hi how are you

i hope you’re having a wonderful day my name is bailey

sarian and today is

monday which means

you guessed it it’s murder mystery and makeup monday

if you are new here hi how are you

that’s great

every monday i sit down i talk about a true

crime story that’s been heavy on my

knock in and i do my makeup at the same time

if you’re interested in true crime

and you like makeup

i highly suggest you subscribe and i’m so

excited to be here because i am

going to talk about a cult woo

i love cults

i just am fascinated

by them i’m very interested in them

they’re fascinating i mean

wow cults wow i tried my best to

simplify it as much as i could because jim

jones had the most random ass life he was everywhere

especially his childhood was just like

wow what the fuck’s going on it was so random

and then later down the road there’s a lot of

there’s a lot more people involved with what goes on

and i left them out because

honestly it will get really confusing so i’m just

focusing on jim jones and his

story i will stop rambling

i missed you guys i’m happy to be here

and let’s get

right into it i was reading a biography

about jim jones

and his upbringing

stuff and like

so random this guy was so wow wow

random he at one

point like he stayed or

lived with like a kennedy

during the summer

i don’t know how and there wasn’t much information

about anyways okay let’s

i’m getting

ahead of myself i’m just

excited okay so let’s just get right into it

jim his parents were

laneta jones and james jones

james was a veteran of

world war one

and was living on disability

payments from being a

victim of a gas attack in the war

it was said that he was emotionally absent

and rarely showed any affection

towards his

jim’s mother

her name was laneta

she was more of a free

spirit she didn’t care for religion

or any sky god

she called any god sky god

you get it anyway

so she didn’t care for religion at all

and she just

didn’t believe in anything

which was not a

thing for women to be free

thinkers or to be

thinking like this at the time so it was like

she was the

weird one on the

block you know like oh don’t go to her

house because

she doesn’t believe in anything you know she’s

she has an opinion

stay clear so she also liked to keep to herself

she kept herself busy

and was constantly working it was

said that she had no maternal instincts and that she

honestly had no desire to even have children

and loneta then became pregnant

and gave birth to

james aka jim

warren jones

and he was born on may 13th 1931

so the family

ended up moving to

lynn indiana

and jim would describe his

childhood as loveless that his parents were

never around

he was always home

alone and his parents just

didn’t care about him

his mom didn’t want to be a mom

she would keep herself busy

by working all of the time his father was just

he was sick

it was said that he was an alcoholic but

i don’t know i couldn’t

quite get clarification on that one in high

school jim was

known to wear his

sunday clothes almost

every day he

would wear a

white pressed

shirt and nice

slacks that most people

would save for

going to church you know

church slacks

so he was wearing this

every day to

school jim said that he participated in some sports

and he even formed his own baseball team

with the kids on his block

he wasn’t really good

at any of the

sports but he

was really good at forming teams and being

the leader mm hmm

which honestly though i mean that’s great

whoa not in this case

now as a teenager jim said that he explored

the different churches in town

he went to as many churches as he

could and he

would just go

sit in and see

what they were preaching what they were

saying and he just wanted to know as much as he could

about the different options and

different religions out there because there were a lot

so jim would just hop around and he would

he was just trying to find the right fit

the religion

or the church

where he felt like he belonged something that he could

stand by jim

would carry a

bible with him

everywhere he went

and also as a

teenager he

would go out

in the street like the main center

where a lot of people

shopping and

stuff and he

would be preaching

preaching the

bible he was very passionate

about it at the

age of 17 jim he got a job at a hospital

and he was working as

i don’t know the actual

like job position but you know he was like a helper he

would often

clean up vomit

he would help with moving newly deceased

or handling

disposal of amputated limbs

so i don’t know how i went from

throw up to

amputated limbs but that’s kind of what he did

at 17 which is like it was

whatever okay but jim said this is like

where he just thrived

and he was now considering getting into

medicine because he just

loved it so in 1948

while working at the hospital that’s

where jim met

a nursing student who was also working there

her name was

marceline they got

along really well and

ended up dating

and marceline said that she was attracted

to him because he was just such a caring caring

individual he just loved

everybody and he

truly believed that everybody was equal

and it was his

responsibility

to devote his life to helping

others like that’s what he was

telling her you know and she just fell in love with him

so after dating for

quite some time they

ended up getting

married in june of 1949

and marceline was under the

impression that

was christian

a christian man and believed in god but

after they had gotten

married she noticed

you know things had

changed or maybe

like she didn’t

quite fully

understand what jim’s

religion or beliefs were jim

would tell her that he didn’t believe in her god and

they would get into like really heated arguments

over it just over

their beliefs and

and because divorce was heavily frowned upon

marceline knew that

it wasn’t even an

option really okay if you got a divorce it was like ooh

something’s

wrong with her

marceline just decided

that she was gonna

stick it out

or at least try to

understand exactly what jim

did believe in

or maybe she

could like convert him you know

often jim would take marceline

to the local

black and african american churches that were in

their city jim said that he was like really

drawn to them because

it wasn’t so

stiff the white churches he had been to

they were just so

boring and people just seemed like they had to be there

versus wanting to be there but at the

black and african

american churches people there were jumping singing

dancing during worship

and just seemed to be having a really fun

time and not acting like they had to be there

so when jim found

these churches

he just fell in

love love and he knew that

this is where

he had to be

the one church that he

ended up like

becoming a member of they welcomed him and

his wife with open arms

and in 1952

jim was 21 years old at that time

he was actually

hired as a student pastor for the church kim just

found like this new calling remember he was like i’m

gonna be a nurse or something well now he was like

i’m gonna be a pastor

yeah so this was his new calling he was

gonna be a pastor

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so jim was a student pastor for

