Orignal page 458 Jonetown BLANK PAGE Orignal page 459 Jonetown XIV VARIOUS VILLAINS AND VICTIMS Even with all the preparation and execution, the CIA's task was only half finished with the completion of the experiment. There were many loose ends that, if left untied, might expose the agency's sponsorship of Jonestown. The situation called for a small army of agency propagandists who embarked on a massive disinformation campaign designed to disguise the true nature of the experiment. Before one can understand the post-Jonestown propaganda campaign, the often misused word "propaganda" must first be defined. The word has its origin in the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith; a committee of Roman Catholic Cardinals in charge of the foreign missions. Propaganda refers to the activity of any organization or movement working for the propagation of particular ideas, doctrines or principles, or those ideas, doctrines or practices. By definition, every work published or promoted by a group is propaganda. In recent times, it has become synonymous with deception and distortion and it is in this context that the word propaganda is used in this chapter; a study of those Orignal page 460 Jonetown who are responsible for the mostly false public opinion about Jonestown. Jim Jones had always manipulated public opinion about his Peoples Temple but the State Department and the CIA did not begin their disinformation campaign until late in the story when they neglected to warn Congressman Ryan of the danger he would face in Guyana. In the wake of the tragedy, Prime Minister Burnham's CIA-installed government refused to allow FBI investigators into Guyana. The CIA, however, was allowed in. The U.S. military personnel who removed the bodies were allowed in. Even independent reporters and researchers were allowed in, but each was shadowed by an agent in a "buddy system" intended to direct and deceive those who would relay the story to the world. Yet the FBI was denied entry. There would be no official investigation into the assassination of Congressman Ryan or the death of over nine hundred Americans in Jonestown. The CIA's stonewalling continued as exemplified by the experience of one Fielding M. McGehee. McGehee, a journalist with a "personal and professional" interest in Jonestown, petitioned the CIA under the Freedom of Information Act for all of their records on the Peoples Temple and Jonestown. There was an initial flurry of activity following his request in early December of 1978, but the agency was more concerned with investigating Mr. McGehee than in giving him access to their files. No reports were released. Two years later, McGehee filed suit in federal court and the CIA was ordered to respond by May of 1981. There were a total of eighty-four agency documents on Jonestown. In the end, only twelve were released in full. Eighteen additional documents were released but Orignal page 461 Jonetown these were substantially edited. To this day the CIA refuses to comply with the court order to release the rest. In January of 1983, a three judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the CIA had acted in "bad faith" in denying McGehee's request. It had taken them two and a half years to release only a small fraction of the information they possessed from the very beginning. Their behavior has been attributed to a desire not to disclose the identity of their operatives in Jonestown, but very few suspected that one of those operatives was Jim Jones. Fielding McGehee's experience was typical of the uncooperative stance taken by the CIA in the wake of the White Night. There were so many books on Jonestown, published in the few years after its demise, that one writer's guide to book publishing used Jonestown as a prime example of why there should be a registry of works in preparation. Whether justified or not, the effect of this 1982 guide was to discourage writers and publishers from producing any further works on what the unnamed "senior editor" considered an overworked subject. To date, at least thirty books have been published on the subject of Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple and/or Jonestown. Many are foreign or out of print and difficult to find. Together these full-length reports and lesser works on the subject comprise the data base from which a false public opinion has been formed. This chapter will review each of the major works on the subject and attempt to provide a logical reason why all fell short of reporting the truth about Jonestown. ******************************************************* Orignal page 462 Jonetown _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _G_u_y_a_n_a_ _ _M_a_s_s_a_c_r_e_:_ _ _T_h_e_ _ _E_y_e_w_i_t_n_e_s_s_ _ _A_c_c_o_u_n_t by Charles, A. Krause with exclusive material by Laurence M. Stern, Richard Harwood and the staff of the_ _W_a_s_h_i_n_g_t_o_n_ _P_o_s_t_. New York: Berkley Publishing Corporation, 1978. Charles Krause graduated from Princeton University in 1972 to join the editorial staff of the_ _W_a_s_h_i_n_g_t_o_n_ _P_o_s_t_, where he covered local Washington politics until 1978 when, just prior to Jonestown, he was promoted to Latin American Correspondent. Krause was one of the reporters in Ryan's Party. He survived the assault at the airstrip by hiding in the baggage compartment of the Cessna. Krause and the _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _W_a_s_h_i_n_g_t_o_n_ _ _P_o_s_t_'_s writers' group, under the direction of executive editor Benjamin C. Bradlee, Published_ _ _G_u_y_a_n_a _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _M_a_s_s_a_c_r_e in December of 1978. Laurence Stern, who was the chief of the Saigon Bureau during the Vietnam War, contributed much to the book as did Richard Harwood whose career included covering the Kennedy assassinations and the Kent State killings. Though less noted, the contributions of former_ _W_a_s_h_i_n_g_t_o_n_ _P_o_s_t reporter John Jacobs had a major influence on how the_ _ _G_u_y_a_n_a_ _ _M_a_s_s_a_c_r_e viewed Jones and Jonestown. Krause's book is one of the best introductions to the subject but it is by no means a definitive work as it was compiled, written, edited and printed in less than a month's time. It was the brainchild of the_ _W_a_s_h_i_n_g_t_o_n_ _P_o_s_t which intended to capitalize on the then-current news story by being the first to publish "The Eyewitness Account" when, in fact, Krause witnessed very little from the plane's baggage compartment (at the airstrip) and absolutely nothing of Orignal page 463 Jonetown the events happening in Jonestown. As of this writing, Charles Krause is the_ _W_a_s_h_i_n_g_t_o_n_ _P_o_s_t_'_s Chief Correspondent in Latin America and is largely responsible for the print and electronic media's reporting about this politically explosive part of the world. ******************************************************* _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _T_h_e_ _ _S_u_i_c_i_d_e_ _ _C_u_l_t_:_ _ _T_h_e_ _ _I_n_s_i_d_e_ _S_t_o_r_y_ _o_f_ _t_h_e_ _P_e_o_p_l_e_s_ _T_e_m_p_l_e _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _S_e_c_t_ _a_n_d_ _t_h_e_ _M_a_s_s_a_c_r_e_ _i_n_ _G_u_y_a_n_a by Marshall Kilduff and Ron Javers--staff correspondents of the_ _S_a_n_ _F_r_a_n_c_i_s_c_o_ _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e_. New York: Bantam Books, Inc., 1978. Marshall Kilduff and Ron Javers, along with their colleagues at the_ _ _S_a_n_ _F_r_a_n_c_i_s_c_o_ _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e_, published_ _T_h_e_ _S_u_i_c_i_d_e_ _C_u_l_t in December of 1978 as the West Coast counterpart to the _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _W_a_s_h_i_n_g_t_o_n_ _ _P_o_s_t_'_s_ _ _G_u_y_a_n_a_ _ _M_a_s_s_a_c_r_e_. Both would later be referred to as "checkbook journalism." They were hastily prepared and shallow; concerned more with the financial timing of the work than the accuracy of the information it contained. In both cases, the time from conception of the book to availability in the book stores was less than a month. Kilduff had been writing about the Peoples Temple for about two years, ever since Jim Jones had asked him to cover a story at the "Pink Palace;" a low income apartment house under Jones' control as director of the San Francisco Housing Authority. Ron Javers began his journalistic career in Philadelphia where he was one of the first reporters to recognize the importance of the "MOVE" organization formed there in 1972. (The Primarily Black organization was founded by Orignal page 464 Jonetown Donald Glassey; a Caucasian who was the son of the national vice president of the Boy Scouts of America. Glassey had once admitted that he was a government informant.) Only months before the White Night, Javers was hired by the_ _ _S_a_n _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _F_r_a_n_c_i_s_c_o_ _ _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e and subsequently assigned to the Ryan party. He was wounded but survived the airstrip assault. Following the massacre, the staff of the_ _S_a_n_ _F_r_a_n_c_i_s_c_o _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e_, including Kilduff, Javers and columnist Herb Caen wrote the_ _ _S_u_i_c_i_d_e_ _C_u_l_t_. As soon as the book was finished, as if it were the only reason Javers relocated to the West Coast, he returned to Philadelphia to accept a position as editor of_ _P_h_i_l_a_d_e_l_p_h_i_a_ _M_a_g_a_z_i_n_e where five years later he once again rose to national prominence as the authority on the MOVE organization. MOVE's headquarters had been stormed by the police in August of 1978, just three months prior to Jonestown, and nine members were arrested. This lead to a second confrontation in mid 1985 when police dropped a bomb on their Philadelphia stronghold; a bomb that started a fire that would destroy over eighty rowhouses in the neighborhood and kill eleven people. Over the years, MOVE had protested for or against several causes. Most notable was their campaign against the Quakers and their stated purpose in working for the demolition and rebuilding of their neighborhood. Ironically, in the end, the City of Philadelphia did their bidding by levelling the neighborhood and, in their subsequent public humiliation at an act of government violence unprecedented since the fire-bombing of the SLA's headquarters in Los Angeles, they agreed to rebuild the neighborhood, exactly what the MOVE people wanted, but at the cost of seven adult and four child members who died in the fire-bombing. Of MOVE, Javers has been Orignal page 465 Jonetown quoted as saying, "They always seem to be on a death trip. It's a group that needs to feel the world is imploding on them to have inner group solidarity." Javers description might better have been applied to the Peoples Temple. It is odd that Javers would be the "foremost expert" on two Black organizations that would both meet a questionable and violent demise. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _T_h_e_ _S_u_i_c_i_d_e_ _C_u_l_t_, like the_ _G_u_y_a_n_a_ _M_a_s_s_a_c_r_e_, is a good primer but too commercial to be considered anything but an "instant book" intended to capitalize on the topical interest. ****************************************************** _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _T_h_e_ _B_r_o_k_e_n_ _ _G_o_d by Bonnie Thielmann with Dean Merrill. Elgin, Illinois: David C. Cook Publishing Co., 1979. Little more can be said about author Bonnie Malmin Burnham Thielmann than has not already been reported. Briefly, Bonnie had conspired with Jones ever since their early days in Brazil. Her father had ordained the minister and Bonnie would remain very close to the story for years to come when she escorted Mayor Moscone to the Peoples Temple, Congressman Ryan to Guyana and Moscone to Ryan's funeral. Following Ryan's assassination and Moscone's funeral, Bonnie took the advice of a literary classic and got herself to nunnery._ _ _T_h_e_ _B_r_o_k_e_n_ _G_o_d was written at the Cenacle Retreat House in Warrenville, Illinois. Under the protection of two Catholic nuns and with the help of professional writer, Dean Merrill, Bonnie composed the third instant Jonestown book which was first printed in January of 1979._ _ _T_h_e_ _B_r_o_k_e_n_ _ _G_o_d is not recommended reading but due to the author's lack of experience and Orignal page 466 Jonetown short-term deadline, her true relationship with Jim Jones is easy to see without even reading between the lines. It is for this reason, and because Bonnie Thielmann lasted the full cycle of Jones' career, that her life is well worth publication and the Broken God is as good a place as any to start. It should be studied and only sometimes believed. ******************************************************* _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _T_h_e_ _ _ _P_e_o_p_l_e_s_ _ _ _T_e_m_p_l_e by Michael Prokes. Unfinished, unpublished, previewed on March 13, 1979. