[Minor typographical errors corrected throughout]
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My name is Liane Harris and I am a teacher in the community school here. I lead an active and, I might add, very interesting life here which is a place of great beauty and joy. I have seen young people blossom and develop creativity, and expressiveness in this truly human environment. The people here are from all backgrounds, and the level of cooperation is very high. There is a kind of intensity and unity of purpose that is hard to describe, but everyone feels part of something really great – each individual has a sense of importance. Young and old are, together, learning and accomplishing new things every day. I believe that our community is a special achievement that should be appreciated, and to me it is tragic that a handful of people who do not appreciate what is being done here, and who are threatened by us for some reason, have chosen to make all-out efforts to discredit Jim Jones. Jim is a great man, a man who has the courage to care, to take on the responsibility of building this community of peace and love, bringing hundreds of people to a beautiful way of life. It has taken hard work and sacrifice for this dream of a society of equality and justice to become the reality that it is for us today, and we are not going to allow the lies and schemes of a few individuals who are unable to appreciate it, to keep us from our work. I sincerely hope that the truth about Jonestown is printed and the lies are exposed.
Liane Harris
[Handwritten addition: “PS I wrote this because my dad, Sherwin Harris is not satisfied with the fact that I want to stay to live my life here. I do not want to go back to the States.”]
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Affidavit of Lois Ponts
Port Kaituma
North West District, Guyana
I, Lois Ponts, being duly sworn, declare;
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
I am stating in this letter that I decided at the urging of my daughter in my own interest in traveling and Christian concern for my fellow man that I would move to Guyana. I saved some money and took a commercial airline two Georgetown, Guyana with my daughter Donna. At that time we took up residence with another Guyanese family. The church that I belonged to did not take me on to their project because they felt that I needed my husband’s consent. My daughter and I called my former husband collect and he accepted the charges and told us to just stay here in Guyana. We are very happy with our decision to try another way of life here.
I state under penalty of pergury [perjury] that the above is true and correct.
/s/ Lois Ponts
Witnesses: /s/ Christine Lucientes
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May 29, 1978
To Whom It May Concern:
My daughter Carol and I came to Guyana last August and we are planning on making this our permanent home. It is my understanding that my daughter Jeanette was protesting our being here, and I don’t understand why. Carol and I planned for several years to come here. It was a deep desire of ours but I just never dreamed that we would be so fortunate. When the opportunity opened itself to us, we took it without a second thought and we couldn’t be happier with our decision. I am working here as a medical secretary and transcriber on the medical staff. I enjoy my responsibilities and I stay quite busy. When I arrived in Jonestown I was quite obese but I have now lost over 50 lbs and am my normal weight! Also, I was on medications for depression but since being in my new home and it’s [its] wholesome atmosphere, I am completely free of all medication and I am so grateful for this. Carol is a children’s day care supervisor and is doing pre-med studies. She has plans to become a physician.
To build a community has been a child-hood dream of mine and I just can’t tell you how unfulfilling it is to be able to help develop the North West District of Guyana. And it’s so exciting to be a part of building a fine medical center in this part of South America. I do have to laugh at the fantastic stories I’ve heard about the jungle. We are safer here than on any city street in the day time! We have fresh mineral water from our wells, fresh pure air, beautiful waterfalls, excellent medical care, wonderful living quarters, Technicolor movies every night, tasty well-balanced meals, hundreds of acres of vegetables and fruits of every kind and for every taste. We have fried chicken, greens, homemade biscuits, ham, smoked fish, fresh fish and even Mexican food, only we grow our own hot pepper (and a lot of other things) in our yards. There is no other place that I want to be. This is my home!
Penny Kerns Dupont
/s/ Penny Kerns Dupont
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This is the most beautiful place I’ve ever lived and I always dreamed of living in a foreign country. The air is always fresh and I just love the climate. My granddaughter is here with us, and she just loves it. She goes to school and has lots of friends and playmates. She used to be a very nervous child, but she has calmed down and is doing so well. This is the best place she could be. She feels very secure and safe in Jonestown. Also, my grown son Emmett is here with his wife and baby, and is very happy.
(Signed) Mary Griffith<
Mary Griffith
May 29, 1978
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[Editor’s note: Four-page document typed in capital letters. Grammatical and typographical errors have been corrected.]
OPEN LETTER TO JONESTOWN
When Mother [Marceline Jones] and Paula [Adams] landed in New York we noticed the emptiness in their faces, people were almost knocking people over to get to wherever they had to go. Many were made up with makeup that hid their skin color and beauty if there was any to see. All over New York there was the heat of a heat wave even late in the night in the air had a stench in it that reminded you of the sewage area of the Oakland Bay Bridge. And none of the people had smiles on their faces and if they did they were as phony as a $6.00 bill. In the hotel that we stayed overnight because we had some business to attend to the next day in New York, there was a large group of Russian people staying in the hotel and you could see the hate in people’s faces as the Russians talk in their native tongue, there were starving people everywhere you went outside the hotel and people just walked by! The next morning it was raining and overcast, in fact if you didn’t know supposed to be morning then you could not tell by the sky. After seeing just this little bit of misery I thought back to Jonestown, the air there is so fresh and clean, everybody is relaxed and have true smiles on their faces and have something to look forward to every morning and can tell if it is morning very easily. The weather was so bad that I have had the sniffles ever since.
The food tasted like uncooked potatoes and didn’t have any body to it and no flavoring whatsoever even if you added salt. The food in Jonestown is delicious that I have a craving for that good rice and gravy that some of you have the nerve to complain about!
