All language subtitles for Very.Scary.People.S01E11.HMAX.WEBRip.DD2.0.x264-hdalx.en

♪♪

Jim: Come, let me tell you
of someone who heals,

who does miracles like none other does.

The more you see of god in me,
the more I can reproduce in you.

[Applause]

♪♪

♪♪

Welcome to
"very scary people."

I'm Donnie wahlberg.

The Jonestown massacre:
More than 900 people died there.

The youngest victim was just 5 weeks old.

The oldest was 97,

and the man responsible was Jim Jones.

Wildly charismatic, for decades
Jones was idolized by his flock,

but he used his church as a way
to con people with phony cures

and take their money.

He sexually abused his followers

and was obsessed with death,
disturbing behavior

that traces all the way back
to his childhood.

A man of extraordinary contradictions

and seemingly unlimited gifts,
Jones could have done anything,

but what he chose to do
is almost unimaginable.

Reporter: Good evening.
We're interrupting our special

broadcasting to bring you
this special report.

We here at nbc news have been
trying to establish

what happened last night.

I remember him saying he was god.

Jim: Let's fill this atmosphere
with warmth and love.

Man: Bodies are strewn
all over the place.

I was a zealot.
I believed it.

The word on everybody's lips
was, "shades of Auschwitz."

Jim:
Love is a healing remedy.

Reporter: The death toll is rising
as more bodies are being found.

Reporter: I also have to warn
you that what you're about

to see almost defies description.

Jim: I maintain to be and
declare to be your only savior!

[Cheers and applause]

Reporter: How do you think
history will eventually

come to see your father?

I don't care.

Stephan: I'm really not sure what
the end was for my father, what...

If there was a great, grand plan.

What I saw my father doing is shooting

from the hip much of the time,
and he was managing perception.

I shall do all the miracles that you said

your god would do and never did.

- Yes!
- Yes!

Jones became a master
performer as a preacher,

and he gravitated towards

the pentacostalist style of preaching,

and in doing so,
he embraced faith healing.

He didn't have the power to heal,

and therefore we need
to fake these healings.

Now, is the pain gone?

Cobb: He would do this thing
where he would say,

"lean your head back.
Close your eyes."

Put his hands in your mouth,

and it wasn't cancer
he was pulling out of you.

What he was putting in your mouth

was fermented chicken parts.

Deceit is pernicious,
and it started back then.

Reiterman: Jim Jones was
supposedly a good man gone bad.

It couldn't be farther from the truth.

Jim Jones was born
in a little town called

crete, Indiana, in 1931.

Crete was, [laughs] Just a dot
on the map.

Had three or four houses,
a green elevator,

and a railroad track, that was it.

In 1931, Indiana is almost a century

behind a lot of the rest of america.

It's about the whitest area
in america you can find.

The ku klux klan has been sort
of forced out of the south

and has made Indiana it's new stronghold.

It's very conservative, very religious.

Hall: He was born to a
relatively poor couple.

It was in the middle
of the great depression

which was a time when poor
people certainly had trouble

making the ends meet.

Jim Jones' father, also named Jim Jones,

is a world war I veteran.

His mother, lynetta Jones,

was the sort of spirit of the family.

Guinn: Lynetta is bold.
She's brassy.

She's pushy.

His parents lost their farm
when he was a toddler,

so he was raised in nearby Lynn, Indiana.

He has a mother who is resentful
of her working-class place

in life and tells him, even as a toddler,

"you are going to be
the greatest man ever.

You were born to be great."

Jones stood out among others
of his peers as a child

as someone who was precocious.

He'd cuss up a storm.

He was much smarter
than the rest of us kids.

Ronan: But even at age 10 or
11, Jim Jones had a dark side.

During world war ii,
German pows were sent to Lynn.

I remember one occasion,
up pulls a greyhound bus,

and the first guy out
was carrying a carbine

followed by about 10 or 12 tall men,

and on the back
of their coveralls was, "pow."

And I'll never forget, this one patted

Jimmy on the head
and he said something in German.

