BELIEVING AND DYING

SUICIDAL SECTS

THE PEOPLE'S CHURCH

JIM JONES (1931- 1978)

THE "PEOPLES'S TEMPLE " LEADER

IN THE BEGINING

JAMES WARREN JONES, WAS BORN ON MAY 13, 1931, IN CRETE, INDIANA. JIM'S FATHER, JAMES THURMAN JONES ,WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A MEMBER OF THE KU KLUX KLAN. CHILDHOOD ACQUAINTANCES RECALLED JIM TO BE A VERY WEIRD CHILD. HE DIDN'T HAVE MANY FRIENDS AND WAS OBSESSED WITH RELIGION AND DEATH. HE USED TO HELD FUNERALS FOR SMALL ANIMALS AND ONCE HE STABBED A CAT ON PURPOSE. IN 1949 HE MARRIED A NURSE CALLED MARCELINE BALDWIN AND MOVED TO BLOOMINGTON AND LATER TO INDIANAPOLIS.

IN 1951 HE BECAME A MEMBER OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY U.S.A.. VERY SOON, HE BEGAN TO FEEL FRUSTRATED BECUSE OF THE OSTRACISM AND CRITICISM OF OPEN COMMUNISTS IN THE STATES. THIS FRUSTRATION PROVOKED A SEMINAL MOMENT IN JIM, IN WHICH HE ASKED HIMSELF HOW COULD HE LIVE PEACEFULY SUPPORTING HIS BELIEFS IN THAT KIND OF SOCIETY. THE ANSER WAS: INFILTRATE THE CHURCH.

SO IN 1952 HE BECAME A STUDENT PASTOR IN SOMMERSET SOUTHSIDE METHODIST CHURCH, BUT ITS LEADERS PROMPTLY BARRED HIM WHEN THEY DISCOVERED HE WAS INTEGRATING "BLACKS" TO HIS CONGREGATION.

AROUND THIS TIME ,JIM WENT TO A FAITH-HEALING SERVICE AT THE SEVENTH DAY BAPTIST CHURCH. HE NOTICED THAT THIS KIND OF SERVICES ATTRACTED A LOT OF PEOPLE AND THEIR MONEY. SO HE QUIT THE COMMUNIST PARTY AND, IN 1960,HE WAS APPOINTED AS A DIRECTOR OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION. AT THIS TIME HE FOUNDED THE PEOPLE'S CHURCH.

HE BEGAN MAKING A LOT OF CONTROVERSIAL ACTIONS AND PREACHING. HIS RADICAL STATEMENTS RECEIVED A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF CRITICISM BECAUSE OF HIS INTEGRATIONIST VIEWS.

JIM AND MARCELINE ADOPTED SEVERAL CHILDREN FROM DIFFERENT ETHNIC GROUPS. THEY HAD ONLY ONE BIOLOGICAL CHILD, STEPHAN GHANDI JAMES JONES,BORNED IN 1959.

IN 1961, HE LEFT THE TEMPLE BEHIND, AND WENT TO BRAZIL WITH THE INTENTION OF FOUNDING ANOTHER TEMPLE.( ON HIS WAY ,HE MADE HIS FIRST TRIP TO GUYANA.) HE ARRIVED IN BELO HORIZONTE,AND SETTLED THERE FOR A WHILE. BUT AS THERE WAS A LACK OF RESOURCES, (PEOPLE THERE WEREN'T VERY RICH), IN1960 HE MOVED TO RIO DE JANEIRO. HE HADN'T BEEN THERE FOR LONG, WHEN HE KNEW FROM HIS ASSOCIATED PREACHERS THAT THE TEMPLE WAS ABOUT TO COLLAPSE.SO HE DECIDED TO RETURN.

BY THE EARLY 70'S HE WAS REJECTING THE BIBLE AND PREACHING AGAINST GOD, "THE SKY GOD" AS HE USED TO NAME HIM. HE WROTE A BOOKLET CALLED" THE LETTER KILLETH" AGAINST THE BIBLE. HE ALSO SAID HE WAS THE REINCARNATION OF JESUS, GHANDI, BUDDHA, LENIN AND FATHER DIVINE.

JIM USED TO SAY

"What you need to believe in is what you can see...If you see me as your friend, I'll be your friend. As you see me as your father, I'll be your father, for those of you that don't have a father...If you see me as your savior, I'll be your savior. If you see me as your God, I'll be your God."

IN 1975 HE MOVED TO SAN FRANCISCO, WHERE HE WAS WELL KNOWN BY POLITICIANS AND THE PRESS. AT THAT TIME HE WAS VERY FAMOUS AND RESPECTED UNTIL THE REPORTER MARSHAL KILDUFF BEGAN TO INVESTIGATE HIM MORE EXHAUSTIVELY. BY THE SUMMER OF 1977 JIM AND SEVERAL HUNDREDS MEMBERS OF THE TEMPLE, MOVED TO GUYANA AFTER THEY LEARNED THAT AN ARTICLE WRITTEN BY KILDUFF WAS GOING TO BE PUBLISHED, IN WHICH FORMER MEMBERS OF THE TEMPLE CLAIMED THEY WERE PHYSICALLY, EMOTIONALLY AND SEXUALLY ABUSED.

IN THE END

JIM HAD STARTED BUILDING JONESTOWN IN GUYANA IN 1974. WHEN HE ARRIVED THERE IN 1977 HE BROUGHT WITH HIM TIM STOEN, FATHER TO JOHN VICTOR STOEN, WHOM SOME MEMBERS OF THE TEMPLE CLAIMED WAS JIM'S SON. SO PROBLEMS CONCERNING THIS FATHERHOOD BEGAN.

