MovieChat Forums > Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (2006) Discussion > How Jones died

How Jones died

posted 17 years ago by onenonlyscotia
18 replies | jump to latest

As a student in criminology and forensics as well as forensic psych I find it funny that Jones decided to kill himself a different way than everyone else. And that presumeably (since his son says it on the show) that he wasn't the one that did it. I think that if he could have he would have tried to walk away and start someplace else. Laid low for a few years and then started over in Europe somewhere. Anyone else think that he wasn't planning on dying? I think he killed the family of whoever ultimately shot him and when that person realized he was going to piss off he took care of him himself. But that's my opinion. Psychos don't always want to go down with the ship. I should know...was married to one ;-).

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] MarvRiply379 17 years ago

Just curious, which son are you talking about? I haven't seen the movie yet, but I am good friends with Jim Jones' grandsons, one of which is a huge basketball star at our high school. By the way, did they mention that his son was saved from the massacre because of basketball? He was in a basketball tournament when it all "went down".

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[–] smithkittycat 17 years ago

there talking about stephen jones his only biological son the other one was adopted by jim jones and named after jim jones and they both survived because they were playing basketball in georgetown guyana and the answer to the other question yes i think jim jones either told someone to kill him after it was over or either hhe shot himself because he was a very suicidal person always he just wanted everybody to join him in his *beep*

[–] stlcards8205 17 years ago

His son said that he couldnt stand the fact of dying the same way everyone else did. He had to set himself apart from the herd. Stephan Jones said that his father knew that he was a sham but couldnt stand other people knowing the same thing. He was depressed, was taking alot of drugs. He just didnt want to go on living and couldnt stand his creation going on after he was gone. That is why he forced those who wouldnt drink, he had them injected. He didnt want anyone to tell about the kind of person that he was.

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[–] MadchenJ 17 years ago

I'm also a student of those subjects right now.

My questions are the same.

What makes me think he was killed was that while the deaths were happening, he said (on the "death tape")-- "Who wants to go with their child has a right to go with their child. I think it's humane. I want to see you go, though – they can take me and do what they want – whatever they want to. I want to see you go, I don't want to see you go through this hell no more. No more, no more, no more."

I wonder if someone asked him, "When are you going to drink the poison?" and this was his response? The tapes don't make everything said very clear. That makes me think he was going to watch it all happen and then leave or wait to be arrested. Someone may have been angered and shot him(?)

The thing that makes me think it was suicide on his part was that he was found dead in his chair in the pavillion. I wouldn't think that would point to his trying to flee.

I would like to know why gunshot residue tests were not done on his hands!

[–] modsquad 17 years ago

One of the books on Jonestown talks about the autopsy controversy and seemed to imply he may not have died as I recall.

[–] onenonlyscotia 17 years ago

Thanks Shay. A voice of reason lol. I think above all he was a coward at heart and that's why (primarily) I DON'T think he killed himself. And just because he was in a chair doesn't mean he wasn't shot trying to flee than "posed" in the chair. After all most of them were a little nuts (to put it nicely) and would they really want their revered leader (even if they knew he was a coward in the end) to be shown in anything other than in his "position of power"?
Somone else on here theorizes that he was never killed anyway. That it was all a cover up. It's not like this government doesn't have a long well documented history of trying to cover their asses about things. (like not responding to jonestown in time to save people, same as they didn't see fit to save their "countrymen" on 9/11). I'm not from this country and even though I don't much like this country I was appalled at how that was handled. I haven't had good luck with making friends here and have had more than one person assure me it's because of where I currently live (new england). So my view on americans is a bit jaded..that didn't stop me from sitting here on 9/11 and crying my eyes out for three days straight about all those poor people and their families.

[–] jamiemorrison20 16 years ago

Information on how Jones and the 'exclusive upper circle' of the Peoples Temple died is extremely vague to say the least, presumably because there were no witnesses to their deaths. Many US Documents and reports regarding Jonestown remain classified, despite being technically available under the Freedom of Information act. There have been reports that Jones and others were still alive the following morning, and though it's been reported that the Guyanese army didn't arrive in Jonestown until the following evening, testimony from the one survivor who remained in Jonestown, Hyacinth Thrash, suggests otherwise (she states she was given a meal on the morning following the massacre). There are also reports that none of the gunshot wounds sustained by Jones et al. were consistent with self-infliction. Therefore, it's possible that they were executed by the Guyanese military sometime on the 19th.

[–] chailey 10 years ago

Both of the lawyers that were involved with the Stoen child custody case (not really covered in the documentary) heard shots from the direction of the pavilion shortly after the hubbub had died down. They were sent away literally minutes before the start of the poisonings by Jones himself.

I think that he was shot by one of his inner circle, but there will never be any way to know. I doubt that the local military had anything to do with it at all.

[–] InjunNose 11 years ago

I've always felt instinctively that Jones might have counted on emerging from the whole mess alive, yes. He did sound like a very tired, dispirited man on the "death tape", but that doesn't mean he actually intended to die. In light of the evidence that most of Jones's followers were murdered rather than having committed suicide (of the one hundred bodies examined by Dr. Leslie Mootoo after the massacre, eighty-three showed evidence of having been injected with cyanide between the shoulder blades), the assumption that Jones, too, took his own life must be called into question.

[–] netrek 10 years ago

wow! where did you find the information on Dr. Leslie Mootoo's findings? i would like to read/watch it, thanks!

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[–] InjunNose 10 years ago

@netrek: I first encountered the information about Dr. Mootoo's findings at Jim Hougan's website.

http://jimhougan.com/wordpress/?p=94

[–] netrek 10 years ago

Thanks!

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[–] yellomarshmello 9 years ago

Thank you! Jonestown has always fascinated me, but after reading a few of your comments I'm realize that there is a lot I don't know about it.

[–] chailey 10 years ago

I think the fact that he gave a boatload of money to several of the survivors and told them to give it to the Soviets belies any plan to escape.

[–] RootCookie 10 years ago

He was a coward and knew it was over.
There was no way he was going to die like "his" people after watching them suffer.
There was no 2nd chance after the shootings on the runway. They would of hunted him down anywhere he would of gone. He knew it.