The Jonestown Massacre
On November 18, 1978 912 followers of American cult leader Jim Jones ("Peoples Temple")
died in a remote South American jungle compound called "Jonestown" in British Guyana.
Some members were shot, others were forced to drink poison, but most willingly
participated in what Jones said was an act of "revolutionary suicide."
Jim Jones began his ministry in 1953 as an independent minister in Indianapolis, but was
later ordained in 1964 by the Disciples of Christ. By the end of 1971 he had moved his
congregation to California eventually establishing two churches there. His main church
remained in San Francisco, but a second was also opened in Los Angeles. The Peoples
Temple peaked during the 70s to include perhaps as many as 8,000 members. Though
racially diverse, most of Jones followers were African Americans.
Jim Jones was once a popular community activist in San Francisco who contributed cash
and coordinated volunteers to support both causes and political leaders.
He could turn out thousands for almost any event or effort. During the 70s he appeared
with many prominent politicians including then State Assemblyman Willie Brown. In 1976
Mayor George Moscone gave Jones a seat on the San Francisco Housing Authority
Commission. Governor Jerry Brown was even seen attending services at the Peoples
Temple.
But after the tragic deaths at Jonestown Willie Brown said, "If we knew then he was mad,
clearly we wouldn't have appeared with him. But it's not fair to say what you would have
done if you knew the kind of madness that would take place years later.''
Negative press reports began to surface about Jim Jones in the summer of 1977. In
response to such criticism he moved many of his followers to British Guyana. Eventually
about 1,000 core supporters gathered at an isolated retreat there, which was later officially
named "Jonestown." But complaints from former members and families continued,
ultimately culminating in requests for an official investigation.
According to an affidavit dated June 15, 1978 one-time Temple member and Jonestown
resident Deborah Layton stated that "conditions had become so bad that half of Jonestown
was ill with severe diarrhea and high fevers." But despite this they "were required to work
in the fields from 7 AM to 6 PM six days per week and on Sunday from 7 AM to 2 PM" and
the "food was woefully inadequate." Ms. Layton advised that "Rev. Jones...claimed that he
was the reincarnation of...Lenin, Jesus Christ [and]...had divine powers." And further
stated that Jones also "appeared deluded by a paranoid vision of the world. He would not
sleep for days at a time and talk[ed] compulsively about the conspiracies against him." The
compound "was swarming with armed guards [and] no one was permitted to leave unless
on a special assignment," Layton said. Jim Jones warned "that the time was not far off
when it would become necessary for [his followers] to die by [their] own hands," she
added. A so-called "White Night" or "state of emergency" was often declared at the
compound and within this context mass suicide was rehearsed.
California Congressman Leo J. Ryan received many complaints from his constituents
regarding family members who were followers of Jim Jones. He subsequently responded
through an investigation. With permission from Jim Jones, Ryan came to visit the group's
compound on November 17, 1978. The congressman toured the settlement and met with
Jim Jones. On the 18th some Temple members passed notes to Congressman Ryan's party
requesting to leave with them. Ryan agreed and took some members of the Peoples
Temple with him. At an isolated airstrip on the 18th, apparently under orders from Jim
Jones, gunmen from Jonestown ambushed Congressman Ryan's party. Leo J. Ryan and four
others were killed immediately, some of the Ryan party escaped into the jungle.
Anticipating the end of his ministry and certain arrest, Jim Jones then ordered the "state of
emergency" he had so long anticipated. This carefully rehearsed mass suicide now finally
took place. Everyone, except the very few that escaped into the surrounding jungle, either
committed suicide or was murdered. More than 280 children were killed. Jim Jones body
was found at Jonestown, fatally wounded by a gunshot to the head.
Willie Brown now the Mayor of San Francisco lamented in 1998, twenty years after the
mass suicide and murders, that "Jonestown was a tragedy of the first order, and it remains
a painful and sorrowful event in our history. Not a year has gone by that I have not
stopped to remember San Francisco's terrible loss.''
Source: http://www.culteducation.com/jonestown.html Copyright © 2004
"Heaven's Gate" Suicides
In March of 1997 thirty-nine people, 21 women and 18 men were found dead in a mansion within the exclusive
neighborhood of Rancho Santa Fe near San Diego in the United States. They ranged in age from 26 to 72 and
came from nine different states within the US. The thirty-nine bodies were identified as members of a cult group,
which later came to be known as "Heaven's Gate."
The bodies were found dispersed within the mansion on cots and mattresses. All but two had shrouds of purple
covering their heads and shoulders. Most died of suffocation, induced by plastic bags placed over their heads,
after taking a concoction of Phenobarbital and alcohol. Found among the dead was Marshall Herff Applewhite,
the 65-year-old leader of the group. Applewhite had a troubled history. In 1970 he checked himself into a
psychiatric hospital after hearing voices. He also hoped to find a cure himself of "homosexual urges."
