Jim Jones: The Story Of People’s Temple
Early Life
.Jim Jones was born in Crete, Indiana on May 13th, 1931. Crete was a small town with a population of 1350. The town had one town hall, a single restaurant, one stop light, and 5 coffin makers. Jim’s father was a WW1 veteran living off disability payments after exposure to mustard gas. Jim’s mother was known to be a hard worker, showing no love for Jim at all. Causing Jim jones to grow up without love. His childhood inspired Jim to help others of the less fortunate. At the age of 16, he would work in a hospital with his future wife Marceline Boswell.
People’s Temple
Jones would then leave his job at the hospital to attempt a spiritual healer. In 1953, he created his own church that would allow people of all colors which made his church well known. He followed Christianity being a pastor for the church for a decade, after that he started to claim to be a miracle worker. He began to order his followers to call him Father and his wife, Mother which would cater to people without parent figures. In 1965, the cult would move to California, where Jones would become more unhinged. Jim would have sessions lasting for six hours, exhausting his followers and leaving them without a life outside his church. Jones would begin to feel powerful and would always have guards with him because his growing hatred for the USA and the President saying he favored Hitler over them. He would focus his teachings on sex and his own sex life, stating that he cheats on his wife with younger women so he could feel more dominant. He would then instigate fights, harshly punishing children, placing people in a coffin, and insulting them. He punishes them to make himself seem more powerful and intimidating than the followers. He was often backstabbing his followers and manipulating/gaslighting them. Jones would take advantage of his follower’s personal information such as social security numbers and investments. Jones was very charismatic, saying that the Bible targeted African Americans.
Jonestown Massacre
In 1978, Jim Jones would move himself and his followers to Guyana, Africa, fleeing from future problems that were starting to stir in the US. He would make the town calling it Jones Town making his own utopia where everyone is equal. He manipulated his followers by falsely advertising Jones Town, but it was really a barren jungle while targeting the minds with shame and their own identities. People saw it as a plantation. Jim would use white women to smuggle weapons, seduce politicians, and abusing and intimidate black people while following their ethos. To secure his grasp on his followers, he took their passports and stranded them in the middle of nowhere Africa. Jonestown became similar to the work camps used in WW2 with walls aligned with guards, separate cabins for people, and an intercom spewing the word of Jim Jones leaving no escape for the followers, Jim even made them cut ties from their own families. Jones guards would shoot and kill congressmen and escaping followers after many concerns of heresy. With major eyes on him, on November 18, 1978, Jones ordered everyone in Jonestown to drink Kool-Aid laced with cyanide saying that every congressman is dead, and it is time to being a revolution suicide, many were forced to drink it, even children. Jones stated that there is no hope in life without him. In total, 909 people died, a third of whom were children. There were only 89 survivors.
Sources
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jim-Jones
https://www.history.com/topics/crime/jonestown
