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{{Infobox_Celebrity
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| name = James Warren "Jim" Jones
| image = Jim_Jones_brochure_of_Peoples_Temple.jpg
| caption = Brochure of the [[People's_Temple|Peoples Temple]], portraying cult leader Jim Jones as the loving father of the "Rainbow Family."
| birth_date = [[May 13]], [[1931]]
| birth_place = [[Crete, Indiana|Crete]], [[Indiana]]
| death_date = [[November 18]], [[1978]]
| death_place =
| occupation = [[Christian preacher]]
}}
{{dablink|This article is about the religious leader; for other people named Jim Jones, see [[Jim Jones (disambiguation)]].}}
'''James Warren "Jim" Jones''' ([[May 13]], [[1931]] – [[November 18]], [[1978]]) was the [[USA|American]] founder of the [[Peoples Temple]] church that developed into a group with [[cult]]-like beliefs, power structures and practices. On [[November 18]], [[1978]], most Peoples Temple members followed Jones' advice to commit [[mass suicide]] by drinking poison in their isolated agricultural [[intentional community]] called [[Jonestown]], located in the jungle of [[Guyana]]. Jones was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head among the 914 corpses there.
==Code==
== Early life and founding of Temple ==
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Travis Jones was born in [[Crete, Indiana]], near [[Lynn, Indiana]] and was the son of James and Lynetta Thurman Jones. His father was a member of the [[Ku Klux Klan]]. Jones graduated from high school in [[Richmond, Indiana]]. He became a preacher in the [[1950s]]. He sold pet monkeys door-to-door to raise the money to found his own church <ref>Lattin, Don ''How spiritual journey ended in destruction: Jim Jones led his flock to death in jungle'' (18 November 2003) [[San Francisco Chronicle]] <br>"Jones was selling pet monkeys to raise money to start a church. He had placed an ad in the Indianapolis Star. "So she went over and she bought 'em -- a boy monkey and a girl monkey. . . . Jimmy started telling her about his church. She comes back, and she tells me I'm going with her on Easter morning," said June Cordell." [http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/11/18/JONESTOWN.TMP](Retrieved Feb. 2006)</ref> that would be named "Wings of Deliverance". He renamed it later in "Peoples Temple Full Gospel Church", located in [[Indianapolis]]. He gained respectability when he became an ordained minister in [[1964]] in the mainstream [[Christian denomination]] [[Disciples of Christ]]. The church was exceptional for its equal treatment of [[African American]]s and many of them became members of the church. He started a struggle for racial equality and social justice, which he dubbed [[apostolic socialism]]. Jones authored a booklet, called "The Letter Killeth" pointing out what he felt were the contradictions, absurdities, and atrocities in the [[Bible]], but the booklet also stated that the Bible contained great truths. [http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/PrimarySources/letter-rev.htm] He claimed to be an incarnation of [[Jesus]], [[Akhenaten]], [[Buddha]], [[Lenin]], and [[Father Divine]] and performed supposed [[psychic surgery|miracle healings]] to attract new members. Members of Jones' church called Jones "Dad" and believed that their movement was the solution to the problems of society and many did not distinguish Jones from the movement. The group gradually moved away from mainstream [[Christianity]].
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[[George Moscone]], the mayor of [[San Francisco]], appointed Reverend Jim Jones to the city's Housing Commission.
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== Jonestown and mass suicide==
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''Main Article: [[Jonestown]]''
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In the summer of [[1977]], Jones and most of the 1,000 members of the Peoples Temple moved to Guyana from San Francisco after an investigation into the church for [[tax evasion]] was begun. Jones named the closed settlement [[Jonestown]] after himself. His intention was to create an agricultural [[utopia]] in the jungle, free from racism and based on quasi-communist principles. Jones told his followers to think of him as the incarnation of [[Christ]] and [[God]].
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People who had left the organization prior to its move to Guyana told the authorities of brutal beatings, murders and of a [[mass suicide]] plan, but were not believed. In spite of the tax evasion allegations, Jones was still widely respected for setting up a racially mixed church which helped the disadvantaged. Around 70% of the inhabitants of Jonestown were black and impoverished.
