The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People

Excellent book by eye witness Tim Reitermann. I used to think Jim Jones was just crazy, but this book points out the evil in this man from a very early age. If you are at all interested in the phenomenon of The People's Temple, THIS is the definitive work. Read it.

I first heard about Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple and was just mildly interested. Then I saw the documentary and wanted to read a book. I rarely read 600 page books, but this one was incredible and an easy read. However, if you are not interested in politics and cults, it may not be for you. It is amazing how quickly the evangelical church turns into a socialist society with a ruthless dictator. Just an incredible story of American history that everyone must know about.

On November 18, 1978, over 900 souls were robbed from their lives in the jungle of Jonestown, Guyana. Thirty years later, we are still fascinated by the event. This book is the most comprehensive, complex, and complete in allowing us to understand Jim Jones' sick mind and how he began his journey into notorious infamy as a cult leader. Jim Jones was tyrannical and wouldn't stop at nothing to get his way. The author is a survivor of the shooting at the airstrip in Port Kaituma near Jonestown along with the victims of Congressman Leo Ryan who died, Patty Parks (a defector and long-time member), NBC reporters Don Harris, Robert Brown, and the photographer for the San Francisco Examiner, Greg Robinson. All senseless deaths, there were the injured including the author. As he writes in his preface, he didn't want to write a book about Jonestown unless he understood it. It would take him years as it does many of us to understand the tragedy, the horrors, and the holocaust that occurred on November 18, 1978. I assure you if you are interested in studying about Jonestown, Jim Jones, and the People's Temple. This is the book for you.
You have to realize that it's about 600 pages of solid information so you will need to time to digest the information slowly and recommend taking breaks. It's too much information to take at once.
I have covered my book with paper because I can't stand looking at Jim Jones neither but I think the book is quite fascinating especially 30 years later after the events.
There is just so much information to disclose about the life and the losses. The tragic losses of over 900 people still appears to go unnoticed with a few documentaries lately. For some reason, the misconception is that 900 crazy fanatics went to their deaths willingly. That couldn't be further from the truth. They were intimidated and paranoid. They had armed gunmen to watch over them. They were under constant surveillance by Jones and his accomplices. Oh what if it never happened! I only wished that it never did but we must remember and learn from it. A third of the victims were children and third were elderly seniors and the other third were the parents of those children and relatives. People like Fred Lewis lost 27 of this relatives on November 18, 1978 and so many others did too. Maybe the American and Guyanese governments didn't do enough to stop Jones from killing 900 people including his wife, his own children, his mistresses, and the 900 of his followers who believed they had come to the promised land only to be killed. Let's not forget Jonestown! Let's not forget the people who perished there!

This book was definitely worth the price and the time it took to read. It is pretty long in my opinion, but it contains all of the multiple complexities of Jim Jones' personality, and upbringing, so that you can certainly walk away with knowing who he is and why he did the things he did. His mother's psychosis and his father's absence in his life, seem to be the reasons why he turned out the way he did. But that is not to excuse his atrocious behavior or all of the innocent people that died that day. However, it is hard not to walk away from this book without feeling some sympathy for Jim and viewing him as a very lost soul.

Next to Michael Meier's book on Jonestown, Was Jonestown a CIA Medical Experiment?: A Review of the Evidence (Studies in American Religion, Vol 35) this book fills-in details most often overlooked about J.J. As always, there's more to the story than what it at first appears, indeed, than what we are told. Jonestown is a prime example of how religion is used as a cover for any manner of intentions, and not all good.

Furthermore, the subject of "religious brainwashing" has its roots in the Jonestown story...be aware, this is a case of brainwashing in reverse.

