On November 18, 1978, more than 900 people were killed in the South American country of Guyana. This event became known as the Jonestown Massacre. The 900 people were members of an American Cult called the Peoples Temple. This cult was lead by a man named Jim Jones. The murder occurred in the so called Jonestown settlement in South America. ones had founded what became the Peoples Temple in Indiana in the 1950's then relocated his congregation to California in the 1960's. Later in the 1970's, after negative media attention, the powerful, controlling preacher moved with some 1,000 of his followers to the Guyanese jungle, where he promised they would establish a Utopian community. A U.S. Representative Leo Ryan, who had gone to Jonestown to investigate claims of abuse, was murdered, along with four members of his delegation, by Jonestown gunmen. The same day of Ryan's Murder, Jones ordered a mass killing of his members, through poison Kool-aid.