Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People

After reading a book on Jim Jones and the Jonestown Massacre that took place on November 18, 1978, I became intrigued by this false prophet. Who was Jim Jones? Where did he come from? What did he believe? How could over 900 people die for the theories of just one man? So I purchased Tim Reiterman's classic work on Jim Jones called Raven: The Untold Story of Jim Jones and His People. The massive book is the most detailed book that you can find. Part of what makes the book unique is that Reiterman was wounded while covering Jonestown and the visit by the late Congressman Leo Ryan on November 18, 1978 for the San Francisco Examiner.The book is a complete biography of Jim Jones from his birth to his death. Mixed in is the story of a very confused man. Jones longed for attention from people. He wanted people to like him so much so that he would even warn his childhood playmates against leaving his home and even would shoot at them with guns as they ran away from his home. At an early age Jones begin to become infatuated with religion but not evangelical Christianity. Early on he adopted poor theological views ranging from Oneness Pentecostals to later claiming to be an atheist. Later on he would allow people to worship him and call him "Father" and "Dad". He took this from the late cult leader Father Divine. In the end, Jones just wanted power.The book does a good job of describing Jones' upbringing and his early years to his marriage and the beginnings of People's Temple. Oddly enough, People's Temple joined the denomination "The Disciples of Christ" as a way to back Jones' ministry. Jones, who once shared a meeting with the late faith healer William Branham, learned from watching faith healers how to "heal" people. He would often use various tricks to lure people to his meetings and then "heal" them there. Jones knew early on that he had no healing powers and that his healings were fake but he did it purely for money and power. He once even drugged an older woman, had his assistants put a cast on her leg, and then told her she fell after blacking out. He then claimed, in front of his People's Temple followers, to "heal" the leg and asked the woman to run around the building which she did to shouts and cheers. Jones would travel with teams of people from his People's Temple to various cities performing other "miracles" such as this one and others. Some knew that he was fake (such as his assistants) but many people were duped to the point of worshiping Jones and even purchased pictures of him that they carried in their cars to protect them from evil spirits and other problems.So what was the lure of Jones then? First, he attracted the outcasts of American society mainly minorities. Jones championed the rights of minorities at a time of great civil unrest among minorities in the United States. Jones even adopted a black and two Asian children along with his own son to show that his was a "rainbow" family. Jones would preach against violation of civil rights and he became known as a man who "wished he were black." At Jonestown he even begin to call himself a black. His thundering against "white ruled society" was a cause many minorities longed to hear from a white man.Secondly, Jones became a voice for socialism in America at a time when the United States was locked in a cold war with communist nations. Jones preached that the early Church were communists (Acts 2:44-46) and that were Jesus alive then (late 1960's) He would be a communist. Jones advocated communal living and People's Temple encouraged their members to sell all their belongings and join their commune. The church even purchased apartments and houses for that purpose though Jones never shared his home with anyone else even to his death. People, especially minorities, were attracted to communist teachings in the 1960's and 70's mainly due to their view that American democracy had not achieved much for them. They wanted wealth and houses and cars and pride but lacked all that. Jones offered them a chance to come together for that.Thirdly, Jones used fear as his tool to manipulate people. Jones would "prophesy" nuclear wars and bombs and attacks. He would even put on false attacks such as having someone shoot him (once) or at him (several times) to show that he was being attacked for his socialism and his standing for the truth. Jones would also use his own people to scare people in the People's Temple to submission. One man was mysteriously killed to which his parents claimed that the People's Temple murdered him. It was fear that led 900 people to leave the United States for Guyana. They believed, from Jones, that Guyana would survive a nuclear attack and then the People's Temple would go back to the desolated United States to claim it back. It was also fear that the Guyana Army was about to invade them following Leo Ryan's murder on November 18, 1978 that led them to drink poison and die together.The only negative I have about the book is that Reiterman doesn't dive much into Jones' theology. Again, by the end of Jones' life, he claimed to be an atheist. He claimed agnosticism even while performing his healing crusades in the 1960's. Jones even had an Assemblies of God pastor as an assistant pastor early on during his years in Indiana but the more far from the Bible Jones went, it drove true Christians away. At one point Jones even took the Bible and stood on it to show his people that God would not strike him down for doing that and then he threw the Bible and said that there was no God in heaven but that he, Jim Jones, was the only God to them. Some people left but most remained. I would like to have seen Jones' theology more explained in the book but it wasn't. I had to guess at his beliefs. At his death, Jim Jones believed in reincarnation and believed that his 900 "children" would all return though he told one boy, "I will find you in the afterlife" before the boy drank the poison and died. Some have falsely claimed Jim Jones as a "Christian" pastor but this is not true. As far as I can tell, Jones never was a true disciple of Jesus at all and he never preached sound doctrine at all. As far as I can tell, Jim Jones denied every major doctrine of the Christian faith.Jim Jones was a heretic. Jim Jones was a false prophet. Jim Jones was evil. Jim Jones had lost his mind. All these words describe Jim Jones. Jones wanted to go down in history as a man who stood for people. Instead he went down into history as a man who killed people.

