Reference

The Lead-Up to the Tragedy. Several events led to the tragic mass suicide-murder in Jonestown. These facts outline the critical moments leading up to it. Congressman Leo Ryan visited Jonestown in November 1978 to investigate claims of abuse. Some residents expressed a desire to leave with Ryan, which angered Jim Jones.

“He told them that the jungles were full of mercenaries who wanted to kill them if they left Jonestown, that it was full of tigers and snakes that would eat them alive and with any dissidence, he would shoot them full of thorazine, which made them into zombies, and he would imprison people with drugs.” Jim Jones targeted babies and children first. “Finally, two airplanes show up and as they are starting to board the airplanes, this tractor pulling a trailer comes up and all these men pop out and start shooting at the people who are about to board the airplane, killing one of the defectors, three media people and Leo Ryan. It wasn’t until they saw the babies frothing at the mouth and writhing that they realized what was going on.” "They started with the babies," Odell Rhodes, then the only known survivor, told the Washington Post in the days after the massacre. He tells the people, it’s over, it’s all over, they’re coming for us, this is it, it’s time to transition to the other side.” Jim Jones used armed guards and threats to force 'suicides. Ryan was spurred to visit Jonestown after hearing word from a friend and former Peoples Temple member who couldn’t reach family members at the commune, as well as an affidavit from Deborah Layton Blakey, a Jones aide who sought refuge at the American embassy, who recounted the goings-on at Jonestown.

The "Jonestown Massacre" took place on November 18, 1978, after more than 900 members of an American cult called the Peoples Temple died in a mass suicide‑murder under the direction of their ...