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And Then They Were Gone: Teenagers of Peoples Temple from High School to Jonestown
Of the 918 Americans who died in the shocking murder-suicides of November 18, 1978, in the tiny South American country of Guyana, a third were under eighteen. More than half were in their twenties or younger. And Then They Were Gone: Teenagers of Peoples Temple from High School to Jonestown begins in San Francisco at the small school where Reverend Jim Jones enrolled the teens of his Peoples Temple church in 1976. Within a year, most had been sent to join Jones and other congregants in what Jones promised was a tropical paradise based on egalitarian values, but which turned out to be a deadly prison camp. Set against the turbulent backdrop of the late 1970s, And Then They Were Gone draws from interviews, books, and articles. Many of these powerful stories are told here for the first time.
“Many people have forgotten about these Jonestown deaths and many others have never learned about them in the first place. This book is an antidote to that forgetfulness by putting a face on some of the victims. It teaches us how not to forget, but instead to bear witness to these interrupted lives.”
– from the Foreword by Herbert Kohl, educator and author
“Many people have forgotten about these Jonestown deaths and many others have never learned about them in the first place. This book is an antidote to that forgetfulness by putting a face on some of the victims. It teaches us how not to forget, but instead to bear witness to these interrupted lives.”
– from the Foreword by Herbert Kohl, educator and author
320 pages, Paperback
Published April 9, 2018
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August 2, 2018
Much to Think About!
And Then They Were Gone: Teenagers of Peoples Temple from High School to Jonestown is the riveting, heartbreaking story of the Peoples Temple teenagers by Judy Bebelaar and Ron Cabral, two of their teachers at Opportunity II, the small, alternative high school in San Francisco where Rev. Jim Jones sent them. They arrived together at Opportunity II, in a group of about 120, in 1976. In spring 1977, they were suddenly gone from the school, summoned by Jones to Jonestown, his “utopian” settlement in Guyana. Some of the students explicitly told their teachers that they did not want to go. Then, in November 1978, most of them were gone from this life in a mass murder/suicide ritual of more than 900 people orchestrated by Jones.
Bebelaar and Cabral’s book is a tribute to the Peoples Temple teenagers. It honors them and remembers them as vibrant individuals. Their teachers recount their baseball plays, share their poetry, and recall conversations with them. The book is also a tribute to the teachers themselves, who were deeply committed to their students and still remember them with fondness and sorrow after more than forty years.
The book does not end with the students’ departure from Opportunity II. Using interviews with survivors, published accounts, and the journal of a Jonestown resident, Bebalaar and Cabral describe their students’ lives in Jonestown and follow their story to its horrific end. And thus the book becomes more than the tragic saga of 120 teenagers. In describing Jones and how his followers continued to obey him as he descended into drug addiction and paranoia, Bebelaar and Cabral raise timeless questions about human nature, charisma, and the capacity for evil.
Why will people follow a charismatic leader who publicly shames them, physically punishes them, and orders them to commit murder? Why will they give up their homes, their jobs, and even their lives to follow such a leader? These questions do not apply only to Jones and the Peoples Temple. History has given us many charismatic madmen who, with the assistance of their followers, committed great evil. To name just a few, these madmen include David Koresh of the Branch Davidians (Waco, Texas), Charles Manson, Adolph Hitler, and Joseph Stalin.
Some of the Peoples Temple members willingly took part in the mass “revolutionary suicide” by drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid, as ordered by Jim Jones, but many, indeed probably the vast majority, did not. They were surrounded by enforcers with bows and arrows and guns, at least one of whom had been a student at Opportunity II. Why would these enforcers not shoot the madman instead of the people who did not want to drink the cyanide or squirt it into the throats of babies and small children? This sort of thing has happened many times before throughout human history, and it will happen again and again unless, through a better understanding of human psychology, we can learn how to prevent people from joining cults or being brainwashed by the rants, lies, and bogus promises of dictatorial politicians and false prophets.
