The first disturbing reports of the deaths of Congressmen Leo J. Ryan and four other members of his party, did not reveal the whole shocking story when news broke out about shootings taking place as the victims attempted to board a plane at Port Kaituma airstrip in Guyana. Within hours, it was revealed that 408 American citizens had committed suicide at a communal village they had built in the jungle in Northwest Guyana. The community, known as The People's Temple' was led by an influential religious guru, the Reverend Jim Jones.

913 of the 1100 people believed to have lived in the village called "Jonestown" had died in a mass suicide pact.

Despite his seeming compassion for others, Jones had a pathological belief in his own superiority.

Jim Jones as a youth was enraptured by his experiences at a Pentecostal congregation known as the Gospel Tabernacle. Its members were nicknamed the "holy-rollers" and by the time Jones was 16 he also believed he had spiritual powers.

In 1947 he was preaching on street corners in mixed race neighborhoods proselytizing egalitarian values, views that were quite radical for mid West America. For Jones believed in breaking down racial divides as well as helping the poor and outcasts of society, principles no doubt that would later attract hundreds of malcontents to his cult church in the 70's.

Despite his seeming compassion for others, Jones had a pathological belief in his own superiority. He become extremely annoyed at being criticized and once, when a young friend disobeyed him and left church early, Jones shot at him with his father's gun. As a young man he even tried to impose his will on a twelve year old male relative that both he and his wife wanted to adopt. But the boy refused, despite having been told by Jones that his mother didn't love him.

Jones' growing interest in politics and social issues was somewhat undermined by an obsession with tyrannical figures like Hitler and Joseph Stalin. His great sense of insecurity was indicative of a paranoiac personality. He suffered from a fear of being abandoned by those he loved and would often become jealous of his wife, Marceline, when she showed attention to anyone else but him.

Unexpectedly Jones disavowed 'God' for allowing poverty and injustice to exist. He even threatened to commit suicide if his wife prayed. But after Marceline introduced him to the Methodist Church, he was encouraged by its views on emancipation for repressed minorities.

Eventually he became a preacher for them.

Within a couple of years Jones was successfully preaching at Pentecostal meetings at other churches. This led him to begin his own church in 1956 calling it the "People's Temple."

Jones' church established a soup kitchen and gave shelter to the needy. He and his wife also adopted a black child and a Korean orphan, while having a son of their own. It is difficult to equate such kindly, altruistic principles with a man who had a pathological bent for imposing his will on others which would later lead hundreds to commit suicide on his command.