Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 34 - Jonestown Massacre: Cult leader Jim Jones and his mass suicide in South America

Episode Date: May 8, 2017

The most insane suck yet, Timesuckers. How did a pastor and political activist convince nearly 1,000 people to move from California to a communist jungle compound in Guyana and then kill themselves by drinking poisoned Flavor Aid? Listen, find out, and take advantage of some great deals from this episode's sponsors!  *** Turn your commute into something more with a free trial at Audible. Go to Audible.com/timesuck to start sucking their many audiobooks right now. *** Timesuckers can also join the Dollar Shave Club and get their 1st month of the Executive Razor with a tube of Dr. Carver’s Shave Butter for ONLY $5 with FREE shipping. You can only get this offer exclusively at DollarShaveClub.com/timesuck.

At 520 local time, Saturday, November 18, 1978, on the port, Kaituma, Airstrip, and Guyana, members of the People's Temple, a religious and communist cult founded by American preacher and political activist Jim Jones, gunned down, former mayor of San Francisco, and California Congressman Leo Ryan. Four other members of Ryan's mission to investigate the cult's compound and save anyone who was trapped there were also shot dead. Another 11 were wounded. Within a few hours, over 900 more Americans would die in the jungle of South America, including nearly 300 children.

Jim Jones had given his followers the order to commit revolutionary suicide. In order some accepted willingly, and those who didn't were forced to accept, and everyone got a death cup of grape flavorade laced with valium, chlorohydrate, cyanide, and finairgon. Only a handful of the residents of Jonestown there that day would make it out alive.

Why did Jim Jones order the deaths of his own followers? Why did he have the congressman killed? Why did nearly 1,000 people follow Jim Jones order the deaths of his own followers? Why did he have the congressman killed? Why did nearly a thousand people follow Jim Jones the jungles of South America in the first place? Find out all you ever wanted to know and more about the event that launched the phrase, don't drink Kool-Aid and quite possibly the most insane episode yet of Time Suck. You're listening to Time Suck. Happy Monday, everybody. I'm Dan Cummins and thanks for listening to Time Suck.

Thanks to all you suckheads, all you time suckers out there for all the new iTunes reviews, we're halfway to the 600 review JFK conspiracy suck. Only about 500 reviews left to go to get that Friday bonus suckage pounded into your earholes. Thanks for all the new subscriptions and recommendations for others to listen. I appreciate all you spread the suck very, very much. And of course, thanks for clicking on that Amazon button at timesockpodcast.com to help the show while you do your Amazon shopping,

or maybe throw in some bucks to the suck using that donation button at timesockpodcast.com. Or buying some of those first generation timesock t-shirts this past week, made out of 407% imported koala ovaries, the softest fabric on earth. You can see some picks of timesockers wearing those shirts on Instagram

and at Dan Cummins' comedy. You can see a picture of the second generation time suck t-shirt design on my Instagram page as well looking good. I'm so happy without turned out. It is at the printers now and will be up soon in the store. And big thanks all of all of you who've been sending your show suggestions into me at admin at time suck podcast.com. I've been busy getting back to everyone I can. Suckhead Amber Smith requested this topic. I also got emails looking to Jim Jones from Travis Melvin, Alex Sarah Grigsby, Dominic Eaton, Alex Turmer, Noah, Seldaña, Ryan Daggett, Maddie DePuy

and I'm sure a few others I missed. Thanks for being curious enough to ride in and I hope you like what you found. And now, let's see what some of you other time suckers have been saying with some time sucker updates. Updates, get your time sucker updates. Alright, check out this subject line. Please help me Almighty Sukkot.

Love it. I'm emailing you to help me with my husband. He religiously listens to your time suck podcast, hail the suck God. My husband Phil refuses to watch my favorite movie, the big Lebowski, saying that it was so popular that all he heard was how cool it was and then made it a mission not to watch it. How fucking stupid does that sound? I made a deal with him. If you, the Almighty suck God can mention this email on one

of your podcasts that he will watch it with me. If you, the Almighty Suck God, can mention this email on one of your podcasts that he will watch it with me. Please help me by telling Phil to stop being a dick and watch the Big Lebowski with his wife. Thank you, Suck God. Jacqueline manual. Jacqueline, I'm on board. I'm on board. Stop being a stubborn, stubborn dick sack. See the movie, Phil. The Big Lebowski's fucking great. Kid me? I've talked about it on Sage Act, she numerous times. I don't know if it's gonna end up on an album, but it was part of the bit, until at least recently, my comeback has my favorite John Goodman role by far, you know? Just shut the fuck up, Donnie! You see what happens, Larry? This is what happens when you try to fuck a stranger in the ass.

So many good lines, so many good lines. Such good movies to do, man. Find out what I'm referring to, Phil. This aggression will not stand, man. Okay, it's genome, it's genome, not genome. Holy shit that I catch, hell. For pronouncing the human genome as the human genome. I got about literally 30 or 40 emails aggressively pointing out this mistake. You know, this is the problem with being a loner

and a reader instead of a socializer and a watcher, I'm actually fairly introverted, my personal life. So I read way more than I watch TV, your videos. I've probably spent too much time alone when I'm not with my kids. My wife traits really not conducive to learning proper pronunciation. I'm just reading all these terms, not hearing them.

I did, however, you sons of bitches, get an email from Grant Johnson. Some would say, hey, Dan, well done on the Genetic Modification Podcast. I'll be honest, I was really looking forward to shouting out arguments to your mistakes while driving to work on this one, but you did a fantastic job. I'm an epidemiologist and infectious disease expert, so this is a topic I'm pretty damn familiar with. Combine that with the true love of Argin with strangers and being a smug asshole in my super tiny field of expertise, and I thought I'd have a ripe field for a great drive to work. Much to my disappointment, you did good research and presented what you found very well. So you hear that, you time suckers, an epidemiologist, an infectious disease expert

that I handled the concept pretty well. And the concept, a little more important than the occasional mispronunciation. Mispronunciation. Jesus Christ, I mispronounce, mispronunciation for a second, but I correct myself. Your mother fucker. So, uh, Janome, ruined the whole episode for you, you go suck yourself, okay? And Colton Hardy, time-sucker who grew up in a dairy farm and is working on a PhD in biochemistry said, I thought he did really well presenting the science with not necessarily having a background in it. Yes!

He also let me know that funny little B in front of certain sciencey words is the Greek letter beta. So thank you. And thank you guys for writing it about that. It is, it is good, it's humbling, and it's good that I learn. I really am becoming better at pronouncing words in general

because of this podcast. I can't believe that I hosted a show. I mean, it wasn't a playboy, so. It's not like this. The standards were high, but I was in show for two years there. Oh, my God, we didn't stand up for years. I had a radio show years ago in Series XM.

Jesus Christ. And I speak like fucking boomhouser from King of the Hill. Anyway, David Robertson and others wrote in, let me know, I referred to muscular dystrophy as MS in the genetic modification designer baby episode. David says that the actual acronym for muscular dystrophy is MD, MS on the other hand stands for multiple sclerosis, a disease that makes your immune system attack,

the protective coating on your nerves. They have been trying to apply the CRISPR system to MS, but haven't had as much success as they did with MD. So sorry about that slip up, I hope I didn't give any false hope to anyone with MS. So yeah, so in all seriousness, I, yeah, again, I do hope that the baby genetic modification episode last week sparks some good thoughts and discussions

with you. I know I gotta let you, a lot of emails regarding that as well. Just about the future of humanity, I think it's really important that we contemplate this. What direction is our evolution heading? How should we deal with it best? Important stuff. And finally, this is an email from Time Sucker,

also named Dan. An email that twanged at my old heartstrings a little bit, Dan says, Hey, Dan, I wanted to preface this email with the fact that I love your comedy and while seeing you in Eury Pensal, but he's just spring, you told me and your wife, and my wife, about your podcast, and we've been suckers ever since. That being said, I also wanted to say I have loved listening to the podcast and designate time so I can listen to them uninterrupted, uninterrupted and full. That's nice.

I'll accept for a lease of lamb, which I had a hard time struggling through. Reason being, in 2008, while attending Penn State University around 22 years old, I myself had a pretty significant manic episode which landed me in a mental rehab facility for two weeks with almost two years of outpatient and personal rehabilitation. I have since found my career at a shit plant nonetheless. That's hilarious to me. The love of my life and just had my first child. The reason the episode was so hard for me to listen to

was that while you were explaining her story, it did in many ways remind me of my experience or what I remember of it. The grandiose thoughts, drawing bad connections and horrible conclusions, extreme risk taking. All while believing I was on a bullshit mental journey that was complete horse shit, and if I was in any right state of mind,

I would have known that. Almost everything you explained to her story, I agreed, was part of a delusional manic episode. Many times when people hear bipolar, they think bounce of happiness and depression, never realizing the mania side of it. Armenia. Anyways, I got through the podcast and I'm glad I did.

You brought up some good points and to be honest, make me feel happy knowing that some people are scared to think they may not be able to control their minds. Yes, some people are themselves. Yep, and I do worry about that often. In fact, I honestly thought I was hallucinating some of the Jim Jones info I came across later in this podcast because it was so unbelievable.

I was like, am I fucking just losing it? Am I actually reading these things? And then he says, it is lifelong journey and struggle, but with the right support and dedication and medication, it brings many wonderful things, like an appreciation for great laughter and fucking great comedy, something which you bring to my wife

and I on a weekly basis. That was nice. It was great to meet and see you live. Thanks again for the last, thanks for respectably and honestly tackling the subject that many people get asked heard about, keep on sucking master's sucker. Wow. Thank Thank you Dan. I'm extremely flattered and 20 listeners out there who may be struggling with serious mental illness, some mental health

issue of your own. Don't be afraid to get the help you need man. I joke around a lot even about psychology and stuff but you know get medicated. Don't lose your life because you were too proud to ask for help. Seriously, I don't want to lose any subscribers. I'm just bucking barely gotten enough for sponsors, so don't fuck it up for me. You beautiful bastards. I love you, suckheads. Now let's suck some Jimmy, all right?

