Jonestown Massacre: 35th Anniversary

[PastTense]

No one has mentioned the 35th anniversary of the Jonestown Massacre, which happened November 18, 1978.

"“Jonestown” was the informal name for the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, an intentional community in northwestern Guyana formed by the Peoples Temple led by an American, Jim Jones. It became internationally notorious when on November 18, 1978, 918 people died in the settlement, at a nearby airstrip, and in Georgetown (Guyana’s capital). .

A total of 909 Temple members died in Jonestown, all but two from apparent cyanide poisoning, in an event termed “revolutionary suicide” by Jones"

Jonestown

While most committed suicide many were murdered (kids by their parents, many of the adults were forced to drink the “Koolaid” by guards).

See the 30th anniversary Straight Dope discussion:

30th anniversary of Jonestown

What craziness!

[Tread]

@PastTense

While most committed suicide many were murdered (kids by their parents, many of the adults were forced to drink the “Koolaid” by guards).

Pick at nits, but it wasn’t Kool-Aid®. It was Flavor Aid.

[Colibri]

@Tread

Pick at nits, but it wasn’t Kool-Aid®. It was Flavor Aid.

To further pick at nits, it was probably both.

Both brands are known to have been among the commune’s supplies: Film footage shot inside the compound prior to the events of November shows Jones opening a large chest in which boxes of both Flavor Aid and Kool-Aid are visible.[13] Criminal investigators testifying at the Jonestown inquest spoke of finding packets of “cool aid” (sic), and eyewitnesses to the incident are also recorded as speaking of “cool aid” or “Cool Aid.”[14] However, it is unclear whether they intended to refer to the actual Kool-Aid–brand drink or were using the name in a generic sense that might refer to any powdered flavored beverage.

It is most likely that both were used in the mass murder-suicide.

I was living in Panama at the time. Many of the bodies were flown from Guyana to the US bases here before being repatriated to the US.

[the_diego]

And a really big nit: when did people start calling it a massacre?

[Lord_Feldon]

@the_diego

And a really big nit: when did people start calling it a massacre?

November 1978. Although it seems like maybe the “massacre” was just the shooting at first.

[svd678]

I have seen a TV program on it recently, so it has not been ignored totally.

[monstro]

I’ve always kinda-sorta known about Jonestown, but I didn’t really know what it was all about until about five years ago, when I watched a PBS documentary about it.

It blew me away. Not by how weird it was, but by how normal it was until it got into “weird” territory. I grew up in a Pentacostal church with deeply devout parents, one of whom is quite left-wing radical. I could TOTALLY see my mother dragging us down to Guyana. My father might have disliked the strong authoritarian that Jim Jones was, but I can even imagine him going along as long as he was given significant role in the church.

I don’t think either would have gladly killed us. But I don’t think mattered in the end. In for an inch, in for a mile.

[Chefguy]

My wife has a letter that was written by Jim Jones, thanking her for some work she had done when she lived in San Francisco. This was before he went bonkers.

[Senegoid]

@Tread

Pick at nits, but it wasn’t Kool-Aid®. It was Flavor Aid.

I guess it was popularly reported as being “Kool-Aid” (however one might have spelled it), and it went down in the popular culture as that ever since. Hence, the phrase “Drink the Kool-Aid” – I don’t recall if that was a phrase before that, but it certainly has been ever since. So I guess that’s where the phrase came from.

It was certainly big news in the San Francisco area at the time, and the daily news cycles were dominated every day for about a week with the latest body-bag counts as they hauled them out. Then on Nov. 27, Mayor George Moscone and Councilman Harvey Milk were assassinated, so Jonestown suddenly got relegated to a small corner of Page 3 while the headlines were taken over by the assassination.

[Hippy_Hollow]

I remember when this happened. I was six and a half, and remember it being the most fucked up thing I’ve ever heard. I couldn’t understand why this guy who was supposed to help and care for all of these people killed them. I don’t remember if the bodies were shown on network TV, but it chills me to see those pictures, especially the kids and families.

On the other hand, I somehow knew nothing about Moscone and Milk until I was much older.

[Spoons]

@monstro

I’ve always kinda-sorta known about Jonestown, but I didn’t really know what it was all about until about five years ago, when I watched a PBS documentary about it.

I remember when it happened, and I’ve seen the documentary. It is frightening to see how all those people were led from Indiana to California to Guyana; only to die as they did.

The documentary is available on Youtube, here;

at this linkIt is totally SFW, but you may wish to exercise discretion, as parts of it (especially towards the end) may not be suitable for children.

[TBG]

@Senegoid

I guess it was popularly reported as being “Kool-Aid” (however one might have spelled it), and it went down in the popular culture as that ever since. Hence, the phrase “Drink the Kool-Aid” – I don’t recall if that was a phrase before that, but it certainly has been ever since. So I guess that’s where the phrase came from.

It’s totally where the phrase came from, not that the phrase as used has much to do with what happened, but that’s just how things go.

In addition to the whole was it kool-aid or flavor aid thing, “drinking the kool aid” seems to imply that the kool aid is some sort of brainwashing tool, allowing whoever’s kool aid you drank to make you do whatever he wants, rather than being brainwashed beforehand and the drink being poison.