Jonestown mass suicide

billzhao

& P/ h: z, v3 o) v, n4 U; m
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HTtLHgU9tY

. @& A8 R: _* Y! J3 `
CNN documentary

4 Z- m; p, A: C' a3 ONew documentary explores Jonestown mass suicide

7 M( g5 t$ J6 W, X3 \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.

# ?# s% _6 E8 N( z8 f+ ^What more could there be to the story? Plenty, it turns out.
; B# P, C0 Y3 y! 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.

, M: Z5 d$ x: g3 S# k* P, p! yNelson 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.

/ G1 ?3 O+ M' ]  A& DThe 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.
# V# M8 k! m7 c" Q9 O
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.

What'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.
4 p+ m& P( d+ Y; \" [