about a year

he would just kind of grow

frustrated because he wanted to do his own thing

versus being told what to do so he was like i’m

gonna open up my own church

and i’m gonna open it up in indianapolis

so he did just that and

he liked the freedom of it because

preach what he wanted

to preach and not be told what he had to do he didn’t

wanna be told what to do

at jim’s church he

pretty much

blended christianity with a new

age spirituality

and radical

social justice

which attracted a very

loyal following

now jim’s congregation was

known for being racially

integrated which was not a

thing yet at this time there were

white churches

and then there were the

black churches

and there wasn’t such thing as

mixing going on

but jim didn’t like that and he

truly believed that everybody was

equal and he wanted everybody welcome

in his church

his wife marceline also worked

alongside with

him and she was the one who was on top of

all the paperwork and keeping

things organized

schedule this

sunday we’re gonna talk

about this that

sunday we’re

gonna talk about

i don’t know

jesus doing

stuff the next

sunday we’re

gonna talk about

jesus doing more

stuff so she

was in charge of that the church itself was very

successful and the location

that they were staying at

it was becoming way too

small for all of

their new members

so they were looking into expanding

into a much larger area

so the current

area that jim’s church was in

it was a low income community

and he knew

like he couldn’t ask the community or the members for

money or donations

to get a bigger place

because he knew like a lot of them were struggling

instead he needed a better plan

a better plan he needed a better plan and his plan

was to up his performance

that’s a good plan

right jim needed to wow

the crowds and he

could do this by performing miracles

right i mean that’s how you wow a

crowd miracles

you got miracles at your church wow

mirror so jim

would command

people in the

crowd you know he’d call

random people

and he’d be like i command your headache to vanish

and it would

or he would command

coughs to stop

he knew that people

wouldn’t believe

his miracles

right off the bat

until he had gained

their trust

so he started

with coughs and headaches

right he started

small but jim

would declare that

these people were healed

he would be yelling

healed by the

power of god has

granted through him

it’s really like amping everybody up like it’s a

concert he’s like yeah healed

word got out i mean people were talking

hey this guy over here he’s healing headaches

you gotta go see him it’s wild

and people were coming in and jim

would then this is how

where the money comes in

he was passing around the

collection plates

and that’s how he would

start making

more and more and more

money and he

was like oh shit i’m onto something here you guys

now it’s said that like jim didn’t feel

fully guilty

i guess because like he wasn’t doing anything

bad was he yeah

so he was making a lot of

money all of a sudden

jim would occasionally go to different

local churches

and do little

guest spots

going around to

these different

churches and whatnot it was also introducing jim to

a bigger crowd

jim knew that

going to these new churches

and people didn’t know who he was that they weren’t

going to believe his healings

right out the gate

so he instead let a few

close people in on

what was really going down

his healing powers oh yeah

so jim would

bring in friends

people who attended his own church

and used them as

audience plants who

would pretend

to be suffering from something and then be healed

for example one couple from the audience

stood up and

talked to the rest of the church

and said oh we used to have a serious

heart defect

and because of jim

we are all better cured wow

and it was just to

prove to the

other audience members that

again he could heal

i mean it worked people were like what his feelings

evolved over time from

small things like

again the headaches

and whatnot

to now curing cancer

mm hmm at one church he brought in

an audience

plant and the person who was cured

would jump up and down and they

would be celebrating that they were cured even

though they

never had cancer in the

first place the whole

thing is fucked up

but because of his new fame he was

bringing in more

money a lot of

money and now he

could upgrade to a bigger

building so jim purchased a larger

building that

could hold up to

700 people and this was in

indianapolis

this time his church was called community

unity but this new

community unity

i like that

actually why did he change it oh i know i know i’m

about to tell you because the new

building that he moved into

already had the word of

temple carved into

stone on the outside of the

building it was a jewish

congregation before that but that’s when

jim just decided to name it the people’s temple

so during this time economic

segregation was deep seated in indianapolis and

and jim made it

his goal to integrate african americans

and the black community into

every aspect of indianapolis

jim was passionate

about equality

and he would go with some of his church members

kind of like a mixture of people

and they would go to local

white owned restaurants and shops

and fight for

their equality

so a lot of shop owners

would tell jim

no we don’t want

