The Influence of Jones

What makes a leader? Is it their beliefs? Is it their charisma? Is it their compassion? With every leader, one must have a follower. Followers will look towards their leader for guidance. How far would you follow a leader? Would you ever follow someone to your own destruction? On November 18th, 1978, Leader of the Peoples Temple, Jim Jones, would lead over 900 of his followers to commit murder and suicide in the name of Jones. With his followers all being from America, many people questioned how one man could lead to the death of so many Americans. For over 20 years, Jones would create a socialist movement that would gain a following of over 3,000 Americans. Jones would use the civil rights movement, political power, complete socialism, and paranoia to have full control over his congregation and inevitably use his influence to take the lives of 900 members to send the message that they would lay down their lives as an act of revolutionary suicide.

Histography

            Many historians primary focus will be of Jonestown in Guyana followed by the events that led to the massacre. The Jonestown massacre was a step by step process that spread across 20 years of using currents events of that time. Jones also has a chronology of his life but many of his life is written through his own autobiographies which could be considered to be fabricated as evident of Jones’s manipulation. The primary focus of my research is to connect all the major events through Jones’s life would lead to the collapse of Jonestown and the death of 900 followers.

Bibliographic

The Children of Jonestown, by Kenneth Wooden describes exactly how little the
followers of the People’s Temple controlled their lives in Jonestown. Wooden promotes the controlling aspects that were within the Peoples Temple community and how Jones would use children and sexual humiliation to gain control over his congregation.^[1] Wooden details the accounts the perspective of the children with the Peoples Temple and how they were a device of control. Wooden provides the inner workings of the People Temples main control over their congregation.

David Chidester’s, “Saving The Children by Killing Them: Redemptive Sacrifice in the Ideologies of Jim Jones and Ronald Reagan,” discusses the concept of dying for a cause. Chidester describes how the Jonestown massacre was dying in the name of socialism and could have been argued as a justifiable death as Americans believed that dying for capitalism would be a reasonable cause of suicide.^[2] Chidester provides the perception of the people of Jonestown that they were dying for a cause that would benefit the future of America.

When discussing suicide for a cause, Shankar Vedantam’s, The Hidden Brain, discusses the tunnel vision of suicide bombers. Shankar describes how Larry Layton was not seen as a depressed, violent, or deranged but believed that he needed to die for the cause. Layton’s family describes him as a happy person who believed in the same beliefs of equality as Jim Jones. Layton is seen as a courageous person seeing the opportunity of killing congressman Leo Ryan and crashing the airplane as a victory for a brighter future for his community.^[3] Many other cultures practice the same belief as the Japanese kamikaze pilots and Taliban hijacking the airlines demonstrated in the name of their community. The ideology of dying for a cause is also expanded upon in Rebecca Moore’s "Is the Canon on Jonestown Closed?" argues that Jim Jones and Osama Bin Laden are similar in what message they want to send to the world. Jim Jones and Osama Bin Laden wanted people to sacrifice themselves for a higher purpose both involving in religious/social ways of life.^[4] Jim Jones had 909 members of his congregation to murder their children and to commit suicide in the name of communism. Jim Jones wanted to demonstrate that people would rather die than live in the American way of life. They even assassinated congressman Leo Ryan and NBC journalists in the name of Jones. This can be seen with Osama Bin Laden’s attack on September 11th, 2001 when he had his Al-Qaeda members to crash into multiple America buildings killing themselves with countless innocent Americans. Osama Bin Laden led with the congregation to have a hatred toward America to the point that destroying America would be worth committing suicide in the name of Laden. With so many causes of suicide, what happened in Jonestown could be seen as mass suicide with main factors being of sacrifice, the feeling of losing everything, or for a religious cause.

Joel Greenberg’s “Jim Jones: The Deadly Hypnotist” leads to how much of an influence Jim Jones had on his congregation. Greenberg describes Jim Jones as brainwashing his followers to the very point that they had no control over themselves. This fuels the belief that Jim Jones is to take complete responsibility for the actions of 909 people dying in Jonestown. With using control over family-ties, cognitive control, caste system, no-escape and the concept of the divine power of Jim Jones, the follower’s sense of individualism and humanism broke down to being mere pawns in Jim Jones’s power to control.^[5] None of the people of Jonestown appeared to be in the right state of mind with the exception being Jim Jones himself. If we state that he was also as brainwashed and insane as his congregation, then we are excluding his responsibility for the death of 909 people.

