A Thousand Lives

by Julia Scheeres

  p. 110, reached over to switch on the tape recorder: Q933, prepared by the Jonestown Institute

  p. 112, permitted the boys to be physically restrained by chain to prevent them from running away: Release to chain Brian Davis and Tommy Bogue together, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-FF-1-55.

  CHAPTER 14: CONCERN

  p. 114, The group persisted, trying to break the cipher: Reiterman, Raven, 409.

  p. 114, She promised not to criticize the Temple: Letter from Yulanda Crawford to JJ, RYMUR 89-4286-2018-X-2-b-1.

  p. 115, “We know you live on a ranch by yourself ”: Reiterman, Raven, 384.

  p. 115, but at the US Embassy: Maria Katsaris telegram to State Department, September 28, 1977.

  p. 115, It was a bald-faced lie: Gene Chaikin note to Jones, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-BB-10-X.

  p. 115, Undeterred, Katsaris flew to Washington, D.C.: Stephen Katsaris affidavit, Jonestown Institute.

  p. 115, and paid him a three-thousand-dollar bribe to arrange a meeting with Maria: Mike Geniella, “Relatives were frustrated by lack of action,” Santa Rosa Press Democrat, November 13, 1988.

  p. 115, He couldn’t help wondering if she’d been coached: Reiterman, Raven, 387.

  p. 116, They’d given their two teenaged sons permission to go to Jonestown: Reiterman, Raven, 389.

  p. 116, but they hired an attorney to demand the return of seventeen-year-old William: Letter from Roger Holmes to Guyana Embassy, Oct. 20, 1977, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-BB-10-f.

  p. 116, Billy was quickly flown to Georgetown and married off: Jones letter to Reid, October 26, 1977, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-BB-17-bbb-1.

  p. 116, The trip … cost them a small fortune: Reiterman, Raven, 389.

  p. 116, McCoy tried to arrange a meeting between Billy and his parents: Reiterman, Raven, 389.

  p. 117, white woman who was conversant in the Hericlitean philosophy: Edith Roller San Francisco State College master’s thesis, “The Myth Awry,” filed May 1966.

  p. 117, she commanded her to stay in her room: Roller journal, August 15, 1977, RYMUR 89-4286-Bulky 2018-HH-2-117 to -128.

  p. 117, The tension came to a head one night: Roller journal, November 7, 1977, RYMUR 89-4286-Bulky 2018-C-3-A-6 (2) to -6 (101).

  p. 117, When a Temple secretary told her to prepare to leave for Jonestown: Roller journal, December 1, 1977, RYMUR 89-4286-Bulky 2018-C-3-A-7 (1) -A-7 (3) to -A-7 (81).

  p. 118, She was forced to repeat the sordid story at various services for new ears: Roller journal, November 16, 1977, RYMUR 89-4286-Bulky 2018-C-3-A-6 (2) to -6 (101).

  p. 118, Her three younger sisters had kept each other abreast: Roller journal, August 16, 1977.

  p. 119, Dorothy phoned Edith to deride: Roller journal, August 17, 1977.

  p. 119, A few hours after her death: Jones comments to Jonestown community after the death of his mother, December 9, 1977, RYMUR 89-4286-O-1-B, 1-19.

  p. 120, “Anyone knows you can’t shoot anything with a pistol from two hundred yards!”: Reiterman, Raven, 395.

  p. 120, Jones abruptly asked his followers: audiotape Q 998.

  p. 121, residents who didn’t raise their hands: Planning Commission meeting, December 5, 1977, RYMUR 89-4286-2018C-11-D-16b.

  p. 121, He directed the medical team to research ways to kill everyone: Schacht note to Jones, January 6, 1978, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-EE-1-5-57.

  p. 121, “It would be terrorizing for some people if we were to have them all in a group and start chopping heads off ”: Manner of suicide, Annie Moore: RYMUR 89-4286-2233-EE-1-M-77.

  p. 122, “It might be advisable to blindfold the people”: Note to Dad from Phyllis Chaikin, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-EE-Ic28b.

  p. 122, “If some asylum could be arranged for our children”: “Marceline commitment statement on death,” RYMUR 89-4286-2018-NIC 31d.

  p. 122, Michigan native Shirlee Fields, forty, who worked as a dietician: Roller journal, February 14, 1978, RYMUR-89-4286-2018- C-3-A-2- (I) to (127).

  p. 122, “This would be a different way to commit revolutionary suicide”: Shirlee Fields note to Jones, 89-4286-2233-EE-1-F-12.

  p. 122, Temple leader Jean Brown pushed to send more ammunition down: Peoples Temple v. Atty. General of California, deposition of Teri Buford, August 3, 1979.

  p. 123, the group sang odes to socialism and Jim Jones: Peoples Rally, December 25, 1977, RYMUR 89-4286-2018c-11-d-12hh.

  p. 123, he tried to kill himself with a cutlass: Reiterman, Raven, 396.

  p. 123, During his confrontation Jones told him he should be shot through the hips: Q938.

  p. 124, “and you know how I love donuts!”: Rose McKnight letter home, Jonestown Institute website.

