. A Proof of Nerd ID by Charles Cron JONESTOWN MASSACRE 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION On November 18, 1978, over 900 members of the Peoples Temple in Jonestown, Guyana committed what their leader, the Reverend Jim Jones, termed “an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhumane world.” The members of Peoples Temple – coming from all over the United States and all walks of life – had been lead by Jones from Redwood Valley, California to San Francisco, and from there to the remote jungles of Guyana in search of a better life and a utopian society. When objecting family members convinced San Francisco Representative Leo Ryan to visit the settlement, he did so and was impressed by the group’s accomplishments. But when people began requesting to leave Jonestown, things quickly unraveled for Jones and his followers. Ryan was attacked at knife point, and he and his entourage left with approximately two dozen Peoples Temple members accompanying him. Jones, betrayed, ordered the congressman and the deserters killed. A shootout at an airstrip seven miles away resulted in Ryan’s death, as well as that of several NBC news staff and a deserting Temple member. When reports of the massacre at the airstrip were confirmed, Jones then induced his followers to kill themselves. Initial news reports were sketchy due to the remote location and lack of adequate local broadcasting technology, and almost exclusively focused on the assault and murder of Ryan’s party. It was only days later that the bodies were discovered at Jonestown, seven miles from the airstrip. Early estimates of the dead were low, but mistaken – in some places the bodies piled as high as five deep. Since then, the phrase “drank the Kool-Aid” has become part of the American lexicon. ...