Discovery of the Jonestown Massacre
The same day as the murders that took place at the airstrip, Jones told his followers that soldiers would come and torture them. He ordered everyone to the main pavilion and take part in what he termed a “revolutionary act.” The youngest members of the Peoples Temple to die first, the parents and nurses used syringes to drop a potent mix of cyanide, sedatives and powdered fruit juice into children’s throats. Jones was said to had reportedly obtained a jeweler’s license at some point, which enabled him to a large amount of cyanide. The adults then got in a line to drink the poison-laced concoction while guards with guns surrounded the pavilion. When the Guyanese officials arrived at Jonestown the following day, they were welcomed by hundreds of decomposing bodies. Many people had perished with their arms around each other. Jones was found in a chair, dead from a single gunshot wound to the head, it is thought to be self inflicted.The death toll at Jonestown on November 18, 1978 was 909 people, a third of them children. Very few people managed to escape into the jungle that day, while at least several dozen more Peoples Temple members, including several of Jones’ sons, were in another part of Guyana at the time. In total, only 33 people survived.