Q708 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            Identified Individuals Speaking

FBI preliminary tape identification note: One unlabeled 90 min/ “Charles Garry/ June 11/11/78”

Date cues on tape:            Contents of tape consistent with note

People named:

Bible verses cited:             None

Summary:

In this telephone conversation recorded a week before the deaths in Jonestown – and only a few days before Charles Garry decides to go to Guyana – Temple member June Crym tries to get a read on how the Temple’s principal attorney has reacted to developments of the previous two weeks. He has not reacted well.

The developments are: Rep. Leo Ryan has written a telegram to Jim Jones, announcing his intention to visit Guyana and – hopefully – to come to Jonestown; representing himself as the Temple’s attorney, Mark Lane writes a two-page letter which not only asks Ryan to delay the trip until Lane can clear his own schedule, but includes the news that the Temple is considering another emigration to another country; and Ryan has responded that he is not concerned about Lane’s schedule, that he plans to go to Guyana, with or without Lane’s blessing.

Charles Garry is even more furious than Ryan. Characterizing Lane’s letter to the congressman as “disastrous”, he says the government of Guyana would be infuriated if it ever saw it – and with good reason – and twice urges Peoples Temple “to completely disown that letter.”

But his greater anger is Lane’s apparent usurpation of the role as Temple attorney. There cannot be two attorneys, he says time and again. “I cannot stay on the case under these conditions,” he says. “I’m either in charge, or I’m not in charge.” As Crym tries to placate him – and alternately asking for his patience or, later, his reconsideration – he has a single-word answer of “No.” Indeed, during the course of the call, he goes from making his continued representation of the Temple conditional, to resigning altogether.

Charles Garry ended up in Jonestown a week later, only because his paralegal, Pat Richartz, prevailed upon him that he shouldn’t resign over the phone, that his lengthy history as the Temple’s attorney dictated that he should personally tell Jones of his decision. When he flew down to Georgetown a few days later, he found himself on the same flight as his nemesis, and in fact, he and Mark Lane ended up having to spend several days together, including a number of hours sequestered in a Jonestown cabin while the deaths proceeded outside.

FBI Summary:

Date of transcription: 3/13/79

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 8, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B62-25. This tape was found to contain the following:

Side A – Telephone Conversation Between JUNE LNU [Last Name Unknown] And CHARLES GARRY

Side B – Unintelligible Background Noises And Voices

Nothing was contained thereon which was considered to be of evidentiary nature or beneficial to the investigation of Congressman RYAN.

Differences with FBI Summary:

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

Tape originally posted May 2012