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Honey, forget about the lasagna, let's celebrate! 50 years on and up, great deal, my thoughts were basically uncharable. We are all evil, some form, yes, I am, not 100% what I am. My mother was up, sick, angry, hungry, and very sad moment, I hated her, but I wanted to love my mother.
This is serial killing, a podcast. Hello and welcome to Serial Killing, a podcast, where we also veer off the serial killer path to delve into other topics within our beloved true crime community. Also a quick note, a Spotify slash anchor has added a kind of question and answer section in the podcast, so if you want to go into certain podcasts that I've selected to answer questions I've left or feedback, you are free to do so, you can do that on Spotify. Now listen guys, I get it, this story has been done time and time again.
Most of us could probably actually recite this story in our sleep. I have gotten so many requests for Jim Jones and the Jonestown Massacre for the past two years, really since I've been podcasting that I decided now is the time. And I really was hesitant to do this one because we've heard the story so many times, but it's important to remember that we veterans of the true crime community have a whole generation or two behind us that are just beginning to kind of land on these stories, find them, and they're very curious and they want to know. And not only that, but I do think it's important to remember these stories so that we don't repeat history.
Because quite frankly, history is important, good, bad, and ugly, it happened, we shouldn't forget it. So this podcast again is going to be about Jim Jones and the Jonestown Massacre. For those that know about it, just sit back and relax and enjoy the story. But for the ones that don't know, buckle in, it gets a little crazy.
This is a two-part series and this is part one. So James Warren Jones was born on May 13, 1931 in Crete, Indiana. So let's get into some history for that time. This year is the year we began to notice a rather devastating drought occurring in the Great Plains of the United States.
At this point, no one knew just how bad it was actually going to get. The Empire State Building was completed this year and it became, at that time, the tallest building in the world with 102 floors decorated in the contemporary art deco style. The Star-Spangled Banner was officially adopted as the National Anthem of the United States, and the lyrics were from a poem written by Francis Scott Key in 1814 during the War of 1812. The first round of the world flight occurred this year with pilot Wiley Post and Navigator Harold Getty.
They took off from New York in their plane, they called the Winnie Mae, and of course, they had to make many stops for fuel and so on. It took them just over eight days. The George Washington Bridge opened this year which connected New York to New Jersey. In New Zealand, an 8.3 magnitude earthquake hit Hawks Bay, 256 people lost their lives.
Then, 10 days later, a 7.3 magnitude aftershock further inflicted heavy damage to this area. In fact, there were actually more than 500 aftershocks from that earthquake that lasted from 1931 to 1934. Also this year, King Alfonso XIII of Spain was forced to live in exile in Rome, Italy after Spain became a republic. Thought at the time to be the deadliest natural disaster of historic times, the Yellow River flooded and killed somewhere between 900,000 and 2 million people in China.
Great Britain abandoned the gold standard and they also began experiencing their own Great Depression, and Australia gained its independence from Great Britain this year as well. And a big one for me, guys, the classic horror movie Dracula starring Bella Lugosi premiered this year at the Roxy Theater in New York City. It was the first film to legally adapt Bram Stoker's Gothic vampire novel. Nosferatu had in 1922, but without the rights to the story.
It is now preserved by the Library of Congress. Some other notable people born in 1931 were Boris Yeltsin, James Dean, William Shatner, Angie Dickinson, Robert Duvall, and Leonard Nimoy. So this was the atmosphere that Jim Jones was born into. His parents were James, Thurmond Jones, and Lynetta Putnam.
So James, Jim's father, was born in 1887 in Indiana as well. His parents were John and Mary, and he was one of 12 children. He had come from a few generations of Indiana people, but an ancestor had made their way there from the Virginians. His family had been Quakers and Baptists, landowners, and quite stable.
But James didn't quite have that intense drive and work ethic that his family did, content to do the bare minimum to get by. So he enlisted in the US Navy in 1916 and had fought in World War I. He had actually been exposed to mustard gas that left him with permanent, long damage. He was forced to live on disability checks.
So Lynetta Putnam was born in 1902, also in Indiana. Her parents were Jesse and Mary. Now she said that her family had been fairly well off in the beginning, but apparently they fell on hard times. And of course, living through tough times takes a toll on anyone, but with Lynetta she made a clear decision that she would marry a rich man, so that she would never have to worry about money again.
Now it seemed at least to me during my research that Lynetta was actually a really highly intelligent woman. She didn't seem to care about what society thought about her or how she behaved. Unlike James and his family, she took issue with the idea of a quote, Sky God, and instead believed in reincarnation, destiny, and for those times, best believed that the locals thought her most scandalous. Her level of self-importance was astounding.
