Jonestown mass suicide

billzhao

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HTtLHgU9tY

" L* X5 L' {0 l% y7 j' k9 c
8 _  l" ], {. a0 }1 s$ [CNN documentary
( y# z8 \5 g* q
1 h  f0 u2 l! N4 FNew documentary explores Jonestown mass suicide

Twenty-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.
' i4 e7 u4 S: C+ n0 j4 V
What more could there be to the story? Plenty, it turns out.
I 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.
) A/ q. F6 R( h/ h, F
Nelson 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.
$ o# s& |2 n! K/ Y' K
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.

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.
9 s# O' C. T( d, ]) @7 T* Y/ u7 e
3 t( }% P, S) `7 x) cWhat'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.
% m" `3 S0 \  h# X( o/ c! u& q