Brian jackie speier, your book, undaunted, your first three words are, i was dying. Why did you start the book that way . Rep. Speier because i was. It was one of those moments in my life that were defining for me. Not many people have that experience where they are dying and survive. I had a lot to talk about. Brian why were you dying . Rep. Speier i was on an airstrip in the remote jungles of guyana having just concluded a congressional delegation tour with then congressman leo ryan , and we were ambushed on that airstrip and shot. Congressman ryan was shot 45 times and died on that airstrip. There were members of the press that died. One defector of the peoples temple who died. I was shot five times on the right side of my body. A bone jetting out of my arm, a wound in my leg the size of a football. It was, oh my god, i am 28 years old, this is it. Im not going to live to be in my mid80s. I am not going to get married and have kids. Im not going to have any of those dreams fulfilled. Brian november, 1978. Why were you there . Rep. Speier i was then legislative counsel to congressman leo ryan. He had decided he wanted to take a codel down to jonestown, guyana. Brian congressional delegation. Rep. Speier congressional delegation because there were many constituents of his that had loved ones. Young Adult Children who had gotten involved in this church in San Francisco called the peoples temple. They had left San Francisco and taken some 900 of their congregation to this remote country in south america where, in a jungle, they had carved out a community. These constituents wanted to know, one, were they safe . Were they there against their well . They gave us letters they want to make sure got to their children, because they did not think they were able to communicate at all with their children. And congressman ryan became involved in part because no one else was interested. Which was hard to believe. But the local electeds were all indebted to then, jim jones who, as a reverend in San Francisco at the peoples temple, had a couple thousand congregants who could be called upon to assist at a moments notice could be called upon to assist in campaigns. He used his congregation to gain power and respect. Then thescone, who was mayor, made him his chair of his housing authority. Meanwhile, people were starting to defect. People were saying things like sexual abuse goes on, physical abuse goes on. People are maligned. There is Money Laundering going on. Congressman ryan wanted to find out. We contacted the state department. The state department said, after a visit, everything looks great. You really dont need to make a trip down. But congressman ryan was one of those investigative legislators. His whole career, he did not take the opinions of someone else. He wants to see firsthand. So we made the trip down there. Brian if you have never seen jim jones, here is footage of him. We do not have the date on it, but it was a couple years before 1978. And probably at the time was not when they were in guyana. Do you remember he went down there . Rep. Speier he went down there in late 1977. Brian lets watch this. So we can see what he looks like. [video clip] jim these are potato chips made from plantain, and they are more delicious than the combination of a potato chip and a french fry. Radishes. You do not know what you are missing down here. They make their only free green vegetables. We just won first prize from the National Government of guyana. For our leafy green vegetables. You see pepsicola here for three cents, american money. Sounds appetizing, doesnt it . [end of video clip] brian they got an answer because he was obviously in guyana then. Rep. Speier he was in guyana, this is before he went there with the large group. He had sent many followers down there earlier to kind of build the community down there. He was trying to make it very appealing to the members of the peoples temple in San Francisco and los angeles. So he is pitching how great it is down there. And who you saw down there where the people that were building jonestown. They were the people clearing the jungle, the people building the cabins, and the community. Brian describe where guyana is. , please. Rep. Speier guyana is in south america. It was once held by the british and then the danes, i believe. It is in the northeastern part of south america. It became independent, and once it became independent, the country became very much a marxist regime. And at the time, Prime Minister burnham was the leader of the country. Jones was attracted to that country in part because of the embrace of marxism, which is something jones embraced as well. Also because the government was willing to lease him land, or gave him land in the middle of the country where the jungles were deep, and it was an opportunity for them to build their commune. Brian here is some video of congressman ryan. What was his district . Rep. Speier his district was mostly San Mateo County. So it was the suburbs of San Francisco. There were a lot of whites that had children who were from comfortable homes. But it was also at a time when there was this interest in wanting to embrace the opportunity for African Americans and whites to live together. Thats the pitch jim jones made. Here we will create our utopia. And, ironically, once you are there, you saw that it was really less of a utopia and more of a plantation, where the whites were in leadership and the African Americans were not. Brian how much of your districts today, the 14th district of california, is the same that leo ryan had . Rep. Speier it is fundamentally the same. Districts had actually gotten larger in terms of the population. I have part of San Francisco now and virtually all of San Mateo County. Brian did leo ryan die at the moment he was shot . Rep. Speier uh, he was shot and i was running towards him, and then he was shot again. And then he fell. I raced under one of the wheels of the plane. And then they came at pointblank range. And shot they had targeted people they wanted to shoot. They then shot a number of us. Brian here is leo ryan. [video clip] rep. Ryan all of you know im here to find out about your allegations here. I can tell you now the few conversations i have had, with some of the folks