American Experience

Jim Jones (archival): Now, will each of you give a very fond embrace, a salutary kiss of greeting to your neighbor — and let’s fill this atmosphere with warmth and love.

Laura Johnston Kohl, Peoples Temple Member: We thought of ourselves as one big family that did handle our own discipline. I was in a lot of the meetings where people were spanked or beaten, and I was slapped once, also in a public meeting.

Janet Shular, Peoples Temple Member: People were brought up front and asked — had to tell who they had slept with and who they had sneaked off to a restaurant with.

Stanley Clayton, Peoples Temple Member: There wasn’t a week that went by that I wasn’t called up on the floor because of my behavior, because of my attitude. “Stanley Clayton, up, front, center.”

Janet Shular, Peoples Temple Member: He would ask people, “What do you think we ought to do with them? Do you think they ought to get a good boxing?” And then he’d get a resounding roar, “Yes!”

Stanley Clayton, Peoples Temple Member: You might fight five people in one night. Well, you know, you’re very tired! I’ve seen situations where they actually knocked the person out and actually took water and threw water back on him, woke him up, and whooped him some more.

Neva Sly Hargrave, Peoples Temple Member: I had welts really bad, and when I went to work the next day, one of my employees noticed the welts when I sat down. And I just broke down and told her. She didn’t even know I was Peoples Temple. And she called the manager of the station up and they talked to me about leaving. I couldn’t say goodbye to my son or my husband because at that point, it was like the Gestapo — the families were turning in each other. If I had said goodbye, one of them would have reported me.

Joyce Shaw-Houston, Peoples Temple Member: It’s kind of like when you get married and you have this ideal. And you’re, you know, you’re in love and then — you know, the honeymoon wears off and reality sets in. And most people, once the going gets rough, don’t jump out immediately.

Laura Johnston Kohl, Peoples Temple Member: In one planning commission meeting, Jim was getting notes — kind of love notes — from one of the members on the planning commission.

Hue Fortson Jr., Peoples Temple Member: Jones is sitting there calmly and so another lady said, “Well, I don’t know why you keep doing that. What makes you think you’ve got something that he wants anyway?” And so another woman says, “Well, you know what? You ought to just take off your clothes and show him what you got. You ain’t got nothing.” And so, by this time, they looked back to Jones and so he looks over his glasses, and he nods with approval. “Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

Juanell Smart, Peoples Temple Member: She was to be totally naked and she was down to nothing but her skin — not even any shoes on, you know — no bra, no panties, no nothing.

Hue Fortson Jr., Peoples Temple Member: Then they begin to say what her breasts looked like, her stomach, butt, vagina, you name it. Everything they could think of, they were saying. By this time, her face is red, her body’s almost red from embarrassment, and I noticed something. Jones was sitting, looking over his sunglasses, but he had a smile on his face like he’s really enjoying this woman being torn down.

Tim Carter, Peoples Temple Member: I have a conscious memory of sitting there, thinking to myself, “This is wrong.” And I didn’t do a damned thing to stand up and say, “This is wrong.”

Jordan Vilchez, Peoples Temple Member: It’s like a child in a dysfunctional family. On a certain level, it’s normal, you know? I just kind of took everything in stride.

Hue Fortson Jr., Peoples Temple Member: But then we felt like we had gotten involved and gotten in so deep that it was actually no way out.

Deborah Layton, Peoples Temple Member, Author, Seductive Poison: I had traveled on Bus Seven, which was Jim’s bus. And he sat down next to me. And I was sitting there and I thought, “That’s weird — it smells like alcohol next to me.” And he leaned over and he said, “Do you know what you do to me?” He had informed me that I was to come in — on Bus Seven, there was a room in the back for just him. He had books. He had a desk. He had a bed.

When everyone got off the bus at the rest stop, I went into his little room and I sat there and waited for him. And finally he opened the door, and without any talk or anything, he just pulled down his pants and — and had sex with me. And as I lay there frightened, not sure what to do, and as I shivered, he’d say to me, “This is for you. I’m doing this for you, Debbie.”

Marshall Kilduff, Journalist: Well, in 1975 it was a mayoral election in San Francisco. A conservative candidate and a liberal candidate, George Moscone. Jones had several hundred people who would go door-to-door Election Day. Instead of a group that might give you twenty or thirty of these people — or a hundred — you had three or four hundred.

John R. Hall, Sociologist: The Moscone election was very close. The margin of victory was probably no more than 4,000. So you had to credit a big chunk of decisive votes to Peoples Temple.

Rebecca Moore, Relative of Peoples Temple Member: The reward for the election of George Moscone was the appointment of Jim Jones as Chairman of the City Housing Authority.

Deborah Layton, Peoples Temple Member, Author, Seductive Poison: What was once a really boring meeting, all of a sudden, became like really interesting when Jim Jones became the head of it — because we all came down on the buses. And we were instructed that when Jim came in, we stood, and when he left or spoke, we’d stand and clap.