And Then They Were Gone: Teenagers of Peoples Temple from High School to Jonestown is the riveting, heartbreaking story of the Peoples Temple teenagers by Judy Bebelaar and Ron Cabral, two of their teachers at Opportunity II, the small, alternative high school in San Francisco where Rev. Jim Jones sent them. They arrived together at Opportunity II, in a group of about 120, in 1976. In spring 1977, they were suddenly gone from the school, summoned by Jones to Jonestown, his “utopian” settlement in Guyana. Some of the students explicitly told their teachers that they did not want to go. Then, in November 1978, most of them were gone from this life in a mass murder/suicide ritual of more than 900 people orchestrated by Jones.
Bebelaar and Cabral’s book is a tribute to the Peoples Temple teenagers. It honors them and remembers them as vibrant individuals. Their teachers recount their baseball plays, share their poetry, and recall conversations with them. The book is also a tribute to the teachers themselves, who were deeply committed to their students and still remember them with fondness and sorrow after more than forty years.
The book does not end with the students’ departure from Opportunity II. Using interviews with survivors, published accounts, and the journal of a Jonestown resident, Bebalaar and Cabral describe their students’ lives in Jonestown and follow their story to its horrific end. And thus the book becomes more than the tragic saga of 120 teenagers. In describing Jones and how his followers continued to obey him as he descended into drug addiction and paranoia, Bebelaar and Cabral raise timeless questions about human nature, charisma, and the capacity for evil.
Why will people follow a charismatic leader who publicly shames them, physically punishes them, and orders them to commit murder? Why will they give up their homes, their jobs, and even their lives to follow such a leader? These questions do not apply only to Jones and the Peoples Temple. History has given us many charismatic madmen who, with the assistance of their followers, committed great evil. To name just a few, these madmen include David Koresh of the Branch Davidians (Waco, Texas), Charles Manson, Adolph Hitler, and Joseph Stalin.
Some of the Peoples Temple members willingly took part in the mass “revolutionary suicide” by drinking cyanide-laced Kool-Aid, as ordered by Jim Jones, but many, indeed probably the vast majority, did not. They were surrounded by enforcers with bows and arrows and guns, at least one of whom had been a student at Opportunity II. Why would these enforcers not shoot the madman instead of the people who did not want to drink the cyanide or squirt it into the throats of babies and small children? This sort of thing has happened many times before throughout human history, and it will happen again and again unless, through a better understanding of human psychology, we can learn how to prevent people from joining cults or being brainwashed by the rants, lies, and bogus promises of dictatorial politicians and false prophets.
May 20, 2019
Wow - sad, sad, sad. I saw the author interviewed on the news, and thought I might like to read this book. A number of teenagers from the People's Temple, many of whom ended up in Jonestown, went to a San Francisco alternative high school, Opportunity II, in 1976-77. This is their story, from the people who survived to remember them. The author said she wanted to give them a yearbook.
May 1, 2022
So heartbreaking. It puts a face on the young people who died.
May 18, 2019
Do you remember the Jonestown massacre in 1978? The Reverend Jim Jones took his followers to Guyana, and eventually there was a mass suicide.
Many of the victims were teenagers. This book is written by two teachers who’d taught those kids. The writing is beautiful, passionate, yet objective. The ‘60s ‘70s are brought to life in well-chosen vignettes, leading to the problems with education at the time, and the creation of the “Opportunity School” thanks to the daring and persistence of a few idealistic young teachers.
The authors then concentrate on rounding out the personalities of two groups of children. The “old students” were from the slums, or from troubled backgrounds, the ones the standard education system couldn’t accommodate. Then there were the “Temple kids:” 120 admitted through the persistent campaigning of the Reverend Jim Jones.
In a leisurely way, through descriptions of interactions among students and teachers, and aided by photographs, we get to know at least the key personalities. All along the way, there is the knowledge of doom coming, and yet the slow journey is illuminating and enlightening. This is not an easy thing to do.
Then the Temple kids moved to help the Rev. Jones in Guyana, at first one at a time, depleting the school baseball team of talent.
One-third into the book, ugly stories emerge about Jones and his church, and as reader, I reflected back to earlier events, apparently innocuous, but now obviously signs of hidden malaise.
Then hundreds went to Guyana, including all the kids attending the school. By then, the terrible conditions the church’s members suffered were public knowledge.
Then comes the crunch. The final part is an excellent examination of the psychology of how a charismatic person can infect a whole group with his own insanity.
The most powerful passage in the book is a detailed account of the experiences of Jones’ surviving son, Stephan.
