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A MAN who lost 27 relatives in the Jonestown Massacre says the myth presenting the tragedy as an act of mass suicide needs to finally be dispelled and called what it really was: mass murder.
Author Ed Norwood’s relatives were part of the more than 900 members of the Peoples Temple that were found dead in the remote jungle of north-western Guyana on November 18, 1978, having either willingly consumed or been forcibly administered a lethal dose of potassium cyanide.
Jim Jones was a self-proclaimed profit who ordered the deaths of more than 900 members of his church in November 1978[/caption]
Among the dead were 300 children[/caption]
Author Ed Norwood lost 27 relatives in the massacre[/caption]
The order of death was commanded by the group’s megalomanic leader, Reverend Jim Jones, who ignored desperate pleas from his flock to spare their lives, instructing them instead to “die with dignity” by drinking laced grape Flavor Aid in an act of “revolutionary suicide.”
Those who refused were held down and forced to take it. Others were injected with a syringe.
Many attempted to escape but were hunted down by loyalist security guards wielding crossbows and guns. Some were shot.
Within 20 minutes, 909 people would be dead, nearly 300 of them children. It would remain the greatest single loss of American civil life in a deliberate act until the 9/11 attacks 23 years later.
Jones’ deadly commands became so famous that the phrase “drink the Kool-Aid” entered the American vernacular as shorthand for buying wholeheartedly into a dubious belief system.
But that’s a fact that irks numerous Jonestown survivors and families of the dead, like Norwood, who believe the term dehumanizes the victims and casts them as brainwashed fools who blindly followed Jones into the abyss.
There is so much more to Jonestown than its deadly culmination, Norwood says.
“We don’t talk about the Peoples Temple’s history, the history of the people, or how Jim Jones came into San Francisco and captured the hearts of so many people and stood on the platforms alongside so many high-profile politicians,” he said.
“We don’t always talk about the hysteria and hurts that led them there.”
Rather than a radical, crazed contingent consenting to their own suicides, Norwood says Jonestown was a “graveyard of broken people” whose trauma Jim Jones preyed upon and fed off.
“The people of Jonestown called Jim Jones ‘father,’” said Norwood.
“And there were so many broken people in San Francisco who were fatherless, who were broken, who were abandoned, and who were ostracized when Jones arrived and began calling himself their father.
“Jonestown was a graveyard of broken people and dreams, and a nightmare that Jones tried to camouflage as paradise.
“I’m so grateful I wasn’t there, but I am here now, and what I’m not going to do 46 years later is drink the Kool-Aid and say my family and all these other people died willingly.
“I lost 27 relatives to a madman […] he was a conman and a false prophet who preached a fake gospel.
“He should’ve never been trusted, but unfortunately so many people fell for it.”
HAUNTING MEMORIES
Norwood, author of the book Be A Giant Killer, was 5 years old when he was first introduced to Jim Jones by his grandmother, who took him to a service at the Peoples Temple in San Francisco, in 1975.
The only son of a traveling evangelist, Norwood spent much of his time in the care of his grandma, Fairy Norwood, and in the company of his seven youngest cousins – Karen, Lisa, Berry, Freddie, Adrian, Cassandra, and Alicia Lewis – whom he considered siblings.
At the time, the Peoples Temple was a burgeoning religious movement with an estimated membership of thousands and boasting endorsements from a number of local left-wing politicians and celebrities.
Jones originally founded the church in Indianapolis in 1954, with the white minister preaching socialism and other progressive ideologies to a predominantly Black congregation.
The self-proclaimed prophet mixed biblical teachings with Marxist theory, something he described as “apostolic socialism,” and said he planned to create a “utopia” on Earth, providing economic and social equality for the oppressed and scorned.
Norwood said he sees now why his grandmother and other members of his family were so taken by Jones’ message.
He came to San Francisco when the local African-American population was enduring a period of intense poverty and racial inequality.
Jones lured new members in with the promise of community, and free food and toys for their children.
But everything came with a hidden cost, Norwood said.
“I can’t remember when there weren’t free toys or food available. Jones came in really strategically and fed unmet needs,” he said.
“But there were so many flags that were ignored […] everything was free until it wasn’t. Everything was free until it cost them their lives.”
Jones mixed biblical teachings with Marxist theory in what he called ‘apostolic socialism’[/caption]
Ed lost seven of his cousins – whom he regarded to be siblings – in the massacre (pictured above is Adrienne Lewis)[/caption]
Victim Alicia Lewis[/caption]
Victim Barry Lewis[/caption]
Victim Cassandra Lewis[/caption]
Norwood’s first-hand memories of the Peoples Temple and Jones are fairly limited, but in the recollections he does have, he remembers being surrounded by children.
Whenever his mother was out of town, Ed said he would visit the temple with his grandmother, his aunt Doris Lewis, his seven youngest cousins, and other family members.
But his opinions of the church would hastily change one Sunday morning in either 1977 or 1978 when he was just 7 years old.
The typically vibrant and joyous atmosphere inside the church that day had been displaced by one of noticeable eeriness and darkness, he said.
