: The willingness of true believers
: to die for their belief, be it in Jesus or Jim Jones, is
: well-documented, so martyrdom in and of itself says little.

It does say something about the depth of their belief.  Religion has
both deluded believers and con men.  The difference is often how far
they will follow their beliefs.

I have no first hand, or even second hand, knowledge of how the 
original apostles died.  If they began a myth in hopes of exploiting
it for profit, and followed that myth to the death, that would be
inconsistent.  Real con men would bail out when it was obvious it would 
lead to discomfort, pain and death.