[Editor’s note: Affidavits by members of Peoples Temple criticizing the behavior of Grace Stoen are scattered elsewhere throughout the records released under the Freedom of Information Act, including several examples here. Others appear at at Section FF-1, Section FF-7, Section FF-8, and Section FF-9. An alphabetical listing of the Temple members filing affidavits appears here.]
B5c(1)
[Editor’s note: A copy of this affidavit also appears here.]
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit s/
[blank signature line]
I, Paula Adams, being sworn, declare:
I heard the group of persons who left because of their belief that violence was the only cure for the ills of the United States and that if Jim Jones and Peoples Temple didn’t start a violent course for social change that they would force us into violence. This group of terrorists included Mickey Touchette, Jim Cobb, Terri Cobb Pietla [Pietila], Wayne Pietla, and a few others.
/s/ Paula Adams
Dated July 29, 1977
Witnessed:
[illegible signature]
—
B5c(2) – (2a)
[Editor’s note: A copy of this affidavit also appears here.]
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit s/
Paula Adams
I, Paula Adams, being duly sworn, declare:
From the time I entered entity Santa Rosa Junior College (Peoples Temple sponsored) dormitories, I came under the viciousness of the so-called leadership of the dormitories: Jim Cobb, Terri Cobb, Wayne Pietla [Pietila], and Terri Cobb’s protégé Mickey Touchette. Myself, along with several others, were new in Peoples Temple. We were kept up night after night by these people for counseling. We were screaming at and called “honkies” or “uncle toms” or “aunt janes” all night because we were not revolutionary. Terri Cobb got one of the girls so incited in revolutionary fervor that she play-acted out a scene where she was demonstrating what she would do to me if I betrayed and pretended to hold a gun to my head and pulled the trigger. If we defended ourselves when being “confronted”, as they called it, we would have to stand up in the middle of the room for hours usually until daybreak four until we confessed to being a honkie or uncle tom or aunt jane. When different ones of us started reacting to this terrorism and fascist dictatorship, we were told that Jim Jones knew everything that went on, which was absolutely untrue we found out later. They threw Jim Jones’ name around whenever they wanted to throw in some inhumane rule. We were told that we would get into a lot of trouble if we went to Jim Jones about this because it showed that we didn’t trust him (Jim Jones). I would have left if I hadn’t gone to church services during the weekends and midweek because I would see that Jim Jones was a sensitive compassionate man who preached about egalitarian living, and that concern for others was the essence of living. This was not the same Jim Jones that Jim Cobb, Terri Cobb, and Wayne Pietla showed me, and I would return to the dormitories confused and yet terrified at what new mental torture we would be put through an our all night meetings.
The all-night meetings usually centered around someone being confronted about something as insidious as one of the more studious persons not helping out one of the leadership on a test by cheating for them. They told us to steal also, because to steal from the system wasn’t bad.
Mickey Touchette was a popularity climber. She always like to be noticed, but she was a nothing at the dorms until she started an active lesbian course by having an affair with Terri Cobb. Terri Cobb, who was married to Wayne Pitla, always like to break in new females at the dorms. Terri Cobb and Mickey Touchette had their affair for months and even continued it after Mickey Touchette started an affair with Jim Cobb who was by this time married to Sharon. Jim Cobb had no more than gotten married then he started screwing Mickey Touchette and tried to get me to screw him too.
Jim Cobb took me to a park on our way home from school just to look at the ducks. This occurred after Sharon and he had gotten married. He pulled me over and started kissing me and trying to feel my breasts. I protested that this wasn’t what I wanted, but he insisted that this was how “comrades” got to know each other. Jim Cobb always picked females with blonde hair and blue eyes and called everyone a racist if they didn’t bend to his will.
Guerrilla training became a major emphasis on the college students. We were being trained for the revolution that we were going to start. Wayne Pietla would dress up like Che Guevara and shout revolutionary slogans such as, “Traitors never live”, “we’ll kill anyone who betrays the revolution”, “the ends justify the means”, and he was always saying, “I am a communist.” We didn’t even know what they were talking about, but if we didn’t want an all-night session in the middle of the floor
[page 2 of document]
Affidavit s/
Paula Adams
being screamed at, we had to go along with it. We were drilled in leadership skills in guerrilla warfare; night runs and marches were taken in empty fields to test our ability and doing invasion maneuvers. On one hike that we took, we were being trained in guerrilla fighting and also in abilities to take on leadership responsibilities. Jim Cobb was in charge and beat a girl with a stick because she became too exhausted to keep up with the whole group.
Our meetings in the dorms were not without violence being inflicted on someone who disagreed with the way the fascist regime was ruling there in the dorms. A girl was slapped up against the wall by someone who was caught up in the emotion of proving that she was not a coward, and that she supported the dormitory leaders.
Racial animosity was encouraged as a way of controlling the people at the dorms. The dark complected people were called Uncle Toms or Aunt Janes if they did not call light complected people “honkies” and keep animosity stirred up. The light complected people were never allowed to sit in the front seat of a car unless there was no choice.
The reason this continued for so many months was because of the long distance between the church and our school dormitories.
Paula Adams
Dated: July 29, 1977
Wintessed [Witnessed]:
[2 illegible signatures]
—
B5c(3)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of Sharon Amos
I, Sharon Amos, being duly sworn, declare:
Linda Dunn Swaney was a person that I always thought was a very superficial person. She was very clothes-conscious and like[d] to have a lot of fancy clothes, a brand-new model car, and she did not relate in the slightest to politics or Third World struggle. She had no understanding of the capitalistic system and the evils of exploitation. She simply wanted the “finest” things in life and came to the church because her husband and his relatives were members.
She did not give any concern to her children, and the only understanding they found was with the Pastor of the church, Rev. Jones, and the members of Peoples Temple who gave them love and attention. I distinctly heard her say, as she was finally planning to leave the church, that she didn’t want to put up with this “Socialist mess” anymore and wanted to pursue her own interests. She said she didn’t have a “damn” about her children.
We got reports after she left from people in the community that she went into a completely hedonistic life. She was sexually promiscuous, got drunk every night, and would have sex with anyone who would ask her. On one occasion she was so drunk she drove her car into a tree and had to be hospitalized. This is a documented fact in Mendocino County, where a personal friend of mine was her nurse in the hospital.
Linda has stated in the newspapers that she had left the church because Jim Jones had made advances to her. I know that this was a lie and that the truth is exactly the contrary. It was she who badgered our Pastor to have sex with her, and when she did not get her way, she became the vengeful woman she is today. Her behavior after she left our fellowship certainly does not show her to be a modest, proper woman who was offended by sexual advances.
She later married a man who was openly racist. Her daughter, then 14, was so disturbed by her mother’s outrageous behavior and racist affiliations, that she left home and had to be housed in the local juvenile hall. Denise refused to go home to her mother even after being detained in juvenile hall for rebellious youth. Her daughter has since patterned her life after the mother, and is equally promiscuous, even though in her early teens.
A son of Linda’s who was a very happy and sociable child, has withdrawn and is not at all like his old self. Linda refused to let him play with or see his old friends, and he was completely traumatized. He has also not started on a life of crime, drugs,
B5c(3a)
and mental stress.
Dated this 12th day of August, 1977.
/s/ Sharon Amos
Sharon Amos
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ James R. Randolph
Notary Public
—
B5c(4) – (4a) duplicate B5c(3) – (3a)
—
B5c(5)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Sharon Amos
I, Sharon Amos, being duly sworn, declare:
That Gary [Garry] Lambrev was one of the first people I met when I joined the Temple ten years ago. He was at that time, in my mind, very enthusiastic about socialism and very knowledgeable about the goals of socialism. Gary is very intellectual and so atfirst I was impressed by what he had to say.
Shortly after I joined the Temple, Gary came to my home and told me he was leaving the church because he didn’t believe that socialism considered the individual interests of people and he was afraid it led to communism. I told him that was not true because Jim Jones was always compassionate to people and that socialism was the only way that people got jobs and equality and justice. But he left the church and we heard no more of him for several months.
Later, he came back to Peoples Temple. I was surprised by this as he had been so adamant and in fact, denounced the whole socialist way of life and stated that he didn’t approve of the socialistic teachings of the church. He told me that he had used rationalization when he said he was afraid of socialism. He said that he was a homosexual and that he had gone out because he wanted to pursue his sexual interests in an orgiastic way and that this was the reason he had left.
B5c(5a)
He said he had made a terrible mistake and that he wanted to prove himself and that the life he had led was superficial and meaningless and that he had done nothing for social causes since he had been gone from the church.
Gary stayed in the Temple this time for several months and than [then] he told me he was leaving. This time he made no mention of disagreeing with the socialistic views. He, himself, along with one of our other members, Edith Roller, had been conducting classes on socialism and he had taken very strong stands in the class. He said that he likes a lifestyle of the hippie people and that he missed taking drugs and that he likes to involve himself in sado-masochistic sexual activities with many men at one time. He said that he knew his activities were often depraved and involved young boys and beating them but that he did not want to give up this type of lifestyle. This was a shock to us because though we knew Gary was homosexual, we didn’t realize the extent of his activities.
We saw him once as our buses were passing along the highway laying in a field. He looked like he was stoned on drugs and could barely orient himself. In a recent article, he complained that the church was organizing against Senate Bill 1 which is recognized by all people interested in Civil Rights as being very oppressive to the rights of people especially minority people who want to organize to better their situation.
B5c(5b)
I feel that any person who is as dual and Gary Lambreth [Garry Lambrev] and as fickle in his politics could easily be an agent provocateur who exploits his contacts with liberal groups to be paid. His dependence on drugs would make him very receptive to this kind of income. He has worked gainfully very little in his life and the last time he was out of the church, he took welfare money and said he was incapable of working so therefore he is dependent on agencies for his source of income.
Dated this 17th day of August, 1977.
/s/ Sharon Amos
Sharon Amos
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ James R. Randolph
Notary Public
—
B5c(6)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Sharon Amos
I, Sharon Amos, being duly sworn, declare:
That I knew Grace Stoen for a period of at least seven years. When she first came to Peoples Temple she was very uninterested and indifferent to politics. She had come from a middle-class family and was very insensitive to seniors and to people who were black. She expected special treatment at all times and wanted the best of everything for herself.
She often made fun of socialism and said that she didn’t want to have to share with other people.
As time went on she would try to influence people against socialism and would exploit people for her own gain. She was sexually seductive to a young teenage boy who lived at her home and constantly talk against socialist teachings to him.
When she talked to black people she was judgmental and showed no awareness of the pain they have been through in their lives – the persecution they have experienced in the South.
Grace was very vindictive to socialism. She spoke often of her preference to the capitalistic system.
She was sexually promiscuous and approached several young teenagers under 17 years old and made advances to them. She said she was so hostile to this integrated socialist group that she would like to go to agencies like the FBI and the CIA and tell them this group stands for socialism. She took relish in bragging about destroying socialism in the United States and said she would like to be able to have money and she didn’t care if people starved or not because if they don’t have any money, it
B5c(6a)
is because they are lazy and don’t want to work.
Dated this 17th day of August, 1977.
/s/ Sharon Amos
Sharon Amos
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ James R. Randolph
Notary Public
—
B5c(7)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Don Beck
I, Don Beck, being duly sworn, declare:
That I remember that Grace Stoen’s whole reaction to Guyana when she visited was very hostile. She spoke of the backwardness of the country. She felt that they had no doubt been better off under the British rule; at least they had experience in planning and running an economy. That was why now there was a scarcity of so much – “not even refined white sugar and cooking oil”.
Her attitude was condescending towards everything about Guyana. She thought that the houses were crude and dirty, the people were backward, that they could do much more for their country but no one really wanted to. She thought the trouble was that people were “lazy and shiftless”. Like along the roads where the people were walking. “They deserved to get hit if they wouldn’t move faster out of the way”. She incessantly ran down what she called “crazy drivers” and said it showed they were uncivilized as a society.
Several times after I had spoken to our congregation of the many beautiful aspects of Guyana – her people, the country itself, the spirit of cooperative living – she approached me asking how I could be so positive about Guyana. She said that [Forbes] Burnham was not really a socialist; he had no intention of helping anyone but himself there. She said that he knew and she knew for
B5c(7a)
-2-
sure that the United States was not going to let him do any such thing. She thought we ought to be realistic and use the Mission as an angle to our advantage. The Mertles were even more intent upon using the Mission as a way to get money from people here. They were very upset each time monies kept going out to equipment there to actually build an agricultural program.
Grace always said that she had no intention of sharing what she had with others. She said she had worked hard to get where she was and wasn’t about to have anyone put her where she couldn’t have the benefits and material things that she deserved. She wanted to be able to get all the things and foods that she was accustomed to. She said she didn’t want her child growing up in such a “barbaric” place. She said the school were backward and she would have to send him outside the country to be educated. Besides she asked me once, what kind of identity would he get in a black third world culture? She wanted him to be somewhere where he could see more people of his own background and color.
She approached me once was a book about Burnham, The West on Trial, and asked if I had read about what Burnham was really about. She seemed to take great pride to try and prove that the socialistic trend in Guyana was very much phony in the popular enthusiasm was only Burnham’s flock to become a ruler of the
B5c(7b)
-3-
economy and a stepping stone in his ambition to Third World leadership. She accused the Prime Minister of not having the interest of his people at heart. She was totally unwilling to relate to the refinement of socialistic cooperative living that pervades Guyana.
Dated this 17th day of August, 1977.
/s/ Don Beck
Don Beck
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ Lisa P. Layton
Notary Public
—
B5c(8) – (8a) duplicate B5c(7) – (7a)
—
B5c(9)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Don Beck
I, Don Beck, being duly sworn, declare:
That I was in the traveling party from Peoples Temple the first time the church members and Rev. Jones went on a fact-finding trip to Guyana. This was the nation we had selected as a potential site for the development of an agricultural mission when [which] we were interested in starting.
Danny Phillips was among the travelers to Guyana as well. As the trip progressed, he became more and more agitated. He joined us when we talk to officials, when we traveled to Matthews Ridge and were entertained at the Guyana house there, and went on a tour of the university. Every evening when we will return from our visits with the officials, we would join in discussion to try to determine the merits of our decision to locate in Guyana. Everyone in the group was extremely positive, but Danny was outright condemning. Nothing suited him. This took place in December of 1973. One night during our stay there was a demonstration of the PPP, and Danny went out to see what it was about. He did not return until many hours later. The next morning he told us he had been talking to members of the PPP which he was against the government. He accused the party in power, the PNC, of being racist and discriminatory against East Indians. He said they condemned homosexuals to jail, and that in several cases homosexual males had been flogged. Danny was an acting homosexual.
B5c(9a)
-2-
That night we visited with a man from Israel. Relations between Guyana and Israel were deteriorating at that time, and Danny evidently preyed on that man’s hesitancy about the PNC. That night Danny was extremely agitated and pressed Bishop Jones into hours and hours of discussion. Bishop Jones tried to assure him that his insecurities and fears were unfounded, but he refused to come to reason. He began yelling at all of us, call us we were crazy for coming to this “god forsaken place,” and ran out of the house in Kingston, Georgetown, where we were staying. His parting words were something to the effect that the best thing that could happen to Guyana would be for Venezuela to annex 2/3 of it, and Brazil the remainder. Evidently, he returned during the night and stole enough funds to set himself up for his return to the States.
Dated this 17th day of August, 1977.
