Quotes from Jeff Guinn

Because he voraciously read newspapers and magazines, Jones was conversant on a wide variety of topics. But mostly he challenged those who had been well educated and financially well off before joining the Temple, especially when they seemed resentful of the demands placed on them. They'd been spoiled by the privileges they'd enjoyed at the expense of the working poor, Jones

Edison called Firestone "a tenderfoot," and predicted that, despite their agreement to wear old clothes for the duration of the trip, "Soon you'll be dressing up like a dude.

If there was something about Jones's demands on his followers that they didn't understand, it shouldn't be questioned—God didn't want them doing that, either. To challenge Jim Jones was to challenge the Lord, and God would respond accordingly.

When she learned of the verdicts, Nancy Maddox pulled her granddaughter, Jo Ann, aside and whispered, "Life is like always living under a big rock. Always look at it and pray that it won't fall on you." Nancy felt as though she had been buried under an avalanche.

No one ever considers himself expert if he really knows his job.

For the first time, though only in private, he began incrementally revealing the considerable divide between the Bible-based religion he still preached and his true beliefs. Jones talked about reincarnation—not only his faith in it, but his conviction that "Jim Jones" was simply the latest physical manifestation of a spirit previously occupying the earthly bodies of other great men, all of them dedicated to equality and justice.

Resentment over the Civil War still lingered, in both the North and South. That conflict had concluded only fifty-three years earlier—Edison was a teenager when the first shots were fired, and Ford was born a few weeks after the Battle of Gettysburg.

Charlie was booked as "MANSON, CHARLES M., AKA JESUS CHRIST, GOD.

A big surprise for W.D. was discovering that Clyde and Bonnie both prayed frequently. The religious faith ingrained in them by their mothers hadn't been entirely abandoned.

Charlie still likes to listen to music, mostly vintage rock 'n' roll as well as Sinatra. His favorite actor is John Wayne, and he is also a fan of comedian George Lopez.

he would be very much pleased to meet Mr. Ford." To Ford, his interaction with Edison in 1896 was inspirational and life-changing. To Edison, it had been a brief encounter with an ambitious fan, not at all unique and instantly forgotten.

where he talked with railroad staff about their methods of scheduling arrivals and departures until Edison finally was ready to return to San Francisco on the 5:42 p.m. train.

It was impossible, at that time, to reach much of Florida's west coast except by rickety train across the northern part of the state and then south by boat. No roads linked the coasts in mid- or lower-state. The vast Everglades formed a natural, forbidding barrier.

The couple was odd, no doubt about it. But now, for the first time, little Jimmy Jones was loose on the town streets, and it soon became apparent that compared to the boy, his parents were almost normal.

Burroughs predicted that automobiles and their drivers would eventually "seek out even the most secluded nook or corner of the forest and befoul it with noise and smoke." To him, the popularity of the Model T was the beginning of the end. He described Ford's brainchild vehicle as "a demon on wheels.

On the night of March 17, 1887, most of Fort Myers's other 349 residents lined up outside the Edison estate and gasped with wonder as its lights went on. The local newspaper speculated that a date would soon be announced for the rest of the community to be properly wired and illuminated. But the anticipated shipments didn't arrive, and Edison returned to New Jersey.

First, local guides were engaged, and all three—Frank Carson, Les Hibble, and Sam Thompson—warned that the planned ramble was far riskier than the Northern men realized, even before the campers reached the massive Everglades. The region between Fort Myers and the 'Glades was prowled by panthers and bears. The panthers lurked in the brush and made sounds like babies crying. If you were fooled and went to look, you would be attacked.

In 1913, Edison donated some replacement palms, but, as Florida historian Michele Wehrwein Albion notes, "the relationship between the town and the Edisons remained somewhat strained.

Even fifteen years earlier, it would have been impossible, since there were very few cars (eight thousand as opposed to fourteen million horses) and fewer drivable roads. With the exception of train travel, the average American rarely ventured more than twelve miles from home, because that was the distance a horse and wagon could comfortably cover from there and back in a day.

In 1915, California's general speed limits were 10 mph "in built-up territory," 15 mph "in any city or town," and 20 mph outside these two areas. But Los Angeles restricted drivers to 12 mph in its central district, and San Diego prohibited speeds above 12 mph anywhere in the city. Speed traps enforced the laws. Cops sheltered behind shrubbery or buildings and timed cars with stopwatches.

Henry Ford was caught speeding while driving in Michigan, and denounced speeding laws entirely. He argued that it was impossible to drive and constantly observe and obey speed limits.

Revelation, Charlie explained, predicted that locusts would come, and locusts were, of course, beetles—the Beatles. John said that the locusts would have "scales like iron breastplates"—according to Charlie, these were the Beatles' guitars. And there was more: Revelation also told of angels coming to earth, with the first four being the Beatles. The fifth, "given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit," was Charlie.

in a city that had long ago waived most moral or legal limits for the famous, their philosophy was "We're us, there are no rules, we get to do this.

Nothing was more important than the cause, facts included.