This is Episode 8 of The Investigation Guru podcast. The Investigation Guru is the official podcast for Red Door Investigations. Please stay tuned for more exciting content on the world of true crime and private investigations. You can also subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts. We are available on all of the major platforms.

This episode examines the case of Jim Jones and the events that transpired in Jonestown, Guyana on November 19, 1978.

Jim Jones was an American cult leader, mass murderer, political activist, and self-professed faith healer who led the People’s Temple, a new religious organization which existed between 1955 and 1978.

Jones founded the organization that would become the People’s Temple in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1955.

In 1965, he moved the Temple to California, where the group established its headquarters in San Francisco and became heavily involved in left-wing politics through the 1970s. 

Jones then left the US to establish Jonestown, compelling many of his followers to live there with him.

By 1978, media reports had surfaced of human rights abuses at Jonestown. Deciding to investigate these reports, US Representative Leo Ryan led a delegation to the commune in November of that year.

While boarding a return flight with some former Temple members who had wished to leave, Ryan and four others were murdered by gunmen dispatched from Jonestown. Jones then ordered and likely coerced a mass murder-suicide that claimed the lives of 918 commune members, 304 of them children, almost all by cyanide-poisoned Flavor Aid.

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Make sure you tune in to The Investigation Guru podcast regularly for more true-crime and private investigation content. Next time, we will be discussing the disturbing case of Jodi Arias, who was convicted of killing her boyfriend, Travis Alexander, after stalking him for months.

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Our intro and outro music was composed by Zach Striefel.

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of The Investigation Guru podcast and we will see you next time!