A listener note, this episode contains graphic content and descriptions of violence, and may

not be suitable for a younger audience.

It's a summer evening in 1972, and Lester Kinsolving is sitting in a modest house in

Northern California, getting ready for an interview.

Kinsolving loads a fresh cassette into a tape recorder and sets the device on a coffee

table.

He grabs a notebook and pen, and then consolving settles in for a talk that could be key to

a sprawling investigation.

Kinsolving is a columnist at the San Francisco Examiner where he reports on religion.

He's in his mid-40s with dark cropped hair and has a reputation as an unusual journalist.

Because outside of his work for the paper, Kinsolving is also an episcopal priest.

He spends his life writing and talking about religion, and earlier this year he was

tipped off about a church known as the People's Temple.

A reporter from Indiana told Kinsolving about the group's leader, a man named Jim Jones,

who apparently had grown popular performing healings and other supposed miracles.

Kinsolving's interest was peaked, so he took a trip to the People's Temple in Northern

California so he could see the church for himself.

But when he arrived, Kinsolving discovered something strange.

Armed men were guarding the church's Sunday service, and they seemed hostile and even

refused to let in Kinsolving's photographer.

Kinsolving got that feeling like he might be onto something, so he began conducting interviews,

including with confidential sources.

...