Today is Drink The KoolAid Anniversary

From The History Channel, This Day in History daily email:


MASS SUICIDE IN JONESTOWN:
November 18, 1978

People's Temple leader Jim Jones leads hundreds of his followers in a mass
murder-suicide at their agricultural commune in remote northwestern Guyana. The
few cult members who refused to take the cyanide-laced fruit-flavored concoction
were either forced to do so at gunpoint or shot as they fled. The final death
toll was 913, including 276 children.Jim Jones was a charismatic churchman who
founded the People's Temple, a Christian sect, in Indianapolis in the 1950s. He
preached against racism, and his integrated congregation attracted mostly
African Americans. In 1965, he moved the group to northern California, settling
in Ukiah and after 1971 in San Francisco. In the 1970s, his church was accused
by the press of financial fraud, physical abuse of its members, and mistreatment
of children. In response to the mounting criticism, Jones led several hundred of
his followers to South America in 1977 and set up a utopian agricultural
settlement called Jonestown in the jungle of Guyana.A year later, a group of
ex-members convinced U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan, a Democrat of California, to
travel to Jonestown and investigate the commune. On November 17, 1978, Ryan
arrived in Jonestown with a group of journalists and other observers. At first
the visit went well, but the next day, as Ryan's group was about to leave,
several People's Church members approached members of the group and asked them
for passage out of Guyana. Jones became distressed at the defection of his
members, and one of Jones' lieutenants attacked Ryan with a knife. Ryan escaped
from the incident unharmed, but Jones then ordered Ryan and his companions
ambushed and killed at the airstrip as they attempted to leave. The congressman
and four others were murdered as they attempted to board their charter
planes.Back in Jonestown, Jones directed his followers in a mass suicide in a
clearing in the town. With Jones exhorting the "beauty of dying" over a
loudspeaker, hundreds drank a lethal cyanide and Kool-Aid drink. Those who tried
to escape were chased down and shot by Jones' lieutenants. Jones died of a
gunshot wound in the head, probably self-inflicted. Guyanese troops, alerted by
a cult member who escaped, reached Jonestown the next day. Only a dozen or so
followers survived, hidden in the jungle. Most of the 913 dead were lying side
by side in the clearing where Jones had preached to them for the last time.

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it well. I was in college at the time and one of the people ambushed at the airport was a local reporter here in Los Angeles, he was a real nice guy. That whole thing was so bizarre and sad. :-(