Looking for Family 40 Years After Jonestown, Pt. 2

Robert Spencer's biological mom and siblings died at Jonestown. His search for family will lead him to a life-changing discovery.

40 years today, more than 900 people—mostly from the Bay Area—died in Jonestown, a remote settlement in the South American country of Guyana. They were members of the People’s Temple, led by Jim Jones, a charismatic white man who preached racial equality, through a kind of socialism. But Jones became increasingly paranoid and unhinged, eventually orchestrating what he called an act of revolutionary suicide, telling his followers to drink cyanide-laced punch.

In part two of this two-part story, KQED reporter Tara Siler finishes the story of Robert Spencer, a Bay Area man determined to trace his own family connection back to Jonestown, even when others ask him: “Do you really want to know?”