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The religious scholar Mary McCormick Maaga argued that Jones' authority waned after he moved to the isolated commune, because there he was not needed anymore for recruitment and he could not hide his drug addiction from rank and file members.<ref name="mccormick_maaga1998">, McCormick Maaga, Mary ''Hearing the voices of Jonestown'', 1998 [[Syracuse University]] press, ISBN 0815605153</ref> Consequently, he lost some of his power to inner-circle members, according to McCormick Maaga.
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In November [[1978]], [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. Representative]] [[Leo Ryan]] led a fact-finding mission to the Jonestown settlement in Guyana after allegations by relatives in the U.S. of human rights abuses. Ryan's delegation arrived in Jonestown on [[November 14]] and spent three days interviewing residents. They left hurriedly on the morning of Saturday [[November 18]] after an attempt was made on Ryan's life. They took with them roughly twenty Peoples Temple members who wished to leave. Delegation members later told police that, as they were boarding planes at the airstrip, a truckload of Jones' armed guards arrived and began to shoot at them. When the gunmen left five people were dead: Representative Ryan, a reporter from [[NBC]], a cameraman from NBC, a newspaper photographer and one defector from the Peoples Temple. The present-day California State Senator [[Jackie Speier]], a staff member for Rep. Ryan in 1978, CIA officer Richard Dwyer and a producer for [[NBC]] News, [[Bob Flick]], survived the attack.
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Later that same day, the remaining 914 inhabitants of Jonestown, 276 of them children, committed mass suicide that Jones referred to as "revolutionary suicide" on Jones's instructions by drinking [[cyanide]]-laced [[Flavor Aid]], by forced cyanide injection, or by shooting. Jones was found dead with a shot in the head, sitting in a deck chair. The [[autopsy]] on his body showed levels of the [[barbiturate]] [[pentobarbital]] that could have been lethal to humans who have not developed [[physiological tolerance]]. His drug abuse (including various [[LSD]] and [[marijuana]] experimentations) was confirmed by his son, Stephan, and Jones' doctor in San Francisco. <ref name="mccormick_maaga1998" />
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== Other issues ==
Jones was married to Marceline Jones. They had one biological son, Stephan Gandhi Jones, who did not take part in the mass suicide because he was away, playing in the Peoples Temple basketball team. Jones claimed to be the biological father of John Victor Stoen, who was the legal son of Grace Stoen and her husband Timothy Stoen. The custody dispute over Stoen had great symbolic value for the Peoples Temple and intensified the conflict with its opponents who consisted of, among others, a group called the "''Concerned Relatives''".
In [[MacArthur Park]], [[Los Angeles]] on [[December 13]], [[1973]], Jones was arrested and charged with soliciting a man for sex in a movie theater bathroom known for [[homosexual]] activity. The man it turns out was an [[undercover]] [[LAPD]] [[vice officer]]. Jones is on record as later telling his followers that he was "the only true heterosexual", but at least one account exists of his sexually abusing a member of his congregation in front of the followers, ostensibly to prove the man's own [[gay]] tendencies.
One of his sources of inspiration was the controversial cult leader [[Father Divine]]. Jones had borrowed the term "revolutionary suicide" from [[Black Panther Party|Black Panther]] leader [[Huey Newton]] who had argued the slow suicide of life in the ghetto ought to be replaced by revolutionary struggle that would end only in victory (socialism and self determination) or revolutionary suicide (death).
==See also==
{{wikiquote}}
* [[Charismatic authority]]
* [[Cult suicide]]
* [[True-believer syndrome]]
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==References==
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* crimelibrary.com, [http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial4/jonestown/ "The Official Story"], 27 June 2006.
*{{note|Jones_18November1978}}[http://employees.oneonta.edu/downinll/mass_suicide.htm Transcript of Jones' final speech, just before the mass suicide]
*{{note|McCormick_Maaga1998}}, McCormick Maaga, Mary ''Hearing the voices of Jonestown'', 1998 [[Syracuse University]] press, ISBN 0815605153
*[http://www.luketan.com/songs/audio/JimJonesRevisitedPt1.mp3 Jim Jones Revisited Pt.1: Loops and manipulations of Jim Jones' final speech, by Luke Tan]
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[[Category:1931 births|Jones, Jim]]
[[Category:1978 deaths|Jones, Jim]]
[[Category:Cult leaders|Jones, Jim]]
[[Category:American murderers|Jones, Jim]]
[[Category:History of Guyana|Jones, Jim]]
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