Jim Jones and The Jonestown Massacre

On this Podcast we take a look at the largest cult killings of modern times and the man who made it happen, Jim Jones and The Jonestown Massacre. Born out of the socialist movement of 1960’s America this religious group soon gave way to conspiratorial prophecies and revolutionary societal change. The group was started and helmed by doomsday pastor Jim Jones and he took them from Indiana to California to Guyana, picking up admirers like Jane Fonda and Harvey Milk along the way. But it would all in in a tragedy that claimed the lives of over 900 people. We look at an event so shocking that it remains the definitive description of a modern religious cult and has managed to coin it’s own phrase in pop culture:

“Don’t drink the Kool-aid!”

The People’s Temple

From the very beginning Jim Jones led a troubled and unconventional life. One where he was educated in important and useful lessons on the topics of segregation, disenfranchisement, fear of nuclear war and mistrust of governments. It was these lessons that would lead him to become the leader of the People’s Temple and would inform the sermons that garnered him unflinching support. And he would use this support to live out his own personal fantasies and sadistic nature. His desire for power only bettered by his cruel methods of control. We cover the life and mind of the charismatic chief of this group of allegedly brain washed Americans and the forces of corruption and control that both protected and projected the church they called The People’s Temple.

The CIA, Guyana and the kool aid

But as political pressure and journalistic investigation threatened to tear the group apart they would make their ominous move to Guyana. And with the terrible tragedy that ensued the conspiracy theories began. Talk of MK Ultra techniques of mind control and programming. CIA connections in the Jonestown site and the personnel surrounding the hierarchy of the church. The talk of a staged event or ‘psy-op’ all part of long held nefarious scheme. We discuss dead congressmen and dead babies, all the mayhem, madness and mind control and some heavy CIA connections and coincidences to boot as we cover all the theories surronding Jim Jones and the Jonestown Massacre.