The Road to Jonestown
Page 61
Jones’s rambling sermons grew more bizarre: Edith Roller Journal, 5/22/76, 11/3/76, 11/14/76, Jonestown Institute; Tapes Q 962, Q 353, Q 1018, Jonestown Institute.
There were few brand-new members now: Garry Lambrev interview.
FORTY-TWO: “OUR YEAR OF ASCENDENCY”
Her husband informed her that sometime in the future: RYMUR 89-4286-615 (further designation illegible).
He dispatched Maria Katsaris to investigate: RYMUR 89-4286-QQ-2-A-1.
the Temple board voted that the Guyana mission: RYMUR 89-4286-A-32-a-147 through 149.
Herb Caen wrote about Jones for the first time: Stoen, Marked for Death, p. 122.
Peoples Temple and the Los Angeles Black Muslims co-hosted: Ibid., p. 125.
They became partners in an import-export company: Reiterman, Raven, p. 265.
Jones made a special point of gathering them: Richmond Palladium-Item, June 29, 1976.
Mrs. Kennedy told her family: Bill Manning interview.
“If you give yourself to socialism”: Edith Roller Journal, 5/26/76, Jonestown Institute.
for that evening only: Ibid., 9/3/76.
Less pleasing was Jones’s announcement: Ibid.
Jones had another exciting announcement: Ibid., 9/11/76.
The event went well: Ibid., 9/15/76.
Mrs. Carter made a follow-up phone call: Reiterman, Raven, pp. 303–5.
Jimmy Carter was considering appointing him: Edith Roller Journal, 10/19/76, Jonestown Institute.
He received a brief, handwritten reply: California Historical Society, MS 3800, Box 2, Folder 36.
Willie Brown described Jones: Layton, Seductive Poison, p. 65; Reiterman, Raven, pp. 306–8.
But it was all in vain: Reiterman, Raven, pp. 268–70.
“Though many have asked him to do so”: Ukiah Daily Journal, February 25, 1977.
Maria would testify that her father: RYMUR 89-4286-S-1-F-1a.
Jones was even disdainful of President-elect Jimmy Carter: Edith Roller Journal, 11/12/76, 11/26/76, Jonestown Institute.
Eight days later, it authorized spending: RYMUR 89-4286-A-33-a-201.
During the Temple Thanksgiving service: Edith Roller Journal, 11/25/76, Jonestown Institute.
Jones blurted to Stoen: Stoen, Marked for Death, p. 2.
FORTY-THREE: NEW WEST
Each Temple kid got one gift: Hue Fortson interview; Edith Roller Journal, 1/1/77, Jonestown Institute; Mills, Six Years with God, pp. 168–69.
Marceline’s health broke down: RYMUR 89-4286-615 (only designation legible).
The board met and voted an immediate $30,000 annual salary: RYMUR 89-4286-A-32-a-175 through 178.
she helped Stephan find an apartment: Jim Jones Jr. interview; Wright, “The Orphans of Jonestown.”
Jones made a return trip to Cuba: RYMUR 89-4286-bb-b-7c; Goodlett, “Notes on Peoples Temple”; Reiterman, Raven, p. 284.
Grace Stoen filed for divorce: RYMUR 89-4286-B-1-c-1e; Stoen, Marked for Death, pp. 2, 135.
talking only intermittently to Marceline: Fielding McGehee interview.
Embassy deputy chief Wade Matthews reported: Moore, Understanding Jonestown and Peoples Temple, p. 44.
Mr. Muggs was one of Jonestown’s first residents: Laura Johnston Kohl, “Oral History Interview: Don Beck,” Jonestown Report 17 (November 2015), Jonestown Institute.
Tom Grubbs and Don Beck were dispatched: Ibid.
Under the supervision of Gene Chaikin: RYMUR 89-4286-B-2-c-1.
a San Francisco private investigator named Joseph Mazor: RYMUR 89-4286-S-1-F-1a.
Elmer and Deanna Mertle were active, too: Mills, Six Years with God, pp. 57–63.
