Among the few Americans, he was honored by officially inviting the President of the United States to the inauguration, and the San Francisco authorities have more than once set him up as an example of a good citizen. Everything changed in 1978, when Jim Jones took almost a thousand people with him to the next world.
On the way to the "Temple of the Nations"
Passers-by slowed down, listening attentively as ten-year-old Jim selflessly read the Bible. Many were surprised at such piety: the boy grew up in a family where religiosity was far from honored. His father, Warren Jones, was a notorious racist in Lynn, Indiana, and supported the Ku Klux Klan. Moreover, the family lived quite poorly: on the pension of the head of the family - a disabled person and a modest salary of his wife Lynette - a factory worker. By the way, she is an Indian from the Cherokee tribe.
In 1949, an eighteen-year-old boy got a job as an orderly at a hospital to pay for college at the private Butler University in Indianapolis. There he met the nurse Marceline Baldwin, whom he soon married.
Jim continued to preach on the streets of Indianapolis while working at a youth religious center where he learned to work with the audience. Finally, he won a place as a pastor in one of the churches, but did not last long there: the parishioners did not like his ideas about the equality of people of the white and black races. But Jones fell in love in one of the Negro neighborhoods, where residents raised funds for which he founded a small church, giving it the bombastic name "Temple of the Nations."
PR with a bias
Promotional video:
Jim has always admired the ability of Negro preachers to manage the emotions of believers, bringing them to ecstasy. He scrupulously studied the receptions of colleagues, for which he even went to one of the famous pastors in Philadelphia. The flock idolized him and was ready to fulfill any wish. But at the same time, as Jones noted to himself, the Holy Father himself did not shy away from luxury and lived on a grand scale …
Gradually, the 28-year-old pastor had a plan of action. To begin with, it was necessary to gain fame. Soon in the newspapers of Indiana and neighboring states in the criminal chronicle there were reports of attacks on Jim Jones: either members of the Ku Klux Klan hit him on the head with a bottle, or threaten his wife and children. True, there were never any witnesses to the incidents - the reporters received information from the victim himself.
The result of the PR campaign was not long in coming: at the insistence of the townspeople, the mayor of Indianapolis appointed Jones to the human rights committee - a municipal position with a decent salary.
Here in the United States during the Cuban missile crisis broke out "nuclear fever" - the Americans sought refuge from the atomic bombing. In one of the publications, Jones came across a note, which named 10 places that are the safest in case of war. He noted two for himself: in Brazil in Belo Horizonte and 200 kilometers from San Francisco.
The next day, the pastor announced to the parishioners of the "Temple of the Nations" that he had a vision of a nuclear catastrophe and indicated a way to avoid it. He immediately warned that when he received a signal from above, he would have to hastily sell houses and withdraw money from accounts. Jones stated with surprise that the majority of the flock were ready to do this immediately.
Guiana is better
In the late 1960s, with donations from parishioners, Jones and his wife flew to Brazil, but Belo Horizonte disappointed him. But on the way back I liked Guyana - a recent colony of Great Britain, which had just gained independence. A few years later, the pastor bought a large plot of land (over 1.5 thousand hectares) in the jungle six miles from Port Kaituma here and equipped it. Just in case - you never know what …
After returning to Indianapolis, the enterprising pastor began conducting healing sessions at the "Temple of the Nations". Entering into religious ecstasy, he approached the sick people in the temple and touched them. A few touches, and … seriously ill patients jumped out of wheelchairs - the disease went away! No one would have thought that the instructed decorators were acting as ailing.
But when word spread that Jones was raising the dead, the authorities and doctors became interested in the miracle pastor. He did not wait for exposure, and with a hundred of the most devoted parishioners moved to the San Francisco area. There, for 122 thousand dollars, he bought an empty building with a large auditorium, where the "Temple of the Nations" settled.
President's "thank you"
Jim Jones quickly became friends with local authorities. To begin with, the followers who came with him filled unpopular jobs: janitors, cleaners, social workers. In addition, community members have always been at the forefront of volunteers. Finally, in October 1976, largely thanks to the support of the "Temple of the Nations," left-wing socialist George Moscone won the election for mayor of San Francisco.
