Latest news with #JonestownMassacre
The Age
21-05-2025
- The Age
Man who covertly swallowed cyanide during arrest had bought the poison online
'Phillip was a caring person who found it difficult to express himself,' she said. 'I feel these missed opportunities in his education meant he did not become the man he could have been.' Reidy used fraudulent details to buy 250 grams of sodium cyanide online from an interstate supplier in July 2023 for $153. The supplier asked him to fill out and sign a form to prove his credentials for an exemption to buy the chemical. That exemption does not exist in Victorian law. Lawrie said Reidy's form should have raised serious concerns as a 'quick internet search' showed the scientific organisation that Reidy claimed to be buying for was actually a blockchain company. The qualification section was also left incomplete. The coroner rejected the supplier's submission that it could only take the form on face value. 'The falsity of the document should have been immediately suspected, and even basic enquiries would have shown the document for what it was,' he said. Lawrie also said it was 'confounding' that Australia did not have consistent national regulations for poisons, despite having a federal poison classification scheme. After ordering the cyanide – infamously used in the Jonestown Massacre and by several prominent Nazis – Reidy told his mother about the purchase, but she did not believe him. Reidy's mental health had deteriorated when he lost money in cryptocurrency and another scam in 2021. He had also been previously arrested for domestic violence, leading him to tell him mum that he'd take his own life if she died, or if he was arrested again. Loading The month before his death, Reidy got into another argument with his partner and slapped her in the face. He later put some cyanide into a drink and threatened to consume it before his partner calmed him. On the day of his death, Reidy cut his finger as he took out the rubbish. He blamed his partner and was captured on CCTV grabbing her throat and throwing her to the floor. His partner then went to Kyneton police station to report the incident, and warned the officer taking her statement that Reidy had cyanide and had almost used it before. But the officer failed to mention this when she briefed her colleague, telling the court in a statement that she was focused on the family violence instead. When other officers went to Reidy's home later that day, they did not know about the cyanide threat. 'I conclude that this is an instance of human fallibility,' the coroner said. However, he said it was not possible to determine whether this would have caused officers to treat Reidy differently when they arrested him. Reidy's mother said her son's life was cut too short. 'I wish that his actions could have been prevented with better communication prior to his death,' Reidy's mother said. 'A child shouldn't die before his parents.'
Sydney Morning Herald
21-05-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
Man who covertly swallowed cyanide during arrest had bought the poison online
'Phillip was a caring person who found it difficult to express himself,' she said. 'I feel these missed opportunities in his education meant he did not become the man he could have been.' Reidy used fraudulent details to buy 250 grams of sodium cyanide online from an interstate supplier in July 2023 for $153. The supplier asked him to fill out and sign a form to prove his credentials for an exemption to buy the chemical. That exemption does not exist in Victorian law. Lawrie said Reidy's form should have raised serious concerns as a 'quick internet search' showed the scientific organisation that Reidy claimed to be buying for was actually a blockchain company. The qualification section was also left incomplete. The coroner rejected the supplier's submission that it could only take the form on face value. 'The falsity of the document should have been immediately suspected, and even basic enquiries would have shown the document for what it was,' he said. Lawrie also said it was 'confounding' that Australia did not have consistent national regulations for poisons, despite having a federal poison classification scheme. After ordering the cyanide – infamously used in the Jonestown Massacre and by several prominent Nazis – Reidy told his mother about the purchase, but she did not believe him. Reidy's mental health had deteriorated when he lost money in cryptocurrency and another scam in 2021. He had also been previously arrested for domestic violence, leading him to tell him mum that he'd take his own life if she died, or if he was arrested again. Loading The month before his death, Reidy got into another argument with his partner and slapped her in the face. He later put some cyanide into a drink and threatened to consume it before his partner calmed him. On the day of his death, Reidy cut his finger as he took out the rubbish. He blamed his partner and was captured on CCTV grabbing her throat and throwing her to the floor. His partner then went to Kyneton police station to report the incident, and warned the officer taking her statement that Reidy had cyanide and had almost used it before. But the officer failed to mention this when she briefed her colleague, telling the court in a statement that she was focused on the family violence instead. When other officers went to Reidy's home later that day, they did not know about the cyanide threat. 'I conclude that this is an instance of human fallibility,' the coroner said. However, he said it was not possible to determine whether this would have caused officers to treat Reidy differently when they arrested him. Reidy's mother said her son's life was cut too short. 'I wish that his actions could have been prevented with better communication prior to his death,' Reidy's mother said. 'A child shouldn't die before his parents.'