Jones’s use of the Civil Rights movement

Jim Jones would gain a huge following through civil rights movements. Jones’s had a fascination with becoming a leader at an early age with his interests in preaching. He would admire how people would look up to the preacher in the churches. Jones would go into African American communities in the 40s and 50s where he would preach on the streets on equality. Jim Jones would pursue a career in 1952 as a student pastor at the Somerset Methodist Church. Due to the church not wanting integration with the African American community, Jim Jones would purchase his own church, strategically in an area with a high African population, which he would call the Wings of Discipline. Jones would also promote an open door belief that “the door is open so wide that all races, creeds, and colors, find a hearty welcome to come in relax, meditate and worship God.”^[6] This was Jones’s first steps in gaining popularity with many people never have had seen an integrated church in Indianapolis. Jim Jones would also use civil equalities in his personal life with being his family being the first white family to adopt a black child in the state of Indiana. Jones would gain recognition for his works in civil rights in Indianapolis. By 1961, Jim Jones would eventually catch the attention of the mayor of Indianapolis, Charles H. Boswell, when Jones was appointed as Mayor’s Commission on Human Rights.^[7] Through this time, Jones would use radio, television, and other publications to speak on racial equality and socialism and gain more traction in Indianapolis until his move to California. Jones would continue to this position until 1962 when he moved to Brazil. With the Cold War becoming more prominent, Jim Jones would end his work in Indianapolis by moving his family to Brazil due to an article in Esquire listing Brazil as one of the nine safest places in the case of a nuclear crisis.^[8] Upon return to Indianapolis two years later, Jim Jones would find his congregation diminished and civil rights equality was more prominent. With Jones having put in hard work for equality with no recognition, he would use his paranoia of nuclear fallout to move his congregation to Ukiah, California. Jim Jones used the civil rights movement of the 1950s to promote his beliefs of equality which would be the fundamentals of his socialist views later on in his life.

Political Power

With the civil rights movement having more popularity in America, Jones would begin to gain political power through his manipulations of politics. Jones began with providing help for the editor of the Ukiah Daily Journal by providing medical care and housekeeping for his family.^[9] This was the beginning of him spreading his message to the masses. Editorial pieces would also come out with Jones’s Caravan of Hope with children and elderly traveling the 10,000-mile countryside speaking the word of Jones. Jones would eventually gain more political power using the elderly and children to form mass political campaigns for political parties. Wayne Boyton once told the Los Angeles Times that the Peoples Temple, “were a dream come true. They would do precinct work. They would get information from the courthouse. They would do the grubbies-addressing envelope, making phone calls. They’d do anything you’d ask, and so quickly you couldn’t believe it.”^[10] Little did many politicians know, that children were forced to stay up for countless hours writing letters to politicians with little to no sleep. The Caravan of Hope would also have children sleeping in the overhead compartments to have more space for more people. The Peoples Temple would also assist in bringing back the hostage, Patricia Hearst, by offering 2,000 dollars to her kidnappers which would be over 10,000 dollars today.^[11] Other prominent political members would join into the Peoples Temple such as Tim Stoen. This popularity would even have him in good relations with San Francisco mayor, George Moscone would appoint Jones public housing authority in October 1976.^[12] Jones would even receive the support of one of the boards of supervisors, Harvey Milk, who was famously known as being the first gay official voted into office, would write to president Jimmy Carter to assist Jones in legal issues.^[13] Jones would even receive praise from Senator Milton Marks praising Jones and his caravan of hope in the good deeds and kind acts towards others.^[14] With Jones having the appeal that attracted many people to join the Peoples Temple, Jones would have to use his socialist beliefs to keep members in by having almost complete control of their finances, their relationships, and their families.