In the same autumn, Jones rendered a service to the future US President Jimmy Carter: when the election speech of his wife Rosalyn was threatened with disruption due to the lack of an audience, it was the parishioners of the "Temple of the Nations" who filled the huge hall to overflowing. The next day, a photo of Jim Jones with Rosalyn Carter appeared in many newspapers. And after Carter's victory in the presidential election, the pastor received an invitation to the inauguration in Washington.
In San Francisco, the number of parishioners of the People's Temple has significantly increased - over seven thousand people have become regular participants in the sermons.
Heading south
Meanwhile, those who left the temple also appeared. Jones pioneered the practice of breaking up married couples and connecting "divorced" ones with men and women of their choice. At the same time, as a spiritual shepherd, he reserved the right to have an intimate relationship with any of the parishioners (which he constantly used).
Jones introduced ritual beating into the practice so that a person confesses his sins. Some, to avoid pain, had to stigmatize themselves. An exception was not made even for children - they were flogged right on the altar. There was a special room in the building where youngsters were exposed to electric shocks …
For a long time these horrors were hushed up - city newspapers received substantial awards on behalf of Jim Jones. The San Francisco police constantly received financial support for the disabled and the widows of the victims. Nevertheless, in November 1977, the moment came when it became impossible to hide the obvious, the case began to smell in court. The pastor understood: it was time to move to the previously chosen site in Guyana. Over 900 parishioners went with him. They sold their homes and withdrew cash from banks - all the money was transferred to the spiritual father.
Atypical Congressman
In Guyana, in the jungle by that time, a town had been built, which received the name Johnstown: a pavilion for the pastor and his family, cottages for the rest, household facilities. The authorities did not go there - it was enough for them that Jones publicly shared their views on "cooperative socialism."
In the United States, they also washed their hands: with the pastor who had left, they went home and the criminal problems that appeared around him. Only Congressman Leo Ryan, known for loud revelations, did not calm down. In order to assess the level of treatment of prisoners, he served time in solitary confinement at Folsom High Security Prison. And in order to reveal the level of education, he worked incognito for several weeks at a school in a Negro ghetto.
It was to the congressman in 1978 that complaints from relatives of those who left with Jones began to come in: allegedly, he was holding his followers by force and containing them in terrible conditions. Through the US State Department, Ryan obtained permission from the Guyanese authorities to visit Johnstown with a group of journalists.
"Paradise" in the jungle
Jim Jones received guests on November 17, 1978. The congressman and journalists immediately noted that the town resembles a place of detention: there are armed guards around the perimeter, a strict daily routine, the documents of the settlers were kept in a safe.
Jontown mass suicide victims.
But when at the general meeting Leo Ryan asked how people live here, everyone expressed their complete satisfaction. When Ryan offered to leave with him, there was one daredevil. Jones barely concealed his rage, but allowed the guest to spend the night and talk to the settlers. The journalists went to Port Kaituma for the night. Upon arrival there, one of the reporters found in his pocket a planted note with a request to be taken to the United States, since the pastor threatened to kill everyone. In the morning, when the journalists returned, Ryan was already waiting for them with 16 who wished to leave Johnstown. During parting, one of the pastor's close associates suddenly attacked the congressman with a knife, but he was neutralized. The journalists dragged Ryan into the truck, and he gave full throttle. At the airport, people quickly boarded two planes. The pilots were about to take off, but it was not there:a tractor drove onto the runway with guards from Johnstown, who opened fire on the fugitives. One plane was still able to rise into the sky … In the remaining Leo Ryan, three journalists and one of the displaced persons were killed, several people were injured. The attackers managed to escape before the arrival of police reinforcements. Meanwhile, in the settlement itself, Jim Jones made a short piercing speech to the flock that they were too good for this world and that they needed to go to another world - a better one. The elders, chanting, carried out a tank in which poison was dissolved in sweet water. First, the parents made the babies drink from bottles, then the older children drank the liquid, and then until the last settler - only 909 people (several of the elders who refused were given lethal injections). Jones himself committed suicide:Guyanese police arrived and found him dead with a bullet in his head. Oleg GALLE