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    The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple
    The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple
    The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple
    Audiobook17 hours

    The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple

    Written by Jeff Guinn

    Narrated by George Newbern

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    2018 Edgar Award Finalist—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).
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateApr 11, 2017
    ISBN9781508231837
    Author

    Jeff Guinn

    Jeff Guinn is the bestselling author of numerous books, including Go Down Together, The Last Gunfight, Manson, The Road to Jonestown, War on the Border, and Waco. He lives in Fort Worth, Texas, and is a member of the Texas Literary Hall of Fame.

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    Reviews for The Road to Jonestown

    4.5/5

    446 ratings39 reviews

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    • 4/5

      This was, in many ways, a hard book to read. I vaguely remember the photos on the evening news of the rows and rows of dead, and that has always stuck with me once I realized what I was seeing. The other problem was, I know many of the areas mentioned in the book extremely well. I've been through Lynn, Indiana. I've been in Reid hospital, where he worked, many times. My Dad talked about driving by The Peoples Temple on his way to work after the massacre happened, and mentioning that he had talked with some of the people there occasionally. When you know you've walked the same streets, that a monster has walked a book about that person takes on a whole new meaning. The only thing new that I learned was that Jim Jones had always had some issues, the drugs he used, the control over the people, and his need for power may have had some impact on what happened in the end, but he was just as manipulative as a child. The book also tries to show just how normal he tried to be, but something in his mind kept him from achieving that.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this audiobook. I think the main reason I enjoyed it is because the subject is extremely interesting. It is so hard to believe that 918 died because of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple. I think the audiobook dragged on and seemed to be repetitive in the middle

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Amazing but tragic story. This was extremely well written and the narrator was excellent.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Incredibly detailed account of the life of Jim Jones and including the back story of so many individuals. So much so that it gets a little hard to follow but always maintaining interest.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      On the surface, a competent chronology of JJ & PT. Unfortunately the author glosses over certain unpalatable facts, choosing instead to take JJ & PT members’ accounts at face value. The author speculates, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that PT members mostly chose freely to die for The Cause, and says more than once that Jonestown could have been a successful venture if only Jones hadn’t burned out. He says that people wanted to leave because they were tired of the jungle, not from abuse. This author ignores the fact that Jonestown was a Forced Labor Camp. Another term for it is ‘concentration camp’. It was the opposite of racial harmony. Blacks were laborers, whites had administrative and guard duties. Worst of all, the children were used as weapons to keep their parents trapped. The author barely mentions the massive, long-term financial fraud that kept JJ going. He doesn’t mention the many twisted forms of torture used to control his slaves. He spends more time mentioning the ‘kool ade-versus- flavor ade issue’ than discussing the sexual, mental, physical, emotional abuse and degradation of the blacks and children. Please read “The Children of Jonestown” if you want an accurate, verifiable account of what JJ was really all about. Listen to the redacted recordings of PT yourself.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      A great book about this tragic case, I have watched several documentaries on the matter and this book goes much more in depth, and I would recommend it to anyone who is fascinated by this case and would like to know more about how such madness could happen. I personally wasn't very fond of the narrator's voice, hence the 4 stars, but that's definitely due to personal taste and the narrator is in no way bad.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Extremely insightful, informative, well researched and balanced report of the genesis of People’s Temple (civil rights and socialism wrapped in the cloak of religion when useful) and its ultimate demise at the hands of demagogue Jim Jones.
      Truly embodies the saying « the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. »
    • 5/5
      Thorough, detailed and fascinating. Best book on Jonestown out there.
    • 5/5
      Easy listen. Good book. Gave me a whole new perspective on the situation.
    • 5/5
      If you think you know about Jonestown, read this. It’s a fascinating view into how it came to be. This held my interest from the first page.
    • 5/5
      Very informative and detailed. I have followed the Jonestown tragedy over the years. This book was well-written and provided a few new details of which I was not aware.
    • 3/5
      Interesting! But jumped about on the timeline, so got a bit lost, but I couldn’t stop listening.
    • 5/5
      Great book,
      And a lot of detail about Jim Jones and the people's temple.
      I highly recommend
    • 5/5
      Very informative. Exactly what I was looking for. Well written. Helps you to try to find an understanding of what happened in Jonestown.
    • 5/5
      An incredibly detailed book about Jim Jones and the members of Peoples Temple. This explains how and why people were drawn to this group, it describes all the good work they did before Jones brought them to Guyana. I always felt for the hundreds of victims and wanted to understand how this happened. This helps shed some light on the tragedy.
    • 5/5
      This was an excellent account of Jim Jones and The People's Temple. I knew a little about both before, but this account was extensive and well-researched. I learned a lot. I've left a cult myself and find it fascinating to compare and contrast the leader of my cult versus Jim Jones. There are a lot of common characteristics. Again, excellent book.
    • 5/5
      Riveting account of the People's Temple. Excellent narration as well.
    • 4/5
      Very detailed and gives the reader a complete picture of how this cult started and their downhill spiral. While starting out with great intentions; greed, drugs and Jim Jones' narcissism eventually killed all the good intentions. A long book, but worth the listen.
    • 4/5
      This book is extremely well researched. It does contain more information than I needed to know however. I certainly have a better understanding of what happened down in Guyana now and how these people came to be followers. Tragic
    • 4/5
      I loved Guinn's book on Charles Manson and found this one just as well researched and interesting. I admit that I had a tough time focusing on the book from about halfway on to the end but I think that was my own issue rather than anything having to do with the book or narrator.

      It was fascinating to hear first hand accounts of how what started as an organization focused on helping people ended up a deadly cult. I was also surprised by how similar some of the practices and beliefs presented here mirror those of Scientology - separating children from parents, banishing ex-members and not being allowed to have relationships with anyone outside of the church, etc.

      I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever been interested in Peoples Temple or Jim Jones.
    • 5/5
      You probably know the expression... "don't drink the Kool-Aid." You may not know it was actually a cheap knock off called "flavor-aid" laced with cyanide that hundreds of people were forced to drink under threat of armed guards that fateful day in a South American jungle. Years ago I saw a short documentary on Jim Jones, but until reading this book I never knew the road to Jonestown was paved with good intentions. The Peoples Temple began with like minded people who wanted only to help the downtrodden, to feed the hungry and clothe the naked. Elderly people were housed in nursing homes by followers of Jim Jones where even if they could not afford to pay, were given care that met or exceeded state standards. Young people were given college educations that they never could have paid for on their own. They were made to feel that Jim Jones truly cared about them, and at first maybe he did. Then it all began to go horribly wrong. This detailed and factual account begins before Jim Jones was even born to a negligent mother who wouldn't allow him to be in the house when she wasn't home, and a sickly father who was too weak to stand up to her. It ends with the aftermath of murder and suicide that took 918 lives. If you ever wondered why or how so many people could allow themselves to be led astray this is the book for you. 5 stars from me.

