Until the police finish their reports, any prosecutions which Ugandans are crying out for will not take place. Meanwhile, taking place on the other side of the world, where 22 years ago, cult leader Jim Jones mass murdered 1,000 members in Jonestown, Guyana, memories stired up for those who survived and whose family members did not. In California, Jynona Norwood flashes back 22 years to another utopia gone hellishly wrong, to Jonestown, where her mother and 26 other family members died. It just makes my journey a little more urgent. For Deborah Layton, who fled Jonestown just before the killings, the mysterious Movement for Restoration of the Ten Commandments in Uganda is also reminiscent.
Nobody joins a cult.
They change so gradually, by the time you realize you're entrapped and almost everybody does you can't figure a safe way back out. The similarities are striking. Both happened in remote tropical locations. Both were led by charismatic leaders who offered a better way. Both took so many lives, the toll lurches into the surreal.