30 years ago today ... Jonestown

[Simon_Cowbell]

It's interesting to speculate what Moscone and Milk might have thought of Jones after November 18, considering the mayor had played an important role in Jones' rise to prominence and Milk was one of Jones' staunchest defenders.

Well, they were alive for about 8 days after the full discovery.

Someone had to have asked them about it, right?

 

[Double J]

From what I've read, Moscone deflected the blame that was directed his way. I don't know if Milk publicly commented.

 

[JackReacher]

Cue slow piano music and Tom Rinaldi talking about USD's Rob Jones in .... 3 .... 2 .... 1

Actually, they just showed a feature on Rob Jones on OTL. And it was Chris Connelly. I just caught the tail end of it, but I think it was a feature taped a couple years ago.

And apparently, ESPN is making a movie about Jim Jones Jr. and Rob Jones.

 

[DanOregon]

This really brings back bad memories for me. I remember sitting on the floor watching Wide World of Sports on that Saturday afternoon when the crawl came on the bottom of the screen.
Turned out Greg Robinson, the SF Examiner photog who was killed at the airport, was my aunt and uncle's wedding photographer.
Then days later, I remember coming home from school and learning about the Milk-Moscone shootings. It was really a gloomy time in the Bay Area, which up to then for me was a place where everyone seemed to get along, it was the '70s.
Then the White verdict went down and there was rioting. Crazy and sad time.

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

This really brings back bad memories for me. I remember sitting on the floor watching Wide World of Sports on that Saturday afternoon when the crawl came on the bottom of the screen.
Turned out Greg Robinson, the SF Examiner photog who was killed at the airport, was my aunt and uncle's wedding photographer.
Then days later, I remember coming home from school and learning about the Milk-Moscone shootings. It was really a gloomy time in the Bay Area, which up to then for me was a place where everyone seemed to get along, it was the '70s.
Then the White verdict went down and there was rioting. Crazy and sad time.

White was the defendant for whom the Twinkies defense was used by Flea Bailey.

Didn't White close it all out with a bullet to his head?

 

[Blitz]

A sad postscript: one of Rep. Ryan's daughters later joined a cult in India.

Wow - that's pretty amazing.
The audio of Jim Jones exhorting people to drink the cyanide and telling parents why their kids are better off dead is just horrifying.

That audio is available on YouTube and yes, it's grueling to listen to.
Man was insane.

 

[Armchair_QB]

This really brings back bad memories for me. I remember sitting on the floor watching Wide World of Sports on that Saturday afternoon when the crawl came on the bottom of the screen.
Turned out Greg Robinson, the SF Examiner photog who was killed at the airport, was my aunt and uncle's wedding photographer.
Then days later, I remember coming home from school and learning about the Milk-Moscone shootings. It was really a gloomy time in the Bay Area, which up to then for me was a place where everyone seemed to get along, it was the '70s.
Then the White verdict went down and there was rioting. Crazy and sad time.

I may be totally off on this but wasn't there a Monday night game at Candlestick like a night or two after the Moscone thing?

 

[Batman]

I suppose it's therapeutic on some level, and maybe they want people to know why and how this could happen, but I'm a bit surprised the survivors have been so open about their time there and their survival stories. Something that horrible has got to be gut-wrenching to bring up time and again.

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

This really brings back bad memories for me. I remember sitting on the floor watching Wide World of Sports on that Saturday afternoon when the crawl came on the bottom of the screen.
Turned out Greg Robinson, the SF Examiner photog who was killed at the airport, was my aunt and uncle's wedding photographer.
Then days later, I remember coming home from school and learning about the Milk-Moscone shootings. It was really a gloomy time in the Bay Area, which up to then for me was a place where everyone seemed to get along, it was the '70s.
Then the White verdict went down and there was rioting. Crazy and sad time.

I may be totally off on this but wasn't there a Monday night game at Candlestick like a night or two after the Moscone thing?

Wow, good grab: On that night, the 1-11 Niners lost to the Steelers 24-7 en route to the Steelers' 3rd NFL title.

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

I suppose it's therapeutic on some level, and maybe they want people to know why and how this could happen, but I'm a bit surprised the survivors have been so open about their time there and their survival stories. Something that horrible has got to be gut-wrenching to bring up time and again.

I would imagine the survivor guilt is significant.

 

[Simon_Cowbell]

Where the phrase "drinking the Kool-Aid" unfortunately originated.

I only remember it because I was staying at my grandparents for the Thanksgiving weekend that year and it was all over TV.

Here's a timeline of events leading up to the mass suicide:

http://cbs5.com/local/jonestown.tragedy.timeline.2.867258.html

Sadly, I'm a Jonestown junkie.

It was actually Flav-r-aid.

Congressman Leo Ryan's assistant on the trip, who was shot five times and lay motionless on the Port Kaituma airstrip for 19 hours, is Jackie Speier.

This year, she joined the U.S. House of Representatives.

One other interesting note/story: http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-11-17/they-murdered-my-friend/

Finally, it always bugged me that with all these images of bloated corpses, there has never been a released pic of Jones post-mortem.

I'm pretty sure they showed a picture of Jones after he was shot in the head.

I just found that pic.

 

[HejiraHenry]

I was still in radio news in those days. I remember having one of those WTF moments as I was listening to the "actuality feeds" about the story.