John Acton’s popular quote, “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” perfectly encapsulated the demise of an infamous man as a result of his lust for power and control. His unforgettable identity is Jim Jones and he committed one of the worst crimes in history, even though he escaped the consequences. In 1956, Jim Jones established a church that was founded on the ideas of communism and integration. The name of the church was the Peoples Temple and it was originally founded in Indianapolis, Indiana. Initially, the Peoples Temple gained positive attraction for its promotion of equality, but the church eventually spiraled out of control as a result of Jones’s actions. Members of the church claimed that Jones was a loving father figure to them, but pride and desire were lurking underneath that innocent façade. As time passed, Jones progressively became more controlling, manipulative, and mentally abusive. The Peoples Temple became so brainwashed that they unquestionably moved out of the country one day after Jones had bought land in Guyana, which he later declared to be Jonestown. In 1978, Jones’s façade disintegrated after U.S. Representative Leo Ryan visited Jonestown and was shot by a group of people following orders given by Jones. Ryan had expressed a desire to help some of Jones’s followers escape, but Jones wanted to do everything he could to keep the town together. As a result of Jones being found out, he quickly organized a town meeting and ordered all of his followers to drink Kool-Aid laced with cyanide before the U.S. officials came to “torture them.” On November 18th, 1978, more than 900 people died because of Jones’s leadership (Jones died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on the same day). One of the worst moments in history.

As you absorb the story of Jonestown, you are probably wondering what influenced Jones’s manipulation and what caused the people to subject to Jones’s will. Let’s take a look at the information that investigators have uncovered about the Peoples Temple and the tactics that Jones used to warp the minds of the helpless.

According to information collected from interviews and the Peoples Temple, the purpose of the church was questionable from the start, along with Jones’s intentions. People of all races, ethnicities, cultures, backgrounds, sexes, and ages were welcomed into the Peoples Temple, but anyone who joined was required to do one thing: purge everything they owned and “donate” it the Peoples Temple. Sounds suspicious already, right? Once the Peoples Temple had gained a large influx of people, Jones focused on gaining trust and dominance over the people. Jones first brainwashed his new followers by forbidding any contacts with the outside world, reorganizing marriages, and humiliating select individuals in front of everyone to prove equality and to scare the people into disobedience. Jones even demanded the people to call him “Father” or “Jesus Christ,” and displayed “divine powers” to prove his supremacy (the acts of “divine power” were all feigned). On top of it all, Jones developed an addiction to drugs, which caused him to increased his paranoia and manipulation tenfold. Jones would also give the members of the Peoples Church drugs when he wanted them to do something without question, such as the shooting of U.S. Representative Leo Ryan. Jones’s mental state became so unstable that he relocated the entire Peoples Temple to Guyana, a remote island that had few buildings, a scarce food supply, and no civilization. The most extreme form of control that Jones ever exerted over the people. To make matters worse, the sole reason for Jones’s manipulation was to satiate his desire for control.

My heart breaks for the people that were under Jones’s control and it makes me wonder, why did they never escape in the first place? If you think about it for a minute, it starts to make sense as to why they never attempted to leave. The people had nothing to their name, their lives were threatened every time they even thought about leaving, and once they had moved to the island, where could they go? Jonestown is a truly heartbreaking story. A story that reveals the nonexistent boundaries that limit one with a sick mind. A story that reveals the effects of one of the worst drugs out there, and that drug is power.