Temple Meeting with Richard McCoy, mid-Jan 14, 1978

P-1-C-18a

MC COY (his response after he and his embassy protested the expulsion of Stoens on 14/1/78 and they were allowed to stay

-the Stoens didn’t violate law so they should be allowed to stay, it was stupid on the govt’s part to throw them out

-the Stoens are involved in litigation-the judge has reserved his decision to give it in writing so they should be able to stay and see what the decision is

-McCoy said, “you shouldn’t’ get involved in this’

-McCoy claims he has taken care of a lot of people transportation (Suzanne)

-said we should incorporate as a cooperative so we wouldn’t have to pay duty

-he said he is writing to the director of International operations

-he is hammered by them on one side and us on ther other side

-said by the way that he has a new form for Larry Schact [Schacht] to report our births and deaths

– [US Deputy Chief of Mission] John Blacken talked to the Ministry of Foreign affairs last nite (around 4-6pm) and a note today was sent to the official of foreign affairs relaying the info [text crossed out] this morning, and then they changed the order

-he said that this could have turned into an international incident, foreign policy issue between US and Guyana

-said Hass is complaining to Frank Timenia [Tumminia] who is in charge of Guyanese affairs in Washington

-when asked why he had taken sides on this, said “I’m a professional I don’t take sides.”

-he said it was an Embassy protest, Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the change at 11:30 am, and then McCoy found out the expulsion order was cancelled

-he’d even help an American who was a communist if that was the same issue (expulsion)

-if a Guyanese was involved in courts in the US, they should have the same consideration and would by the US

-judge gave no indication of when the decision would be

-wait till the 19th would have made more sense by the Guyanese govt., then the US would have had no arguement as that was what was on their passports

-McCoy called the Brickman police and [f[ound there was no real order or anything just that they were to carry this out, Stoens were notified to leave

aFTER MCCoy’s visit to Jonestown, he said the following

-he will report the facts and report what people told him (in Jonestown)

-there will always be allegations against JJ but McCoy is prepared to say that people are not held against their will and do not live in a state of fear

-said he’d report this to the Ambassador and to the State Dept.

-he doesn’t now credit certain rumours such as a young man having had his head shaved

-he didn’t go as far as he liked, but talked to a lot of people

-problem with the death report on Emmett Griffith, Norman Adams said someone else did it. Jonestown said a whole bunch of people came out and someone did it, but Norman Adams is the only one that can do registry work

-can’t process social security application without death report

-whoever came in and did it shouldn’t have done it

-found an obvious cooperativeness in Jonestown

-will now go up every 3 mos.

-needs to have the privacy act releases so he can release info right away

-people were spontaneous, would have stayed longer, would have played baseball

-talked to many alone,

-found that there wasn’t much of a view of the hierarchy of Jonestown, hard to say who does what, there were 60 US govt checks sitting on the bench and no-one picked them up, no-one would say who handles the money

-maybe even needs more of a hierarchy

(I explained things were done by committee and he said that’s how it was done in the Israeli Kibbutz)

-even his vice counsels want to come up to Jonestown so next time maybe one (or more ?) of them will come up but McCoy had to go this time

-said [Guyana Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred] Wills is a good [text crossed out] friend of his

-felt that even if they did shave heads in Jonestown he could understand it as you have to have certain mores but didn’t see that, he would feel that was cruel

P-1-C-18c

-MC Coy’s visit cont.

or inhuman, maybe it could be like a stigma for misbehaving – people looked healthy to him