That was enough for the U.S. Customs Service: RYMUR 89-4286-2180 (no further designation legible).
Temple members met with New West’s editor: Reiterman, Raven, p. 325.
Peoples Temple purchased a residence: Stoen, Marked for Death, p. 32; Laura Johnston Kohl interview.
They sent fish, too: Laura Johnston Kohl interview.
Jones found his mission doctor: RYMUR 89-4286-X-6-a-2; Goodlett, “Notes on Peoples Temple.”
Among the first textbooks he requested: RYMUR 89-4286-QQ-5-A-13.
Jones accused Stoen: Stoen, Marked for Death, p. 1.
In March, he disappeared briefly: Ibid., pp. 18–19.
Stoen flew to New York: Ibid., pp. 36–37.
The New West writers comprised: Fondakowski, Stories from Jonestown, pp. 111–13.
It came out later: Ibid., pp. 112–13.
the Temple hired perhaps the most controversial defense attorney: Reiterman, Raven, pp. 372–73.
His initial monthly retainer was $5,000: RYMUR 89-4286-1681 (only legible designation).
Tim Carter and Karen Layton were dispatched: Tim Carter interview.
Other settlers flew from California to Florida: Laura Johnston Kohl interview.
He warned his followers: Edith Roller Journal, 4/21/76, Jonestown Institute.
On Memorial Day, he took part: Reiterman, Raven, p. 321.
On Jones’s instructions, loyal follower Richard Tropp wrote: RYMUR 89-4286-MM-5-20 and 21, MM-6-4 and 5.
Jim Jones ran away: In Debbie Layton’s book, Seductive Poison, she describes Jones receiving a call from the New West editor, who read the article to him in mid-July, weeks prior to its publication. But in the article, Kilduff and Tracy write that they were unable to reach Jones for comment before the article went to press and were told that he was in Guyana, and had been for three weeks. After brief, initial contact, Layton did not respond to my emails requesting an interview, so I was unable to ask her about this apparent contradiction.
Jones’s mother-in-law, Charlotte Baldwin, told the local paper: Richmond Palladium-Item, October 23, 1977.
Marceline told her friend Bonnie Burnham: Thielmann, The Broken God, pp. 109–11.
FORTY-FOUR: JONESTOWN
The Americans soon learned: Teri Buford O’Shea interview.
he took over control of everything: Laura Johnston Kohl interview.
All incoming mail was opened: RYMUR 89-4286-EE-5-A and B; EE-1-H-48; C-7-e-1a; Tim Carter interview.
the FCC formally charged: RYMUR 89-4286-E-5-A-28 through 41.
Jonestown’s radio code name for “guns” was “Bibles”: Teri Buford O’Shea interview.
their stateside paychecks were needed in Guyana: Edith Roller Journal, 8/15/77, Jonestown Institute.
Newly arrived settlers were unnerved: Ibid., 1/28/78; Fondakowski, Stories from Jonestown, pp. 89–92, 201; Wagner-Wilson, Slavery of Faith, pp. 68–76; Laura Johnston Kohl interview.
Jones calculated that serving chicken or pork: Edith Roller Journal, 2/5/78, Jonestown Institute.
Jones made a point of rewarding: Layton, Seductive Poison, p. 5.
Marceline, struggling to keep: RYMUR 89-4286-x-7-a-5a.
Jonestown’s combined income from its own operations: Tim Carter interview.
The Temple’s San Francisco office: California Historical Society, MS 3800, Box 4, Folder 57.
Many took advantage: Feinsod, Awake in a Nightmare, pp. 110–13.
fermented beverages that the settlers called “jungle juice”: Ibid., pp. 116–17.
Jones had been apprised by Marceline: Stephenson, Dear People, pp. 79–80.
