Jonestown

In the fall of 1973, after critical newspaper articles by Lester Kinsolving and the defection of eight Temple members, Jones and Temple attorney Tim Stoen prepared an "immediate action" contingency plan for responding to a police or media crackdown.[27] The plan listed various options, including fleeing to Canada or to a "Caribbean missionary post" such as Barbados or Trinidad.[27] For its Caribbean missionary post, the Temple quickly chose Guyana, conducting research on its economy and extradition treaties with the US.[27] In October 1973, the directors of the Temple passed a resolution to establish an agricultural mission there.[27]

The Temple chose Guyana, in part, because of the group's own socialist politics, which were moving further to the left during the selection process.[27][28] Former Temple member Tim Carter stated that the reasons for choosing Guyana were the Temple's view of a perceived dominance of racism and multinational corporations in the US government.[29] According to Carter, the Temple concluded that Guyana, an English-speaking, socialist country with a predominantly indigenous population and with a government including prominent black leaders, would afford black Temple members a peaceful place to live.[29]

Later, Guyanese Prime Minister Forbes Burnham stated that Jones may have "wanted to use cooperatives as the basis for the establishment of socialism, and maybe his idea of setting up a commune meshed with that".[28] Jones also thought that Guyana was small, poor, and independent enough for him to easily obtain influence and official protection.[27] He was skillful in presenting the Guyanese government the benefits of allowing the Peoples Temple to establish a settlement in the country. One of the main tactics was to speak of the advantages of their American presence near Guyana's disputed border with Venezuela. This idea seemed promising to the Burnham government, who feared a military incursion by Venezuela.[30][31][32]

In 1974, after traveling to an area of northwestern Guyana with Guyanese officials, Jones and the Temple negotiated a lease of over 3,800 acres (1,500 ha) of land in the jungle located 150 miles (240 km) west of the Guyanese capital of Georgetown.[33] The site, located near the disputed border with Venezuela, was isolated and had soil of low fertility.[34] The nearest body of water was seven miles (eleven kilometres) away by muddy roads.[34]

Houses in Jonestown

As 500 members began the construction of Jonestown, the Temple encouraged more to relocate to the settlement.[35] Jones saw Jonestown as both a "socialist paradise" and a "sanctuary" from media scrutiny.[36] In 1976, Guyana finally approved the lease it had negotiated (retroactive to April 1974) with the Temple for the over 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) of land in northwest Guyana on which Jonestown was located.[34]

In 1974, Guyanese officials granted the Temple permission to import certain items "duty free".[34] Later payoffs helped safeguard shipments of firearms and drugs through Guyanese customs.[37]

Jones reached an agreement to guarantee that Guyana would permit Temple members' mass migration. To do so, he stated that they were "skilled and progressive", showed off an envelope he claimed contained $500,000, and stated that he would invest most of the group's assets in Guyana.[38] The relatively large number of immigrants to Guyana overwhelmed the government's small but stringent immigration infrastructure in a country where immigrants had outweighed locals.[38] Guyanese immigration procedures were compromised to inhibit the departure of Temple defectors and curtail the visas of Temple opponents.[39]

Jonestown was held up as a benevolent communist community, with Jones stating: "I believe we're the purest communists there are."[40] Jones' wife, Marceline, described Jonestown as "dedicated to live for socialism, total economic and racial and social equality. We are here living communally."[40] Jones wanted to construct a model community and claimed that Burnham "couldn't rave enough about us, the wonderful things we do, the project, the model of socialism".[41] Jones did not permit members to leave Jonestown without his express prior permission.[42]

The Temple established offices in Georgetown and conducted numerous meetings with Burnham and other Guyanese officials.[43] In 1976, Temple member Michael Prokes requested that Burnham receive Jones as a foreign dignitary along with other "high ranking US officials".[44] Jones traveled to Guyana with Dymally to meet with Burnham and Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Willis.[44] In that meeting, Dymally agreed to pass on the message to the State Department that socialist Guyana wanted to keep an open door to cooperation with the US.[44] Dymally followed up that meeting with a letter to Burnham stating that Jones was "one of the finest human beings" and that Dymally was "tremendously impressed" by his visit to Jonestown.[44]

Temple members took pains to stress their loyalty to Burnham's People's National Congress Party.[45] One Temple member, Paula Adams, was involved in a romantic relationship with Guyana's ambassador to the US, Laurence "Bonny" Mann. Jones bragged about other female Temple members he referred to as "public relations women" giving all for the cause in Jonestown.[46][47] Viola Burnham, the wife of the prime minister, was also a strong advocate of the Temple.[28]

