Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (2006) - full transcript

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(church bell ringing)

DEBORAH LAYTON:
Nobody joins a cult.

Nobody joins something
they think's going to hurt them.



You join
a religious organization,

you join a political movement,
and you join with people

that you really like.

JIM JONES, JR.:
I think in everything

that I tell you about Jim Jones,
there's going to be a paradox--

having this vision
to change the world,

but having this whole
undercurrent of dysfunction

that was underneath that vision.

JIM JONES:
Some people see

a great deal of God in my body.

They see Christ in me,
a hope of glory.

(applause)

He said, "If you see me as your
friend, I'll be your friend.

As you see me as your father,
I'll be your father."



He said, "If you see me
as your God, I'll be your God."

KRISTINE KRAVITZ:
Jim Jones talked about

going to the Promised Land,
and then,

pretty soon, we were
seeing film footage

of Jonestown.

JONES:
Rice, black-eyed peas,

Kool-Aid.

KRAVITZ:
We all wanted to go.

I wanted to go.

GRACE STOEN:
Peoples Temple truly had
the potential to be

something big and powerful
and great.

And yet, for whatever reason,

Jim took the other road.

JACKIE SPEIER:
On the night of the 17th,
it was still

a vibrant community.

I would never

have imagined
that 24 hours later

they would all be dead.

I vividly remember the first
time that I met Jim Jones.

My sister Carolyn
had invited my parents

and my younger sister and I
to visit her in Potter Valley.

We came, and there was
this strange man

in her house,
and her husband wasn't there.

Annie and I were sent out
to go on a walk.

When we came back,
something had happened.

Something terrible had happened,

because everyone had red eyes
except for Jim Jones.

We didn't really get the story

until we were
in the car going home.

He was carrying on
an adulterous relationship

with my sister.

And because his wife

couldn't relate to him
as a wife,

that Carolyn had taken over
that role.

Everything was plausible,
except in retrospect,

the whole thing seems
absolutely bizarre.

(piano playing)

♪ Welcome, welcome,
all of you... ♪

♪ ♪

JANET SHULAR:
The first time I visited
Peoples Temple,

I drove at the urging
of a friend,

a coworker, to Redwood Valley.

♪ Welcome, welcome,
all of you... ♪

We all got suited down,
neck-tied and everything.

And, you know,
and we were sharp.

As soon as I walked in
to the San Francisco Temple,

I was home.

♪ Welcome to you. ♪

CHILDREN:
Welcome!
(applause)

CLAYTON:
I was one of those kind of guys

that, um... I used drugs.

I was an alcoholic.

I drunk alcohol
and stuff like that.

And-and all these people
that were, like, my age,

(laughing):
they were clean.

WOMAN:
Before I came here,
I was taking LSD, marijuana,

every type of dope
you can imagine.

Without our pastor Jim Jones
to teach me the right way,

I would not be
in college right now.

CLAYTON:
And for me,

that was like,
"Wow, man, I liked that!"

Thank you very much.
Thank you.

(applause)

HUE FORTSON, JR.:
It was an interracial group.

The choir was interracial,
and they used to sing this song:

♪ Never heard a man
speak like this man before ♪

♪ Never heard a man speak
like this man before ♪

♪ All the days of my life
ever since I been born ♪

♪ I never heard a man
speak like this man before. ♪

After they sang
one or two songs,

the whole place was lit up.

♪ Something got a hold of me ♪

♪ Oh, yes, it did ♪

♪ I said something ♪
♪ Something ♪

♪ Got a hold of me ♪
♪ Got a hold of me ♪

♪ Don't you know... ♪

GARRETT LAMBREV:
The Peoples Temple services,

they had life, they had soul,
they had power.

We were alive in those services.

♪ Oh... I tell you that ♪

♪ Something ♪
♪ Something ♪

♪ Got a hold ♪
♪ Got a hold ♪

CLAIRE JANARO:
I would be up jumping in the
balcony and clapping my hands.

♪ Something ♪
♪ Something ♪

If you came in as a stranger
and didn't know anything

about the politics,
you were thinking

you were entering
an old-time religion service.

♪ 'Cause my heart wasn't right ♪

♪ Can't forget it ♪

♪ Something ♪
♪ Something ♪

FORTSON:
By the time Jones did

come out to do his speaking,

the-the table had
already been set.

JONES:
I represent divine principle,

total equality, a society where
people own all things in common,

where there is no rich or poor,

where there are no races.

Wherever there's people

struggling for justice
and righteousness, there I am!

And there I am involved.

(applause)

NEVA SLY HARGRAVE:
What he spoke about were things

that were in our hearts.

The government was not
taking care of the people.

There were too many
poor people out there.

There were poor children.

JONES:
The world is like
a human family.

The little child may not be able
to go and draw a paycheck,

but the father guarantees
the child care.

The grandmother may not
be able to work anymore,

but the father and mother

guarantee her
the right to live.

LAYTON:
Every, single person felt
that they had a purpose there

and that they were
exceptionally special.

And that is how he brought
so many young college kids in,

so many older black women in,

so many people from
diverse backgrounds

who realized that there was
something bigger than themselves

that they needed
to be involved in

and that Jim Jones offered that.

♪ Tell you that ♪

♪ Something ♪
♪ Something ♪

♪ Got a hold of me ♪
♪ Got a hold of me... ♪

CLAYTON:
I went home, told Mom,

"You know what-- this is
the right church for me."

It was the next week

that I became a member
of Peoples Temple.

♪ I went to a meeting
last night ♪

♪ But my heart ♪

♪ But my heart wasn't right ♪

♪ Can't forget it... ♪

JIM JONES:

PHYLLIS WILMORE-ZIMMERMAN:
I grew up with Jimmy Jones.

We started first grade together.

My brothers used to go
over to Jimmy's house

and hung around his barn,

which was where he played.