Using Socialism to Control

Even though Jim Jones appeared to be a good leader to the outside America, he would use his complete socialist beliefs to gain complete control over his congregation. When joining Peoples Temple, members had to sign away their belongings making them financially dependent to Jones by using the “Peoples Temple Free Will Donation Card.”^[15] If any members wanted to leave the Peoples Temple with taking their finances back, Jones would use his donation card in court. Jones would also preach on the sharing of others. Jones would engage in sexual intercourse with wives of other members along with men. This being a form of power and dominance would be reinforced by Jones’s claims of being the only heterosexual in the congregation and that only he could truly satisfy both men and women. Jones also began to separate families and have children living with other families so he could have a tighter grip on his congregation. Tim Stoen would fall into the same control scheme of Jim Jones having him write a humiliating letter to the congregation that Tim could not have a baby with his wife, Grace Stoen, and that he wanted Jim Jones to engage in sexual intercourse with his wife to produce a child.^[16] Tim would eventually redact his comment of being infertile and that he was able to produce children. In 1972, John Victor Stoen would be born with his birth certificate having Tim Stoen as his biological father^[17] but Jones would take the custody battle to court claiming that John was his biological son. Once John was born, he would be forced to live with other families while other children would be forced in the care of Tim and Grace Stoen. Jones would also manipulate the foster care system in California with fostering many children that he would send to Guyana as cheap labor along with gaining their social security checks every month.^[18] Along with these forms of manipulation, Jones’s socialist views were amplified with testing his congregation if they were willing to give up their lives for his cause. Jones would give his inner circle Kool-Aid, and once drank, would announce that they drank poison. Even though this was only a test, Jones wanted to see who would be willing to die for him. Many members began to have had enough of Jones’s abuse of power which led to interviews exposing Peoples Temple, such as the “Inside Peoples Temple” article by The New West.^[19] Jones was aware of his reputation is in jeopardy with the news articles and began his final trip to Guyana with taking as many members of his congregation with him. On August 1st, 1977, the same day the New West article was published, Jones would take his congregation to Guyana where his socialist views grew. With the compound built for 200-300 people, the 900 residents began to see the socialist vision become strain with low rations leading to food depravity. Jones did not want to receive any negative views of his Guyana compound which would lead to the censoring of letters, along with the giving up on all belongings and passports upon entering into the compound. Jones would use paranoia for his congregation to have control to murder.

The Power to Murder

With many families writing to Ryan about their concerns of Jonestown, Ryan knew he had to address these issues. Congressman Leo Ryan sent a telegram on November 1st, 1978 to Jim Jones expressing his numerous complaints of families being worried of Jonestown. Ryan did acknowledge Jones work in California and stated that he was impressed by his efforts to help others.^[20] On November 6th, 1978, Mark Lane, an attorney from Tennessee, responded to Leo Ryan that Jim Jones wished for him to come with Ryan in the case that he came to Jonestown. Lane’s letter also appeared to be made threatened by stating that, “ [...] agencies of the U.S. Government have somewhat consistently oppressed the People’s Temple and sought to interfere with the People’s Temple, a religious institution. I am now exploring that matter fully in order to bring an action against those agencies of the U.S. Government that have violated the rights of my client.”^[21] On November 10th, 1978, Congressman Ryan who respond to Mark Lane that he would not join him in Guyana. Ryan also responds to the comment of being oppressed by expressing, “I am also interested in your statement that “various agencies of the U.S. Government have somewhat consistently oppressed the People’s Temple.” Any such assumption with regard to our Committee is grossly in error.”^[22] With Leo Ryan’s team and journalists entering into Jonestown, they would assume the worse. While in Jonestown, Ryan would be under the assumption that the compound was in fairly good condition and the people appeared to be in positive spirits. When Leo Ryan gave his speech to Jonestown, he was met with a thunderous applause when stating, “I’ve had with some of the folks here already this evening, that uh, whatever the comments are, there are some people here who believe this is the best thing that ever happened to them in their whole life.”^[23] Throughout the trip many people would approach Ryn wanting to leave due to the poor conditions and the fear of dying. This led to many defectors leaving with Ryan. Jones saw the defectors leaving with Ryan as an ultimate betrayal which threaten his control over his people. Jones’s control was put to the test when ordering the assassination of Leo Ryan. On November 18th, 1978, Leo Ryan and four others would be shot on the airstrip in Georgetown by Larry Layton, disguised as a defector of Jonestown. In his final tape, Jones states that he did not know who killed Ryan but states that as far as anyone should know that he killed him showing that he had full control over Larry Layton.^[24] Now that Jones was able to command his congregation, he would put his control to the final test by having control of his follower’s death.

