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Jonestown death tape: audio from the last hours of a mass suicide

Lurking in the bowels of the Internet Archive is the Jonestown Death Tape, a recording made by Jim Jones of the final hours of his cult, as he fed them poison and watched them all die, men, women and children. I wasn’t able to listen to this — just reading about the children screaming and Jones berating parents who balked at killing them was enough to give me a serious bout of willies. Still, this is one of those historical documents that I’m glad is out there — atrocities like Jonestown don’t happen every day (thankfully), and getting some insight into those who commit them is a worthwhile endeavor (for someone with a stronger stomach than mine).

An audio recording made on November 18, 1978, at the Peoples Temple compound in Jonestown, Guyana immediately preceding and during the mass suicide or murder of over 900 members of the cult.

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