Customer Reviews

Dear People: Remembering Jonestown

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I think Jonestown survivor Michael Carter sums it up quite nicely near the end of "Dear People: Remembering Jonestown." He says "I have had the good fortune to meet a number of wonderful people during my lifetime, but I have never encountered such a concentration of outstanding human beings as I did in Peoples Temple. When I hear 'drinking the Kool-Aid,', I will continue to remember their dedication for what they believed in. It is easy for people to believe that we were mindless and spineless, but nothing could be further from the truth. I hope that someday there will be a few more people who will understand what depths are attached to such a trivial statement." If you have only a casual interest in the story of Jim Jones and Jonestown, it's easy to overlook the fact that Jonestown was populated by hundreds of wonderful, dedicated, hardworking, loving human beings. Denice Stephenson needs to be commended for doing a great job editing "Dear People", sifting through what I'm sure is a myriad of archives at the California Historical Society, and showing us the human side of this fascinating story. We're shown that there's so much more to the story than a mad dictator and his following of zombies drinking tainted Kool Aid. This book would be a great place to start if you want to learn about Jim Jones, his followers, Jonestown, and the unfortunate end.

After reading Seductive Poison, a powerful insider's look into the organization, I wanted to get another perspective. Read in conjunction, these two books allow us to peer inside the mind and thoughts of those innocent folks who believed they were joining something good and meaningful.

I highly recommend both.

I purchased several books related to Jonestown and the Peoples Temple. This was the first book I read beofre reading the others. This book helped me understand the historical aspects of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple. The information provided in this book is from the historical archives located in California. Although this is a "history" based book (not a memoir), it helped prepare me to understand and fully appreciate the other books I read on Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple. This is a must read for historical facts!

This book has been lying around our place ever since we went to see a dramatization of the Peoples Temple story last year over at Berkeley Rep. The other day I picked it up and haven't stopped reading since.

Jim Jones could have been a figure of great historic importance, and the accounts in this book (and elsewhere of course) attest to an admirable, and early, anti-racism which manifested itself in many forms. The tragedy of what happened to him can never be fully explained. How did so many give up their lives to the control of one man, no matter how gifted? The testimonies of the survivors, and the voices of those who died at Guyana, are eloquent and really shine to the sharp editing skills of Denice Stephenson and the California Historical Society staff who assisted her in this project. And yet there's still no answer.

Seems to me there are two types of person, and Jim Jones had them combined in his personality likje a hybrid. There was the man of empathy, the fellow who tries to make everyone feel at home. Marceline Jones tells the story of some poor folk, shabbily dressed, who apologized to Jones for coming into the Temple with patches. He just bowed and acknowledged them with a nod of his head, a kindly smile, and in a stage whisper he said, "Just to make you feel better, I'll have you know there's a huge hole in the seat of my pants right now." And then the other man who loved the sound of his own voice even when it was ranting nonsense like over the squeaky loudspeakers of Jonestown. (Like, why name it "Jonestown" unless you're really looking to shore up your ego?) How did these two personalities wind up bound in the same brain?

Who can forget the images of the lying bodies of over 900 men, women and children in the Guyanese children? The editor here has taken the writings of the members of the People's Temple. The pictures don't show us the faces of the men, women and children but their backs to the world. We mustn't forget their humanity despite their leader's madness. Not everybody joined the People's Temple because of Jones, they believed in the cause of communal living and practiced it. It would have worked without Jones but he was the driving force and drove hundreds to Guyana under false intentions where they would all meet their deaths tragically.

This book provides a rare glimpse into the thoughts of real Peoples Temple members and the words of Jim Jones himself. People tend to forget that these were real people who saw Peoples Temple as an organization that was trying to fix the way racism was controlling America. The documents in this collection are well chosen and well presented and the photos add even more interest to this invaluable source. If you are interested in learning more about Peoples Temple, this is a must buy.

I have read so many books regarding Jonestown/Jim Jones and I will never understand why this tragedy happened. Dear People, Remembering Jonestown brings you so much closer to the people that were in Jonestown on that tragic day. I loved the personaL letters and interviews. I specially like the personal letters from Carolyn Layton and Maria Katsaris, two of Jims closes and very personal assistants. I loved this book! If you are thinking about reading this book I recommend you read first, Seductive Poison and Six Years with God. These two books are two of the most personal stories I have read about those that were the closes to Jim Jones. I highly recommend Dear People, well put together.