black people here

jim decided to use the church

members and himself not even use i mean they wanted to

because they

would have peaceful protests in

front of the restaurants

until eventually

the shop owners or the restaurant

owners gave in

and served all races

now here was

the interesting part that i didn’t even know

about and i thought was

very interesting when businesses actually agreed to

allow everybody into the restaurants or business jim

said that he

would give them hundreds of customers and he

would make sure that they made tons of money

because they allowed this to happen

you know so jim

would hand out flyers

to his church members

with the list

it had a list of restaurants who supported them

and would accept african americans or the

black community

equally into

their business

so they had this

good list going

and also all of the members went there

these businesses

benefited from this advertising

and words spread that

hey if you cooperate

with jim jones over here

you’ll make mad

money so just let the people in

and his church people became some of the best friends a

small businessman

could have because

they were making

money the whole

story i mean i’m

obviously giving you just like a little

breakdown this is a side note

i’m giving you it’s very

vague you know but oh he really like went out there and

they would have their

um where’s my

brain what is this

am i churning butter

what is this the sign

peaceful protests and just

standing with the sign

outside of these businesses and

fighting for equality

and jim was really passionate

about it and

he went to many restaurants and businesses and he was

dedicated to this

so jim presented himself as the

voice of reason and went

after more businesses to change

their policies pretty much to keep the community

segregated remember how

earlier in the

story i said he

would go out and preach on the streets

he was preaching

about equality for all because

the community of the city was

still very segregated and as a

teenager i mean

it’s just like wow

so in 1965 jim his wife

i think they had kids by this time

oh my gosh wow bailey

anywho but they

moved to eukaya

california and they put

money towards a new

place to hold the people’s temple

about 50 to 60 church members

did follow the church out to california

which is what they were hoping for

in the year 1969

jim’s church

wasn’t as popular

as he was hoping it

would be by then

so jim was really feeling down and sad because

it wasn’t poppin

like he thought

and also on top of that

the marriage between his wife

of 20 years marceline

it wasn’t gone well it was crafting

the couple at this

point they had four children

one of them was

their biological child and

three were adopted

jim was just

fully focused on his church you know

and obviously marceline

put her focus

on her children

jim ended up having an affair

with one of his much younger church

member fangirl

and this was

going against

everything that he was preaching he

would be telling the audience members

like you know don’t

don’t cheat on your wife or husband

it’s wrong it’s a sin blah blah blah so

of course jim is doing this himself and he’s

thinking like shit

if the church members

find out that i’m having an affair

there it would be game over

so instead he went to his wife

marceline and told her the truth

marceline had some

issues with her back

which had left her bedridden

most of the days and because of this she wasn’t able

she wasn’t able to sexually satisfy him

because her back hurt

well i’m sorry

it wasn’t just like

her back hurt she was bedridden

and like yeah

so she wasn’t able to sexually satisfied him

so jim told marceline

i love you i

still want to be

married to you it’s just you

know look i have this girl on the side who’s

going to give me the

sexual part

of the relationship that you can’t provide for me

jim was able to set it up in a way that made marceline

understand and just accept it

it was just sex

and not an emotional relationship so

marceline’s like

okay i guess

she i don’t

think she really even had any option to be honest

or she gonna say no and then what

leave him where she

gonna go i mean her

whole life revolved around the church and gym

she honestly

from what i

read it seemed like she didn’t have anything set

up for herself so it’s like she even if she wanted to

leave it even if she did

leave it was like

what was she gonna do

but then get this get

this jim then went to his church

and he told the members

what was going on

and he just kept it honest

got up there and said hey everybody

god is good

and so are 19 year olds hey up top

so jim went to his church and just told him what was

going on i’m having

i’m sleeping with this

chick over there she’s

right there everybody i’m having an affair

and he was just really honest but

jim’s followers the church members they actually really

understood and they supported the decision

the church had a lot

of ups and downs throughout the years but jim just kept

going in march of 1970

he had a pretty good size following and was

bring in some good money

again jim would

travel with some members

to los angeles

and seattle

where he drew

crowds and hopes to

bring more people and attention to the people’s temple

so he was traveling a little bit further to perform

these miracles that he was doing

he would set up temporary