These were German war prisoners.

Jimmy turned around and said,
"heil Hitler."

Guinn:
He's fixated on Adolf Hitler,

how Hitler can stand
in front of huge crowds

and just by force of personality
make them worship him

and follow him,
and Jones actually admired

Hitler committing suicide at the end

rather than letting all
his enemies parade him around

and feel triumphant in front of him.

Cordell: And the other kids
all thought he was strange,

so nobody wanted to be his friend.

Stephan: I heard a lot
of stories about dad

feeling like an outcast as a child.

I suspect that to some he was
very attractive

and others he was odd.

Guinn: Jim Jones, from
childhood, is also a con artist.

He manages, in this small town,
to convince all kinds of people

that he's still a lost little waif,

and he'll be invited in for meals.

And he will tell the lady
serving him that meal

he's never had better food,

that he just loves her like a mama,

that she's been so kind to him,
and they all just melt.

Stephan: Dad knew how to
win someone over pretty quickly,

knew how to adapt to any situation.

Guinn: Little Jimmy is
fascinated by religion.

He joins the nazarene church,

and then he joins the methodists.

Then he's over there with the baptists.

He would organize pretend
church services with friends.

He would be the minister.
They would be the followers.

They would be listening
and nodding along.

He would go out in the woods and practice

giving his own services,

and he would hold
funeral services for roadkill.

By the time he's a teenager,
he's the one boy in town

who goes to every church service

and walks around carrying a Bible.

With pentecostal services,

he found this sense of belonging.

Wise: Jimmy would go up.

Every Sunday, he would go up
and get saved,

and I always thought
that was a little weird, too.

Hall: Pentecostalism, at its
origins, was racially integrated,

and that's something that was
very important to Jones.

He was never part
of the accepted in crowd,

the social elite as he called it.

He felt a tremendous resentment
towards people

that he regarded as having
more power, more privilege,

and more money than he had.

Ronan: By the time Jones
was in high school,

he was pretty set
on what he wanted to do.

He wanted to be a preacher,
but not just a local preacher.

He wanted to change the world.

He would gain information
by searching garbage cans

or talking to their neighbors.

Guinn: It would seem like
he's reading minds.

All he's doing is eavesdropping.

♪♪

By 1948, there were early shades
of who he would become,

he was charismatic, he was confident,

but he was somewhat rough
around the edges,

a small-town character,
but he had a pretty big

chip on his shoulder.

It was fortunate, met the one
woman who could really take him

further than any place he wanted to be.

That was marceline Baldwin.

Guinn: Marceline Baldwin, the
daughter of a city councilman,

was considered the most
wonderful girl in town.

When she entered a room,
she commanded respect.

She had panache,
but not in a pompous way.

Stephan: I think mom enjoyed
that dad was brash.

She was definitely giving this young

whippersnapper
the cold shoulder for awhile

because mom was 4 years older than dad.

One of the ways dad made himself
more attractive to mom

was to talk about
his religious background

and his desire to be a minister.

Klingman: They married in June
1949, and it was a double wedding.

My father and mother were
married in the same ceremony.

Guinn: She is convinced that
she has married a special man

who will do special things,

and as he begins an independent
ministry in Indianapolis,

she decides she will simply
devote herself to him.

Hall: His first church
was incorporated

under the name wings of deliverance.

Jim Jones was 23 years old
when he set up this church

with mostly a poor
African-American following.

Segregation very much was alive
and firmly

implanted in Indianapolis,
like it was in many cities.

There was an active ku klux klan nearby.

There was a racial divide in the city,

and Jones was very bothered by that.

I think dad genuinely cared
about doing the right thing,

but that was always snarled
with his deep need for approval.

He began to be unorthodox in his sermons.

He was incorporating kind of a
political stance

on the world's situation.

Ronan: At first, he tried to
transform himself

into marceline's dream man,
but then differences

began to emerge.

Guinn: He's difficult.

He will not tolerate any views
other than his own.

Stephan: Mom started to see
that dad was not all he said he was.

Mom was in conflict from early on.

