All language subtitles for Jonestown.Terror.in.the.Jungle.S01E02.On.The.Run.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-RCVR_track3_eng

[dramatic music]

[gunshots]

[screaming][Jim Jones Jr.]
Dad's been shot.

Our leader's been gunned down.

People were screaming,

"Father's shot!
Father's shot!"

[Jim Jones Jr.]
There's blood flowing
from his chest.

[Wagner-Wilson]
Then they rushed everybody

into the temple.

We're scared because
we don't know if someone else

is out there shooting.

Was it one shooter?
Was it more than one shooter?

And so we're in the temple,

and people are just in a panic

that we might lose Father.

A mourn quiet comes over
the whole community.

[Stephan Jones]
I was really afraid.

The idea of outside threat,

the idea of them and us,

that if you weren't with us,
you were against us.

That was the message
we heard constantly.

[doors open]

[Wagner-Wilson]
The doors opened,

and one of Jim's security

was carrying this shirt
with blood.

[Jim Jones Jr.]
There's red stains on it,

and there's two holes

that you can put
a finger through.

[Wagner-Wilson]
And Jim's behind him,

but there's not a mark on him.

He's healed himself.

[Jim Jones, recording]
You can put me into the noose,

you can hang my body,

but I'll spring up again.

You cannot stamp me out!

I'm here to stay!

[people cheering]

People are in a frenzy.

I mean, crying,

joyful, ecstatic.

It was-- the energy was just,
it was just electric.

And we're thinking, oh, my God,
Father healed himself.

[Jim Jones]
You've never seen anyone

shot down as I was,
before your eyes,

with blood
spurting from the body

and healed himself?

Yet I, a socialist worker,
did that.

[cheering]

How many believe
that I am the savior?

[cheering]

The only savior?

[cheers and applause]

[Wagner-Wilson]
They were convinced

that this man is God.

[Jim Jones Jr.]
It brought people together.

He was going to be the force,

the person,

who was gonna lead us
to the promised land.

[dramatic music]

It wasn't until later

that I knew
that that was fake.

[Stephan]
Later on,
I learned from my mother

how that had gone down and that

blanks were fired,

uh, to fake this,
this attack.

I don't know how it was faked,

but my father was always looking
for ways to create drama

so that he could be the savior

and the champion
within all that drama.

[Wagner-Wilson]
Everything he did was a test

to see how many people
were gonna stay...

and how many people
were gonna leave.

So every moment he's pushing
the envelope a little bit,

you know,
a little bit further, right?

[Jim Jones Jr.]
People were true believers.

And you wanted to be

because you were going to
change the world.

[Gosney]
I believed in him 100%,

and I believed in
who he said he was.

I would follow Jim Jones
anywhere, and I did.

[dramatic music]

[Gosney]
When we moved to San Francisco,

things went to the next level.

[Jeff Guinn]
Peoples Temple is
getting more people,

they're getting more money,
the fame is spreading.

But you can only go so far
in Redwood Valley.

[Jim Jones]
In San Francisco, we have more
political strength,

and that's important.

You've got the backing
of some people.

If we build
outside of the city,

we don't have that backing.

[Guinn]
In San Francisco,

he is going to gradually
insinuate himself

until he becomes a power broker.

♪♪

[cars honking]

[Kilduff]
I first heard of Peoples Temple

when I was a part-time writer
for the Chronicle

back in the early '70s.

[flash bulb popping]

They would turn out
big crowds at rallies.

[indistinct chanting]

The city was full of groups

that had shown they weren't
happy with conventional life.

[indistinct chanting]

Jones very much
played into that.

He was a new guy with a new
message with a new act.

[Jim Jones]
This country will not be safe

until we do something
to share the wealth

and share it
completely and fairly

and democratically
and peacefully. [cheering]

[Kilduff]
He donated money,
he participated in causes,

he cultivated friends
in a very clever way.

He rose fast
as a political power.