Tim Reiterman was at Jonestown and later at the airstrip in Port Kaituma, Guyana when it counted. He did what his employers needed him to do that day and then he did what the entire world needed him to do when he recovered from his near death experience. This incredible story is about a man with a personality disorder that few people in the 70's could recognize, and as such, many thousands of lives have suffered; so many more than the ones who died on November 18, 1978. I am glad that somebody took the time to paint the global picture of religion and politics, (peaceful demonstrations and the prestige of block voting, etc), including evangelist revival healer trends that were popping up all over the place in those days, but more importantly I'm glad to be reminded that Jones was not a good man, but a con man with a very determined desire to make a name for himself. The author has obviously logged tremendous hours digging through the rubble and charred remains of the Jonestown massacre to provide insight and awareness to aid us in overcoming the superficial conclusions that so many are quick to reach when first considering the magnitude of this event. We are not surprised that so many innocent people had to die horrendous deaths before society could expend any energy to investigate the initial complaints (beyond raising an eyebrow). Displayed herein is the Jim Jones playbook on what ambitious types have done and can still do to gain political support, moral and emotional support, as well as unquestioning financial support through insincere means. The People's Temple members (including defectors) were all susceptible human beings who became compromised when moral barriers were breached (by example), and critical thinking skills were effectively turned off. The theft of innocence and the eroding of people's integrity was a refined skill that we cannot entirely credit Jones for, as he had mentors and accomplices who were just as rotten as he was. The examples of persuasive coercion (intimidation /emotional blackmail) and the undue influence (through guilt and ignorance) techniques of the free-love era have become more easily recognized and more widely understood with the passing of time, which makes this story all the more heartbreaking to read. I was 21, living in San Francisco when this all went down and I remember that just a few days later our City Mayor [Moscone] was assassinated in an unrelated development. With Charlie Manson and his family of loyal meat carvers still fresh in everyone's minds, we were stunned that such a thing like Jonestown could happen on such a grand scale. Why wouldn't anyone back Christine Miller when she tried to reason with Jones in the long, pleading minutes before a single infant was casually sacrificed to death? How someone could willingly slit the throat of a toddler, let alone their own child (As Sharon Amos did), is now perfectly clear. Without education (the due process of meticulous investigation and discovery) regarding the science of cult behavior, (as demonstrated within the Manson Family), the peace-loving, non-racist, People's Temple "Family" were destined to become the same caliber of ruthless killers as Manson's, if not just a little worse. How many times did the conscientious defectors in this story finally get the courage to make a run for it, only to return for more abuse, and in some cases, death? The People's Temple in Guyana was pinched for vehicles and construction equipment to develop the Jungle and the facilities and infrastructure would only handle a few hundred bodies when paranoid Jones inspired 1200 (some with disabilities) to descend on his camp. After a year of extreme sacrifice and rationing they kill themselves, leaving upwards of 5 million dollars in foreign banks with another couple million in assets?? What's up with that?? With so many pronouns included in this book, it is easy to lose track of the characters, so I recommend that future editions include a glossary of the names and lives of those who died or were killed that day. I used this site: http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=690#X as a ready reference to help keep things straight in my mind, especially since there was so much geography, interracial families and wife-swapping going on. (The link also provides last known pictures of the victims [where possible] and a short bio or remembrances. If a person in the story didn't die, they're not on the list, which while reading, is sometimes really nice to know.) In spite of the absent victim list, I gave the author 4 stars for the research, (banking, healings, drugs, ammunitions, victim's talents, etc) ) and 1 star for having the presence of mind to take photos of the plane with the flat tire sitting on the runway with the actual deceased bodies of friends and co-workers still on the runway. So much of the story depends on the visuals one conjures up in the mind according to the adjectives offered, but I did not want to imagine that scene, I wanted to see it.-- Harry

This is not a book to read if you are only casually interested in the Jonestown tragedy and the history of the People's Temple. If, on the other hand, you have a more-than-casual interest in this fascinating and disturbing episode in American history, this is the book for you.I pondered buying this book for a long time. I'd become fascinated (morbidly, perhaps) by the story of Jonestown. I'd spent many hours reading, and listening to, the archive of Jonestown material which is hosted on the Jonestown Project website. The whole story raises questions about human nature, idealism, loyalty, and faith which continued to compel me-- and distub me. Did I really want to delve this deeply into the whole thing? Eventually, I decided I would. I found the book a long slog, more interesting in some parts than in others. The accounts of legal wrangles might be somewhat dull, but are certainly highly relevant-- especially since it was the battle over John Stoen, a child who Jim Jones claimed as his own but was in fact seized from his father, which ultimately led to the horrific climax of the whole saga.The account of the final night, and its aftermath, will probably be the most interesting section for most readers. I'd learned a lot about the mass suicide on the internet, but the efforts of the survivors to escape from Port Kaituma was covered in much more detail here than elsewhere.The biographical information about Jim Jones is also surprisingly thorough, right down to poetry his mother wrote.This is highly recommended-- if you can stomach it. The fact that it was written by a survivor of the fateful final night only makes it more gripping.

Just finished breathlessly reading this book in the space of 10 days! This is a very long read, it's almost 600 large information packed pages. I couldn't put it down. I feel like I'll be haunted by this story for a long time and to be honest it took over my thoughts for the 10 days I read it. Beware this is a grim story and the graphic ending is traumatic in the extreme! Not for the faint hearted but with all that said personally I found it an incredible read.

This is an encyclopoedic work. Tells you every detail from parents to childhood. A valuable and fascinating study of what made this cult leader tick and helps to account for why so many seemingly intelligent people could follow him.

I read this quite soon after another book borrowed from the library. It is highly readable and Reiterman's involvement in the story gives it an added perspective. His first-hand account of the final weekend is gripping.

Such a comprehensive and brilliant story. In one place I actually gasped out loud. Truly, truly, a brilliant work.