Archived Site: Jonestown.com

"Jonestown research" has been a hodge-podge of disinformation, missing pieces, false testimony, misguided interpretations, and nearly everything else that could possibly go wrong in a research process. Reasons for that are explored in many pieces on this site, beginning with a biased press that was manipulated by people with dishonest motives, variously political or personal, and ending up with cover-ups and disinformation from governmental, as well as unknown or clandestine sources.

The process of sifting through evidence has been tedious but rewarding, to discover what was based upon the actual experience of the times, and what makes sense in context. The greatest value of research is not its piecemeal nature, but how it fills into the jigsaw puzzle of the whole.

The information on this site will be periodically rotated or revised, to explore in detail what might otherwise be unknown to or undervalued by the reader.

One of the most provocative caches of new evidence to emerge in recent weeks has been a book about Jonestown published in Russia in 1987, unexpectedly provided to this author by NEW DAWN magazine in Australia (their site is at www.newdawnmagazine.com). It is "The Jonestown Carnage: A CIA Crime," by S.F. Alinin, B.G. Antonov and A.N. Itskov, published by Progress Publishers. It appears to be out-of-print. Our Australian contact visited Moscow recently and found the equivalent of "a stall in a mall," with Russian translations of Walt Disney and trash novels in place of their weightier previous works.

The book is somewhat propagandistic. (The Russians see C.I.A. agents everywhere, the American see them nowhere – the truth is undoubtedly in the middle.) But the internal documentation from Peoples Temple seems quite solid, and the sources used were personnel from the Soviet Embassy in Guyana’s capital, Georgetown, at the time the tragedy happened.

The book is full of information relating to what was well-known within the church: That there were extensive contacts (find NY Times article) with the Soviet Embassy, visits from the Embassy to Jonestown, and plans well under way to transplant the entire community to the then-Soviet Union, to get out from under the persecution against the community coming from the United States. Although it does not appear in this book, my own files contained the English translation of an article written by the Soviet news agency, TASS, upon their visit to Jonestown:

"To the Jungle from the ‘Free World’ -- TASS News Agency

"In the Northwest part of Guyana, in the very heart of the jungle, the small town of Jonestown has been established. It is a town surrounded by croplands cleared out of the vast jungle rain forests. The town and farm are owned by members of the commune consisting of more than one thousands pioneers. They left their motherland because of suppression and as a sign of protest against racial and political discrimination. All the inhabitants of Jonestown are members of the Peoples Temple organization, founded a quarter of a century ago in California. Peoples Temple was originally conceived as a religious organization uniting the lower strata of American society - - white, back, Indian and others - - those who had been denied basic human rights.

"Its founder, Rev. Jim Jones, tested all the promised ‘good’ of American democracy. After being sure that his attempts to find justice in America were in vain, Jones called a vanguard of his supporters to leave the ‘Free World’ where they had failed to find a place. ‘I have chosen Guyana,’ Rev. Jim Jones told the TASS correspondent, ‘first of all because this country is socialist oriented and is working towards the establishment of socialism for the most just and human society in the world.’ Peoples Temple expressed its readiness to assist the people of Guyana in their endeavor.

"The Parliament of Guyana has given this community a leasehold on 27,000 acres in the Northwest part of the country. The first group of settlers arrived in Guyana in 1974. Each year more and more members of Peoples Temple join the collective: workers, farmers, white collar workers, teachers, lawyers, and other professionals. Among them are many young people who in the United States were refused the right to work.

"Today’s Jonestown has neat houses, farm buildings, dining halls, kindergartens, some cottage industries, medical clinics, and a future hospital. The medical personnel give free medical service to not only members of the commune but also to surrounding villagers. Special care is given to the children. There are about 250 children in the town, many of them adopted. No less care is given to the seniors, about 100 of them, in Jonestown. After being in Jonestown, one can hardly believe that everything was created in one or two years. The inhabitants of Jonestown are creative, they love work and they celebrate life. They demonstrate real care and concern for children and seniors alike.

"The movies and literature about socialism and socialist countries are very popular among the people of Jonestown. Jim Jones explains that socialism if the only way to realize true civil and human rights and democratic freedoms."