Hungry for Truth (still)

I was researching information about “spiritual psychopaths” for my book THE SECRET LIFE OF CAPTAIN X: MY LIFE WITH A PSYCHOPATH PILOT. I certainly found a great example in Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People. This is a riveting book and I could not put it down! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

The book was very informative about the cult that Jim Jones had. He was a monster in my opinion. He took advantage of the poor,sick,helpless people. He had them take their own lives,and if they refused they were forced to anyhow. Jim Jones was one sick man that should have lived and stood trail for all those deaths he caused.

"Raven" is, without a doubt, the seminal work on Jim Jones and Jonestown. Written by Tim Reiterman, who was injured during the massacre that killed Sen Ryan, this book is researched, factual, and fair. Anyone wanting to understand the workings of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple need only to pick up a copy of this book.

One warning. It is approximately 600 pages, and impossible to put down once you pick it up. So make sure to clear your calendar for a few days before starting it. Once read, this book will remain with you for a lifetime.

Bravo, Mr Rieterman.

Kindle Edition

Positives: A step-by-step account of the life of Jim Jones and how Peoples Temple became people's tomb. The book's power comes from the author's commitment to making it both interesting and definitive.

Negatives: At 600 pages it requires dedicated time. The book is an excellent read but the subject may not be relevant to everyone.

Overall: Buy it if you enjoy rich tales of delusion - religious and political.

Too bad this is not required reading in schools. Shows how low politicians can go. The scum in SF did all they could to protect this mass murderer and still won't acknowledgment their evil in enabling Jones.

Raven is the story of a charismatic man who, with the help of accomplices who think the ends justify the means, brainwashes a bunch of well-intentioned Christians into ruining the world around them. Rising to prominence through lies and marketing schemes, this loud-mouthed, hair-coiffed huckster became a leader of Americans. A hypocrite of the highest degree, this man's message was all projection: he disparaged homosexuals while forcing gay sex on his male constituents, talking about the evils of drink and drugs while hiding his own addiction, judging everyone except himself, and demanding loyalty from everyone around him while showing none to anyone, even his family.

And if this sounds familiar to you with regard to current events, I present an excerpt from Reiterman:
'Most significant violations of the cult borders are defections by “traitors” and investigations by the outside “enemy.” And this alarmist view is promoted by the charismatic leader who constantly asks his followers to push a juggernaut of paranoia. There are no checks on him, for he defines reality and makes all rules. His power is so institutionalized that organizational contradictions go unchallenged.'

"Reverend" Jim Jones had a sign above the stage of his pavilion in Jonestown that said "Those Who Do Not Remember the Past Are Condemned to Repeat It." As we watch Donald Trump utilize similar strategies, it's a good time to remember and revisit the strategies of Jim Jones and to educate anyone who still think they can win at 3 card monte.

(Also it's a really good book.)

I only started reading this book about two days ago. I already finished two chapters of it and so far its really interesting. The book is very long so it might be a while before I could finish it and make a good review. However I would recommend it for anyone who wants to know more about Jim Jones and The People's Temple and the event that led to their demise. It's a good read!

This was my first experience in ordering a book from the store. It arrived promptly and perfectly intact. I will definitely be using this method to order more books in the future. Thank you for your excellelnt service.
Judy

After hearing Jeff Guinn on Fresh Air a couple months ago, I read his "Road to Jonestown." Didn't think "Road" could be improved on (please see my 5-star review), but "Raven," even with minor faults, is the book to read if reading only one.

That said, "Road" is better in some ways. It gives us much more than "Raven" about Lynetta Jones, Jim Jones's mother, who must have been influential in Jones's twisted mind. "Road" helps us better appreciate the influence Jones had with San Francisco political leaders. "Road" is more concise, condensing paragraphs of "Raven" into a well-phrased sentence or two; indeed, Guinn is an excellent writer, and his book the better read.

In addition to "Road," another book to read would be Debbie Layton's "Seductive Poison." This lets us see Jones and Jonestown from inside the belly of the beast, from the perspective of a Temple member, and a highly placed one at that. Layton gives us many pages detailing her escape from Jonestown, showing us how hard, how dangerous, it was. She helps us see why so few succeeded.