CHUCK WILMORE:
From the time I was
five years old,

I thought Jimmy was
a really weird kid.

There was something
not quite right.

He was obsessed with religion.
He was obsessed with death.

WILMORE-ZIMMERMAN:
My brothers came back
with stories of him

conducting funerals for
small animals that had died.

A friend of mine
told me that he saw

Jimmy kill a cat with a knife.

Having a funeral for it
was a little strange.

Killing the animal
was very strange.

WILMORE-ZIMMERMAN:
Jimmy's father did not work,
did not have a job

and was a drunk.

Jim's mother had to work

in order to support the family.

And he was kind of left
to his own devices.

Kind of the kid

who ran wild in the street,
you know what I mean?

Listen, he was in
a dysfunctional family.

(laughing)

We got a nice name for it now.

But when you live in
a dysfunctional family,

you think it's normal.

("I'm A Soldier" by The Five
Blind Boys of Mississippi)

♪ I'm a soldier ♪

♪ In the army of the Lord... ♪

JOHN HALL:
In Lynn, Jim Jones

looked for community
and couldn't find community

in Lynn as a town--

which had a population of,
what, a thousand people.

But he did find community

in the Pentecostal Church.

♪ Soul has been converted,
I feel all right ♪

TIM REITERMAN:
He saw that they were

a surrogate home.

He saw that the preachers
were like father figures

to their congregations.

And that role represented

power over the lives
of your congregation.

♪ In the army of the Lord ♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪
♪ In the army... ♪

JOHN R. HALL:
Jim Jones started out

on the revival
preaching circuit

learning the ropes
of being a preacher,

and once he started doing that,

it became clear
that he could get a following.

The first time I met Jim Jones
was Easter 1953.

My mother-in-law, Edith Cordell,
had a monkey

and it hung itself, and she
wanted to replace the monkey.

So she looked in the
Indianapolis Star

and in that Indianapolis Star

was Jim Jones's ad that he had
some monkeys to sell.

So it was through that
that she met Jim Jones

and came back saying

that he had invited her
to church this next Sunday.

(Jones preaching
enthusiastically)

Didn't make no difference
what color you were.

It was everybody welcome there
in that church,

and he made it very plain
from the platform.

We had some people
that disagreed with Jimmy

that got up in the audience and
said they disagreed with him.

They did not like
this integration part

of the services.

We did ask people to leave
the church one night

because of that.

JIM JONES, JR.:
I was the first Negro child

adopted by a Caucasian family
in the state of Indiana.

Jim and Marceline actually went
to adopt a Caucasian child.

The story goes that I was crying
real loud,

and it drew attention
for Marceline to come over,

and, uh, once she picked me up,
I, uh, stopped crying.

My family was a template
of a rainbow family.

We had an African American,

we had two American Asian

and we had his natural son,
homemade.

REV. GARNETT DAY:
Jim was, uh, breaking new ground

in race relations at a time when
the ground was still pretty,

uh, hard against that.

Jim Jones was, uh, hated
and despised by some people,

particularly
in the white community.

There had been pressures on him
to leave Indianapolis.

He thought that Indianapolis
was too racist of a place

for him to-to, um, to be and he
wanted to take his people out.

REBECCA MOORE:
California is perceived to be
a very progressive state.

This would be the place
to implement

the dream of racial equality,

not Indianapolis,
which seems hopeless,

but California, which seems
to be the Promised Land.

He chose Ukiah
in northern California,

about 90 miles north
of San Francisco,

because there was an article
in Esquire magazine

that said that Ukiah was one
of the nine places in the world

that, in the event
of thermonuclear attack,

people would survive.

EUGENE CORDELL:
I told Edith,
"If you follow Jimmy

to California, you're crazy."

So what did Jimmy do,
but took her to a psychiatrist

and sent me a certified letter

that she is of sound mind
and she is not crazy.

I was there the afternoon
that Edith drove away.

I didn't know
I'd never see her again.

JIM JONES, JR:
The move to California
was really fun.

There were about 12, 15 cars

driving across United States
and making that journey

to a place none of us knew,

you know, uh, none of us
could even imagine.

We were going to California,
our new world.

CLAIRE JANARO:
When I saw Redwood Valley,

I couldn't believe my eyes
because it was like a paradise.

It was rural. It was green.

Uh, there were grapevines
everywhere,

and I fell in love.

I said, "This has got to be
a perfect way to live."

(chicken squawking)

JIM JONES:
We started with
about 141 people,

and from that we've grown to
a very thriving congregation.

We have about every level
of society,

all socio-economic income
strata,

professional down
to the ordinary field worker,

field labor.

Really, it's beautiful to see
that all these divisions

have been broken down,
not only race,

but any differences
of economic position.

JOYCE SHAW-HOUSTON:
The focus of Jim's message

was the, uh,
taken from the Bible

where Jesus,
in his earliest days, uh,

told people to sell all things
and have all things in common.

Jesus Christ had the most
revolutionary teachings

to be said in the sense that
he said to feed the hungry,

clothe the naked, uh,
take in the stranger,

minister to those, the widows

and afflicted
in their suffering.

And we feel that no one really
tried Christianity

too effectively in the
Judeo-Christian tradition.

DEBORAH LAYTON:
The membership
increased substantially

as he procured more and more
Greyhound buses,

and, uh, fixed them up,

and every summer he began
this cross-country tour.

CLAIRE JANARO:
The purpose of the bus trips

was to spread Jim's beliefs
about socialism

and the world and how we can
live a better life

and about an integrated
lifestyle.

But behind that,

I think it was to gather
more members for the Temple.

♪ As pilgrims here ♪

♪ We sometimes journey... ♪

BRYAN KRAVITZ:
I decided not to go to Vietnam,
and I was just at the point

of what am I going to do
with myself.

I heard Jim Jones was going
to be coming to Philadelphia

and coming to Benjamin Franklin
High School.