TASS Correspondent Voropaev

Georgetown, Guyana, South America

Even the mainstream press in the U.S. had confirmed that a contingency plan to relocate to the Soviet Union was in the works. Just days following the tragedy, on November 27, 1878, the New York Times printed the following article about a memo that was found in Jonestown:

"Soviet Official Is Said To Have Met In Guyana With Cult Chief’s Aides

"Top aides of the Rev. Jim Jones conferred at least twice in Georgetown with an official of the Soviet Embassy who discussed their problems sympathetically and held out the promise of approval for the exodus of the whole Jonestown colony to Russia, according to a document made available to the Associated Press.

"Mr. Jones’s aide also discussed the ‘quick transference of money’ from Jonestown to the embassy to aid such a move, according to the document. A few months after the meetings, Mr. Jones instituted compulsory study of Russian for the 1,000 or so members of his People’s Temple in Guyana, demanding that each speak a Russian phrase before each meal.

"Mr. Jones was known to fear attacks from across the Brazilian border [this should read Venezuelan border] by mercenaries hired by relatives of some of his followers seeking to return the followers to the United States. Mr. Jones was also known to be seeking a safer haven and to have spoken of Cuba and the Soviet Union in his speeches.

"A five-page typewritten memo found in the house where Mr. Jones lived and maintained his office disclosed that aides of the cult leader had met in Georgetown with the press attaché of the Soviet Embassy, Feodor Timofeyev, in December 1977 and again last March 20.

Discussion of Exodus

"The memo -- signed with the names Marcie [Jones], Sharon [Amos], Lew [Jones], Jimmie [Jones], Johnnie [Jones] and Debbie [Touchette] -- said that the cultists had discussed the possibility of an exodus to Russia at the December meeting and that Mr. Timofeyev had referred the matter to Moscow. At the meeting in March he reportedly said he still had not received a reply.

‘He said it was a very difficult thing to arrange exodus,’ the memo continued. ‘But when I cried and said it would be very painful for the door to be shut against the children -- we adults don’t matter so much but we need safety for our children -- he said that the U.S.S.R. had taken in 5,000 Spanish children, taken care of them and returned them later to Spain, so he felt it was worth pursuing.’

"The memo added that Mr. Timofeyev had told them that there would be ‘no problem of getting visas at any time’ for a delegation to visit the Soviet Union to discuss the matter.

"The document said, ‘Regarding the need for exodus, a quick transference of money, he doesn’t see the need for such a situation developing right away, not within a year.’" [Obviously not a very good estimate!]

In "The Jonestown Carnage: A CIA Crime," the authors used an interview with the same Fyodor Timofeyev of the Soviet Embassy regarding his trip to visit Jonestown personally on September 27, 1978, just six weeks before the tragedy. He speaks of the community learning Russian in preparation for an exodus:

"Soon we met members of the Temple. Many of them greeted us in Russian: ‘Hello, comrades!’ I asked where they had learned their Russian. Johnny Jones replied that after the members of the commune had unanimously decided to move to the Soviet Union, all of them without exception began to learn Russian… As it turned out, the school faculty had ordered several Russian language course on records, also 20 textbooks for English-speaking students of Russian… In one of the classrooms, I saw children ages 14-15 doing a Russian language class. I asked in Russian what subject they were now doing. The children replied, ‘We are doing Russian literature. We are reading Pushkin’s verses, also a condensed version of Leo Tolstoy’s novel War and Peace. We tried Mayakovsky, but his verse are very difficult."

Timofeyev also reported having seen the Jonestown Guest Book:

"This lavishly decorated leather-bound book had about five hundred pages. I read the entries, all of which testified to the great admiration of those who had seen this unique agricultural commune flourishing in the heart of the Guyanese jungle. I noticed the frequency with which the word "paradise" occurred in these entries… I also wrote in the visitors’ book. Where is it now? I think it was taken away by the American task force which landed at Jonestown."

Unfortunately, we may never know the contents of this confiscated Guest Book, featuring commentaries from visitors from all over the world. The few segments that survived are reprinted in the documentary section of "SNAKE DANCE: Unravelling the Mysteries of Jonestown."

