1 00:00:10,709 --> 00:00:14,499 Mother, mother, mother, mother, mother, please. 2 00:00:14,584 --> 00:00:17,044 Mother, please, please, please. 3 00:00:17,125 --> 00:00:22,325 Don't... don't do this. Don't do this. 4 00:00:22,417 --> 00:00:24,037 Lay down your life with your child, 5 00:00:24,125 --> 00:00:26,035 but don't do this. 6 00:00:49,417 --> 00:00:51,747 Welcome to "very scary people." 7 00:00:51,834 --> 00:00:53,384 I'm Donnie wahlberg. 8 00:00:53,459 --> 00:00:56,539 The reverend Jim Jones is the darling of politicians 9 00:00:56,626 --> 00:00:58,076 and Hollywood stars. 10 00:00:58,167 --> 00:01:00,997 By the mid-1970s, the peoples temple has grown 11 00:01:01,083 --> 00:01:03,543 to over a thousand devout followers, 12 00:01:03,626 --> 00:01:06,036 but terrified by his erratic behavior, 13 00:01:06,125 --> 00:01:08,875 members of the group begin to turn on the church, 14 00:01:08,959 --> 00:01:12,129 telling stories of sexual and financial abuse. 15 00:01:12,209 --> 00:01:14,709 Now reporters are looking into the truth 16 00:01:14,792 --> 00:01:17,172 behind Jones' dark sunglasses. 17 00:01:17,250 --> 00:01:19,420 In an attempt to maintain control, 18 00:01:19,500 --> 00:01:22,960 Jim Jones is about to make a horrifying decision. 19 00:01:31,709 --> 00:01:33,169 The peoples temple and Jim Jones 20 00:01:33,250 --> 00:01:34,830 made their headquarters here in ukiah 21 00:01:34,918 --> 00:01:37,328 about 100 miles north of San Francisco. 22 00:01:37,417 --> 00:01:40,287 In 1971, Jones began to spread out. 23 00:01:40,375 --> 00:01:42,165 His religion was a mix of faith healing 24 00:01:42,250 --> 00:01:44,880 and revelations with radical politics. 25 00:01:52,876 --> 00:01:54,706 He's doing fraudulent things. 26 00:01:54,792 --> 00:01:56,172 He's a chameleon. 27 00:01:56,250 --> 00:01:59,790 He can see what he needs to be, and he becomes that. 28 00:01:59,876 --> 00:02:02,206 Many former temple members to speak out about 29 00:02:02,292 --> 00:02:05,172 what was happening inside. 30 00:02:05,250 --> 00:02:09,330 One woman wrote him a love letter saying, "I love you. 31 00:02:09,417 --> 00:02:12,457 I want to be with you. I'll always follow you." 32 00:02:12,542 --> 00:02:16,422 He led the group in mocking her naked body. 33 00:02:16,500 --> 00:02:18,750 Jones was intimidating the congregation 34 00:02:18,834 --> 00:02:20,544 with beatings and threats. 35 00:02:20,626 --> 00:02:23,706 Jim was pointing a gun at me and he said, 36 00:02:23,792 --> 00:02:26,292 "I'm going to shoot you." 37 00:02:26,375 --> 00:02:27,955 There were a couple of times, 38 00:02:28,042 --> 00:02:32,462 me walking in on him with a man or a woman in bed. 39 00:02:32,542 --> 00:02:34,672 He said he was doing it for the cause 40 00:02:34,751 --> 00:02:37,791 when really he was exploiting people sexually. 41 00:02:37,876 --> 00:02:39,166 He turns to drugs. 42 00:02:39,250 --> 00:02:41,210 That just increases his paranoia, 43 00:02:41,292 --> 00:02:47,042 and he is more and more deceptive to his followers. 44 00:02:47,125 --> 00:02:50,415 Jones announces there's a treat. 45 00:02:50,500 --> 00:02:53,130 "Everyone, have a cup of wine." 46 00:02:53,209 --> 00:02:55,669 We all drank it. 47 00:02:55,751 --> 00:02:57,831 He announces it's poison. 48 00:03:00,459 --> 00:03:03,289 It was really a test grooming us 49 00:03:03,375 --> 00:03:06,075 for what was going to happen on November 18th. 50 00:03:10,542 --> 00:03:13,132 On October 4, 1976, Bob Houston, 51 00:03:13,209 --> 00:03:16,079 a former prominent member of the peoples temple, 52 00:03:16,167 --> 00:03:19,127 died under mysterious circumstances. 53 00:03:19,209 --> 00:03:21,709 Bob Houston was in peoples temple 54 00:03:21,792 --> 00:03:24,292 with his wife, Phyllis, and their two children, 55 00:03:24,375 --> 00:03:26,575 and he left the temple. 56 00:03:26,667 --> 00:03:29,957 He fell off the train and was killed. 57 00:03:30,042 --> 00:03:33,882 The authorities didn't know whether it was accident 58 00:03:33,959 --> 00:03:39,209 or suicide or something more sinister. 59 00:03:39,292 --> 00:03:43,292 And it turned out his father had been a college friend 60 00:03:43,375 --> 00:03:45,455 of congressman Ryan. 61 00:03:45,542 --> 00:03:49,632 He contacted Leo Ryan, who was his member of congress, 62 00:03:49,709 --> 00:03:52,169 and asked Ryan, "would you look into this?" 63 00:03:52,250 --> 00:03:54,170 Ryan was very garrulous. 64 00:03:54,250 --> 00:03:57,040 He had a reputation of being sort of a Maverick, 65 00:03:57,125 --> 00:03:59,705 a guy who liked crusades. 66 00:03:59,792 --> 00:04:03,132 He was what I call an experiential legislator. 67 00:04:03,209 --> 00:04:07,079 He didn't just take a bureaucrat's word for anything. 68 00:04:07,167 --> 00:04:09,287 He wanted to find out himself. 69 00:04:09,375 --> 00:04:11,785 He had a vast number of constituents 70 00:04:11,876 --> 00:04:14,036 who had younger loved ones 71 00:04:14,125 --> 00:04:16,245 who had gotten involved in peoples temple, 72 00:04:16,334 --> 00:04:21,044 so he took it upon himself to start looking into it. 73 00:04:21,125 --> 00:04:23,825 But by now Ryan wasn't the only one 74 00:04:23,918 --> 00:04:25,998 looking into the people's temple. 75 00:04:26,083 --> 00:04:30,083 A major exposé was announced by "new west" magazine on Jones 76 00:04:30,167 --> 00:04:31,997 and the peoples temple. 77 00:04:32,083 --> 00:04:33,923 You always got the sense that everybody knew 78 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:35,290 there was something off here, 79 00:04:35,375 --> 00:04:39,535 but no one certainly wanted to talk about it. 80 00:04:39,626 --> 00:04:41,326 It got me curious. 81 00:04:41,417 --> 00:04:46,537 On August 1, 1977, the article was released. 82 00:04:46,626 --> 00:04:49,126 It had everything in it from the beatings 83 00:04:49,209 --> 00:04:50,499 to all the property people 84 00:04:50,584 --> 00:04:52,674 give up to the millions of dollars that... 85 00:04:52,751 --> 00:04:55,961 That Jones had stashed in foreign accounts, 86 00:04:56,042 --> 00:04:59,382 all the laws that were being broken, 87 00:04:59,459 --> 00:05:01,539 and it was great reporting. 88 00:05:08,167 --> 00:05:10,167 And they're going to get him. 89 00:05:10,250 --> 00:05:15,290 His followers will leave him, so pretty much on the spot, 90 00:05:15,375 --> 00:05:18,665 he wants to move himself and the bulk of peoples temple 91 00:05:18,751 --> 00:05:20,831 some place where they can't get at him. 92 00:05:20,918 --> 00:05:24,078 And before anyone knew it, he was on his way to Guyana. 93 00:05:24,167 --> 00:05:25,247 He has never returned. 94 00:05:29,918 --> 00:05:32,918 There's also Jim Jones's pride. 