And I went Wednesday night,
and I listened to him

and I was impressed

by how it was such
an interracial group

and people were really happy.

Who else is going to stand and
look you in the face and say,

"Come, and I'll give you a job.

"Come, and I'll give you a home.

Come, and I'll give you a bed."

"But I've got nothing
but a pension."

"Go and leave
your pension behind."

Who else will tell you that?

Who'll tell you, "I'll put you
on that bus tomorrow"?

BRYAN KRAVITZ:
I heard Jim Jones talking
about equality among races,

what it's like
in living in California,

in the Redwood Valley, the good
works that they're doing--

things that like I wanted to get
in involved with,

but didn't even know where
to make an entrée,

and all of a sudden
the answer was there.

JIM JONES:
Somebody is going to get
on the freedom train

in Philadelphia.

He was there for three evenings,
and the third evening,

I went off on the bus
and came to California.

♪ Surely ♪
♪ Surely ♪

♪ He's able ♪
♪ He's able ♪

♪ To carry... ♪

When I joined Peoples Temple
in the spring of 1966,

there were exactly 81 members.

Five years later, an extended
family of 80 people

had become an organization
of thousands.

♪ He's able ♪
♪ Clouds may gather ♪

♪ All around you... ♪

REBECCA MOORE:
Peoples Temple really
was a black church.

It was led by a white minister,

but in terms
of the worship service,

commitment to the social gospel,
its membership,

it functioned completely
like a black church.

He talked black.
He really understood it.

He understood how it was
to be treated differently.

And that's from his roots
coming out of Lynn.

When people heard Jim,
they didn't look upon him

as being a white preacher,
you know.

People didn't look at Jim
as being white.

He was not white.

He was just their preacher.

You going to go to Texas with me
when I have that campaign?

I was just wondering
whether I could go or not.

(laughs)

I would love to go.

Why, of course, you'll go.
You went to Mexico with me.

DEBORAH LAYTON:
As older people joined,

it took a year or so
and he'd convince the people

that he was doing so much
in the community

and so why not,
rather than just tithe your 20%,

why not sell your home,
give the money to the church?

And that is what people
began to do.

JIM JONES:
Now in this church,

what have we done
in a short time?

We have four
senior citizen homes

that are the most innovating,

the most beautiful
you want to see.

MIKE TOUCHETTE:
They had their own rooms.

They had every need
taken care of.

They had their food provided.

They were well looked after.

JIM JONES:
Now, my home is stone block

and there's not a piece
of new furniture in it.

But our senior citizen homes,
they're elegant.

And that's beautiful.

JOHN R. HALL:
They were giving
their life's money

and savings to the church,
but in exchange,

the church was agreeing to take
care of them in the community,

not just in a nursing home.

♪ Surely ♪
♪ Surely ♪

♪ He's able ♪
♪ He's able ♪

♪ To carry you through... ♪

Well, it got to the point
where there were so many duties

in the Temple that some people
had to become full-time.

So when you were full-time
Temple,

you worked about 20 hours a day.

My week kind of ran like this.

I'd work my regular job
on Mondays,

you know, 8:00 to 5:00.

Then I'd work on files...

There were people
who ran rest homes.

There were animals
to be taken care of.

There were the publications.

Everybody had a job.

Wednesday night we'd have
a meeting in Redwood Valley,

and I'd go to the meeting
till probably 10:00 or 10:30.

We turned our paychecks over
every time we got paid.

And then we got an allowance--
five dollars a week.

And Friday I'd go to work,
and I'd get off of work,

and I'd hop on the bus or drive
the bus to San Francisco.

If I had to go to the doctor,
it was taken care of.

If I had to go to the dentist,
it was taken care of.

If I needed clothes,
that was taken care of.

And often on Saturday night,

we'd have planning commission
meetings

until 2:00 or 3:00
in the morning.

We would always try to let
each other know the next day,

"Well, how long did you sleep?"
"Oh, I slept two hours."

"You only slept two?

Well, I slept
a hour-and-a-half."

And then Sunday we'd have
a Sunday morning service,

and then around 1:00,
hop on the buses, drive up,

drop people off in San Francisco
and drive up to Redwood Valley.

The longest I ever stayed awake
was six days,

and that's with no coffee,
no nothing.

It changed over the years,
but it was always busy.

Being in an environment
where you're constantly up,

you're constantly busy
and you're made to feel guilty

if you take too many luxuries
like sleeping...

you tend to not really think
for yourself,

and I did allow Jones
to think for me

because I figured
that he had the better plan.

I gave my rights up to him,
as many others did.

(applause)

Edie...

fingers, are your fingers
numb...

in your right hand?

Reach the fingers out
that are bothering you.

(building applause)

Now is the pain gone?

(shouting and cheering)

FORTSON:
There was a senior citizen,
and we nicknamed her Power.

He would have her to come up in
the midst of one of his meetings

and she used to say,
"The man got pow...er.

The man got power, y'all."

And the whole place
would just go wild.

JIM JONES:
Take your glasses off.

Let's just dare in our faith.

Now...

look at my face.

I love you.

The people love you.

Most importantly,
Christ loves you.

What do you see?

One finger.

One finger!

(cheering and applause)

NEVA SLY HARGRAVE:
One of the most incredible
healings to me

was this little old lady,
and she was in a wheelchair.

Jim said, "Darlin', you know,
today is your day.

We're going to... you're going
to get healed today."

He said, "We're going to...

"we're going to heal those legs
of yours.

You're going to walk again."

And the whole auditorium
went totally crazy.

(cheering)

JIM JONES:
Come forth, my dear.

Stand up.

Take that step.
- (cheering)

Bless your heart.

Take that step.

HARGRAVE:
And she takes this real slow,
shaky step.

She said, "I can feel it."

He said, "Yes,
I know you can feel it.

Now take your other leg
and do it."

And so another real slow,
shaky step

and he says, "Now I want you
to walk toward me."

