After United States Rep. Leo Ryan was shot to death near the commune on November 18, 1978, Jim Jones gathered the members of Peoples Temple around him and said that it was time to commit what he termed “revolutionary suicide.” This time there was no drill, as commune members were asked — or perhaps forced — to consume a deadly mixture of sedatives, cyanide, and Flavor Aid (not Kool-Aid, as imperfect cultural memory has it). As survivor Odell Rhodes told The Washington Post in 1978, infants and young children were given the concoction first. With a toll of 304, children represented nearly a third of all the dead at Jonestown. Rhodes himself survived by hiding beneath a building, waiting a few hours, and then walking five miles through the jungle to the nearest town.
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At the commune, 907 are reported to have died from cyanide poisoning. Two people, Jones and nurse Annie Moore, died from gunshot wounds. Five were shot at the local airstrip, including Ryan, defector Patty Parks, photographer Greg Robinson, and NBC employees Don Harris and Bob Brown. In the capital of Georgetown, Sharon Amos and her three children also died to fulfill Jones’ directive.