/s/ Don Beck
Don Beck
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ Lisa P. Layton
Notary Public
—
B5c(10) – (10a) duplicate B5c(9) – (9a)
—
B5c(11)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Sandra L. Bradshaw
I, Sandra L. Bradshaw, being duly sworn, declare:
I live at 2544 Sutter Street, San Francisco, California. I have been a member of Peoples Temple for nearly 8 years. I have worked as a Deputy Probation Officer for the County of Mendocino in Northern California for over 7 years. Through my association with Peoples Temple, I know Linda Swaney (Dunn), Faith Kice, Janet Phillips and Danny Phillips. While these people were in our group, they were the source of much contention and negativity. They were frequently involved in alcohol and drug abuse. Faith Kice and Janet Phillips worked at a local hospital and stole assorted drugs and pills. They were always on some type of “medication.”
Linda Swaney (Dunn) worked at the Masonite plant in Redwood Valley and have a terrible reputation as a drug and an “easy” mark. She flagrantly exhibited her lifestyle in front of other church members and her three children, (2 of them were young teenage girls who look to her example, and 1 was a young son). As a result of Linda Swaney’s decadent lifestyle, her oldest daughter Denise ended up in the local Juvenile Hall for drugs and lewd conduct. Mrs. Swaney’s latest boyfriend had also misused Denise and faced investigation by the local welfare department. Denise was ultimately placed in a foster home, but she still continued her antisocial behavior.
Danny Phillips was one of the sickest personalities that I have ever known. He was purposefully cruel and inhumane to others. His whole manner was one of racist insensitivity. None of the previously mentioned people our black, nor are they married to black, nor have they adopted a black child. They are openly elitists and believe themselves to be superior to others.
B5c(11a)
-2-
In 1973, when Bishop Jones was discussing the possibility of starting an agricultural project in Guyana, South America, all these people sought to discourage it from the beginning. They felt that South America was to vastly underdeveloped to even merit investing in. Danny Phillips and the others felt that the government of Guyana was totally CIA involved and financed. They felt that people who had for so many years under the paternalistic overseeing of Great Britain were incapable of ever achieving self-determination.
Danny Phillips was in the first group that went to Georgetown, Guyana. He disliked the country and people so much that he left the second day he was there. All these people are obviously capitalistic in their orientation, and have a vested interest in seeking to discredit anyone working towards socialist objectives.
Dated this 15th day of August, 1977.
/s/ Sandra L. Bradshaw
Sandra L. Bradshaw
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ James R. Randolph
Notary Public
—
B5c(12)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Sandra L. Bradshaw
I, Sandra L. Bradshaw, being duly sworn, declare:
I live at 2544 Sutter Street, San Francisco, California. I have been a member of Peoples Temple for nearly 8 years. I have served the county of Mendocino as a Deputy Probation Officer over 7 years. Through my association with Peoples Temple, I know Elmer and Deanna Mertle, Linda Mertle and Sandy Rozynko. Elmer and Deanna Mertle help run the church’s publications department. What I should say, to be more accurate, is that they were listed among a large group of people who worked in publications. To say that the Mertles “worked” there would be an insult to the others. Deanna and Elmer never kept regular hours and constantly clustered in a small family group, often taking off to go to the lake etc. while others were left in the shop working. The Mertles also felt no qualms about constantly taking special favors for themselves. Their office was elaborately furnished with a television, stereo system and fine office furniture, all of which was paid for with unauthorized church funds. They placed these special orders for themselves without requesting appropriate approval. It was obvious from the beginning that the Mertles felt they were better than other people – they had a racist, elitist point of view.
I first met the Mertle family on a church outing on a Temple financed boat cruise around the San Francisco Bay on one of the ferry boats. I can still remember telling Deanna that I was married to a Black man and she called her husband Elmer over to the rail where we were standing and started asking me very racist questions, like “what is it like with a Black man?” and more personal questions about my life with my husband. My first impression of this very conservative “white” family has not changed much with what I have seen over the years. They are right-wing di-hard capitalists with no
B5c(12a)
-2-
moral ethics.
I heard Deanna Mertle stand up in a meeting and admit that the only time she reached sexual climax was when she heard a child crying in pain. Her husband was there at the time and he verified her statement.
I also know from first-hand information and from Deanna’s own admission, that she was sexually attracted to Sandy Rozynko, who was underage at the time. Sandy Rozynko had been a youngster with leadership potential before associating and living with the Mertle family. Linda Mertle was an overt lesbian by her own admission and was very active in trying to recruit other young and innocent girls into that type of lifestyle. This was confirmed by her many various partners.
Elmer and Deanna Mertle admitted that they had engaged in various group sex acts with both Sandy Rozynko, Linda Mertle and various other people. It is my opinion and observation that these are people of very low moral aptitude and I even questioned if they were perhaps agent provocateurs from the beginning. In looking back on their reactionary orientations and efforts to block the progress of this organization, I cannot help but think this is the truth. Their purpose was to infiltrate and cause dissension.
Dated this 17th day of August, 1977.
/s/ Sandra L. Bradshaw
Sandra L. Bradshaw
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ James R. Randolph
Notary Public
—
B5c(13)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Sandra L. Bradshaw
I, Sandra L. Bradshaw, being duly sworn, declare:
I live at 2544 Sutter Street, San Francisco, California. I have been a member of Peoples Temple for nearly 8 years. I have worked for the County of Mendocino, California as a Deputy Probation Officer for over 7 years. Through my association with Peoples Temple, I knew Wayne Pietila, Micki Touchette, Terri Cobb and Jim Cobb. On various occasions I was involved in attending a small group session with Wayne as leader, in which very violent terrorist acts were discussed in detail. Bishop Jones had suspected these people of being involved in such things, so he sent me and others to this meeting to keep a check on Wayne’s activities. I have personal knowledge that on more than one occasion, Wayne initiated discussions advocating violence.
At one such meeting, that took place on the acreage of the children’s ranch run by the church, I saw Wayne Pietila participate in this meeting, and he reported that he had personally gone to a number of different armories to check them out to plan various maneuvers in anticipation of carrying off an armed attempt to “liberate” the guns and weapons stored inside.
Wayne also spoke of explosives and where to get them and how to use them. He used as a guide a terrorist book called the “Anarchist Cookbook”. He discussed putting poison in the water supply of major cities during an armed “take-over.”
Wayne Pietila went into detail talking about killing Pres. Nixon, Governor Reagan, Governor Rockefeller, Billy Graham, Rev. Ike, and other religious leaders as well as political. Wayne Pietila also spoke freely about putting bombs under people’s cars and of various ways of getting terrorist supplies. Wayne had maps, gas tanks, military books, etc. He talked about his being the only person who was ‘dedicated’ to the ‘revolution’ and saw himself as an “heroic guerrilla fighter”. Wayne and Jim Cobb especially were always talking about guns and of doing things like destroying radio stations and other lines of communications. Wayne Pietila, Micki Touchette, Terri Cobb and Jim Cobb were consistently and actively involved in trying to get the church members to participate in violent terrorist activities. They left the church when their efforts were in vain and the church was following a course too moderate for their tastes.
In 1973, when Bishop Jones was discussing the possibility of starting an agricultural project in Guyana, So. America, these same people spoke out actively against doing so. They did not want us to expand our work to an under-developed country. Their main objection was that the leaders of Guyana had no revolutionary consciousness and there would be no significant contribution made by Guyana in the struggle for liberation they also stressed
B5c(13a)
CIA involvement and stated that the Guyanese leadership was not astute enough to realize just how infiltrated with agents they were. These people openly professed and advocated the use of violent terrorist tactics and were dissatisfied not only with the peaceful, rational course the Temple was taking, but criticized the same approach that the country of Guyana advocated.
Dated this 17th day of August, 1977.
/s/ Sandra L. Bradshaw
Sandra L. Bradshaw
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ James R. Randolph
Notary Public
—
B5c(14)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Jean F. Brown
I, Jean F. Brown, being duly sworn, declare:
That Linda Mertle, daughter of Elmer and Deanna Mertle, was a racist and white supremacist. For a while, she appeared to take on a positive attitude to the Temple and integration, as taught by Rev. Jones. She became involved sexually with a black woman ten years her senior and used this woman as a slave.
She reacted violently when the woman broke off her relationship and became a vicious race-hater. She left the Temple membership and joined her parents. She harassed our black members in their homes and on the streets. She drove by as many as five times a day yelling racist obscenities out her car window at our black members, especially children and youth.
She accused the Temple of forcing her to relate to the other woman, and when she couldn’t get a reaction from the woman, she began pulling other Temple members aside determine the negative things about Guyana. She circulated copies of New Yorker and Ebony magazines which contained articles critical of the Prime Minister of Guyana. On three separate occasions I know of, she spoke to young members of the Temple and tried to discredit Mr. Burnham and the Temple’s move in that direction. She said black people were ignorant and could
B5c(14a)
-2-
never rule their own country or their own affairs. She said Burnham took money from Cuba and Russia as centered on himself and his wife, showing the Ebony article to validate her charges. She made copies of the article and circulated it anonymously among members of the Temple she knew had given money to the Guyana Mission.
Dated this 2nd day of August, 1977.
/s/ Jean F. Brown
Jean F. Brown
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ James R. Randolph
Notary Public
—
B5c(15)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Jean F. Brown
I, Jean F. Brown, being duly sworn, declare:
Deanna and Elmer Mertle spoke against the socialist ideals of Peoples Temple and Reverend Jones, against socialism as a philosophy or way of life, and especially against the government of L.F.S. Burnham, Prime Minister of Guyana. I believe that they were and still are agents of conservative, right-wing interests who are trying to discredit the work of the Temple and the character of Jim Jones.
Both the Mertles were known to members of the Temple to have been active in the John Birch Society before asking for church membership. The John Birch Society is the organized political arm of the far right forces in the United States. Both Deanna and Elmer used every opportunity to try to influence Temple members against socialism. I personally remember one morning at the Publications Center owned and operated by the church they would come where workers would gather and would read from Mao’s Red Book and ridicule the socialist teachings of the leader. They berated the teachings of Rev. Jones, saying that socialism gives power two “blacks and embicils [imbeciles]” and lived apart from the communal structure at Peoples Temple taking everything they could from the people.
B5c(15a)
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When they learned we were planning to develop an agricultural station in Guyana, they did what they called “independent research” on the nation and accused Mr. Burnham of being a CIA plant and that everything we put into that country would be taken away from us. They spread around among Temple membership literature that was hostile and negative about Burnham. They tried to poison the minds of Temple members whose relatives were among the first groups to the country. They tried to divide the people from the church saying to ones such as Tim Swinney’s family that there were race wars going on in Guyana and that Burnham was responsible for them. Elmer told the wife of Philip Blakey that intermarriage was forbidden in that country and that whites were in virtual slavery there since the independence. He said to Debbie that Philip had been, in effect, sold into slavery in Black Communist Guyana. He told her that the black leaders in Guyana returning to torture and banish to starvation in the jungle the white people in Guyana who were trying to run missions there and were part of the American and British churches in the country.
I swear these things are true and can be validated by the people whose names are mentioned as victims and witnesses to these white racists and anti-socialists.
Dated this 2nd day of August, 1977.
/s/ Jean F. Brown
Jean F. Brown
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ James R. Randolph
Notary Public
—
B5c(16) – (16a) duplicate B5c(15) – (15a)
—
B5c(17)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Jean F. Brown
I, Jean F. Brown, being duly sworn, declare:
Wayne Pietila was an agent provocateur within the ranks of Peoples Temple. He conspired with Terry Cobb Pietila, Jim Cobb and Micki Jean Touchette to tear down the socialist structure set up by Rev. Jones. They called meetings of Temple youth and preached violence. They purchased guns and tried to get young members into shooting practice. In one meeting I was present in, Wayne Pietila told the group how to make bombs and laid plans to attack a National Guard Armory at the intersection of Highway 101 and Steele Lane in Santa Rosa. They planned to do this without the knowledge of Rev. Jones and Temple leadership and swore everyone in the meeting (which they held outside by the bank of a river in Redwood Valley) to secrecy. Wayne said that this was the way the group would force the Temple to take violent action. They plan to seize the weapons in the armory and stand off the police, forcing Peoples Temple into defense of their actions.
The young people were persuaded that this was the right thing; that it would give Jim a platform to speak to the nation about racial equality and social justice for all Americans.
Their real intentions, however, were to divide the movement and bring it to its end. To this day, I believe they are paid informants, in the recent lies on Peoples Temple and Rev. Jones in the media bear this out. When they were unable to bring about
B5c(17a)
-2-
the crisis they sought to because Rev. Jones discovered their plans and they were told to get rid of their guns, they left the church and have been conspiring to attack the Temple from without. Wayne approached me last year when he returned for a short time and told me if I would renounce Jim and the Temple and the socialist movement, that he and the others would make a comfortable life for me, that all I had to be ready to do was turned states evidence against my allegiances. He said Prime Minister Burnham of Guyana was a “Tom” and the CIA had beat Rev. Jones to the country. He said everything the church members were putting into the mission would be taken away when the work was done. The CIA had bargained with Burnham and guaranteed him that the country would get everything that belonged to the Temple if the government there would cooperate. I did not believe any of his lies because ever since Pietila and others named above have been associated with Peoples Temple, they have tried to sow this kind of division.
Dated this 2nd day of August, 1977.
/s/ Jean F. Brown
Jean F. Brown
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ James R. Randolph
Notary Public
—
B5c(18) – (18a) duplicate B5c(17) – (17a)
—
B5c(19)
[Editor’s note: A copy of this affidavit also appears here.]
Georgetown
Guyana, South America
Affidavit of
Terry Carter
I, Terry Carter, duly sworn declare:
In the fall of 1974, I had the occasion to travel from Redwood Valley, California to San Francisco with Grace Stoen and Tim Carter. I was shocked and upset by their behavior. This gave me my first real opportunity to observe Grace being flirtatious and sexually aggressive. Even though she was married and had a one-year-old son, and even though Tim Carter was my brother, Grace was not embarrassed to flirt and finger Tim’s hair while she was driving; and when we stopped for lunch, she lay beside Tim and they caressed each other. When I asked her where her son was, she was flippant as though she couldn’t care less about him.
Grace’s sexual impulsiveness and immaturity – I would even say obsession, came out in other ways, too. For example, once when I was standing with her, and she was holding her son, the four Jones brothers, walked by, and she followed them with her eyes. She turned to me and said, “it’s hard for me to remember they’re just boys, if you know what I mean.” She nudged me, and acted very foolish. She always seemed more interested in flirting with different men – or boys, than she was in her own child. (On the occasion I’ve described here, the oldest Jones son was only 17 and the youngest was [blank space], and Grace was 21 and married and a mother.)
/s/ Terry Carter
Dated: 13 August, 1977
Subscribed to and sworn before me,
Commissioner of Oaths of the Republic of Guyana
—
B5c(20)
Georgetown
Guyana, South America
Affidavit of
[blank line]
I, Patty Cartmell, duly sworn declare:
I can be a witness to the months’ of Grace Stoen’s pregnancy while she was carrying her son, John. She said she did not want the baby and detested being pregnant.
She always acted so unstable and chaotic. Her moods changed off and on going from threats of suicide to threats of wanting to kill or not eating properly, even though she was told this could harm the baby.
I tried to reason with Grace about eating properly, and about her terrible driving patterns and her moodiness. I only met with hysterical cries and fits of temper.
Once, after her son, John, was born, Grace and I were on a bus, and she all at once became so hysterical, crying and ranting, that she took her hands and beat her face. She threw her head against the window and screamed. I was afraid for the child’s safety with such behavior as she continuously demonstrated. On two different occasions in particular, I saw Grace pick John up by his hands, pulling his arms from his shoulders, and throw him frantically across the yard. John was frightened and cried out painfully. Grace laughed and laughed at his plight. It was such an outrageous scene, I picked John up and carried him away until Grace calmed down.