Move forward.

Move forward.

Move forward, darlin'.

You can do it.

HARGRAVE:
And she starts taking
forward steps.

And pretty soon she is walking.

And she starts walking up
one of the aisles.

(cheering and shouting)

And pretty soon she's running.

Well, by this time the whole
congregation's running down

these aisles with us.

We're all just running around
the aisles,

just hoopin'
and hollerin' up a storm.

Later I found out
that this person

that I had seen healed

and cried with was really one
of the secretaries made up

to look crippled and blind.

♪ Never shalt forget
what He's done ♪

♪ For me ♪

♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪

♪ What He's done for me ♪

♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪

♪ What He's done for me ♪

♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh ♪

♪ What He's done for me ♪

♪ I never shall forget
what He's done for me. ♪

DEBORAH LAYTON:
For those people that hadn't
grown up in the Apostolic world,

Jim would say, you know, "I know
this is different for you,

"but for people to come from
extremely religious backgrounds

"so that I can bring them
forward to the message

"that's so important for all of
us today and that is activism,

then I need to speak
on each person's level."

He said, "A lot of you people,
you Christian people, coming in,

you're so hung up
on this Bible."

He said, "This black book
has held down black people

for the last 200 years."

He said, "But I'm going
to show you

this has no power."

So he leaned way back like a
football player and he flung it.

And when he flung it
and let it go,

the place got dead quiet-like.

And he waited till it hit
the floor... pow.

When it hit the floor, he stood
and he looked back and forth.

He said, "Now, did you see
any lightning come from the sky

and strike me dead?"

FORTSON:
And he said, "What you need to
believe in is what you can see."

He said, "If you see me as your
friend, I'll be your friend.

"As you see me as your father,
I'll be your father,

for those of you
that don't have a father."

He said, "If you see me as your
savior, I'll be your savior."

He said, even so, "If you see me
as your God, I'll be your God."

♪ I never ♪

♪ Never heard it ♪

♪ Heard a man ♪

♪ Heard ♪

♪ Speak like this man ♪

♪ Before... ♪

JANET SHULAR:
People lifted Jim
to a level of adoration

because many believed

that he had healed them
of cancer.

Many believed

that he had saved their son
or daughter

from an automobile accident.

There were many reasons

for many people
to admire, love, excuse,

overlook much of what Jim did.

♪ People... ♪

TIM CARTER:
I had been in the Temple
for just a few months.

I was sent backstage
in Los Angeles to...

to get something for somebody--
I don't remember what.

And Jones happened
to be coming out of his room

and he said,
"Hi, Tim, how are you doing?

"How is it going?

How do you like everything
so far?"

"And, oh, I like it a lot.

And, you know,
it's really it cool."

I don't remember exactly.

And he reached up and kind
of patted the back of my neck

and he said, "I'll fuck you
in the ass if you want."

And I just kind
of stammered, uh,

"No."

You know? "No."

And he said, "Well, you know, if
you ever want that, that's okay.

You know, just let me know
and we'll do that."

JOYCE SHAW-HOUSTON:
Jim said that all of us
were homosexuals,

everyone except... he was the
only heterosexual on the planet.

And that, um,
the women were all lesbians

and the guys were all gay.

And so anyone
that showed any interest

in sex was just compensating.

What he explained
to each of us and in sermons,

was that sexual relationships
were very selfish

and they took away
from the focus of the church

and that was to help others.

Jim was not celibate.

Nobody knew that until perhaps
it was their time to find out

what he spoke
from the pulpit wasn't

what he... he did
behind the scenes.

FORTSON:
I remember one night, um,
one of the brothers

had stood up and said,

"You know, I think,

"everybody that wants Father
to screw them in the butt,

you need to take a enema first."

I'm telling you the truth, man,

I'm telling you the truth.

And then the question went on,

"Well, how many of you in here
have had him to do that?"

And it, whether they were lying
or just following suit,

hands of the men just went up
around the room.

And I'm sitting there petrified
'cause I'm, like,

"Is this what it's leading to,
that I'm supposed to get to?"

And I'm thinking, "Hmm."

But I played it off
like, okay, I'm being cool.

Okay, if that's where they at,
that's not where I'm at.

'Cause I'm thinking, I...

My wife, I'm happy with my wife,
you know...

With this sleep I'm not getting

I'm not getting enough anyway.

GRACE STOEN:
One of the powerful things
that Jim used to keep us

to not think was that we were
never really allowed, um,

to speak with one another.

I'd look around and I'd say,
"Am I the only one

that feels this way?"

I learned eventually not to, um,
not to say anything to anyone.

JONES:
We had a lady
who visited us

a week ago here and was speaking
to one at the door,

and she was a member
of a prominent church,

a pastor's wife, and she said,

"I think that the poor
should be made to control

how many children they bring
into the earth."

You remember?

PEOPLE:
Yeah.

Some leading
scientists say,

"We have to have euthanasia."

Oh, no, oh, no.

Who's going to decide who and
when a person's going to die?

We must never allow that because
this is the kind of thing

that ushers in the terror
of a Hitler's Germany.

We must not allow
these kind of things

to enter our consciousness.

(cheering and applause)

JIM JONES, JR.:
My father used to tell me

that people's lives,
60% of people's lives were made

on emotional decisions.

Make your decisions,
60% of your decisions,

based on logic, fact, or reason,

and allow emotion
to be the secondary motivator.

And, um, we were Star Trek fans,
he and I were Star Trek fans,

and he used to always say,

"Just vulcanize yourself.
Just vulcanize yourself."

SHAW-HOUSTON:
We were celebrating
New Year's Eve.

There were about 120 people.

Jim started talking
about our cause

and he said,

"This punch is going to be
passed out to everybody here."

We all drank our punch
and then he said,

"You just drank poison.

And we will all die right here
in the church together as one."

