Jonestown Conspiracy Essay

On November of 1978, the town of Peoples Temple in Guyana was the home of one of the most shocking tragedies outside of wartime. Jonestown, the community/communist cult, created by Jim Jones was involved in a mass murder/suicide in which the lives of the more than 900 inhabitants of the compound were lost. Although the catastrophic incident is catalogued as the non-natural second biggest loss of civilian lives in the United States after 9/11, very little information is known or written about the episode. Consequently, the lack of information, especially from governmental departments, has led to the formation of conspiracy theories that generate alternative explanations for the catastrophe. Some of the most popular ones believe in the involvement

of the CIA as the cause of the fatal outcome, either to cover a mind control experiment, or to eliminate the group and prevent the expansion of communist associations. Though it is understandable that the public distrusts the government, the evidence suggests it is highly unlikely that Jonestown was a CIA scheme. By analyzing a variety of validated sources, it is possible to provide reasonable explanations to the events occurred in Jonestown without considering the involvement of external institutions; even more, they would help to clarify the motives behind conspiracy theories’ creation and their popularity.
A conspiracy theory is the belief that a group of people, mostly referred as powerful organizations, in a conjunct effort is covering an event with malicious intentions. The majority of conspiracy theories out there are also prone to suggest that the conspiring organization which hides the evidence was the cause of the harmful event itself. The U.S. country has been witness of a cornucopia of conspiracies that have come and gone with the years, some have been proved to be correct while others have just been catalogued as demented. However, no matter what is the image that is associated with conspiracy theories, the true is that in the present day, most Americans admit to believing in at least one conspiracy theory (Jacobs). The pervasive believe in such theories has led several sociologists and anthropologists to explore in the reasons for their popularity.
Mark Fenster, author of Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture, declares “We are all conspiracy theorists now”, and explains how the media and mostly the cyberspace have become a Petri dish for the birth of conspiracies. (2008 1) However, though technology advances certainly helped to expand the scope of conspiracies, the real issue is the tendency of the public to believe in them. Some psychologists associate the issue with the human necessity to be aware of their environment. Prooijen and Nils, explain that this sense-making process is the base to “paranoid social cognition”, which is described as a “hyper-vigilance state” where the individual is in a constant defense mode against attacks from others (110). Therefore, confronted with a stressful situation, such as 9/11 or Jonestown, which also does not offer a satisfactory explanation, people are prone to elaborate alternate scenarios that fill their expectative of certainty.
However, though giving sense to a tragedy is a reasonable cause to the creation of many conspiracy theories, it is not always the case considering there are also conspiracies inspired on harmless events, such as the moon landing. Therefore, acknowledging that the majority of conspiracies tend to involve governmental institutions, other researchers also argue that their increasing acceptance is in reality caused by sentiments of distrust towards the government. Brian Keeley illustrates the concept by claiming that “[conspiracy] theories throw into doubt the various institutions that have been set up to generate reliable data and evidence. In doing so, they reveal just how large a role trust in both institutions and individuals.” (121). In summary, several conspiracy theorist base their claims in the discredit of the official version of the facts provided by the relevant institution. Facing the question of why sane people would choose to doubt the government, Professor Fenster finally analyzes that the secrecy of governmental operations, and the lack of information open to the public, create the atmosphere of skepticism which surrounds the evidence that they do provide, given that conspiracies are, in the words of Christopher Hitchen “the white noise which moves in to fill the vacuity of the official version” (1999 xiv).
Case Study: Jonestown
As mentioned before, Pastor Jim Jones was the leader of Peoples Temple; a cult initially created in the United States in 1954, as an inter-racial mission of service to the community. During its first years, Peoples Temple was an organism dedicated to social causes, such as the aiding of the poor, and the supporting of racial integration. While spreading its ideals, the church moved across the country several times; the community traveled from Indianapolis to California, and lastly to San Francisco, city where it exercised the most political and social influence. In 1974, Jim Jones moved his followers once again, and they establish their community in a remote location in Guyana, South America, on the jungle near the Venezuelan border. There, Jones planned, they would create what would be a utopian society, inspired not only on Jones’ wish of an integrated society, but also on the communist practices of which Jones was an avid supporter.
The people who resided in Jonestown, mostly American citizens, had extremely limited access to the exterior, and their ordinary routines consisted in working on the crops to produce part of the sustenance for the community. Nevertheless, the maintenance of the more than 1000 inhabitants was almost impossible for them alone; moreover, it is known that during Jonestown´s last month’s their resources were scarce, and the people were malnourished. As a result, the cult members were constantly instigated to work harder, though the poor nutrition and the climatic inclemency made it impossible. These harsh conditions led to the departure of a many members of the community who did not feel capable of enduring them, and even though it was difficult, they were able to return to the States.
In the U.S., relatives of the members of Peoples Temple became concerned about the well-being of their loved ones living in the Temple. They constantly received correspondence from Jonestown, which detailed the life as a part of the community with all of its frightening details. As a result, the worried families started a movement requesting the liberation, or at least cease to the human rights, of their relatives inside the compound ("Accusation of Human Rights Violations Prepared by the Concerned Relatives”). Their complaints came to the knowledge of Congressmen Leo Ryan, so he decided to personally investigate the matter and flight to Jonestown on November 14, 1978. Congressman Ryan stayed for 3 days before returning with a full report about the life conditions in Jonestown. On November 17, he was ambushed in the plane by a group of Jim Jones followers, and he, along with five other people in the plane, were killed. After the murders, Jim Jones convened the inhabitants of the compound, and instigated them to commit suicide in order to protect their freedom.
The Conspiracy
After the news of the carnage arrived on American soil, speculations began to take place.

