Jonestown: A "Paradise" Lost?? How Much Longer Will Cult Apologists, Inc. Continue Perverting The True Story Of People's Temple?

It's time.

Silence be broken. Stanley, Mac, Becky, I know how much you've missed me. Please do understand. I've been miserably depressed over the Virginia Tech slaughter and its aftermath. Our self-serving politicians and corporate-suffocated media elites continue suffering a worsening case of what can be called the "Institutional Memory Lapse Syndrome".

It seems to be infecting a lot of other issues too. Yes, for example, mass killings on a much greater scale, in far away places--South America--that could have been easily prevented, right here in our own backyard.

Still amazes me, though, that even when a mental patient can commit the most horrendous school massacre in U.S. history, and all the devastating grief that follows, and all the questions & discussion about how to resolve the threat, WHAT THEN TAKES PLACE? Not one damn thing. The powers-that-be shrug and exit stage right.

What do some of our international "peers" make of all this? Here's one voice:

The Courier Mail (April 25), published in Australia, carried an opinion piece by Dr. Patrick Bishop, head of the Politics and Public Policy at Department at Griffith University, in Brisbane, which struck a pessimistic tone on whether the Virginia Tech killings would have any major impact on gun control laws in the United States:

"On the likely policy outcomes, despite talk of increased gun control (guns are in fact already banned on campus, under Tech rules), I don't anticipate there will be a co-ordinated national or federal response. Attempts to bring about national legislation after the Columbine massacre in Colorado eight years ago have lapsed.

Politicians in the U.S. Senate who have already raised the issue have been charged with insensitivity, with comments that we must wait to observe appropriate grieving and the issue should not (yet) become 'political.' This is not only the result of the action of strong gun lobby groups but the more broadly held view that an increase in gun control is a control on freedom.


"So, unlike the Port Arthur massacre in Australia 11 years ago, this incident will not result in stricter gun laws."

Depressing, and insufferable, especially when you consider all the other lobby tentacles wrapped around our honorable elected officials. Tammany Hall has never been so nicely refurbished.

What finally got my blog blood flowing out of its deep freeze back into a steady simmer started sometime about a week ago, when I was watching a Stephen King film that's been a standard on late night TV, called "Cat's Eye." Its a trilogy of your classic Kingish suspense stories, but I think only the first one is any good, concerning a guy being terrorized into quitting smoking by a crazed clinic.

Ah, James Woods. One of my favorites. But of course, at the beginning, his pal pushing him to undergo the cessation "therapy" promises, just as he goes in, "It'll turn your life around." To which the smart ass Woods character (which he overplays with screaming hilarity) has to answer:

"That's what Jim Jones said just before he spiked the punch!"

Okay. Not that those "Drink The Koolaid" references aren't all the rage, now, and mind you, this film was made in the 80's. I'm used to it, like the rest of us. But then comes mid-week and the History Channel, my favorite channel--really, it is, except on occasion--presents "History Rocks". And, yep, it's the 70's Week, one and all! They describe the show this way:


Take a whirlwind look at the 1970s through the music, footage and personalities from the time. HISTORY ROCKS pairs unforgettable news stories from the '70s with blockbuster songs from the same era. Each segment combines the thrills of a music video with the power of a documentary to create a visceral and cinematic experience. Each hour contains seven mini-documentary music videos that focus on the history of the decade.

The program takes a popular song, a known radio hit from the '70s, and explores a key historical person, place or event that clearly ties-in to that song (ex. Blue Oyster Cult's haunting classic, "Don't Fear The Reaper" paired with the tragic events of Jonestown). These visually exciting "mini-documentaries" are created our of stills, footage, expert interview bites — all set to an inspiring song that immediately takes you back to that era. HISTORY ROCKS balances a young, energetic "pop" style with real history creating a dynamic, engaging visual experience of a truly transformative decade in American history.

Ladies and gentlemen, the profoundly "Rockin'" lyrical portrait of the People's Temple, sung with some comprehensive graphics, in just under three and a half minutes, by that band (which I saw live way back when) we affectionately dubbed "The Cult":

Don´t Fear The Reaper Lyrics

All our times have come
Here but now they're gone
Seasons don't fear the reaper
Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain
We can be like they are

Come on baby... Don't fear the Reaper
Baby take my hand... Don't fear the Reaper
We'll be able to fly... Don't fear the Reaper
Baby I'm your man...

Valentine is done
Here but now they're gone
Romeo and Juliet
Are together in eternity...
Romeo and Juliet

40,000 men and women everyday... Like Romeo and
Juliet
40,000 men and women everyday... Redefine
happiness
Another 40,000 coming everyday...We can be like
they are

Come on baby... Don't fear the Reaper
Baby take my hand... Don't fear the Reaper
We'll be able to fly... Don't fear the Reaper
Baby I'm your man...


Love of two is one
Here but now they're gone
Came the last night of sadness
And it was clear she couldn't go on
The door was open and the wind appeared
The candles blew and then disappeared
The curtains flew then he appeared
Saying don't be afraid

Come on baby... And we had no fear
And we ran to him... Then they started to fly
They looked backward and said goodbye
We had become like they are
We had taken his hand
We had become like they are

Come on baby...don't fear the reaper

Sure, I like rock. The bigger question, however, is whether the effect of treating this complex history like a cheap video game is going to snuff out a thorough understanding of the dynamics of cults, which allows them to swallow up body & soul. Or the menace of ruthless demagogues like Jim Jones, hawking camouflaged highway-to-hell rides in express transports provided by power elites. If the following view is any indication, things are far from promising. It's from a blog ("Out of the Inkwell"), written by someone claiming 30 years in mass communications. Well, now--go and hold hands with the rest of those film critics who've proven that gullibility runs the gamut.

"Nelson said he remembered hearing about Jones and the Peoples Temple on the radio in the 1970s. He said that members of the San Francisco-based church were living out socially progressive ideals.

'It sounded so sane,' Nelson recalled to Reminder Publications in a telephone interview.

That perception changed when the 1978 mass suicide and the murder of Congressman Leo Ryan was reported. Nelson said the story of 'the crazy man' stopped with his death and the deaths of many of his followers.

In his research Nelson found that Jones was 'a very complicated man. It was hard to make it simple.'

Nelson went back to Jones' Indiana hometown and said that Jones 'was never normal. He was a strange guy who hid [his true feelings].'

As an adult Jones became a controversial preacher who broke down racial barriers and fought for social change. He and his wife adopted African-American and Asian children, making them one of the first multi-racial families in his home state.

He formed a successful commune in California and then decided to bring his ministry to a large city, San Francisco, where he became a political force.

Although Nelson said that 'on the surface, [the church] was very, very attractive'
to many people, there were problems revolving around Jones' sexual practices and faked healings, among other issues.

With his church under greater scrutiny, eventually Jones decided that he and his congregation could only practice their brand of religion and socialism outside of the United States. Jones acquired property in Guyana and built a small town there.

Nelson believes there was no one trigger to Jones' deteriorating mental state that led to the move to Guyana and the abuses that culminated in the suicide. He thinks Jones' problems started with childhood and grew more severe.

'With more and more power, things got worse,' Nelson said. 'In Guyana, he was totally isolated. He built a little kingdom.'

Nelson said that people who have seen the film have been affected by it.

'It's such a dark story. People joined [the Peoples Temple] with all of the best intentions and were led astray.'

'There's no happy ending to it,' he said. 'It's a cautionary tale.'

Review

There's an old saying in show business that a performer should always leave an audience wanting more. I'm not sure if that's the best approach in documentary film making, but at the end of 'Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple' I did want more.

Nelson's film goes a very long way in humanizing the people who joined Peoples Temple. Through numerous interviews, it becomes clear the congregation was not made up of people who could be simply be written off as mindless members of a cult. Instead these were people who were swept up in the idealism of the 1960s and early '70s and saw this church as a true vehicle of change.'

"Swept up" wasn't the word for it, pal. This is what one might call the witchcraft school of cinematography, practiced to perfection by Stanley Nelson; he purposely, deceitfully avoided the facts that would compromise the "idealistic" portrait he and his wife, Marcia Smith, and co-writer Noland Walker (a former cult member) were painting. No, they neglected completely to mention the mafia-like operations that went on in Ukiah, years before the move to Guyana, and so much more. Our fawning Nelson Fan Club Member doesn't seem to have a clue. Or want to.

All those former cult members interviewed in Nelson's film, and even the people in the "extra" segments on the DVD, such as Becky Moore, offered nothing that would ever restore credibility to this utterly dishonest film maker's product. Becky Moore, whose two sisters Annie and Carolyn perished, it turned out were among the cult's primary executioners.

Moore pretends, to this day, they weren't brainwashed. They "just really seemed to like" life in that Marxist slave camp. No, no, brainwashing doesn't exist. Cults? Oh, they're really just "New Religious Movements". Now, for all this "expertise", Prof. Moore (and her cohort, husband Mac MacGhee), not only were the "official advisers" to Lord Nelson, but also to Director Tim Wolochatiuk's "Jonestown: Paradise Lost".

This TV film, which is becoming a regular on the History Channel, is, between the Stan and history rockin' mutilation versions, the hands-down lessor of the three evils. Nevertheless, it is woefully inadequate in terms of an accurate summary of what led the cult to Guyana. It was broadcast this past Friday and will be broadcast again this morning at 9:00 A.M.--for those of you interested in viewing another fable about this "New Religious Movement" that lost its paradise.

While Nelson is off the deep end in his quest to be the champion "revolutionary documentarian," Wolochatiuk should know better. But like print media reporters such as the bright and shiningly mendacious Reiterman & Kilduff, they just want the easy way out. Which means either covering up the story of the San Francisco Examiner exposes that the media failed to pursue, or outright lying. Never met Reiterman, but Kilduff escaped almost like a quarter horse when I questioned him outside the Berkeley Rep two years ago (that was in the midst of an appalling Temple apologist play, which is subject for a whole separate post).

