Ray Sawyer
"Dr Hook"
Jim Jones was a fifth generation Hoosier. His father was James Thurman Jones; his grandfather was John Henry Jones; his great-grandfather was Warren M. Jones; and Edmund Jones was his great-great-grandfather who had moved to Indiana from West Virginia in 1818. Edmund and his wife Ruth Jarrett had a large family of 10 children, including Warren and a daughter named Sarah. Sarah Jones married the Reverend Phineas Lamb in 1846 and lived a long life, passing away in 1914 at the age of 90.
Jones married nurse Marceline Baldwin in 1949, and moved to Bloomington, Indiana. Jim and Marceline Jones adopted several children of at least partial non-Caucasian ancestry; he referred to the clan as his "rainbow family," and stated: "Integration is a more personal thing with me now. It's a question of my son's future." Jones portrayed the Temple overall as a "rainbow family."
Let the place be a peaceful field covered with flowers....
Jim and Marcie shared a common Jones ancestor: their great-great-grandfather Edmund Jones. It is unlikely that either Jim or Marcie knew of this connection. When Jim and Marcie married in 1949, there was likely no one left living that knew of or remembered the relation between the families.
I believe there is little that this new-found connection can do to shed light on the events that surround Jonestown, though I find it ironic that there was already a history of preaching and psychological issues in Rev. Phineas Lamb and his son Edmond. Regardless, I see it as proof there can be incredible connections and stories to be found after so many years, not just as a person interested Jonestown, but as a family member interested in my own history.
Jones had first started building Jonestown, formally known as the "Peoples Temple Agricultural Project", several years before the New West article was published. Jonestown was promoted as a means to create both a "socialist paradise" and a "sanctuary" from the media scrutiny in San Francisco.
Jonestown Massacre 1978
Bodies lay strewn around a vat containing a beverage laced with cyanide at the
Jonestown commune of the People's Temple in Guyana.
On November 18, 1978, nine hundred and thirteen (913) inhabitants of Jonestown, 303 of them children, died of apparent cyanide poisoning, mostly in and around a pavilion.
Jim Jones' wife, Marceline, was found poisoned at the pavilion.
Jones was found dead in a deck chair with a gunshot wound to his head.
Jonestown, Guyana
15 November 1979
Flowers continue to grow outside the main assembly pavilion at Rev. Jim Jones'
promised Marxist "heaven on earth," where in 1978, Peoples Temple cultists
perished in mass murder-suicides. The only survivors from Jonestown still around
the scene of the tragedy are the goats on a livestock farm a mile and a half
from the main compound, plus two cats and a dog named "Fluffy."
Source: All in the Family & Wikipedia
Prayer to the Most Holy Mother of God
“The Softener of Evil Hearts”
O much sorrowing Mother of God, more highly exalted than all other maidens, according to thy purity and the multitude of thy suffering endured by thee on earth: Hearken to our sighs and soften the hearts of evil men, and protect us under the shelter of thy mercy. For we know no other refuge and ardent intercessor apart from thee, but as thou hast great boldness before the One who was born of thee, help and save us by thy prayers, that without offence we may attain the Heavenly Kingdom where, with all the saints, we will sing the thrice-holy hymn to One God Almighty in the Trinity, always now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.
Marceline Baldwin Jones
1927-1978
Now and then over the years one conversation or another would prompt me to reveal that relatives of mine had died at Jonestown. In the dozen or so times this occurred, the dialogue always went something like this:
Them: “No way. That’s so messed up. Why do you even admit to it?”
Me: “Admit to what?”
Them: “To being related to such freaks, such animals.”
Me: “I don’t see it that way.”
Them: “But how can you not see it that way? What kind of a person joins a cult?”
Who indeed?
Jim Jones wasn’t the first leader to be outed as a liar, a hypocrite, and a maniac. We are, in fact, surrounded by them today. But rarely do we demand their removal from power. Only occasionally do some of us question their authority. A mere cursory look at our country since its inception shows a history of authoritarian leadership propped up not only by the blind, but by the reverent faith of the people.
In America, Father knows best. Despite our amazing contributions to the enrichment of our world, Americans continue their commitment to such cults as the Cult of War, the Cult of Consumerism, the Cult of Political Parties, the Cult of Individualism, The Cult of Exceptionalism. And it’s exactly that devotion to authoritarianism – and not the idealism – that led to the deaths at Jonestown.
I have no idea how I’d behave thousands of miles away from home, isolated in a jungle, my life constantly threatened by the voice of a psychopath over the loudspeakers, guarded by men with guns, with no way to contact anyone who might help me to safety. Nor, dear reader, do you. To claim otherwise is naïve at best. Because as history has proven, with a few extraordinary exceptions, we would behave exactly like everyone else did.
We would drink the Kool-Aid*.
Quote: Laura Davis
*It was Flavor Aid!!
7 Reasons NOT to marry your atheist Marxist messiah boyfriend
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