"Jonestown: Paradise Lost:" Antidote to Stanley Nelson's Cult Apologist Snake Bite

If you haven’t seen it yet, be sure not to miss this Saturday’s History Channel docudrama, “Jonestown: Paradise Lost,” a gripping look at an abominable cult’s final four days culminating in one of the most infamous mass murders on record.

Some suicides, yes—but the simple, ugly reality is that these men, women, and little children were brutally murdered, through mental and physical coercion. Consider the body discovered of the woman with nearly every joint in her body yanked apart in a desperate attempt to escape the grasp of cult thugs poisoning her.

Guyana’s Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. C. Leslie Mootoo, accompanied the teams that counted the dead hours after the massacre. He found fresh needle marks at the back of the left shoulder blades of 80-90 percent of the victims he examined. Others had been shot or strangled.

Some of you may have this to compare with the images presented, or reported by some witless film critic, in Director Stanley Nelson’s, “Jonestown: Life and Death of the People’s Temple.” This stark contrast of a film winds down, featuring some poignant music accompanying a narrative of “The Final Note,” written by a doomed cult member—either Dick Tropp or Marceline Jones--on the day of the slaughter of these 913 Americans.

“A tiny kitten sits next to me,” are some of the lines read, “Watching. A dog barks. The birds gather on the telephone wires. Let all the story of this Peoples Temple be told….” Of course, consistent with the rest of Nelson’s revisionist opus, is Mrs. Nelson’s (wife Marcia Smith, his script writer) impeccable editing OUT of some of the appalling cult ravings contained in that “Final Note,” like the following:

“….We hope that the world will someday realize the ideals of brotherhood, justice and equality that Jim Jones has lived and died for. We have all chosen to die for this cause.”

He (Tropp) or she (Mrs. Jones) was speaking on behalf of the 276 murdered children, we presume.

What’s critical about “Jonestown: Paradise Lost,, besides being well-done, is its value as a partial antidote to the horrendous cult apologist propaganda of Nelson’s film. No, it’s not a perfect film. The most egregious error is the one made by just about everyone dealing with the subject, either out of sheer ignorance or inexcusable dishonesty.

That error, of course, is the claim in the film that “At the height of his power….Jim Jones’s ‘dark’ side emerged.” Hogwash. The director presents a copy of the New West article, as if to suggest it was The First Expose of People’s Temple; we’re supposed to assume the Temple was not all that beastly until at least the mid-70’s; and that the public shouldn’t be concerned with those collaborators—the public officials, politicians, clergy, journalists—that aided and abetted Jones, unwittingly facilitating the impending November, 1978 bloodbath, should not be given their just recognition?

Marshall Kilduff, co-author of this New West article, is every bit as reprehensible as the reporter featured in the program, Tim Reiterman. While Reiterman surely deserves praise for risking his life going to Guyana, he disgraces himself with fabrications in his People’s Temple book, “Raven” debunking my father’s 1972 Examiner People’s Temple expose series--a time period in which he and Kilduff did nothing but sit on their supercilious duffs.

There’s enough sordid details in the Kilduff & Rieterman sideshow that these two—like the other upcoming exhibits this People’s Temple Hall of Shame—will be awarded a posting all to themselves. Coming soon.

Jonestown survivor Stephan Jones provided some of the most compelling impute in “Paradise Lost,” revealing the pain of having a hideously deranged father. “I knew he was sick from very early on,” said Stephen, citing how the “Marxist” Jim Jones had “demoralized, malnourished, and exhausted a population,” utilizing widespread “abuse, theft, and torturing of children.”

Another cult survivor, Vernon Gosney, related how he had gone to live in Jonestown for, among other reasons, to become “a good socialist.” Socialist. That’s the time-worn euphemism used by that breed of tyrants such as Cuba’s Fidel Castro; his fan Rev. Jones, along with ardent California supporters such as Angela Davis, used it like a mantra.

And, lamentably, this film doesn’t show Fidel, Angela, or the freighter-load of other People’s Temple cheerleaders, like famed San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen, who assured Californians in 1977 that Jones, who was dunking children down into wells, was “doing the work of the Lord” in Guyana. Oh, yes, that’s right; Nelson, Lord of the Cult Apologists, also somehow left all this (and much more) out in his film, too.

Shocker.

As the docudrama shows enthralling reenacted scenes of a young Gosney plotting his escape from the Stalinist prison camp, it then takes the viewer back up to present-day, where the real-life Gosney makes this revealing statement.