Later, Burnham stated that Guyana allowed the Temple to operate in the manner it did on the references of Moscone, Mondale, and Rosalynn Carter.[48] Burnham also said that, when Deputy Minister Ptolemy Reid traveled to Washington, D.C. in September 1977 to sign the Panama Canal Treaties, Mondale asked him, "How's Jim?", which indicated to Reid that Mondale had a personal interest in Jones' well-being.[48]

Migration to Jonestown (Migration figures after June 1978 are not known, Jonestown Report)

In the summer of 1977, Jones and several hundred Temple members moved to Jonestown to escape building pressure from San Francisco media investigations.[49] Jones left the same night that an editor at New West magazine read him an article to be published by Marshall Kilduff detailing allegations of abuse by former Temple members.[49][50] After the mass migration, Jonestown became overcrowded.[51] Jonestown's population was slightly under 900 at its peak in 1978.

Many members of the Temple believed that Guyana would be, as Jones promised, a paradise or utopia.[52] After Jones arrived, however, Jonestown life significantly changed.[51] Entertaining movies from Georgetown that the settlers had watched were mostly canceled in favor of Soviet propaganda shorts and documentaries on American social problems.[51]

Bureaucratic requirements after Jones' arrival sapped labor resources for other needs.[51] Buildings fell into disrepair and weeds encroached on fields.[51] School study and nighttime lectures for adults turned to Jones' discussions about revolution and enemies, with lessons focusing on Soviet alliances, Jones' crises, and the purported "mercenaries" sent by Tim Stoen, who had defected from the Temple and turned against the group.[51]

For the first several months, Temple members worked six days a week, from approximately 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., with an hour for lunch.[53] In mid-1978, after Jones' health deteriorated and his wife began managing more of Jonestown's operations, the work week was reduced to eight hours a day for five days a week.[29] After the day's work ended, Temple members would attend several hours of activities in a pavilion, including classes in socialism.[17]

Jones compared this schedule to the North Korean system of eight hours of daily work followed by eight hours of study.[54][55] This also comported with the Temple's practice of gradually subjecting its followers to sophisticated mind control and behavior modification techniques borrowed from Kim Il-sung's Korea and Mao Zedong's China.[56] Jones would often read news and commentary, including items from Radio Moscow and Radio Havana,[57] and was known to side with the Soviets over the Chinese during the Sino-Soviet split.[58]

"Discussion" about current events often took the form of Jones interrogating individual followers about the implications and subtexts of a given news item, or delivering lengthy and often confused monologues on how to "read" certain events. In addition to Soviet documentaries, political thrillers such as The Parallax View, The Day of the Jackal, State of Siege, and Z were repeatedly screened and minutely analyzed by Jones. Recordings of commune meetings show how livid and frustrated Jones would get when anyone did not find the films interesting or did not understand the message Jones was placing upon them.[57]

Nothing in the way of film or recorded TV, shown on the commune's closed-circuit system, no matter how innocuous or seemingly politically neutral, could be viewed without a Temple staffer present to "interpret" the material for the viewers. This invariably meant damning criticisms of perceived capitalist propaganda in Western material, and glowing praise for and highlighting of Marxist–Leninist messages in material from communist nations.[57]

Jones' recorded readings of the news were part of the constant broadcasts over Jonestown's tower speakers, such that all members could hear them throughout the day and night.[59] Jones' news readings usually portrayed the US as a "capitalist" and "imperialist" villain, while casting "socialist" leaders, such as Kim Il Sung,[60] Robert Mugabe,[61] and Joseph Stalin[62] in a positive light.

Jonestown's primary means of communication with the outside world was a shortwave radio.[63] All voice communications with San Francisco and Georgetown were transmitted using this radio, from mundane supply orders to confidential Temple business.[63] The FCC cited the Temple for technical violations and for using amateur frequencies for commercial purposes.[63] Because shortwave radio was Jonestown's only effective means of non-postal communication, the Temple felt that the FCC's threats to revoke its operators' licenses threatened Jonestown's existence.[64]

Because it stood on poor soil, Jonestown was not self-sufficient and had to import large quantities of commodities such as wheat.[65] Temple members lived in small communal houses, some with walls woven from Troolie palm, and ate meals that reportedly consisted of nothing more on some days than rice, beans, greens, and occasionally meat, sauce, and eggs.[65][66] Despite having access to an estimated $26 million by late 1978,[67] Jones also lived in a tiny communal house, though fewer people lived there than in other communal houses.[66] His house reportedly held a small refrigerator containing, at times, eggs, meat, fruit, salads, and soft drinks.[66] Medical problems, such as severe diarrhea and high fevers, struck half the community in February 1978.

