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Jonestown was a remote jungle community in Guyana established by the California-based Peoples Temple religious group and its leader, Jim Jones, in the 1970s. Following an exodus of Peoples Temple members to Jonestown in 1977 and 1978, Congressman Leo J. Ryan and a delegation of relatives and media correspondents traveled to Guyana to investigate claims of abuses occurring in Jonestown. While most residents vocalized satisfaction with their lives in Jonestown, a number of residents expressed their intent to leave with the congressional delegation. 

On November 18, 1978, as the delegation and the group of Peoples Temple defectors prepared to depart Jonestown at a nearby airstrip, a tractor with of Peoples Temple members assassinated Congressman Ryan and four others. Meanwhile in Jonestown, Jim Jones ordered the remaining residents to drink a lethal cyanide-laced cocktail. Ultimately, 918 people died in the murder/suicide events. 

As news of the tragedy in Guyana leaked to the rest of the world, what ensued was one of the most extraordinary missions in the history of the United States Armed Forces. The U.S. military, in coordination with the U.S. government, the Guyanese government, and the Guyanese Defense Force (GDF), were charged with the responsibility to repatriate the remains of over nine-hundred American civilians back to the U.S. and identify them. 

This website primarily documents the U.S. military’s and the GDF’s roles in the aftermath of the largest intentional loss of American civilian life prior to the September 11 Attacks. Extensive information on the history of Peoples Temple, Jonestown, and Jim Jones can be found on San Diego State University’s Digital Archive on Jonestown & Peoples Temple, the parent site of this project. 

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RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

Guinn, Jeff. The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple. New York City, NY: Simon & Schuster, 2018. (Book)

Howard, Shannon. Transmissions from Jonestown. August 15, 2021. (Podcast) 

Moore, Rebecca, and Fielding M. McGehee. “Digital Archive on Jonestown & Peoples Temple.” San Diego State University. (Website)

Nelson, Stanley. American Experience: Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple. Crystal City, VA: WBGH Educational Foundation, 2006. 1 hr., 26 min. (Documentary)

Reiterman, Tim, and John Jacobs. Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People. Boston, MA: E. P. Dutton, 1982. (Book)