All the way to the back of our throats. Let's get into some Jimmy Jones and get out of these time-soaker updates. Next time, suckers, I need a net. We all did. Alright, turns out, other than knowing he was a dude involved in a mass suicide a long time ago, I didn't know shit about Jim Jones before this suck. Wow, what a complicated, crazy story his life is. There are going to be some parts of the story that are so crazy.

You will think I'm leading you down one of those fake stories I do from time to time, that I did a lot in the last episode. But then there's not gonna be a just kidding. There's not gonna be a, no, but seriously, this story is fucking just bananas. I felt like I was literally losing my mind a few times just doing the research. Like I said, computer so long,

I was maybe hallucinating some of this stuff. I just kept thinking there's no way what I just heard could be real. I'd have to like, relisten the videos. I'm like, what? They're really saying that. They're not joking. This isn't a parody.

This is an actual documentary. It's the only episode that my research creeped my wife out. She just overheard some audio I was listening to and it really bugged her. Well, before we get into the actual Jones town massacre, we need to learn who Jim Jones was. And he was, again, an extremely complicated, complex dude. So let's start at his beginning and work our way

to Guyana and the final days of his cult with what ends up being a pretty dark and twisted time-subtimeline. Shrap on those boots, soldier. We're marching down a time sub timeline. Maze 13th, 1931. Jim Jones is born into the unincorporated township of Crete, Indiana. Crete barely has Wikipedia page, and the only notable person it mentions being from Crete is Jim Jones. So you know, not a lot of going on in Crete barely has Wikipedia page. And the only notable person it mentions

being from Crete is Jim Jones. So, you know, not a lot of going on in Crete. Crete is just outside of Lynn, Indiana, a town of roughly 1,000 people in central Indiana, kind of East Central Indiana, that unlike Crete has a post office, unlike Crete, list Jim Jones as being its only notable person.

So, you know, Jim Jones was born out in the sticks at the beginning of the Great Depression, not the best time and place to kick off your experience of America. Jim's father was James Thurman Jones, I disabled World War I veteran, not to be confused with James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader who said,

no, I am your father. Not Luke, I am your father, as we learned in the Mandela Effect episode. Jim's mom, Lyneta Jones, Lyneta, what a classic small town name. No one named Lyneta is born in Manhattan, right? You know, no Lyneta, a father is a Wall Street banker who was born in the Upper East Side.

Lyneta, she worked a variety of odd jobs to keep food on the table. And according to biography.com, Jim's mom was rarely around the house due to work and Jim's dad had little interest in him. Odd side note, Jim's mom was apparently convinced that she had given birth to a Messiah. Jim apparently believed her as well, as we'll find out later. A bit of a latch-key kid, Jim spent a lot of time with neighbors growing up and ended up going to different local churches with different local neighbors because you know

when you're living in the Create Lynn area of rural East Central Indiana in the 1930s church is what you do It's not like there was a arcade or movie theater not even some TV to watch And I'm guessing the radio options were somewhat limited probably probably just stations broadcasting more church Pentecostalism was hot at that time in the area and Jim befriended a local Pentecostal minister. I know a thing or two about Pentecostalism. I grew up around it in the small town of Riggins, Idaho, went to a number of churches there myself and my grandfather is a lifelong Pentecostal minister. Pentecostalism has been popular in rural America for a long time and it's all about living a spirit-filled

life. Pentecostals believe they're baptized and Holy Spirit and are empowered by God with gifts of the Holy Spirit such as divine healing, speaking in tongues. I've witnessed both the speaking in tongues and the laying on of hands to heal someone and it's fun, super weird. It's very extreme. I would scare the shit out of a Roman Catholic, for example, snake handling, you know, that came out of Pentecostalism. And to be clear, 99.9% of Pentecostal churches have no to do with snake handling, but there's a reason it came out of Pentecostalism and not like Lutheranism or Catholicism.

I think it's important to know about Jim. I personally think being raised Pentecostal, it gives you a better chance of starting to cult than being raised like Methodist. You know, it's more extreme. The congregation is used to and kind of willing to accept more extreme ideas. You know, you witness firsthand

extreme types of religious concepts, you know, the people are willing to accept. I witnessed when I was 18, my grandma stand up in the middle of a sermon, my grandma, my grandma, Carol, and just wave her arms around, and just start, she just started yelling, just children, children of God come to me.

I'm here for you, my babies. I'm your God. I'm your loving God, children. Tears filling her eyes. Others just shouting, Hallelujah, praise God, praise God. Me and my sister, her only went along to make my dad happy, just looking at each other like what the actual fuck is going on here Well, grandma Carol was taken in the spirit

Spirit had filled her with the message of the Lord She was God's conduit in that same sermon my 13 year old sister was brought to the pastor up to the pulpit several deacons church members did the lane on of hands on her place in her hands on her upon her body and casting out evil spirits They were trying to keep her from Lord casting out her doubt over God's word, you know, with your almighty power Father, I cast these troubling thoughts and spirits out of her body. Can I get a name in? You know, just just that kind of craziness. And I think the pastor picked on my sister. Our show is heard to come out because he knew I'd walk the fuck out. If they were gonna try that shit on me at 18 years old. Side note didn't work.

My sister is still a godless heathen. Her spirit doomed to the eternal flames of hell. I love my sister. Well, young Jim Jones got into religion more than most his age. Maybe it's because his parents didn't force it on him. Maybe it's because he founded on his own. Jim's classmates weren't as into religion as he was, and look, I left him isolated from his peers as a young kid,

and thought it was weirdo, what he was, what he was as we'll find out. And also, because his parents weren't that involved with him socially, he had a lot of time alone, he used that time to read. Legically, he was a voracious reader, and he wasn't reading like pulp fiction. All right, he wasn't.

He wasn't reading, you know, just some silly nonsense comic books. He was reading the Bible, he was reading books on Joseph Stalin, Carl Marx, Mahatma Gandhi, even Adolf Hitler. According to a PBS program on Jim Kidd's, who knew him, remember him, yeah, just being like super obsessed with religion and obsessed with death. And based on what he does later, you wonder if you've studied religion at some point as a kid, kind of like you were studying these books, you know, like maybe from an early age he knew it was just a good way to manipulate people, manipulate the masses. Jim also became interested in race relations at a young age.

He claimed his father who he referred to later as an alcoholic at ties to the KKK and not a big fan of his deadbeat alcoholic racist dad Made more effort than most white kids in the 30s and early 40s to be friend local African-Americans legend has it That years later his dad wouldn't let him bring one of his his black friends home and come into come into the house and Jim then didn't speak to his father for years Since 1945 1945 Jim parents Jim's parents James and Leta, the divorce and he goes to live with his mom and the bustling metropolis of Richmond, Indiana, 35,000 people, the county seat of Wayne County, Indiana, two-time winner of the All-America City Award, given to 10 communities each year

by the National Civic League and the United States, whose citizens worked together to identify and tackle community-wide challenges and achieve uncommon results. Notable residents of Richmond also include Jim Jones. Of course, in addition to Jim, Richmond has also raised Del Harris, head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers in the late 90s, head coach of the flat earth, Prankster,

Shaquille D. Saloneal, Richmond also produced Weeb Ubank, head coach of the flat earth prankster Shaquille diesel O'Neal, Richmond also produced Weeb Ubank, head coach of the 1958 and 1959 NFL champions, the Baltimore coach Colts, and a man who got into football as a child to work out the frustration he had from being teased continually for having the first name of Weeb. What's up, Weeb? What a fucking name that is. Richmond also produced Makaja Caja C. Henley, aka the roller skate king, whose patented roller skates

outsold all roller skate competitors in the 1890s. Maccaja and weeb, a lot of fun with names back in Richmond. Well, while living in Richmond, which in my mind looks like Disneyland's main street, USA, young Jim works at a hospital as an orderly while still in a high school and meets young nurse and Harry Bumbati, Marceline Baldwin,

who I wished for the sake of this story was related to Alec Baldwin, but I don't think that's the case. Well June 12th, 1949, Marceline, what another great small town name, Marceline, and Jim do what young people do in Indiana in the 1940s and they get married. Young.

Jim had just turned 18, graduated high school the month before. Marcelein is 22, scandalous. She's a horny old maid. So do some young fellow. And after getting married, the couple moves nearby college town of Bloomington, Indiana where Jim attends classes at Indiana University and where a young Jim listens to his speech on racial equality given by Eleanor Roosevelt that really leaves an impression on him. 1951, Jim and Marceline moved to Indianapolis, just steadily moving up the Indiana urban

population ladder. Crete, to Lynn, to Richmond, to Bloomington, to Indiana's biggest city, Indianapolis. It was here that the man who read Stalin and Marx as a child would attend his first Communist meetings. Okay, quick note on Communism. It's come up in the Maryland and Roe episode, the Pablo Escobar episode, and again, now, it's been a big unintentional theme.

I had no idea it would be when I selected these three topics. I didn't realize how Communist ideals float around the Americas. It was really a common phenomena in the Americas during the mid-20th century. Merriam Webster defines communism as a theory advocating elimination of private property. And also a system in which goods are owned and common and are available to all as needed. It also goes on to say that communism is a doctrine based on revolutionary Marxian socialism and Marxism, Marxism slash Leninism that was the official ideology of the USSR, or a totalitarian system of government in which a single authoritarian party control state-owned means of production, or a final stage

of society in Marxist theory in which the state has withered away and economic goods are distributed equitably. I define communism as some idealistic nonsense that only works in theory. In the late 1940s and 1950s, the US government and the American general population was terrified of communism. This is the Cold War. Focus on communism during this period of US history became known as, I don't even know if it was the Cold War.

