The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the fourth study session on Michael Meiers' Was Jonestown a CIA Medical Experiment. This infamous mass murder has countless parallels to our recent literary selections - Columbine, Michael Swango, and The Hart murder-suicide. The Rev. Jim Jones, a White man born in Indiana, took a thousand people from California to Guyana, South America. On November 18th, 1978, Jones killed nearly all 1,000 of his mostly black followers and Congressman Leo Ryan. A few were shot, but most were poisoned with cyanide, just like "Double-0 Swango." For nearly half a century, this event has been conventionally understood as a bunch of brainwashed black loons following a White charlatan to their demise in the jungle. Meiers' work suggests something far more nefarious. Last week, we learned about Jones' Indiana roots - including his Klu Klux Klan father. The Jones Klan lived in a number of Racially Restricted Regions within the Hoosier state - and Meiers highlights that Jones was poorly regarded by the large population of blond, German immigrants. He studied black congregations, black pastors, and religious activities in general. He used this research to deceive, manipulate and bilk his predominantly black congregations. Meiers states that for the duration of his ministry, Jones sought out black people to dominate. We heard more details about how Jones may have fabricated his medical records to help conceal his death in the massacre and we learned of suspicions that Jones may have been involved in the death of his adopted non-white daughter, Stephanie, and the White superintendent of the church's nursing home, Mable Stewart. They along with 4 others died in a ghastly May 1959 automobile crash in Indiana. Stephanie was not allowed to be buried with White people. #AcresOfSkin #MurderInMemphis #TheCOWS15Years INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 605.313.5164 CODE: 564943#