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _T_h_e_ _P_e_o_p_l_e_s_ _T_e_m_p_l_e is a forty-two page partial manuscript of dubious intent that would become the author's last will and testament. In 1972, Michael Prokes was a twenty-five-year-old reporter who covered the Stockton area for KXTV in Sacramento. He lived in a luxurious home on a golf course, complete with fancy cars and all the amenities of an upper income California lifestyle. Prokes was CIA and, when the agency called, he gave up his job , his family, and his home to join the Peoples Temple in Ukiah as Jones' press secretary. As the highly-skilled mouthpiece for the Temple, Prokes worked closely with Terri Buford to develop a working relationship with columnist Herb Caen, reporter John Jacobs and investigative journalist David Conn as well as many others who professed an interest in the Peoples Temple. As the Temple's media propagandist, Prokes was privy to at least some of Jones' false public image as he was responsible for creating it. Minutes before the White Night in Jonestown, Jones sent Prokes on a mission to deliver a token amount of money to the Russian Embassy as his last duty as the Temple's disinformation Orignal page 467 Jonetown minister. Prokes' job was in public relations, not medicine so he was not told about the experiment and, being so ill- prepared, was shocked and dismayed at the news of the death he so narrowly avoided. He would remain in Guyana for two months with John Jacobs and other American reporters. Prokes returned to San Francisco in January 1979 to testify before the U.S. Grand Jury. His request for immunity was denied by U.S. Attorney William Hunter. Prokes appeared at the hearings but said nothing. Disillusioned and depressed over being deceived into his part in the atrocity, Prokes called a press conference scheduled for March 13 1979 in room 106 at the Motel 6 in his hometown of Modesto. He had promised the press a good story. First he read a portion of his work for the electronic reporters and then circulated copies for all eight reporters in attendance. The statement was a confession of his work as a government informant and even detailed how he was paid two hundred dollars a week by a case officer he identified as Gary Jackson. The question and answer period was too short. Prokes admitted to working for U.S. Intelligence and when asked if Jones was as well, he excused himself and went into the motel room's bath, closed the door and was never heard from again. A shot rang out and Prokes was found on the bathroom floor with a .38 caliber bullet in his head. A note read, "If my death does not prompt another book about the end of Jonestown, my life wasn't worth living." He died a few hours later. John Jacobs wrote his obituary for the_ _S_a_n_ _F_r_a_n_c_i_s_c_o _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _E_x_a_m_i_n_e_r_. No one reported what Prokes had said during the press conference. The_ _N_e_w_ _Y_o_r_k_ _T_i_m_e_s did not even Orignal page 468 Jonetown report his death. The only surviving copy of_ _T_h_e_ _P_e_o_p_l_e_s _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _T_e_m_p_l_e comes from conspiracy attorney Mark Lane who received the manuscript in the mail a few days after Prokes' alleged suicide. Lane's copy was an admission of Prokes' guilt but a defense of Jim Jones; a continuation of the work of the Temple's press secretary. ******************************************************* _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _S_i_x_ _Y_e_a_r_s_ _w_i_t_h_ _G_o_d_:_ _L_i_f_e_ _I_n_s_i_d_e_ _ _R_e_v_._ _ _J_i_m_ _ _J_o_n_e_s_'_s_ _ _P_e_o_p_l_e_s _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _T_e_m_p_l_e by Jeannie Mills. New York: A & W Publishing, Inc., 1979. Elmer and Deanna Mertle changed their names to Al and Jeannie Mills in 1975 when they left the Peoples Temple. They had become disillusioned with Jim Jones and with what they came to view as his mistreatment of the congregation. Al had been the Temple's chief photographer, while Jeannie directed publication of the Temple's literature. Both were in public relations which, in this case, might better be defined as propaganda. Because of their jobs and high rank in the Temple, the Millses knew at least some of Jones' secrets and their view of his false public image contributed to their discontent and eventual defection. In what has been described as a rambling house in Berkeley, the Millses opened the Human Freedom Center, a group dedicated to helping former cult members readjust to life in mainstream society. They formed the Concerned Relatives and along with Tim and Grace Stoen, Bonnie Thielmann, Tim Carter, Deborah Layton and other ex-Temple members of dubious intention, they petitioned Congressman Ryan's help in securing the release of their family members living in Orignal page 469 Jonetown Jonestown. There were two subgroups within the Concerned Relatives; those who, as the name implies, were honestly concerned about their relatives, and those who were using the organization to entice Ryan into a situation where he would be assassinated. If the Millses were of this second, covert, group, their cover was very deep as there is little evidence to even suggest they were co-conspirators. It was Tim Stoen who encouraged Jeannie to use her skills as a writer publisher to produce a book about the Peoples Temple, which she began immediately following the tragedy in Guyana._ _ _S_i_x_ _Y_e_a_r_s_ _W_i_t_h_ _G_o_d was published in late 1979 by A & W Publishers, Inc. Jeannie is said to have used her $30,000 advance to purchase a Mercedes Benz. She did not hold the copyright which went instead to MBR/Investments; an unidentified entity that may have been her patron and the source of the rather generous advance for a previously unpublished author. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _S_i_x_ _Y_e_a_r_s_ _w_i_t_h_ _G_o_d is a well-written account o life in the Peoples Temple with particular attention paid to Jones' manipulation of his followers. Though the book does not expose the true nature of Jones or his experiment in Guyana, it is believed to be accurate within the limited awareness of Al and Jeannie Mills. As somewhat of an autobiography, the book is tainted b the author's attempts to justify her involvement with Jones but, overall, it makes for interesting reading. The many photographs, especially those of Temple documents from Al's collection, are of particular value. On February 26, 1980, about a month after_ _S_i_x_ _Y_e_a_r_s_ _W_i_t_h_ _G_o_d first appeared in the bookstores, unidentified gunmen entered the Human Freedom Center in Orignal page 470 Jonetown Berkeley and executed Al, Jeannie and their daughter Daphene. Al and Jeannie were each shot once in the head and died instantly. Their teen-aged daughter was shot twice in the head and died in the hospital when doctors disconnected her life support system. There was no sign of forced entry. The house was not burglarized. The murders remain unsolved. At first, the police accused the couples' young son who was present in another part of the house but no charges were ever brought against him. Days later, an associate of the Millses reported to police that a former psychiatrist with The Human Freedom Center was responsible for the murders but again no warrant was issued. The case has been closed, unsolved. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _S_i_x_ _Y_e_a_r_s_ _w_i_t_h_ _G_o_d did not contribute much to the story that had not already been published. It does not appear that the Millses were murdered for revealing some secret about Jones but their deaths did serve to seriously discourage other would-be writers lest they suffer the same fate as these two noteworthy Temple adversaries. A & W Publishers fared no better, declaring bankruptcy soon after publishing_ _S_i_x_ _Y_e_a_r_s _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _W_i_t_h_ _G_o_d_. ******************************************************* _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _J_e_s_u_s_ _ _a_n_d_ _ _J_i_m_ _ _J_o_n_e_s_:_ _ _B_e_h_i_n_d_ _J_o_n_e_s_t_o_w_n by Steve Rose. New York: Pilgrim Press, 1979. Steve Rose had already established a reputation as a prolific religious writer, journalist, editor and composer when, in late 1978, a religious publisher commissioned him to write a book about Jonestown._ _ _J_e_s_u_s_ _a_n_d_ _J_i_m_ _J_o_n_e_s is half unedited documents related to the Peoples Temple, and for that it is a valuable Orignal page 471 Jonetown record but this coldly logical presentation of the evidence does not carry through to the other half in which Rose attempts to draw irrelevant parallels between Jones and Jesus, using quotations from The New Testament to try to explain Jonestown. Actually, Jesus had nothing to do with the mind control experiment known as Jonestown, nor did Jim Jones have anything to do with Jesus, except to claim to be the reincarnation of Christ. He did not worship Christ or his Father whom Jones called "The Impotent Sky God." He often spat on the Bible and threw it down from his pulpit to show his disrespect for organized Christian religion. The Peoples Temple was not a religion. It was a social movement sanctioned under the tax-exempt laws as a religion. It was the Church's defense of that relationship that prompted the Pilgrim Press to publish_ _ _J_e_s_u_s_ _ _a_n_d_ _ _J_i_m_ _ _J_o_n_e_s_. It is recommended only as a good source of Temple documents or as a study in organized religion's attempts to disassociate itself from Jim Jones in the aftermath of the religiously- sanctioned massacre. Other works of the same genre include _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _D_e_c_e_i_v_e_d by Mel White and_ _T_h_e_ _B_i_b_l_e_ _S_a_i_d_ _I_t_ _W_o_u_l_d_ _H_a_p_p_e_n by Paul Olsen. ******************************************************* _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _T_h_e_ _ _D_e_a_t_h_ _ _o_f_ _ _J_o_n_e_s_t_o_w_n_:_ _ _A_ _ _C_r_i_m_e_ _ _o_f_ _ _t_h_e_ _ _C_I_A_. Moscow: Yuridicheskaya Literatura. Despite its rather intriguing title and the research abilities of the KGB, this Russian work fails to identify the true nature of Jonestown. It claims that the community was a legitimate experiment in socialism that was destroyed by CIA mercenaries from the outside and CIA infiltrates (like Mike Prokes) from Orignal page 472 Jonetown the inside. It exposes individual agents but, is blind to the their collective project. Perhaps it was born out of their embarrassment at being deceived by Jones or perhaps, like other works, it relied too heavily on statements made by Jim Jones. ******************************************************* _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _P_e_o_p_l_e_'_s_ _T_e_m_p_l_e_:_ _P_e_o_p_l_e_'_s_ _T_o_m_b by Phil Kerns with Doug Wead. Plainfield, New Jersey: Logos International 1979. Pil Kerns and his sister Jeanette lived with their father in Key West, Florida. Their mother Penny duPont and sisters Ruth and Carol lived in Redwood Valley, California where they were counted among the Caucasian members of the Peoples Temple. In 1967, at age fifteen, Phil moved to California to live, not with his mother, but in the home of assistant Temple Pastor Archie IJames. His sister Jeanette, who followed, was received with equal honor, being assigned to live in the Temple's showcase home with Tim and Grace Stoen. Although Phil Kerns would later recount his teen-aged years in the Peoples Temple with some disdain, the "forced labor" he was subjected to was no more than a part time job and he and his family enjoyed many privileges granted to only the elite Caucasians of the cult. Phil graduated high school in 1970 and promptly left the Peoples Temple to join the U.S. Army, his rank and specialty have not been reported. He would later write that he left the Peoples Temple after he and his sister Ruth suspected foul play in the death of Maxine Harpe, the first of the 'H' file victims. Even though they suspected that he was capable of murder, Phil and Ruth left their family in the hands of Orignal page 473 Jonetown Jim Jones. After serving in the Army, Phil married and along with his new bride, joined his sister Ruth in a "born-again Christian cult" living in a mansion in Northern California. Phil Kerns resided there for over a year yet failed to name the group in his book. Between growing up in the Peoples Temple, serving in the Army and voluntarily joining another cult, Phil Kerns had been brainwashed and trained by the best of them to the point where his history indicates a need for such external control of his life. According to his book, Kerns continued to investigate Temple-related murders with a growing concern for the welfare of his mother and sister who remained in the cult. He had a few frustrating meetings with Joe Mazor: a private detective whose friend/foe relationship with Jim Jones warrants a study unto itself. Kerns called him "Mr. Mazzore" out of respect for his privacy or fear of a