On a quiet hill in east Oakland, a memorial honors a megalomaniac who orchestrated the deaths of more than 900 people.

On Nov. 18, 1978, the preacher Jim Jones coerced his followers to drink cyanide-laced punch at his Guyana compound.

Bereaved family members retrieved the remains of roughly half of the victims. But many others went unclaimed by families ashamed of their link to a deadly cult. In an act of compassion, the owner of Oakland’s Evergreen Cemetery volunteered to bury roughly 400 of the bodies. Plans for a memorial at the site stalled until 2011, when a series of granite plaques were dedicated, listing the names of the 918 who died in Jonestown.

Included, in alphabetical order and with no disclaimer, was “James Warren Jones.” The creators of the memorial defended the inclusion on the grounds of historical accuracy. But some family members of victims were appalled. To include Jones, one said, was tantamount to having Osama bin Laden on a Sept. 11 memorial. A legal effort to remove the preacher’s name failed in court.

For now, it remains, a reminder that even in death the victims of Jonestown are not quite free of Jim Jones.

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