James Warren Jones was an American cult leader, preacher, and mass murderer who founded and led the Peoples Temple between 1955 and 1978. Jones and the members of his inner circle planned and orchestrated a mass murder–suicide that resulted in the deaths of over 900 people, including 304 children. He described the action as "revolutionary suicide", a term coined by Huey P. Newton. The people went to their deaths at the remote jungle commune which they had developed at Jonestown, Guyana, on November 18, 1978. U.S. congressman Leo Ryan, who had been visiting, was assassinated before his plane departed. The events at Jonestown had a defining influence on society's perception of cults.