Although Jonestown contained no dedicated prison and no form of capital punishment, various forms of punishment were used against members considered to have serious disciplinary problems. Methods included imprisonment in a 6-by-4-by-3-foot (1.8 m × 1.2 m × 0.9 m) plywood box and forcing children to spend a night at the bottom of a well, sometimes upside-down.[68] This "torture hole", along with beatings, became the subject of rumor among local Guyanese.[69][70] For some members who attempted to escape, drugs such as Thorazine, sodium pentathol, chloral hydrate, Demerol, and Valium were administered in an "extended care unit".[71][72] Armed guards patrolled the area day and night to enforce Jonestown's rules.

Children were generally surrendered to communal care, and at times were only allowed to see their biological parents briefly at night. Jones was called "Father" or "Dad" by both adults and children.[73] The community had a nursery at which 33 infants were born.[74]

For a year, it appears the commune was run primarily through Social Security checks received by members.[75] Up to $65,000 in monthly welfare payments from US government agencies to Jonestown residents were signed over to the Temple.[76] In 1978, officials from the US embassy in Georgetown interviewed Social Security recipients on multiple occasions to make sure they were not being held against their will.[77] None of the 75 people interviewed by the embassy stated that they were being held captive, were forced to sign over welfare checks, or wanted to leave Jonestown.[77][78]

African Americans made up approximately 70% of Jonestown's population.[79] 45% of Jonestown residents were black women.[80]

Jones made frequent addresses to Temple members regarding Jonestown's safety, including statements that the CIA and other intelligence agencies were conspiring with "capitalist pigs" to destroy the settlement and harm its inhabitants.[61][83][84] After work, when purported emergencies arose, the Temple sometimes conducted what Jones referred to as "White Nights".[85] During such events, Jones would sometimes give the Jonestown members four options: attempt to flee to the Soviet Union, commit "revolutionary suicide", stay in Jonestown and fight the purported attackers, or flee into the jungle.[86]

Jones was known to regularly study Adolf Hitler and Father Divine to learn how to manipulate members of the cult. Divine told Jones personally to "find an enemy" and "to make sure they know who the enemy is" as it will unify those in the group and make them subservient to him.[87]

On at least two occasions during White Nights, after a "revolutionary suicide" vote was reached, a simulated mass suicide was rehearsed. Temple defector Deborah Layton described the event in an affidavit:

Everyone, including the children, was told to line up. As we passed through the line, we were given a small glass of red liquid to drink. We were told that the liquid contained poison and that we would die within 45 minutes. We all did as we were told. When the time came when we should have dropped dead, Rev. Jones explained that the poison was not real and that we had just been through a loyalty test. He warned us that the time was not far off when it would become necessary for us to die by our own hands.[88]

The Temple had received monthly half-pound shipments of cyanide since 1976 after Jones obtained a jeweler's license to buy the chemical, purportedly to clean gold.[89] In May 1978, a Temple doctor wrote a memo to Jones asking permission to test cyanide on Jonestown's pigs, as their metabolism was close to that of human beings.[90]

Jones' paranoia and drug usage increased in Jonestown as he became fearful of a government raid on the commune, citing concerns that the community would not be able to resist an attack.[91] Jones would call "Alert, Alert, Alert" over the community loudspeaker to call the community together in the central pavilion. Armed guards with guns and crossbows surrounded the pavilion.[91] One drill lasted for six days. Known as 'the Six Day Siege', this ordeal was used thereafter by Jones as a symbol of the community's indomitable spirit. For days on end, frightened townsfolk ringed the commune, armed with machetes and whatever crude tools would serve as weapons. Surrounding them, Jones claimed, were mercenaries bent on murder, as well as the abduction of Jones' son John Victor Stoen and others. Jones' wife and others outside of the commune engaged in interminable shortwave radio conversations with Jones, seeking to dissuade him from ordering a mass suicide. The panic reached such a point that an ad hoc evacuation was ordered by Jones, with dozens of townsfolk hastily loaded onto boats on the George River. The destination of this exodus was Cuba. Several people fell into the river, suffering injuries. At last, Jones bowed to pressure, and the drill ended. Veterans of the 'Siege' were held in high regard in Jonestown, and in numerous addresses Jones tearfully recalled their stoic courage on the 'front line.'[91]

In September 1977, former Temple members Tim and Grace Stoen battled in a Georgetown court to produce an order for the Temple to show cause why a final order should not be issued returning their five-year-old son, John.[92] A few days later, a second order was issued for John to be taken into protective custody by authorities.[93] The fear of being held in contempt of the orders caused Jones to set up a false sniper attack upon himself and begin his first series of White Nights, called the "Six Day Siege". During the Siege, Jones spoke to Temple members about attacks from outsiders and had them surround Jonestown with guns and machetes.[94]

The rallies took an almost surreal tone as black activists Angela Davis and Huey Newton communicated via radio-telephone to the Jonestown crowd, urging them to hold strong against the "conspiracy".[95] Jones made radio broadcasts stating "we will die unless we are granted freedom from harassment and asylum."[96] Deputy Minister Reid finally assured Marceline Jones that the Guyana Defence Force would not invade Jonestown.[97]

After the Six Day Siege, Jones no longer believed the Guyanese could be trusted.[98] He directed Temple members to write to over a dozen foreign governments inquiring about immigration policies relevant to another exodus by the Temple.[98] He also wrote to the State Department, inquiring about North Korea and Albania, then enduring the Sino-Albanian split.[98]

In Georgetown, the Peoples Temple conducted frequent meetings with the embassies of the Soviet Union, North Korea, Yugoslavia, and Cuba.[99] Negotiations with the Soviet embassy included extensive discussions of possible resettlement there. The Temple produced memoranda discussing potential places within the USSR in which they might settle.[99]

Sharon Amos, Michael Prokes, Matthew Blunt, Timothy Regan,[100] and other Temple members took active roles in the "Guyana-Korea Friendship Society", which sponsored two seminars on the revolutionary concepts of Kim Il Sung.[101] In April 1978, a high-ranking correspondent of Soviet news agency TASS and his wife visited Jim Jones.[102][103][104]

Although Jones, his executive partners, and congregation voiced their thoughts about moving their operation to the Soviet Union, Jones had a change of heart. He had stated that he preferred to stay within the Guyanese borders because of the sovereignty it afforded them.[105]

On 2 October 1978, Feodor Timofeyev, consul for the Soviet Union in Georgetown, visited Jonestown for two days and gave a speech.[106] Jones stated before the speech, "For many years, we have let our sympathies be quite publicly known, that the United States government was not our mother, but that the Soviet Union was our spiritual motherland."[106] Timofeyev opened the speech stating that the Soviet Union would like to send "our deepest and the most sincere greetings to the people of this first socialist and communist community of the United States of America, in Guyana and in the world".[106] Both speeches were met by cheers and applause from the crowd in Jonestown.[106] Following the visit, Temple members met almost weekly with Timofeyev to discuss a potential Soviet exodus.[99]

Meanwhile, in late 1977 and early 1978, Tim and Grace Stoen participated in meetings with other relatives of Jonestown residents at the home of Jeannie Mills, another Temple defector. Together, they called themselves the "Concerned Relatives".[107] Tim Stoen engaged in letter-writing campaigns to the US Secretary of State and the Guyanese government, and traveled to Washington, D.C. to attempt to begin an investigation.[108] In January 1978, Stoen wrote a white paper to Congress detailing his grievances and requesting that congressmen write to Prime Minister Burnham; 91 congressmen wrote such letters, including Congressman Leo Ryan.[109][110]

On 17 February 1978, Jones submitted to an interview with San Francisco Examiner reporter Tim Reiterman.[111] Reiterman's subsequent story about the Stoen custody battle prompted the immediate threat of a lawsuit by the Temple.[112] The repercussions were devastating for the Temple's reputation, and made most former supporters more suspicious of the Temple's claims that it was the victim of a "rightist vendetta".[112]

Still, others remained loyal. On the day after Reiterman's article was published, Harvey Milk – a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors who was supported by the Temple – wrote a letter to President Jimmy Carter defending Jones "as a man of the highest character," and stating that Temple defectors were trying to "damage Rev. Jones' reputation" with "apparent bold-faced lies".[113]

On 11 April 1978, the Concerned Relatives distributed a packet of documents, including letters and affidavits, that they titled an "Accusation of Human Rights Violations by Rev. James Warren Jones" to the Peoples Temple, members of the press, and members of Congress.[114] In June 1978, Layton provided the group with a further affidavit detailing alleged crimes by the Temple and substandard living conditions in Jonestown.[88]

