00:19:09.299 And the discipline was brutal. We're talking 00:19:09.299 --> 00:19:11.799 about public beatings, which they called spankings, 00:19:11.819 --> 00:19:14.480 with a wooden paddle in front of the whole congregation. 00:19:15.019 --> 00:19:17.299 Spankies makes it sound almost trivial, like 00:19:17.299 --> 00:19:19.670 something for a child. It wasn't. It was assault. 00:19:19.890 --> 00:19:21.930 Grown men and women were beaten bloody. They 00:19:21.930 --> 00:19:24.190 held forced boxing matches where members who 00:19:24.190 --> 00:19:26.509 had a disagreement had to fight each other. Imagine 00:19:26.509 --> 00:19:28.509 being forced to physically fight your friend 00:19:28.509 --> 00:19:30.230 or your sibling in front of a cheering crowd 00:19:30.230 --> 00:19:32.849 just because Jones wanted to teach you a lesson 00:19:32.849 --> 00:19:35.380 in humility. And the sexual control. Jones used 00:19:35.380 --> 00:19:38.380 sex as a weapon of power and humiliation. He 00:19:38.380 --> 00:19:40.759 coerced women into having abortions because he 00:19:40.759 --> 00:19:42.500 didn't want members having children that would 00:19:42.500 --> 00:19:45.759 distract from the cause. He demanded sexual favors 00:19:45.759 --> 00:19:48.400 from the wives of male members, often to humiliate 00:19:48.400 --> 00:19:51.140 the husbands. He also raped male members. It 00:19:51.140 --> 00:19:53.559 was about total domination, breaking down every 00:19:53.559 --> 00:19:56.460 individual boundary so that the only relationship 00:19:56.460 --> 00:19:59.019 that mattered was the one with father, with Jones. 00:19:59.380 --> 00:20:01.819 And the paranoia was fueled by drugs at this 00:20:01.819 --> 00:20:04.950 point. Heavily. Jones began using amphetamines 00:20:04.950 --> 00:20:07.210 and other drugs constantly. His behavior became 00:20:07.210 --> 00:20:09.829 more and more erratic. He told them the KKK was 00:20:09.829 --> 00:20:11.569 coming for them, then it was the Nazis, then 00:20:11.569 --> 00:20:13.950 it was the U .S. government itself. He was constantly 00:20:13.950 --> 00:20:16.569 ramping up the fear to keep them loyal. He created 00:20:16.569 --> 00:20:19.269 a siege mentality. The whole world is against 00:20:19.269 --> 00:20:21.950 us, and only I can protect you. But secrets that 00:20:21.950 --> 00:20:25.349 big? They don't stay secret forever, especially 00:20:25.349 --> 00:20:27.829 with that level of abuse. This leads us to part 00:20:27.829 --> 00:20:30.779 five, the turn. The media starts sniffing around 00:20:30.779 --> 00:20:33.859 again. It started as early as 1972 with a reporter 00:20:33.859 --> 00:20:35.740 named Lester Kinsolving at the San Francisco 00:20:35.740 --> 00:20:38.380 Examiner. He wrote a series exposing the fake 00:20:38.380 --> 00:20:40.519 healings, the finances, the strange rituals. 00:20:40.779 --> 00:20:43.400 He was on to them. But the temple fought back. 00:20:43.700 --> 00:20:46.920 Hard. Oh, they did. They picketed the paper's 00:20:46.920 --> 00:20:49.880 offices for days. They threatened lawsuits. They 00:20:49.880 --> 00:20:52.640 harassed the editors relentlessly. They flooded 00:20:52.640 --> 00:20:55.440 the paper with letters to the editor. And it 00:20:55.440 --> 00:20:57.720 worked. The series was canceled halfway through. 00:20:57.819 --> 00:20:59.990 They learned a valuable lesson. Intimidation 00:20:59.990 --> 00:21:01.970 worked. They learned that if you screen loud 00:21:01.970 --> 00:21:04.710 enough, the media and the establishment will 00:21:04.710 --> 00:21:08.460 back off. But then came the Gang of Eight. This 00:21:08.460 --> 00:21:09.819 sounds like something out of a thriller movie. 