On the way to San Francisco the flight attendant smiles at you with her phony smile and when you turn your back they frown on you, they tell of how good the flight is and that they have free movies but you have to pay $2.50 to get the listening ear phones in order to hear the movies. Actually they aren’t giving you anything.
In New York the newspaper workers were on strike as the New York Times was not being printed, just like our father said, the workers of the world will one day rise up and demand their rights. Not just the blacks and the Mexicans or the Native Americans but the poor white and other oppressed people of the world.
In San Francisco it was a mere 95° and the people were telling me you must be used to this heat? I quickly told them the Guyana’s heat is much milder than this and to be even more pleasant you would go to Jonestown. In the news there was a strong outcry for the release of Patty Hearst because many of the people thought that she had served enough time. (Not too many of the white establishment for calling out for the release of
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Black Panther Party leader Huey Newton who has been harassed by the FBI, CIA, and the police departments of Northern and Southern California and the entire country. Hasn’t he served enough for trying to correct some of the urban problems that this present administration has all but refused to deal with?) I think back in Jonestown there is a Peoples Forum where everybody has a voice and can criticize what they don’t like and get results and it isn’t just red tape but action is taken to see that people are taken care of, whether it be medical or a physical placement of new housing. The San Francisco Housing Authority was shook up when it was investigated by the Housing Authority and many of the very same people that our father was questioning about monies and expenses are either fired or being indicted. If there is an oversight of someone in Jonestown, then there is a quick action to correct that situation. We have nothing to complain about in Jonestown.
I stopped by Opportunity High School to talk to Yvonne Golden. She and Mr. McCubby were in a conference and they interrupted what they were doing to express how they missed the young people from Peoples Temple. They said that if they had 50-100 young people from the Temple then they would make Opportunity a model for the city. Yvonne said that I never had to come home looking [for] any of the students because they were always in class. She said that some parents call her now and ask if their child was in school and Yvonne tells them that I can not be responsible for your child from home but at school ok. She said that we spend half the day calling homes of these students trying to find out where their children are. I never had to look for the children (young people at Peoples Temple). Mr. McCubby said to tell all of the young people hi! They said that it is a shame that a good man like Jim Jones had to be lying on and attempts to destroy his organization.
That brings another thought into my mind. Many young people that have been saved from the world of drugs, suicide, rape, and death in the prisons and penal institutions of this country. You now have a new destiny to fulfill, building a socialist society where everything that was denied here in the States will be an everyday thing there in Jonestown. But it takes more than just having the structure set up, now it takes workers to keep up the structure, meaning that some of you (and it should be all) young people should get on the stick. You should not have to be asked to go to the library and study the news. We all that came to the States miss the news that we were getting from our dad because we are now scratching our brains trying to read between the lines to get the real truth of what [is] happening in the world. You are now in a noncompetitive society
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where you can learn at your own pace. But I think that we have been given too much because there are more young people wanting to participate in a new dance group or singing group or even play basketball or the karate club or whatever it is called. Many pretend that they want to go into sewing, but it is only to make things for their individual cottage and not for the entire collective. I think that these above things are necessary but they all have their place on the list of priorities. We should be educated and educate one another so that we are so politically aware that nobody can touch us. We have with us the greatest leader among us and we are going to lose this wealth of knowledge one day. And we will be like babies that have lost mama’s tit. A group of our people and myself went to hear Kindra Axendra who is the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the United States and Mark Allen of the People’s World newspaper speak of their recent trip to GDR (German Democratic Republic – it’s socialist). Kindra said that one of the problems that GVDR had is that they can’t get the men to take the responsibility of the children like they should! (And this year the GDR will celebrate their 30th year) I thought Jonestown had only been around for almost 2 years and we already have that in our everyday life in Jonestown, Jim Jones is the greatest leader, socialist in the world, he is so far ahead of the rest of the world. We should learn all we can from our father and learn to take care of our seniors and children because one day the responsibility will be on you, yes you, and you owe it to socialism to put your best foot forward. There should be no excuses. We should be organizing classes with one another following the guidelines that our father has provided for us. (Because we have seen where intellectuals have got the book knowledge and no commitment whatsoever and even thought they were more intelligent than our leader and left this great cause). In other words we don’t want anybody doing their own thing. You young people should be learning skills, machine shop, carpentry, drafting, accounting, yes this is necessary because we can’t just go to town and ask for donations for the project! Because there are many people here who are not members of our family that want to move to Guyana and live in Jonestown, and unless you (meaning one of you young people can come up with another way of organizing the checks and balance systems of any operation), I am not saying this to lay a trip on you but we need to use our mind more than we do and for more than entertainment. (If the shoe doesn’t fit then don’t wear it!) I love music myself but it is only a temporary thing, you can’t eat music nor can you play music and save someone’s life.
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There [are] many young people wishing that they had the chance to live in a community where they can go into any field they desire and become somebody and don’t have to worry about being a second-class citizen. Jim Jones has given you your citizenship and we should all walk proud, but along that wall we should pick up something that would ease the burden of our leader because he can’t be expected to think and keep everything in order (even though he can). It’s time we got off our asses and started participating in something, being a part of the operations that make this place go. Not that you will be a special person but this organization belongs to the people and we are the leaders of tomorrow and we want this place to be around when our great-great-grandchildren are near. So it is going to take us giving up some face, in other words not being afraid to ask your sister or brother to go to work or pull their share of the load. Get more of the young people involved into every department there is in Jonestown and create new ones that can be beneficial to the community. Usually minds to be creative, because if you wanted to manipulate your mama or dad into getting something for yourself, then you can put that same brilliance to work for the collective. Don’t misunderstand me, I am not saying young people take over Jonestown, I am saying that we the young people should be involved in everything, because we are next in line to be leaders. It is the only way any society can continue! That’s common sense. We all owe a debt to our father and this cause, even though he constantly tells us to work for the cause and not for him (I don’t see how many of us can separate the two because if there hadn’t been Jim Jones then I would not have a cause to live for). Now the road is paved for us, now is the time to take up our shovel (and for those of you that are still Christian conscious then take up your cross and get to work). We need to be examples to our younger brothers and sisters so that when they become the leaders of this great community then they will be sensitive to the seniors and the babies and the toddlers. And they will have knowledge to pass on to the next generation. Thank you, Jim Jones, for saving me before I was lost in the world of capitalism.
Your son, Hue Fortson cockeyed Junior
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BARBARA WALKER: Writes her experiences as a former Black Panther to inform you of what she knows of Elaine Brown. Barbara joined the BPP during the Summer of 1969. She served as the link between Jefferson High School and the party. She met Elaine the January of 1970 after the shootout between the pigs and the Panthers Dec. 1969. She was moved from Oakland to LA permanently at the social commune that was located at 103 Anzac in Watts. She was always jumpy and smoked a lot, she never seemed unsure of herself and talk so fast you could hardly understand her. She was in the process of writing songs since Barbara was a writer also Elaine was assigned to work with Barbara editing her articles for publication. Barbara never liked her because she seems so unemotional about what was happening in school. She never wanted Barbara to write anything that would put the pigs in a bad light, altho she did use the poetry can her own songs. Barbara later found out that Elaine had been sent to LA because she had been causing a great deal of chaos in due to her highly aggressive sexual involvement in party leaders, particularly the Minister of Education. His wife was deeply involved in the party. Elaine was very pregnant which would have been alright if both parties were consenting, otherwise severe discipline measures would have been taken, neither was the case, but she did have to leave LA. Party leaders tried to patch up the chaos, this happened at a very bad time, especially since everyone in the party was trying to deal with the conspiracy charges and getting money for Panthers in jail, and planning Free Huey rallies to keep him from being electrocuted. She seemed to always [be] out of reach when we had rallies or had to stand up against injustices in the neighborhood. She always use her singing to be out of the way when anything went down. She did talk about Huey a lot and whether he would be set free. She spent most of her time with people who did commercials and people who could help sell her records. After the baby was born she took great pride in flaunting it around. She only hung around the men in the party because none of the women respected her. Due to the conspiracy charges the party was up against, and that Barbara was under age, 16, and living in the commune, and having been indirectly involved in the shootout of Central along with threats
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from her dad for allowing Panthers to hide in his house. It was advised by leaders that she go home and lay low until the heat was off. She went to New Orleans around July. Jane Fonda was there (LA or New Orleans??) And have been to the Desire Project, where another chapter was located. In 1971 when Barbara returned to LA, the LA chapter had been practically destroyed, the people she knew were either in jail, been bought off, or given up, disgusted. The father of her two children, GILBERT GEORGE PARKER, associated with Elaine Brown after he left the party. They would both work with David Manley, a black artist. She gives the address of GILBERT PARKER: 2002 – 4th Ave., LA, CA.
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[Editor’s note: The following is an unsigned statement by Penny Kerns Dupont.]
BLESSINGS FROM FATHER
When I first came to Peoples Temple in 1968, Father called me out and told me details about my life that only God could know. One Sunday night, he said, “Mrs. DuPont, be careful going up the Willits grade”. That very night, it was freezing out in my car stalled right at the edge of the mountain in the most dangerous spot. Trucks just missed us. I had my children in the car with me. Finally, I put my head on the steering wheel and meditated and a pickup truck pulled up behind me and stopped. The couple got out and helped me back my car back down to a parking area. They then drove me to the church in RV [Redwood Valley].
Jim called me out through my nephew Ricky Peterson and told me about his life having a baby on Moon day, and told me that she had problems with the baby’s birth. I knew nothing about this. And when I checked with my mother later on, I found that this was exactly true. The baby was born on Moon Day and Ricky’s wife had to go to a special doctor that delivers babies for small women. No one but God could know this.
When I first joined Peoples Temple, Jim told me, “I have to tell you something about your daughter Ruth”. And I mentioned this to hurt [her], not realizing that I shouldn’t. She then became very paranoid and told me how she had been smoking dope.
Jim Jones got my son Philip out of CYA [California Youth Authority] in Sacramento, when he was 16 years of age. He then told Philip the name of a young man that had also been in a lot of trouble. He told Philip that he would meet this person and that when he did to leave him alone or he would be in a lot of trouble. Phil met this person, whose name was Ultman, from Los Angeles, and they did get in trouble just as Jim said they would, because Phil refused to listen.
Jim told me the exact address of my home in Sacramento. I couldn’t remember this address myself, but he knew.
One night returning to Ukiah with Karen Layton, we had just been told by Jim, “Be careful of accidents in the fog”. Karen was driving rather fast and we had forgotten the warning. All of a sudden right before our eyes the fog cleared and there was a car accident. Then a power beyond our control took the wheel and pulled the car safely off the road and stopped it. There was no human way that we could have stopped the car ourselves. Karen then said, “I didn’t stop the car”.
