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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 07:55, May 23, 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 23 May 2013].
"Jim Jones." 2013. The Biography Channel website. May 23 2013, 07:55 http://www.biography.com/people/jim-jones-10367607.
"Jim Jones," The Biography Channel website, 2013, http://www.biography.com/people/jim-jones-10367607 [accessed May 23, 2013].
"Jim Jones," The Biography Channel website, http://www.biography.com/people/jim-jones-10367607 (accessed May 23, 2013).
Jim Jones [Internet]. The Biography Channel website; 2013 [cited 2013 May 23] Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/jim-jones-10367607.
Jim Jones, http://www.biography.com/people/jim-jones-10367607 (last visited May 23, 2013).
Jim Jones. The Biography Channel website. 2013. Available at: http://www.biography.com/people/jim-jones-10367607. Accessed May 23, 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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View groupCombine a charismatic personality with fringe beliefs and an appetite for violence, and you get some of history's most notorious cult leaders. Charles Manson terrorized frightened Americans in the late 1960s, convincing his followers to commit heinous murders in his name. David Koresh led the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas, leading to a standoff with the federal government in 1993 that resulted in the death of Koresh and 75 of his believers. Learn about these leaders, and many more, who inspired hundreds to follow their unconventional philosophies—often with tragic results.
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