Tim Stoen represented three members of the Concerned Relatives in lawsuits filed in May and June 1978 against Jones and other Temple members, seeking in excess of $56 million in damages.[115] The Temple, represented by Charles Garry, filed a suit against Stoen on 10 July 1978, seeking $150 million in damages.[116]

During the summer of 1978, Jones sought the legal services of Mark Lane and Donald Freed, both Kennedy assassination conspiracy theorists, to help make the case of a "grand conspiracy" by US intelligence agencies against the Temple.[117] Jones told Lane he wanted to "pull an Eldridge Cleaver" and return to the US after repairing his reputation.[117] In September 1978, Lane spoke to the residents of Jonestown, providing support for Jones' theories and comparing him to famed civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr.[117]

Lane then held press conferences stating that "none of the charges" against the Temple "are accurate or true" and that there was a "massive conspiracy" against the Temple by "intelligence organizations," naming the CIA, the FBI, and even the US Postal Service.[117] Though Lane presented himself as a disinterested party, Jones was actually paying him $6,000 per month to generate such theories.[118]

In an article about conspiracy theories Rebecca Moore states that Peter Beter claimed that the Jonestown massacre was staged to camouflage a joint US-Israeli military operation to destroy a Soviet missile base in Guyana. The Jonestown incident explained the movement of US military personnel into Guyana and concealed the real count of casualties from the attack on the Soviet base. She describes Beter as one of the primary professional conspiracy theorists analyzing the Jonestown incident.[119]

Jones' health significantly declined in Jonestown. In 1978, Jones was informed of a possible lung infection, upon which he announced to his followers that he in fact had lung cancer – a ploy to foster sympathy and strengthen support within the community.[120] Jones was said to be abusing injectable Valium, Quaaludes, stimulants, and barbiturates.[121]

Audio tapes of 1978 meetings within Jonestown attest to Jones' declining physical condition, with the commune leader complaining of high blood pressure which he had since the early 1950s, small strokes, and weight loss of 30 to 40 pounds in the last two weeks of Jonestown, temporary blindness, convulsions, and, in late October to early November 1978 while he was ill in his cabin, grotesque swelling of the extremities.[121]

Jones often mentioned chronic insomnia; he would often say he went for three or four days without any rest. During meetings and public addresses, his once-sharp speaking voice often sounded slurred; words ran together or were tripped over. Jones would occasionally not finish sentences even when reading typed reports over the commune's PA system.[121]

Reiterman was surprised by the severe deterioration of Jones' health when he saw him in Jonestown on November 17, 1978.[74] After covering Jones for eighteen months for the Examiner, Reiterman thought it was "shocking to see his glazed eyes and festering paranoia face to face, to realize that nearly a thousand lives, ours included, were in his hands".[74]

Congressman Leo Ryan

Leo Ryan, who represented California's 11th congressional district, announced that he would visit Jonestown.[122] Ryan was friends with the father of Bob Houston, a Temple member in California whose mutilated body was found near train tracks on October 5, 1976, three days after a taped telephone conversation with Houston's ex-wife in which leaving the Temple was discussed.[123] Over the following months, Ryan's interest was further aroused by the allegations put forth by Stoen, Layton, and the Concerned Relatives.[123]

On November 14, 1978, Ryan flew to Georgetown, along with a delegation[124] that included:

• Jackie Speier, Ryan's then-legal adviser;
• Neville Annibourne, representing Guyana's Ministry of Information;
• Richard Dwyer, Deputy Chief of Mission of the US embassy to Guyana;
• Tim Reiterman, San Francisco Examiner reporter;
• Greg Robinson, Examiner photographer;
• Don Harris, NBC reporter;
• Bob Brown, NBC camera operator;
• Steve Sung, NBC audio technician;
• Bob Flick, NBC producer;
• Charles Krause, Washington Post reporter;
• Ron Javers, San Francisco Chronicle reporter;

and Concerned Relatives representatives, including:

• Tim and Grace Stoen,
• Steve and Anthony Katsaris,
• Beverly Oliver,
• Jim Cobb,
• Sherwin Harris, and
• Carolyn Houston Boyd.

