A One Way Journey...
For the entire several years leading up to the infamous event, people all over the US broke up with their families and parents, calling them "warmongers", "hate filled oldtimers", etc, before embarking with Jim Jones, the self proclaimed "messiah" of a "shining path" to his "paradise" in Guyana, a supposed "peoples' commune" where everything would be shared. These (mostly) young people wanted to give birth to a new and radical form of governing and society, a "true egalitarianism" as to speak. No one would own any property. There will be no need for locked doors. Everybody will be happy. Sound familiar?
Unbeknownst to most of the attendees, Jones had a secret cadre of guards already in place. They were armed with rifles, crossbows, and machetes, and the weapons were not used to keep threats out of the commune, but keep people from leaving once they entered.
NOVEMBER 18, 1978...
Commune guards herded residents out of their living quarters in the wartime field prison-like compound and into the compound "square". Once there, they were forced to drink from a drum filled with cyanide laced grape Flavor-Aid. Parents forced their children to drink, and then drank it themselves. Guards shot or hacked to death anyone who attempted to flee. Once the last of the residents had died, the guards drank the concoction. A total of 913 were dead, including 276 children and infants, some who died by bludgeoning or machete wounds from the guards when their parents did not have the stomach to force feed them the deadly concoction.
WARNING: Graphic photos below from Guyanese authorities who entered the compound days later.
DOCUMENTARY:
For the entire several years leading up to the infamous event, people all over the US broke up with their families and parents, calling them "warmongers", "hate filled oldtimers", etc, before embarking with Jim Jones, the self proclaimed "messiah" of a "shining path" to his "paradise" in Guyana, a supposed "peoples' commune" where everything would be shared. These (mostly) young people wanted to give birth to a new and radical form of governing and society, a "true egalitarianism" as to speak. No one would own any property. There will be no need for locked doors. Everybody will be happy. Sound familiar?
Unbeknownst to most of the attendees, Jones had a secret cadre of guards already in place. They were armed with rifles, crossbows, and machetes, and the weapons were not used to keep threats out of the commune, but keep people from leaving once they entered.
NOVEMBER 18, 1978...
Commune guards herded residents out of their living quarters in the wartime field prison-like compound and into the compound "square". Once there, they were forced to drink from a drum filled with cyanide laced grape Flavor-Aid. Parents forced their children to drink, and then drank it themselves. Guards shot or hacked to death anyone who attempted to flee. Once the last of the residents had died, the guards drank the concoction. A total of 913 were dead, including 276 children and infants, some who died by bludgeoning or machete wounds from the guards when their parents did not have the stomach to force feed them the deadly concoction.
WARNING: Graphic photos below from Guyanese authorities who entered the compound days later.
DOCUMENTARY:
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