What Is The Mystery Behind The Jonestown Massacre

The Jonestown Massacre is a topic that many people are aware of; however, there is a dark and evil side to Jim Jones that only a few are familiar with. From the outside, it may have just seemed to be a simple little town of love and compassion. Nonetheless, brainwashing, abuse, and forced druggings went on daily at Jonestown. The mystery behind the Jonestown Massacre was really not that difficult to unravel, yet many people were shocked and could not comprehend how or why such a tragedy could happen.
How did it all start?
Jim Jones had founded his church twenty years before the massacre, in Indiana. His preaching stressed the need for racial brotherhood integration, and his group helped feed the poor and find them jobs. In 1965, he moved
to northern California; about one hundred of his faithful relocated with him. The membership began to multiply, new congregations were formed, and the headquarters was established in San Francisco. (guyana.org)

Later, Jones and his people moved to his South America for even further isolation. Jones was so set on making things better, or acting like he was making things better that he convinced hundreds of people to move with him. However, once the people arrived in Jonestown, there was no more free will. They were to do as Jones said when Jones said it. There were many different strategies Jim Jones used to get his people to do what he wanted.
The most famous and well known is the drinking of the grape Kool-Aid. He ordered his flock to commit suicide by drinking grape-flavored Kool-Aid laced with potassium cyanide. The phrase “Don’t drink the Kool-Aid,” has come to mean “Don’t trust any group you find to be a little on the edge.” (raptureready.com). The people of the village may have thought things seemed to be a little on edge, nonetheless, they still did what Jones said anyway. However, in their defense, if one grows up believing a certain way and is taught that way is right his or her whole life, they will never know any better. Jim Jones and Hitler have a lot in common. They are good speakers. They can make people persuaded and make them want to jump off a bridge in the blink of an eye. That is exactly what Jones did in Jonestown; He promised a better way of life, apart from all the bad and evil in the world, but in all honesty, he was really the evil in the world. He was a devil in
disguise.
Many were simply brainwashed by Jones’s speaking capabilities. He made African Americans assume that life would be ten times better in Jonestown. Countless numbers of these people were tired of day to day racism in their hometowns. Jones even if told some that they would be healed. It was frankly a blind man leading the blind. (jonestown.sdsu.edu) Jones was on all sorts of drugs. He was wrapped up in his own ideas and beliefs of how great of a village Jonestown could be. He was so caught up in the making conditions his way that he did not realize he was hurting everyone else.
Mental brainwashing, however, was not the only type of abuse that occurred; there was also physical as well as sexual abuse. The women of the inner circle were initiated through sexual encounter with Jones. One individual, Deborah Layton was even spit on. Though the public beatings were a regular occurrence, there were far worse consequences for those who continued to break the rules, run away, and those who Jones felt should be tortured into submission immediately. (jonestown.sdsu.edu) Individuals who are beaten or are threatened to beaten are definitely more likely to submit to someone who is threatening them. Multiple reports show that once in the camp, individuals may have wanted to leave, but they were scared to death to even try to escape.
As if this was not enough, Jones also took away kids from their mothers and fathers. He would put them into the hands of himself or the other adults at Jonestown. Imagine that. A mother’s love for her child is endless. Jones took that away without one hint of reluctance. If that does not say something about how awful of a man he was, I am not sure what will.
Furthermore, tons of persons were specifically in shock.
Jim Jones was initially a preacher. No one ever thinks a preacher can do any wrong or has any flaw. He was a preacher right? “He must have our best intentions in mind.” These were the thoughts of many who were brainwashed and abused. Nonetheless, when reporter Leo J Ryan flew into Jonestown he knew something fishy was happening at Jonestown. (youtube.com) Again, the phrase “Don’t drink the Kool-Aid” or “Don’t trust any group you find to be a little on the edge.” Ryan did not trust the group. He knew something was up and he was determined to report and get as many people out as he could, well the ones who wanted to be out at
least.
What made Jones crazy? I believe it was a combination of many things: his desire for a better world, drugs, and simply his insaneness. In the book, We Are Witnesses, by Patricia C. Mckissack, she states, “ The German leader dreamed of creating an empire that would last a thousand years and declared that millions of Jewish men, women, and children would have to be killed to bring it about.” Jones was not the only one who killed trying to make a better world, Adolf Hitler did the same cruel manipulation in the Holocaust of the nineteen forties. Being blindsided was the major factor of what caused the Holocaust as well as the Jonestown Massacre. If a person grows up believing a certain way of life is right, they will never know any different. They will not think anything of what they are doing. Anyhow, how exactly did Jones and Hitler convince hundreds and millions of people to commit murder and suicide?
These two were conniving. There is a story of a girl named Teri Buford O’Shea who was homeless when a man pulled up alongside her in a minivan. He told her about the community where he lived--a place, he said, where no one had to worry about food or housing. (the atlantic.com) Of course, if one is homeless they are looking for any kind of hope. That is exactly what Teri O’Shea needed. She needed hope. This man just so happened to come at just the right time and place, or so Teri thought. Teri remembered Jonestown being a fairytale until the very end. At first it was happy and giddy like one would expect such a place to be. Later, O’Shea began to realize what Jones really had in mind; he was going to kill her. She said Jonestown “should be remembered not as an American curiosity but a cautionary tale for everyday people.” (the atlantic.com)