During one period, Grace became sexually involved with a young man, Tim Carter. She took Tim to home with her, while John was there. She bragged about the long hours she spent with Tim, and bragged about making out with Tim in the alley.
The most horrible thing was to see how Grace would treat John and how she would use him to taunt and harass Jim Jones. She would walk up to Jim with John and repeat over and over, “see the baby; I’m leaving and taking John and you’ll never see him again.” Or, I’ll kill myself and John, and I’ll ruin the cause.” No matter how compassionate and kind Jim was to her, she would continue this taunting.
Around July, 1976, Grace did not attend one of our regular church meetings. We were all concerned, and called to try to locate her. Then a letter came from her. She said she had left and was leaving John behind. She said he would be better off with Jim and the cause. She made it perfectly clear she was leaving and not taking John. She and Walter Jones had been having an affair for months before this, and she left with Walter.
/s/ Mrs. Patty Cartmell
Dated: 13 August, 1977
Subscribed to and sworn before me,
Commissioner of Oaths of the Republic of Guyana
[illegible signature]
—
B5c(21)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Timothy Clancey
I, Timothy Clancey, being duly sworn, declare:
Deanna and Elmer Mertle are two of the most vicious, racist and classist people that I have ever known. They pretended to be interested in this church when they first attended. Mrs. Mertle came from a very conservative religious background and was also conservative politically. She belonged to the John Birch Society which is one of the most conservative right wing organizations in the United States. Mr. Mertle is a man with a great deal of repressed hostility and has a tremendous desire to get revenge on the church.
Both of the Mertles are very judgmental people. They present themselves as very good people and put down other people, especially blacks whom they say can’t manage their lives at all. They had a young black teenager living with them, Lilly Victor, and they worked her from early morning to late at night, while they and their children enjoyed themselves. She had to work scrubbing on her hands and knees while the white teenagers had a good time. Their own children had not even a chore to do in the home. They said no man would want to marry Lilly, and especially no “white man.”
Though the Mertles were in an atmosphere of cooperation and sharing of the workload, they never would do their part. Mrs. Mertle claims conditions were very bad for her but then in the same breath states she lives in a $90,000 dollar house which the church paid for some of the payments on it so the Mertles would not lose their place of residence. The church supported this family for many months, but this was not sufficient for them, they now claimed that they were exploited.
They also make claim that children in the church were mistreated. However, one of the little mixed-race children that they took care of was sexually molested by Mrs. Mertle. Mr. Mertle was not to be undone in this kind of bizarre behavior of young children. He had sex with a teenage girl put in his care by a psychologist and this was reported by children who lived in the Mertle home and observed this.
Mr. Mertle had the nerve to say that Jonestown was a sterile place where nothing would grow and that bananas in one of our pictures of Guyana were photographed at another site, and not in Guyana. He has been to Guyana and for him to lie like this to have it printed in the press is a calculated attempt to destroy socialism and discredit the work in Guyana.
Dated this 17th day of August, 1977.
/s/ Timothy Clancey
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ James R. Randolph
Notary Public
—
B5c(22)
Georgetown
Guyana, South America
Affidavit of
Marylou Clancey
I, Marylou Clancey, duly sworn declare:
Last summer, 1976, on a Sunday afternoon, Grace Stoen came to visit her son John at Peoples Temple between Sunday services. I was standing nearby in the room talking with Grace when John misbehaved just a little over a piece of candy. Grace became extremely angry with John (a child of only 4 whom she had not seen in two months), raising her voice and overreacting and upsetting him. She was actually shaking with anger. I remember this distinctly because I was upset with her behavior toward him, as were others present in the room. She then abruptly pushed John into the arms of Jim Jones, and sent in an angry tone, “Take him.” She then announced she was leaving. Also, Jim Jones gave her airplane tickets to enable her to visit John later; she didn’t want them, but he insisted she take them.
Marylou Clancey
Dated: August 12, 1977
Subscribed to and sworn before me,
Commissioner of Oaths of the Republic of Guyana
[illegible signature]
—
B5c(23)
Georgetown
Guyana, South America
Affidavit of
Sharon Cobb
I, Sharon Cobb, duly sworn declare:
I was present many times when Grace Stoen acted in a cruel manner toward her son, John. One time I saw her stand by him, laughing, while a teenager teased him and slapped him. Grace would also ask John if he wanted to go somewhere with her. When he would reply that he did, she would tell him he could not go with her. On many occasions she would leave John, not knowing who was taking care of him.
/s/ Sharon Cobb
Dated: August 12, 1977
Subscribed to and sworn before me,
Commissioner of Oaths of the Republic of Guyana
[illegible signature]
—
B5c(24)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
June B. Crym
I, June B. Crym, being duly sworn, declare:
In 1973 I lived on North Dora Street in Ukiah, California, a block away from Birdie Marable’s rest home where she had several elderly patients living there. I witnessed Birdie drunk on liquor several times, when she was supposed to be taking care of her patients. I visited the care home from time to time and every time I was there she was sitting around drinking and would not pay attention when an elderly patient might ask her for her help.
I also saw her at church at Peoples Temple, but I noticed that she didn’t attend regularly and when she did, she was very often hostile and rough with people, especially the elderly. She never participated when Bishop Jones asked for help for people in prison or to give food and clothing to a poor family. Birdie Marable was very selfish and greedy, and I heard her say she resented the church voting to give money or supplies to needy families. Instead she would come to church services wearing fancy silk dresses and big hats and show off, insensitive to those around her who couldn’t afford such things.
When Bishop Jones spoke about building an agricultural mission in Guyana, Birdie Marable disagreed and spoke out against it. She said the people in South America “are backward and primitive” and she didn’t want to give up her liquor and fancy close to build a mission in Socialist Guyana. For years Bishop Jones had explained in services the practicality and humane way of life in socialist countries, and we were all excited because we had a chance to start an agricultural station in Guyana. But Birdie Marable said that our mission would fail, that the Guyanese government would never succeed and instead the whole country would end up in poverty, and she did not want to be involved in anything like that. She did not want to give up her home or share any of her rooms with anyone, and she did not like the socialist idea of restructuring the economic wealth in the ownership of the people. She liked the capitalist way of
B5c(24a)
life because of the personal advantages she had gained for herself as she did not care that others had less than she had. When she finally stopped coming to the Temple services, it was because she did not agree with our commitment to the agricultural station and working with the Guyanese people.
Dated this 17th day of August, 1977.
/s/ June B. Crym
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ James R. Randolph
Notary Public
—
B5c(25)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
June B. Crym
I, June B. Crym, being duly sworn, declare:
That I have known Marvin and Jackie Swinney since 1971 when I joined Peoples Temple. I remember noticing from the very start how Marvin and Jackie we ridiculed her teenage son, Don Swinney, because he was slow and mentally retarded. Marvin was ashamed that they had brought a child into the world that was not “normal” and he never missed a chance to make fun of Don, to make him appear a fool. I saw Jackie and Marvin both physically beat Don many times – the child who are constantly battered by his dad’s belt or his mother’s slaps. Don gradually became violent himself, following in his dad’s image. He bullied little children and threatened them constantly. When Don went to our Agricultural Mission in Guyana, to live with his uncle Tim and where he was later joined by his grandparents, his move came as a result of his having stolen a knife and threatened to cut some children at school with it. (Bishop) Jones wanted to save Don from certain imprisonment behind bars and so made a place for him in the Mission.
Marvin and Jackie Swinney remained behind at Redwood Valley, California, USA, a very racist small town. The church of Bishop Jones was centered in Los Angeles and San Francisco and its membership was predominantly black. Jackie and Marvin stayed away and did not come to church services and told neighbors they didn’t want to be “niggers” anymore.
B5c(25a)
-2-
About that time the church made known publicly its advocacy of socialist philosophy as the natural humane way of life, and this declaration along with our obvious interracial commitment became too much for Marvin and Jackie.
They had a care home for teenage girls, and the girls complained of their beatings and physical abuse. Jackie and Marvin left the care home and moved away. We spent a lot of money on personal items, a boat, and cars and Marvin’s truck. They were very selfish and finally demanded that we send Don Swinney back to them from the mission. We asked them why, and Jackie said they wanted to be able to collect State money for Don because he was mentally retarded. They did not care about their son – it was only the money that they wanted.
Dated this 17th day of August, 1977.
/s/ June B. Crym
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ James R. Randolph
Notary Public
—
B5c(26)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of Laurie Efrein
I, Laurie Efrein, being duly sworn, declare:
Walter Jones was sent by the Temple Board as a consultant to the Guyana Mission. He was thought to have sufficient experience and mechanics and building to be able to assess the best outlay of the agricultural mission, particularly the building sites, well, and a potential hydroelectric plant. Rev. Jones had expressed extreme reservations about his selection as the person to do this job. He was new to the church in his loyalties and basis and socialist principle were completely unknown.
When he returned, he proved to the church membership that Rev. Jones’ reservations were justified. “Smitty” was threatened because he was under pressure of trying to hide a sexual affair he was having with the wife of one of our members. To build himself up in the eyes of this woman and to divide her from the church, he began to bad mouth everything the church was trying to do in Guyana. At first he attacked only the project, saying we would never make it function, and that we had made a stupid blunder in investing so much money there. Eventually, he attacked the people and government leaders.
He picked out very inconsequential things and harped on them to exaggerate a point. He said there were human feces left to lie around in food factories and people dumped raw
B5c(26a)
sewage into canals through the city streets. He accused the government of talking big in their papers about new factories and improvements, such as a big new hydroelectric plant, but he said the “stupid little country” would never produce a thing. He said there was gold and oil there that they were too stupid to recognize and develop. He said all mining operations had come to a standstill when the British were kicked out; that the country was committing economic suicide by nationalizing the only money-making industries left. As evidence of this, he said the bauxite industry was failing and the papers were lying to the people that they had actually made more profits since nationalization.
I was not surprised when he left the church and began to continue to degrade the Socialist Republic of Guyana and Peoples Temple, as he is now doing in the press.
Dated this 17th day of August, 1977.
/s/ Laurie Efrein
Laurie Efrein
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ James R. Randolph
Notary Public
—
B5c(27) – (27a) duplicate B5c(26) – (26a)
—
B5c(28)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of Laurie Efrein
I, Laurie Efrein, being duly sworn, declare:
Neva Sly lived in Redwood Valley for several years, and during part of that time I lived in the same house with her. She made no pretense about hiding a sexual relationship she had with Reggie Upshaw who at that time was still a minor. She talked openly about the sex they had, and would often make physical contact with him such as kissing and petting in front of children.
She deserted her own husband and son. Her son Mark has had several difficulties adjusting to people, and especially with young women. He exhibits hostilities towards women and especially is outspoken about contempt for his mother. During the time when he (an adopted son) was in early adolescence and needed her emotional support, she left him and rejected him. She humiliated him in front of other youths by relating to another young man, just a few years older than her son.
Further, Neva Sly left the Redwood Valley area and her husband and son, and relocated in Los Angeles. She got herself an apartment and a job, at which she earned a great deal of money. She provided nothing for her son by way of financial assistance and spent exorbitant amounts on herself. She ceased to contribute anything to the church and trying to manipulate her son’s affections by arranging for him to stay with her in her apartment. She tried to buy back his affections with the purchase of material things. When the young man chose to stay with his father, who was still an active member of Peoples Temple and was participating stateside in mechanical work for equipment for the agricultural mission, she began talking badly about the Temple and Bishop Jones. Her motives are, simply, jealousy.
Dated this 17th day of August, 1977.
/s/ Laurie Efrein
Laurie Efrein
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ James R. Randolph
Notary Public
—
B5c(29) duplicates B5c(28)
—
B5c(30)
Georgetown
Guyana, South America
Affidavit of
/s/ Evelyn M. Eichler
I, Evelyn M. Eichler, duly sworn declare:
Ruth Kerns used to stay in my home for a year. At first she seemed to be a very nice person. Later I found out that she was a person engrossed with sexual deviation and her temper became violent when she was mad about something. She used to tell me how she would have oral sex with her boyfriends and how she would cheat on each one. She tried to encourage me to do these types of things with her, but I was totally shocked with her behavior and refused to participate. We started to get into many arguments. She got mad at my sister, Erin Eichler, who was only 11 years old, and pulled a sharp knife on her threatened to cut her and said that she would kill her. Those of us at the house stepped in and she backed off from the argument. That night she packed her things and left in her car. I had a bicycle at home which she used to ride a lot. Ruth and her brother Phillip came back to our house several days later in the evening pounding on our door demanding the bicycle, which was mine, and shouting all kinds of obscenities at me when I wouldn’t give it to her. My mother, Tish Leroy, was very ill in bed at the time, and Ruth’s brother Phillip pushed his way through the door demanding to talk with her. I told him she was sick but he went into her room and accused her of stealing Ruth’s check from her job at Hacienda Convalescent Hospital. She told him that we had nothing of Ruth’s and had to argue with him until he finally left, after making all kinds of threatening remarks, like she would “get it soon”, he would “get us” for taking this check. Later we asked the hospital and found that Ruth had personally picked up all of her checks, that none had been sent in the mail, so we couldn’t possibly have taken a check which she received after leaving the house. Ruth is sadistic and can’t learn how to stop lying.
/s/ Evelyn M. Eichler
Dated July 29, 1977
Witnessed:
[two illegible signatures]
—
B5c(31)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of Phyllis Houston
I, Phyllis Houston, being duly sworn, declare:
Was present when Birdie Marable drove her car up onto the sidewalk in an attempted murder of a 16-year-old girl, Pam Bradshaw. She tried to run the girl down with her car because the teenager had made the suggestion the day before about how Mrs. Marable could better care for the seniors entrusted to her care. Mrs. Marable did not seem to care how these seniors were cared for. She would be serving time in the penitentiary at this moment have the girl not hopped a fence and run down an alley to ellude [elude] Mrs. Marable’s car.
Choosing to take out her demented hostility on children and seniors, Mrs. Marable was also guilty of leaving the seniors in her home without the care they required for days and weeks at a time. She took the money that was designated for their board, keep, and medical treatment to Reno and Las Vegas where she gambled regularly. She never returned the money to the elderly people. One woman in her care was fleeced for a new car, her life savings, and was neglected to the point her health completely deteriorated. This woman, left with nothing, it is now bed-ridden. Mrs. Marable, meantime, has pursued partying and liquor and has complaints monthly for thousands of dollars of unpaid liquor bills. I personally called on patients in her home and found her in a stupor in the corner. Also, I have been there when she was absent for three and once four days standing, leaving the people without food or protection. She is currently in the position of losing her license for people in her home and is under investigation by the welfare agencies.
When the Church Board told her that she was no longer to consider herself a member of our congregation, pursuant to her delinquent behavior, she found in anger that she would get back at Rev. Jones and the entire membership. She practiced witchcraft and tried to bring curses, in her demented way, upon the church members. She tried to run down Pam Bradshaw with her car. She has bad-mouthed the church in every opportunity, though no one pays her any attention.
After our mission in Guyana had received some publicity, a series of very positive articles in the local press, Mrs. Marable wrote a letter to the editor in which she said that the glowing reports were all fabricated and that she would certainly not want to go two an underdeveloped, bug and snake-infested place like Guyana. The first-hand accounts of the church members who had visited the mission and had returned put to rest any doubts Mrs. Marable’s trouble-making could have caused. People in the community know her for a very troublesome, vindictive person and that she will soon lose her license for housing the elderly.
B5c(31a)
I, personally, am glad that my children and loved ones are in Guyana, away from the likes of this demented woman, and other such unsavory people as have tried to cause harm to our work for the most indicative, hateful reasons.
