Talk:Jonestown

"First member in history assasinated"

..and then it links to a wikipedia article that shows he's actually the second last, in a list of over a dozen...

Which is one reason why citations need to be from sources outside of Wikipedia. So mistakes are not propagated. On looking at the exact wording of the article, the phrase used also includes 'in the line of duty', presumably meaning congressional duties. Everyone killed before him is killed while NOT on congressional duty. One was killed in battle, so I would assume serving in the armed forces would mean he wasn't able to fulfil congressional duties, so he also wasn't serving in that capacity when killed. MrZoolook (talk) 05:34, 8 December 2011 (UTC)

Some information not included

This is generally a good and informative article, but there are two pieces of information that I think are missing. Firstly there are several mentions of people bequeathing their money to the Communist party of the Soviet Union, was this actually carried out after their deaths? Did the Soviets accept the money? Or were these "wills" ignored? Secondly there seems to be no mention of what happened to the bodies of the people who died in the event. I assume they weren't just left there, were they? Were the bodies buried in Guyana or were they flown back to the US? Or something else? This seems to be left out completely. That's about all I can think of for now, if anyone can shed light on these issues and add them to the article that'd be good. --Hibernian (talk) 07:27, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Agreed that this would be a good addition. I lived in the Bay Area for several years, and I know there's a cemetery in Oakland where hundreds of the victims are buried — basically, a mass grave for everyone whose remains weren't claimed after the bodies were brought back to the U.S. (They had been first flown from Guyana to some air force base here in the States.) I don't remember the name of the cemetery or the exact number of unclaimed bodies put in there, though.

I have no idea whether the wills were honored. Mwelch (talk) 10:04, 18 November 2010 (UTC)

Ok, well can you add some of that information to the article? I'm sure this stuff must be written in some book. --Hibernian (talk) 18:38, 20 November 2010 (UTC)

Yeah, there must be a reference to cite somewhere. I'll try to find some time to look for some. Mwelch (talk) 02:13, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

If it helps, a chap at the NSA just compiled a bunch of DOD documents on this topic at http://nsarchive.wordpress.com/2011/03/04/document-friday-the-jonestown-massacre/ 68.52.244.134 (talk) 23:45, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

Don't know if the wills were honored. Because of very large number of bodies and Jonestown's remote location, the bodies could not be removed for several days. The US Air Force was eventually called in to assist Guyanese Defense Forces. They were shipped to an Air Force base in the U.S. for a while. Some remains went off to relatives who claimed them. Those that went unclaimed were buried in a mass grave in the Bay Area. Mosedschurte (talk) 01:14, 6 December 2010 (UTC)

I just realized that the riots following the results of the Moscone–Milk assassination trial were called 'White Night' riots. I also hadn't realized that these 2 events were separated by not even 2 weeks time. I can't begin to imagine the political/social climate and impact all of this had on southern California. J.Rly (talk) 22:24, 10 February 2011 (UTC)

For what it's worth (probably not much), don't you mean northern California, Jill? Paul (talk) 20:32, 5 November 2011 (UTC)

Popular Culture

Mose: I saw that section was blanked because it was obviously too long, but I will "drink the kool aid" and say Jonestown is obviously an element of popular culture right now. Perhaps we may want to consider a short section at the end of the article to that effect with cites?--Yachtsman1 (talk) 18:22, 14 December 2010 (UTC)

Non Natural DISASTER?

The introduction says this was "the largest occurrence of American civil loss of life during a non-natural disaster since the 9//11 attack." The use of the word 'disaster' implies an accident or something having gone wrong or amiss in some way. If someone attempts suicide, one would assume they are successful if they do indeed die. Does the word 'disaster' fit into the category of an act that was correctly borne out? Perhaps the opening could be changed into something like "the largest occurrence of American civil loss of life during a non-natural OCCURRENCE since the 9//11 attack." Thoughts? — Preceding unsigned comment added by MrZoolook (talk • contribs) 14:33, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

I think that is a good compromise, what I might say is the Single Greatest "Deliberate" loss of life until September 11th, since there have been other Pre-9/11 US-related events (the General Slocum accident for one) where more people died than Jonestown, but all of those were definite "accidents".

Although I think that when they mean "Non-Natural Disaster" I think they strictly mean outside of a "Natural Disaster" and not that Jonestown was a disaster in itself

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.98.40.217 (talk) 17:42, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

Typo?

The following appears in the article:

In September 1977, former Temple members Timothy and Grace Stoen battled in a Georgetown court to produce an order for the Temple to show cause why a final order should not be issued returning their son, John (five years old at the time), to his mother Grace.[67] A few days later, a second order was issued for the arrest of John by authorities.[68]

Should the bolded word actually be Jones? It seems bizarre to me that a 5 year old would be "arrested". Or should it be retrieved by the authorities instead of arrested. Thanks for anyone with knowledge (and hopefully, access to the cited book). gren グレン 04:27, 4 September 2011 (UTC)

Largest mass murder in modern history?

From the intro to the page: "To the extent the actions in Jonestown were viewed as a mass murder, it is the largest such event in modern history and resulted in the largest single loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the events of September 11, 2001." Surely this can't be right? Larger numbers of people were murdered almost every *day* in the nazi extermination camps in the early 1940s. --Myk — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.23.44.25 (talk) 11:21, 21 January 2012 (UTC)