[Jim Jones Jr.]
Jim Jones was known as a person,

if you had a political
activism going on,

call Jim Jones,
get him involved.

And Jim Jones had to see

how he could manipulate it
for himself.

Reverend Jones,
how do you account for

such an avid following
as you seem to have?

I'm principled.
I'm dedicated to my people.

He loved the attention.

You know, he loved to be
mingling with

the crème de la crme,

the politicians
in San Francisco.

He was thriving in that.

[Carter]
Rosalynn Carter was in the city
to campaign for her husband,

and where she was at,
there weren't that many people

that showed up, and so somebody
called up Jones and said,

"Can you get some people here?"

And so he filled up
three buses

and drove everybody down there,

and all of a sudden
there was a big crowd,

and on the news it was
"Look at the warm reception

"that Rosalynn Carter
is receiving

here in San Francisco."

[Jim Jones Jr.]
And Rosalynn Carter
met with him privately

to talk about his
political involvement

in Jimmy Carter's election.

So much to where he got
an invite to the inauguration.

[eerie music]

[Guinn]
The legend of Jim Jones

and Peoples Temple
is out there.

And money comes pouring in.

I'm very much
interested in...

[Guinn]
He's becoming
more and more popular.

The newspapers cover him
like a celebrity.

[flash bulb popping]

In San Francisco,

you've got
Willie Mays,

you got the jazz scene,

and now, all of a sudden,
you've got Jim Jones.

[Stephan]
My father was always grandiose,

far back as I can remember,

and that grandiosity only grew

as the temple grew.

He was always managing
his image of himself.

Because he was always at war
with that voice inside of him,

I believe,
that was telling him

he wasn't enough,
he was a fraud.

And I think that's where drugs

really came in
much more heavily.

[eerie music]

[Guinn]
Jim Jones had always been
mistrustful of most people,

but the rampant drug use
increased his paranoia.

As the Temple grew,

Jones felt like
he's losing touch

with rank and file members.

He feels as though some
of his people may betray him.

So he creates
the Planning Commission.

[Dr. Mary McCormick Maaga]
The Planning Commission
was made up

of the leadership
of People's Temple.

♪♪

And they were the ones who were
closest to Jim Jones personally.

They were the ones
that were making decisions about

the day to day operations
of People's Temple.

[Guinn]
At their meetings,
it gives Jones a chance

to sit there and listen
to what people are talking about

and get some sense of the way
"his people" are feeling.

[dramatic music]

[Johnston Kohl]
I was on the Planning Commission
for five years.

During a Planning Commission
meeting,

I'd pass around a paper,

and people
who had information

about how somebody was doing

would write down notes.

I'd type it up
and then give it to Jim

and the secretaries.

It became more
of a spying on you thing.

[eerie music]

[Gosney]
The Planning Commission
at the People's Temple,

as far as
I was concerned,

was an enforcement agency.

If you got called
to the Planning Commission,

you were in some serious,
serious trouble.

[Wagner-Wilson]
There was a consequence
to any infraction,

whether it be, you fell asleep
during a meeting,

someone reported that you were
having affair with someone else.

[Gosney]
I was called
to the Planning Commission.

I had just gotten
my ears pierced.

Jim Jones said,
"Well, what did you do that for?

How bourgeois is that?"

And I, I made some remark,
and they all just jumped me.

[angry shouting]

All these people starting
pounding me and stuff

and, I think,
ripped the earrings out.

I was not considered
by Jim Jones

as one of the faithful.

I got in trouble a lot.

[overlapping chatter]

[sighing]
It's so sickening.

I can't hardly talk about it.

And then it gets to...

the boxing matches.

You're gonna
have an opponent

that would beat on someone

that was not even
a physical match to them.

It would get bloody.

They're not supposed to
even fight back,

you're just
supposed to get beat.

And Jim, he would laugh
over this type of thing,

that sinister laugh he had.

[Jim Jones laughing]

[laughter continues]

Jim Jones had
a sadistic quality,

he absolutely did.