Dated this 17th day of August, 1977.
/s/ Phyllis Houston
Phyllis Houston
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ Lisa P. Layton
Notary Public
—
B5c(32) – (32a) duplicate B5c(31) – (31a)
—
B5c(33)
[Editor’s note: An earlier draft of this affidavit appears here.]
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit s/
Sandi Cobb Jones
I, Sandi Cobb Jones, being duly sworn, declare:
These are my experiences and observations:
Jim Cobb: (my brother) used to beat on his sisters, who are all younger than he when we were growing up. He talked a lot about revolution, and being a revolutionary, about how he hated capitalism and that he was a communist. He used to say how much he hated white people but he was always with a white girl. He and Terry Cobb used to fight all the time when they were young. She would chase him with knives and he would constantly fight with her. It puzzles me how they are so allied now. Jim Cobb used to have guns with him. He would always try to teach me to aim and shoot. The guns were not registered, as far as I know.
Terry Cobb (my sister) used to molest me when she was 11 years old, and I was only seven years old. She warned me not to tell my mother. She used to kill tiny chickens, saying that they were after her. She also killed a baby kitten for the same reason. Terry used to pinch Wayne Pietla on his penis in front of myself and our younger brothers and sister.
Wayne Pietila – told me that Jim Cobb should be killed for leaving the group.
He said that in one of their meetings that Jim Cobb had conducted, Jim Cobb told them that if anybody was to leave the group, that they were traitors. Wayne said that some day, he might have to kill Jim Cobb for leaving. This was their own teaching, and no one introduced this to them. Wayne said that he and Jim Cobb would make up their own security force.
Dated: July 29, 1977
Witnesses: Sandi Cobb Jones
[signature illegible]
—
B5c(34)
[Editor’s note: A copy of this affidavit also appears here.]
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit s/
[blank]
I, Sandra Jones, being duly sworn, declare:
Jim Cobb, Terri Cobb, Wayne Pietla [Pietila] and the others who left the church because we didn’t believe in violence said that someday a situation would come up because of them that would force us into violence. Jim Cobb and Terri Cobb are my natural brother and sister.
/s/ Sandra Jones
Dated July 27, 1977
Witnessed: [illegible signature]
—
B5c(35)
[Editor’s note: An earlier draft of this affidavit appears here.]
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit s/
[blank signature line]
I, Laura Johnston, being duly sworn, declare:
Mertles – I remember hearing Deanna Mertle state that she got sexual pleasure when she heard children screaming from pain.
I remember seeing Elmer Mertle lying under the bus while on one of the Peoples Temple summer trips with his two teen-age daughters Linda and Diane. When someone else got under the bus to sleep he physically threw them out of the compartment (I think Joe Wilson).
Rick Cordell – When I was new to Peoples Temple and suicidal often messing myself up physically and mentally on drugs, Rick purposely tried to set up a sexual relationship, even though he was married and had many children.
Jack Arnold Beam – During my first 6 months living in Redwood Valley, I was very confused from my preceding experiences with drugs. After specifically being exhorted by Rev. Jim Jones not to pursue me because of my emotional state – Jack Arnold Beam was involved with me and as result I had oral sex with him in a truck in front of his house. He was 7 or 8 years my senior but took advantage of me when I was near suicide, and very unstable emotionally. Jack Arnold has initiated a sexual relationship with 2 minor girls at least – Mable Cordell and his wife Cindi Ponts (Beam) though he was at least 10 years their senior. He often talked about how he was very grateful that Pastor Jones had helped get him off of drugs and into a productive life. Then, again, when he was leaving the Peoples Temple Community his ethics again washed out and he beat his foster child cruelly.
/s/ Laura Johnston
Dated July 29, 1977
Witnessed:
[illegible signature]
—
B5c(36)
[Editor’s note: An earlier draft of this statement appears here.]
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit s/
[blank signature line]
I, Laura Johnston, being duly sworn, declare:
Liz Forman told me numerous times about how she used to be so sick, she couldn’t hold a job down. She relied on her relatives for money to live on, and slept 12-16 hours a day just to escape. She often said that she felt healthy physically and mentally since coming to Peoples Temple. With her personality – deviations and idiosyncrasies – only a tolerant group would have been able to work with her. When she first came, her life was palm reading and stargazing. She couldn’t deal with reality, and just about went into hysterics over the thought of poisoning, or anything not immaculate. Her sexual hangups carried once throughout her personality and her hypochondria.
Laura Johnston
Dated July 29, 1977
Witnessed:
[illegible signature]
—
B5c(37)
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit s/
Laura Johnston
I, Laura Johnston, being duly sworn, declare:
I remember on a bus trip, when John Stoen was about 1 year old, and asleep, that Grace Stoen kept caressing his hair in a sexual way, bothering him with the fussing, so that finally other adults had to intercede before she totally disturbed his sleep.
I remember numerous times in Redwood Valley, San Francisco, and Los Angeles when Grace Stoen would ignore her son John to such a point that he would become hysterical because of her inattention.
Grace Stoen always had men around her, and she would encourage them to confide in her. Grace and her husband also took young people into their home, and then Grace would make them feel sorry for her, or – she did cry about how one wasn’t helping her with another problem youngster. Once I remember, Grace crying almost hysterically in front of one youth, complaining about how he hadn’t been helpful enough with another young man named Vincent [Lopez]. I think she used Vincent as a means of manipulating his foster dad, who she later ran off with, leaving her son behind.
She would pick young people who she liked, and excused them of any wrongdoing, but she would come down very hard on others, without regard to their background or family problems, etc. She would cause division between people, and talk viciously behind the backs of some women to get in tight with their companions. She was generally cruel to people she didn’t like.
Grace worked for a while in a convalescent hospital, and knew how to talk about the poor way the patients were treated; but she spent long hours with the others who worked there, laughing about their idiosyncrasies and mocking the patients. Even though she definitely “knew better”, I found that Grace was commonly cruel and insensitive to people, even when she had absolutely no reason to want to abuse them.
/s/ Laura Johnston
Dated: 13 August, 1977
Subscribed to and sworn before me,
a Commissioner of Oaths of the
Republic of Guyana
[illegible signature]
—
B5c(38)
[Editor’s note: An earlier draft of this affidavit appears here.]
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit s/
I, Robert Johnson, being duly sworn, declare:
I previously worked for Birdie Marable in 1974 and 1975 helping with the patients in the care home and with chores around the home. I know how she refused to give allowance to one of her patients Ella Mae Hoskins. Birdie would keep Ella Mae’s money on herself. I know Birdie had money in the bank and different times I was with Birdie when she would buy clothes, food and whatever she wanted. Birdie drank constantly when I would go by in the morning Birdie would be drinking and at night when it was time for the patients to go to bed Birdie would be drunk.
Another lady Annie Washington was a patient of Birdie’s. Annie did not receive proper medical care. Birdie Marable did not take her to the doctor when she needed to go. One fact is that she did not take care of any of the patients like they needed to be. She did not change bedding on time. Birdie talked rough to her patients, especially when she was drunk.
When Birdie’s husband came to visit, she put him in a small cabin at the back of the house. She would whip him with her fists and one time she hurt him bad enough to send him to the hospital.
Birdie told me that she had $300.00 from Mrs. LeTourneau, another patient, which she borrowed to get an abortion. I’m fairly certain she never paid Mrs. LeTourneau back.
A man lived at the care home who was Birdie’s boyfriend. She said she wanted to marry him except she was already married. He used to beat her up when other patients were present.
Another lady, Velma Darnes, had an aunt who was a bed patient at Birdie Marable’s. Birdie let this patient stay wet and dirty. Birdie took money from her. This lady wanted to leave Birdie but Birdie refused to let the woman leave.
/s/ Robert Johnson
Dated July 29, 1977
Witnessed:
[illegible signature]
—-
B5c(39)
[Editor’s note: An earlier draft of this affidavit appears here.]
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit s/
[blank signature line]
I, Maria Katsaris, being duly sworn, declare:
Jeanette and I were both living in the church-sponsored dorms in Santa Rosa. This was in 1975. Jeanette was always talking about her lesbian experiences and fantasies and how much she hated men. One day she told us (myself and some of the other students at the dorms) that she would often masturbate with cucumbers and carrots wrapped in saran wrap. She got them out of the refrigerator and returned them to the refrigerator. She found it very funny that we would then eat the vegetables without knowing it.
/s/ Maria Katsaris
Dated July 29, 1977
Witnessed:
[illegible signature]
—
B5c(40)
[Editor’s note: Page either missing or misnumbered]
—
B5c(41)
[Editor’s note: An earlier unsigned draft of this statement appears here.]
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit of
Anita Kelley
I, Anita Kelley, duly sworn declare:
- “Deanna Mertle” stated that she was sexually attracted to Sandy Rozynko, a minor.
- One night “Deanna Mertle” called Peoples Temple and stated that there were certain children in her home that she no longer wanted there, and she brought them to the Temple – clothes and all – and left without speaking to anyone about the care or welfare of these children. Among the children she dropped off were three of her own: Linda Faye Mertle, Steve Mertle, and Eddie Mertle. Deanna kept three children at home: Sandy Rozynko, Diana Mertle and Lillie Victor, a black teenager whom Deanna kept out of school at the 11th grade level and made her stay home and do the housework and watch the youngest child, Daphene Mertle. Lillie expressed resentment later to me about this because the white children in the home were allowed to go to school, while she was deprived of her education and made to serve the others. Lillie later left the Mertle household on her own after she became 18 years old.
- Linda Mertle reported to me that she observed her dad, “Elmer Mertle,” having a sexual affair with Sandy Rozynhko. who was a minor.
- Mike Kelley constantly used drugs – anything he could get hold of. He used to tell doctors that he couldn’t sleep, and he would persuade the doctor to give him narcotics for fictitious chronic headaches, and barbiturates for sleep. Mike then shared these drugs with others that he had persuaded to take them with him. Mike also told me that he sexually molested a 15-year-old girl in Los Angeles. He was 28 at the time.
- Jim Cobb, Terri Cobb and Wayne Pietila imposed strict rules and heavy mental stress on the other students in the dorms provided for students being sponsored in college by Peoples Temple. Yet they took special exceptions for themselves, excusing it because they were “leadership,” in the Temple. Not only did they berate the light-skinned people to degrade themselves, but they also harassed the black people to get them to express racism.
B5c(41a)
/s/ Anita Kelley
Dated July 29, 1977
Witnessed:
[illegible signature]
—
B5c(42)
[Editor’s note: A copy of this affidavit appears here.]
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit s/
[blank signature line]
I, Anita Kelley, being sworn, declare:
Beatrice Lawson – Atty at Law – Los Angeles – Beatrice is a cousin of mine who works for a law firm in Los Angeles, California. I was visiting in her room one night in the Spring of 1977 when I saw the remains of a half smoked marijuana cigarette lying on her end table in the living room. This was also witnessed by Lee Ingram and Gene Chaikin.
Elsie Victoria Moore – LVN – is my natural sister. She used to have a “massage parlor” in Indianapolis, Indiana, which was raided by the police and she was arrested because she and her employees were giving sexual favors to the customers.
Faith Kice, LVN – I was acquainted with Faith during the time I was dating my former husband. Faith is to offer us condoms and encourage us to have sex. This was early in our relationship.
Jim Cobb – He organized groups of young people between the years 1968-1971 and taught classes and tactics in guerrilla warfare and violent revolution. He constantly promoted the idea of a violent overthrow of the government. One day, Jim had spent the night as a houseguest in our home, and he got into my bed uninvited and tried to have sex with me although he did not succeed.
/s/ Anita C. Kelley
Dated July 29, 1977
Witnessed:
[illegible signature]
—
B5c(43)
[Editor’s note: A copy of this affidavit appears here.]
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit s/
[blank signature line]
I, Anita Kelley, being duly sworn, declare:
Elsie Victoria Moore – Tommy Ijames her son was living with me during the summer of 1976. Tommy went home to spend some time with Vicky. When he came back, Thomas told me that he walked into a room and witnessed his mother sexually molesting his younger brother.
Anita C. Kelley
Dated July 29, 1977
Witnessed:
[illegible signature]
—
B5c(44)
[Editor’s note: A copy of this affidavit appears here.]
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit s/
[blank signature line]
I, Anita Kelley, being duly sworn, declare:
Mike Kelley – I was married to him from June 1970 to Oct. 1974. June 1975, our divorce was finalized. During that time, Mike stole items such as office supplies, a micrometer, a warning horn and electrical supplies from the Masonite Corporation where he worked. Mike left home one day and did not return for two weeks. When he did return, he could talk of nothing else but the homosexual relationships and experiences he had while he was gone. During the time that we were married, Mike had a relationship (sexual) with another man, he told me about it and at the same time encouraged me to have another sexual relationship with a coworker at Georgia-Pacific, where he was then working, although he denied it. In the summer of 1974, Mike began sleeping with a woman who was almost twice my age. Consequently I left him and he moved in with Rose Gieg.
During the time that I was married to Mike, he told me that I was warped emotionally because I did not like certain sexual positions with him, and because I disliked oral sex.
During the last month that I was with Mike, I did not have a job, and was totally dependent on him, yet he refused to give me any money for groceries, gas, or laundry.
Anita C. Kelley
Dated July 29, 1977
Witnessed:
[illegible signature]
—
B5c(45)
[Editor’s note: An earlier draft of this affidavit appears here.]
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit s/
[blank signature line]
I, Carol Kerns, being duly sworn, declare:
My natural sister Ruth Kerns has always been very mean to me all through our childhood together. She used to tie me up and hit me with switches that would leave welts all over my legs and arms. She and Phillip used to gang up on me, holding me down and spit in my face. My mom would go out and leave Ruth home to babysit with me. Ruth would leave me alone in the house to go off with her boyfriends, I was just ten years old. When I was in fifth grade Ruth taught me how to kiss. I told her I didn’t want to but she told me I had to or else boys wouldn’t like me. Then she would kiss me on my mouth for a long time and feel on me. When her boyfriends would come over, who were much older than she was, she would have me watch while they “practiced” love-making. Ruth used to brag about smoking and her first cigarettes she had smoked in Sacramento. One time she put me in a room alone with this boy and encouraged us to have sex together. We just talked, but she wanted to know everything we did. She used to stand in front of the mirror and jump up and down, telling me how beautiful her breasts were and how ugly mine were. She messed around with many guys but she got pregnant from Danny Pietila and got an abortion. She was supposed to be Robin Wages’ best friend at the time this happened. Robin and Danny were going together. She used to go into stores and steal clothes, cameras, bathing suits, food, and a coat. When I was in the tenth grade, Ruth accused me of having an affair with Rev. Jim Jones. I had never even been alone in the same room with him, he is the most principled person I have ever met, and it really burned me up when she said this. Ruth has always been a very violent person. She used to say that the only way to get rid of your enemies and would be to kill them. She thought of herself as a revolutionary out to change the world. Ruth was a very hardcore person who couldn’t care less about older people. When she worked at Hacienda Convalescent Hospital in Ukiah, she left an old crippled man in the bath alone and said she didn’t care if he drowned.
/s/ Carol Kerns
Dated July 29, 1977
Witnessed:
[illegible signature]
—
B5c(46)
[Editor’s note: An earlier draft of this affidavit appears here.]
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit of
[blank signature line]
I, Carol Kerns, being duly sworn, declare:
I was a house guest at the Mertles for a few weeks during the summer vacation of school. I was about fourteen years old. I knocked on the door and was told to come in. Elmer Mertle was standing there completely nude. I was embarrassed and started to walk out of the room. I was told not to go, that it never bothered any of the other girls, meaning his own two daughters. I still walked out since I was not raised this way. I was really young and it made me feel real bad.