      I received an advance copy for review.
    • 5/5
      This is an extremely interesting book about Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple. The author has done excellent research talking to people around, and in, the organization, including family of Jim Jones.This book looks at Jones himself and how he came to his position of leader to hundreds of worshipful followers, as well as the followers themselves and how they came to view Jim Jones as a prophet of god or god himself.It is fascinating to try to understand how these people gave up everything for this man - their material possessions as well as all of their time and attention, eventually giving up their lives. I have read a lot of books about true crime and cults. I highly recommend this book.
    • 4/5
      Jim Jones was the leader of the Peoples’ Temple. This is the group that, in November 1978, committed mass suicide in Guyana, by “drinking the Kool Aid” (it wasn’t actually Kool Aid, but a similar flavoured drink, laced with cyanide). Over 900 people died that day. This book is actually a biography of Jim Jones, so it looks at his entire life. When he was starting out, he was charismatic, he believed in a world (in the 50s) where races mixed freely, and he believed in socialism, where everyone helped everyone else. The socialism attracted some to his group, as did his so-called healing powers. As his group got bigger, he moved them from Indiana to California, and of course, later to Guyana. He was married, but had several affairs and children.This was really good. I didn’t realize until I checked it out of the library that the author is Jeff Guinn. It was just last year that I read his book on Bonnie and Clyde and I thought it was so well-researched, as was this one. I actually didn’t know much about Jim Jones or his followers, so this was new to me (except the “Kool Aid” suicide). I can see where he would have been very charismatic and appealing with his outlook on life, initially, at least. I would have liked to know more of the aftermath and the people left behind; I suppose that would have been somewhat extraneous, though, since the book is a biography of Jim. I listened to the audio, and I do wonder if the book might have some photos (I suspect so – his Bonnie and Clyde book did), so I may have missed out on that, but the narrator was good. It was long, so yes, I did lose interest occasionally, but not often and overall, I thought it was well done.
    • 4/5
      This is an exhaustive account of the life of Jim Jones and the evolution of his Peoples Temple. I became fascinated by this horrific tragedy in a high school sociology class when we studied cults and retained a lot of what I learned, but this goes much, much deeper...it's impressive just how much Jeff Guinn was able to compile about this whole story and present it in relatively complex light. At times, it did drag, but you know the inevitable is coming. Ugh. There are scumbags everywhere, no matter what, even with the best intentions.

      I need to read something happy. For the next year, maybe.
    • 5/5
      Well done...This is a biography on Rev. Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple. The Temple's mass suicide in 1978 in South America hit world news and is known throughout the world as one of the most tragic instances in history.I'd like to say that this book was a hard one to read due to the subject matter. However, I believe that because of the way it is written it made it a much easier pill to swallow. This book is written as a biography not as a run of the mill true crime novel. There is nearly no police procedure and/or police jargon in this book. It is all written in a very straight forward manner but as if the author were telling the reader a story.The story of Jim Jones is presented to the reader starting with his parents and ending with the aftermath of his death. The facts are presented to the reader in a non-biased way although the author does sprinkle in his opinion from time to time throughout the book. But for the most part, the way this book is written allows the reader to come to their own conclusions about the case and about Jones himself.Throughout this book different newspaper and magazine articles as well as websites are mentioned. In looking up these sources myself while reading this book, I found that the information there is factual and complete damn near to the letter. I was most pleasantly surprised. This author definitely did his homework on this subject and it shows. BRAVO!In this book the author doesn't just describe Jim Jones but also the times, places and people that he touched throughout his life whether for the good or the bad. He is able to describe to the reader and make you aware of Jim Jones's surroundings throughout the 50s, 60s and 70s and to paint a picture for the reader of the world that Jim Jones lived in. The ending was heart wrenching. Even though we all may know what happened, reading about it in such vivid detail really brings it that much more to life. The author does a very good job with this. There is also an insert booklet accompanying the text of this book with black and white pictures not only of Jim Jones and his family but of the crime scene itself in 1978, which apparently no longer exists today. In summary, this is a great book with a lot of very incredible information that I would definitely recommend to anyone interested in the subject.
    • 5/5
      What a sad, sad, story. Even while I was listening, I was hoping for a different ending.

      Jeff Guinn is an excellent author of true crime. He is somehow able to relate the facts of the story without passing judgement. In this case, I learned a lot. The Peoples Church, (no apostrophe!), did a lot of work in the area of desegregation. Jim Jones and his wife even adopted a black child. In fact, they did a lot of good works together, for the elderly and for the members of their church.

      But as so often happens, absolute power corrupts and all that. Jim ran his church with an iron fist. He slept with many partners and somehow made it so that it was okay within his church. He began to do drugs-a lot of drugs. There was corporal punishment for those who did not follow the rules. He began to become paranoid and unbearable to be around, at times.