He enjoyed that type of thing.

It was like a gladiator sport
to him, I think.

[Grace Stoen]
They set up
the counseling department

and eventually I got made
head counselor.

And I'll never forget,
one night in a meeting,

I saw somebody

very severely beaten.

And I saw them the next day

professing their love
for Jim Jones

as they were
walking in the church.

And I looked at them
and I said to myself,

"I don't ever want
to be broken

and in this situation
as a broken person."

I'd rather be dead

than to live
the rest of my life

in this situation.

I knew I had to leave.

♪♪

[Jeff Guinn]
From the time he organized

his first storefront church
in Indianapolis,

Jones took it personally
any time anybody left.

He couldn't stand it.

[Maaga]
Because loyalty was the greatest
value within Peoples Temple,

defection was the greatest sin.

There was always the fear
that anybody that left

would be utilized
by the enemies

to help tear down
Peoples Temple.

[Guinn]
He preaches that
once you're in with us,

you're part of us forever.

[cheering]

He has members sign statements

claiming that they had done
all sorts of terrible things,

from committing
cold-blooded murder

to planning the assassination

of the President
of the United States.

[Stoen]
I signed blank pieces of paper,

I signed pieces of paper that
I wanted to kill the President.

I signed pieces of paper
that I molested my child.

Try being in a room
with 50 people,

and you're asked to sign
a blank piece of paper

and say,
"No, I'm not gonna sign it."

If you didn't sign it,
they're like,

"Oh, are you
thinking about leaving?

Should we be concerned
about you?"

[Guinn]
He's got something on everyone.

All of it manufactured.

But making it clear,
"If you leave this church,

we'll make it hard on you."

I was done.

Spent.

[flash bulb popping]

[Kilduff]
Grace Stoen was
Peoples Temple royalty.

She had a child
while in the church.

Jones claimed the child as his.

She knew a lot about
church activities,

she was very informed
on how the church operated.

But then the personal stuff,
the beatings,

were just too heavy
a memory and an experience

for her to ignore.

[faint radio chatter]

[Stoen]
I'll never forget, we were on
a cross-country trip

and one of the members
came to me and he said,

"Grace, please stop acting out,
stop acting up."

He said,
"They're talking about you.

"They're gonna get you
when we get back

and they're gonna
beat you up."

And I said to myself,

"I'll never allow myself
to get beaten."

I knew I had to leave.

[tense music]

And, uh, I just
gathered some stuff.

I didn't tell anyone
I was leaving.

I snuck out.

And I ended up escaping
with one of the bus drivers.

We were told to leave the state

because we were going to be
hunted down and killed

if we ever left.

[Guinn]
She left the temple

but leaving her son behind.

She knew that she couldn't
probably pry him loose

and get away like that.

[sorrowful music]

It was hard.

It was,
it was very har--

very devastating for me.

♪♪

And we left on July 3rd

and I'll never forget,
we woke up

to what we thought
were gunshots.

[loud banging]

We sat up and we went,

"Oh, my God,
they've already found us."

Only to realize
it was firecrackers.

It was 4th of July.[bottle rocket whistling]

[Guinn]
Every time someone would leave,

Jones would absolutely
lose it.

Jones was so paranoid about
the loyalty of his people,

he decided he would give
the Planning Commission members

the ultimate test.

♪♪

We're having a Planning
Commission meeting
in San Francisco.

Meeting starts,

and the ranch

had a small vineyard

that was part of
the property that was there.

So on this night, he said,

"We have some wine
from the ranch.

Everybody's invited
to have some."

There were Styrofoam cups,

like, half filled with wine.

Drank the wine.

And, like, five minutes later,
Jones says,

"You've all just been poisoned."

[eerie music]

So immediately, inside,
my adrenaline starts running.

[muffled commotion]

People were yelling
and screaming.

Jones says,
you have an hour to live.

♪♪

Jim Jones says,
"You've all just been poisoned."

[eerie music]

"You have an hour to live."

