guyana history/ difficulty in corroborating story

[Dan Dagen]

Am having the hardest time finding another source to support the one cited by Jim Hougan; Kathleen A. Adams' story that there was another time in Guyana where a mass suicide happened, this time in 1845 when a false prophet named 'Smith' convinced 400 or so Amerindians to do it, something Jim Jones was said to be aware of, having been to Guyana himself circa 1961 October-ish.

I tried all kinds of google searches on this subject for another source repeating this story to no avail, also tried via google search to contact Kathleen Adams with no success. The historical Guyana websites have not gotten back to me.

Is it possible that this story (from a book called 'guyana Gold') is a piece of disinformation? designed to lead people on a wild goose chase? (i am certainly NOT suggesting Jim Hougan is doing this, btw)

any help from the scholars and historians on this site will be greatly appreciated, will try and get the corroborating sources onto wikipedia.

apologies to this discussion board if it is out of line to post this thread when there is already the 'Jonestown redux' one going. i felt the specifics of this warranted a separate topic.

thanx all

[Len Colby]

Am having the hardest time finding another source to support the one cited by Jim Hougan; Kathleen A. Adams' story that there was another time in Guyana where a mass suicide happened, this time in 1845 when a false prophet named 'Smith' convinced 400 or so Amerindians to do it, something Jim Jones was said to be aware of, having been to Guyana himself circa 1961 October-ish.

I tried all kinds of google searches on this subject for another source repeating this story to no avail, also tried via google search to contact Kathleen Adams with no success. The historical Guyana websites have not gotten back to me.

Is it possible that this story (from a book called 'guyana Gold') is a piece of disinformation? designed to lead people on a wild goose chase? (i am certainly NOT suggesting Jim Hougan is doing this, btw)

any help from the scholars and historians on this site will be greatly appreciated, will try and get the corroborating sources onto wikipedia.

apologies to this discussion board if it is out of line to post this thread when there is already the 'Jonestown redux' one going. i felt the specifics of this warranted a separate topic.

thanx all

I doubt it was disinfo because it was so obscure, what would be the point in planting such a story if no one read it? Also it won't do much to change the minds of those who believe Jonestown was some sort of CIA op. Someone got the woman's name wrong it is Kathleen JOY Adams*. With a little bit of Googling you should be able find her contact info if she is still alive. Since she's probablly be around 65 now chances are good that she still is.

* http://www.case.edu/artsci/anth/alumni.html

Cataloug listing of thesis, you might be able to get a copy

http://books.google.com/books?id=BkMhAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=%22Kathleen+Joy+Adams%22&source=bl&ots=-my4QOBZ4P&sig=RIDczxLzY5BmYmu7OGo9fl2QjrE&hl=en&ei=PNlaTJmrJ9C2uAfu39DNAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CCIQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=%22Kathleen%20Joy%20Adams%22&f=true

Someone with same name posted to an Irish roots forum in 2006

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:P78x6mc17QcJ:bbs.mayo-ireland.ie/WebX%3F50%40204.aSrFcBNBNp4.0%40.3b9dbbbc+%22Kathleen+Joy+Adams%22&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk

Edited August 5, 2010 by Len Colby