Jones established the “Learning Crew”: Moore, Understanding Jonestown and Peoples Temple, pp. 48–49; Wagner-Wilson, Slavery of Faith, pp. 84–85; Stephenson, Dear People, p. 82; Scheeres, A Thousand Lives, p. 123.
more often he gave his personalized accounts: Tim Carter, Teri Buford O’Shea, and Laura Johnston Kohl interviews; Moore, Pinn, and Sawyer, eds., Peoples Temple and Black Religion in America, p. 117; Edith Roller Journal, 7/28/78, Jonestown Institute; RYMUR 89-4286-EE-1-H-58; Scheeres, A Thousand Lives, pp. 128–29.
Jonestown had a loudspeaker system: Jim Jones Jr. and Tim Carter interviews.
John Blacken, deputy chief of the American mission: Stephenson, Dear People, pp. 72–73.<
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Burnham now had no intention of dealing with Jones: Kit Nascimento interview.
Yolanda Crawford persuaded him to let her: RYMUR 89-4286-FF-I-107 a-d.
Leon Broussard sneaked away into the jungle: Reiterman, Raven, pp. 355–60; Scheeres, A Thousand Lives, pp. 89–90.
recently appointed U.S. consul Richard McCoy: In the U.S. Foreign Service, consuls are diplomats who report to the U.S. ambassador.
FORTY-FIVE: CONCERNED RELATIVES AND THE FIRST WHITE NIGHT
There is some disagreement among Temple survivors about the term “White Night.” A few insist that it was never used in Jonestown and was invented as a useful descriptive term afterward. Others recall it in regular use—“night” because Jones usually summoned emergency gatherings after the workday concluded, and “white” as the opposite of “black,” since traditional usage of “black” indicated something bad and thus, in the minds of Temple members, smacked of racism.
In August 1977 the Mertles initiated: Mills, Six Years with God, p. 71.
even Grace met with Mazor: RYMUR 89-4286-S-1-b-1a, B-2-d-5.
it was one thing to have a name and message: Fielding McGehee interview.
Tim Stoen met with Grace in Denver: Stoen, Marked for Death, pp. 137–39.
Stoen did not immediately align himself: Jeanne Mills (Deanna Mertle) wrote in Six Years with God that Stoen eventually moved next door to her and her husband.
Grace Stoen went to court in San Francisco: RYMUR 89-4286-B-1-c-1r.
“She would hug all over him”: RYMUR 89-4286-FF-1-30.
Jones’s affidavit stated that: RYMUR FF-I-111-b.
The affidavits were prepared for future use in court: Since Jones never appeared in court to contest Grace Stoen’s charges, the documents were never made public by the Temple. They were found among Jonestown records recovered in the aftermath of November 18, 1978.
“Marcie is okay except”: RYMUR 89-4286-BB-7-d-7.
The order added: RYMUR 89-4286-B-1-c-1k.
That crucial addendum changed everything: Rebecca Moore interview.
Jeffrey Haas, the attorney representing Grace: RYMUR 89-4286-B-1-c-1n.
Haas flew to Georgetown and appeared: Reiterman, Raven, p. 361.
They were met at the gate by Maria Katsaris: Ibid., p. 362.
About four thirty in the afternoon on September 7: Much of my description of this first White Night is derived from interviews with Tim Carter and Jim Jones Jr., who were both present. I also drew on material from Wright, “The Orphans of Jonestown”; Fondakowski, Stories from Jonestown, pp. 211–12; Moore, Understanding Jonestown and Peoples Temple, pp. 75–80; Scheeres, A Thousand Lives, pp. 92–99; and Wagner-Wilson, Slavery of Faith, pp. 88–91.
Carlton Goodlett, speaking from San Francisco: Goodlett, “Notes on Peoples Temple.”
in early October he wrote to the deputy minister: RYMUR 89-4286-BB-3-a-5.
FORTY-SIX: DEATH WILL BE PAINLESS
So many followers complained of feeling threatened: RYMUR 89-4286-C-7-c-12a.
The boy had two Jonestown nicknames: Rebecca Moore interview.
John Burke sent a confidential: All other government documents were obtained from the FBI through Freedom of Information Act requests. But I got this one from WikiLeaks, which conveniently made the document available online as I was writing this book.
