Summary prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III. If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.
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FBI Catalogue Jones Speaking
FBI preliminary tape identification note: One Tracs 90/ JJ in separate calls to Dr. Moore & Dr. Goodlett 2/26/76
Date cues on tape: Tape contents consistent with identification note
People named:
Gene Chaikin (speaks)
Mike Prokes (speaks)
Tim Stoen
Peoples Temple members, full name unknown:
Marie
Michelle
Public figures/National and international names:
Jerry Brown, governor of California
Willie Brown, California assemblyman
Richard Hongisto, San Francisco county sheriff
Kamook Banks, wife of Dennis Banks [by reference]
Mark Banks, brother of Dennis Banks
John Adams, Banks supporter
Dennis Roberts, Banks attorney
John Thorne, Banks attorney
Rev. Chandler, head of SANE
William Anorato [phonetic], property owner (speaks)
Herb Caen, newspaper columnist
Cesar Chavez, head of California Farmworkers Union
Carlton Goodlett, San Francisco physician, newspaper publisher (speaks)
John V Moore, District Superintendent of Methodist Church (speaks)
Barbara Moore, wife of John Moore
Marlon Brando, actor
Temple adversaries; members of Concerned Relatives:
Bible verses cited: None
Summary:
(Editorial note: This tape was one of the 53 tapes initially withheld from disclosure.)
This tape consists of a series of phone calls made by Jim Jones and other Temple members in February 1976. The first several are without context or recorded only at one end (or possibly a dictated memo with pauses for the stenographer to get down the words) so as to render the subjects incomprehensible. In the opening call, for example, an unknown property owner turns down an offer made by Temple attorney Gene Chaikin to buy the property, and although the amount of the offer is clear, the location of the property and why the Temple wanted it is not.
The most significant conversations on the taper are the last two, during which Jim Jones speaks first with John V Moore, a District Superintendent in the Methodist Church in San Francisco (as well as the father of two Temple leaders, Carolyn Layton and Annie Moore), and then with Carlton Goodlett, a black newspaper publisher and Jones’ personal physician, about what type of support the Temple should give to Native American activist Dennis Banks.
The progressive community in San Francisco wants to support Dennis Banks – and Peoples Temple wants to assume a leadership role in that support – but by some measures, that has been difficult. The activist was arrested for his role in the takeover at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, and fearing for his life, jumped bail, an action which cost some of his institutional supporters thousands of dollars. In the current battle, Banks is fighting extradition from California back to South Dakota on state charges, and although the Temple has generated 1500 letters to Gov. Jerry Brown urging him not to grant extradition, that might not be enough. The purpose of the phone calls, then, is to help Jones decide what to do next.
Despite the setbacks, Methodist church officials have urged the religious community to “hang in there with [Banks].” As Moore says, “if you stay in touch with Dennis, there may be those times when the church can kind of be in a brokering position.” Jones does not have to be told twice; as far as he’s concerned, as the problems that Banks has had with the legal authorities increase, the more he wants to help.
Banks has accepted the Temple’s assistance at the time of the calls. He has also arranged – apparently on his own, without the participation or even initially the knowledge of Temple leaders – to stage a media event in the Temple on the third anniversary of the Wounded Knee takeover, where he plans to reunite with his wife and children. The purpose of Jones’ call to Goodlett, then, is to figure out how the Temple should handle both the event and the South Dakota fugitive who has put it together.
It should be noted that John Moore is the father and father-in-law of the manager and editor/research director of this website, respectively.
FBI Summary:
Date of transcription: 3/8/79
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 6, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B47-58. This tape was found to contain the following:
Phone conversations by possibly JIM JONES with unknown males. Conversations dealt mainly about the extradition of DENNIS BANKS from California. During the conversations, JONES talked about his relationship with JOHN ADAMS, possibly BANKS’ attorney, former San Francisco Sheriff HONGUISTO, Assemblyman WILLIE BROWN, Governor JERRY BROWN and Mr. GOODLED (phonetic) of the National Newspaper Publishers of the United States.
This tape was reviewed, and nothing was contained thereon which was considered to be of evidentiary nature or beneficial to the investigation of Congressman RYAN.
Differences with FBI Summary:
The summary is accurate and meets the FBI’s purposes.
Tape originally posted May 2013