On Nov. 18, 1978, more than 900 people died in the People's Temple commune in Guyana — better known as Jonestown. Cult founder Jim Jones, who led his followers to suicide and murder, had made his lair his crime scene. Soon after, a TIME correspondent described the "scores and scores of bodies" he saw there: "Couples with their arms around each other, children holding parents. Nothing moved. Washing hung on the clotheslines. The fields were freshly plowed. Banana trees and grape vines were flourishing. But nothing moved."