[Jeff Guinn]
Jones says, "No one leaves."

And the minutes go by.

People start saying,
"I can feel myself dying,

I'm feeling faint."

So after about 45 minutes,
Jones says,

"Okay, well, you haven't
all been poisoned."

"This was a test to see
how you handle death."

♪♪

So I thought, okay,

he's teaching people what it's
like to face your own mortality,

your own death.

That's how
I rationalized that.

And I want to make it clear,

that it was a rationalization
on my part.

[Guinn]
Not one of them
grabbed Jones by the throat,

you know,
"You son of a bitch."

There was none of that reaction.

He had people that much cowed,

that much
under his control.

[Stephan]
He really enjoyed seeing
what people did.

And it was a test
of loyalty, right?

"Are these people
really willing to just lay down

now that I've told them
I've killed them?"

He was very sadistic
at that point.

[Carter]
Looking back on it,

I think the appropriate response
would've been,

"This is a crazy M.F.,

and it's time for me
to get out of Dodge."

[Maaga]
It's clear that
as early as 1974,

that Jim Jones realizes that

some of the practices
of Peoples Temple

cannot be sustained.

The punitive practices
with people.

The paranoid practices.

All of these things
eventually mean

that law enforcement
is gonna come in

and break up Peoples Temple.

He needed a place that
they could escape to

in case criticism
became too great,

and in case Jim Jones himself

was in danger
of being arrested.

♪♪

[Guinn]
He loves Guyana
'cause it's socialist,

it's mostly minority,

because it's the only country
in South America

where the national language
is English.

He ultimately works out a deal
with the Guyanese government

and sends a crew out
to start building Jonestown.

♪♪

[Carter]
So it started in '74.

I think there was, like,
seven guys that went down there.

All of them had some
heavy equipment experience.

[Stephan]
We cleared a lot of land

and we built
a lot of structures

in very short time.

It was hard, hard work.

[Guinn]
They are trying to build
a village

that would be able to hold
about 500 people,

to live there, to work there,

to feed them from the crops,
and so forth.

♪♪

It's the hottest part
of the entire year

and, uh,
they're doing real well.

When I first heard about
Jonestown was 1974.

Jim Jones had just come back
from Guyana

and was giving a talk
about Jonestown,

and it's going to be
an agricultural community.

♪♪

[Jim Jones]
Back over here is the area

we're clearing
for more planting.

Potatoes and carrots
and eddoes

and, uh, papaya.

[Wagner-Wilson]
We could grow our own food

and there would be a community,

and there wouldn't be
any violence or racism.

And it was going to be
"the Promised Land."

Darrin, how do you like it
here in the Promised Land?

My name is Anthony Simon,
I'm here in the Promised Land.

My name is Don Swonie,

and, um, I'm grateful
to be down here.

I'm working on
our fishing trawler

and I enjoy going down
the rivers and meeting
new people.

It is more freer down here
and it's more beautiful.

[inspiring music]

[laughing]

♪♪

This is a walking stick,
friends.

But that's a gentle guy.

Walking stick.

[chatter and laughter]

Jim Jones said
to be able to go to Jonestown

was a privilege.

It was... a reward to go there.

[Stephan]
The time that I spent there
building the town

that our community
was going to come live in,

was one of the happiest times
of my life

up to that point.

[Jim Jones]
We are going to have peace

in our Promised Land valley.

Now, in retrospect, I know much
of what he said at that time

was just a flat-out lie.

[dramatic music]

[faint traffic noise]

[flashbulb snaps]

[Marshall Kilduff]
I was a city hall reporter
in San Francisco.

I noticed Jones
had a lot of events,

where he would bring in
huge numbers of people

for inconsequential meetings.

So that piqued my curiosity.

Why does he behave
this way?

Isn't it unusual for
a religious figure to travel

in this kind of exalted way?

I thought there was
more to Jim Jones.

So I went to a local California
magazine at the time

called "New West,"
and they said,

"Um, okay, let's see
what you got."