The women were just screaming,
"Oh, no, my baby, my baby!"

and others just sat there

and all of a sudden, Jim says,

"That wasn't poison you drank."

SHAW-HOUSTON:
Jim said that this was a test
of loyalty.

He just wanted to see if we were
truly committed to our cause,

and that was how
we would show it.

SHULAR:
Well, it wasn't
about our loyalty,

because we were demonstrating
loyalty all the time.

Coming there, being there in the
meetings, sitting, listening,

you know, supporting, working.

And I thought it had a lot
more to do

with Jim's sense of...

rehearsal.

Did he feel like he was potent
and, and omnipotent enough

to really get people to kill
themselves when he said so?

And that frightened the hell
out of me.

Jim Jones, I think, realized
that ultimately

Ukiah was not the sort
of climate

where Peoples Temple
would thrive.

He wasn't going to be gaining
large numbers of members.

He couldn't declare himself
to be a socialist God openly,

certainly, in a city like Ukiah.

MARSHALL KILDUFF:
In San Francisco,
Jones walked in on a sort

of a wild kind of party

where there was a lot of new
faces and new sources of power.

And there was a sort of feeling
that smaller groups,

neighborhood groups, activist
groups had a bigger chance.

REBECCA MOORE:
I think the early '60s had been
a time of great optimism.

There was a belief
that we could change the world

through social movements.

With various assassinations,
Malcolm X, Medgar Evers,

Martin Luther King,
Robert Kennedy...

there was definitely
a feeling of hopelessness.

The message of Peoples Temple
was, "No, the dream is alive."

VERNON GOSNEY:
If you had a demonstration

in San Francisco and you wanted
some people to show up,

Jim Jones... the Peoples Temple

could be there in 20 minutes
with hundreds of people.

And we would be enthusiastic.

There was an attitude
of "we can change the world."

And that's what we wanted to do.

These people would be on time.

They'd be polite and nice.

They were a span of ages,
a span of races.

They were tailor-made
for a political rally.

To a politician, it was like
a birthday cake times 12.

You have managed to
make the many persons

associated with Peoples Temple
part of a family.

If you are in
need of healthcare,
you get healthcare.

If you're in need of legal
assistance of some sort,

If you're in need of
transportation, you get that.

And that's the kind
of religious thing

that I'm excited about

and have some
respect for.

When vice-presidential candidate
Walter Mondale

came to San Francisco,

Jim Jones was part
of the entourage

that boarded his private jet.

When Rosalyn Carter
came to San Francisco,

she gave Jim Jones
a private audience.

Jim Jones had political power
that few people,

let alone preachers,
could have imagined.

VERNON GOSNEY:
Jim Jones represented
the Peoples Temple

as a progressive movement
that was threatened--

that there were outside forces

who didn't want us to do
what we were doing,

and it was the government.

The government was infiltrating

and wiretapping
and trying to kill people

or assassinate people.

That's what was happening.

FORTSON:
He was always paranoid
that someone

was going to get in
and try to kill him--

that they had two people

that had dedicated their lives

that they were going to jump
in front of Jones

and take the bullet

kind of like the Secret Service,
so to speak.

Jim started changing
a lot in the '70s.

He was taking drugs.

I think he said it was
his kidneys at the time.

And he was getting more
and more paranoid.

Incredibly paranoid.

There was always threats.

Always, always, always,
always threats.

They were there.

They were just about
to try to destroy us

if we weren't always vigilant
about our movement.

There was a fire
in the San Francisco Temple.

The Temple was burned down

and had to be rebuilt.

The fire proved
they are out to get us.

They so don't want us
to do what we're doing.

They've burned down the Temple.

They'll do anything to keep us
from doing what we're doing,

so we have to be even stronger.

JIM JONES:
What about the fact
that the Ku Klux Klan

has increased 100 times
in its membership?

Where? Not Mississippi, I'm
talking about New York state.

It's the church's duty

to have a place of protection
for its people.

LAURA JOHNSTON KOHL:
December of '75,

90 of us went by plane
into Guyana and saw

where we were building
the community there.

JIM JONES:

TIM CARTER:
What I saw that creation

as being was building
a city where we could move

and raise our children

outside of the oppression
and the racism

of the United States of America.

When I first went
into Jonestown,

it was just a footpath
in the rain forest.

We had Indians in front of us
with machetes,

and we had Indians
behind us with machetes.

300 miles into the jungle,

we literally built a city
in the middle of the jungle,

in the middle of nowhere.

Hello, family.

It's been a... it's such a joy
and great pleasure

being here because
of Father's love.

We are trying to make, and we
are making, a place of refuge

for all of you here.

There is no...
nothing at all that I would...

that I have any holdings there.

I do not want to go back

in any way, shape or form
to the States.

I love it here
and this is the place

where all of you
are going to be.

KRISTINE KRAVITZ:
Pretty soon we were seeing
film footage

of the first crew
that went down there.

♪ We are all a happy family... ♪

We all wanted to go.
I wanted to go.

It looked like... like freedom.

♪ God loves us every one ♪

♪ We're a happy family ♪

♪ Yes, we are. ♪

(laughing)

Now will each of you
give a very fond embrace,

a salutary kiss or greeting
to your neighbor

and let's fill this atmosphere

with warmth and love.

LAURA JOHNSTON KOHL:
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...

I was slapped once also
in a public meeting.

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.

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:
He would ask people,

"What do you think
we ought to do with 'em?

You think he ought
to get a good boxing?"

And then he'd get

a resounding roar, "Yes!"

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.

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 good-bye
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 good-bye, one
of them would have reported me.

JOYCE SHAW-HOUSTON:
It's kind of like when you get
married and you have this ideal.

And, you know, you're in love,

and then the honeymoon wears off
and reality sets in

and most people,
once the going gets rough,

don't jump out immediately.

LAURA JOHNSTON KOHL:
In one planning
commission meeting,

Jim was getting notes,
kind of love notes,

from one of the members
on the planning commission.

