If anything, the people who moved to Jonestown should be remembered as noble idealists. They wanted to create a better, more equitable, society. They wanted their kids to be free of violence and racism. They rejected sexist gender roles. They believed in a dream.
How terribly they were betrayed.
NOTES
All audiotapes found in Jonestown archived by the FBI; transcriptions provided by the Jonestown Institute.
All FBI documents begin with prefix RYMUR (for RYan MURder) and the digits 89-4286-.
Edith Roller’s journals transcribed by Don Beck.
Audiotape transcripts were summarized and sometimes compressed for clarity. Document dates are included, if available.
CHAPTER 1: AN ADVENTURE
p. 1, The journey up the coastline: Thom Bogue interview with author.
p. 3, Census of temple members’ entry to Guyana: RYMUR 89-4286-2018-X-5 & X-7, compiled by the Jonestown Institute (http://jonestown.sdsu.edu).
CHAPTER 2: CHURCH
p. 5, He later described his father: audiotape Q134.
p. 5, like an outcast on many levels: audiotape Q134.
p. 5, There, a neighbor brought Jim to the local Nazarene church: Tim Reiterman. with John Jacobs, Raven: the Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People (E.P. Dutton: 1982), 17.
p. 6, “I found immediate acceptance”: audiotape Q134.
p. 6, By age ten, he was holding pretend services: Reiterman, Raven, 23.
p. 6, He attempted to integrate the church: Rebecca Moore, A Sympathetic History of Jonestown: The Moore Family Involvement in Peoples Temple (Edwin Mellen Press: 1985), 151–52.
p. 7, He named the new church: Reiterman, Raven, 49.
p. 8, Background on Hyacinth Thrash’s life from her autobiography: Catherine Hyacinth Thrash as told to Marian K. Towne, The Onliest One Alive, Surviving Jonestown, Guyana (self-published: 1995).
p. 9, forced to integrate: Butler-Tarkington neighborhood association website.
p. 10, A line lifted from a church newsletter: Temple newsletter, “The Open Door to All Mankind,” April, 1956: the collection of Gene and June Cordell, Indianapolis, Indiana.
p. 10, two months after he was ordained: Jones’s Ordination certificate, RYMUR 89-4286-BB-17-cc.
p. 11, The sisters would become part of: Rebecca Moore, “Demographics and the Black Religious Culture of Peoples Temple,” in Peoples Temple and Black Religion in America (Indiana University Press: 2005), 57–80.
p. 11, When his adopted Korean daughter died: Marceline Jones, undated, “To Whom It May Concern,” RYMUR 89-4286-EE-1-I&J, pp. 73–75.
p. 11, As his wife, Marceline, walked down the street: Interview Jim Jones Jr.; Walter Spencer, “Human Rights Director Endures Hate Letters, Calls, Vandalism,” Indianapolis Times, July 29, 1961.
p. 12, When he learned that several Indianapolis restaurants: news brief, Indianapolis Star, March 21, 1961.
p. 12, Jones announced on his television program: “White Pastor Stages Hunger Strike to Protest Restaurants’ Prejudice,” Indianapolis Recorder, January 24, 1959.
p. 12, They tried to move him to a white ward: Reiterman, Raven,75.
p. 12, “The Negro wants to be our brother in privilege, not our brother-in-law”: Jim Jones’s letter to the editor, Indianapolis Times, February 24, 1961.
p. 12, In his first weeks as commission head: news brief, Indianapolis Star, March 21, 1961.
p. 12, Led by their fearless pastor: Thrash, The Onliest One Alive, 51.
p. 13, Jones recruited Hyacinth and Zipporah: Thrash, The Onliest One Alive, 59.
p. 13, She had second thoughts about Jim Jones: Thrash, The Onliest One Alive, 51.
p. 13, One doctor told her it was a miracle: Thrash, The Onliest One Alive, 51.
CHAPTER 3: REDWOOD VALLEY
p. 14, In the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev repeatedly threatened: “Government Booklet Gives Grim Fallout Information,” Associated Press, December 31, 1961.
p. 14, He claimed to have had a vision of a mushroom cloud: Reiterman, Raven, 76.
p. 14, Where services once attracted: Reiterman, Raven, 85.
p. 14, Hy and Zippy started: Thrash, The Onliest One Alive, 59.
p. 15, As schools let out for summer vacation in 1965: Reiterman, Raven, 98.
p. 15, Relatives of the migrating members: Gene and June Cordell, “Reflections,” essay published on Jonestown Institute website.
p. 15, All told, about one hundred fifty people: Reiterman, 98
p. 15, She had it surgically removed: Thrash, The Onliest One Alive, 53 & 55.
