20th Century History

  1. Home
  2. Education
  3. 20th Century History
photo of Jennifer Rosenberg

Jennifer's 20th Century History Blog

By Jennifer Rosenberg, About.com Guide to 20th Century History since 1997

Jonestown Massacre Pre-Planned

Monday November 17, 2008
On November 18, 1978, members of the People's Temple (a cult led by Rev. Jim Jones) committed mass suicide at their Jonestown compound in Guyana. Over 900 people drank the cyanide-laced purple drink and died; over 300 of these were children. For some reason, Jim Jones did not drink the poison, but instead, shot himself in the head.

For three decades, people have wondered how it could be possible to convince so many people to take their own lives. Although no one has yet solved that mystery, a small piece of that puzzle has recently been found by CNN. According to research by CNN, the mass suicide was not a spontaneous event. Rather, the cyanide used in the lethal concoction had been arriving in Jonestown little by little for over two years. This means that Jones had deliveries of cyanide to Jonestown begin even before the People's Temple moved from California to the Jonestown compound in 1977.

Comments

No comments yet. Leave a Comment

Leave a Comment

Line and paragraph breaks are automatic. Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title="">, <b>, <i>, <strike>

Discuss

Community Forum

Explore 20th Century History

About.com Special Features

20th Century History

  1. Home
  2. Education
  3. 20th Century History

©2009 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.

All rights reserved.