![]() ![]() Jackie Speier survived the attack at the airstrip. The remains of the Peoples Temple cult victims were transported from the compound in Guyana to Dover Air Force Base.īut roughly 90 people survived the mass-murder suicide. It was only then that they learned about the shooting, she said. Among them was Leslie Wagner-Wilson and her 3-year-old son, Jakari.Īfter walking 30 miles through the dense brush with Jakari strapped to her back, Wagner-Wilson said their group reached the small town of Port Kaituma. Meanwhile, some Peoples Temple members used the distraction of Ryan’s visit to sneak off into the jungle on their own in the hopes of escaping to the capital city of Georgetown. "There was no reason why I survived, except it wasn't my time." There's a bone coming out of my right arm," she said. Speier said she tried to lie down and play dead, but then she realized she had also been shot. ![]() And just thinking to myself, 'Oh my God, this is it. "And I'm running under the plane as well, and he's down and I'm getting down. "I saw everyone scurrying, and then I saw Congressman Ryan get shot," Speier said. "Basically, someone had tried to put a knife to his neck but it wasn't successful."įearing for their lives, Speier said she, Congressman Ryan, members of the delegation, and the defectors from Jonestown loaded up and headed for the waiting planes at a nearby airstrip.Īs they were boarding the planes, a tractor trailer with a few men from Jones' security detail drove up to the airstrip and opened fire on the group, Speier said. "Out walks Congressman Ryan in a bloodied shirt," she said. Speier said that as she was leaving the compound with a group of 40 Jonestown members and their relatives, there was suddenly a huge commotion at the compound's pavilion. I mean it was so clear to me that this thing was about to erupt and we needed to get those who wanted to leave out of there as fast as possible," she said. Wanting to move quickly, Speier said they called for a second plane in addition to the one they had flown in on to help get people out. The next morning, when the congressman confronted Jones, Speier said it was clear that Jones was incredibly agitated. And then more and more people wanted to leave." "Then all of a sudden word started getting out. Everything we feared is true,'" Speier said. "I'm looking at this note and I'm thinking, 'Oh my God, it's true. But after the applause died down, Speier said, one of the journalists traveling with them said he had been slipped a note by a follower who desperately wanted the congressman’s help getting out. The delegation was fed dinner and several members put on a musical performance under the compound’s pavilion. "A lot of these were young women, 18, 19, years of age, making it very clear that they were very happy there and they were all getting married to a fellow member of the Peoples Temple, none of which added up," Speier said. It is not at all like one of those cheaply made STVs that focuses on a particular killer like Dahmer or Gacy it's too well made for that."Congressman Ryan and I sat in the back of the pavilion at a picnic table with benches and started interviewing members of the Peoples Temple," said Jackie Speier, one of Ryan’s aides who was part of the delegation. If it serves as a catharsis for the survivors, more power to it. If its message is to tell us to beware of cults, you have to figure it's preaching to the choir. They killed at least five and wounded several more. Things I hadn't known or forgotten: the children were killed first, members of the congregation who were unable or reluctant to drink the poison were injected with it, some members managed to escape into the woods, and Jones sent a death squad to kill the congressman, reporters and defectors at the air strip. Someone - the son, I think - points out this was not a mass suicide but murder plain and simple. One of the hardest things to watch is the actual mass murder itself. ![]() The only problem with this is, the guy playing Jim Jones is not terribly convincing, and only serves to remind us of how effective Powers Boothe was as the notorious cult leader in a network miniseries some years before. ![]() A small number of survivors, including Jones' son, are interviewed on screen, and segments based on their memories are reenacted using a large cast of amateur actors. Chilling documentary about Jonestown and its aftermath. ![]()
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