I just do that out there because the term stuck on my head. I'm gonna put a question mark on that. That didn't come from my research. Maybe it was, but there was a huge fear of communism. It was known as the Red Scare actually around that time. Federal employees were analyzed to determine whether they were sufficiently loyal to the government. That was going on at this time.

The House on Un-American Activities Committee, as well as US Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. They were investigating allegations of subversive elements in the government and in the Hollywood film industry to make certain no communist propaganda was being unleashed on American children. This is when people were very, very serious about communism.

Karl Marx's notion of communism, laid out by Karl Marx and Frederick Ingalls in 1848 called for a violent revolution by the poor working class to topple the wealthy factory-owning elites to create a society in which all of economics and all politics are combined into one perfect, classless, automatic, governmentless system based on common ownership of all economic means of production and social sameness. And this is what Jim Jones began to desperately want to create,

a society free of classes, a society free from the racism he saw around him, a society free from the separation between the haves and the have-nots free of ageism, sexism, et cetera. He began to see capitalism as evil and oppressive and to be clear because it's some confusion from some of you listeners, I am not personally in favor of communism. I've referenced what Pablo thought about it and now what

Jim Jones thought about it and I got some emails where some of you subheads apparently thought I'm a big red. I'm not. I think it's a beautiful dream. Just dream where we all share everything, we all get along. But I think it's just that. I think it's a dream. I don't believe human nature would ever allow that type of society to exist for any length of time on any scope. Evolution and natural selection is based on natural competition. I think we're hardwired to compete for our survival and competition kills communism. I'm a big fan of properly regulated capitalism. Don't allow one company to too thoroughly dominate any particular industry and then unfairly set the price

because there's no competition to drive the price down. And whenever I look at big fans of communism, people like Jim Jones, I never believe they really believe in it. Truly, they don't really want everybody to equal. Jim didn't, he wanted everyone else to be equal and then he wanted to be a step above that. He wanted all these equal people doing equal jobs to listen to him, you know, without fucking criticism.

That's not a quality. That's one person being a dictator, you know, most communist leaders. I think they want to be well taken care of dictators and they want everyone else to be communist. I just don't buy it. And keeping with my capitalist ideals, I'd like to take a moment to tell you about our first sponsor. Today's time suck is brought to you by Audible. Do you love books but find that you never have time

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oh Jimmy Jones, you might wanna check out a new book on Jim Jones, it just came out a few weeks ago. I checked out a lot of the reviews, you know, reference it myself for this episode. It's called The Road to Jones Town, Jim Jones and the People's Temple by Jeff Gwyn. There you go, you know, enjoy a walk in the park and a twist in the plot. You can't make more time, but you can make the most of it. So turn your commute into something more with a free trial at Audible. So go to audible.com slash time suck to take advantage of this deal.

That's audible.com slash time suck. Okay. 1952. In 1952, Jones enters the ministry while still taking college classes. Night classes now at Butler University. He eventually get a degree in secondary education. I became a student pastor at Somerset Southside Methodist Church. According to later biographers, Jones moved into the church

with his way of subversively spreading his Marxist ideals after being harassed by the FBI for attending some of those communist meetings. He quickly gained a reputation as a charismatic evangelist, Jesus Christ, and faith healer, putting that early Pentecostal exposure to good use, and many of his healings were later revealed to be staged as most faith healings are. Come on. Many of the cancers coughed up, were actually found to be bloody chicken parts, Many of the infirmed or perfectly healthy people in disguise. I've always wondered how faith healers get people to fake a healing. Right? Like, how do you sell that?

Just, hey, hey, look, I need your help today. Usually, I can knock out a broken leg, no problem. But today, my God connection is down. It's down, bad time, right? Now to the big faith, healing and the 10th revival is because of where the moon is in its cycle. It has little to do with the Uranus being too close to satan. But look, I'd love to explain it all, but we don't have time right now. So if you could just put this cast on the, if you could just take all this crutches,

huh? And you could just limp around a little bit I until I call you up and then you can yammer on about being cured from a polio or What not? Galsha. I sure reckon I'd be grateful. I don't know Uh, he used to use the higher private investigators to get personal information about faith healing convention attendees Home addresses social security numbers, so we can magically reveal the information to the church attendees. Time-soaked topic, Harry Houdini would have had a field day

exposed in this dude as fraud early on. Well, 1954, Jones branches out on his own after the church, he's working at refuses to hold racially integrated services. He doesn't just want to con white people, he wants to con everybody. Now actually he would become a monastery later, but as a young man, you know, despite the fake and the faith in him, the guy was a true pioneer in racial equality. He opens the community, unity church, and a small rented space in Indianapolis.

1956 Jones congregation is growing and he buys his first church, right? An erasially mixed neighborhood in Indianapolis and he opens the wings of deliverance church Which would soon change his name to the church that would remain until Jones town, masquerade of 1978 the people's temple The church was dissolved After after the massacre kind of hard to keep the movement going when 99% of your congregation and your leader Have killed themselves or been murdered by other members that would that would make for an awkward church service of the people's temple in 1979. Just okay, so thank you all for coming today. And by all of you, I of course, of course, me, you, Gary. So should we talk about what Jim would have wanted us to do,

which would be killer of cells, you know, or, you know, just have a few donuts and stare silently off into the distance and try and think about what we're us to do, which would be killer sales, yeah. Or, you know, just have a few donuts and stare silently off into the distance and try and think about what we're going to do with the rest of our lives. In those early years, Jim's grows his congregation by buying time on local AM radio stations, delivering sermons, by holding giant religious conventions where he's bringing in more well-known evangelists to headline the event. I love that there's a whole circuit for this. Kind of like it might it must have been like similar to the stand-up comedy circuit, you know? One of these evangelists after shows,

would just be backstage, talking about how they just killed it. Like some comics do. It's nice sermon, Jebadaya. You crushed it out there, brother. You crushed it. Love the new stuff. I didn't even see him new.

It seemed polished. I'll be honest, it seemed totally polished. Same like some of your best stuff. You've been working it out? Is a local community church often mic nights? Well, I'll be honest, it seemed totally polished, seemed like some of your best stuff. You've been working on it out? Is a local community church often mic nights? Well, 1960, early on, Jimmy does do some cool shit. All right, he's a lot more than a phony faith healer. The People's Temple opens a soup kitchen

in 1960 and Indianapolis, handing out about 2,800 meals a month to local poor. He encourages church members to dress casually so that no one feels less than anyone else. The People's Temple offers social services that include rent assistance, job placement, free canned goods, clothing, coal for winter heating. January 6, 1961, Jim worked so hard into so much for the city's disenfranchise that on that date, Indianapolis Mayor Charles Boswell appoints him to be the director of the Indian

apolis Human Rights Commission. The appointment increased Jim's public visibility at tonn, you know, you know, he's speaking about his work at the poor And of course he's talking about the people's temple on public radio local news public television A lot of media coverage when he campaigned for the racial integration of local businesses and then that kind of Backfired on his church, you know. The racial integration philosophy didn't set well with everyone in 1960s Indiana. This is a state that just a few decades before had one of the largest and most active branches

of the KKK in America. His church gets a swastika spray painted on it, shots are fired at this temple, a stick of dynamite is found outside the temple, pretty big warning. Jim gets some harassing phone calls at his home. Even a dead cat is supposedly thrown in his yard. But for when I read, I think this is weird.

It didn't even sound like it was Jim's cat. Who the fuck, who does that? What does a random dead cat be thrown in your yard? Have to do with racial integration protests, you know? Just a couple of red dags. He's got damn it, Rodney Bobby. I'm not a sicker, Jim Jones, shit. I'm not a sick. You know, you're preaching to the choir Rick

Arrandy. You ain't need to give me on board. We got to do us something Rodney Bobby. We got to teach us Jim Jones a lesson. Yeah, a lesson. That's exactly what I was thinking Rick Arrandy. But what? I don't know, but until we think of something better, I want you to grab me a cat. What cat? Oh, go grab me more of Don and Michael's cat. So maybe I want to dug Kyle's cats. Maybe I want to sue the wind his cats. What are we going to do with that? They are cat.

We're going to kill it. We're going to kill that kitty cat. And we're going to throw it in Jim Jones. Yard. That's that's how I felt like the meeting went down. Well, in the early 1960s, the negative kickback on Jones' racial integration push is creating a lot of stress in Jim's life. And behind the scenes, he also confesses to Marceline around this time that he no longer

believes in God at all, which doesn't set well with her initially. She's not using religion as a way to indoctrinate others with communist ideals she actually believes in God. So there's friction at home and perhaps in a response to all this stress Jim starts abusing amphetamines. If you remember from the Pablo Escobar episode, amphetamines were popular and easy to get in America at this time and they were legal. In the 1960s, legal amphetamines were being abused at the same rate as meth is being abused today and then just like now they share the same negative side effects, one of which is paranoia. Hallucinations and paranoia

can be the effects of chronic long-term abuse. And the early 1960s Jim had visions that giant global nuclear attacks were imminent. He claimed Chicago and Indianapolis would be destroyed in 1967. And then he read an article in Esquire magazine about the nine safest places to live on Earth where you can most likely survive a nuclear attack and the area around Yucaya, California was one of these places. In 1965, Jim, his wife, there are seven adopted rainbow children of various races including African American,

Native American and Korean, Stephen Gondi Jones, their five-year-old biological son, and about 140 members, maybe max, 100 to 140 members, of their congregation moved to the Redwood Valley just outside of Yucaya. No wonder he was taking uppers, he had eight fucking kids. No wonder he thought about suicide a lot. I love my kids, but I'd rather drink some cool light. I have six more of them. He's Christ.

