to die in u.s./isis combat. now back to our msnbc special. jim jones kingdom was spreading. beyond his footholds in redwood valley, san francisco and los angeles, jones negotiated the lease of nearly 4,000 acres of virgin jungle in the south american country of guyana. the beautiful promised land. see they made progress on the road and leveled it. he sent down a small advance crew from the temple to carve out a settlement they called jonestown. clearing it for five miles. going over the pickry now and the chicken area. to wake up in jonestown was a breathtaking experience. it was just so overwhelmingly
explosive story with nowhere to tell it, until new west magazine grabbed hold of it. the article would shine fierce light into the temple s darkest shadows, and jones knew it. the walls would soon come tumbling down, and he wasn t about to wait around for the crash. it came out. jim basically called people saying, pack up your stuff, you re leaving today. people went out with one day s notice they were leaving the country forever. we knew we weren t coming back to the u.s. ever. by summer s end, hundreds of members had descended on jonestown. the jungle was now home to peoples temple. to jim the mass exodus to guyana was about running away. but to the people in the congregation, they thought they were going to the promised land. jonestown in a lot of ways offered people a whole fresh beginning. many people who really blossomed
we wanted to see for ourselves because we had been receiving conflicting accounts of what life was like in jonestown. you know, on one hand it was being cast as heaven on earth. and the other, hell. what began as a congressional investigation ended as a massacre. while five people lie murdered on the airstrip, 20 others scattered into the bush and made it out alive. somehow one of the two aircraft that were to take out congressman ryan s party managed to get off. one of those aboard was nbc field producer bob flick. this was the account he gave. there were many shots. every time somebody would fall down wounded, they would walk over and shoot them in the head with a shotgun. bob was pretty traumatized.
my grandma jones and me. then i calmed because i knew mom was serious. and she really was desperate. i said, mom, you don t tell god he s got a drug problem. remember, we are still in a state of siege. he had the old megaphone type speaker system throughout jonestown just about. and as he spoke, you could hear him. we are under the onslaught of a direct move of a mercenary fascist effort of the united states of america. i love you very much from 6:00 in the morning until 10:00 at night, we heard him. i m trying on every level to protect this community. it was very disturbing. it was very disturbing. the constant sound of his voice. horrible. it certainly contributed to the feeling of oppression. that s how i took it. it s like shut up, dude. i want you to not at all
beautiful, looking into the jungle. the sun rising, the howler monkeys calling from the jungle. it was just beautiful. i fell totally in love with guyana. it s the most spectacular country. so when i got to go, i was delighted. it will be an egalitarian society. but there won t be this aggression that s here in the u.s. jonestown would be peoples temple s future. jones had these movies made to inspire the folks back home. every moment i could see the changes we were doing. i could see massive upgrading and rebuilding and developing. i would never have come back. it s beautiful. i can t i i ve never been so totally happy or fulfilled in my life.