Ed. note: Michael Bellefountaine transcribed more than a dozen Jonestown tapes, spent hundreds of hours on the Edith Roller journals, and wrote numerous articles for the jonestown report. His final published writing about Jonestown appeared elsewhere, however, as a letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle on 25 November 2006, in response to an editorial cartoon:
Jonestown slur
Dear editor: The syndicated cartoon you chose to run on Saturday November 18th was insensitive to say the least. On the 28th anniversary of the deaths at Jonestown, you thought it would be funny to run kool-aid jokes. Maybe Jonestown has become a joke at the Chronicle’s water cooler, but over 900 people died that day, many from the Bay Area. They have friends, relatives and supporters who still live in this city and who grieve for their lost loved ones, family members and comrades. In the future, feel free to show them a little compassion.
— Michael Bellefountaine
The letter appears here at the bottom of the page.