Marshall Kilduff, Journalist: The sheer staginess, the controlled atmosphere that sort of enclosed this guy, made him so unusual, so different than the norm, that it made me very curious. My biggest problem was getting somebody to sort of talk to me about the Church in kind of conversational terms.

Grace Stoen, Peoples Temple Member: I had become friends with some of the various defectors, and one of the defectors told me that she was going to speak publicly about Jones. And I said to her, “Well, if you’re going to speak publicly — I’m going to speak with you. I’m not going to let you do this alone.”

Marshall Kilduff, Journalist: I finally heard from some ex-members who heard I was interested in writing a story about the Temple for New West magazine, and they took a chance. They called me and some of them said, you know, “You don’t know nothing about the Church. Wait until I tell you what I went through.”

Deborah Layton, Peoples Temple Member, Author, Seductive Poison: Before the article was going to break, Jim convinced the publisher that she needed to read it to him. He was on one phone and I was on — taping the other end of it, while somebody else listened on another one. Jim didn’t understand that there was no way he could talk her down from whatever this article was going to say.

And as she continues to read this article, he’s looking around the room at about five of us and you could tell that he’s becoming more and more anxious and as — and you know, his mouth becomes dryer and dryer.

And he realizes that this article is going to be hugely damning, and it was midway through it he mouths to all of us in the room, “We’re leaving tonight.” They flew out to Guyana, six hours before that article was going to hit.

On-screen text: Jonestown, 1977-1978

Tim Reiterman, Journalist: When Jim Jones decided that there was too much pressure, too much trouble to stay in San Francisco, he ordered the move to Jonestown and it happened almost overnight. People were being taken to airports. There were people who were packing their belongings and leaving their homes — with virtually no explanation to their family members as to where they were going or why they were going. Fred Lewis came home and found that his wife had taken their seven children and gone to Guyana, along with all their possessions.

Eugene Smith, Peoples Temple Member: My wife had gone over three months prior. And I was waiting on pins and needles, and I was talking to her probably twice a week on the hand radio and Leona Collier came up, “Ok, Eugene it’s your time, you’re going over.”

Coming into Jonestown, you see a guard at the front gate and you’re all excited, you’re going down this road. The trailer comes to a stop and then you can see the wooden pathway that leads to the pavilion. And you’re just — you want to run, but you know, you just try — “Alright I’m gonna be cool.”

And just as you reach the edge of the pavilion, people started rushing you that you knew. My wife was there. Haven’t seen my mother in over a year or so. And I’m just hugging people and it’s just — it’s like, I have arrived and everything is going to be okay now.

Tim Carter, Peoples Temple Member (archival): I have never been so totally happy or fulfilled in my life. I can’t begin to describe it. You could sit here and talk all day long and no words could describe the peace, the beauty, the sense of accomplishment and responsibility and camaraderie that’s here. It’s overwhelming, it really is. You can’t describe it.

Laura Johnston Kohl, Peoples Temple Member: You know, it’s just such an exciting time. Everything was new and unique and —- and just fun. You know, we just had fun with it as it grew. I just loved that we created what we ate, that we did all these jobs.

Male Peoples Temple Member (archival): What you think about your friends back down in the States? You think they should be here?

Female Peoples Temple Member (archival): Well,

Male Peoples Temple Member (archival): Do you want to share with them this morning? Speak up!

Female Peoples Temple Member (archival): I wished I could,

Male Peoples Temple Member (archival): Can you do it?

Female Peoples Temple Member (archival): share with them,

Male Peoples Temple Member (archival): Would you do it?

Female Peoples Temple Member (archival): But they won’t listen to me.

Male Peoples Temple Member (archival): Won’t listen to you, huh?

Jim Jones Jr., Peoples Temple Member: When you don’t have anything, you own Jonestown — you are part of Jonestown. You were a shareholder of Jonestown if you were African American. It gave them the opportunity to — to really be a part of creating a utopia.

Relative of Peoples Temple Member (archival): I think that Jim Jones took his group down there because he was afraid to face the publicity and answer the questions here in this country. I don’t think that he feels confident having people talk to their relatives. I think the only way he can survive and sustain what he started is to isolate all his followers from this country and from their families.

Marshall Kilduff, Journalist: The Concerned Relatives were the ex-members who wanted other family members, still in the church, to know they could leave. They wanted them to feel that there was an outside world — that Jones was wrong about telling people they could never leave the church, and that they would be treated badly in the real world.

Rebecca Moore, Relative of Peoples Temple Member: The Concerned Relatives prompted FCC investigation of Peoples Temple. They organized letter-writing campaigns to public officials, to members of Congress. They were incredibly effective in mobilizing government and media interest in Peoples Temple.

Former Peoples Temple Member (archival): He was talking integration. He was talking helping people. He was talking better this and better that.

Male Reporter (archival): What about now? What’s your impression now?

Former Peoples Temple Member (archival): My impression now — that those are fronts for him. I think he’s gone crazy.

Eugene Smith, Peoples Temple Member: When Jim Jones wasn’t there, things tended to be a little bit lighter. You know, people would be dancing or singing. There would be music in different cottages. But when Jones was present, it was very, very dark. It was almost like a dark cloud.

