Jonestown Massacre: 918 Die in Cult Murder-Suicide
Jim Jones ordered 909 followers to drink cyanide-laced Flavor Aid at the Peoples Temple compound in Jonestown, Guyana, on November 18, 1978. Over 300 were children. Many adults were injected or shot rather than drinking voluntarily. The mass murder-suicide occurred hours after Jones's security guards assassinated Congressman Leo Ryan, three journalists, and a defector on a nearby airstrip. Ryan had traveled to Guyana to investigate reports of abuse. Jones, a charismatic preacher from Indiana who had moved his congregation to San Francisco and then Guyana to avoid scrutiny, called the act 'revolutionary suicide.' The youngest victim was three months old. Jones was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head. The phrase 'drinking the Kool-Aid' entered American English as a metaphor for blind obedience, though the drink was actually Flavor Aid.
November 18, 1978
48 years ago
Key Figures & Places
Guyana
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Leo Ryan
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Jim Jones
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Jonestown
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Peoples Temple
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murder-suicide
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Jonestown
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Jim Jones
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Peoples Temple
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Murder–suicide
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Guyana
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1931
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Jonestown-Massaker
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British Guiana
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United States
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