booths outside

venues where he would give

sermons and sell

photos of himself for 5

and he was also healing people at these

sermons so people were just like wow

have you seen this jim jones guy

i was trying to get some

bread at the

store stopped and saw him do this like

thing bought a five dollar

picture of him

yeah know and like people were just talking i mean

he was getting a lot of hype

during this time jim

would have the people who are

watching the

sermon fill out

paperwork with like

their name and mailing address on it which they

would turn into him

when they were done filling it out

he ended up

using that as

marketing material

he wouldn’t mail people pamphlets

about what was

going on in the church

all the healings that they had accomplished

and also received donations through the mail

because he was doing such big

great things

at his church they

never actually like

asked for money

they never asked for a donation well

they kind of did they like

if you wanna if you

wanna donate you can

but you don’t have to people are

still donating

money constantly

and because

of the influx of

money that they were getting

the people’s temple decided to open up

stores yes stores

where people or members

could donate items they no longer

wanted so essentially like a salvation

army or goodwill

and they would

sell secondhand

clothing there and a lot of the church members

would work there as well

work at the

store also they

would serve

free meals in low

income areas and one of the most

impressive programs was one that

sent teens to college who couldn’t afford it

so the people’s temple

they would use

their donation

money again

to pay for college

for people who couldn’t afford it

but it covered

books tuition

and they also purchased

houses which they

ended up remodeling

into dormitories

so the students had free housing and meals

like it seemed

i mean what i was reading i was like wow good for you

so they had some very

impressive programs

now eventually

the people’s temple

would establish permanent

churches in san francisco

and los angeles

many of the people who worked at the churches

were members

who then stepped up

and felt the calling to be a part of what jim was doing

jim would put fear

into his followers telling them that

racists were trying to shut them down

and were threatening

to harm them

so the mentality

among the followers was

said to be quote

if you don’t

agree with us

we’re going to convince you

if we can’t convince you you’re the

enemy end quote

which a lot of people have this

mentality now am i

right can i get name in

god is good

god is good okay

so over time

jim became more

and more controlling

or judgmental

towards followers

who did not

spend all of their time

dedicated towards the temple

so going out to a movie

was prohibited

and it was better

to give that

money directly to the church like why are you

going to see that

movie you should be donating

that to the church you know like just making them feel

so jim also

discouraged

romantic relationships

because it was distracting

they should be at the church

he also told them that they shouldn’t be

drinking or doing drugs because

it weakened

the will as well as the body

couples who joined the church were allowed to remain

that way but time together was

limited by temple chores and duties

it kind of duties

duty it kind of

sounds like

scientology

he would keep them busy around the church making them

clean making them just do shit

and they would

do it and his followers did pretty much whatever he

asked of them

part of the

reason was belief in the temple and its purposes

so then the people’s temple

ended up buying a

bunch of buses it was like

about a dozen buses and they

would make trips from san francisco to los angeles

then seattle

and while on the road jim

would make appearances

at different churches

allowing them with you know his healing powers

and he was also preaching and

fighting for equality

the healings were always a high point and

still he was

using insiders to be healed

from the audience

jim would also sometimes call out names from an

index card announcing that this person was unaware

of a cancer that was in

their system

and then a temple nurse

would be dispatched into the

crowd to swab

out the person’s

throat in preparation for jim’s healing so they

would like open up

their mouth you know

and like swab it try and

clean it but in this process the

nurse she had a little bit

he or she had a little bit of chicken

liver like in

their hand and they

would drop it

into the person’s

mouth when they were swapping

naturally the person

would gag and

cough it back up like

and the nurse

would then be like oh my god spit it out

spit it out into my hand and then they

would spit it out into

their hand the

nurse would

call it the cancer

she’d be like look everybody the cancer

and she would be

he or she i’m

sorry cause sometimes it was a guy too they

would be showing

cancer off to the audience

aka the chicken

liver like oh my god you guys look

this just came out of him

and then jim

would start yelling to spit

spit it out and that

their life has been

saved i mean he had his

tricks it worked it worked

so around 1971

this is when jim began

abusing drugs on a regular basis

he would use

pills and liquids to provide

boosts of energy

