Until the September 11 attacks, the Jonestown Massacre was the single greatest deliberate loss of American civilian life in history.
Peoples Temple cult leader Jim Jones convinced his followers that the government was coming to kill them and take their children — and that swallowing a fatal dose of cyanide was the only answer. So, on November 18, 1978, 918 people died at the cult’s Jonestown settlement in Guyana after drinking a poison-laced fruit drink.
This creepy picture shows Jones (center) and a number of his followers pleasantly enjoying life at Jonestown not long before the massacre
