The Road to Jonestown

Jim Jones and Peoples Temple

By: Jeff Guinn

Narrated by: George Newbern

An Edgar Award Finalist for Best Fact Crime

“A thoroughly readable, thoroughly chilling account of a brilliant con man and his all-too vulnerable prey” (The Boston Globe)—the definitive story of preacher Jim Jones, who was responsible for the Jonestown Massacre, the largest murder-suicide in American history, by the New York Times bestselling author of Manson.

In the 1950s, a young Indianapolis minister named Jim Jones preached a curious blend of the gospel and Marxism. His congregation was racially mixed, and he was a leader in the early civil rights movement. Eventually, Jones moved his church, Peoples Temple, to northern California, where he got involved in electoral politics and became a prominent Bay Area leader. But underneath the surface lurked a terrible darkness.

In this riveting narrative, Jeff Guinn examines Jones’s life, from his early days as an idealistic minister to a secret life of extramarital affairs, drug use, and fraudulent faith healing, before the fateful decision to move almost a thousand of his followers to a settlement in the jungles of Guyana in South America. Guinn provides stunning new details of the events leading to the fatal day in November, 1978 when more than nine hundred people died—including almost three hundred infants and children—after being ordered to swallow a cyanide-laced drink.

Guinn examined thousands of pages of FBI files on the case, including material released during the course of his research. He traveled to Jones’s Indiana hometown, where he spoke to people never previously interviewed, and uncovered fresh information from Jonestown survivors. He even visited the Jonestown site with the same pilot who flew there the day that Congressman Leo Ryan was murdered on Jones’s orders. The Road to Jonestown is “the most complete picture to date of this tragic saga, and of the man who engineered it…The result is a disturbing portrait of evil—and a compassionate memorial to those taken in by Jones’s malign charisma” (San Francisco Chronicle).

Illuminating

I thought I knew something about Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple, but what I really had was a memory based on the more or less sensationalist news accounts at the time of the mass suicide. Nothing about the good works and undoubtedly good early intentions of Jones. Exactly when he became unhinged is still a mystery to me, but I appreciate the fuller account of the events and the people involved.

Listening to this, I was able to empathize, for perhaps the first time, with cult followers rather than just scornfully dismissing them as lunatics. There was a time when I might well have been very susceptible to Jones’ curious mix of religion, blasphemy, economic theory, and social principles.

As for the writing, certain minor facts are repeated, repeated, and then repeated again. A small annoyance.

I disliked the narration. The reader rather randomly punches at certain words, whether they merit being emphasized or not. Kind of like an inexperienced news anchor at your local station. It comes out sounding like the reader is going for a verbal style rather than letting the performance come from an understanding of what is being read.

Substantively well done

But the narrator sucked, which highlighted weaknesses in the writing. Someone should teach the narrator that the t in “often “ is silent and Moscone rhymes with pony, not tone, for example.

very informative and entertaining

I've always be intrigued as to how one man could convince 900 people to commit suicide. This book goes into great background of Jim Jones and Peoples Temple to try get to the heart of that question. Very well read too.

Exhaustive

I feel like Jones' many crimes (including rape) were merely passed over for the record and that often Jones' good deeds and ideas were given much more time. I do realize people were helped by Jones but at what cost? Losing your life and autonomy is not worth a fraction of the terror his followers suffered.

Exhaustively researched and impeccably compiled. There was one spot, and only one, where the characters weren't clear. Jim's lawyers and and the dude who was feeding his paranoia, more background on them would have been helpful.

Thought Provoking

This work weaves together the complex social conditions and personal situations that come together as a catalyst for tragedy. This complex combination comes together more often than we think. Jones, Hitler and Putin undoubtedly have shades of these elements and mass followings to go with them. There is a lot to learn from this excellent work.