The Case of Jim Jones

 

James Warren Jones or more familiarly knows as Jim Jones was an American mass murderer and Cult leader of the Peoples Temple. Jim Jones was born on May 13th 1931 to mother Lynetta Jones and father James Thurman Jones. Jim, from a very young age, had an intense infatuation with religion and the power the church had.

Jim Jones had what many would describe as a difficult childhood, neither of his parents worked so they lived his fathers disability payments and whatever money James could get from working various jobs, meaning that their family was very poor and had no plumbing or electricity. He was also regularly beaten by his mother, Lynetta, who largely influenced his obsession with spirituality. As Jones aged to be a teenager he began to learn about Hitler and he was quickly inspired by his control over the Nazi party. 

Whilst living in the United States if America, Jones worked various jobs but always had a desire to preach. He served as a student pastor in the Methodist church in 1952 however he had problems with the traditional Christion texts of which he was preaching; for example racism. He found his own church: The peoples Temple in 1956. The Temple joined the Disciples of Christ in 1960 Jones quickly gained mass popularity and was ordained in 1964. The feeling of power as well as the support of many behind him made Jones feel godly. Literally. He started preaching that he was a prophet himself, preaching gods lessons and these claims quickly turned into Jim himself preaching that he was of Devine nature. As support for the temple grew so did Jim's confidence. At high points in the Temples existence there were around 3000 members, members of which Jim Jones had almost complete control of. 

Around the 1960s 1970s reports of abuse around the Peoples Temple and Jim Jones began. He realised that these comments where making his followers loose trust in him. To avoid the negative publicity Jones ordered a village to be built in Guyana, he chose Guyana because of the socialist views that he to shared. Jones manipulated many people into giving large portions of there pay checks into the construction of his town. In 1974 he proposed the move to his church and whilst some were sceptical and left many followed him to this foreign country of which many had never been before. The town itself had a communist like structure where he lead the entire group as they worked for long hours in trade for shelter and food but no pay.

Outside groups became very weary of the Peoples Church and after the allegations of humans rights abuse in 1978 in which jones was suspected of holding people against their will an investigation was set up lead by Leo Ryan. Unfortunately Ryan and his team didn't get far in the investigation as they were all assassinated on November 18th in Jonestown. Shortly after this Jones ordered the mass-murder-suicide on his members in Jonestown. He had poisoned a fruit drink then given to the members with cyanide resulting in the massacre of 909 members, a number of which could have been much higher if the entire Temple had consumed enough poison. This mass death makes Jim Jones one of the most dangerous and murderous cult leaders of all time. Unfortunately Legal justice was not served as on November 18th 1978 Jim Jones was found dead due to a gunshot to the head. His death was suspected to likely be suicide and part of his cults final sacrifice.

Today Jonestown is an abandoned village overgrown by jungle in Guyana.