I don't know how some people do it. Well, with church money, Jim was able to buy a new church in the Redwood Valley, and also a farm in 1965 in Jim Jones' experiment and communal living began. They'd have goats, chickens, cows, crops. They're able to supply themselves with their own food, grow on their own land. There's no racial segregation to the People's Temple.

Redwood Valley compound, no economic segregation, just communal church-owned homes, and devoted followers living under the watchful eye of a man who doesn't actually believe in God and who told them Indianapolis would be destroyed in a nuclear attack in 1967, even though they'd live outside of Yucai until 1974. What the hell did he say to his followers in 1968? Hey you guys, I know a lot of you are confused. As to why Indianapolis is not currently a pile of radioactive rubble. You're saying stuff to me like Jim. Jim, we moved across the country to avoid a nuclear attack. You said what happened, and now that nuclear attack has not happened.

How can you explain this? Where? My children. The explanation is simple. You miss, you miss, heard me, you miss, you miss, heard me. You see, you thought I said nuclear. When, when I really said, if you have a listing extra closely, like you should have been, I said a toicular, I said a toicular attack was going to destroy an enabler. A toicular attack

is when the spiritual environment is destroyed that you can't see. The spiritual, but I came and I assure you three to clear, two clear bombs, wiped Indianapolis off the map last year and the city is completely spiritually destroyed. Any who check out that sunset? Oh sure is beautiful here. I'm sure glad I moved just to California. I mean, right guys? Come on, come on. Who's with me? Okay. So Jim encourages church members to give over their properties and savings to the cause. Many do. They're able to buy some grayhound buses, start turning around the country in the summers on recruitment campaigns to bring more people to Yucaya. Jim would put on elaborate faith healing demonstrations and just mesmerize people. I've watched YouTube videos and the dude is magnetically charismatic.

He whips these religious audiences into a frenzy. It's pretty unreal. People are getting, you know, uh, set their crutches down, they're taking off casts, they're stepping on a wheelchair, spuck, he goes big, he goes big. I saw a video of this elderly woman or stepping on a wheelchair, fuck, he goes big, he goes big. I saw a video of this elderly woman. This is so crazy. She's supposedly wheelchair bound. Some woman who Jim supposedly doesn't know starts to slowly get up on, you know, shaky legs

as Jim commands, I command you to stand. Stand, man, I command you to stand. And the power of Jesus, stand, praise Jesus. The organ music is going in the background. Bapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapapap You know, she starts fucking, then she starts like kind of jogging and then she's running and then she's waving her arms in the air and people Oh my God, people crying, how do you know she's crying? Fucking everyone is going fucking bananas. You know, he's leading this congregation to ecstasy. Well, it turns out that lady was a perfectly able-bodied people's temple secretary.

Again, how did he convince other people's temple members that that was fucking cool? How did he get them to see him as anything but a charlotte and after that? I don't know. Well to make money, the church begins investing in things like elderly group homes, you know? They're kind of like part of their mission of helping the poor while gaining some income and some real estate assets. Turns out as you'll see later, he was not totally on the up and up in these business dealings. Communal members possessions were being sold through temple and teak stores. We can flea markets, talked a lot of elderly members into giving all their belongings over to the church. In exchange, the church would take care of them, not just by putting them in a nursing home,

but by making them part of the community. And he also made money by applying a little Jim Jones communism on his members capitalist careers. Many younger Jim's people's temple members took jobs in the area or new recruits, you know, already had jobs already. And Jim insisted they hand over their entire paycheck to the church, and then they receive a small allowance back from the church.

You know, again, kind of like using capitalism to kind of fucking put some communist umbrella over, it's really weird. Maybe not a big deal if you're an assistant janitor. Huge deal, if you're a head surgeon, take that capitalistic wage you've been earning. And then you, you know, you hand it over. And then he gives you,

everyone gets the same amount regardless of your career communist allowance. Fucking classic Jim Jones, man. You just got Jim Jonesed. The church would also take care of every member's medical and dental needs. They had their jobs. They did for the church on top of their private jobs, you know?

Help and take care of animals, the crops, helping construct new church facilities, helping the elderly and the church nursing homes, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I watched countless interviews with former members. And one thing they keep coming back to is being so busy working all these jobs. There was very little time for sleep. They talk about only getting a few hours of sleep a night, night after night, after night, always so tired all the time. They just didn't feel like they could think, you know, and they just let Jim think for them.

You know, he could like, hold these meetings again until like dawn the next day. I kind of get that man. I get being so tired just like, yeah, just whatever, you whatever, Jim, you just tell me what to do. I can feel like a zombie. Jim probably wasn't getting much sleep either, but he didn't need it. He was jacked up on an emphetamines all the time,

even though he preached a clean lifestyle. Emphetamines that were making him so insane out there in Northern California, he begins telling church members he's an actual prophet of God now, and God's name is emphetamine. Or perhaps God's name is Nimrod, Lord of the galaxy. God is speaking to Jim.

It's God's words according to Jim. A little known fact, the Belushi sitcom according to Jim was based on Jim Jones. I don't know if you know that. They just tweaked Belushi's character a little bit, made him a stereotypical sitcom, cliche, husband. His wife is always right. Instead of a socialist co-leader,

who would eventually force his wife to commit suicide with many others. But you know, other than that, it's like the same guy. Okay, and then as time goes by, Jim starts to drop the Christian act. He starts to transform his Christian sermons into socialist sermons. He starts telling his father that the Bible is actually bad for them, that it's a vehicle of oppression, that has been holding down the black man and women of all colors for centuries. That old Karl Marx religion of the Ethiopian of the people teachings are coming out. He'd have stuff like throw the Bible onto the ground during a sermon. And then when the room is dead quiet, he asks, do you see any Latin coming down to

strike me? There's no heaven up there. We need to build heaven for ourselves right here. These people go along with it. I gotta say, man, that's an impressive pivot. To bring people into a Christian cult and slowly, but surely turn them into a communist cult that renounces many of the teachings of Christianity.

He tells Christians that the Bible is false, that he is God's true prophet. Not an easy sell, man. If Jim Jones would have focused his energy on being like a car salesman, many of you would be driving cars. You'd recently drove it off of one of many of the Jim Jones dealerships cross country.

He also starts preaching some weird sexual shit in 1970s. Some sermons. Oh man, you can just like hear the emphetamines talking. You can hear the pet pills talking in these sermons. Jim starts telling his congregation that everyone is actually gay. Everyone except for him. Jim Jones is literally the only straight man left on earth, and if it's followers, his children

try to engage in heterosexual relationships. They're just over compensating for their homosexuality. Jim tells followers that sexual relationships are selfish to take away from the focus on the community. This is all stuff I read a number of sources and watched a former members give firsthand accounts of in the PBS Jones Town documentary that's on YouTube Jim also offers to to satisfy the basic primitive sexual needs of his followers He's he's not gonna ask you to be celibate, but then not jerk you off from time to time. That wouldn't be Jim Jones

Everyone loves your respect. That's not classic Jim Jones. That's not how you get Jim Jonesed But seriously, he does make some offers some crazy crazy offers. Now this, I promise you, I'm not making this up. This is not some crazy bow jangles trick. You're not getting bow jangled here. One former member said that Jim offered to quote, fuck him in the ass. If that's what he needed. Say, saying quote.

Seriously, Jim explained that he wasn't gay, but this guy was gay, even though he thought he was straight. And he'd be happy to give him what he needed. And apparently he needed some bugery. Again, I'm not making this jump. Jim also transitions from God's prophet to just God around this time. You know, Mama's right, Linda's baby is the Messiah. Tells followers, if they need him to be God, he'll be God for them. And apparently God is real into ass fucking. I did not read or hear about any claims for him to take it in the ass for many who is followers. I guess that's, you know, wouldn't be God-like. And apparently, so apparently by the mid-70s Jim is living on nothing but amphetamines.

For breakfast, he eats a pile of amphetamines and washes them down with another pile of amphetamines. He's poured into a cup. So this one dude said that once what a bunch of dudes were working together on a compound, somebody said, I think if anyone wants father to screw them in the butt, they need to take an atom of first. I swear to you. This is what this guy says in this previous documentary. And then apparently someone else asked other members to raise their hands if Jim had given

them anal sex and a whole bunch of their hands went up. And then the two do hadn't gotten that yet. So he got real nervous and he was like, I got scared. And I thought, is this what's coming for me? Is this what it's all leading to? This is messed up, but so funny with me. Like, how do you let your mind go to a place as a heterosexual grown man, where you buy into the faith healing initially?

And then you buy into living in some community where everyone is equal, then you buy into some notion that maybe the Bible's wrong. Then you buy that this dude is maybe God's prophet. Then you buy, maybe he is God. Then your new God tells you everyone is homosexual, including you,

even though you've never been sexually attracted to women, to anything but women. And then God tells you he's gonna fuck you in the ass. No wonder he was able to convince these people to kill themselves later. If you can convince a bunch of straight dudes to stop having sex with women and let you sodomize them, they are your zombies. They will do anything you tell them. And Jim just didn't have sex with male members.

He also had numerous affairs with female followers, such as Carolyn Layton, a church administrator with whom he'd had a son, Jim Iran, an early Jones town test in Ucaya as well. During one sermon, he told everyone to drink some punch. They all did, then he told them it was poisoned. And they would all die together in the church to one group. He didn't tell them after a few minutes

that it wasn't poisoned, and then he did that as a test of their loyalty, their commitment to the cause. What they do, what he asks, regardless of what he asked. Some other members who left after this realized, he did this as a, yeah, complete control test. You know, did he have 100% control of these people? Jim began expanding his church around California

in the early 70s, given regular sermons, participating in political demonstrations in LA and San Francisco. Members also began to be routinely beaten for minor infractions. Grown-ass men would be spanked in front of other members, Sadamized and spanked.