“Conditions at Jonestown,” he said, “were not conducive to think clearly.” A little later on in the film, Gosney again commented on the sensation — “I wasn’t thinking clearly”--as he desperately tried to figure how to get out safely with Congressman Leo Ryan’s delegation.

Not “thinking clearly”?

Herein is the clue on how Jim Jones controlled his “flock.” It is what the cult apologists, from Rebecca Moore to John Hall and all the rest, are frantic about, because it signals the effects of the obvious:

Mind Control. Thought Reform. Brain Washing.

This is about as close as the “Paradise Lost” film comes to providing viewers something of an accurate picture of the People’s Temple, and all destructive cults, for that matter. It is a great movie for its humanity in showing, yes, these were human beings, trapped by a monster.

It would have been helpful if the producers could have had Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton discuss the landmark research in his book, “Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of ‘Brainwashing’ in China.”

They might have also turned to an expert on the work of the late psychologist Margaret Singer, author of “Cults in our Midst.” Singer cited the six conditions that create an atmosphere where minds can be controlled:

• Control a person’s time and environment, leaving no time for thought
• Create a sense of powerlessness, fear, and dependency
• Manipulate rewards and punishments to suppress former social behavior
• Manipulate rewards and punishments to elicit the desired behavior
• Create a closed system of logic which makes dissenters feel as if something was wrong with them
• Keep recruits unaware about any agenda to control or change them

They could have consulted with other cult experts, such as Rick Ross or Steven Hassan, the latter whose book “Releasing the Bonds” describes the mind control model, BITE, in which a cult leader creates dependency and obedience through control over:
• Behavior
• Information
• Thought
• Emotions

Of course, none of this was discussed in the film. It’s not nearly as exciting. Nonetheless, “Jonestown: Paradise Lost” had a thousand times the integrity of Stanley Nelson’s “Jonestown: Life and Death of the People’s Temple.”

Maybe the biggest problem was Stanley’s shocking naiveté entering the portals of the Temple. He looks at it like it’s some kind of “social activist revolution” that “brought people together,” almost as if he has 60’s brain-lock. Here is what he told interviewer Susan Gerhard last October in her “SF360” web log:

“I went into it knowing so little about it,” admitted Nelson, “I didn’t know that Jim Jones was such a part of the political social establishment of the Bay Area. I didn’t understand how he was coddled and courted by politicians.”

Funny thing, too, how Nelson refused to examine that most vital part. Without all that “coddling and courting” (Jones did some of it himself, too, especially with cash payoffs to the newspapers), the road to the Jonestown Massacre would have never been built.

The next part of his statement, however, truly reveals Stan’s Alice in Wonderland perception of the story:

“In the bigger pictures: I learned why and how people would join Peoples Temple and why and how they would stay and hold on to this thing, even thought they saw it going wrong."

“They wanted to hold onto this dream,” reasons the director of this “acclaimed” film, “they held on as it led to disaster.”

Held on to it. As tightly as, say, those Temple cult killers held down and yanked out all the joints in that doomed woman’s body on November 18, 1978 in Mr. Jones’s gulag.

Stanley Nelson—the same one they’re talking about giving an Oscar nomination to tomorrow?

Keep prayin’, one and all.

An Appeal To The Academy...

The deadline is over. Best Documentary nominations, and the rest, were all due in yesterday, 5 p.m. It’s time now for a lot of genuine faith, which fits right in with the subject matter, after all.

Just please say it ain’t so, voting members of the Academy. This obscene con job of a film that slithered onto the short-list—“Jonestown: Life and Death of the People’s Temple”—you couldn’t have put this thing into the final five.
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The “New Religious Movement” hordes naturally have other designs. They must be chanting now, humming, clanging tambourines, and rattling e-meters over the thought of Director Stanley Nelson’s cult apologist film capturing an Academy Award.

We now wait while they count, until January 23. That’s when the official five nominations are announced. Then we’ll have one more sign if the moral depravity meter has risen another notch.

So please focus, all ye readers of sound mind…. Pray that enough Academy members were not lured in like throngs of cult captives or mindless film critics. Grant that the voters fled far and away from this fetid Potemkin Village that Stanley built.

A handful of the critics did, in fact, manage to send a couple of warning flares about “Jonestown.” The media “too-little, too-late” People’s Temple rerun features Newsweek headliner David Ansen, whose ground-shaking revelation was that his favorite films of 2006 “blurred the lines between reality and fiction.”