The Jonestown Apologists Alert is currently in contact with former members of the People's Temple who will strip off the Nelson sugar-coating and reveal some of the terrible realities of life as a captive of Jim Jones during the "activist" Ukiah years portrayed so vividly in this fraud of a film.

Now, once censored by craven Examiner editors under continued threats by Temple strongman Tim Stoen, is the second in the series of Fall, 1972 exposes on Jim Jones's stranglehold on the little hamlet of Ukiah.

Had the media, or government officials, or clergy--including Becky Moore's father--just stepped forward, this clearly-revealed cult terrorist could have been driven out of town. But instead, they empowered him, and provided fuel for a holocaust.

Bob Woodward calls his book about the conniving, deluded behavior of Bush and his cronies in Iraq, "State of Denial". Let's see. Maybe his next book could cover some mass denial on the West Coast. Here, on record, is the following rave review on the brutal, torturing cultist Jim Jones, by former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, in July 1977: "When somebody like Jim Jones comes on the scene...and constantly stresses the need for freedom of speech and equal justice under law for all people, that absolutely scares the hell out of most everybody...I will be here when you are under attack, because what you are about is what the whole system ought to be about!"

If you were troubled by the lack of accuracy at the start of "Jonestown: Paradise Lost", or even that absurd title, consider writing to their management. It was anything but that, as you'll learn in this devastating story.








THE REINCARNATION OF JESUS CHRIST -- IN UKIAH
By Lester Kinsolving
Examiner Religion Writer

REDWOOD VALLEY, September, 1972 -- The Rev. James Jones, charismatic prophet-pastor of People's Temple Christian (Disciples) Church here, has repeatedly told his congregation that he is the reincarnation of Jesus Christ -- and that San Francisco is due for impending destruction by an atom bomb, The Examiner has learned.

Eyewitnesses to these stated claims by the Rev. Mr. Jones have signed affidavits and submitted to tape recorded interviews, both in the Bay Area and in the vicinity of Redwood Valley, near Ukiah.

Some have asked for and have been guaranteed anonymity. Two who did not, Opal and Marion Freestone, were married by The Prophet Jones. They were parishioners of his for more than a decade and followed him from Indianapolis to California.

Yet they are no longer parishioners of the Prophet Jones -- because with Marion's disablement in an accident, they cannot afford to pay the 25 per cent of gross income which the People's Temple demanded.

Marion Freestone recalls that five years ago he accompanied Jones and five of the flock to one of the caves which pockmarked the area around Ukiah. He recalls seeing Marvin Sweeney and Rick Stahl lower themselves out of sight in this cave -- which he recalls was designated as the refuge for members of The People's Temple when the bomb destroys San Francisco and other major cities. Reference to this cave were heard by a number of additional witnesses.

(Freestone still has the large medicine kit filled with bandages and vitamin pills, a staple of People's Temple secret diet, as prescribed by The Prophet Jones.)

He and other witnesses recall The Prophet Jones's repeated warnings not to look south, toward San Francisco, when the bomb drops -- due to the blinding flash.

He also recalls that The Prophet has assured all of the flock that he will warn them of this doomsday enough in advance so that they alone can escape destruction.

The Freestones and other witnesses also recall repeated instances in which Jones, (after the congregation had been carefully checked for any strangers) has shouted:

"Who am I?"

To this, the mammoth and bedazzled congregation has screamed:

"You're Jesus Christ!"

Once you can get a congregation to believe such things, the dividends can be impressive, as attested by the renowned wealth acquired by Philadelphia's famed Father Divine -- who admitted that he himself was God Almighty.

Yet that movement wilted somewhat when the alleged demigod Divine proved to be shockingly mortal -- by dropping dead.

This lesson was hardly lost upon a dynamic young faith healer named Jim Jones who, according to Eugene Corder of Indianapolis, visited Father Divine in the late 1950s. According to other witnesses, Jones has spoken affirmatively of the cherubic-looking, ingenious, and affable black deity.

While Gods are not supposed to die, Jesuses can either resurrect or ascend -- which may explain the Rev. Mr. Jones' more modest posture as Jesus Reincarnate, when compared to his apparent model in Philadelphia.

Yet the financial rewards are hardly modest, given such required donation as 25% of the gross income and some 4000 members.

Such a financial bonanza must, however, be rigidly guarded and its members impressively disciplined.

That members of People's Temple are carefully regimented was evident on the sidewalks of the Examiner, when 150 of Jones' flock picketed for hours, quietly and under impressive control.

They were protesting this writer's reporting of various criticisms of The Prophet Jones. But among these pickets were those who, just the previous week (before the Examiner had published anything about Jones or the Temple) wrote 54 letters.

Those letters are as strikingly uniform in structure as was that impressively regimented picket line. The letters all either commend this writer's reporting, or his weekly column -- most of them quoting Jones' own high commendations in this regard.

When apprised of this, Opal Freestone laughed and recalled that one of the regular requirements of People's Temple members is "letter writing sessions," where members are required to turn in as many as 10 letters per day.

These letters, she told The Examiner, are censored. If they are approved by Jones and his lieutenants, they are sent to anyone on whom The Prophet wishes to impress his desires (or the willingness of his followers to obey him).

Another regular requirement of People's Temple members is attendance at "Catharsis Sessions." During these meetings, which can last for hours, members either voluntarily confess even the most intimate sins (especially those which are sexual) to the assembled congregation -- or else they are called up and made to confess amidst ferocious critiques from other members.

Mrs. Freestone also recalls that she was given orders not to associate with non-members of the Temple, except as absolutely necessary in her secular job. As for those who leave the congregation, they are either to be shunned -- or warned that something dreadful will happen to them.

This technique has worked effectively for generations of voodoo leaders and witch doctors. And in Ukiah, given the present circumstances, it works especially well.

The city's population is 10,300 -- while the reported membership of The People's Temple is 4,700.

This awesome segment of the body politic has managed to infiltrate almost every power structure in the Ukiah Valley.

People's Temple members are employed in almost every business or industry in the area. (After eating with two witnesses late at night in one restaurant, this writer was informed that the waitress was a member of People's Temple -- as were two couples sitting one booth away.)

The cult has members on the school board, among the Grand Jury (of which The Prophet Jones has served as foreman), in the Sheriff's Department and -- most significantly, in the apex of law enforcement: The District Attorney's Office.

But in the Mendocino County Welfare Dept. there is the key to Prophet Jones' plans to expand the already massive influx of his followers -- and have it supported by tax money.

The Examiner has learned that at least five of the disciples of The Ukiah Messiah are employees of this Welfare Department, and are therefore of invaluable assistance in implementing his primary manner of influx: the adoption of large numbers of children of minority races.

Welfare Department statistics have been obtained by The Examiner which show that most categories of welfare recipients have remained generally static -- in a comparison of June 1967 with June of this year.

But in one category -- aid to families with dependent children -- the case load has soared -- from 563 in 1967 to 1, 027 this June.

In addition to ordering his followers to adopt as many children as possible, The Prophet Jones is recalled by witnesses as having recurrently issued orders as to how they are to vote.

And even if any of his massive flock should in a sinful moment care to disobey Jesus Reincarnate, their astounding public obeisance to the Rev. Mr. Jones is hardly lost upon observing political leaders -- who can easily measure the effect of a 4,700-member voting block in a town of 10,300.

If the civil government is awed, the communications media have proven downright subservient.

Ukiah has two radio stations (one with the call letters KUKI) and a daily newspaper (circulation 7,461) called The Daily Journal.

KUKI has provided The Prophet Jones with hours of free time in which to denounce his critics, in tones so hypnotically dulcet as to recall commercials attesting the gentle action of Fletcher's Castoria.

When dissenters dare to criticize the Rev. Mr. Jones on a KUKI talk show, they are ridiculed by the talkmaster.

As for The Ukiah Daily Journal, some 23 clippings about The Prophet Jones were recently hand-delivered to The Examiner (by an employee of the Mendocino County Probation Dept.) They are so effusive as to suggest that they could have been dictated by The Prophet himself.

Most recently, The Daily Journal decorated 3 top columns of its front page with a photograph of The Prophet Jones. He is accompanied by two of his adopted sons, all clad in coats and neckties, posed squatting on the front lawn with three large dogs.

Such polished political ploys apparently appeal to many -- for The Prophet Jones seems to have admirers who are not (yet) of his fold.

But there are other residents of the area -- including one who has known the Rev. Mr. Jones for nearly two decades, from the vivid vantage point of the inside of The People's Church. And for Marion Freestone, at least, the atmosphere in the Ukiah area is eerie.

This was obvious when the elderly man pointed to an object on the floor next to his chair, a holstered .38 caliber pistol.

"We're scared of those people at People's Temple," he said. "As soon as we can save enough money, we're moving out of here."

This reaction confirmed what former Ukiah Baptist pastor Richard Taylor described to the Attorney General's office as:

"An atmosphere of terror."

By others, who have also been inside the Rev. Jim Jones's People's Temple, this Ukiah Messiah is regarded as more maniacal than messianic -- in his exercising a ministry which they feel is better described as a monstrosity.

[END OF SECOND OF FOUR EXPOSES CENSURED BY THE S.F. EXAMINER. STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT: "JIM JONES DEFAMES A BLACK PASTOR".]

National Cult Expert Pans Nelson's "Jonestown"; The First Censored People's Temple Expose Is Revealed

Let's give it to History Channel top executive Dan Davids--sensational timing, Danny!

And let's not forget his tact, oh yes. Much like his ratings-crazed news colleagues that jumped like circus canines to immediately broadcast those obscene photos of the Virginia Tech gunman. Never mind about the grieving families, or old-fashioned notions about decency.


Not even a week has passed, with yesterday being the first of a long line of memorial services and funerals for the slaughtered young people. And still, Davids just couldn't resist last night throwing at us a rerun of "Jonestown: Paradise Lost", graphic portrayal of another mass-murder.

It was just two days ago that we had a national day of mourning.



Why on earth couldn't Davids have at least waited a little while? Nothing against the docudrama per se, outside of a couple of serious flaws, the primary one being director Tim Wolochatiuk's turning to those notorious cult apologists Becky Moore and Mac McGhee for "expert advice".

The nagging question: Is this the kind of programming that we really had to have now??

Jonestown, of course, produced more victims, under entirely different circumstances. But these tragedies both share the same senseless criminal essence. Investigators of such atrocities have to uncover the causes and establish accountability, which the media is obliged to report.

We know our "safety-first" friendly gun lobby, National Rifle Association (NRA), has done whatever it takes to allow the most unhindered flow of guns to the public, even fighting to put "cop killer" armor-piercing bullets on those gun store counters. These fanatics have a stranglehold on Congress. In such an atmosphere, it's hardly surprising that former mental patients like the Va Tech killer could get hold of the weaponry to go on a murderous rampage.

It's no surprise, either, how Jim Jones was able to carry out his murderous rampage, on so many more people, albeit a dramatically different setting. The real question, still, is on accountability.

The media keeps on pretending they were on top of it, because reporters like Marshal "Pursued 'Em Early & Often" Kilduff say so. Negligent and dishonest.

California politicians and clergy--in particular Rev. John V. Moore--pretend they knew nothing until too late about this cult's nefarious nature. Negligent, spineless, and even more dishonest.

But the worst of the lot are the collection of cult apologist "New Religious Movement" scholars that infest universities across the nation, from Rev. Moore's daughter, Becky (San Diego State), to John Hall (UC-Davis), Catherine Wessinger (Loyola), Jeffery Hadden (Univ. of Virginia), and scores of others.

These people are the most insufferable, because they are hard-working shills for religious cults that ruthlessly brain-wash, enslave, and abuse others, often children. They are wonderfully adept at disingenuous arguments coached in fancy academic language designed to confuse readers with half-truths bathed in fantasy.

There's a nagging suspicion that one of them, a certain retired member of Columbia's academic community, went on something of a rampage against this blog in a rambling, fuming attack in one of the comment sections. She neglected to identify herself beyond leaving her first name: "Gillian".

But I'll wager--and she's welcome to correct me if not so--that this is the very same Gillian Lindt listed in the "Scholarly Resources" section (brimming literally with a who's who of apologists, including Godfather of Cult Promoters and vampire enthusiast, J. Gordon Melton) of the Moore/McGhee Jonestown-Wasn't-So-Bad propaganda website.

Fess up, now, Gill; did Becky and Big Mac send you?

In any event, I wish you luck in continuing to try "to make sense and figure out" the serious problem posed by cult apologists and deluded film makers who concoct twisted, sugar-coated portraits of a monstrously destructive cult called People's Temple.



Nationally recognized cult counselor Steve Hassan recently commented about Nelson's "Jonestown" film, the one you argue contributes "something enlightening" to us.

"I was deeply affected by the documentary," writes Hassan, "as it brought back in powerful detail much of what I felt back in 1978 that made me want to dedicate more time to fighting cults. I have met Grace Stoen and was supposed to testify before a hearing convened by Bob Dole in Washington DC. It was that taken over by cults and all ex-members were taken off the agenda and cult leaders were invited to speak. They pulled this off by having cult members picketing with signs like "Elect Bob Dole President, Repeal the First Amendment.

"In order to understand Tom Kinsolving's position, I recommend reading his blog at
http://JonestownApologistsAlert.blogspot.com. Basically his father Les Kinsolving investigated Jones and wrote articles to expose him way back in 1972, but because Jones was politically connected, his father's work was suppressed and minimized.

"There was a lot of evidence that Jones was very warped and corrupt from much earlier on than this film suggested. Kinsolving feels that Moore and others who were defending Jones during the days of the People's Temple show them to be very biased and I think that is true. They were painting a very idealistic picture because in the mind of members, that was why they were involved.

"The fellow who said, 'well at least we tried' is pretty sad. Most of the ex-members in the movie, with the exception of Deborah Layton and possibly Grace Stoen, did not seem to know and understand cult mind control issues. If they did, it wasn't included. It is pretty pathetic in this regard and I recommend that people write in an give their comments good and bad to the film at:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/jonestown/feedback/index.html

"My problem with the Documentary is that while they did have ex-members stating facts, like 'Jones's words were blaring 24/7 at the compound at Jonestown', 'We were only sleeping 2- 3 hours a night' and 'People were afraid that they might be turned in by their family and friends if they ever said any negative about Jones (paraphrase)', the documentary didn't go into enough detail about what mind control is and how it works.



"For example, no one talks about the dual identity phenomenon, or thought-stopping, or phobia programming. In fact, my biggest gripe is to be found on the PBS web site for the show. The Teacher's Guide could be orienting students to questions like, 'What are the characteristics of a group that might be considered to be a destructive cult?', or 'If you were approached by a group to get involved, what questions should you ask to decide if this is a healthy group?' Go take a look at:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/jonestown/? campaign=pbshomefeatures_1_americanexperiencejonestownthelifeanddeathofp eoplestemple_2007-04-09

There were some very interesting deleted scenes--especially the segment about Grace and Tim Stoen's son, and also Tim Carter's explanation for how he got away from the compound.

"Factually there was much left out of the documentary.

"They did dig holes and put children in them and tell them there were poisonous snakes and dangle ropes. They did do multiple rehearsals for drinking poison. Jones had taken all of their passports away. There was massive welfare fraud concerning many of the adopted children.

"Deborah Layton was a courier and transported huge sums of money to Switzerland for Jones. Ex-member Jeannie Mills and her family were mysteriously murdered in San Francisco and so much more. I think they could have done better edits to portray Ryan as the hero he really was. He actually listened to the concerned families and actually did something about the problem. Unfortunately, no politician has been willing since to put his or her life on the line to help people in cults- in the U.S or anywhere...."

It's interesting how Stan Nelson just couldn't seem to track down Steve Hassan, or any other genuine experts such as renowned social psychologist Dr. Phillip Zimbardo, to add to his film's "enlightenment." He opted instead for interviews with raging cult apologists like John Hall and Becky Moore.

What was Moore smoking when she invented this claim about the Jonestown day of mass-murder? "....Members of the Jonestown community did not see themselves as participating in a violent act," she wrote, "On the contrary, they saw themselves taking their leave quietly, peacefully, and yet as an act of protest. Jim's final recorded words demonstrate this...."

Oh, right. "Jim's final recorded words." Now there's some scholarly, bona fide testimony that perfectly complements the record of all the dead with injection marks between their shoulder blades, and the Jonestown prisoner whose so struggled that every joint had been torn out of her body, and the little children and infants who were force-fed the cyanide.

One thing is certain. Cult apologists are worthy to appear in film. Not, however, to "enlighten" us about cults. Their time would be better spent in documentaries on the clinical behavior of people trapped in denial.

As for most of our frequently shameless, self-serving media, as demonstrated by their behavior in recklessly broadcasting Va. Tech gunman's photos--a great incentive to publicity-craving copycat maniacs--they are just one rung below all this.

They'll have promoted the lie that the Jonestown massacre was inevitable long enough now that it qualifies for the Big Lie Award.

Moreover, they'll continue covering up their yellow streak from not closing down Jim Jones in 1972. None of the media, or our "Jonestown: Paradise Lost" director, or of course the mighty Lord Nelson, wants to reveal there were the devastating Examiner exposes rolling out in 1972, which one of Jones's inner circle said "drove Jones up the wall." They would have done more than that, had media editors just had any insight and backbone to allow the investigation to continue. Instead, they proceeded to serve up the cult's public relations about its "good works"; much like today, thanks to propagandist Stan. It seems only Tim Reiterman will talk about it, but then lies about "lack of substantiation."

Here is the first of the last four exposes by my father, which the Examiner editors censored, because they were so terrified by Jones's legal muscleman Tim Stoen. Decide for yourself if "substantiation" problems rest with my father, or creative writer Reiterman.






Jim Jones stands next to Tim Stoen with Grace Stoen and an unknown man holding John Victor Stoen, whom Jones claimed was his own son. image source


THE PEOPLE'S TEMPLE AND MAXINE HARPE
by Lester Kinsolving
Examiner Religion Writer

Ukiah, Calif. September, 1972 - - The sister and former husband of the late Maxine Harpe, who was found hanging in her garage here in March of 1970 have asked the Attorney General's office to investigate the disposition of $2400 belonging to Mrs. Harpe -- which they allege was placed in a trust fund set up by the People's Temple Christian (Disciples) Church.

Daniel Harpe, a local resident, and Mrs. William Key of Citrus Heights near Sacramento, in a joint letter to the Attorney General's office, asked that the People's Temple be required to release this trust fund set up for Mrs. Harpe's three children, who are now in custody of their father.

Their letter encloses a photostatic copy of a $2400 check issued by the Redwood Title Company as part of the proceeds of the sale of the Harpe's former home. The check is endorsed by Mrs. Harpe -- as well as by James Randolph, a member of the People's Temple.

Randolph is a social worker for the Mendocino County Department of Welfare who, the letter says, was "keeping company" with Mrs. Harpe at the time of her death, which the County Coroner's office ruled as suicide.

The letter also notes:

* That Mrs. Key contacted Mendocino County Assistant District Attorney Timothy O. Stoen, who told her that the People's Temple had placed the $2400 in a trust fund for the Harpe children -- to which she could not have access. (Stoen, in addition to his duties as Assistant District Attorney, is a member of the Board of Directors of the People's Temple.)