When the Ryan delegation arrived in Guyana, Lane and Garry initially refused to allow them access to Jonestown.[125] However, by the morning of November 17, they informed Jones that Ryan would likely leave for Jonestown that afternoon regardless of his willingness.[126] Ryan's party, accompanied by Lane and Garry, came to an airstrip at Port Kaituma, six miles (10 km) from Jonestown, some hours later.[127] Because of lack of room on the plane, only four of the Concerned Relatives – Anthony Katsaris, Beverly Oliver, Jim Cobb and Carolyn Boyd – accompanied Ryan, Speier and the journalists to Port Kaituma and ultimately to Jonestown. It was felt that the presence of the Stoens would unnecessarily antagonize Jones, and Harris wanted to remain in Georgetown because he hoped to spend time with his daughter Liane, who was staying at the Temple's Lamaha Gardens headquarters there.[128]

Only Ryan, Speier, Lane and Garry were initially accepted into Jonestown, while the rest of Ryan's group was allowed in after sunset.[129] That night, they attended a musical reception in the settlement's main pavilion.[130] While the party was received warmly, Jones said he felt like a dying man and ranted about government conspiracies and martyrdom as he decried attacks by the press and his enemies.[74] It was later reported – and verified by audio tapes recovered by investigators – that Jones had run rehearsals on how to convince Ryan's delegation that everyone was happy and in good spirits.[131]

Two Temple members, Vernon Gosney (1953–2021) and Monica Bagby (1960–2009), made the first move for defection that night. In the pavilion, Gosney mistook Harris for Ryan and passed him a note, reading, "Dear Congressman, Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby. Please help us get out of Jonestown."[132] A child nearby witnessed Gosney's act and verbally alerted other Temple members.[133] Harris brought two notes, one of them Gosney's, to Ryan and Speier. According to Speier in 2006, reading the notes caused her and the congressman to realize that "something was very, very wrong."[134]

Ryan, Speier, Dwyer, and Annibourne stayed the night in Jonestown while other members of the delegation, including the press corps and members of Concerned Relatives, were told that they had to find other accommodations. They went to Port Kaituma and stayed at a small café.[135]

In the early morning of November 18, eleven Temple members sensed danger enough to walk out of Jonestown and all the way to the town of Matthew's Ridge, in the opposite direction from the Port Kaituma airstrip.[136][137] Those defectors included the wife and son of Jonestown's head of security, Joe Wilson.[136][138][139][140] When journalists and members of the Concerned Relatives arrived in Jonestown later that day, Marceline Jones gave them a tour of the settlement.[141]

That afternoon, the Parks and the Bogue families, along with in-laws Christopher O'Neal and Harold Cordell, stepped forward and asked to be escorted out of Jonestown by the Ryan delegation.[136][142][143] When Jones' adopted son Johnny attempted to talk Jerry Parks out of leaving, Parks told him, "No way, it's nothing but a communist prison camp."[144] Jones gave the two families, along with Gosney and Bagby, permission to leave.[145] When Harris handed Gosney's note to Jones during an interview in the pavilion, Jones stated that the defectors were lying and wanted to destroy Jonestown.[146]

After a sudden violent rainstorm started, emotional scenes developed between family members.[147] Al Simon, a Native American Temple member, attempted to take two of his children to Ryan to process the requisite paperwork for transfer back to the United States.[147] Al's wife, Bonnie, summoned on the loudspeakers by Temple staff, loudly denounced her husband.[147] Al pleaded with Bonnie to return to the US, but Bonnie rejected his suggestions.[147]

Port Kaituma airstrip shootings
NBC footage taken by Bob Brown, showing gunmen exiting a tractor and trailer at the airstrip
Location	Port Kaituma Airport, Guyana
Date	November 18, 1978 5:20 p.m.–5:25 p.m. (UTC-4)
Target	Congressman Leo Ryan and party; defectors from the Peoples Temple at Jonestown
Attack type	Assassination Mass shooting
Weapons	Handguns, shotguns, rifles
Deaths	5[148]
Injured	11[148]
Perpetrators	Larry Layton (Cessna attack), Peoples Temple “Red Brigade” (attack on Twin Otter)

While most of the Ryan delegation began to depart on a large dump truck to the Port Kaituma airstrip, Ryan and Dwyer stayed behind in Jonestown to process any additional defectors. Shortly before the dump truck left, Temple loyalist Larry Layton, the brother of Deborah Layton, demanded to join the group. Several defectors voiced their suspicions about Larry Layton's motives.[149]