lawsuit. He also communicated regularly with Al and Jeannie Mills; which was not surprising as anyone seriously interested in the anti- Temple movement eventually gravitated to The Human Freedom Center. Since his mother, Penny duPont, and sister, Carol (who now called herself Karen Kerns) moved to Jonestown, Phil Kerns and his sister Ruth Reinhardt qualified as Concerned Relatives. Ruth was among a core group of twenty- five Concerned Relatives who signed a petition entitled, "Signatures of Petitioners for Elimination of Human Rights Violations in Guyana by Rev. James Jones." This April, 1978 document was followed by a second petition entitled, "Human Rights Abuses by Jim Jones" that was signed by Phil, Ruth, and fifty-five other relatives in early May. Whether intentional or not, the effect of both petitions was to help convince Congressman Ryan to Orignal page 474 Jonetown visit Jonestown and assess the validity of their claims. Phil also corresponded with the White House and a presidential aide was dispatched to his Portland, Oregon home to question him about the Peoples Temple. These in- depth discussions with the White House aide , which included accusations of murder and the threat of mass suicide, took place_ _b_e_f_o_r_e the massacre. When news of Ryan's death in Port Kaituma reached Portland, Kerns immediately went to his telephone and, in the next two days, placed over one hundred phone calls. He made twenty- eight calls to the White House and the State Department and would later report that, despite his Washington contacts, he was shuffled from one federal agency to another in a vain attempt to enlist the government's help in preventing what he claimed would be a mass suicide in Jonestown. He failed, but later took credit for helping to avert a similar fate in the Temple's San Francisco head-quarters. Though the bodies were never positively identified, Kerns' mother and sister were listed among the dead in Jonestown. On November 20, 1978, in the midst of his reportedly near- frantic phone calls to Washington to save his mother and sister, Kerns made one long distance call to Logos International, a somewhat obscure New Jersey publisher. This was the birth of_ _P_e_o_p_l_e_'_s_ _T_e_m_p_l_e_ _-_ _P_e_o_p_l_e_'_s_ _T_o_m_b_, written by Phil Kerns with the help of Doug Wead, a professional writer who specialized in political issues. It was published by Logos International in 1979._ _ _ _P_e_o_p_l_e_'_s_ _T_e_m_p_l_e_ _-_ _P_e_o_p_l_e_'_s _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _T_o_m_b has its strong points, most notably an excellent appendix of reprinted data and at least a limited insight into the 'H' file homicides but, though it is an essential addition to Orignal page 475 Jonetown any serious library, it is not recommended as an accurate history. Most of the book is devoted to Phil Kerns' life experience outside the Peoples Temple and a defense of his family's activities inside the Temple. One needs only to read other works on the subject to see that Kerns' portrayal of his mother and sister as totally innocent was not universally accepted. Like Steve Rose, Kerns too often quotes the Bible to explain the events surrounding Jonestown and, in the end he poses several questions calculated to imply that Jones may have been working for the Soviets. It is odd that Kerns could view Jones as a government agent but not from the United States where the preacher had such a powerful influence on government officials and agencies. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _P_e_o_p_l_e_'_s_ _T_e_m_p_l_e_ _-_ _P_e_o_p_l_e_'_s_ _T_o_m_b may have been written to cover-up more than just the story of the Kerns family and Jim Jones. Logos International disappeared as quickly as it had appeared; going out of business soon after publishing the book. Kerns and also Wead "are donating their royalties to provide ways for those who have been involved in cults to receive spiritual help." Like many of the other characters in this chapter, Kerns, Wead and Logos International could be either villain or victim but, regardless, their book _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _P_e_o_p_l_e_'_s_ _ _T_e_m_p_l_e_ _ _-_ _ _P_e_o_p_l_e_'_s_ _ _T_o_m_b contributed to the then- forming public opinion about Jonestown. ******************************************************* _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _W_h_i_t_e_ _N_i_g_h_t_:_ _T_h_e_ _U_n_t_o_l_d_ _S_t_o_r_y_ _o_f_ _W_h_a_t_ _ _H_a_p_p_e_n_e_d_ _ _B_e_f_o_r_e_ _ _a_n_d _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _B_e_y_o_n_d_ _J_o_n_e_s_t_o_w_n by John Peer Nugent. New York: Rawson, Wade Publishers, Inc., 1979. As described elsewhere in this work, John Nugent came from a background in African politics. He Orignal page 476 Jonetown was_ _ _N_e_w_s_w_e_e_k magazine's chief Arican correspondent. in the early 1960's and wrote books like Call Africa 999 that earned him a reputation as an authority on the subject. Today he advises several elected federal officials on US African relations. Jonestown was born as a British-managed camp that sent mercenaries to Angola Africa and so it was in full circle that an authority on African conflicts would write a book about Jonestown._ _ _W_h_i_t_e_ _N_i_g_h_t does report an awareness of CIA influence in the politics of Guyana and other South American and African countries but it fails to see the obvious connection between Jim Jones and the CIA. Though Nugent's book falls short of the mark, it is recommended reading for any serious student of Jonestown. ******************************************************* _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _B_l_a_c_k_ _ _a_n_d_ _ _W_h_i_t_e by Shiva Naipaul. First published in England in 1980 and then in America by Simon and Schuster in 1981 under the title_ _ _J_o_u_r_n_e_y_ _ _t_o_ _ _N_o_w_h_e_r_e_:_ _ _A_ _ _N_e_w_ _W_o_r_l_d _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _T_r_a_g_e_d_y_. Like John Nugent, Shiva Naipaul was a journalist who specialized in African politics. He had written North of South: An African Journey and other works that had earned him a reputation as a gifted writer. Also like Nugent, Naipaul recounted the CIA's covert activities in Guyana as well as the U.S. State Department's protection of Jonestown, but neither viewed Jim Jones as an agent of the U.S. Government. Naipaul did go so far as to support suspicions that Jonestown was a CIA experiment in mind control, but in some twisted perspective he assumed that Jones was also drugged by the CIA and as much a victim as the others. Orignal page 477 Jonetown Under a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation, Naipaul left his London home for his native Trinidad and then on to Guyana and Jonestown to begin his assignment. In Georgetown, he was shadowed by a suspicious character who offered him money. Naipaul questioned the stranger's motives but passed him off as a small-time con man and not an escort to monitor the author's activities. Naipaul arranged for a military tour of Jonestown. Along with a group of fellow journalists (most of whom were escorted to the airport by their respective guides), Naipaul traveled to Jonestown where the Guyanese Defense Force conducted a "keep moving -- don't touch anything" tour. Naipaul then flew to California searching for some logical reason for such an insane act. He found it in California, and would devote a large part of his book to detailing the bizarre aspects of life in San Francisco to explain the deaths in Jonestown. He failed to see that the Peoples Temple had its origins, not in San Francisco or even in Redwood Valley, but in Indianapolis. The Peoples Temple was not a "crazy California cult." Naipaul, born in Trinidad, educated at Oxford and residing in London, failed to accurately describe life in California. He ridiculed and belittled everything he saw in San Francisco, mainly because he endeavored to seek out only the extremists in order to draw irrelevant geographical parallels with Jones. Naipaul's warped perspective of California might best be seen in his description of the unique town of Sunnyvale. Perhaps, after writing so many negative things about the California lifestyle, he felt it only fair to present what he termed "outwardly normal people." According to Naipaul, the residents of Sunnyvale are conservative, flag-waving patriots who Orignal page 478 Jonetown hate big government and, between trips to grandma's house for apple pie and junior's Little League games, exude what he called the clean-thinking humanity known as Middle America. Sunnyvale is unique, and anyone who knows it would not recognize Naipaul's distorted description of the small city. Most of the city's professionals work in top secret government jobs for the many defense contractors who have set up shop in the maximum security corridor that surrounds Moffet Field, Ames Research Center and Lockheed Missiles and Space Company. There are more CIA operatives per capita in Sunnyvale than in any other city or town in the United States. It is a community full of people who are not allowed to tell you what they do for a living. They do not hate big government, they work for it. There are noticeably few children in Sunnyvale to play Naipaul's Little League games as most adults are more concerned with advancing their careers than raising a family. The favorite local pastime is CIA infidelity. Since workers with security clearances cannot divulge anything about their work, even to their spouses, many use the blanket of national security to cover their extra-marital affairs. A phone call in the middle of the night is typical. The husband tells his wife that the office needs him and he leaves. She knows he cannot tell her why or where he is going or what he will be doing or even when he will return. Secrecy is part of his job and she has come to accept it just as he has come to use it as a benefit that was no doubt presented as such by his recruiter. The trend started centuries ago with the king of England who liked to host royal orgies but needed to maintain a holy image as the head of the Church of England. To solve the dilemma of his conflicting roles, the king Orignal page 479 Jonetown would grant a special dispensation to those who grant participated in the orgies. It was called "Fornication Under the Consent of the King" or F U C K for short. There is really nothing new under the sun. Sunnyvale wives are privy to at least the rumors about their husbands' work. Like the time that everyone was disappointed when job #388 was canceled. All work is conducted under job numbers so as not to disclose the identity of the customer but, in this case, everyone knew the product was a reconnaissance satellite and the customer was Iran. The nearly-completed project was canceled when Iranian "students" kidnapped the U.S. embassy personnel. To the surprise of many, job #388 was reinstated during the ongoing Iranian Hostage Crisis. One night there was a phone call. "Flight #388 is up, report to work." In his amazement he drops his guard and tells his wife that they just shot the Iranian satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base. He leaves to track his "bird" from the "Blue Cube" at Lockheed. A few days later she reads the newspaper accounts of the aborted rescue attempt in Iran and wonders what part her husband's satellite played in the failure. She knows she will never be told the whole truth. That is the_ _r_e_a_l Sunnyvale. A Sunnyvale that Naipaul failed to see for reasons that fall somewhere between incompetence and collusion. More important than_ _ _ _h_o_w he reported Sunnyvale, is_ _w_h_y_. He never gave a reason for visiting this small city that, until this work, was never reported as having anything to do with the story of Jim Jones or Jonestown. Jonestown's CIA arms supplier, Frank Terpil, operated a front business there but the major connection between Jonestown and Sunnyvale was Congressman Leo Ryan. Ryan's work in Orignal page 480 Jonetown Washington was almost exclusively concerned with curbing or at least trying to control the illegal domestic CIA operatives in Silicon Valley and especially Sunnyvale. What possessed Naipual to visit Sunnyvale and give such falsely glowing reports about the place remains a mystery. The missing piece to the puzzle is his true motive. Soon after his return to London, Naipaul 's account entitled _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _B_l_a_c_k_ _ _a_n_d_ _W_h_i_t_e_, was published in England. A year later, it was published in the United States under a new title; _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _J_o_u_r_n_e_y_ _ _t_o_ _ _N_o_w_h_e_r_e_:_ _ _A_ _N_e_w_ _W_o_r_l_d_ _T_r_a_g_e_d_y_._ _ _B_l_a_c_k_ _a_n_d_ _W_h_i_t_e was acceptable in the less-censored British market but it was too close to the true nature of the Jonestown experiment for the United States. The U.S. title strongly implies a fruitless, unexplainable journey while the subtitle places Jonestown in the "New World" or implied Third World arena. Naipaul fails to see that the tragedy was not born in an imaginary New World or the Third World or Guyana or even California. The tragedy was born in Indiana, in the minds of the "clean-thinking Middle Americans" he so articulately defended. Under either title, Naipaul's book is more of an account of his own travels than those of Jim Jones. It is easy to see how he walked through his assignment and produced the equivalent of a "What I did on my summer vacation" school report. The book is extremely well-written but that could be expected from Naipaul, whose command of the English language might have been enlisted by someone behind the scenes. After all, the Guggenheim Foundation had paid for Naipaul's tour of the Caribbean and California. His report (which should have been entitled_ _T_h_e_ _I_m_p_r_e_s_s_i_o_n_s_ _o_f_ _A_ _G_i_f_t_e_d _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _B_r_i_t_i_s_h_ _W_r_i_t_e_r_ _W_h_o_ _W_a_s_ _H_i_r_e_d_ _t_o_ _W_r_i_t_e_ _A_b_o_u_t_ _J_o_n_e_s_t_o_w_n_) was a Orignal page 481 Jonetown corporate idea. Naipaul got a free trip and handsome book royalties, and his sponsors presumably got what they paid for. No library on the subject of Jonestown would be complete without a copy of_ _J_o_u_r_n_e_y_ _t_o_ _N_o_w_h_e_r_e but, though many of Naipaul's observations are interesting, the readers must constantly question the author's motives. ******************************************** _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _T_h_e_ _ _C_u_l_t_ _ _T_h_a_t_ _ _D_i_e_d_:_ _ _._ _ _T_h_e_ _ _T_r_a_g_e_d_y_ _o_f_ _J_i_m_ _J_o_n_e_s_ _a_n_d_ _T_h_e _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _P_e_o_p_l_e_s_ _T_e_m_p_l_e by George Klineman and Sherman Butler and David Conn with research by Anthony O. Miller. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1980. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _T_h_e_ _C_u_l_t_ _T_h_a_t_ _D_i_e_d was born in 1970 though it would not be completed and published for another ten years. Larry Lee Litke, an attorney for the San Francisco East Bay county of Alameda, was there at the Bay book's inception as was David Conn, an undercover operative for what he (and later his Washington contacts) would define only as an agency of the Federal government. Conn was ostensibly employed as a surveyor with Chevron Oil, though some reports claim he worked for Standard Oil. The generally accepted theory is that Conn was an undercover agent who allegedly worked for the Treasury Department but his rather flimsy cover might be an indicator that his actual employer was the CIA. Under Litke's direction, Conn continued his unexplained investigation into the Peoples Temple until the fall of 1976 when he joined forces with his son-in- law, free-lance journalist George Klineman. Together they met with government officials and ex-Temple Orignal page 482 Jonetown members to gather source material for atrticle that they claimed presented a case against Jim Jones. Actually, in the fall of 1976, Jones was preparing to depart for Guyana and the anti-Temple articles were just the evidence of public persecution he needed to justify, or at least help explain, his sudden move to South America. In March of 1978, Larry Litke "helped lay the keel" for_ _ _T_h_e _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _C_u_l_t_ _ _T_h_a_t_ _ _D_i_e_d (under a different title) when he enlisted the help of Sherman Butler, a literary friend who would edit and polish the rough drafts of Klineman and Conn. While Conn maintained communications with Tim and Grace Stoen, Al and Jeannie Mills, Mike Prokes, Deborah Layton and the other ex- Temple propaganda ministers, Klineman traveled to Indianapolis to research the early life of Jim Jones. He was _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _i_n Indianapolis when news of the assassination and mass suicide reached the United States. With time now of the essence, Klineman hired private detective Anthony 0. Miller to continue the research while he and Conn concentrated on feeding Butler near-finished copy. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _T_h_e_ _C_u_l_t_ _t_h_a_t_ _D_i_e_d was published as a group effort in 1980. The authors would like the reader to think they were privy to classified or at least exclusive information and that they were in hot pursuit of the story from the beginning. To some extent they were, but even though they admit to knowing about the planned mass suicide as early as June of 1978, they did nothing to help avert it. These "experts" on the subject even failed to meet Congressman Ryan though there is some evidence suggesting that they fed information about Temple murders to the Concerned Relatives who forwarded it to Ryan's office where it was filed under "H." Orignal page 483 Jonetown David Conn will never publicly admit to working for the federal government nor will he give even a hint as to how an oil company surveyor came to recognize a major story in a then-obscure cult eight years before they were to make headlines. His motives are never stated. His ten years of research certainly were not for profit. The book royalties, divided four ways, would not have offset expenses. Why did Conn spend his time and money investigating the Peoples Temple? He had no relatives in the cult nor are there any reports that the Temple had ever touched his life. Since the motives for his long-term involvement are suspicious and undefined, one is left to wonder if Conn was, as many have said, an agent of the federal government; a CIA agent who wrote CIA propaganda about a CIA experiment. The histories of Litke, Klineman, Butler and their sources could prove as interesting as Conn's but that is speculation because little has been s published. Litke could have had contact with Tim Stoen as both attorneys worked for the same county, but that is only speculation. It is possible that_ _T_h_e_ _C_u_l_t_ _T_h_a_t_ _ _D_i_e_d had its origin, not outside, but inside the Peoples Temple. Despite its dubious intent, the book is highly particularly for its accurate recommended, accounting of life in the Redwood Valley Temple. *********************************************** _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _T_h_e_ _S_t_r_o_n_g_e_s_t_ _P_o_i_s_o_n by Mark Lane. New York: Hawthorn Books (A division of Elsevier-Dutton) 1980. The story of Memphis attorney Mark Lane's relationship with Jim Jones warrants a book unto itself. Due to space limitations, it is presented here in outline form with the hope that someone else will give it the detailed attention it so deserves. More Orignal page 484 Jonetown than any other character in this story, Mark Lane's presence strongly suggests the presence of the CIA. For years, Lane was recognized as the authority on CIA conspiracies to assassinate President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He had represented Lee Harvey Oswald's mother and James Earl Ray and wrote several books on the subject. Whether he realized it or not, Lane's investigations were getting closer and closer to exposing the truth. Mark Lane was a problem to the agency; a problem that was solved when his last client, Jim Jones, killed a congressman. When James Earl Ray was released from a Saint Louis prison, he had more to be thankful for than most new ex-cons. Ray had a generous sponsor, a mysterious benefactor who had given him more money than he had seen in years and instructions for a job that he did not fully understand. As ordered, he bought a gun and rented a particular room in Grace Walden's rooming house. Grace (who sometimes used the surname Stevens after her common-law husband) remembered Ray checking in with just a few possessions he brought from prison. She also remembers him leaving to go shopping for a car. She swears that while he was out, a stranger entered his room and gunshots were heard. The stranger quickly fled. The shots, said to have been fired from Ray's window to the balcony of a nearby motel, were those that killed Martin Luther King, Jr. The police found Ray's gun, his toiletries and a radio he had brought from prison in the room. Ray was quickly picked up, charged, tried, convicted, sentenced and sent back to prison. No one questioned the identity of his mysterious benefactor or how Ray came to know that King would be staying in that particular motel, or even why he wanted to kill him. Orignal page 485 Jonetown Grace Walden could have proved him innocent and she tried. Following Ray's arrest, Grace insisted that the police had made a mistake, that Ray was not even in the room at the time of the shooting. Grace insisted for only a few days before she was kidnapped and, through alleged due process, declared incompetent and locked in the Tennesee State Prison Mental Hospital where she would remain drugged for the next eight years. By 1977, Mark Lane had presented sufficient evidence supporting his conspiracy theory to prompt the House of Representatives to allocate six million dollars for an official investigation they entitled the House Select Committee on Assassinations. Their hearings, scheduled for November 1978, may well have dictated the schedule of the White Night. Actually, Ryan's House International Relations Committee junket to Jonestown and Lane's House Select Committee on Assassinations were synchronized with the experiment or perhaps vice versa. Lane planned to call James Earl Ray and Grace Walden as his star witnesses and those a who really killed King were not about to let that happen. Also in 1977, Ray escaped from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary with the help of Larry Ed Hacker, a fellow inmate who masterminded the escape but remained behind to be released under an early parole from Tennessee Governor Ray Blanton. A month after the White Night in December of 1978, Governor Blanton and several of his aides were arrested by the FBI and charged with extortion and conspiracy to sell paroles. Cited in the complaint was the case of one Larry Ed Hacker, who may have been rewarded for helping Ray escape prison and, more importantly, the House Assassination hearings. Everyone agreed that Ray had Orignal page 486 Jonetown fled the country but speculation differed as to where he had gone and how he got there. Some reports claimed s claimed he had gone to South America. If in fact he did, Guyana would have been the logical choice because it is the only English- speaking South American country. He may have even gone to Jonestown but, regardless of the route he took, he ended up at Heathrow Airport in London where he was arrested and returned to the United States. Many people questioned how Ray could have supported himself in his travels abroad. This question should have been asked years earlier regarding his unnamed sponsor who had instructed him to buy a gun, check into Grace Walden's rooming house and leave everything to go shopping for a car. In early 1978, Lane secured legal custody of Grace Walden and she was released from the prison mental hospital into his care. Lane left assistant G. Robert Blakey in charge of the day-to-day affairs of his campaign while he took Grace into hiding in California. Where in California, no one would say, but the care of mental outpatients was one of the specialties of the Peoples Temple. While in California, Lane placed large ads in forty-two newspapers around the country requesting information about the assassinations of President Kennedy and Dr. King. One of the respondents was Terri Buford. Buford had an interesting tidbit of information about King's assassination to entice Lane. She promised that Jim Jones had much more and that he, too, the recipient of the Martin Luther King Humanitarian of the Year Award, was being attacked by the CIA. She paid Lane to fly to Jonestown and exchange ideas. He was to address the congregation in exchange for the privileged and private intelligence of Jones. Lane arrived in Jonestown in Orignal page 487 Jonetown the fall of 1978 with colleague Donald Freed with whom the fall of 1978 with whom he had written_ _ _E_x_e_c_u_t_i_v_e_ _ _A_c_t_i_o_n_; a book about thec conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy. The six million dollar House Assassination hearings ultimately hinged on one man -- Mark Lane -- who, just weeks before the hearings was deep in the jungles of South America. Such was the importance placed on the information he was promised by Buford. Jones was a master in persuasion and that, combined with a $7,500 monthly retainer (paid in advance) convinced Lane to represent Jones in his imaginary fight against the CIA and other agencies of the federal government. Lane was also to suppress Gordon Lindsay's_ _N_a_t_i_o_n_a_l_ _ _E_n_q_u_i_r_e_r expose on the Peoples Temple and support pro-Temple articles he was to place in left-wing publications. In late September, as he was leaving leaving Guyana, Lane held a press conference in which he said... There