∎ Read Gratis Jonestown Survivor An Insider Look Laura Johnston Kohl 9781450220941 Books

Jonestown Survivor An Insider Look Laura Johnston Kohl 9781450220941 Books

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Jonestown Survivor An Insider Look Laura Johnston Kohl 9781450220941 Books

I enjoyed Lauras book, but as was stated before, she waxes over the negatives and goes to positive. She needed to belong, hence her association with The Black Panthers, Jonestown, and then Synanon. Now she is a member of The Quakers but is an atheist!?

I'm coming from a different perspective because I interviewed Laura on my podcast. She is a lovely woman but when I asked about the White Nights and beatings, she basically said nothing. When asked her about the poor people drinking the poison at gunpoint she said the gunmen were all there friends. Geez..I don't know about that one. She then told me the gunmen killed themselves. Maybe one did but the majority did not. Thats where you get the eyewitness reports on what went down that day. Laura also lived in Georgetown, Guyana most of the time and was not subjected to all the horror the others went through on a daily basis. She lived in a home with others and had comfortable amenities, like a shower and toilet bowl. I imagine her food was much better then what the people in the jungle got. Laura was sent back to jonestown to be punished because one of her roommates told jim Jones she had spent the night away with a date. They were spied on constantly. He punishment sounded pretty crappy to me, but she thought of the beautiful greens they picked and they would hold them on big bowls on top of her head. After her punishment was over she got to go back to Georgetown. She was happy to be out of there. She did not live the day in and day out misery of Jonestown.

I asked her why, on the day of the suicides she did not kill herself, as ordered by Jones via two way radio. She said his son came in and said enough. Lucky she had a choice where her friends did not. She was an interesting guest and certainly not a malicious person. Just trusting and naive. I don't understand the cult mentality.

I did enjoy her book, but as others said, not much on Jonestown. Perhaps because she was mainly in Georgetown.


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Jonestown Survivor An Insider Look Laura Johnston Kohl 9781450220941 Books Reviews

Ms. Kohl has written of her experiences as a member of the Peoples Temple and Synanon; however, there is nothing new to be learned about either organization in this book. What is surprising about this book as compared to books and articles written by other survivors is how vastly different Ms. Kohl's memories are. Indeed, Ms. Kohl obviously considers her years with Peoples Temple and Synanon to have been happy and fulfilling, and the whole point of the book seems to be presenting both Peoples Temple and Synanon in a highly favorable light. Even allowing for the fact that Ms. Kohl may simply have chosen to concentrate on the positive rather than the negative, one wonders how her recollections are poles apart from other survivors.
I have studied Jonestown and Peoples Temple extensively and there are very few accounts that can be found to synchronize with the official record and also add the missing human touch to the tragedy. Laura Kohl's book has just such touch. The vast majority of the books on the subject, or at least those written from a first person perspective, were written within weeks or months of the tragedy. Some, like Seductive Poison A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the People's Temple, were written decades later, but what makes this book stand out an unlike the previous books is that Jim Jones is not a central figure in the story. The focus is the people who were a part of the temple. Laura's account, although very personal, is also rather revealing. It's not a story of mass-murder nor is it a torrid account of the abuse reported in Peoples Temple. It is, for lack of a better word, an apologetic. It is an account from someone that truly believed in the message of social equality, a message that resonated with many early members who joined Jones' congregation in the turbulent waning years of the 1960s; however, this does not minimize the book's content or worth. Laura Kohl's account provides a valuable insight into the daily workings of Peoples Temple by someone who did not have a high position within the organization--something missing from the historical record. Laura has presented a mature look back at Peoples Temple without presenting a defense for the actions of Jim Jones. Her account is hers and hers alone. Where some details may have been lost over the decades that it took to write this book, there are new elements that provide an alternate view of Peoples Temple. We may forget that Jim Jones started as social visionary only because the end of his experiment eclipses our memories, yet Laura's book brings back the memories of those who were a part of that experiment. Her book reminds us that the people who died in Guyana were friends, family and loved ones. I had the sense that it was cathartic "goodbye" to friends lost lest we forget that those lost in jungle were people just like us. Laura's book serves the memory of her friends well. I think they would be proud of her. It is a welcome addition to literature on Peoples Temple.
I enjoyed Lauras book, but as was stated before, she waxes over the negatives and goes to positive. She needed to belong, hence her association with The Black Panthers, Jonestown, and then Synanon. Now she is a member of The Quakers but is an atheist!?

I'm coming from a different perspective because I interviewed Laura on my podcast. She is a lovely woman but when I asked about the White Nights and beatings, she basically said nothing. When asked her about the poor people drinking the poison at gunpoint she said the gunmen were all there friends. Geez..I don't know about that one. She then told me the gunmen killed themselves. Maybe one did but the majority did not. Thats where you get the eyewitness reports on what went down that day. Laura also lived in Georgetown, Guyana most of the time and was not subjected to all the horror the others went through on a daily basis. She lived in a home with others and had comfortable amenities, like a shower and toilet bowl. I imagine her food was much better then what the people in the jungle got. Laura was sent back to jonestown to be punished because one of her roommates told jim Jones she had spent the night away with a date. They were spied on constantly. He punishment sounded pretty crappy to me, but she thought of the beautiful greens they picked and they would hold them on big bowls on top of her head. After her punishment was over she got to go back to Georgetown. She was happy to be out of there. She did not live the day in and day out misery of Jonestown.

I asked her why, on the day of the suicides she did not kill herself, as ordered by Jones via two way radio. She said his son came in and said enough. Lucky she had a choice where her friends did not. She was an interesting guest and certainly not a malicious person. Just trusting and naive. I don't understand the cult mentality.

I did enjoy her book, but as others said, not much on Jonestown. Perhaps because she was mainly in Georgetown.