during the day or in the morning

and then at

night time he

would take something to help him sleep

getting drugs was actually very easy

for him because some of his followers

could provide prescriptions to jim no problem

jim said that it was

pretty easy to hide

the fact that he was doing drugs in the

first place from his followers

but soon jim

would become very

short tempered

and his eyes were constantly

red and watery

which is what led him to wearing the infamous

dark sunglasses

24 7 he was wearing them all the

time now jim at first

to members he was very kind

caring genuine

wanted to help people

seemed like a good person

once he started doing drugs that’s when he was

becoming just very mean

possessive controlling psycho just paranoid everything

so i’m sure

there were members out there who probably put the

pieces together

but for the most part most members didn’t really

question it i guess

so jim’s wearing his dark sunglasses 24

7 and jim told

his followers

that he was wearing the sunglasses because his

inner powers

were so great that

the holy energy often

glowed from his eyes

and his followers

if they looked at him directly

the holy glow

would burn them and they could die

and they believed it

so they were like okay

also a side

effect from his drug

abuse was jim’s heightened

sense of paranoia jim

would preach to

his followers that the government was a danger to them

and that the fbi

and cia were tapping the temple’s

phone line jim

would tell his

followers that they all needed to be on constant

alert which

caused fear

and the followers felt just like really nervous

scared they thought that they were

going to be a

target of some kind of attack

the holy spirit

in my eyes will burn them and we will be protected

the church members

would call jim and his wife

marceline mom and dad

and their relationship was very

close with the church

jim and marceline

they were very frugal

and they never

drove like a new car

they drove like an old speed up

wagon i believe but

they never got new

clothes they only

shopped from the secondhand

store that they were running jim

would say that he

never wanted to give the

impression to his church that he was better than them

and that he

he was one of them

see i’m not

spending any

money i’m not

spending any church

money on myself or for things

it all went back to the church

over time jim’s

drug problem increased and he

would go on

to have numerous affairs

with other members

and believed

that he needed more sex

with a variety

of partners

and his ego was just increasing he believed all

women regardless of their

age and whether they

would admit it or not

but he believed that all

women were attracted

to him he was like they all want me

eventually almost all of the

women and jim’s

inner circle

would become his

sexual partner

they even considered it part of

their duties

to have sex with him

why do they do this

why do cult members

always have

to have sex with everybody all the girl like why

why do you have to do this

is that why people

start cults

so they could just

literally have sex with

tons of people

cause that’s how

like how it seems

so time goes on

and jim knew that he needed to do bigger and better

things for his followers

and he was also now looking for somewhere

that he could call the promised land

where him and his followers could live

safely and freely

without the

worry of attack

from the fbi or the cia

few members went out looking for a permanent

missionary location

and in october of 1973

they determined that guyana

south america

would be the most

suitable place

its location was convenient

boats could make

an easy trip from miami

to guyana’s capital of georgetown

which was a port

and jim wanted complete isolation for his new mission

and guyana was

perfect for that i mean they had a

population around 850 000

but most of them

lived along the

atlantic coast

and the majority

of guyana was

covered with

dense jungle

there were no connecting roads to the area

where the people’s temple

would be built

jim told his followers that

the promised land

mission site was a place

where everyone

in the temple

would go to

avoid american

martial law

and concentration camps

that would be soon taking over

he was preaching this to his

church members

telling them that this was

going to happen

that the cia

and the fbi were onto them that they were

gonna come in with a

bunch of guns and kill them all like he was putting

fear into his followers

every like meeting

just saying something you know and

people were getting just

paranoid with him

finally in may of 1977

jonestown was open

and ready for the members

people slowly

started making

their way out there

they had cottages

set up for people to live in but

unfortunately there

weren’t enough

for the hundreds of people that showed up

most of the followers all chipped in and helped

build more cottages the goal was to create a

self sustaining

utopia jim was in complete control over

everything there was no crop

planted no tools purchased without

his approval

if any of the followers wanted to be wrote

in like in a romantic relationship and be like

they needed to apply

for permission

first if any of the couples want to

break up or end

their relationship

it also had to be approved through jim as well

any incoming mail

was opened and read before