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Reports Say Bill Hader Is Developing An HBO Show About The Jonestown Massacre And I'm Very Torn Over The Idea
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. First, there was a plot point on The Studio about the Jonestown Massacre -- which you can watch with an Apple TV+ subscription, by the way. Then, an announcement that SNL vet Bill Hader is developing a TV show based on the cult. At first, my lizard brain got excited. I've been interested in cults and the Peoples Temple, in particular, for years. Then, something I heard in one of the more recent documentaries about Jonestown started creeping into my brain. Now, I'm really torn on how I feel about this possible TV show. There are tons of documentaries, podcasts, and books about cults. It's really easy to get sucked into some of the incredible stories of religion, drugs, sex, violence, and death that so often go with the largest and most notorious cults in the last couple of centuries. The Peoples Temple, the church started by Jim Jones in San Francisco in 1954, that eventually led to the mass suicide of Jones and his followers at Jonestown, Guyana in 1978, is the most notorious and the most terrifying of them all. I've read books and watched countless documentaries about Jones and his followers, some better than others, of course. For a long time, I had a morbid fascination with the cult and often used gallows humor with friends when talking about it. I even had a coffee cup with a picture of Jones on it with the words 'Drink Up' underneath it. I would laugh when I used it, and my friends, when they would see it, would also laugh. The tragedy didn't directly impact me, it happened decades ago when I was just a baby, so for me, it was more or less a cultural news event, no different than Watergate or the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Jokes were fair game. Late-night TV hosts joked about it, so could I. Hell, 'drink the Kool-Aid' has become part of the American lexicon. Here's the part where I have to point out they didn't actually use Kool-Aid for the poison-laced drinks at Jonestown; it was actually a brand called 'Flavor Aid.' As I said, there are countless documentaries about Jonestown, and last year, one of the best hit streaming. Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown, which you can watch on Hulu, is one of the most in-depth looks at the tragedy ever produced, and in particular, it has a number of interviews with survivors of the massacre and the family members of some of the people who died. In the film, they talk about how hard it is to deal with the cultural zeitgeist surrounding the church and the suicide of its members and of cult leaders in general, especially Jones, of course. It got me thinking about how I would feel if a family member of mine had been one of the victims of Jones' insanity. How would I feel every time I heard that phrase, 'drank the Kool-Aid,' knowing that my loved one had died from doing that? In short, it made me completely re-evaluate how I thought of the event. I threw the coffee mug away, and now I bristle when I hear someone joke about the events in Guyana in 1978. So that leaves me where I am today. It's not that I'm still not fascinated by cults and why people are drawn into them. I've always understood that people end up in them for many reasons, and it doesn't mean they are stupid, or gullible, or anything like that. People are people, and we can all get enamored and attached to things that aren't good for us and fall victim to cult thinking. So, do I want to see a TV show based on the events of Jonestown? Well, yeah, I do. Should I want to see it? That's a question I'm not ready to answer.
Yahoo
13-12-2024
- Politics
- Yahoo
Guyana now considering turning the site of the Jonestown massacre into a tourist attraction
Guyana government officials are now considering turning the site of the Jonestown Massacre where more than 900 died into a tourist attraction. A survivor and a woman who lost 27 family members there are critical of the proposal.
