Jonestown
The autopsy reports of the victims of the Jonestown massacre — the Peoples Temple tragedy of November 18, 1978.
Background: Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple
James Warren Jones was born May 13, 1931, in Crete, Indiana. In the mid-1950s he founded the Peoples Temple, a church that blended Pentecostal evangelism with a message of racial integration and social justice — a message that drew a large and loyal following, particularly among the poor and working class.
Jones moved the congregation to Redwood Valley, California, in the mid-1960s, and by the early 1970s the Temple was headquartered in San Francisco, where Jones had become a figure of real political influence. In 1976, Mayor George Moscone appointed him to the San Francisco Housing Authority Commission, and the Temple’s members were a disciplined, highly organized political force.
But pressure was building. Investigative reporting — most notably a 1977 New West magazine exposé — carried allegations of physical abuse, financial manipulation, and coercive control inside the Temple. High-profile defections, including members of Jones’s own inner circle, added fuel. A small but determined group of relatives of Temple members, later known as the Concerned Relatives, began pressing public officials to look into the church’s practices.
The Move to Guyana
In 1974, Jones had established the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project on several thousand acres of jungle near Port Kaituma, in Guyana’s North West District. In the summer of 1977, as scrutiny intensified in California, Jones moved hundreds of followers there in a mass migration, founding a settlement that became known as Jonestown.
At its peak the settlement housed more than 900 people — families, children, and elderly members living in dormitories and cottages, working in the fields and the sawmill, and building what Jones described as a socialist utopia free of racism and capitalism. In reality, the community was isolated and tightly controlled. Jones’s health was deteriorating, his behavior increasingly erratic, and the settlement held regular “White Night” drills in which members rehearsed mass suicide with unpoisoned drink — drills that were presented as tests of loyalty.
Back in the United States, the Concerned Relatives convinced Congressman Leo Ryan — a Democrat representing California’s 11th district with a reputation for investigating abuses of authority — to lead a fact-finding delegation to Jonestown. In November 1978, Ryan traveled to Guyana with aides, several members of the press, and representatives of the Concerned Relatives to check on the well-being of the settlement’s residents.
The Death
The delegation arrived in Jonestown on November 17, 1978. The initial visit went smoothly, but when Ryan offered any resident who wished to leave a ride back to the United States, about sixteen people chose to go. Jones’s control was slipping, and the defections humiliated him.
On November 18, as the departing group boarded planes at the Port Kaituma airstrip, Temple gunmen — the “Red Brigade” security force — opened fire. Congressman Leo Ryan, NBC correspondent Don Harris, NBC cameraman Bob Brown, San Francisco Examiner photographer Greg Robinson, and departing Temple member Patricia Parks were killed. Several others were wounded, including Ryan aide Jackie Speier. Larry Layton, posing as a defector, fired on passengers aboard another plane. It remains the only assassination of a sitting United States Congressman in the line of duty.
Back at the settlement, Jones summoned the community to the pavilion. Over a public-address system he urged what he called “revolutionary suicide.” A mixture of cyanide, Valium, chloral hydrate, promethazine, and potassium chloride — mixed into Flavor-Aid in large vats — was dispensed to the gathered members. Armed guards stood around the pavilion. By nightfall, 909 people were dead at Jonestown, including 304 children. Jones himself was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head.
In Georgetown, the capital of Guyana, Temple member Sharon Amos and her children Liane, Christa, and Martin were found dead of knife wounds, bringing the total death toll to 918 — one of the largest deliberate losses of American civilian life until September 11, 2001.
Guyanese authorities recovered the bodies, and the United States military airlifted them to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where many were autopsied before release to families. A number of the unclaimed dead were interred together at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, California. The autopsy reports of several victims — autopsied upon their return to the United States — are presented below.
The Victims
William Richard Castillo (February 19, 1944 – November 18, 1978) lived in Los Angeles, California, before moving to Jonestown on August 17, 1977, where he lived in Cottage 25. He was employed as a laborer and worked for Goodwill. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Alameda County, California.
Violatt Esther Dillard (September 16, 1927 – November 18, 1978) lived in San Francisco, California, before moving to Jonestown, where she lived in Dorm 2. She was employed as an inspector and a nurse’s aide. She is buried in Evergreen Cemetery.
Jim Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was the leader of the Peoples Temple in Jonestown, Guyana. He orchestrated the mass homicide-suicide that killed more than 900 men, women, and children, and directed members of his security force to assassinate the visitors at the Port Kaituma airstrip.
Maria Katsaris (June 9, 1953 – November 18, 1978) was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and raised in California. She was introduced to Reverend Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple in 1973, rose through the ranks to the Inner Circle, and became the organization’s treasurer. In 1977 she followed Jones to Guyana. Shortly before the deaths, she ordered Jonestown public relations officer Mike Prokes and brothers Tim and Mike Carter to flee the settlement and deliver a large amount of Temple money to the Soviet embassy; the three were arrested before they could complete the task. She is buried in Potter Valley Cemetery in Mendocino County, California.
Carolyn Moore Layton (July 13, 1945 – November 18, 1978), born Carolyn Moore, was the eldest of the Moore sisters. She met her first husband, Larry Layton, while studying to become a teacher at the University of California, Davis; they married in 1967 and became devoted followers of the Peoples Temple the following year. She rose to the Inner Circle and became one of Jones’s closest supporters. In 1970, Jones forced the couple to divorce and she became his mistress; she was later married to Temple public relations officer Mike Prokes. In 1975 she gave birth to a son fathered by Jones — Kimo Layton Prokes, also known as Jim-Jon. In 1977 she followed Jones to Guyana, where she was one of the top administrators of the settlement, handling its financial responsibilities. Her death was attributed to cyanide poisoning. She is buried in Davis Cemetery in Yolo County, California, in her family’s plot.
Ann Elizabeth Moore (May 12, 1954 – November 18, 1978) successfully completed school and was a registered nurse. She was introduced to the Peoples Temple by her older sister Carolyn in 1972, quickly rose to the Inner Circle, and served as Jones’s personal nurse. In 1977 she followed him to Guyana. While the other residents died from drinking the poisoned solution, both Jones and Moore were found to have died of gunshot wounds — it is believed that Moore shot and killed Jones before taking her own life. A final letter found beside her, in which she defended Jones, concluded: “We died because you would not let us live in peace.” Her sister Carolyn and her nephew Jim-Jon also died in the massacre. She is buried in Davis Cemetery in Yolo County, California, in her family’s plot.
Leo Ryan (May 5, 1925 – November 18, 1978) was a Democratic U.S. Representative from California’s 11th congressional district, serving from 1973 until his death. He was murdered by members of the Peoples Temple, including Larry Layton, at the Kaituma airstrip as his party boarded its plane to leave Guyana.
Lawrence Schacht, known as Larry, was the medical doctor for the Peoples Temple. The tranquilizers administered to members during the mass deaths were mixed into the concoction he prepared.