The history this book recounts is in the public domain. What it adds is humanity, bringing names and statistics to life.
I do have criticisms. One is that, especially during the early parts, there is too much fine detail. For example, we get blow-by-blow accounts of several baseball practice sessions and games, which could be summarized in a few sentences. Second, there are so many names and relationships that after a while they become a blur. I’ve also faced this problem in some of my books, and there is no easy solution. Mentioning those people is necessary, but perhaps a few more signposts and reminders would have been good.
Overall, though, this is an excellent read, an interesting dip into history, and a necessary lesson on the trap of blindly following a leader, any leader. Those assessing today’s politicians should especially take note.
Many of the victims were teenagers. This book is written by two teachers who’d taught those kids. The writing is beautiful, passionate, yet objective. The ‘60s ‘70s are brought to life in well-chosen vignettes, leading to the problems with education at the time, and the creation of the “Opportunity School” thanks to the daring and persistence of a few idealistic young teachers.
The authors then concentrate on rounding out the personalities of two groups of children. The “old students” were from the slums, or from troubled backgrounds, the ones the standard education system couldn’t accommodate. Then there were the “Temple kids:” 120 admitted through the persistent campaigning of the Reverend Jim Jones.
In a leisurely way, through descriptions of interactions among students and teachers, and aided by photographs, we get to know at least the key personalities. All along the way, there is the knowledge of doom coming, and yet the slow journey is illuminating and enlightening. This is not an easy thing to do.
Then the Temple kids moved to help the Rev. Jones in Guyana, at first one at a time, depleting the school baseball team of talent.
One-third into the book, ugly stories emerge about Jones and his church, and as reader, I reflected back to earlier events, apparently innocuous, but now obviously signs of hidden malaise.
Then hundreds went to Guyana, including all the kids attending the school. By then, the terrible conditions the church’s members suffered were public knowledge.
Then comes the crunch. The final part is an excellent examination of the psychology of how a charismatic person can infect a whole group with his own insanity.
The most powerful passage in the book is a detailed account of the experiences of Jones’ surviving son, Stephan.
The history this book recounts is in the public domain. What it adds is humanity, bringing names and statistics to life.
I do have criticisms. One is that, especially during the early parts, there is too much fine detail. For example, we get blow-by-blow accounts of several baseball practice sessions and games, which could be summarized in a few sentences. Second, there are so many names and relationships that after a while they become a blur. I’ve also faced this problem in some of my books, and there is no easy solution. Mentioning those people is necessary, but perhaps a few more signposts and reminders would have been good.
Overall, though, this is an excellent read, an interesting dip into history, and a necessary lesson on the trap of blindly following a leader, any leader. Those assessing today’s politicians should especially take note.
March 2, 2020
I remember when this happened – the shock of 918 lives lost, the story of a spiritual leader gone rogue. There is so much more to the story than I remembered – or perhaps I just never knew the whole story. Co-Author Judy Bebelaar was a creative writing teacher at Opportunity II High School in San Francisco, California, where many of the children of the Peoples Temple attended. Ron Cabral was also taught there, covering the subjects of Music Appreciation, Journalism, and Radio Production. Between them they have re-created the story of these vibrant, talented young people, largely in their own voices.
Things were a bit “off” from the very beginning. The students from the Peoples Temple were allowed to register en masse, which was not something that this school did. The students were good students, and very well behaved, but they were also very “closed off”, not talking a lot to the other students.
One of the important things about this book is that it is framed around the teenagers, and not around the spiritual leader, Jim Jones. We hear about Jones and his policies/actions only to the extent that they affect the teenagers.
The authors were there, teaching at the school, and knew the teenagers. They may not have known the true extent of what these kids were going through, but they knew them as human beings. In putting this book together, both memories and research came into play. They reached out, and tried to get everyone’s story to the best level that they could.
Throughout the book we see black and white photos of the students, which help the reader connect to them. Bebelaar has also included poetry from the students that help us to connect with how they see things, and how they are processing their own lives.
The afterward is quite unique, in that the author’s reached out to individuals that were mentioned in the book that lived through Jonestown, and how they reacted to the deaths.
There is also a listing of teachers and students from Opportunity II High School during this time, showing where they are now, and what they are doing.
