30 years ago today ... Jonestown

He turned his car and garage into a gas chamber like at San Quentin.

 

Interesting article in today's Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/18/AR2008111803694.html

Jackie Speier thinks things with Jones got out of hand because the "political leadership in San Francisco was indebted" to him.

 

I can see that. It's widely believed that Moscone won the 1975 mayoral election through fraud, that hundreds or even thousands of Jones' followers were bussed into SF and added to voters lists with the intention of supporting Moscone and others like Willie Brown and Joseph Freitas, the DA who later ordered the election files from that year to be destroyed.

 

If anyone hasn't seen it, ESPN as the video of its Outside the Lines piece on Jim Jones Jr. from last year currently on its index page:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/otl/index

 

I had no idea of all the Moscone/Jones ties. If Jonestown coupled with the shooting happened today, the conspiracy theories would be flying.

I guess Milk was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

 

Milk was, in public if not privately, a huge Jones fan. When the heat started to build on Jones in SF, Milk took it upon himself to write to President Carter in his defence:

"Rev. Jones is widely known in the minority communities and elsewhere as a man of the highest character. . . He is also highly regarded amongst church, labour and civic leaders of a wide range of political persuasions. . . It is offensive to most in the San Francisco community and all those who know Rev. Jones to see this kind of outrage taking place."

http://www.brasscheck.com/jonestown/milk.jpg

NOTE: I say "in public if not privately" because Milk apparently did see Jones for who and what he really was, but was still quite happy to use him and his gang when it suited his own needs - you know, like any other politician.

 

After 10 years, a bump to remember today is the 40th anniversary of Jonestown. Some good stuff in this thread from some folks who are probably no longer hanging around here, so I figured I'd bump it instead of starting a new thread.
Scanning the TV listings for tonight, I'm also surprised and disappointed that none of the excellent news specials and documentaries that have been done on Jonestown seem to be airing tonight.

https://www.sfgate.com/sfhistory/article/jim-jones-peoples-temple-sf-oakland-13385679.php

 

I don't know if this was mentioned in the thread, but the shooting elevated Dianne Feinstein to mayor and launched her own political career. A definite event whose echoes are felt today.

 

the u.s. elected jim jones to the presidency in 2016.

 

I recall Jonestown as being among THE most searing news events and media memories of my youth in that it stood out in the way that Watergate and 9/11 did. That is, it was literally ALL that was on the news, all over the place, all day, and for days following.

It was just so inconceivable -- even more so than Watergate and 9/11, really -- that people truly couldn't get their minds around it. I distinctly remember my dad turning off the car radio in disgust while listening into the middle of the umpteenth continuing media coverage of Jonestown a day or two afterward. He just could not believe it happened, or understand how.

 

NPR’s Fresh Air had an author on who wrote about Jim Jones. The story about the troops tripping over bodies got me.

40 Years Later, Jonestown Offers A Lesson In Demagoguery

(And renewed my guilt over having hosted a Jim Jones Purple Passion Party while in college.)

 

I read Guinn’s book and had trouble putting it down, despite the horrible subject matter. I also recommend Julia Scheeres’ “A Thousand Lives.”

I’m watching the second part of Sundance Channel’s two-part Jonestown special (“Jonestown: Terror in the Jungle”). Seeing the footage from Jonestown right before the end is just chilling.