Sept. 5, 2024

The Making of a Monster: How Jim Jones Built Jonestown

Show Notes
Transcript

The Making of a Monster: How Jim Jones Built Jonestown

Jim Jones—a small-town boy who grew up in poverty during the Great Depression and eventually became one of the most infamous cult leaders in history. Raised in a troubled home, young Jim found solace in religion, but his obsession with power and control led him down a dark path. From his early days of preaching to collecting dead animals and holding bizarre funerals, to the eventual founding of the Peoples Temple and the horrifying events that unfolded in Jonestown, this is a true crime tale that’s as disturbing as it is fascinating.
Was Jim truly convinced of his divine powers, or was it all a calculated move to maintain control?

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In the nineteen thirties, a little boy named James Jones

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was being raised by a pair of struggling parents. His father,

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also named James, had been injured in a chemical warfare

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attack in the First World War, making it pretty hard

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for him to work. It was the thick of the

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Great Depression, and the Jones family couldn't make ends meet.

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It got to the point where they were evicted, forced

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to live in a literal shack without electricity or running water,

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forging for food in the forest so that they didn't

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starve to death. It was a pretty dire situation. James Junior,

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who went by the nickname Jim, was neglected. He was

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seen walking naked through streets, relying on the kindness of

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neighbors to clothe and feed him. One local woman, a

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pastor's wife, felt especially sorry for Jim and gifted him

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a Bible because when you see someone hungry and thirsty,

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why not give them a book? I guess, and Jim

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reddits he instantly became obsessed. He was baptized, started going

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to as many church services as he could possibly go to,

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and he dreamed one day of becoming a preacher when

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he grew up and in his spare time, he would

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even pretend to preach to a crowd. Some of the

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local community might have felt bad for Jim, but they

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also recognized that he was a bit of a weird

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kid who only got weirder as he became a teenager.

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He collected dead animals from the side of the road

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and would hold fake funeral services for them. And one

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time he peed in a cup and swapped it with

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a cup of holy water at one of the local churches.

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And when I said weird a minute ago, I know

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you thought, well, how weird could he be? Well, there's

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your answer. After graduating from high school, Jim married a

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trainee nurse named Marceline Baldwin. Religion was an area of

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conflict in their marriage, and by nineteen fifty two, Jim

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made an announcement to his wife. Despite not believing in

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Methodist ideologies, he was planning on becoming a minister for

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the Methodist Church. Before long, Jim had accumulated a group

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of loyal followers. He offered an exclusive environment due to

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his preaching that condemned racism, which meant that a group

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of his followers included a large proportion of African Americans.

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Jim's own religious beliefs shifted over time, and he became

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fascinated with the Latter Reign movement, which believed that humans

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could obtain godlike superhuman powers. A quick Google search of

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Latter Rain shows that Latter Rain was a movement in

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Pentecostalism that began in the eighteen eighties and was based

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on the belief that the last days had come. The

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movement encouraged speaking in tongues, prophecy, miracle, and other spiritual

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gifts i e. Superhuman powers, and they believed that the

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first Christian Pentecost was the Former Reign and the Latter

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Reign would be the second outpouring of the Holy Spirit

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that would bring the Church's work to completion. Jim started

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preaching his own version of these beliefs, and before long

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he was telling his followers that he was actually a

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manifestation of Jesus Christ. Jim started abusing drugs, and his

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abuse of his followers became more intense. He tried to

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ensure their loyalty to him by promising that they were

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being pursued by a wide range of common enemies, including

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the Nazis, the KKK, and even the US government. He

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also preached that if anybody betrayed him, God would kill

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them in a horrible accident. Before long, like so many

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other cult leaders, Jim became overly interested in the sex

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lives of his followers. He started dictating who his followers

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were allowed to marry and have sex with, and ordered

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some of his female followers to have sex with him.

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He also sexually assaulted multiple male followers. Nobody had a choice.

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They all had to go along with Jim's wishes. Disobeying

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him meant that they would publicly be humiliated and have

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their food restricted, or even be beaten. Jim completely branched

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off from traditional Christianity and established his own religious sect,

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which he called the People's Temple, and despite relocating the

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group several times, allegations of abuse and financial fraud began

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to follow him wherever he went. He also became the

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target of significant media controversy due to his anti racism preachings.

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The media attention surrounding the People's Temple began to make

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Jim paranoid, so he made a decision the group would

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relocate to South America in a place called Guyana. He

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assured his followers that the move would be the best

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thing they would ever do, and they would all live

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in utopia together. Some of Jim's followers went to Guyana

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first and began converting an isolated area of the jungle

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into a commune, which would be called Jonestown. In mid

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nineteen seventy seven, Jim arrived at the commune along with

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six hundred followers. Four hundred more people would soon follow,

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making the population of Jonestown more than a thousand. However,

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just like so many of Jim's teachings, the utopia he

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had promised turned out to be a lie. The isolation

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allowed Jim's paranoia to grow, and he began controlling his

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followers more and more, centering their communication with their families

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back home, punishing them for anything that he believed showed

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a lack of faith, and taking away their passports so

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that they were unable to run. Meanwhile, back in the States,

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Jim continued to receive negative media attention. Multiple ex members

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of the People's Temple had come forward with stories of abuse,

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which were published in the press. Jim started ordering his

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followers to participate in mandatory meetings in the middle of

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the night, which often lasted for hours, to test their faith.

