Q706 Summary

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          Unidentified Individuals Speaking

FBI preliminary tape identification note: One Tracs 60/ “Cleve Davis — CJ Jackson 12-24-75” 3×5 card

Date cues on tape:    Tape contents consistent with identification note

People named:

Bible verses cited:     None

Summary:

Temple member Cleve Davis has done something wrong, and he knows it. He calls CJ Jackson, another Temple member whom Cleve considers a brother, to talk about his regret over what he has done – an incident which is never fully spelled out – and to ask (repeatedly) for forgiveness. From the outset, CJ rejects the apology – “You’re messing with this principle, with this cause, with everything that we stand for here” – and says that the apology should be directed to the church and the people in it, beginning with Jim Jones. “[I]f you get yourself together, if you prove yourself together, doggone it … you know how forgiving and how loving he is.” He also suggests that Cleve make unspecified amends.

But there are deeper issues, deeper problems that predate this one phone call,  and can’t be resolved during it, even if either party were willing to try. “I am nobody’s traitor,” Cleve says emphatically in the opening minutes of the call, but he is still on his way out of the Temple – being pushed as much as he is jumping – although he insists he can’t leave until he has some dental work done. In the meantime, he can’t have access to his money, to his belongings, or even to his daughter.  But if anyone is to blame for all this, according to CJ, it’s Cleve, for acting “like an ass.”

Cleve’s early words in the conversation of brotherhood and loyalty turns to pleas and eventually defiance. They are mirrored with CJ’s words of rejection, recrimination, antagonism, and eventually, threats. “[I]t’s been requested that you leave town,” CJ says, then adds a moment later, “you stay away from here, I’ll tell you that much.”

The gulf reveals itself to be irreparable. CJ says his relationship with Cleve has affected his own position within “the cause” – an assertion which is also not explained – and Cleve’s association with others has hurt them as well. Towards the end of the conversation, when Cleve says he’s going to LA to get his life back on track – ostensibly to find his way back to the Temple – he says he’ll be staying with another Temple member named L.C. “Why would you put L.C. in a position, man?” CJ replies.  “You’re compromising L.C.”

The conversation ends in frustration, without an exit or even a direction to go. “I don’t have nobody, man,” Cleve says. “And you’re trying to take all I got.”

FBI Summary:

Date of transcription: 3/13/79

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 7, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B62 #23. This tape was found to contain the following:

Side A – Blank

Side B – Interview Involving Two Unidentified Males

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