Tune in on NBC this November the 9th. In honor for the 30th anniversary of the Jonestown mass murder (to me it's not a mass suicide), which happened on November 18, 1978, a 2 hour documentary is airing called Witness to Jonestown.

November 9, 2008 at 11:00 pm est. on MSNBC.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4oP2FmAX7Q

I didn't even know they were doing a special on this! Thanks for the heads up!!

I have a friend who was born the day this went down. Love watching specials about it, the footage from the chopper with the assassin is some creepy stuff

Reminder that it airs tonight the 9th.

It is such a bizarre and sad story, but I am fascinated by the whole Jim Jones/Jonestown saga. It's amazing how much influence one mad man had over so many people that they would follow him out into the jungle to their doom.

What channel?

What channel?

MSNBC.

MSNBC.


Thanks Tom!:wave:

Thanks - I'm going to TVo it.

I still remember that like it was yesterday. What a shock. I think it was the first time anyone had this much control over this many people - long before Waco, those French Canadian nuts in their Nike's, etc..


So sad that some people feel the need to follow a person like that. What a waste of lives.

I had seen promos for the CNN special that airs later this week. I didn't know about the MSNBC one. Thanks for posting.

I remember that all too well, because I just turned 13 that month. It always pissed me off that former President Carter never sent troops down to take them out.

I remember that all too well, because I just turned 13 that month. It always pissed me off that former President Carter never sent troops down to take them out.




? Troops? Why - they didn't even know what was going on down there. The congressman went down just to check things out and at the time, it didn't look too bad - that's why they didn't arm themselves or bring bodyguards with them. If you watched the entire special you would have seen that it explained that.

Hell, by the time the U.S. knew what was going on, they were all dead anyway. Besides, it was only Jim Jones that was crazy from the drugs and paranoid and he's the one who ordered the killings. You hardly need an army for that. :rolleyes:

If anything, the special showed that this wasn't really a cult - that it started off actually quite well as a church that did a lot of good - I could even see myself joining (yet, I'd never join a cult). It was the power and drugs that got to Jim Jones and sent him into madness. Had Jim Bakker been as crazy, he could have done the same thing when the feds came after him.

I saw the promos for the special on NBC News. What a sad, creepy and bizarre story. I especially felt sorry for the members of the press who met their sad ends while just doing their jobs. May they :rip:.

? Troops? Why - they didn't even know what was going on down there. The congressman went down just to check things out and at the time, it didn't look too bad - that's why they didn't arm themselves or bring bodyguards with them. If you watched the entire special you would have seen that it explained that.
Are you kidding? That hit the news right away, and the whole world learned what they were doing.

Hell, by the time the U.S. knew what was going on, they were all dead anyway. Besides, it was only Jim Jones that was crazy from the drugs and paranoid and he's the one who ordered the killings. You hardly need an army for that. :rolleyes:
His so-called "Red Brigade" were the ones who actually killed him, not to mention Don Harris. So that kills you notion that it was only Jones who was crazy. I still remember reading Newsday and seeing the TV networks mention the body count escalating throughout the month. You can't tell me that we couldn't send a C-130 or some other cargo plane from some base in Panama with one or two platoons to raid the compound, and at the very least prevent him and his thugs from from killing everybody there.

:mad:

I watched this last night. I've seen Jonestown specials before, but I think this was definately the most depressing one, mainly because it was loaded with so many first-hand survivor accounts. I feel bad for all the people who survived and told their story but lost their children and spouses due to that egomaniac. You could tell from the paragraphs which ones have coped better (ones who remarried and the sort) and those who have never gotten over it.

Thanks for the note. I admit I did not see this one yet, but I taped it last night and am waiting for a chance to sit down and watch.

Many of these people have been on the countless Jonestown specials before.

I don't know if he was on this one or not but was Verne Gosney there? He was the one who survived the shooting incident when a Jonestown member pulled out a gun aboard a plane and tried to shoot the pilot. Verne lost his son in Jonestown.

Also, I saw from the preview that Jones' son was on this one again. He survived because he was away with the Jonestown basketball team during that day. He says that basketball saved his life.

