Historically Bad

23. Don’t drink the (Flavor)aid: Jim Jones and the Jonestown massacre


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Jonestown became internationally infamous when, on November 18, 1978, a total of 918 people died at the settlement in a mass poisoning and group suicide at the nearby airstrip in Port Kaituma; and at a Temple-run building close to Georgetown, Guyana's capital city. The name ofthe settlement became synonymous with the incidents at those locations. During this massacre, a significant number of people died of cyanide poisoning and were injected against their will. In fact, all but two people died via poisoning withapproximately one third of the victims being children. Jones and some Peoples Temple members’ referred to the act as a "revolutionary suicide". The poisonings in Jonestown followed the murder of five other individuals,including U. S Congressman Leo Ryan with the murder-suicide committed by Four other Temple members inGeorgetown at Jones' command. To this day, the Jonestown massacre is known as the largest group suicide mission to have ever taken place and prior to the terrorist attacks of 911, Jonestown marked the single greatest loss of Americanlives in one day due to a non-natural disaster.

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Historically Bad is created and produced by Tabitha Festa and Carly Sullivan.

Case Sources:

https://listverse.com/2024/03/10/top-10-most-heartbreaking-facts-about-jonestown/

https://www.nytimes.com/1979/03/15/archives/excerpts-from-transcript-of-tape-describing-the-final-moments-at.html

https://time.com/6989360/cult-massacre-jonestown-hulu-doc/Bbc.co.uk“Jonestown: the world’s biggest mass suicide”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonestown

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Jones

The documentary Jonestown: Terror in the Jungle (2018).

Right answers mostly “Jonestown… don’t drink thekool-aid”

The docuseries “Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown”

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