Was there Social Security fraud in Jonestown?

The short answer is no.

On 18 December 1978 -- one month after the deaths in Jonestown -- the U.S. Embassy in Guyana released a list of 656 uncashed government checks which were recovered from the jungle community site. The Embassy compilation -- including the check numbers, their date of issuance, the names and Social Security numbers of their recipients, the check amounts, and their designation as Social Security benefits -- was reprinted in The Assassination of Representative Leo J. Ryan and the Jonestown, Guyana Tragedy, the May 1979 report of the Staff Investigative Group of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

In a letter of 26 April 1979 to the House committee -- also reprinted in the May 1979 report -- Social Security Administration Acting Director John P. McHale said his agency had "identified 199 SSA beneficiaries who were in Jonestown, Guyana at the time of the disaster." Since the letter did not include the names, we compiled an independent tally, which arrived at an approximate number, 203 SSA beneficiaries. However, we cannot say whether the names on the lists below match those of the SSA.

A few of the 656 uncashed checks dated from as early as spring 1978, but most bore dates from the fall of 1978. In order to get a snapshot of Peoples Temple income from Social Security, we chose the month of September, and listed everyone who received their SSA benefits when those checks were issued on 3 October 1978. (A few September checks were issued on 2 October, although most of those apparently covered Cost Of Living Adjustments [COLA] that were added to benefits for future months.)

The following lists break down our analysis of SSA beneficiaries and other seniors in Jonestown:

1. List 1 is of the 173 individual beneficiaries or wards who received SSA checks in September 1978 (including 16 beneficiaries who received two checks).
   
   
2. List 2 is of the 9 Social Security recipients in Jonestown for whom no September check was found, but who were named on checks for other months.
   
   
3. List 3 is of the 21 Jonestown residents who do not appear on the Embassy tally, but who, according to records maintained by Peoples Temple, had received Social Security benefits while living in the United States. Why they no longer received benefits -- or alternatively, why the checks they may have received were cashed and those of the others were not -- is unknown. The total for these three lists of SSA beneficiaries is 199. The total for these three lists (1, 2, 3) of SSA beneficiaris is 203.
   
   
4. List 4 is of the 18 Jonestown residents who were over 65 but for whom we have been unable to locate any record that they ever received Social Security benefits, whether in the U.S. or Guyana. Again, the reason for the apparent lack of benefits to these people is unknown.

There are several reasons for compiling these lists. First, they show how much the Social Security recipients -- especially the seniors -- contributed to the day-to-day functioning of the Jonestown community of which they were part. The total amount of $36,548.30 from the 191 checks to the 173 people on List 1 was not the same every month, but it approximates what the Temple leadership knew it could depend upon each month for the agricultural mission at Jonestown. As a corollary, it shows the gravity of the threat the community perceived from Temple antagonists, especially the Concerned Relatives, who had lobbied the Social Security Administration -- as well as the Customs Service, the U.S. Postal Service, the Treasury Department¹s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the Internal Revenue Service -- to launch investigations of the Temple.

Finally, these lists reveal that, on the surface at least, there was little (if any) fraud regarding the legitimacy of Social Security benefits. Jonestown was apparently complying with its obligations to notify the SSA of deaths in the community, since the only uncashed check for Chotile Butler, who had died of natural causes earlier that year, dated from March. With one notable exception, the identity of everyone else on the Embassy compilation is known. Only the name of Clara Winters is unknown to us, and that may be due to the lack of completion to our research into Peoples Temple dead and surviving members.

List 1. Social Security Checks to Jonestown residents for September 1978

List 2. Other Checks to Social Security Recipients Recovered from Jonestown
(no September check)

List 3. Other Jonestown Residents Who Had Received SSA Benefits While Living in the United States

List 4. Jonestown Seniors for whom No SSA Benefits Are Listed, either in U.S. or Guyana

Notes:

(1) When a SSA recipient received two checks in one month, the lesser amount appears to be a COLA payment for September (since the lesser amount is then included in the October check). The exceptions to this are:

(2) Viola Kelley is listed as receiving only one SSA check, for September.

(3) While most Social Security recipients were men and women over 65, there were 43 recipients of Social Security checks who were younger. Another three had received SSA checks in the U.S., but not in Guyana.

(4) These three listed recipients were not on any death or survivor lists of Peoples Temple members in Guyana in November 1978. Two recipients (Leroy Jackson and Richard Wade) had the same Social Security numbers as their spouses (Rosa L. Jackson and Roberta Wade, respectively), and these spouses received subsequent checks in their own name. The third, Clara Winters (whose first name is a guess, since the telegram had been photocopied into illegibility at several points) is unknown.

(5) Six people are known to have died in Jonestown of natural causes before the events of 18 November 1978.

(6) Six of the 15 people who received SSA benefits in the U.S. -- but who have no listing in the Embassy telegram of 18 December 1978 -- had immediate family relatives who did receive benefits in Guyana. Madeleine Brooks, Dorothy Harris, and Hyacinth Thrash had sisters; Miguel De Pina, Heloise Hall and Mabel Hines were married to recipients.

(7) While Florine Dyson received no SSA benefits, she did receive VA benefits, at least while living in the U.S. The VA benefit seemingly did not transfer to Guyana.

(8) Lela Murphy was born in Canada, which may explain why she didn't receive SSA benefits.

(9) Many family members at that time had the same SSN, shared with parents or spouse. This is no longer the practice.

Report Prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III