Escape from Jonestown on CNN explores Jim Jones cult

October 11, 12:20 AMCable TV ExaminerChristine Nyholm

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Escape from Jonestown was presented by CNN on October 10, 2009, 30 years after the Jonestown massacre by cult leader Jim Jones. The documentary detailed the gruesome power that the Rev. Jim Jones had upon his followers, even up to the day that he led 909 Americans to their death in a suicide pact in a South American jungle.

Jim Jones was a phone faith healer and self appointed minister who led his cult from California to live in the South American Jungle, where they lost their freedom to his authority.

Jim Jones claimed his camp was a socialist paradise, but the survivors called is a slave camp and called the system  fascism, not socialism. Some of the survivors of Jonestown were interviewed in the CNN documentary.

On the morning of November 18, 1978 there were nearly 1,000 members of the cult commune. Only 33 of them lived to see November 19.

California Rep. Leo Ryan visited Jonestown on a one man investigative mission, along with a TV camera crew and some reporters. Congressman Ryan had visited to inquire about the health and welfare of the cult members, because family members in California had raised concerns.

Jones feared that cult members would try to escape. About 15 of the cult members asked to leave with Ryan. Jones sent gunmen to kill Ryan, an NBC correspondent and a cameraman. A departing cult member also was killed.

While walking  Congressman Ryan was jumped by a cult member threatening to kill him. The documentary showed pictures and a videotaped conversation with Ryan explaining the incident of the NBC reporter and the cameraman. Within minutes, the narrator explained, all three of the men had been killed.

Jim Jones had planned the cyanide poisoning of the cult members well in advance. The tape played the recorded voice of Jim Jones as he urged followers to take the poison. Pictures of the soon to be dead men, women and children were shown taking the poison. Jones himself did not take cyanide – instead he was shot in the head, probably by a trusted aide.

Of the nearly 1,000 men, women and children who were in the cult run by Jim Jones, only 33 survived that day in Jonestown.

Escape from Jonestown offers the rare opportunity to hear the story of Jonestown and Jim Jones from the mouths of people who lived through the trauma and ultimate betrayal perpetrated on the cult members by Jim Jones.

Escape from Jonestown is a serious documentary about a tragic event in history. The film includes some footage never publicly seen, including pictures of the dead body of Congressman Ryan and the NBC reporter. Escape from Jonestown airs on CNN.

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