Shortly after the dump truck initially departed, Temple member Don "Ujara" Sly grabbed Ryan while wielding a knife.[150] While Ryan was unhurt after others wrestled Sly to the ground, Dwyer strongly suggested that the congressman leave Jonestown while he filed a criminal complaint against Sly.[151] Ryan did so, promising to return later to address the dispute.[39] The truck departing to the airstrip had stopped after the passengers heard of the attack on Ryan, and took him as a passenger before continuing its journey towards the airstrip.[152]

The entourage had originally scheduled a 19-passenger Twin Otter from Guyana Airways to fly them back to Georgetown. Because of the defectors departing Jonestown, the group grew in number and now an additional aircraft was required. Accordingly, the US embassy arranged for a second plane, a six-passenger Cessna.[39][153] When the entourage reached the airstrip between 4:30 p.m. and 4:45 p.m., the planes had not appeared as scheduled. The group had to wait until the aircraft landed at approximately 5:10 p.m.[39] Then the boarding process began.

Larry Layton was a passenger on the Cessna, the first aircraft to set up for takeoff.[154] After the Cessna had taxied to the far end of the airstrip, he produced a handgun and started shooting at the passengers. He wounded Bagby and Gosney, and tried to kill Dale Parks, who disarmed him after the gun misfired.[155]

Meanwhile, some passengers had boarded the larger Twin Otter. A tractor with a trailer attached, driven by members of the Temple's Red Brigade security squad, arrived at the airstrip and approached the Twin Otter.[156] When the tractor neared within approximately 30 feet (9 m) of the aircraft, at a time roughly concurrent with the shootings on the Cessna, the Red Brigade opened fire with shotguns, handguns and rifles while at least two shooters circled the plane on foot.[39] There were perhaps nine shooters whose identities are not all certainly known, but most sources agree that Joe Wilson, Stanley Gieg, Thomas Kice Sr, and Ronnie Dennis were among them.[157]

External video
Q&A interview with Jackie Speier on her book Undaunted: Surviving Jonestown, Summoning Courage, and Fighting Back, November 18, 2018, C-SPAN

The first few seconds of the shooting were captured on U-Matic ENG videotape by NBC cameraman Bob Brown, who was killed along with Robinson, Harris, and Temple defector Patricia Parks in the few minutes of shooting. Ryan was killed after being shot more than twenty times.[158]

Jackie Speier, Steve Sung, Richard Dwyer, Tim Reiterman, Charles Krause, Ron Javers, Anthony Katsaris, Carolyn Houston Boyd, and Beverly Oliver were the nine injured in and around the Twin Otter. After the shootings, the Cessna's pilot Tom Fernandez, along with the pilot and co-pilot of the Twin Otter, Captain Guy Spence and First officer Astil Rodwell Paul, as well as the injured Monica Bagby, fled in the Cessna to Georgetown. The damaged Twin Otter and the injured Ryan delegation members were left behind on the airstrip.[158]

Three high-ranking Temple survivors claimed they were given an assignment and thereby escaped death. Tim Carter and his brother Mike, aged 30 and 20, and Mike Prokes, 31, were given luggage containing $550,000 in US currency, $130,000 in Guyanese currency, and an envelope, which they were told to deliver to the Soviet embassy in Georgetown.[176] The envelope contained two passports and three instructional letters, the first of which was to Timofeyev, stating:

Dear Comrade Timofeyev, The following is a letter of instructions regarding all of our assets that we want to leave to the Communist Party of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Enclosed in this letter are letters which instruct the banks to send the cashiers checks to you. I am doing this on behalf of Peoples Temple because we, as communists, want our money to be of benefit for help to oppressed peoples all over the world, or in any way that your decision-making body sees fit.[176][177]

The letters included listed accounts with balances totaling in excess of $7.3 million to be transferred to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.[177][178][179] Prokes and the Carter brothers soon ditched most of the money and were apprehended heading for a Temple boat at Port Kaituma. It is unknown how they reached Georgetown, 150 miles (240 km) away, since the boat had been sent away earlier that day.[176] The brothers were given the task before the suicides began, and soon abandoned it when they realized what was about to happen; Tim Carter desperately tried to search for his wife and son, discovering his son in time to witness him being poisoned, and his wife killing herself in despair. At this point, Carter had a nervous breakdown, and was pulled away from the village by his equally distraught brother.