Tim Stoen wrote directly to Jones: Stoen, Marked for Death, p. 146.
Jones laid out an attack plan: RYMUR 89-4286-B-3-g-3.
Jones engaged Guyanese attorney Lionel Luckhoo: RYMUR 89-4286-A-25-c-3.
he ordered Debbie Layton to find Stoen: Layton, Seductive Poison, pp. 131–32.
Howard and Beverly Oliver took steps: RYMUR 89-4286-B-i-i-14a.
Steven Katsaris was determined: Reiterman, Raven, pp. 384–89.
She was provided with a list: RYMUR 89-4286-B-3-j-1.
a past Jones misstep came back to haunt him: RYMUR 89-4286-EE-1-I and J-143.
Another matter involving Jonestown kids: RYMUR 89-4286-EE-1-K-17, BB-17-jjj-1.
Hue Fortson had been dispatched: Hue Fortson interview.
she sent Jones a letter: RYMUR 89-4286-EE-1-I&J-164.
Marceline began a quiet effort: RYMUR 89-4286-A-14-a-3 through 12.
Two teenage boys, Tommy Bogue and Brian Davis: Scheeres, A Thousand Lives, pp. 106–13.
the San Francisco Examiner published a story: Edith Roller Journal, 11/15–16/77, Jonestown Institute; Reiterman, Raven, pp. 377–78.
an order was issued by the California Superior Court: RYMUR 89-4286-L-1-a-1; Scheeres, A Thousand Lives, p. 125; Reiterman, Raven, p. 378.
Larry Schacht concluded that the cause: RYMUR 89-4286-B-2-d-1.
A bombshell announcement followed: RYMUR 89-4286-C-11-d-11c.
Jones collapsed, sliding out of his chair: RYMUR 89-4286-C-11-d-14c.
“There is a good chance I can develop”: Houston Press, January 30, 2013.
Phyllis Chaikin suggested that everyone: Ibid.
around dawn on February 16, 1978: Edith Roller Journal, 11/16–17/77, Jonestown Institute; Scheeres, A Thousand Lives, pp. 148–51; RYMUR 89-4286-1206 (rest illegible); RYMUR 89-4286-1576 (rest illegible); RYMUR 4286-C-5-a-33; Layton, Seductive Poison, pp. 178–81.
On Jones’s instruction, Larry Schacht ordered: RYMUR 89-4286-2233-00-3-E2.
FORTY-SEVEN: BETRAYALS
The responses were chilling: RYMUR 89-4286-C-5-a-33.
Tim and Grace Stoen had come to Georgetown: Stoen, Marked for Death, pp. 153–82.
Jones himself wrote a long letter: RYMUR 89-4286-BB-17-ee.
“We won’t pay your fucking way”: Edith Roller Journal, 3/18/78, Jonestown Institute.
this one asking for suggestions: RYMUR 89-4286-BB-2-44.
Jonestown might offer an additional benefit: RYMUR 89-4286-BB-17-xx-2 and 3.
tranquilizing himself into a stupor: Jim Jones Jr. and Teri Buford O’Shea interviews.
radio operators in the communications shack: Tim Carter interview.
they began disciplining themselves: RYMUR 89-4286-1-O-15-a.
It began, “We at Peoples Temple”: The complete text can be found on the Jonestown Institute website.
Stoen and Steven Katsaris served: Stoen, Marked for Death, pp. 195–200.
the Concerned Relatives marched: Ibid. Hue Fortson interview.
she reiterated her devotion: Stephenson, Dear People, pp. 89–90.
In her radio transmission: The complete text can be found on the Jonestown Institute website.
At the Soviet embassy in Georgetown: RYMUR 89-4286-GG-1-E-1.
a reporter from the Soviet news agency TASS: Edith Roller Journal, 4/16/78, Jonestown Institute; RYMUR 89-4286-c-6-1-m.
Richard McCoy came from Georgetown: Scheeres, A Thousand Lives, p. 168.