TIM STOEN AND OTHER RELATIVES IN JONESTOWN FORMED A "CONCERNED RELATIVES" GROUP. STOEN WENT TO WASHINGTON IN JANUARY 1978, AND VISITED CONGRESSMAN LEO RYAN.. THEREFORE GROWING PRESSURE BEGAN TO IVESTIGATE JIM JONES AND THE TEMPLE.

IIN APRIL 1978, THE "CONCERNED RELATIVES", SENT TO THE PRESS AND MEMBERS OF CONGRESS A DOSSIER TITLED "ACUSSATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION BY REV. JAMES JONES"

IN NOVEMBER ,LEO RYAN AND A DELEGATION WENT TO GUYANA TO INVESTIGATE THE ALLEGATIONS. HIS DELEGATION INCLUDED REPORTERS OF VARIOUS NEWSPAPERS AND RELATIVES OF TEMPLE MEMBERS.

AFTER SOME STRONG DISCUSIONS IN JONESTOWN, THEY LEFT ABRUPTLY FOR THE AIRPORT WITH FIFTEEN MEMBERS THAT MADE IT CLEAR THEY WANTED TO LEAVE.

WHEN THEY WERE GOING TO TAKE THE PLANE, JONES' "RED BRIGADE" ARMED GUARDS BEGAN SHOOTING AT THEM. THEY KILLED CONGRESSMAN RYAN, DON HARRIS, REPORTER FROM NBC, CAMERAMAN BOB BROWN, PHOTOGRAPHER GREG ROBINSON AND TEMPLE MEMEBER PATRICIA PARKS.

LATER THAT SAME DAY, 909 MEMBERS OF THE TEMPLE,, 276 OF THEM CHILDREN, DIED OF APPARENT CYANIDE POISONING. THEY WERE LEAD TO MASSIVE SUICIDE BY JIM JONES´WORDS

"Stop this hysterics. This is not the way for people who are Socialists or Communists to die. No way for us to die. We must die with some dignity." "Don't be afraid to die,"... death is "just stepping over into another plane" "death is a friend." ... "We didn't commit suicide, we committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhumane world.

JIM WAS FOUND DEAD IN A DECK CHAIR,WITH A GUNSHOT WOUND TO HIS HEAD

DAVID KORESH (1959-1993)

LEADER OF A BRANCH DAVIDIAN RELIGIOUS SECT, WAS BORN AS VERNON WAYNE HOWELL.

HE BELIEVED HE WAS THEIR LAST PROPHET.... AND THAT, HE WAS.

IN 1993 A RAID BY THE U.S. BUREAU OF ALCOHOIL, TOBACCO, FIREARMS AND EXPLOSIVES, AND A SUBSEQUENT 51-DAY SIEGE BY THE F.B.I., ENDED WITH 76 BURNED BODIES. 21 WERE CHILDREN.

THOSE WHO SURVIVED CLAIMED THAT F.B.I. SHARPSHOOTERS FIRED ON AND KILLED MANY OF THOSE WHO WERE ATTEMPTING TO FLEE THE FIRE.

MARSHALL APPLEWHITE   ( 1931-1997)

LEADER  OF "HEAVEN'S GATE"

HE DIED IN THE MASS  GROUP  SUICIDE IN RANCHO SANTA FE, CALIFORNIA.

ON MARCH 19, MARSHALL TAPED HIMSELF SPEAKING OF MASS SUICIDE.  AFTER CLAIMING THAT A SPACE SHIP WAS COMING TO FETCH THEM, TRAILING THE COMET HALE-BOPP, HE CONVINCED 38 FOLLOWERS TO KILL THEMSELVES , FOR THEIR SOUL TO  BOARD THE SUPPOSED CRAFT.

THEY COMMITED SUICIDE BY MIXING PHENOBARBITAL WITH THE APPLE SAUCE OF A PUDDING AND WASHING IT DOWN WITH VODKA..

JOSEPH DI MAMBRO

CO- LEADER WITH LUC JOURET OF "L'ORDRE DU TEMPLE SOLAIRE" ( THE ORDER OF THE SOLAR TEMPLE )

THE FIFTH OF OCTOBER 1994, 48 MEMBERS WERE FOUND DEAD IN SALVAN, SWISS CANTON OF VALAIS. JOSEPH AND LUC WERE AMONG THEM. IT LOOKED AS IF THEY'VE BEEN MURDERED BY GUN AND THEN SET ON FIRE , BUT IT'S STILL A MISTERY

SOME DAYS EARLIER, IN  MORIN HEIGHTS, QUEBEC, 15 INNER CIRCLE MEMBERS COMMITTED SUICIDE BY POISON, 30 WERE KILLED BY BULLETS AND 8 WERE KILLED BY OTHER CAUSES

LUC JOURET

L'ORDRE DU TEMPLE SOLAIRE, IS A SECRET SOCIETY BASED UPON THE MYTH OF CONTNUING EXISTENCE OF THE TEMPLARS. THE AIIM IS BASICALLY TO ASSIST HUMANITY THROUGH A GREAT "TRANSITION", PREPARING FOR THE COMING OF JESUS CHRIST AS A SOLAR GOD-KING.

FOR THEIR CEREMONIES THEY USE VARIOUSLY ADAPTED FREEMASON RITUALS. THE CENTRAL AUTHORITY IS "THE SINARCHY OF THE TEMPLE", WHICH MEMBERSHIP IS SECRET. PEOPLE THINK THAT AFTER THE MASS SUICIDES, THIS ORDER IS NO LONGER FUNCTIONING. BUT IT IS.