Norwood disturbingly recalled how Jones had instructed some of his followers to set up a make-shift boxing ring on the stage to reprimand a 5-year-old boy who had reportedly broken a little girl’s leg while playing.
His punishment? Three rounds in the ring with an 8-year-old boy who “pummeled” the offending child unconscious, he said.
Norwood said he and his cousins watched on at the skirmish in horror.
“The message to every family’s child that day was fear: ‘Whatever happened to this 5-year-old boy will happen to you if you act out – you cannot hide. I will find you.’
“He was sending the message that he was a father who could take the decisions out of the hands of parents and punish anyone how he sees fit,” he recalled.
WARNINGS UNHEEDED
The fear-mongering, manipulation, and abuse perpetuated by Jones would gradually intensify before eventually permeating the atmosphere of the temple.
Similar tales of bullying, physical assault, and even accusations of rampant fraud eventually leaked in the press, sharpening scrutiny on Jones and his congregation.
Meanwhile, Norwood’s mom, Jynona Norwood, was growing increasingly concerned about the time her son was spending in the presence of Jones.
For months, Jynona complained of being haunted by a recurring nightmare that Jones was going to kill her family and the rest of the church in a jungle.
Jynona attempted to warn her family of her visions, urging them to abandon the Peoples Temple at once, but her warnings were never heeded.
Ed Norwood (pictured with his wife) was taken out by the church by his mom, who was convinced Jones was leading his flock to slaughter[/caption]
His memories of Jones are fragmented but today he believes the cult leader to be one of the most prolific mass murderers in history[/caption]
Freddie Lewis Jr. also died at Jonestown[/caption]
As did Karen Lewis[/caption]
Lisa Lewis was also killed[/caption]
Convinced the visions were a warning from a divine source, Jynona stormed into the Peoples Temple in the middle of a service one day and hoisted an 8-year-old Norwood out by his arm.
Members of the church attempted to intervene, causing a human tug of war to break out, with Norwood serving as the rope, he said.
Jynona triumphed in the struggle but her actions resulted in Jones putting a hit out on her life, according to Norwood.
She stopped traveling as an evangelist and moved with Norwood to an apartment in Daly City, just outside of San Francisco, to hide him from Jones, believing the church was plotting to kidnap him.
It was during this time that Jones, growing increasingly paranoid by unfavorable press, announced to the temple that they would be moving to a compound in Guyana, just outside of Georgetown, to build a socialist utopia that he promised would be heaven on Earth.
Within weeks, Norwood would see his grandmother, his cousins, and more than a dozen relatives for the last time.
He vividly recalled watching his mother pleading with his grandmother not to go to Guyana, but she refused to listen.
Norwood, too, desperately pleaded with Fairy to stay. He clung to her waist, screaming and crying as she packed her suitcase.
The next day, she was gone.
‘DIE WITH DIGNITY’
Following in her wake were Norwood’s seven youngest cousins who were taken to Guyana in what he claims was a kidnapping plot staged by his aunt without the knowledge of the children’s father, Freddie Lewis, who was not involved in the church.
Freddie returned home one day to find his home ransacked and all his children gone.
The next memory Ed says he has of Jonestown is watching television inside his home in Daly City on November 18, 1978, and seeing the names of more than 900 people scrolling across the screen who had died in an apparent mass suicide.
He said he sat stunned as he watched horrific images showing mounds of dead men, women, and children stacked on top of one another deep in the jungle of Jonestown, just as his mother had earlier envisioned.
Among them were 27 of his relatives, including his grandmother, his aunt, and at least 17 children – the youngest of whom was just 3 months old.
Their deaths came shortly after US Congressman Leo Ryan was shot dead along with four other people by temple gunmen at an airstrip near the Jonestown compound.
Ryan had been visiting Guyana to investigate alleged abuse and claims Jones’ followers were being held against their will.
On November 18, 1978, Jones instructed the 900 inhabitants of Jonestown to consume cyanide-laced punch[/caption]
Some members drank it willingly – others were forcibly injected or shot dead[/caption]
Congressman Leo Ryan was shot to death along with four others at an airstrip near the temple[/caption]
More than two-thirds of the victims were Black[/caption]
A 45-minute tape captured the last moments of Jonestown and Jim Jones’ parting words.
Jones told his gathered congregation that, after Ryan’s death, it was time for them to die and asked if there was any dissent.
An older woman, Christine Miller, rose to speak and said she didn’t believe death was their only option.
Instead, she pleaded with Jones to move the congregation to Russia or Cuba, insisting she deserved to choose whether she wanted to live or die.
“I’m not ready to die,” she told Jones. “I look at all the babies and I think they deserve to live.”
But Jones told Miller it was too late to hatch any other sort of exit plan, it was time for “revolutionary suicide.”
He instructed the compound’s doctor, Larry Schact, to prepare the poison.
Medical personnel brought large syringes and containers filled with a milky-white liquid into a tent that had been used as a school and library.
Jones told the commune the Guyanese Defense Force would be at their door within 45 minutes, and all of them would likely be shot on sight. Those unfortunate enough to survive would be castrated and tortured.
It was time to die with dignity, he said.