Bravo, Sir David. No, he didn’t quite come out and say Nelson served up the public a “faux-documentary.” He didn’t need to. Director Stan did it for him. In a recent New York Times interview, Nelson glowed, “What’s fascinating about documentary today is the different ways to approach it.”

He went to qualify exactly what he means: Historical accuracy, in a Nelson-mutated documentary, will be relegated in place of “advocacy.” You see, big change is coming your way. Objectivity…is on the official endangered list.

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“Just by being somewhat objective,” said Nelson, “We were being revolutionary.”

“Somewhat objective”?

Yes, that means if you have any understanding about the principles of cult dynamics, or know the background of the unembellished, uncensored history of Jim Jones and the full horror he unleashed, Lord Nelson’s expert sanitizing will disabuse all that. True enough, he IS required to mention some of the requisite “negatives.” But the most destructive cult in American history? Oh, my heavens, no—far be it from that, according to our budding social scientist.

“What I learned from doing this film,” Nelson told Stylus Magazine in an interview last October, “was that one of the most dangerous things is when you join these communities and they deliver on their promise. I think People's Temple delivered on what it promised people. It promised them that they would be part of a big family and live a new way. And it delivered. That’s why they stayed.”

Well, how about that. Yes, “delivered.” It would be interesting hearing reputable cult experts in the field—the late Margaret Sanger, Robert Lifton, Philip Zimbardo, or any others—comment on Professor Stan’s assessment. Closer to the case is Dr. Keith Harrary’s analysis is of this “big family’s new way.”

Dr. Harrary had worked as counseling director at Al and Jeannie Mills’s Human Freedom Center in Berkeley, California, where they offered help to suffering People’s Temple defectors, as well as those from other cults ranging from the Moonies to Hare Krishnas.

[Al and Jeannie Mills (along with their daughter, in 1980, murdered by unknown assailants) had been top defectors themselves, but have been censored in the film—one of scores of the missing pieces in Nelson’s “somewhat objective” history.]

What does Dr. Harrary say about how “motivation” was instilled in someone, so they could continue enduring unspeakable brutality—in California, long before “Dad” shipped them off to his Guyana Gulag?

“Jones had forced them to prove their loyalty by signing blank pieces of paper,” wrote Dr. Harrary in a March, 1992, Psychology Today article, “blank power-of-attorney forms, and false confessions that they had molested their children, conspired to overthrow the U.S. government, and committed other crimes while members of the cult. It was the sort of thing Jones did to control people, like the time he tricked a member into putting her fingerprints on a gun and told her he would have someone killed with it and frame her for the murder if she ever left the group.”

And what about Nelson’s claims of this wondrous “new way,” which he insists was fulfilled in “the beginning,” and masquerades on screen? Again, in the Redwood Valley years well before Jonestown came about, the “new way” was something altogether different.

“There was a deliberate malevolence about the way Jones treated the members of his cult that went beyond mere perversion,” stated Dr. Harrary, “It was all about forcing members to experience themselves as vulgar and despicable people who could never return to a normal life outside of the group. It was about destroying any personal relationships that might come ahead of the relationship each individual member had with him."

“It was about terrorizing children and turning them against their parents. It was about seeing Jim Jones as an omnipotent figure who could snuff out members’ lives on a whim as easily as he had already snuffed out their self respect."

“In short, it was about mind control.”

Mind control. Find any cult apologist on your block, say this phrase three times fast, and they might just slowly spasm up the nearest wall like a crazed spiderman. Pepper them liberally with “cult”--a four-letter profanity spice to which they are allergic--and you got a real spectacle. But be prepared, audience: If you have the odd notion that Nelson’s “documentary” about one of history’s most notorious cults has ANY INFORMATION WHATSOEVER about cults or mind control, forget it.

The script says it was a “church,” okay? A “revolutionary” church, kind of like Stan’s “objectivity.” Written by Marcia Smith (Mrs. Nelson) and Noland Walker (who had family members in the cult and attended services), they provide Nelson some extra left-wing sizzle—as if he needs more—by incorporating a second official academic cult apologist in film. The first comes from Rebecca Moore, who teaches religious studies at San Diego State University. The second sound bite comes from John Hall, who dishes out his cult apologetics at UC Davis. The following, an excerpt entitled “The Collectivist Reformation,” from Hall’s book, “Apocalypse Observed: Religious Movements and Violence in North America,” might be the best explanation for Stanley and Mrs. Nelson’s bizarre vision:

“Where People’s Temple deviated much more dramatically from conventional social practice,” writes Hall, “was its members’ high rates of tithing, unsalaried labor, and donation of real and personal assets. In turn, these differences were part of a more profound difference—replacing individualism and the family unit with the communal equation of an organization that pooled the economic recourses of its most highly committed members, and in return, offered them economic security, an extended collectivist ‘family,’ and the opportunity to participate in a politically meaningful social cause larger than themselves."