A lot of butt play at the People's Temple. Old Jim butt play Jones. Well, if it isn't Jimmy Sadamite. Spankings weren't even the weirdest things I read about. Former members talked about being forced into boxing matches. When someone messed up, they'd be forced to box several other members. The guilty party might be forced to box several members

at a time, or maybe several fights in a row. fucking weird is that he'd have his followers fight themselves? How do you still justify being part of James crew at this point? I don't know what the name is for the psychological term or phenomenon or if there even is one But I think you just feel at this point and you'll understand this if you play poker you feel pot committed Right, you've already bet a few hundred bucks on the flop. You didn't get that card needed on the turn But if you fold now, you're definitely gonna lose so even though you only have a pair of twos, no chance at making that straight or flush, you call the other players $500 raise, hoping against all reason or sanity that somehow you'll win on the river, right? You know, these people, you know, maybe you've

already given two years worth of paychecks to Jim. You moved across the country. You know, you're being forced to fight as crazy. But if you walk away now, you're just a guy who lost all his money and got f**king the ass and you have nothing to show for it. You know, you don't get to be part of Jim's new society or as big utopian mission or whatever dream is selling you. Well, in 1971, Jim Jones opens the New People's Temple Church in San Francisco. In 1972, he opens a new branch in LA. New members were sought out and carefully screened in both locations.

Jim would have temple members go through the trash of new recruits. He would supposedly just look for anything like if they were kind of some spy from the government or something, find a way to find evidence against them. He would supposedly have them sign documents admitting they'd done horrible things that they'd never done, like having molested their own children, documents that would then be released if they ever left the movement, blackmail documents. He wanted to prove their total commitment to the movement. Around this time, Jim Jones himself moves the headquarters of the People's Temple.

From Redwood Valley to San Francisco, he reenters local politics. Having his supporters help various candidates in the office who are in line with Jim's left leaning political beliefs. 1973, Lester Ken Solving, in ordained, Episcopal priest and a reporter for San Francisco press wrote in eight parts series of articles, the documented allegations of physical abuse 1973, Lester Ken Solving, and ordained Episcopal Priest and a reporter for San Francisco Press wrote an eight-part series of articles, the documented allegations of physical abuse at the hands of Jim Jones, financial misdeeds, suspect theology with people's temple, the first four articles ridiculed Jim Jones' claims of divinity, his ability to raise the dead.

That's a fun claim to make. How does that not fold when someone's like, okay, prove it. Let's head to the cemetery. I want to see you raise something's dead. Oh, you mean that kind of dead, brother. I meant I could awake those who were dead tired if you would have listened carefully. That's what I was saying.

I can awaken the dead tired people. The article is criticized, questionable financial dealings, exposed involvement in Mendocino County, where you guys are located with employees and public officials in the temple. Temple members mobilized to write letters to the editor of the examiner and pick it to the newspaper's office and protest and then the examinator caved to the pressure, dropped the final four articles slated for the series and the bad press kind of went away for a

little bit, but it scared Jim. After these articles, Jim Jones prepared an immediate action contingency plan for responding to a police or media crackdown. He's getting more paranoid on that, uh, amphetamines. In October 1973, the directors of the People's Temple passed a resolution to establish an agricultural mission in Guyana, a cult compound. After researching several international options, based on Guyana's economy, and the fact that in the 1970s for a little while, Guyana did not have an extradition treaty with the U.S. There a lot of communists and socialists, idealists living in Guyana. Guyana achieved independence from Britain in 1966, didn't settle on a governmental style until 1970, when the country chose a democratic style government over a Marxist government.

The Democratic candidate Forbes Burnham, backed by the CIA, Forbes Burnham, what a great name for a politician. Hello, I'm Forbes Burnham. And I'll stand for truth, honor, integrity, prosperity, and many other outstanding virtues and words. The CIA, as we learned in the Pablo Escobar episode, has been fucking with everyone in South America during the mid-late 20th century. However, Forbes ends up not being the man the CIA thought he was once in power, Forbes began leaning further and further to the left by 1973 when Jim Jones chose Guyana Guyana

was essentially a socialist state. Well, you know who wasn't fucking with everybody in South America during the midlate, to late 20th century, who has no ties to any socialist movement whatsoever, our second sponsor. Time suck has brought to us today by Dollar Shave Club. A great shave with a great price, conveniently delivered right to your door. Don't buy a cheap disposable razor that gave you a cheap shave. Don't spend a fortune on razors with gimmicky shaving tech. You didn't need, don't try to shave your face with rusty scissors. That's the worst choice of all.

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at dollarshaveclub.com slash time suck. That's dollarshaveclub.com slash time suck. Do it for your face. And now back to our regularly scheduled program, according to Jim Jones. 1975, the election of George Musconi. Okay, Spital of Shady Stuff, Shady Stuff, Jim is doing now behind the scenes.

Jim Jones becomes a force to be reckoned with in the San Francisco political scene of the 70s. How? Even though the People's Temple never had more than 20,000 members at the most, that's the cult estimate, probably no more than 5,000. That's the outside investigator's estimate. Jim more than 5,000 That's the outside investigators estimate Jim could get 2000 of his followers to enthusiastically campaign for whatever local politician He chose with six hours notice they could volunteer to rally go door to door to drum up votes

Protests another candidate whatever was needed and in 1975 Jim had his people help liberal candidate George Moscone Get elected mayor in exchange, you know, little I'll scratch your back. You scratch mine for Jim Jones being appointed as housing commission chairman. Well, all right, the increased visibility that came with Jones getting back into politics would lead to his downfall. Just like you had to leave Indianapolis after getting involved in politics years earlier, that time for promoting racial integration leading to local racist chase and amount. This time, he and his followers shown up to a political event, Cathy I, of a local investigative

journalist. And you show up to, you know, multiple political events. They wanted to know what his little people's temple group was all about. Who were these people that would stand up every time James would speak and enthusiastically cheer? What was going on here, you know, and then fear of reasonable people having reasonable concerns would chase him out of the Bay area. One of the journalists who started to become curious about Jim was Phil Tracy, a reporter for the Village Voice,

who actually died last year in 2016, and who had just started working for the popular new West magazine in the Bay area in the early 70s. And he and Marshall Kildef wrote an expose on the cult that Jim got an advanced copy of on July 31st, and it was published next to August 1st. And apparently when he read it, he told his followers, they had to leave the country that night for Guyana. I read the article and it's an interesting look at the people's temple. On the one hand, it states that they offer a variety of social services in San Francisco

from their local branch on Geary Street, temple members, support, and staff, a free diagnostic and outpatient clinic, a physical therapy facility, a drug program that claims to have rehabilitated some 300 addicts, and a legal aid program for about 200 people a month. They have a free dining hall that feeds more homeless than any of the city's other soup kitchens, and they do all this without government funding. They contribute to local papers supporting freedom of the press. They donate to the NAACP the ACLU the farm workers union The people's temple set up a fund for the widows of slain policemen

They ran an escort service for local senior citizens. I'm assuming they meant they helped elderly people get to places They needed to go as opposed to providing them with Lady of the night escorts, although you know, I guess providing prostitutes for the elderly, you know, still charitable in its way They did a lot of other things, but then Phil spoke to several former members who let them know all it wasn't sunshine and rainbows and free services at the People's Temple. First off, members were expected to attend services several times a week that could last until the following daybreak. Members were paddled for infractions, like not being enthusiastic and out during Jim's sermons.

Members were required to undergo a process called catharsis when they had laid down on the floor and not respond to verbal insults and criticism from other members. Over time, these catharsis sessions began to include physical abuse, beatings, including the strange boxing matches I told you about earlier. Phil mentions members having to confess to false crimes, like molesting their kids. I mentioned that earlier as well. The blackmail stuff, members were bullied in giving all their possessions to the church, those who didn't give all their possessions over to the church would receive extreme catharsis sessions.

The journalist interviewed more than a dozen former temple members, members who agreed to have their photos released with their claims. Former members claimed that years before the abuse started out as just mental. Jim Jones would verbally degrade one member in front of the group, but then when he was done, he'd hug him, he'd tell him he was sorry that they went through that, but it was necessary to strengthen them for the cause. And father Jim loved you, father loved you. It's like he was a boot camp drill sergeant breaking them down so he could rebuild them

in his image. And then physical beatings began at first, just swathe on the boat with the belt maybe two or three then the belt was replaced with the paddle Then the paddle was replaced with the board and then the number of times they were spank increased from a few you know Maybe five ten swats at first to then 25 to then 50 to a hundred as time went on members rationalized the punishment Is being further on good, you know is negative reinforcement to keep them making positive choices. One of the former members then claimed that their 16 year old daughter hugged a non-people temple member

who was not to be lesbian and the hug was interpreted as sexual and sexual relationships were frowned upon. The girl was spanked with a wooden board 75 times until her butt looked like raw hamburger. She couldn't sit down for two weeks. Oh, fuck, that sounds ridiculous. Former members report Jim beginning to refer to himself as God more and more often.

