The Jonestown Institute is in the process of transcribing files which the FBI has released to the managers of this website. The first two significant uploads are of the FBI’s report released on January 12, 1979, and of the document which lists the first 587 bodies to be identified.
The website’s overall Freedom of Information page is located here.
As the first two hotlinks on that page indicate, the FBI has two major collections of files related to Peoples Temple and Jonestown.
- The larger collection is that of the Temple’s own documents which the FBI recovered from the Jonestown site following the deaths of November 18, 1978. Those files have been released in their entirety without redaction.
- The FBI’s own investigation – code-named RYMUR, short for “Ryan Murder” – is a smaller collection, but includes documents with numerous redactions and deletions. These redactions continue to be litigated under McGehee & Moore v. Justice.
This latter page will be redesigned as more individual documents are uploaded.
Originally posted on October 30th, 2017.