Jonestown Survivor: An Insider's Look

By: Laura Johnston Kohl

Narrated by: Sarah Van Sweden

Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Laura Johnston Kohl was born in Washington, D.C., and was a teen activist working to integrate public facilities in the Washington, D.C., area. She actively fought for civil rights and free speech, and against the Vietnam War throughout the 1960s. She was devastated by the murders of her leaders in the 1960s - John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers. She worked with the Black Panthers and attended Woodstock. After trying to effect change single-handedly, she found she needed more hands. She joined Peoples Temple in 1970, living and working in the progressive religious movement in both California and Guyana. A fluke saved her from the mass murders and suicides on November 18, 1978, when 913 of her beloved friends died in Jonestown.

Soon after this, Synanon, a residential community, helped her gradually affirm life. She lived in Synanon for the next decade. In 1991, she got to work, finished her studies, and became a public school teacher. On the 20th anniversary of the deaths of her wonderful friends and adopted family in Jonestown, she looked up fellow survivors of the Jonestown tragedy. Since then, they have worked to put the jigsaw puzzle together that was Peoples Temple. Her perspective has evolved as new facts have cleared up mysteries and she has had time to reflect. Her mission continues to be to acknowledge, write about, and speak about why the members joined Peoples Temple, why they went to Guyana, and who they were.

She lives with her family in San Diego. She is working on her second book, Collateral Damage, about the surviving victims of the Jonestown catastrophe - to be published in 2018.

©2010 Laura Johnston Kohl (P)2017 Laura Johnston Kohl

Not what I imagined

Struggled to finish it, I agree with most of what she is saying about loving different cultures .I also grew up not being racist. But I didn't get any insight on what makes people follow any cults . I just don't see myself in that situation ever. I can distinguish right from wrong, by following christ's teachings. I also do not join any religious groups. I do attend some churches that are Bible based and follow Christ teachings. Sometimes I don't agree with everything. I am a free spirit and know in my heart who helped through difficult times. I also learned that I can be happy by myself without having constantly other people around. I do believe in Heaven and Hell as much as I believe there is good and evil. And no not all people are mentally ill, if they plan and can influence masses, they are actually kind of smart in an evil manner.

Important story, poor narration

It’s such a pity that this delicate story is spoiled by stilted, ineptly emphatic narration and clunky editing glitches.

Oblivious! I want my money back.

I could only get through the first few chapters before I realized this woman is hopelessly in denial and clueless as to what happened in this cult.

I could not get past the 4th chapter. I didn't even get to the part about Jim pointing a gun at her for falling asleep, but I saw an interview on YouTube with her talking about it, and she was totally unphased by it, and didn't believe he would do it. Whether she thought he would or wouldn't, the fact that he pointed a gun at her face would've been enough for me to get the hell out of there, and fast. I tried skipping ahead a few chapters, but it was more of the same cluelessness of how wonderful Gayana was and continued to turn my stomach.

It's very disturbing to listen to her account. It's people like this who really scare me. A total follower and someone who cannot think for themselves. And the people who called this book a beautiful story or simply "another point of view they found interesting", it is a total slap in the face to the hundreds of people who were abused, brainwashed, tortured and eventually murdered by a maniacal psychopath.

Wish I had read the reviews before buying this audiobook, I would never have purchased it.