She was the first victim
to fall prey to Jim,

his public persona,

the first victim of Jim figuring out

what somebody needed to see and hear.

Klingman: My family thought
he was a little odd,

I have to admit, a little strange,

but he had an air of authority,
and he was very charismatic.

By 1955, his church
is growing substantially.

This was a church that would
reach out to people

who were in need.

If someone's sewer line broke,

then other members of the church
would come over and help.

If there were people who were hungry,

the soup kitchen would feed them.

But for his ministry in the early days,

Jones needs money.

He can't get it from his parishioners

in inner-city Indianapolis.

They don't have any, so he
goes out on the revival circuit.

Pentecostal services focused
on faith healing

and on salvation.

Guinn: He sees quickly
that the large crowds

and the big donations
come when people work miracles.

He would use the age-old
practice of discernment.

That is, being able to tell
the future or tell things

about people's past
that nobody else knew,

and he would gain that information

by searching garbage cans
or talking to their neighbors.

Then he can get up and he can
start doing mind-reading things.

And it would seem like
he's reading minds.

All he's doing is eavesdropping.

Hall:
Jones began to use theatrics

to ritually portray his success
at faith healing.

He had people on his staff who would...

Would feign being sick, an old lady,

and would leap out of a chair.

Jim: In the second row, you
have a bad spinal condition.

Step from your wheelchair!

Again, step from your wheelchair!

Take that step!
[Cheers]

Bless your heart.
Take that step!

Now... now, move forward.
Move forward!

Kilduff: He would have people who
said they were blind who could see.

All these sort of tricks
of the trade that he had heard

other razzle-dazzle preachers
had used, he would use.

He's already inculcating
in his followers the idea

that sometimes you have to do things

that seem wrong
to achieve the greater purpose.

Cordell:
He said the Bible was false,

and he threw it on the floor
and stepped on it.

Ronan: By the 1950s, Jim
Jones is out on the revival circuit,

and he's quite successful,

but he's using lies to drum
up donations and supporters.

Hassan:
So the ends justify the means.

Lying to people by doing phony,
fake healing,

it will help people have more faith,

so therefore it's a good thing to do.

Guinn: The more attention Jim
Jones gets, the more influence he has.

He's never going to be satisfied.

He wants more.

He was so consumed
with furthering his name

and constantly feeding
that need for adulation.

Ronan: But while Jim was really
focused on the church,

marceline wanted to have a family,

and so she had this idea

of adopting children of different races,

calling it a rainbow family,

to live out the church's ideas
of racial equality.

Guinn: They first adopt a couple
of Korean orphans.

They adopt a black baby,
the first white couple

in Indianapolis to adopt a black infant,

and they name this child Jim Jones Jr.

Marceline discovers she's pregnant.

They had one child themselves,
a son named Stephan.

Stephan: I love my family,
but what I've come to believe

about the rainbow family
is that too much of it

was about the statement
from dad's point of view.

Too much of it was about show.

Cordell: In 1956, they bought
the church at 10th and Delaware

which was a Jewish temple.

Hall: It became known
as peoples temple.

Peoples was the idea that this
is not just one people,

not just one race,
not just one ethnicity.

A black man would not be allowed
to say that,

and to hear a white man

saying those things,
that definitely stood out.

I was born into peoples temple.

Early as a child, our mother
just coming home

and telling us all about this church

and this man that was different,
like no other.

Guinn: In Indianapolis,
black people simply can't eat

at the nice restaurants.

Jones will show up at a restaurant

with a couple black people.

"We'd like to come in."
"Well, no.

You know, we don't have
any room for you."

And he would point out, "look, there's

these empty seats."

And then he'd start saying, "you know,

it would really be a good thing
for you if you integrate.

You'll make more money."

And he doesn't use force.

He's a very persuasive guy.

Ronan: Eventually the
Indianapolis restaurants gave in,

allowing both black and white customers

to sit and eat together.

Guinn:
He essentially integrates

one of the most segregationist
big cities in america.

