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Jim Jonestown: The Untold Story Of The Peoples Temple

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Horrific, traumatic, disturbing. There are so many words I could attempt to use, but none of them accurately capture the absolutely devastating event that took place on November 18th, 1978. The life and energy of the Peoples Temple to their tragic deaths in the miserable heat of Guyana. The story of a group of people fighting for their beliefs, and why their own leader, Jim Jones, lead them to their dreadful end.

On May 13th, 1931 , Jim Jones was born in a small town in Indiana. According to Jones himself, he grew up "on the wrong side of the tracks." According to Jonestown:The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (2006) documentary by Stanley Nelson, old friends note Jones as obsessed with religion and death in his childhood years. …show more content…

The socialist utopia was not the paradise promised. As stated by Tim Reiterman in Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People (2008), residents were put under insufferable physical exhaustion and extreme stress. According to Jonestown:The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, during the summer of 1978, Jones's speeches over a loudspeaker that was heard throughout the community grew frantic, seemingly insane. Back in the United States, people started having campaigns to hold an investigation on Jones, as they haven't spoken to the Jonestown residents and became worried. After rumors escalated, Congressman Leo Ryan went to investigate Jonestown.

"On the night of the 17th, it was still a vibrant community. I would never have imagined that 24 hours later they would all be dead," a survivor reports. (Nelson.) It was November 17th, 1978. Congressman Ryan, NBC newsman, and a small crew arrived at Jonestown. They walked around the pavilion, Jonestown. One man passed a note to an NBC reporter and it read, "Help us get out of Jonestown." Jones found out about the disturbing note and his panic set in. Residents of Jonestown say "the most forbidden thing to express was to leave." Jim Jones power was

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