AustLit

'The greatest deliberate loss of American civilian life in modern times before the fall of the Twin Towers took place in Jonestown, Guyana, on November 18, 1978. On that day, 918 people, including 304 children, were ordered to drink grape-flavoured cordial from a metal tub laced with cyanide, chloral hydrate, Valium and Phenergan – that or commit suicide by alternative means – at the order of the Reverend Jim Jones, to whose apocalyptic cult they all belonged.' (Introduction)