LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Jonestown
built 215 days ago
Today Jonestown is home to a little over 2,100 residents. The area has a rural feel, with older homes on larger lots, rolling tree studded hills meet the lake and the wildlife is abundant. Most homes were built in the 1960s through the 1990s but construction of single family homes is always in progress somewhere in the community. Many people moving to Jonestown often consider renovating, so their priority for a home has to do more with the lot and view rather than the house which will be reconfigured to meet the needs of the new homeowner.
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Even better, though, are the contemporary interviews, as former members reflect on why they joined, what Jones was like, what Jonestown was like. Some of their recollections are almost frightening, as Jones instituted a brutally demanding schedule that left Temple members hardly any time for sleep. He used public beatings as teaching tools and, in private, sexually molested apparently dozens of members, both men and women. He rejected the Bible and set himself up as a god. Yet, his progressive politics and self-help message, resting on the foundation of a charismatic personality, drew hundreds to the church and then off to Guyana. As one former member remarked, “everything was plausible, but in retrospect everything seems bizarre.”
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RAVE REVIEWS: Jonestown was smeared in the press before a single reporter had visited. Were the rumors true? This piece reveals scores of glowing reviews which were completely blocked from the U.S. press. To the people of Jonestown and its scores of visitors, this was a miraculous breakaway from inner city conditions of racism, drugs, crime, unemployment, substandard housing, education and medical care. How could a community acclaimed as "a paradise," "a utopia," and "a credit to humanity" veer into the catastrophe of mass death? One can never condone suicide.
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Contrary to reports, Jonestown had MANY visitors, including virtually every member of the Guyanese Cabinet, plus educators, agricultural experts, doctors, visiting relatives, and many others. Those reports, which are all rave reviews, survive to this day.
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Father Cares: The Last of Jonestown recaptures the final months for the People’s Temple cult. After problems arose for the group in San Francisco, they moved to the South American jungle during the 1970's. In 1978, reports of an increasingly hostile and controlling atmosphere by Jones led to a Congressional fact-finding mission into the cult. As the group, led by Rep. Leo J. Ryan (D-Calif.), was preparing to leave they were ambushed. Ryan, three American journalists and a Peoples Temple defector were killed. A dozen other people were injured.
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After escaping Jonestown, Clayton and Rhodes (who were not aware of each other’s movements) both looked for the home of one Guyanese family they knew, which was near Jonestown on the way to Port Kaituma. Clayton found the house in the dark, but Rhodes could not, and he continued on to Port Kaituma. Clayton told the Guyanese family what had just happened, but he was not taken seriously. Clayton then suggested that the people of Jonestown no longer needed their tools and equipment. The father of the Guyanese family then went to Jonestown as Clayton slept. He returned in the morning with a disturbed look on his face, according to Clayton.
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