[Stoen]
I had heard Marshall Kilduff
had been looking for me.

And Jeannie and Al Mills,

who had defected before I did,

called me one night
and they said,

"We're gonna do an article."

And I said that
I would, too,

that I wasn't gonna
let 'em do it alone,

that I would speak as well.

[Kilduff]
The ex-members,

the folks who had
fled the church said,

"Here's what you don't know."

[phone ringing]

[Stoen]
And I think we were there till,
like, 3:00 in the morning.

I told them everything.

The more power that he got,
the sicker he got.

[Jeannie Mills]
The whippings got
worse and worse.

Our daughter was beaten
75 times with a board.

[Bonnie Thielmann]
I ran with my child out,
got into my car

and he was yelling my name
as I left.

He told me that there would be
an accident in which

all three of us
would be killed.

Once you enter Peoples Temple,
you don't leave.

Or you don't leave
very easily.

There are death threats.

There is a lot of pressure
from the congregation.

We talked it over
with our children,

explained to them that we were
going to be quitting the church.

And they said,
"Well, Mom and Dad,

"we love you very much,
and we just hope

"that when you do
decide to quit the church,

you move far away, so we aren't
the ones assigned to kill you."

I don't think I really realized

how dangerous
a position that I was in,

but I just credit it
to being young.

And not knowing any differently
or any better.

I think what we had to say
needed to be heard

because, in the past,

Jim had always been able to
stifle any bad press like that.

So they were just blown away
by what we had to say.

[Kilduff]
"We were beaten, we had to
give up all our money."

[crowd cheering]

"There's a sexual angle here

that we don't think
you know about."

[crowd cheering]

Fake healings.

The church's inner dynamics.

The whole thing.

I had no idea.

This was a new level
of problem,

a new level of the story.

I talked to his aides,
I talked

to everybody I could
at the church.

So Jones knew
I was working on stories,

but he never wanted to talk.

[Wagner-Wilson]
Jim advised us defectors
were talking to

"New West" magazine.

And there was going to be
an article full of lies

about Peoples Temple.

We knew it was trouble.

We knew that people
were talking about

what was-- happened
behind closed doors,

which we were not supposed
to speak about.

[Guinn]
Jones knew maybe his followers

initially are gonna
believe in him.

If Father says none of
it's true, it's fake news.

But his political base--

the mayor
of San Francisco,

the governor of California--

he's gonna lose
that political clout.

And when he loses that,

he's going to lose
his standing in San Francisco,

he's gonna look terrible.

[Jordan Vilchez]
Jim was like hyper,

and he increased the talk about

enemies and defectors
and traitors

and people out to get us.

[Guinn]
When the story breaks,
it's tremendously controversial.

Everybody reads it,
everybody's talking about it.

Both San Francisco newspapers

immediately assign
their own reporters now.

"Dig in. Do more. Find more."

Reverend Jim Jones works
in some very unexpected ways.

Why didn't you just
get out?

Where did all that money go?

He had us sign papers,
blank papers.

"No matter what
goes on here, you go out

"and tell everybody
everything's okay.

Deny everything you hear
about what's going on here."

[Guinn]
The TV stations
are all there, flocking.

"Where's Jim Jones?"

By the time
the story came out

and there was this doubt
about him,

he wasn't around
to answer for it.

[Jim Jones Jr.]
In the "New West" article,

some of the questions
had to have direct answers.

He didn't want
to answer the questions.

The [bleep] storm
is not gonna stop.

So the only solution
is to get out.

So I remember my father saying,
"We're going to Guyana."

[man]
I think that Jim Jones
was afraid to face the publicity

and answer the questions
here in this country.

[Jim Jones Jr.]
After the "New West" article
backlash that happened...

groundswell started.

"What's the story
behind Jim Jones?"

Was all the magic
that Peoples Temple put out,

was it true?

And if you scratched the surface
a little bit,

you saw maybe it-- it wasn't.