“Balancing that equation, the Temple demanded commitment, discipline, and individual submission to collective authority.”

Oh, of course, Professor Marx. Logically stated. A “cause larger than themselves.” Today they have to listen to that hooey in those totalitarian hell-holes called Cuba and North Korea. Which is precisely what Jim Jones was for the captives of the Peoples Temple—a modern-day Stalin, whose mandated foreign language lesson of the day in Jonestown was, yes, Russian.

But, once again—Stanley, Mrs. Nelson, and their little comrade, Noland—somehow “forgot” to inform their audience of this little bit of trivia. And a shameful bit more.

Cult apologist, revisionist history with a vengeance. This, a short-listed nomination for Best Documentary of the Year??

Somebody ought to call Hollywood 911.

Tune in to "JONESTOWN - Paradise Lost"

Tune in to the History Channel
tomorrow (Monday) night
Check your local listings for times
JONESTOWN - Paradise Lost
Framed by recently released, U.S. Government information and eye witness accounts, this special follows Congressman Leo Ryan's fatal journey into "Jonestown", a community carved out of the jungles of Guyana by the followers of messianic/charismatic pastor, Jim Jones. Using extensive and fact backed dramatic re-enactments, as well as archival footage, and heart-rending interviews, we go beyond "official reality" and deep into the inner workings of this tragic cult and its apocalyptic end.
Rating: TVPG V
Running Time: 120 minutes

Here are other viewing times:
Monday, January 15 09:00 PM
Tuesday, January 16 01:00 AM
Saturday, January 20 08:00 PM
Sunday, January 21 12:00 AM
Saturday, January 27 05:00 PM

The Devil's Blueprint

Devil's Blueprint for an Apologists Playground

Imagine peering into a special cult crystal ball that captured a scene from the final, terrible twilight hour of Jonestown on November 18, 1978—and suddenly witnessing this foreboding dialogue of things to come in the new millennium.

You first see the slowly undulating man, languishing like a mortally wounded king cobra. Jim “Dad” Jones, totalitarian ruler of People’s Temple, naturally destined as one of the last official departures from this nightmarish gulag he so proudly created. So he sits out his final minutes on his infamous wooden “throne,” in that horrendous death-filled pavilion, waiting for his final special medication. No painful cyanide for him, of course. Just like a previous dictator, in Germany, he’ll opt for a bullet through the head.

But just before he’s about to “step across,” the defeated cult leader gets a friendly tap-tap-tap on his slumped over shoulder. It’s a very familiar friend. Jones is ecstatic. His prayers have been answered.

“So, my son,” says Lucifer, “Before you join your brethren below, what exactly are your three wishes to bestow here on Earth? Remember not to make them in haste, like some of your political friends did. Stalin—don’t even get me started. I mean, the guy wanted a permanent iron curtain across Europe! Now look at the place. So, ‘Reverend’….just be sure your three wishes are practical ones…..”

“Not a problem, pop,” replies Jones, “Got the perfect blueprint. My first wish: Replenish and rally our Cult Apologists Armada. I know my massacring babies, children, etc, has left them in something of a full retreat…. True, I’ll be long gone by the time they hit full speed again. But time is on our side. We know full well that older memories fade and younger ones can be corrupted. I’m sure of one thing, or I never would have gotten this far: In the next millennium, it’ll be a revisionist paradise.”

“Cult apologists, hmmm…..” grins the Beast, flashing his great canines, “….always so accommodating. And such superlative aim with those devilishly pleasing ‘religious freedom’ smoke bombs covering for our pals. Well, Jimmy, it may very well take close to a generation but, yes, your wish is granted. We will, however, have to come up with a nice lovable euphemism for our cronies carrying on the cult torch.”