* That Harpe asked Mendocino County Sheriff Reno Bartolemei for assistance in recovering the $2400 from the People's Temple trust fund - - but that the Sheriff had replied that he didn't know anything about it; even though Harpe has since heard that the Sheriff is a trustee of this trust fund.

* That Mrs. Harpe had attended the People's Temple for more than a year prior to her death - - and that she had definitely sought advice from District Attorney Stoen.

But in a front page article published in the Ukiah Daily Journal on Sept. 21, Stoen wrote:

"The woman (Mrs. Harpe) referred to - - was not, incidentally a member of my church -- was somebody I did not know, had never talked with and certainly never counseled."

Stoen's statement in the Ukiah Daily Journal also took obvious issue with The Examiner's reporting of his relationship to and statements about the Rev. Jim Jones, charismatic pastor of the People's Temple.

"I never said at any time that I saw 40 people raised from the dead."

(But in a letter dated Sept. 12, 1972, Stoen wrote: "Jim has been the means by which more than 40 persons have been brought back from the dead this year... I have seen Jim revive people stiff as a board, tongues hanging out, eyes set, skin graying and all vital signs absent.")

Stoen's statement also contains the following:

"People's Temple Christian Church does not, as far as I know, advertise that Jim Jones raises people from the dead."

Yet the People's Temple's mimeographed bulletin, which was distributed at the 11 a.m. service on Sun. Sept. 10 (at which Stoen was present), specifically reported that in Los Angeles:

"Pastor Jones walked to the dead man and commanded 'Arise!' Instantly the man was resurrected before thousands there."

Stoen was not available for comment, as the District Attorney's office said that he began a five-week vacation.

Stoen's boss, District Attorney Duncan James, declined comment when asked if he had been fired.

James also declined comment on a report by The Indianapolis Star which concerned an alleged telephone threat, which was attributed to Stoen's wife, Grace.

The Indianapolis newspaper quoted Mrs. Cecil Johnson (whose daughters, Mildred and Gwin, recently left the People's Temple to return home to Indianapolis) as saying that she recognized Mrs. Stoen's voice during a 6:15 a.m. long distance telephone call last week.

Mrs. Johnson told The Star that she had been listening on an extension phone when the caller told her daughter, Gwin:

"The newspaper out here is harassing Jim. Your parents have signed something saying bad things about the Temple. You find out what they did and call me back. Get them to stop it. It's for your own safety."

Mrs. Stoen was one of some 150 People's Temple members who picketed The Examiner last week. When asked about the alleged phone call, she declined comment.

But Mrs. Stoen told a TV interviewer that her husband was an ordained minister -- which she had denied, when asked during a People's Temple service the previous Sunday in San Francisco. Her husband also told The Examiner, the following evening, that he was not ordained.

The issue arose over Stoen's admission that he had officiated at the marriage of one of the Johnson sisters, Mildred, despite the fact that Section 4100 of the Civil Code requires that in order to solemnize a marriage, the officiant must either be ordained or a judge.

Stoen told The Examiner that despite his being neither ordained nor a judge:

"I meet all the requirements of the Civil Code," but was unable at the time of this interview to state which section of the Code he had in mind.

And three days after this statement to The Examiner, Stoen's written statement appeared in the Ukiah Daily Journal, in which the Assistant District Attorney wrote:

"I am not only a duly authorized minister of my church, I have been ordained in another, and I have taken theological studies including two years of New Testament Greek."

Stoen's statement did not identify this other denomination which he claims had ordained him, nor does his statement provide any such information as to where, when, or by whom he was ordained.

[END OF FIRST OF FOUR EXPOSES CENSURED BY THE S.F. EXAMINER. STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT: "THE REINCARNATION OF JESUS CHRIST--IN UKIAH"]

PBS & Director Nelson Claim Jim Jones Cult's Ukiah Years Filled With "Social Advocacy"--While Covering Up Reported Killing & Terror

As you watch "Jonestown: Life and Death of People's Temple" on TV tomorrow night, or later on DVD, please keep in mind this caveat from American Heritage reviewer Allen Barra:

".....One in fact yearns for more information than we're given. We're never really told the infrastructure of Jones's organizations, or how the California and Guyana settlements were financed and built...."

Indeed. So many unanswered questions. But then again, director Stanley Nelson was swamped with all the "making up" he and Mrs. Nelson (script writer Marcia Smith) had to do.

People's Temple scholars: Prepare for landing on Leftest Planet PBS....On your mark, get set--FIND THOSE FICTION NUGGETS!



Jim Jones stands next to Tim Stoen with Grace Stoen and an unknown man holding John Victor Stoen, whom Jones claimed was his own son. image source


[THE FOURTH EXPOSE IN THE KINSOLVING SERIES ON THE PEOPLE'S TEMPLE]

Wednesday, September 20, 1972
San Francisco Examiner
Page 1

PROBE ASKED OF PEOPLE'S TEMPLE

By Rev. Lester Kinsolving
Examiner Religion Writer

The State Attorney General's Office has been asked to investigate the People's Temple Christian (Disciples) Church in Redwood Valley - as well as the conduct of the church's attorney, Timothy O. Stoen, who is also assistant district attorney of Mendocino County.

The written request was made by the Rev. Richard G. Taylor, who served as pastor of Ukiah's First Baptist Church for six years prior to his appointment in July as South Coastal Area minister for the American Baptist Churches of the West.

In his letter to Attorney General Evelle J. Younger the Rev. Mr. Taylor noted:

"In March of 1972, I requested that Sheriff Reno Bartolomie ask the Attorney General's Office to investigate the People's Temple and in particular the conduct of Timothy O. Stoen, attorney for The People's Temple and assistant district attorney of Mendocino County."

"Prior to that, I asked Mendocino County District Attorney Duncan James about Stoen's conduct with Maxine Harpe, a suicide whose funeral service I conducted."

"I knew that Mrs Harpe had been connected with the People's Temple Christian Church of Redwood Valley (near Ukiah). I had been informed by Mr. Stoen that prior to her suicide she had been engaged in counseling at the People's Temple, in which counseling Mr. Stoen had participated."

"Following Mrs. Harpe's death, her sister informed me that unidentifiable persons from People's Temple had occupied her sister's house and ransacked it."

"District Attorney James informed me that he had discussed this matter with Stoen, but no action was taken other than requesting Stoen to refrain from any further misuse of his office."

A spokesperson for the Attorney General's Office in San Francisco said that the requested investigation would be considered.

In Ukiah, District Attorney James confirmed the Rev. Taylor's statement that no action had been taken - but he otherwise declined to comment.

Mendocino Sheriff Bartolomie was not available for comment.

But Undersheriff Tim Shae firmly denied the claim of another of the People's Temple's three attorneys - that the Temple has armed guards at the sheriff's request.

Redwood Valley attorney Eugene B. Chalkin wrote the Examiner before any story on the People's Temple was published - as did 54 other Temple members. In his letter, dated September 11 - and hand delivered by Sharon Bradshaw of the Mendocino County Probation Department, Chalkin wrote:

"Our local law enforcement agency has requested that we have trained persons carry firearms, and we have reluctantly acquiesced to the sheriff's request."

But when this letter was quoted to Shea, the undersheriff replied:

"That is an absolutely untrue statement. We never requested this."

When informed that armed guards (three pistols and a shotgun) were spotted outside the People's Temple on Sunday morning September 10, Shea explained:

"That is private property and people may carry firearms on private property provided the weapons are not concealed."

Shea did not comment upon the letter of the Rev. Mr. Taylor who, while he was ministering in Eureka, served on the Mendocino County Planning Commission, the Community Center Committee, and as president of the Ukiah Ministerial Association in 1970.

In his letter, the Rev. Mr. Taylor also informed the Attorney General:

"What is of utmost concern is the atmosphere of terror created in the community by so large and aggressive a group, which effect is implemented by Stoen's civil office."

"The People's Temple, I understand, employs armed guards, contending that their pastor, the Rev. Jim Jones, has been threatened."

"From my experience, I seriously wonder if they have ever been threatened and whether instead they have not contrived such reports in order to justify armed guards at their services which attract crowds in excess of one thousand people."

"I have counseled with one paroled inmate of a California correctional institution who was sponsored on parole by People's Temple, but after he lived for some time in Redwood Valley, he planned to move away. Here again, a group of men from People's Temple held him incommunicado for four hours - leaving him terrified."

"For these reasons and because I sincerely believe more questionable activity is going on, I do request that your office conduct an investigation."

END OF EXPOSE #4


Postscript:

In the "Special Features" section on the PBS "Jonestown" film website are the video accounts of eight ex-Temple members, each clip separated by a dramatic "TURNING POINT" section in which they sensed something was "amiss" in what the director Nelson has described as a "social-activist experiment".

This fourth expose, about a desperate minister's attempt to stop Jim Jones IN 1972, was an unquestioned "Turning Point", that would bear incalculable ramifications. It would be the last published true investigation for nearly five years, thanks to the cowards on the Examiner's editorial board who caved into threats of a law suit by Tim Stoen.

All the rest of the local media, the San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland Tribune, San Jose Mercury, as well as TV and radio stations, slithered beneath their news desks as well over the thought of standing up to Jim Jones. Some of them, like the late, famed Chronicle columnist Herb Caine, in spite of the Temple revelations, unforgivably promoted the lethal cult, all the way up to the slaughter in 1978.

And what does our "informative" Nelson documentary tell us about this critical episode, when the media turned ran away at the critical hour, when there was still time to stop Jones from morphing into a political Frankenstein?

Carefully stay tuned Monday night. Record it. Listen to every word, watch every scene.

You'll find nothing.