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:13.859 It really does. In 1973, eight young members, 00:21:14.000 --> 00:21:16.259 mostly the children of the leadership or trusted 00:21:16.259 --> 00:21:18.859 insiders, decided to defect. These were people 00:21:18.859 --> 00:21:21.460 who grew up in the movement. They saw the hypocrisy 00:21:21.460 --> 00:21:23.200 and the abuse up close and they'd had enough. 00:21:23.400 --> 00:21:26.720 But they knew Jones had search parties, literally 00:21:26.720 --> 00:21:29.700 armed guards who would hunt down defectors. But 00:21:29.700 --> 00:21:31.220 what did they do? How did they get out? They 00:21:31.220 --> 00:21:33.119 looted three trucks with firearms and supplies 00:21:33.119 --> 00:21:36.190 and just drove. They headed for Canada, avoiding 00:21:36.190 --> 00:21:38.650 the main highways, absolutely terrified they 00:21:38.650 --> 00:21:40.670 were being followed. They ended up in Montana 00:21:40.670 --> 00:21:43.529 and wrote a long, detailed letter documenting 00:21:43.529 --> 00:21:46.549 all the abuse. And how did Jones react to this 00:21:46.549 --> 00:21:49.559 defection? He went ballistic. He completely lost 00:21:49.559 --> 00:21:52.200 it. He waved a pistol at his planning commission, 00:21:52.420 --> 00:21:54.640 the inner circle. He threatened suicide for the 00:21:54.640 --> 00:21:57.039 whole group right then and there. This is the 00:21:57.039 --> 00:21:59.480 first time he really articulates the mass suicide 00:21:59.480 --> 00:22:02.460 idea as a response to persecution. He basically 00:22:02.460 --> 00:22:05.099 said, if they come for us, if the world closes 00:22:05.099 --> 00:22:07.900 in, we will all go together in a blaze of glory. 00:22:08.220 --> 00:22:14.549 But the final, final straw was in 1977. New West 00:22:14.549 --> 00:22:16.950 magazine. That was the breaking point. A reporter 00:22:16.950 --> 00:22:19.029 named Marshall Kilduff was writing a piece that 00:22:19.029 --> 00:22:21.230 was going to blow the lid off everything. The 00:22:21.230 --> 00:22:23.910 beatings, the financial fraud, the sexual abuse. 00:22:24.170 --> 00:22:26.609 The Temple couldn't stop this one. It was too 00:22:26.609 --> 00:22:28.769 well sourced with too many credible defectors 00:22:28.769 --> 00:22:30.549 on the record. There's this cinematic moment 00:22:30.549 --> 00:22:32.789 where the editor of the magazine calls Jones 00:22:32.789 --> 00:22:35.210 before it publishes. It was a courtesy call to 00:22:35.210 --> 00:22:37.150 read him the article. Right. And while Jones 00:22:37.150 --> 00:22:39.809 is on the phone listening to this long list of 00:22:39.809 --> 00:22:41.950 his crimes being read out, the fraud, the violence, 00:22:42.049 --> 00:22:44.210 all of it, he writes. writes a note to his aides 00:22:44.210 --> 00:22:46.089 who are in the room with him. The note says, 00:22:46.250 --> 00:22:49.470 We leave tonight. Notify Georgetown. Georgetown, 00:22:49.710 --> 00:22:52.190 Guyana. The location of their remote settlement. 00:22:52.450 --> 00:22:55.269 The exodus to the jungle began immediately. They 00:22:55.269 --> 00:22:57.210 fled in the middle of the night to beat the magazine 00:22:57.210 --> 00:23:00.529 to the newsstands. So, they go to Guyana. This 00:23:00.529 --> 00:23:02.970 was supposed to be the promised land. A socialist 00:23:02.970 --> 00:23:05.490 paradise in the jungle. That's how Jones sold 00:23:05.490 --> 00:23:08.700 it. He sold it as a sanctuary, a place in a black 00:23:08.700 --> 00:23:10.759 country where they could escape American racism 00:23:10.759 --> 00:23:14.160 and what he called creeping fascism. He told 00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:16.779 them they would finally be free. But the reality, 00:23:16.980 --> 00:23:20.019 it was essentially an agricultural project in 00:23:20.019 --> 00:23:23.460 the middle of a dense, unforgiving jungle. The 00:23:23.460 --> 00:23:26.980 soil was poor for farming. They were overcrowded. 