One night after my son had been released, I was at the old Cordell home on West Road with a number of other people. It was stormy outside. The phone rang and it was someone telling us that my son, Phil had left the church in the rain. Sharon Amos answered the phone. She thanked the party that called and then, holding the phone in her hand, and pushing down on the receiver button, she asked me what she should do and I was very upset over his leaving. She said, “Maybe we should call Don Beck in Talmage and have him go over to your house on Evans Street and see if Phil is there. I agreed. Then we heard a low voice, it was calling, “Linda, Linda…” Sharon held the phone out and we all looked at it. The voice was coming from the phone. The phone hadn’t rang and it was disconnected but the voice was very clear. It was definitely coming from the telephone. Sharon then held the phone up to her ear and said, “Yes, this is Linda”. The little voice said, “This is Jim. Do what you told Penny… Have Don Beck go to Evans Street. Phil will be there and have Don tell him…” Then he told Sharon to take the phone into the bedroom where Ruth was sleeping because he wanted to tell her some things to help her brother.
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Jim talk to Ruth for some time. Then Ruth came into the living room and said, “I have just talked with Jim Jones and he told me things to say to my brother to help him”. Everyone that was present was in great awe of the happening and great miracle we had witnessed.
About this same time of the year, I was on a mission and was pretending to be “Out” of the church. I had to see Jim and went to his house in a big hurry. I not clear gently at the door and Esther [Mueller] came to the door and told me that everyone was resting. I ran back to my car and drove to Archie and Rosie’s [Ijames] house. As I drove into their driveway, Rosie came running out and told me to hurry – that I was wanted on the telephone. It was Jim Jones. He said to me, “I’m not upstairs resting… People don’t even know what’s going on… I’m clear across the valley”. What a great miracle this was. This man knows everything!
When I first came to Peoples Temple I was working throughout Mendocino County for a newspaper. One day coming home I witnessed a pickup truck accident as I was coming down the Willits grade. As the truck crashed into the mountain and the driver went flying out of his seat through the windshield, I called “Jim”. As soon as I said “Jim”, the man’s body came back inside the car and sat back down in his seat. I was amazed at this! His only injuries were cuts on his head. Without this great miracle he would have been thrown to the ground and killed.
On the same day that I went to Rosie and Archie’s house on the mission, I left and was driving down West Road to fast, when out of a sawmill came a car also traveling fast and the other car didn’t stop for the intersection and came at my car head on. It was impossible to stop my car. But a force greater than any human force, pulled my car to a safe stop within a foot of the other car. It was so close that the other driver collapsed at his steering wheel. I know that the protective force of Jim Jones saved me.
One weekend in San Francisco, Jim said to be careful going home as he saw a green van in an accident. So that night going home to R. V. I rode on Danny Kutulas’ bus. As we were going around the corner near Cloverdale, we came upon a green van in the middle of the road and it was too close to stop the bus. We should have crashed right into it. But a force greater than any human force pooled our bus to an immediate stop! And, none of us that were standing in the aisle fell! This was contrary to gravity. All of us should have fallen. But Jim’s love protected us.
One Sunday night, I volunteered to drive some people home to Santa Rosa, to save sending a bus. Jim said, “Take Herman Edwards with you”. Coming home from Santa Rosa, I kept falling asleep at the wheel and drove in my sleep for the journey home. I would awaken and find myself going off the road and would be awake just enough to make a really dangerous turn and would fall asleep again. Herman was also falling asleep. When we got home we found that my gas line in the engine and busted and gas was spurting out continually and the car was full of gas fumes. It was a miracle that we hadn’t been killed and the car hadn’t caught on fire and burned.
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On a Sunday night about eight years ago, I was running in John Biddulph’s car and so was Loretta [Cordell]. John kept upsetting me and making snide remarks. As we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge he laughed about suicide and the height of the bridge and slow down real slow. He knew I was afraid of heights and was trying to scare me. When we got to Denny’s I got out of the car and refused to get back in it. He kept begging me to get in. I wouldn’t do it. I told him that I would hitchhike and I would see him in R.V. at the church. He had stopped his car and the engine was off. And all of a sudden, right before our eyes, the car’s engine became engulfed in flames and burned. The manager of the little hot dog stand in front of which he was parked came running with a fire extinguisher. The fire was put out and right before our eyes, the car started! I thought this whole incident was a great miracle! I then got in the car and mused to myself that Father had scared him enough with the fire and he behaved pretty well going home. Thanks Father.
With my own eyes I saw Jim turned the water to wine. He made 12 pitchers of wine of every color and kind. He would say, “Bring me a pitcher of water from the kitchen”. And a clear pitcher would be brought to him and he would wave his hand over it and right before my eyes and the eyes of hundreds of people, Father would turn the water to wine. Sometimes he would just pour the water into the little white cups and it would turn to wind in the cups. One pitcher that he held up didn’t change color as he waved his hand over it. He looked around and smiled and said, “You think I couldn’t do it? Haven’t you ever heard of white wine?”
I was there when Father was shot in the heart. It was a warm Sunday afternoon. He said in the service inside the building that someone had a gun. He then dismissed the services and told everyone to go outside. I was out on the parking lot, when I heard three shots and Jim was standing right in front of me, not over ten feet away. He grabbed his chest and the blood was just pumping out all over his shirt and through his fingers. There was a pool of blood on the ground which one of the dogs started licking up. Number three of us ran to him and I heard him call out as he picked himself up, “I’m all right”. He walked with his hand over his wounds into his house, where he changed clothes and came out and conducted the evening service. He refused to go to the doctor and instead comforted the people. When the man shot at him, Jim made the gunshots sound come from the opposite direction so that people would run after the sound and not run after the man and get hurt.
