Who led over 900 members of the Peoples Temple cult who committed mass suicide in Georgetown, Guyana in South America in 1978?

James Warren Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American cult leader, mass murderer and communist. Jones was ordained as a Disciples of Christ pastor, and he achieved notoriety as the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, which was often described as having cult-like qualities.

In 1978, media reports surfaced that human rights abuses were taking place in Peoples Temple's Jonestown, Guyana headquarters. United States Congressman Leo Ryan led a delegation into the commune to investigate what was going on; Ryan and others were murdered by gunfire while boarding a return flight with defectors. Jones subsequently committed a mass murder-suicide of 918 of his followers in Jonestown, Guyana. Nearly three hundred children were murdered, almost all of them by cyanide poisoning via a Flavor Aid mix. This historical episode gave rise to the ubiquitous American-English expression "drinking the Kool-Aid".

Jones started the Peoples Temple in Indiana the 1950s. He later moved the Temple to California in the mid-1960s, and gained notoriety with its activities in San Francisco in the early 1970s.