Jonestown Audiotape
Primary Project : Summaries
Summary prepared by Fielding M. McGehee, III. If you
use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.
Tape Number : Q 708
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Tape Number Q 708
FBI Catalogue Identified Individuals Speaking
FBI preliminary tape identification note: One unlabeled 90 min/ “Charles Garry/ June 11/11/78”
Date cues on tape: Contents of tape consistent with note
People named:
Public figures/National and international names:
Charles Garry, Temple attorney (speaks)
Mark Lane, Temple attorney
Leo Ryan
Temple members not in Jonestown:
Tom Adams
Jean Brown
Leona Collier
June Crym (speaks)
Jonestown residents:
Marceline Jones
Bible verses cited: None
Summary:
In this telephone conversation recorded a week before the deaths in Jonestown – and only a few days before Charles Garry decides to go to Guyana – Temple member June Crym tries to get a read on how the Temple’s principal attorney has reacted to developments of the previous two weeks. He has not reacted well.
The developments are: Rep. Leo Ryan has written a telegram to Jim Jones, announcing his intention to visit Guyana and – hopefully – to come to Jonestown; representing himself as the Temple’s attorney, Mark Lane writes a two-page letter which not only asks Ryan to delay the trip until Lane can clear his own schedule, but includes the news that the Temple is considering another emigration to another country; and Ryan has responded that he is not concerned about Lane’s schedule, that he plans to go to Guyana, with or without Lane’s blessing.
Charles Garry is even more furious than Ryan. Characterizing Lane’s letter to the congressman as “disastrous”, he says the government of Guyana would be infuriated if it ever saw it – and with good reason – and twice urges Peoples Temple “to completely disown that letter.”
But his greater anger is Lane’s apparent usurpation of the role as Temple attorney. There cannot be two attorneys, he says time and again. “I cannot stay on the case under these conditions,” he says. “I’m either in charge, or I’m not in charge.” As Crym tries to placate him – and alternately asking for his patience or, later, his reconsideration – he has a single-word answer of “No.” Indeed, during the course of the call, he goes from making his continued representation of the Temple conditional, to resigning altogether.
Charles Garry ended up in Jonestown a week later, only because his paralegal, Pat Richartz, prevailed upon him that he shouldn’t resign over the phone, that his lengthy history as the Temple’s attorney dictated that he should personally tell Jones of his decision. When he flew down to Georgetown a few days later, he found himself on the same flight as his nemesis, and in fact, he and Mark Lane ended up having to spend several days together, including a number of hours sequestered in a Jonestown cabin while the deaths proceeded outside.
FBI Summary:
Side A - Telephone Conversation Between JUNE LNU [Last Name Unknown] And CHARLES GARRY
Side B - Unintelligible Background Noises And Voices
Differences with FBI Summary:
The summary is accurate and meets the FBI’s purposes.