Q329 Summary

Summary prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III. If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.

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FBI Catalogue          Jones Speaking

FBI preliminary tape identification note: Labeled in part “7/4/78 News”

Date cues on tape:   Contents of tape consistent with label

People named:

Bible verses cited:     None

Summary:

(Note: This tape was transcribed by Nicole Bissett. The editors gratefully acknowledge her invaluable assistance.)

While this tape begins as a news tape, with several items of national and international news – most of which put US foreign policy and economics in a negative light – the bulk of the reading is of an account of the Haymarket Affair, a notorious incident in the history of the U.S. labor struggle for an eight-hour workday and other benefits of unionization.

Jim Jones reads from the work The Haymarket Affair by David Wallechinsky, continuing through several segments. As he does in most similar readings, Jones adds periodic editorial commentary, ranging from single words or phrases like “monopoly capitalist,” to lengthier asides. After noting that the number of union leaders, socialists and anarchists who went on trial for the incident was lower than the number originally arrested because of plea-bargaining and deals for immunity, for example, Jones adds that most of the ones who escaped punishment were dead or arrested on other charges within a few years. “That is the history of finks, always,” he concludes. “You may get your immunity for the moment, for lying, then to have to live with a guilty conscience all of your life.” After reading the description of the jury which tried the remaining men – and which was stacked against the defendants – Jones says, “The US’s farce that you have a right to a jury trial by your peers was, as always, denied, and still is today.”

As he does with other readings, whether they be of individual news items or longer analytical pieces such as this one, Jones points out the object lessons for the people of Jonestown or otherwise tries to make it relevant to them. After being sentenced to death by hanging, the defendants in the Haymarket affair were given the opportunity to speak, and several spoke of the nobility of being martyrs for the cause.  “’I say, if death is the penalty for proclaiming the truth, then I will proudly and defiantly pay the costly price,’” he quotes one as saying. “’Call your hangmen. … [O]thers whose numbers are legion have preceded us on this path. We are ready to follow, we are ready to die.’” Jones cries out the defiance of others sentenced that day – “’Hang me, too! For I think it is more honorable to die suddenly than to be killed by inches.’” – and includes his own judgment that, “He’ll be glad to die as a socialist.”

There are more specific references to the Temple’s own past. After reading about the path to socialism of the some of the Haymarket defendants as an act of defiance, Jones recalls,  “that’s how some came to our movement when [Temple antagonist Lester] Kinsolving was attacking us on the flimsiest reasons, not naming that it was really for the fact that we were socialist and had given several thousands of dollars to free Angela Davis.”

The news items from the opening minutes of the tape include:

As with the featured reading, Jones adds periodic commentary to individual news stories. Following the item about the Memphis firefighters, for example, Jones says, “It’s interesting to see that these, who maintain law and order … [are] so quick to condemn blacks who seek bread when they’re hungry. But here they’ve set 300 fires in the city of Memphis, Tennessee to protest their unjust working conditions.”

FBI Summary:

Date of transcription: 6/20/79

In connection with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation into the assassination of U.S. Congressman LEO J. RYAN at Port Kaituma, Guyana, South America, on November 18, 1978, a tape recording was obtained. This tape recording was located in Jonestown, Guyana, South America, and was turned over to U.S. Officials in Guyana and subsequently transported to the United States.

On June 2, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B93-69. This tape was found to contain the following:

A recording of “News of the Day” by JIM JONES.

Differences with FBI Summary:

The summary is accurate and meets the FBI’s purposes.

Tape originally posted January 2013