95 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:36,960 He's chased out of California under humiliating circumstances. 96 00:05:37,042 --> 00:05:40,922 Then, by god, he is going to make Jonestown 97 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:44,250 such a socialist triumph. 98 00:05:45,667 --> 00:05:49,827 I left, I got ready to get to get on the plane, 99 00:05:49,918 --> 00:05:51,578 and I just kind of looked back, and I said, 100 00:05:51,667 --> 00:05:53,957 "it just feel like this is the last time 101 00:05:54,042 --> 00:05:56,132 I'm ever going to see you guys again." 102 00:06:10,834 --> 00:06:13,924 In August 1977, after an unfavorable article 103 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:17,330 was released about the peoples temple, Jones, 104 00:06:17,417 --> 00:06:19,207 who felt he had a lot of enemies, 105 00:06:19,292 --> 00:06:22,212 felt the only way he could keep his followers loyal to him 106 00:06:22,292 --> 00:06:25,502 was to move them to South America, to Guyana. 107 00:06:27,250 --> 00:06:32,630 So now Jones is going to make their entire world Jonestown. 108 00:06:38,500 --> 00:06:43,710 We're going to the promised land, land of milk and honey. 109 00:06:43,792 --> 00:06:47,332 I came down approximately a year in advance of the big push. 110 00:06:47,417 --> 00:06:49,997 When it became clear that dad intended 111 00:06:50,083 --> 00:06:51,793 to move the entire organization, 112 00:06:51,876 --> 00:06:56,786 and we built most of what you see in any image of Jonestown, 113 00:06:56,876 --> 00:06:59,956 and I had an amazing time doing it. 114 00:07:00,042 --> 00:07:04,252 By the time I went to live in Jonestown in 1978, 115 00:07:04,334 --> 00:07:06,504 there were probably 700 people. 116 00:07:08,626 --> 00:07:10,036 Yay! 117 00:07:10,125 --> 00:07:11,875 As you pull up to the settlement, 118 00:07:11,959 --> 00:07:15,579 you hear over the loudspeakers, "ah, the new members are here," 119 00:07:15,667 --> 00:07:16,957 and whatnot, and people start, 120 00:07:17,042 --> 00:07:19,962 "yay," clapping and running over to meet you. 121 00:07:20,042 --> 00:07:22,422 Hi. 122 00:07:22,500 --> 00:07:28,290 I left the church in '76 I think, 123 00:07:28,375 --> 00:07:33,415 but because my kids were in, it was kind of hard to stay out. 124 00:07:33,500 --> 00:07:36,960 We went over to Guyana in July of 1978, 125 00:07:37,042 --> 00:07:39,712 because the kids were scheduled to go 126 00:07:39,792 --> 00:07:41,542 and so, I went over with them. 127 00:07:41,626 --> 00:07:43,706 At the time, it was what they wanted, 128 00:07:43,792 --> 00:07:46,542 it kept them off the streets, so I figured, 129 00:07:46,626 --> 00:07:49,536 "yeah, they'll grow up, they're grow out of it." 130 00:07:51,459 --> 00:07:54,919 It's the interior of the south American jungle, 131 00:07:55,000 --> 00:07:57,960 and it is very, very beautiful. 132 00:07:58,042 --> 00:08:00,382 Very tall trees, you have toucans, 133 00:08:00,459 --> 00:08:03,579 there was a pavilion, there was a kitchen area, 134 00:08:03,667 --> 00:08:07,787 it was quite a city in the middle of the jungle. 135 00:08:07,876 --> 00:08:10,036 They had these little cottages. 136 00:08:10,125 --> 00:08:12,415 It was kind of like a glorified tent, 137 00:08:12,500 --> 00:08:16,250 but it was... It was... it was built nicely. 138 00:08:16,334 --> 00:08:18,964 They had school for the kids. 139 00:08:19,042 --> 00:08:20,882 Uh, five. 140 00:08:21,000 --> 00:08:25,380 They had a pavilion where I guess they had programs 141 00:08:25,459 --> 00:08:27,169 every once in a while. 142 00:08:27,250 --> 00:08:29,710 Everybody seemed to be happy. 143 00:08:29,792 --> 00:08:34,542 These are honey and coffee, cans of various syrups, 144 00:08:34,626 --> 00:08:36,126 and, well, you can see the bleach. 145 00:08:36,209 --> 00:08:40,129 These are all various different types of fruits, ketchup. 146 00:08:40,209 --> 00:08:42,789 Here's the Milo, an extremely good drink, 147 00:08:42,876 --> 00:08:45,626 that is unique to Guyana. 148 00:08:45,709 --> 00:08:47,459 As is the pattern with Jim Jones, 149 00:08:47,542 --> 00:08:49,752 the beautiful surface is just a façade 150 00:08:49,834 --> 00:08:52,634 for the darkness that lurks below. 151 00:08:57,459 --> 00:09:01,079 He and I argued quite a bit publicly in Jonestown. 152 00:09:01,167 --> 00:09:04,077 Very few revered my father, if any. 153 00:09:04,167 --> 00:09:06,497 They feared him. 154 00:09:06,584 --> 00:09:09,754 The first thing that I saw, 155 00:09:09,834 --> 00:09:13,334 when I approached the pavilion I was Jim Jones 156 00:09:13,417 --> 00:09:16,827 sitting in his chair, his throne, 157 00:09:16,918 --> 00:09:20,378 and a security guard on each side with rifles, 158 00:09:20,709 --> 00:09:24,629 which was quite an escalation, and the pavilion was surrounded 159 00:09:24,709 --> 00:09:28,419 with security guards with weapons. 160 00:09:28,500 --> 00:09:31,750 Right away, I wanted to leave. 161 00:09:31,834 --> 00:09:33,964 He was starting to get more paranoid. 162 00:09:34,042 --> 00:09:36,542 Jim says, "listen, from now on, your everyday job 163 00:09:36,626 --> 00:09:39,036 is to be my personal security, 24 hours a day. 164 00:09:39,125 --> 00:09:40,455 As long as I'm outside of my house, 165 00:09:40,542 --> 00:09:44,382 you guys are to be around me at all times." 166 00:09:44,459 --> 00:09:47,959 We surrendered our passports, 167 00:09:48,042 --> 00:09:51,712 surrendered any cash that we may have had. 168 00:09:51,792 --> 00:09:54,462 Of the nearly thousand members at Jonestown, 169 00:09:54,542 --> 00:09:57,132 nearly a third were children. 170 00:09:57,209 --> 00:10:01,329 About another third were elderly people, many of them women. 171 00:10:01,417 --> 00:10:04,037 They have pension checks, social security. 172 00:10:04,125 --> 00:10:05,665 The money can start to add up. 173 00:10:05,751 --> 00:10:07,881 There are expenses in running a big operation like this, 174 00:10:07,959 --> 00:10:09,289 no doubt. 175 00:10:09,375 --> 00:10:13,785 Jonestown had a steady income of about $39,000 a month. 176 00:10:13,876 --> 00:10:16,826 The idea that they had found some sort of a paradise 177 00:10:16,918 --> 00:10:21,248 in Guyana lasted only a short time. 178 00:10:21,334 --> 00:10:22,924 You know, we weren't growing enough food, 179 00:10:23,000 --> 00:10:24,710 so we had to buy all the food... 180 00:10:24,792 --> 00:10:30,212 Almost all the food to feed 1,000 people three meals a day. 181 00:10:30,292 --> 00:10:34,422 It's very difficult to farm jungle soils. 182 00:10:34,500 --> 00:10:37,500 Jonestown was a mirage as a... As an operation. 