I had the opportunity to hear Laura J. Kohl speak at an Osher* educational event. She spoke about her experience with the Peoples Temple and Jim Jones. November 18, 2018 will mark the fortieth anniversary of the ‘revolutionary suicide’ that killed over 900 of her friends.
By a twist of fate, she was not at the Jonestown compound when the event happened. She and others were at another facility located in Georgetown, the capitol of Guyana. I won’t reiterate what happened at the compound as the news did their job. What drew me to this lecture? Like listening to the survivors of Holocaust or the rescued Chilean miners, I wondered, how does someone go on after such a tragedy?
Laura J. Kohl was thirty one in 1978. Now, she is a retired teacher with a voice that commands your attention. Many times she teared up as she recounted her story. Back in the 60’s and 70’s, she was a young woman looking for a way to make the world a better place. In San Francisco, she was introduced to Jim Jones. His inclusive message appealed to her. He brought diverse groups of people together to show the world the model of a promised land. She said Jim Jones offered a clean, pure way of life. He was a ‘collector of people,’ and he made a point to know each member personally.
Life on the compound, set in a tropical country, was unpredictable and exciting. Ms. Kohl said she’d still be there today if weren’t for the events of November 18, 1978. When the US relocated the survivors back to the US, she felt lost. No one could understand what she went through. It was an extremely difficult time for her.
She made her way back to San Francisco and heard about Synanon. Synanon was a controversial residential facility that helped addicts stop using and live in a community that was clean and drug free. Synanon was also another form of communal living that provided Ms. Kohl with ‘a cocoon to hide in for a while…I wasn’t scared off by the controversial group…I was beyond fearing for my safety.’ Ms. Kohl lived there for ten years. During that time she finished her degree, got married, and started a family.
Ms. Kohl still felt she had to piece together what happened. She reconnected with other survivors at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, California for the 20th anniversary of the Jonestown suicides. ‘When I went … I saw people that I thought were dead. We were all together and realized we had so much in common and so much love, we didn’t want to lose each other again… it was probably the most significant change since I’ve been back.’
Of course, I was fascinated as to why the survivors met at Evergreen Cemetery. Over 400 bodies were not claimed from Dover Airforce base in Delaware. Evergreen Cemetery accepted the bodies and built a mass grave for those victims. In addition to the simple tombstone, a wall has been added with the names of all the victims.
My question was answered. People heal from tragedies in different ways. For Ms. Kohl, it was reuniting with survivors who could identify with her hardships.
*I attended this class through Cal State San Marcos and their Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. For more info, go to this link: https://www.csusm.edu/el/olli/
