Q383 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 (Pt. 1, Pt. 2).
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FBI Catalogue           Jones Speaking

FBI preliminary tape identification note: Labeled in part “5 Sep 78 Peoples Rally”

Date cues on tape:    

People named:

Public figures/National and international names:

Senator John Stennis (D-Miss.)
Thomas Dawsey, Air Force personnel allegedly spying for Stennis (by reference)
Leon Joly, Air Force personnel allegedly spying for Stennis (by reference)

Vladimir Lenin, father of Russian revolution
Mao Tse-tung, father of Chinese revolution
Paul Robeson, American black actor, musician, activist

Carl Hampton, slain member of Black Panthers
Fred Hampton, slain member of Black Panthers
Martin Luther King, slain civil rights worker
Malcolm X, slain black activist

John Van De Camp, Los Angeles District Attorney (by reference)

Joan Baez (song by)
Don Freed, playwright, friend of Mark Lane
Charles Garry, Peoples Temple attorney
Carlton Goodlett, San Francisco physician and publisher
Mark Lane, Peoples Temple attorney
Joe Mazor, detective

Temple adversaries; members of Concerned Relatives:

Mike Cartmell
Suzanne Cartmell
Liz Forman
Tim Stoen

Temple members not in Jonestown:

Archie Ijames
Chris Lewis (Temple member killed in 1977

Jonestown residents, full name unknown:

Anita (likely Kelley)
Becky (several Rebecca’s and Becky’s)
Bob (speaks) (numerous Robert’s in Jonestown
Debbie (several in Jonestown, could be defector Deborah Layton Blakey)
Terry (like Terry Carter Jones, could be Teri Buford)
Steve (several Stephan’s, could be Stephan Jones)
Tom

Jonestown residents:

Eric Baker
Ernestine Blair (speaks)
Georgianne Brady
Eugene Chaikin (speaks)
Fannie Ford
John Harris (speaks)
Joe Johnson
Marceline Jones (speaks/sings)
Christine Lucientes
Jim McElvane
Joyce McIntyre (speaks)
Russell Moton
Kay Nelson
Dale Parks (speaks/sings)
Ruletta Paul
Ruthie Quinn
Eugene Smith
Christine Talley (speaks)
Ron Talley
Mike Touchette (speaks)
Teena Turner (speaks)
Kenny Wilhite

 
Bible verses cited:     None

Summary:

In this Peoples Rally held in early September 1978, Jim Jones prepares the residents of Jonestown for a press conference to be held in San Francisco within a couple of hours, during which Joe Mazor, a private detective who once worked for Concerned Relatives but who has since sided with Peoples Temple, will announce his change of heart.

There are two halves of the rally. The first half begins with Jim Jones – in a mood which is alternately upbeat and reflective – speaking about his triumph in luring the detective over to his cause, with music and singing, and with reports from the various committees on the community’s progress with farming, land clearing, animal husbandry, herbal gardening and use of insecticides. The second half features Jones addressing his followers on his familiar and more typical subjects of the Temple’s enemies and their conspiracy to bring them down, the proposed move to the Soviet Union, and their lack of commitment to the cause.

The music which opens the tape includes Marceline Jones singing a Joan Baez song, and Dale Parks and Jim Jones leading the crowd in two hymns – periodically accompanied by Marceline – which have been modified to reflect Jonestown’s studied lack of religiosity. In altering the hymn “Follow Me,” for example, “the road to Calvary” becomes “freedom road”; the hymn “Real, Real” replaces every religious reference with ones to socialism.

Once the meeting begins, Jones reminisces over the previous weeks of struggle, the efforts of people on the outside to tear them down, the wiretaps and the assassination attempts, but says those efforts will be for naught as soon as the press conference begins. “One hour and 43 minutes. This is going to be the most important one hour and 43 minutes we ever had.”

Jones says that Mazor says their chief adversary, Tim Stoen, is a CIA agent, and as a former INTERPOL agent himself, Mazor should know. Jones also says that Mazor says that Stoen is frightened of two things – that his betrayal of his former clients in the Temple will result in losing his law license; and that those CIA connections will be exposed – and that these fears are making Stoen increasingly desperate.

Even with the press conference – even with their victory – Jones says Joe Mazor will still be in danger from their enemies, because “they have every reason in the world to bump him off.” He interrupts the various committee reports to ask that San Francisco be warned about such plots against Mazor and suggests that for the community to truly protect him, he needs to come to Jonestown, something that “the man is begging for us to [do].”

At this point, the tone of the meeting changes. Jones questions his followers’ commitment to socialism, adding that he thinks they’re more interested in their sexual relationships than they are in the success of the cause. Claiming that Lenin wouldn’t allow people in his movement to marry, Jones then wonders “how many are here because of their boyfriend or their girlfriend, or how many people are here because it’s belief in socialism. That’s what disturbs me so much.”

He soon turns the discussion to the proposed emigration to Russia, a move he both cheers as a demonstration of their success and uses as another cudgel on their commitment. They can make themselves useful to the Soviet revolution by offering themselves as communist pioneers to Africa. But some people in Jonestown don’t want to go – some would even rather return to the US – and others who want to go aren’t worthy of going. Some of them are fine with coming to Jonestown after all the work has been done to prepare a home for them, just as they are willing to go to Russia, although they didn’t participate in their revolution or endure the hardships that the Russian have to build the Soviet state. “You fuckers make me sick. You always want to get in on the end of the revolution.… Don’t you goddamn people think that you’ve got a right to go over there and enjoy her movies and her resorts, when you didn’t sweat one goddamn bit to even build this one.”

As he does in other discussions of Russia during Jonestown’s final months, Jones reminds his followers that they are not unhappy with all the benefits they have received from their South American host country of Guyana, and that, should they leave, they will need to be sure it is in good order for the people who take it over from them.

FBI Summary:

Date of transcription: 6/18/79

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 4, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B93-114. This tape was found to contain the following:

Reverend JIM JONES giving a pep talk to the people at Jonestown and group singing with JONES leading the way. JONES talks about a press conference by a private detective, MAZER, who was slandering the People’s Temple, being exposed and connecting him with the CIA through his toll records. Reports from the PT supervisors at Jonestown on the various sections.

Differences with FBI Summary:

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