The fourth book on Jonestown I've read in the past couple months is Timothy Stoen's "Love Them to Death: At War with the Devil at Jonestown," but I can't recommend it. Please see my 2-star review for reasons why.

And the most recent book I've read -- indeed the last, as I now think I've come to understand what happened and why -- is "A Thousand Lives," by Julia Scheeres. Maybe the best book of the five about Jonestown itself, so go to "Road" and "Raven" for Jim Jones, but "Lives" for the catastrophe of Jonestown.

My minor complaints about "Raven" mostly have to do with the author's description of November 18th (the day of the murders in Guyana). He gives us more detail than we (OK, I) want. But he was there, in fact, was shot by the same guns that killed Congressman Ryan and four others. It's understandable for him to tell us everything about his escape and the nervous night waiting for help. But another author -- as Guinn in fact did -- would have condensed the report and put the attention to what was happening around Jim Jones at that time -- as Scheeres did.

So the fault of "Raven" -- too much detail -- is in the end why it's better than "Road." (If nothing else, it's about 150 pages longer, has nine more lines per page, and uses smaller font.) Some benighted reviewers have complained that "Raven" is too long. Not me. Even when I might complain about it, I'm grateful to the author as he lets us sieve out what's not important.

Not addressed by Guinn in his 2016 "Road" was what later happened to those who swallowed Jim Jones's figurative koolaid, those committed socialists and integrationists who thought Jones almost a god, but who didn't die at Jonestown. Reiterman does give us a little of this, but his book was published in 1982, just a few years after November 18, 1978. I'm so curious what happened to those, both the small number of defectors and the hundreds still loyal to Peoples Temple in California, after the catastrophe of Jonestown. How did people deprogram? Are there some who never did? (Like Michael Prokes, who committed suicide four months after November 18th.) Do some feel guilt over their actions, and if so, are they perhaps involved in stopping other cults like Scientology? Question after question on the after-effects of this evil madman's power over so many.

Again, all we need to read is Reiterman. If we're obsessed, as I might be, we read Guinn, Layton, Scheeres and Reiterman, probably in that order.

We should also go to the website "Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple." It's one we can stay lost in for months (at the risk of madness, I fear), but should be visited at least once.

Also necessary -- to putting faces to names if nothing else, but more, to grasp a sense of the loss of life on November 18, 1978 -- is the documentary "Jonestown: the Life and Death of Peoples Temple" (PBS, American Experience, 2007). In only a couple hours, to include the valuable additional features, it cannot possibly include all the facts in the books, but it is imperative viewing, reminding us that a picture can indeed be worth a thousand words.

Tim Reiterman was a journalist at a San Francisco newspaper. It was his job to be at Jonestown on November 18, his job to write this book about Jim Jones. Still, he deserves our gratitude and kudos for doing it so well.

This book is amazing. It's well-written, thorough, and has buckets of citations to support what it claims. Great. I give the content five stars.

Unfortunately, the Kindle edition is lousy. The chapter advance feature doesn't work. Neither does the index, which is just a long list of items in the book with no links and no location numbers. So you can page through the index but you can't get to anything. This means that navigating through the book is kind of a pain.

Publishers charge a lot for Kindle books, and they ought to at least have someone check them to make sure that they work properly.

As a chronicle of Jones and People's Temple, this is certainly the best book. It would seem every relationship and contact is explored and analyzed. We come to know the Rev. very well. Too well, perhaps. Nothing is too minor or inconsequential to be included. And don't get me wrong much is quite interesting. I was intrigued to learn, for instance, that in November of 78 Marceline's parents came to Jonestown for a first visit. They left a few days before the carnage.

At the same time such a thorough book also has its problems. The heavy attention to minor detail makes this less interesting than might be the case. And while good, description of the massacre itself was not given full justice. Reiterman eschews description of life in Jonestown in favor of political meetings and contests, making things even less interesting. Others may disagree. Still an essential investigation into the workings of madness.

