jungle. while you are running they are still shooting? they had identified people they wanted to kill. it is almost impossible to fathom, even now, more than 900 americans dead in the jungle at jonestown. you are telling me this man says drink this poison and they drink it? that s right. we take you inside the mission that observed the dangerous truth. the only video camera there to capture it all belonged to nbc news. he said i can never put this camera down. rare pictures and powerful details. my whole shirt was dripping with red blood. all of a sudden i was hit. a riveting look at the story that still haunts the whole world. whole world. and welcome to dateline. jim jones led nearly 1,000 americans hello and jim jones led nearly 1000 americans to a remote area in south america, promising a religious paradise. what followed was more like hell on earth. the horror almost too horrible to believe. you are about to hear from some eyewitnesses who lived t
they wanted out of georgetown. what is your wish today? to go back home. word started to get out that people were leaving. then more people wanted to leave. congressman ryan said he was willing to take in a one who wanted to leave. although jim jones pleaded with the defectors to stay, their minds were made up. running short on time harris and the nbc crew set up to tape their interview with jim jones. last night someone passed me this note. he s the one that i m talking about. doesn t it concerned you this man for whatever reason.
told the united states it wants the victims returned to the united states for burial. it will take weeks to recover all of those bodies and ship them home. in the end 909 bodies were found. investigators determined jim jones and his nurse died of gunshot wounds, likely self- inflicted. all the rest it seems either drank the poison or had it injected. former nbc correspondent fred francis. some of those who escaped talked about how the people were with a ring around the pavilion. how it took some of them many minutes to die. and in the five data from the airstrip ambush and 4 dead from the other location the total death tally was 918. it was while combing the compound for clues that investigators made another discovery. jim jones had actually recorded
bob was holding the blue mini camera to his chest. he wasn t saying anything. he was just sweating and i said bob, you can put the camera down now. he just looked at me. he said i could never put this camera down. he was just dreaming tears. it s be met within hours of the airstrip ambush nbc s sent fresh correspondence and crew. if i have to put that video on television. how could this possibly happen? this is in the middle of a jungle where there are mostly americans around you. in georgetown the next morning flake recounted the slaughter of the night before. there were many shot. every time somebody would fall
it was friday november 17, 1978 when jim jones finally agreed to see the ryan group. after landing in a small village a few miles from georgetown the group was taken the rest of the way in the back of a temple dump truck. it was after dark by the time the reporters finally arrived. too dark to see anything except what jim jones wanted them to see. we see people lined up in a big pavilion welcoming us to come in. they started with the music and thinking, like a welcoming party. at that point is kind of what you thought, everyone is happy. you can see the videotape. the people were happy. they had some very good musicians out there who did some really good music. washington post reporter charles krause.