The Moores were met: John V. Moore interview.
Debbie Layton went to the U.S. embassy: Layton, Seductive Poison, pp. 213–68. Layton’s memoir goes into considerable detail about her defection. I’ve reduced it to the basics here.
She had been unpopular: Tim Carter, Laura Johnston Kohl, and Teri Buford O’Shea interviews.
Jones did make an additional order: Teri Buford O’Shea interview.
she left a note for Jones: Stephenson, Dear People, p. 103.
Tim Stoen and Steven Katsaris launched: Stoen, Marked for Death, pp. 205–6.
Stoen sent a private message to Jones: Ibid., pp. 212–13.
Debbie Layton supplied authorities and reporters: The complete text of the affidavit can be found on the Jonestown Institute website.
He told the other settlers that Debbie Layton: RYMUR 89-4286-FF-11-A-1 through 55.
Carolyn Layton and Maria Katsaris gradually assumed: Tim Carter, Jim Jones Jr., Laura Johnston Kohl, Fielding McGehee, and Teri Buford O’Shea interviews.
One afternoon when Annie was called away: California Historical Society, MS 3802, Box 1, Folder 1.
A hut was designated “the Extended Care Unit”: Reiterm
an, Raven, pp. 449–50; RYMUR 89-4286-1722 (rest illegible).
cheese sandwiches laced with barbiturates: Tim Carter interview.
Gordon Lindsay, a writer for the National Enquirer: Scheeres, A Thousand Lives, p. 172.
Bonny Mann forwarded to Jones “with compliments”: RYMUR 89-4286-D-3-A-3b.
more information was needed: RYMUR 89-4286-G-1-a-8c.
Larry Schacht could not practice medicine: RYMUR 89-4286-D-a-A-1 through 5.
the same tactic that had worked so well: Kit Nascimento interview; Guyana Journal, April 2006; RYMUR 89-4286-D-2-a-11a, D-a-A-1 through 5.
Helen Snell complained that she wanted more meat: RYMUR 89-4286-EE-2-uv-12A.
some of the young men in Jonestown: Wright, “The Orphans of Jonestown”; Fondakowski, Stories from Jonestown, pp. 219–20; Desmond Roberts interview.
Snell may have inspired his announcement: Edith Roller Journal, 8/8/78, Jonestown Institute.
afterward he told him and Marceline: Carlton Goodlett, “Notes on Peoples Temple.”
One of the first actions taken: RYMUR 89-4286-S-1-G-2-1 through 77.
a wave of new bills: RYMUR 89-4286-A-26-a-3 through 13.
FORTY-EIGHT: UNRAVELING
The congressman was displeased: San Francisco Examiner, November 20, 1978.
Tim Carter sent Jones a note: RYMUR 89-4286-C-7-g-4a.
She suggested to Jones: Teri Buford O’Shea interview.
he provided Jones with a memo: RYMUR 89-4286-NN-6-A-1 through 9.
Lane launched the “public relations counter offensive”: RYMUR 89-4286-X-3-m-3a through 32; X-4-m-3u and 3v.
Justice Bishop withdrew from the Stoen case: Washington Star-News, December 6, 1978.
Even Charles Garry’s petulant threat: RYMUR 89-4286-PP-9-1.
Feodor Timofeyev made his long-delayed visit: Reiterman, Raven, pp. 446–47; RYMUR 89-4286-Q-352 (rest illegible).
she contacted the San Francisco temple office: RYMUR 89-4286-BB-7-A-37.
Jones selected nineteen-year-old Shanda James: Wright, “The Orphans of Jonestown”; Jim Jones Jr. interview.
He appointed a Money Making Project Committee: RYMUR 89-4286-C-7-h-10; C-7-h-7.
Chaikin, on behalf of the group: RYMUR 89-4286-GG-1-C-1 and 2.
he snapped that the question: RYMUR 89-4286-G-1-f-3 and 6e.
Tim Carter left the same day: Tim Carter interview.