This is a well written, well researched book. Be aware that as a reader you will be seeing the dark side of Jim Jones, and his Jonestown community. Not everyone who died wanted to die. Some just could not escape, some were too exhausted to try. The dream that drew these people together turned into their worst nightmare.
Things were a bit “off” from the very beginning. The students from the Peoples Temple were allowed to register en masse, which was not something that this school did. The students were good students, and very well behaved, but they were also very “closed off”, not talking a lot to the other students.
One of the important things about this book is that it is framed around the teenagers, and not around the spiritual leader, Jim Jones. We hear about Jones and his policies/actions only to the extent that they affect the teenagers.
The authors were there, teaching at the school, and knew the teenagers. They may not have known the true extent of what these kids were going through, but they knew them as human beings. In putting this book together, both memories and research came into play. They reached out, and tried to get everyone’s story to the best level that they could.
Throughout the book we see black and white photos of the students, which help the reader connect to them. Bebelaar has also included poetry from the students that help us to connect with how they see things, and how they are processing their own lives.
The afterward is quite unique, in that the author’s reached out to individuals that were mentioned in the book that lived through Jonestown, and how they reacted to the deaths.
There is also a listing of teachers and students from Opportunity II High School during this time, showing where they are now, and what they are doing.
This is a well written, well researched book. Be aware that as a reader you will be seeing the dark side of Jim Jones, and his Jonestown community. Not everyone who died wanted to die. Some just could not escape, some were too exhausted to try. The dream that drew these people together turned into their worst nightmare.
August 12, 2019
"And Then They Were Gone: Teenagers of Peoples Temple from High School to Jonestown (Real World)" is a rich book lovingly tended to by it’s coauthors Judy Bebelaar and Ron Cabral.
This riveting read has all the elements necessary to hold your attention and stretch you out of your comfort zone in a thoughtful compassionate manner. The two authors taught many of the Jonestown teens at an alternative high school (Opportunity School) in San Francisco in the mid-1970s. They had no idea what impending doom loomed over so many of them. As dedicated teachers they worked with, got to know, and taught and supported their students trying to bring out the best in them before they flew off to their individual life endeavors. And then there was Jonestown.
What is wonderful about this book is that it removes the myth-like quality of the horror story that Jonestown is. Even with the freakish backdrop of the Jonestown Massacre, these authors are able to convey the hopes, dreams, personalities and talents of the teens they worked with. We readers are also given the opportunity to get to know them, like them, identify with them and feel for them. What happened to these young people is truly tragic. And it’s made even more so because hope is what put them in the position to be harmed by such a sick leader (Jones) in the first place.
"And Then They Were Gone" integrates well researched history, firsthand experience, artfully written prose and a wonderful curation of the students’ works. Bebelaar was a creative writing teacher at Opportunity, so she had quite a collection of poetry and prose written by her classes to select from. The student works are excellent and impactful; they add so much to the story. Your thoughts will be provoked.
I highly recommend this book. The quality of writing and integrity of the literature come first. The shock value goes along with subject matter. The story wouldn’t be authentic if it was removed.
This riveting read has all the elements necessary to hold your attention and stretch you out of your comfort zone in a thoughtful compassionate manner. The two authors taught many of the Jonestown teens at an alternative high school (Opportunity School) in San Francisco in the mid-1970s. They had no idea what impending doom loomed over so many of them. As dedicated teachers they worked with, got to know, and taught and supported their students trying to bring out the best in them before they flew off to their individual life endeavors. And then there was Jonestown.
What is wonderful about this book is that it removes the myth-like quality of the horror story that Jonestown is. Even with the freakish backdrop of the Jonestown Massacre, these authors are able to convey the hopes, dreams, personalities and talents of the teens they worked with. We readers are also given the opportunity to get to know them, like them, identify with them and feel for them. What happened to these young people is truly tragic. And it’s made even more so because hope is what put them in the position to be harmed by such a sick leader (Jones) in the first place.
"And Then They Were Gone" integrates well researched history, firsthand experience, artfully written prose and a wonderful curation of the students’ works. Bebelaar was a creative writing teacher at Opportunity, so she had quite a collection of poetry and prose written by her classes to select from. The student works are excellent and impactful; they add so much to the story. Your thoughts will be provoked.