183 00:10:37,584 --> 00:10:41,714 They had too many people, too few places to sleep or live. 184 00:10:41,792 --> 00:10:45,332 Jones himself was in worse and worse health. 185 00:10:45,417 --> 00:10:49,627 It was very much running on fumes. 186 00:10:49,709 --> 00:10:51,289 I worked in the fields. 187 00:10:51,375 --> 00:10:56,665 I worked the orchards crew, and I woke up in the morning, 188 00:10:56,751 --> 00:11:02,001 went for breakfast, which consisted of rice and gravy, 189 00:11:02,083 --> 00:11:08,463 and we worked until lunch and had rice with gravy 190 00:11:08,542 --> 00:11:12,712 and went to work until it was time for sundown, 191 00:11:12,792 --> 00:11:16,792 so I was, like, skeletal. 192 00:11:16,876 --> 00:11:19,876 I got ready to get on the plane, and I... 193 00:11:19,959 --> 00:11:21,629 I just kind of looked back, and I said, 194 00:11:21,709 --> 00:11:24,499 "it just feel like this is the last time 195 00:11:24,584 --> 00:11:26,964 I'm ever going to see you guys again." 196 00:11:30,834 --> 00:11:35,004 There was no religious services whatsoever. 197 00:11:35,083 --> 00:11:38,253 It was all political. 198 00:11:38,334 --> 00:11:42,424 Jim Jones spoke over 24 hours a day. 199 00:11:45,292 --> 00:11:47,502 "Attention, attention, attention." 200 00:11:51,584 --> 00:11:54,174 And we listened to his bemoaning 201 00:11:54,250 --> 00:11:56,920 the state of affairs and the enemy, 202 00:11:57,000 --> 00:12:00,080 and how they're out there in the jungle waiting for us. 203 00:12:13,292 --> 00:12:16,832 It was just like the gestapo, I mean, under Hitler 204 00:12:16,918 --> 00:12:19,878 that if somebody was negative about the third reich, 205 00:12:19,959 --> 00:12:23,329 they would be disciplined for having negative thoughts, 206 00:12:23,417 --> 00:12:25,997 and they would be turned in. 207 00:12:26,083 --> 00:12:30,543 Our children were so, um, mind controlled, 208 00:12:30,626 --> 00:12:33,076 they believed that Jim Jones was a prophet. 209 00:12:33,167 --> 00:12:36,167 We were even afraid to tell them we were leaving, 210 00:12:36,250 --> 00:12:39,380 because we were afraid they'd turn on us. 211 00:12:39,459 --> 00:12:40,919 A few members escaped, 212 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:44,080 calling Jonestown a virtual slave camp. 213 00:12:44,167 --> 00:12:45,497 Back in California, 214 00:12:45,584 --> 00:12:47,884 relatives were becoming increasingly concerned 215 00:12:47,959 --> 00:12:50,579 about what was taking place in Guyana. 216 00:12:50,667 --> 00:12:55,167 You're under the supervision of the authority that's there, 217 00:12:55,250 --> 00:12:57,830 and that's Jones. 218 00:13:02,584 --> 00:13:04,714 It was a life and death situation. 219 00:13:15,459 --> 00:13:17,919 Families and former members back in California 220 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:19,250 began meeting as a group. 221 00:13:19,334 --> 00:13:22,634 They called themselves the concerned relatives. 222 00:13:23,042 --> 00:13:25,462 They wanted to make sure that they were okay, 223 00:13:25,542 --> 00:13:28,132 because you couldn't call them, and you couldn't really 224 00:13:28,209 --> 00:13:30,329 write them a letter, because someone else 225 00:13:30,417 --> 00:13:34,417 would probably read it first, to see what they were saying. 226 00:13:34,500 --> 00:13:37,330 One of the people making a lot of noise was grace stoen, 227 00:13:37,417 --> 00:13:40,667 the mother of Jones's 5-year-old son 228 00:13:40,751 --> 00:13:43,461 who was back at the camp in Guyana. 229 00:13:43,542 --> 00:13:47,462 The concerned relatives began filing lawsuits 230 00:13:47,542 --> 00:13:50,382 for the custody of John Victor stoen. 231 00:13:50,459 --> 00:13:55,709 In Guyana, the news of the court filing rocked Jim Jones. 232 00:13:55,792 --> 00:13:57,292 He left the United States. 233 00:13:57,375 --> 00:14:00,745 He couldn't go back there for fear of being prosecuted, 234 00:14:00,834 --> 00:14:02,004 possibly going to jail. 235 00:14:02,083 --> 00:14:03,923 He didn't want that to happen. 236 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:06,130 Then his lawyers were telling him, "you can't even the leave 237 00:14:06,209 --> 00:14:07,709 the gate, the entrance of Jonestown 238 00:14:07,792 --> 00:14:10,882 because somebody could legally just arrest you there. 239 00:14:10,959 --> 00:14:13,829 You better stay right inside of Jonestown." 240 00:14:13,918 --> 00:14:15,128 If he was paranoid before, 241 00:14:15,209 --> 00:14:18,459 he really had reason to be this time. 242 00:14:22,834 --> 00:14:27,334 There was a moment in September of 1977 243 00:14:27,417 --> 00:14:31,747 when a custody order was made in Guyana 244 00:14:31,834 --> 00:14:36,424 seeking to obtain custody of John Victor stoen, 245 00:14:36,500 --> 00:14:38,630 whom everyone in Jonestown 246 00:14:38,709 --> 00:14:43,079 believed to be the biological son of Jim Jones. 247 00:14:43,167 --> 00:14:46,877 A judge there ordered Jones to appear in court. 248 00:14:46,959 --> 00:14:48,249 He was livid. 249 00:14:48,334 --> 00:14:52,084 They came to believe that the concerned relatives 250 00:14:52,167 --> 00:14:55,457 were seeking to destroy their community. 251 00:15:04,918 --> 00:15:08,288 Jones continued making threats of revolutionary suicide, 252 00:15:08,375 --> 00:15:11,035 calling it "the white night." 253 00:15:11,125 --> 00:15:15,035 A white night was like an emergency calling, 254 00:15:15,125 --> 00:15:17,205 like a 911 call. 255 00:15:22,167 --> 00:15:27,377 And everyone was to report to the pavilion immediately. 256 00:15:27,459 --> 00:15:31,879 Jones would tell us the latest life and death emergency 257 00:15:31,959 --> 00:15:36,169 that was happening and how our community was threatened, 258 00:15:36,250 --> 00:15:40,670 and the only choice we had was to commit revolutionary suicide. 259 00:15:40,751 --> 00:15:42,671 The conversation was going to be, 260 00:15:42,751 --> 00:15:45,961 "live or die," and I got to my mother first, 261 00:15:46,042 --> 00:15:47,542 and I says, "I don't care what he says. 262 00:15:47,626 --> 00:15:49,376 Don't argue with him. I want to see him squirm," 263 00:15:49,459 --> 00:15:52,789 because I never believed dad would go through with it. 264 00:16:02,834 --> 00:16:07,134 Certainly it was psychologically abusive, emotionally abusive. 265 00:16:07,209 --> 00:16:10,499 I was in dad's face about it, and he... 266 00:16:10,584 --> 00:16:12,794 He said, "you're... You're just afraid to die." 267 00:16:12,876 --> 00:16:15,666 Here I am this 19-year-old kid who has, 268 00:16:15,751 --> 00:16:19,081 I feel, put my ass on the line for my town. 269 00:16:19,167 --> 00:16:21,167 This man that I thought the most cowardly being 270 00:16:21,250 --> 00:16:23,790 I'd ever known was accusing me of being afraid of dying, 271 00:16:23,876 --> 00:16:25,876 and I'm screaming at him, "I'm afraid to die?" 272 00:16:25,959 --> 00:16:28,129 And I actually take out a pistol, cock it, 273 00:16:28,209 --> 00:16:32,789 and ram it up against my chin, 274 00:16:32,876 --> 00:16:36,416 just a twitch away from blowing my brains out, 275 00:16:36,500 --> 00:16:38,250 and dad gets a revolver from somebody, 276 00:16:38,334 --> 00:16:40,794 and he puts it in his mouth uncocked. 277 00:16:40,876 --> 00:16:44,126 That's a revolver, and that's a long pull away 278 00:16:44,209 --> 00:16:45,379 from doing any harm, 279 00:16:45,459 --> 00:16:48,129 but here we are screaming at each other, 280 00:16:48,209 --> 00:16:50,539 you know, about who's afraid to die. 281 00:16:52,918 --> 00:16:55,538 Back in San Francisco, the concerned relatives 282 00:16:55,626 --> 00:16:57,126 were putting pressure on the media 283 00:16:57,209 --> 00:17:00,379 and congressman Ryan to do something. 284 00:17:00,459 --> 00:17:05,129 In November, right after the election, he's going to go over. 285 00:17:05,209 --> 00:17:07,499 He's going to see for himself. 286 00:17:07,584 --> 00:17:10,754 He'll bring with him the media, local reporters, 287 00:17:10,834 --> 00:17:12,714 someone from "the Washington post," 288 00:17:12,792 --> 00:17:16,042 and a crack film crew from nbc, 289 00:17:16,125 --> 00:17:18,575 and even some of the concerned relatives, 290 00:17:18,667 --> 00:17:20,457 and they will go to Jonestown, 291 00:17:20,542 --> 00:17:22,922 and they will demand to be let in. 292 00:17:25,209 --> 00:17:31,669 Leo Ryan never asked for security protection. 293 00:17:31,751 --> 00:17:35,211 It seems that he believed that he would be protected 294 00:17:35,292 --> 00:17:39,882 by the news media, and the news media believed 295 00:17:39,959 --> 00:17:41,919 that they would be protected by being with 296 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:44,080 the U.S. congressperson. 297 00:17:45,709 --> 00:17:50,709 He certainly felt that he was doing something 298 00:17:50,792 --> 00:17:53,082 that no one else was willing to do. 299 00:17:53,167 --> 00:17:57,417 The conditions of the peoples temple in San Francisco, 300 00:17:57,500 --> 00:17:59,170 the defectors who left the church 301 00:17:59,250 --> 00:18:02,080 before Jim Jones went to Jonestown, 302 00:18:02,167 --> 00:18:05,957 talked about many of these abuses, sexual abuse, 303 00:18:06,042 --> 00:18:11,212 child abuse, physical abuse, and so he wanted to protect 304 00:18:11,292 --> 00:18:13,832 his constituents. 305 00:18:13,918 --> 00:18:18,958 What they don't know is after the white night 306 00:18:19,042 --> 00:18:20,382 some months earlier, 307 00:18:20,459 --> 00:18:23,169 where Jones said there was poison and there wasn't, 308 00:18:23,250 --> 00:18:26,960 he had directed Dr. Larry schacht 309 00:18:27,042 --> 00:18:31,332 to buy 1 full pound of cyanide powder, 310 00:18:31,417 --> 00:18:34,787 and that's enough for 1,800 lethal doses. 311 00:18:37,542 --> 00:18:40,792 It was pretty bad. I was in terror. 312 00:18:55,209 --> 00:18:58,249 Welcome back to "very scary people." 313 00:18:58,334 --> 00:19:02,384 On November 15, 1978, congressman Leo Ryan 314 00:19:02,459 --> 00:19:04,459 arrives in Georgetown, Guyana. 315 00:19:04,542 --> 00:19:07,832 With him are 17 members of the concerned relatives, 316 00:19:07,918 --> 00:19:11,038 two staffers and nine members of the media. 317 00:19:11,125 --> 00:19:13,705 The plan is to talk to the people of Jonestown 318 00:19:13,792 --> 00:19:16,172 and to Jim Jones himself to determine 319 00:19:16,250 --> 00:19:17,790 if people are free to leave 320 00:19:17,876 --> 00:19:20,826 or are prisoners in Jones' twisted paradise. 321 00:19:20,918 --> 00:19:23,078 It would take days for the congressman's group 322 00:19:23,167 --> 00:19:24,707 to get into Jonestown, 323 00:19:24,792 --> 00:19:27,542 and several of them would never get out. 324 00:19:30,709 --> 00:19:35,539 The temple's strategy was to basically stall 325 00:19:35,626 --> 00:19:40,496 and to try to keep us out of Jonestown. 326 00:19:40,584 --> 00:19:44,214 We mysteriously had problems with our passports. 327 00:19:44,292 --> 00:19:50,712 The U.S. embassy was somewhat helpless to get us in there. 328 00:19:50,792 --> 00:19:53,332 I know there was a lot of back and forth, 329 00:19:53,417 --> 00:19:55,167 and I think at some point, it became, 330 00:19:55,250 --> 00:19:59,380 "we're coming whether or not you say we can." 331 00:19:59,459 --> 00:20:06,499 There was intense preparation, intense drilling, questions. 332 00:20:14,292 --> 00:20:15,792 The answers were all the same. 333 00:20:15,876 --> 00:20:19,496 "Oh, we love it here, couldn't have been happier." 334 00:20:19,584 --> 00:20:23,884 His sons and I, we were in Georgetown playing basketball. 335 00:20:23,959 --> 00:20:27,669 We were all on a team, and a trip was planned for us 336 00:20:27,751 --> 00:20:30,671 to go in and do some scrimmaging with the national team of Guyana 337 00:20:30,751 --> 00:20:32,631 and then play in some Guyanese tournaments 338 00:20:32,709 --> 00:20:35,329 where local club teams played. 339 00:20:35,417 --> 00:20:38,127 Building up to that point when we left, you could... 340 00:20:38,209 --> 00:20:43,579 You could sense a shift in the morale of our fellow members 341 00:20:43,667 --> 00:20:46,827 that are in Jonestown like they kind of didn't want us to leave 342 00:20:46,918 --> 00:20:50,078 as if we kind of made people feel safe there. 343 00:20:50,167 --> 00:20:52,667 In retrospect, clearer eyes would have known 344 00:20:52,751 --> 00:20:55,331 that was not a time to leave, 345 00:20:55,417 --> 00:20:58,207 but I also wanted to just get away from the craziness, 346 00:20:58,292 --> 00:21:02,082 and mom was always trying to get us clear of my father and... 347 00:21:02,167 --> 00:21:03,707 And the madness. 348 00:21:06,792 --> 00:21:08,252 We arrived in Jonestown 349 00:21:08,334 --> 00:21:13,924 on the evening of November 17, 1978. 350 00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:18,830 When we got to the gates, we were really elated, 351 00:21:18,918 --> 00:21:21,998 and there were hundreds of people around. 352 00:21:22,083 --> 00:21:24,173 Perhaps the most high-profile person 353 00:21:24,250 --> 00:21:27,290 entering Jonestown aside from congressman Ryan 354 00:21:27,375 --> 00:21:30,125 was nbc news correspondent Don Harris. 355 00:21:30,209 --> 00:21:31,669 Harris had earned the nickname 356 00:21:31,751 --> 00:21:34,961 Mr. Lucky because he had had several close calls 357 00:21:35,042 --> 00:21:38,382 while reporting in Vietnam. 