[Mary McCormick Maaga]
In Guyana,

Jim Jones was outraged
by the "New West" article.

And he was also very frightened.

He was afraid
that this would give

the detractors of Peoples Temple

the ability to break up
the church.

[Guinn]
The original plan was that,

as soon as all this died down,
he'd be back.

But it's not dying down.

What he's got to do is
he's now got to make Jonestown

the focal point
of Peoples Temple.

And now, suddenly, Jim Jones
wants virtually everybody

in Peoples Temple
to get over there.

[indistinct chatter]

[dramatic music]

[Vilchez]
I wasn't given a reason
why I was going to Jonestown.

Things were in such a frenzy.

It was just, "Let's get
people down there now."

[dramatic music]

[Kilduff]
That summer, they began
shipping people out.

Buses went down to banks,

where people would deposit their
money into church accounts.

They lined them up
with passports

to get 'em
out of the country legally.

[Carter]
My wife, Gloria,
was already in Guyana.

And I wanted to be with her

for the birth
of my child.

It wasn't going to happen.

I was sent to New York City

to help facilitate people
getting to Guyana.

The media attention
on the temple at that time

was intense.

So, they would fly
out of different airports,

whether it was Los Angeles,
Sacramento, San Francisco,

and they would fly on
different airlines

and they would fly
in groups of three.

They always sat apart
from each other,

nobody recognized anybody else,

and there was a flight
every day at 4:30.

[dramatic music]

[Guinn]
It's important to understand
how isolated Jonestown was

from Georgetown,
the capital of Guyana.

You've got 160 miles
that cannot be driven.

You have to either try to fly
over the top of the jungle

and land on a tiny airstrip,

or you have to take a boat
along the coast

and down a river.

[Gosney]
It was a 19-hour boat trip

from Georgetown
up a river.

Way, way, way, way up the river.

[Wagner-Wilson]
I was seasick.

It was not a pleasant trip.

But part of me was happy.
It's like, "Don't complain,

because you're on the way
to the promised land."

♪♪

[Wagner-Wilson]
When we pulled up to the dock
and we got off...

...I was still apprehensive.

We got on the tractor
and we rounded this corner,

and I could just hear them.

♪ Welcome, welcome all of you

♪ Welcome,
welcome all of you ♪

♪ Glad you are with us

♪♪

What a swing.

What liberation brings.

[Wagner-Wilson]
Jonestown was a town,
it was a community.

From the doctor's office...

...to the pharmacy.

[Jim Jones]
Medications here.
One whole shelf

that goes half
the warehouse length.

We have medical manuals,

even how we could do surgery
if we had to.

If civilization as we know it
now began to crumble.

[Wagner-Wilson]
To the classrooms...

to the kitchen.

It was built from
scr-- from nothing.

From nothing.

[Gosney]
It was really kind of remarkable

that this whole little town

was built in the middle
of the jungle.

Far, far away from anything.

♪♪

[Wagner-Wilson]
I... wanted to get back
to my husband.

I was happy to see my baby,

my son,
and spend time with him.

[Carter]
When I finally got
into Jonestown,

I got to see Gloria
and my son, Malcolm.

I could actually feel tension
leaving my body.

Really, it was
a physical sensation.

Because it is incredibly
beautiful and peaceful.

And I thought it was exciting.

[children laughing]

[Jim Jones]
We've been building
this community--

as I look out over it,
it's the most fantastic thing--

and we've made this
part of the country.

We've enriched it by
everything that's growing

and all of these
beautiful buildings,

and our medical clinic,
and our lovely homes.

[Wagner-Wilson]
A typical day in Jonestown
was up at 5:00.

There would be someone
on the side of the--

the cabin with a stick.

"5:00, 5:00."

So 5:00.

We'd work six days a week,
and I was okay with that

because I felt like
I was building something,

and now I was really
a good socialist.

[members singing]
♪ Long live

♪ The socialist dream

That's beautiful.

[woman]
Thank you!