She first married a man by the name of Cecil Graham Dickinson in 1920 in Craighead, Arkansas, though I couldn't find why she was down in Arkansas. The marriage lasted about two years. Lynetta then married a man named Elmer Stevens in 1923 in Poinsett, Arkansas. That marriage lasted a whole three months.
Then finally, though I couldn't find how they met, she and James married in 1926 in Indiana. James was 39 years old. Lynetta was just 24. To say this marriage was a match made in hell would be a fair assumption.
Lynetta ruled their marriage with an iron fist. She was described as domineering, who often belittled her husband for not being able to make more money, even though, again, he had serious lung and health issues. And again, there was a 15-year difference in their age. Now, James had not ever actually been married up to this point.
He seemed to be content to just be the eternal bachelor. Now, James' father had given the couple some money to put down on a farm so that they could, you know, begin their lives together and settle in, except neither really had any interest in farming, so, predictably, it didn't take long for the farm to get taken back. In 1934, the couple had to move to Lynne, Indiana, and Lynetta discovered that she was pregnant. They apparently lived in a very run-down house with no indoor plumbing.
James' family that lived in that area actually agreed to help the couple financially because they were well aware of James' very real medical issues, and Lynetta's well, Lynetta's love for herself and her belief that she was just not meant for manual labor. The condition was that, once the baby got old enough to be in full-time school, Lynetta would have to go get a job and work. Now, Lynetta, once she gave birth to baby Jim, made sure to let everyone know within earshot that she felt her child was going to grow up to be some very important person. She believed this wholeheartedly, completely.
And Jim was a beautiful baby indeed, everyone who saw him as he grew into a toddler remarked on what a strikingly handsome child he was. Now, from Lynetta's own writings, which I will post a link to in the notes, she had this to say about Jim's father. Quote, When Pastor Jim was very young and wise beyond his years, he developed a great vexation with his father who was a semi-enveloped deeply enabored of the local pool hall and the habitues there whom he regularly trounced in endless games of chance. Unquote, she is of course saying that James spent a great deal of his time down at the pool hall playing cards and drinking coke and coffee.
And she wasn't wrong, I mean, James paid very little attention to their son. But then again, Lynetta was also busy doing her own thing as well, and especially once Jim started school. She started working in a glass factory and simply wasn't around much. Jim was left to entertain himself a great deal of the time.
And it also did not go unnoticed that James and Lynetta didn't attend church on Sundays as was the common practice of that area and especially of that time. This added to the scandalous nature with which the couple were already judged by. The Jones' family were kind of the social outcasts because of this and Lynetta's usual behavior, but James again had a lot of family around that lived nearby and little Jim had cousins to play with. Jim later said quote, I was considered the trash of the neighborhood unquote.
He also later said this about his parents quote, I didn't have any love given to me, I didn't know what the hell love was unquote. Jim himself later said that he had suffered unmerciful beatings by his father because Jim would play with children of color. So again, once Jim was old enough to start school, Lynetta began working. There was a very strict rule which I find kind of strange that when Jim got home from school, he was not allowed to go into his own home until she returned home.
Under no exceptions was he to step foot into the house until she returned. I wasn't able to find out exactly why she made this rule, but nonetheless, if he didn't listen, he was severely punished. Thankfully, it seemed to be just kind of understood that the other moms would keep an eye on him as he wandered about, feeding stray animals who would then follow him around. Some felt so bad for him that they would invite him in to visit and have a bite of something to eat and it was well documented that even at this tender age, he had a natural way with speaking that captivated his audience.
One such woman that Jim actually connected with was Myrtle Kennedy. She and her husband were deeply religious and she began to spend more time with Jim. She and her husband were deeply religious and as she began to spend more time with Jim, she and her husband decided to start taking Jim to church with them, of course, with Lynette's permission. They were Nazarene's.
Now, the Church of the Nazarene is a Protestant church that believes that the Christian God's Holy Spirit empowers them to be constantly, perpetually obedient to him. It was described as being somewhat similar to churches in the Imbangelical Holiness movement, only they do not speak in tongues. And this would begin Jim's deep interest in Bible stories and religion as a whole. It became immediately obvious that he was extremely intelligent and was able to memorize Bible verses after only hearing them a couple of times and he would be able to recite them, much to the delight of the locals as you can imagine.
It was also stated that Jim even spent an entire summer with Myrtle and her husband and his parents didn't care. Remember, they were both rather wrapped up in their own lives and couldn't be much bothered by having a child. And of course, young Jim bonded with Myrtle in a way he never could with his own mother or father and it was reported that he actually kept in contact with Myrtle for the rest of her life. But going to church made him curious about the other churches in town so he began visiting several churches, sometimes more than one on the same Sunday during services which of course raised an eyebrow or two.
