An apocalyptic cult, 900 dead: remembering the Jonestown massacre, 40 years on | World news | The Guardian
Four decades ago this Sunday, the Rev Jim Jones, the charismatic leader of an American cult in the Guyanese jungle, ordered his followers to murder a US congressman and several journalists, then commit mass suicide by drinking cyanide-laced fruit punch.The Jonestown massacre was, before 9/11, the largest single incident of intentional civilian death in American history. More than 900 people died, many children. It was also a devastating cultural trauma: the end of the last strains of a certain kind of 1960s idealism and 1970s radicalism. Jonestown’s legacy lives on in the ironic phrase “drink the Kool-Aid”. (In actuality it was Fla-Vor-Aid.)
Note: All posts in News Items, Opinion Pieces, and Home & Family are offered as a matter of interest to our readers. They do not necessarily represent the views of FBFI. They may often represent a different point of view which we think our readers might like to be aware.