The State Department Cables on the Stoen Custody Case

Shortly after leaving Peoples Temple in the summer of 1977 – and in coordination with Grace – Tim Stoen launched his campaign to have John Victor returned to the United States from Guyana, where the child had been living since before the beginning of the year. The campaign meant the Stoens would have to work through the Guyanese court system, which in turn meant they would have interactions, both with the U.S. State Department and the American Embassy in Georgetown, to monitor and coordinate those efforts.

The Embassy soon found itself in a difficult spot. One of its diplomatic responsibilities was to help any Americans who were in some sort of difficulty with the Guyanese government or court system. In this particular instance, however, there were two competing – conflicting – sets of interests, and there were Americans on both sides. That meant the Embassy had to remain neutral in the battle, even as it provided diplomatic and consular services for everyone involved.

The challenges of that unique situation – and the frustration it engendered – are reflected in the cables which went back and forth between Washington and Georgetown. Also reflected is the frustration of the Stoens – and their lawyers, the press and several members of Congress – to reach a resolution in the matter.

On December 8, 1978, three weeks after the deaths in Jonestown, Richard McCoy – former Consul to the U.S. Embassy in Georgetown, then-Guyana Desk Officer at the State Department – wrote a memo to the file summarizing the agency’s and Embassy’s contacts with the Stoens during the previous two years. The memo, initially intended for internal use only, discusses many of the cables below and offers both analysis and overall context to the official narrative on the custody case. While not overtly stated, the intra-office memo reflects the frustration felt in all sides of the dispute.

The chart below represents a compilation of the cables discussing the custody battle over John Victor Stoen. Most were obtained from a release under the Freedom of Information Act for State Department documents related to the Stoen case, although some came from a more general FOIA request for State Department records. All of these also appear on three other pages: the State Department Cables (1974-1977); the State Department cables (January – November 1978); and the State Department cables (Leo Ryan trip).

A key to the notations in the columns appears below the chart.

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How to read this chart

This is a key to the meaning of the columns and the notations within them:

Columns 1 and 2 comprise the dates and times that the cables were sent. The dates are in the format of the last two digits of the year (74-79), the month (01-12) and the day. As an example, November 18, 1978 would be designated as 781118. The times are in Greenwich Mean Time, used internationally on all cables. They are included because – especially in the first few days after the tragedy – scores of cables were flashing back and forth between offices on a single day.

Columns 3 lists the government agencies and embassies sending the cables. On this listing, the only two originating entities are the State Department and the American Embassy in Georgetown, Guyana.

Column 4 provides the cable identification number, unique to each document.

Column 5 presents a brief description of the cable’s contents.

Columns 6 and 7 provide links to the PDF and Text versions of the cables. The PDF indicates whether the cable came pursuant to the general FOIA request of State or to the second request for Stoen documents.

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