[cheering and applause]

[Jim Jones Jr.]
The getting up sweaty

and this kind of stuff,
I hated that.

Oh, I hated that.
I hated that.

I hated walking out
of your cabin on a r--

on-- in the rainy season,

and your feet
are full of mud and...

You know, I hated
all that kind of stuff.

But you know something?

When you're with 900 people
you care about...

...it didn't seem that bad.

[footsteps stomping,
hands clapping]

[indistinct chatter]

I remember the dances,
the youth dances.

[cheering and applause]

I remember some of the meetings
that my father did,

and we talked about
building a new world, you know?

Those were powerful to me.

I felt like we were
Che Guevara,

building a new world...
that's how I felt.

[all chanting]
The people united
will never be defeated!

The people united will
never be defeated!

The people united
will never be defeated!

The people united...

♪♪

[Wagner-Wilson]
Things were good for a while.

[man]
Grandma Bates,
how do you like it here?

I love it.
I love it.

It's-- I love it
better than any place

I've been in my life.

All of a sudden,
things started shifting.

I just love it.

I hope everything
is gonna be all right for us.

[dramatic music]

[fire roaring]

[Maaga]
Jonestown was ill-equipped

to provide a life

for all the people
that arrived.

And Jim Jones is aware that
what's happening in Jonestown

is not sustainable, either.

Ultimately Jones
has about 1,000 people

in a place built
for half that.

[indistinct chatter]

Almost instantly,
there's not enough food.

[Jim Jones]
We're gonna conserve on food.

Keep that up because
we'll need every dollar.

'Cause this is the only
kind of place to be.

Freedom.

[Wagner-Wilson]
As more people began coming,

even the children weren't
getting what they needed.

And the senior citizens
definitely were not getting

the food that they needed.

We even sell bananas now because
we're trying to make money.

We need money so badly
to take care

of all of our family,
to save them.

[Guinn]
Jones knows he's got money
that could take care of that

for decades,
but he's not revealing that.

So instead people are told,
"We've gotta do better

or we're gonna starve
and be humiliated."

[Wagner-Wilson]
You're physically adjusting
to the work,

but you get used to it,
you get used to the work.

What you don't get used to

is the sirens
in the middle of the night.

[siren wailing]

Or Jim's drugged,
sometimes incoherent voice

over the loudspeaker
in the middle of the night.

[Gosney]
In Jonestown, there were
loudspeakers everywhere.

They went on 24/7.

The voice of Jim Jones.

[Maaga]
Jim Jones did a terrible job

of maintaining his leadership

within the community
of Jonestown.

He would stumble,

he would urinate off
the side of the walkways.

[Gosney]
It was apparent that his...

drug use had increased.

He was slurring
his speech.

Remember, his number one
source of well-being,

if you could even call it that,

was adulation.

Or feeling like he was adored
by the people around him.

And now his source was finite.

It was the same people
every day, same thing.

So, what he tried to do
was just escalate things.

[Wagner-Wilson]
So I'm looking at all this,

I'm seeing this,

and I'm starting
to really acknowledge

what I'm seeing
as not my imagination

or not my ability to be
a good socialist,

but the fact that there is
something seriously wrong here.

[dramatic music]

[Stephan Jones]
I think Dad was very much
aware of the fact

that our town could not last.

What we were doing
was not sustainable.

[Maaga]
As Jim Jones realized

what was happening
at Jonestown

was a kind of failed experiment,

he and his leadership
began to ask themselves,

"How can we still succeed
in terms of history?"

And so this,
"We're an egalitarian community

"that's gonna show the world
how we can live

as a utopian gathering
of people,"

became instead,
"How do we show the world

"what a truly committed group
of people would do

"if they are threatened with

the disintegration
of their community?"

[cheering and applause]

[Gosney]
The people that went
to Jonestown

wanted to believe in something.

And they wanted to make
a better world.

[Wagner-Wilson]
I never saw us dying
from within.

I never, ever
saw it... coming.

[dramatic note, static]