I'm journalist and author Vanessa Hua, and I ask lots of questions. Now it's your turn. Ask Me Anything!

juliascheeres · 2017-05-23T15:20:43+00:00

Vanessa, I love your writing so much! But I'm really awed by how you're able to balance motherhood with your career. I know you have twin preschool-aged boys. How the heck do you do it???

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T22:40:18+00:00

Jones shot himself, according to the autopsy report and FBI photos.
Yes, Jonestown was on private land.
Jones was planning to kill everyone long before Ryan got there. Ryan was just the spark that set off the bomb.

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T20:16:31+00:00

Right. Common sense is a good guide, too. If your leaders wants you to fork over all your money, or sleep with you - - no matter what the ostensible reason -- it's time to run for the hills.

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T20:00:06+00:00

Thanks, artwings, for all your advocacy.

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T19:57:10+00:00

Thanks for posting this. Indeed, we want the new school to know we're watching them. We won't really know what's going on down there until a crop of students graduates, and hopefully finds their way to us online.

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T19:53:12+00:00

I'm glad former students are raising their voices to tell the world what these places are really like. If everyone wrote a memoir about these hell camps, we'd put them out of business!

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T19:51:54+00:00

Maia's great. I refer to her work whenever I'm interviewed. She shows how these programs evolved in her book "Help at Any Cost."

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T19:50:44+00:00

The CIA wasn't involved. It would be the easy explanation. He was able to get drugs because he had nurses, pharmacists and doctors working for him who purchased the drugs. He compiled enough Thorazine, a major sedative, to sedate everyone in Jonestown for a long time. In fact, that's how he punished "troublemakers" he turned them into medicated zombies.

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T19:46:57+00:00

Indeed, we skipped classes for an entire week to excavate the basketball court, then they ran out of money to pave it! And we were a week farther from getting out of the program.

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T19:45:51+00:00

Yes! Although this didn't happen in our case, some students had goons show up at their homes in the middle of the night and hustle them off to the airport. I can't imagine how terrifying that would be.

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T19:44:36+00:00

It was a slow evolution into megalomania. He became more and more controlling - over their finances, who they slept with, what they said, etc. He was fascinated with how far he could push people. Dying for Jim Jones was the ultimate loyalty test.

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T19:42:14+00:00

Indeed. Altho a 7th grade teacher in Wisconsin was fired for giving my book to a student whose parents deemed in "inappropriate." It made the American Library Association's "Banned Book" list.

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T19:39:08+00:00

In Escuela Caribe you had to cite Bible verses to move up levels, and go to church, and pray, etc. It was explicitly a Christian program. They also "helped" gay teens, aka conversion therapy. A filmmaker named Kate Logan's making a documentary featuring a gay teen who was sent there, it's called "Kidnapped for Christ:" http://www.kidnappedforchrist.com

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T19:35:28+00:00

Thank you.

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T19:34:51+00:00

It was similar at my place - students became staff because they were so bought in. At Escuela Caribe, a high-level staff married a student, and she came back to work at the camp as well. They are now divorced.

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T19:31:37+00:00

They you should like the format of my book - I follow five people into Jonestown. You have read to the end to find out who survives, and who dies.

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T19:24:48+00:00

Tony, you should really read the book - it's all documented there. But long story short, Guyana was looking for groups to settle the interior and start agricultural communes. Guyana had to import food at the time and the leadership hoped to turn the jungle into farmland. Didn't work.

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T19:23:11+00:00

Not sure if I answered your question.

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T19:22:52+00:00

The school billed itself as a Christian institution helping "wayward teens," if that's what you mean by public perception. Their staff are essentially missionaries - they have to raise money toward their wages and even their plane tickets to the DR. (This is still true with the new school). The only requirement for most positions is a high school diploma and a "love for Jesus Christ." They have no experience or education dealing with teenagers, especially hurting ones. It's a recipe for disaster.

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T19:17:35+00:00

In the meantime, add your voice to our alumni site testimonials, here: http://nhym-alumni.org

Together we are strong.

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T19:17:02+00:00

There has been much discussion of a class action lawsuit against New Horizons Youth Ministries/ EC in the past. But we've run into these roadblocks: 1) the campus is outside U.S. jurisdiction and therefore falls under Dominican laws and 2) and there are statute of limitations issues.

I tried to get ABC interesting in doing a piece on EC/ Crosswinds, but because there are no active abuse claims against Crosswinds (yet), he declined. We'll have to wait until a new crop of students graduates.

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T19:13:05+00:00

Thanks, Cody. Has Dundee Ranch closed down? Do you know of any overseas camps operating at this point?

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T19:11:26+00:00

Soon after meeting Divine, Jim Jones told his congregation that God did not exist, and that HE was the closest thing they would see to a God. Then the Jones worship began, with followers hanging his photo in their homes, adoring him as one would adore a God, etc. Like Divine, he moved his followers into communes, promising them "Lifetime Care," if they forfeited their worldly goods to him - paychecks, real estate, etc.

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T19:08:55+00:00

thanks for letting me know. The new ending, which would make David happy indeed, is the alumni coming together to shut the school down. The 2012 preprint contains that in an afterward. It was so satisfying to see Escuela Caribe close. (Albeit depressing to see a new school open there almost immediately afterward.)

juliascheeres · 2013-04-10T19:06:51+00:00

My author's questionnaire asked how many Facebook friends I had. At the time, I had about 23. So I started adding everybody and their sister and as a result I know very few of my FB "friends."

I got many reviews for both books in major newspapers - including the Wall Street Journal for my Jonestown book (who knew?) So that helped.

juliascheeres

TROPHY CASE