{"id":18,"date":"2013-01-05T22:05:29","date_gmt":"2013-01-06T06:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alternativejonestown.com\/?page_id=18"},"modified":"2026-02-11T17:04:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T01:04:25","slug":"about-jonestown","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestowndev.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=18","title":{"rendered":"About Jonestown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-126\" src=\"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/photo04.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of a Path in Jonestown\" width=\"300\" height=\"229\" \/>Jonestown is a word with several meanings. First, it refers to an agricultural project established by Peoples Temple, a religious group based in California which moved to Guyana in the late 1970s to establish a communalist utopia. Second, it refers to the events of November 18, 1978 in which a U.S. congressman was assassinated, along with four others, at a jungle airstrip; these killings were followed by the mass suicides\/murders of 900 men, women, and children by ingesting potassium cyanide mixed into a vat of punch and tranquilizers. Third, the word &#8220;Jonestown&#8221; has been used to describe any New Religious Movement which may or may not have the potential for violence, as in &#8220;Heaven&#8217;s Gate was another Jonestown.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>There are two navigational menus available, one below and one to the left.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<table style=\"width: 100%; background-color: #f2e4c9; box-shadow: 0 0 3px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1);\" border=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\"><a title=\"FAQ\" href=\"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=35361\">FAQ<\/a><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"><a title=\"Personal Reflections\" href=\"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=16994\">Personal Reflections<\/a><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"><a title=\"Tapes\" href=\"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=43\">Tapes<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"background-color: #f2e4c9;\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><a title=\"Who Died\" href=\"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=33\">Who Died<\/a><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"><a title=\"Articles\" href=\"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=16576\">Articles<\/a><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"><a title=\"Gallery\" href=\"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=45\">Photo Gallery\u00a0<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td valign=\"top\"><a title=\"Speakers &amp; Resources\" href=\"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=18183\">Speakers and Resources<\/a><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"><a title=\"Primary Sources\" href=\"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=13052\">Primary Sources<\/a><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"><a title=\"Jonestown Research\" href=\"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=47\">Jonestown Research<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"background-color: #f2e4c9;\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><a title=\"What\u2019s New?\" href=\"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=51\">What\u2019s New?<\/a><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"><em><a title=\"the jonestown report\" href=\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=80734\">the\u00a0jonestown report<\/a><\/em><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"><a title=\"Commentary &amp; Opinion\" href=\"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=18142\">Commentary &amp; Opinion<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"background-color: #f2e4c9;\">\n<td valign=\"top\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=83653\">Jonestown in the Arts<\/a><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=13764\">Jonestown and FOIA<\/a><\/td>\n<td valign=\"top\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=108278\">Remembrances<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jonestown is a word with several meanings. First, it refers to an agricultural project established by Peoples Temple, a religious group based in California which moved to Guyana in the late 1970s to establish a communalist utopia. Second, it refers to the events of November 18, 1978 in which a U.S. congressman was assassinated, along [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":125520,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-18","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestowndev.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestowndev.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestowndev.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestowndev.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestowndev.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/jonestowndev.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108289,"href":"https:\/\/jonestowndev.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18\/revisions\/108289"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestowndev.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/125520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestowndev.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}