FORTSON:
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 nothin'."

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:
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.

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.

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."

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.

But then we felt
like we had gotten involved

and gotten in so deep that...

it was actually no way out.

I had traveled on Bus 7,
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 7 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, um...

and had sex with me.

And as I lay there frightened,

um, 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."

I'm Senator Moscone.
How are you?

Very good to see you, too.

MARSHALL KILDUFF:
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 20 or 30

of these people or 100,
you had 300 or 400.

God bless you for being here
and let's go on and win.

JOHN R. HALL:
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:
The reward for the election
of George Moscone

was the appointment
of Jim Jones as chairman

of the City Housing Authority.

DEBORAH LAYTON:
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.

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, uh,
very curious.

My biggest problem was getting
somebody to sort of talk to me

about the church
in kind of conversational terms.

STOEN:
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, I said,
"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."

KILDUFF:
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 till I tell you
what I went through."

LAYTON:
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, 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.

REITERMAN:
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:
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 ham radio, and
Leona Collier came up and said,

"Okay, 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--

"All right, I'm going
to be cool."

And just as you reach the edge
of the pavilion,

people started rushing you
that you knew.

You know, my wife was there.

Haven't seen my mother
in over a year or so.

And I'm just hugging people,
and it's like I have arrived

and everything is going
to be okay now.

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, it's overwhelming.
It really is.

You can't describe it.

You know, it was just
such an exciting time.

Everything was new
and unique and...

and, uh, 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.

POP JACKSON:
What you think
about your friends

back down in the States?

You think they
should be here?

Well...

Do you want to share
with them this morning?

Speak up!
- I wished I could...

Well, can you do it?
share with them...

Would you do it?
But they won't listen
to me.

Won't listen
to you, huh?

JIM JONES, JR.:
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 the opportunity

to really be a part
of creating a utopia.

♪ Tell me why, tell me why,
tell me why, mmm... ♪

♪ Why can't we live together? ♪

♪ Tell me why,
tell me why, mmm... ♪

♪ Why can't we live together? ♪

♪ Everybody wants
to live together ♪

♪ Why can't we live together? ♪

STEVEN KATSARIS:
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.

KILDUFF:
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.

MOORE:
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.

He was talking integration;
he was talking helping people.

He was talking better this
and better that.

REPORTER:
What about now?
What's your impression now?

Um, my impression now:
that those are fronts for him.

Um, I think he's gone crazy.

SMITH:
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.

LAYTON:
In Jonestown,
there was a speaker system

and only Jim spoke on it.

And it went 24 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:
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.

KOHL:
We had no other radio or TV
or communication with parents

or any kind of, you know, uh,
update that could show us

really that there's
a whole other thing going on

besides what Jim
was interpreting for us.

JIM JONES:
I make my stand clear.

Give us our liberty
or give us our death.

VILCHEZ:
No matter where you were,
you could hear.

You could hear it in--

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:
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.

MOORE:
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.

KOHL:
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.

FORTSON:
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 and still, every day
it was getting worse and worse.

LAYTON:
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."

GOSNEY:
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.:
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.

WOMAN:
He said, "I really want
to get away from here

and by Christmas
I will be gone."

JIM JONES:
By Christmas,
do you want to be gone?

MAN:
Yeah, well...

JIM JONES:
By Christmas,
do you want to be gone?

By Christmas, do you want
to be gone?!

MAN:
I would ask you,
"Could I go home

and make a trip
to see my people?"

JIM JONES:
I have the power
to send you home by Christmas,

but it's not
on Trans World 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?

MAN:
No.

JIM JONES:
Well, then, be seated
and shut your mouth

and don't be in my face anymore.

JACKIE SPEIER:
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."

GOSNEY:
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 them
all when they came in.

SPEIER:
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:
We flew in sometime
in the afternoon,

about 6:00 p.m.

We saw this beautiful sign,

"Welcome to Jonestown."

REITERMAN:
As we approached Jonestown,

it was spartan, but...

very impressive.

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 day care area.

Flour, rice,

black-eyed peas,

more peas.

They have different containers
around the place.

We couldn't go through all
the tremendous inventory

they built up-- Kool-Aid.

'cause when the world... ♪

When Ryan came, he came
on a Friday night

and, um, we put on
a reception for him.

CARTER:
The songs that we sang

that night,
it was people saying,

"This is who we are
and this is what we are about."

♪ That's the way ♪

♪ Of the world ♪

♪ Hearts of fire ♪

♪ Create love desire... ♪

SPEIER:
It was a vibrant community.

I would never have imagined

that 24 hours later
those people would be dead.

♪ Future disappears... ♪

♪ Oh, with love desire ♪

♪ Takes you high, takes you
high, takes you higher ♪

♪ To your throne, you belong ♪

♪ That's the way... ♪

Everything up
to that point was...

was good.

Everybody was thrilled
that Ryan was thrilled.

He just kind of praised us.

RYAN:
I think that all
of you know that

I am here to find out
more about...

questions have been raised
about your operation here,

but I can tell you right now
that 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

who believe
that this is the best thing

that ever happened to them
in their whole life.

(cheering)

CARTER:
That response to him
was spontaneous.

It was loud. It was emotional.

(cheering and applause)

What I was feeling was this is

an opportunity
that I can vocalize

how much I believe
in what we are doing here.

The reporter next to me said,

"I've never felt anything
like this before."

And that's because he hadn't
felt anything like this before.

(cheering and applause continue)

I actually felt
pretty good overall.

This went probably as well
as it possibly could go so far.

GOSNEY:
When Congressman Ryan came,

I wanted to pass him
a note that said,

"Help us get out of Jonestown."

When one of the reporters

was walking around towards
the edge of the pavilion,

I stuck the note
in the fold of his arm

and it fell to the ground.

