Q636 Summary

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

To read the Tape Transcript, click here. Listen to MP3 (Side 1, Side 2).
To return to the Tape Index, click here.

FBI Catalogue : Jones speaking

FBI preliminary tape identification note: One Tracs 60/ April 12 1978 Meeting #2

Date cues on tape : 12 April 1978 (notation on tape box, confirmed in context)

People named:

Public figures/National and international names:

Temple adversaries; members of Concerned Relatives:

Jonestown residents, full name unknown:

Jonestown residents:

Bible verses cited : None

Summary:

This tape is from a White Night that opens with tape Q 635, that continues on Q 637, and that extends through Q 638 and Q 639.

This tape picks up on the themes from Q 635: Stanley Clayton is still before the community, undergoing criticism and periodic taunts by Jim Jones and others; the leadership is consumed by the response to the Concerned Relatives’ statement delivered to the San Francisco headquarters; and Jones speaks of the ways he can keep tabs on everyone. The intimidation, rage and isolation earlier in the evening has somewhat dissipated, and the tape ends with a cry of defiance.

On Stanley Clayton and sex: Stanley says he has trouble hearing sometimes, which leads to jeers. Someone behind him whispers “Stanley, Stanley,” at one point. When he responds, he is attacked. Stanley’s lies catch up to him, to which Jones responds, “Stanley feel[s] like he can keep on being the stupid little boy he’s always been.” Later, though, Jones modifies his criticism to say: “No excuse you to be so stupid, Ocause you con us very well. I’m not talking about – I’m not talking about limited intelligence, you’re just stupid, because you haven’t tried.”

Stanley’s girlfriend Janice continues to be criticized too, that she’s sleeping with Stanley instead of Doctor Schacht, that she’s not using birth control. The responsibility also lies with the medical department, though, for not staying on top of the situation.

But the emphasis remains on decrying personal relationships, with one man saying, “A lot of you are in your relationships, you think you’re wanted. But you’re not wanted. Nobody’s wanted. You’re needed. And that’s something you’re going to have to recognize.” Jones picks up on it, too, by saying that even though he fucked Grace Stoen – and gave her the best sex of her life, and she said there would never be another – she got into a relationship with another man as soon as she left in a plot to destroy the community. Even so, all their problems would have been solved, he said, if he had adopted John Stoen when he had the chance.

Stanley’s humiliation continues, as he’s pressed for details, and asked if he’s worried about the doctor’s big dick. Stanley admits that he fucks for only two minutes. The two-minute theme returns several times, but especially in the sexual reference, as compared to Jones saying he can last for seven hours. That then goes into his oft-repeated lament that he has to fuck men and women he hated to get the community something, and that after a night, he has to receive medical treatment for his penis. He also claims he can fuck 15 times a day, but that all he really wants is the orgasm of the grave.

On Concerned Relatives: Jones returns to the statement to respond to Concerned Relatives on several occasions. He isn’t happy with it, and asks whether Martin Luther King or Robert Kennedy ever made statements about revolutionary death. They debate the wording, emphasizing the courage, integrity and honesty of the cause. Jones instructs people how to make arguments – use others to make your point, not yourself – and tells parents to stay away from the subject of children. “[T]he rationale of all socialists the world over is, that the child has a right to feel hostile for being brought into the world.”

Jones becomes upset with the way the people are sounding over the radio going out. People will be behind you, telling you how to talk, and we can do some editing, but the important thing is to talk. Later, he says they’re not trying hard enough. If you really hated your relatives, it’d come across. He names the people on the list of coaches, and says, what happens tonight could make a difference in how Congress deals with the situation.

Jones says he’ll get them through the White Night, and that the only thing that will end the community will be if they don’t listen to their leader. The CIA can’t kill me, he says, but you can. Later, he berates someone for taking more food than their fair share – that helped my blood pressure, he says sarcastically – but adds later than on the night of their death, they’ll eat all they want. And who knows, he appends, this may be your night of death.

He also tells them, they can’t go back, because there’s nothing back there, and they wouldn’t let you in anyway. And if they did let you in, they’ll make your lives miserable.

There is a test of responses part way through, when Sarah Tropp criticizes Jones for something. A man berates her for speaking against Dad during a White Night. Jones says, it’s okay, I set this up, I told her to. Sarah nevertheless apologizes.

Towards the end of the tape, though, Jones says he is watching people all the time, looking for treason all the time, “see where people’s attitudes are about death.”

The tape ends with a testimony by an elderly black woman, and a song about Jones. No man ever lived who was so strong, so courageous, so principled. The community then cries into the jungle to scare its enemies with a high trilling sound, and the tape ends.

The White Night continues on Q 637 through Q639.

FBI Summary:

Date of transcription : 3/8/79

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 March 6, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B47 #81. This tape was found to contain the following:

This tape appears to be a recording of a “White Night” in Jonestown, Guyana, and concerns efforts by the People’s Temple to counter a petition by former People’s Temple members to obtain custody of two children, named JOHN and DANA.

This tape consists of rambling discourse by JIM JONES and others. JONES berates an individual by the name of STANLEY who is being punished for disobedience for “taking this white woman in town when the leader had said no”. JONES berates all of the People’s Temple members, advising he is sick of those who do so little for Socialism when they have such a good example to follow.

JONES advised the congregation that this could be their death night and that they are facing death. He told them he had to look for treason everyday and that there had never been a man on earth so courageous, so strong, and so principled as he.

JONES further stated that if anyone comes to try take any one of them, they will not let them. They will die, they will have to take anybody over the dead bodies of the rest of them.

No mention is made in this tape of United States Congressman LEO J. RYAN, any pending visit by RYAN, or any conspiracy to murder RYAN.

Differences with FBI Summary: None (see note on 635)

Tape originally posted February 1999