This takes some re-education, as so far as the world ever knew, the only enmity in play was that of Jim Jones against Leo Ryan. That Jones didn’t want exposure; he wanted absolute control; that Jonestown was a hell hole, an armed camp, dangerous fanatics, whatever. That Ryan threatened Jones and Jones wanted him gone.
It was never even broached if the Congressman had other enemies; much less if Jim Jones had enemies for other reasons.
The reality was, as we will reveal, that Ryan and Jones had an enemy in common: the CIA. With the rare chance to do whatever they will in a remote foreign jungle where no one would investigate. Thus not just a frame, but a “kill two birds with one stone”: the Congressman and the cult leader both.
But mightn’t that endanger a thousand innocent lives as well? The sinister answer being: Yes, of course!
A “Kill Two Birds With One Stone” Frame?
To clarify, many frames ARE “kill two birds with one stone.” Let’s say you want to X someone off the scene. You might frame them for let’s say, the unsolved killing of a stranger, yes. But with political assassinations, maybe you kill the prime target, then frame it on whomever you want to take the fall.
In a scenario of collusion, you may have even commissioned the secondary target to kill the first. Dupe, use, then kill the killers rather than reward them. The public, of course, never learning the truth as there would be no one left to try or defend.
Or you could just go “bang, bang, they did it so we killed them,” with no one left to offer up any conflicting story or defense.
Bad enough. Two dead, one framed for killing the other, the real killers go free. But usually there are NOT another thousand, wholly innocent family people whom you write off as “collateral damage.” That’s beyond bad — it’s unimaginable.
Moreover, with Jonestown, there was no way to count on having the community kill the Congressman. Even with enmity red-hot, the Temple was historically non-violent, with this community virtually unarmed! (As both American and Guyanese authorities confirmed in tragedy’s wake.)
Moreover, the visit of the Congressman was hardly solicited. It was dreaded, but endured in the hopes of “passing inspection.” Every intent before the Congressman arrived was to put their best foot forward, however anyone felt about the intrusion.
The climate only shifted when long-time Temple members opted to leave. Something that the soon-to-be killers of the Congressman could not have even counted on.
Indeed, if not for the cover of a remote foreign jungle, this was the ultimate “all bets are off.”
Well, it was actually one step worse. Even with the Kennedy assassination, let’s say, “the usual suspects” (that is, aside from the as-soon-as-possible-killed-off Lee Harvey Oswald) ranged from the CIA, Naval Intelligence, the Cubans, the Mafia or some intertwining thereof.
So even for those who did not “buy” that Lee Harvey Oswald was one lone assassin, there was confusion, conflict, with no one clear claim as to who had to be the guilty party and why.
But with the killing of Congressman Ryan, not so. The enmity between him and the CIA was well-known. Well, fatefully, except to Peoples Temple — tucked away in a jungle, it was not known to them, even suspected. But it was known to the Ryan camp, and to Washington generally.
I.e., had the “kill two birds with one stone” scenario not fallen into place, only one suspect would have been left standing: the CIA. A U.S. government agency standing accused of killing a U.S. Congressman.
Thus were there not only unpredictable, even uncontrollable factors, but the hugest stakes at play. With game plan still unknown had the assassination and/or the mass deaths at Jonestown not gone so “perfectly” for them. (“Perfectly,” of course, spoken in its most diabolical sense.)
And could any of the above have been second-guessed by either side? — the Congressman’s party or the community at Jonestown? Conceivably, if the two parties had only realized that they had a mutual enemy. But there was no trail of bread crumbs thrown in one or the other’s face — to the contrary!
And if they each didn’t know that they were mutually targeted by the CIA, and the people around them didn’t know, then what of the public in the aftermath? It never even hit the public radar!
This was an “op” that was historically unprecedented to boot, so it might not have been on anyone’s radar: First U.S. Congressman ever killed in the line of duty, with a cult leader going over the cliff and offing his own. And a huge number of people it was — nearly a thousand, including children. The body count alone knocked “how,“ much less ‘why,” out of the ballpark of stunned disbelief.
That’s just an over-the-top catastrophe. The last thing anyone ever thought was to call it was an “op.” Much less to look for other culprits with such a scary one at hand: Jim Jones.
That’s why the first step, even decades later, is re-education. All the public saw was the brave champion of frightened relatives against the evil cult leader. Not even a hint that forces far more powerful were at play, more akin to a war. (The very “Cold War”? That would play a key role, yes.)
Let’s first clarify why EACH party, Leo Ryan and Jim Jones both, was targeted by the CIA; and why such a bloody scenario was their course of choice.
What Jim Jones and Leo Ryan Didn’t Know About Each Other, But Which Put BOTH in the Sites of the CIA [1]
Leo Ryan and Jim Jones were pitted against each other, Jones in defense of his community, Ryan in defense of defectors trying to force their relatives’ return to the States.
That’s what the public saw. But even more: It’s what Leo Ryan and Jim Jones themselves saw! Which was also all that the people they led saw!