p. 15, He told Jerry Parks: Jerry Parks interview with the author.
p. 16, For the past ten years: Thrash, The Onliest One Alive, 45.
p. 16, They drove most of the way on Route 66: Thrash, The Oneliest One Alive, 61.
p. 17, He held services in borrowed quarters: Reiterman, Raven, 100.
p. 17, The bonds uniting them grew stronger: Jeannie Mills, Six Years With God: Life Inside Rev. Jim Jones’s Peoples Temple (A. & W. Publishers: 1979), 132.
p. 18, The state paid them: Thrash, The Onliest One Alive.
p. 18, In their spare time: Thrash, The Onliest One Alive.
p. 18, Zip’s original cranberry sauce cake: Thrash, The Onliest One Alive.
p. 18, They spent many pleasant afternoons: Thrash, The Onliest One Alive.
p. 18, The jarred preserves were distributed: Thrash, The Onliest One Alive.
p. 18, Al Barbero: Harold Cordell interview with author.
p. 18, Sheriff Reno Bartolomie: Harold Cordell interview with author.
p. 19, Later, he’d use stronger words: audiotape Q953.
p. 19, “We must have a prophet”: Jones, The Letter Killeth, California Historical Society, MS 3800.
p. 19, much-hyped miracle crusade: newspaper advertisement, California Historical Society, MS 3800.
p. 19, He’d astound locals with his healings: audiotape Q162.
p. 20, “The dregs of fascist USA”: audiotape Q741.
p. 20, They cured heroin addicts: Neva Sly, “Four Years of Utopia, Then Prison!” Jonestown Institute.
CHAPTER 4: “DAD”
p. 23, He was just your average “holy ghost man”: Harold Cordell interview with author.
p. 23, In the spring of 1973: audiotape Q 1059 (Part 1 of 6)
p. 24, He combined the Apostle Paul’s mandate: King James Bible, Acts 4:31–32 and 35.
p. 24, Karl Marx’s directive: Karl Marx, “Critique of the Gotha Program,” Die Neue Zeit: 1890-91 Q1059, part 1.
p. 24, They used to call him Jimba: Lynetta Jones’s “Index of Stories Written: Jimba’s Life,” RYMUR 89-4286-BB-18-Z, pages 2–48.
p. 24, In Guyana, he’d tell top aides: RYMUR 89-4286-O-1-B: An untitled collection of reminiscences by Jim Jones.
p. 25, The data from the subsequent survey: Mills, Six Years With God, 14.
p. 25, His sunglasses: David Wise interview with author.
p. 25, His aides who worked in hospitals: Peter King, “How Jones Used Drugs,” San Francisco Examiner, December 28, 1978.
p. 25, others feigned insomnia: Peter King, “How Jones Used Drugs,” San Francisco Examiner, December 28, 1978.
p. 26, The potent sedative: Teri Buford interview with author.
p. 26, At the next service: Teri Buford interview, David Wise, “25 Years Hiding from a Dead Man,” Jonestown Institute.
p. 26, He made troublemakers “drop dead”: Mills, Six Years With God, 13.
p. 26, He warned a man caught cheating: Edith Roller journal, August 10, 1975, RYMUR 89-4286-2018-HH-2-28 to 69.
p. 26, Still weak: Mills, Six Years With God, 152.
p. 27, “Jim was shot but they couldn’t kill him!”: Jim Jones Jr., interview with author.
p. 27, he’d “neutralized” the bullet: Mills, Six Years With God, 162.
p. 28, Jones vehemently denied: Jim Jones Jr. interview.
p. 28, In one bizarre instance: audiotape Q
953.
p. 28, He wondered aloud: David Wise interview with author.
p. 28, Shortly after the bomb scare: Peoples Temple press release, March 13, 1974, California Historical Society, MS3800.
p. 28, Women were subjected to a seventeen-step procedure: “Searching Procedures–Sisters,” California Historical Society, MS3800.
p. 28, Babies were unwrapped: “Security Notes,” California Historical Society, MS3800.
CHAPTER 5: EDITH
p. 30, After the war: “Roller Family” history, written by her sister, Edna Garrison, Edith Roller’s press release announcing her resignation (Roller family collection, shared with the author by her first cousin, Alan Rice).
p. 30, More than four hundred students: San Francisco State University Strike Collection.
p. 31, And so it was: Edith Roller’s healing affidavit, RYMUR 89-4286-2018-ff-6-27.
p. 31, She taught high school equivalency: Email confirmation from Bridget C. Hodenfield, Human Resources, Santa Rosa Junior College, 12.17.09.
p. 31, and apostolic socialism: audiotape Q 1059 (Part 3 of 6).
p. 31, It was flanked: Marshall Kilduff and Ron Javers, The Suicide Cult: Inside Story of the People’s Temple Sect and the Massacre in Guyana (Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group: 1978), 194.
p. 32, The plan was pure fiction: John A. William, The Man Who Cried I Am, (Little Brown: 1967).
p. 32, and instructed members: Neva Sly, “Four Years of Utopia, Then Prison!” Jonestown Institute.
p. 33, He called himself the “spokesman for the people”: David Wise, “25 Years Hiding from a Dead Man,” Jonestown Institute.
p. 33, at the height of Jones’s power: John M. Crewdson, “Followers Say Jim Jones Directed Voting Frauds,” New York Times, December 17, 1978.
p. 33, Moscone acknowledged his debt: audiotape Q783.
p. 34, was shocked at the change: Guy Young interview with author.
p. 36, Edith summarized her convictions: Edith Roller diary, August 15, 1975, RYMUR-89-4286-2018-HH-2-28 to 69.
p. 36, Jones rejected the article: Garry Lambrev, “The Living Word and Me: The Limits of Anarchism in Peoples Temple,” by Garrett Lambrev, Jonestown Institute.
p. 36, For example, Jones said that true followers: “A True Follower of This Activist Christian Ministry,” from the collection of David Wise.
p. 37, She stood up: Roller journal September 7, 1975, RYMUR 89-4286-2018-HH-2-70 to 2-91.
CHAPTER 6: TRAITORS
p. 39, When a man named Earl Jackson: Jones note to “Bro Jackson,” undated, RYMUR 89-4286-1099, b7c.
p. 39, Every church member older than eleven: Security Notes—California Historical Society, MS3800.
p. 40, threatened to divorce him: Reiterman, Raven, 121.
p. 40, “My love will not reach you”: Roller journal, February 8, 1976, RYMUR 89-4286-2018-HH-2- 92 to 116.
p. 40, others he pressured to abort: Teri Buford interview with author.
p. 40, Jones bragged about his dalliances: Reiterman, Raven, 172.
p. 40, He only made it: Laura Kohl, Jordan Vilchez with author.
p. 41, “but what he did is unacceptable”: David Wise interview with author.
p. 41, Once that line was crossed: Neva Sly, “Four Years of Utopia, Then Prison!” essay, Jonestown Institute website.
p. 41, Adults caught smoking: Mills, Six Years With with God, 208.
p. 41, Sometimes, children would collapse: Thom Bogue interview with author.
p. 41, This consisted of leading them into a dark room: Mills, Six Years With God, 74.
p. 42, Those who did were called traitors: Juanell Smart interview with author.
p. 42, One family moved all the way to the East Coast: Mills, Six Years With God, 28.
p. 42, He likened them to the spokes and hub of a wheel: Roller journal, August 30, 1975, RYMUR-89-4286-2018-HH-2-28 to 69.
p. 42, “We’re interested in instilling respect”: Roller journal, July 25, 1976, RYMUR 89-4286-Bulky 2018 HH-2-1 to HH-2-27.
p. 43, Jones promised members lifetime care: Kilduff, The Suicide Cult, 82.
p. 43, Jones’s aides cut words and letters from magazines: Deborah Layton, Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor’s Story of Life and Death in the People’s Temple (Anchor Books: 1999), 92.
p. 43, “No pigs”: Example of threatening note, RYMUR 89-4286-X-3-c-1.
p. 43, Jones’s staff would leave the notes on defectors’ porches: Mills, Six Years With God, 58.
p. 43, They also called in threats from pay phones: Declarations of Teresa Buford, October 10, 1978, RYMUR-89-4286-2233-R-1-B-2 & R-1-B-3.
p. 43, The day before Edith Roller begged: Roller journal, February 4, 1976, RYMUR-89-4286-2018-HH-2- 92 to 116.
p. 43, Another woman who left: Roller journal, December 1, 1976 RYMUR-89-4286-Bulky 2018 C-1-A-7 (1) to 7 (146).
p. 43, “You cannot escape …”: Roller journal, December 4, 1976 RYMUR-89-4286-Bulky 2018 C-1-A-7 (1) to 7 (146).
p. 44, He went into hiding for twenty-five years: David Wise interview with the author.
p. 44, Jones advocated racial equality: Gang of Eight letter, California Historical Society, Moore Family Papers, MS 3802.
p. 44, Not long after the “Gang of Eight” left: Carey Winfrey, “Why 900 Died in Guyana,” New York Times Magazine, February 25, 1979.
p. 44, Black Panther leader Huey Newton: Mills, Six Years With God, 257.
p. 44, “When reactionary forces crush us”: Huey Newton, Revolutionary Suicide (Random House: 1973), xiv.
p. 44, Police threw tear gas: Susan Sontag, James Baldwin, et al, “Police Shooting of Oakland Negro,” New York Times, May 6, 1968.
p. 45, He asked the commission members: Laurie Efrein Kahalas, “The Notorious Incident in L.A.” a/k/a “Kill the Messenger,” Jonestown Institute.
p. 45, Such an extravagant act: Mills, Six Years With God, 231.
p. 45, After a brief silence, Jack Beam: Grace Stoen, interview with author.
p. 45, They would all be dead within an hour: Carey Winfrey, “Why 900 Died in Guyana,” New York Times Magazine, February 25, 1979.
p. 45, Some members thought he was just being theatrical: Don Beck, Grace Stoen interviews with author.
p. 45, Patty Cartmell: Mills, Six Years With God, 311.
p. 45, Afterward, some of those present felt proud: Carey Winfrey, “Why 900 Died in Guyana,” New York Times Magazine, February 25, 1979.
p. 46, He was debating two options: Carey Winfrey, “Why 900 Died in Guyana,” New York Times Magazine, February 25, 1979.
p. 46, He pursued the suicide-by-plane idea: Teri Buford interview with author.
p. 46, After Maria got her private pilot’s license: confirmed by Federal Aviation Administration.
p. 46, Maria claimed that she was putting in hours: Guy Young interview with author.
p. 46, Soon after, however, she abruptly dropped out: Teri Buford interview with author.
p. 46, They described the mission’s water: “Letters from Jonestown,” California Historical Society collection MS3800, Box 2, folder 44.
p. 47, After several seconds: FBI interview former member of Jones’s Indianapolis church, December 4, 1978, RYMUR 89-4286-696.
p. 47, “The last orgasm I’d like to have is death”: Roller journal, February, 7, 1976, RYMUR-89-4286-2018-HH-2- 92.
p. 47, “It would be the greatest reward”: Roller journal, August 25, 1976, RYMUR-89-4286-Bulky 2018 C-1-A-3 (1) to 3 (104).
CHAPTER 7: EXODUS
p. 50, Several times she started to tell Jones: Thrash, The Onliest One Alive, 74.
p. 52, When the worship service began: Reiterman, Raven, 314.
p. 52, He convinced New West to cancel the assignment: Marshall Kilduff interview with author.
p. 53, the calls became more menacing: W. E. Barnes, “Yet-to-Be-Printed-Story Builds a Storm,” San Francisco Examiner, June 11, 1977.
p. 53, When he published this observation: Tim Stoen, Letter to
Indianapolis Star, October 24, 1971.
p. 54, Meanwhile, the editor working on the series: Reiterman, Raven, 216.
p. 54, The Synanon lawsuit would end up costing: Les Ledbetter, “Libel Suit Costs Hearst $600,000; Synanon Agrees to Drop Its Legal Action Based on Adverse News Articles,” New York Times, July 3, 1976.
p. 54, The impending story created such paranoia: audiotape Q579.
p. 54, Jones himself called friendly Chronicle reporters: Katy Butler interview with author.
p. 55, Temple aides burned compromising files: Sharon Amos, “Trip Strategy and Problems,” RYMUR 89-4286-2018-c-7-a-la.
p. 55, and tried to make the article disappear: Kilduff, The Suicide Cult, 78.
p. 55, The media that once hailed Jim Jones as Gandhilike: “White Pastor Stages Hunger Strike to Protest Restaurants’ Prejudice,” Indianapolis Recorder, January 24, 1959.
p. 55, He left that same night for Guyana: Layton, Seductive Poison, 111.
p. 55, so offended by his vulgar screed: FBI interview with ham-radio operator, March 1, 1979, RYMUR 89-4286-29-183.
p. 55, Jones’s powerful friends helped him mitigate the damage: Letter from Lt. Governor Mervyn Dymally to Prime Minister Forbes Burnham, August 3, 1977, CHS, MS3800.
p. 55, refusing to heed calls to investigate the Temple: “Mayor Won’t Investigate Rev. Jones,” San Francisco Chronicle, July 27, 1977.
p. 56, On August 21, 1977, the Temple issued an official response: “NeoMcCarthyite Campaign Persists Against Peoples Temple,” August 21, 1977, Jonestown Institute.
p. 56, The exodus was planned down to the last detail: Sharon Amos, “Trip Strategy and Problems,” RYMUR 89-4286-2018-c-7-a-la.
p. 56, The local press kept a close eye on the Geary Street headquarters: Tim Reiterman, “Peoples’ Temple being Evacuated,” San Francisco Examiner, Aug 17, 1977.
A Thousand Lives Page 29
