A tape designated by the FBI as Q 875 was found along with the hundreds of others at Jonestown. There was apparently nothing special about the location of the tape, or any differences in appearance to distinguish it from the others, or anything else. It was just there. As opposed to all the other tapes, though, this is the only tape made after the deaths.

Q 875 consists of four broadcast news stories recorded off the air on November 19, 1978, all concerning the deaths of Congressman Leo Ryan and members of his party "last night" at the Port Kaituma airstrip in Guyana. Two of the broadcasts are of Guyanese origin, and two are American, including an ABC broadcast. The first newscast includes "unconfirmed reports reaching Georgetown" of mass suicide at Jonestown. Later broadcasts said that Temple attorneys Charles Garry and Mark Lane are safe, although at the time there was still "nothing [confirmed] about reports of mass suicide in the commune."

The following are the transcript and summary of the tape. A supplement to the transcript by Josef Dieckman appears here.

Because this is the only tape from Jonestown which was made after the deaths, it has been the subject of much interest and discussion. The editors of this site wrote a commentary about Q 875 in 2002, but the questions we raised at that time still linger. In an effort to determine whether anyone else could make sense of the tape – and answer these questions – we asked a number of people to offer their own perspectives. The articles we have collected over the years appear below.

1. An Enigma Within a Conundrum by Tim Carter
2. Reviving and Revising Q875 by Josef Dieckman
3. Closing in on Q875? by Josef Dieckman
4. Shredding the Suspect List on Q 875 by Matthew Thomas Farrell
5. Tape Made After Arrival of GDF by Jim Hougan
6. Q 875 Made by Outsiders by Laura Johnston Kohl
7. Q 875 – The Man Behind the Curtain, by Marlon Linek (2008)
8. The Mystery Of the Post-Mortem Cassette: Who? Where? Why?, by Jason Schwechter (2008)
9. Q 875 Makes Case for Murder by Roger Stacy
10. Q 875, The “No More Mystery” Tape, by Joel Thomas (2008)
11. Imagination and History: Tape Q875 and the Day after the Jonestown Mass Murders/Suicides
    by Catherine Wessinger
12. Jonestown, the CIA and the Mystery Tape by David Parker Wise

A copy of this tape is available by request through this website. We also invite additional commentary by anyone interesting in offering new interpretations.