I highly recommend this book. The quality of writing and integrity of the literature come first. The shock value goes along with subject matter. The story wouldn’t be authentic if it was removed.
April 1, 2020
After reading this book cover to cover (including footnotes), I feel as though I have been a chrysalis all my life, but that maybe, just maybe, I still have a shot at becoming a butterfly. In November 1978, where was I? Living in Rome, Italy, studying Classics during my junior year of college. I vaguely remember the shock of Jonestown, feeling so horrified, but removed, and quickly moving on. Never stopped to ask how it could happen.
Judy Bebelaar, their highschool English teacher at the time, sheds a roving spotlight on the individual, interwoven stories of teens and their families involved in People's Temple. Their dreams and hopes and brilliant sensibilities. And how they were relentlessly manipulated, gaslighted, demeaned, abused, physically beaten and isolated, pressured beyond measure and ending up crushed inside the deadly ordeal of a meglomaniac-paranoid charismatic leader, to die far from their homelands, in Guyana.
America's west-coast politicians were also duped, or blind, didn't send help in time. There were a few survivors, the lucky ones who escaped, and salvation was in the basketball players, Jim Jones' own eldest biological son, who figures strongly in the book. Tracing their school-lives and events from San Francisco (Part I - Chapters 1-9) and in Jonestown (Part 2 - Chapters 10-16) and with an important Atermath, the book is structured to tell all. There are poems and plenty of b&w photographs, like a time-telescoped highschool yearbook.
It's a good read for our times, when cults can come in so many insidious forms-- due to, not despite --our current hyper social-connectivity. Take a deep breath, and read. Exhale. Become a butterfly. Be informed. It's the least we can do for American history these days.
Carolyn Clark, Ph.D.
Poet/ writing coach/author
Judy Bebelaar, their highschool English teacher at the time, sheds a roving spotlight on the individual, interwoven stories of teens and their families involved in People's Temple. Their dreams and hopes and brilliant sensibilities. And how they were relentlessly manipulated, gaslighted, demeaned, abused, physically beaten and isolated, pressured beyond measure and ending up crushed inside the deadly ordeal of a meglomaniac-paranoid charismatic leader, to die far from their homelands, in Guyana.
America's west-coast politicians were also duped, or blind, didn't send help in time. There were a few survivors, the lucky ones who escaped, and salvation was in the basketball players, Jim Jones' own eldest biological son, who figures strongly in the book. Tracing their school-lives and events from San Francisco (Part I - Chapters 1-9) and in Jonestown (Part 2 - Chapters 10-16) and with an important Atermath, the book is structured to tell all. There are poems and plenty of b&w photographs, like a time-telescoped highschool yearbook.
It's a good read for our times, when cults can come in so many insidious forms-- due to, not despite --our current hyper social-connectivity. Take a deep breath, and read. Exhale. Become a butterfly. Be informed. It's the least we can do for American history these days.
Carolyn Clark, Ph.D.
Poet/ writing coach/author
August 3, 2018
Judy Bebelaar and I have attended a poetry workshop for more than a decade and she brings her detailed vivid language to this tough story of the kids she and Ron Cabral taught and knew at Opportunity who died in Jonestown. Made me have a much deeper understanding of the expression drink the kool-aid. The power in the telling is using the kids own poems and writings woven in with the tragic events and really bringing out each of those young students personalities and honoring and remembering them while weaving a poignant story. It was a book that Judy and Ron had worked on for almost a decade and the care and craft is reflected and respects those who lost their lives and those who survived Jones Town.
March 6, 2025
Book (2018) #15 of my research on the Jonestown massacre of November 18, 1978. This book is about some (49) of the students who were members of the Peoples Temple church. Some were killed and some survived. As with all the books I have read on the Jonestown massacre, I try to learn something new that was not mentioned in the other 14 books. With this book I learned more about who were the temple guards, the Gang of Eight, and how Jim Jones had no interests in getting the Jonestown school accredited.
April 7, 2022
This book both broke my heart and intrigued me to read more from the survivors of this awful time. Reading this book from the view of the teachers who worked with many of the students who died in jonestown really opened my eyes to how blind people can be when it comes to cults and manipulation. It's not their fault. At all. Its the charismatic leader of the cult that was at fault. This book was eye opening and life changing.
