In Deep With Angie Coiro: Interviews

Show #226 | Guest: Jackie Speier | Show Summary: Congresswoman Jackie Speier, national hero and survivor of the Jonestown tragedy, reflects on over 40 years of public service. As a young congressional staffer, Jackie Speier’s incredible courage became evident during the Jonestown Massacre of 1978. Jackie was one of two people who prepared a will in anticipation of that trip to save cult defectors in Guyana, after rumors of abuse in the People’s Temple compound. On the day that Jim Jones’ group attacked then-Congressman Leo Ryan’s staff on an airport tarmac in South America, Jackie survived five separate gunshot wounds and a 22-hour wait for rescue, only to undergo two months of treatment and 10 surgeries in the aftermath. Five died, and nine were injured and left to die on that tarmac; mere miles away, another 900 perished in the murder-suicide that would be one of the largest mass deaths in history. Jackie refused to be merely a survivor of that incident. Unbowed, she campaigned her way onto the San Mateo Co