Jonestown Pt. 1

Due to the nature of today's episode, listener discretion is advised. This is a graphic story and we advise extreme caution for anyone listening with children. How very much I've tried my best to give you a good life. But in spite of all my trying, a handful of our people with their lives have made our lives impossible. There is no way to detach ourselves from what's happened today. Those are the words of Reverend Jim Jones, leader of the People's Temple in a tape recorded at the Jonestown Compound in Guyana. Shortly after 5pm on November 18, 1978, as he addressed his nearly 1000 followers, he continued, at a nearby airfield, 5 people, including a U.S. congressman, had just been killed by the Temple's Red Brigade Security Squad. Jones said, "And there's no way, no way we can survive. Anybody, anyone that has a dissenting opinion, please speak." By the end of the day, 918 people were dead. Conspiracy? Maybe coincidence? Maybe. Complicated? Absolutely. Welcome to Conspiracy Theories, the podcast where we dig into the complicated stories behind the world's most controversial events and search for the truth. If you want to listen to previous episodes, you can find them on your favorite podcast directory or on our website, podcast.com. I'm Carter Roy. I'm Molly Brandenberg. And neither of us are Conspiracy Theorists. But we are open-minded, skeptical, and curious. Don't get us wrong. Sometimes the official version is the truth. But sometimes it's not. Today we're talking about the People's Temple, an all that led up to the fateful day in Jonestown Guyana. Initially, at Jonestown's command, his followers drank cyanide-laced flavorade in a coordinated mass suicide, and then Jonestown shot himself. Though, of course, that's not the entire story of the Jonestown massacre. The People's Temple is best remembered as a cult, with Jonestown's charismatic leader, luring his disciples away from their families and conning them out of their money in his own never-ending quest for power, fueled by sex, drugs, and the true enemy of the 70s. Communism. The Jonestown compound was the culmination of the temple's efforts at utopian living. Jonestown's own Garden of Eden, free of Classism, racism, sexism, and hate. But like the original story, this too ended in tragedy. Everything he built came crumbling down on that day in November 1978. Congressman Leo Ryan visited the compound as a part of a government investigation into Jonestown. During his visit, several members asked the Senators Group for help getting out of Jonestown. Jim Jones caught on and began to spiral out of control. As the congressman and his delegation drove to the airfield to help the defectors leave Guyana, Jones orders his security team to murder them, enacting his final plan, a plan for which he had been prepping his followers for years. As the Red Brigade carried out his orders, Jones gathered his followers in the Jonestown Pavilion for their final act. Their only way to escape the coming scrutiny of the US government and the rest of the world that wished to see their utopian project destroyed. Jones, their charismatic leader, convinced them to commit revolutionary suicide. First the kids, then the parents, and finally, Jones and his closest disciples. Of the over 900 dead, 300 were minors. Only 30 survived. A tragedy that shook the nation to its core, the largest religious mass suicide in modern history. But many people believe it wasn't suicide at all. That the congregation of the People's Temple Agricultural Project were murdered, either by Jones or the CIA. And that raises the question, was Jones himself murdered. Before we jump headfirst into the conspiracy theory surrounding Jones Town, we need some context. The commonly accepted history of Jim Jones, the People's Temple, and the events leading up to Congressman Ryan's visit. Then the official version of what happened on the day of the massacre. At the center of this all, James Warren Jones, a man so enigmatic and full of contradictions that there would likely be conspiracy surrounding him no matter the circumstances of his death. Our story starts in 1951 in Indianapolis, where Jones and his wife Marceline Baldwin had just moved. He was 20 years old and well in his way to being another local pastor tending to his small flock. However, Jones' radical tendencies would revel a few feathers in the community. Jones became obsessed with the teachings of communism right in the midst of McCarthyism and the Red Scare movements. And sought ways to bring the party teachings into the church. He and Marceline regularly attended American Communist Party meetings in the city. Despite being an outspoken communist, Jones was invited to join the Methodist Church in Indianapolis. But he and Marceline did not last long there. Though for a different reason than you'd expect. No, it was another set of progressive ideals that would see Jones leave the Methodist Church. His views on racial integration. Jones' own father had ties to the Ku Klux Klan. But Jones grew up on the other side of the spectrum, being a champion of civil rights and integration from a young age. So when the Methodist Church would not allow him to integrate black people into his congregation, he left. Jones had a fascinating relationship with the civil rights movement. While living in Indianapolis, Jones was appointed to the Human Rights Commission by Indianapolis Mayor Charles Boswell. The HRC was a group set up to ensure the human rights of all individuals were not violated. Jones also routinely set up stings and restaurants to catch the owners and staff refusing to serve black or minority customers. After a string of incidents with Nazi and black families, Jones went door to door in white neighborhoods, asking them not to move out of town but to stay in fight for a good cause. He also practiced what he preached when it came to race. Jones and Marceline had what they charmingly called a rainbow family. The couple adopted three Korean American children named Lou, Suzanne, and Stephanie. They had one biological child together, Stephen Gandhi. They also adopted Agnes, a Native American child. And later they became the first white couple in Indiana to adopt a black child. The child was given Jones' name, Jim Jones