358 00:21:38,459 --> 00:21:40,329 Introduction to Jim Jones 359 00:21:40,417 --> 00:21:43,457 was really the most sobering thing 360 00:21:43,542 --> 00:21:47,832 because he appeared to be sallow and weak, 361 00:21:47,918 --> 00:21:51,458 but what struck me was that this entire community 362 00:21:51,542 --> 00:21:56,082 was in the hands of this man who appeared to be ill. 363 00:21:56,167 --> 00:21:59,077 There's a lavish dinner provided for them. 364 00:21:59,167 --> 00:22:00,917 There's pork. There's Greens. 365 00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:02,670 There's even dessert. 366 00:22:02,751 --> 00:22:07,211 And we got an opportunity to interview him during a dinner. 367 00:22:07,292 --> 00:22:10,252 When you asked him a question, he would just... 368 00:22:10,334 --> 00:22:12,424 Just take off on tangents. 369 00:22:12,500 --> 00:22:16,250 A lot of it came across as paranoia, 370 00:22:16,334 --> 00:22:21,214 and he also railed against the press and said, 371 00:22:21,292 --> 00:22:22,752 "you don't need to shoot me. 372 00:22:22,834 --> 00:22:26,334 Your words have that effect." 373 00:22:32,375 --> 00:22:34,995 Then that evening, there was a performance 374 00:22:35,083 --> 00:22:37,383 by the singers and the dancers. 375 00:22:44,125 --> 00:22:46,455 Congressman Ryan gave his famous speech. 376 00:22:46,542 --> 00:22:49,292 But I can tell you right now that from the few conversations 377 00:22:49,375 --> 00:22:51,625 I've had with some of the folks here already this evening, 378 00:22:51,709 --> 00:22:54,579 that whatever the comments are, there are some people here 379 00:22:54,667 --> 00:22:56,077 who believe that this is the best thing 380 00:22:56,167 --> 00:22:57,497 that ever happened to them in their whole life. 381 00:22:59,500 --> 00:23:05,710 And the applause just burst out and continued to thunder. 382 00:23:07,375 --> 00:23:12,205 It went on for an uncomfortably long period of time. 383 00:23:13,542 --> 00:23:15,632 If you really listened to it, 384 00:23:15,709 --> 00:23:19,999 there's a frantic desperation in that. 385 00:23:20,083 --> 00:23:22,793 They had to convince him of their loyalty. 386 00:23:24,584 --> 00:23:30,384 I passed a note to one of the newspaper reporters. 387 00:23:32,125 --> 00:23:37,535 I wrote on the note, "Vernon gosney, Monica bagby, 388 00:23:37,626 --> 00:23:38,996 help us get out of Jonestown." 389 00:23:39,083 --> 00:23:43,923 He dropped the note, and this little boy said, 390 00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:45,080 "oh, he passed a note! 391 00:23:45,167 --> 00:23:49,917 He passed a note!" I was dead. 392 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:52,290 Jim Jones is now very well aware 393 00:23:52,375 --> 00:23:56,285 that at least some people are going to want to go. 394 00:23:56,375 --> 00:23:59,205 Don Harris showed the note to congressman Ryan, 395 00:23:59,292 --> 00:24:03,382 so he approached me after the event, 396 00:24:03,459 --> 00:24:06,039 and he said, "you were the first to ask to leave. 397 00:24:06,125 --> 00:24:08,665 You will have the first seats on the plane." 398 00:24:08,751 --> 00:24:10,001 Ryan made a plan. 399 00:24:10,083 --> 00:24:11,503 They were going to come back the next morning 400 00:24:11,584 --> 00:24:15,254 and take with them anyone who wanted to leave. 401 00:24:15,334 --> 00:24:18,834 Congressman Ryan couldn't comprehend the danger 402 00:24:18,918 --> 00:24:20,418 he was in at all. 403 00:24:20,500 --> 00:24:22,040 He would say, you know, 404 00:24:22,125 --> 00:24:24,995 "you have the congressional shield of protection over you." 405 00:24:25,083 --> 00:24:28,043 He was bequeathing me this protection 406 00:24:28,125 --> 00:24:30,285 that he himself didn't have. 407 00:24:32,792 --> 00:24:36,212 I was in terror the next day. 408 00:24:36,292 --> 00:24:38,002 I thought it was all over for me. 409 00:24:38,083 --> 00:24:41,633 We returned to Jonestown Saturday. 410 00:24:41,709 --> 00:24:44,749 More and more people had come forward. 411 00:24:44,834 --> 00:24:46,084 They wanted to leave, 412 00:24:46,167 --> 00:24:50,747 and the mood of the place turned extremely dark. 413 00:24:52,250 --> 00:24:56,250 And then suddenly, the skies turned dark, 414 00:24:56,334 --> 00:25:00,544 and a wind whipped up, and torrential rain came down. 415 00:25:00,626 --> 00:25:02,996 It was almost like an omen. 416 00:25:05,417 --> 00:25:08,957 Ultimately, 15 people want to go. 417 00:25:09,042 --> 00:25:10,542 Things are turning ugly. 418 00:25:10,626 --> 00:25:12,576 Don't you take my kids! 419 00:25:12,667 --> 00:25:17,127 I'm walking down this pathway, and a mother is screaming, 420 00:25:17,209 --> 00:25:21,289 pulling the child one way, the father screaming, 421 00:25:21,375 --> 00:25:26,375 pulling the child the other way, and I was stunned by it. 422 00:25:26,459 --> 00:25:29,579 I recognized that we were in a powder keg. 423 00:25:29,667 --> 00:25:32,627 Jones was just licking his lips 424 00:25:32,709 --> 00:25:35,669 and sucking his cheeks in and out. 425 00:25:35,751 --> 00:25:37,881 You could see how nervous he was getting. 426 00:25:37,959 --> 00:25:39,379 At the very end of the visit, 427 00:25:39,459 --> 00:25:42,379 Don Harris actually confronted Jim Jones 428 00:25:42,459 --> 00:25:43,999 with the note on camera. 429 00:25:44,083 --> 00:25:47,503 Last night, someone came and passed me this note. 430 00:25:52,500 --> 00:25:55,750 As a journalist, he was looking for that moment. 431 00:25:55,834 --> 00:25:58,294 You know, "okay, Jim. Here's... here's the note." 432 00:25:58,375 --> 00:26:00,825 People play games, friend. 433 00:26:00,918 --> 00:26:03,628 They lie. They lie. What can I do about liars? 434 00:26:03,709 --> 00:26:05,579 Are you people going leave us? 435 00:26:05,667 --> 00:26:08,247 I just beg you. Please leave us. 436 00:26:08,334 --> 00:26:12,294 Don Harris showing him that note ensured 437 00:26:12,375 --> 00:26:14,995 that he would be definitely be killed 438 00:26:15,083 --> 00:26:20,083 because he just humiliated Jim Jones on camera. 439 00:26:25,209 --> 00:26:29,329 So we boarded a large dump truck. 440 00:26:29,417 --> 00:26:33,247 The last defector in that line was Larry Layton. 441 00:26:33,334 --> 00:26:37,424 He was a longtime church member and trusted Jones' aid 442 00:26:37,500 --> 00:26:42,290 whom the defectors feared wasn't really one of them, 443 00:26:42,375 --> 00:26:45,705 and then there was this tremendously loud cheer 444 00:26:45,792 --> 00:26:48,042 from the pavilion. 