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I have been researching religious
cults and the Jonestown tragedy since
high school. There are a few basic
undisputable facts, with which even
the most casual interested party is
likely to be familiar. Before we
venture into stranger territory,
let's review the fundamentals of
Jim Jones and the Peoples'
Temple.
Jim Jones founded the
Peoples' Temple in 1963. He was
working to begin a Christian church
that was focused on social justice
and racial equality. Jones attracted
hundreds of followers through his
preaching, and in 1971, settled the
headquarters in San Francisco. At
this time, Jones sought to increase
the numbers of his fold, and began
staging miraculous healings as part
of his services. In 1977, Jones moved
his church to a site in the mountains
of Guyana, where several hundreds of
his church members soon joined him.
During an infamous demonstration of
his divine powers, Jones once stood
in front of his congregation, and had
a trusted sidekick shoot him in the
chest. The good reverend was dragged
behind a curtain, and emerged moments
later completely healed. Congressman
Leo Ryan visited Jonestown to
investigate reports of suspicious
activity in November 1978. Ryan and
his posse were charmed and sent away,
only to be murdered at the airport as
they attempted to fly out. A week
later, 914 people, including 274
children, were found dead at
Jonestown. The official reports to
the public tell of a mass suicide via
cyanide-laced Kool-aid.
A curious event? I should say so.
A straightforward tale of religiosity
gone amok? Definitely not. To begin,
it is well-known that members of the
Peoples' Temple who attempted to
leave and return to their normal
lives were systematically harassed,
and reporters trying to tell the
story of Jonestown were threatened.
Such doings were behind Leo
Ryan's investigation.
Incidentally, many friends and
relatives of Temple members flew to
Guyana with Ryan, presumably to talk
some sense into their loved ones.
They, however, were denied access to
Jonestown.
Jones' followers were blacks,
the poor and elderly, former
prisoners and psychiatric patients,
and young people. The common
denominator? They were all target
populations of one MK-ULTRA, a CIA
mind-control experiment which
duplicated Soviet and Chinese
brain-washing techniques of forcing
spies to reveal their secrets. You
might find this a bit difficult to
believe. I did, until I read that a
post-mortem search of Jonestown
uncovered stashes of thorazine (a
tranquilizer), sodium pentathol
(otherwise known as truth serum),
chloral hydrate (a hypnotic), and
other pharmaceuticals along those
lines.
It gets weirder as we peek at
Jones' acquaintances. Dan
Mitrione, reportedly one of
Jones' closest childhood
friends, grew up to join the CIA-run
International Police Academy. Another
close friend, Richard McCoy, worked
for military intelligence. The Deputy
Chief of Mission for the United
States Embassy in Guyana, Richard
Dwyer, was present at Jonestown at
the time of Congressman Ryan's
visit. It was Dwyer's report
that was used by the State Department
to confirm Ryan's death.
Jones? flock also included Green
Beret Charles Beikman, and Timothy
Stoen, who worked in the DA's
office. Not opposed to buying his way
in with people of influence, Jones
was able to keep several California
politicians in his pocket by
contributing lots of money to
campaigns, and by recruiting and
influencing voters. And it
wouldn't be a conspiracy without
Nazis: Larry Blakey was the Temple
member who shot Congressman Ryan.
Blakey's parents were
stockholders in Solvay Drugs, a
division of the Nazi cartel I.G.
Farben. Blakey's brother,
George, married into the Layton
family, a clan of wealthy German
bankers who backed Jonestown with
$60K.
The most astounding bits come
after the "mass suicide".
Guyanese Deputy Prime Minister
Ptolemy Reid, and the wife of Prime
Minister Forbes Burnham walked away
from the crime scene with nearly $1
million in cash, gold, and jewelry.
The initial body count from the
Guyanese police numbered the victims
at 408, with about 700 Temple members
missing in the jungle. The US army
later "officially" claimed
that the dead numbered 913,
explaining at first that the Guyanese
couldn't count properly. The
army later claimed that bodies had
fallen on top of each other,
preventing all from being visible. By
this logic, 408 bodies, many of which
were those of children, would have
fallen on top of and obscured 505
bodies. During a briefing, Guyanese
Minister of Information Shirley Field
Ridley announced the change in the
body count, and then refused to
answer any questions. The Guyanese
doctor who examined the bodies found
fresh needle marks on the back left
shoulder blades of 80% of the
victims. Other bodies showed evidence
of strangulation. Most displayed no
evidence of the involuntary muscle
spasms, twisted limbs, or facial
contortions that are sure-fire
indications of cyanide poisoning.
Rather, the 913 were discovered in
neat rows, face down---and with
drag-marks in the dirt nearby---and
US army spokesman Lt. Col. Schuler
declared that autopsies were
unnecessary. Even without this
declaration autopsies would have been
impossible to carry out, as removal
of the bodies took nearly a week to
remove. American planes carried only
36 caskets at a time, far fewer than
were loaded onto planes during the
Vietnam War, and corpses were left to
rot in the sun. A body identified as
Jim Jones was also found, an apparent
captain gone down with his ship.
Remember the miraculous shooting?
Many believe the real Jones actually
did die that day, and was replaced by
a previously arranged stand-in. This
stand-in theory would explain why the
body later identified as Jones bore
none of his birthmarks. A few
enthusiasts speculate that Jones is
still alive and living it up with the
fortune he stole from his faithful.
It doesn't stop there. Don
Harris was the reporter shot and
killed with Congressman Ryan. Harris
was the only reporter covering
Reverend Martin Luther King,
Jr.'s activities at the time of
King's assassination. Mark Lane,
employed by Jim Jones as his
attorney, had previously been
assigned as council for James Earl
Ray, the man charged with King's
murder. The pieces really start
coming together with Grace Walden
Stephens. Stephens was a witness to
King's assassination. She
refused to identify Ray as
King's killer, and was thus
packed off to a mental institution.
There Stephens stayed until one Mark
Lane was granted legal custody of
her. Lane shipped her to Jonestown.
The theories and whispers and
secrets continue on and on, web page
after web page. The final fact that I
will share is that official
government reports and documents
about Jim Jones have been kept
classified, held from even immediate
family members of those who died in
Guyana. Between 1978 and 1982, more
than 200 requests were filed by
relatives against the CIA and FBI
under the Freedom of Information Act.
Nearly 6000 pages of information from
the US Department of State was
obtained (how or why no one seems to
know) by an anonymous person and
posted on a webpage. That site is now
inaccessible (try if you want: www.icehouse.net/zodiac/).
Make what you want of it, but
information is being withheld for one
reason or another.
And now for my disclaimer: what I
have presented here is a collection
of quickly gathered suppositions
and musings, with much of the
information received second- or
third-hand. Support, dispute and
refute: if you discover anything, let
me know.
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