“Okay….let’s see,” Jones thinks, “….we could call it…..’NEW…..”
“…..RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS’!!...” the Devil finished for him. The title was insidious. Perfect. Who could possibly take issue with the great champions of “New Religious Movements”? That would be anti-First Amendment, Un-American, and Un-Godly, after all. It was the proverbial stroke of wicked genus.

“Now, your second wish, faithful student?” asks the Fallen Angel.

“Well, I’m not quite sure yet,” replied the Pastor, who is feeling increasingly feverish as he’s edging towards the brink. “But I do want to have some future personal spin doctors pop up and wallpaper over all this with tales of the “positive” and “egalitarian” and “beautiful” realities of the People’s Temple.”

“Your wish is my command, James,” smirked the horned one. “You don’t know the half of it, but the future shows not only personal computers in nearly everyone’s home, but where people can have what are called websites, promoting any and all subjects.”

“ANY subjects??” said Jones.

“That’s correct, my boy…..even somebody like you,” answered Satan. “And guess what---you’ll even have your very own People’s Temple website that’ll feature the brilliant Stalinist accomplishments of your ‘Apostolic Socialism.’”

“Magnificent!” said Jones. Now, with the sound of the bullet now being loaded into the gun chamber, the soon-to-be extinct tyrant had just enough time for his third wish. This website thing really got him going, but it would still never eclipse his excitement for show business, which could provide a whole new realm of immortality.

He couldn’t resist. “The third wish,” he said, “is to put me in an award-winning documentary!!”

His master looked at him for a moment, as the gun barrel now slowly pressed up against Jones’s tortured skull. All this horror, tragedy, and carnage—in a documentary??

“…..and only if my film has all these NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS ‘production values’, Father….” pleaded Jones, as the trigger slowly moved backwards.

“Agreed!” answered the Prince of Darkness, just as the sound of a single gunshot erupted, echoing throughout the new ghost town in the Guyana Jungle.



Editor’s Note: The above allegory is a warning, essentially on the dangers posed by cult apologists, e.g., assorted “scholars” and other supporters that include prominent film makers. Cult apologists are the well-financed (sometimes by terrorist cults, it seems) defenders of so-called “New Religious Movements” (NRM). There is an abundance of information detailing their activities on my website links, such as Steve Hassan’s Freedom of Mind Center and the Rick Ross Institute.

The point about the allegory’s three wishes Jim Jones made to the Devil is that…..they have all now frighteningly become reality today.

There is, in fact, a website exclusively devoted to People’s Temple and Jonestown, run by one of the lesser known of these apologists, Rebecca Moore, who like a lot of “NRM” sages, teaches religious studies in a university (surprise, surprise). Along with her husband, Fielding 'Mac' McGhee, they have a clever fusion of “bad news”/”good news” about the People’s Temple, but ultimately their goal is to “recondition” the public toward a more “optimistic” view of this monstrously destructive cult

Take a look and decide for yourself:
Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple

There is, for instance, this comment from Rebecca Moore’s “Katrina and Jonestown: A Commentary”:

“First, the situation of desperate poverty experienced by African Americans seems not just unchanged, but even worse in 2005 than in 1978. The message of hope, the overcoming of racial inequality, and the level of security which People’s Temple provided would be just as appealing today as it was back then.”

“Level of security”? This just has to beg that familiar question of “What Were You Thinking When You Wrote This?” Level of security?? Let’s see what child advocate and journalist Kenneth Wooden revealed about how this applied to the young cult captives, in his landmark book, “Children of Jonestown”:

“Physical abuse of the young was part of the routine at People’s Temple. As Jones began to exercise control, children were beaten if they failed to call him Father or were otherwise disrespectful or if they talked with peers who were not members of People’s Temple. Belts were used at first, then were replaced by elm switches, which in turn were replaced by the “board of education,” a long, hard piece of wood, swung by 250-pound Ruby Carroll.”

Message of hope? Wooden goes on to describe how this message was conveyed:

“Mild discipline gave way to making young girls….take cold showers or jump into the cold swimming pool at the Redwood Valley Church. Unequal boxing matches gave way to beatings with paddles, then electric shock, and finally something [Jones] called ‘blue-eyed’ monster, which hurt and terrorized the younger ones in a darkened room…..These abuses occurred while the People’s Temple was in California and regularly winning praise from newspapers and politicians.”

The last sentence should outrage every citizen in California, and everywhere else for that matter. Those elites still swaggering around should be confronted for aiding and abetting such crimes. Of course, that would likely not phase J. Gordon Melton, founder of the Santa Barbara-based Institute for the Study of American Religion, one single bit.

