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Quote by Julia Scheeres

“I remember one of my writer friends asking me, "Jonestown? Everyone knows the ending. What's new or surprising that you can say about it?" I told him that although people may know that almost one thousand people died in the massacre, they don't know what happens to my five people. Some escaped, some did not.”

Author

Julia Scheeres

Julia Scheeres (b. 1967) is an American journalist and author known for her investigative reporting and memoir writing. Her 2005 memoir "Jesus Land," which chronicles her childhood experiences at a reform school in the Dominican Republic, received widespread critical acclaim. Scheeres has contributed to major publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post, focusing on marginalized communities and social justice issues. Her work is recognized for its literary quality and powerful social commentary. more

“In California, Jim Jones even staged a shooting of himself. The lesson of this was two-fold. One, that he was a god - he could heal himself. He had these magic powers. A large segment of his congregation came from a Pentecostal tradition that believed in faith healing and already believed Jones had the power to cure others. And two, the "shooting" made him seem important. Civil rights leaders were being gunned down - MLK, Jr., Medgar Evers, Malcolm X - and he longed to be considered as heroic and important as they were.”

Important Healing Leader Magic Tradition Heal Civil Rights Heroic Pentecostal

Author:Julia Scheeres

“Jim Jones wanted his people to believe the establishment was trying to kill him because whites were threatened by his message of racial equality. He used the incident to close ranks and turn anyone who disagreed with him into a menace. He warned his congregation that a would be assassin might try to infiltrate their church, so they had to prove their loyalty to him by never questioning his orders. Dissenters became traitors.”

People Trying Believe Church Prove Loyalty Questioning Traitor

Author:Julia Scheeres

“I was pregnant with my youngest child at the time, writing about mass death while I'm growing this precious little life inside me. Here I am, worried about everything I eat and drink and whether I walk past a smoker, and meanwhile I'm writing about an event where almost three hundred children were slaughtered. Most were never identified and are buried in a mass grave in Oakland. It was surreal. But it felt good to give Jim Jones's victims a voice, especially ordinary church members.”

Giving Writing Children Past Church Drink Victim Worried Pregnant Surreal

Author:Julia Scheeres

“The beauty of history is that historians have the ability to find patterns, the big picture. When you make a movie, you try to find that. I'm doing in the cinema what historians try to do in their own media.”

Trying Ability Historian Big Picture

Author:Oliver Stone