Jr. Starting out, Jones doesn't seem like a maniacal charlatan who could talk 900 people to their deaths. But as we said, Jim Jones was full of contradictions. After leaving the Methodist Church, Jones rented his own space and started the community unity church. His goal was to use attention grabbing preaching, such as faithealings he had seen at a Baptist church, to bring in large numbers of people and therefore large amounts of income that he could use to further his social goals. Jones' ambition worked. In 1956, he bought his first building and named it the People's Temple Full Gospel Church. The Upstart Church quickly grew in popularity by using the country's growing racial tension and income inequality to persuade minorities, mostly African Americans, to join. With the growth and resources, Jones was able to enact his social ideals, attempting to turn the People's Temple into a socialist haven for the disenfranchised. They owned and operated a soup kitchen, elderly care homes, multiple foster homes, and a complex for the developmentally disabled. By the late 50s, Jones had found his calling, leading his congregation with an antagonistic, challenging rhetoric, pushing them into being a socialist collective that he deemed, "religious communalism." To him, this meant members giving up their possessions to the church in exchange for the temple taking care of them. In reality, this meant that the temple borrowed a lot of money from its followers, including welfare and social security. The temple's growing power also meant an inflation of Jones' personal power. His rhetorical skill gave him immense sway over his congregation, to the point that he started to regard himself as a Christ-like figure, who was solely responsible for keeping members in complete commitment to the temple's communist goals. This inflated sense of self led to the first instances of Jones using his influence for sexual advances on members of the temple, both male and female. Jones' Communist teachings quickly hit a wall in the conservative Midwest. He needed more members and more money if he was going to accomplish his goals. So, at the outset of the '60s, Jones decided to move the church to the promised land for any member of the Progressive Counter-Culture, California. In 1961, Jones claimed to have had a premonition that Chicago would be destroyed in a nuclear attack, and Indiana would be hit with a fallout. A January 1962 S.Q. magazine article named "Bello Arizona Brazil, the safest place on Earth to live in the event of a nuclear holocaust." The Jones family traveled to Brazil with the intent of building a temple, but made a quick pit stop in Guyana, which was still a British colony at the time. The family spent some time in Bello, or Arizona, before moving to Rio de Janeiro in 1963 to help the locals build low-cost homes. However, Jones returned to Indiana in 1965 and preached that the temple must move to Redwood Valley, California. After the move, membership boomed under expanded leadership and Jones growing credibility as a sociopolitical leader. Free of the shackles of the Midwest, Jones overtly began to identify his gospel as communism, attacking the U.S. and its capitalist system as the system of the Antichrist. He further detached from his old teachings when he began to attack Christianity as a religion of enslavement, a way for the white man to keep people in bondage. Instead, he moved towards a gospel of communist love. And at the center, Jim Jones, the ideal socialist. The temple's message expanded quickly with Jones' fiery sermons to recruit and raise funds. They built new churches up and down the California coast, most notably in urban neighborhoods in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Jones claimed the people's temple had anywhere between 20 to 30,000 members over the years, though some argue those numbers are somewhat inflated. Despite the flaky numbers, upwards of 3,000 people would regularly attend Jones sermons in San Francisco. And with only a few hours notice. Jones tucked behind his movie star sunglasses with a larger-than-life persona, delivering sermons decrying the systems of bondage in a weary jaded America became the unsettling and trancing figurehead of a new movement. He quickly began using his influence to infiltrate California politics with high-profile meetings. Among the names, First Lady Rosalind Carter, Vice President Walter Mondale, Governor Jerry Brown, Harvey Milk, and Jane Fonda. Those are some high-profile names. Makes you wonder how deep his political connections truly ran. And if they had any influence on what came next. With its growing profile, Jones and the temple came under increased scrutiny from the media, as well as its own members. In 1972, a public exposé by Lester Kinsolving reported on the church, documenting long-standing allegations of physical abuse, financial fraud, and the temple's theological underpinnings that made it more cult than church. The article attacked Jones' claims of divinity, and openly criticized what consolving saw as suspect financial dealings. In response, temple members mobilized to stop the publication of the series, which the editors promptly did. Still, the allegations were now public. Revealing for the first time, the temple's dark side, armed guards, open threats and harassment, bribery, false healings, and outright physical harm, the article even alleged that the temple was responsible for the suicide of one of its members. Jones took the brunt of the criticism, being labeled as a false prophet, and worse, a charlatan. A year after the Kinsolving articles, the temple saw high-profile defection, when eight young members referred to as the Gang of Eight, fled the temple together, and a fear that Jones would refuse to let them leave. Jones proved their fears correct, sending search parties after them. The Gang of Eight fled to Montana, where they officially documented their complaints. It seemed that the people's temple and its perfect communal ideals was starting to crumble. As he had the decade before in Indiana, Jones quickly planned a contingency, looking for another place to move the church to possibly escape legal actions. He sought a country with a political leaning similar to the temples. Somewhere his