this evening, whatever the comments are, there are people here who believe this is the best thing that ever happened to them their whole life. [applause] [end of video clip] brian where were you . Rep. Speier so i was sitting in the back of the pavilion at a picnic table with the bench. Both of us have been sitting back there and interviewing members of the peoples temple who had family members back home. They wanted us to deliver letters or talk to their children or young adults and try and assess whether or not they were being held against their re will. That particular clip that you just showed, the pandemonium that kind of broke out in terms of the fervor of the applause was unnatural. And it was alarming to me. Brian so were you nervous, were you nervous at this time . Rep. Speier i was nervous before we made the trip. In the book, i talk about the fact that i had been in the process of buying my first home. It was a condominium in norther n virginia. I literally made the contract contingent on my surviving the trip to jonestown. I had a sentence added to the contract, because i did not want my parents saddled with a piece of property 3000 miles away. I have oftentimes been asked, well, why did you go . In 1978, very few women that had leadership roles on congressional staff. There was a staff member from the International Relations committee who was making the trip. And i thought, if i did not go, then somehow i would be setting women back in terms of their opportunity to take on bigger positions in congress. Brian what were you thinking about jim jones when you and had you met him before you went to guyana . Rep. Speier no, i had not met him. The weekend before we left i sat , i sat in my office. I was just listening to audio tapes of interviews that had been taken by one of the Staff Members in the district of a number of defectors. Conversation after conversation, interview after interview, it was more alarming each interview. Because there was a pattern there. And it spoke to me as if we were walking into a dangerous situation. Brian jim jones is from my home state of indiana. He was born in crete, as you know, moved to lynn, next to richmond and then moved to california. What can you tell about his upbringing that led him to be involved . I forgot, he lived in indianapolis. What led him to be this kind of minister . Rep. Speier my sense in reading about him in the books that had been written, is that there was a part of him that was a loner. He was, i believe, from a broken home. And he, from an early age, he was a manipulator, actually. Very young, in his early 20s, he became a pastor. Brian here is an interview. Killed. Is was who else was killed . Rep. Speier bob brown was killed. Ob brown . D who was bb speier bob brown was the cameraman. Greg robinson, the photographer from one of the bay area newspapers was killed. One of the defectors was killed. They were all remarkable people. I just met them and over a course of a few days, i had come to really respect them. Brian this was directed by a man named stanley nelson. Back in 2006. [video clip] don last night, someone passed me this note. Does it concern you that this man, for whatever reason jim people say things. They lie. What can i do about liars . People just leave us. Please, leave us. We will bother nobody. Anybody who wants to get out of here can get out of here. I dont know what kind of games some people do, i dont. [end of video clip] brian is that true . He did not like publicity . Rep. Speier no, actually, he lived for publicity. He was an egomaniac. He was, at one point, a charismatic leader, no doubt, but by the time we met him, he was on drugs. He was sweating a great deal. He appeared to not be as clear minded as one would hope. During that interview, everything was unraveling. The tension at the pavilion was intense. And the family, the park family had just come up to me and wanted to leave. The older grandmother and the father and mother and a number of children. It was unraveling before his eyes. Don harris is interviewing him, and had shown him the note he had showed to congressman ryan and myself that night after congressman ryan had addressed the audience there. And i had such a sinking feeling, because once we we received that note, i knew that everything we feared was true. Brian what happened next for you . Where did you stay while you are down there . Rep. Speier i stayed in a cabin with a group of members of the peoples temple, young women. They were very modest cabins. 10 roofs. It was raining that night. All night long, im just listening to the rain on the roof. I know what tomorrow is going to bring. I could not sleep. I just wanted the morning to dawn, so that we could get on with taking those who wanted to leave. At that point, there were only two people that wanted to leave, but i wanted to be able to get safely get out of there. As the day wore on, more and more people want to leave. That became problematic, because we did not have enough planes. So congressman ryan was going to stay behind with another group of about 40 people in the peoples temple that wanted to be taken out. I was going to take the first group out. So we got onto this dump truck with the first group of defectors and the concerned relatives who had been with us and the members of the press. And we are about to leave, and the dump truck got stuck, because of the mud from the rain that had occurred overnight. And because it got stuck, we were still there when there was a knifing attempt on congressman ryan. And there was a huge uproar in the pavilion. And we are in the dump truck, and all of a sudden, out walks congressman ryan. He has blood stains on his shirt. He gets into the cab of the plane, so i did not have an opportunity to talk to him. I was in the bed of the truck. Then we took off for the airstrip. Brian he got into the cab of the truck. Rep. Speier yes. Brian you said plane rep. Speier im sorry, no, he got into the cab of the truck. Brian how far is it from the peoples temple area and the airport . Rep. Speier its hard to judge. I think its about three miles, but it is on jungle roads. If you want to call them that. Its just dirt roads. It takes a while to get there. About 45 minutes. We get to the airstrip. One