[Editor’s note: The State Department FOIA release of 1981 withheld one paragraph from this cable. It is denoted below in red type.
[The text for this document was released in 2014 by the now-defunct Wikileaks website at https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1979GEORGE03027_e.html. This URL may be available through the Wayback Machine.]
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GEORGE 03027 101718Z
ACTION L-03
INFO OCT-01 ARA-11 ADS-00 OCS-06 CA-01 /022 W
——————122062 101752Z /46
P 101417Z JUL 79
FM AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN
TO SECSTATE WASHD CPRIORITY 0044
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FOR: L/ARA: FORTUNE
CA/COS/CCS: REED CLARK
E.O. 12065: NA
TAGS: CDES, GY, (PEOPLE’S TEMPLE)
SUBJ: PERSONAL EFFECTS OF JONESTOWN DECEDENTS
REF: A. GEORGETOWN 2018 B. STATE 091863 C. GEORGETOWN 1585 D. 78 STATE 299110
1. NO REPLY YET RECEIVED TO REF A. REF B INDICATED THAT REF C WAS UNDER STUDY, BUT NO DECISION WAS EVER ANNOUNCED.
2. EMBASSY HAS RECIEVED [RECEIVED] ONLY ONE OR TWO LETTERS FROM NOK INQUIRING ABOUT PROPERTY.
3. IT HAS BEEN MENTIONED THAT DECISION TO TREAT EFFECTS AS CORPORATE PROPERTY (DUE GENERALLY TO THE COMMUNAL NATURE OF THE PEOPLE’S TEMPLE AGRICULTURAL MISSION AND, SPECIFICALLY, IN LIGHT OF APPARENT ASSIGNEMENT OF ALL ASSETS BY MEMBERS TO COMMUNE) MIGHT NOT BE DESIRABLE BECAUSE NOK WOULD THEN
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LOSE CLAIMS TO SOCIAL SECURITY CHECKS RECOVERED AT SITE. IS IT NOT SO THAT A SOCIAL SECURITY RECIPIENT MAY NOT ASSIGN HIS OR HER ANNUITY TO ANOTHER? A FINDING THAT PTAM RESIDENTS (NOT U.S. PT MEMBERS) ASSIGNED THEIR ASSETS TO THE MISSION THEREFORE WOULD NOT JEPORDIZE CHECKS BECAUSE MEMBERS COULD NOT TRANSFER ANNUITY RIGHTS.
4. PLEASE REPSOND ASAP.
DWYER [Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Richard Dwyer]
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