socialist plan could fully flourish unencumbered. In 1974, the temple chose Guyana, a poor, South American country recently free of British colonial rule. After traveling the country with Guyani's officials, Jones settled on a location in the northwest part of the country, and the temple negotiated a lease for the 3,800 acres of jungle land. This isolated infertile, massive land, would become Jones' socialist utopia, Jones Town. And the contingency had to fall into place faster than the temple planned, as pressure continued to mount against the church in California. First was the ongoing legal battle after Jones was arrested in Los Angeles for soliciting sex from a male police officer in a public bathroom. The temple had the arrest sealed, but the spreading word of Jones' sexual exploits threatened to bring down the temple. According to temple members, this led to Jones turning more of his sexual advances inwards towards existing members of his congregation, and then justifying it with his gospel. The rampant abuse continued unchecked. That is until the summer of 1977, when the rising pressure came to a head in a second article, one that threatened to expose the temple's misdeeds to the public once more. The article, written by Marshall Kilduff, was to appear in New West magazine, and while at Chronicle Jones' political power and the good the temple provided the state, Health Clinics, Drug Rehab, donations to the NAACP and ACLU, and the growing soup kitchens, it also started to question what Jones and his mysterious church were really up to. The article was Jones' worst nightmare. As former members went on the record detailing public humiliations, spankings, members being forced to box until knocked unconscious, members being vomited and urinated on, and other shocking methods of Jones' manipulations. Members also described the temple's financial fraud, including funneling government funds into the church's coffers, and the forcing of members to sign over all material assets to the temple. Worse for Jones, a former member of the temple's inner circle, Grace Stone, detailed Jones' financial dealings, describing the temple's expansion into San Francisco and Los Angeles as a way for Jones to make more money. She also described the paranoia she felt leaving the church, and expressed her fear that the temple had her five-year-old son, who stayed with his father Tim, another temple leader. Grace and Tim Stone later proved instrumental in the events leading up to the massacre in Jones Town. "So you could say this article was really the event that put the massacre in motion." It certainly seems that way. In 1977, the editor of New West actually called Jones prior to the article's publication. Saying she did so out of respect for Jones and the letters of support the magazine had received from people like Governor Brown. As she read him the article over the phone, Jones wrote a message on a piece of paper to the temple leadership in the room, "We leave tonight, notify Georgetown." By the next day, Jones was in Guyana, and in less than a year and a half, the tragedy struck. It appears even the article sensed the coming reckoning for Jones and his followers, stating "The story of Jim Jones and his people's temple is not over. In fact, it has only begun to be told. If Jones is ever to be stripped of his power, it will not be because of Vindetta or persecution, but rather because of the courage of these people who step forward and spoke out." Kilduff was right about one thing. The story had only just begun. You tell yourself it's only a movie. None of this could ever happen to you. You feel relieved until you discover what you're watching is based on actual events. High listeners, it's Vanessa and Greg from the Spotify original from "Parkast" serial killers. In our Halloween special "Real Horror," we're spotlighting three of the most iconic horror films of all time and telling the terrifying true stories that inspired them. "Recovering the real influences behind characters like Ghostface from the 90s mega-hit scream, Cannibal Lecter and Buffalo Bill from the Oscar-winning thriller "The Silence of the Lams" and "Lether Face." From the 70s cult classic, the Texas chainsaw massacre. Enjoy "Real Horror," the serial killer's three-part Halloween special listened to all three episodes the final week of October, free and only on Spotify. Some months I've tried to keep this thing from happening, but I now see it's the will. It's the will of sovereign being that this happened to us. That we lay down our lives to protest what's being done. That we lay down our lives to protest at what's being done. The criminality of people. The cruelty of people. Well, that was a quote from Jones, explaining to his congregation why they had to die. Jim Jones fled to his Jones Town Haven in Guyana in the summer of 1977. Despite the settlement's lack of infrastructure, supplies, or plans for the future, he encouraged his congregation to follow him there. By late 1978, the population of the settlement numbered almost 1000. There are conflicting reports about the living conditions at the settlement, but this much is true. It was isolated, leaving was nearly impossible, and Jones controlled everything. Yet, by many accounts, the people living in Jones Town appeared to be happy. But, as we all know, appearances can be deceiving. The dream of an egalitarian farm community quickly turned into a nightmare of barely subsisting, mostly on rice. They needed a constant flow of supplies brought into the compound. As Defector Debrolateon described it, Jones Town quickly became "like a prison." Jones' authoritarian punishments and mind games continued as well, growing more inhumane with forced imprisonments in underground enclosures, in the jungle nonetheless. Jones escaped a little to quell the fears of the outside world, who correctly assumed that Jones Town would exacerbate the temple's biggest problems, and ultimately end in tragedy. Tim Stone defected from the temple, and along with Grace battled in Guyanese courts to have the temple return their five-year-old son, John, whom Jim and Marcelline Jones had adopted from them years prior. A U.S. court ultimately awarded custody to Grace, but Jones refused to let John leave Jones