Skip to content

Jackie Speier Hears Uncovered Jonestown Tape For the First Time

By Thomas McKinless and Mark Stricherz

[jwp-video n=”1″]

Forty years ago Sunday, a young Jackie Speier was shot and left for dead on an airstrip in Guyana, after helping her boss — Rep. Leo Ryan — rescue 25 cult members from a deadly cult commune known as Jonestown. Ryan was shot and killed that day, shortly before more than 900 members of the commune died of a mass suicide and murder. Speier, who has been a member of Congress from California since 2008, joined Roll Call to listen to recently uncovered audio of an interview her former boss conducted with a cult escapee, just months before Ryan was killed in the so-called Jonestown massacre. .

Recent Stories

Funding extension passes House, heads for Senate rewrite

Can the GOP trifecta meet their ‘mandate’ moment?

Which direction is Trump’s job approval rating headed?

For Darline Graham, winning Trump’s endorsement may be the easy part

Louisiana’s Cleo Fields forgoes reelection after redistricting eliminated his seat

Republicans in Congress probe history museum, echoing Trump