00:23:27.140 --> 00:23:29.319 You had 1 ,000 people living in these cramped 00:23:29.319 --> 00:23:31.740 little cottages. They worked six and a half days 00:23:31.740 --> 00:23:34.740 a week, long hours in the tropical heat. The 00:23:34.740 --> 00:23:37.440 food was mostly just rice and gravy. And Jones 00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:40.059 ramped up the psychological terror, the white 00:23:40.059 --> 00:23:43.380 knights. These were suicide drills. This is so 00:23:43.380 --> 00:23:45.839 crucial to understanding the end. He would wake 00:23:45.839 --> 00:23:47.480 everyone up in the middle of the night screaming 00:23:47.480 --> 00:23:49.440 over the loudspeaker that the mercenaries were 00:23:49.440 --> 00:23:52.000 coming or the CIA was attacking. It's pure psychological 00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:54.680 torture. Total torture. He would line them all 00:23:54.680 --> 00:23:56.180 up. He would give them a drink and tell them 00:23:56.180 --> 00:23:58.319 it was poison. They would drink it, weeping, 00:23:58.400 --> 00:24:00.380 hugging their children, fully believing they 00:24:00.380 --> 00:24:03.680 were about to die. And then when nothing happened, 00:24:03.740 --> 00:24:05.279 he would tell them it was a test of loyalty. 00:24:06.180 --> 00:24:08.200 I wanted to see if you were brave enough for 00:24:08.200 --> 00:24:10.200 revolutionary suicide. So he was conditioning 00:24:10.200 --> 00:24:12.339 them. He was desensitizing them to the real thing. 00:24:12.579 --> 00:24:14.700 Precisely. He was normalizing the act of suicide, 00:24:14.960 --> 00:24:17.720 reframing it as a revolutionary act of protest. 00:24:18.079 --> 00:24:21.200 He made the unthinkable familiar. And that brings 00:24:21.200 --> 00:24:25.759 us to November 1978. The end. It all started 00:24:25.759 --> 00:24:28.799 with a visit from a congressman, Leo Ryan. Leo 00:24:28.799 --> 00:24:31.819 Ryan was a hands -on kind of politician. He had 00:24:31.819 --> 00:24:33.859 heard from a group of concerned relatives back 00:24:33.859 --> 00:24:35.740 in California that people were being held in 00:24:35.740 --> 00:24:38.140 Jonestown against their will. So he decided to 00:24:38.140 --> 00:24:40.539 go see for himself. He flew down there with a 00:24:40.539 --> 00:24:42.960 delegation of journalists, aides, and some of 00:24:42.960 --> 00:24:44.740 the family members. He flies down there November 00:24:44.740 --> 00:24:48.400 17, 1978. At first it seems okay, right? They 00:24:48.400 --> 00:24:50.670 put on a big show for him. A party. Oh yeah, 00:24:50.710 --> 00:24:52.890 Jones put on a show, there was music, dancing, 00:24:53.329 --> 00:24:55.789 the residents were all coached to smile and say 00:24:55.789 --> 00:24:58.430 how happy they were. But the cracks appeared 00:24:58.430 --> 00:25:01.309 almost immediately. During the festivities, a 00:25:01.309 --> 00:25:04.009 reporter, Don Harris from NBC, was slipped a 00:25:04.009 --> 00:25:06.730 note by a member. The note said, help us get 00:25:06.730 --> 00:25:09.609 out of here. The facade just crumbles. It completely 00:25:09.609 --> 00:25:12.970 falls apart. The next day, November 18, Ryan 00:25:12.970 --> 00:25:15.730 confronts Jones. He says he's taking anyone who 00:25:15.730 --> 00:25:18.069 wants to leave with him. And about 15 members 00:25:18.069 --> 00:25:21.670 brave the intense fear and say, I'm going. Jones 00:25:21.670 --> 00:25:23.869 acts like he accepts it, but he's just seething. 