/s/ Carol Kerns
Dated July 29, 1977
Witnessed:
[illegible signature]
—
B5c(47)
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit of
[blank signature line]
I, Carol Kerns, being duly sworn, declare:
I used to visit next door to Birdie Marable’s licensed care home on Snuffin St. where the front door faced Oak St. Birdie used to show me her freezer’s full of meat and food bragging to me that they were never empty. She was always cooking plenty of food. She was obviously lying when she said Peoples Temple took her money and wouldn’t take her home enough to eat. I have seen her drunk on one or two occasions that I remember specifically. Her husband was staying with her in the little house off of the big house. Birdie used to stay out there with him away from the patients who had no means of communicating with her if anything went wrong. She was drunk at one time and screaming and shouting real loud outside of her back door at her husband. She used to drive to the store leaving the patients on their own. She yelled at them and insulted them frequently.
Carol Kerns
Dated July 29, 1977
Witnessed:
[illegible signature]
—
B5c(48)
[Editor’s note: An earlier draft of this affidavit appears here.]
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit s/
[blank signature line]
I, Carol Kerns, being duly sworn, declare:
Jeanette Kerns is my natural sister. When she was in college in Santa Rosa she asked Deborah Evans one of the church’s other students if it would be all right if she had sex with her husband. She told Debbie she should be willing to share him. Jeanette used to always tell me how awful men were and that I should hate them. When I was 5 years old and my natural brother Philip Kerns was 11 or 12 years old he raped me. He did this on several occasions. He told me never to tell anyone. He tried to get me to have sex with our dog when we lived in Sanger, California. Philip used to get cats and throw them into big bonfires. He used to tie cans to their tails and light them on fire and enjoy watching them run and scream. Philip used to have a paper route and whenever he wanted money he would go collect from the customers and spend it. He used to take me with him. He taught me how to hot-wire my Grandpa’s truck which he used to take several times. He told me when we lived in Sanger he wanted to kill me for telling on him. The only reason he joined the Army was so that he could clear his record. He had spent several years in boys homes and Sacramento Youth Authority. He was supposed to have gone to San Quentin but he escaped from the Youth Authority. He went AWOL from the Army while he was stationed in Germany. As far as I know he is still AWOL.
/s/ Carol Kerns
Dated July 29, 1977
Witnessed:
[illegible signature]
—
B5c(49)
[Editor’s note: A copy of this affidavit appears here.]
Georgetown,
Guyana, South America
Affidavit of
Carolyn Looman
I, Carolyn Looman, duly sworn declare:
Grace Stoen used to alarm me very much with the way she treated her child, John. More than any other mother in Peoples Temple, she used to scream and yell at him for nothing, even when he was still small. She would spank him almost to the point of beating him, for some slight childlike thing. Even as a two or three-year-old, John was exceptionally bright and sensitive, and more than most children that age he would respond beautifully to reasoning. I am absolutely certain there was no justification for the extreme reactions she had against John. She would smother him with affection one moment and in turn on him very harshly the next. Grace was frequently very busy, but other mothers under similar pressure did not react at all with the cruelty that Grace shown toward John.
Actually, though she had moments of sensitivity, she, more than any other person in Peoples Temple, would do things to others that I thought were just downright mean. I tried to overlook this streak in her because she was a hard worker and I assumed she must have a fair amount of human concern, but, in fact it always bothered me that she would do mean things even when there was nothing to provoke her.
/s/ Carolyn Looman
Dated: August 12, 1977
Subscribed to and sworn before me,
Commissioner of Oaths of the Republic of Guyana
—
B5c(50)
[Editor’s note: A copy of this affidavit appears here.]
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit s/
[blank signature line]
I, Shanda Oliver, being duly sworn, declare:
Micki [Mickey] Touchette stated that she worked in the offering room, which was true. I, Shanda Oliver, also worked in the offering room at that time. She said we would write the count of the offering on a piece of paper and send it up to the Pastor. That statement is not true. We never, ever wrote the count down. We’d send one person usually the same person to tell the count. I can’t ever recall Micki taking the count to him. Then again Pastor Jones doesn’t say how much the count is, just makes an appeal when necessary.
My sister, Silvia Upshaw, called me Monday evening July 25th, she told me that she had been harassed on her job and wanted to know how the Mertles knew where she worked. She said Diana Mertle, Mert [Elmer] Mertle, Linda Mertle and Ruth Kerns came to talk to her trying to make her come to their side. Since she was a former member and left the church. They said they were trying to recruit everyone possible. They told her about beatings, faith healings and all sorts of things she stated. She said they offered her protection, if she [would] say Jim Jones had personally beat & tortured people. They warned her that the temple would have violence there. She said she didn’t know if they meant a bomb or shooting? They also stated that they were getting larger in size and knew so much about the temple than she can imagine. Silvia no longer wanted her son there at the Temple, not because of Jim Jones but because they said “violence will be done to the temple” (those are her words). She told him she didn’t want to speak for them, because she didn’t want to get involved. She also said “she didn’t leave the temple for reasons they were telling her. She left only for personal reasons.
/s/ Shanda M. Oliver
Dated July 29, 1977
Witnessed:
[illegible signature]
—
B5c(51)
[Editor’s note: An earlier draft of this affidavit appears here.]
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit s/
[blank signature line]
I, Joyce Parks, being duly sworn, declare:
Jim Cobb stole athletic equipment from the Ukiah High School Department. Included were basketballs, footballs, ankle weights and different assorted clothing items.
Jim Cobb would have what he called “Revolutionary” meetings and drilled on people in guerrilla warfare. He would insist that they call out obscenities about the government and that all “white” people were the cause of black repression. He made multiple references that he would kill the President and all government officials by bombing, murder or any other thing that would destroy the “system.” He would laugh and say it would be so good to kill “Washington, D.C.” and turn the world around. Also, he has been emotionally and physically extremely cruel to several different women. He would have sexual experiences with one woman and say that others came onto him and that he had no choice but to “service” them. He would not work but instead lived off these different people. On many different occasions he stole money out of my purse and would take my car for hours without asking to use it. If you questioned his whereabouts he would threaten to “kick ass” that no one questions him and that he does as he pleases. He would have young women have oral sexual experience with him i.e., Jan Wilsey, Mary Ruth, Sharon Cobb and myself. He, in my case, would make me rub his genitalia and after climax he would insist I spread it over his body with my hands and mouth. He would insist on having intercourse into my rectum and forcefully hold me down to the point of bruising my arms and tell me that I was perverted for not doing these weird sexual practices. I was to the point of losing my mind. He would threaten to beat me and on occasion did if I told anyone what he did. He also would stand over me while I was sleeping like a madman and would laugh hysterically about frightening you. Jim Cobb decided he wanted to go into dentistry. He said he would use his race to get into school. He didn’t have to go through channels but that he would use anyone or anybody to graduate so he could make money off of people.
Joyce A. Parks
Dated July 29, 1977
Witnessed:
[illegible signature]
—
B5c(52)
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit of
Joyce Parks
I, Joyce Parks, being duly sworn, declare:
That I went to Mrs. Grace Stoen’s home one evening and found that she had left the house and left her son, John, alone with a ten year old child. The house had no heat and the ten year old was crying and said that Mrs. Stoen had left her with John the night before and had not returned. I was able to contact her husband, Timothy Stoen, who asked me to take the child home with me until he could pick him up the next morning. John was in my home on many occasions and constantly arrived dirty. The child would say that his mother was always out and did not have any time to take care of him.
/s/ Joyce A. Parks
Dated: August 12, 1977
Subscribed to and sworn before me, a
Commissioner of Oaths of the
Republic of Guyana
—
B5c(53)
[Editor’s note: An outline form of this affidavit appears here.]
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit s/
[blank signature line]
I, Larry Schacht, being duly sworn, declare:
Wayne Pietla [Pietila] advocated the violent overthrow of the government of the USA. He taught classes in guerrilla warfare. He idolized Che Guevara and was always quick to say he would perform violent acts for his beliefs. He idolized Che Guevara and was always quick to say he would perform violent acts for his beliefs. He threatened to slap the shit out of Denise Buckmaster and called her a liberal bitch.
Jim Cobb had no regard for others. Set off a firecracker in the dining room without warning while I was sitting there. I was making A’s until Jim Cobb forced me and others to stay up all night and we couldn’t study for tests. He destroyed the morale in the dorms with these encounter sessions. Jim always lied to us and said that the college students were the vanguard of the revolution that he proposed to lead. He organized and led militaristic maneuvers in the hills around Ukiah. He organized a lot of divisions from school work when I lived in Oakland. Jim had weekend parties and was very aloof from the rest of the group. At a dormitory meeting in 1972, Jim Cobb pulled down his fly and flopped out his penis and said to all of the boys in the meeting, “see I have a little dick.” One of the other students said “Jim why do you always expose yourself like that.” His patterns were very sloppy. He slept in the living room, left his dishes on the floor and books scattered about. Once when walking to the bus stop we were behind Mickey Touchette. Jim Cobb turned to me and said indicating to Micki’s rear end, “something is wrong with her pussy.” He made sexual overtures to almost every female student in the dorms.
Mickey Touchette was very irresponsible. She wrecked several cars including Wayne’s. She would aspirate air into her vagina and expelled. She demonstrated this for groups of other students.
Jim Cobb stole library books from Sonoma State College and bragged to us about his technique of deception. He told several of us new church members that he was really turned on by a female student before he came to the church who stuck her boobs into his back while he was at his locker. This kind of talk was not a good example for us.
/s/ Laurence E. Schacht
Dated July 29, 1977
Witnessed:
[illegible signature]
—
B5c(54)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of Andrew Silvers [Silver]
I,
That Jeanette Kerns Hommen [Hooman] was a person that I knew and went to college with. She was very much a part of the bourgoise [bourgeoise] life and often talked about finding herself a wealthy man and living in luxury. While she was a member of the Peoples Temple she used the church to finance her education. She was not a serious student, as became evident halfway through her college education. She was seen attending and associating with members of the right wing, conservative political party on campus and she had affiliations with fundamentalist, evangelists who preached a reactionary doctrine on various campuses and they were commonly known amongst the socialist groups to be back and financed by the CIA. The Temple youth became suspicious of her activities and associations and questioned her motives as being a member of a progressive church. Her response was cold and soon after, left the area.
After not seeing her for several months, she returned to the Temple with her newly acquired husband, the son of a government official of Iran. He was very supportive of the brutal fascist regime of the Shah of Iran. Mr. Hummone was in the United States being educated at the expense of the Lockheed International Corporation in an arrangement made by his father, who represented the Shah, and arms sales negotiations. He defended the imprisonment of the political dissidents, and the torturing of anyone who
B5c(54a)
-2-
questioned the policies of the government. Jeanette, agreeing with him fully, she stated that she was soon to move there and settle down. She expressed that she didn’t care about the suffering of the poor of Iran but was interested in the wealth that she would receive when she got there.
We mentioned to her that her mother and sister were going to Guyana to visit and possibly live. Both she and her husband objected, saying that only niggers lived in the little jungle and that they wouldn’t have it and would do everything in their power to hinder such a move. Jeanette said that Guyana “has gone Communist” and she wouldn’t allow her family to go there.
Dated this 10th day of August, 1977.
/s/ Andrew M. Silver
Andrew Silver
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ James R. Randolph
Notary Public
—
B5c(55)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of Andy Silver
I, Andy Silver, being duly sworn, declare:
That I was a student in the Peoples Temple college student program with Jim Cobb, Wayne Pietilla [Pietila], Terri Cobb Pietilla, and Micki Touchette. Many of the young people, some recently out of the drug world, were confused about themselves, their identity (sexual and ethnic) and their personal goals, and looked in particular to Jim Cobb for direction and inspiration. Using reverse racism, he required the white students to prove they weren’t racist by showing him respect as a Black man. He would stand on a table in front of them at house meetings, spouting political rhetoric, advocating terrorist activities and denouncing various political heroes as “Tom’s” including Malcolm X for his later integrationist views. He would then order the women who were quite to come forward, sometimes to kiss his feet, and other times to touch his privates. He established a paramilitary organization among the students, and established a library on how to make bombs, blow up municipal institutions, and made many contacts for the acquisition of guns.
While he was still a student, the church began developing plans to begin an agricultural mission field in Guyana. He tried to divide the congregation from the church leadership over whether the Temple philosophy was consistent with the philosophy of the Guyanese government, and whether the socialist ideas of the Guyanese government were sincere or diversionary.
B5c(55a)
-2-
another example of his using the church was in his asking various church people to recommend him to a dental school scholarship committee; he was shortly thereafter awarded an eleven thousand dollar scholarship. He then quit the church.
Dated this 10th day of August, 1977.
/s/ Andy Silver
Andy Silver
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ James R. Randolph
Notary Public
—
B5c(56)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of Carol Stahl
I,
That Terry Cobb Pietila said that Guyana was the most racist place in South America. She said the government can power and tried to cause race riots between East Indians and blacks there. She said the black government was educated and “rules” over the Chinese East Indians, and native people there. She said there was no national unity in Guyana, just domination by blacks, and that there was discrimination in the highest and lowest places. She told me there were still riots going on, and that particularly the sugar workers, who were East Indian, lived in terrible poverty. The reason that the government in power had kept this racial animosity up was that the only way they could rule was through “divide and conquer” tactics. She said they were complicit with the CIA in this.
Dated this 15th day of August, 1977.
/s/ Carol Stahl
Carol Stahl
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ James R. Randolph
Notary Public
—
B5c(57)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of Carol A. Stahl
I, Carol A. Stahl, being duly sworn, declare:
I have known Jim Jones for the past 12 years.
I met Walter Jones, “Smitty”, when he first came to Peoples Temple, about four years ago. He avoided having anything to do with any of our black members if he could possibly do it. He made the comment that the only reason he even came was to please his wife.
He knew nothing about socialism and made no effort to learn. Whenever Jim Jones talked about Guyana and the beautiful Socialist government there, Walter would find something to do so as not to have to listen.
During the spring of 1976, Walter Jones went to Guyana for a visit. When he came back, he had nothing but derogatory remarks to make. He said things like, “…the country is generally 50 years behind the US.” Several times he said that the Guyanese didn’t even know how to wire their houses or cities. He said they were unable to keep the voltage consistent and that they didn’t even know any better than to have 50 cycle current. Then he would laugh in his superior way. He constantly put down the people there, saying that they were not equipped to handle routine work with machines and tools. I remember one remark he made about how you couldn’t trust the “darkies” to do it there anymore than you can home… that you’d have to do it for them. Walter said that he had been up to Matthews Ridge to see what there was in terms of facilities and materials. He said that all that was there was what the Union Carbide Co. had left. He said that since the Guyanese couldn’t repair anything so complicated, that it was all run down. He said that if Burnham had any savvy, he would welcome the company back again to get the place built back up.
B5c(57a)
Walter said that he had read the Burnham worked for the CIA before and was probably still doing so. He called cooperative living a farce because people were too lazy to work for themselves, let alone for their neighbor. He said that at least the British know this and kept things running.
In regards to the young man, Vincent Lopez, who is now living in Jonestown, Walter had nothing but disparaging remarks to make about him. Walter said Vincent was rather limited in his abilities and that he was incorrigible. Once on a summer trip we made back east just after Vincent for Guyana, Walter said that Vincent wouldn’t be able to learn much from the “darkie” Guyanese schools. He went on, saying but then what could Vincent do anyway, since he was pretty ”dark” too. He remarked that the poor dumb little “wetback” wouldn’t even know if he were happy or not.
Dated this 17th day of August, 1977.
