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Tuesday, November 18
UNHappy 30th Anniversary to the Brian Jonestown Massacre. On November 18th, 1978, the Reverend Jim Jones' racially harmonious Peoples Temple fell apart for good during Congressman Leo Ryan's delegation visit to his socialist commune in Guyana, nicknamed Jonestown. After Ryan lead 14 or so members, who wanted to return back to the States, to an airstrip 6 miles away, Jones, deeply hurt by the defections and realizing that the end to his utopia was near, ordered that Ryan be killed. Ryan, along with NBC cameraman Bob Brown, correspondent Don Harris, San Francisco Chronicle photographer Greg Robinson and defector Patricia Parks were gunned down at the airstrip in cold blood. Ryan was the first and only Congressman to be murdered while in office. The news of the murders made its way back to Jonestown and what happened next would become one of the wurstest tragedies in all of America's history. Jones and his inner circle implemented their 'revolutionary suicide' plan (you can amazingly listen to Jones tell his congregation about it hear or hear), which horrifically had been rehearsed numerous times before. Some were willing participants, while many others were forced into drinking cyanide-laced grape Flavor Aid (not Kool-Aid, contrary to popular belief) cocktails that ultimately left a total of 909 Jonestown inhabitants dead, including 276 children, who had no choice in the matter. It was the single-largest loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster, until 9/11. Jones, too coward to drink what he served his followers, was shot in the head. The same fate befell Jones' pet chimpanzee, Mr. Muggs. If only Jones and his misdirected flock had heeded the quote that hung in their main pavilion, and we hope you all do the same: 'Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it'
further reading/seeing is bee leaving:
Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple
Jonestown 30 Years Later, a large collection of articles from The SF Chroncile
Jonestown: The Life & Death of Peoples Temple [TWS review]
'Nightmare in Jonestown', Time Magazine's article from 12/4/77
The History Channel's Jonestown Paradise Lost
MSNBC's Witness To Jonestown
CNN's Escape From Jonestown
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