The Jonestown community experienced a few more deaths before the murder/suicides of 918 people on November 18, 1978. Seven people died of natural causes in Jonestown between August 1977 and November 1978. They were not insignificant events, either: Lynetta Jones, the mother of Jim, in December 1977; Lisa Layton, the mother of Debby Layton (who defected the previous May) and Larry Layton (who was arrested and tried for his participation in the Port Kaituma airstrip shootings), about three weeks before Ryan's arrival; and the death in late September or early October 1978 of either Pickards Norris or Emmett Alexander Griffith, Sr., whose calls out to Jesus on his deathbed – as indicated here – served only to provide ammunition to Jim Jones’ assertion of his own divinity.

1. ANDERSON, Vivian Ida, 69 (1/1/1909 - 09/01/1978)
2. BUTLER, Chlotile, 78 (3/10/1900)
3. GRIFFITH, Emmett Alexander, Sr. 67 (4/13/1911)
4. JONES, Lynetta 75 (4/16/1902- 12/09/1977)
5. LAYTON, Lisa 63 (7/14/1915 - October 1978)
6. NORRIS, Plickards C. 73 (10/31/1905)
7. MURPHY, Lela Loenma 79 (7/17/1897 - February 1978)