This article is about cult guru, Jim Jones, of the People's Temple. James Warren Jones was born in 1931 and held degrees from both Indiana University and Butler University. He was ordained and began the Peoples Temple as a multi-cultural mission for the less fortunate. The homeless, jobless, and infirm were welcomed there. By the 1950's, Jim Jones had acquired a following of more than nine hundred
People in Indianapolis, IN. Soon his social gospel, which had encouraged helping the least fortunate, despite social standing or skin color, became more radical, denouncing the hypocrisy of white Christianity. After the government started investigating his so-called cures for cancer, arthritis, and heart disease, he moved his
congregation to the Ukiah in California, later to San Francisco and Los Angeles. In the mid-70's suspicions were raised of illegal activities within the congregation of the Peoples Temple. He moved a portion of the congregation to Jonestown, Guyana, where the Temple had leased 4,000 acres of dense jungle from the government. The people raised their own food, grew vegetables and fruits which they either ate or sold. It was in Jonestown that Jim Jones developed the
idea he called Translation. It embraced the idea of mass suicides that would end the people's lives here and move them to another planet where only good and happiness existed. The people of Jonestown often practiced the theory of Translation, pretending to
drink poison and then falling down. By the late ‘70's, Jim Jones was becoming paranoid, probably due to increased drug use. Many people were leaving the congregation as the camp was being run more like a concentration camp. Rumors had it that some were unable to leave. One man who had been a Temple attorney, left and formed a group that substantiated the claims prompting a visit by Congressman Leo Ryan. The visit ended in Ryan's death when several Temple members opted to leave with him and his entourage. Temple Security guards gunned them down. The end result was in Temple members drinking poisoned grape drink. There were over nine hundred people killed that day. Many attribute this loss of life to the mental deterioration of their leader, Jim Jones. Jason Jeffrey, in his article, gives us a picture of who Jim Jones really was and what he believed in.
More summaries about the Who Was Jim Jones?