In November 1978 an event occurred that shocked and sickened the entire world. A cult of people and their charismatic and paranoid leader took their lives in the jungle of a small South American country. The Guyana Massacre, as it came to be known, marked the end of Peoples Temple, a church founded and led by the Rev. Jim Jones.
In an all-encompassing study of the origins and history of both Jones and his church, the authors trace the rise and abrupt end of a uniquely American cult form. From its midwestern beginnings to the sorry end of nine hundred of its members in Jonestown, The Cult That Died recounts in great detail the manner in which a brilliant and erratic demagogue was able to lure hundreds into the fold of his church, systematically strip them of their personal possessions, bully and humiliate them, and yet maintain his authority as a father figure to such a degree that they were willing to follow him into exile and death.
In the beginning, Jones was a respected and legitimate Protestant minister; sometimes Methodist, sometimes Disciples of Christ, but always respectable. A hustler from the time he was old enough to know what it could get him, his first churches were marked by notable fund-raising campaigns and intense personal ministry—especially to the Black poor of Indianapolis. Realization of his abilities to capture the imagination and love of people, however, soon led Jones to experiment with religious demagoguery and healing by faith. The demagoguery was honest; the healing was not: as Jones would "call forth" a cancer from a parishioner's body, an assistant would reach down the person's throat and "bring forth" a bloodied "tumor" already hidden in her handkerchief-covered hand. The crippled could walk, the blind could see again. But somehow the persons whose afflictions had been miraculously cured were never encountered in the church again.
Forced to leave Indianapolis for both political and socio-religious reasons, Jones and his followers migrated to California. Peoples Temple there soon grew large and wealthy, attracting the favorable notice of state officials for its good works. But underneath the love and charity that the church showed to the outside world, a real cancer was growing. Megalomaniac and paranoid, Jones gradually slipped deeper and deeper into a state bordering on insanity. He "became" the Messiah—and his followers believed him.
Slowly, however, news began to leak into the world beyond the church about the beatings, the coercion and humiliation, the financial extortion, and the sexual demands that Jim Jones made on his followers. Investigations—both public and private—followed, and Jones and his flock were again compelled to relocate.
As the final act of the tragedy was played out in the jungle of Guyana, Jones used his spellbinding oratorical powers to convince the members of his cult that they would always be persecuted, that armies were after them, and that the only way they would achieve happiness would be by following him into death.
Thus, the vat of Fla-Vour-Aid punch laced with cyanide—the world's concept of Peoples Temple.