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He made them partake in events he called white Knights,

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where he would convince them that they were under attack

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and about to be killed. Sometimes, the white Knights included

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suicide drills, where the church members went through the motions

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of poisoning themselves under Jim's orders. It was only after

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they'd consumed the supposed poison that Jim revealed that it

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was harmless and he had just been testing their loyalty.

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On the seventeenth of November nineteen seventy eight, Jonestown was

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under investigation. Several journalists and a congressman, Leo Ryan, traveled

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from the US to look at the commune in person,

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responding to reports and worried loved ones and ex members

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of Jim's cult. The investigation seemed to go without incident

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until the very end, when the group started to make

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their way back home. Several Terrified People's Temple members approached

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the congressmen and asked him to help get them back home.

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Jim saw this interaction and became upset about the lack

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of loyalty shown by his followers. One of his more

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loyal followers unsuccessfully attempted to attack Leo, who escaped, but

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then Jim gave the orders to kill the congressmen and

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the journalists before they were able to leave Jonestown. Sure enough,

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his followers waited in ambush and systematically murdered members of

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the group while they tried to board their planes home. Now,

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Jim's paranoia was at an all time high. He was

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abusing drugs and losing his grasp on reality. But he

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knew that he wouldn't be able to get away with

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blatantly murdering a group of people sent to investigate him.

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As soon as he returned to the commune, he sent

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out the orders for all Jonestown residents young and old,

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to meet him in the main pavilion. He proposed something

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he called a revolutionary act, a mass suicide. Just like

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he'd made his followers act out during his late night meetings,

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this time it would be real. Possibly as a way

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of controlling the adult members of Jonestown, Jim decided that

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the children should be the first to drink the poison,

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which was a deadly dose of cyanide mixed with flavor aid.

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A lot of people think it was kool Aid, but

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it was actually the off brand Flavor Aid for the

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people that didn't want to drink voluntarily. There was no escape.

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Guards stood outside of all the exits of the pavilion,

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ready to shoot any one that tried to run away.

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In total, nine hundred nine people living in Jonestown died

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that day. More than a quarter of those victims were children.

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Up until nine to eleven, the event that became known

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as the Jonestown Massacre was the greatest deliberate loss of

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life of u S citizens. In fact, out of the

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entire community living in Jonestown, only eighty five people avoided death.

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Some of them were away at the time, and others

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escaped by hiding before the poisonings began or running into

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the dense jungle near by. When military forces arrived at

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the commune, they found Jim Jones lying dead on the

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central pavilion stage. His cause of death was a single

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gunshot to the head, which was ruled as a suicide. However,

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Jim's son believed that he might have ordered one of

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his followers to fatally shoot him. After Jim was cremated,

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his ashes were scattered over the Atlantic Ocean. To this day,

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nobody knows whether Jim truly believed what he taught, or

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whether he just claimed to have unlimited godly power because

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he wanted to control other people. Jeff Gwynn, author of

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the book The Road to Jonestown, stated that it's impossible

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to know whether Jones gradually came to think he was

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God's earthly vessel, or whether he came to that convenient

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conclusion to enhance his authority over his followers. That is

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ten Minute Murder for Today, brief and binge able true crime.

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I'm Joe, I'm the host, and thank you for taking

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the time to listen to the podcast. And that story

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is one of the most requested that I've gotten over

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the past six months or so. The Jonestown massacred a

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lot of people wanted to hear that one. So there

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you go. And if you would like to make a request,

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longtime listener. Here, I'm an og for sure love the

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short form of the podcast, so much and wish you'd

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release an episode every day because I listen every day.

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My question is you haven't mentioned in a while what

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arbitrary thing is bugging you? So, Joe, what's bugging you

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right now? That is Kelly in Norfolk, and Hi, Kelly.

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First of all, thank you for being an og ten

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minute Murder listener. I really appreciate it releasing an episode

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every single day. You don't mean that, say psych right now,

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because maybe it's just maybe that feels like a lot

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every day. I don't know, it feels like more work

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than I can handle. But even if I could, wow,

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I'd get no sleep. But I really appreciate you really

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wanting to listen to these episodes. And to answer your question,

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thank you for asking it. What's bugging me right now?

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People that use the term, much to my chagrin, what

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does that even mean? I mean, I know what it means,

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but why are you saying it? I feel like you

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should be sipping a cup of tea with your pinky

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up to be allowed to say that, and you have

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to have your teeth clenched, much to my chagrin, And

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I'd really love for people to stop saying that. But

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much to my chagrin. People aren't going to stop saying it,

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I think because mainly this podcast doesn't reach everyone in

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the world. I mean it could theoretically, but not everyone

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in the world surprisingly listens to this podcast, but they should,

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right Okay, Kelly, there's your answer. And I'm sure I

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could sit here all day and think of these little

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things that bug me daily, but there's the one that's

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got me right now, and that's going to do it.

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That's your episode for today. Thank you so much for

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The Making of a Monster: How Jim Jones Built Jonestown

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