445 00:26:48,125 --> 00:26:51,785 Ryan is jumped from behind by a man named Don sly 446 00:26:51,876 --> 00:26:55,206 who has a knife, screaming that, "I'm going to kill you. 447 00:26:55,292 --> 00:26:56,962 You're going to die." 448 00:26:57,042 --> 00:27:00,792 Temple members quickly pulled Don sly off of congressman Ryan, 449 00:27:00,876 --> 00:27:03,826 and in the process, sly's hand got cut, 450 00:27:03,918 --> 00:27:05,248 and congressman Ryan 451 00:27:05,334 --> 00:27:07,634 ended up with a lot of blood on his shirt. 452 00:27:07,709 --> 00:27:14,499 A short time later, congressman Ryan was escorted to the truck, 453 00:27:14,584 --> 00:27:19,084 and he was looking rather shaken and ashen. 454 00:27:19,167 --> 00:27:22,497 And then we started to leave Jonestown. 455 00:27:22,584 --> 00:27:25,254 At that moment, I am sure that congressman Ryan 456 00:27:25,334 --> 00:27:27,084 knew the danger he was in. 457 00:27:27,167 --> 00:27:29,917 Someone had just attempted to kill him. 458 00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:33,670 Jim has a plan for what's going to happen back at the airstrip. 459 00:27:33,751 --> 00:27:37,961 I never thought I was ever going to really leave. 460 00:27:38,042 --> 00:27:42,462 There was a really strong sense of foreboding. 461 00:27:50,167 --> 00:27:52,957 I saw people who had been wounded 462 00:27:53,042 --> 00:27:55,962 and people who were dead. 463 00:28:05,042 --> 00:28:08,752 On November 18, 1978, congressmen Leo Ryan 464 00:28:08,834 --> 00:28:11,884 left Jonestown with members of his staff, 465 00:28:11,959 --> 00:28:13,289 members of the media 466 00:28:13,375 --> 00:28:16,205 and 16 defectors from the peoples temple. 467 00:28:19,417 --> 00:28:22,707 I noticed that Larry Layton skirted the... 468 00:28:22,792 --> 00:28:25,082 The frisking that congressman Ryan did 469 00:28:25,167 --> 00:28:29,037 and went around the other side of the plane and boarded it. 470 00:28:29,125 --> 00:28:31,665 As they were getting ready to board the larger plane, 471 00:28:31,751 --> 00:28:35,041 Don Harris wanted to do a quick interview with the congressman. 472 00:28:35,125 --> 00:28:36,875 I don't know. What the... what he said 473 00:28:36,959 --> 00:28:38,539 was he intended to kill me. 474 00:28:38,626 --> 00:28:41,956 A number of us felt that there was some trouble ahead. 475 00:28:42,042 --> 00:28:44,752 Don Harris and others were on high alert. 476 00:28:44,834 --> 00:28:48,334 The matter now just kind of falling back and regrouping 477 00:28:48,417 --> 00:28:49,917 and seeing what we have. 478 00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:52,670 When they look, and here's the tractor coming, 479 00:28:52,751 --> 00:28:54,831 and the men on it are armed. 480 00:28:57,834 --> 00:29:01,924 The nbc cameramen very bravely keeps his camera running. 481 00:29:08,125 --> 00:29:10,875 I sprinted for the far side of the plane. 482 00:29:10,959 --> 00:29:14,379 I got hit, got shot. 483 00:29:14,459 --> 00:29:18,499 That's when I looked out the window and said, 484 00:29:18,584 --> 00:29:22,294 "they're killing everyone," and I turned, 485 00:29:22,375 --> 00:29:26,535 and Larry Layton shot me three times. 486 00:29:26,626 --> 00:29:30,246 Knowing I was in a place where there was no shelter, 487 00:29:30,334 --> 00:29:32,884 sprinted for the jungle. 488 00:29:32,959 --> 00:29:37,959 And I ran until I got to the edge of the runway, 489 00:29:38,042 --> 00:29:40,332 and I collapsed on the ground. 490 00:29:40,417 --> 00:29:43,167 I saw blood all over, and I just thought, 491 00:29:43,250 --> 00:29:47,500 "well, I'm dying," and passed out. 492 00:29:47,584 --> 00:29:50,134 I continued to hear some gunfire. 493 00:29:50,209 --> 00:29:54,169 It was more slow and deliberate gunfire. 494 00:29:54,250 --> 00:29:56,250 I turned around. 495 00:29:56,334 --> 00:29:58,504 Congressmen Ryan had been hit, 496 00:29:58,584 --> 00:30:01,084 and there was blood coming out of his neck, 497 00:30:01,167 --> 00:30:04,127 and I started to move towards him, 498 00:30:04,209 --> 00:30:06,289 and then he was shot again and fell, 499 00:30:06,375 --> 00:30:11,325 and I ran under the plane and hid behind a wheel, 500 00:30:11,417 --> 00:30:13,917 and then the shots just kept ringing out, 501 00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:17,040 and I was playing dead with my head down, 502 00:30:17,125 --> 00:30:19,745 and then all of a sudden I was hit, 503 00:30:19,834 --> 00:30:22,174 and I was shot five times. 504 00:30:24,375 --> 00:30:27,745 When the gunfire stopped entirely, 505 00:30:27,834 --> 00:30:31,634 I worked my way out to the edge of the jungle, 506 00:30:31,709 --> 00:30:36,499 and I saw people who had been wounded 507 00:30:36,584 --> 00:30:38,174 and people who were dead. 508 00:30:38,250 --> 00:30:40,830 Congressman Ryan was dead. 509 00:30:40,918 --> 00:30:44,918 Don Harris was dead, and there were wounded people, 510 00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:49,790 some of them in really serious condition like Jackie speier. 511 00:30:49,876 --> 00:30:52,326 Five people are dead at the scene. 512 00:30:52,417 --> 00:30:54,247 The others are critically wounded. 513 00:30:54,334 --> 00:30:56,134 They're left there not knowing 514 00:30:56,209 --> 00:30:58,329 if someone's going to kill them off 515 00:30:58,417 --> 00:31:00,877 or if someone's coming back to help them. 516 00:31:02,584 --> 00:31:06,134 Back at Jonestown, Jones called a meeting 517 00:31:06,209 --> 00:31:09,829 and called everybody to the pavilion. 518 00:31:09,918 --> 00:31:12,328 They all gather, and Jones is up on stage, 519 00:31:12,417 --> 00:31:14,247 but they notice something that's different 520 00:31:14,334 --> 00:31:19,714 because there's guards with guns all along the perimeter. 521 00:31:32,292 --> 00:31:34,462 And he said, "life will never be the same, 522 00:31:34,542 --> 00:31:35,922 and we've killed a congressman." 523 00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:38,880 He made everybody complicit. 524 00:31:38,959 --> 00:31:40,289 "The government's going to blame us, 525 00:31:40,375 --> 00:31:42,665 and they're going to come parachuting in here, 526 00:31:42,751 --> 00:31:46,421 they're going to kill all of us, even the children, 527 00:31:46,500 --> 00:31:52,170 and what we need to do is we need to make this gesture." 528 00:32:01,417 --> 00:32:03,917 And that was the call of death. 529 00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:07,170 That's when they called Georgetown, where I was, 530 00:32:07,250 --> 00:32:11,250 saying that everybody was killing themselves in Jonestown. 531 00:32:11,334 --> 00:32:13,714 We got the message that orders had been sent 532 00:32:13,792 --> 00:32:15,712 that we were to get revenge. 533 00:32:15,792 --> 00:32:18,582 That message back was clear signal to us 534 00:32:18,667 --> 00:32:20,327 that something terrible was happening. 