Peoples Temple

Jim Jones... "Guayana, Jonestown":

"Guayana" was the scene of the Jonestown mass suicide in 1978 and still the most infamous locale in cult history, where 913 members of the "People's Temple " died after drinking cyanide-laced Kool Aid. Some, according to survivors, were shot down trying to escape.

"Jim Jones", was the leader and "god" of the cult. They had practiced the ceremonial suicide on previous occasions in preparation for their deliverance from corruption.

They had cut all links with the outside world and their belief in the imminent apocalypse was fuel by rumors within the commune that earthquakes had destroyed Los Angeles , and that San Francisco had been overrun by the Ku Klux Klan.

85 members of the Cult survived the massacre, including Jones's three sons. Some had not been at the commune on 18 November 1978 ; some had stayed in California rather than move to Guayana, and others managed to escape into the jungle.

There is a recording of the pre-suicide ceremony, on which one victim can be heard screaming: "We made it a beautiful day... let's make it a beautiful day!"... "We are not committing suicide... it's a revolutionary act", they were told by Jim Jones.