If Jim Jones had been hit by a car

and killed on his way
from Indiana to California,

we would remember him today
as one of the leaders

of the early civil rights movement.

Ronan: He's drawn crowds
and developed a name for himself

as a minister, but like all good con men,

it was a bait and switch.

Cordell:
He changed the message.

He said the Bible was false

and nobody needed
to read the Bible anymore,

and he threw it on the floor
and stepped on it.

Dad's number one objective
was to be number one

to anyone in his world,

and people's religion
got in the way of him

being number one to them,

so that would be a major reason dad

would have a problem
with the Bible and christianity.

Ronan: This is in the midst
of the cold war.

He's talking about socialism
and communism.

It was all pretty revolutionary.

Hall: Jones' resentment of
elites and monied people

was something that dovetailed
with his political communism.

He would wear the same shoes,
same cheap slacks, cotton shirt,

and he never owned a car.

In the 1950s in america,
when the cold war

is ratcheting up, all across this country

there is the great fear of nuclear war.

Russia has the bomb.

And more and more Americans believe

that nuclear war is inevitable,
including Jim Jones.

Cobb: Back then, nuclear war
was on everyone's mind,

and I guess he read some article
and said that the place

that would be least likely to be bombed

or whatnot would be
redwood valley, west coast.

Going to California brought the
church to an entirely new level.

Hassan: The more you
surrender to the group,

the more the group identity takes over.

Ronan: It really is the end
of a traditional ministry,

and it starts to move in the
direction of becoming a cult.

♪♪

Welcome back to
"very scary people."

Jim Jones has tossed the Bible
from his sermons

and begun to call himself the savior.

Many of his followers are convinced

he can cure diseases and read minds.

By the mid-1960s, there are ominous signs

that the peoples temple

is turning from a religious
movement into a cult.

The congregation believes they're working

toward a utopian paradise,

but in reality, it's
the beginning of a nightmare.

In the summer of 1965 around 70 families

made the trip out to mendocino county

and ultimately settling

in the little Hamlet of redwood valley.

The first thing that I recognized

was that some guy arrived
with three busloads of people.

There were mixed families,
and we hadn't had that.

Shell shock, totally different
because it was all white people.

Guinn:
What Jones never factored in

was it's pretty much
redneck-white country,

and they will not welcome
peoples temple with open arms,

and he gets there and essentially

has to start rebuilding again.

Poulos:
They went out and got good jobs.

They contributed to the community.

They seemed to care about the people

that were having problems.

Jones does in redwood valley
what he did in Indianapolis.

He begins to meet with local officials

and to make a name for himself.

He came to my office when I was
running for local schoolboard.

He told me that I wasn't going
to have any problem

getting elected to the position,
because I was being supported

by the peoples temple
and would I like to join?

Hall: Peoples temple began
to attract a new middle

and upper-middle-class
contingent of whites.

There were real estate brokers.

There were lawyers.
There were social workers.

There were accountants.

♪ Arise ye christians
of salvation ♪

Stephan:
Boy, when he got up on...

He could just off the cuff
preach and light you up.

He really could.

Klingman: California at that
time in the mid-'60s,

the culture was ripe for disenfranchised

and a disillusioned people,

anti-war, Vietnam, anti-government.

Kohl:
I came out in march of 1970.

People thought that Jim Jones
had kind of a socialist group.

He was a minister, but he would
talk from the pulpit

about how he had spoken
to Angela Davis or Cesar Chavez.

He was one of the first ones to say,

you know, you could be gay or straight,

and so in many ways he was out front

in being vocal about human rights.

Gosney: I first met Jones
in Seattle, Washington.

I was living there with my wife, Cheryl.

We were an interracial couple,

estranged from our families,
and we were embraced.

It was warm.
It was welcoming.

It was interracial.

There was all different kinds
of people there.

I moved in with nothing.

I had no money, so Jim took me in,

gave me housing and everything,
and I lived communally.

I turned in my paycheck.

Ronan: As his membership
grows, Jones begins to demand more

when it comes to tithing,
10 percent, then 20 percent.

