Don Harris (journalist)

Don Harris (September 8, 1936 – November 18, 1978) was an NBC News correspondent who was killed after departing Jonestown, an agricultural commune owned by the Peoples Temple in Guyana.

[1] In the spring of 1978, before traveling to Jonestown, Harris broadcast an investigative piece on international terrorism that ran on NBC Nightly News.

[5] The Peoples Temple's lawyers, Mark Lane and Charles Garry, initially refused to allow Ryan's party access to Jonestown.

[5] After Temple leader Jim Jones allowed the party to enter Jonestown, that night, Harris and the Ryan delegation attended a reception in a pavilion in the settlement.

[7] After the reception, Harris and other media members were informed that the Temple could not provide lodging for them in Jonestown, so that they had to travel to Port Kaituma for the night.

[11] That afternoon, Harris and the rest of the delegation traveled by Temple dump truck to the nearby Port Kaituma airstrip to depart for Georgetown.

[14] Harris died in the attack, along with Ryan, Brown, San Francisco Examiner photographer Greg Robinson and defecting Temple member Patricia Parks.

[18] Harris was survived by a wife, Shirley; two daughters, Claire and Lauren; and a son, Jeffrey who, following in his father's footsteps, is now a reporter in for KXLY-TV in Spokane, Washington.