I was there when Father was shot in the head. An assassin came to the window of the church and shot at Father, hitting his left temple. The assassin had shot through the window into the crowd and Father drew the bullet to himself, taking the wound. The bullet hole was plainly in the window for all to see.
One church evening when I was standing in front of the church, Father said to me, “You have a daughter with grand mal epilepsy, don’t you?” I started crying and said yes. He said, “Let us get her out here with us”. This was a miracle in itself.
Another time in San Francisco, Jim said, “Who knows a boy named Bobby? I told Tom Grubbs that I knew someone named Bobby. But Tom said it wouldn’t be one of us that it would be a guest. So I ignored this. The next day I received a very sad and depressed letter from my daughter Jeanette. I then rushed to Eva Pugh’s house to have her tell Jim about the letter and that her boyfriend had been killed in a car accident. I then received word from Jim then I had to call Jeanette right then, that it was an emergency. I couldn’t get her phone number as she had moved and her phone number was unlisted. I finally called long-distance operator,
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who said, “Mrs. Jones speaking”. I told her that it was an emergency and that I had to talk to my daughter. She told me to hang up and that she would call me right back. She did and when she called me back, she had Jeanette on the line. It was a great miracle! Jeanette was terribly depressed and was going to commit suicide. Jim later told me that it would have been too late if we had waited any longer. Because of this call and a letter that I wrote to her, in which Jim told me certain things to say, I was able to keep her from killing herself. Only because of you, Jim.
In 1969, my son was in confinement for being in a stolen car and having a gun in Phoenix, Arizona. He was brought back to California by the authorities, and was in jail in Santa Rosa. I received a phone call from Archie Ijames telling me that I was to pick up a check from Eva Pugh to pay for an attorney for him and he gave me instructions on what to do. I didn’t want to do this, for Jim had already done so much for him and he hadn’t listened to anything told him. Nevertheless that didn’t matter to Jim, I had to go anyway to help him. I picked up the check for several hundred dollars and went with Karen Layton and got an attorney for Phil. Phil was just about to be sentenced to San Quentin prison when we arrived in the courtroom. His defense attorney was pleading guilty and he would go to prison that day. But because of Jim, I was able to save him from prison. Only because of you, Jim, only because of you.
When I first came to Peoples Temple, I had continual bowel and intestinal blockages. Often I would have to be rushed to the hospital on emergency basis to unblock my insides. One such day, I called for Rheavina [Rheaviana] Beam to come and help me. I was taking care of an old lady and I couldn’t leave her alone. I felt that I was dying in the kitchen. And I stood at the kitchen window and thought of something I could do to help in the last days. When I thought this thought, I could feel my intestines completely open up and I was ever with whole at this exact moment! By the time that Rheavina got there, I was completely healed and I thank Jim Jones for this.
Another night, I heard Jim calling my name. It was late at night. Finally I got up and went into the kitchen. The minute I stepped into the kitchen, the bedroom completely filled with smoke. My bed was on fire! I called the fire department and they said it was a miracle I hadn’t burned alive. My bed was completely on fire. The mattress, the sheets, the blanket! But none of the fire even touched me! I think Jim for calling my name and saving my life…
In 1968 I was a chronic alcoholic and smoker. But because of Jim Jones and Peoples Temple, I was able to stop drinking and smoking within two months of each other. Before this time, I had no desire whatever to quit either one, although both were ruining my health.
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On two different occasions Pastor Jones materialized buttons for me. The first time was when I was working as a journalist in Lake County. I had a black-and-white jacket with large pearl buttons. In Lake County about fifty miles from Redwood Valley, I lost one of the buttons. I looked everywhere for it. In my car, in my pocket, in my purse and it was nowhere to be found! Losing it ruined the appearance of my coat. Weeks later at church in Redwood Valley, I had completely forgotten about my coat and button. I was at church in the evening time and I had stopped wearing this coat because it looked funny with the missing button. I got up and went to the bathroom and when I returned my button was sitting on my chair! I had told no one about this whatsoever!!
The other time was in Los Angeles. I had heard terrible news and was crying. My husband Andy [Silver] was home with me and my daughter Carol Ann. Carol Ann I found an old coat she wanted and I was mending it for it [her]. It only had a few buttons on it… two holed and one holed buttons. There were five. This coat needed many more for it was a double-breasted coat. Anyway, I tried to move the buttons around to fit the coat and I was crying. As I took a two holed button off the coat, it changed to four holes right in front of my eyes! I dropped the button, it startled me so. And as I sat there sewing, Jim kept materializing buttons. He materialized enough for the whole coat and there was one left over!
One of my cats got hit by a car in Ukiah and its left leg was badly broken. One day, in front of my eyes, I can’t jumped up on my desk and put it paw three times on the chest of Jim Jones’ picture! Immediately the cat was much better!
Two years ago, my companion Andy Silver and I were walking home in Santa Rosa. I recommended to him that we visualize some money. Pastor Jones had said that we could have anything that we visualized. Andy agreed with this and said he was visualizing a dollar. I said that I was visualizing thousands of dollars. He laughed at me but I stuck with this. That very day, in a restaurant where we had stopped in at to get some coffee, Andy found a dollar and when I returned home to LA, I found in my mailbox a seven thousand dollar insurance check! I thank Jim Jones for all of this!
