Jonestown Tragedy

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      Reverend Jim Jones ran a church that helped the poor and lonely people in California. In 1977 Jones and a few hundred followers left the US, to set up new living places in Guyana. The town he set up was called Jonestown. The word got out of the move and congressman Leo Ryan along with eighteen others flew to Guyana to make sure everything was going smoothly. Jones slowly began to get angry with Ryan because he tried to help the followers escape. Ryan was attacked and killed when he was talking to some people who wanted to leave. Jones called for the “ultimate act of loyalty…mass suicide”. He made the people of Jonestown drink a poisoned fruit juice, some were willing to and some were forced at gunpoint. 900 people were killed and soon after Jim Jones took his own life, by shooting himself.