/s/ Carol Stahl
Carol Stahl
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ James R. Randolph
Notary Public
—
B5c(58)
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit s/
[blank signature line]
I, Deborah Touchette, being sworn, declare:
In the winter of 1976, Walter Jones came to Guyana and visited the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project in the North West District, and appeared so impressed by what he saw here. In fact, he indicated he would like to move here as soon as possible. He saw his foster child here and said he had never seen Vincent doing so well; he was amazed and very pleased at Vincent’s change and progress.
/s/
Dated: 13 August, 1977
Subscribed to and sworn before me, a
Commissioner of Oaths of the
Republic of Guyana
—
B5c(59)
[Editor’s note: An earlier draft of this affidavit appears here.]
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit s/
[blank signature line]
I, Michelle Touchette, being duly sworn, declare:
Mickey Touchette is my natural sister. When I was between the age of eight and eleven I was laying on my bed and Mickey came in and violently threw herself and a pillow over my face. I gasped to get my breath, fighting trying to get away. When she lifted the pillow from my face she was laughing hysterically. My face had turned blue from lack of oxygen, I was shaking trying to get my breath. Mickey Touchette stole $100.00 from our parents in September of 1974.
Michelle Touchette
Dated: July 29, 1977
Witnessed:
[illegible signature]
—
B5c(60)
[Editor’s note: An earlier draft of this statement appears here.]
Georgetown
Cooperative Republic of Guyana
Affidavit s/
[blank signature line]
I, Rita J. Tupper, being duly sworn, declare:
I used to know David and Donna Conn, and I was formerly married to Lawrence Tupper. David Conn used to live with Elmer and Zoe Mertle and their family’s. They pooled all of their monies and lived communally, in El Sobrante, Ca. with several others. David Conn used to see Donna Black (Conn) while he was still married to his wife, Iris. David Conn and Zoe Mertle had a sexual relationship while they were both still married. Donna Black (Conn) had sex with Elmer Mertle, while he was still married to Zoe. Donna Conn had sex with Lawrence Tupper while he was still married. This took place in Donna’s home on several occasions. The Conn’s used to go to all-night meetings with the Mertles. where a lot of drinking took place. Pairing off occurred after the meetings. Stripping took place on occasion. Donna Conn used to call Mr. Lawrence Tupper up a lot at his home and oftentimes late at night.
/s/ Rita J. Tupper
Dated July 29, 1977
Witnessed:
[illegible signature]
—
B5c(61)
[Editor’s note: This affidavit also appears here.]
Georgetown,
Guyana, South America
Affidavit of [blank]
I, Rita Tupper, being duly sworn, declare:
I have seen Grace Stoen treat her son, John, with much cruelty. She used to yell at him and lose control of her temper when he did not please her. I have seen her hit him repeatedly and cruelly when she was mad.
I have heard her tell Rev. Jim Jones that he could have the child and that she did not want him.
She has said many times she was unable to cope with the child. She neglected him, never bathing him regularly or feeding him properly. She was never home to care for John, always left him with someone else. Other people as busy as she was found ways to spend more time with their children, but Grace did not seem to care enough to work this out.
Grace continually pressured Rev. Jones to give her sexual attention, even though she knew he did not like that. She continued to bother him anyway.
She used to go into deep depressions and moodiness, and she used to say she wanted to destroy herself, and was unbalanced in her actions. She would scream and yell and go on for hours, and someone in the church would have to go over and assist her, to try and calm her down, which often took hours and hours.
She left her son John with Rev. Jones to care for while she was running around with Walter Jones, even though she was married at the time. She never once checked to see if John was o.k. On one vacation trip, which lasted several weeks, she never cared for the child or spent any time with him; instead she left him for someone else to care for.
/s/ Rita J. Tupper
Dated: 13 August, 1977
Subscribed to and sworn before me,
Commissioner of Oaths of the Republic of Guyana
—
B5c(62)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of Harriet Tropp
I, Harriet Tropp, being duly sworn, declare:
That I was one of the college students in the dormitory at the same time as Jim Cobb, Terry and Wayne Pietilla [Pietila], Micki Touchette. When discussions would come up about the possibility of building an agricultural mission, all of the above-named parties were very much against it. They called Guyana a Banana Republic, accused President [Prime Minister Forbes] Burnham of being a CIA plant and circulated literature stemming from an opposition movement within Guyana whose publication I believe was called “Dayclean.”
They furthe They called Guyana a Banana Republic, accused President [Prime Minister Forbes] Burnham of being a CIA plant and circulated literature stemming from an opposition movement within Guyana whose publication I believe was called “Dayclean.”
rmore believed that socialism would never be achieved in the manner of hard work and cooperation, but were solely interested in what they called “glorious revolution” – violent overthrow of capitalist systems. They said Guyana was a “hole” and backward and had no intentions of helping the church build a cooperative farm.
It seemed to me at all times that these were people who had no consistent commitment to socialist principle but were rather interested only in recruiting supporters for their anarchistic, self-aggrandizing goals, which allow them to “play
B5c(62a)
-2-
revolution” without the rigors of self-discipline. From the time the Temple started to consider building a socialist alternative in Guyana, these people worked actively against it.
Dated this 5th day of August, 1977.
/s/ Harriet Tropp
Harriet Tropp
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ James R. Randolph
Notary Public
—
[Editor’s note: B5c(63) – (63a) duplicate B5c(62) – (62a)]
—
B5c(64)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of Robin Tschetter
I, Robin Tschetter, being duly sworn, declare:
That when I was under age and still in high school, Jim Cobb made advances towards me and even had me come over to his house and he would try to get me to go to bed with him. He would pressure me by saying that I must be a racist if I didn’t want to go to bed with him and then one day, he forced my clothes off of me and pushed me into the bedroom. He told me if I would scream he’d hurt me and then he made many horrible acts with him. It has affected my ability to relate to other men now and I hate him for that. He had me bend down and lick his buttocks, then made me take his penis in his mouth and suck it and swallow whatever he did in my mouth. He laughed when I cried and said that I deserved it since I was a honkie. I was young and very impressionable. I believed that he would hurt me and get me in deep trouble with my extremely strick [strict] parents. He tried to get me to take drugs and told me that if I ever told anyone he would get even with me.
When I was only 16, he had me take some barbiturates that made me very drowsy and drunk.
Dated this 17th day of August 1977.
/s/ Robin Tschetter
Robin Tschetter
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ James R. Randolph
Notary Public
—
[Editor’s note: B5d(1) – (1a) duplicate B5c(6) – (6a)]
—
[Editor’s note: B5d(2) – (2a) duplicate B5c(5) – (5b)]
—
B5d(3)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of G. Donald Beck
I, G. Donald Beck, being duly sworn, declare:
During the school year 1974-75, I went over to Birdie Marable’s rest home on Snuffin Street in Ukiah, California, to help move a resident out. This resident was afraid of Birdie Marable and did not think that she would be able to move herself and her things without help. I was with Jim McElvane. We asked the police to stand by and they met us at the home. Birdie let us all in, but when Jim and I offered to help carry out the departing resident’s things, Birdie became very angry and hostile and hit me on the top of my head. I went to the emergency room at the hospital and was not able to perform my job as a schoolteacher the next day. The resident’s furniture was carried out by the police department.
While we were there, a woman told Jim McElvane that she was afraid to move out also. He told her to speak with police officers about it. One of the police officers subsequently told me that the lady had indeed told him she was afraid to move.
Dated this [blank space] day of [blank space], 1977.
[blank line]
G. Donald Beck
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
[blank space]
—
B5d(4)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of Sandra Bradshaw
I, Sandra Bradshaw, being duly sworn, declare:
I live at 2544 Sutter Street, San Francisco, California. I have been a member of Peoples Temple for nearly 8 years. I have served the County of Mendocino for over 7 years as a Deputy Probation Officer. Just before I came to Peoples Temple, I worked with Janet Schular [Shular] Ulanski at the child care center at Fulton and Steiner Streets in San Francisco. I have the opportunity to observe Janet working with children from the ages of approximately two to five years old. On a number of occasions, I saw Janet use excessive force and coercion on children. One case in particular that I recall was a four-year-old name Kenny Sadler. Janet used such force on him that in the process, he received a split lip from her. When his mother picked him up that afternoon, Janet told her that Kenny had hurt his mouth by fighting with another child.
Janet was essentially trying to play one person against another. She lied considerably. She made a point of saying that she had received her Masters Degree in Child Education, when in reality, she had not even finished college. I worked with Janet for approximately one year before I came to Peoples Temple and I knew her for some time before that. I witnessed Janet’s impatience and overreaction to children’s misdeeds on a number of occasions during the year that I worked with her.
Dated this 30th day of July, 1977.
/s/ Sandra Bradshaw
Sandra Bradshaw
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
Martha E. Klingman
—
[Editor’s note: B5d(5) – (5a) duplicate B5c(14) – (14a)]
—
[Editor’s note: B5d(6) – (6a) duplicate B5c(11) – (11a)]
—
B5d(7)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Sandra L. Bradshaw
I, Sandra L. Bradshaw, being duly sworn, declare:
I live at 2544 Sutter Street, San Francisco, California. I have worked as a Deputy Probation Officer for the County of Mendocino for over seven years. I have been a member of Peoples Temple for nearly eight years.
I met with Timothy O. Stoen on approximately March 30, 1977 in London, England. At that time he had left the Peoples Temple agricultural project in Guyana, South America, Ed had gone to London to seek a career in law. As we were talking, Tim had little good to say about the Guyanese people or the country of Guyana. (He even complained about the climate.) He blatantly stated that Guyana people lacked “culture” and sophistication. He referred to Guyana as culturally “barren.” Tim Stoen was extremely upset by the fact that he could not practice law in Guyana. He stated to me in London that he did not want to practice law in a Socialist country because he enjoyed the “competition” of the courtroom in the capitalist system. He openly admitted that he was an “elitist” and his lack of participation in physical labor made that very apparent.
Tim Stoen felt that the Guyanese people lacked creative, aggressive leadership and that Guyana would never be able to achieve real independence from previous British domination. He felt that the nation was better served under British rule and that the break to achieve independence had been a foolhardy venture. Specifically, another remark of his was that the people of Guyana were essentially “submissive,” “simplistic” people and that the country itself was “backward.” Tim Stoen said Guyana would never achieve any degree of significance in the Third World.
Tim Stoen, on numerous occasions, those several days we met in London in March of 1977, made derogatory and racist remarks against the country and people of Guyana.
Dated this 15th day of August, 1977.
/s/ Sandra L. Bradshaw
Sandra L. Bradshaw
B5d(7a)
-2-
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ James R. Randolph
Notary Public
—
[Editor’s note: B5d(8) – (8a) duplicate B5c(13) – (13a)]
—
B5d(9) – (9a)
[Editor’s note: This unsigned affidavit in the name of Sandra Bradshaw appears to be an earlier draft of the previous document at B5d(8) – B5d(8a). The changes are minor, and this draft was not transcribed.]
—
[Editor’s note: B5d(10) duplicates B5c(21)]
—
B5d(11)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Jackie B. Colbert
I, Jackie B. Colbert, being duly sworn, declare:
I lived with Myra Wilson until I was 13 years of age. I moved to 698 N. Oak Street, Ukiah in July of 1973. Birdie Marable lived across the street. She used to come to our house and visit every day unless we were gone on the weekend. She used to sit down and talk with my foster mom. At this time they only visited I didn’t drink. Birdie would swear a lot when she talked. When she moved to Washington Court on Washington Street in Ukiah, she would come to the rest home days. She sometimes left the patients unattended.
One day I couldn’t find my mom and I walked to Washington Court to see if she was at Birdie’s. She was there and this was the first time I had seen my mom with beer and Birdie had beer. And my little brother Harold was drinking beer too. He had his own can of beer. He is mentally retarded and was 13 then and a foster child.
This was around 10 PM at night. My foster mom offered me a beer in front of Birdie. I said, “no, that’s o.k.” Birdie was living alone at this time.
Birdie would say things like “I’ll kick some asses in that church,” referring to Peoples Temple. She was always making threatening comments like this about Peoples Temple.
At different times I could smell liquor on her.
B5d(11a)
Myra told me that when she died everything was willed to Harold and I. But when she died, Birdie went and got her furniture. All of Myra’s furniture was in Birdie’s garage. I saw it with my own eyes.
The next time I saw Birdie and Myra drinking, I came home from school and Myra wasn’t home. I went over to Birdie’s house again. This was the same week. They were drinking again and Birdie was smoking. And this time I reported it to Jack Beam.
The third time I saw them drinking, it was night time several weeks later just a few days before Myra died. Birdie and Myra left Harold and me unattended alone and Myra came home around midnight and had been drinking. (The house was always dirty and beer cans were all over.) I was sick and trying to find her. She said she had been with Birdie. After she started drinking with Birdie, she developed problems with edema of the legs and phlebitis, and she had to take water pills. She also had an enlarged heart.
A day or so later I found my mom dead in the laundry room. I was 13. Don and Thelma Jackson with Peoples Temple got me legally.
Dated this [blank space] day of July, 1977.
[blank line]
Jackie B. Colbert
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
[blank space]
—
[Editor’s note: B5d(12) – (12a) duplicate B5c(25) – (25a)]
—
[Editor’s note: B5d(13) – (13a) duplicate B5c(24) – (24a)]
—
B5d(14)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Ellen Kerns Dupont
I, Ellen Kerns Dupont, being duly sworn, declare:
Several years ago, in 1972, I lived on Low Gap Road in Ukiah. At this time, a man named Leo Wade roomed at my house and lived in a sleeping room in the backyard.
One night, I went out in the backyard to see about my animals when I heard a strange noise in Leo’s room. I stuck my head in his door and saw a naked white man laying on his right side and Leo Wade has his penis stuck in his rectum. When I exclaimed “oh,” the baldheaded white man turned his head and looked at me and I recognized him to be the minister and school teacher, Ross Case, who I had seen in front of the courthouse one day and he had been pointed out to me by someone as “Ross Case.” When Leo turned and saw me looking in all this action, he turned towards me and told me to get out. They had a light on in the room. I normally wouldn’t be in Leo’s room but I thought he was gone and I couldn’t understand what the moaning was all about.
I then went to the phone in my home and called Peoples Temple and reported this to the Associate Pastor Archie Ijames, who didn’t believe me. I should have called the police and am sorry that I didn’t.
Anyway, Leo admitted to Pastor Jones that he had been having sex with Ross Case. He said that he had been at work when Ross Case came up to where he was detailing cars and ran his hand
B5d(14)
-2-
over the front of Leo’s pants and told Leo that he wanted to have sex with him. Leo and Ross then went to the sleeping room in my backyard and had sex there.
Because I was very concerned about such a man teaching little children, I then felt obligated to report this incident to the principle [principal] where Ross Case teaches. Leo and I went there together and Mrs. Karen Layton went with us also. I didn’t want to go through this but I felt a deep obligation towards the children and community as a whole.
I am willing to take a lie detector test and I swear that this is true.
Dated this 30th day of July, 1977.
/s/ Ellen Kerns Dupont
Ellen Kerns Dupont
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
Martha E. Klingman
—
B5d(15)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Deborah Evans
I, Deborah Evans, being duly sworn, declare:
I was a student and lived at the Santa Rosa college dormitory of Peoples Temple during September 1971 through June 1972. During that time, Jim Cobb directed military training with the students living in the dormitory, at night around midnight and 1 AM, in a field by the dorms. He gave instructions in hitting the dirt, finding one’s own directions, and he read military manuals.
In the college dorms, Micki Touchette, Jim Cobb, and Terri Cobb used peer pressure, group ridicule and catharsis on the students without any knowledge or permission of the church. They would use destructive criticism, look for our vulnerable spots. I was called a fascist, the racist, I was told I could never change. They wouldn’t let me cry. They took notes and tape recordings of the catharsis sessions and said Jim Jones told them to do it. It got so bad that I considered suicide. The only thing that prevented me from killing myself was that Jim Jones asked Micki Touchette, Jim Cobb and Terri Cobb to explain their behavior and to cease it. Before that happened, they had always told us never to discuss anything about it with anyone or we “would get it.” They had also said that their actions had been directed and sanctioned by Jim Jones but they definitely had not been.
B5d(15a)
The youth group was directed by Jim Cobb and every month they went on from 2 to 4 hikes, dressed in khaki military outfits with military equipment. They required everyone to go, even going over to the houses of people who did not want to go. They would force them to march in formation. I saw Terri Cobb whip one of the young women with a belt to get her to go up a mountain. I was there when they yelled and screamed at us. They even coerced one young woman who was new to the group to slap another young woman in the face.
Dated this [blank space] day of [blank space], 1977.
[blank line]
Deborah Evans
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
[blank space]
—
B5d(16)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Pauline Groot
I, Pauline Groot, being duly sworn, declare:
Birdie Marable had a care home with four seniors. She wanted somebody to be there at night so she could be somewhere else. She offered me room and board in return for me living there, and always being home at night. I agreed.
There were several things funny about this deal from the beginning. One was that my room was separate from the rest of the house, a “guest room” in a separate building from the rest. While I was legally on the property, if there have been any emergency with the old people such as a fire or a heart attack, I wouldn’t even have it known about it.
Another problem was that, when I moved in, she promised to put a bed and a heater in the room. She did put the bed in but as for the heater, I had to borrow it from the house, and it had no thermostat, so the room was always cold when I came home at night and always cold when I got up in the morning. She even tried to prevent me from borrowing the heater from the house.
I would have been quite willing to live in the house with the seniors. There was a very comfortable couch in the living room, and it was much warmer there. Birdie frequently kept an open hearth fire in the living room. I could have slept on the couch in comfort, and kept an eye on the fire, and kept my ears open for trouble. I could have stored my clothes and stuff in the guest room. I actually did this one or two nights.
B5d(16a)
But Birdie wanted me in the guest room out of the house. She said I was a nuisance and didn’t look tidy on her good couch. So she made me stay in the guest room, and leave the seniors unprotected at night.
This worried me. I talk to Penny Kerns about it before moving in. Penny advised me not to move in at all, or at the very least, not to move in until after Birdie put in a bed and a good heater, in that room, and to get some money for being there. So I did try to do as Penny advised.
The next thing I heard was that Birdie had threatened to cut up Penny Kerns with a knife. I did not personally witness the threat, but I believed it. It sounded like something Birdie would do. I didn’t want any more trouble so I moved in. I even did some chores for Birdie, after she’d promised me I wouldn’t have to. I stayed in my guesthouse mostly, and stayed out of Birdie’s way as much as possible. I heard her say that she had already put her husband in the hospital in a fight, and so I stayed out of her way even more.
One of the seniors was a big capable woman, who did most of the cooking and chores. I don’t know how Birdie was able to get money for caring for her, she was quite able to take care for herself and others. Another senior, a little wispy woman, begged me to write a letter and keep it secret from the others. She said her mail was opened and her person was threatened. I wrote the letter. A few weeks later she had moved to Los Angeles. She said she was relieved to get away.
B5d(16b)
After about two months of this I saw a chance to get out. I moved myself and all my goods and gear at night, without letting Birdie know where I was going. She never did find me. I heard she wanted to kill me too, but she never got the chance.
Dated this 30th day of July, 1977.
/s/ Pauline Groot
Pauline Groot
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
Martha E. Klingman
—
B5d(17)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Sylvia Grubbs
I, Sylvia Grubbs, being duly sworn, declare:
I have known Deanna and Elmer Mertle for several years. When they lived in the town of Redwood Valley, California, I was in their home. It was filthy. In fact, it was one of the filthiest houses I’ve been in – animals running in and out of the house, chickens, rabbits, etc.
The children constantly had emphatigo [impetigo] because of the filth; that’s where the disease comes from. The clothing was dirty, and their bodies were dirty. Being a medical office assistant, I noticed that the children’s teeth were not kept clean, and their youngest son was very anemic and undernourished. They were advised to take him to a doctor; it took quite some time before they took him. He was so anemic and sickly looking that his skin was almost transparent. I never thought he was properly cared for in the home was for sure not in sanitary or proper health standards.
My children refused to stay the night with them after one time because their house was so filthy. The youngest child wet the bed and was left to sleep on the same sheets the next day. This also occurred with their little girl. These two children both always acted like they were scared to death of Deanna. She was always intimidating them both, loving in front of people but the opposite when she had them at home.
B5d(17a)
Elmer Mertle was passive, never stood up for the children because he was henpecked by Deanna. It was not a good home for the children and it was a worry to me if they would be okay or not.
Dated this 30th day of July, 1977.
/s/ Sylvia Grubbs
Sylvia Grubbs
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
Martha E. Klingman
—
B5d(18)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Sylvia Grubbs
I, Sylvia Grubbs, being duly sworn, declare:
I lived next door to Birdie Marable’s care home for the aged in Ukiah.
Birdie was very mean to the patients. She slapped them. One night they were screaming because she was abusing one of them. One of the ladies ran to my room screaming and crying. I ran downstairs from my room, fell and broke my ankle. Even with my broken ankle I managed to get to the door and stop the commotion.
Birdie Marable had one patient who was blind and diabetic. She never fed her the diet she was supposed to be on, instead it was always high in fat, salt, grease, etc. she had horrible leg ulcers and Birdie resented having to take her or any of the patients to the doctor. The woman’s ulcers became so severe that she had to be hospitalized more than once. Birdie refused to give her legs the care they needed and the patient passed because of them. The infection went to the bone. This patient had a very weak bladder. Her clothes always smelled of urine. Birdie did not change her or get the proper type of panties for her problem.
Other patients who were bedridden – she did not keep the beds clean. They had to lie in urine and she didn’t turn them as she was supposed to do. The house was always dark, the ladies were hardly ever outside. They were scared to death of her and told me so.
B5d(18a)
Birdie’s husband or so-called husband was always drunk – complaining about her having the ladies. They were scared of him also. They were always afraid of saying anything, but would whisper to me saying they wished they could get out of there.
Birdie left them alone at night while she and her husband went out. When she returned, she was always meaner to the patients. The patient also complained that Birdie kept their money. She resented having to take them out to buy what they wanted and was very brutal about giving them any money at all, but she always had plenty of money to spend on liquor and clothes, her husband’s liquor, improper food.
Dated this 30th day of July, 1977.
/s/ Sylvia Grubbs
Sylvia Grubbs
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
Martha E. Klingman
—
B5d(19)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Lee Ingram
I, Lee Ingram, being duly sworn, declare:
I was present the night that Anita Petit came to Bishop Jones and ask for help out of a jam she was in. She said she had been involved in forging and passing checks with another person and was afraid for her life. She was wanted by the police for a felony offense and by her former companion who had gotten her involved in crime. Bishop [Jones] told her he would help her out of trouble and would see that she got legal assistance free of any charge. The church legal staff provided legal counsel, testifying on her behalf, and church members wrote letters attesting to her desire to begin a new life. The church, Bishop Jones in particular, accepted responsibility for Anita and acted as her sponsor for the ensuing probationary period. Her children were to be taken away from her but again the church was able to intercede on her behalf and members were authorized by the court to take their children into their homes. When she was through the probation and had shown interest in learning a trade, the Temple paid for her training as a dental assistant.
But Anita, as soon as she was in the clear, reverted to her previous ways. She left her children, whom she had again received custody of, with people and left for days at a time. It was commonly known that she was prostituting again, as she had been before coming to the Temple. Eventually she disappeared altogether, and left her children behind.
When she did re-appear in the midst of the congregation, several members, myself included, noted that she kept company with a man who is known in the community as a police informer. She was regarded with suspicion and not trusted from that point on, although for the sake of her children was admitted into church services.
Dated this 11th day of August, 1977.
And subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ James R. Randolph
NOTARY
—
B5d(20)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Lee Ingram
I, Lee Ingram, being duly sworn, declare:
Marvin Swinney stole tools and equipment from the church garage. He had affairs with a number of women, including a girl who was a minor at the time he physically abused his retarded son, Don. He consistently rejected his son Don and overtly preferred his younger son, Larry. He put Don under terrible inner conflict and pain of rejection by telling him, on more occasions than I can count, how slow and clumsy he was. In sports, mechanics, school – any activity Don undertook, his dad Marvin ridiculed him.
As a consequence, Don was withdrawn and hostile. He was expelled from school when he was caught threatening another student with an army Bowie knife. Though Don continued to follow his dad Marvin around, Marvin would push him away and torment him with guilt and rub his failures in his face.
When the church began talking seriously about developing a farm as a missionary project in Guyana, Marvin spoke out vehemently against the idea. When it became clear that we had serious intentions of committing large financial and personal investments there, Marvin started at that point to cut off his church involvement. He began stealing tools and equipment from the church garage where our buses are serviced. Though he was asked several times to help teach young people and other interested church members the craft of diesel mechanics, he would never train anyone. He was outspokenly against any type of sharing or communal society and said that capitalism was the only system which would bring out the best in people. His intense demands on his son Don reflect his devotion to competition as an ethic and way of life. He said to the group of church members assembled one evening that
B5d(20a)
-2-
the reason blacks and third world people were in poverty was that they were not competitive and therefore did not develop their ingenuity. He was never close to the church from the time we started making serious plans in the direction of Guyana. He was one of the first, however, to see that his son Don was able to go overseas with the new project. He sent him over there to get the retarded young man out of his way.
Dated this 17th day of August, 1977.
/s/ Lee Ingram
Lee Ingram
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the State of California
/s/ James R. Randolph
—
B5d(21)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Don Jackson
I, Don Jackson, being duly sworn, declare:
One Sunday morning, in October 1975, about 11:30 AM, I saw Birdie Marable in a heated argument, cursing, using profanities, and acting like a wild beast. I walked over to the stairway at the back of our church to see what was going on. She was cursing loudly and began hitting Ronnie James in the face and threatening to kill him if he did not get out of her way. She was extremely drunk. She tried to tear Ronnie’s head off. This occurred at the back stairway of Peoples Temple Church, 1859 Geary Street, San Francisco, California.
Dated this 23 day of July, 1977.
/s/ Don Jackson
Don Jackson
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
Martha E. Klingman
—
B5d(22)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Michael Klingman
I, Michael Klingman, being duly sworn, declare:
I am now a member of the Peoples Temple Christian Church and I reside at 2451 Road K, Redwood Valley, California. I first attended the Peoples Temple in February, 1971. At that meeting, held in Redwood Valley, Jim Cobb was confronted by Pastor Jim Jones and the congregation for engaging in rifle practice. Cobb admitted that he was doing this secretly and clearly without the permission or support of the pastor and congregation. Pastor Jones stated that such endeavors were completely contrary to the principles of the church and demanded that such activity cease immediately and permanently. Cobb responded that he had always thought of himself as dying violently in a revolution and that he did not plan to live past age 30.
Dated: July [blank space for date], 1977.
[blank line]
Michael Klingman
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
[blank line]
—
B5d(23)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
James McElvane
I, James McElvane, being duly sworn, declare:
I have known Elizabeth (Liz) Foreman for at least six years, since 1971. I lived in the same house with her for at least four of those years, at [blank space] South Dora Street in Ukiah, California, and on several occasions I was the recipient of her vengeance. Liz Foreman was a very vindictive person. If anyone ever did anything she thought was directed at her, rest assured she would get revenge.
One particular time, her common-law husband’s son was the target of her vengeance. Liz used a vibrator, and when she would misplace it, she would get very disturbed. Kevin, her common-law husband’s son, would borrow the vibrator sometimes and wouldn’t return it on time or before Liz knew it was missing. This time, Kevin borrowed it and lied about it. Liz almost went crazy for about a week. Then she found the vibrator under Kevin’s mattress. I thought then Liz was going to hurt Kevin. I stepped in and stopped her. Then Liz decided to make him use the vibrator in front of people in the house. Kevin was very embarrassed and begged her not to make him do that. She made him strip completely and use the vibrator on himself until I stopped him.
Dated this [blank space] of [blank space], 1977.
[blank line]
James McElvane
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
[blank line]
—
B5d(24)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Annie McGowen [McGowan]
I, Annie McGowen, being duly sworn, declare:
I worked for Birdie Marable for over one year during 1974 through 1975. I saw Birdie get drunk often. She will especially drink around the first, second and third of the month. She drank a lot all the time. Birdie would cuss out her patients and shove them around. Once Birdie was drinking because she hit her common-law husband in the head in the back house, and I had to help clean up the wound.
Birdie do not take proper care of her patients. One woman would urinate on herself and Birdie would let her lie in her filth. Birdie would borrow money from the patients. She still owes me $160 for things I sold her and she didn’t pay me.
Birdie would never cook separate dinners and diets for the patients like the doctors wanted them to have. Birdie refused to get up in the morning to fix the patients a fire in the fireplace. There would be no heat in the house till I got there and fix it.
Dated this 30th of July, 1977.
/s/ Annie McGowan
Annie McGowen
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
[blank line]
—
B5d(25)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Pam Moton
I, Pam Moton, being duly sworn, declare:
I live at 1951 Revere Avenue, San Francisco, California. In spring 1973 I was walking past a small market near Dora Street in Ukiah, California. Birdie Marable came in the store while I was there and started calling me names – “white bitch,” she was going to “cut me up” and “kick my ass.” I just walked away. As I got down the street, she pulled up in her car beside me and kept on talking the same way to me, driving slowly as I walked. I had just taken a step off the curb and noticed that Birdie was speeding up driving towards me. I jumped back towards the curb and went the other way, just as she speeded around the corner.
Dated this [blank space] of [blank space], 1977.
[blank line]
Pam Moton
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
[blank line]
—
B5d(26)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Jim Randolph
I, Jim Randolph, being duly sworn, declare:
That Elmer and Deanna Mertle’s keen interest in the Guyana Program was connected with making money. At the time it didn’t seem so; we all thought that Elmer Mertle was just interested in making the go of cooperative living succeed. We were both taking pictures that Christmas in 1974 when a group of us went over. I was overwhelmed with the beauty I saw in the people and the country; but all his comments were directed at posing pictures to appeal to people back home. He seemed overly concerned about it. He mentioned several times all the money these photographs could bring in. He looked for pictures to show poverty and underdevelopment. He spoke of Guyana as a backward country that would arouse people’s sympathy.
Elmer Mertle never really seemed to grasp the idea that the agricultural program was real. We learned of this more and more as he became very much against large investments into the program – not so much with people as monies.
Elmer Mertle’s pattern in the states, we found out later, involved various money making schemes that he and his wife handled themselves using the name of the church. His interest in raising money off Guyana pictures was not so much for the program as for himself.
B5d(26a)
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Elmer Mertle seemed very much interested in a group that was short about into in the NWR [North West Region] that Christmas. They were from Texas and had a fancy private plane. He had expressed interest in contacting them and as far as I know, had done so. But I never recall any feedback from him. It was after that that he became more interested in the project as a means to export goods from the leasehold. Exporting lumber, foods, plants, fruits, etc. to the United States and other countries were mentioned. All these ideas were turned down by our Pastor and the Board. He was greatly opposed to selling our produce and other products at cost; he saw no reason to be nonprofit. He spoke a great deal about looking for gold and diamonds. It was shortly after this time that some of his and his wife’s money-making schemes came to light. Not long after, they separated themselves from the church.