May 19, 2024
First up, And Then They Were Gone. This one was a hard read. As a teacher and a true crime nut, this one was a hard read. The authors spent the first two-thirds of the book really letting you get to know these kids... and if you know anything at all about Jonestown, you know how their stories end. I don't know why, but the story that stuck with me the most was Mark Sly's. :( Between finishing this today and watching Jacob's Ladder last night, I am straight WALLOWING.
December 6, 2020
Difficult story
I can't recall how I came across this book or what drew me to start it,but I couldn't put it down. It's difficult to write a story when many know the ending - and the ending is so tragic.
The authors do a good job of reciting facts and keeping their opinions out, which I am sure was no small feat given their personal connection to so many who died.
I can't recall how I came across this book or what drew me to start it,but I couldn't put it down. It's difficult to write a story when many know the ending - and the ending is so tragic.
The authors do a good job of reciting facts and keeping their opinions out, which I am sure was no small feat given their personal connection to so many who died.
June 13, 2018
Authors are prolifically knowledgeable from firsthand experience with the situation. Highly recommend for those wishing to come to terms with the history of where the phrase "drinking the Koolaid" comes from.
March 21, 2021
It is good and yet left me wanting more. Still, I am glad I read it
June 5, 2021
This is a great book to read if you're interested in the events leading up to Jonestown, as well as the end of it.
July 28, 2024
Really good. Sad story but worth the read!
August 4, 2025
I dont understand how these people could remember all this detail. But that is neither here nor there. These poor damn kids.
September 3, 2025
I like how this book is not just about Jonestown or the Peoples Temple but it talks about people who were apart of it.
April 22, 2024
Unfortunately I found the first half of this book to be incredibly tedious. It's the story of a high school creative writing class and a high school baseball team recounted with dialogue that must be made up, because how would you remember who a kid said hello to when he walked into class once in 1976?
I don't care about the baseball games, who scored what run, how many games they lost and so forth. Also, sorry to say, while these kids had promise as writers, they wrote like high school kids write. They were beginning writers doing classroom exercises. The only thing that made these kids memorable was the fact they died in a mass murder two years later, and their teachers decided to cash in on this notoriety and wrote this book.
Perhaps that's a little harsh, but the teachers really didn't know these kids that well. A lot of what they put forth is speculation. Maybe X was writing about Y in this poem. We don't know for sure. If they had, say, a journal one of their students had written that had new insights into life inside the Peoples Temple that would have been much more compelling reading, than general life at this fledgling alternative school that sputtered and changed locations several times before it was abandoned by the teachers and administrators mentioned in the book.
The latter half of the book is more engaging, but it is a retelling of the Jonestown narrative just cobbled together from other sources.
The authors owe a huge debt to Stephan Jones, and I will say, every time I run across Stephan, I am just in awe of his resiliency and generosity as he continues to share his experiences. The best anecdote in the book (quoted from a story that Stephan wrote for the Alternative Considerations page) was about him dangling a friend into a latrine so they could retrieve another friend's dentures.
So, I'm tempering my initial review a bit.
I don't care about the baseball games, who scored what run, how many games they lost and so forth. Also, sorry to say, while these kids had promise as writers, they wrote like high school kids write. They were beginning writers doing classroom exercises. The only thing that made these kids memorable was the fact they died in a mass murder two years later, and their teachers decided to cash in on this notoriety and wrote this book.
Perhaps that's a little harsh, but the teachers really didn't know these kids that well. A lot of what they put forth is speculation. Maybe X was writing about Y in this poem. We don't know for sure. If they had, say, a journal one of their students had written that had new insights into life inside the Peoples Temple that would have been much more compelling reading, than general life at this fledgling alternative school that sputtered and changed locations several times before it was abandoned by the teachers and administrators mentioned in the book.
The latter half of the book is more engaging, but it is a retelling of the Jonestown narrative just cobbled together from other sources.
The authors owe a huge debt to Stephan Jones, and I will say, every time I run across Stephan, I am just in awe of his resiliency and generosity as he continues to share his experiences. The best anecdote in the book (quoted from a story that Stephan wrote for the Alternative Considerations page) was about him dangling a friend into a latrine so they could retrieve another friend's dentures.
So, I'm tempering my initial review a bit.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews