When the Jonestown community died on 18 November 1978, one of the silenced voices was that of Edith Roller, a 63-year-old former college professor who had joined Peoples Temple more than three years before. Professor Roller kept an extensive and detailed journal, running several thousand pages in total, during her Temple years. She went to Guyana in January 1978. Her day-to-day notations of life in Jonestown inform or corroborate much of the information located at the Jonestown Research link.

The Roller journals have been found at two locations – in Temple documents collected by the FBI and released to this website through the Freedom of Information Act; and in the Peoples Temple Collection at the California Historical Society – but there are several months that are still missing.

The entries have been divided by month, with active buttons leading to transcribed or typed months. The asterisk (*) symbol indicates which journals were typed. The double asterisk (**) symbol indicates journals in both handwritten and typed versions. The daggar (†) symbol indicates some days are typed, some handwritten. The remaining months – including all of 1978 – are handwritten. Only her typed entries are in her final wording. In working with her handwritten notes and the many abbreviations in them, the transcribers present what appeared to be her intended wording.

We thank Don Beck and Michael Bellefountaine for their innumerable hours of work in compiling, transcribing, and analyzing these journals. We welcome feedback, corrections, questions and observations from all visitors. Please write to us at remoore@mail.sdsu.edu with your comments.

1. Roller Journals . (* typed original; ** both typed & written versions; † part-typed, part written)
	1975: Jul75* Aug75* Sep75*       1976: Feb76* Mar 76† Apr76† May76† Jun76 Jul76 Aug76 Sep76 Oct76 Nov76 Dec76   1977: Jan77 Aug77** Sep77** Oct77** Nov77 Dec77 1978: Jan78 Feb78 Mar78 Apr78 May78 Jun78 Jul78 Aug78 Sep78 Oct78 Nov78

2. Roller Journal Abbreviations in handwritten pages

3. From the 1978 Journals:
	Organizational Chart Places, Activities & Structure Names & Nicknames / Edith’s Residences Areas of Work and Places

4. Searching the 1978 Journals

5. Jonestown Map

6. Index to the 1975 to 1978 Roller Journals on the FBI CDs

7. Calendars: 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978

8. Articles:
	“Daily Life of Peoples Temple Revealed in Journal“ by Michael Bellefountaine (2004) “Roller Journals Reveal Detailed, Dispassionate Look at Temple,” by Michael Bellefountaine (2005) “Foreword to Edith Rollers 1978 Journals,” by Don Beck (2005)

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