Dated this 17th of August, 1977.
/s/ Jim Randolph
Jim Randolph
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
Lisa P. Layton
—
B5d(27)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Gina Severns
I, Gina Severns, being duly sworn, declare:
During Indian summer, 1973, I was walking down Clara Street in Ukiah, California, towards State Street. Birdie Marable passed by me and said, “oh, you aren’t saying hi, huh.” When I crossed State Street from Clara Street, she pulled her car around the corner of Clara onto State, nearly hitting me. She slowed down, and I saw the reflection of her car in a plate glass window as I walked down State Street. When I went to cross a driveway, she pulled her car in the driveway fast and appeared to try to hit me. I then hid in some bushes and watched to see if I was imagining that she was trying to hit me. As I watched, she circled the block slowly, and appeared to be looking for me.
Dated this [blank space] of [blank space], 1977.
[blank line]
Gina Severns
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
[blank line]
—
[Editor’s note: B5d(28) – (28a) duplicate B5c(55) – (55a)]
—
[Editor’s note: B5d(29) – (29a) duplicate B5c(54) – (54a)]
—
[Editor’s note: B5d(30) – (30a) duplicate B5c(57) – (57a)]
—
[Editor’s note: B5d(31) duplicates B5c(56)
—
B5d(32)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Ronald W. Talley
I, Ronald W. Talley, being duly sworn, declare:
Having been a member of Peoples Temple from 1968 to 1975, I found it to be the most positive experience of my life.
Before moving to Ukiah, California, to be near the active center of Peoples Temple at that time, I spent 7 1/2 years shooting heroin and time in jail. I had just kicked a heroin habit when I came up to Ukiah in my health was still pretty queazy [queasy] and dizzy. When I first showed up at the Temple I had nothing, no money, job, and very few clothes. I was accepted completely, even after telling of my useless background and antisocial behavior.
During the years as a member of Peoples Temple I found Jim Jones to be the most honest person I had ever come in contact with. I was able to function in the community, hold a job, use my money as I wanted, and do some worthwhile things for others.
I was never pressured about money, property or my personal possessions. I can honestly say that my years in Peoples Temple had a positive effect on me.
When I left Peoples Temple in January 1975 I was not pressured, followed or bothered by Jim Jones or any member of Peoples Temple. In fact, when I called back a full year
B5d(32a)
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after giving up my membership I was welcomed very warmly and went to a few meetings to visit friends and family that are still in Peoples Temple.
I am satisfied in my mind that Peoples Temple is doing all it can to help people and I know it helped me.
Dated this 26th of July, 1977.
/s/ Ronald W. Talley
Ronald W. Talley
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ Martha E. Klingman
—
B5d(33)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
The undersigned, being duly sworn, deposes and says:
I, Judi G. Tow, residing at 1200 Plumas Street, No. 18, Yuba City, California, was a member of Peoples Temple Christian Church from November 1968 through 1974. I left the church voluntarily, of my own free will. At the time I left I was living with members Don and Bonnie Beck. After I left they contacted me and arranged for me to pick up my belongings, at my convenience. At no time was I ever harassed, threatened, contacted or bothered in any way by any member of the church or any person representing the church, either before leaving the church, or after I left.
Subsequently, I have returned to attend meetings intermittently and have been met with the utmost kindness in cordiality from both Reverend Jones and the members.
Dated: Aug. [day and year illegible]
/s/ Judi G. Tow
(Signature)
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for said county and state.
/s/ James R. Randolph
—
B5d(34)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Kathy Tropp
I, Kathy Tropp, being duly sworn, declare:
Curtis Buckley had been living with Dick and I for about one year when he came down with tonsillitis. He had a susceptibility to tonsil inflammation, and infections. He was taking erythromycin for it. He got sick on or around Thanksgiving, 1972. He withdrew more over the next two days, finally getting extremely moody, refused to take his medicine, and seemed very angry. The next day his behavior was trancelike, and disoriented. I had to go to work, and so did my husband, Dick, so I started arranging people for him to stay with. Renée Jackson kept him at her house, and told me after I got back (she had him for a weekend) that he was crying at night, saying he was afraid of “little men” and wouldn’t go into the bedroom. She insisted he go to bed and told him there was nothing to worry about. He also got violent with her the next day, she said. When Curtis came home, he had the same spacey manner; for the next two months he never lost it. Events after that were that he was counseled by our pastor, Jim Jones. Curtis’ behavior toward Dick and me was more dependent, childish. He continued to complain about seeing little men. Mark Boutte was living with us at the time. At one point I asked the Mertles to keep him for a day or two. I may have asked them to keep him for a longer time; I do remember that after one night, Elmer Mertle called me up and told me to come and get Curtis. I don’t remember exactly what he did to alarm them, but when I came over to get Curtis, both Elmer Mertle and Deanna Mertle were sitting there looking
B5d(34a)
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very scared. I don’t know what he did. Dick and I took Curtis to San Francisco to see a doctor. We stayed over at Janet Shular’s house. I think we took him down there to stay with her. She agreed to take him. We talked about schools for him and therapy. At some point, Curtis seemed better, started talking. He said he had used a slingshot and shot and killed a bird, on his last day at school before he got sick. The child who gave him the slingshot also gave him some pills, he said. This seemed to explain his weird behavior. We figured he had taken drugs. I don’t know if this admission on his part came now or later. I was at work when Janet Shular called me, about three weeks after he had gone down there to stay with her. Curtis had very suddenly “snapped out” of his state and was talking and crying and acting very normal. It may have been then that he told Janet about the slingshot, killing the bird, and the boy giving him drugs.
Curtis came home to stay with us again. We seemed to have more of a rapport after that. That spring we moved to a house in Calpella. Curtis asked me if he could move to San Francisco. I didn’t think it was a very good idea and I told him so. At that time the church work was centered in Redwood Valley, and I saw his going to the city as a move away from it. Curtis had a relapse around April of that year. He started acting spacey again. Curtis went back to Janet’s and started acting like himself after a couple of days, in which time it was agreed he should stay with her.
B5d(34b)
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He fell back into the spacey thing several times after he moved to San Francisco. Janet told me about it. It seemed to coincide with times that his tonsils were inflamed, and Janet eventually started avoiding antibiotics with him, since he seemed to have this reaction to them.
Dated this [blank space] of July, 1977.
[blank line]
Kathy Tropp
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
[blank line]
—
B5d(35)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Kathy Tropp
I, Kathy Tropp, being duly sworn, declare:
Deanna Mertle used to work for the same person I work for, Benny Pirano, 1969 through 1973, in Redwood Valley, California. I worked there 1971 through 1975, and Deanna and I worked together for three years.
Deanna told me she used blackmail on Benny Pirano to force him to say she was laid off so she could collect unemployment insurance. She called him and threatened to turn him into his insurance company for not declaring his earnings honestly. He said to her, “you know this is blackmail,” and she said “that’s right.” She got her unemployment. She bragged about this to me.
Dated this [blank space] of [blank space], 1977.
[blank line]
Kathy Tropp
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
[blank line]
—
[Editor’s note: B5d(36) duplicates B5c(64)
—
B5d(37)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Alfred Tschetter
I, Alfred Tschetter, being duly sworn, declare:
I am a certified radiologic technologist, and I live in San Francisco, California.
My dad was a Mennonite Minister and I was brought up in religion and it was my whole life. I was married at age 20 I moved away from the Mennonites immediate vicinity. I joined the Baptist church.
In 1951 I moved to California with the intention of going into the dairy farming business as I had in South Dakota. After surveying the economic situation, I decided not to enter dairy farming and spent one year servicing cars. In 1952 I had the opportunity to become an orderly and in the hospital a wise radiologist approached me to encourage me to finish my education to become a radiologic technologist. I received my training in Dallas, Texas, and was a member of a German Baptist Church. I was elected to the Board of Deacons. One day as we were eating dinner, the chairman of the Board of Deacons was so inebriated and it took three of us to get him into a taxi to get him home. That same evening we had a Board of Deacons meeting and that was my last day in the organized church. To me it was all too much hypocrisy, teaching one thing and doing another.
B5d(37a)
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While back to visit my 91-year-old mother, who was in a fairly decent convalescent hospital and as a Mennonite who was taught from childhood to take care of our own, which also follows the teachings of Jim Jones… I realized that my mother was 91 and slightly feebleminded, but she was not to the point where she belonged in a convalescent hospital. I felt that my family had neglected her or did not want to take responsibility of someone who had reared them. A number of years before my wife and I had offered to take mother and keep her the rest of her life.
As I was driving home from North Dakota to California, I realized that I belong in the teachings Pastor Jim Jones. And I made up my mind that I would write a letter to Pastor Jim Jones asking if I could return to the church, which I did. He invited me to come back a number of times and also sent a group of people to visit me, which I greatly appreciated.
The years I spent out of Peoples Temple – I was never at any time harassed or questioned or asked anything. I was given no pressure to return to the church. I returned on my own and at the kind invitation of the Pastor.
As a medical person and from my own experiences, I know that these healings are real. I have witnessed hundreds of them. I know most of the healings he does are beyond all medical hope. Being a part of the medical profession, I know that these feelings were genuine and could not have been faked.
B5d(37b)
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Just this spring in Los Angeles I personally took the blood pressure of a woman and it went from 180/12 to 120/80 in less than one minute. I know that this is medically impossible.
All the time that I was out of the church, I lived in Ukiah, California. I saw and worked with people from the church nobody ever said a negative word and were kinder and nicer to me then some of the non-church patients that I had.
Dated: July 28, 1977.
/s/ Alfred Tschetter R.T. (CRT)
Alfred Tschetter
Subscribed and sworn before me,
this 28th of July, 1977.
/s/ Martha E. Klingman
—
B5d(38)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Lillie Mae Victor
I, Lillie Mae Victor, being duly sworn, declare:
In 1975 Deanna and Elmer Mertle asked me to move in with them. I was 17 years old. We lived in Berkeley in their rest home, with 8 rooms on each of the 2 floors. Deanna kept me out of high school to use me as a house slave. She made me clean every room, change every sheet on each bed and wash them, mop every room on each floor (16 rooms) plus the hallways and 4 bathrooms. I had to clean the bowel movement out of the toilet bowls. I work from 8 AM to 5 PM. Then I had to do the dishes after all the meals. Deanna constantly made racist remarks to me and about me. She said “sometimes I think you require a slave master to beat you, if that’s what you require, then I will beat you.” She told me to lie down, she said she would put me in a trance and see why I was so hostile. Once when I had a cold I was really congested and had bad pain on one side of my head, in my back and arms. I asked Deanna to take me to the doctor. She refused and gave me somebody else’s medicine.
Sandy Rozynko, 16 years old, and Diane Mertle, age 15, their teenage daughter, would sleep in the bed and I had to sleep on the floor. Many mornings around 4 AM Elmer Mertle would come into our bedroom, sit on the bed, and play sexually with Sandy Rozynko. I woke up to see him sneaking around our room several times; he’d be in there about five minutes.
B5d(38a)
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In 1975 Deanna and Elmer Mertle bought a big old house in Oakland, on Telegraph Avenue, that they were fixing up to sell. All of its windows were broken out. They told me to stay there and watch the house, all alone, 3 or 4 times. They left me in the daytime there and didn’t come back for me until the next day. There was no heat, no blankets. I slept on the couch in the front room covered with my coat. They also had an old house in Redwood Valley they had put up for sale. I had to mop and wax it with a rag on my knees all day and practically all night.
I had the flu and was left here in San Francisco at the church. Deanna said I was rebellious and didn’t like doing what I was told, that I can’t follow through on coming home. “Sometimes I don’t know whether you are crazy or retarded,” Deanna said to me. She said that a white person in that church would not let their white son marry a black girl like me. She said I was nothing but shit.
I saw Deanna and Elmer Mertle steal money from a church project. I saw them take it out of the box. They would spend it at K-Mart, the Gap, McDonald’s, pizza parlors. They were stealing the money that the high school students in the church were saving for their education.
There was a patient in their rest home who had bowel movement all over her body. Deanna made me clean up the mess and the patient. I had to give all the patients baths while Deanna laid in bed and slept. While Sandy Rozynko and Diane Mertle were in school, I had to stay there and work. Deanna told me she was a racist, that she hated black people even before she came to the church. She said if Jim Jones ever
B5d(38b)
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gave me anything to do, I couldn’t follow through with it. She said Jim only praises weak people. She asked me once when she was bringing me home why I cared about Jim.
Elmer and Deanna a rifle in their home in Redwood Valley. Deanna told me I could not look at TV until all my work was finished. She said, “I am not going to criticize you for a week; I am going to see how good you can work without a slave master.”
Deanna was always yelling and screaming at me about working. She said I had no character at all. When I cleaned up the bowel movement from a patient who had died, she said that showed growth on my part and then I have a little bit of character. They always talk about me behind my back, and when I walked in they would turn around and start smiling.
Sometimes I would fall asleep mopping the floor from being so overworked. The chores I had to do each day were washing and cleaning dishes and kitchen after each meal; mop 16 rooms and wax them; fix each bed, 2 beds in each room; wash the clothes; give patients baths; clean 4 bathrooms; vacuum the living room; dust furniture; clean windows; sweep all the stairs; water the grass; two other odd jobs Deanna could find. Sandy Rozynko and Diane Mertle did not work.
Deanna would try and buy your friendship and keep you like a slave. She would turn down all confidence in yourself so
B5d(38c)
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she can be held up high. She makes you paranoid and makes you feel like you owe her a debt.
Dated: July 23, 1977
/s/ Lillie Mae Victor
Lillie Mae Victor
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public for the State of California.
Martha E. Klingman
—
B5d(39)
State of California
City and County of San Francisco
Affidavit of
Leo Wade
I, Leo Wade, being duly sworn, declare:
I live on Low Gap Road in Ukiah, California, in a room in the back yard of Ellen Kerns DuPont’s house in [missing word].
One day in Sept. 1972, Ross Case met me on State Street in Ukiah, and said he was glad to see me. Case asked me where I lived and I said on Low Gap Road. Then he told me where he lived and about his car. A few days later in the morning he came to visit him back where I stayed. Ross Case began talking about love and how much he loved me. He started talking about how much muscles he had, and how strong he was. He wanted to see my chest and muscles, so I took my shirt off and showed him. I kept my pants on when he came and asked me how big my dick was. He said “let’s see it.” He said he’d heard blacks had big dicks. Then he started talking about his love life. He said “I’m gonna show love to you.” Then he started playing with my dick and it started to get hard. He kissed me on my testicles and gave me a blow job.
After the blow job he took his shorts off and got in the bed and asked me to fuck him. Then I fucked him because he’d gotten my dick hard. He turned over and I jabbed him hard. He reached back and grabbed my dick and slid it into his ass. Ellen Kerns DuPont heard him granting. He was saying it was good, and then Ellen said, “who’s that back there?” I said “there ain’t nobody back here.” She pushed the door open and got a good look, saw his head and face
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and everything. After Ellen saw him and he was talking about how he loved me, he wanted to watch me fuck his wife Luella. He got up and left when he saw Ellen.
I saw Ross Case a couple of more times after that.
Prior to this incident, Ross Case hey given me $140 some dollars in Indianapolis, Indiana, while I was messing around with his wife. The money was to fuck his wife while he watched. He was living on College and 24th in Indianapolis then.
Dated this 30th day of July, 1977.
/s/ Leo Wade
Leo Wade
Subscribed and sworn before me,
a Notary Public in and for the
State of California
/s/ Martha E. Klingman