A.M.O
Van Nuys, CA

After having read Deborah Layton's book about Jim Jones, I thought I wanted a somewhat more objective book so I ordered this one. And it didn't disappoint me. Dear People is a compelling presentation of personal stories, official documents and fascinating photos which really gave me the information I was looking for. No drama or ethos, just the plain facts. I've read many books about the Pol Pot era in Cambodia, and frankly this book fits right in - only in another setting with another crazed leader (both utopian communists, by the way). It baffles me still every day how intelligent and otherwise sane people can fall for crazed lunatics like Jim Jones.

By the way, I think that that very impressive farewell note (the Last Words), which starts off the book, supposedly from an unknown PT member who wrote it during the mass suicide, was prepared way in advance. I simply can't believe anyone can have the clear state of mind to write a letter like that while hundreds of people are dying around you, including more than 200 small children. But if it is true, it just goes to show how utterly brainwashed and inhuman these cult-members had become.

On November 18, 1978, tragedy occurred at an airstrip in Port Kaituma in Guyana when Congressman Leo Ryan from Northern California, Patty Parks (a People's Temple defector), Greg Robinson (photographer for the San Francisco Examiner), Don Harris (NBC reporter), and Robert Brown, another newsman, were shot to death by the People's Temple armed gunmen. The tragedy would only get worse and not better. There were survivors at the airstrip. But back in Jonestown, Rev. Jim Jones would finally have his white night in which this was no suicide drill. It was the real thing! Not everybody went willingly. The children event infants who were born in Jonestown were the first victims. There was one dissenter in the crowd and her name was Christine Miller. Jones had already made his mind up to complete the white night after years of practice. there was no going back. His members believed that they would be tortured and killed after the Congressman's death. That they were all responsible and not just those who committed the actual crimes. Even the children of Jonestown would not be spared, for two hours, there was death with armed gunmen surrounding the pavilion where only a day before there was a celebration regarding Ryan's visit. There was music, food, and a good time. Now it was going to be the end and it wasn't going quietly. Jones achieved infamy in death that would be associated with mass murder or suicide. Jones himself was dying anyway.
For Stephenson, she has researched and has used this opportunity to show the humanity of Jonestown and the People's Temple. He had taken in the disenfranchised, the forgotten, neglected, and unwanted. Jones made them feel not only welcome but to be part of a larger collective community. His members were so dedicated that they moved their lives across country from Indianapolis to Northern California and finally Jonestown. Jones may have falsified his healings to gain attention and membership but he also helped establish nursing home and foster homes all under the church. We all think that we are incapable of being lured into a cult. Actually, Jones gave his people what they needed and he expected the same sacrifice in return. Slowly, Jones stripped his members of their finances, their homes, jobs, and obligations for the People's Temple. He provided jobs, food, and shelter as well as a great community of good people. Jones left Indianapolis because people weren't committed enough to the cause or maybe he was afraid of the exposure of his dark side. The other side of Jim Jones was equally dark but it was veiled heavily by his presence and lively performance on stage. Most of the members didn't join the People's Temple because of Jim Jones but because of how his other members were so selfless, generous, and kind to them for all their needs. Of course, now thirty years later, the search for answers to those questions of what happened on November 18, 1978 are still in debate. But the author has made a conscious effort to humanize the people of Jonestown as more than a number and faceless bodies which were splashed all over the news. For years, I have researched true crime and criminal psychology to understand the concept of Jonestown. This book has helped me understand the people who have been taken from us that day. We were robbed of them as well as their families and friends. 900 isn't just a number, they were people.

What a great collection letters, photos and memories from the life and times of the Peoples Temple.

I found it to be an easy read, the chapters have a nice flow, and it does something different than other PT books I've read. It does not show the PT members as crazied followers of a madman, but as a family. A family that was genuinely trying to create a better world. That is, until things got bad and people from the states wouldn't leave them alone.

I blame the 'concerned relatives' for more than 900 deaths on November 18th, 1978.