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When 914 members of Peoples Temple and four visiting Americans died in Guyana, South America on November 18, 1978, Laura Johnston Kohl survived. She was one of 87 who lived through the trauma.
Laura moved into Peoples Temple in California in 1970, and was an active and enthusiastic member until the day it ended. She moved to Guyana in March 1977. She frequently traveled between Georgetown and Jonestown, a 24-hour boat ride, but moved into Jonestown in early 1978. Laura's survival was a fluke.
It took twenty years for Laura to rebuild her life and have the determination to research how this tragedy could have happened. She reunited with many of the other survivors to put the puzzle pieces together and to get some understanding. It took her another ten years to write her autobiography about her whole live.
Today, Laura has frequent contact with her fellow survivors, and she is a parent, a Quaker, an activist, a public speaker, and a teacher. She travels around the country speaking about Jonestown, History in the 1960s and 1970s, cult psychology, and survival. She recently presented a Book Talk in Mexico City, in Spanish.
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