Yulanda Williams was 12 years old when her family joined the People’s Temple – a religious cult that led to the deaths of more than 900 followers.
But before Williams and her family found themselves at the center of “a living nightmare,” the church appeared to be a utopia, a safe haven in San Francisco during the ‘70s.
“My dad had experienced a heart attack,” Williams recalled to Fox News Digital. “He was told by his medical practitioner that he would never be able to go back to work. His condition was getting severe, and one of his clergy friends told him about the People’s Temple and how its leader, Jim Jones, had the ability to heal.”
“My father went to a service,” said Williams. “He described how there were so many young people, how it was an interracial church, which was not common at the time. I was excited to be a part of that. It seemed exciting. Jim Jones appeared to be the leader that we needed. We were lured in.”
Williams, who ended up being one of few to escape the mass murders, is speaking out in a new docuseries from National Geographic and HULU, “Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown.” It details the final harrowing hours “leading up to one of America’s darkest chapters.” It features new interviews with survivors and eyewitnesses, as well as includes rare footage and recordings of Jones.
Williams said it was sometime between 1968 and 1969 that her family became members of the People’s Temple. She vividly remembers meeting its charismatic leader for the first time.
“I loved the fact that he did not put himself on a platform,” Williams said about Jones. “He was an everyday, ordinary person – far different from the ministers and churches that I’d encountered as a child growing up. He was approachable, accessible. It was exciting for me, as a young person, to know someone with all that power and authority. And yet, that person was accessible to you.”
Jones, a celebrated preacher, first opened the People’s Temple in the mid-1950s in Indianapolis. By the early ‘70s, Jones and his family relocated their headquarters to San Francisco, where his popularity grew. Jones’ message of social justice and a racially integrated congregation attracted a diverse group of followers, many of them African American.
But it was during the ‘70s when the news media were beginning to investigate claims made by ex-members of abuse and tyranny within the People’s Temple. According to reports, the spotlight prompted Jones to summon his followers to a promised land known as Jonestown, a commune in Guyana.
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Williams and her family didn’t think twice about following Jones.
“He made it sound like it was heaven on earth – the promised land,” Williams explained. “We’ve seen beautiful pictures of the jungle, the rainforest. He showed us all these delicious fruits that grew there, and he promised us that we would each have a home for our families.
“We wouldn’t have to work any longer. We would live off of the crops that we grew. There would be no need for police or any type of authoritarian figure. And any extended family members who decided not to be a part of the People’s Temple would be welcome to come visit us. If they decided they liked it and wanted to stay, provisions would be made.”
“We were creating a new utopian society that was accessible to everyone,” Williams shared. “It was thrilling.”
At first, many members, including Williams’ family, appeared to be happy in their new environment. However, it didn’t take long for them to notice that their once-magnetic leader was plagued with paranoia.
“He didn’t appear to be the same person he was when we were in the United States,” said Williams. “He seemed to be more and more dependent on needing people to assist him. His decision-making was no longer his own. He started to question people about every possible option they gave him. . . . He was not sleeping in normal patterns. He was staying up all hours of the night. I started seeing him take medications around the clock. His speech started to slow down. He would have to take pills to stay awake, and then he would complain that he couldn’t sleep.”
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“As a kid from the city, I knew,” said Williams. “This man was on drugs.”
Jones’ son, Stephan Jones, and his adopted brother Jim Jones Jr. previously told Fox News Digital they had witnessed their father becoming increasingly addicted to pharmaceutical drugs.
The megalomaniac leader began ruling with an iron fist. According to reports, Jones took pills for various ailments throughout the day, as well as amphetamines and tranquilizers, in both pill and liquid form. He insisted that both the CIA and FBI were attempting to tap his phones and had plans to infiltrate his church with undercover spies.
Williams said Jones’ increasing drug habits couldn’t be ignored.
“Even before we went to Guyana, my sister accused him of being an addict,” said Williams. “And as an addict, she said she knew what she was talking about. Of course, we denounced that and told her that she was crazy, that this was impossible. I think he tried to hide it from us, but as he became seriously addicted, it got to a point where he could no longer control himself or his actions.”
“In the end, there was no one to cover up for him,” she added.
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Jonestown morphed into a “plantation” and “concentration camp,” said Williams. Jones no longer spoke of love, but instead hammered down on lessons about discipline, making sacrifices for “the cause” and not “ratting others out.”
From sunrise to sundown, everyone worked in the fields, surrounded by mosquitoes and snakes. Plants and crops quickly died under the menacing sun. As the followers endured back-breaking labor, they were forced to listen to Jones rant throughout the day on loudspeakers, and even at night as they attempted to sleep.
Reading books or newspapers was forbidden. Women had to take showers in a large room with no curtains.
All passports were confiscated. No one was allowed to step out without Jones’ permission.
“We mostly survived on rice pudding,” said Williams. “There were nonstop recordings of him. You couldn’t get away from that voice. It felt like we were being mind-controlled, brainwashed. We heard that voice to feel that we were still alive and somehow still existing.”
During “a moment of weakness,” Williams managed to step out of the heavily guarded compound. She used the few dollars she had left to call family members, instructing them to reach out to the press and warn them about what was going on.
It was her education that she said ultimately saved her.
Williams and her family were among the few who had permission to leave Jonestown, Time magazine reported. They reasoned that Williams, by then a college student, needed to finish her studies at the University of California.
According to the outlet, Jones warned Williams that if she and her family ever were to speak negatively about Jonestown, “the angels would get us,” she said. Williams believes that Jones was referring to those from the church who would follow his commands and kill them.
No so-called “angels” went after Williams and her family.
One other family who managed to leave Jonestown reached out to California Rep. Leo Ryan, who was already looking into the allegations made against Jones. Ryan, his staff, members of the press and several concerned family members traveled to Jonestown in 1978.
Jones’ paranoia deepened as he believed the government was trying to take him down. As Ryan attempted to evacuate some members, Jones’ security team shot and killed him, along with four others, People magazine reported.
Back at the compound, Jones ordered his followers to kill themselves by ingesting Valium, chloral hydrate, cyanide and Phenergan that was mixed into Flavor Aid, the outlet reported. The incident inspired the phrase “drinking the Kool-Aid.”
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On Nov. 18, 1978, over 900 Americans were killed after ingesting poison. At least 300 of the victims were children. An estimated 90 followers managed to escape.
Jones was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head. He was 47.
Williams described one communal dinner, at which Jones hinted at the carnage that was to come.
“He said, ‘I hope you enjoyed your meal. This is going to be your last meal, because we’re all going to die together for what we believe,’” said Williams. “People started to get paranoid. Some people wanted to leave. Everyone was looking at one another, wondering if we had taken poison. Then, he started laughing, mocking those who had gotten up who were trying to leave.”
“Then, there were those who were prepared to die,” said Williams. “He acknowledged them, calling them good comrades. Meanwhile, he ridiculed those who didn’t want to die.”
Today, Williams is a police captain in the San Francisco Police Department. She also gives talks on cults.
Those who didn’t make it have remained on her mind over the years.
“I believe with my whole heart that 900 people wouldn’t have just stood there in line, on their own free will, and kept drinking this Kool-Aid that was going to kill them,” she said. “Jim Jones was a monster.”