And his sermons, you know, his time went on. They talk about realizing it was faking the faith healing demonstrations. You still, you know, used together donations for the church and recruit new members. And again, like we learned before, members were asked to be part of the faking. All of this has come out in this article. You know, members are saying they found out that the various home group homes, the temple, owned across the state money for patients

was given to the church, and then the church was, would take the money supposedly given for the group home, and they would just put that in the church's pockets, and then just kind of give the group home back just enough. Kind of like they was doing what the people's wages earlier, you know, taking what they were bringing in and then giving back a much smaller amount

for them to try and make it work. So he's skimming, he's skimming money from the government supposed to go to the patients. And the church is taking all this money the last couple of years and they're using it to build up this Jones town, escape plan in Guyana, this future home of theirs. Fear tactics are being used to give members

to give over their belongings, you know, to tell his largely black congregation that the US government would very soon be rounding them up into concentration camps just like Hitler had done with the Jewish people. And they had to get to Jonestown ASAP before this happened. And fear, always a powerful marketing tool. Oh, which I could pull that off. Sometimes, yeah. You listen to time suck every week. You get 10 friends to listen to the Tom suck. Oh, the great God Nimrod will eat your babies and your homes in his power for us,

ask watch jaws. I don't think I'm gonna buy that. Members said the only reason Jim expanded in San Francisco and Los Angeles was to make more money, you know. You know, you make more money than he could in living near Ucaya. There were other claims too, such as sleep was frowned upon

for members, members were never supposed to sleep more than six hours straight. Never supposed to sleep more than six hours night, usually much less than that. I guess you know, keeping confused, keeping tired and easy to control. There are claims that members being pissed on at catharic successions, holy degradation, Batman. Claims with juveniles being abused, forced into wrestling matches similar to the weird boxy matches. The new West journalist suggests these claims should be investigated by social workers. The journalist suggests that the government should look into the government funds, given to run group homes, being illegally funneled into the church. The article says the church makes it very hard for members to leave, and that once members

get to Guyana, it may be impossible for them to leave. It references most of the temple's properties also being put up for sale. The last paragraph of this article is early prophetic. It says, the story of Jim Jones and his people's temple is not over. In fact, it has only begun to be told. Well, August 1977, after the publication of that article in the new West, Jones relocates his entire operation

di Guyana in Northeastern South America and does it almost immediately and to explore almost overnight he takes off. He takes off within days and to explore that relocation what Jonestown was all about and the eventual massacre that would occur there. Let's hop on out of this here timeline. Good job, soldier.

You've made it back. Barely. Now what a crazy ride so far huh? When I heard that Jim Jones set up a compound in the jungles of South America, initially my first thought was who in the right mind was following this son of a bitch, you know? No one in the right mind, but he had carefully brainwashed his followers out of their right mind. Their right minds were fucking long gone.

He used sleep deprivation, he degraded them emotionally and physically he controlled every aspect of their lives, he had gotten many of them to sell all their belongings. I'm sure many of them felt like they were way past the point of going back to their former lives. No one likes to think they've thrown away their lives on a series of stupid choices. So they probably rationalize it all. The power of human rationalization is very, very strong. They convince themselves that Jim somehow maybe was God. And you do what God tells you to do, even if he doesn't make any sense. You know, the Lord works in mysterious ways.

They'd already heard that as a kid, you know, and Jim, Jim but played Jones. He's mysterious as fuck. You know, easier just to go along with it and stop thinking for yourself. Just let Jim tell you what to do. Well, the first group to go to Guyana to look into settling, setting up the Temple Agricultural Mission was a group of about eight people December 16th to December 28th 1973 the people's temple negotiated at least of 3800 acres of jungle and located it was located about 150 miles west of the Guyana Guyana is capital of Georgetown the site was isolated had soil of low fertility even by Guyana

standards so they were happy to give it to him the nearest body of of water was seven miles away. It had to take muddy roads to get there. Jones Towns location was advantageous, not only for Jones, because it was isolated, you know, make a heart of people to leave, but also for the Guy and E's government, because the settlement stood not far from Guy and his disputed border with Venezuela. And the Venezuela military will be reluctant to kind of storm in there if they were risking killing Americans. So the place was it was beyond remote. It was truly out in the jungle. December 1974, group of 30 or so people's temple followers came from California and a charter flown by Norman James to visit see how things were progressing. Some stayed. Brother Toto loved about 25 people by the end of 1976, about 45 people. Temple members are working hard to clear the jungle, build a community, create an agricultural project with Group Pineapple, Cassava, Edo's, other tropical fruits and vegetables

that I'd never fucking heard of. The group also raised livestock for a consumption they built a chikari. A little chikari, little Jim Jones chikari. Welcome to Jim Jones Tick and Shack. They produce both eggs, chicken, pigory, source of pork and ham. If you don't like to chickery, you'll try. Jim Jones, pigory. You get yourself, Jim Jonesed. But January 1977, the number of residents are growing about 50.

Setting was remote, but they had running water, electricity, storage system. They built dormitory housing. The party workers up into education of the young, care of the elderly, livestock, agriculture, et cetera. They sow their own clothes. By the time of the massacre, they agriculture, etc. They, they, you know, would sew their own clothes. By the time of the massacre, they were almost totally self-sufficient.

You know, they had planned as well as sawmill, had a doctor, had a pharmacy nursery. All kinds of shit. They had a radio system. The radio system had only Jim Jones used, and check out how crazy this is. He recorded new propaganda and sermons constantly. And for at least the last few months of life

in Jones town, he would replay old sermons and then mix in new ones. And he would play his various messages on this radio system that was broadcast throughout the compound 24 hours a day every day. You heard the voice of Jim Jones screaming nonsense constantly. You fucking woke up in the middle of the night and heard it. What a great way to break down your followers psychologically. What a great brainwashing technique.

Jim Jones news was the only news you would hear there was no radio other than his no TV nothing else You know and a lot of his messages revolved around how much the US hated them and the US forces would be sent down to destroy them at any time So by 1978 Jim's paranoia is getting out of control. He's becoming totally unhinged So by 1978, Jim's paranoia is getting out of control. He's becoming totally unhinged. Right, his addiction to infetomines is becoming more powerful. He's having a hard time hiding it from his followers. Now, he just fucking drugged out of his mind. His sermons are delivered to becoming

borderline and coherent. He's becoming more and more obsessed in his paranoia with thinking his followers want to leave him, leaving Jonestown becomes completely forbidden. Going home is called blasphemy. People who voiced or wanting to leave are shamed in front of the others. They're beaten.

I've listened to audio clips of him chastising people who just want to go home and visit their families and he just becomes enraged. Physical abuse has continued residents. Still being beaten. Jim's still having sex with him ever. He chooses male or female from his followers. You know, again, just emphetamines like crazy.

He's becoming more paranoid that capitalistic forces are trying to destroy what he's built. And an interesting thing about Jim's view on politics is that defeatism and nihilism he had down there. He had it long before Jones said he never thought socialism would triumph in the end. He basically thought that best case they could just delay the inevitable attack from outside forces. You know, just enjoy the socialist dream all at last because it's not gonna last for long and yet people still followed him. I am amazed about that nihilistic aspect of him, you know, because lasts because it's not gonna last for long. And yet people still follow him. I am amazed about that nihilistic aspect of him,

because I think it's one thing to get people to follow you when you tell them you're taking them to a new better place, you're showing them a new way to heaven, you got all the answers. You know, I think it's a lot harder to get people to follow you into just nothingness and eventual despair and destruction. Just this fatalistic fucking attitude

of everything's not gonna work out. Jim didn't believe in God, didn't believe in man. There was no God and man's nature ultimately was greedy and evil. But the right thing to do, you know, according to Jim, according to Jim Jones, was to fight that that nature as hard as you could, live purely for as long as you could

before the outside world came to destroy you. And because of this pessimistic view, you know, you've been thinking about mass suicide for years. He planned out the poison, cool address, be long before the congress world came to destroy you. And because of this pessimistic view, you know, you've been thinking about mass suicide for years. He planned out the poison-cooled recipe long before the congressman would come. It staged numerous fake suicides down in Jones town. We talked about fake suicides being staged, going back to Yucaya.

You know, he was ready. He had a plan. And a few members who escaped from Jones town before the end, you know, but they knew about the fake suicides. They knew about the beatings, about not being allowed to leave. Word was getting out. There was media interest back in the States after the new West article came out and Jim

fled. Family members are now starting to write to their congressmen saying they're afraid for the lives of their loved ones down in Guyana. Public interest is growing. What are they doing down there? Word about this gets back to Jim. He gets more and more defeatist about the whole situation. By the time congress Congressman Leo Ryan announced,

he was gonna fly down to Jonestown on November 1st, 1970. I mean, Jim was just fucking, he was right there. He was ready to make the call about mass suicide. The Jonestown members and Jones in her circle were super nervous about Congressman Ryan's visit because Jon's and his increasing paranoia would vacillate between saying they should let him, you know, in, let him see what a wonderful community

they'd built. And then also saying, the other times they should just kill them all the moment they arrive. Well, the investigation party does arrive. Survivors of Congressman Ryan's group arrive in Jonestown and they are not killed on site. Survivors of the investigation party talking documentaries about how impressed they were with Jonestown. Saying it was Spartan, but incredible. What they'd built for themselves in the middle of the South American jungle. The party came on a Friday, and that Friday night, the community put on a concert for Ryan and his group.

So when the members played in a band and I've listened to the footage again, and there's a lot of recorded stuff out there. It sounded great. Actually, it sounded really really good. Like really good. It's so eerie to watch knowing what's about to happen to them because they look so happy. They look so alive and vibrant, singing, dancing, you know, little kids, you know, lots of little kids out there, singing a dance in, you know, beautiful young adults singing a dance in so enthusiastic, you know, happy elderly people. This looks so fucking happy. And then one point Congressman Ryan takes the mic

in the middle of this little party, speaks to the group and he says, quote, I think that all of you know that I'm here to find out more about you. Questions have been raised about your operation here. Well, I can tell you right now that from the few conversations I've had with some of the folks here already this evening, that whatever the comments, you know, comments and complaints, there are about people here who believe that there is also people here who believe this is the best thing that ever happened to them in their whole life. The crowd goes nuts. They cheer so hard when he says that there's people there who think this is the best thing

that happened in their whole life. I mean, spontaneous, emotional cheering for like a solid minute. But not all of that cheering, it turns out, was genuine. A few minutes later, two different people's temple members passed some of Ryan's party members, some notes asking them to please Help them get out of Jones town and then the next day members start telling them You know Ryan's party on camera that they would also like to leave immediately They wanted to return to the US with Ryan and then when we're got out that a few people wanted to leave a few more people wanted to leave

And then the fun vibe of the previous night of singing a dance really changes you can see this footage You know and Jim Jones starts making pleas with defectors to stay, telling him, you can't leave. You're my people, you're my children. And then one of Jones's followers tells Ryan that he needs to leave, that he is an extreme danger. But Ryan tells him, you don't have to worry, we're safe. You have the congressional shield around you.

