If I mistreat you girl, I sure don't mean no harm
This day in history: November 18, 1978 - Jonestown.
The tragedies of this day, from the assassination of California Congressman Leo Ryan (the only Congressman in US history to be murdered in the line of duty) and the CBS journalists at the Port Kaituma airstrip, to the suicides of more than 900 men, women and children by a concoction of Flavor Aid, chloral hydrate, valium, and cyanide, are too large for a simple Livejournal entry to do them justice. So I instead offer a smaller, more intimate moment of horror from that day:
Cult leader Jim Jones had also established a Peoples Temple office in Georgetown, Guyana, 150 miles from the Jonestown site. Sharon Amos, the senior official, was with her children - Liane (21), Christa (11), and Martin (10) - on November 18 when they received a radio message from Jonestown to kill themselves. Amos shepherded her children into the bathroom, then used a kitchen knife to murder Christa and Martin. Afterward, Liane helped her mother commit suicide with the knife, then used it to end her own life.
Sources: BBC, Wiki
The tragedies of this day, from the assassination of California Congressman Leo Ryan (the only Congressman in US history to be murdered in the line of duty) and the CBS journalists at the Port Kaituma airstrip, to the suicides of more than 900 men, women and children by a concoction of Flavor Aid, chloral hydrate, valium, and cyanide, are too large for a simple Livejournal entry to do them justice. So I instead offer a smaller, more intimate moment of horror from that day:
Cult leader Jim Jones had also established a Peoples Temple office in Georgetown, Guyana, 150 miles from the Jonestown site. Sharon Amos, the senior official, was with her children - Liane (21), Christa (11), and Martin (10) - on November 18 when they received a radio message from Jonestown to kill themselves. Amos shepherded her children into the bathroom, then used a kitchen knife to murder Christa and Martin. Afterward, Liane helped her mother commit suicide with the knife, then used it to end her own life.
Sources: BBC, Wiki