Overview
- Laura Kohl says her reassignment to Georgetown before Congressman Leo Ryan’s visit gave her options to flee that those inside Jonestown did not have.
- She recounts Jim Jones’s escalating drug use, paranoia and financial control that left members isolated and dependent in Guyana.
- A delegation led by Ryan was ambushed at the airstrip as defectors tried to leave, with five people killed including the congressman.
- Survivors describe prior “white nights” loyalty drills that conditioned followers to accept cyanide-laced punch on Jones’s command.
- Reporting cites a final death toll of 918, and survivors recall a chaotic, poorly managed recovery with bodies left exposed in the rainforest.