But MISSING information isn't the only thing ailing this production. Lying outright is the biggest epidemic. And the reason for much of that is the "research team" that put together all "facts" for Stanley, which you'll find in the credits, consists of Denise Stephenson--a college roommate of Becky Moore; Stephenson, you see, controls the Temple Archives at the California Historical Society. Our other sage is "Mac" McGhee, Moore's husband, who runs the cult apologist "Jonestown Institute". Together, they are a truly mind-numbing, maybe even--shudder--brain-washing fountain of ideas.

Of course, Nelson made the final decision to buy this conterfeit load of goods and mass market it. And PBS? Well, here's the "in-depth" story they offer about this cult's impact on Ukiah, as presented in their Jonestown site's "People & Events" section:

"Indiana minister Jim Jones moved his growing family and his Peoples Temple there in 1965. In California, the Peoples Temple continued to grow and develop into a political and social advocacy group. There were still religious services, but longtime members understood that those were a means to an end: social justice and racial equality."

And, pray tell, what did PBS say in its site about this media-turning-and-running-away point in its site? Did our Jonestown Institute Of Orwellian History get 'em like they did Nelson??

In a word, yeah. Actually it was an entire sentence.

"When local reporters suggested investigating Jones and the secrecy surrounding many aspects of the Peoples Temple, their editors or publishers would discourage them."

Wow.

Somebody really ought to contact PBS and suggest they stick this one in their site's "Teacher's Guide". The "ethics" section, perhaps?

One other addition they might consider. That is that HAD those craven editors at the Examiner not surrendered to Jim Jones and allowed the investigation to continue, the "rest of the story" would have seen daylight and over 900 could have had a chance. Here is one full accounting [from www.fonebone.net] of the Harpe episode that my father was on to, that has drawn from a number of post-Jonestown sources, including the book "The Cult That Died":


Maxine Bernice Harpe
Died: March 28, 1970
Hung by the neck

Maxine Harpe grew up in the small Northern California town
of Willits where she married her high school sweetheart, had
three children and settled down to a quiet life in Talmadge,
that is until 1969, when Jim Jones targeted her for
assassination. In a little more than a year, Jones and his
aides would destroy Maxine's marriage, family, career, and
love affair. They would steal her children and her life
savings and drive her to the brink of suicide.

Temple strongarm man and Mendocino County Welfare worker,
Jim Randolph, initiated a love affair with Maxine intended
to break up her marriage and bring her into the
congregation. Every relationship pursued by Jim Randolph, or
any other Temple member, required the prior approval of the
Temple's Relationship Committee and Jim Jones, who not only
issued binding judgments on proposed relationships, but also
proposed many himself. Maxine quickly fell in love with
Randolph; attesting to Jones' ability to pair villain with
victim. Spurred by Randolph's encouragement, Maxine left her
husband and moved into a Temple communal house with her
three children and Temple member Mary Candoo. During this
difficult transition period, Maxine was counseled and
encouraged by her welfare caseworker, Linda Sharon Amos, a
high ranking Temple aide who claimed to have once been a
member of Charles Manson 's gang. Amos helped Maxine secure a
job as a dental assistant at the Mendocino State Mental Hospital in
Talmadge.

Linda Amos and Jim Randolph were only two of the estimated
fifty Temple members who had infiltrated government agencies
in Mendocino County, but their function in the Welfare
Department was one of particular importance to Jim Jones.
Together with their colleagues, Amos and Randolph were able
to license several Temple operated foster care homes and
protect several additional homes that were unlicensed and
illegal.

Jones convinced his congregation that their children would
have a richer life experience living apart from their
parents. Families were disbanded and a the children, who
were now eligible for welfare assistance, were placed in
Temple foster homes. The children's welfare support checks
were signed over to the Temple and provided a substantial
portion of Jones' government subsidy. The Temple welfare
activities were not restricted to simple fraud; many Black
children were taken from the ghettos of San Francisco and
Oakland using tactics that bordered on kidnapping.

The illegal use of the Mendocino County Welfare Department
appeared to escape the attention of the Department director
Dennis Denny. Though it was impossible to ignore the Temple
foster care homes and to ignore the the Temple welfare case
workers, Denny never seemed to make the connection. Carrie
Minkler was one of the few case workers in the Welfare
Department who was not a member of the Peoples Temple. Ms.
Minkler, now retired, recalls working with Amos, Randolph
and other Temple members:

"You didn't open your mouth. You didn't mention
the Peoples Temple in our department. Even the
walls had ears. There wasn't anything that went
on in our office that Jim Jones didn't know the
next day...Peoples Temple workers went through
other workers' case files. The CIA could have
used them. The atmosphere was really tense."

It didn't take long to surround Maxine. She had a Temple
lover, a Temple house with a Temple roommate, a Temple
social worker, a Temple job with Temple co-workers, even the
attorney representing her in the divorce case was Temple
attorney Tim Stoen. The Temple was also Maxine's religion
and recreation. By March of 1970, every aspect of her life
depended upon the Peoples Temple as Jim Jones pulled the
plug on her life support system.

Three weeks before her death, Maxine received a check for
$2,493.81; her share of the divorce settlement. She signed
the check over to Randolph, whe deposited $2,000.00 in his
personal checking account and $493.81 in his savings
account, as per Jones' instructions. Once her life savings
were safely in Temple hands, everything bad happened to
Maxine at once.

Jones ordered Randolph to end his relationship with Maxine
and she was heartbroken. She was fired from her job. She had
no means of support; Randolph had all her money and wouldn't
give it back. She went to Linda Amos for financial
assistance from the Welfare
Department, but Amos not only denied her request but, in
addition, judged her a "mental depressant" and threatened to
place her children in a Temple foster care home as she was
unfit to be a parent. Her roommate, Mary Candoo, would
certainly parrot Amos' accusations.

Maxine realized she was under siege by a well organized
attacker and sought help from her attorney, Tim Stoen, but,
of course, her protest fell on deaf ears. She then turned to
the one man who seemed to be at the center of her problem.
She confronted Jones the day before her death. Jones was
furious and thoroughly humiliated Maxine in front of
Randolph and other Temple members who remember him saying,
"Why don't you just kill yourself? Get it over with!.... At
least Judas had the guts to kill himself. Others recall
Jones predicting, "That bitch (Maxine) is going to die,"
just one day before she did.

Everywhere she turned, Maxine felt an ever increasing
hostility. After the March 27th confrontation with Jones,
she was so afraid the Temple would take a more physical
approach to their harassment that she made a special request
to bring home a houseful of Temple children, whose presence,
she hoped, would discourage a physical assault. She was
wrong.

On March 28th at 1:30 AM, one of the children spending the
night at Maxine's house wandered into the garage to find
Maxine dead; hung by an electrical extension cord from the
roof rafters. A hastily scribbled suicide note on a torn
grocery bag instructed the children to phone the Temple in
Redwood Valley and wait in the house until they arrived.

Jim Jones, Jim Randolph, Patty Cartmell and Jack Beam
arrived at Maxine's house sometime before
dawn. Jones waited outside in the car while the others put
on surgical gloves and entered the house to remove any
evidence of Maxine's involvement with the People's Temple.
They untied the body, lowered it to the garage floor and
disrobed it to remove a red prayer cloth that belted the
waist. Temple members often wore these blessed prayer cloths
in concealed places on their person.

The body was then
redressed and rehung, carefully re-staging the scene for the
police investigator. The aides then ransacked the house to
locate and remove anything that might associate Maxine with
the Temple. They completed their work at approximately 8:30
AM, instructed the children to phone the police, and left.

Jones was safe in his Redwood Valley parsonage at 8:57 AM
when Deputy Sheriff-Coroner, Bruce Cochran, arrived at the
death scene in Talmadge. Twenty minutes later, Randolph,
Cartmell and Beam returned to the house and informed Deputy
Cochran that the children had phoned them but that they
really didn't know why as they had never met the dead woman.
Cartmell convinced Deputy Cochran that she should remove the
children from such a gruesome scene, and consequently, he
never got the opportunity to question the only eyewitnesses.
One of the children, nine year old Tommy Ijames, would later
recall the event:

"The children called the church before they
called the police, and they came very early in
the morning. They came in there and took all the
pictures of Jim Jones out. .. (prayer) cloths
they took from her, pulled her down
off the (rafter) and took them off her waist,
anything that had to do with the church... Jim
(Jones), he stayed in the car and didn't come
out... They pulled her down and they took the
clothes off her... They were taking all the...
little pamphlets of Jim Jones, and then (after
the coroner arrived) they acted like they didn't
know her...."

The Temple death squad had left Maxine's house twenty
minutes before the coroner arrived and returned just twenty
minutes after he arrived. They allowed him enough time to
assume that he was the first adult on the scene, but not
enough time to question the children, who were quickly
transported away. Such impeccable timing was typical of
Temple operations. Like the other agencies in Mendocino
County, Jones had spies in the Sheriff's office who informed
him of their every move.

Deputy Cochran's subsequent investigation proceeded exactly
as Jones had planned. It was Cochran's job to be suspicious
and he was. There was the unusual placement of a trunk under
Maxine's feet and the unexplained presence of children and
adults, all of whom were members of the Peoples Temple. But
eventually his investigation was to center on Maxine's
financial transactions just prior to her death. Cochran
contacted Jim Randolph's boss, Welfare Director, Dennis
Denny, questioning the legality of a welfare worker
depositing a welfare recipient' check
in his personal account; especially when that same welfare
worker was present at the scene of the recipient's apparent
suicide just three weeks later.

Denny defended Randolph's
actions and assured Cochran that there was no reason to
suspect foul play or improper conduct, but Cochran was not
satisfied. He pressured Randolph for a deposition regarding
his role in Maxine's finances and reluctantly he complied.
In a sworn statement, Randolph told the police that a few
weeks after receiving the money, he transferred $2,000.00
from his savings account to Temple treasurer, Eva Pugh, to
set up a trust fund for Maxine's children. He held the
remaining $493.81 until three days after Maxine's death when
he added that to the fund as well.