Town. Jones would face criminal charges if he ever returned to the United States. During the battle, the Stones began meeting with other relatives of Jones Town members, and began calling for the U.S. government to intervene. They called themselves the "concerned relatives." With the backing of the "concerned relatives," Tim Stone traveled to Guiana in 1978 to take back his son, but quickly left the country, fearing for his life. Jones had power in the Guyanese government, and his red brigade operated with little oversight from local authorities. After Stone's trip to Guiana, he met with multiple congressmen in Washington, but nothing was done. Now's a good time to mention the significance of Jones Red Brigade. Officially, they were the police force of Jones Town. Unefficiently, they were Jones personal private army. They were the only people in the village with firearms or weapons of any kind, and would routinely intimidate anyone Jones felt was getting too out of line or second-guessing his decisions. They were not good people, to say the least. Now's could be expected to satisfaction started growing inside Jones Town. Members began writing their families asking for help. What they didn't know is that Jones was reviewing all incoming and outgoing mail and would censor any negative messages. The letters that actually reached family members were happy and joyous in tone. Still, despite the growing indication that something was a miss in Jones Town, the government hesitated to intervene, especially with Jones' powerful political allies still backing him. That changed, however, in May 1978, when Temple member Debra Layton escaped from Jones Town with a warning. Jones was preparing his members for a mass murder suicide. Enter the last piece of the Jones Town puzzle. Congressman Leo Ryan of California's 11th District, one of the Congressman Tim Stone, had met with. Throughout 1978, both the concerned relatives and Debra Layton began filing affidavits, accusing Jones and the People's Temple of Human Rights violations in Jones Town and accusing Temple leaders of crimes. The concerned relatives also filed lawsuits against Jones. Despite the Temple's best efforts to discredit the accusations, they caught the attention of Leo Ryan. He began an investigation into just what was going on in Jones Town. But according to reports, was shut down by the State Department. But Ryan persisted, choosing to help the concerned relatives, many of whom he represented in Congress. With Tim Stone threatening to retrieve his son by force and more warnings of appending mass suicide at the settlement, Ryan announced that he would visit Jones Town in December with a small congressional delegation. But this was bigger than just Congress. Quickly, the delegation grew in size as concerned relatives pressed to join Ryan. Grayson Tim Stone were to be among the group and an NBC News crew joined, planning to film the visit. The plan was for Ryan to visit the compound and gain a definitive answer as to what life in Jones Town was like. And if control needed to be taken from Jones and the people's Temple. The concerned relatives wanted to make sure their family members were alive and well. Tim and Grayson Stone wanted their son back. The media wanted a story, either way. And Jones knew they were all coming for him, as he described in his final sermon. We are sitting here waiting on a powder keg. Ryan delegation left Washington on November 14, 1978. Ryan and three of the journalists with him would never make it home. Before we get into the events that occurred on the day of the massacre, there is one more topic to cover. The question of how. How could Jim Jones, according to the official story, convince his followers to drink the flavor aid? How did he even have that much sign I had to begin with? Well, how could this tragedy happen despite all the warnings? How could one man's will persuade 900 people to die? The answers to these difficult questions are how many of the Jones Town conspiracy theories formed in the first place. It's hard to accept that one man could hold so much sway over his followers. Maybe he didn't. Nevertheless, let's try to see how officially the moving parts of this tragedy came together. By looking at the mindset of Jones and his people leading up to the day of the massacre. Another Jones proclamation on his own self-worth, quote, "This is what I'm talking about now. The dispensation of judgment. This is a revolutionary. A revolutionary suicide council. I'm not talking about self-destruction. I'm talking about that we have no other road. I will take your call. We will put it to them. And I can tell you the answer now because I am a prophet." In Jones Town, Jones would routinely test his followers loyalty and have them take part in what he called "white nights." Drills used to train the Jones Town villagers in the event of an emergency. The catch? The villagers didn't know they were drills at the time. The first white knight occurred after the courts had ordered Jones to give up John Stone. Paranoid that he would face jail time, Jones per usual started planning his contingencies. Jones would give his parishioners four options to vote on to deal with the emergency at hand. Escape Guyana and flee to the Soviet Union, stay in Jones Town and fight the supposed attackers, run into the jungle to flee, and finally commit revolutionary suicide. This is a term Jones referred to often. A revolutionary suicide was simply a mass suicide, an act of rebellion according to Jones. The people of Jones Town reportedly twice voted on suicide as the best course of action. Defector Debra Layton described the first time the people voted to commit a mass suicide. Everyone, including the children, was told to line up. As we passed through the line, we were given a small glass of red liquid to drink. We were told that the liquid contained poison and that we would die within 45 minutes. We all did as we were told. When the time came, when we should have dropped dead, Reverend Jones explained that the poison was not real, and that we had just been through a loyalty test. He warned us that the time was not far off when it would become necessary for us to die by our own hands. While the red liquid this time around was not