being passed on to the person it was addressed to

outgoing mail was also censored if

there were letters that said anything bad

about jonestown

or even just kind of

slightly like hey there aren’t enough cottages

the letter wouldn’t be sent

out and the follower whoever

wrote the letter

saying something bad

would be forced to rewrite

their letter

only giving glowing reviews of

their stay in jonestown

i kind of forgot to mention

so when jonestown

was first being

built and whatnot there were

church members who went out there and

built it it took a long time but during that time

that’s when jim was kind of preaching

to his members like hey we’re having this being built

start saving your

money we’re

going out there the people who wanted to go went

there were also a lot of members who didn’t go they

weren’t forced to

to go at all

and i’m not trying to come off as me like

victim blaming at all you know like oh they went on

their own free will

no i mean they

heavily believed in what jim was preaching

but there were a lot of members who decide like i’m not

gonna go but jim was like teasing it for

a long time

in the church

about what was

going on and how it was beginning

built and whatnot

so people were just getting really hyped

about it because they made it

sound like it was

gonna be this in amazing

place privacy at

jonestown was non existent

there was no privacy many of the cottages were

overcrowded

people on top of that just like kept

showing up to jonestown

but there was nowhere for them to stay

there was limited

water available

for showers and people were told to keep

their mouths closed

while showering because the

water was polluted

meanwhile jim over here

jim he had a much nicer

cabin you know and

he lived in his

cabin with his wife and a couple mistresses

they had a generator

for starters that

powered a refrigerator and some fans in his bedroom

and then he had some like soft

beds meanwhile everyone else

is just miserable because they don’t have any of that

he also had a camp

radio that was set up in his room

it was more of like an intercom

system because he

would make like announcements

to the people

outside in the community so he didn’t even have to

leave his room he

could talk to them

directly through there

that’s probably why he got fat

so jonestown was

actually being funded by his followers social security

checks that were coming in through the mail

but overall

money was tight

and the social security checks

weren’t enough so many of the followers

began manufacturing toys

which were cars and

trains but they were carved from wood

and then they

would be sent out to georgetown

and sold there

which actually brought in some money

but it wasn’t enough to like what they needed it for

like more cottages

and proper food

because food was running out and peanut butter and

jelly sandwiches were

what the people were living off of

also beverages were

limited they

would usually drink

water or kool aid because it was inexpensive

and could easily be

mixed in with water

jim would reward his followers with a single cookie

on sundays i’m

sorry but like

thanks for the cookie

anyone who was a rule

breaker would be forced to

sleep and eat

separately from the rest of the followers

they were also

required to run

everywhere the people who

the rule breakers

they were required to run

everywhere and no one was allowed to

speak or even look at them

the jonestown

population grew to over 900 people

which is a great amount that’s a lot of people you know

and all were

required to attend

nightly meetings

at these meetings he

would sometimes preach

but more often

he gave his

personalized accounts of recent us and

world news most of

which was made up with his imagination

which would

carry on until two or

three in the morning

his imagination

was keeping everyone

up it was drugs it was probably the drugs the people of

jonestown worked

every day until 6 pm

while music

would be playing over the loudspeakers

system but over time

jim was growing more

and more frustrated that

there wasn’t much progress being made within jonestown

and the followers were

becoming more unhappy with

their new lives because there wasn’t

it was too crowded

and there wasn’t enough food they were getting

a single cookie they were eating peanut butter and

obviously they’re not happy

sadly though it was not easy

for them to leave

their passports were locked up

and if you wanted to

leave you had to pay pay

for it yourself nobody was making their own

money and any

money that was coming in was being

taken away by jim to fund

jonestown so they just felt or they

essentially were trapped

some of the followers

were able to

sneak away and escape

and a few others

could afford to

leave but were made to sign

a contract stating that they would

never speak

against the church

some members who were able to escape

did speak up

some spoke to the

media about

their experience and what they thought of the church

this would lead to more newspapers

covering the

story and speaking out

against the practices of jim

jones of course

jim told his followers back at

jonestown that

troops were coming

to take away the children and that everyone had to

fight because

an attack was coming he had gotten word that the us was

was looking into him

because people were

speaking up and saying like people are