has been a massive conspiracy to destroy the People's Temple and a massive conspiracy to destroy the Rev. Jim Jones...that was initiated by intelligence agencies of the United States. Lane returned to the United States by way of San Francisco where, on October 5th, he announced to the press his intention of filing suit against the CIA and other federal agencies on behalf of his new client Jim Jones. And so began the final days of his credibility. On November 1, Terri Buford traveled from Jonestown to arrive at Lane's Memphis home where she would remain for several years to come. This trip is Orignal page 488 Jonetown generally accepted as Buford's defection from Temple but Jones' number two aide traveling from Jones to his attorney could hardly be considered a defection. On November 3, at Jones' insistence, Lane called the office of Congressman Ryan regarding his plans to visit Jonestown. Ryan was not in but his aide assured Lane that he would return the call. He did not. On November 4, Lane received a return call from one of Ryan's aides. Lane explained that Jones had requested his presence during the Congressman's visit but that he would be in Washington for the House Assassination hearings. On November 6, Lane wrote a letter to Ryan outlining the phone conversation and suggesting that they, "could no doubt work out a date which would be satisfactory to all of us." On November 10, Congressman Ryan sent Lane a letter in which he expressed some token regret that their schedules did not coincide but that Lane's "own personal schedule" was not as important as that of the House International Relations Committee's. His congressional visit to Jonestown would proceed as planned but no firm dates had been established as yet. On November 11 or 12, Lane received Ryan's letter. On November 14, Lane appeared before the House Select Committee on Assassinations. He had been preparing for this opportunity for years but most of his work was in vain. The committee refused to permit James Earl Ray's testimony, perhaps because of his recent prison escape. Ray, who should have been the star witness, would not even be permitted to defend himself. Grace Walden was not banned from the hearings Orignal page 489 Jonetown but it was obvious from the onset that the committee was out to discredit her. Most of the opening testimony came from team of Grace's former doctors a who described her behavior in the prison mental hospital more than just implied that she was mentally unstable and not to be believed. The newspapers reported that Walden's testimony would be "useless" an opinion reflecting the tone of the hearings. It was apparent that the committee was going to try to discredit Lane's witnesses even before they testified. On November 15, Jean Brown (who had since assumed Terri Buford's job in the Temple) informed Lane that Ryan had left for Jonestown where Lane was needed immediately. In the midst of the doctors' testimony, lane screamed, "You people make me sick." He left his assistant G. Robert Blakey in charge of the duration of the hearings and stormed out, digusted not only with the hearings, but with what he thought was fate for having scheduled two of the most important events of his career at the same time, but thousands of miles apart. Between Brown on the one side with the official Temple position and Buford on the other with the alleged opposing view of a Temple defector, Jones' two top aides had Lane right where they wanted him: on a flight to Guyana. On November 17, Lane caught up to Ryan's party in Georgetown where they were delayed awaiting Jones' permission to enter Jonestown. Jones was waiting for Lane who he insisted be present during the Congressman's tour. When Lane arrived so did Jones' permission and the delegation boarded a chartered flght for Port Kaituma and Jonestown. There was several hours delay at the airstrip when Jones refused to allow Orignal page 490 Jonetown the reporters and Concerned Relatives to enter Jonestown until he could talk privately with Lane and Ryan. On November 18, it was Lane who helped wrestle the knife from Ryan's attacker. He was later guarded by that same man and allowed to escape about the time Jones called for the poison. He and Temple attorney Charles Garry made their way through the jungle from Jonestown to Port Kaituma, missing the carnage in both locations because of the planned scenario and timetable written by Jim Jones. Lane was not supposed to be killed. He was too famous a critic of the CIA and his murder, especially during his report on CIA assassination conspiracies, would have drawn too much attention to the truth. Lane was to be used and then discredited. He was. He was so shaken from the experience that he never returned to the House Assassination hearings. He would not have been believed anyway. In the past, he had been the foremost authority on the assassination conspiracies but only_ _ _a_f_t_e_r the fact. This time, he was deeply involved in a political assassination_ _ _b_e_f_o_r_e the fact. His career as a front line conspiratorialist lay in irreparable ruin. Despite his absence from the House hearings, the committee ended its investigation where it should have begun, with a statement that there probably_ _ _w_a_s a conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy and King. If his well-publicized, two month association with Jones was not enough to totally discredit Lane, the media barrage that followed was. He was accused of knowing about the planned mass suicide months earlier and failing to warn Congressman Ryan of the dangers in Jonestown. It was reported that he traveled to Switzerland with Terri Buford to withdraw $13 million Orignal page 491 Jonetown dollars from a Temple bank account in her name (or living in Lane's Memphis number). Buford was still home and, at last report, still is. Grace Walden is supposed to live there as well but no one had seen her since Lane checked her out of the prison mental hospital. A memo from Terri Buford to Jim Jones was discovered in the rubble of Jonestown. It was covered reprinted in the_ _N_e_w_ _Y_o_r_k_ _T_i_m_e_s on December 8, 1978, under the headline, "Memo discusses Smuggling Witnesses into Guyana." Jim, I got a message over here that you wanted me to tell Mark Lane that he should look into some alternative means of getting Grace Walden to Guyana because the C.I.A. might try to stop her from entering the country. Therefore Mark should try to get her another passport. I will relay the message to Mark and see what he says. I will do so in person as I don't feel it is wise to discuss this over the phone. If he doesn't have those kind of contacts -- do you think we might ought to offer the tampering of Maxine Swaney's passport -- we have her passport here and it might be something that would be similar to Grace Walden and also if it doesn't look like her, maybe we can swap the picture. The drawback of this would be of Orignal page 492 Jonetown course if a traitor were to look at the immigration list, we would be caught in a minute. The good points of this would be we wouldn't run the risk getting caught by a passport on the white market. Teri. The_ _N_e_w_ _Y_o_r_k_ _T_i_m_e_s reported only that the memo, titled "Confidential -- Confidential," was dated earlier in that year, leaving many to question how much earlier. When was Mark Lane's first contact with Jim Jones? Was it, as has been recorded, in September or was it as early as Ray's alleged flight to South America? And what of Grace Walden? She never testified before the House Committee. She has never appeared in public. At last report she was living with Lane and Buford but could she have been among the unidentified corpses in Jonestown? Was Lane tricked into being an accessory to murder? Buford denies writing the memo found in Jonestown and any evidence left behind is suspect, but Lane admits that sending Grace to Jonestown was discussed. With Terri Buford's help, Lane wrote_ _T_h_e_ _S_t_r_o_n_g_e_s_t_ _P_o_i_s_o_n_, which is half her propaganda and half a defense of his personal involvement in the tragedy._ _ _T_h_e_ _S_t_r_o_n_g_e_s_t_ _P_o_i_s_o_n does present an interesting perspective on the story, but Lane's , brief encounter with Jones is only too apparent in his often shallow interpretation of the man. The basic flaw in the work is Lane's inability to view Jones as a government agent. He concentrated his efforts on trying to prove a CIA conspiracy against the Temple and totally missed the point that the Temple itself was a CIA conspiracy. Orignal page 493 Jonetown There are several different ways to view Mark Lane's role in this story. Some investigators claim that ever since he was an Air Force Intelligence agent during World War II he has worked for the CIA. They compare him to a vacuum cleaner that sucks up any and all information on agency projects in order to identify security leaks and the individuals who possess evidence that could harm the CIA. Though there_ _ _a_r_e agents provocateur who perform this function, it is unlikely that Lane is one of them because such an operative would never have pressed for a congressional hearing into the agency's conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy and King. In the end, the only service that Lane provided for Jones was to tell the public that the CIA was an enemy of the Peoples Temple. For this, he was not rewarded but discredited. It makes far more sense to view Mark Lane as the honest investigator he claimed to be. If he was guilty anything it was his greed. If he was of motivated by it was money; money that his anything self-appointed position earned him in book royalties and lecture tours. Lane probably had good intentions in beginning his work for Jones but was deceived or bought along the way. If the stories are true, Buford's $13 million dollars was more than enough to compromise a man whose main motivation was the acquisition of wealth. Regardless of how one sees Lane's inclusion in the story, it obviously stems from his work on the King assassination. He was within days of proving his conspiracy theory when he was tricked into participating in yet another political assassination. **************************************************** Orignal page 494 Jonetown _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _A_w_a_k_e_ _i_n_ _a_ _N_i_g_h_t_m_a_r_e_:_ _J_o_n_e_s_t_o_w_n_,_ _T_h_e_ _O_n_l_y_ _E_y_e_w_i_t_n_e_s_s_ _A_c_c_o_u_n_t by Ethan Feinsod. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1981. Odell Rhodes was born to poor Black parents, who after their divorce, sent the young boy to be raised by relatives in Detroit. Though he seldom saw his father, Odell followed in the footsteps of this career soldier when, at age seventeen, he quit school and joined the Army. In the spring of 1960, he was sent on the first of three tours patrolling the DMZ in Korea. Following his first tour of duty, Rhodes reenlisted and was assigned to Fort Carson, Colorado where he was trained in a special forces unit that was the pet project of President Kennedy and Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. When the company had completed its training, President Kennedy visited Fort Carson to inspect and congratulate his elite fighting men. Rhodes was selected to carry the company's colors past the President's reviewing stand. Rhodes claimed that soon after being honored as the best of the Army's best, he was court-martialed for a minor offense that he did not commit. After serving out some of his sentence at the Army's maximum security prison at Fort Leavenworth, Rhodes was released for retraining under an Army program to parole first offenders. His dishonorable discharge rescinded, he was assigned to the Army Chemical Corps at Fort McClellan, Alabama where his company stood ready to do combat with the civil rights demonstrators whom Dr. King had rallied in nearby cities. After additional training in jungle combat, Rhodes was sent to Vietnam in 1967 and then back to Korea during the politically tense period when North Korea seized the U.S. spy ship Pueblo. In May of Orignal page 495 Jonetown 1968, after eight years in the Army, Rhodes was honorably discharged in Washington, D.C. He returned to Detroit where he claims to have done nothing with his life except become addicted to heroin. The Temple's traveling bus caravan is said to have discovered Rhodes struggling to exist on the streets of Detroit. He was transported to San Francisco where this alleged reformed drug addict was put in charge of a Temple foster home for several years before the children in his care were shipped off to Jonestown. In the fall of 1977, Rhodes again boarded a Temple bus for a cross-country trip, this time to l Kennedy International Airport in New York for a flight to Trinidad and on to Guyana. He was met in Georgetown by Stanley Clayton, a Black ex-con who was his closest friend in San Francisco, and the two men boarded a Temple ship for the long journey into the interior-They arrived in Jonestown in