poisoned, Jones and those in his inner circle were constantly testing out recipes for what eventually became the revolutionary drink of choice on that fateful November day. In order to legally buy vast quantities of cyanide, Jones had to procure a jeweler's license. At the time, cyanide was used to clean and polish gold. They'd receive a monthly package of cyanide, varying each time from a quarter pound to half pound in size. The first shipment arrived in Jones Town in 1976, before many members of the people's temple came to live there. Debra Layton's account was not the first time Jones lied about giving his congregation the poison drink. Just the first time he'd done this to his entire following. On more than one prior occasion, he brought a handful of members into his residence to test their loyalty. Jones would hand them a cup of flavor aid or cool aid. Tell them the drink is poisoned and that it was their duty to the people's temple to finish every last drop. Within minutes of downing the drinks, some would begin to vomit or convulse on the floor, why others simply did nothing. Once he was pleased enough, Jones would inform them that the drinks in fact had not been poisoned and told them, "Now I can trust you." Seems bizarre that Jones had hundreds of people seemingly willing to drink poison on his command. "Could one man truly have that level of power?" It's certainly suspicious, but we do know that Jones was the only constant in his followers lives. Good or bad? These are people who followed him thousands of miles away to a different country, some even from the early Indiana days. His word was gold, and all these tests were given so that when the time came, and as we know it certainly did, Jones would be able to convince them all with ease to follow through with his final demands. He was psychologically conditioning them, and not just by lying about Kool-Aid, a second white-night scenario designed to scare residents, involved Jones sending the Red Brigade into the surrounding jungle and having them fire their automatic weapons into the campground. It was meant to display the panic and chaos that would arise from their eventual invasion from outside forces. Jones played mind games by manipulating his followers' connections to the outside world, often portraying the U.S. as an evil capitalist empire. In an attempt to ease parishioners who found the living condition subpar, Jones would repeatedly tell them that African-Americans in the United States were being rounded up and slaughtered like pigs, and that no matter how hard it might seem living in Jones town, it was much better than what they'd be experiencing back home. Some believe Jones may have arrived at the name "white-night" because he felt it was the quickest way to strike fear directly into the majority black population. And while not totally untrue, given the time period, Jones would often tell them the world was on the brink of destruction and nuclear war. You really start to see how manipulative and paranoid Jones came to be in his last months, a far cry from the well-meaning pastor of his Indiana days. Certainly, feeding into that fear in paranoia was the massive drug addiction Jones had developed over the years. He was constantly medicating himself with amphetamines and barbituates. The post-mortem autopsy revealed Jones to have an inhumane level of pentabarbital in his system, a drug commonly used for animal euthanasia and to execute prisoners on death row. But while we don't know exactly how long he was abusing these drugs, some point to Jones incessantly wearing his trademark sunglasses throughout all hours of the day as signs of the drugs affecting his sensitivity to light. In many of the uncovered audio tapes, Jones' speech, including his final farewell address, is so slurred and lazy from the concoction of drugs, you can't understand what he's even saying. And officially, this is where we find Jones on the eve of the massacre. Drug-addled and paranoid, in command of nearly a thousand men, women and children, in whom he had instilled out landish fears and unbreakable loyalty to the cause. In a twisted, self-fulfilling prophecy, Jones had been preparing his congregation for their final day. And though he gave them options, one of which, an escape to Russia, was discussed on the tape of their final meeting, Jones had only one choice, and it was the choice Jones made for them through his manipulation. Quote, it's all over. The congressman has been murdered. November 17, 1978. Congressman Leo Ryan arrives at the People's Temple Agricultural Project. Accompanying him are two members of his congressional staff, four newspaper writers from The San Francisco Chronicle, The San Francisco Examiner, and The Washington Post, and four members of an NBC News Crew. There were also four members of the concerned relatives joining them, as well as two attorneys for the People's Temple, a guy in he's representative, and Richard Dwyer, the deputy chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Georgetown. The stones were not allowed to make the journey and stay behind in Georgetown. In total, 19 people, 19 outsiders, come to the gates, unsure about what they're getting into. The temple had tried to block this visit. Jones had tried to stop this perceived attack by outside enemies. Yeah, here they are, ready to expose the secrets of Jones town once and for all. But what they find is, at first, unexpected. Ryan and his party were initially meant to arrive at Jones town the day before, on the 16th. But Jones refused to let them in, leading Ryan to believe something sinister was a foot. The previous day, he relayed a message to Jones that he was going into Jones town on the 17th, where their Jones gave him permission or not. He expects to find a community in utter disarray. Instead, he finds Jones town organized, and incredibly welcoming. On the moment the gate opens, Congressman Ryan is treated as if he's the president on a foreign diplomatic trip, with the temple giving him the full red carpet treatment. Men, women, and children are in a constant state of song and dance. The NBC News team captures footage showing the villagers all helping each other. Children playing amongst the town dogs, Jones' socialist dream manifest. Ryan