And so I picked up the note
and I gave it back to him

and I said,
"You dropped something,"

and this little boy about
nine years old started saying,

"He passed a note!
He passed a note!"

Don Harris,
who was the NBC reporter,

came up to me
and Congressman Ryan

and handed us these two notes

from people
that wanted to leave.

So at that point we knew

that something
was very, very wrong.

CLAYTON:
I was, like, the first

to rise up
the following morning.

It was a bright, sunny day,

but it was a dark day.

It just didn't feel right.

We were there,
supposed to interview

some of the family members

to ask them
why they cannot leave.

Are you happy here?

Oh, I should say I am.

I've never been
any happier in my life.

Do you want to stay?

Definitely.

I certainly do.

Some people have said

they couldn't leave
if they wanted to.

Do you think you could?

Yeah. If I really wanted to.

I'm free to go
if I was really...

really wanted to,
I would be free to go.

Well, I believe it.
I've been here a few days and...

I have... I have absolutely
no complaints at all.

It is really nice here.
It is really nice.

And I'll be leaving
in a couple of weeks

and they could come with me,

but they said they
didn't want to come.

(thunder rumbling)

CARTER:
Literally out of nowhere,

this storm came blowing in.

The sky turned black.

The wind came up,
and it just... torrential rain.

But what I personally felt

was that evil itself
blew into Jonestown.

It was about 11:30
in the morning.

Edith Parks walked up
to Jackie Speier and said,

"I am being held prisoner here.
I want to go home."

Yeah.

Immediately, the whole...
vibe changed.

I mean, this reporter said,
"We got our story."

You know, "The story here,
it's happening right now."

Jim Jones came to talk to me.

And the first thing he said was,

"Don't say anything
to the reporters.

They're all liars."

The last words I heard
from Jim Jones was,

"I just want you to know
that you can

come back to Jonestown and visit
your son any time you want."

HARRIS:
Last night, someone came

and passed me this note.

He's the one that I'm
just talking about.

He, uh-- this is
what he's talking about.

This is the man that wants
to leave his son here.

Doesn't it concern
you, though,

that this man,
for whatever reason,

one of the people
in your group...

People play games, friend.

They lie. They lie.

What can I do about liars?

Are you people going to...

Leave us, I just beg you.

Please leave us.

Bill, we will bother nobody.

Anybody wants to get out
of here can get out of here.

They have no problem
about getting out of here.

They come and go all the time.

I don't know what kind of game--
people like...

who-- people like publicity.

Some people do. I don't.

But some people like publicity.

But if it's so damned bad,

why is he leaving his son here?

Can you give me
a good reason for that?

When word got out

that people were leaving...

all hell broke out.

You bring those
kids back here!

You bring 'em back!
- One second.
One second.

Don't you touch my kids!

SPEIER:
More people wanted to leave.

And then Jim Jones started

to make pleas to people saying,

"You can't leave.
You're my people.

Why do you want to leave?"

It was an emotional
roller coaster

for everyone there.

Don't you touch my kids!

Mother! You're not
taking my kids!

No!

SPEIER:
Jones was in the pavilion.

At one point he said,

"Well, of course,
you can go if you want,"

but clearly that was
not the message.

The message was,
"You are betraying me."

GOSNEY:
I went and I spoke
to the congressman

in the pavilion.

I told him,

"You are in extreme danger.

You need to leave."

And he said, "You don't have
anything to worry about."

He says, "You have
the congressional

shield of protection
around you."

And I just looked at him
like he was

totally insane.

CARTER:
Congressman Ryan is
directly across from me.

And I saw this Temple member

walk up behind him
and he was actually crying

and shaking, and all of a sudden

he pulled out this knife
and said,

"All right, motherfucker,
you're going to die."

We all jumped on him

and there were just
screams of horror everywhere.

SPEIER:
We heard this great uproar
in the pavilion

and the truck stopped.

Shortly thereafter
Congressman Ryan

starts walking out
in this bloodstained shirt.

REITERMAN:
Those of us

in the news media viewed
Congressman Ryan

as a form of protection,

a shield of the United States.

What happened there,

in those few moments,

made it clear
that nobody was safe.

CARTER:
I went back to my cottage.

All I wanted to do
is see my wife and my son.

Gloria and I were
laid down on the cot

and we just held each other,
and I said, "You know,

I think we may all die."
And she said...

she kind of looked at me
and then she looked down

at our son, who was
playing on the floor

with a toy and she said,
"You're scaring him."

I had literally
opened my mouth to say,

"We need to leave,"

when there was an announcement
on the loudspeaker:

"Will everybody report
to the pavilion for a meeting."

(church bell ringing)

SUNG:
We drove back to the airstrip,
Port Kaituma.

All of a sudden we saw
a dump truck

from far away arriving
to this airstrip.

We realized these people
catch up from--

the people from Jim Jones,

they're very close lieutenant
to Jim Jones.

These three guys--
they get off the truck,

walk around this area,

as though they were
looking for somebody.

They looked in people's faces.

They stared at us
for a little bit,

but they didn't say one word.

They didn't ask anything.

Right away they walked
back to their truck.

They drove this truck
all the way across the run...

the airstrip and stop
on this side of the plane.

So literally, they cut us off
from the jungle.

We never know there's people
hidden inside the dump truck.

The moment it stopped,
they start shooting right away.

(gunfire)

Everybody ran

towards the plane,
on this side of the plane.

They tried to hide
underneath the wheels.

Then the Congressman
ran under the plane,

and I sort of followed suit

and got behind one of the tires.

(gunfire)

SUNG:
All you can hear is the gun--

"pop-pop-pop"--
goes off constantly.

We lie flat

on the tarmac at that moment.

But shortly afterwards, I heard
my partner, the cameraman,

he yelled, "Oh, shit!"

He said he got... he got shot.

He was sitting up.

There were people
tumbling and yelling

and letting out cries
as they were hit.

