People's Temple

The mass deaths at Jonestown, Guyana, on November 18, 1978, resulted in the deaths of 918 people at the People's Temple compound led by Jim Jones and at the nearby airfield at Port Kaituma. Congressman Leo Ryan, a California Democrat, became the first and only sitting member of Congress assassinated in the line of duty. Three journalists and a People's Temple defector were also murdered at the airfield. The official version held that Jim Jones's followers committed mass suicide by swallowing cyanide-laced Kool-Aid in an act of religious devotion. Surviving relatives and investigators raised the possibility that the massacre was connected to a CIA behavioral modification program, and that many of the dead were actually murdered.¹²

CIA Presence at Jonestown

Jack Anderson reported on September 27, 1980, that Richard Dwyer, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Georgetown, Guyana, was a CIA agent and a friend of Jim Jones. Dwyer and U.S. Ambassador John Burke had both allegedly worked for the CIA in Bangkok during the Vietnam War. Dwyer was wounded in the Port Kaituma shootings where Ryan and the others were killed. On the death tape recorded during the final moments, Jones was heard saying, "Get Dwyer out of here before something happens to him." Dwyer reportedly left Guyana for Grenada after the massacre. The U.S. Consular Officer at the Georgetown embassy, Richard McCoy, allegedly liaised with Jones and was a U.S. Air Force intelligence official. Another alleged CIA employee, Dan Webber, operating under State Department cover, visited Jonestown the day after the massacre.²

Drugs Found at the Site

A huge cache of mind-altering drugs was discovered at Jonestown following the massacre, including Thorazine, sodium pentothal, Demerol, thallium, chloral hydrate, and Largatil. These drugs were consistent with those used in known MKULTRA and behavioral modification operations. The presence of such quantities in an agricultural commune suggested a purpose beyond routine medical care.²

Brazilian Police Drug Smuggling Investigation

According to a January 9, 1979, article in the Brazilian newspaper Manchete, Brazil's Federal Police suspected that Jones and the People's Temple were part of a Bolivia-Brazil-Guyana drug smuggling network. In 1978, Brazilian police discovered the largest cocaine shipment ever seized in Brazil, and two traffickers arrested claimed that ten kilograms of the cocaine were destined for Jim Jones in Guyana. The head of the Sao Paulo Police Headquarters for Combating Drugs, Arthur Carbone Filho, stated he had conclusive documentation that the cocaine traffic between Bolivia and Guyana had been occurring frequently for some time. Carbone said the purpose of Jones's arrival in Brazil in 1969, when he resided in Belo Horizonte, was probably to establish connections for supplies of Bolivian cocaine to the People's Temple. Francisco Carlos Gariato, chief of the Sao Paulo Federal Police, said a Bolivian trafficker confessed to smuggling cocaine to Guyana and was later identified as a follower and recruiter for Jones.²

The Lawsuit Against the CIA

The relatives of Jonestown victims sued CIA Director Stansfield Turner, alleging that he had conspired with Jones to control the cult as part of a secret government behavior-modification program. The lawsuit was reported in the Washington Post on March 25, 1983. Joe Holsinger, Congressman Ryan's assistant and friend, stated that he believed Jonestown was a massive mind control experiment and that the CIA and military intelligence were involved. The CIA maintained extensive open source records on the Jonestown allegations, though most official intelligence files on the incident remain classified.²

Intelligence Network in Guyana and the Caribbean

At the time of the massacre, Guyana was governed by Prime Minister Forbes Burnham, installed with CIA help, as was Omar Torrijos in Panama. The People's Temple had amassed a large fortune in property and bank assets across Latin America, including in Panama, Guyana, and Grenada. During the massacre, the Temple's ship, the "Cudjoe," was en route to Trinidad with Temple members on board. Temple members subsequently established operations in Trinidad and Grenada, where CIA client Eric Gairy was Prime Minister. According to the Oakland Tribune, the St. George's University Medical School in Grenada had on its staff Dr. Peter Bourne, a graduate of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research who had studied the psychological effects of stress on those in combat and served one year in Vietnam as head of the Army's psychiatric research team.²

Congressman Ryan's CIA Criticism and Post-Massacre Revelations

Congressman Ryan had been a persistent critic of the CIA. After his assassination, former CBS News correspondent Daniel Schorr revealed that Ryan was his source for uncovering a covert CIA operation in Angola, in contravention of U.S. law. Schorr felt compelled on November 30, 1978, to reveal Ryan as his source because Ryan was "dead and beyond reproach." Schorr had been sanctioned by CBS News in 1976 after he passed to the Village Voice a secret House Select Committee on Intelligence report critical of Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.²

Witnesses and Assassins

Witnesses to the shooting of Congressman Ryan and others at the airfield described the assailants as "zombie-like" and emotionless. In reference to a rumored hit list compiled by the People's Temple, a congressional aide was quoted as saying, "There are 120 white brainwashed assassins out from Jonestown awaiting the trigger word to pick up their hit." There was evidence that Jones used doubles, and confusion existed as to whether it was the genuine Jones whose body was found among the dead.¹

Larry Layton and the Only U.S. Prosecution

Larry Layton was the only former People's Temple member tried in the United States for criminal acts arising from the Jonestown massacre. At the Port Kaituma airstrip, Layton opened fire on those inside a six-seat Cessna, wounding several people, while other Temple members simultaneously attacked the transport plane carrying Congressman Ryan and his delegation. Ryan, three journalists, and a Temple defector were killed. Layton was convicted in December 1986 by a federal jury in San Francisco on four counts including conspiracy to kill a congressman, aiding and abetting the murders, and wounding State Department diplomat Richard Dwyer. He was sentenced to life in prison in March 1987. After serving approximately 18 years between Guyanese jails and U.S. federal custody, Layton was paroled in April 2002 following a campaign by family members and advocates. He was the only participant in the events of November 18, 1978, to face criminal prosecution in the United States.³

Dan Mitrione and the Jones Connection

Dan Mitrione was an Indiana native, childhood acquaintance of Jim Jones from Richmond, Indiana, who had a parallel career arc through federal law enforcement and Latin American intelligence operations. Mitrione served as Richmond's police chief before joining the State Department's International Cooperation Administration (ICA), subsequently absorbed into the Agency for International Development (AID), as a public safety adviser teaching police techniques in Brazil and Uruguay. Former Uruguayan police officials confirmed that Mitrione taught torture techniques to security forces in the cellar of his Montevideo residence, using vagrant prisoners as demonstration subjects. Jones and Mitrione were both based in Belo Horizonte, Brazil during overlapping periods in 1962-1963. Mitrione was kidnapped by Tupamaros guerrillas in Montevideo and executed in August 1970. Jones, according to the SDSU Jonestown Primary Sources document, described Mitrione as "a cruel, cruel person, even as a kid, a vicious racist" and stated he had wanted to "inform on" Mitrione's activities. Jones's CIA file, opened in November 1960, coincided with the period of Mitrione's confirmed CIA recruitment.⁴