is taken aback, even though Jones seems slightly unhinged by his paranoia and ill health. Jones town does not appear as sinister as the concerned relatives would have Ryan believe. That night, at a celebration in the pavilion, Jones asked Ryan to give a speech to the congregation. He wants Ryan to cement the positivity of his visit and give the people's temple a clean bill of health. When his speech, Ryan's review is rather glowing, as the NBC News team captures him saying the following. This is a congressional inquiry. I think that all of you may know that I'm here to find out more about the questions that have been raised about your operation here. But I can tell you right now, just from the few conversations I've had with some of the folks here already this evening, that whatever the comments are, there are some people here that believe this is the best thing that's happened to them in their whole lives. Congressman Ryan delivers a speech in front of a sign that reads, quote, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it," unquote. After his last line, the crowd erupts into an ear-piercing cheer. Have Ryan's remarks finally validated every decision they've made that led to them moving to Guyana? Or are they merely putting on a show? The delegation gets its answer later that night. When at some point during the celebration, a Jonestown resident named Vernon Gosney passes a note to NBC reporter Don Harris. It reads, quote, "Vernin Gosney and Monica Bagby, please help us get out of Jonestown," unquote. A similar note is given to Richard Dwyer. Some people want out and they want out now. With Harris and Dwyer, in form Congressman Ryan of the Notes, and the group's focus takes a drastic turn. It's no longer safe. This is now a rescue mission. Just hours before Ryan and the concerned relatives interviewed upwards of 70 people asking how they were being treated, their opinions of Jones, and if they wanted to leave or not. None of the original interviewees indicated they wanted to leave Jonestown. But now that a few have voiced their concerns, more and more people are approaching the group for help. The media members in concerned relatives are not allowed to sleep at Jonestown, forced to return to the Port Kaituma Airstrip for accommodations. Once they arrive back at the plane, three members are pulled aside by Guyanae's locals, self-identifying as police officials. The officials confirm the reports of abuse, saying they have been unable to investigate due to Jones' lease with the country, which had given Jones complete autonomy in the compound. More sinister edges are starting to show. Congressman Ryan, his aide Jackie Spear, and Richard Dwyer stayed behind and spent the night inside Jonestown, keeping an eye on those who want to escape. Another Jim Jones quote, "And I'd like to choose my own kind of death for a change. I'm tired of being tormented to hell. That's what I'm tired of. I have 1,200 people's lives in my hands and I certainly don't want your life in my hands. I'm going to tell you. Without me, life has no meaning. I'm the best thing you'll ever have." Saturday, November 18, 1979. Leo Ryan, Jackie Spear, and Richard Dwyer eat breakfast with the Jonestown locals, acting as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened the night before. After breakfast, more members are able to communicate with Ryan, expressing their interest to leave. The media crew and concerned relatives return around 11 a.m. Jones had promised they'd be able to return at first dawn, but he delayed sending the bus to pick them up until later in the morning. Upon arriving, they began to interview and question members more intently. "By 3.30 that afternoon, 15 temple members have confirmed to Congressman Ryan and his party that they would like to leave Jonestown. The defectors board a bus along with the majority of the Ryan party. will take them to Port Kaituma, where the original plane, as well as This second plane provided by the Guyanese government is waiting. A late de facto, Larry Layton, Debra Layton's brother asked to join the group. Despite the protests of the other defactors who claim that Layton is loyal to Jones, Ryan allows him to board the bus. Ryan and the two people's temple attorneys agree to stay behind and leave the next day in case any other residents decide they want to leave. However, as the bus prepares to depart, a parishioner named Don Sly attacks Congressman Ryan with a knife. Unfortunately for Ryan, Sly is seen approaching and easily subdued. Sly ends up only harming himself, spilling some of his blood onto Congressman Ryan's shirt. Only upon Dwyer's insistence does Ryan agree to accompany the bus to the airstrip. He wants to stay behind and help as many people as he possibly can, but the danger is mounting. Still, Ryan tells Jones that he is not going to let this one incident muddy his experience at Jones Town. Jones agrees to alert the local Guyanese police of the attack and allow them to investigate the crime. Level heads will prevail. The bus reaches Port Kaituma airfield around 4.45 pm. The planes scrambling under short notice arrive nearly 30 minutes later, but trouble is already en route. Jones doesn't believe that Ryan will leave Jones Town in peace. The defections and congressional interference will mean the end of his utopia and the end of the people's temple. Jones knows the US government is coming to Jones Town one way or another. It's inevitable. He feels he has no other choice than the one he's about to make. So after over a year of preparing, he enacts his final contingency. It starts at the airfield. First, on the freshly supplied Six Cedar Cessna, which has failed thus far to take off. Layton, the dubious defector, has his marching orders from Jones. Execute the pilot mid-air to kill Ryan and his team, but in the chaos, the delegation boards him onto the plane with the other defectors, not Ryan. Layton grows anxious as his plan falls apart. Maybe he won't succeed. But Jones has a backup, his Red Brigade. Upon hearing that the guy in his government is sending a second plane, he orders the brigade to the airfield. And so, in the chaos of the early evening, as Ryan and his team attempt to save those who wanted out, a Jones Town tractor pulls up