00:25:23.950 --> 00:25:26.230 There's this chaotic scene where a temple member 00:25:26.230 --> 00:25:29.309 tries to stab Ryan with a knife but fails. They 00:25:29.309 --> 00:25:31.829 all rush to the airstrip of Port Kaituma to get 00:25:31.829 --> 00:25:33.710 on the planes and get out. And that's when the 00:25:33.710 --> 00:25:35.789 tractor trailer pulls up to the airstrip. The 00:25:35.789 --> 00:25:38.970 temple security guards. The Red Brigade. They 00:25:38.970 --> 00:25:41.190 opened fire on the planes. They shot Congressman 00:25:41.190 --> 00:25:44.230 Ryan multiple times. They shot three journalists, 00:25:44.529 --> 00:25:47.269 Don Harris, Bob Brown and photographer Greg Robinson. 00:25:47.630 --> 00:25:50.190 They shot a defector. They killed five people 00:25:50.190 --> 00:25:53.069 right there on the tarmac. Ryan's aide, Jackie 00:25:53.069 --> 00:25:55.089 Spire, who is now a congresswoman herself, was 00:25:55.089 --> 00:25:57.769 shot five times, but miraculously survived by 00:25:57.769 --> 00:26:00.950 playing dead. This is the absolute point of no 00:26:00.950 --> 00:26:03.789 return. They've just assassinated a U .S. congressman. 00:26:04.009 --> 00:26:06.349 Jones knows the U .S. military will be coming 00:26:06.349 --> 00:26:08.819 for them now. He returns to the main pavilion 00:26:08.819 --> 00:26:11.200 in Jonestown and calls the entire congregation 00:26:11.200 --> 00:26:13.500 together. He gets on the loudspeaker and tells 00:26:13.500 --> 00:26:16.519 them the congressman is dead. He tells them the 00:26:16.519 --> 00:26:18.880 parachutists are on their way. He tells them 00:26:18.880 --> 00:26:20.779 they will torture the children and the seniors. 00:26:21.099 --> 00:26:23.680 He says the only way out, the only dignified 00:26:23.680 --> 00:26:27.259 response is revolutionary suicide. And the vat 00:26:27.259 --> 00:26:30.460 is brought out. And we need to correct the record 00:26:30.460 --> 00:26:33.059 here very clearly. It wasn't Kool -Aid. No, it 00:26:33.059 --> 00:26:35.900 was Flavor -Aid, a cheaper competitor. Great 00:26:35.900 --> 00:26:39.059 flavor laced with cyanide and a cocktail of tranquilizers 00:26:39.059 --> 00:26:42.019 like Valium. The source notes that 918 people 00:26:42.019 --> 00:26:44.920 died. But it wasn't a willing suicide for everyone, 00:26:45.019 --> 00:26:48.000 was it? No. That is a crucial, crucial distinction. 00:26:48.440 --> 00:26:51.299 The autopsy reports and the few eyewitness accounts 00:26:51.299 --> 00:26:53.980 show that many were injected with syringes against 00:26:53.980 --> 00:26:57.839 their will. The infants and children, 276 of 00:26:57.839 --> 00:27:00.910 them, They could not consent to suicide. They 00:27:00.910 --> 00:27:02.829 were murdered by their parents and nurses who 00:27:02.829 --> 00:27:05.089 squirted the poison into their mouths. People 00:27:05.089 --> 00:27:07.410 who resisted were held down and forced. It was 00:27:07.410 --> 00:27:09.869 mass murder -suicide. It's just horrifying. And 00:27:09.869 --> 00:27:12.309 Jones. He didn't drink the poison himself? No. 00:27:12.549 --> 00:27:15.369 He died of a gunshot wound to the head. It's 00:27:15.369 --> 00:27:17.329 listed as likely self -inflicted, though some 00:27:17.329 --> 00:27:19.529 speculate his nurse, Annie Moore, might have 00:27:19.529 --> 00:27:21.150 shot him and then herself. We'll probably never 00:27:21.150 --> 00:27:25.099 know for sure. The aftermath was just... The 00:27:25.099 --> 00:27:28.039 images of the bodies, the rumors of hit squads 00:27:28.039 --> 00:27:30.319 coming back to the U .S. That's right. The survivors 00:27:30.319 --> 00:27:32.519 back in the U .S. were terrified. They went into 00:27:32.519 --> 00:27:34.900 hiding. They thought these brainwashed assassins 00:27:34.900 --> 00:27:37.279 were roaming the streets to silence them. And 00:27:37.279 --> 00:27:39.099 tragically, the violence didn't end that night. 