Two different times, Pastor Jones materialized my dogs in the Redwood Valley Church. I had moved from a house high on a hill to another place down the road and couldn’t take my animals because there wasn’t room for them. I was very attached to them. One night at church when service was just over, I was amazed to see my animals running around and around inside the church looking for me. I was flabbergasted and thought Mother Taylor had brought them to the service. I arranged for someone to take them home when a few minutes later, they were again inside the church running around and looking for me. My German Shepherd Sam got down on his paws and crawled to me as if to beg me to take him with me, which I immediately did. But first I checked the guards at the door and no one had let them in. No one knew how they got in! I know that Jim Jones materialized them for me! We live miles from the church and there was no way they could have normally gotten there.
I had seen Pastor Jones materialize things before. I saw him materialize a briefcase that Jim Randolph had lost. He said in front of the whole congregation, “Jim Randolph, you have been very careless with some of your papers”. Just then this large object came flying through the air into Pastor Jones’ hand and Jim then threw it to Jim Randolph. It was his lost briefcase. I have seen him material[ize] someone’s wallet, membership cards and on another occasion when we were cleaning the church, Jim was sweeping and thinking about his lost glasses when they materialized in his hand right in front of my eyes!
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When I worked in Redwood Valley, I drove past Martha Klingman’s house. I usually never stopped there. On this particular morning, I had to get to Lake County early and was on my way to work. When I got close to the Klingman house, I got very tired and could hardly keep my eyes open. This was very unusual for me. I drove into the Klingman yard and went and knocked at their door. I told Martha that I didn’t know what had come over me, as I was suddenly so sleepy that I couldn’t drive. She mentioned that her baby was sick but I didn’t think much about it… I then left again for work. As I went about a mile from her house, again I became very sleepy and a force beyond me turned my car around. I again returned to Martha’s house. I told her that I was so sleepy that I had to lay down. She told me that I could lay on her bed. When I went into her bedroom, I immediately woke up, four there before me on her bed was her baby, April, near death! She was turning blue, was crying a death moan that made me chill. I tried not to alarm her mother. I told Martha that her baby was very ill and we had to leave immediately for town. Martha was without transportation. I called the doctor and we got in my car. The baby continued to moan and I put one of Pastor Jones’ pictures on the baby and she immediately quit moaning and went to sleep. When we arrived at the doctor’s office, the baby was near death and the doctors felt there was no hope for her as she was critically ill with spinal meningitis. However, because of the Christ force that works in Pastor Jones, the baby was made completely whole and is alive and well today with no brain damage whatsoever.
I have seen hundreds upon hundreds of growths passed from people’s bodies. I have seen so many that it is like a common occurrence to me. But the largest one I ever saw and the first was the growth passed by Florence Andrews. She was called out by Pastor Jones and told things about her life that only God could know and right in front of my eyes, as Pastor Jones told her to begin to vomit, came the largest growth I have ever seen in all my life. It was as large as a big piece of liver and as it started to come out, a mass of blood shot over the stage and onto people standing close by! The smell was horrible. And Pastor Jones told Mrs. Andrews that now that this terrible growth was gone, that she could sing again. And she then burst into song. It was magnificent to witness.
About this same period of time at Ben Franklin auditorium, in San Francisco, Pastor Jones called out a little woman that was sick with cancer. He told her to go to the bathroom and she would pass a growth. I went to the bathroom with her and Marceline Jones and before my eyes this woman passed a growth and mass of blood such as I had never seen before! I will remember this all the days of my life!
One day I was at Dorothy Worley’s house in Ukiah. She was telling me about a Shetland pony that she used to have and it used to bite her on the arm. At this moment she was holding her cat, and I asked her what became of the pony. This cat she was holding was very old and called her “Mama”. Just as I asked her what became of the pony, Dorothy said, “I don’t know…” The cat then said “Mama” and bit her on the arm. Dorothy Worley was a witness to this.
One Sunday in Los Angeles, Marceline was talking about the cockroaches and said that she doesn’t kill them anymore. I felt very guilty because I had been spraying for cockroaches for I lived. That evening I went home and a little cockroach ran across the floor and my little dog Josephine ran across the floor and tried to kill it. I felt very concerned over the cockroach when right before my eyes, the little cockroach dematerialized and my little dog was so startled that she ran around in circles barking looking for the little bug!
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When I first came to Peoples Temple I had seen Jim raised people from the dead. This was very hard for me to believe and no one look “really dead” to me. One time at Ben Franklin Auditorium a giant of a man supposedly died in the congregation. Well, being a pure skeptic about all this I decided to get a good look at this man. The man was carried up to the front of the church and the nurses were working over him, trying to revive him. Someone had called an ambulance. I posted myself right up alongside all of this and I watched this man like a hawk. He definitely was not breathing. I watched him so close and I was only a foot from him. His eyes were rolled back in his head, his tongue was hanging out of his mouth and then to my amazement he even emptied his bladder and bowels. The secretions were running down the floor. There was no doubt that this man was deader than a doornail! I have seen hundreds of such sick people follow dead and be arisen by Pastor Jones. I no longer have any question about the matter.
One evening coming home from Lake County around Clearlake I saw a snake injured in the road. It had been hit by a car. I thought that I needed to turn around and try to help it because this is something that Jim would do and want done. I couldn’t pull over right there because cars were coming and there was no parking area by the snake to pull my car onto. I went on up the road a couple of miles and found a place where I could turn around. When I returned to the area where the snake was, I found a large parking area to put my car onto! I was astonished by this great miracle! I pulled my car to the side of the road and got a picture that I had of Jim and Marceline and went and put it on the injured snake which was badly injured and in great pain. I picked up the snake and put it to rest in the shade by the lake and as soon as I laid it there, its spirit left its body and it was peaceful. I think Pastor Jones for this moment and for letting me go back to help the poor thing.