alongside the larger plane. The Red Brigade leaps from the truck, opening fire as they circle to plane. At the same time, as the Cessna taxis, Layton pulls his gun and opens fire on the defectors, starting with a couple whose letters started at all, burn in Gossney and Monica Bagby. Miraculously, they both survive. The other passengers detain Layton. At the other end of the runway, the Red Brigade works quickly and with brutal efficiency. They find their targets like a perfectly trained death squad. Only a few extraneous targets are wounded within a matter of minutes. The shooting stops as quickly as they arrived, the Red Brigade disappears. The surviving victims scurry off the runway, taking cover wherever they can. Many in the nearby jungle where they'll wait for help. And on the airstrip, five people are dead. Greg Robinson, photographer for the San Francisco Examiner. A brown, cameraman and reporter Don Harris, both of NBC News. Temple defector Patricia Parks and Congressman Leo Joseph Ryan, who has been shot roughly two dozen times, including in the head. I don't know what else you say to these people, but to me, death is not a fearful thing. It's living that's cursed. That was another quote from Jim Jones. Check out the settlement, his followers gather in the pavilion, readying for his final sermon, which we've been quoting throughout the episode. Carter will continue. The world suffers violence and the violence shall take it by force. If we can't live in peace, then let's die in peace. His speech, the final waking moments of the People's Temple, lasts approximately 45 minutes. He rambles through a myriad of topics, mostly of betrayal, sin and possible redemption. Slow to reveal the true havoc he has unleashed, but he tells them that someone is going to shoot the pilot and crash Ryan's plane. Quote, we've been so betrayed. We have been so terribly betrayed, but we've tried. And as if this only works one day, it was worthwhile. As Jones addresses the crowd, they begin applauding and cheering him. They remain faithful to Jones and the People's Temple for years, and are not going to turn on him now when he needs them most. Well, almost all of them. Jones says, "Anybody, anyone that has any dissenting opinion, please speak. Yes, you can have an opportunity, but if the children are left, we're going to have them butchered." Yes, Christine? Up steps, People's Temple member, Christine Miller. She and Jones have had a contentious relationship since she moved to Jones Town just a year before. She has challenged Jones on nearly every decision. A trait Jones doesn't care for. Still, he respects that she has never lied to him. She asks about a possible escape to Russia, one of the proposed white-night scenarios. Jones has an answer ready. Here's why it's too late for Russia. They killed. They started to kill. That's why it makes it too late for Russia. Otherwise, I'd say, "Yes, sir, you bet your life." No foreign country would ever take them if they had murders on their hands. If that was ever a legitimate possibility to begin with. But it's too late. I can't control these people. They're out there. They've gone with the guns, and it's too late. He refuses to take the blame. Christine continues on about Russia, suggesting Jones used a special code Russian officials gave him in the time of need. Jones replies, "You think Russia is going to want. no, it's not gonna. You think Russia is going to want us with all this stigma? We had some value, but now we don't have any value." Jones stumbles through another rant about his prophecies on the destruction of civilization, and everything he's done for the people's temple. Christine speaks up again. She's not ready to die. "I don't think you are." She mentions the babies. They deserve to live. "I agree, but they deserve much more. They deserve peace." The other Jones town residents begin to boo Christine Miller. They are vocally upset and irritated with her for having a dissenting opinion about what they're about to do. Another Jones town member, Jim McElvain, enters the conversation, chastising her, telling her that she knows nothing about life and that her life has only been extended because she is blessed enough to know Jim Jones. Another woman shouts that Jones has saved so many people. Jones agrees, saying, "I've saved them. I saved them. But I made my example. I made my expression. I made my manifestation and the world was ready. Not ready for me." Paul said, "I was a man born out of due season. I've been born out of due season, just like all we were. And the best testimony we can make is to leave this goddamn world." The bickering continues until Jones mentions Richard Dwyer, speaking about him as if he's still inside Jones town, which oddly goes against all reports regarding the airfield attacks. Officially, Dwyer was away from Jones town that night. So why is Jones talking about him as if he's around? This doesn't last long, though, and Jones tries to set the conversation straight again. "It's all over. Well, it's all over. All over." What a legacy. What a legacy. What the Red Brigade doing that once ever made any sense anyway. They invaded our privacy. They came into our home. They followed a 6,000 miles away. Red Brigade showed them justice. News of the Red Brigade's success reaches the camp. After the death of the senator, there's no way the US government won't send military forces to shut down Jones town. Jones knows his so-called socialist haven is now doomed. There's no coming back from this point. No amount of conversation or dissent could sway him. Brian died, so now Jones town has to. At this insistence, Temple leaders start distributing the poison they prepared earlier in the day. Jones attempts to calm his followers. "It's simple. It's simple. There's no convulsions with it. It's just simple. Just please get it before it's too late. The GDF will be here. I tell you, get moving. Get moving. Get moving." The crowd's reaction to the news is mixed. Many members cheer while others yell, "No, no, no, no. But I'll know that there's no going back." "Please, for God's sake, let's get on with it. We've lived. We've lived as no other people lived. And loved, we've had as much of this world as you're going to get. Let's just be done with