If Randolph's statement
is to be believed it would seem that he helped establish a
fund for Maxine's children before herdeath. Randolph
completed the deposition but refused to sign it until
Assistant District Attorney and Peoples Temple attorney Tim
Stoen had the opportunity to review the statement. Randolph
stalled, Stoen stalled, and the statement was never signed.

It was Tim Stoen who finally convinced Cochran to drop the
investigation when he informed him that he (Stoen) was co-
trustee of the children's fund, along with, of all people,
Cochran's boss, Sheriff Reno Bartolmei. Also, to disguise
their true involvement, the Peoples Temple had contributed
an additional $470.00 to the fund, that together with the
initial money and the accumulated bank interest, totaled
$3,000.00 for the three children. Linda Amos, Maxine's
welfare case worker, buttressed Stoen's statements with her
volunteered testimony as to Maxine's depressed state of mind
just prior to what certainly must have
been her suicide. Cochran's investigation quickly lost
momentum. Maxine's death was declared a suicide. The case
was closed and, despite future pleas from ex-Temple members
and the press, it was never reopened.

Richard Taylor, a local Baptist minister who knew Maxine
Harpe, was not satisfied with the superficial investigation
into what he believed as murder. Aware that the Temple
controlled most of Mendocino County, Taylor presented his
arguments in a long letter he sent to the state attorney
general's office in which he asked the state to investigate
Jim Jones' role in Maxine Harpe's death. Taylor was invited
to present his evidence to a deputy in the attorney
general's office but when he appeared to testify in
Sacramento, his notes on Jones were confiscated and he was
told that there would be no investigation due to
"insufficient evidence."

Immediately upon his return to
Ukiah, Taylor and his wife were deluged with threatening
phone calls that they believed "originated from the People's
Temple." Intimidated and frightened, the minister dropped
all attempts to prove that Jim Jones had ordered Maxine
Harpe's death.

Randolph may have avoided signing a statement for the police
but he did not avoid signing a blank statement for Jim
Jones. It wasn't long before he realized his mistake when
Jones presented him with a copy of his previously signed
blank statement which was now a typed confession to the
murder of Maxine Harpe. Only then did he understand why
Jones had instructed him to deposit Maxine's money in his
personal bank account and why he insisted Randolph be
present at the scene of the crime.

The police already
suspected him, and their suspicion, along with the signed
confession,
would certainly convict him of murder; especially since the
foreman of the Mendocino Grand Jury, who would bring down
the indictment, was none other than Jim Jones. Randolph was
promoted to the Angels and his only way out was a lifetime
sentence in prison. To further implicate him in Maxine's
death, Jones called him in front of a closed meeting of the
Temple's Planning Commission and, with a dozen witnesses
present, he accused Randolph of killing Maxine. He shouted,
"You know you did it (killed Maxine)!" But for all of
Jones's badgering, Randolph said nothing in his own defense.

Rumors of the Temple's involvement in the death of Maxine
Harpe continued to circulate in the press. Two and a half
years later, Lester Kinsolving penned a series of articles
in the San Francisco Examiner, in which he accused Temple
attorney Tim Stoen of wrongdoing in his counseling of Maxine
just prior to her alleged suicide. Stoen refuted the charges
in a statement that appeared in the Ukiah Daily Journal,
dated September 21, 1972, in which he said:

"The woman referred to (who was not,
incidentally, a member of my church) was
somebody I did not know, had never talked with,
and certainly had never counseled."

Stoen could not have forgotten that he represented Maxine in
her divorce or that he was a custodian of the fund for her
children or was instrumental in suppressing the coroner's
investigation into her death. He must have felt extremely
threatened to publicly report such a blatant, bold-faced
lie.

Jones profited from Maxine's death in several ways. He
gained a new Angel; a competent, intelligent slave, Jim
Randolph. He received the $3,000.00 trust fund and the three
children who, following their mother's funeral, were placed
in Temple foster homes and enrolled in the welfare system.
Their welfare support checks were signed over to the Temple
that profited at least $10,000.00 from overcharging the
welfare system and under-caring for the children.

In 1977, a special prosecution unit of the San Francisco
District Attorney's Office, looking into allegations of
illegal activities in the Peoples Temple, cited what their
subsequent report termed "Welfare Diversion," but rather
than pursue the investigation, the DA's office referred the
matter to the city's Department of Social Services and the
City Comptroller's Office with the recommendation that any
evidence that surfaced should be submitted to the DA's
welfare fraud expert, Don Didler. Didler, following the lead
of Mendocino County's Welfare Director, Dennis Denny, did
absolutely nothing. Together, Didler and Denny were very
effective in protecting the Temple's federal welfare
subsidy.

In retrospect, Maxine Harpe's story was a study in microcosm
of the events that would occur some eight years later in
Jonestown, Guyana.

In both cases, the victims were
systematically stripped of all self-esteem and lured into a
total dependence on Jim Jones, who, at the proper time,
denied them everything. Suicide appeared to be the best, if
not the only, alternative. It will never be known whether
Maxine's death was a suicide or a murder. She may or may not
have actually wrapped the wire around her neck, just as the
residents of Jonestown may or may not have voluntarily taken
poison; regardless, there is no doubt that Jim Jones killed
them all.

The Maxine Harpe death is but one of a half-dozen unsolved killings connected to People's Temple during its California phase. Director Nelson, with the invaluable assistance of his "Jonestown Institute," skillfully buried these bodies in his film, as if they just don't count.

But Nelson has much company in Obfuscation & Coverup, Inc. Too many of today's reporters are every bit as gullible as when they gave the People's Temple so much priceless promotion in its assent. Sacramento Bee reporter Jennifer Garza, for instance. Her 25th Jonestown Anniversary piece "What Was The Lure?" provided a fine sounding board for our two lively apologists, Moore and McGhee, just as Nelson does in featuring them as film narrators.

"People joined [the cult] because that's where their families went," claimed McGhee. "And in the end, they stayed because that's where their families were."

That's an interesting contrast to what defectors Grace Stoen, Jeannie Mills, and others said what "encouraged" cult members to remain captive: Anyone who tried to leave was promised they'd be murdered.

Maybe that's what Nelson really means whenever he crows about this notion of Jim Jones's fulfilling those "promises."

Our astute reporter Garza allows Becky Moore to unleash a blast of apologist methane. Garza prefaces this with the news that "many religious scholars are reluctant to describe People's Temple as a cult."

Religious scholars--such as our very own Prof. Moore.

"That's a term we use to describe religious groups we don't like," Moore says. "But it's so loaded with negative connotations. If we label something a cult, then we don't make any effort to understand it." But of course. And that's just why the very accomodating Nelson gave Becky the on-camera cue to enlighten viewers that the People's Temple, in fact, was nothing more than a "Black Church." (Yes, some "issues"...but surely none egregious enough--like the Harpe case--to apply the "c" word.)

Finally, Garza allows her this rosy seal of approval: "Moore adds there are many people who still praise People's Temple and much of the work the church did."

Praise be, indeed. Now let our public somehow survive the effects of such stupefying media messages.


NEXT POSTING: A SURPRISE "REST OF THE (CENSORED) STORY".

Illegal Marriages, Welfare Fraud, and More Phony Faith Healings--3rd 1972 People's Temple Expose

Former People's Temple Enforcer Tim Stoen during the deadly cult's heyday--who is now amazingly once again an appointed Mendocino County Deputy District Attorney

Deceitful. Delusional. The same, sad baldfaced lies.

The mountain of specious media accounts of the People's Temple is increasing exponentially these days, as we count down to April 9th's big PBS premiere of cult apologist director Stanley Nelson's "Jonestown" fantasy epic. This film is a textbook example in perverting the concept of a documentary, which is supposed to emphasize or express things "as perceived without distortion of personal feelings, insertion of fictional matter, or interpretation."

Lord Nelson's Ode to Jones--that is, before he suddenly turned Darth Vader in Guyana---is some piece of work. "Jim Jones promised the people who joined People's Temple they would be part of this social-action experiment," said Nelson, in yet another of his incredible interviews, with Inside Bay Area reporter Susan Young.

An experiment that featured the following "social-action experiments": Forced labor. Torturing five year-olds with cattle prods. Extortion. Welfare fraud. Malnutrition. Death threats. "For a long time," says the director, "he really delivered on that promise."

Reporter Young, like nearly all the rest of the media horde that have been seduced by Nelson's trick photography, lead off her story with this "promise-delivering" image:

"The first thing that strikes you are the filmed images of happy children, a riotous rainbow of races. Towheaded boys with Afro-haired girls, all holding hands, singing, giggling."

The more than lamentable thing about the stupidity of falling for this cult-staged film is the position that the children's demise--which Young does note in the next paragraph--was inevitable. Had the California media just had the guts to pursue Jones, rather than embrace him, there wouldn't have been a Jonestown. Because this cult would have had a merciful, just demise, without loss of life, long before that.

In this, the third installment of my father's expose series, the "social-action" unmasked here included an illegal Temple marriage, welfare fraud, and phony faith healing, in Indianapolis. It centers around a very suspect asst. Mendecino D.A. named Tim Stoen. Stoen, while he did manage to apologize in recent years to my father for some of the dirty work he did on behalf of Jones, still sadly manifests much of the deceit of many of the cult apologists ("religious scholars", they call themselves).