00:27:39.200 --> 00:27:41.460 There was a former member, Michael Prokes, who 00:27:41.460 --> 00:27:43.240 held a press conference a few months later to 00:27:43.240 --> 00:27:45.299 defend Jones. And then he went into the restroom 00:27:45.299 --> 00:27:48.490 and shot himself. And the murder -suicide of 00:27:48.490 --> 00:27:51.029 Paul Adams and the Guyanese ambassador, the trauma 00:27:51.029 --> 00:27:54.349 just rippled out for years. It did. The temple 00:27:54.349 --> 00:27:57.690 as an organization dissolved. Bankruptcy. The 00:27:57.690 --> 00:27:59.930 buildings in California were sold or destroyed. 00:28:00.150 --> 00:28:03.230 But the scar obviously remains. So let's try 00:28:03.230 --> 00:28:04.829 to wrap our heads around this, if that's even 00:28:04.829 --> 00:28:07.170 possible. We've gone from an integrated church 00:28:07.170 --> 00:28:10.089 in Indiana fighting for civil rights to a political 00:28:10.089 --> 00:28:13.490 powerhouse in San Francisco to a horrific massacre 00:28:13.490 --> 00:28:16.980 in the jungles of Guyana. It's the duality that 00:28:16.980 --> 00:28:20.039 is so hard to reconcile. It was a charismatic 00:28:20.039 --> 00:28:22.799 bureaucracy that did genuine good. It fed the 00:28:22.799 --> 00:28:25.240 hungry. It housed the homeless. It fought for 00:28:25.240 --> 00:28:28.359 equality while simultaneously building this internal 00:28:28.359 --> 00:28:31.079 machinery of abuse, exploitation and control. 00:28:31.319 --> 00:28:33.440 It's scary because it didn't start crazy. It 00:28:33.440 --> 00:28:35.200 started with ideals that a lot of people would 00:28:35.200 --> 00:28:38.359 agree with. Equality, justice, community. And 00:28:38.359 --> 00:28:40.660 that, for me, raises the most provocative question 00:28:40.660 --> 00:28:43.180 of all. Why do we just dismiss this as crazy 00:28:43.180 --> 00:28:45.720 cultists? What do you mean by that? Well, historians 00:28:45.720 --> 00:28:49.539 are still divided on Jones. Did he believe his 00:28:49.539 --> 00:28:52.759 own apostolic socialism? Or was he just a cynical 00:28:52.759 --> 00:28:56.720 con man from day one? We don't know. But maybe 00:28:56.720 --> 00:28:59.460 the scariest part isn't Jones himself. It's the 00:28:59.460 --> 00:29:01.940 fact that he was able to use the legitimate language 00:29:01.940 --> 00:29:04.920 of social justice, the very things that attracted 00:29:04.920 --> 00:29:07.519 good, idealistic people to him in the first place, 00:29:07.660 --> 00:29:10.200 to lead them down a path to utter destruction. 00:29:10.400 --> 00:29:12.849 That's the terrifying part. These weren't stupid 00:29:12.849 --> 00:29:15.950 people. They were teachers, nurses, social workers, 00:29:16.170 --> 00:29:18.630 activists. They were people who genuinely wanted 00:29:18.630 --> 00:29:20.549 to change the world for the better. Exactly. 00:29:20.650 --> 00:29:22.990 They were. So if they could be led down this 00:29:22.990 --> 00:29:25.789 path by a leader using the right buzzwords and 00:29:25.789 --> 00:29:28.390 the right bureaucratic structure, what does that 00:29:28.390 --> 00:29:30.990 say about the vulnerability of any true believer 00:29:30.990 --> 00:29:33.490 in any movement, political or otherwise? At what 00:29:33.490 --> 00:29:36.369 point does dedication cross the line into delusion? 00:29:36.609 --> 00:29:38.009 That is a thought that's going to keep me up 00:29:38.009 --> 00:29:40.210 tonight. As it should. It's a question we should 00:29:40.210 --> 00:29:42.440 all ask ourselves. Thank you for joining us on 00:29:42.440 --> 00:29:44.519 this deep dive. It was a heavy one, but a really 00:29:44.519 --> 00:29:46.519 important one. Indeed. Thanks for having me. 00:29:46.579 --> 00:29:47.779 See you on the next deep dive.