Deborah Layton, Peoples Temple Member, Author, Seductive Poison: In Jonestown, there was a speaker system and only Jim spoke on it. And it went twenty-four hours a day and he would tape himself. So, in the middle of the night, all through the night, his voice was talking to you.

Jim Jones (archival): The United States is calling for the removal of all Blacks and Indians. So is England. They want to have their immigrant Black, Indian population removed in six months.

Laura Johnston Kohl, Peoples Temple Member: We had no other radio or T.V. or communication with parents or any kind of, you know, update that could show us, really, that there’s a whole other thing going on besides what Jim was interpreting for us.

Jim Jones (archival): I make my stand clear. Give us our liberty or give us our death.

Jordan Vilchez, Peoples Temple Member: No matter where you were, you could hear. You could hear it in your — in your bunk at night. You could hear it when you’re in the outhouse. You could hear it when you were working in the field. You — you could hear it all the time.

Jim Jones (archival): At least on those terms, we choose our death and no one chooses it for us. Don’t try to take any of our children.

Rebecca Moore, Relative of Peoples Temple Member: There was this pervasive sense of being under attack in Jonestown. He told them that things were just getting worse in the United States, they couldn’t go back home. And not only that, but these forces were traveling to Guyana to destroy them there.

Jim Jones (archival, subtitles): You can’t know how much of a conspiracy there is in the U.S. these days. Maybe it’s economics? Who knows what it is? I’m not able to say…But I do know it’s real. It’s obvious that Martin Luther King was murdered by conspiracy…Malcolm X, Senator Kennedy…

Laura Johnston Kohl, Peoples Temple Member: Over the summer of 1978, all of us noticed that Jim was — seemed to be getting sicker. His harangues over the loudspeaker were getting more and more frantic, and really just sounding more and more insane.

Hue Fortson Jr., Peoples Temple Member: He had gotten to the place that even his voice was becoming slurred, and he said it was because the nurse was giving him the wrong medications. But yet still, everyday it was getting worse and worse.

Deborah Layton, Peoples Temple Member, Author, Seductive Poison: Every night, at some point, his voice would come over the loudspeaker and he’d say, “I’m sending somebody out tonight, somebody you know, somebody you trust and they’re going to act like they want to leave. But this is a loyalty test and you need to turn them in.”

Vernon Gosney, Peoples Temple Member: A father would turn in a son. A husband would turn in a wife. A small child would turn in a parent. There was no freedom to express to one another what was going on, because everything was suspect. The most forbidden thing to express was to leave.

Jim Jones Jr., Peoples Temple Member: He had a real issue with separation. People could not leave him. He took it as a betrayal to the cause, and to him personally.

Female Peoples Temple Member (archival): He said, “I really want to get away from him. By Christmas, I will be gone.”

Jim Jones (archival): By Christmas, do you want to be gone? By Christmas, do you want to be gone?! By Christmas, do you want to be gone?!!

Male Peoples Temple Member (archival): I would ask you, could I go home and make a trip to see my people?

Jim Jones (archival): I have the power to send you home by Christmas, but it’s not on Transworld Airlines. It’s blasphemy! It’s blasphemy to talk about going back when you have not been given any approval! Do you want to go home?

Male Peoples Temple Member (archival): No.

Jim Jones (archival): Well, then be seated and shut your mouth and don’t be in my face anymore.

Jackie Speier, Aide to Congressman Leo Ryan: Congressman Ryan was unique in the political sphere. He had this hands-on approach to legislating. He just didn’t take no for an answer. So when he was in the state assembly, he went to Folsom State Prison and spent a week as an inmate to understand the prison issues and prison reform.

He became concerned because a number of residents in San Mateo County had become members of the Peoples Temple — and family members started contacting him, concerned about their whereabouts and concerned about whether or not they were being held against their will. The word we were getting was that there was an armed encampment. It was enough for the Congressman to say, “You know what? I want to go find out for myself.”

Vernon Gosney, Peoples Temple Member: There was a lot of preparation for Congressman Ryan’s visit. There was all these different scenarios that were presented. He wasn’t going to let him in. He was going to let him in. We were going to wait for them to come in and we were going to kill 'em all when they came in.

Jackie Speier, Aide to Congressman Leo Ryan: I was very fearful about making the trip. I had a copy of the Congressman’s will and placed it in a particular drawer in my desk, just in case.

Stephen Sung, Sound Technician: We flew in sometime in the afternoon, about 6pm. We saw this beautiful sign, “Welcome to Jonestown.”

Tim Reiterman, Journalist: As we approached Jonestown, it was spartan, but very impressive.

Jackie Speier, Aide to Congressman Leo Ryan: How could you not be impressed that out of the jungles of Guyana, they had carved out a community? They had crops growing. They had cabins. They had a little medical clinic, a little daycare area.

Jim Jones (archival): Flour, rice, black-eyed peas, more peas. We have different containers surrounding the place — we couldn’t go through all of the tremendous inventory they built up. Kool-aid —