  CHAPTER 15: CONTROL

  p. 125, “This creates for us an atmosphere of insecurity”: Jones letter to Reid, October 15, 1977, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-BB-17-ee.

  p. 125, his Georgetown attorney advised him not to leave the project until the arrest order was canceled: Jones letter to Burnham, October 19, 1977, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-BB-17-ff.

  p. 125, The decree nullified all previous documents granting guardianship to Jim Jones: Order re Child Custody, Superior Court of the State of California in the City and County of San Francisco, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-BB-31-b-58.

  p. 125, If Jones didn’t comply, he wrote: Joseph Freitas letter to Wills, November 25, 1977, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-KK-3-A-1.

  p. 126, The head of the Temple PR crew in the capital, Sharon Amos: Sharon Amos letter to Burnham, January 4, 1978, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-BB-2-55-1.

  p. 126, she was very careful not to use the word suicide: Richard McCoy deposition, United States of America v. Peoples Temple.

  p. 126, At a January 7 hearing: Unsigned January 27, 1978, State Dept. Memo, Committee Report, p. 129

  p. 126, the Guyanese government seemed to be cooperating with the Stoens: Peoples Rally notes, January 8, 1978, RYMUR 89-4286-2018-C-11-d-2a.

  p. 126, He picked people out of the crowd to ask their opinion: Peoples Rally notes, January 7, 1978, RYMUR 89-4286-2018-C-7-C-12a.

  p. 127, Security guards nuzzled those who refused to raise their hands with their guns: Julius Evans, Peoples Temple v. Attorney General of California, April 5, 1982, CHS 3800, 2039 box 113.

  p. 127, After a while, Jones’s obsessive suicide talk lost its shock value and began to bore them: Thom Bogue interview with author.

  p. 127, Everyone he talked to that day: United States of America v. Peoples Temple, Deposition of Richard McCoy, vol. 1.

  p. 127, Jones suggested it was because they weren’t busy enough: Peoples Rally, December 20, 1977, RYMUR 89-4286-2018C-11-d-14c.

  p. 128, Jones himself slept in most days: Teri Buford interview with author.

  p. 128, “Hitler did his indoctrination speeches”: Planning Commission meeting notes, December 5, 1977, RYMUR 89-4286-2018-C-11-d-16e.

  p. 128, his voice droned on for most of the day: Bea Orsot letter to Jones, December 30, 1977, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-FF-5-8-B.

  p. 128, Whenever Jones was speaking, everyone else was expected to stop talking and listen: Teri Buford interview with author.

  p. 128, “whatever your reasons, it is driving me nuts”: Tropp letter to Jones, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-FF-5-r-3.

  p. 128, residents would be tested on the content of his rambling broadcasts: Peoples Rally, RYMUR 89-4286-2018-C-11-d-10d, December 28, 1977.

  p. 128, African Americans, who comprised nearly 70 percent of the community: Rebecca Moore, “Demographics and the Black Religious Culture of Peoples Temple,” in Peoples Temple and Black Religion in America, edited by Rebecca Moore, Anthony Pinn, and Mary Sawyer (Indiana University Press: 2005), 57-80.

  p. 128, He said black children were being castrated: “News,” May 7, 1978, RYMUR 89-4286-2233 EE-1-I&J-22.

  p. 128, blacks were “better off during slavery”: Wesley Breidenbach note to Jones, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-EE1A363a.

  p. 128, scientists had engineered a way to kill off minorities: Lucille Taylor note to Jones, RYMUR 89-4286-2233 EE-1-7-71.

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p; p. 129, “I like to do a critical reading of the news”: Ron Talley note to Jones, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-T-107.

  p. 129, The Voice of America broadcasts he heard: Harold Cordell interview with author.

  p. 129, Then he forbade writing nonmembers altogether: Roller journal, February 7, 1978.

  p. 129, “We’re not so much worried about incoming mail as we are outgoing mail”: audiotape Q 588.

  p. 129, he withheld hundreds of letters both to and from residents: Letter information, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-EE-5-A.

  p. 130, Jones ordered everyone to write their families upbeat letters: Letter information, RYMUR 89-4286-2018-C-7-Q-la.

  p. 130, Mentioning that it rained every day could get a letter nixed: Terry Carter letter to her dad, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-EE-1-1&J-29.