It really is the end
of a traditional ministry,

and it starts to move in the
direction of becoming a cult.

Cults will often ask members
to give over their money,

their paychecks, their houses,
the cars to the cause,

and, of course, the more
you surrender to the group,

the more the group identity takes over.

There was definitely a call
for conformity

immediately upon coming to the temple.

You got your hair cut.

You were supposed to dress a certain way.

You're... basically,
whatever persona you had

before you came to the temple was molded

into a kind
of a cookie-cutter appearance.

It's really about separating
people from their past lives

to this control of their
thoughts and their feelings.

Ronan: Jones began to
warn his group about outsiders.

It became sort of an us versus them.

Stephan: Us against them would
create fear in us,

and that's the way a raging ego thinks.

"If you don't agree with me,
you're against me.

If you're against me,
you're the enemy."

This community became tighter,
more suspicious,

more dedicated to the cause.

Kohl:
There were 60 or 70 of us

who were on the planning commission,

and we'd stay up all night,
like, every Wednesday night.

Gosney: There were services
on Wednesday nights,

Friday nights, Saturday, Sunday.

You, as an adult, were not to
fall asleep during the service.

Kohl: Then it got to be status.

"Well, how much sleep did you
have last night?"

"Two hours."

"Well, I only had
an hour and 45."

So, it got so that, to show
how dedicated you were,

you got less and less and less sleep,

which really fit right into Jim's plan.

Another universal manipulation
by cult leaders

to do mind control is sleep deprivation.

Their critical faculties
are not going to be functioning.

Their memory is going to be impaired.

Their immune systems will break down.

Kohl:
One of Jim's secretaries,

he told her that if you keep people tired

and you keep them poor,
nobody will ever leave.

Ronan: Jim Jones' rules
became stricter.

He began to monitor everything
from a person's romantic lives

to the type of food they were eating.

And when anyone broke a rule,

there was a public
accounting of their sins.

Kohl: One woman wrote him
a love letter saying,

"I love you.

I want to be with you.
I will always follow you."

Guinn: She was very enamored
of Jim Jones

and was bothering him about it,

so at one of the planning
commission meetings,

he ordered her to strip naked.

Kohl:
He said, "look at you.

Why would I ever be attracted
to you anyway?"

Guinn: He led the group
in mocking her body

and then made her sit naked even longer

before he finally allowed her
to dress herself.

He just completely demeaned her.

Guinn: And then the next day,
she wrote him a note

apologizing for having done
the terrible things

that made him do that.

Hassan: It's sending a message
to everyone else.

"You better tow the line
and do what we tell you.

Otherwise it could be you next."

I thought, "this man who's
supposed to be so loving,

how could he look at her and say
the things that he said,"

you know, "about her?"

I mean, it was so cruel.

It's like being in a relationship

and being in love
and everything's wonderful

and it's good, and then you notice,

"well, there's something
that's not quite right,"

but you ignore it because you're in love

and you want the dream.

There were a couple of times,
and more than once,

me walking in on him with a man
or a woman, you know, in bed.

He is, in a sense, now a sexual predator.

Now... now with each of you

giving a fond embrace,

let's fill this atmosphere
with warmth and love.

Ronan: By 1972, Jones' ministry
had expanded into Los Angeles

and San Francisco,

and it had really become the poster boy

for community engagement.

The church was bringing in more
educated and affluent members,

people who were really looking
for the equal life

that he had promised.

Guinn: Jim Jones becomes
the darling of the glitterati.

Jane Fonda writes him fan letters,

and then all the popular
revolutionaries at the time,

like Angela Davis, now they're
coming to the meetings.

He's building what he couldn't
build in Indianapolis,

which is not just a religious
empire but political clout.

During a close election, our
votes could make a difference.

We had met rosalynn Carter,
the mayor, city council,

legislators, lieutenant governor.

They all came through our doors
and to court our vote.

And it was amazing that this man
could get

into a community and influence
intelligent people.

That's really scary.

Kilduff: He was appointed by the
mayor to be on the housing authority,

which runs public housing in the city.