Neither the Congressman nor the cult leader had any idea that the other was in the sites of the CIA.
To Leo Ryan, Jim Jones was just a cult leader whom he believed to be unlawfully holding another couple’s child. Politics was downplayed to him as nothing more than a side show.
To Jim Jones, Leo Ryan was just (as he put it) “a fascist Congressman calling the shots.” Jones was trapped in a jungle without even a phone, much less research capacity. He had someone Stateside do the most cursory “research” on Congressman Ryan. A single vote was discovered on South Africa that Jones believed favored (at that time) a continued apartheid regime; and he labeled Ryan “a fascist Congressman calling the shots.”
The rest of Ryan’s record was completely unknown to Jones or to the Temple.
What they did not know about each other:
Ryan had no idea that Peoples Temple it was not just about “cult” at all, but politics: Jones’ forays into communist Cuba and socialist Grenada; his welcoming of displaced refugees from Pinochet’s Chile; not to mention avowed American black communist Angela Davis, the Soviet-American Friendship Society, Daniel Ellsberg of Pentagon Papers fame (a key branch of the Watergate scandal), the American Indian Movement, and so many other icons of the left into the Temple in San Francisco.
Nor even about the group’s planned re-relocation of his group to the dreaded then-USSR by the time of the tragedy! Indeed, a scouting trip had been planned for late November or early December to look into banking and land in the Soviet Union. To the CIA, Jim Jones was a dangerous man. He had to be stopped.
Jones, meanwhile, had no idea of the likes of the Hughes-Ryan Amendment of 1974 forcing the CIA to report covert “black ops” to Congress, or that Ryan had been on the tail of the CIA for years with exposes of their Angolan involvement, their role in the MK Ultra mind control experiments, and the like.
The Problem Wasn’t the Enmity, It Was What They Had in Common
Understand, that for the CIA, the enmity between Ryan and Jones was not a problem — it was an asset! But for the two principals, Ryan and Jones, the danger was not their opposition, but what they had in common — both targeted by the CIA.
Had these two ever coordinated and realized that they had that enemy in common, NEITHER ONE might have opted for the Congressional visit.
Too high a risk of a frame! Kill one, frame it on the other. “Kill two birds with one stone.“
“What Leo Ryan and Jim Jones Didn’t Know About Each Other, But Which Put BOTH in the Sites of the C.I.A.” gives documentary back-up from news coverage of the day.
Set up From the Outside; Set Up From the Inside [2]
The Great Temptation
Yes, to some diabolical Cold War mind, this might have seemed irresistible: Have the hated anti-CIA Congressman killed in a remote foreign jungle where no one would investigate; frame it on the pro-Cuba “cult crazies” trying to re-relocate to the dreaded then-USSR.
The Frame That Was Feared
Jim Jones, of course, was inherently paranoid — by temperament, by psychology. But no. He wasn’t expecting this. He was just (vaguely) expecting, let’s say, a more “standard” frame. Indeed, in an excruciating irony, he spelled out his worst fear, that of a frame, in a letter written to the President of the United States and Congress in March, 1978:
“All that has been done is to get people to believe in society… Our people had been so alienated. All that they can see in this is a set-up, a classic scenario: first muddy our name… whip up attacks in the press, and then: by the time you reach the classic ending, the frame-ups, the “kill,“ no one even cares. …And they think that the press has already done its job with slander and smears, and so no one will care about the frame-ups…“
Well, it’s true that the Temple was smeared long-distance in the press (the original piece appearing in an early Rupert Murdoch publication, New West.) This had been a group of impeccable reputation as “the darlings of the left” upon departure. After their exodus, that reputation was shredded in the press, and by then there was no one left Stateside to defend their name.
Yet for most at Jonestown, it was still an amazing escape from ghetto life in the States. Yes, they felt progressively under siege and their leader was deteriorating before their eyes. We can speculate forever as to how or why no one wrestled the reins away from a leader even too ill physically by the end to lead.
But these were by-and-large people who did not want to be forced back Stateside. And many undoubtedly shared Jones’ paranoia to at least some degree. They might have well feared a frame. They just weren’t looking for this frame.
But there are two factors not even alluded to in the March, 1978 letter quoted above which laid the groundwork for this frame: One was that they were set up from the outside; the other that they set themselves up from the inside:
Set Up From the Outside
“Set up from the outside” means that Jonestown, although Peoples Temple had been historically unfailingly NON-violent, was being portrayed as an armed camp. A key defector, Deborah Layton, was persuaded to swear out an affidavit that she had see 325 guns in Jonestown. It is unclear how she could claim this since they weren’t there! Neither the Guyanese nor American authorities found more than 39 small arms in tragedy’s wake.
This community was really poorly-armed! Militarily defenseless! However, by the time of the tragedy, they had been portrayed as “an armed camp”; so naturally, if something violent happened, it would be on them.