  p. 130, One recipient complained that the letters appeared “as if they had been written by machines”: Accusation of Human Rights Violations by Rev. James Warren Jones, April 12, 1978, Jonestown Institute.

  p. 130, “have been written according to rules and saying only approved-of things”: Larry Tupper letters, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-EE-1-T134.

  p. 130, her misspellings were crossed out and corrected in someone else’s handwriting: Letter censorship, FBI interview with subject, November 21, 1978, 89-4286-152.

  p. 130, Others noticed that Jonestown letters arrived unsealed: RYMUR 89-4286-2233-EE4X.

  p. 130, or that the page bottoms were cut off: Gieg correspondence, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-Ee-1-G-64.

  p. 130, Jones insisted that all letters home be written in front of censors: Q271.

  p. 132, The letter was also a no go: Edith Roller letter to Jim Randolph, February 1, 1978, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-EE-1-R-30.

  p. 132, Bates confided to Edith that she’d suffered from various illnesses since she arrived in Jonestown: Roller journal, January 29, 1978.

  p. 132, If someone dared move her shoes: Laura Kohl interview with author.

  p. 133, “I am having as little communication with Bates as possible”: Roller journal, December 16, 1978

  CHAPTER 16: RELEASE

  p. 136, He didn’t see any weapons: Memo of Frank Tumminia re trip to Jonestown February 2, 1978, Committee Report, p. 137.

  p. 136, Jones micromanaged every detail of their tour: Roller journal, February 2, 1978.

  p. 137, eighty-three-year-old Texan named Katherine Domineck complained: Roller journal, February 2, 1978.

  p. 138, the chickery was only producing an average of 270 eggs per day: Q 240.

  p. 138, At the weekly agricultural meeting: Q 240.

  p. 138, The committee recommended cassava: Roller journal, March 21, 1978.

  p. 138, there would be no vegetable harvest for thirty to sixty days, except for cassava leaves: Roller journal, March 14, 1978.

  p. 139, he dispatched the “Jonestown police”: Roller journal, January 28, 1978.

  p. 139, they wouldn’t get another chicken dinner for two months: Roller journal, February 2, 1978.

  p. 139, Farmers gave them bruised and overripe produce: Laura Kohl interview with author. p. 139, some desperately hungry people resorted to stealing food: Roller journal, February 26 and March 10, 1978.

  p. 139, Others swiped food from the plates: “Letters to Dad” self-criticisms, and confessions of stealing, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-ff-5-b-1.

  p. 139, he sipped cold drinks and chewed ice to ward off heat as his congregation sweltered: Q641.

  p. 140, the way to control people was to “keep them tired and poor”: Teri Buford interview with author.

  p. 141, The child “screamed and cried as Stephan said he would tell the snake to bite him”: Roller journal, February 26, 1978.

  p. 141, ordered the snake to be hung around the neck: Q 781.

  p. 141, As guards hung them upside down: Sid Moody and Victoria Graham, “Chaos, God of Disorder, Ruled Jonestown,” November 26, 1978, Associated Press.

  p. 141, principal Tom Grubbs, suggested a new method of behavior modification: Grubbs memo to “Dad” on behavior modification, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-EE-1-G-53.

  p. 142, would only be at the project for six to eight weeks: Q 881.

  CHAPTER 17: DRILL

  p. 143, The ham patched Schacht through to his neighbor: FBI interview with Richard Hayman, RYMUR 89-4286-368, November 25, 1978.

  p. 143, The Washington Star published a story on the birth: Mary Ann Kuhn “A Potomac Doctor Helps Deliver Twins 2,000 Miles Away,” Washington Star, February 16, 1978.

  p. 143, Ambassador Laurence Mann honored Greenfield: Mike Byrne, “Ham Operator Helps Ob. Gyn. Consult with Physician in Jungle on Emergency C-Section,” Ob. Gyn. News, Vol. 13. No. 8.

  p. 144, the birth story was a complete fabrication: Leslie Wilson interview with author.

  p. 144, Vigilantes fired shotguns at their house: “No Vigilantes Needed or Wanted,” Houston Chronicle, Friday, March 8, 1968.

  p. 144, he told his friends that the FBI: Sherri Tatum interview with author.

  p. 144, he had a vision telling him to go to California: FBI interview with subject, RYMUR 89-4268-636.

  p. 144, stepladder of injection marks scarring his forearms: Carlton Goodlett, “Notes on Peoples Temple,” Jonestown Institute.

  p. 144, He wrote his family: Mona Schacht letter to Larry Schacht, July 6, 1978, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-EE-1-s-198.

  p. 144, administered various narcotics to the Temple leader: FBI interview, RYMUR 89-4286-925.

  p. 145, Jones feared Schacht wouldn’t return to the settlement: FBI interview with Mark Lane.

  p. 145, Schacht’s questions were so simplistic: Robert C. Smithwick, W6CS amateur radio operator interview with author.

  p. 145, He was always behind on his appointments: Schacht memo to Jones, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-EE-1-5-114.

  p. 145, “I am a pisser when I wake up”: Schacht note to Jones, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-EE-2-r-148.

  p. 145, His one free day each week was Wednesday: Schact memo to Jones, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-EE-2-A-1-mmmm.

  p. 146, he’d succeeded in producing a culture that looked like the botulinum bacteria: Schacht botulism experiment notes, no FBI markings.

  p. 146, “I need a good book on forensic medicine”: Schacht, “Progress report,” RYMUR 89-4286-2233-EE-1-5-178.

  p. 146, “I am quite capable of organizing the suicide aspect”: Schacht note to Jones, January 6, 1978, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-EE-1-5-57.

  p. 146, Symptoms, including slurred speech, weak muscles: National Institutes of Health data.

  p. 146, staphylococcal toxin’s worst effects: Center for Disease Control.

  p. 147, the angry reader accused the Temple of aggressive self-promotion: Mary Ann Connors Letter to Reid, February 21, 1978, RYMUR-89-4286-2233-BB-17-XX-1.

  p. 147, “Who are they to drive around town with a foreign license plate”: Temple leaders meeting with Jennifer Small of Radio Antilles, March 8, 1978, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-BB-2-ggg-2.

  p. 147, “Why in hell’s half acre … ”: Letter from Sharon Amos to Burnham and Reid, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-BB-2-KKK-3.

  p. 148, “It’s all over, they’re coming in right now to kill us”: Debbie Blakey deposition. Peoples Temple v. Attorney General of California July 12, 1979.

  p. 149, warned that anyone who tried to flee would be shot: Debbie Blakey deposition. Peoples Temple v. Attorney General of California July 12, 1979.

  p. 151, to learn which of his followers would obey him: Debbie Blakey deposition. Peoples Temple v. Attorney General of California July 12, 1979.

  p. 152, “One day we are drinking a death potion”: Note from Maria McCann, February 17, 1978, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-EE-1-R-46.

  p. 152, “[she] was afraid to go to sleep because she was afraid she wouldn’t wake up”: Carol Dennis note to Jones, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-FF-5-d-7.

  CHAPTER 18: HYACINTH

  p. 153, The sisters laughed about it: Thrash, The Onliest One Alive, 97.

  p. 153, “I ought to kill everyone last one of you”: Thrash, The Onliest One Alive, 102.

 
p. 154, Her sons urged her to quiet down: Thrash, The Onliest One Alive, 103.

  p. 154, hoped that the trouble between Reverend and Mrs. Jones would lead to the failure of the project: Thrash, The Onliest One Alive, 102.

  p. 155, she began to suspect that he wasn’t going back either: Thrash, The Onliest One Alive, 107.

  p. 155, “What did God ever do for us?”: Thrash, The Onliest One Alive, 101.

  p. 155, Jair Baker got caught writing “Jesus Saves”: Planning Commission meeting, December 5, 1977, RYMUR 89-4286-2018-C-11-d-16c

  p. 156, an elderly male resident who’d just died made the mistake of calling out to Jesus: Q182.

  CHAPTER 19: STANLEY

  p. 157, she was attracted to “flowers, trees, nature’s beauty”: Zippy Edwards note to Jones, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-FF-5-a-3.

  p. 157, sometimes, they did: Note to dad from Scott T., RYMUR 89- 4286-2233-EE-2-ij-11.

  p. 158, he was feeling randy: Stanley Clayton interview with the author.

  p. 159, “Go ahead and kill me”: Stanley Clayton interview with the author.

  p. 160, his fantasies about black women: Schacht note to JJ, RYMUR 89-4286-2233-EE-1-5-112.

  p. 160, Dr. Schacht “was introduced” into Janice: Roller journal, April 10, 1978, RYMUR 89-4286-Bulky 2018-C-2-A-2, pages 1–148.

  p. 160, “I want to die a revolutionary death”: audiotape Q635.

  p. 161, He proceeded to fart, burp, piss: audiotape Q638.

  p. 161, “The only fuck I want right now is the orgasm of the great fucking grave”: audiotape Q636.

  p. 161, sometimes talked about high-tailing it out of Jonestown: Stanley Clayton interview with the author.

  CHAPTER 20: RELATIVES

  p. 163, The FCC’s rules forbid business communications: Wireless Communication Bureau’s Code of Federal Regulations.

  p. 163, Jones would “rather have his people dead than live in the United States”: Yulanda Williams affidavit.

  p. 164, The next day, a group of about fifty people: “Peoples Temple in Guyana is ‘prison,’ relatives say,” Bob Klose, Press Democrat, April 12, 1978.