What interested me especially about the Russian visit to Jonestown is that it occurred so close to the time of the tragedy. I had been told informally by a survivor, that a scouting party was set to go to the Soviet Union in December, 1978, which would have been just a month after the Congressional visit, had the community not been destroyed. That proposed plan is now confirmed in the Russian book:

"The other funds which added up to about ten million US dollars were then in the Swiss banks, and the leaders of the commune wished to transfer them to the Soviet bank early next year (1979)… I said I would inform the Soviet Bank for Foreign Trade about the intentions of the Peoples Temple. ‘If the members of the commune want to meet with representatives of the Soviet bank, I shall issue visas for a trip to the Soviet Union,’ I said to Jones. ‘Jones replied that such a trip would be desirable either later in November or early in December of 1978.’"

It also casts new suspicion on arch-opponent Timothy Stoen’s visit to Guyana in early October, at which time he threatened to have mercenaries sent to Jonestown to kidnap the child he falsely claimed was his. The exact quote in the log of the United States Embassy in Georgetown read as follows and is reprinted in "SNAKE DANCE":

"10-3-78 Mr. Tim Stoen informs the Department that, in view of the failure of the judicial process in Guyana, he is prepared to retrieve his son by force if necessary (Log 587)"

It was very risky to make this threat directly to the State Department. Stoen and others had already falsely charged that Peoples Temple was armed and dangerous, and it was here shown to be the reverse – that the community was, rather, threatened by military might! But the planned move to the Soviet Union gave new urgency to bring the Congressman to Jonestown, thus such risks were taken.

Would the people of Jonestown ever have been allowed to get out from under the persecution which had dogged them from the States? To what lengths were governmental elements willing to go to freeze the community in place, or worse, to ensure its destruction?

Something else in this book is of compelling interest in piecing together what happened at Jonestown the night of November 18, 1978, specifically about clandestine military activity that night. The only timing that has been known for certain publicly was the event that set everything into motion. The assassination of Congressman Leo Ryan at Port Kaituma airstrip happened at about 4:30 p.m.

Past that point, there was then a meeting in Jonestown to discuss what had happened and what to do. It is notable that on the final tape, Jim Jones repeatedly denies knowledge of the identity of the killers, much less having "ordered" the killing. Indeed, he was anguished and panicked that the killings had happened. When people come back from the airstrip to report that the assassination had happened, the comment on the tape was "The Congressman has been murdered… They saw it happen, and ran into the bush…" In other words, the people from Jonestown were not the shooters, but rather witnesses.

The many factors which point away from anyone from Jonestown as the assassination team, are spelled out in both "Jonestown: The Human Story" (HUMAN STORY) and "Jonestown: The Truth" (THE TRUTH). The public was told that it was virtually an automatic certainty that members of Jonestown had killed the Congressman, but there was never proof, nor were there public hearings. This fact may be critical when we look at U.S. military actions taken in the aftermath, because if Peoples Temple was responsible for the killings, the scene could have been left as they found it, but if a U.S. military force was responsible for the killings, and it was framed on Peoples Temple, then the actions of the military could expectably entail cover-up.

The suicides at Jonestown began sometime early in the evening and continued on into the night. It is reasonable to think that they took several hours, as over 900 people were involved. A "final letter" found at Jonestown (FINAL WITNESS), just recently released via FOIA materials obtained by one Brian Csuk, identifies November 19^th, 1978, as "the last day of Peoples Temple," so it is certainly possible that the process was not completed until after midnight the following day.

According to another FOIA document obtained by one Jim Hougan, a call came into Georgetown on a C.I.A. radio channel confirming the deaths at Jonestown at 3:29 a.m. on November 19^th. This makes the best estimate of the completion of the process as later than midnight, but not later than 3:30 a.m.

A survivor who was brought back to Jonestown to identify bodies says that he and his escort of soldiers from the Guyanese Defense Force came into Jonestown on Monday morning, November 20^th, and that they were "the first ones in." He also reported that many of the bodies appeared to be forcibly injected, so that it appeared to be the scene of a brutal mass murder, not "suicide" at all. The Guyanese coroner, Leslie Mootoo, was not brought in until later that day, or even the next day, November 21^st. Mootoo’s findings, according to FREEDOM Magazine, were that of hundreds of bodies forcibly injected and others shot with bullets or arrows.

