Who - 25.06.2018

CRIME

gave out.” Other times she’d find herself

“curled up in a foetal position” on a

sympathetic school counsellor’s floor,

sobbing. Few people in Ukiah wanted to

talk about Jim Jones and “all the hurt”

he brought to their community, she says.

The one therapist she saw told her, “You’re

going to be lucky if you’re not crazy in 10

or 15 years.”

There are physical scars as well. The

dermatologist Tracy now sees every three

months has told her he believes her recurring

skin cancers are caused by the repeated

blistering sunburns she received labouring in

the Jonestown agricultural fields. Her sister

Brenda died of pancreatic illness, at age 52,

in 2013, having never been able to shake

the horror of Jonestown. When they were

escaping through the jungle, Brenda

discovered she was covered in her mother’s

blood and brain matter from the shooting—

a trauma that haunted her until her death.

“I’ve always been a fighter,” says Tracy.

“Knock me down, and I always get back up.

g “ s s t h T g o d m s b t B

prepared in nearby vats, instructing parents

to keep their children calm. “Don’t be afraid

to die,” said Jones. “This is a revolutionary

suicide. This is not a self-destructive suicide.”

Jones himself died from a gunshot to the

head, although it’s unclear if it was self-

inflicted or if he asked another cult member

to fire the shot.

After the massacre Tracy spent nearly

a month in Guyana before returning to

Ukiah, California, with her father and

siblings. But putting her life back together

wasn’t easy. Her memories of school involve

suffocating panic attacks that often resulted

in her suddenly sprinting out of classrooms

and “running, running, running until my legs

US military

personnel place

Jones’s victims in

aluminium coffins.

The overgrown

entrance to Jonestown

in 2011. The now

deserted site of the

former commune has

slowly been consumed

by the jungle.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: REUTERS; AP (2); JONATHAN SPRAGUE/REDUX/HEADPRESS; AP

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