Ironically, it was at that hospital that he met a nurse, Bonnie Lu Trousdale Nettles, whom appears to have fueled
his delusions. Applewhite and Nettles became a platonic team and recruited followers, which grew into a group.
Nettles could only be separated from Applewhite by death; she died from cancer in 1985.
Unfortunately Marshall Applewhite never resolved his mental illness. Some time after his discontinuation of
psychiatric treatment he had himself castrated, apparently an effort to resolve his sexual frustrations. The
videotapes of Applewhite's final statements were shown to Louis Jolyon West, professor of psychiatry at the
University of California at Los Angeles. Dr. West concluded that the tapes demonstrated Applewhite was
"delusional, sexually repressed and suffering from clinical paranoia."
Applewhite taught his followers that he was a messenger from an "Evolutionary Kingdom Level Above Human."
He claimed that periodically this higher kingdom sent messengers to earth and that one such previous visitor was
Jesus. Applewhite believed he was once "Jesus" in that same "away team" now "incarnated again in...[a] mature
(adult) [body] that had been picked and prepped for [his] current mission." He advised that if his followers studied
with him, he would become their pivotal link to this higher level. And that only through him would it be possible
for them to eventually evolve and shed their human "containers," which were only "vehicles" for this supposed
journey.
"Heaven's Gate" itself seemed to evolve and change through its own journey beginning in the 1970s. The group
had previously been known as "The Two" (i.e. Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles), "Human Individual
Metamorphosis" (HIM), "Te and Do" (Nettles was "Te" and Applewhite "Do") and then "Total Overcomers
Anonymous."
Applewhite required his "class" to give up virtually everything. This included families, friends and sex; five of his
male followers had themselves surgically castrated like their leader. They also surrendered and/or renounced all
their worldly possessions. His "crew" was told they must overcome and do battle spiritually with dark forces
known as the "Luciferians" and those they influenced. This became a negative label that could be applied to
anyone or anything outside the group.
It was through a process of rigid regimentation that Marshall Applewhite was able to purge his "class" of their
individuality and program their minds to accept his doctrines. They were often not allowed to sleep undisturbed,
but instead subjected to scheduled interruptions for periodic prayer. They ate the same food, called "formulas" at
the same hours," which was referred to as "fuel for the vehicle." They all wore the same haircuts and clothing,
which often included gloves, apparently to avoid human contact. Work was even once divided into 12-minute
intervals by audible beeps. Communication was at times limited to simply saying "yes," "no," or "I don't know."
This rigid regimentation persisted to the end. All the "Heaven's Gate" members ordered exactly the same last meal
and ended their lives precisely alike in virtually every detail.
The members of "Heaven's Gate" were also relatively isolated from the outside world and most often not in touch
with their families or old friends. They also had new names, which further broke down their sense of individual
identity and personal history. Applewhite controlled information, his followers were not allowed to watch
television or read anything by choice, but rather given lists of proscribed literature.
Each member was assigned a partner and encouraged to travel in pairs. One former devotee recalled that this was
an important facet of group control, "to keep [members] in the mindset. The partner was there, if [a member was]
falling out of what [they] had to do, so [they] wouldn't fall out. It was part of the mind control."
According to Marshall Applewhite the world was merely a "stepping stone" to "the true Kingdom of God." And
this world was about to be "recycled" or "spaded under" because its inhabitants had refused to evolve. Only those
who were bound together through his teachings could survive by traveling to the next level.
The group's suicide was almost logical within this mindset, since Applewhite insisted that "the Truth can be
retained only as one is physically connected with the Next Level, through an Older Member" (i.e. Marshall
Applewhite). Thus, without Applewhite there was no hope of transition to the next "Evolutionary Level." When
he elected to die his followers were obliged to do likewise. It was the only way they could retain "The Truth" and
its required and seemingly necessary final step to enter "the true Kingdom of God."
Everything Applewhite taught his followers was a rejection of their humanity. Perhaps by rejecting his own
humanity Marshall Applewhite believed he had finally overcome his own sexual frustrations and mental illness.
But the more power he gained over his small group the more intense his madness became, until it finally led to a
tragedy that was indeed inhuman.
Source: http://www.culteducation.com/hgate.html Copyright © 2004
Joseph Kibwetere and Ugandan Cult Mass Murder/Suicide
March 17, 2000 more than 500 members of the African "Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments"
entered their small church in Kangngu, within the western region of Uganda. They sang for some hours before the
small wooden building was set on fire from inside. The doors were locked and windows boarded and nailed shut.
Everyone inside perished. Their charred bodies, including 11 children, were later found by authorities.
