Q705 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           Jones Speaking

FBI preliminary tape identification note: One Sony C90/ “Georgetown Guyana Deliverance (illegible)”

Date cues on tape:     December 1974

People named:

Part 1:

Guyanese in attendance at Georgetown Peoples Temple service (phonetic)

 
Temple members in attendance at Georgetown service

 
Public figures/National and international names:

 
Part 2:
Temple members named at Georgetown meeting of Temple leadership

 
Guyana government figures:

 
Bible verses cited (Part 1):

(Note: The verses appear in order of biblical reference, not as they appear in Jim Jones’ address.)

“Make a joyful noise unto God.” (numerous references in Psalm, including 66:1, 81:1, 95:1, 95:2, 98:4, 98:6, 100:1)

“How many have a Bible here? A hundred and fiftieth Psalm, but I don’t see enough to sing it, we can put the Bible to song, or we might sing something at this moment.” (Psalm 150)

“He said, I am the same today, yesterday and forever. The God that changeth not.” (Malachi 3:6, “For I am the Lord, I change not.”).

“As Jesus said, be ye perfect, even as I and the Father are perfect.” (Matthew 5:48, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”)

“If you have faith, according to your faith, be it unto you… according to your faith, be it unto you… And according to your faith, be it unto you.” (Matthew 9:29, “Then touched [Jesus] their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.”)

“Selfishness is not the way of any great religion, it’s not the way of Christ. He said, deny yourself.” (Matthew 16:24, “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.”)

“Jesus said in the judgment, when he came to separate those that were unjust from those that were just, of the sheep from the goats, he said I was hungry, and you fed me not.… Jesus said that we were to minister to the needs of humanity. Make God manifest. He said if we did not feed the hungry and clothe the naked, there would be no evidence that God was in the world. If we did not heal the sick, [if] we did not bring help, not only spiritually or esoterically or paranormal, but bring power to bring hospital care and medical care… do the most important work of the gospel, to feed and to clothe, and to house.” (Matthew 25:31-46).

“Jesus said, these signs shall follow the believer” (Mark 16:17, “And these signs shall follow them that believe”)

“When Jesus was taken away, he said for what good work do you stone me? They said, for no good work but because you, being a man, make yourself God. He said it is written, Ye all are Gods.” (John 10:31-34)

“He said, after I’ve gone away these things shall ye do and greater, because I go to the Father.” (John 14:12, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”)

“And in apostolic cooperative living, as it was on the day of Pentecost, there is a solution for man’s hunger, there’s solution for man’s poverty. There’s solution for war! Because on the day of Pentecost, when they were filled with that great ecumenical spirit, when the Holy Ghost descended upon them and they were filled to overflowing, they shared their possessions. No one had to legislate it, no one had to enact laws to cause people to share. They shared from house to house, and it was said of them that they had all things common… We’re asking for the signs and wonders that filled the early church, that caused people to drop all their possessions and their wares and their status symbols and follow the Christ. We’re asking for a movement of the Holy Spirit in our midst today, that will cause people to believe that there’s hope… If the church is to do its duty and to stop the dangers of fanatical extremists, be they right or left, if the church is to be able to stop the inroads of totalitarian regimes, the church must do what it was instructed to do at the day of the apostles’ creed, the day of Pentecost.” (Acts 2)

“So God is no respecter of person… So you see, God is no respecter of persons” (Acts 10:34, “Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:” See also 2 Samuel 14:14, 2 Chronicles 19:7, Romans 2:11, Colossians 3:25, 1 Peter 1:17)

“The church must take care of the necessities of the saints.” (Romans 12, esp. Roman 12:13, “[The ministry] Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.”)

“If we are to be his disciples, we are to be living epistles, living Bibles, read and known of all men everywhere.” (2 Corinthians 3:1-4)

“As you think in your mind, so are you.” (2 Corinthians 10:7, “…if any man trust to himself that he is Christ’s, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ’s, even so are we Christ’s.”)

“–important as the fruits of the spirit.” (Galatians 5:22-23)

“The church must … minister first to the household of the faith. (Galatians 6:10, “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.”)

“Luke was a great physician.” (Colossians 4:14)

“[Do the most important work of the gospel] … to minister to the orphans and widows in their affliction (James 1:27, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”)

“Whosoever loveth is born of God and knoweth God… whosoever loveth is born of God.” (1 John 4:7, “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.”)

“It’s time that we either get ourselves in a condition of being hot or cold, because the lukewarm will be spewn out of the mouth of God.” (Revelation 3:16 “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”)

“We believe the healing as described in the early church, the herbs and the leaves were for the healing of the nation.” (Revelation 22:2, “In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”)

Summary:

(This tape was transcribed by Kathryn Barbour, who also wrote a contextual note. The editors gratefully acknowledge her invaluable assistance.)

This recording consists of two parts: the first is the only known time that Jim Jones led a church service in Georgetown, Guyana before an audience of Guyanese nationals. The second is a meeting held soon afterwards during which the Temple leaders discuss what the service accomplished and strategize what they need to do in order to solidify their influence with the national government.

Many aspects of the church service at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Georgetown at the end of 1974 would have been familiar to a Temple audience: Jones runs through a litany of the achievements which the Temple has accomplished to bring social welfare to the people of northern California (and, as he explicitly states near the end, potentially to the people of Guyana’s North West District); he speaks of the benefits of cooperative living, which Guyana struggles to do and which Jonestown will attempt to embody; and he performs several healings, complete with a woman who presents a “growth that has passed” to the congregation.

What is different from usual Temple services – and yet similar to those services held outside of its California churches – is that Jones speaks much more in the language of a traditional Protestant Holiness preacher. He prays directly to God, invokes the power and the presence of Christ a dozen times, and characterizes the work they need to do as manifestations of the Holy Spirit. He praises the Bible – with specific references rather than unattributed quotes – as a source of wisdom and holiness. The Temple’s plans for the Jonestown community – including its anticipated outreach to provide medical services and food to the local population – are cast as the fulfillment of the biblical imperative at Pentecost. And while the healings are evidence of miracles, he lays them at the feet of God, and adds his insistence that “we do not believe that this ministry takes the place of medical science.” It is, in essence, a presentation of Peoples Temple to its new neighbors.

Uncommon in these recordings is acknowledgment of Jones’ descent from the pulpit at the front of the church into the crowd itself. On numerous occasions, a church worker admonishes the people to stand back and form an aisle for the preacher to pass through, and Jones himself tells people to stop pushing him.

The balance of the tape consists of a strategy discussion which Jim Jones held with several of his leaders and with a Guyanese government official. The agendas of the two seem different. The official wants to tell Jones about the political and cultural history of the North West District, and the area’s needs for capital development. Jones is more interested in whether anything he said during the service will change the commitments he has received from the government, especially since those commitments have been made only as verbal assurances. He is specifically concerned whether the official knows of any threats against the Temple either from the government or from the organs of the press which it controls.

Given the poor quality of the recording quality, the fact that numerous people talk over each other, and that there is at least one speaker – possibly two – with thick Guyanese accents, much of Side 2 of the tape is incomprehensible. With that in mind, we invite anyone who can recognize additional dialogue in this part of the tape to submit it to this website.

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 1B62-22. This tape was found to contain the following:

Side A — Sermon by Jim Jones

Side B – Group Discussion by Several Unknown Individuals

Sermon by Jim Jones

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 January 2018.