30 years ago today ... Jonestown

Where the phrase "drinking the Kool-Aid" unfortunately originated.

I only remember it because I was staying at my grandparents for the Thanksgiving weekend that year and it was all over TV.

Here's a timeline of events leading up to the mass suicide:

http://cbs5.com/local/jonestown.tragedy.timeline.2.867258.html

 

And let's not forget, three members of the media were killed at the Guyana airport along with Rep. Ryan and a Temple defector.

 

My first legal drink was a Jim Jones.

 

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and this was huge when it happened. I was 14 or so when it happened and I remember the phone just ringing off the hook as my folks and others were trying to figure out who they knew that had died. There were so many people from the area down there that many had a connection to someone. It was not a fun time.

In addidtion, my family had property in Mendocino county and so did the Peoples Temple. The temple made some effort (I don't remember how hard they tried) to do what they did in Guyana in northern California. If I remember correctly, the residents of the area kind of moved them along.

The same thing happened in the same area with the "Moonies" in the mid to late 70's. Not the violence, just an attempt to build a commune.

 

Here's a story by a journalist who was wounded in the attack that left the above five people dead:

news.scotsman.com/world/Jonestown-30-years-on-the.4702853.jp

RIP, all the innocent victims.....especially the children who never had a choice and never had a chance. :'(

 

The History Channel had a phenomenal documentary on this a year or so ago, and MSNBC had one this weekend. Lots of interviews with the few survivors just telling their stories, including Jim Jones' son (he was in another part of the country and knew his father was nuts). Just absolutely spellbinding.

 

CNN Presents had a two hour show this weekend as well.

 

The CNN show was phenomenal. It focused on the survivors, but had all the information leading up to the sucides. Then it went on to talk about what the survivors had been doing since. Pretty emotional stuff.

 

Sadly, I'm a Jonestown junkie.

It was actually Flav-r-aid.

Congressman Leo Ryan's assistant on the trip, who was shot five times and lay motionless on the Port Kaituma airstrip for 19 hours, is Jackie Speier.

This year, she joined the U.S. House of Representatives.

One other interesting note/story: http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-11-17/they-murdered-my-friend/

Finally, it always bugged me that with all these images of bloated corpses, there has never been a released pic of Jones post-mortem.

 

I have it on TIVO. Have not watched it yet.

 

A sad postscript: one of Rep. Ryan's daughters later joined a cult in India.

 

Wow - that's pretty amazing.

I thought the CNN special was very well done. The audio of Jim Jones exhorting people to drink the cyanide and telling parents why their kids are better off dead is just horrifying.