Africa reeled in shock as Ugandan police found hundreds more murdered by the cult. According to pathologists who
examined their remains some were poisoned, others strangled; many had stab wounds and/or fractured skulls. Their
bodies were hidden under houses or thrown down wells and latrine pits. The cult death toll ultimately reached at least
780, though some reports place the final number at more than 1,000. The movement's mass murder/suicide seems to
have surpassed Jonestown as the most horrific cult tragedy in recorded history.
The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments was founded by Joseph Kibwetere in the late 1980s and
at one time may have included as many as 5,000 members. The 68-year-old self-styled "bishop" was once a prominent
Roman Catholic and active in Ugandan politics. In 1998 Kibwetere was hospitalized for treatment of a mental illness.
"He had an affective disorder. A cyclical thing. Up and down. Like manic depress[ion]," advised Dr. Fred Kigozi,
executive director of Kampala's Butabika mental hospital.
Kibwetere claimed to have visions and hear conversations between Jesus and the Virgin Mary. He said the Virgin Mary
complained about the world's departure from the Ten Commandments. And subsequently, that he was commanded to
announce a coming Apocalypse in the year 2000.
Kibwetere authored a handbook, which foretold a litany of coming calamities that would destroy most of the world's
population. He said only those who obeyed the commandments and followed him might be spared within his church,
which he called the "ark."
A Catholic priest Dominica Kataribaabo joined the movement and became a leader below Kibwetere. But Joseph
Kibwetere's special revelation led to expulsion and eventual excommunication for both men from the Roman Catholic
Church. The past Bishop of Mbarara Diocese said, "Kibwetere claimed that he could talk to God, which was
unacceptable."
Joseph Kibwetere merged his leadership with a former prostitute named Credonia Mwerinde often called the
"programmer." Some say Mwerinde, who claimed to have met the Virgin Mary, ultimately eclipsed the cult's founder
in both real importance and power. Fr. Paul Ikazire, a priest and former cult member said she dominated the group and
that "Kibwetere was just a figurehead." He characterized Mwerinde as "a trickster, obsessed with the desire to grab
other people's property." The Virgin Mary as channeled through Mwerinde proscribed all the rules of the group.
Credonia Mwerinde preached that personal possessions were evil. She encouraged cult members to sell everything and
surrender all their assets to her. Eventually Mwerinde became rich and accumulated farms, houses and cars. Paul
Ikazire recalled, "She would come in and say things like: 'The Virgin Mary wants you to bring more money."'
Kibwetere and Mwerinde kept their followers isolated. Any contact with outsiders ("sinners") was strictly monitored
and often forbidden. Cult members were predominately poor and former Catholics. They were encouraged to be
celibate, sworn to a vow of silence and unable to speak unless in prayer. They often relied upon sign language.
The movement's members rose at dawn, prayed until noon and worked long hours in the fields before going to bed
usually at 10 PM. Though newcomers were fed well the regular members largely subsisted on beans. They were
hungry, tired, estranged from family and largely cut off from the outside world.
Doomsday predictions were made by the cult's leaders, but pushed forward again and again. Kibwetere's manifesto
handbook had been mailed out by the thousands, which was titled "A Timely Message From Heaven: The End of the
Present Time." The date for this final event was set for December 31, 2000. When that day passed as another
unfulfilled prophecy it is believed that some disgruntled members wanted to leave and have their property returned.
On March 15, 2000 (two days before the church fire) Kibwetere issued a "farewell" letter to government officials. That
letter spoke of the imminent end of the current generation and the world. Similar sentiments were expressed in a
previous communication, which said "God sent us as a movement of truth and justice to notify the people to prepare for
the closing of this generation, which is at hand." One official reflecting upon Kibwetere's last letter recalled, "The
person who brought the letter bid farewell to the...staff. It was pre-meditated suicide."
Joseph Kibwetere's family says he is dead. His body has not been positively identified, but a ring believed to be
Kibwetere's was found on a finger amongst the rubble of the burned church. Police never recovered the body of
Dominic Kataribaabo, but did find his 1997 passport.
There are conflicting claims regarding Credonia Mwerinde. At one point the police claimed to have identified her body.
But some people speculate she is still alive. Cult survivors claim she killed the other leaders before fleeing. One local
businessman stated that just days before the church fire, Mwerinde talked to him about selling cult property, which
included large tracts of land, vehicles and buildings. A documentary later produced for African television concluded
that "money and greed" motivated Mwerinde to initially help form the cult and ultimately led her to destroy it.
An international law enforcement hunt for the leaders of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments
has so far produced no meaningful results. No leader has yet been located or arrested.
Source: http://www.culteducation.com/kibwetere.html Copyright © 2004