The way Stoen still clings to the delusion, and won't come clean, makes one wonder if he's been baptized in the same ethics cesspool as Stanley Nelson. Here is what Stoen told the Mendocino Coast Christian Men's Ministry in a "testimony" on his life story last February 24:

"....Joined People's Temple in 1970 to bring about a model utopia based on total economic and racial equality; was attorney for the People's Temple and Jim Jones from 1970 to 1977, becoming a socialist; helped establish Jonestown in 1973; lived there in 1977 with my five-year old son, John Victor, working in a sawmill: left the movement on a trip to the U.S. upon discovering Jones's abuses...."

Is the re-appointed Asst. Mendocino District Attorney, who never apologized for conspiring with Jones to murder my father or rig San Francisco's 1975 municipal elections, SERIOUS??

We're supposed to actually swallow the yarn that, as one of the most powerful members of Jones's inner circle (which he also denied publicly), for all those years from 1970 onward, while kids were being tortured and people were being extorted and threatened--Tim didn't have a clue?

Another full-blown symptom of a Full-Nelson chokehold on reality, something clearly not restricted to confused film makers in this Jonestown Fable Forest.

Interestingly enough, director Nelson has censored Stoen's critical role as Temple muscleman. Jim Jones' top enforcer has been let off the hook. Yet another twisted piece of this cult apologist revisionist wonder, to add to the censoring of this article's publication sparking Jones and Stoen to send up a picket line of cultists around the Examiner building that day.

You may just see the unlabeled footage in the film, however!



Tuesday, September 19, 1972
San Francisco Examiner

D.A. AIDE OFFICIATES FOR MINOR BRIDE
By Rev. Lester Kinsolving
Examiner Religion Writer


REDWOOD VALLEY - Mendocino County's assistant district attorney - who has written that his pastor, the Rev. Jim Jones has raised 40 people from the dead - has confirmed reports that he himself has solemnized the marriage of a minor girl who joined his church.

Timothy O. Stoen, who in addition to his duties as assistant DA, is attorney for and board member of Pastor Jones's People's Temple Christian (Disciples) Church in this hamlet near Ukiah, admitted he is not an ordained clergyman.

When asked by what authority he had officiated at the marriage of Mildred "Mickie" Johnson (who has now returned to her family in Indianapolis), Stoen contended:

"I meet all the requirements of the State Civil Code."

When asked which section of the state code permits an attorney (rather than a judge) to solemnize marriages, Stoen replied:

"I'll have to ask you to let me go back and check that."

The issue arose in a legal affidavit filed yesterday in Indianapolis by Mr. and Mrs. Cecil Johnson.

The Johnsons, former parishioners of the Rev. Mr. Jones when he was a pastor of the Indianapolis People's temple, charged that after Stoen married their daughter (to a man identified only as "Junius"), she was placed on the welfare rolls of Mendocino County.


Forced Donation


The Johnsons also charged that Mildred was obliged to give her monthly welfare check of $95 to The People's Temple - and that in August of 1971, Stoen had written them for permission to appoint a legal guardian for their other daughter, Gwin, age 18.

(The two girls were among former parishioners - including a number of teenagers - who followed the charismatic prophet-pastor, who left Indiana for California in 1965.)

Stoen confirmed that he had written the Johnsons for such permission. But he said that he had not known the Rev. Mr. Jones in 1965, when the Johnson affidavit says:

"Jones said that the world would end on July 16, 1967, and encouraged the congregation here to pool their money and follow him to California - where he promised they would find a place where only they would be safe from this impending disaster."


Curious visitors


The Johnson affidavit also charges that the Rev. Mr. Jones:

"Uses people to visit potential church members, noting anything personal in the house, like addresses on letters, types of medicine in the medicine cabinet, or pictures of relatives.

"Then, when they show up in church, he tells them things about their ailments and the kinds of pills they take."

When asked to comment on this charge, Stoen explained:

"I don't remember anything like this. I believe Jim's gift is authentic - or as he said in his sermon yesterday, he has paranormal gifts."

On Sunday, Sept. 10, at 11:15 p.m. (following this writer's first visit to a People's Temple service in Redwood valley), Stoen telephoned long distance to say among other things:

"I suppose you've heard a rumor that Jim Jones was run out of Indianapolis for faith healing?"

When asked to elaborate, Stoen explained:

"Well, I've seen the story in the Indianapolis Star."

What information did this Star story contain?

"I don't remember the details," replied the assistant district attorney.


Fast Trip


Yet immediately after the Indianapolis Star featured one of two stories about Prophet Jones and his faith healing, Stoen traveled from California to Indianapolis to confer with Dr. Jeanette P. Riley of the Indiana State Board of Psychology Examiners, according to Dr. Reilly.

When asked about this, Stoen explained that he made the trip but that Dr. Reilly had sent him to a meeting of the board - which had announced that it intended to investigate the Rev. Mr. Jones for allegedly claiming to heal psychosomatic diseases.

Yet the Indiana State Board took no action, as Jones had not used the title of psychologist.


No Case


"I explained to the board and to Indiana's Attorney General that Jim had done no wrong,"<>"and the Attorney General said he can come back anytime, as there is no case."

The announcement of the possible investigation by the state board came after the Indianapolis Star reported that on Oct. 13, 1971, the Rev. Mr. Jones told the congregation of the People's Temple of Indianapolis:

"With over 4000 members of our California Church, we haven't had a death yet!"

Star reporter Byron Wells, an eyewitness at the visiting pastor's afternoon and evening services that day, reported that at the afternoon service a woman was ordered to leave the auditorium in order that she "pass a cancer."


Similarity


Wells reported that when the woman returned, her alleged cancer was being carried about by an attendant - although the Rev. Mr. Jones warned everyone not to get too close. He also reported a striking similarity between those healed in the afternoon and those healed that evening.

The Star also reported that the Rev. Mr. Jones subsequently refused requests to allow that the alleged cancer be analyzed.

He was reported as explaining that he had "no objections," but that he has to abide with the wishes of his church leaders "not to become involved in more publicity."

The Rev. Mr. Jones was also reported as having said that he was afraid that the cancerous tissue would be switched on him in a deliberate attempt to discredit his power.


Dislikes Publicity


"I've done more than any other faith healer," he was reported as explaining, "that's why I don't want any more publicity, either favorable or unfavorable."

Apparently, the Rev. Mr. Jones, for all his charismatic effect, has not been able to prevail on his devoted flock in this regard. For this past weekend, when he was in San Francisco for special services at Benjamin Franklin Junior High School Auditorium, pamphlets were distributed throughout downtown San Francisco by his followers. These pamphlets advertised:

"PASTOR JIM JONES... Incredible!...Miraculous... Amazing!... The Most Unique Prophetic Healing Service You've Ever Witnessed!... Behold The Word Made Incarnate In Your Midst!"


END OF EXPOSE #3


Postscript: In light of the Indianapolis Star's admirable record in being the first actual newspaper to expose the fraudulent cult--covered up, AGAIN, by "Honest Stan's" film--I appealed to them not to fall down at his feet like the rest of the media. I sent this message:

To: INDIANAPOLIS STAR

Mr. Ryerson
Ms. Fine
Ms. Green
Ms. Thomas
Mr. Lloyd

I'm astonished--and disgusted--that of all newspapers in the nation, the Indianapolis Star, would continue lying down in the muck of denial and dishonesty regarding Jim Jones.

Yes, lamentably a native demon seed son he was. Yet WHY on earth wouldn't the Star want to take some credit in it's proud history of having their brave reporters Bryron Wells and Carolyn Pickering be the first in the nation to investigate the People's Temple?

You choose not to say ONE SINGLE WORD about your former reporters' work to stop Jones. Instead, readers are served up a March 16 reprint of a disingenuous, creme puff L.A. Times review of Stanley Nelson's insidious cult apologist film, "Jonestown: The Life and Death of the People's Temple."

If there is one shred of integrity at that paper, perhaps you might dispense with the "we just don't have the space" excuse and allow the people of Indianapolis to read the following excerpt (which was submitted today to two of your open forum sections):

October, 1971. Indianapolis, In.

"Church Filled To See 'Cures' By Self-Proclaimed 'Prophet of God'" was the first Jim Jones exposé ever published. Indianapolis Star reporter Bryon C. Wells had attended afternoon and evening "miracle healing services" at People's Temple in downtown Indianapolis. There he heard Jones proclaim, "With over 4,000 members of our California church, we haven't had a death yet!...I am a prophet of God and I can cure both the illness of your body, as well as the illness of your mind."

Wells noted that "people who were called upon in the evening to be cured had a striking resemblance to some who were called earlier in the day." Wells's second account, "State Psychology Board to Eye 'Prophet' Jones" reported that, for the first time, Jones would be investigated.

The State Board of Psychology Examiners would decide whether they could prosecute Jones for practicing psychiatry without a license, since he claimed he could cure psychosomatic diseases. After careful scrutiny they concluded that Jones was protected under the First Amendment, and state law forbid prosecuting "faith healers."

Wells's first exposé provoked a deluge of furious letters and phone calls to the Star from Temple members. Jones, meanwhile, claimed during services that he received 23 phone calls from Indianapolis "hatemongers." Nine months later, Wells received an alarming letter from Indianapolis resident Georgia Johnson. Once one of Jones's earliest followers, she was now a concerned mother trying to get her two young daughters to return home from the Temple's other base in Redwood Valley, California. Wells passed it onto the city editor, who in turn handed it to Carolyn Pickering, the Star's leading investigative reporter.

Although Pickering was a bit apprehensive when reading Georgia Johnson's long-winded letter, she nevertheless set up an interview. Her month-long full-time investigation into People's Temple had begun.

August, 1972.

"Dear Tom", wrote Pickering to Executive Editor Tom Eastham of the San Francisco Examiner. "The Star is contemplating sending me out to your grand and glorious state to probe into a religious cult operation in Redwood Valley, near Ukiah...called People's Temple...

"...The fraud who conducts this holy organization is the Rev. James W. Jones who once had a small church here...If there is someone on your staff who might have some knowledge of this bunch, or could provide some entrees to state officials who might be interested, I'd appreciate it."