I was hit in my arm and wrist.

I felt a tremendous explosion
right next to my head.

I got a tremendous pain

ran through my arm
and on my shoulder.

I was really shaking,
but I didn't move.

I took the pain and hold still.

I was lying on my side,

pretending that I was dead

with my head down.

And, um...

they came and shot me

at point-blank,
point-blank range.

I remember someone coming to me

and telling me that
Congressman Ryan was dead.

But I was at a point where

I didn't know how much more time

I was going to be alive.

SUNG:
The gun's dead
and all we can hear,

this one engine
was still running.

So all you could hear,
the engine noise.

And that's it.

(church bell ringing)

CARTER:
We walked up

to the pavilion together
with everybody else.

It was very quiet.
It was very somber.

It was very sad,
but it wasn't a death march.

CLAYTON:
He said,

"Well, we got to go.

"We got to get out of here.

"We got to...
we got to go to sleep.

Get the solution together."

CARTER:
Maria Katsaris walked up to him

and whispered in his ear,
and he looked at her, he said,

"Is there any way to make it
taste less bitter?"

And she said,
"No, no, apparently not."

And he said, "Is it quick?"

And she said, "Yeah,
it's supposed to be quick."

CARTER:
On the last day of Jonestown,
Christine Miller stood up

and said, "I don't
want to die here.

"Why are we going
to throw all this away?

We've worked too hard."

She's calling Jim Jones
on some of the things

that he has promised them
that they were going to do.

Jim had promised that
as an alternative to them

dying in Jonestown, that they
could go to the Soviet Union.

Eventually, the rhetoric
ratchets up enough

that she is shouted down.

CARTER:
That's when I noticed
that there were

armed guards that had
kind of taken positions

up around the pavilion.

I'm thinking, where did all
these fucking guns come from?

CLAYTON:
Jones came down off the podium

and he said,
"Hey, we got to do this.

"We got to... we got to go.

That if we don't go this way,
we going to go like this."

They were coming, taking,
like, newborn babies

out of their mothers' arms.

There was a young kid;
his name was Thurman.

When he came inside,

he bumped into me.

At that same time,

he's falling to the ground,
and he's going into convulsion.

CLAYTON:
I grabbed the kid
from the shoulders up.

In that process of taking him
out of the pavilion,

this kid died in my arms.

I mean, I just, I just felt
the life go out of him.

To me, at that point,

I knew that this shit was real.

I ain't never used
the term "suicide,"

and I'm not going to never
use the term "suicide."

That man was killing us.

CARTER:
As I walked up to the back
of the pavilion,

I saw a woman named Rosie
on the ground,

crying, holding her dead baby.

There were maybe
eight or nine other people

who were dying
or in the process of dying.

Inside, I just wanted
things to stop.

Please, just let me
catch my breath.

Let me figure out
what's happening here.

I looked to my right,
and I saw my wife

with our son in her arms

and poison being injected
into his mouth.

My son was dead,

and he was frothing
at the mouth.

You know, cyanide makes people
froth at the mouth.

My wife died in my arms,

and my dead baby son
was in her arms.

And I held her and said,
"I love you. I love you,"

'cause that's all I could say.

It was like...

She died in my arms, man.

CLAYTON:
My wife came up to me.

She didn't have
no tears in her eyes.

She just was,
was just in a daze.

"My mother, my grandmother,
my sister, my brother--

they gone."

You know, she said,
"Just take me.

"Just take me
and just lay me down

next to my grandmama."

And she went up
to that Kool-Aid,

to that death barrel,
and she just...

didn't hesitate,
just took it and drunk it,

and then told me to hold her,
to take her, and I did.

And she died in my arms.

And, um...

once I laid her down and she
told me how she wanted to lay

with her grandmother, I, um...

at that point,
knew that I didn't have

no reason to be here no more.

CARTER:
They were just
fucking slaughtered.

They were fucking slaughtered.

There was nothing
dignified about it.

Had nothing to do with
revolutionary suicide,

had nothing to do about
making a fucking statement.

It was just senseless waste,

senseless waste and death.

WOMAN:
"To whomever finds this note.

"Collect all the tapes,
all the writing,

"all the history.

"The story of this movement,
this action,

"must be examined over and over.

"We did not want
this kind of ending.

"We wanted to live,

"to shine, to bring
light to a world

that is dying
for a little bit of love."

KOHL:
I never believed in heaven
in my whole life.

You know, that's not
the way I operated.

But when I was in Guyana,
when I'd watch the sunrise,

I actually thought
there was a heaven on Earth.

And now I can't believe
in heaven anymore.

WOMAN:
"There's quiet
as we leave this world.

"The sky is gray.

"People file by us slowly

"and take the somewhat
bitter drink.

Many more must drink."

I'm saddened because
it didn't work out.

Because it just seemed
so beautiful.

And I'll say this
about November 18th:

I felt I'd lost a family.

And I knew I'd lost my children.

WOMAN:
"A teeny kitten sits
next to me watching.

"A dog barks.

"The birds gather
on the telephone wires.

"Let all the story
of this Peoples Temple be told."

SMITH:
We were people that...
we wanted to make a change.

It's a shame it didn't happen.

It might not never happen.

But one thing I can say,
at least we tried,

and we didn't sit back
and wait on the laurels

of somebody else to try it.

Yes, we tried it.

Yes, it was a failure.

Yes, it was very tragic.

But at least we tried.

WOMAN:
"If nobody understands,

"it matters not.

"I'm ready to die now.

"Darkness settles over Jonestown

on its last day on Earth."

FORTSON:
I'd never had any dreams

of Jonestown
until this one dream came.

I could see myself
in Jonestown walking,

and when I looked to my left,
there was my son.

He was standing in
the middle of a duffel bag.

And just right

when I got ready to reach
to touch his head,

he pulled the bag up like this,
and the bag fell,

and he was gone.

♪ ♪

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