Your Name ______
Directions: Read each of the news stories and answer the questions that follow in complete sentences with ABOVE AVERAGE explanations!
Jonestown
The first reports out of Guyana on November 18, 1978 were that Congressman Leo J. Ryan and four other members of his party were shot and killed as they attempted to board a plane at Port Kaituma airstrip. Within hours, came the shocking announcement that 408 American citizens had committed suicide at a communal village they had built in the jungle in Northwest Guyana. The community had come to be known as "Jonestown." The dead were all members of a group known as "The People's Temple" which was led by the Reverend Jim Jones. It would soon be learned that 913 of the 1100 people believed to have been at "Jonestown" at the time had died in a mass suicide. The method of delivery was strychnine added to Kool-Aid.
According to the official report submitted to the U.S. House of Representatives on May 15, 1979, the chain of events leading to Leo Ryan's death in Guyana began a year earlier, after he read an article in the San Francisco Examiner on 13 November 1977. The article entitled "Scared Too Long" related the death of Sam Houston's son, Bob, in October 1976. Houston had decided to speak out about his son's death because he believed that the reason Bob had died, beneath the wheels of a train, was because he had announced his decision to leave the People's Temple the day before. Houston was also concerned that his two granddaughters, sent to New York for a vacation, had ended up in "Jonestown," Guyana and never returned.
Over the ensuing six to eight months, Ryan would hear more about the People's Temple through newspaper articles and from direct requests for assistance from concerned families whose relatives had disappeared into the Guyana jungle to join the "Jonestown" community. There were claims of social security irregularities, human rights violations and that people were being held against their will at "Jonestown." In June 1978, Ryan read excerpts from the sworn affidavit of Debbie Blakey, a defector from "Jonestown," which included claims that the community at "Jonestown" had, on a number of occasions, rehearsed for a mass suicide.
- What happened at Jonestown in November of 1978?
- Why do you conclude Congressman Leo J. Ryan and his 4 associates might have been killed?
Heaven’s Gate
The 39 cult members found dead in a hilltop mansion apparently died in a carefully orchestrated suicide that involved sedatives, vodka and plastic bags possibly used to suffocate. The victims apparently believed they were going to meet a UFO hiding behind the Hale-Bopp comet.
Police said they had gathered little information so far on the background of the group or its leaders, only that they operated a computer Web service called "Higher Source." The name of the cult is "Heaven's Gate," which also has a Web site on the Internet.
The mass suicide likely took place over three days and involved three groups, proceeding in a calm, ritualistic fashion. Some members apparently assisted others and then cleaned up, then went on to take their own dose of the fatal mixture, mixed with apple sauce or pudding. The last two victims to die were found with plastic bags over their heads. It was said 21 of the victims were women and 18 were men.
Initially all the victims had been identified as men, since deputies found all of the victims. All the victims wore black pants and black Nike athletic shoes, their faces and chests covered with purple shrouds, their heads shaved. Their bags had been packed neatly in the dormitory-type rooms. Those who wore glasses had them carefully placed at their side. In a pocket, most of the victims had a $5 bill and some quarters.
"They were at different stages of deterioration," Jerry Lipscomb of the San Diego Sheriff's Department. "That's the most pleasant way I can put that." A check of driver licenses showed that 11 of the victims came from New Mexico, eight from Texas, four from both California and Colorado and three from Arizona, officials said. There were also victims from Washington, Ohio, Florida and Minnesota.
- Why did police original think all the victims of the “Heaven’s Gate” suicide were men?
- For what reason did these people kill themselves?
After the class discussion, write down the characteristics that make up a cult below: