By MICHELLE LOCKE, Associated Press Writer
 

                           OAKLAND, Calif.--Twenty years ago, 912 people died in a South
                      American jungle in a mass murder-suicide ordered by Peoples Temple leader Jim
                      Jones. On a quiet hillside here, survivors met to remember Jonestown.
                      "The Peoples Temple members were the salt of the earth. They were not crazy
                      people. They were not bizarre people," said Jynona Norwood, who lost 27
                      members of her family in 1978 and has organized a memorial service like the one
                      Wednesday every year since.
                      "The people of Jonestown went to Guyana to live, not to die."
                      Norwood, now a pastor in Los Angeles,
                      recalled how members of her family were inspired by Jones'
                      messages of racial harmony and social justice. She refused to join
                      the temple, however, and went into hiding with her young son Ed,
                      who had become an enthusiastic follower of Jones.
                      When reports of beatings and forced donations surfaced, Jones
                      moved his church from San Francisco to the jungles of Guyana.
                      Leslie Wilson followed him.
                      "The people in Jonestown had a vision, had a dream," she said.
                      "We were just duped."
                      Wilson described how she and eight others escaped on Nov. 18,
                      1978 -hours before the suicides -by pretending to go on a picnic.
                      They traveled 37 miles to the town of Matthew's Ridge, taking turns
                      carrying Wilson's 2 -year-old son strapped to their backs in a sheet.
                      In an eerie portent of what was to come, Wilson said she dosed the
                      toddler with Valium stirred into fruit punch to keep him calm.
                      While the picnickers were walking to freedom, things were spiraling
                      toward tragedy in Jonestown.
                      The suicide was preceded by a visit from U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan, who
                      had arrived in Jonestown to investigate complaints from relatives
                      that people were being held there against their will.
                      Some left with Ryan, but they were ambushed at a small airstrip.
                      The congressman and four others were killed.
                      Sensing the deaths spelled doom for himself and his community,
                      Jones told his followers that night: "To die in revolutionary suicide is
                      to live forever."
                      They started with the babies, using syringes to squirt cyanide-laced
                      punch into their mouths. Then the adults drank the lethal mix. Some
                      protested. A few were able to escape into the jungle. Some were
                      shot to death by armed guards ringing the camp.
                      Ed Norwood, now grown up and a pastor himself, said he has
                      struggled with the shame of admitting he was a member of the
                      Peoples Temple.
                      "As a child I sang in the choir. I was present when a 4 -year-old
                      little boy was beaten unconscious by a 9 -year-old boy in view of
                      the whole congregation," he said. "People have asked, 'Why didn't
                      the people leave when they witnessed these alarming events?' ... I
                      don't know. Perhaps out of fear. Maybe they feel they have nothing
                      to go back to, that they're at the point of no return."
                      Jones' son, Stephan, who was away with the camp basketball team
                      during the suicides, described his recent visit to Jonestown, now
                      virtually obliterated by time.
                      "I came out of there reminded that those people had always been
                      with me," he said. "I believe that a piece of them is with me, that I
                      carry a piece of their souls, as does everyone here."

                      Copyright 1998 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved