Memorial to Jonestown victims unveiled

OAKLAND, Calif., Nov. 19 (UPI) -- The company building the California memorial to the 1978 Jonestown massacre says the wall bearing the names of the 917 victims will be completed next year.

The first sections of the granite wall were unveiled at a ceremony in Oakland on the anniversary of the Nov. 18, 1978, mass-suicide and the rest will be installed late next year, the Oakland (Calif.) Tribune reported Wednesday.

John Cortez, project manager of Marin Monument Co., told the newspaper one section would be reserved for the children who perished at the Guyana compound run by the Rev. Jim Jones.

About 100 people attended Tuesday's memorial at the Evergreen Cemetery, including some survivors who said Jones had in effect murdered his followers when he ordered them to drink poison after some of his followers had gunned down a U.S. congressman and members of his party.

Jones' Peoples Temple church had been based in the Bay Area prior to the exodus to Guyana where the ill-fated Jonestown colony was established.