The children would be first.
“Lay down your life with dignity,” urged Jones.
“Don’t lay down with tears and agony. It’s nothing to do with death […] it’s just stepping over to another plane.
“Don’t be this way. 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; we have no choice.”
SAVING FACE
Some mothers willingly carried their children to their deaths. Others had their children pried from their arms, sobbing, screaming, and crying as their offspring died in front of them.
All the while, Jones preached the importance of hurrying.
At one stage he began grabbing people by the arm and dragging them to the poison.
After the poison was taken, the recipient would be escorted by two others to a clearing and laid face down on the ground.
Security guards circled the pavilion with crossbows to deter any detractors. Men with guns guarded the wider boundaries for the same purpose.
It’s unclear how many of the 909 dead were forcibly injected.
Jones, meanwhile, was found with a single gunshot wound to his head. The bullet entered beneath his right ear.
It’s been speculated that he may have taken his own life or that his nurse, Annie Moore, fatally shot him before taking her own life in the same manner.
The Road to Jonestown: A Timeline
March 2, 1954: Jim Jones forms the Community Unity Church in Indianapolis, which will later be renamed the Peoples Temple
April 11, 1961: Jones is appointed the first director of the Indianapolis Human Rights Commission
May 4, 1962 – December 1963: Paranoid about an impending nuclear war, Jones moves with his family to Brazil leaving the Temple to function without him. Jones chose Brazil after Esquire magazine named it among the nine safest places to be to avoid a thermonuclear blast
August 6, 1965: The Peoples Temple and its 140 members relocate to Ukiah, California, doubling its membership within four years
May 5, 1971: Jones moves the church again, this time to San Francisco believing room for expansion in Ukiah to be limited. A second church is also opened in Los Angeles
July – October 1973: The Peoples Temple exceeds 2,750 members, and the board of directors authorizes the establishment of a new agricultural project in Guyana. Jones visited the country while living in Brazil, labeling it a socialist paradise
April 4, 1974: The first of the Temple members arrive in Guyana to set up the Jonestown compound
July 6, 1976: Jones obtains a jeweler license, allowing him to import large monthly shipments of cyanide into Jonestown
June 5, 1977: Amid mounting local scrutiny in San Francisco, Jones and several hundreds of Temple members mass migrate to Guyana permanently
October 10, 1978: Jonestown reaches almost 1000 members
November 14, 1978: US Congressman Leo Ryan visits Jonestown with a delegation of 18 people. Jones initially refuses them entry but later grants permission
November 17, 1978: 14 defectors approach Ryan and ask to leave with him. Jones sees the small number as a profound failure, telling Ryan “All is lost”
November 18, 1978: Loyalist Larry Layton opens fire on a plane full of defectors. He wounds two before being disarmed.
Other members of the Temples’ Red Brigade security team open fire on Ryan and his delegation, killing the congressman, an NBC cameraman, and three others
Later, the congregation is ordered and forced the consume Jones’ death potion. 918 died in total.
For Norwood, he believes the writing was on the wall for Jonestown from the beginning of the compound’s inception.
Expressing an overwhelming sense of gratitude and relief for having been spared the same fate as his grandmother, cousins, aunts, and uncles, he said, “Jonestown was doomed to be a gravesite the moment people landed and surrendered their passports to him.
“And so the people of Jonestown followed a wicked man, a prideful man with a premeditated plan – I believe – to eventually cost them their lives, their hopes, their children, and their dreams.”
Norwood added that Jones’ endgame was a desperate attempt to fulfill his own self-aggrandized legacy.
“He was a conman, a false leader, and a false prophet who cared deeply about optics. That’s why passports were confiscated and people were held against their will,” he said.
“Jones did what happened to prevent a defection. He was desperate to make sure that the optics didn’t look a certain way.
“He couldn’t picture the government coming in and putting him in handcuffs and taking everyone else home.
“So, he decided at that moment to change the optics and change the narrative and try to sell us a cup of this flavor aid 46 years later that they did it to themselves.
“But we won’t be deceived like that. We know better than that.
We know that what took place in Jonestown, if we look deep enough, and we look beyond the front page story, and we look in the pages of history and the people that came out as survivors, we know that it was that he, after assassinating a congressman of the United States, he gave them no choice but to die on November 18, 1978.
“And if they would not die willingly, he took their lives from them.”
Prior to 9/11, what became known as the Jonestown massacre was the largest single incident of intentional civilian death in American history[/caption]
The Jonestown compound is seen above – the bodies of its members can be seen scattered around the church’s pavilion[/caption]
A LASTING MYTH
A new documentary about the Peoples Temple, Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown, aired on Hulu earlier this week.
Norwood has since watched all three parts and credited the series for “finally” getting the story of Jonestown right.
“This was the most sobering and forthright documentary I have ever seen […] the mass suicide has finally been recognized as a mass murder,” said Norwood.
The problem, he added, is that a memorial wall in Oakland listing all of the dead still bears Jim Jones’ name.
“[That] still unifies the myth of mass suicide, that our family members died together and willingly,” he continued.
“As long as the wall remains with his name, the myth remains.”
