can anybody point me to sources about Jim Jones and the People's Temple?

[BolivarianHero]

What I'm particular curious about whether he was primarily evil or primarily insane.

What little I know of the man suggests that I did some very good things in Indiana and in San Francisco before he transformed into a batshit crazy cult leader.

[uppityperson]

1. Do you mean did he kill people because he got enjoyment or because he was

mentally ill?

[Touchdown]

2. Most of what I know about him is from a mid 80s TV movie starring Powers Boothe

as Jim Jones. There was a (shockingly informative and good) special documentary on CNN last year on the 30th anniversary of Jonestown, where they went back to the site. That may be on line somewhere.

[hlthe2b]

6. Escape from Jonestown... some clips are available...

See http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/presents/ (scroll down)

[The Midway Rebel]

3. This PBS documentary was informative.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/jonestown/

[Starry Messenger]

4. Here's a bunch:

http://www.rickross.com/groups/jonestown.html

Also, San Diego State University maintains a resource website about it:

http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/

[Greyskye]

5. The top 2 hits below seem pretty representative and even-handed:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=&q=jim+jones+peoples+temple&sourceid=navclient-ff&rlz=1B3GGGL_enUS277US278&ie=UTF-8&aq=0&oq=jim+jones+peoples+temple

[LunaSea]

7. According to one former member

Jones was fond of the 1947 movie "Nightmare Alley" starring Tyrone Powers.
The former member suggested that Jones modeled much of his career after the movies' lead character.

No links to this info, I heard it in a radio interview around the time of one on the anniversaries of the massacre.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightmare_Alley_%28film%29

I'd always suspected Jones was both a little evil and a little insane, and his massive drug use later in life amplified both.

[AnArmyVeteran]

8. Beck & the Tea Baggers are like Jones and the Peoples' Temple

Both are cults filled with gullible religious fanatics and led by insane, dysfunctional leaders. Beck's followers believe every word he says and they even believe 'god' is speaking through him, just as Jones' followers thought 'god'' spoke through him. Both use 'god' to manipulate their followers. One crucial difference is Beck is inciting his followers to violence against others. That makes Beck far more dangerous than Jones because Beck's army of fools watch his show with their guns in their laps.

[snagglepuss]

9. His son when a child survived JonesTown. He has denounced his father

and I believe has written a book. I've not read it but Ive heard him interviewed. His name is alo Jim Jones.

[mitchum]

10. Don't look at "Milk" because you won't find anything there...

but then again, hagiography rarely contains unpleasant truths

[myrna minx]

11. I thought this was a rather interesting documentary.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27052411/

[Boojatta]

12. Did you mean...?

What little I know of the man suggests that he did some very good things in Indiana and in San Francisco before (...)

[Bobbieo]

13. I had a close friend from Amerian River College who joined his group when she went on to Sac State.

I never could understand how she became attracted to him but from I read didn't follow him to South America. So, she survived the cult poisoning.

[eppur_se_muova]

14. If you're into actual printed books ...

http://www.powells.com/biblio/62-9781585426782-0

Haven't read it myself. Note that this is apparently a reprint, not really a new edition; just a new preface.