it. Let's be done with the agony of it." Jones will get his wish of a revolutionary act. He's dead set on going through. with his plan for the congregation, but begins to waver in his own commitment. He says, "Who wants to go with their child has a right to go with their child. I think it's humane. I want to go. I want to see you go, though. They can take me and do what they want, whatever they want to do. I want to see you go. I don't want to see you go through this hell no more, no more, no more." Suspiciously, it sounds as if Jim Jones plans on getting out of this alive. But he quickly gets back to the subject of poisoning the children. There are hundreds of children living in Jonestown. His implications become explicit as he says. "It's been done by every tribe in history, every tribe facing annihilation. All the Indians of the Amazon are doing it right now. They refuse to bring any babies into the world. They kill every child that comes into the world because they don't want to live in this kind of a world." Members begin taking the poison as unidentified men and women continue praising Jones. Jones tells his aides to hurry with the poison. He implores them to quote, "Get gone. Assuring them, there's nothing they could do." He asks them to lay down their lives with dignity. A woman tells him, quote, "We're doing all of this for you." He replies, "Free at last." Slowly, the crowd noise begins to lower. Parents squirt syringes of the flavor aid into their children's mouths. Jones says to bring a new barrel of the drink out and says, quote, "No sorrow that it's all over. I'm glad it's over. Hurry, hurry my children." Faint cries from parentless children and childless parents can be heard in the distance. Jones assures them that death is just like sleep. Followers call him dad, continuing to thank him. He tells them, "Don't. Don't fail to follow my advice. You'll be sorry. You'll be sorry." The poison quickly takes effect. Followers ample out of the pavilion, choosing a final resting place for themselves and their family members. Another woman reaches Jones, urging him to quote, "Take some of the drink." He refuses, replying with his last recorded words, "Take our life from us and 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." The next day, Guyanese authorities discovered Jim Jones lying on the ground, dead from a gunshot wound to the head. The gun was found several feet away from his body. The forensics of his death shows traits consistent with both suicide and murder. To this day, we do not know who killed Jones, but there certainly are some theories. When the reports out of Jones Town shocked the world, an entire community found dead on the ground, and very mysteriously lined up in rows or laying a top on another. Medical responders and the media placed the initial death toll at around 400, but the number quickly doubled. The cause, death due to the ingestion of potassium cyanide and potassium chloride. Some of the bodies had injection marks. A second person, Annie Moore, Jones personal nurse, had also been shot in addition to ingesting poison. A few members survived. Three had been sent to the Soviet embassy in Georgetown to deliver letters transferring the temple's assets to the Soviet Union. The temple lawyers that had brought Ryan into Jones Town escaped from the visitor house when they sensed what was happening. Three of Jones' sons were in Georgetown with the people's temple basketball team and had not returned home. 36 people in Jones Town that day managed to survive, including the defectors, a group that had escaped in the morning. A few men who managed to avoid ingesting the poison, and Hyacinth Thrasch, an elderly woman who slept through the deaths. Six-year-old John Stone, the son of Tim and Grace, was later found dead from the poison. In the end, 918 people were dead from the events of the day. 304 were under the age of 18. All dead as part of Jim Jones final Revolutionary Act. More so we think. But here are three major theories claiming otherwise. We aren't immediately endorsing these theories just presenting them. Conspiracy Theory #1 The Jones was involved with the CIA and a test subject in its MK Ultra Mind Control Program. Any conspiracy worth its weight includes the federal government, Jones Town, not excluded. Conspiracy Theory #2 The Q875 tape. Investigators discovered hundreds of audio tapes at Jones Town, all made by the cult. But this tape in particular had nightly news segments of the massacre after math. How could there possibly be an outside tape about the disaster found amid boxes of "authentic tapes" recorded beforehand? And finally, conspiracy theory #3 was the Jones Town Massacre a mass suicide or actually a mass murder? Or why have we collectively decided to call this a suicide when the evidence overwhelmingly points to the other direction? There's some stranger elements we'll get into as well, such as why were some of the bodies hauntingly lined up in neat rows? If Jones shot himself, why was the gun used found lying several feet away from his body? And even more interesting, was it even the real Jim Jones that was found at the site? Next week we'll discuss. [Music] Thanks for tuning into Conspiracy theories. If you want to hear more conspiracy theories, you can find us on Apple Podcasts, tune in, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify or your favorite podcast directory. If you like what you hear, leave a five star review. It seems simple, but it really helps our show. And don't forget to subscribe. Tell us your favorite conspiracy theories on Facebook and Instagram at Podcast and on Twitter at Podcast Network. Join us next week as we continue our second look at the Jones Town Massacre. Until then, remember, the truth isn't always the best story. And the official story isn't always the truth. Conspiracy theories was created by Max Cutler, is a production of Cutler Media and is part of the podcast network. It is produced by Max and Ron Cutler, sound designed by Carrie Murphy, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro and Paul Moller, additional production assistance by Maggie Admeyer and Carly Madden. Conspiracy theories is written by Dylan Slokum and Richard Ward, and stars Molly Brandenburg and Carter Roy.