535 00:32:20,417 --> 00:32:22,537 Things were going farther and... 536 00:32:22,626 --> 00:32:27,166 And much worse than had... Had ever happened before. 537 00:32:27,250 --> 00:32:29,630 He said, "we're going to all kill ourselves." 538 00:32:29,709 --> 00:32:32,169 We're like, "no, we're not doing that." 539 00:32:32,250 --> 00:32:36,670 He gave us those final orders, and he got off the radio, 540 00:32:36,751 --> 00:32:38,831 and there was radio silence. 541 00:32:38,918 --> 00:32:40,788 It was a harrowing night of trying to find out 542 00:32:40,876 --> 00:32:43,126 what the heck was going on. 543 00:32:43,209 --> 00:32:44,539 So we go down to the police station, 544 00:32:44,626 --> 00:32:46,326 and we're asking questions, and, you know, 545 00:32:46,417 --> 00:32:48,917 the police officers there really can't tell us much. 546 00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:50,460 Stephan and maybe a couple of other guys 547 00:32:50,542 --> 00:32:52,172 went to the American embassy. 548 00:32:52,250 --> 00:32:53,750 They're over there banging on the doors 549 00:32:53,834 --> 00:32:56,504 trying to find out what's going on. 550 00:32:56,584 --> 00:32:58,924 They wouldn't let them in the embassy. 551 00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:01,790 They wouldn't even address them. 552 00:33:01,876 --> 00:33:04,746 Back at the compound, some of Jones's most ardent 553 00:33:04,834 --> 00:33:10,714 followers have prepared a poison-laced kool-aid drink. 554 00:33:10,792 --> 00:33:11,922 It's not kool-aid. 555 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:15,750 It's flavor aid, a cheap knockoff. 556 00:33:15,834 --> 00:33:19,134 Jones asked family members and mothers 557 00:33:19,209 --> 00:33:21,919 to line up with their children first 558 00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:25,330 and to administer this potion. 559 00:33:25,417 --> 00:33:29,537 It was a mixture of cyanide, flavor aid, 560 00:33:29,626 --> 00:33:34,706 and various tranquilizers in a huge vat. 561 00:33:34,792 --> 00:33:37,582 They're going to do the babies and the children. 562 00:33:37,667 --> 00:33:39,787 They bring out syringes. 563 00:33:39,876 --> 00:33:44,536 His mistresses and secretaries gave all of children the poison, 564 00:33:44,626 --> 00:33:47,206 squirted the poison in their mouth. 565 00:33:47,292 --> 00:33:49,332 Not only were we not there to stand up for them, 566 00:33:49,417 --> 00:33:51,207 stand up, and maybe stand against my father, 567 00:33:51,292 --> 00:33:53,582 but by... by their understanding of things, 568 00:33:53,667 --> 00:33:55,747 we were out killing people. 569 00:34:10,834 --> 00:34:12,674 My mother was standing against my father, 570 00:34:12,751 --> 00:34:15,331 trying to fight it, trying to take him on, 571 00:34:15,417 --> 00:34:16,747 and when you hear over the loudspeaker, 572 00:34:16,834 --> 00:34:18,964 "mother, mother, mother, please don't do this," 573 00:34:19,042 --> 00:34:22,462 she was resisting and was restrained 574 00:34:22,542 --> 00:34:24,832 trying to steer things away, certainly away from, 575 00:34:24,918 --> 00:34:26,458 you know, some of the crazy things he was... 576 00:34:26,542 --> 00:34:31,462 He was saying and doing but also away from suicide. 577 00:34:31,542 --> 00:34:34,712 Jones is telling everyone, "it's painless." 578 00:34:34,792 --> 00:34:38,382 "It's easy," and of course, death by cyanide 579 00:34:38,459 --> 00:34:41,079 is one of the worst possible ways to die, 580 00:34:41,167 --> 00:34:45,077 robs your body of the ability to take in oxygen, 581 00:34:45,167 --> 00:34:46,497 and so you froth at the mouth. 582 00:34:46,584 --> 00:34:48,884 You go into convulsions. You... you suffocate. 583 00:34:48,959 --> 00:34:50,169 It... it takes a while. 584 00:34:50,250 --> 00:34:51,790 It's... it's terrible. 585 00:34:56,792 --> 00:35:01,082 So by then, you know, what are parents going to do? 586 00:35:01,167 --> 00:35:05,877 Like, how could you have your child 20 feet away dying? 587 00:35:05,959 --> 00:35:10,919 I mean, he just took whatever possibility of people 588 00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:15,040 responding away from them and killed the children. 589 00:35:15,125 --> 00:35:20,125 They don't want it, and Jones is screaming at them. 590 00:35:25,083 --> 00:35:27,003 And the ones who don't want to cooperate 591 00:35:27,083 --> 00:35:30,333 are held down and forcibly injected. 592 00:35:30,417 --> 00:35:33,917 There were guards surrounding the perimeter. 593 00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:35,960 A few people try to run for it. 594 00:35:36,042 --> 00:35:39,462 One or two escape. The rest are captured. 595 00:35:43,250 --> 00:35:46,750 We heard, "well, they found 300 bodies in Jonestown." 596 00:35:46,834 --> 00:35:51,334 The first number I heard was 400 maybe, and I thought, 597 00:35:51,417 --> 00:35:54,417 "god, surely you wouldn't take them all." 598 00:36:08,417 --> 00:36:12,167 By Saturday night, there was an eerie quiet in Jonestown, 599 00:36:12,250 --> 00:36:13,540 but at the airstrip, 600 00:36:13,626 --> 00:36:16,246 the survivors were struggling to stay alive. 601 00:36:18,500 --> 00:36:22,420 After the shooting, a number of the villagers came out 602 00:36:22,500 --> 00:36:25,000 and asked to help us. 603 00:36:25,083 --> 00:36:31,213 We had bottles of rum and other spirits to help ease the pain, 604 00:36:31,292 --> 00:36:33,582 but there weren't painkillers. 605 00:36:33,667 --> 00:36:35,787 I remember saying to Jackie speier, 606 00:36:35,876 --> 00:36:37,666 "there's one pain pill here. 607 00:36:37,751 --> 00:36:40,751 Do you want it now, or do you want it later?" 608 00:36:40,834 --> 00:36:45,134 And she decided to take it later. 609 00:36:45,209 --> 00:36:49,919 When I awoke some hours later, I was in excruciating pain, 610 00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:52,790 more pain than I'd ever experienced in my life. 611 00:36:52,876 --> 00:36:54,246 A bunch of Guyanese came, 612 00:36:54,334 --> 00:36:57,464 and they all carried me to the tent, 613 00:36:57,542 --> 00:37:01,082 and that's where I stayed that night. 614 00:37:01,167 --> 00:37:02,747 It was a difficult night. 615 00:37:02,834 --> 00:37:05,834 They would come occasionally into the tent 616 00:37:05,918 --> 00:37:08,208 where they had me on the airstrip 617 00:37:08,292 --> 00:37:12,382 and give me swigs of Guyanese rum which is very strong rum. 618 00:37:12,459 --> 00:37:14,539 That was the sedative I had. 619 00:37:16,459 --> 00:37:19,879 As daylight approached, Guyanese soldiers arrived 620 00:37:19,959 --> 00:37:21,669 and secured the airstrip 621 00:37:21,751 --> 00:37:25,711 so that additional medevac planes could come in. 622 00:37:25,792 --> 00:37:27,752 We were 19 hours in the jungle. 