Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

CNN: Jim Jones had long planned killings

|
|
 
  
Published: Nov. 12, 2008 at 2:18 PM

ATLANTA, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- Cult leader Jim Jones had been stockpiling deadly cyanide poison for years before he led his followers into a 1978 mass murder-suicide in Guyana, CNN says.

In a documentary on the Guyana massacre, "Escape from Jonestown," the broadcaster, based in Atlanta, said its investigation found that Jones had been buying cyanide beginning in 1976, two years before he ordered more than 900 of his followers to drink Kool-aid laced with the poison on Nov. 18, 1978.

That would indicate Jones had been planning the mass deaths for some time, the broadcaster said.

Jones, a northern California faith healer who moved his congregation to South America after allegations of church beatings and financial abuses, shot himself to death after ordering the executions of a visiting U.S. congressman, Rep. Leo Ryan, and four others at an airstrip as they were attempting to leave the compound.

CNN said 303 of the 900 Americans who died in the camp that day were children, many of whom were killed by Jones loyalists who used syringes to squirt cyanide down their throats.

Topics: Leo Ryan
Recommended Stories
© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 20
Singer Janelle Monae arrives at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards in Universal City, California
View Caption
Singer Janelle Monae arrives for the MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. UPI/Jim Ruymen
fark
Famous last words: "The notion that it's too late to do anything is comical. It's hilarious. We're...
Five secrets to getting the best healthcare. #6: Don't get sick
Traveling to the U.S.? If invited to a dinner party, bring a gift of wine, but not cash or toiletries...
Man turns dead pet cat into remote-controlled helicopter, calls it art (w/WTF pics)
"Good News" clubs teach children in public schools the Biblical importance of killing all nonbelievers...
Five arrested in prostitution sting. Article lists their names, ages and distance from a church