Alternative History (Conspiracy) Theory Index

(This index was compiled by Henri Helander. The editors gratefully acknowledge his invaluable assistance.)

Part I: Website Presentation of Theories

Judge, John. “The Black Hole of Guyana.” In Secret and Suppressed: Banned Ideas and Hidden History. Ed. Jim Keith. Portland, Ore.: Feral House, 1993, pp. 127-65. Also at http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/JohnJudge/Jonestown.html.

Peoples Temple/Jonestown as part of MK ULTRA mind control experiment, Jones as a CIA operative.

Articles and Research by Laurie Efrein Kahalas (1998-2022)

IN PLAIN SIGHT: Proof that it was NOT Peoples Temple that killed the congressman

CIA killed congressman Leo Ryan and the others on the airstrip and wanted the massacre to happen in Jonestown. That for them was the ”optimal” outcome. CIA also framed the ”dead cultists” for the murder of Ryan. All in the name of Cold War.

I Rest This Case: In Defense of ”In Plain Sight”

Peoples Temple Was Not a Cult of Assassins

Temple members didn’t assassinate Congressman Leo Ryan. The actual assassins were highly-trained, brutal, professional military hit-team assembled by CIA. Al and Jeannie Mills were government agents which ultimately led to their demise.

A Different Course

Diana and Elmer Mertle (a.k.a. Jeannie & Al Mills) were FBI plants in the Temple with ties to Treasury Department, Interpol, Customs and ATF. Government agents were afraid of exposure and killed them in a preemptive hit. Tim Stoen was a CIA plant constantly provoking terrorism in church’s ranks. They are complicit in the Jonestown massacre. As are others who falsely labeled Jonestown as an armed camp, made up other fallacious claims and signed groundless affidavits.

Notorious Incident in L.A. a/k/a ”Kill The Messenger” Setting the Record Straight (Including the Psychiatric Pathology of Jim Jones)

Jones was raped by his father when he was still a child. This incident was the cause for his erratic and disturbing behavior. She (Laurie) channelled a text called ”Allegory” from an otherworldly being (a ghost) that predicted the mass death in Jonestown, and for that she was sadistically and brutally humiliated in a Temple meeting. The CIA’s ”black ops” killed the anti-CIA congressman instead of Peoples Temple and the on-site NBC footage is the proof of that. Later CIA framed the ”cult crazies” (who were headed for Russia and had to be stopped) and FBI covered it up. Children of the massacre were ”collateral damage.” Two months prior suicides government agent Joseph Mazor came into Jonestown and threatened the community with ”mass extermination.”

Jonestown: The Human Story

It’s the Driver’s Inset, Stupid! (2022)

Laurie Efrein Kahalas’ Jonestown.com site is archived here.

Jim Jones, MK-ULTRA Poster Child, by Kathy (Tropp) Barbour (2017)

Jones was working with CIA and the fate of the people of Jonestown was pretermined. CIA wanted to cause revulsion against predominantly leftist practices such as integration and communitarianism.

Hougan, Jim. “Jonestown: The Secret Life of Jim Jones: A Parapolitical Fugue.” Lobster 37 (Summer 1999): 2-20. Also online here.

Jones was a CIA agent. In various precincts of U.S. intelligence community it was feared that Ryan’s investigation would embarrass CIA by linking Jones to the agency’s most volatile programs and operations.

Dispensing with the ”Conspiracy Label”, by Bryan Sacks (2009)

Suggests that US intelligence infiltrated Peoples Temple and at least hid the evidence in Jonestown.

Jim Jones: Mystery Man, Mystery Trip, by Will Savive (2008)

Suggests that Jim Jones was working for CIA and the end of the movement in Jonestown was a result of this over 15 years affiliation.

Jonestown and The Social Psychology of Accepted Truth, by David Godot (2005)

“There is a substantial body of evidence connecting Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple to the covert operations of the United States government intelligence community” including the involvement of “the self-proclaimed ‘anti-cult activist’ psychiatrist Dr. Sukhdeo, whose own attorney has stated that his trip to Guyana was funded by the U.S. State Department.”

Was the CIA Behind the Jonestown Massacre?, by Jeremy Kuzmarov, CovertAction Magazine (2022)

Articles by Tom Whittle (1997, 2018-2020)

Unanswered Questions About Jonestown

Most of the Jonestown victims didn’t die of suicide, but by murder.

Who Silenced Joe Holsinger?

Holsinger, a Legislative Assistant of Leo Ryan had voiced his opinion in several publications that U.S. government had constructed and passed on an elaborate disinformation campaign to conceal the real truth about the Jonestown massacre, which was mass murder. Therefore he was intimidated by CIA to keep his silence.

Three Cheers After the Tragedy from ”A Lot of People” – Who Were They?

The end of Jonestown came not from ”drinking the kool-aid,” but from mass murder which still is riddled with many unresolved questions.