“This wasn’t a cult,” said Melton, commenting on the People’s Temple, “This was a respectable, mainline Christian group.”

Mind you, Melton claimed this in early 1988, nearly 10 years after the Jonestown Massacre. It’s no surprise he’s known as the “father of cult apologists.” And, yet, he sponsors religious conferences and defended the terrorist Aum Shinrikyo cult—receiving travel expenses from them in exchange-- in Japan (which launched a poison gas attack on a Tokyo subway in 1995).

But Melton is insignificant compared to the Devil’s third kept promise to Jim Jones in the allegory. Throughout the nation’s theatres, and now on the“short list” for a possible ”Best Documentary” Academy Award nomination, is Stanley Nelson’s “Jonestown: Life and Death of the People’s Temple”.



The award-winning Nelson is an amazingly talented film maker, although he really ought to give just a little more spotlight to his wife, Marcia Smith, also an award-winner, as she wrote the “story” for the film.



After seeing this astounding collage of unabashed cult apologist tripe, it’s fitting indeed that quotation marks hang over Mrs. Nelson’s “story”-telling. She admitted in an interview with the Writer’s Guild of America the following:

“I view my work as advocacy…..yes, they’re [documentaries] supposed to be based on fact, but you always have to make a choice about what part of the facts you’re going to put in a film.”

Yes, ma’am. And with such a skilled director as your husband, whom I’m certain has the same passionate view on “advocacy” and “fact deletion” as you, it’s no wonder we’ve come up with this breath-taking movie that surely has Jim Jones dancing in his grave, giving thanks to the unholy one—in our allegory.

Writer Bettina Drew of “The Nation” (presumably a sympathetic “advocacy” publication) provides one of the most ghastly of all accounts of life for the mind-controlled, now physically imprisoned cult members in the Guyana gulag, in her article “Indiana Jones’ Temple of Doom”:

“Like a plantation, Jonestown was closed, semi-self-sufficient agricultural world, with a sawmill, a school and a medical unit. Transplanted from their homes, their family relationships sundered, most of the able-bodied were made to work in the fields from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., six days a week, and on Sundays, from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., while living in crowded, tin-roofed wooden barracks containing bunk beds for scores of people.

“They toiled in gangs observed by armed guards said to be for their own protections, and were physically abused if they slacked in their work or were defiant. Offenders were assigned to a socially segregated “Learning Crew”, which had to work double-time, heavily guarded, in the fields. There were also isolation units and an “Extended Care Unit”, where Thorazine, found in quantity, was said by a nurse and others to keep the truly backward sedated; for recalcitrant children, there were horrifying well-dunkings. The all-night harangues and Jones’s incessant voice over the loudspeaker were a psychological constant for a population that grew thin and susceptible to diarrhea on an inadequate rice-based diet.

“And Jones kept his followers in ignorance by selectively editing and delivering himself any news form the outside world. Though Jonestown wasn’t racially based, he re-created New World plantation slavery in Guyana. For, like slaves, Jones’s people were there to serve his vision, yet they were central to his identity.”

Isolation units? Slave labor and starvation diets? Totalitarian oppression?? Oh no, well that surely wasn’t compatible in Stanley and Mrs. Nelson’s Little Storyboard World. No doubt they torpedoed one freighter load of facts after another in their quest to get full sail with the rest of the Cult Apologist Armada.

But don’t fret--we’ll delve into all the things that Stan and the Mrs. censored, such as Jim Jones’s ex-enforcer Tim Stoen, who almost caused the mass murder to happen a year early. What’s more, how the Academy could possibly consider a Documentary Oscar for someone with the following mentality about one of the worst human rights atrocities in modern American history:

“I see them in Jonestown,” related Nelson, in an interview with Greencine Magazine, “and part of me sees a huge party, you know what I mean? When I see clips that NBC took of that last night, when they got that band playing…..and they’re in the middle of the jungle, and—you think about that—that band can play as late as you want them to play. They can party as hard as they want. All the people are there, everybody that you know and love, you can go put the kids to bed, and they’re safe in their beds, and you can come back and party all night long. Hey. Looked fun to me.”


Ah-huh. A whole lot of fun in Jonestown. Hopefully, Stanley and Mrs. Nelson will make public the exact reasons why they have so unconscionably exploited the American public with this screen derivative of Rebecca Moore’s appallingly twisted “Sympathetic History of People’s Temple”.

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