plane has arrived. The smaller plane. We are waiting for the larger plane to arrive. Congressman ryan does an interview with members of the press about what had happened in the pavilion. And then larry layton, one of the hierarchy in the peoples temple, all of a sudden is saying he is a defector, but he had been one of the most public about his support of the peoples temple, and there was no way i wanted him on the same plane. I said to congressman ryan, i do not want him on the same plane. He said put him on the smaller plane. I asked one of the reporters if he would frisk him. Because he had this big yellow poncho on. He frisked him. Unfortunately, he did not identify that he had a gun. Im loading passengers onto the larger plane at this point. The first plane has been loaded. Unbeknownst to us, a tractortrailer from peoples temple had followed behind us from a distance, had arrived on the airstrip, and as i was trying to coax a small child out of the plane, who had just scampered onto it, the gun shots rang out. I at first did not know what was happening, because my back was to the tractortrailer. They started jumping off the tractortrailer and started shooting. People scattered. I started to run. Congressman ryan was hit. Fell. And then i fled under the plane and hid by one of the wheels. Brian where were you hit . When were you shot . Rep. Speier i was shot towards the end, in terms of my recollection. I was playing dead, i was lying on my side with my head down, so the whole right side of my body was the most visible for the gunmen. And they came at pointblank range and shot us. Brian how close is pointblank for you . Can you remember . Rep. Speier well, my head is down. Brian your head is down. Rep. Speier my head is down. Brian did they shoot you when your head was down . Rep. Speier yes. Brian how long was it while you were there before you got to a hospital . Rep. Speier i was on that airstrip for almost 22 hours without medical attention. Brian you couldnt move. Rep. Speier i was able to get my body up at one point. They shoved me into the cargo hold of the plane, thinking this plane was going to take off, but it had bullet holes through the engine. Brian who is they, by the way, at this point . Rep. Speier survivors who were still there. Some just ran into the bush. Obviously the plane was not going anywhere. I was finally taken out by some local guyanese. They placed me on the side of the airstrip, unfortunately on an anthill. But as i tell people, you dont sweat the small stuff when you are dying. Eventually they moved the most wounded into a tent, where we spent the night. I got through the night out of the goodness of the producer from nbc and one of the reporters who came and brought guyanese rum to the tent from a bar that was in matthews ridge, that was some distance away. I took swigs of this guyanese rum to dull the pain. Brian there are no pictures of you in your book after you have been wounded, but i found one on onam sure you know, google of you and your husband, and you are wearing a sleeveless dress. That right arm of yours is a mess. I dont mean that you know that. What in the world how did you survive all this . Rep. Speier the right arm was actually its not nearly as scarred and damaged as my leg. The irony of all this is that my whole right side of my thigh was blown up, but the seminal artery was not severed. If the femoral artery had been severed, i would have bled to death in 90 seconds. I remember, finally we got to georgetown, guyana where there was a u. S. Medevac plane waiting , and there was this beautiful white, shining plane with the Words United States of america on it. It was like someone had just wrapped me in the American Flag , and i was lifted into that plane. One of the medics, or technicians who was on the plane, said to me later when he had called to talk to me, he said, i asked, would i ever dance again . He looked at me and he said, yes , you will, and i want the first dance. He said i was so close to death. I was minutes away from dying. At two or three times during the flight, they were going to put the plane down. I think once in puerto rico and once in louisiana, because they did not think i was going to make it to andrews. I went through lots of surgeries. It took me years to come to grips with the scars and realizing it was my new reality , and i could move on with my life and not feel like somehow i was incomplete. Brian i want to come back to that in a moment. This, as i remember, it was 5 00 in the afternoon when you were shot. What happened when you were on the ground for the next 22 hours . What happened at the peoples temple . Rep. Speier at the peoples temple, now, this is before cell phones. During the night, we got word that they had done that white knight trial they had tested many times, where he was testing the commitment that his members had to him. The megaphones would blare. They would say, everyone come out of your cabins. We are going to have a white night. We are going to leave this world. We are going to be resurrected. People would all come to the pavilion. He would give them something to drink. It was nothing. This night, everyone came to the pavilion and they had injected the children with cyanide. They had cyanide koolaid. People were told to drink it. Within minutes, they were dead. Brian how many . Rep. Speier over 900. Brian were there really 300 children . Rep. Speier over 300 children. So when people say it was a mass suicide, it was not a mass suicide. They were forced to drink this toxic brew by jones. He had many of his guards surrounding the pavilion, i am sure to make sure people did as they were told. Brian here is some audio, there is no video that i know of, of jim jones talking to this 900 people group as he was leading them to the cyanide. [audio clip] jim no, it will not hurt, if you would be quiet. If you would be quiet. If you would quit telling them they are dying, if you adults would stop some of this nonsense. Adults, i call on you to stop this nonsense. I call on you to quit exciting your children. When all they are doing is this. I call on you to stop this now, if you have any respect at all. What are we . Stop this nonsense. You are exciting your children. [end of audio clip] brian what hap