Jonestown Witnesses Report: Murder, Not Suicide

At least 30 people had been shot down either by bullets or arrows as they were trying to escape. This was executed by no more than 30 assassins. The site was that of a mass killing.

The Buried Agenda of Leo Ryan

Leo Ryan was assassinated because of his ongoing investigation into CIA’s mind control programs such as MK Ultra, Bluebird and Chickwit. This was also Ryan’s ulterior motive for the trip to Jonestown.

Why STAND Is Covering Jonestown Today

Inactivity in Jonestown investigation even though people were murdered. Was it the killers who were heard cheering after the massacre?

Revisiting the Jonestown Tragedy: Newly Released Documents Shed Light on Unsolved Murders, with Jan Thorpe

CIA had planted the airstrip killers in Peoples Temple, and the killings were carried out in a professional manner. Ryan was assassinated due to his investigations into CIA’s mind control programs. Those programs were ongoing in Jonestown, amount of anti-psychotic drugs and tranquilizers found on the site were proof of that. People of Jonestown were shot and injected with cyanide. Airlift support and hundreds of body bags were already on hold for the victims of this mass murder.

Jonestown, the CIA and the Mystery Tape, by David Parker Wise (2005)

CIA monitored Jonestown before the deaths and controlled the aftermath. Green Berets were sent there to kill the survivors.

State Terror and State-Sanctioned Terrorism: Models of Mind and Behavioral Control in Orwell’s 1984, as Operationalized by Jim Jones in the Peoples Temple Mass Suicides/Murders, by Philip G. Zimbardo, Ph.D., Stanford University (2006)

Jim Jones used methods from Orwell’s book to gain extreme mind control over his congregation.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Hearing including ”Conspiracy Against Jim Jones and the People’s Temple” by Jim Jones (1979)

Jones thought that U.S. Government plotted against him because of his racial integration and other policies. Especially CIA and FBI were those of suspect.

Part 2: Website Analyses of Theories

Reflections on Jonestown: Conspiracy Theories Or Inept Record Keeping, by Edward Cromarty and Simone Elias (2017)

Diplomatic Intervention of the Jonestown Conspiracy, by Riley de Leon (2013)

Debunking a Disturbing Myth: An Analysis of the Jonestown Video, by Matthew Thomas Farrell (2003)

Escaping the Event Horizon: A Rebuttal to John Judge’s The Black Hole of Guyana, by Matthew Thomas Farrell (2018)

Jonestown Conspiracies Revisited, by Christopher Knight-Griffin (2008)

Green Berets and the Black Hole: Examining John Judge’s Jonestown Conspiracy, by Chris Knight-Griffin (2012)

Behind the Conspiracy Theories of Jonestown, by Nicole Mekler (2007)

Why Do Conspiracy Theories Surround the Evidence of the Jonestown Massacre, by Nicole Mekler (2007)

Articles by Rebecca Moore

Reconstructing Reality: Conspiracy Theories About Jonestown (2002)

Comments on Reconstructing Reality: Conspiracy Theories About Jonestown, by Ken McCarthy

A Response to Ken McCarthy’s Comments, by Rebecca Moore

Jim Jones and the Conspiracists, by Jim Hougan

Response to Jim Hougan, by Rebecca Moore

Contested Knowledge: What Conspiracy Theories Tell Us (2013)

Examinations by Dr. Leslie Mootoo (An Investigation by Rebecca Moore, 2018)

The Forensic Investigation of Jonestown by Dr. Leslie Mootoo: A Critical Analysis

Timeline of Dr. Mootoo’s Statements

Testimony of Dr. Leslie Mootoo at the Guyana Inquest

Interview Between Dr. Leslie Mootoo and Robert Oglesby Jr.

US Embassy Cable to State Department

Jonestown at 40: The Real Conspiracy Is More Disturbing Than the Theories (2019)

Dr. Hardat Sukhdeo: The Man Who Knew Too Little (2022)

Part 3: Frequently Asked Questions:

Why Are There So Many Conspiracy Theories About Jonestown

Who Murdered Al and Jeannie Mills?

Part 4: Additional Resources:

Was Jonestown a CIA Medical Experiment: A Review of the Evidence, by Michael Meiers (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1988).

The theory behind this book states that Jonestown was a mind-control experiment operated by CIA’s “renegade faction.”

How Jonestown Happened Under Carter/Mondale, by Kathleen Kelenetsky, Executive Intelligence Review (vol. 10, no. 49, Dec. 20, 1983), pp. 24-26.

Judge, John. “Jonestown, CIA, Assassinations, Drugs and Mind Control.” Critique: A Journal of Conspiracies and Metaphysics 6, no. 1,2 (Spring/Summer 1986): 39-63.

Was the CIA Behind the Jonestown Massacre?, by Jeremy Kuzmarov, CovertAction Magazine, October 7, 2022.