Well, it turns out that shield wasn't bullet proof. We're going to find out soon. Minutes later, another temple member approaches the congressman shaking and crying and then says, motherfucker, you're going to die. Pulls out a knife and tries to attack Ryan, other tackle this guy, but not before he gets some of his own blood when he accidentally cuts himself, all of a Ryan's shirt. So now the congressman is covering a blood. Everyone's starting to fucking freak out as they should be. The crew knows they got to leave now. We got to get out of here now. Ryan, the journalist and the team that came with him, a few temple members who wanted to leave. I'll take off the airport, minutes later, all hell breaks

loose. After the crew arrives to the tiny airport, just a landing strip that may cut out the jungle, a dump truck pulls up next to the Guyana Airlines plane. Temple members pour out of this dump truck, open fire on the investigation party. 16 people end up getting shot. Five would die, including the congressman. A backup assessment was also on the runway. And after a temple member who pretended he wanted to escape, it was really a plant. He was part of the assassination party, pulled out a gun, killed some of the pastors in that plane.

The shooter's overpower tossed out of the plane, the pilot and co-pilot, fly back to Georgetown. Other survivors made it out alive by fleeing into the surrounding jungle and just hiding and playing dead. Jim Jones knew that even though the congressman was impressed by a Jones town, once those defectors made it back to safety, they would talk about the beatings, the sexual abuse, the buggery, right? The refusal to allow anyone to leave, talk about how his little socialistic dictatorship experiment in the jungle, you know,

it would be over. He knew he was gonna be over, a Friday that was made back to life. Maybe he thought if he killed them, he could just keep word from getting out for a little longer. Maybe he thought a Cuba or Russia would take them in. Because that was an escape plan he'd mentioned to his followers many times.

And if shit went down, they were gonna take off to Russia. Or more likely, you know, maybe he just killed him out of pure spite. He'd mentioned to his followers many times and if shit went down, they were going to take off to Russia. Or more likely, you know, maybe he just killed him on a pure spite. He was furious that they had come down to his sanctuary. He never wanted them to come. You know, he was just, he was so angry that he couldn't escape eventual investigation into his colony no matter how far away from the U.S. he had made it. And for crashing and ruining his little party, those motherfuckers needed

to die. And then minutes later before the temple members even got back from the assassination, not all of them would get get back someone get apprehended by authorities. Jim Jones gathers everyone in for a meeting and explains to them that they must commit revolutionary suicide. It's time. It's time. They've been talking about it for years now. It's really time. And if you're very morbidly curious, you can hear this meeting. Jim recorded a lot of experiments, and this was no exception. There's a 45 minute audio clip on YouTube with the final moments of this compound.

Listen to it if you want, but I'm not gonna recommend it. I really am not. It's gonna mess your head up for a while. It is horrific. I felt like I needed to hear it to do this episode, but if I wasn't researching this podcast after a few minutes, I would have turned it off.

Here's a little kind of summary of the recording. Jim, at the beginning of it, he says, if we can't live in peace, let's die in peace. Crowd cheers. You know, it's like two minutes in, three minutes in, informs his followers that they all need to die. He tells the members that a retaliation for the shooting of the plane with the congressman on it, the US is going to send troops to butcher the people's tampled children. He keeps saying this, they're going to come torturing killer kids. Someone asked if it's too late to go to Russia and Jim tells them that yes, it is too late.

They won't have time to escape from the compound before the US soldiers get there. When one of this followers won't stop arguing that they should at least try to get to Russia, he explains that he's not going to try. There's no point in his followers living because I'm the best friend you'll ever have. He just says, I'm going to die and so you're going to die're gonna die the ego on this monster man if he can't do what he wants This followers the may as all well be dead Man he says it's the fool that continues to say the winning when they're losing we've lost friends He doesn't want us followers to see him captured see a little fife didn't brought down

Well then this one woman. Oh my god. This Christine this poor woman She won't give up making rational points and no one is going along with her and brought down. Well then this one woman, oh my god, this Christine, this poor woman, she won't give up making rational points and no one is going along with her. It's so fucking terrible to listen to. You know, she says stuff like, I still think that as an individual, I have a right to what I think, what I feel. I think we all have the right to our own destiny as individuals. And I think I have a right to choose mine and everyone else has a right to choose theirs. Now when she says this, there's perfectly rational, great point,

fucking silence from the group. Then another follower tells her, Christine, you're only standing here because he was standing here in the first place for furniture and gems. So I don't want you talking about having an individual life. Your life has been extended to today

because of him and the crowd cheers. Yeah, it's like everyone's taking fucking crazy pills. And a bit he says, you'll regret it if you don't die this day. And some other cult member starts yelling at Christine and the crowd is with her. You know, the person yelling at Christine, you must be scared to die. Later, the lady yells, you won't be no good in Russia. God damn it. Jim has the majority of these people convinced that the only reasonable thing to do now is to kill themselves. Well, 22 minutes in the 45 minute audio clip, someone says the congressman has been murdered. And then Jim says, it's all over. It's all over. Get the medicine. Referring to the poison. 25 minutes in. Oh, this is the so horrific.

The youngest kids. The youngest kids are poisoned first. You can hear them scream and try not to drink the boy. It's fucking awful. 27 minutes in, some follower starts talking about reincarnation and about how they're on this journey to the afterlife. How this is all good thing. And then 28 minutes in, yeah, man, you hear the kid screaming. 29 minutes in, a follower starts telling people to stop crying, saying, there's nothing to cry about

You know you should cry when you come into this world huge applause as she ends with we should be happy after a little pro death rant 31 minutes in Jim cuts off some woman saying her last words to the crowd You know, he's just like forgot sake. Let's just get on with it He's just getting frustrated. They've not just dying quickly. 30 minutes in, someone comes up to profusely thank Jim. For the time they did have in Jones Town, it's so surreal. They're thanking this guy as he's killing them. 34 minutes in, Jim says,

there's nothing we can do, friends. We can't separate ourselves from our own people. He speaks so calmly. As if group suicide, it's the only choice. It's the only logical choice. If anything, he seems like a little bored, a little disinterested. It's very surreal again, very surreal.

Talking about all his followers dying is if they're just going to bed for the night. Don't really have anything planned the next day. 36 minutes in, Jim is frustrated. People getting upset and struck some, die with some dignity. That's how communist should die. You think they're gonna allow us to get away with this?

You must be insane. Yeah, irony of him saying that. 38 minutes in, I call on you to stop this nonsense. And then response to people crying. I, 38 minutes in. I call on you to stop this nonsense and then response to people crying, all the upset children. I call on you to quit exciting your children when all they're doing is going to quiet rest. I call on you to stop this now.

If you have any respect at all, are we black, proud and socialist? Or what are we? Not even saying this gives anyone pause. No one's like a gym, you're white. You know that you're very very white, right? 40 minutes in. Jim says we're not letting them take our life. We're laying down our life. Big cheers from the crowd. Big cheers. 42 minutes in. Set an example for others. A thousand people

who don't like the way the world is. We didn't commit suicide. We committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhumane world. 43 minutes in it's so quiet. And the recording stays quiet until it's over because they're all dying. Shortly after the recording, Jones himself did not drink the punch. Once he knew his followers were dead, he shot himself, or maybe had himself shot by one of the last surviving members with speculation on both sides. Not only had Jim killed everyone in Jones town,

he'd also commanded that one of his temple members who was in their church at Georgetown, and Guyana with her three kids also killed herself and her children, she fucking did. She didn't have any of the poison punch, so she used a knife stabbed her two younger kids to death, then her grown daughter and her each slashed each other's throats. Another small group of temple members that included Jim's biological sons, Steven, were away from the compound that day to play a basketball game against the national

guy and ease team. They also lived as did some of those who shot Congressman Ryan and others at the airport and didn't make it back in time for the punch party because they were apprehended and a handful of others assigned with some tasks such as giving the temples remaining money The Soviets did make it out alive and that was it. That was it a community of nearly a thousand people In Guyana and handful of others still living in San Francisco LA and Yucaya is gone nearly all the temple members are dead They all almost all of them had already taken off to Guyana the US government sees the remaining assets of the church already take it off to Guyana. The US government sees as the remaining assets of the church, shutting down the California branches since the whole movement was based around Jim and he didn't leave any scripture behind to follow since it was more political than religious by the end.

There's no longer a movement for the surviving US members to even be a part of. Just fuck poof. One night, man, it is so, so, so unreal. They're dancing, singing, clapping, looking as full of life as a human can look. And the next day, it is all over. And there's nearly a thousand dead bodies piled around in this compound in the Guyana jungle. Sorry. So before I get to my last thoughts on this suck, there are, of course, alternative explanations for what happened at Jonestown on the web. Of course, there are.

Some people think that Jonestown was much more than a cult. They think that Jim Jones was a CIA operative who was performing numerous mind control experiments on behalf of the US government. There are numerous, carefully edited, YouTube, Alex Jones-ish fucking videos produced by people absolutely convinced this. I watched one of these videos

and it was just some silly ex-files bullshit, man. Even the video description, you can read that. and it's again, like I've talked many episodes back, you know, it looks like when you see like some crystal reference in a website, like, okay. It says, contrary to mainstream media propaganda, the people's temple in Jonestown, Guyana was not mass suicide. It was mass murder by the CIA, a lot of all caps in here. If you wonder where the people end up who are disappeared from the privatized

prison system, mental health facilities, child protective services, foster homes, and orphanages, etc. Here is your answer. Nazi war criminals continue their crimes against humanity, funded and protected by the same Rockefeller banking interests which run the US and other governments to develop new ways of controlling and killing innocent people. If you still believe our media would never lie to us, or that our CIA would never be this evil, this video should help you break that programming. All right, all right, fucking dickhead, way to take a partial truth, or a small truth, and then expand a bunch of nonsense off it. Yeah, sure, some shit happens, but come on. I did a lot of research. I don't fucking buy this for a second.

