In December 1978, the government of Guyana held a six-day inquest into the deaths of Peoples Temple leader Jim Jones and more than 900 of his followers who died the previous month in Jonestown. This PDF is a transcript of that inquest.

 

The transcript includes testimony from Guyana’s Assistant Commissioner of Crime, C.A. “Skip” Roberts; Guyana’s chief pathologist Dr. Leslie Mootoo; several local Guyanese government and police officials; Jonestown survivors Odell Rhodes, Stanley Clayton, Tim Carter, Mike Carter, and Mike Prokes; and Temple member Herbert Newell.

 

The document concludes with a one-page finding of the coroner’s jury that Jones “and persons unknown” were responsible for the deaths in Jonestown. The jury also named only two people – Ann Elizabeth Moore, who died of a gunshot wound, and Maria Katsaris who “drank the brew” – as suicide victims.

 

The source for this document is the FBI investigation into the murder of Rep. Leo J. Ryan (“RYMUR”). It is located in the FBI files at 89-8286-1840, pp. 5-51. The deletions in the document were made by the FBI prior to the document’s release under the Freedom of Information Act. There are two pages missing from the original. This is the best available copy.