New Jonestown victims memorial planned

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New Jonestown victims memorial planned

Photos: New Jonestown victims memorial planned for those who died in 1978 Guyana tragedy.

The Rev. Jynona Norwood begins the 32nd annual memorial service and prayer vigil to remember the more than 900 victims of the Jonestown massacre in Oakland, Calif., Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010. Parting ways with longtime organizers of Jonestown memorial services, a group of Peoples Temple survivors announced their own plans Nov. 18, 2010, for a granite monument inscribed with the names of those who died at the commune in Guyana.

Althea Roberts, left, and Juana Norwood, right, look for photos of family members who died in the Jonestown tragedy of 1978. Some ex-members have grown impatient with efforts by the Rev. Jynona Norwood over the decades to erect a 36-foot-long stone wall, like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, at the Oakland cemetery where more than more than 400 unidentified and unclaimed victims are buried.

Rev. Jim Jones, founder of the Peoples Temple sect, is shown in this Nov. 1978 photo in Jonestown, Guyana, shortly before he orchestrated a ritual of mass murder and suicide in the temple's agricultural commune.

More than 900 members of the People's Temple committed suicide in Nov. 1978. The Rev. Jim Jones urged his disciples to drink cyanide-laced grape punch. Jones, who was among those who died, led the Peoples Temple, which ran a free clinic and a drug rehabilitation program. Jones' sect was, at the time of the tragedy, being scrutinized by the media based on reports of possible member abuse by those who had left the church.

Those planning the new memorial include Jim Jones Jr. (right, with filmmaker Stanley Nelson in 2006), an adopted son of the temple leader, who told AP that it's time to move forward with an alternative monument -- four large stone slabs that would be sunk flat on the grassy mass grave site overlooking San Francisco Bay.

A woman holds flowers while listening to civil rights activist Dick Gregory speak during the 32nd annual memorial service and prayer vigil.

Former Peoples Temple member Tim Stoen holds a flower while listening to speakers. Stoen, once among Jim Jones' closest confidants, broke with the Peoples' Temple leader when Jones claimed that he was the actual father of Stoen's son, John. A bitter, multi-year custody battle ensued, which led to the 1978 investigation that set off the Guyana tragedy which ultimately claimed the life of John Stoen, 6, who was among the many children killed at Jonestown.

Satori Gregory of Boston looks over photographs of the more than 900 victims of the Jonestown massacre.

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The Rev. Jynona Norwood begins the 32nd annual memorial service and prayer vigil to remember the more than 900 victims of the Jonestown massacre in Oakland, Calif., Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010. Parting ways with longtime organizers of Jonestown memorial services, a group of Peoples Temple survivors announced their own plans Nov. 18, 2010, for a granite monument inscribed with the names of those who died at the commune in Guyana.

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