And the rationale for portraying a group as an armed camp when they are not? You are not either planning to attack them militarily and claim that they provoked it; or doing something violent yourselves and about to accuse them of the violence?
Otherwise, look: If you really want to retrieve people from a hostile environment, but you know full well that they are not well-armed, isn’t the more likely route one of, let’s say, negotiation? Why paint a community as armed when it’s not, unless you want to either commit violence againstthem or to blame your own violent acts on them?
Even more fundamentally, if you care about the safety of people whom you say you want to retrieve, why steer the conversation to violence at all? Even hostage negotiators don’t make violence their first resort. But this was a group that was even threatened publicly with mercenaries (see [3-6].)
Set Up From the Inside
Thus that side of the set-up, the myth of “an armed camp,” was rolled out to the public before the Congressman ever arrived.
But worse, the community had set itself up from the inside as well. For Jim Jones himself had turned the community into “sitting ducks”:
Namely, although he wasn’t threatening violence against anyone else, he was threatening violence against his own — a threat of mass suicide made to the Guyanese government if anyone tried to forcefully remove his son John, whose mother was a parishioner now defected and suing to retrieve the child.
That mass suicide threat was virtually acknowledged (and defiantly so!) in a public statement made from the community in April, 1978:
“…about some statement supposedly issued….by Peoples Temple whose contents we here are unaware of. It is supposed to be to the effect that we prefer to resist…. harassment and persecution even if it means death… …we have decided to defend the integrity of our community and our pledge to do this. We are confident that people of conscience and principle understand our position. We make no apologies for it.”
One could read this statement in many ways. “Resist. . . .even if it means death” could mean passive resistance or even armed resistance. It certainly would not have to mean the draconian path of mass suicide. But from personal knowledge (although not yet known to me at that time), the “statement supposedly issued” was the mass suicide threat.
Best surmisal is that the community felt knee-jerked into releasing the statement above because when Deborah Layton defected, she disclosed the previous threat; and Jones wanted it to seem a) like they were not admitting it; but also b) that even if it were so, it was justifiable!
At the least, a dangerous game! Along with a treacherous added edge: that the community had turned itself into sitting ducks! I mean, if you are already geographically trapped and militarily defenseless in a remote jungle, and you think that people are out to kill you, then why in the world would you be threatening to do away with yourselves??
As for Deborah Layton, her allegation of “325 guns,” i.e., a well-armed camp, was false….. and damaging. “Set Up From the Outside.“ But that the community had threatened mass suicide was true….. and also damaging. “Set Up From the Inside.”
Thus whether the harm was coming from without or from within (it was clearly coming from both!), the prognosis for this community was not good.
Or worse: Whatever happened, who would be blamed? After all, if outsiders are killed, the (allegedly heavily armed) Temple must have been the homicidal party. If insiders die, the Temple (with the leader threatening to off them all) is the suicidal party. “Made to order” however it plays out. Whoever dies, however it happened, the Temple must have done it.
Though one does also wonder, in retrospect, about the anti-Temple faction too. If their appropriate next move was really to shove their way in, bringing media that it had been agreed to not bring! If you really think that people are that dangerous (and with innocents at stake, to boot), why would you further enrage them?
Then at the last, add in two factors not predictable in advance, but the deadliest of all:
a) that the community bought into its own frame; and b) that Jim Jones, believing that guilt for the airstrip killings would bring an imminent military invasion, knee-jerked into what his psychology predisposed him to anyway: Off his own in an act of (alleged) martyrs’ defiance.
Oh, it was by no means a certainty that all of the above would happen. A LOT of things had to go wrong on the Temple side for that to happen. A LOT of things have to go wrong for people to buy into their own frame, which was indeed the trigger for the mass deaths at Jonestown. (Note proximity of “The Congressman has been murdered” and “Bring the vats” on the final tape.)
Moreover, people will generally not do that anyway: i.e., buy into their own frame. It’s an aberration. Here there was apparently violent intent of the part of some (though very few) from the Temple, combined with no knowledge of intruders into the area and a lightning-quick here-and-gone attack. Thus it became, “Who else could it have been?”
But still, it’s an aberration. Something that twisted is incomprehensible on its face, much less any happenstance that could be counted on to happen.
It is only perhaps matched by a twist of equal force on the part of the CIA: Namely, that they could not count on that bizarre twist happening at all. Thus: What if it hadn’t? What if the community did NOT buy into its own frame? What of the prospect of a thousand ready-made alibis? What then?
We will revisit those particular twists and turns. But the focus of this section of the project is operational. The pre-planning and execution, with both short-range and long-range cover-ups of the frame.
We Already Have a Backdrop of Damning Physical Evidence
Much physical evidence has already been downloaded onto “In Plain Sight” Namely, a) the NBC on-site film footage showing vehicles and assassins which do not match any profile from Jonestown; and b) the rampant mismatches of the alleged “eyewitness i.d.’s” in the official report from the FBI.
Added to that is also “The Master Schematic” providing proof that there had to be TWO tractor-trailers on the airstrip at the time of the shootings; as per not this researcher, but as per the two most reputable sources on site: namely, reporter Tim Reiterman and the surviving NBC film footage.
In other words, by now it is not even in doubt that a key criminal means in play was vehicle duplication. We just need an explanation of how that happened and done by whom.
Since that is also the one factor of pre-planning that would have to have been done by an actual person on-site in Jonestown (the rest of the pre-planning being behinds the scenes and out of sight) the “BEFORE: Pre-Planning the Frame” section will be devoted to that.
Motive, Means and Opportunity
Standard trio for criminal guilt: motive, means and opportunity.
Ryan and Jones both being targeted by the CIA gives us motive. The opportunity was the departure of the Congressman at the airstrip, obviously.
Now we need to address the means, which were operationally complex, ranging across BEFORE: Pre-Planning the Frame; DURING: Logistics and Execution; THE IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH: Barring Rescue and Precluding Investigation; and THE DISINFORMATION COVER-UP: The Lie That Sealed Pandora’s Box.
Thus we will trace the evidentiary trail through not just a top-professional “op“; but also the role of the Guyana Airways pilot; the military security on site which, mysteriously and to the shock of the victims, “refused to intervene” on their behalf; and the odd moves of a man suspected to be the CIA handler on site.
All of the above pre-planning behind the scenes. But there was one critical piece of pre-planning that had to be accomplished through the front door: advance entry into Jonestown to photograph the Temple vehicles to be duplicated for use in a look-alike frame.
Now that’s an oddly unique spec for a military op! Proof of which might easily remain concealed. Like let’s say someone had visited the community, taken innocent-seeming pictures, then passed them on to some nefarious party. We could then just call it a surmisal — when did it even happen and who did it?
OR. . . . it could have been some incredibly twisty tale of deceit to get a dangerous opponent through the front door!
Well, we can pick the latter with certainty. There was indeed a twisted charade that got the job done.
Thus we move to the next step, complete with the shocking evidence that follows: “What Dangerous Opponent Got Into Jonestown With a Camera?”
What Dangerous Opponent Got into Jonestown With a Camera? ([3-1], [3-2], [3-3], [3-4], [3-5], [3-6], [3-7], [3-8], [3-9])
Since this was crafted as a look-alike frame (“look-alike” referring to Temple vehicles — they‘d not have known what “Temple assassins” to mimic, save for dressing assassins as civilians), we need to know how photographs were obtained from that remote community upon which to model the look-alikes.
Namely, what dangerous opponent got into Jonestown with a camera?
It’s also invaluable to resolve because a look-alike frame seems so fantastical and this grounds it as valid. After all, this was a hands-on, face-to-face ground operation. It wasn’t like someone shooting from a school book depository or from a distance at all. Pretty risky to go duplicating equipment designed to fool onlookers in plain sight!
And you couldn’t just access those vehicles on Main Street USA either. This locale was remote. You wouldn’t even know what vehicles to duplicate unless you were there. Unless you had yourself saw which vehicle was used to shuttle visitors back and forth between the airstrip and the community. That it was a tractor-trailer. Then which tractor. Which trailer. There was more than one of each.
(Note: There was also more than one means of transport to and from the airstrip. But the six-wheel-drive dump truck [also at the airstrip at the end] was only used for larger parties, like that of the Congressman. The trip to “case” Jonestown in September, 1978, was just two-person. The more modest tractor-trailer was used for shuttling, thus selected for duplication.)
You would also have to photograph the vehicle. Duplicating vehicles is too sophisticated to undertake from just verbal descriptions.
The tractor used for shuttling to and from the airstrip was fairly standard for that day: a Massey Ferguson 178. The trailer was more makeshift, as is common for such vehicles; with removable panels of a specific number, a specific coloration, a specific design.
As the previous sections confirming the vehicle duplications suggest, the military-issue tractor (albeit based on the original model) required costly, specific structural rebuilds, which however upon inspection, are a dead giveaway that it was not the real Jonestown vehicle. (See “The Vehicle Used in the Attack: The Tractor” and “The Vehicle Used in the Attack: The Trailer.”)
The giveaway on the trailer was accidental misassembly with the panels upside-down; and a single hitch between tractor and trailer instead of the double on the real vehicle as filmed by NBC. Producing a visibly, identifiably different vehicle.
The giveaway on the tractor was blatantly structural and only possible by military issue: The signature open step-in for the tractor driver was covered over with solid metal. A rebuilt frame! With the elevated steering wheel deleted, to boot. This vehicle was navigated with the driver not visible at all! (A tractor modified to drive like a tank? Maybe. “The Vehicle Used in the Attack: The Tractor” highlights a modified appendage where the exhaust pipe would be, possibly a periscope.)
No guesswork in play either. The NBC camera caught the vehicle broadside in bright sunlight; to boot, at rest — no obstructions, no mistake.
Who did such a thing? Who would, who could, who had the resources to take a farm vehicle and rebuild it for military use?
Indeed, the tractor-trailer used in the attack was a differentvehicle than the one from Jonestown. Those differences not “speculative,” but a) engraved into the on-site NBC film footage; and b) that this was NOT EXPLAINABLE EXCEPT IF a dangerous opponent had gotten into Jonestown with freedom to take photos.
But the public never learned of any opponent gaining entry prior to the Congressional visit. In fact, that was the complaint: That this was a secret community (even though it had tons of supportive visitors!) that no outsider could enter.
This leaves a gap to be filled If such a fantastical thing was done as to quasi-duplicate the Jonestown tractor and trailer, how were on site photographs obtained to get it done?
If that part of the story is revealed and makes sense, indeed is verifiable, then (and maybe only then for some) is it hands-on tangible real.
Well, that’s exactly what we have. A most suspect character with ploys to get into Jonestown with a camera!! A perfect con, perfectly timed; bogus, otherwise inexplicable ploys (“cover stories,“ I believe it’s called) which however, resulted in a highly dangerous character coming to Jonestown with a camera just two months before the end.
What we can now reveal, complete with background and methods of operation, is who conned his way into Jonestown to assess physical logistics and to photograph the vehicles to be duplicated for this covert “black op.”
We can nail this by examining the disturbing, many-hatted presence of one Joseph Mazor. (Note: Mazor is reportedly long-since murdered, allegedly by an ex-wife in 1985, although it was not prosecuted nor are details publicly available.) Here we go:
The documentary panels:
[3-1] MAZOR 1. (Anonymously Funded) PUBLICITY HOUND Smears a Group He Admits He Did Not Even Know
How does one think that the bad press about Peoples Temple began in the States, back in the Spring of 1977? Disgruntled ex-members phoning up Rupert Murdoch to be featured in his then-fledgling magazine New West?
Guess again. The Berkeley Barb (not Peoples Temple) researched exactlyhow it happened, as revealed in its expose of September 23, 1977:
“A Barb investigation has revealed that one individual working behind the scenes to discredit Peoples Temple is a San Francisco investigator who somehow managed to obtain a state investigator’s license after being released from prison in 1976.
“Joseph A. Mazor, the detective, has a lengthy criminal record including at least eight arrests in three states for various bogus check and fraud charges, six convictions, several jail and prison terms, and has been returned to confinement three times for violating probation and parole by committing new crimes.
“A confidential, 16-page California Adult Authority report on Mazor, written in 1970, was recently obtained by the Barb. ’[He] is a smooth con-man with an insatiable appetite to get ahead,’ concludes the report. ’He is bright, well-educated, and so well-versed in the law that he had five attorneys in the Pomona area convinced that he had a law degree.
“’It is felt that the subject is a menace to the community.’. . .
“Mazor had admitted to The Barb that he was first employed to investigate the Peoples Temple in November, 1976, eight months before publication of the first New West article. But he refuses to say who retained him.
“. . . . though he did reveal that his employer was an outsider, not a past or present member of Peoples Temple.”
Wait a minute. This man had never set foot in Peoples Temple. Nor did he know anyone from Peoples Temple. Yet he had some “outsider” employer funding him to “hire[d] one of the largest public relations firms in San Francisco and then asked them to coordinate a publicity campaign against the Temple and its minister, Reverend Jim Jones”??
The Barb went on to quote that “Bob Kenney, an account executive at Russom, Lowry and Leeper” confirmed that they had been hired by Mazor for just that purpose. Then he “referred further inquiries to Mazor himself, whose only comment on Kenney’s role was, ‘I don’t think that’s any of your business.’”
Yeah, I’ll bet that’s what he said. . . . .
[3-2] MAZOR 2: MULTIPLE FELON turned MAZOR 3: LICENSED PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR (upon his umpteenth release from prison)
I have printed a summary of Mazor’s prison record, alongside the response from the California State Bureau of Collection and Investigative Services as to how a flagrant repeat offender for fraud, of all things, including numerous parole violations, could possibly have been granted a State investigator’s license complete with bonding. (Just in time to investigate Peoples Temple, we might add!)
They responded that they did it because Mr. Mazor came highly recommended by…. law enforcement officials! As the letter addressed to me from the Bureau of Collection and Investigative Services in Sacramento, California, dated January 27, 1978 stated:
“In Mr. Mazor’s case, the Bureau received character references from many persons in law enforcement and the legal profession, attesting to his qualifications and fitness for a license.”
Then they were full of assurances:
“… many provisions of the Private Investigator and Adjuster Act…. as well as Bureau regulations…. are designed to curb abusive practices by private investigators, and include remedies for impersonation, invasion of privacy, and fraud.”
Excuse me. This multiple repeat offender FOR fraud, bogus checks, impersonation and the like, is last released from prison in 1976 and then is granted a private investigator’s license in……. 1977(!!), to the tune of high praise from “persons in law enforcement and the legal profession”??
Does this give new meaning to, “They said it with a straight face”?
And as if that were not enough. . . . .
[3-3] MAZOR 4. INTERPOL AGENT (the last piece of “The Resume from Hell”)
In January, 1978, it was printed in The Peoples Forum, the Temple’s local newspaper that Mazor’s Interpol identification number was now known. The Temple researcher told me that she had seen it personally. I had no reason to doubt her word. It was a private conversation unrelated to public PR.
Let me see. Where are we now with Joseph Mazor? O.k. Instigated the press smears using large sums from unknown parties, neither he nor they linked to the Temple at all. Had a long criminal record, all for con artist crimes. Was mysteriously granted a private investigator’s license upon discharge from his third parole violation. Now discovered to be an Interpol agent.
Why would anyone trust this person??
[3-4] [3-5] Two Panels: What Baits and Ploys Did Mazor Use with the Un-Briefed, Gullible Players on September 5, 1978 to Con His Way Into Jonestown?
Again, Why would anyone trust this person??
In less critical straits, a big “no.” But Jim Jones was by now failing physically, deteriorating mentally, desperate for intelligence, assaulted in the press, pursued by a Congressman, trapped in a jungle, with the hoped-for escape to the then-USSR being blocked.
Combine this with a meager over-worked staff Stateside, with whatever instructions conveyed by…… ham radio across continents!
So things got delegated, sometimes to well-meaning outsiders like Donald Freed; sometimes to a new, overeager attorney like Mark Lane; sometimes to a not-quite-on-base current attorney like Charles Garry.
The story about how a dangerous opponent was let into Jonestown with a camera is told by a transcript involving all three of the above (Garry being represented by his assistant Pat Richartz) with one Joseph Mazor.
The upshot? “Donald Freed: Let’s write up the idea of Joe [Joseph Mazor] going to Jonestown”!!
The participants in the transcript dated September 5, 1978 which led to inviting Mazor to Jonestown in mid-September, 1978 (just two months before the end), were also non-Peoples Temple and were not face-to-face with Mazor’s background. Moreover, they were on the look-out for breakthroughs, not deception.
Mark Lane was brought on board as the second Temple attorney to uncover and prosecute a conspiracy against Peoples Temple. He already had sticky fingers into other conspiracies (JFK, Martin Luther King) and had no compunction about proceeding at whatever reckless heed. He was mostly eager to pick Mazor’s brain.
Charles Garry, our original attorney, had visited Jonestown and was ecstatic at what he saw, his visit printed in a Sun-Reporterarticle called, “I Have Been to Paradise.” His view was, just invite anyone, they will see how magnificent the community is and opposition would fold. He would later outright threaten to quit representation if Jones balked at letting in the Congressman.
He also proved gullible, believing from Mazor that “[former Temple attorney, now arch-enemy] Tim Stoen had just ripped off a million dollars from the Temple itself” (Garry told me this himself), hence no conspiracy funded by outsiders. Never mind that the transcript (secret stash story no. 2) specified suspect funds from Banco de Venezuela (the neighboring country to Guyana); and when Mazor finally met face-to-face with Jim Jones (secret stash story no. 3), suddenly it was coming from England! (Note: Whether any of it was true or not, a constantly shifting story is a con, not a verification!)
The last principal, Donald Freed, a social scientist, had also already visited Jonestown to rave reviews and was certain that an open door to visitors would make everything right: Quote:
“If you look at Jonestown. . . this burgeoning plan of buildings and agricultural and semi-industrial patterns of growth. . . you’re driven to the conclusion that the most extraordinary material and social experiment is being carried out. . . I’m at pains to find the words to describe what’s essentially an unspeakable experience, but I have no doubt it will be spoken about and written about widely, and there will be steady traffic through. . . Jonestown in the years to come.
“a peaceful group, dedicated to creativity such as the Peoples Temple, trying to practice love and ingeniously attempting to humanize the heartless environment of the super-industrial state, . . . one should never underestimate what a model — a model this big is a big model — when the word gets out around the world, there will be repercussions for decades to come, the end is not yet in sight for Jonestown. . . .
How would Freed have known of the Mazor materials collected thus far? No one put it in his face. He was just an ecstatic newcomer excited about making a film. He had already lined up a production company: Jarrico Films.
And that’s what this meeting was supposed to be about: Mazor offering help in provide intel, information, back stories for scripting a film about Jonestown. (You’re a P.I. Now you’re into making a film. Then you go to Jonestown without a camera? That‘s what would be unbelievable….!!)
It is clear from the dialogue that Mazor has already persuaded Freed that he is sincere, knowledgable, forthcoming. Also that he was “an enemy turned friend” (a ploy soon to be used successfully with Jim Jones).
He plays to conspiracy angles for Freed and Lane. He plays to tripping up Stoen, the most troublesome local, for current Temple attorney, Charles Garry.
These two panels detail the lies, cons, pretexts and ploys Mazor used to persuade these gullible, un-briefed players to press for his entry into Jonestown.
[3-6] MAZOR 5: Leader of the Mercenary Raid a/k/a “Enemy Turned Friend”
The next two panels go into what was persuasive to Jim Jones. Understand, Jones knew that this character was dangerous; and playing double-agent games with dangerous characters usually leads to no good! But Jones was by then deteriorating both physically and mentally, his group was geographically trapped, militarily defenseless, attacked in the press and sitting ducks for a military raid. He was desperate for intel and allies.
Jim Jones had two Achilles’ heels which Mazor knew well and was able to “play“:
First Achilles‘ Heel: The threats to remove his own son John from Jonestown by force, which Jones took to mean not just a threat to the child, but to the community as a whole: If they could remove the leader’s child, could they not take anyone?
What Mazor did was to claim to be the leader of a previous snipers’ raid against Jonestown timed to coincide with legal appeals in Guyana to remove Jones’ son John in a disputed paternity suit.
Mazor claimed that only his seeing for himself that these were free people in a beautiful community persuaded him to call off the raid and…… consider changing sides.
= trump card no. 1 to get into Jonestown.
[3-7] MAZOR 6: Savvy Informant With the Goods on Arch-Enemy Stoen
Second Achilles‘ Heel: The ongoing betrayal by the man who had been the most loyal to Jones’ communist cause; namely, former top Temple attorney, Timothy Stoen. So publicly visible had Stoen been by Jones’ side, that Stoen had to preface his turnaround with, “I’ve always made known my support for Jim Jones.” Stoen gave no believable reason for defection at first; yet he was now claiming that the child Jones had by his wife was really his, driving a knife through Jones‘ heart.
Perhaps worse, Jones thought that Stoen’s “defection” was politically-based, with Stoen having been a planted “agent provocateur” from the start; now teamed with the CIA to destroy a renegade left-wing group in its isolated locale overseas.
I.e., not a defection for personal reasons, but political ones. Now positioned to destroy Jonestown (a/k/a noisy, black-power, Castro-loving commies courting the dreaded USSR in the middle of the Cold War) through powerful clandestine ties. A suspicion based in Stoen’s own background, as we will reveal; but seemingly impossible to expose and prove.
Well, in the September 5, 1978 transcript, Mazor seemed to know all about this! Stoen’s real ties, his funding, how his ties with the CIA could be proven.
= trump card no. 2.
So you have Mazor, someone whom no one in his right mind should have trusted. Yet what do you do when even the person you may trust the least seems to be giving you what you most want and need to know?
[3-8] How It Worked With the Key Player, Jim Jones
That’s the long and short of the tragically mistaken entry of Joseph Mazor into Jonestown just two months before the end ……… with a camera. Look. He had already been granted a P.I. license — find a P.I. and you‘ve got a camera. And now he was also (alleged) involving in producing a film!!
As for the community, they had already been attacked with guns. Who would want to bar this suddenly-helpful man…… with a camera??
Did anyone at Jonestown notice a camera being brought in? Oh, they would have welcomed it! Film anything you like. Show off the beauties of Jonestown. That would easily be slipped in with no problem.
Mazor could also make whatever claims he liked about Stoen without having to prove anything. This was thousands of miles away. There was no return trip in play. He could claim anything he wanted without having to produce a thing.
So he appealed to whatever Jim Jones wanted/needed to hear. Like that Stoen had been with the CIA for eight years — coincidentally timing out to exactly when Stoen first joined Peoples Temple!
Win Jim Jones’ confidence. Raise his hopes. Say you have the goods and he’ll go for anything else. MAZOR 7: Ally Who Can Deliver.
But there was another sinister purpose for this trip as well. A bait-and-switch from hell:
Once Mazor convinced Jones that “Now I’m your friend,” he volunteered that he was really supposed to be the community’s mass exterminator! MAZOR 8: Prophet of Doom (of the “They’re Out to Kill You All” Variety).
Specifically (even told to me personally when Mark Lane, who had accompanied Mazor to Jonestown, related it to a select group in the San Francisco Temple):
The night that Mazor “confessed” to having led the mercenary raid against Jonestown in September, 1977, he said that his orders had been to first cut the community’s electrical generators to darken the compound; then kidnap the children; then kill all the adults!
Whether that was a plausible story, much less actionable, Jim Jones did, yes, believe him! As recorded in his message to the Jonestown community on October 16, 1978 (a single month before the end) “the little detective who was here [i.e., Mazor] told us. . . under penalty of perjury… what he was going to do if he had not seen that our faces looked happy…”
And again on the final day, a newsman reported Jones saying, “Threat of extinction! . . .Sometimes I wish I was never born”; and then right on the final tape, “We have no choice now. Either we do it or they do it.”
I would call that a threat of mass extermination that worked! Moreover, that was what Jones believed the feds would do to Jonestown at peace. Well, what about with a Congressman lying dead on the ground? For which the community believed they were responsible? Then what did Jones believe they were in for?
