Jim Jones started the Peoples Temple preaching racial equality and winning civil rights awards, but by 1978 his Jonestown compound had become an isolated nightmare of beatings, forced labor, and “suicide rehearsals” where followers practiced drinking poison. On November 18th, when a congressman’s investigation threatened to expose the truth, Jones ordered his followers to feed cyanide-laced punch to over 300 children first—then recorded audio as 900 people died in the largest loss of American civilian life before 9/11.
