Jonestown Essays

JONESTOWN What happens when you combine a ruthless leader’s hypnotic voice and disturbing ideas with average, vulnerable people? Almost 1,000 people lost in a trance, lies and deception, ending with a mass suicide killing over 900 people. More specifically; Jonestown. Lead by a man named James Jones, Jonestown was the place where over 900 men, women, and children lost their lives after drinking Kool-Aid laced with cyanide. James Jones was the pastor of a church in Southern California; a church

The Jonestown Massacre “Hurry my children, hurry, Jim Jones told his followers as they drank the poison that ended their lives”(Streissguth 1). James Warren Jones was an American religious leader who was born on May 13, 1931 and died on November 18, 1978. Jones soon became known as the leader of a cult called “ The People’s Temple”. Jim Jones initiated and was responsible for a mass murder and mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana. Mass murder and mass suicide committed by Jim Jones and the government

attention as to what really happened in Jonestown. Jones told his congregation they could idolize him anyway they needed to (Killing Fields). Originally, the cult was for better life and to live as socialists, but in the end Jim Jones brainwashed his followers. Different from the beginning Jones became erratic, domineering, and harsh (Jonestown Massacre 262). Although members found comfort in Jones’ diverse family, it was all in their head (Remembering Jonestown). He captured many people’s attention

The 18th of November 1978 witnessed a horrible tragedy in the form of the well documented Jonestown massacre, where more than 900 people committed suicide after being directed to do so by their cult leader, Jim Jones. Jones led a cult called the People’s Temple which operated from Jonestown, Guyana. The followers of this cult had different reasons for joining it, but the standout common bond that they all shared was an acceptance to be led by Jim Jones, for whom they demonstrated both love and fear

a mass murder-suicide at their agricultural commune in a remote part of the South American nation of Guyana. Many of Jones’ followers willingly ingested a poison-laced punch while others were forced to do so at gunpoint. The final death toll at Jonestown that day was 909; a third of those who perished were children. Jim Jones was a charismatic churchman who established the Peoples Temple, a Christian sect, in Indianapolis in the 1950s. He preached against racism, and his integrated congregation

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

“The Jonestown Massacre, Remembered,” by Jennifer Latson explains about a man named Jim Jones, a cult leader and a socialist in California persuaded over 900 people to drink a poisonous substance to commit suicide. This was one of the events that wasn’t taught about in history classes due to the amount of people that were willing to kill themselves in order to obey Jim Jones. My main point’s that I plan to use on this topic is the author successful in making her point, the information is accurate

The Jonestown cult suicides resulted in the loss of 909 lives. The degree to which the temple members’ suicides were out of free will or coerced is debatable. The solidity of the minds of the members could have been subjected to proselytization and therefore could have weakened their ability to make a self-consensual decision about the suicide. The conditions and current state of mind they were in, due to the weapons of persuasion used by Jim Jones and the temple leaders were deemed effective in

On November 18, 1978, more than 900 people were led by Jim Jones to a mass murder-suicide in Jonestown, Guyana. Jim Jones was as a notorious cult leader. He was the founder of the People’s Temple religious cult. To gain more followers Jones promised those people that if they followed him he would build a utopia. Jones first started to get recognition in 1952 when he joined the ministry. He got a job as a student pastor at the Somerset Methodist Church in a poor predominantly white neighborhood in

Training (ADST) writes in its article, The Jonestown Massacre, published in the Huffington Post that, “The paranoid Jones then moved his Temple to Guyana, to build a socialist utopia at Jonestown.” Following several complaints, Congressman Ryan decided to visit Jonestown for himself and on the seventeenth of November 1978, he landed in the utopic society. The ACSD further notes that although the visit went well at first, the following day “several Jonestown residents approached the [congressman] and

a caring person, that wanted to bring peace to a town he made, Jonestown. Instead it turned into something more horrific. Jim Jones was the manipulative mastermind behind the traumatic events that happened in Jonestown, Guyana, this essay will discuss interviews by people who are survivors of the mass suicide, and dive into the crazy conspiracies that have emerged, and finally conclude with the death of the Peoples Temple. Jonestown created physical and mental scars on the minds and bodies of the

Jim Jones was a cruel cult leader with a long, successful career and an idea that ultimately led to the deaths in Jonestown. James Warren Jones was born on May 13, 1931, in Crete, Indiana. Jim Jones was described as a weird kid, and he would usually hold funerals for small animals, Jim even stabbed a cat to death when he was ten-years-old. At around this time, Jim Jones began visiting churches. Jim Jones was also very intolerant of racial discrimination and had African American friends that weren’t

Jonestown was supposed to be a paradise and a perfect miniature society for Reverend Jim Jones and his loyal followers, but after only one year of a working civilization, horror would strike, ending the lives of nearly one thousand of Jones’s hopeful followers. Jonestown was an independent society located deep in the jungles of Guyana in South America. This perfected society was created for people who did not like how the United States was governed. The Jonestown tragedy has been compared to Adolf

follower’s obedience by creating fear within his congregation by simulating mass suicide practices. Jones called these practices “White Nights”. During these practices, the inhabitants of Jonestown were awakened by sirens and guards, and were all gathered in the pavilion. Deborah Layton Blakey, a defector of Jonestown, describes the suicide preparations of “White Nights”,

socialist ideals and Christian redemption. Jim Jones made the cult seem very attractive and appealing. Many people joined the cult to escape from inequality during the Civil Rights Movement. Jim Jones created Jonestown, the location of the mass murder-suicide, in Guyana. The people in Jonestown believed in all Jim Jones preached to them. Jim Jones used the tactics of being a great communicator, creating a strong message, and creating a hold on the audience to persuade people to commit suicide. A great

1. Discuss how the Peoples' Temple movement can be understood as an apocalyptic movement. What type of millenarian vision(s) did Jim Jones and his followers subscribe to? The People’s Temple movement can be understood as an apocalyptic movement because of their millenarian visions. The first vision that is understood through the People’s Temple is postmillennial movement. Postmillennialism is best understood as the belief through human progress the world will slowly get better (Wojcik, 1997, p.

PART A: For my historical investigation I will be researching the Jonestown Massacre. I plan to use news articles and sources from the event to answer the research question “How did Jim Jones create a following and use his influence to incite mass hysteria?” I will use sources such as news articles from the time period, as well as sources created by members of the Peoples Temple cult. I intend to use these sources to learn about the massacre and find out exactly what motivated the hysteria that

Ronald Gene Simmons began a killing spree on December 22, 1987 that culminated in the worst mass murder occurrence in Arkansas history six days later. He killed sixteen people during this short period of time; fourteen of his victims were members of his own family. Ronald was born forty seven years earlier on July, 15, 1940 in the city of Chicago. His father, William Simmons, died of a stroke before Ronald’s second birthday. Simmons’s mother remarried within a year of his father’s untimely passing

On December 22, 1987, Ronald Gene Simmons started a killing spree. This was the worst mass murder in Arkansas history and the worst crime involving one family. Simmons rampage ended on December 28, 1987, leaving fourteen dead of his immediate family and two former coworkers. Ronald Simmons was born on July ,15, 1940 in Chicago, Illinois.{www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?search=1&entryID=3731.} . His mother was Loretta Simmons and father was William Simmons. William Simmons

Investigation The 1950s to the 1980s were a time filled with social change within the US. These people fought for deserved justice in multiple places of controversy, such as race. Partly as a result of this, came on a wave of organizations and cults, all with their own agendas. The People’s Temple was among these, ran by a former reverend, Jim Jones. The organization started small in 1956 as a racially integrated church. Slowly, it marched its way to 1978 on the fateful day when its members “drank