<p><strong>Jim Jones... "<span class="SpellE">Guayana</span>, Jonestown":</strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal "><span>"<span class="SpellE">Guayana</span>" 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</span> <span>Temple</span> <span>" died after drinking cyanide-laced <span class="SpellE">Kool</span> Aid. Some, according to survivors, were shot down trying to escape.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal "><strong>"Jim Jones",</strong> was the leader and "god" of the cult. They had practiced the ceremonial suicide on previous occasions in preparation for their deliverance from corruption.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal "><span>They had cut all links with the outside world and their belief in the imminent apocalypse was fuel by <span class="SpellE">rumors</span> within the commune that earthquakes had destroyed</span> <span>Los Angeles</span> <span>, and that</span> <span>San Francisco</span> <span>had been overrun by the Ku Klux Klan.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal "><span>85 members of the Cult survived the massacre, including Jones's three sons. Some had not been at the commune on</span> <span>18 November 1978</span> <span>; some had stayed in</span> <span>California</span> <span>rather than move to <span class="SpellE">Guayana</span>, and others managed to escape into the jungle.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal ">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.</p>[[Category:Cults]]