In 1978, a mass murder-suicide took place in Jonestown, Guyana, where more than 900 members of the Peoples Temple cult died. The cult was led by Jim Jones, who was a charismatic but paranoid leader. The incident is one of the largest mass deaths in American history, with the death toll exceeding 900, including some 300 who were age 17 and under.

Concerns over the welfare of those in the jungle encampment prompted U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan to visit Jonestown in November 1978. After checking out the settlement, Ryan was shot to death along with four other people by Temple gunmen at an airstrip. Following those murders, Jones commanded his followers to drink cyanide-laced punch, starting with the children first. In all, there were over 900 who died in Jonestown, including Jim Jones, who was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head.

The allegations against the Peoples Temple were serious, including talk of beatings, forced labor and imprisonments, the use of drugs to control behavior, suspicious deaths, and even rehearsals for a mass suicide. When Jones implemented the actual suicide plan in Jonestown, there were armed guards with guns and crossbows to ensure that nobody was getting out alive. Some victims were found to have marks on their bodies, suggesting they were injected with the poison. Adding to the mass murder argument is that numerous young children died in Jonestown who couldn’t possibly know what they were doing.

Jones made frequent addresses to Temple members regarding Jonestowns safety, including statements that the CIA and other intelligence agencies were conspiring with "capitalist pigs" to destroy the settlement and harm its inhabitants. After members of the press began to ask questions about Jones’s operation, he moved with several hundred of his followers to Jonestown, a compound that he had been building in Guyana for some three to four years.

In conclusion, the Jonestown incident was a tragic event that resulted in the deaths of over 900 people, including children, due to a mass murder-suicide orchestrated by Jim Jones, the leader of the Peoples Temple cult[[5]](https://www.the...