He was made president.

I was the city hall reporter for
the "San Francisco chronicle."

I went to the meetings.

He would show up and fill
this fairly small meeting room

with all of his folks.

Anything he would do would
get this thunderous ovation.

Ronan: Jones understands
that power comes from numbers,

and he's really trying to
bring in new people

from all walks of life.

I was in Los Angeles at the time,

and Jim was at an auditorium

where he was holding his meetings,

and I went up there with my daughter,

and I thought, "okay, I'll
sit here for a few minutes."

Jim was talking about people
in bad relationships,

and what he said was that women

shouldn't have to put up with that.

And that kind of hooked me.

I thought, "oh, okay,
a man's saying this."

Man: He's a chameleon.

He can see what he needs to be
and he becomes that.

Ronan: He said that all women
should be treated equally,

but he really didn't
practice what he preached.

Guinn:
Marceline has her back give out.

She's completely unable
to satisfy Jim sexually.

He announces to their children that,

since mom can't do this for him anymore,

he's going to have to have someone else.

He began engaging in sexual
relations with other people.

The most famous instance
of that is Carolyn Moore Layton.

Stephan: When I was
still a boy, maybe 10,

I met a woman that was strange to me.

Her name was Carolyn Layton,

and we spent the evening with them.

We had dinner.

It was clear to me dad
was just lit up by her.

I was put on a sofa that night,

and they were in the very next room,

and I heard, you know,
what was going on in there.

I had no idea what it was.

At first, I thought it was animals,

the sounds I was hearing,
and then I realized it was them.

Smart: Those with the faith
really loved marceline,

and she was...
She was really a sweet person.

Guinn: If it turns out that Jim
is being unfaithful to her,

that's going to hurt him
with some of his followers,

and he knows it, so you've got
to keep up this charade

that marceline is a coequal partner.

Mom never lost her grace,
but life in the temple

as the wife of Jim Jones
certainly wore her down.

Marceline is a tragic figure.

We ask ourselves, was she
also his great enabler?

In some ways she was.

That was a time where you stand
by and slightly behind your man.

Kohl: He wasn't going to
let her off the hook

because you couldn't leave Jim Jones.

Ronan: Most members were
unaware of Jim Jones' infidelity,

but he had bigger problems to worry about

that were very difficult to hide.

He turns to drugs, and Jones
becomes a habitual user

and, frankly, addicted to drugs.

Man: Trouble sleeping,
you take some pills.

Trouble waking up, you take some more.

Dark glasses all the time;
Indoors, outdoors,

night or day.

With the increase in use in drugs

comes something else.

He is less circumspect about
some of his own moral behavior.

He begins having sex with
members of his congregation,

mostly young women who feel honored

that father is sharing this with
them, and sometimes with men.

It turns out he's bisexual
and has been all his life,

but he is, in a sense,
now a sexual predator.

Dad's message to anybody
he was sexual with

was because they needed it
or they coerced him to do it,

but it was always a great burden for him

to be sexual with someone,
and I knew that was a lie.

He was basically just really
exploiting people sexually.

Power, money, and sex
seems to be the universal

of what cult leaders are going after.

Like all drug addicts,

particularly the ones who use speed,

that just increases
his personal paranoia.

Jones' paranoia will prove
to be very dangerous

to members of the peoples temple.

There was a shot,
and he fell to the ground.

Everybody was screaming and running.

Man: "Father's been shot!
Father's been shot!"

♪♪

In 1972, when Jim was doing
a service up in redwood valley,

he was out walking on the grounds.

And so at the lunch break,
Jim Jones is out mingling,

as he likes to do,
and everyone else is eating.

There was a shot,
and he fell to the ground.

Everybody was screaming and running.

Guinn: His chief lieutenants,
who were screaming,

"father's been shot!
Father's been shot!"

And everyone jumps up and is looking.

"Where did the shot come from?"

Jim Jones is gently
picked up by his followers

and taken into his house,

which is right by the church, to die.

Kohl:
Everybody else went back inside.

It felt like we were kind of sheltered.

