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The Children of Jonestown

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Kenneth Wooden despite some errors has written an important book on the aspect of the children of Jonestown. They were about 267 who were murdered on November 18, 1978 in Jonestown, Guyana. They were not willingly to go to the vat and drink the cynaide poison. Despite Jim Jones' wife, Marceline, known as Mother Jones who pleaded on behalf of the children, Jones had already decided the end for his flock. Many of the children were underneath the bodies of their parents in the heat of the South American jungle that Jones had promised to be the promised land, a utopia, but it turned out to be a nightmare. When Wooden wrote this book in 1981, he didn't have the resources today like the internet and instant research so I take that into account. Also many people were still in recovery from the massive loss. Of course, Wooden helps explain to his readers about the red tape and Jones' clout in human services in California. Many of the children in Jonestown were in a sense to be kidnapped by Jones and the People's Temple. He kidnapped the children and their parents if members would follow. Jones also had the seniors there as well in order to receive their social security, pension, and retirement checks which they were forced to sign over. Escape was virtually impossible at least physically. Wooden helps explain that there was no escape until Ryan and his entourage arrived. Jones was also doomed himself since he was dying and drug addicted. While he robbed the seniors and everybody of their medication, he became a drug addict, paranoid, delusional, and physically drained. He was sleeping off the drugs when Congressman Ryan arrived on November 17, 1978. The physical symptoms were already there in interviews. 24 hours later, Ryan and four others would be dead and about seven miles later, almost a thousand bodies would lay in the heat. 267 of the 909 were children. We were robbed of their lives. They had dreams of being doctors, lawyers, writers, artists, singers, etc. I don't know what might have been if they were allowed to live but I know that they should have never been in the position in the first place. While our consciousness has dismissed Jonestown and the mass "suicide" as a bunch of crazies, they were human. About 400 unidentified bodies were laid to rest in Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, California. The bodies remained unclaimed for six months in Dover, Delaware. Only one of the victims was actually born in Delaware. This location was three thousand miles away from their previous residences of Redwood Valley, Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, etc. When they were finally laid to rest in a mass grave in May 1979 in Oakland, it was because of Evergreen's generosity to allow the burial since Guyana didn't want them buried on the grounds of Jonestown since they didn't want a cult shrine in their memory. They were 909 human beings and half of them were treated to a burial and only until 2008 is when a large plaque with all their names and ages were placed in the grave. I am heartbroken by the loss of children since I was a child at the time myself. I keep thinking about why and what could have been done to prevent such a disaster even 30 years later, some of us are still interested in trying to make sense of it all.

This book may focus on the children of Jonestown, but the general workings of the cult are covered all the same. While it doesn't take us through the whole history of People's Temple like most books, the horror is captured all the same; the beatings, forced sex acts, manipulation. The final moments in Jonestown are described in especially horrible fashion. Wooden's contribution here is in demonstrating just how successful Jones was at manipulating the political system to his advantage. Officials were buttered up, bribed and lied to for years. The cult's outward good behavior fooled authorities into believing no evil could exist there. By the late 70's the People's Temple worked hand in hand with San Francisco City government and even established fleeting contacts with the Carter Presidency. The children never had a chance.

My only fault here is with the last chapter, where Wooden makes a hopeless plea to save the world's children, noting that military budgets are much largely than those that help kids. It should be clear that there really wasn't much that could or perhaps even should have been done in this case. When adults voluntarily enter a world of madness, children are bound to suffer. Extensive interference by authorities might well cause more problems than it solves. After all most religious or social groups are not so far outside the mainstream. We are fascinated with Jonestown precisely because it was.