Q991 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           Jones Speaking

FBI preliminary tape identification note: None

Date cues on tape:     April 26, 1978 (Wednesday after April 20)

People named:

Bible verses cited:     None

Summary:

Jim Jones reads the news for April 26, 1978.

During the course of the tape, Jones announces that the government of Guyana has agreed to suspend the requirement that the Jonestown doctor Larry Schacht spend time in Georgetown to get his Guyanese certification. Georgetown will also waive customs procedures which were blocking the delivery of medications and supplies to Jonestown. This means, in part, that “we are gaining more acceptance and we’re moving further and further away from Mrs. White,” the Temple code for the final White Night.

With the exception of this bulletin, and some scheduling announcements near the end of the tape, Jones spends the balance of it talking about world events in the news. As differentiated from many of these readings, however – which often consist of short summaries of the day’s events – Jones spends more time on only a few stories:

• The struggle for independence in the southwestern African country of Namibia;
• The attempts by Western allies in the Middle East to destabilize the Marxist government of Angola;
• The use of American mercenaries to support the Nicaraguan dictatorship;
• Vietnam resistance to Chinese incursions over its borders, and its abolition of private ownership of businesses; and
• A general strike in Turkey to protest the deaths of 60 students killed during a demonstration against “rightist, fascist violence.”

It is likely that Jones is relying upon his usual sources of news – principally from the Eastern bloc – but the accounts include numerous factual errors that do not seem to emanate from Jones, such as the promised date of Namibian independence.

Otherwise, the newscast is typical of such tapes during Jonestown’s final year, in that the US is invariably cast as a racist, imperialistic, fascist, monopoly capitalistic nation; her allies are puppet lackeys; and – in contrast – the Soviet Union and its socialist client states are modern and superior in every way. “Always, always, always,” he says at one point, “you find the USA is always on the wrong side, working with dictators, oppressors, and mass murderers.”

In addition to special criticism for West Germany, which he says is following in Hitler’s footsteps, Jones blasts Israel as “aggressive, Zionist, [and] fascist” for its initial removal and subsequent poor treatment of Palestinians. He also claims that the creation of Israel was a tactic to divide American Jews, who “had formerly always been in support of civil rights and working class solidarity, and Marxist-Leninist programs,” and to make them “more interested in nationalism.”

FBI Summary:

Date of transcription: 6/27/79

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 26, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B110-7R56. This tape was found to contain the following:

A lecture on news of the day by JIM JONES and music.

Differences with FBI Summary:

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

Tape originally posted January 2019.