You know, it is rather common to pick a church and just go to that one but he was learning about the Christian God and the locals felt that it was an important thing so they just let it go. What seemed to stick with Jim the most was the power the preacher or pastor would have over their congregation. He quickly noticed how these men were revered, how they were treated nearly like rock stars to and of course Jim loved attention only he began to display some rather odd behavior. It was noted that he started picking up dead animals that he would find and would then gather the local children and hold funerals for these animals.
It was even rumored that he killed a cat or two to be able to have these funerals. He captivated his young audience immediately though his sermons would indeed go for some time and eventually the children would have to leave. It was also reported that he snuck into local funeral homes as witnessed by several people with other kids and they would lay in the caskets and pretend to be dead but once the children got bored with this and quit going with Jim he apparently continued to go by himself so that he could still pretend to be dead. Another story states that Jim would go into various stores and steal candy bars or what have you and his mother was very aware of it only she didn't discipline him she just went in once a week and paid the bill so really there didn't seem to be any repercussions whatsoever and as Jim was coming into his older childhood years and into puberty World War II broke out as with most people who became quite patriotic during this time it is said that Jim became obsessed with reading and especially loved reading anything inspired or written by Adolf Hitler which reportedly influenced his personality and intellect significantly.
He also liked to study Joseph Stalin, Karl Marx, Muhammad Gandhi and others. This made him very interested in communism and socialism. His interest in religion also became ever more intense. I also found that his father apparently had a relationship with the Ku Klux Klan which we all know as a racist organization and it affected Jim and his father's relationship heavily.
Unfortunately if Jim had any friends of color his father would not allow them within the house so as things became more and more intense Linetta who had actually been having a long time affair with another man decided to leave James to divorce him take Jim and move to Richmond, Indiana and this is where he would go to high school. Not very long after this James died and sources say Linetta and Jim did not even bother to attend the funeral though she did happily receive his disability checks. Now his very unique personality had been tolerated in his hometown but Richmond was noticeably larger. While the other kids at school dressed casually Jim dressed in his best clothes every single day and he carried his Bible with him daily as well.
He was bullied a bit for his over-the-top dress and fervent religious beliefs but he really didn't actually seem to care. He also apparently developed a crush on a girl who was not interested not to mention she already had a boyfriend so Jim basically began stalking her and even invited himself over to her house one day and as she got home she found him in her living room just chatting her parents up and it is said that her parents actually kind of tried to push her to date him they loved him but she said no. Jim also began going to the more poor and ethnically diverse areas of Richmond and preaching to them about how everyone is equal and how things were very unfair and so on and at first they looked at him as kind of an annoyance but it didn't take long for them to come to respect him and he watched very carefully what he said and how those words affected his audience learning to manipulate the crowd and he was very successful at that. So his mother made him get a job to help out with money and he worked as an overnight orderly at a local hospital.
It was at this point that it became obvious that Jim could survive on very little sleep as he would be in school all day and then he would work all night and yet he was also quite revered in his ability to calm and entertain patients that most others really didn't want to deal with and that's a good thing. Then in 1948 he graduated from Richmond High School apparently early and with owners and that's basically his childhood so let's dive in. According to the article, Nurture Failure, a psychobiographical approach to the childhood of Jim Jones by James L. Kelly quote, a child undergoes nurture failure when parents and or other adult caregivers are unable or unwilling to provide the guidance and structure necessary for the child's assimilation into the wider community.
According to my theory, the neglected child seeks to mask the unspeakable pain of abandonment by reversing the nurture role scenario. The child in turning away from the shortcomings of those who are supposed to nurture him appoints himself as nurturer often reinterpreting and elaborating the abortive strategies and styles of nurturing observed in the adults closest to him unquote. I mean his mother repeatedly told him that he had this special destiny. She told him that he was to become an exalted godlike being and yet she took no special interest in spending quality time with him and raising him often leaving that to the community.
But if anyone criticized him she would loudly voice her disdain. So he began to realize that any deviation from his will was quote oppression. She didn't still within her son a love of the underdog nature and animals which again that's great. But then she also be little his father in front of him all of his young life demeaning another parent in front of a child is not good.
And then of course we have to talk about the lack of discipline. Children who are not disciplined or held accountable for bad behavior are often unhappy angry and even resentful because they don't understand or can't understand boundaries. This in turn makes it more difficult for them to make friends. When your child is not able to consider his or her actions and how they might affect others this is known as anti-social behavior.
Children learn how to cope with emotional, mental and physical trauma by seeing how their parents deal with their own hardships. Kids who are disciplined with negative techniques show higher levels of anger later. As a child himself he preached to children and convinced them that he knew every sin that they had committed and the shows that he was naturally skilled at manipulation. This manipulation could potentially stem from an attachment disorder though I've said numerous times that I'm not actually an expert.