623 00:37:27,834 --> 00:37:29,464 Guyanese defense force came. 624 00:37:29,542 --> 00:37:33,212 They had a doctor, and he gave me two aspirin, 625 00:37:33,292 --> 00:37:35,752 and small planes started coming, 626 00:37:35,834 --> 00:37:37,834 and they started evacuating the injured 627 00:37:37,918 --> 00:37:42,208 back to Georgetown along with the newspaper reporters. 628 00:37:44,250 --> 00:37:47,130 I had Greg Robinson's camera gear, 629 00:37:47,209 --> 00:37:51,539 and walked around to a place where I had a vantage point 630 00:37:51,626 --> 00:37:55,036 of the plane and the bodies around the plane. 631 00:37:55,125 --> 00:37:59,375 And, uh, that's the last shot I took. 632 00:37:59,459 --> 00:38:02,879 Larry Layton was taken by villagers to the local jail 633 00:38:02,959 --> 00:38:06,079 and held there until the Guyanese defense forces 634 00:38:06,167 --> 00:38:08,957 came the next day and arrested him. 635 00:38:09,042 --> 00:38:11,462 For the surviving temple members in Georgetown, 636 00:38:11,542 --> 00:38:14,962 that Saturday night was just as terrifying. 637 00:38:15,042 --> 00:38:17,582 I was in shock even as I was out wandering, 638 00:38:17,667 --> 00:38:19,627 trying to find out what was going on. 639 00:38:19,709 --> 00:38:21,379 Knowing all the while, something terrible 640 00:38:21,459 --> 00:38:23,129 is happening but knowing... 641 00:38:23,209 --> 00:38:25,289 Not knowing what else I could do. 642 00:38:27,167 --> 00:38:32,327 We heard, "well, they found 300 bodies in Jonestown." 643 00:38:32,417 --> 00:38:35,827 At dawn, the Guyana defense force raided Jonestown. 644 00:38:35,918 --> 00:38:40,378 At first, the body count was less than 300. 645 00:38:40,459 --> 00:38:42,629 The families in the U.S. and Georgetown 646 00:38:42,709 --> 00:38:46,459 hoped that their loved ones would be found alive. 647 00:38:46,542 --> 00:38:48,632 As for Jim Jones himself, 648 00:38:48,709 --> 00:38:51,289 they found his body the next day. 649 00:38:51,375 --> 00:38:54,245 Only two people among the dead in Jonestown 650 00:38:54,334 --> 00:38:57,004 didn't die of cyanide poisoning. 651 00:38:57,083 --> 00:38:58,293 One was Jim Jones. 652 00:38:58,375 --> 00:39:02,035 The other was his personal nurse, Annie Moore. 653 00:39:02,125 --> 00:39:06,625 Yeah, I know dad was shot in the head. 654 00:39:06,709 --> 00:39:08,539 He saw the way everybody else was dying, 655 00:39:08,626 --> 00:39:12,206 and he couldn't bring himself to die that horrible death, 656 00:39:12,292 --> 00:39:15,332 so he had someone shoot him in the head. 657 00:39:15,417 --> 00:39:16,627 Good evening. Here's what's happening. 658 00:39:16,709 --> 00:39:17,999 We're interrupting our special 659 00:39:18,083 --> 00:39:20,213 broadcasting to bring you this special report. 660 00:39:20,292 --> 00:39:22,712 Bodies are strewn all over the place. 661 00:39:22,792 --> 00:39:26,252 The death toll at Jonestown now stands at 405, 662 00:39:26,334 --> 00:39:31,674 but it is rising as more bodies are, in fact, being found. 663 00:39:31,751 --> 00:39:36,251 I think the first number I heard was, like, 250, 250, 664 00:39:36,334 --> 00:39:41,134 400 maybe, and I thought, "okay." 665 00:39:41,209 --> 00:39:44,579 "God, surely you wouldn't take them all," you know? 666 00:39:44,667 --> 00:39:50,247 And then the next thing I knew, the number had doubled. 667 00:39:51,584 --> 00:39:54,254 Then the U.S. army came in and found more bodies, 668 00:39:54,334 --> 00:39:56,294 children underneath their parents, 669 00:39:56,375 --> 00:39:58,535 husbands on top of their wives. 670 00:40:10,125 --> 00:40:14,455 It was years and years of putting up a good front, 671 00:40:14,542 --> 00:40:19,132 but every night, all night, devastating dreams, 672 00:40:19,209 --> 00:40:22,749 and in the dreams, everyone's alive 673 00:40:22,834 --> 00:40:26,084 and those people that I'd felt I'd failed the most, 674 00:40:26,167 --> 00:40:28,917 and every morning, I'd wake up and learn all over again 675 00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:30,500 they were dead, and... 676 00:40:30,584 --> 00:40:33,424 And so I'd have to go through that grief again. 677 00:40:33,500 --> 00:40:35,750 You never get over it. You know, you never... 678 00:40:35,834 --> 00:40:37,964 You just live with it. 679 00:40:38,042 --> 00:40:44,082 Jim Jones based his own ego on how people responded to him. 680 00:40:44,167 --> 00:40:48,877 He got his sense of himself from other people. 681 00:40:48,959 --> 00:40:52,999 If you left the church, you were essentially indicating to Jones 682 00:40:53,083 --> 00:40:54,963 that you thought he was worthless. 683 00:40:55,042 --> 00:40:57,382 I shall do all the miracles that you said 684 00:40:57,459 --> 00:40:59,329 your god would do and never did. 685 00:40:59,417 --> 00:41:00,997 I think Jim was sick. 686 00:41:01,083 --> 00:41:03,003 He needed those people around him. 687 00:41:03,083 --> 00:41:05,883 He couldn't just go off and die by himself. 688 00:41:05,959 --> 00:41:10,329 He needed... he needed to take a bunch of people with him. 689 00:41:10,417 --> 00:41:14,747 I've maintained to be and declared to be your only savior. 690 00:41:18,667 --> 00:41:20,377 The massacre at Jonestown remains 691 00:41:20,459 --> 00:41:23,419 one of the most haunting chapters in American history. 692 00:41:23,500 --> 00:41:28,330 On December 6, 1978, survivors in San Francisco filed papers 693 00:41:28,417 --> 00:41:30,747 to officially dissolve the peoples temple, 694 00:41:30,834 --> 00:41:34,964 ending Jim Jones' twisted vision that mixed self-glorification 695 00:41:35,042 --> 00:41:36,462 and social good. 696 00:41:36,542 --> 00:41:39,082 There was almost $10 million dollars in the church's accounts 697 00:41:39,167 --> 00:41:42,877 and another million in cash and gold at the Jonestown site. 698 00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:47,380 In his will, Jones left most of the money to the Soviet union. 699 00:41:47,459 --> 00:41:49,499 Instead, it was paid out to family members 700 00:41:49,584 --> 00:41:51,504 who filed wrongful death claims 701 00:41:51,584 --> 00:41:54,294 and for the removal of the bodies from Guyana. 702 00:41:54,375 --> 00:41:57,535 Forty years later, nothing remains of Jonestown. 703 00:41:57,626 --> 00:41:59,036 Within weeks of the tragedy, 704 00:41:59,125 --> 00:42:01,785 the local people tore the place down. 705 00:42:01,876 --> 00:42:03,166 I'm Donnie wahlberg. 706 00:42:03,250 --> 00:42:07,000 Thanks for watching "very scary people."