DO NOT READ. THIS STORY GETS INTO YOU. to rephrase a scene from an old movie "Star Chamber":
"If you know nothing about Jonestown you're as pure as the driven snow; which is what you want to be. If you read this book you will lose that. Forever."

Overly dramatic? Not even close. This book haunts, angers, saddens and rips your heart out. To get the full effect research all the online photos, tapes, unedited NBC archive footage on PT. Disturbing, Unforgettable Loss of Innocence

This is undoubtedly the seminal account of the Jonestown disaster, written by reporter Tim Reiterman, who survived the air strip shooting which preceded the mass suicide. The level of detail provided as to the inner workings of the People's Temple and the backgrounds and personalities of the folks who comprised Jones' inner circle is truly extraordinary. I am truly impressed with the amount of time and effort that clearly went into researching this book.

As for criticisms, I only have only one. The author does not discuss, except in passing, the overall political and religious climate on the 60s and 70s that would help an organization like the People's Temple flourish. That was certainly unnecessary for early readers of this book, who would have lived through such events. But I was born after this time and am reading the book decades later, and one of the things I had expected was for the book to explain why and how radical religious, social, and political groups operated and flourished in a general sense during that time period, and how this made it easier for a man like Jones to create the movement he did.

This book is very compassionate towards almost anyone aside from Jones, I feel too much so. Certainly his inner circle, both those who defected (like Tim Stoen) and those who stayed (like Jones' wife), bear a large part of the responsibility for what happened. They were completely aware of the deceptions, trickery, and abuse used by Jones to build and consolidate his power, and yet they still helped him do so with no more than occasional weak protestations against the worst instances of abuse. While it is true that Stoen turned against him very publicly later in life, which may redeem him in part, I still don't think it excuses the years he spent helping Jones deceive and abuse others. It isn't clear to me why Stoen was never prosecuted nor lost his law license.

I highly recommend this book for anyone with an interest in religious/political cults in general, or Jonestown specifically. But don't read this book expecting to get a sense of closure and true understanding. After reading detailed accounts of Jones' writings, tactics, and speeches, even in the early years, he never comes across as anything but a bitter, deranged lunatic to me. He is not erudite, he talks in a very unintelligent and crude manner. Even after 600+ pages, I still am left wondering, how did so many people give themselves over to such a pathetic, repugnant man?

It may be hundreds of pages, but when "Raven" ends, I guarantee you will be hungry for even more.

Reiterman does an amazing job in telling the complete story of Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple and its eventual demise at Jonestown. His reporting is unsurpassed - this has become especially apparent over the years as new works come out that add little to what he's already covered. Reiterman puts you smack in the middle of the story and it's almost unnerving, it's so powerful.

He also has the edge in many non-autobiographical after-the-fact works in that in the last third, he himself becomes part of the story. You'll be holding your breath until the very end at that point.

"Raven" also helps you understand cults better. You'll find yourself recognizing its lessons in current events of today.

If you want to begin to understand how Jonestown happened and how cults in general get started, read this book. Will you GET Jim Jones? No. I don't think anyone ever fully will.

Read this. You won't regret it.

"Raven" is the most complete history of the dawning, life and death of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple movement that you will ever read. The author, journalist Tim Reiterman, is part of the story. He knew Jones and many others who died in Guyana on Nov. 18, 1978; he traveled to Guyana with Congressman Ryan, and barely escaped with his own life.

How did Jones transform from a small-town preacher and itinerant monkey salesman into the all-powerful despot of a fiefdom in the jungles of South America? How could he convince so many good and intelligent people, people of faith, that the only true reality was one defined by him and that he alone was greater than Christ and God?

