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Quick Facts
- NAME: Jim Jones
- OCCUPATION: Cult Leader
- BIRTH DATE: May 13, 1931
- DEATH DATE: November 18, 1978
- EDUCATION: Indiana University, Bloomington, Butler University
- PLACE OF BIRTH: Crete (near Lynn), Indiana
- PLACE OF DEATH: Jonestown, Guyana
- Full Name: James Warren Jones
- AKA: Jim Jones
- AKA: James Jones
Best Known For
Jim Jones was best known as the cult leader of the Peoples Temple who led more than 900 followers in a mass suicide via cyanide-laced punch known as the Jonestown Massacre.
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Jim Jones - Mini Biography (2:15)
Jim Jones - Mini Biography
After first moving to California Jim Jones, a cult leader, took his followers to a farm in Guyana called Jonestown. He grew paranoid about defecting members, and after a visit from Congressman Leo Ryan, ordered a mass suicide.
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Play NowJim Jones. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 09:17, Jun 18, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/jim-jones-10367607.
Jim Jones. [Internet]. 2013. The Biography Channel website. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/jim-jones-10367607 [Accessed 18 Jun 2013].
"Jim Jones." 2013. The Biography Channel website. Jun 18 2013, 09:17 http://www.biography.com/people/jim-jones-10367607.
"Jim Jones," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/jim-jones-10367607 [accessed Jun 18, 2013].
"Jim Jones," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/jim-jones-10367607 (accessed Jun 18, 2013).
Jim Jones [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 Jun 18] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/jim-jones-10367607.
Jim Jones, http://www.biography.com/people/jim-jones-10367607 (last visited Jun 18, 2013).
Jim Jones. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/jim-jones-10367607. Accessed Jun 18, 2013.
Synopsis
Jim Jones was a notorious cult leader who was born on May 13, 1931, in Crete (near Lynn), Indiana. As the self-proclaimed messiah of the Peoples Temple religious cult, Jones promised his followers utopia if they followed him. On November 18, 1978, in what became known as the Jonestown Massacre, Jones led over 900 men, women and children to their deaths in a mass suicide via cyanide-laced punch (spawning the metaphor "Don't Drink the Kool-Aid").
Contents
Jonestown Massacre
Born James Warren Jones in Crete (near Lynn), Indiana, on May 13, 1931, Jim Jones was a notoriously influential Indianapolis preacher who formed the People's Temple in 1955. He moved religious group to California in the late 1960s. After Jones became the subject of criminal investigations, particularly with regard to his alleged diversion of cult members' donations for his personal use, he and about 1,000 followers relocated to Jonestown, Guyana, in 1977.
In November 1978, cult members killed Congressman Leo J. Ryan as he attempted to leave the People's Temple compound after an investigatory visit. The following day, Jones orchestrated the mass suicide of more than 900 followers, who were compelled to drink cyanide-laced punch. Jones died the same day of a bullet wound to the head.
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