the early morning hours to be welcomed by Jones who had stayed up all night to greet these two latest additions to his community. Both Rhodes and Clayton were unique as the only Black Temple members given positions of responsibility in Jonestown. Clayton was a guard who worked in the kitchen. He was in the kitchen when the medical staff came to retrieve the vat used to mix the poison during the final white night. Being a guard himself he had little problem piercing the circles of armed men who surrounded the compound. He hid in the jungle until everyone in Jonestown was dead. He returned to the kitchen, made dinner for himself, changed his clothes, found his passport and left to spend the rest of the night in the home of a local Guyanese. The next day Clayton appeared in Port Kaituma. Orignal page 496 Jonetown Rhodes was much closer to the deaths. He walked among the dying with Marceline Jones, encouraging and comforting the victims, like his "good friends" the Mitchells and Judy Houston, who had been particularly close to Rhodes in Jonestown. According to his account, he was able to slip away from the pavilion area when Dr. Schacht called for a stethoscope. Rhodes offered to get it for him and passed through the armed guards and right into the jungle. He arrived in Port Kaituma about midnight with the first report of the mass suicide in Jonestown. Despite the fact that Port Kaituma was incommunicado, Rhodes was said to have relayed his eyewitness account to Cecil (Skip) Roberts, the Police Commissioner in Georgetown, who had a long history of dealings with Jones and the Peoples Temple. The next day, Roberts picked up Rhodes in a helicopter and the two men surveyed Jonestown from the air. Later, it would be Rhodes who identified those few corpses that were identified. Stanley Clayton moved to Georgetown where he met and married a Guyanese woman within the month so as to gain a dual citizenship in case he faced any charges in the United States. Both Rhodes and Clayton soon joined forces with Dr. Hardat Sukhdeo; a Guyanese-born psychiatrist and a professor at a New Jersey medical school who had a research interest in cults. Dr. Sukhdeo arrived in Georgetown within a few days of the tragedy to offer both his professional help and even money to those survivors who now had to readjust to life outside the Peoples Temple. He was employed by the CIA or at least he was paid by what he calls the "secret service "for his work as a "consultant" on the post-Jonestown investigation. Dr. Sukhdeo gave Rhodes and Clayton the Orignal page 497 Jonetown airfair to San Francisco and enough money to support themselves during the summer of 1979 which they spent during the summer of 1979 which they spent in the living room of Ethan Feinsod. Feinsod was a free lance journalist friend of Dr. Sukhdeo. Out of their conversations, Feinsod wrote_ _A_w_a_k_e _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _i_n_ _a_ _N_i_g_h_t_m_a_r_e_, published two years later in 1981. The book is not the work of the author as Feinsod was used only his writing skills. The book is really the work of Odell Rhodes, Stanley Clayton and Dr. Sukhdeo and its credibility depends almost entirely on how one views the motives of the three men who wrote it. ******************************************* _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _I_n_ _ _M_y_ _ _F_a_t_h_e_r_'_s_ _ _H_o_u_s_e_:_ _ _T_h_e_ _S_t_o_r_y_ _o_f_ _t_h_e_ _L_a_y_t_o_n_ _F_a_m_i_l_y_ _a_n_d _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _t_h_e_ _R_e_v_e_r_e_n_d_ _J_i_m_ _J_o_n_e_s by Min S. Yee and Thomas N. Layton, Laurence L. Layton and Annalisa Layton Valentine. New York: Holt, Rine-hart and Winston, May, 1981. As discussed earlier,_ _I_n_ _M_y_ _F_a_t_h_e_r_'_s_ _H_o_u_s_e began as Thomas Layton's ethnology of the Peoples Temple; but, after the experiment, the family enlisted the help of Min S. Yee to produce what had evolved into a cover up of the true nature of the Laytons' involvement in the Peoples Temple. Like Feinsod, Merrill, Naipaul and Butler, Yee was commissioned to write the story as told to him by the true authors, in this case, the Laytons. Yee 's journalistic skills served them well as did his experience and position as Editorial Director of a west coast publishing house, which helped in placing the book with Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Surprisingly,_ _I_n_ _M_y_ _F_a_t_h_e_r_'_s_ _H_o_u_s_e does cover many of the relevant aspects of the story, like Dr. Orignal page 498 Jonetown Layton's work in biological warfare but the evidence presented as a defense and not an admission of guilt. The book was published four months before Larry's scheduled court appearance. It influenced his trial and provided royalties that the family used to pay for his legal defense. Typical of the many distortions is Deborah's rather poor attempt to disguise the fact that after the tragedy she married Jones' heir apparent, Mike Cartmell. So, when In My Father's House arrived at the bookstores, Larry was about to be tried for conspiracy to murder a congressman, Deborah was married to Jones' number two man and busy managing secret Temple funds and Dr. Laurence Layton harbored a terrible secret. ***************************************** _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _O_u_r_ _ _F_a_t_h_e_r_ _ _W_h_o_ _A_r_t_ _n_ _H_e_l_l_:_ _T_h_e_ _L_i_f_e_ _a_n_d_ _D_e_a_t_h_ _o_f_ _J_i_m_ _J_o_n_e_s by James Reston, Jr. New York: Times Books, 1981. James Reston is a skilled investigative journalist who is no stranger to political intrigue, having written_ _P_e_r_f_e_c_t_l_y _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _C_l_e_a_r_, a bestselling book on the Watergate scandal. He is a prolific nonfiction writer who is always on the lookout for a new story. Soon after the news of the mass suicide reached his North Carolina home, he prepared to travel to Guyana on the first leg of a fact-finding tour that would be the basis for_ _ _O_u_r_ _F_a_t_h_e_r_ _W_h_o_ _A_r_t_ _i_n_ _H_e_l_l_, which is one of the best of the published books on Jonestown. With a keen eye for worthless propaganda and a totally objective viewpoint, Reston came as close as any to exposing the true nature of Jonestown. Though he even speculated that Jones could have been working for the CIA, his book falls short of the truth due to the Orignal page 499 Jonetown Influence of Dr. Hardat Sukhdeo, Paul Persaud and Louis Gurvich. In Georgetown, Reston lunched with Dr. Sukhdeo, CIA consultant who attempted to influence everyone involved in the post-Jonestown investigaton. Dr. Sukhdeo Sukhdeo argued that Jones' followers were in a perpetual brainwashed state and not cognizant of their actions. He claimed they had been hypnotized and he outlinedned his own plans to hypnotize the survivors to wipe out Jones' subconscious suggestions and help them readjust to mainstream society. As an example, he told Reston that he could give him a post-hypnotic suggestion that their waiter was going to kill him, place a gun on the table and bring him out of the trance. When the waiter returned with dessert, Reston would shoot him. Such was the power hypnotism that Sukhdeo attributed to Jones and apparently himself. It was inevitable that Reston would meet Paul Persaud an elderly Guyanese information broker known as "the pundit of Georgetown." Like Shiva Naipaul, Reston took a brief, military-conducted tour of the rubble of Jonestown after which he returned to Georgetown to find one of his fellow journalists packing for an unexpected trip home. [TAR note:] He told Reston that he had discovered the terrible truth about Jonestown from Paul Persaud and was so frightened that he was abandoning his investigation and getting out of Guyana as soon as possible. He would not write about it or even tell his editors what he had discovered. He referred Reston to Persaud but advised him not to print the truth as, It will make you the most celebrated writer in America, and you will die for it." Persaud was expecting Reston when he appeared at the "pundit's" well-appointed home a few days later. Orignal page 500 Jonetown Persaud was accustomed to hosting guests. As a stringer for several foreign newspapers and magazines, he held daily "court" in his home office. Guyanese officials, foreign, diplomats and, in the past, Peoples Temple personnel, would line up for an audience with Persaud who forwarded their information to his foreign employers. Much of the news about Guyana that reached the outside world came from Paul Persaud. Persaud reminded Reston of Petit Pierre, a character in a Graham Greene novel; but unlike Green's character, Persaud never gave a direct answer. He spoke instead in riddles. "Don't ask me any direct questions, chief," he continually cautioned Reston. He would test, the author's knowledge with questions like, "How could such a community as Jonestown exist without the CIA infiltrating the place at the highest levels?" He would taunt him or perhaps prompt him with statements like, "Jim Jones did what the entire U.S. government, with all its power, could not do; he succeeded in breaking up the Guyana-USSR friendship." Reston attended Persaud's "court" several times and, after one particular meeting with the Brazilian ambassador, Persaud warned Reston, "Don't ask me about Jones' stay in Brazil in 1962-63, chief." Persaud was not trying to leak the truth to Reston as much as he was baiting him to find out what he knew or suspected about Jonestown and the CIA. The same techniques had been used on Persaud by Sharon Amos, the director of the Temple's Georgetown headquarters, who reported her audience with Persaud in the following memo to Jim Jones, I made some confusing comment about the CIA, and Persaud said Orignal page 501 Jonetown Prime Minister Burnham asked him once how he could be sure that Persaud wasn't CIA. Since he worked as a stringer for_ _T_i_m_e_ _m_a_g_a_z_i_n_e_, he said it was tough to deny he wasn't Agency. 'Well chief,' Persaud answered, , 'journalists and Prime Ministers are always the prime suspects, aren't they?' The Prime Minister simply smiled. Persaud was later asked to testify before a congressional hearing but he refused to take the oath and tell what he knew about Jonestown and the Congressman's assassination. Reston returned to the United States where he somehow, perhaps through Persaud, enlisted the help of Louis Gurvich the father of Jann Gurvich, a top aide to Jones who supposedly died in the mass suicide. Reston would devote an entire chapter of his book to Jann Gurvich, and in addition, moreover, Louis Gurvich contributed much to the balance of the work. Louis Gurvich was a first-generation American whose Aryan parents had emigrated from Europe. He lived in New Orleans where he was the head of a three-hundred-man private detective agency with operatives nationwide. His pretty, blue-eyed daughter Jann was raised in high style and high society. The family's mansion was directly across the street from Louisiana Governor Claiborne's home. Louis's house guests were the elite of the intelligence community. Among those who took a liking to young Jann was a professional Orignal page 502 Jonetown soldier from Texas who had trained the bodyguards for the CIA-installed Shah of Iran. Jann Gurvich attended Ecole Classique, Newcomb College, Vassar and Berkeley where she excelled in language with a talent she inherited from her father . In the fall of 1974, she somehow met Jim Jones (the juncture has never been defined) and immediately went to work for him as a paralegal spy to the left wing organizations in California. She worked extensively with attorney Charles Garry on the San Quentin Six trial before he agreed to represent the Peoples Temple. She also helped cover up the Temple's plans to kidnap Patty Hearst in the law offices of Leonard Weinglass who represented Emily Harris; the accused in the kidnapping trial. Louis Gurvich told Reston that Jann had moved to Jonestown without his knowledge or approval. He claimed that, after failing to contact his daughter, he enlisted the help of his soldier-of-fortune friends in planning a commando raid on Jonestown to rescue Jann. But, according to Gurvich, he did not travel to Guyana until receiving news of the tragedy. Guyana was closed to the FBI but not to Gurvich who was one of the first outsiders on the scene in Jonestown. He reportedly sorted through the corpses looking for Jann but the "super detective" gave up the search, never establishing whether his daughter was dead or just missing. He_ _ _d_i_d mention that the corpses were toe-tagged and that the daily jungle rain had washed away most of the written words but he never speculated as to who could have tagged the dead after the massacre. Since just about all of Jones' female aides escaped the carnage, Jann Gurvich was an exception if she was among the dead. She probably escaped and her Orignal page 503 Jonetown father's aborted search for her body was just a token act to profess his ignorance of the true fate of his daughter. Despite the influence of Sukhdeo, Persaud and Gurvich_ _O_u_r _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _F_a_t_h_e_r_ _W_h_o_ _A_r_t_ _I_n_ _H_e_l_l is highly recommended. James Reston's command of the language is impressive but not as important as his ability to assess the environment that surrounded the experiment in Jonestown. Reston was so close to the truth as to know it as fact and his failure to report the whole story might well be attributed to fear; fear that he would become the most celebrated writer in American and die for it. ******************************************************* _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _R_a_v_e_n_:_ _T_h_e_ _U_n_t_o_l_d_ _S_t_o_r_y_ _o_f_ _t_h_e_ _R_e_v_._ _J_i_m_ _J_o_n_e_s_ _a_n_d_ _H_i_s_ _P_e_o_p_l_e by Tim Reiterman with John Jacobs. New York: E.P. Dutton, Inc., 1982. Jim Jones used several code names during his career. In radio transmissions from Jonestown to Temple headquarters in Georgetown and San Francisco, he was known as "Henderson Hill" or simply "Henderson" or "Mr. Hill." To the CIA he was known by the code name "Raven." The CIA often uses bird names to identify their operatives as suggested by such contemporary works as_ _ _"_T_h_r_e_e_ _ _D_a_y_s_ _ _o_f_ _ _t_h_e_ _ _C_o_n_d_o_r_,_"_ _ _"_T_h_e _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _F_a_l_c_o_n_ _ _a_n_d_ _t_h_e_ _S_n_o_w_m_a_n_" and_ _"_T_h_e_ _S_c_a_r_e_ _c_r_o_w_ _a_n_d_ _M_r_s_._ _K_i_n_g_._" In 1982, Tim Reiterman, a reporter who survived the airstrip assault, and his colleague John Jacobs published_ _R_a_v_e_n_, which was intended to be the most comprehensive, all- inclusive, definitive book on the subject of Jonestown. The best review of this work comes from its dust cover comments of psychologist professor Margaret Singer, who wrote, Orignal page 504 Jonetown Tim Reiterman, with the aid of John Jacobs, has produced what can be considered the definitive psychohistory of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple. There has been a plethora of hastily written works on the People's Temple, but none made Jim Jones and the Temple fathomable. Reiterman and Jacobs have succeeded. They convey the essence of the psychological and social processes that Jim Jones, the master manipulator, set in motion. Jones is no longer a mystery...This book is a major contribution. Margaret Singer was paid to write that review as she was paid by_ _T_i_m_e magazine for her comments on Jonestown and by the prosecution for her testimony in the Patty Hearst trial. Margaret Singer is a professor of psychology at the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute but she supplements her income by providing medical terminology to explain criminal behavior. Hers is not the only bridge between the Patty Hearst story and Jim Jones. Tim Reiterman, then working for the Associated Press, had won awards for his coverage of the Hearst kidnapping. He then joined the staff of the_ _ _S_a_n _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _F_r_a_n_c_i_s_c_o_ _ _E_x_a_m_i_n_e_r in 1977 and, in the following year, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and received "Top News Story of the Year Award" from the Hearst Foundation for his coverage of the Jonestown affair. Orignal page 505 Jonetown Like Reiterman and so many others in this story, John Jacobs had graduated from U.C. Berkeley, after which he pursued a second degree from the State university of New York at at Stony Brook. From 1977 until 1978 he worked as a reporter for the_ _W_a_s_h_i_n_g_t_o_n_ _P_o_s_t and, according to_ _R_a_v_e_n_, As a reporter for the_ _ _W_a_s_h_i_n_g_t_o_n_ _ _P_o_s_t_, John Jacobs spent three months investigating the CIA's MK ULTRA program, wrote several articles on the subject for the_ _P_o_s_t in the summer and early fall of 1977, and personally reviewed thousands of pages of CIA MK ULTRA documents released under the Freedom of Information Act. Just before Reiterman left San Francisco for the congressional tour of Jonestown, Jacobs joined the staff of the_ _S_a_n_ _ _F_r_a_n_c_i_s_c_o_ _ _E_x_a_m_i_n_e_r and would eventually assume Reiterman's responsibilities while he recovered from a wound he received during the airstrip assault. Jacobs would travel to Guyana where he would remain for two months after the tragedy. He met with Dr. Sukhdeo, Paul Persaud, Mike Prokes and anyone else involved in the post-Jonestown investigation. With only two years work experience, this novice cub reporter was responsible for the_ _S_a_n_ _F_r_a_n_c_i_s_c_o _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _E_x_a_m_i_n_e_r_'_s account of the Jonestown tragedy. He also acted as a "special correspondent" to the_ _W_a_s_h_i_n_g_t_o_n_ _P_o_s_t_, his former employers (who were then compiling data for their book,_ _G_u_y_a_n_a_ _M_a_s_s_a_c_r_e ). Orignal page 506 Jonetown As with most of the other books on Jonestown, the background of the authors is as important as the story they tell. In this case, the foremost authority on the CIA's MK ULTRA mind control experiments teams up with the award-winning authority on the Patty Hearst kidnapping to write a book about Jim Jones that fails to see the obvious connections between Jones, MK ULTRA and Patty Hearst. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _R_a_v_e_n is purposely impossible to rival. Its detailed, well- indexed, six hundred and twenty-two page text is supposed to leave no questions unanswered but the authors have gone suspiciously too far in trying to convince the reader Jones was an insane drug addict, leaving one to wonder [TAR SIC] such why Reiterman was spared at the airstrip? Why did he and his colleague fail to report the obvious connections between Jim Jones and their former fields of expertise? Why did they choose to support Jones' own propaganda campaign to define his actions as those of a crazed drug addict? And finally, how did they know to title their book_ _R_a_v_e_n_? ******************************************* _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _M_a_k_i_n_g_ _ _S_e_n_s_e_ _ _o_f_ _ _t_h_e_ _ _J_o_n_e_s_t_o_w_n_ _ _S_u_i_c_i_d_e_s_:_ _ _A_ _S_o_c_i_o_l_o_g_i_c_a_l _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _H_i_s_t_o_r_y_ _o_f_ _P_e_o_p_l_e_s_ _T_e_m_p_l_e by Judith Mary Weightman. New York: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1983. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _M_a_k_i_n_g_ _ _S_e_n_s_e_ _ _o_f_ _t_h_e_ _J_o_n_e_s_t_o_w_n_ _S_u_i_c_i_d_e_s is the seventh book in a series that The Edwin Mellen Press titled_ _ _S_t_u_d_i_e_s_ _ _i_n _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _R_e_l_i_g_i_o_n_ _ _a_n_d_ _ _S_o_c_i_e_t_y_. Considering that volume four was titled_ _T_h_e_ _N_a_z_i_ _S_t_a_t_e_ _a_n_d_ _N_e_w_ _R_e_l_i_g_i_o_n_s and volume five was concerned with the cult brainwashing/deprogramming controversy, it is only logical that Mellen would include a book about Jonestown in their series. Weightman contends that she Orignal page 507 Jonetown was not commissioned to write the book which she says began as a college term paper. Though this is probably true, it is also true that her college roomate was the daughter of the editor who who published the book. Regardless of nepotism and the question of who initiated the project, Weightman's work makes an extremely valuable contribution to the study of Jonestown._ _ _ _M_a_k_i_n_g_ _ _S_e_n_s_e_ _ _o_f_ _ _t_h_e_ _ _J_o_n_e_s_t_o_w_n _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _S_u_i_c_i_d_e_s is the finest collection of quotations and referenced information on the subject. The footnotes, bibliography and index are essential tools for the serious investigator Weightman outdid her colleagues for several reasons. Since she wrote her book after most lf the first- generation works had been published, she benefitted from more data than had been previously available to other authors. Also, since she was not personally involved with the Peoples Temple, she could assume an objective point of view which she shared only with James Reston but, unlike Reston, Weightman set out to expand on a research paper and such was the scholarly approach to her work._ _ _ _R_a_v_e_n was written in the same well-referenced format but it presented only the authors' opinions and not the complete spectrum as did Weightman who was the first researcher to combine objectivity, scholarly discipline, and talent to present all the evidence even though the different accounts often conflicted. She even mentions that Jones might have been working for the CIA but only as an example of what she considers to be one of the off-the-wall theories. Weightman's strict adherence to scholarly research procedures is as much a deficit as it is an asset. She relies too heavily on material referenced to other works which has the effect of perpetuating the Orignal page 508 Jonetown mistakes and cover-ups of her predecessors. Though she occasionally questions the motives of other authors, she so fills her pages with their work as to allow little room for free thinking or even a fresh approach to the subject. Her technique is essential in scientific reporting but inappropriate for unravelling a criminal conspiracy. Weightman accurately reports a true life horror story but fails to see any evil in the characters she portrays. She even contends that each of the Jonestown residents made an individual decision to commit suicide voluntarily. Despite her innocent, sometimes naive, interpretation of the facts, Weightman's book is highly recommended. **************************************************** *** _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _A_ _ _S_y_m_p_a_t_h_e_t_i_c_ _ _H_i_s_t_o_r_y_ _ _o_f_ _ _J_o_n_e_s_t_o_w_n_:_ _ _T_h_e_ _ _M_o_o_r_e_ _ _ _F_a_m_i_l_y _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _I_n_v_o_l_v_e_m_e_n_t_ _ _i_n_ _ _P_e_o_p_l_e_s_ _T_e_m_p_l_e by Rebecca Moore. Lewiston, New York: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1985. After being incriminated by their close association with the Laytons and Jim Jones, it was almost inevitable that the Moore family would publish a defense of their involvement with the Peoples Temple. The Reverend John Moore and his wife Barbara were two of the Temple's most outspoken supporters. Their eldest daughter Carolyn had married Larry Layton and gave birth to Jim Jones' son Kimo. Carolyn's work in the Temple's hierarchy culminated on November 18th with her death in Jones' cabin. The Moores' youngest daughter Annie was a high-ranking medical technician in the experiment. She expected to survive the White Night that she had helped to engineer but at the last minute she was shot to death in Jones' cabin. It was the Moores' middle daughter Rebecca who, like Thomas Orignal page 509 Jonetown Layton, was detached from the family's project in order to champion their reputation in an autobiography. Rebecca Moore worked at an undisclosed job in Washington D.C. from the time her sisters joined the Peoples Temple (1968-1970) until just a few months after the massacre when she moved to Reno, Nevada to join her mother and father. In the mid 1970's, Rebecca had divorced her first husband and married Fielding M. (Mac) McGehee, a federal government employee. After the massacre, John Moore petitioned the FBI for their files on Jonestown while Fielding McGehee sued the CIA for their records under the Freedom of Information Act. Rebecca Moore McGehee started a six year project to produce a book. All three endeavors failed to expose the truth. It is entirely possible that Rebecca Moore was a communications conduit between the experiment and the faction of the federal government that sponsored it. "Moore vs the FBI" and "McGehee vs the CIA" spearheaded the unproductive investigation into the government's prior knowledge of and participation in Jonestown. The FBI, the CIA, Rebecca's father and Rebecca's husband controlled the flow of censored information from Washington. The Edwin Mellen Press (Box 450, Lewiston, New York 14092) is a scholarly publisher that prints research works for distribution to libraries and universities. They pay no royalties to their academic authors whose remuneration is recognition, career advancement, and salary increase only. Soon after they published_ _ _M_a_k_i_n_g_ _ _S_e_n_s_e_ _o_f_ _t_h_e_ _J_o_n_e_s_t_o_w_n _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _S_u_i_c_i_d_e_s_, Mellen was approached by Rebecca Moore and agreed to publish her family history._ _ _A_ _S_y_m_p_a_t_h_e_t_i_c_ _H_i_s_t_o_r_y_ _o_f _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _J_o_n_e_s_t_o_w_n is expensive ($69.95) but highly recommended so long as the reader understands that it is a defense Orignal page 510 Jonetown of the Moore family and questions that it is a defence of the CIA. ****************************************************** All in all, over thirty books have been published to date. Some are