One night in Ukiah, I was working quietly with my project. Myself and another person were sitting on my bed sorting out some mail… My little dog was really mad at me because I wouldn’t let her in. She barked and barked but I just ignored her. The door was locked because if it wasn’t she could open it with her paw and come in anyway. But then right in front of our eyes the local dog materialized right in front of my eyes on the bed and was running all over the mail and scattered it to no end! I thank Pastor Jones for this great miracle.
One night Becky Flowers and I were driving from Santa Rosa to Ukiah late at night. When we came to the Cloverdale Road, there was a little deer on the road. I told Becky that we had to go back and get the deer off the road because this was what Father would do. She agreed. We then turned around and went back and the little deer was gone unfortunately. Then as we continued on our way, I saw four lights in front of me and thought that it was [one] car behind another, when all of a sudden I realized it was a car with four headlights and it was about to hit us head on! Before I could think the car coming at us disappeared before our very eyes and I want to thank Jim Jones for all the wonderful love he showed in making this car disappear, and for sparing our lives!
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Polla Mattarras
- In 1971 she was struck by a hit-and-run driver in Indianapolis, Indiana. She was thrown one block. She was taken to the Methodist Hospital, 1604 N. Capitol Ave., Indianapolis. Her doctors’ names were Dr. Kline and Dr. Shickleburg. At that time 2 steel rods were inserted in her right leg and several steel pins were inserted at various points in her leg. She left Indianapolis soon after she got out of the hospital and came to California.
- She was seen by a doctor in Ukiah whose name was Bernard Johnson. One of the steel rods and all of the pins had disappeared. When the doctor saw that the pins had disappeared, he asked Polla if she was a member of Peoples Temple. She replied she had only been there once. He told her many of Jim Jones’ members were his patients and he had seen many strange things. He told her to do whatever Jim Jones told her to do because God
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was working through him.
- The doctors in Indianapolis told her that it would be 4-6 years before she would walk again, but thanks to Jim, she was walking within a few weeks.
- She was called out in Indianapolis on Dec 10. Told her that she was struck by a racist and just got out of the hospital. Told her that he would bring her to California where she would be healthy, and also told her that no one cared for her but he would take care of her and provide her with whatever she needed at no cost. Told her intimate things about her life.
Attn: June Crym
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To Whom It May Concern:
October 24, 1977
About one year ago we read the Peoples Forum for the first time. Biblical questions. Well-documented and researched examples of injustices. Examples of self-help, effective programs to save the rejected of injustices.
After reading a few more issues of the Peoples Forum, we visited the Peoples Temple. Friendly people. Willing to talk. Willing to listen. Woodworking room. Printing room. Spaces for eating, medical help, office needs. Examples of young people, learning and teaching skills. Being of use. Gaining respect of themselves and others. A look of caring. Feelings of morality. High purpose. A belief in Jim Jones. His life-long gift of serving others, of egalitarian practices. A leader, yes. But not authoritarian, except for the love everyone would talk to had for Jim Jones. A love. A respect. An awe of the level of his giving.
Then came the corporate-media stories. We recognize not one fact in the news stories which corresponded to our experiences of visiting the Peoples Temple or of reading the Peoples Forum. Yet, surely our experiences were available to the reporters, and to the editors who wrote such totally derogatory materials. Why the discrepancy between our perceptions and theirs?
The Peoples Temple is trying new, communal socialistic approaches to very difficult problems of our society which have been seemingly unsolvable by the resources we have been able to allocate. Problems such as how to help people, especially young ones who take too many drugs, or who get into the habit of stealing what they want and/or need, how to help older people become involved in the real life and get away from the voyeuristic TV life. How to help just plain people do meaningful work leading towards a more humanistic society. With love, with hard work, with commitment. We believe Peoples Temple is facing and trying to untangle these problems. And we thank them for their work.
But, they have been characterized by the corporate media as brutal, child beaters, unfeeling, unthinking… Power mad… Liars… Fakes… Only interested in grabbing people’s money.
We have met many people during our four visits to the Peoples Temple. These people were beautiful and seemed full of love, compassion and commitment. Doers. Workers. Yet, with a sense of love and understanding.
We just can’t believe our perceptions were that wrong. The people’s actions and reactions during our visits couldn’t have been all make-believe. We think that their pastor, Jim Jones, whom we met only briefly, is a shining star of getting love and help to others. We think he inspires the other members to do the same. And that is the beauty of the church. And its strength.
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And perhaps that is what the “expose” is all about. Perhaps when love, caring and commitment start to be effective, to make changes in our present system which seems based on competition and greed, perhaps that is when the corporate powers become worried. And perhaps when they become worried they actually commit many atrocities they charge others with, symbolically and otherwise. Perhaps the establishment-media stories are projections, projections of the present controlling powers who act through coercion and through devious means when they feel threatened.
And, of course, any person, any organization that is looked into with a magnifying glass, with an intent to discredit and no concern for the total truth, can be discredited for some matters. No one or nothing is perfect, especially when the persons or organizations our working with some of the most difficult problems of our society. We are all a gestalt of experiences and our lot in life.
But, there is a medium, related to the whole of truth, which can be evaluated. And the Peoples Temple has our vote and our support and our confidence. We choose them over the corporate media. And over the people who paid for all the investigations. And over the people who were paid for their part in the supposed expose. We choose the Peoples Temple.
