Jonestown

[Purron]

It came down on November 18 of 1978. One of the most shocking and horrible things that happened in my lifetime. I'll never forget this. Still have nightmares about Jim Jones.

 

[Ally]

Purron, I remember waking up to my alarm radio and this being described on the news in detail. I thought I must be having a nightmare, but I wasn't. It sounded so ghastly, especially parents making their own children drink the poison. I've never understood the mindset of parents being in a cult where their children are mistreated. It's one thing to volunteer yourself for that, a whole other thing to bring your dependents.

 

[obgyn65]

In 1978 I was living on a different continent, and did not speak of word of English then. Please can you kindly provide some additional info so that I can google this?

It came down on November 18 of 1978. One of the most shocking and horrible things that happened in my lifetime. I'll never forget this. Still have nightmares about Jim Jones.

 

[Lazarus]

In short, cult members committed suicide. Killed their children as well.

Jonestown - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[BTravlin]

Try Jonestown Massacre, Guyana

I was just 20 and the time and it didn't affect me much. Just more crazy in the world. Very sad but just plain crazy.

 

[obgyn65]

I was 13 then. No recollection of this event whatsoever.

Try Jonestown Massacre, Guyana

I was just 20 and the time and it didn't affect me much. Just more crazy in the world. Very sad but just plain crazy.

 

[obgyn65]

Thank you for this. I just read the entire article. Truly evil and shocking.

In short, cult members committed suicide. Killed their children as well.

Jonestown - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[REWahoo]

Note that this incident is the source of the term "Don't drink the Kool Aid".

 

[Lazarus]

I will never understand why people turn over their lives to these Cult leaders. They put themselves in a position that they can't leave if they change their mind.

Unfortunately this was not a unique occurrence.

Heaven's Gate (religious group) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Waco siege - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[imoldernu]

[mod edit]

And this more extensive, longer story of the tragedy.

Jonestown- The Life and Death of Peoples Temple - YouTube

 

[Ally]

I was 27 and had my son who was 2 at the time. I think that is why I focused in on the children. I was horrified to think of a parent killing, not saving their child. There have been several TV documentaries on this tragedy and it's chilling to listen to the recording of Jim Jones telling them all to make their children drink the poison.

 

[scrabbler1]

Note that this incident is the source of the term "Don't drink the Kool Aid".

Although I was only 15 at the time of Jonestown, I did recall that Kool Aid was the poisoned drink and became the source of your highlighted phrase.

MSNBC did a special on this a few years ago. I had forgotten that there was a member of the U.S. Congress killed in that massacre although that fact was brought up a few years ago after Congresswoman Giffords got shot.

 

[NW-Bound]

Yes, I remember this event and reading about it in Time Magazine.

Is it truly shocking? If we think about what else happened in history, how millions of people listened to Stalin, Mao, Hitler, bin Laden, etc..., then Jim Jones was just a small-time crazy leader. It happened, and will happen again, as some people will not think for themselves.

 

[Keim]

I recently read Seductive Poison, the story of one of the cult members, Deborah Layton. It was fascinating and deeply disturbing. Seductive Poison - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[eytonxav]

It came down on November 18 of 1978. One of the most shocking and horrible things that happened in my lifetime. I'll never forget this. Still have nightmares about Jim Jones.

I went to a Club Med resort on Martinique a short time after Jonestown, and had quite a scare. In the middle of the night someone start breaking into peoples rooms and you could hear these blood curdling screams. I got up and I could hear a guy approaching my room; he tried to push the door open, but I held it closed (no locks on the doors at Club Med), claimed he had a knife and his friends were on a ship in the harbor and were in the process of coming ashore and he said you will all die.

Turns out he was a recently divorced french Canadian, and he flipped out. Eventually the Club Med security got him and shipped him home, but they made him apologize to everyone he attacked the night before.

I never went to another Club Med after that.

 

[HFWR]

Note that this incident is the source of the term "Don't drink the Kool Aid".

In defense of Kool-Aid, we used to partake in various substances, the result of which was an "ear-to-ear Kool-Aid smile"...

 

[Purron]

In defense of Kool-Aid, we used to partake in various substances, the result of which was an "ear-to-ear Kool-Aid smile"...

Actually, the Kool-Aid thing was a myth. They used Flavor Aid.

Flavor Aid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia