On November 18th, 1978, over 900 people died at an American settlement in the jungle of Guyana called Jonestown. In this first of two episodes, we are going to find out how they ended up in South America.Who was the eponymous Reverend Jim Jones, notorious leader of the cult? What did the Peoples Temple believe in? How and why did they make the journey from Indiana to California to Guyana?Don is joined by author and scholar Annie Dawid, who has spent over two decades researching Peoples Temple.Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Tim Arstall. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. You can take part in our listener survey here.All music from Epidemic Sounds.American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.
What happened on November 18th, 1978, in Jonestown?
And they would be forbidden from leaving, as you say, because of the remoteness of the jungle, but also because they were literally punished if that happened to do so. Now, was news of this through the San Francisco office, was this getting back to the media in San Francisco? How was it that people began to be suspicious enough to have to come check it out?
That's a good question. So there's a group that forms called the Concerned Relatives. back in San Francisco. And the concerned relatives are people who still have family in Jonestown or people who have left the church. Well, like that couple I mentioned whose daughter was beaten, they have other family who didn't leave with them.
And so there are still people from their family who are in the temple. And What happens when they're in Guyana is there's very little unmonitored communication. So letters can go back and forth, but they are checked by the leaders. And so people, you can tell when the letter you get from your son isn't really his voice. You know, it's been doctored.
And so there's the communication that's come, you know, and all they're saying is, oh, everything is fantastic here. Everything is wonderful. And so that's part of the suspicion. There's no phone calls. You can't call. Of course, it's pre-internet. They only have a ham radio out there. And that is very, very limited. It's not like you can go get on the ham radio to talk to your family.
It's only for official business.
Well, that's interesting. I mean... that's the only means of hearing about things back home was through this ham radio connection, which was very useful to Jim Jones, I suspect. But you say the New West article comes out, and I suppose other kinds of news coverage is happening in that area. Once they're gone, though, haven't they sort of dropped off the map?
Or are they still sort of a topic of concern in the Bay Area, at least?
No, because finally, the abuses are in the headlines. So then, the newspapers, the Chronicle and the Examiner, the two daily papers in San Francisco, you know, they start running articles and then the government gets involved and they start investigating. And like that couple, they had had all this real estate. That was what they did for a living.
They managed properties and they had signed over, I don't know, 20 properties to the people's temple and they want to get them back. And another, Really key issue is that Jones has a child with another woman, and that child is also in Jonestown. And the parents, the mother, and then her husband, who had been like a really big, big wig. He's that lawyer who had been with the temple for a long time.
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