How credible is the story of "brutal mass murder"? It is in no way to diminish the gruesomeness of mass death, to comment that there is a distinction between bodies lying dead but without signs of violence, and bodies in some horribly desecrated condition en masse. Given that the bodies were found in that desecrated condition, did those injuries occur during the death process, or were they ghoulishly inflicted upon them after the fact? And if the desecration was done deliberately after the fact, for what purpose?

We do have two testimonies that indicate that the suicides, although laden with grief, and undoubtedly panic and terror as well, did not involve deliberate, much less mass violence. The "final letter" speaks of people "hugging, kissing, embracing" as they passed on in a long, determined line. Stanley Clayton, probably the last to escape from Jonestown when only 100-200 people were left alive, told the coroner’s jury in Matthews Ridge (an adjoining town) told of Jim Jones coming down to those left and saying, "I love you. This is nothing but a deep sleep," which, however horrifying, was not accompanied by any physical brutality; and of Marceline Jones, known to be an exceptionally compassionate soul, hugging people and telling them, "I’ll see you in your next life."

How, then, did hundreds of bodies come to be found in such a horribly desecrated condition? And why was the "official" coroner’s work postponed so long that advanced decomposition had already set in under the tropical sun, making it daunting, even impossible, to determine the respective causes of death?

At the Port Kaituma airstrip, it was medical personnel who arrived first, on the morning of November 19^th, a MEDEVAC plane flown in from Charleston, SC. In cases of death or injury, it would be expectable that medical personnel would be the first in rather than Special Forces, Green Berets, henchman of the C.I.A. That is the expectable way to act when the primary concern is human life.

Yet two reports have emerged from completely independent quarters, one American from within the U.S. military, and one Russian from "The Jonestown Carnage: A CIA Crime," to confirm that the first U.S. military to arrive at Jonestown was not a medical unit at all, but Special Forces, Green Berets. Moreover, they arrived specifically at Jonestown, both clandestinely and much earlier than was ever revealed.

He elaborated that "’We saw many bullet wounds as well as wounds from crossbow bolts.’ Huff noted that those with fatal bullet or bolt wounds appeared to have been running towards the jungle that surrounded Jonestown. Huff said that the adults who had not been shot had been killed by injections between the shoulder blades."

Who desecrated the bodies? Nearly no one "escaped" from Jonestown except for the tiny handful of people who ran into the jungle, and were surely not responsible for any carnage. How could one not suspect that it was the Green Beret force itself who inflicted the purported damage?

An unexpected confirmation showed up in the Russian book. Their claim was that "At about 18.00 [that’s 6 p.m. on November 18^th], several S-141 military transport planes took off from military bases in Panama and Dover [Delaware] and headed for Guyana. The estimated time of flight was 3 hours 40 minutes. … Two hours later, without notifying the local authorities in the area of Venezuela where the Americans had their private missions (which served as a front for C.I.A. secret operations), three helicopters took off in the direction of Jonestown, which was 1 hour 10 minutes away."

What is startling in the Russian account, is that both their account and the American account of the arrival of Green Berets, designate the country of origin as Panama. The two independent reports tally with each other perfectly.

These accounts raise far more questions than they answer. If disaster was feared at Jonestown, why was it not medical personnel that was sent in? Why was Jonestown made to look like the scene of a brutal mass murder? Might it have been to make the community look more culpable for the assassination? Or to dehumanize the community so completely that no one would ever seek out the truth? Or, more diabolical still, to ensure that the people of Jonestown were indeed dead? Were they trying to protect a frame? What might have happened if the people of Jonestown had been alive when the troops arrived? What orders had those secret, select cadre of troops been given?

Does this sound far-fetched? Remember that Joseph Mazor, the man who claimed to have led the mercenary raid against Jonestown a year prior to the tragedy, told the community that his original orders had been to "kidnap children and then kill all the adults," i.e. mass extermination. That was for an attack in broad daylight upon a peaceful community. Now it was on the heels of the assassination of a U.S. Congressman, going into the middle of the night. How much greater the peril!

As will be detailed in succeeding pieces, autopsies were virtually non-existent and those few that were performed were appallingly negligent and inept. Yet a military, not medical force, was sent in early on, clandestinely, to do whatever cover-up work they wished.

Where has this information been hiding for twenty years? Is it not overdue to air this publicly, complete with its sinister implications?