Not to exonerate anyone. Not at all. Jim Jones? Guilty. Those who deliberately pushed him over the edge? Not innocent.
“Not innocent”? What does that mean? Well, maybe it means what you are when you consider the worst result, mass deaths, to be something that you want. When you push a dangerously unstable scenario over the edge. Indeed, delay help for TWENTY HOURS until you get a radio confirmation from on-site that everyone at Jonestown was already [safely] dead.
That’s very “not innocent.”
And what became of Mr. Mazor after the tragedy? Well, I was in San Francisco watching him on t.v. saying that, “It was considered that Jim Jones would become a major political force in the Caribbean within five years.” Clearly an intelligence assessment.
One can only wonder if for once, the truth finally came out of his mouth.
Last panel of this section:
[3-9] The Players and the Plan
Whatever the pretexts and ploys, Mazor did succeed in two key tasks: 1) to secure the photos needed to duplicate the Temple vehicles; and 2) to deliver a credible threat of mass extermination.
But was vehicle duplication all that would be needed for a successful hit on the Congressman to be framed on the cult? The “look-alike frame”? As we will see, far more was involved. We will be looking together key roles for numerous supporting parties.
How do we know that other parties were needed for the operation to succeed? Well, beneath each designated function, we have added an “if they slipped up” assessment. As we can see, had those parties not performed their roles, it could have torpedoed the whole op.
As we will also reveal, for the most part no one did slip up, even across continents. Exception: The gunmen failed to confiscate NBC newsman Bob Brown’s camera! (Note: Since the cameraman’s head was blown off, they may well have believed that his camera was also destroyed.) Making the “In Plain Sight” investigation possible. Other exception: The U.S. government mistakenly declassified the log revealing CIA culpability for the deliberate delay of TWENTY HOURS, even to rescue the wounded at Port Kaituma. Contents of the radio message which finally released the rescuers to come?: “mass suicides at Jonestown [= all dead].”
It’s just taken decades to surface this. The log surfaced by chance through another researcher; and the NBC on-site film footage was not even available for some 27 years. Just fortunately, they are flashlights onto a to-date-UN-investigated crime scene.
Then at late date, yet another “smoking gun” surprise: A schematic of the entire airstrip at the time of the attack drawn up the very next day by Tim Reiterman, leading newsman on site; which combined with the NBC film footage proves that there had to have been TWO tractor-trailers on the airstrip, one the real one from Jonestown, the other the duplicated vehicle used in the attack. (See “The Master Schematic.”)
The sections to follow will detail the documentary evidence of not only the military moves on the ground, but the supporting players’ roles as well and in what section the story appears:
The Assassins’ Moves (During);
The Guyana Airways Pilot Role (During);
Military Security On-Site Stands Down (During);
CIA Handler On Site Peeling Himself Away from Target Range (During);
Operatives Delay Rescue Pending CIA Confirmation of All Dead at Jonestown (Immediate Aftermath);
Army Medevac Team Doesn‘t Even Check Five Miles Down the Road (Immediate Aftermath);
Sources Withhold Body Count (Immediate Aftermath);
Coroners Botch Near-Non-Existent Autopsies (Immediate Aftermath);
Entry Into Jonestown Barred as the Bodies Deliberately Left to Rot (Immediate Aftermath);
Operative Phones Anonymous Death Threat to a Key Ryan Aide in the States (Immediate Aftermath);
Medical Personnel Inject Bodies Post-Mortem * (Immediate Aftermath).
Key Reporter On Site and NBC Film Footage Jointly Confirm the Presence of TWO Tractor-Trailers On the Airstrip (The Master Schematic)
* This is the only point not subject to film footage, media coverage and/or common surmisal. Evidence powerfully points that way, but the reader can decide.
SUMMARY OF PANELS
BEFORE: PREPLANNING THE FRAME
[1] What Jim Jones and Leo Ryan Didn’t Know About Each Other, But Which Put BOTH In The Sites Of The CIA
[2] Set up From the Outside; Set Up From the Inside
PANEL 3 SERIES: What Dangerous Opponent Got Into Jonestown With a Camera?
[3-1] MAZOR 1. (Anonymously Funded) PUBLICITY HOUND Smears a Group He Admits He Did Not Even Know
[3-2] MAZOR 2: MULTIPLE FELON turned MAZOR 3: LICENSED PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR (upon his umpteenth release from prison)
[3-3] MAZOR 4. INTERPOL AGENT (the last piece of “The Resume from Hell”)
[3-4] [3-5] Two Panels: What Baits and Ploys Did Mazor Use with the Un-Briefed, Gullible Players on September 5, 1978 to Con His Way Into Jonestown?
[3-6] MAZOR 5: Leader of the Mercenary Raid a/k/a “Enemy Turned Friend”
[3-7] MAZOR 6: Savvy Informant With the Goods on Arch-Enemy Stoen
[3-8] How It Worked with the Key Player, Jim Jones
[3-9] The Players and the Plan