Jonestown mass suicide

billzhao

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HTtLHgU9tY
- W& g! t: [* V( w2 Q5 C  C7 n

5 ^; U# V2 J* @1 X0 Y6 A! PCNN documentary
( v9 j; Z* k3 }) |! l" j; h9 x
, B; r  {/ w/ T* |# M, ONew documentary explores Jonestown mass suicide

" S8 l1 ^  F5 H) uTwenty-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.
% T: m% R, }. c2 U9 A3 ]
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.
& h" b6 E1 X7 N& U. Y) U
1 i1 t: U( G+ {  b+ }/ b/ {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.
6 G; E& b6 U- s$ P6 ]
8 u- L9 b0 {' n2 Z& ?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.

9 U; E; t8 n% X* z) _4 ZI 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 f* j" m7 E& T; C( ?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.
5 e  W% Q9 `9 o( ]- C, V  U