235: Jim Jones & The Peoples Temple

Seven Deadly Sinners

Rachael O'Brien | Morbid Network | Wondery

True Crime, Exhibit C, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 February 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jim Jones was an American cult leader and mass murderer who founded and led the Peoples Temple between 1955 and 1978. In what Jones termed "revolutionary suicide", Jones and the members of his inner circle planned and orchestrated a mass murder-suicide in his remote jungle commune at Jonestown, Guyana, on November 18, 1978.

As a child Jim Jones was entranced with two things - Pentecostal preachers and Communism. Reflecting back on his participation in the Communist Party, Jones said that he asked himself, "How can I demonstrate my Marxism? The thought was, infiltrate the church."

AND SO HE DID.

He began his religious career in 1952, Jones was hired as student pastor to the children at the Sommerset Southside Methodist Church, where he launched a project to create a playground that would be open to children of all races. Jones continued to visit and speak at Pentecostal churches while serving as Methodist student pastor.

He felt called to the pomp and circumstance of the Pentecostal movement. There was something about the attention that he just could not get enough of... that would lead him to start his own Church, The Peoples Temple.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to a Morbid Network podcast.
0:06.4	With the new Lloyd's app, you can do it all.
0:09.7	You can freeze your card if you misplace it.
0:12.2	Whilst you search behind the sofa,
0:14.3	blame the dog, run upstairs, run downstairs,
0:16.9	empty your bag, look behind the sofa again,
0:19.3	only to realise it's in your back pocket, curse quietly under your breath, and unfreeze your card, shove everything back in your bag, look behind the sofa again, only to realise it's in your back pocket. Curse quietly under your breath and unfreeze your card. Shove everything back in your bag. Take a deep breath, smile and run for the boss.
0:29.0	Freeze and unfreeze your card at the touch of a button. The power to do it all on the new Lloyd's app. Download now, Pee's and C's Apply.
0:36.9	With the new Lloyd's app, you can do it all and C's Apply. With the new Lloyd's app,
0:38.3	you can do it all.
0:39.7	You can freeze your card if you misplace it.
0:42.3	Whilst you search behind the sofa,
0:44.3	blame the dog,
0:45.1	run upstairs, run downstairs,
0:46.9	empty your bag,
0:47.7	look behind the sofa again,
0:49.3	only to realise it's in your back pocket,
0:51.1	curse quietly under your breath,
0:52.2	and unfreeze your card,
0:53.7	shove everything back in your back pocket. Curse quietly under your breath and unfreeze your card. Shove everything
0:54.3	back in your bag. Take a deep breath. Smile and run for the boss. Freeze and unfreeze your card
1:00.7	at the touch of a button. The power to do it all on the new Lloyd's app. Download now. Please and
	...

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