Jonestown Massacre: Where Were You?

This month marks the 30th anniversary of the mass murder-suicide in Guyana. Where were you when you heard the news? I was sleeping over my cousin Kathy's house. Her Dad had a couple of extra phones which were not in use and we used to play with them. I was usually getting calls from Andy Gibb (What? I was 10!) and Kathy was always on with Shaun Cassidy. (I'm sure Leif Garrett got through on occasion too.) We were listening to the radio when they cut in with the news of hundreds dead at the Peoples Temple in Jonestown. Our mutual reaction: That is so weird.

Sometimes forgotten in the immense tragedy is the mass murder which took place immediately prior to the deaths at the Peoples Temple. A group wanting to leave the cult, accompanied by Congressman Leo Ryan (D-CA), members of the media and others, had left the Peoples Temple and were waiting on an airstrip for their planes to take off. On an order given by Jim Jones, gunmen from the Peoples Temple drove up and opened fire:

NBC cameraman Bob Brown, correspondent Don Harris, San Francisco Chronicle photographer Greg Robinson, defector Patricia Parks and Congressman Leo Ryan were all killed. Eleven others were shot. They survived by pretending to be dead until the killers drove off.

Among the survivors was Jackie Speier, aide to Congressman Ryan. Speier was shot five times and lie bleeding on the tarmac for 22 hours before help arrived. She was flown to Andrews Air Force Base for emergency surgery. Her prolonged recovery included another 10 surgeries. In April of this year, she was elected to represent California's 12th Congressional District - Leo Ryan's old seat.

She used her first floor speech, on the day she was sworn in, to excoriate President Bush's handling of the war and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the likely GOP presidential nominee, for suggesting troops could be in Iraq for decades to come. She was heckled by Republicans in response.

"After I was booed, I really felt like I do belong here," she said.

Speier with Ryan, 1978