Jonestown mass suicide

billzhao

/ g5 v: V! v- J/ z
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HTtLHgU9tY


CNN documentary

New documentary explores Jonestown mass suicide
" I5 i3 R3 s" G
* e8 L0 O2 p3 |6 e1 h3 f1 PTwenty-eight years later, what's left to say about Jonestown? Nine hundred members of a religious cult followed their fanatical leader to Guyana and willingly committed suicide by drinking a Kool-Aid-like mixture laced with cyanide.
4 i8 |7 f( t1 A  U0 E" m0 a
( n/ g2 c1 {! @; @5 mWhat more could there be to the story? Plenty, it turns out.
7 h4 r$ z" J' w+ J6 `! yI watched an advance copy of the new documentary, "Jonestown," by filmmaker Stanley Nelson on Sunday, and found myself drawn deeply into a macabre tale that I had little prior knowledge of.

9 G% A6 i5 y7 t8 Q3 n  n& K, Z# t. S! bNelson interviewed more than two dozen former members of Jim Jones' controversial Peoples Temple, including some who survived the Jonestown mass suicide -- which, by the way, looks more like mass murder now. And Nelson has unearthed dramatic video and sound recordings -- never seen or heard before that shed new light on the establishment, development and downfall of the Peoples Temple, right up until the moment Jim Jones passes out the cups.
9 |# I0 e( T/ D
The most chilling part of the film is the audio tape of Jones urging his followers to choose death over persecution. I heard, for the first time, the emotionally-pitched debate between Jones and parishioners who would rather live than die in the South American jungle. It was like a scene out of Apocalypse Now, only this time, the killing was real.
0 a5 @2 \- h3 T; C
I also learned that Jim Jones didn't suddenly take a hard left onto the highway of darkness. He was deeply disturbed from childhood, and is even suspected of abusing animals, something many experts believe is a hallmark of an emerging psychopath.
. n* w) ?* j% z- q% {) x
! I. Q; g9 v- }! n1 D9 {5 N, VWhat's most tragic though is that Jones' followers don't come off as a cult of religious deviants. They were -- for the most part -- earnest people, attracted to the Peoples Temple for the sense of community they couldn't find in their own lives. It gave them a feeling of belonging, though as the years wore on and Jones' insanity escalated, membership came at an ever-increasing, and in the end, ultimate price.