      Follow this to the end that we all knew was coming. I didn't realize how many people were involved in this mass suicide/mass murder, but I know now it was over 900. I say mass murder because children, (children!), were killed by having a syringe full of poisoned flavor-aide shot down their throats. It's one thing when your twisted beliefs cause you to kill yourself, it's another thing entirely to kill infants and children. It's just such a waste of life.

      Despite my attempts, I will never understand this mentality. I'm fascinated with it, I admit, but I can't understand it. Perhaps, it's just not understandable? It's certainly not sane.

      If you want to learn more about the Peoples Church and Jim Jones, then I highly recommend this book. I listened to it on audio, narrated by George Newbern and he was excellent.

      *I downloaded this audio-book from my library for free. Libraries RULE!*
    • 5/5
      It's a tough subject to read about, especially since I remember there was a time when we were first learning about the horror that was Jonestown. Jeff Guinn has done a terrific job tracking down primary sources (i.e., interviews with some of the survivors) as well as listening to the tapes of the preaching Jones did. He structures the events of the book, starting with Jones' mother and father, as what led to the eventuality of the mass suicide in 1978. And yes, I did read the ending first. I started it in mid-November of this year, just before the 30th anniversary, and when an anniversary-documentary came on TV I was able to understand much more about it after reading parts of this book. But to the ending -- it is horrible. And accurate. And the people mentioned as having acted during the murder/suicide are brought to greater detail when reading the book from start to finish, but their inclusion as characters at that tragic end clued me into whom to watch. Guinn also references multiple times who everyone is who took part in Jones' mission or church or the murder/suicide, anticipating that this is the sort of book that one would pick up and put down after a time. I did put it down for a week or so each time, although I read the last 200 pages through in about 2 days. It's extremely well-written.
    • 4/5
      A really thorough history of Jim Jones, and of all that led up to the Jonestown murders and mass suicide. There is a great deal to learn here about how and why people follow narcissistic delusional men, and about how absolute power corrupts (etc.) Guinn knows how to tell a story. The book is riveting. It is a long and detailed book and I ripped through it, anxious to hear more.Jones started as a pro-integrationist who did many good things (which later events show became his way of being a king among people beholden to them) and a Marxist (which later events show became his way of having what he wanted while others had no property.) He ended up a drug and sex addict, a person who used women, drugging them so he could use them as he wanted, and who ordered people to murder others, including their own children. Why do good and smart people allow themselves to be victims? That is not answered and perhaps it cannot be. Why did Jim Jones victimize? This perhaps sheds some light. Nature or nurture? Both? Fascinating reading.
    • 4/5
      I knew a little bit about Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple, but this book has taught me so much more. I think, like most people, I kind of just thought of him as a crazy guy who had found people crazy enough to follow him. Jim Jones was always pretty shady, but this book helps understand why people followed him, he actually did try to do some good. It is when he did drugs and the power got to his head, that he went mental and became infamous. This book is thorough and took me awhile to get through, but it is higly recommended if you are interested in learning more about him and want to know how in the world did he convince hundreds of people to commit suicide.
    • 4/5
      I thought the opening to this was ridiculous (don't pretend there is suspense over what all the things on the ground in Jonestown are. THEY ARE BODIES. WE ALL KNOW IT) so I had low expectations but it got much better after that. I don't know that it thoroughly answered the question "how did it come to mass suicide/murder?" because I don't know if anything can ever satisfactorily answer that question - but it did a pretty good job of laying out the pieces. I had no idea how much good Jones and the Peoples Temple did before Guyana or their political background.I found this a very worthwhile read.I read this as a Kindle ebook and wished there had been a map included of Jonestown showing specific locations of people and actions on the final day - or, if there was, that it was more easily accessible on the ebook platform. (This is not a flaw specific to this book by any means.)