government propaganda, others are a defense of the author's or the church's involvement with Jim Jones. Some were conceived with honest intentions but deceived by those who fed false information to the author. Still others fell prey to the most common mistake -- they believed Jim Jones. They knew he was a mass murderer, a fraud, a con man, a thief and a master manipulator but they could not envision him as a liar. They believed or wanted to believe what Jones had taken so much time and energy to record. They believed him when he said he was a Socialist or a Communist. They believed him when he said the CIA was out to get him. But they never understood the man. Motion pictures and television also played a major role in shaping public opinion about Jonestown. "Guyana, Cult of the Damned" was a full-length movie filmed in Mexico that was almost universally criticized for its distortion of the truth. CBS Television produced a two-part docudrama entitled "The Guyana Tragedy -- The Story of Jim Jones" that further confused and misled the public with its mixture of fact and fantasy. Actor Powers Booth received an Emmy for his leading role which attests to the acclaim the film received. CBS airs the program about once a year which tends to perpetuate their portrayal of Jones as a crazed drug addict while protecting the identity of the Stoens, the Laytons and even Larry Schacht. Another Orignal page 511 Jonetown television series, hosted by the popular actor Leonard Nimoy and entitled "In Search Of..." explored the life of Jim Jones within the confines of its thirty minute format. The program included film clips of one of Jones' video-taped promotional tours of Jonestown in which he pointed out to the camera the community's stockpile of food, making special effort to show and describe their inventory of Kool-Aid. In another Temple-produced clip, Jones danced with a live snake he held up to the cameras. It was irresistible sensationalism and the "In Search of..." producers were probably not aware that including it helped Jones to convince the public that he was crazy. "In Search of Jim Jones" is also aired about once a year which helps reinforce the post-Jonestown propaganda. Of equal importance are some of the related films produced for television, like the ninety-minute docudrama "The People vs. Dan White" aired by the Public Broadcasting Corporation. Much of the story line was accurate and the writers even elected to include three extraneous references to Jim Jones but it was more for the setting of the times than an implication that the Peoples Temple was responsible for the assassinations of Moscone and Milk. "The People vs. Dan White" fell short of the whole truth, perhaps deliberately. It was made possible through a grant from_ _E_s_q_u_i_r_e_ _ _M_a_g_a_z_i_n_e_. Perhaps the most unusual medium used in the propaganda campaign was radio. In May of 1980, three CIA-types, dressed in vested suits and the trademark aviator sunglasses, stormed a U.S. radio station and held the staff at pistol- point while they broadcast a statement claiming that Jonestown was an experiment in mind control orgainized by the United Council of Orignal page 512 Jonetown Churches. Though there was but a small listening audience within the limited range of the station's signal, the account of the hijacking and the unauthorized broadcast was repeated nationwide as a minor news story of the day. The entire scenario had been planned from the beginning to take the heat off the CIA which, by 1980, was under fire for their role in Jonestown. Many of the electronic productions used excerpts from the tape recording of the final hours of Jonestown. Jones had recorded the entire White Night on a recorder tapped into the pavilion's public address system. That alone is evidence enough to question the tape's credibility because it recorded only what the congregation heard, not the behind- the-scenes instructions that Jones was continually issuing to his aides. Even though it is incomplete, the tape is precious. News of its existence first appeared in the _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _W_a_s_h_i_n_g_t_o_n_ _P_o_s_t in early December, 1978. In mid December, about a month after the Event, Attorney General Griffin Bell announced that the FBI possessed the original tape but that it would not be released to the public. He admitted to not knowing much about the death of Congressman Ryan and over nine hundred other Americans and added "I do not suffer from morbid curiosity;" a calculated statement if ever there was one. How the FBI acquired the tape so soon after it was made is a mystery because they were banned from entering Guyana. The first outsiders on the scene were the CIA, the Guyanese military and the Prime Minister's wife. The Guyanese government is said to have a copy and somehow one other cassette copy was made and sold to Beau Buchanan, president of International Home Video Club, Inc. From his New York office, Buchanan sold a copy to Orignal page 513 Jonetown the_ _N_e_w_ _Y_o_r_k_ _T_i_m_e_s_, which published transcribed excerpts in May of 1979. Buchanan also sold copies to Mark Lane and the House of Representatives committee investigating the assassination of Ryan and the massacre in Jonestown. Congress had to buy a copy on the open market because neither the CIA or the FBI would give them that piece of evidence. By the time the tape got to Buchanan, or at least by the time he had copies to distribute, it had been crudely edited either by the CIA, the Guyanese government, the FBI or Buchanan because there were no other parties involved. Audio experts who later examined the tape, reported that the recording machine had been turned on and off, interrupting some forty-seven times. What was edited out is not known. The original is secured in the FBI's files and not available to the public._ _ _T_h_e_ _N_e_w_ _Y_o_r_k_ _T_i_m_e_s followed suit and further edited and even misrepresented the tape by substituting "applause" for the screams and protests of those who did not want to die. The_ _T_i_m_e_s mentioned the music and singing in the background but failed to say it was a record and not the jubilant "mass suicide" they tried hard to defend after having coined the expression in their previous sensationalistic headlines. Though it was probably out of self-defense, the_ _N_e_w_ _Y_o_r_k_ _T_i_m_e_s_ _a_r_t_i_c_l_e_ _s_e_r_v_e_d_ _ _t_o_ _ _f_u_r_t_h_e_r _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _d_i_s_g_u_i_s_e_ _t_h_e_ _t_r_u_t_h_ _a_b_o_u_t_ _t_h_e_ _W_h_i_t_e_ _N_i_g_h_t_. Most of the_ _ _T_i_m_e_s articles were written or influenced by Robert Lindsey who was not a stranger to by CIA intrigue, having authored_ _T_h_e_ _F_a_l_c_o_n_ _a_n_d_ _t_h_e_ _S_n_o_w_m_a_n and_ _T_h_e_ _F_l_i_g_h_t_ _o_f _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _t_h_e_ _ _F_a_l_c_o_n_, both of which outlined the life of CIA cryptologist and convicted spy Christopher Boyce. But the most interesting aspect of the_ _N_e_w_ _Y_o_r_k_ _T_i_m_e_s_' treatment of the Jonestown subject Orignal page 514 Jonetown is not the contributors or distortions but, oddly, the placement of the articles in their newspaper. Most are adjacent to the articles on the CIA and the Nazis. A prime example is the December 4, 1980 edition which included the CIA's ultimate defense. The article, entitled "House Committee Clears C.I.A. of Role in People's Temple Cult" reported, The House Intelligence Committee has found "no evidence at all" that the Central Intelllgence Agency was involved with the People's Temple commune in Guyana before the mass murders and suicides there in November 1978. The House Intelllgence Committee [TAR note: Sourwine] was responding to Congressman Ryan's staff and others close enough to the story to at least suspect that the CIA sponsored the experiment. Their "no evidence at all" statement was one of the most blatant lies in the post- Jonestown propaganda campaign. Adjacent to that story, the Times printed an article entited, "C.I.A. Linked to Mind- Control Drug Experiments." Citing documents released a day earlier under the Freedom of Information Act, the story outlined how the CIA had conducted a mind-control experiment on eight Black inmates at the Federal Addiction Research Center in Lexington, Kentucky back in 1963. Previously released documents detailed the CIA's mind-control experiments with LSD at that same facility but these later experiments used a mysterious hallucinogenic called BZ that "is a very long lasting drug which causes marked changes in mental functioning." According to the article, "The Army had Orignal page 515 Jonetown a similar program," (presumably within the Army's Chemical Warfare Division under the direction of Dr. Laurence Layton) It was more than just a coincidence that the CIA would be absolved of any wrongdoing in the Jonestown affair on the same day that they released documents incriminating themselves in a smaller scale experiment. The uncanny timing suggests that the agency's MK ULTRA division was plea- bargaining. Cleared of the major crime, they admitted to a lesser one. An overall study of the_ _T_i_m_e_s_' habit of placing articles on Jonestown adjacent to articles on the CIA and the Nazis raises questions as to their motives. Perhaps they simply recognized that these three seemingly unrelated subjects would interest the same type of reader but there is a strong chance that the_ _N_e_w_ _Y_o_r_k_ _T_i_m_e_s recognized the truth about Jonestown but were either afraid to print it or censored from doing so. By placing articles on these three subjects together, they implied a connection to the amazement of conspiracy researchers and, no doubt, the irritation of the CIA. Jim Jones' relationship with the San Francisco print media and especially the Hearst Corporation, sometimes appears amicable and other times adverse. It is difficult to ascertain but one thing remains certain, Jones had a long- standing, sometimes controversial, relationship with both _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _T_h_e_ _ _S_a_n_ _ _F_r_a_n_c_i_s_c_o_ _ _E_x_a_m_i_n_e_r and_ _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e_. Most of their encounters have been outlined elsewhere in this work but one final human interest story warrants inclusion in this chapter. On November 22, 1978,_ _T_h_e_ _S_a_n_ _ _F_r_a_n_c_i_s_c_o_ _ _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e published an article entitled, "Chronicle Photo Leads to an Arrest." The day before, the paper had printed a photo of Shelby Byrd, a Black man Orignal page 516 Jonetown inquiring at the gates of the San Francisco Temple about his aunt and two nephews who were in Jonestown at the time of the tragedy. Grief-stricken does not fully describe the look of desperation and anguish on his face. As it turned out, his aunt, Beverly Oliver was wounded at the airstrip while his two nephews, Bruce and William, died in the White Night. Within a few hours of the paper's release one Daniel Doherty "told police that a man, photographed outside the People's Temple in San Francisco Monday, was the same man who robbed him of $40 last month at the Pink Palace housing project." Until a year earlier the Pink Palace had been managed by Jones as the Director of the San Francisco Housing Authority. With uncharacteristic expediency, the police arrested Byrd within minutes. The last report from the _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e was that the "strong-arm robbery suspect" was being held in city jail. Byrd may have been guilty as charged but more than likely he was being discredited for the public display of his honest grief. In other words, he was framed to take away from the public sympathy his photo generated. Such was the rather frantic activities of those in charge of the post-Jonestown cover-up. Weekly news magazines, like_ _ _T_i_m_e and_ _ _N_e_w_s_w_e_e_k_, also contributed to the public opinion through articles heavily influenced by Gordon Lindsey, Paul Persaud , Margaret Singer, Mike Prokes, the Millses and several other characters whose activities have earned them a mention elsewhere in this chapter. Obviously, there was a concerted attempt to suppress information, stifle investigations, censor writers and manipulate public opinion. The propaganda campaign that assaulted society following the experiment in Jonestown is extremely complex and, in Orignal page 517 Jonetown many ways, more difficult to comprehend than the experiment itself. The story is full of agents and counteragents, provocateurs and informants of dubious intention. Some worked for Jim Jones or the CIA, others for themselves as a self-defense of their personal involvement with the Peoples Temple. Those few who worked for the truth were too often misled by their sources. The only conclusion that can be reached with any certainty is that the group of people who helped formulate the public's opinion of the White Night was comprised of various villains and victims. END 14