Why Did 918 People Kill Themselves At The Behest Of One Man | The Mass Murder-Suicide That Turned Into Largest Mass Deaths In American History

There have been many such unusual incidents happened in history that have resulted in many people and communities having to bear the brunt. You've probably heard of the term "mass suicide", a form of suicide that occurs when a group of people kills themselves simultaneously. But today we are going to introduce you to an incident, in which it happened exactly the same, but while talking about this incident, instead of the word "mass suicide", it would be better to use mass murder-suicide. The incident involved the deaths of 918 people who decided to kill themselves only at the behest of one man in Jonestown, Guyana.

Actually, this incident took place in 1978 in America when there was a cult leader named James Warren Jones (Jim Jones), who had made a separate shelter for his adorers, where he and his followers lived. Everything was going on there according to his rules and regulations. At first, everything was going well, but later he started abusing his devotees. 

This story began in such a way when Jim Jones built a church named "Peoples Temple" during the 1950s in the name of helping the needy people to increase his faith among the people. Consequently, in a very short time, he succeeded In making thousands of people his followers on the basis of his religious beliefs and superstitions. Since Jim Jones was of communist ideology and his views were different from that of the US government. So he moved away from the city with his followers to the jungles of Guyana and established a small village there. But a few days later, his true reality started to emerge among the people.

Actually, Jim Jones used to get his followers to work all day long and when they went to sleep exhausted at night, he would not even let them sleep and start his speech. He had even engaged his soldiers to go door to door to see if anyone was sleeping and if anyone was found sleeping, he used to punish them severely. He even not allowed the people to go out of the village. When men and women have remained on duty, their children were kept in a community hall and their soldiers guarded the village day and night so that no one would escape. Jim Jones had so cleverly spread the web of his superstition among his followers that they used to believe what he said.

During this, when the US government got a little idea about the activities going on there, they thought of taking action. But soon Jim Jones also realized the government's plan. Now he understood that it was difficult for him to survive, so he thought that if I am dying, I would take other people with me. So he ordered all his followers to gather in one place. It is believed that during this time Jones placed a short speech before the people, according to which these words were said. "The US government is coming to kill us all, but before they can pierce us with bullets we must all drink this holy water (the name given to a poisonous drink). By doing this we will be saved from the pain of bullets". Jim also said that if you don't do this, they will blow us up with a bomb and treat the survivors like animals. They will rape women and inflict all kinds of problems on children. So we have to drink this holy water to avoid all these tortures.

According to his strategy, Jones had already made a soft drink by mixing dangerous poison in a big tub and started serving it to people. Anyone who refused to drink the poisonous drink was forcibly made to drink. In this way, over 900 people lost their lives influenced by a superstitious belief, and these numbers also included some 300, who were age 17 and under. This incident is considered one of the largest mass deaths ever in American history and it is said that Jim Jones's dead body was also found somewhere lying at the site. He was said to have shot himself or maybe someone shot him at his behest.