Cyrus Vance, who was Secretary of State under
President Jimmy Carter at the time of the deaths in Jonestown, died
in January 2002 after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. He was
84. The State Department -- both in Washington and through the American
Embassy in Georgetown, Guyana -- was involved in many negotiations
between Jonestown residents and relatives who expressed concern about
their safety.
While many relatives and their congressional representatives directed
pleas for intervention to Mr. Vance, there is no indication that he
himself knew anything of Jonestown before November 18, 1978. Within
48 hours of the deaths in Jonestown, however, Mr. Vance had asked
the Guyana government for an immediate burial of the bodies in a mass
grave, citing health and cost as the reasons for his request. The
Guyana government balked at the idea, and to facilitate removal of
the bodies, waived its requirement that victims of non-natural death
receive autopsies. By Tuesday, November 21, both Mr. Vance and Defense
Secretary Harold Brown had agreed that the bodies should be evacuated
to the U.S. Nevertheless, according to U.S. government forensic pathologists,
the disruption caused by the initial request for the mass grave and
the haste to remove the bodies before Vance changed his mind, resulted
in inadequate -- even non-existent -- examination of the bodies on
the ground at Jonestown. Such examination might have answered many
questions about the nature and circumstances of the deaths, both military
and civilian pathologists have said.
The editors of the jonestown report have also learned of the following
deaths:
Richard Cordell, who left Jonestown in the spring of 1978,
died in December 1983. His wife Barbara and three of their four children
died in Jonestown. His remaining son, Mark, survived his father's
death.
Beverly Oliver, who, together with her husband Howard Oliver,
was active with the Concerned Relatives organization in an effort
to remove her sons, Bruce and Bill, from Jonestown, died recently.
Bruce and Bill died in Jonestown; Howard Oliver pre-deceased his wife.
Helen Swinney, a Jonestown survivor, died recently in South
Carolina. She was in her late 80's. Her husband and two children died
in Jonestown.