"Jones was not a good man gone bad, as many believed. The seeds of madness, violence and cruelty had grown in him" since the very beginning. In the course of "Raven" you will get to know Jones,as well as someone like him could ever be known. You will meet the blacks and whites who helped build the movement, some of whom eventually turn against Jones. Central among these is his own son Stephan, who once loved Jonestown and grew to despise his father as the mad tyrant who destroyed all the ideals the Temple stood for, and his wife Marceline, who endured brokenhearted years of betrayal and whose quiet defiance of her husband helped saved lives.

Had Stephan and Marceline Jones openly opposed Jim, could they have saved Peoples Temple? This is a question Reiterman hints at but is never able to answer.

Definitely the most detailed account of the tragedy. Reiterman traces the earliest manifestations of Jones' paranoia and megalomania with example after example from people who were there as he (Jones ) grew from boy to man. That Reiterman was following Peoples Temple as a journalist after the temple's ascendancy in San Francisco lends compelling weight to his work. And of course, he was on the ground, at the temple's end, in Guyana. Even if later generations never make sense out of this tragedy, this book is a must have if some grasp of it can be achieved.

Journalist Tim Reiterman lived in the nightmare of the final days of the Peoples Temple in Jonestown, Guyana, and was lucky not to be murdered in November 1978 on a small airstrip by the security guards of the Rev. Jim Jones.

Reiterman was one of the reporters to travel in the delegation led by U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan due to concerns expressed by family members that their loved ones were being held against their will in Jonestown. In the ambush that occurred as the delegation was preparing to leave, Ryan and several others were killed, while some - including Reiterman - were wounded and essentially left to die. The culmination of the attack spurred the Rev. Jones in facilitating a mass murder/suicide by cyanide poisoning of more than 900 followers, with Jones dying of a gunshot wound to the head.

In this definitive account of the Rev. Jones and the People Temple, Reiterman utilizes exhaustive research and interviews to provide an understanding of the leader who had humble beginnings in Crete, Indiana, and his early work on integration issues and the founding of his own church. But through his good works, something terrible was building up inside the Rev. Jones.

Reiterman became involved in the Peoples Temple story as a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner. He covered the mysterious local death of a member, which drew public protests by church members. The deceased had been a student of Rep. Ryan's when he taught high school, which then drew his interest into the operations of the church and led to his traveling to Guyana on the fact-finding mission.

The story is as disturbing now as it was 30 years ago and this powerful and moving account tells the tale that ended in "revolutionary suicide" (murder) of children, women and men who were looking for peace and found a nightmare of madness.

Reporter Tim Reiterman was one of the people who managed to survive the Poart Kaituma shootings that claimed the life of Congressman Leo Ryan and so many others. It is perhaps understandable why he wished to write about the man who connived at his murder in his own search for "understanding" Jim Jones and his People's Temple Agricultural Project, the location of what would come to be called "The Jonestown Massacre."

Reiterman barely knew Jones, only introduced to him the one time the day prior to the dreadful slaughter. So, everything he writes about Jones is second-hand information, but second hand information expertly corroborated by the extensive "paper trail" the People's Temple left behind in the many years of its existence from California to the middle of "God's Own Nowhere" in western Guyana. Further, with Jones' death, still something of a mystery after all of these years, former members of the People's Temple and the handful of Jonestown survivors, including Jim Jones' own son, talked. And while there is no universal agreement on minor details as will always be the case with such events, the broad outlines of the story are firmly grounded by Reiterman's completely professional and praiseworthy detached fact and cross-checking. Had I been in Reiterman's shoes, I am not sure I could have achieved the calm dispassion that makes "Raven" such a credible analysis. And the picture that emerges in the six-hundred terrifying pages of this book is a story of sociopathic, narcissistic madness ensnaring not only Jones but the poor people he resolved to take with him on his macabre odyssey, his "death trip."