And everyone waits.

"Father is going to be dead."

They're waiting for this terrible word,

and instead, in walks
Jim Jones just fine,

wearing a different shirt.

He showed his shirt.

It had blood and a bullet hole
where he said he had been shot,

and he said he had healed himself.

- That's right!
- That's right!

And he opens his shirt
so you can look at his chest

and see that there's no wound,
just some little sort of dent.

Stephan: But the minute
I saw that, I knew,

"okay, something's up here."

Because I no longer believed
he had the power

to completely make
a bullet wound go away.

You're just totally full of it
at this point.

He created this myth that you
didn't have to believe

everything he did because
part of it was for drama.

- Yes!
- Yeah!

Stephan: As to why they faked
that shooting,

he was now supremely
the center of attention.

He was elated because he saw
how distraught everyone was

when they thought they had lost him.

Ronan: Even if the danger to him
had been faked,

it began to feel very real to
the people who had crossed him.

Kohl:
And it was 1 in the morning,

and I was in planning commission,

and I kept nodding off.

Finally, somebody shook me
and said, "Laura," woke me up,

and Jim was pointing a gun at me,

and he said, "Laura,
if you nod off one more time,

I'm going to shoot you."

For some members, the theatrics,

the erratic behavior had worn thin.

I thought, "no, I... this is not for me.

This is just not for me."

I left April of '76, so I was out.

I was done.

Any defection to Jim Jones
was a big loss.

Stephan: Dad was obsessed
with loyalty, for sure.

There was a part of dad always
that knew he was running a game.

Perhaps the biggest loss for Jones

were the defections
of grace and Tim stoen.

Tim stoen was the attorney
for peoples temple.

Ronan:
Grace was Tim's estranged wife,

but she had become one of Jones'
high-profile lovers

within the church.

Stephan:
Grace stoen had had a child.

Somewhere along the way,

it was corroborated that
that child, John stoen,

was sired by my father.

Ronan: Jones insisted
the child stay with him.

It was a way to stay in control,

even as things were
deteriorating around him.

Grace and other defectors began
talking to members of the media

about what was taking place
at the temple.

Found some folks who had left the church

because they were unhappy,

and they said that the church
takes everybody's money,

that the church overworks its people,

that the church beats up
or humiliates people

who get out of line, like us.

It's really kind of a snake pit.

It's not this warm and fuzzy
social-action group

that it purports to be.

Congregation: Yes!

Jones wanted to test the loyalty
of his planning commission.

These are the people
that are really supposed

to be most with him,
and one night in San Francisco,

at a planning commission meeting,

Jones announces there's a treat.

"Everyone have a cup of wine."

We never had any refreshments
at planning commission.

We usually just go there and sit
and listen, so we all drank it.

Guinn: And when everyone's
done, he announces it's poison.

It's lethal, and they're all
going to die within 45 minutes.

He said, "we're going to commit
revolutionary suicide."

Guinn:
And some of them are crying.

You know, "I don't want to die.
I don't want to die."

At exactly 45 minutes, Jim Jones
announces there was no poison.

Everybody's fine.

Kohl: He was testing us to
see how that was going to play.

If he had handed out poison to people,

were people going to
just trust and drink it?

Stephan: I never believed dad
would go through with it.

I thought it was a big game for him

and he was testing loyalty

and just creating drama,
which fed him in a way.

Of course, looking back,
you see it was grooming us

for what was going to happen
on November 18th.

That was the call of death.

[Clamoring]

Jim Jones was at a crossroads.

By the mid-1970s, California politicians

knew him as an influential minister

capable of swinging an election.

To most of his followers,
he was a godlike presence

that controlled nearly
every aspect of their lives,

but Jones was now addicted to drugs,

sexually abusing church members,

and defectors were starting
to talk to the press.

Jim Jones was losing control of himself,

his family and his followers,
but Jones had a plan,

one that would horrify the world.

Next time on "very scary people,"

the final terrifying days
of the peoples temple.

I'm Donnie wahlberg.

Thanks for watching.