The Power to Sacrifice

On November 18th, 1978, Jones would give his final sermon of revolutionary suicide. Jones told his congregation that Ryan was dead and that America would descend to Guyana and torture their children and that “If we can’t live in peace, then let’s die in peace.” At this time nurses would bring out syringes with cyanide followed by 50-gallon drums filled with Flavor-Aid laced with cyanide. Jones expressed that this was the most humane way to go and continuously stated to think of the children. Many members of the congregation expressed that they did not want to die and suggested ways to live such as Russia, Korea, or other South American countries. Jones would rebuttal every option and continued to argue that they needed to die. As the listener can hear the crying of babies, the screaming of mothers, the agony of people, Jones’s congregation would express their thanks to their “father”, referring to Jones. The final words recorded by Jones would be, “We said one thousand people who said, we don’t like the way the world is. Take some. Take our life from us. We laid it down. We got tired. We didn’t commit suicide, we committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhumane world. ^[25] By the time Guyana military arrived into the compound, 913 people would have taken their life through poisoning. Jones was found with a single gunshot to the head in his pavilion where he gave many speeches. Jones would wanted to send the message that the world was not living, which for hundreds of Americans, believed him.

Conclusion

Jones would gain popularity with a mass following with the belief in complete equality but as he gained more power over his congregation, Jones obsession for control would lead to the fall of the Peoples Temple along with the death of 900 American people wanting a better way of life. The best description of the rise and fall of Jones could be best described by someone named Donna who wrote a remembrance of Jones, “You could have been a good man if you chose the right path. I believe God gave you the gift of being a pastor. [...] but I also believe deep down inside my heart you were trying to do good by helping people in need. But somewhere something went terribly wrong.”^[26] Jim Jones wanted to be remembered as a good leader that could revolutionize America into his image of equality and peace but after the events in Jonestown on November 18th, 1978, Jones would only be remembered as a phrase anyone says when going into bad situations, “don’t drink the Kool-Aid.”

Work Cited

Bird, Caroline. “Nine Places to Hide: The Small World is Getting Smaller.” Esquire 57                            (January): 55–57, 128–32. 1962.

"Birth Certificate of John Victor Stoen." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples                        Temple. Accessed December 09, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13826.

Boswell Charles H. "Jones Appointment to Indianapolis Human Rights Commission."                              Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. Accessed December 08, 2018.             https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13781.

Chidester, David. "Saving The Children by Killing Them: Redemptive Sacrifice in the Ideologies            of Jim Jones and Ronald Reagan." Religion and American Culture: A Journal of                                Interpretation 1, no. 2 (1991): 177-201. doi:10.2307/1123870.

Donna. "JONES, James Warren (Rev.)." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples                        Temple. Accessed December 08, 2018.                                                                                             https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?who_died=jones-james-warren-rev.

Greenberg, Joel. "Jim Jones: The Deadly Hypnotist." Science News 116, no. 22 (1979): 378-82.

Jones, James W." Peoples Temple Free Will Donation Card." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. Accessed December 08, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=14011.

Jones, James W. "The Open Door (Text)." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples             Temple. Accessed December 08, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=18588.

Lane, Mark. "Mark Lane Letter to Leo Ryan." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples                  Temple. Accessed December 08, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13921.

Marks, Milton. "California State Resolution (Text)." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown                  Peoples Temple.Accessed December 08, 2018.                                                                                 https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=18350.

McGehee, Fielding M., III. "Q042 Transcript, by Fielding M. McGehee III." Alternative                              Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. Accessed December 08, 2018.                             https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=29079.

McGehee, Fielding M., III. "Q048 Transcript." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples         Temple. Accessed December 09, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27295.

Milk, Harvey."Letter of Harvey Milk to Pres. Jimmy Carter." Alternative Considerations of                     Jonestown Peoples Temple. Accessed December 09, 2018.                                                              https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=19042.

Moscone, George. "Jones Appointment to San Francisco Housing Authority." Alternative                         Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. November 20, 2018. Accessed December               08, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=14021.

Moore, Rebecca. "Is the Canon on Jonestown Closed?" Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 4, no. 1 (2000): 7-27. doi:10.1525/nr.2000.4.1.7.

"Press Release of February 13, 1974." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple.                 Accessed December 08, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=18334.

