General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I hope and pray Steve Scalise gets well. That bullet did a lot of damage [View all]panader0
(25,816 posts)"Speier entered politics by serving as a congressional staffer for Congressman Leo Ryan. Speier was part of his November 1978 fact-finding mission organized to investigate allegations of human rights abuses by Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple followers, almost all of whom were American citizens who had moved to Jonestown, Guyana, with Jones in 1977 and 1978.[4] Speier was one of two members of the mission who made wills before traveling to Jonestown.[9] Several Peoples Temple members ambushed the investigative team and others boarding the plane to leave Jonestown on November 18. Five people died, including Congressman Ryan. While trying to shield herself from rifle and shotgun fire behind small airplane wheels with the other members of the team, Speier was shot five times and waited 22 hours before help arrived.[10] That same day, over 900 of the remaining members of the Peoples Temple died in Jonestown and Georgetown in a mass murder-suicide."