FROM the air they looked like “pieces of confetti” scattered across the landscape.
But, as the military helicopter lowered closer, the full horror of the kaleidoscope of colour became clear.
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The passengers sat in stunned silence as they realised they were looking at the brightly coloured clothes of dozens of dead at the makeshift Jonestown compound deep in the Guyana jungle.
Journalist Charles Krause was one of the first to witness the horrific scenes when he flew into Jonestown with the military hours after the Peoples Temple massacre in November 1978.
He tells a new documentary: “There was the pavilion and all these bright colours around it. To me, it looked like confetti but each of those pieces of confetti was the shirt of the dress of a dead person.
“It was just senseless.”
The name Jonestown and the phrase “drinking the Kool-Aid” have gone down in history as an example of the horrific consequences of sinister cults.
In November 1978, hundreds of people were found to have died by suicide or murder at the settlement on the orders of charismatic leader Rev Jim Jones, who fed them the idea of a Utopian society.
He started the Peoples Temple in Indiana before moving it to California, where it was so successful civil rights activists and politicians gave speeches to followers.
Jones soon had the idea to rent land in Guyana to establish a new community where people of every race and age could live together at a time when America faced great racial division.
Held down with syringes
In 1974 the first Temple members arrived to escape “creeping fascism” in America.
But four years later the dream ended in tragedy of immense proportions.
It took days for military forces to identify, bag and repatriate the 903 murder-suicide victims who died at Jonestown.
While some of the dead voluntarily drank Kool-Aid, laced with cyanide, mixed in an old rusty barrel, many others were found to have been held down with syringes plunged into the back of their necks.
Initial estimates put the death toll at around 400 but within days a total of 903 victims were found, including young adults and children who lay under the corpses of relatives.
With the addition of an earlier shooting frenzy and the death of local Guyanes, the full death toll ended at 918.
Stabbed and shot on rescue mission
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Charles, then a 31-year-old reporter with the Washington Post, had already seen what Jones was capable of when he flew into Jonestown.
Hours earlier he had incredibly survived being shot by a bullet after visiting the compound with California congressman Leo Ryan.
Ryan and his aide Jackie Speier went on a rescue mission to the camp with journalists after hearing alarming stories of control and abuse from relatives of those who lived at the settlement.
They complained to family back home that Jones refused to let them leave, abused them and fed them drugs if they resisted his teachings.
Ryan’s visit set off a series of events that nobody could have imagined as demented Jones told his supporters they would be tortured by American special forces – and had no other option but to kill themselves.
The lady in front of me had the back of her head shot and her brain literally fell at my feet.
Thom Bogue
As Ryan and Jackie helped around 30 cult members to leave the compound, one of Jones’ faithful tried to stab the politician.
He managed to fend him off but when he and the rest of his party fled to catch a small plane at a local airport, Jones sent gunmen racing after them.
Congressman Ryan, photographer Greg Robinson, of The San Francisco Examiner, cameraman Bob Brown and reporter Don Harris from NBC, and Temple defector Patricia Parks were all shot dead.
Many others were hurt including Jackie and ex cult member Thom Bogue, whose family left with the congressman.
Thom said: “ When the shooting started I was already on the plane.
“They started going around shooting people outside. It seemed like it was happening in slow motion, like people say, but everything was also happening really fast.
“They started shooting into the plane through the door and the lady in front of me had the back of her head shot and her brain literally fell at my feet.”
Thom, who had been shot in the calf, fled with his sister and three other teenagers who hid in the jungle until they saw the military land.
‘My dad became cruel’
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Jim Jones’ son Stephan tells film makers how life went from hopeful to fearful at the commune once his dad arrived in 1977 – three years after the first settlers.
He said: “I loved the wildness of it. When building the town the camaraderie was beautiful to me.
“When dad got there there was a very different feel.
“When dad got there your time was his time and he made himself the centre of attention.
“At first he started with meetings almost every night. He would talk for a really long time sometimes.
“Next thing was him (his voice) constantly coming over the loud speaker, we constantly had to hear him.
You wondered if it would have been better to die in your sleep
Stephan Jones
“It was hammered into us how selfish it was to want anything for yourself, you could only think of the greater good.
“The next thing, relationships were not okay. He was threatened by family, he was threatened by romantic relationships because they were places where people could commemorate and conspire against him. He was always working people against each other.
“Dad became cruel and we got numb to it.
“There were beatings, people were abused and belittled and many were drugged towards the end.”
Thom also tells the National Geographic channel show Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown about punishments meted out by Jones, who secured follower’s passports the moment they arrived.
He said: “You’d be put in this room beside one of the dorms and injected with drugs for what would be weeks or a month at a time. It almost seemed like an experiment to me because when people came out of that dorm they were far from normal.
“When you woke up in the morning you were like ‘I woke up again to this’.
“You wondered if it would have been better to die in your sleep.”
Secret cries for help
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When congressman Ryan visited the site, Jones ordered his cult members to cheer and clap when the politician gave a speech.
Underneath the festival-like atmosphere was an ominous tone and followers handed journalists notes asking for help.
When reporter Don Harris confronted him about rumours of abuse and showed him a note from a desperate member Jones became hostile.
Ex Peoples Temple member Tim Carter watched Jones change as he was quizzed.
Infamous cults
Inside the most infamous cults in the world…
The NXIVM Cult – Pronounced “nexium,” this New York cult, led by Keith Raniere, claimed to be a self-help group. However, women and girls as young as 15 were emotionally and sexually abused, trafficked and subjected to forced labour, and referred to as sex slaves. They were also permanently branded with Raniere’s initials. Raniere is currently serving a 120-year sentence for sex trafficking and racketeering charges. He was also ordered to pay a $1,750,000 fine. His deputy Clare Bronfman was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Manson Family – Charles Manson predicted a violent race war, and planned to have his Manson Family hide out during this before emerging to take control when it was over. To help instigate this race war, Manson ordered his followers to carry out murders, intending them to be blamed on black people. In August 1968, family members repeatedly stabbed several people to death, including actress Sharon Tate. Manson and his cohorts were sentenced to death, but got life in prison. Manson died in prison in 2017.
Order of the Solar Temple – Joseph Di Mambro and Luc Jouret founded the Order of the Solar Temple in Geneva in 1984, with Jouret claiming to be both Christ and the reincarnation of one member of the 14th century order. In 1994, Di Mambro and Jouret said the end was near and in order to enter a higher spiritual plane, 53 members of the order committed suicide or were murdered in Canada and Switzerland. The buildings they owned were also set on fire after the deaths, and Di Mambro and Jouret’s remains were found. It was later revealed that Di Mambro had recently ordered the murder of an infant he believed to be the anti-Christ.
Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God – Founded by four ex-Roman Catholic priests, two ex-nuns and one ex-prostitute, MRTCG predicted the apocalypse would occur on Dec. 31, 1999. However, when the end of the world didn’t come that day, the leaders quickly altered their prediction to March 17, 2000. When the day arrived, police discovered an explosion and fire had killed hundreds of the group’s members. Although at first this was assumed to be a mass suicide, the evidence and subsequent uncovering of more bodies at other sites soon pointed to murder. It was never determined whether the leaders killed themselves or fled the country
Angel’s Landing – Led by Lou Castro, who claimed to be a “centuries-old angel” who could see the future and cure diseases. He convinced a lot of his followers that he had to have sex with young girls (usually their daughters) in order to remain alive. Over a period of seven years, six “accidental” deaths resulted in steep insurance payments – which funded the commune. Castro was arrested in 2010 and charged with multiple rape counts, first-degree murder, criminal sodomy, aggravated assault, and sexual exploitation of a child, among other charges. He was eventually convicted on all counts and sentenced to two life terms, with an additional 46 months added on.
He said: “ I wasn’t thinking that in six hours everyone would be dead, but when he (Don) handed him the note something changed.
“He (Jones) felt trapped, I guess he felt betrayed, he took every leaving as a personal betrayal.
“I saw Jones getting angrier and angrier and angrier, literally watching his jaw clench and his face turn red.
“Then (outside) this storm came up from out of nowhere, the sky turned black, the wind came up and there was just an absolute torrential downpour, you could hardly see five feet in front of your eyes it was raining so hard.
“I felt that evil itself had blown into Jonestown, there was a cold chill, ( I though) it’s coming down, it’s coming down, whatever is going to happen this is the beginning of it.”
‘Stop the hysterics & die with dignity’
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Tim’s instincts were correct and after Jones ordered the killing of Ryan and the others at the airport he called his faithful to the central pavilion.
In distressing tapes, left next to Jones’ dead body, discovered with a gunshot through the head, children can be heard crying in the background as he implores his followers to kill themselves.
In a chilling echo of evil, he is heard telling one protesting mother to die with dignity.
His voice rings out on a crackling tape: “Lay down your life with your children, but don’t do this. Don’t be afraid to die.
“If those people (authorities) land out there, they will torture our children here, they will torture people, they will torture our seniors. We can’t have this. Don’t be this way.
“Stop the hysterics and die with some dignity.”
The three-part documentary Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown is available from today on Disney+, and will also be on Hulu.