But, Reiterman's dispassionate reporting does not obscure in the slightest the men, women, and children of the PTAP. They come across as human beings who, in search of a better life for themselves, followed a man they trusted into the green hell of the jungles. And through Jones' systemic terror and ham-handed - but effective - "brainwashing" techniques, they became shadows of what they were, but in far too many instances hardly the "brainless zombies" described in mass media. Reiterman's humanization of these lost souls so easily dismissed as zany, addled fools is a work of redemptive power. Plain and simple, they were victims undeserving of their horrid and outre endings, an ending Reiterman almost shared.

This is not a lurid, red-covered "true crime" penny dreadful, but a serious work of investigative journalism. It is likely the closest we will ever come to comprehending the "why" of Jonestown, assuming for a moment that such a thing is even possible.

Recommended, but on the understanding that this work is distressing and profoundly sad. Not for the faint of heart.

manipulate others. I had read elsewhere that he began preaching liberation theology, the idea of Jesus as Karl Marx and later became an atheist, but Reiterman describes Jones as an atheist and communist by the time he reached adulthood and before he became a preacher.

It's just harder to sell communism than Christianity.

Wow, was this a well-researched and detailed book. It took me forever to read it and I wasn't wild about the occasional language and sexual details, but overall it was interesting, eye-opening and tragic. I'll never understand how people allowed a psychopathic madman to manipulate and control their lives to such an extent. What a waste.

This book is definitely a masterpiece, it's full of informations, stories about innocent victims of a manipulator, it's full of insights, it makes you feel like being there with them, seing them with your eyes, hearing their voices. I've read this one after Layton's Seductive Poison, I thought that book to be a very good one, now I can see how her book is full of omissis, she hasn't described some people, the ones near her, how they were and acted, in a word she has cleaned their acts and images, their cruelty, depicting them in a different way than how they're described here, thanks to testimonials and records they've used.

This book is incredible. The story is tells is absolutely true, but occasionally unbelievable. I did, once or twice, feel like I had to stop reading because I was mentally out-of-breath from the breakneck pace, once things started to fall apart for the Peoples Temple.

The writers absolutely did their work. Everything is meticulously researched, each step outlined for you from Jones' childhood disturbances (his attempts to coerce or threaten childhood friends) into the derangement that marked his last few months of life.

This book is horrifying, in the absolute best way. I won't say it reads like fiction, because that would be to lessen the quality of the writing. It does not read like fiction, but the facts and story it is telling mean it's hard to look away, even as it is profoundly disturbing and you wish you could.

I read this book in a week. I read it when I had downtime at work, I read it at home in the evenings, I read it on my days off. I read like I was racing myself to the end, and there were definitely times, especially in the last half of the book, where I would read a paragraph and then have to step away - make dinner, make a drink, just exist away from that book for a while. Reiterman, et al do a fantastic job of showing you exactly how many good people doing nothing it takes to let a maniac murder 900 people.

They also do a wonderful job of getting inside the heads of the -followers- of the Peoples Temple - you see exactly how intelligent, educated young and old people found themselves swept up in this, how so many of them became such true believers. And it lays bare the myths that persist on pop culture.

Absolutely incredible book.

I was 13 years old when this horrific event happened yet I remember it like it was yesterday. I am born and partially raised in Oakland, and I was told by an uncle that we had distant relatives that perished in Jonestown. In any case, I had never heard of this book Raven until recently. Oh my god! I received the book around 8 p.m. via UPS. I opened it, started reading, and could not put it down until 5 am the next morn. I finished the book in 2 days. An absolutely horrific story, written by an exceptional journalist Tim Reiterman. If you have the stomach to learn how JJ manipulated average American's into taking their own lives(all of the children, and some adults were murdered), read this book. It's heartbreaking....

Like many of you checking this book out, I recently took an interest on Jonestown; the weight of faith and where it can lead, the idealism of a really bad person masked with the best of intentions. There really is a lot about Peoples' Temple, their journey, and Rev. Jim Jones that are too often skimmed over, ignored, and more often than not, ridiculed.

