

Escape from Jonestown - samclemens
http://blog.longreads.com/2014/11/12/escape-from-jonestown/

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anigbrowl
If you live in the western part of San Francisco, your Congressperson is Rep.
Jackie Speier. She flew to Jonestown as an aide to Congressman Leo Ryan, who
was shot and killed. Speier took 5 bullets but managed to hang on until
rescuers arrived.

~~~
tptacek
O.O

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barsonme
I don't remember learning a lot about the Jonestown Massacre in school, but
because of popular culture I sort of got the gist of it -- basically that Jim
Jones had convinced a ton of people to willingly kill themselves.

Not only was reading this informative, it was shockingly emotional. I can't
even imagine what went on there, or how any of the defectors felt. At first I
was angry at Congressman Leo Ryan for saying such good things about the camp,
but it's so saddening what happened to him.

It really goes to show the true power charismatic people can have over others.
It's the same thing we see with Hitler's reign, North Korea's leaders, and
even at a non-evil level from influential people like Obama or Billy Graham
(just as examples).

Words have immeasurable power, and words can create good (Graham or Obama) or
evil (Hitler, Jim Jones).

Great read, and I'm still floored I didn't learn more about this in school.
Absolutely terrifying.

~~~
IvyMike
The 2006 documentary "Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple" is
worth watching. The whole thing is on YouTube

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9o1vUSLhOs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9o1vUSLhOs)

In particular, it gives a glimpse of why Jones' message was so appealing: in a
time when people were fighting for gender and racial equality all over the US,
Peoples Temple seemed to have found the answer.

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MrBuddyCasino
Thanks for that link, a chilling read indeed.

Related: [http://harpers.org/archive/2013/11/the-man-who-saves-you-
fro...](http://harpers.org/archive/2013/11/the-man-who-saves-you-from-
yourself/?single=1)

Its about a cult infiltrator, I found it extremely fascinating.

For even more information, theres a book called "Cults in Our Midst: The
Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace" by Margaret Singer.

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baldfat
I ended up reading several books about Jim Jones and Jonestown as a teen. It
happened when I was young and I remember watching the TV Movie special.

Ended up the father of a friend at church was the ghost writer for "The Broken
God" which was written by Jim Jones "adopted" daughter. It seems to me it
started with "good intentions" of a mentally disturbed man who's mental defect
was so great it destroyed everyone around him.

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kevinmchugh
Can't recommend 'Raven' highly enough: [http://amazon.com/Raven-Untold-Story-
Jones-People-ebook/dp/B...](http://amazon.com/Raven-Untold-Story-Jones-People-
ebook/dp/B001FA0M4S)

It's unsettling and gripping and all kinds of bad scary weird things happen.
Actually found it through a HN post about Stephen King, who made his young
children read it aloud to him.

