![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/thumbnail-1-2.jpeg\")
<\/a>A museum specialist in the Southwest today, she admits that as a child \u201cLittle Brittni just wanted to be a museum person.\u201d She grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska in a somewhat chaotic household with a strong father figure. After high school, she worked in the liquor industry for ten years before getting sober and just falling into the job \u201cI wanted to do as a kid\u201d \u2013 that is, being an interpretive guide at a state historical park.<\/p>\nHer introduction to Jonestown was through Jeff Guinn\u2019s book The Road to Jonestown<\/em><\/a>, which a friend gave her. The next book was Deborah Layton\u2019s Seductive Poison<\/em><\/a>.<\/em> She also tuned into the podcast Promised Land<\/a>, which she found \u201cstrangely comforting and familiar,\u201d given her childhood. But the focus soon shifted from Jonestown to Peoples Temple, especially with Laura Johnston Kohl\u2019s memoir Jonestown Survivor<\/em><\/a>. In it, Kohl describes deprogramming as similar to persuading an addict to quit: it has to be a personal choice. \u201cThat was the first time I equated addiction with group membership,\u201d Brittni recalls.<\/p>\n A pivotal moment in her life occurred during the Covid lockdown and the protests that roiled the country after the murder of George Floyd<\/a> by police officers in 2020. Living in Portland, Oregon at the time, Brittni reports that the protests awoke in her \u201ca sense of obligation to my fellow humanity,\u201d a feeling that part of her sobriety was bound up in helping the community.<\/p>\n The turning point in her thinking about Peoples Temple, however, came with the reading of Ethan Feinsod\u2019s Awake in a Nightmare<\/em><\/a>, which presents Odell Rhodes\u2019 experiences in the Temple. Rhodes\u2019 trip from addiction to caring for children corresponded to her own work in a junior museum program and community outreach. \u201cI felt very connected to Odell Rhodes and his story and his addiction,\u201d she says, \u201cand in the end, his finding such purpose working with children.\u201d Brittni adds, however, that Peoples Temple was \u201csimultaneously helping people recover from drug addiction and recruiting them at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n Her deep reading into Temple history caused her to identify a significant theme: drug abuse. She began \u201cobsessively searching for stories of addiction and addiction recovery.\u201d This served as the background for her article “You Don\u2019t Tell God He\u2019s Got a Drug Problem”: Addiction\u2019s Role in People\u2019s Temple<\/a>. In it, she describes the drug problems not only of Jim Jones and Odell Rhodes, but also of other Temple members. \u201cOnce I began to notice the pattern, I saw it everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n This led her to the massive undertaking of transcribing the handwritten notes from Jonestown\u2019s dispensary<\/a> to analyze the number and kinds of drugs available to the community. \u201cNot only is it a vast amount of medication to be managing and prescribing, but it says a lot about the knowledge of the medical staff.\u201d She adds, \u201cIt takes my breath away to think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to having a medical clinic, the community had a chemistry lab in which to test soil samples and conduct other analyses to assist in agricultural production. And, of course, the lab had the means to order cyanide legally, as Brittni explains in her article The Definitive Guide to Cyanide in Jonestown<\/a>. In it she carefully tracks the arrival of cyanide in the community, along with its devastating effects on the last day.<\/p>\n In an odd way, she reflects, she feels connected to the idea of the Peoples Temple community, even though she\u2019s not part of it. \u201cResearching Peoples Temple has been a core part of my sobriety. It\u2019s a core part of my life. I\u2019m giving back to everyone else that has worked before me in research. I now get to give as well.\u201d<\/p>\n A complete listing of Brittni Criglow\u2019s contributions to the digital archive appear on her profile<\/a>.<\/p>\n (Rebecca Moore<\/strong>\u00a0is Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at San Diego State University, and has written and published extensively on Peoples Temple and Jonestown. Rebecca is also the co-manager of this website. Her full collection of articles on this site may be found\u00a0<\/em>here<\/em><\/a>. She may be reached at\u00a0<\/em>remoore@sdsu.edu<\/em><\/a>.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cAddiction haunts the story of Peoples Temple,\u201d according to Brittni Criglow. In an important respect, addiction is part of Brittni\u2019s own story. Her return to sobriety beginning in 2019 led her into the study of Jonestown, first as a true crime afficionado and then into an identification with the people who lived and died in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":132336,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-132397","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/132397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=132397"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/132397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":132640,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/132397\/revisions\/132640"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/132336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=132397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>She became a website volunteer as a result of her research, since she relied on it to gather stories of addiction. \u201cLittle by little you start to realize that this is a massive undertaking with so many people doing this and making it possible.\u201d When she found there were no transcriptions of documents she needed to use, she decided to transcribe them for herself before realizing that this was a perfect opportunity to return the favor.<\/p>\n