American Cult leader and Communist Jim Jones. Born in 1931, Jim Jones would begin his road to infamy began after his 18th birthday where he began to attend underground meetings of the recently banned and declared terrorist group, the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA). Jones began to be heavily infatuated with Marxism and Soviet ideology and was frustrated at the lack of means to openly spread and convert America to Communism under what he viewed as the tyrannical Patton regime. Jones would begin to believe that the best way to spread Communism would be through the Church, the one institution of America that no politician would dare to touch. After intense research, Jones founded the People's Temple in 1956. The People's Temple to the public appeared to be one of the thousands of Evangelist denominations with noted infamy due to its high activism towards social welfare for the impoverished and racial minorities, with Jones actively waging a crusade against segregation during the height of the American Troubles. In secret, the people's Temple operated as a money-laundering scheme for the CPUSA while also acting as a cult to induct its members into Marxism.
After heavy harassment from the white Indiana community, the People's Temple moved to San Francisco California in 1963. In San Francisco, the People's Temple would flourish from a minor sect to a popular local Church with the Temple gaining thousands of converts throughout the 1960's and becoming a force within San Francisco culture and politics. Jim Jones would during his stay in the bay city become an icon among the Californian African-American community who saw him as a white ally on the level of George Patton and many praising him even further as a man of faith who wanted total equality instead of settling for separate but truly equal. Jones was a frequent collaborator with African-American reverends in religious events and People's Temple charities would make Jones a beloved celebrity with the man winning multiple awards and national attention, at one point being praised by President Richard Nixon in 1968 as "The Truest Californian Christian you will ever see."
In secret, Jones was using his fame to transition the People's Temple into a cult revolving around the worship of him as the third messiah of Marxism (after Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin), with the induction of hundreds of Temple members into the CPUSA and raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for the terrorist organization, with logs into Jones' diary revealing grand plans to use the cult as a base of power from which to become the head of the CPUSA and lay the foundations for a Communist revolution in America. The beginning of Jones' downfall would begin in 1972 when a female member of the Cult attempted to report Jones to the SFPD for rape, though such a case was unable to be taken into court due to lack of evidence and the strong testimony of the Temple of Jones' character. At the urging of the Chief of Police, however, an undercover operation was launched against Jones to see if there was any truth to such claims, with the undercover officers soon uncovering the Marxist nature of the People's Temple and its connection to the CPUSA. The investigation was then joined by the FBI who worked to uncover the nature of the Temple's relationship with the CPUSA and its potential for terrorism against the United States.
The investigation would escalate when in late 1974, Jim Jones announced himself as a candidate for Mayor of San Francisco as a Democrat, with Jones choosing the party due to his high influence over the local chapter and the Democrat's pro-labor and pro-Black platform fitting with Jones' public ideology. Not wanting a Communist to take control of one of America's largest cities due to Jones' dominance in the local polls, the investigation was accelerated to find the smoking gun for Jones. With the FBI collecting enough evidence to not only indict Jones but also pursue after greater membership of the CPUSA, a raid was launched on May 23rd, 1975. The conduct of the raid by both the FBI and SFPD revealed the full extent of the Temple's nature to the public with the operation turning from a simple mass arrest into a tense battle with People's Temple security fighting back against law enforcement with assault rifles, machine guns, grenades, and improvised explosives. The battle would last until late night with 12 deaths from law enforcement, 91 deaths from the People's Temple, and over 300 arrests. Unfortunately for the FBI, Jim Jones was nowhere to be found.
For the next two months one of the nation's largest manhunts in history would be launched with most West Coast law enforcement agencies alongside the FBI and CIA pursuing Jones at every whisper and opportunity. After failing to arrest Jones on a number of occasions with close slips, the FBI would capture Jones attempting to cross the border into Mexico on July 15th with Jones captured while he was attempting to commit suicide with a cyanide pill. Jones' trial was one of the most infamous post-Wallace trials in the century with millions tuning into the courtroom drama as Jones attempted to use the case as a pulpit for Communism while also attempting to escape custody on a number of occasions. Jones was found guilty of treason to the United States, terrorist conspiracy, rape, money laundering, and murder among dozens of other charges with Jones sentenced to death. Jones would receive death by lethal injection on November 18th, 1984, concluding the final chapter to one of the most infamous plots in American history.
For decades Jim Jones would serve as a dangerous warning on the power of both cults and Communism, with the People's Temple vilified among the likes of the Ku Klux Klan and Jones himself earning a seat in the hall of American infamy with such detested citizens such as Henry Wallace and Charles Manson. Jones's profile would re-enter American consciousness after fading away thanks to the 2019 period film
Jonestown by acclaimed director Martin Scorcese.
Jonestown portrayed the influence of the People's Temple on San Francisco and the gradual downfall of Jones leading to the Temple Raid. The film earned $356 million dollars worldwide, earning several awards while introducing the despicable case of Jim Jones to a new generation of Americans and the greater world.