So but but let's explore that right so attachment is a deep connection that is established between the child and their primary caregiver or caregivers and this attachment profoundly affects the child's development and ability to express emotions and build meaningful relationships later in their lives. Attachment disorders occur when a child has been unable to consistently connect with a parent or caregiver. If a young child repeatedly feels abandoned, isolated, powerless or uncared for and so on they will learn that they cannot depend on others and that the world is basically chaos. Of course we see this very belief come full circle later in this story.
We also have a pretty good idea of what personality disorder that Jim suffered with but we'll get to that. So let's get back into the story. Now while working at this hospital he met a nurse named Marceline Baldwin. She was born in 1927 and was four years older than Jim.
She came from a very conservative and religious family and it was very obvious to me from the get-go that she felt strongly about charity and helping people. Everyone that talked about Marceline in her young years talked about how vital it was to her that she was kind and good and charitable to people. I mean she was really just a very kind and good soul and she was very impressed with how respectful Jim was with the patients that most didn't want to deal with and other tasks that were bestowed upon him. And once they begin talking and getting to know each other, Jim started laying it on pretty thick.
He loved telling her stories, nearly all of them untrue. Of course about things he had done in his life and it worked. She was really impressed. But Jim did talk at length about his desire to see a world with no racism, of complete equality and Marceline believed that as well.
But her parents were not impressed with him at all at first. Her father could tell immediately that Jim believed in communism. He was entirely too outspoken and a little full of himself. That was obvious but he was a man of God or said that he was a man of God and had an excellent work ethic so eventually they relented.
And then Marceline and Jim were married the next year in 1949. And then the couple moved to Bloomington, Indiana and Jim began taking classes at Indiana University Bloomington studying law. It was at this point that Jim's attitude and behavior changed, at least in Marceline's eyes. He acted cold at times and he absolutely had to have his way always.
And then apparently Jim dropped a bombshell and confessed that he didn't actually believe in God or the sky God that he was actually atheist. She of course was completely shocked. Her faith in her Christianity was so strong and this rocked her completely to her foundation. Sources say that she even contemplated divorce but that just wasn't a let's say a viable option during those times so she decided to stick it out.
So in 1951, a now 20 year old Jim moved himself and his wife to Indianapolis where he started going to communist party gatherings. A few years later were the McCarthy hearings which were a series of hearings held by the United States Senate Subcommittee on Investigations. The investigative accusations made by McCarthy stating that he had a list of 205 State Department employees who were members of the Communist Party. And of course it was a media frenzy.
Well you know Jim paid attention to these hearings and he was very upset at the negative press that communism or the idea of communism was getting. He actually took his mother with him to an event and after Lynette was apparently harassed by the FBI while she was at work or at least that's the story. Jim Jones decided it was time to take action and thought quote how can I demonstrate my Marxism? The thought was infiltrate the church.
Unquote. The very next year with the help of a Methodist district superintendent, Jim became a student pastor at the Somerset Southside Methodist Church. Once in, he immediately began to try to create an atmosphere of social integration which of course is a great thing but the leaders would not allow it. Actually the New York Times reported that quote declaring that he was outraged at what he perceived as racial discrimination in his white congregation.
Mr. Jones established his own church and pointedly opened it to all ethnic groups to raise money. He imported monkeys and sold them door to door as pets. Unquote.
So he left and after witnessing a healing service at the seventh day Baptist Church he decided that this was the way to go. This type of religious demonstration seemed to bring in quite a lot of people as well as quite a lot of money and he felt that this would aid him with his socialist goals. Jim took time, great effort, kind of his passion really to research his intended audience and would also attend services in churches that were primarily black because he wanted to see what worked and what didn't and he really liked the passion of those churches. He liked that there was no timeline.
So he then put together a very large religious convention in the summer of 1956 and brought in a rather famous religious healer to bring in the people and it was wildly successful. After this, Jim Jones officially formed his own church. He was well aware of the scam that faith healing was but he saw just how popular it was, what an incredible moneymaker it was and he was all in. He had paid close attention to the people at the revivals he had gone to and remembered what they had been talking about in the crowd and then when they came to his church he would single them out and recall what they had stated and guys people actually thought that he was a mind reader even Marceline believed that for a while.
You cannot imagine how quickly his church began to grow. His first church was called Wings of Deliverance. Then it was renamed Community Unity Church. By 1954, Jim had successfully started a racially integrated church.
In 1956, the church was officially named the People's Temple and really guys this is as good a place as I need to go ahead and stop. Part two is coming soon folks and remember I appreciate every single one of you because I know you could be listening to anyone else but you chose me and I truly appreciate that. Thank you so much and have a great day.