Jonestown Massacre
The “Jonestown Massacre” occurred on November 18, 1978, when 918 members of an American socialism cult called the Peoples Temple died in a mass suicide-murder under direction from Jim Jones, the leader of the Peoples Temple at their “Jonestown” commune in Guyana.
On at least two occasions after a "revolutionary suicide" vote was reached, a simulated mass suicide rehearsal was held. Defector Deborah Layton described the rehearsal in her affidavit:
Everyone, including the children, was told to line up. As we passed through the line, we were given a small glass of red liquid to drink. We were told that the liquid contained poison and that we would die within 45 minutes. We all did as we were told. When the time came when we should have dropped dead, Rev. Jones explained that the poison was not real and that we had just been through a loyalty test. He warned us that the time was not far off when it would become necessary for us to die by our own hands.
With the help of Jonestown in-house doctor, Dr Larry Schacht, Jones assistants prepared a large metal tub with grape Kool aid, poisoned with diphenhydramine, promethazine, chlorpromazine, chloroquine, chloral hydrate, diazepam, and cyanide.
Schacht was a Texan, and a former meth addict Jones helped get sober, and put through college to become a doctor. Dr. Schacht was researching the best ways for a person to die ahead of the foreseen mass suicide.
According to escaped Temple member Odell Rhodes, the first to take poison were Ruletta Paul and her one year old baby. A syringe with no needle was used to squirt poison in the baby's mouth, after which Paul squirted another syringe in her own mouth.
Stanley Clayton also witnessed mothers with their babies first approach the tub containing the poison. Clayton said that Jones approached people to encourage them to drink the poison and that, after adults saw the poison begin to take effect, "they showed a reluctance to die."
The poison caused death within minutes or less for children and babies, and about 30 minutes for adults. After taking the poison, Rhodes says people were escorted down a wooden walkway leading outside. It’s unclear if some may have believed this was a rehearsal. Rhodes reported being in close contact with dying children.
In response to reactions of seeing the poison take effect on others, Jones counseled, "Die with a degree of dignity. Lay down your life with dignity; don't lay down with tears and agony." He also said,
I tell you, I don't care how many screams you hear, I don't care how many anguished cries ... death is a million times preferable to 10 more days of this life. If you knew what was ahead of you—if you knew what was ahead of you, you'd be glad to be stepping over tonight.
Rhodes described a scene of hysteria and confusion as parents watched their children die from poison. He said most quietly waited their turn to die, and that many seemed like they were in a trance.
Cult survivor Tim Carter has suggested the day's grilled cheese sandwich lunch was tainted with sedatives. The members were surrounded by armed guards, offering a dilemma of death by poison or death by guard. As more and more Temple members died, eventually the guards s were called in to die.
Jones was found dead lying next to his chair between two other bodies, his head on a pillow. His death was caused by a gunshot wound to his left temple that Guyanese Chief Medical Examiner Leslie Mootoo states is consistent with the wound being self-inflicted.
Jonestown was the greatest intentional loss of American civilian life until September 11, 2001.