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Jonestown Survivors
In November 1988, The Oprah Show reunited former members of Rev. Jim Jones' infamous religious organization, the People's Temple.
Ten years earlier, more than 900 members of the People's Temple drank a poisonous cocktail laced with deadly cyanide. It was the biggest mass murder-suicide in modern history and was masterminded by Jones. This tragic event is now known as the Jonestown massacre.
During this historic Oprah Show, former temple members shared what life was like in Jonestown and recalled the events that led up to the mass suicide. They also remembered loved ones lost. Herbert and Cleveland Newell, former Jones followers, said seven of their family members died that dark day in 1978.
Tim Stoen, another People's Temple defector, lost his 6-year-old son during the massacre. When Oprah asked how so many intelligent people could have blindly followed Jones, Tim explained, "What you have to understand about Jonestown is that you had great evil side by side with great virtue. The human mind has a very difficult time conceptualizing great evil and great virtue, side by side."
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