I've read "A Thousand Lives" by Julia Scheeres, "Six Years With God" by Jeanne Mills, "Dear People" by Denice Stephenson, and "Slavery of Faith" by Leslie Wagner-Wilson--many of which are accounts of a Jonestown survivors, and while these are great, exceptional reads, I have not found to date a more complete detailing of facts as in Reiterman's novel. It begins with Jim's infancy, going into eerie details about his childhood, his early interest in Socialism, his involvement in the church of Indiana, his travels to South America, the transition of the church to San Francisco and ultimately the final journey to Jonestown. This is a long book, but don't think for a minute it will bore you. The detailing of the full timeline is so precise and clear, it will chill you. All facts are substantiated by former People's Temple members, Jonestown survivors, Jim's childhood acquaintances, to Tim Reiterman's first-account witness, to Jim's inner-circle, including his own son.

This book will stay with you. While memoirs reflect personal opinions, this recounting will take you down the facts one by one, and with each new circumstance it will allow you to conclude your own personal analysis. The fact that the book was written only a few years after the tragedy in Guyana, instills Reiterman's need to publish the full story, as quickly as his memory allowed, in all its excruciating glory. I would probably call this book the encyclopedia to Jonestown. If you are as engrossed as I was by the tale, the heartless kool-aid jokes, this book will fully fulfill your curiosity, and once you've finished, I warn you that you may never think of Jonestown the same way again.

I believe their sole wish was to be remembered as faithful people, good-hearted folk that wanted to live communally, as socialists, in a world they created--quite literally--from scratch, immune to prejudice and elitism. It is a great shame that Jim would decide to not only end such a powerful movement, but to take it with him, to the depths of whichever hell or heaven he thought he was entitled to. This book has changed my life. When was the last time you said that?

To all who lost their lives, whether they gave them over or were forced to; by means of a contaminated syringe, or at the end of an extremely humble and suffered life, may you finally find yourself at peace.

I'd also like to include a link to a site that I visited often as I read along to help put a face to the characters. It was with extreme sadness that I found most of them amongst the list of the dead. Here you will find transcripts and audio footage from Jonestown released to the public from the FBI, as well as many very good articles from survivors. [link in comment section]

Updated review:

Though a fairly good book, I wouldn't go as far to say is gospel.
Reiterman didn't know Jones on a personal level. They met for the first time a few days before the massacre only making small talk.
Much of what is told in this book probably comes from relatives, ex members and defectors: non of which truly understood or knew the workings of Jones' mind.
Many of his members and even inner circle did not have a close personal relationship with him. They had all been manipulated by a true master and their stories are unique.
When reading other books about Jones and the Temple, I get several different sides and interpretations of the exact same events. This book will say one thing and then you go on to read other books and they tell you something else.
One thing we all know for certain is that a thousand people lost their lives on that day and Jones is responsible.
Peoples Temple appears to have been a political, almost atheistic, information gathering organization to say the least.
I do agree with the other reviewer though in that this is a story that will remain with you a lifetime. Much of it is due to the extraordinary, larger than life split-personality of Jones himself.
I wish that before he died he would've written an autobiography of himself or left writings about what he was thinking and feeling. That way we could've gleened more into his psyche and why he felt this had to happen.

If you want a sublimely detailed account of the development of a psychotic, irreverent, maniac, then RAVEN is definitely the perfect book. No other book written about Jim Jones is more accurate or definitive.

The book is a must have for anyone who is even remotely interested in the tragedy of Jonestown. November 18, 1978 will live forever in infamy. This book underscores the reason why.

I COULD NOT PUT THIS BOOK DOWN!!!

Well written, unbiased account of the Jonestown Massacre by someone who was there when it happened, and knows how to write. I was wide awake for the last 300pp sacrificing sleep just to get to the end of it. It helps explain how and why 912 innocent people died at the instruction of their leader, Jim Jones.