Does anyone know if this will be re-aired. I never heard about it.
I went to grade school with Mike Carter, who was one of Jim Jones' aides (along with his brother). They both escaped with a bunch of money that was never found.

Does anyone know if this will be re-aired. I never heard about it.
I went to grade school with Mike Carter, who was one of Jim Jones' aides (along with his brother). They both escaped with a bunch of money that was never found.

I am not sure about a re-airing; maybe but I do not know when.

Your best bet is to keep checking on YouTube because I am sure someone might post it there sometime down the road.

Are you kidding? That hit the news right away, and the whole world learned what they were doing.:

It hit the news publicly 2 days after the congressman, NBC reporters and one defector had been murdered. News of it got to NBC within hours. They had been told to keep it quiet until more information could be obtained. The mass murder/suicide started immediately after the shooting on the airstrip. Just how do you propose the U.S. could get a small army down there in 15 mins.? The minute they would parachute in, Jones would have done the exact same thing - or instead of kool-aid, just shoot everyone down.


http://www.cnn.com/US/9811/18/jonestown.anniv.01/


His so-called "Red Brigade" were the ones who actually killed him, not to mention Don Harris. So that kills you notion that it was only Jones who was crazy. I still remember reading Newsday and seeing the TV networks mention the body count escalating throughout the month. You can't tell me that we couldn't send a C-130 or some other cargo plane from some base in Panama with one or two platoons to raid the compound, and at the very least prevent him and his thugs from from killing everybody there.

:mad:

And the Red Brigade shot because Jones ordered them too. It was shoot or be shot themselves at that point.

Yes, the government had been told that there was possibly brain-washing going on, but that was also going on with the Moonies and other "cults" and still is. That's not a reason to blow them to kingdom come. And if you read the article, there's even been suspicion of the CIA being involved with the Temple themselves. (that theory imo seems far-fetched tho).

The body count escalated not because more were being murdered, but because the first count was taken from a plane flying above the compound - they could only estimate. Then when they got on the ground, they realized that bodies were as much as 5 deep - lying on top of each other.

Sorry - your points don't hold water. You obviously didn't watch this special either because they explained the body count thing several times.

Does anyone know if this will be re-aired. I never heard about it.
I went to grade school with Mike Carter, who was one of Jim Jones' aides (along with his brother). They both escaped with a bunch of money that was never found.


Try here - I don't see anything about re-airing, but you can catch clips here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27052411/

(good for them - glad they were able to get something back from that creep Jones)

It hit the news publicly 2 days after the congressman, NBC reporters and one defector had been murdered. News of it got to NBC within hours. They had been told to keep it quiet until more information could be obtained. The mass murder/suicide started immediately after the shooting on the airstrip. Just how do you propose the U.S. could get a small army down there in 15 mins.? The minute they would parachute in, Jones would have done the exact same thing - or instead of kool-aid, just shoot everyone down.
If we had taken action right away, it wouldn't have kept going. All the people who broke away from the People's Temple knew what they were planning. The government could've responded, but they chose not to.

And the Red Brigade shot because Jones ordered them too. It was shoot or be shot themselves at that point.
All the more reason to send troops.

Yes, the government had been told that there was possibly brain-washing going on, but that was also going on with the Moonies and other "cults" and still is. That's not a reason to blow them to kingdom come.
The threat of forcing people into mass suicide sure as hell is.


And if you read the article, there's even been suspicion of the CIA being involved with the Temple themselves. (that theory imo seems far-fetched tho).
It doesn't just seem far-fetched, it is. And let's see where such allegations came from... oh, that's right. His far-left attorney Mark Lane.



The body count escalated not because more were being murdered, but because the first count was taken from a plane flying above the compound - they could only estimate. Then when they got on the ground, they realized that bodies were as much as 5 deep - lying on top of each other.

Sorry - your points don't hold water. You obviously didn't watch this special either because they explained the body count thing several times.
Actually, I did watch the special. If a civilian plane could keep on flying around, so could a military one.