Sure, CIA did it. It's all the CIA and the earth is flat and NASA guards are patrolling the ice wall and space, lizards controller, every goddamn move. Get the fuck out of here. Well, there is another slightly more believable conspiracy theory out there that the reason Jones died of a gunshot instead of being poisoned

was not because he ever intended to kill himself. They think he didn't. After killing his followers, some people believe he was going to take all the people's temple money. He had, you know, hoarded and he was going to flee to Cuba. But he was intercepted the last second by both jangles. That three-legged, one-eyed genetically modified hellhound hates communist.

Almost as much as he loves defenders of freedom. And Grammy winners Michael McDonald and James Ingram riding upon his back, machine guns and hand, riding, ridding the Guy and a Jungle of communists like gardeners pulling out weeds. Yamotomsook! Ho ho ho ho, Yamotomsook! Come on! I couldn't do a bunch of bullshit in that last episode and then nothing this week you fucking kid me You can't go from getting both jangled and McDonald's on the reg to none at all in one week

Come on. I know some of your upset, but I had to Had to lighten this one up a bit right now, man It was getting fucking heavy from my own sake just to get through the rest Jesus. It's crazy right, huh? Man, what a complicated dude. I feel a lot better in some ways, reading about a guy like Jim Jones, if he was just all bad. Yeah, if his obvious motivation was just harming people, it'd make him easier to be like,

well, fucking, yeah, yeah, sure, he was just an evil son of a bitch, that's why he did it. But as bad as he was as horrible as the deeds he committed were, ugh, so horrible, he wasn't all bad. It's complicated, man. In any nap, he really did fight for racial equality when very few other white people did.

Initially misguided as he may have been. He really did seem like he was genuinely passionate about the plight of the poor and the disenfranchisement and he wanted to create a better world for them. Because he did feed the poor. He did help them pay their bills. That happened. He did help take care of the elderly.

He did initially flee out of Indiana because of racist persecution. I think it's very possible that it's true and tend, at that point may have still been to create some good society, some peaceful, socialist society that he thought would be good. But maybe not, maybe even then, was he already dreaming of being a dictator?

I mean, the dude read Hitler and Stalin as a kid. Stalin wasn't a good dude, millions of citizens starved on Stalin's watch. Millions more were executed for flimsy crimes against the state, made up crimes, persecuted, out of Stalin's paranoid dictatorship. Most historians agree Stalin was responsible for the deaths about 20 million people, 20 million. Why would you want to emulate anything that bastard did?

And what was up with all the satanizing? Was he attracted to men or was it about control? Was it about obedience in some sick way? And then what about the borderline raping? The female members. I watched tons of interviews where women said they would just be invited by Jim and do his Jones town office.

You come in, you just take us close off. Without even speaking a word, you just start having sex with them. If they cried, which some did, he'd tell them he's doing it for his own good. This is the father helping you. How creepy is that? Was that about sex or just power? I think all that was just about power, man. He just seemed to crave more of it for his own good. This is the father helping you. How creepy is that? Was that about sex or just power?

I think all that was just about power, man. He just seemed to crave more of it as he went along. He was an addict. He was addicted to power and control more than he was addicted to infetimmons. I think the greater the criticism from the outside world, the greater obedience he seemed to need from his followers,

first he's just helping people out, then he's their prophet, right? Then he's their God. And then he's their profit. Right? Then he's their God. Then what? You know, then he's beating him. You know, did he want to be their God all along all the way back to when he's a student pastor in Indiana? Faking those faith healings that he dreamed about having total control over the lives of others back when he was a kid reading about Hitler. We'll never have all those answers, you know, all I think we can do is learn from a tragedy like this and what I learned is what I already knew Stay away from narcissistic control freak power trippers, you know, like this asshole at all costs.

Don't allow yourself to be mistreated like that and don't let anyone, you know, or yourself get sucked into some bullshit like this if you can help it. So before we do our top five takeaways, let's go over the top 10 warning signs. You or someone you know is in a cult from coldeducation.com. Number one, absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability. Again, these are the warning signs of a cult. Number two, no tolerance for questions

or criticism or critical inquiry. Number three, no meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget, expenses such as independently audited financial statements. Number four, unreasonable fear about the outside world, such as impending catastrophe. Sound familiar? Evil conspiracies, persecutions.

Mm-hmm. Number five, there's no legitimate reasons to leave. Former followers are always wrong in leaving negative or even evil in doing so. Yep. Former members often relate to the same stories of abuse and reflect a similar pattern of grievances. That's why the article came out in San Francisco.

There are number seven. There are records, books, news articles, television programs that document the abuses of the group leader. That happened with them. Number eight, followers feel they can never be good enough. Yep, I read interviews and watching reviews with, yep, they would speak to that. Number nine, the group leader is always right.

Oh, Jimmy, Jimmy but play Jones was always right. Number 10, the group slash leader is the exclusive means of knowing truth or receiving validation. No other process of discovery is really acceptable or credible. Yeah, he was God, right? He was the only one he knew. Sounds like Jim Jones nailed all those.

And so now, you know, if you end up in a cult, well, suckhead, you don't say, don't say you weren't warned, all right? Okay, time for some top five takeaways. Time suck, top five takeaways. Number one, even though the phrase associated with mass, murder, slash, suicide of Joan's town is don't drink the Kool-Aid, you know,

meaning don't just blindly buy whatever someone else is selling you, you step back and think about it. The followers actually drank the generic version of Kool-Aid flavorate, specifically grape flavorate. And apparently, you can get 12 packs of flavorate for a bucket came out. You know, when everyone starts saying, don't drink Kool-Aid, you know that at least

a few flavor execs, flavor execs were pissed. They're like, God damn, Kool-Aids always still not thunder. It's flavorate, don't drink the flavorate. Wait, no, wait, no, do drink. Do drink the flavorate, don't drink the kool-aid. Ah, fuck it. Number two, Jim Jones convinced straight Christian African-American men in the 1970s

to let him sort of my stem. That to me is even more morbidly impressive than convincing hundreds to kill themselves. Historically, American black Christian culture has not been real fond of homosexuality, especially amongst dudes. Maybe he really did have some kind of CIA mind control powers. Number three, new members agreed to sign documents confessing

the heinous crimes they never committed so that people's temple could use those fake confessions against them later if they tried to leave. If you somehow don't already know that you should never ever do that. If you're thinking about joining an organization that needs a potential future blackmail information from you, you need to not join that organization. Right? If you're still confused right now as to why that's a big deal, you need to not join any organization. You need to stay at home alone as much as humanly possible to minimize the possibility of making horrible choices for yourself because you're not good with decisions. Number four, if Jim would have just focused on the socialism, he claimed to promote Jones Sam might have worked out on some small scale.

If you want to have a calming down the jungle, get other people to live there and share in all the work and become hippies fine. But he had to swim to their money, man. He had to literally spank him, had to have sex with his followers, just like Paolo Escovar, Ego, and an unquenchable thirst and addiction to more and more power and control eventually brought him down and brought down over 900 people with him. Because enough was never enough.

And number five, we're doing a new kind of number five. Now time, sucker, Nick Wentz suggested making one of the top five takeaways a new piece of information rather than just another recap. I like that. Well, here we go. More info for you suckers. Number 5, Jones Town wasn't the only mass suicide of the 20th century. On May 1st, 1945, up to 2000 residents killed themselves after the arrival of Stalin's

Soviet army spiked widespread panic in the town of Demon, Germany. No flavor at this time, some weighed themselves down with stones and jumped into the river, some holding their kids as they did so, some hung themselves, some shot themselves, some slashed their wrists, the wrists of others, etc. One more dark association between Stalin and Jim Jones. Time suck, tough, right, take away. I think Sucks heads for Liston. I had a lot of fun with that one.

I had a lot of fun. I felt pretty strong about my pronunciation game too. So I appreciate that. If you enjoy the suck, please follow it on social media. We got our own social media now, ran by a time sucker, Jordan, who was doing a great job at Time Suck Podcast on Instagram, Twitter, right? Backslash our slash time suck podcast on Facebook.

And if you're in the Bay Area, come see me at punchline and San Francisco on Battery Street this weekend, May 10th through 13th. Also, be just north of Los Angeles at Leavety Live in Oxnard, California, May 26th, 27th, 28th. Go to time suckpodcast.com. We can link to more tour dates. And next week on time suck, it's the dark web, the internet's black market using Bitcoin instead of traceable cash, tour, free software that lets users anonymously communicate with each other

and buy and sell goods and services anonymously across the world. It's a crazy place that I'm excited to learn more about. A little bit nervous, honestly, to learn more about. The creator of one of its marketplaces went by the handle the dread pirate Roberts ran in a legal store called the Seek Road. Silk Road arrested and sentenced to life in prison in 2015 for computer crimes being charged with money laundering, computer hacking, conspiracy to traffic narcotics,

procuring murder. So what the hell is the dark web? Who was this dread pirate Roberts guy? What kind of hidden websites are out there? Turns out a lot. What do they sell? How do you find them? Am I going to get arrested just for looking this shit up on my computer? Listen to TimeSack next week and find out. I feel like we're going to know a whole lot more about the place many of us spend hours on every single day, the World Wide Web, and that fascinates me.

There is a whole other side to the web that many of us do absolutely nothing about, but we're going to know a lot more about it as of next Monday. And until then, until next week, have a great time, Sockets. Be happy, you're not on a death cult. Stay curious and keep on sucking. Thank you.