The government offered the pertinent information regarding the event, though it did nothing to stop conspiracy theorist to assert their suspicions. Not all theories are still discussed today; however, the most popular beliefs related to the tragedy managed to survive until the present days. Those theories have several common elements, and are connected wirh the idea that CIA forces were the cause of the more than 900 murders in the complex.

In any conspiracy, theorists recollect massive amounts of evidence (Hofstadter, as cited by Moore, 2002), to create likely scenarios that provide satisfactory explanations of the events they investigate. In the case of Jonestown, the most widespread conspiracy related the events surrounding Jonestown explains how the catastrophe was actually an attempt to conceal evidence referent a mind control experiment performed by the CIA. The lines of reasoning that led to that assumption start with the analysis of their first piece of evidence:

1. The body count discrepancies between the Guyanese authorities and the American

investigators.
When Jonestown was initially researched by the Guyanese army, the number of bodies was reported as an average of 400 people, while the other 700 residents supposedly escaped to the jungle during the suicide ceremony. Later, when American authorities investigated the scene they claimed to have found more than 900 corpses in the compound. The source of that first statement of the Guyanese government was never clarified (Moore 220-20) However, in the United Stated, speculations over the reasons behind such a high difference between both accounts were immediate. The Government of the United States became the first in offering a response, declaring that the chaotic conditions have prevented Guyanese authorities to provide an accurate account of the bodies. Simple enough, the answer did not satisfy the minds of the theorists (The New York Times as cited by Judge, 1990). Jumping to conclusions, conspiracy advocates explained the increasing number of the bodies reported, as the result of the killing spree that took place after the first series of murders. According to their examination, approximately 700 inhabitants had been able to escape into the jungle when the suicides started; however, CIA agents were able to find and eliminate all of the survivors of the first night during the following days.
The problem with the first claim of mind-control theory supporters resides in the several conditions that would have to be me in order to make it even possible. Primarily, the number agents needed to successfully assassinate the 500 escapists of the town is enormous, and so, extremely difficult to hide from the Guyanese authorities working on the investigation. Moreover, even if they would have been able to fulfill the first requisite, they would have needed to either smuggle the bodies during the night, and deal with the explaining of the emerging of new corpses each day, or bribe the authorities to remain silent about the operation. If the latter was the case, it is still improbable that none of the witnesses of the terrible crime would have confessed it, or mistakenly revealed it. (“Is there any reasonable explanation for the wide discrepancies in the body count at Jonestown?”).
Besides the body counts, the theory must also explain where the connection between the CIA to the Jonestown tragedy is. Therefore, the second premise of conspiracy advocates is founded over the following:
2. The presence of Richard Dwyer, one of the people who accompanied Congressman Leo Ryan in his visit to Jonestown. Presumably, Dwyer was a member of the CIA, and according to several sources played a major role in the assassination of Ryan.
The implications of Richard Dwyer as a CIA agent are the strongest evidence of the mind-control theory. At the same, time the evidence presented referring Dwyer is the most difficult to contravene without falling into conspiracy practices, such as exaggerated scenarios or leaping into conclusions, so it has to be evaluated carefully to prevent from falling into the use of fallacies.
The idea of Dwyer being a member of the CIA gives to the conspiracy the relation it needed to sustain itself. That is, because the presence of a CIA agent in Jonestown during the night of the crimes would suggest that the government possessed knowledge about the events prior November 18 (Knight-Griffin). According to Knight-Griffin, potential justifications for CIA presence in Jonestown argue the elimination of the remaining evidence of the project as one of the motives. Nevertheless, the evidence that points Dwyer as a CIA agent is unconfirmed. Its biggest base is the inclusion of Dwyer’s name in the Who is Who in the CIA, a German book which supposedly contains more than 2000 names of CIA agents. However, the information contained in the book has not been verified yet, and Dwyer has never confirmed nor denied the veracity of the allegations (Vankin and Whalen, 4).
The last element regarding Dwyer role in the conspiracy derives from San-Mateo-Newspaper article (Holsinger as cited by Knight-Griffin), which mentions the presence of one CIA agent during both the assassination of Congressman Ryan and the massacre/suicide in Jonestown.

Shootings of the moment previous the attack to the Congressman show Dwyer presence in the scene (Knight-Griffin). When Ryan and the others were killed, Dwyer was severely injured in the leg. However, there is also evidence that he was in the compound during Jones last speech. On the recording of the discourse, Jones clearly mentions Dwyer and asks for him to be removed of the scene (FBI No. Q 042). Though the evidence is very convincing, the fact is that both events occurred during a very brief period, and the possibilities of Dwyer being able to mobilize, injured, and through 8 miles of jungle, appear very unlikely. A commonly accepted explanation of the dilemma explains that Jim Jones, who was numbed because of various medical drugs he used to take, simply mistook Dwyer for somebody else (Lane 165). Therefore, though there is no denying of the coincidence of the facts, the premise continues to be an inductive

fallacy.