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Murder, Betrayal, and the Lost Dream of Jonestown
by Candace Fleming
Book Reviewed by:How did Jim Jones, the leader of Peoples Temple, convince more than 900 of his followers to commit "revolutionary suicide" by drinking cyanide-laced punch? From a master of narrative nonfiction comes a chilling chronicle of one of the most notorious cults in American history.
Using riveting first-person accounts, award-winning author Candace Fleming reveals the makings of a monster: from Jones's humble origins as a child of the Depression… to his founding of a group whose idealistic promises of equality and justice attracted thousands of followers… to his relocation of Temple headquarters from California to an unsettled territory in Guyana, South America, which he dubbed "Jonestown"… to his transformation of Peoples Temple into a nefarious experiment in mind-control.
And Fleming heart-stoppingly depicts Jones's final act, persuading his followers to swallow fatal doses of cyanide—to "drink the kool-aid," as it became known—as a test of their ultimate devotion.
Here is a sweeping story that traces, step by step, the ways in which one man slowly indoctrinated, then murdered, 900 innocent, well- meaning people. And how a few members, Jones' own son included, stood up to him... but not before it was too late.
Chapter One
One Weird Kid
The first time Jim Jones asked followers to play dead was on an autumn night in 1941.
The ten-¬year-¬old urged the other boys to come on.
They hesitated. Jimmy Jones wasn't a friend. Not really. Sure, they hung around with him, but they didn't like him. He was bossy and controlling. And he always got his way.
But there was something magnetic about him, too. Somehow, he coaxed them into doing things they knew they shouldn't.
Take the previous week, for example. They'd been playing in the loft over the Joneses' garage when Jimmy persuaded them to walk out on the rafters. They'd be like tightrope walkers in the circus, he'd said.
His playmates went first, slowly and in single file because the rafters were so narrow. Jimmy sidled out behind them. One of the boys looked down. It was a long way to the floor, at least ten feet. He tried to back off the rafter, but Jimmy wouldn't budge.
"Move back!" the boy yelled.
"I can't move," declared Jimmy. "The Angel of Death ...
Fleming's interviews with Jones' followers and survivors make it clear why so many people believed in him. It was partly because of his charisma... but also because of the tangible good he was doing, especially for the Black community... But what makes Death in the Jungle particularly interesting are the perspectives of members who did not believe that Jones knew what was best for them, like the group of younger members who grew disillusioned with Jones, his rhetoric, and his creepy control over his followers' sex lives... They also called out the disconnect between Jones' preaching on racial equity and his advancement of only white members within the Temple...continued
Full Review
(1040 words)
(Reviewed by Jordan Lynch).
Death in the Jungle tells the true story of Jim Jones, the preacher-turned-cult-leader who founded the infamous Jonestown settlement, a socialist community that became a site of mass murder. Jones was interested in "revolutionary suicide" and asked Jonestown doctor Larry Schacht to find a method for it; Schacht began researching the use of the fast-acting poison cyanide, eventually concluding that death by cyanide was painful but quick—an accurate but understated assessment.
Cyanide is a naturally occurring substance produced by a variety of bacteria, fungi, and algae as well as some by plants, including apples and peaches. It has been understood as a lethal chemical, poison, and potential weapon since at least the Roman Empire; in...
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