Commentary: The betrayal of Jonestown
Forty years ago, an American preacher and madman named Jim Jones orchestrated the largest mass murder in recorded history when he forced more than 900 men, women and children to drink a cyanide-laced punch at his eponymous settlement in Guyana.
Early news reports referred to Jonestown as a "cult of death" and spread the idea that residents calmly lined up on Nov. 18, 1978, to offer cups of poison to their children before drinking it themselves. Reporters lustily relayed what sensational details they had, but also filled in the gaps with outrageous claims. "They welcomed their own destruction," declared one San Francisco newscaster. That became the "official" take on the tragedy: A