Ryan, Leo J. "Leo Ryan Letter to Mark Lane (Text)." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. Accessed December 08, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13925.

Ryan, Leo J. "Leo Ryan Telegram to Jim Jones (Text)." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown                 Peoples Temple. Accessed December 09, 2018.                                                                            https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13923.

Stoen, Tim. "Tim Stoen Affidavit on Paternity of John Victor Stoen, February 6, 1972."                               Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. Accessed December 08, 2018.         https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13837.

Vedantam, Shankar. The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control                  Markets, Wage Wars, and Save Our Lives. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2010., 2010

"Washington Post Editorial, August 18, 1973." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. Accessed December 08, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=14106.

Wooden, Kenneth. The Children of Jonestown. New York: McGraw-Hill, [1981], 1981.

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^[1] Wooden, Kenneth. The Children of Jonestown. New York : McGraw-Hill, [1981], 1981.

^[2] Chidester, David. "Saving The Children by Killing Them: Redemptive Sacrifice in the Ideologies of Jim Jones and Ronald Reagan." Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation 1, no. 2 (1991): 177-201. doi:10.2307/1123870.

^[3] Vedantam, Shankar. The Hidden Brain : How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars, and Save Our Lives. New York : Spiegel & Grau, 2010., 2010

^[4] Moore, Rebecca. "Drinking the Kool-Aid: The Cultural Transformation of a Tragedy." Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 7, no. 2 (2003): 92-100. doi:10.1525/nr.2003.7.2.92.

^[5] Greenberg, Joel. "Jim Jones: The Deadly Hypnotist." Science News 116, no. 22 (1979): 378-82.

^[6]  Jones, James W."The Open Door (Text)." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. Accessed December 08, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=18588.

^[7] Boswell, Charles H."Jones Appointment to Indianapolis Human Rights Commission." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. Accessed December 08, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13781.

^[8] Bird, Caroline.“Nine Places to Hide: The Small World is Getting Smaller.” Esquire 57 (January): 55–57, 128–32. 1962.

^[9] Wooden, Kenneth. The Children of Jonestown. New York : McGraw-Hill, [1981], 1981.

^[10] Wooden, Kenneth. The Children of Jonestown. New York : McGraw-Hill, [1981], 1981.

^[11] "Press Release of February 13, 1974." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. Accessed December 08, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=18334.

^[12] Moscone, George. "Jones Appointment to San Francisco Housing Authority." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. November 20, 2018. Accessed December 08, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=14021.

^[13] Milk, Harvey. "Letter of Harvey Milk to Pres. Jimmy Carter." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. Accessed December 09, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=19042.

^[14] Marks, Milton. "California State Resolution (Text)." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. Accessed December 08, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=18350.

^[15] "Peoples Temple Free Will Donation Card." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. Accessed December 08, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=14011.

^[16] Stoen, Tim. "Tim Stoen Affidavit on Paternity of John Victor Stoen, February 6, 1972." Alternative          Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. Accessed December 08, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13837.

^[17] "Birth Certificate of John Victor Stoen." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. Accessed December 09, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13826.

^[18] Curtis Franklin A. "GAO Preliminary Report, May 31, 1979." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. Accessed December 09, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=78525.

^[19] Kilduff, Marshall, and Phil Tracy. "Inside Peoples Temple." New West, August 1, 1977, 30-38.

^[20] Ryan, Leo J. "Leo Ryan Telegram to Jim Jones (Text)." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. Accessed December 09, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13923.

^[21] Lane, Mark. "Mark Lane Letter to Leo Ryan." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple.                                 Accessed December 08, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13921.

^[22] Ryan, Leo J. "Leo Ryan Letter to Mark Lane (Text)." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. Accessed December 08, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13925.

^[23] McGeHee, Fielding M., III. "Q048 Transcript." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. Accessed December 09, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27295.

^[24] McGeHee, Fielding M., III. "Q042 Transcript, by Fielding M. McGehee III." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. Accessed December 08, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=29079.

^[25] McGeHee, Fielding M., III. "Q042 Transcript, by Fielding M. McGehee III." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple. Accessed December 08, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=29079.

^[26]Donna. "JONES, James Warren (Rev.)." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown Peoples Temple.                            Accessed December 08, 2018. https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?who_died=jones-james-warren-rev.