Eastham told Pickering that he already had a reporter, the Rev. Lester Kinsolving, investigating Jones. Kinsolving, who wrote a weekly column entitled "Inside Religion", had contacted Ukiah Daily Journal editor George Hunter on February 7th of that year after hearing reports that the People's Temple charismatic pastor was attracting thousands to his Sunday services. Four days later, Examiner editor Ed Dooley received a letter from Timothy Stoen, whose letterhead identified him only as "Attorney at Law". Stoen, Jones's point man, sang the Temple praises.

It was obvious Hunter dutifully reported Kinsolving's phone call to Stoen. Stoen elaborated on a long list of achievements, such as Jones's past appointments to various positions of public trust, "including Foreman of the Mendocino County Grand Jury...and that Jones was "the most compassionate, fearless, and honest person I know of..."

After being briefed by Eastham, Kinsolving contacted Pickering and the two reporters began collaborating.

---"Madman In Our Midst"
by Tom and
Kathleen Kinsolving

Giving Nelson's fraudulent film a thumbs up is not just a disgraceful disregard of your own newpaper's work (which, unlike the cowardly Examiner, stood up to Jim Jones in the early 70's).

No, it just DOESN'T MAKE SENSE. So will the Star's current publisher and editors explain this to their readers? Or do they think they deserve to keep getting that old mushroom treatment of being kept in the dark and fed manure?

And their response, ladies and gentlemen?

According to "Head Honcho" Dennis Ryerson: "....the chapter of the Jones story that was Indianapolis was so many years ago that the people involved on the staff are no longer here, and with them, went institutional memory."

As did, obviously, the last vestiges of Star integrity.

STAY TUNED FOR EXPOSE #4, CONCERNING THE SUSPICIOUS DEATH OF TEMPLE MEMBER MAXINE HARPE, WHO WAS BILKED OUT OF HER LIFE SAVINGS.

Jim Jones 1972 "God Almighty!" Spectacle--and a Monday Morning Quarterback Reporter's Desperate Derision

"You all complied with my wishes and didn't bring guns..."
--Rev. Jim Jones, addressing his ushers at S.F. church service
(from Les Kinsolving's second Examiner expose)

In the really competitive professions, such as journalism, humanity's most revealing foibles frequently emerge in ruthlessly large doses. In the high stakes pay-off of exclusively owning the "Big Story", some reporters will do almost anything, even steal and manufacture information--as we've seen in recent scandals.

Mr. Tim Reiterman, famed author of the seminal People's Temple book "Raven", was an Examiner reporter who nearly lost his life down at Jonestown--and no doubt scores kudos for his courage there.

There's just one little problem with our intrepid Mister R: Like Field Marshall Kilduff (who STILL has visions of grandeur concerning the "first expose" of Jones)--he got a permanent case of Glory Hunger. And with this unfortunate disorder, Reiterman created his own very, very dishonest versions about the actual first exposes that would have obliterated Jones, had his own gutless excuse for a newspaper just stood up to the plate and STAYED THERE.

Reiterman's "Raven" is definitely a good read. Most of it actually sticks to the facts, too--except, however, when you arrive at around page 211. That's when the manure hits the turbo jets. Reiterman makes an incredible claim about my father, alleging that his "investigation" (Reiterman's quotes) was partially based on a personal grievance against the by-now clearly fraudulent and dangerous cult leader, Jim Jones.

Keep holding your nose. He's got a few shovel loads more.

Reiterman further maintains the exposes, that featured eyewitness and sworn testimony, "were not well substantiated."

Yes, some reporters will do anything to own the Big Story, it seems. But he is not alone, as we'll see.

Presented here is part two of more of the "unsubstantiated" story that would have brought down Jim Jones six years before the slaughter, had it only not been for journalistic cowardice.

And journalistic dishonesty.



'HEALING' PROPHET HAILED AS GOD AT S.F. REVIVAL
By Rev. Lester Kinsolving
Examiner Religion Writer

[Monday, Sept. 18, 1972]

"I know that Pastor Jim Jones is God Almighty himself!" cried one of the more than 1000 people who overflowed the auditorium of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School on Geary Boulevard yesterday morning and Saturday night.

"You say I am God Almighty?" asked the Rev. Mr. Jones, the charismatic pastor-prophet of the People's Temple Christian (Disciples) Church near Ukiah, who was holding special services in San Francisco this weekend.

"Yes, you are!" shrieked the unidentified but obviously ecstatic woman, as the audience clapped or waved their arms and shouted approval at Sunday services.

Busing

The Rev. Mr. Jones has been consistently attracting congregations of more than 1000 people - who travel by the fleet of ex-Greyhound buses from as far away as Los Angeles and Seattle to his home in Redwood Valley, seven miles north of Ukiah, and to services such as those this weekend in San Francisco.

Among those attracted is the assistant district attorney of Mendocino County, Timothy O. Stoen, who has affirmed in writing that the Rev. Mr. Jones has raised 40 people from the dead.

Jones arrived in California in 1965, accompanied by 165 of his parishioners from the People's Temple of Indianapolis, where he served as pastor.

He is a darkly handsome, 41 year old, part-Cherokee who is an ordained minister of 1.9 million member the Disciples of Christ (Christian) Church.

Yesterday as he conducted services, he was clad in a white turtleneck sweater, a pulpit gown, and dark glasses. He was seated on a cushion-covered stool behind the podium - which is an apparent necessity given the five and six-hour length of his services.

Reply

He reflected only momentarily upon the lady's enthusiastic affirmation of his divinity before replying:

"What do you mean by that? If you believe I am a son of God in that I am filled with love, I can accept that. I won't knock what works for you - but I don't want to be interpreted as the creator of the universe."

Then he added, gently:

"If you say 'He is God,' some people will think you are nuts. They can't relate. I'm glad you were healed, but I'm really only a messenger of God....I have a paranormal ability in healing."

The Rev. Mr. Jones had just completed what were said to be two resuscitations of parishioners who had either fainted or gone into catatonic stiffenings in the general excitement.

In each case, he stopped in the middle of a sentence, raced from the stage to the audience and laid hands upon the stiffened congregant.

Acclaim

After some 30 seconds, the audible tension of the multitude broke as the Prophet lifted up each prostrate figure - to thunderous applause.

Another unidentified woman began leaping wildly and screeching hallelujahs - while an even more elderly woman commenced a frenzied hopping in a corner down stage right.

Utilizing the full force of the microphone to project his generally soothing voice above this ecstatic din, the Rev. Mr. Jones smilingly explained:

43rd Time

"You'll have to understand - she was given up to die; they said she'd never be able to move again....Such experiences are not at all uncommon to us. That's the 43rd time this has happened. I just said: 'I love you, God loves you, come back to us.' The registered nurses around her said it was so."

These R.N.s were neither introduced nor even identified, however. They were hardly even apparent, given the number of large men who surrounded the reported resurrection.

None of these security guards ("ushers") was spotted carrying firearms, however - in contrast to last Sunday's service in Redwood Valley, where an Examiner photographer spotted three holstered pistols (one a .357 magnum) and a shotgun.

"You all complied with my wishes and didn't bring guns, even though you are afraid for me," congratulated the Rev. Mr. Jones.

Yesterday morning's services opened with two hymns, followed by glowing testimonials from 3 men who recalled how The Prophet had either healed them or in one case saved them from air crash and false arrest for transporting narcotics.

Healing

Then Mrs. Jones, a trim blonde, sang a song entitled "My Black Baby," with the Jones' adopted black son, a handsome boy of 14, standing at his mother's feet at stage edge while the audience loudly applauded. (The boy had been extensively featured in last week's sermon by his father in Redwood Valley, as well.)

Then The Prophet made everyone hold hands (after an initial embrace). With the organ providing a tremolo background, he began a series of trance-like revelations about various people's names, relatives, addresses, and maladies. These assorted ills were all pronounced cured by both healed and healer - to further applause.

Among a vast number of subjects discussed by the Rev. Mr. Jones in his two-hour extemporaneous sermon was the desirability of cooperation and fellowship with other denominations.

He did note in this connection that this is sometimes difficult, however.

"We tried to fellowship with one pastor in this area - who actually propositioned two of our young choirgirls! And when I confronted him about this, he replied: "Wasn't David a man after God's heart?"

(King David, in the second Book of Samuel, seduced Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, whom David ordered killed after Bathsheba became pregnant.)

Vagueness

But this San Francisco pastor was not identified by the Rev. Mr. Jones. Nor were several assistants and parishioners able to identify the man.

The prophet's offertory calls are (comparatively) low key. He told the mammoth congregation that the elders had informed him that Saturday evening's collection was "light."

Later in yesterday's service he applied this very same (unspecific) description to the Sunday's collection - while one week ago, the Rev. Mr. Jones described the current financial condition of the People's temple as "bleak."

(Receipts for the fiscal year ending this June 30 are listed by attorney Stoen at $396,000.)


END--PEOPLE'S TEMPLE EXPOSE #2

[Our next expose, which will return to the subject of another familiar "Tim"--Stoen, the Cult enforcer who carried out illegal marriages and oversaw Jones's welfare fraud operations. More than enough to put that cult out of business--NEVER MENTIONED IN STANLEY NELSON'S APOLOGIST FILM. Stay tuned.]

Postscript: To Reiterman's credit, the "truth" section of his book was refreshing, citing the fact that after my father's exposes, "....the Examiner quit the story. A nobody named Jim Jones had worn down a big San Francisco daily......Meanwhile, the Temple set sights on Kinsolving as a declared enemy. At one strategy session, an overzealous church leader suggested that he be kidnapped, stuffed in a bag, then beaten or 'eliminated'."

Though never eliminated, his house--my house--was burglarized by Temple members.