Jonestown

[ johnz-toun ]

noun

1. a former settlement in northern Guyana, northwest of Georgetown: an agricultural commune of an American religious cult called the Peoples Temple, infamous as the site of a mass suicide and murder in 1978.

Example Sentences

After the 1978 mass murder and suicide of 909 people in the Jonestown settlement in Guyana directed by the charismatic leader Jim Jones, Zimbardo explored the social dynamics of cults.

From Los Angeles Times

The assassination attempts — Fromme’s in Sacramento and Moore’s in San Francisco — also contributed to “an atmosphere of lawlessness” in Northern California, Starr said, compounded by such 1970s events as the Patty Hearst kidnapping, the slaying of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and the mass suicide of the Jonestown cultists.

From Los Angeles Times

As an aide to Rep. Leo Ryan in 1978, she was shot five times while helping to evacuate defectors fleeing Jonestown, the Guyana commune where some 900 people died in a massacre.

From Los Angeles Times

The man from Jonestown, Pennsylvania, has previously said he obtained Wally in 2015 after the alligator was rescued in Florida at the age of 14 months.

From Seattle Times

Mr. Henney, of Jonestown, Pa., said the trapper had told him that the chances of finding the alligator now were “slim to none,” but Mr. Henney was holding out hope and said he planned to search for WallyGator.

From New York Times