trapped out there so yeah they

essentially were coming but jim

twisted it and

said that they were coming to kill them and

stuff his followers

only got news

from jim himself so they really had no idea what was

going on in the

media or that people were

speaking out

about jonestown

tons of guns were

then being smuggled into

jonestown over time

jim had put together a security team

who set up around

the town they were set up to protect from attacks

but low key

they were there to keep everybody in

the followers were

becoming scared

because the security was now threatening to hurt them

if they didn’t

follow any of the rules instead of protecting

jonestown from the outsiders

they were attacking

their own people

if people try to get out of

jonestown this security

would shoot them

in february

of 1978 jim called all the people in to gather for

an emergency meeting

where he told the people that

soldiers were coming to attack

jonestown that the cia was on to them

and that they

would attack in a matter of hours

their intention was

to kill all of the followers

living in jonestown including the children

that’s how you get them

the children know

jim told them

rather than they be killed at the hands of

these monsters

that they must take

their own lives instead

that by doing this

it would rob

their enemies of any triumph

some of the

followers agreed that this was the best idea

but others who were just worn out with all the bs

just wanted to leave

large containers were brought

out and they were filled with like this

weird dark liquid

everyone was told to line up fill a cup

and drink this

drink mixture

would kill them in

about 40 minutes

jim was preaching

while the followers were forced to

drink the poison

and told them

their deaths

would be peaceful

whenever one had swallowed

swallowed their drinks

jim told them

quote you didn’t take anything end

quote and that it was all a test to see if they were

truly willing to die for the cause

as a reward the

loyal followers

were off for the rest of the day

it was said that nobody

stood up or got

upset with jim for this and that

the true believers

accepted what jim had done so it was just a test

lol this was the moment

jim knew he had complete control over his people

he really wanted to test them and

he did it the fact that

they were willing to die just because he told them to

he was like fuck

yeah so i’m sure i don’t know because

again i wasn’t there but

i’m sure that really just

boosted his ego

to say the least

during all of this jim was

still doing drugs

and was becoming more

and more paranoid

because back in the us parents of people living in

jonestown were concerned by strange

letters they were receiving

or the fact that they had received no letters at all

many people went to authorities

and pressed them

to investigate

jonestown please get my sons there my

daughters are

like please look into this in november of 1978 us

congressman leo ryan

he traveled

to guyana to inspect the people’s temples

activities and

the jonestown

compound itself he was investigating

rumors that some members of the cult were being held

against their will

and were being subjected

to physical and

psychological abuse

leo arrived

to jonestown on november 17th

and planned to return home that following day

when he went into

jonestown they

all were on

their best behavior

a mirror to try and impress him make sure

this congressman had nothing but good

things to say

about jonestown

and at the end of the day leo

was done and was

going to hop in his truck

drive out to a

small plane nearby

and then head back to the us

while he was leaving walking

to his car there were several temple members who

asked if they

could get a ride

with him because they wanted to

leave and he agreed

so they jumped into his car

and headed back to

where the airplane was so they

could go back to the us now

the security

who was there protecting jonestown

saw that this was happening

and because they were

trained or brainwashed

or just bad people

they believed that

these members were being taken

you know that jim was

right like oh my god the cia

guy did come and like take

these people or whatever and they’re

gonna be murdered

so instead the security

ended up shooting at the

truck to try and prevent them from taking

taking the followers

and just trying

to get them to stop luckily the people in the

truck were able to

drive off unhurt but now there was like this

sense of urgency to get the fuck out of there

they’re shooting at us we

gotta go like

we gotta go

so they get to the air strip

about to hop on to this

small plane but sadly

some of the followers

security showed up

at the air strip with

their weapons tons of guns

they shot and attacked the

the people who were trying to

leave and they

ended up killing five people

including the congressman and

three other members

of the press who were with him

and 11 people were wounded

at around 4 pm jim

spoke over the

camp loudspeaker to his followers announcing

a meeting in the pavilion

inside the people’s temple they

recorded almost

of jim’s sermons

and any meetings they had which

they had hundreds of thousands of tapes oh my gosh but

sadly that means that they taped

their last and

final meeting

jim told the people that

he tried to give them the best life and that

one of the people on the

