DEATH IN THE JUNGLE

An account of the pathology and charm of Jim Jones, who led 918 people to their deaths in the Guyanese jungle in 1978.

Neglected young Jimmy learned the art of manipulation early—pathos and compliments could earn him a meal from mothers in his small Indiana town. He studied both local preachers and Adolf Hitler to learn persuasive oratory skills and was fascinated by death and power. Marrying in 1949 at age 18, he worked in a Methodist church before hitting the revival circuit as a fraudulent faith healer until he’d attracted enough attention to start his own church. At first, Jones seemed to be a powerful force for good—encouraging full racial integration and providing church members with material as well as spiritual assistance. As his Peoples Temple grew, he began preaching socialism, coercing members to obey nonsensical commands, and convincing them that nuclear annihilation was imminent. He relocated to California and then Guyana, where, despite his heavy drug use, dismissal of the Christian “sky god,” and assumption of the mantle of “earth God,” he held enough sway over his followers to cause their deaths, many by suicide (hundreds of others were murdered). With her trademark precision, absorbing writing, and meticulous research, Fleming leads readers to understand not only what Jones did but how. Her heart-stopping, heart-wrenching work with its substantive backmatter draws heavily on survivors’ memories, both from her own interviews and archival transcripts, and shows how cults strip their victims of autonomy.

Extraordinary and illuminating.