Summary prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III. If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.
To read the Tape Transcript, click here. To listen to MP3, click here.
To return to the Tape Index, click here.
FBI Catalogue: Miscellaneous
FBI preliminary tape identification note: One Concertape C-120/An attempted bombing of JJ’s bus 3/11/74
Date cues on tape: 11 March 1974
People named:
Marceline Jones
Michael Prokes (speaks)
Bible verses cited: None
Summary:
This tape is a recording made off the air of a Ukiah radio newscast about an attempted bombing of a Peoples Temple bus in San Francisco. Although 11 buses were parked at a junior high where the Temple was holding services, according to Temple spokesman Michael Prokes, the bomb had been planted under the bus used by Jim and Marcceline Jones. The fuse had burned down to a “fraction of an inch,” and the fact that it hadn’t exploded was “really a miracle,” Prokes quoted an unnamed police detective as saying.
Note: A shorter recording of this newscast – with only the first airing of the two virtually identical stories about the attempted bombing on this tape – appears at Q 670.
FBI Summary:
Date of transcription: 3/5/79
In connection with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation into the assassination of U.S. Congressman LEO J. RYAN at Port Kaituma, Guyana, South America, on November 18, 1978, a tape recording was obtained. This tape recording was located in Jonestown, Guyana, South America, and was turned over to U.S. Officials in Guyana and subsequently transported to the United States.
On March 1, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B47 No. 53. This tape was found to contain the following:
Side A of the tape consists of local radio newscasts at Yukiah [Ukiah], California, at noon of the day following an attempted bombing of a People’s Temple Bus at San Francisco, California. The newscast contains reports by a People’s Temple spokesman that the bombing incident was an attempt to murder People’s Temple Leader JIM JONES as well as other Peoples Temple members who were aboard the bus.
Side B of the tape is blank.
Differences with FBI Summary:
The summary is accurate and meets the FBI’s purposes.
Tape originally posted June 2006