plane was going to

shoot the plane

pilot and it

would be blamed on the people of

jonestown and it

would soon bring

their enemies into town

the people had no idea

about what happened at the airstrip jim knew

because the security team came back and told him

but he spinned it and made it

sound you know

one person was hurt

one jim told the people that he had a solution

that he would

spare the children

from enslavement and the

seniors from

slaughter jim said that it was time for them to

drink the potion

that they were not committing suicide

but that it was a revolutionary act

many of the members refused

to move or beg to be let go they didn’t want to like

drink this poison

a few people in the poison line

thanked jim

for all that he’d done for them all of the followers

drink the poisoned

flavor aid mix

all of this was captured on the tape recording as well

you can listen

to it but i’m just giving you a little disclaimer it’s

gonna ruin your day it’s

gonna ruin your week it’s

gonna ruin your month it’s

horrifying it’s

awful and i

don’t recommend it but i know there’s a lot of

about curious cats out there

who are but just know

just know it’s horrible it’s just oh

so the next day the guyana defense

force troops went into

jonestown and

found a horrific

scene there were

bodies everywhere

some of them had markings

where the poison was injected

it’s believed that

these people

who had these injection

marks refused

to drink the poison

and were held down

and instead it was injected into

their bodies

oh my gosh they

found jim’s body

sprawled out on

stage in the pavilion

jim and one of his mistresses

don’t know why

we’re the only ones who died from a gunshot

wound to the head

rather than the poison

i guess jim just wanted to get it over with

dick originally the

local guyanese

government had reported

about 383 deaths

and word had got back to the us

where the media was

covering the

story so soon

after that american

troops went out to

jonestown to investigate

soon more and more

bodies were

found and away

week after the

tragic event the death

total came to

nine hundred

and nine deaths nine

hundred nine nine

hundred nine that’s a lot of people

this is a side note

when i first

heard about

jonestown i mean i don’t know how old i was or

whatever but

in my mind when i

think of a cult i

think like mmm

five to 10 people you know like

which is still sad it’s

still awful

but 909 people that’s a fucking lot he

wow wow you know like that’s insane i just i

still can’t wrap my head around it it’s just in

same investigators ended up

searching the compound and over 60 000

printed pages plus several

hundred tape recordings were

taken and the fbi

spent hours

about hours

going through it all

also in jim’s cottage they

found around 700 000

in suitcases

what were you doing with it

also he had a

bunch of different bank accounts which had

money in it like this guy had millions of dollars

no idea what his plan was

obviously he wasn’t

spending it on

jonestown months

were spent trying to

identify the

victims some

were identified through

fingerprints

and if they got lucky

dental records

but most of the

victims hadn’t been

to a dentist in years

many of them were too badly decomposed to identify

even though it had only been

about a week

but the heat and

humidity had decomposed the

bodies at a

rapid rate sadly

409 bodies were

never identified

the evergreen cemetery

in oakland california

offered ground for a mass

grave where

the 409 people were laid to rest

on may 11 1979 all of jim

jones churches were seized

and closed down

as well as the many

many bank accounts he had hiding over

seven million dollars

all the money was seized

by the government

and was used to repay

the victims families

the events at

jonestown constituted the

greatest single loss of american

civilian life in a deliberate act

until the tragic

incidents of 9 11

many of the family members

of the victims

tried to sue and

tried to get

money from jonestown

estate and whatnot

and also they were trying to sue

because they were trying to get help

from the government

to search his

place in the

first place and nobody did so

there were a lot of lawsuits to follow

and also there

were a lot of different members of the church

who were being sued there’s a lot more

to it as well than just this but for the most part

that is awful horrifying

tragic story

about jonestown

jim jones i don’t know what the

fuck happened to him because he

started off so good i don’t know what i think it

i think it was the drugs i

think money

and drugs just completely

derailed him

money and drugs tend to do this to a lot of people

money for sure does this to people

i was reading a biography

about jim jones

and truly it

sounded like he

started off as an amazing

person with a

great goal in life to really help and

serve people

and then it seems

maybe when when

the drugs drugs

the drugs and the money is

where he went off

track but it’s just like i don’t know

what happened

what happened greed

money and drugs i

guess i guess that’s the answer

i just can’t believe

those things can

truly make somebody do this

i appreciate you guys so much for hanging out with me

today i hope you have a

wonderful rest of your day you make good choices please

make good choices i’ll be seeing you guys later bye