Just before the start of the final meeting in the pavilion, Garry and Lane were told that the people were angry with them. The lawyers were escorted to a house used to accommodate visitors. According to them, they talked their way past two armed guards and made it to the jungle, before eventually arriving in Port Kaituma. While in the jungle near the settlement, they heard gunshots.[180] This observation concurs with the testimony of Clayton, who, having previously fled into the jungle, heard the same sounds as he was sneaking back into Jonestown to retrieve his passport.[170] Rhodes volunteered to fetch a stethoscope and hid under a building.[169]

Two more people who were intended to be poisoned managed to survive.[176] Grover Davis, 79, who was hard-of-hearing, missed the announcement to assemble on the loudspeaker, lay down in a ditch and pretended to be dead.[36][181] Hyacinth Thrash, 76, realized what was happening and crawled under her bed, only to walk out after the poisonings were completed.[36][181]

The only medical doctor to initially examine the scene at Jonestown was Mootoo, who visually examined over 200 bodies and later told a Guyanese coroner's jury of having seen needle marks on at least 70. However, no determination was made as to whether those injections initiated the introduction of poison or whether they were so-called "relief" injections to quicken death and reduce suffering from convulsions from those who had previously taken poison orally. Mootoo and American pathologist Lynn Crook determined that cyanide was present in some bodies, while analysis of the contents of the vat revealed several tranquilizers as well as potassium cyanide and potassium chloride.[182]

Plastic cups, Flavor Aid packets, and syringes, some with needles and some without, littered the area where the bodies were found. Mootoo concluded that a gunshot wound to Annie Moore could not have been self-inflicted, though Moore had also ingested a lethal dose of cyanide.[183]

Guyanese authorities waived their requirement for autopsies in the case of unnatural death. Doctors in the US performed autopsies on only seven bodies, including those of Jones, Moore, Lawrence Schacht, and Carolyn Layton. Moore and Layton were selected among those autopsied, in part, because of the urging of the Moore family, including Rebecca Moore, the sister of the two victims, who was not a Temple member herself.[182]

Found near Marceline Jones' body was a typewritten note, dated 18 November 1978, signed by Marceline and witnessed by Moore and Maria Katsaris, stating:

I, Marceline Jones, leave all bank assets in my name to the Communist Party of the USSR. The above bank accounts are located in the Bank of Nova Scotia in Nassau, Bahamas.

Please be sure that these assets do get to the USSR. I especially request that none of these are allowed to get into the hands of my adopted daughter, Suzanne Jones Cartmell.

For anyone who finds this letter, please honor this request as it is most important to myself and my husband James W. Jones.[184]

Moore also left a note, which in part stated: "I am at a point right now so embittered against the world that I don't know why I am writing this. Someone who finds it will believe I am crazy or believe in the barbed wire that does NOT exist in Jonestown." The last line, "We died because you would not let us live in peace," is written in different color ink. No other specific reference is made to the events of the day. Moore also wrote, "JONESTOWN – the most peaceful, loving community that ever existed."[185]

In addition, she stated, "JIM JONES – the one who made this paradise possible – much to the contrary of the lies stated about Jim Jones being a power-hungry sadistic, mean person who thought he was God – of all things." And "His hatred of racism, sexism, elitism, and mainly classism, is what prompted him to make a new world for the people – a paradise in the jungle. The children loved it. So did everyone else."[185]

Found near Carolyn Layton's body was a handwritten note signed by Layton, witnessed by Katsaris and Moore, dated 18 November 1978, stating, "This is my last will and testament. I hereby leave all assets in any bank account to which I am a signatory to the Communist Party of the USSR."[186]

In 1979, Joseph Hollinger, a former aide to Congressman Leo Ryan, claimed that Jonestown was a "mass mind control experiment" conducted by the CIA. A 1980 newspaper column by Jack Anderson also claimed that the CIA was involved in the Jonestown Massacre, and speculated that Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy to Guyana Richard Dwyer had ties to the CIA.[218] In 1980, an investigation by the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence found no evidence of CIA activity in Jonestown.[213]

In 1987, The Jonestown Carnage: A CIA Crime (1978) (Russian: Гибель Джонстауна - преступление ЦРУ) was published in the Soviet Union, claiming that group members were assassinated by CIA agents and mercenaries to prevent further political emigration from the US as well as suppress opposition to the US regime. Political scientist Janos Radvanyi cites the book as an example of Soviet active measures during the 1980s that "spread both disinformation stories and enemy propaganda against the United States", adding, "It's hard to imagine that anyone could believe so ridiculous a story".[219]

According to religious studies scholar Rebecca Moore, "In the twenty-three years since the deaths in Jonestown, conspiracy theories have blossomed in number and sophistication."[220]