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Last updated on Wednesday, November 19, 2008
(INDIANAPOLIS) - It was 30 years ago Tuesday that a former Indianapolis pastor led more than 900 people to their deaths in a cult massacre.
On November 18, 1978, members of Jim Jones' Peoples Temple perished in the forced suicide/mass murder in Jonestown, Guyana.
Jones was born in Randolph County. He attended Indiana University and graduated from Butler in 1962. Indianapolis resident Gene Cordell used to be friends with Jim Jones.
He began attending Jones' Methodist Church in 1953, but walked away from Jones' congregation after the Peoples' Temple leader took a trip to Philadelphia. Cordell says Jones changed after the trip.
Cordell lost twenty family members in the Jonestown massacre, including his aunt and sister.
Cordell was not shocked when he heard his family had died because he claims Jones had rehearsed such a mass suicide on numerous occasions.
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