And we urge any interested persons who believe that the stories they read in the establishment media might have been created for less than humanistic motives, any persons who believe there might be another side, we invite these people to do as we did and personally visit the Temple, talk to the people, look at the slides of Guyana, ask questions. Or, ask the Temple people to come to your neighborhood meetings. Their work, we believe, is exemplary.
Perhaps we all have freedom only as long as we are not effective in changing some of the obvious dangers which our present society is putting on us (such as 90% of all cancers are caused by the environment. Such as many nations now are capable of having an atomic bomb because of atomic reactors, financed by our banks and built by our technology. Such as a high rate of crime brought on by people who have lost hope in our system.)
Perhaps the very freedom we cherish is only ours as long as we only watch TV, watch baseball and drink Cokes. Any truly effective efforts to change the present system to better fit our needs will be met by…?
It is possible the Peoples Temple’s struggle is also the struggle of those of us who are not yet hopeless, who are surviving in this system at present… but who possibly are living on borrowed time.
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We visited the Peoples Temple. We found friends. We hope you will do likewise. Unlike the media presentation, we found them to be thoughtful, loving and concerned people who are struggling to make a reasonable life for themselves and others without hurting anyone. That is their right. And it is our right also.
/s/ Patricia Helton
Patricia Helton
/s/ William C. Helton
William C. Helton
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I am concerned about Barbara. She didn’t get home until about 9:00 this morning. (Two or three times before she has stayed out all night each time said it was because of car trouble or having something to do in Oakland early the next day. I asked her at the time to let someone know so we wouldn’t worry about her, but she never has done so.)
She said she “was at 998 this morning” which may very well be true, but why would she not have let someone know in advance? She must have known ahead of time herself because she left in her driver’s uniform but came back in her street clothes, so she had to have taken clothes with her.
I told her that if I found it necessary to stay out and not let someone know where I was, there would only be two reasons for it: 1) I would be doing something treacherous or 2) I had an outside interest. I couldn’t believe she might be treacherous. She agreed to let someone know when she is going to be out like that, when avoided answering the question of an outside interest. So I asked it pointedly. She shook her hand “no”, but without emphasis.
Some background: For some time Barbara and I were close and at one point got into sex – fondling. She said she needed a friend more than a lover, and that’s the way it’s been since mid-March. I still feel close to her, or a closeness for her, or whatever – I care for her. (Her position is that she doesn’t want to be very personal with me, that it “just doesn’t sit right” with her. In the past she said how much like a brother I felt to her.) So when I asked her if she would tell me the truth if she did have an outside interest, she said she would tell someone, but not me, I’m sure because she wouldn’t want to disappoint or hurt me. But I’m not so sure she would. I think if she felt she had to lie to me about it, she would have answered just as she did.
She has missed most services for almost 2 years now, and life both on her job and off has been hard for her. I know it’s been a struggle because she has said as much. So she does have someone outside, I’m worried that she might be pulled away. Whether that is anything to be concerned about, I don’t know. I do know that she wants to go to Guyana.
I’d hate to see anything happen to her or to see her drift away, so I think someone ought to sit down with her to see where she is at.
Jim Randolph, 6/10/78
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[Editor’s note: This document was typed in capital letters.]
[Number of month cut off]-5-78
To: Dad
From: Bea Orsot Grubbs
Subject: Self Insight Relative To Traitorous Characteristics
I have been with you 8 years. In that time, I thought seriously about leaving twice. The first and the last I have reported myself but I will quickly mention them here again. The first time was a year and a half ago, after returning from a cross-country trip, I wrote you about what I considered elitism on Bus 7. I was one miserable soul on that trip. I was surrounded by a “click” [clique] which any dumb ass could have seen had they been on the outside looking in. You were not present on the bus. You had flown. I wrote it up when I got home after pondering it for time because I knew from past experience that whenever I touch one close to you, I catch hell but that night in a meeting, you specifically asked for such honesty no matter whom it touched so I gave [it] to you… but I sure regretted it because you blasted me on the loudspeaker for doing it yet you asked for it. It tore me apart. I cried for 3-4 days. I could not work in the law office; I could not function period. Why didn’t you ask me if you did not want it. I was totally confused and wanted out. I packed my suitcases and put them in the car. I thought shit, What is the use. He obviously doesn’t even believe me. He protects those close to him but shit on me. I was caught in between two worlds – I did not want to go back into capitalism. I knew well that I did not fit out there; I remembered the tears and the disappointments out there. I turned around and look at the Temple, up at your window and saw the same thing. There was no place to go. I wanted to die I thought of driving my car over the cliff at the Presidio but lost my courage. I hated you because you did not believe me nor see where I was coming from. I thought if he doesn’t believe me, then nobody else will either. Had it not been for Karen Layton who talked to me, I don’t know what I would have done. She related to me of a similar experience (a real one) she had had where you had balled [bawled] her out. I knew she was for real and I could see her strength and it was my admiration for her endurance through that – that caused me to turn around. I will never forget her for it either. [Typed marginal note: “I also nearly left the [illegible word] in Washington DC. I had an opportunity as I lived there most of my life.”]
The second time I felt traitorous was when I first got here – about a month later. I had difficulty adjusting. Capitalism was still very much a part of me. I found it painful to make the adjustment. I felt guilty about it so much that I wrote myself up and told Marcie [Marceline Jones] personally that I felt very traitorous. I wanted to get out of here. I volunteered for the front gate security publicly to check out the possibilities of getting out of here. But after I got up there, the thought left, but I kept thinking of the danger of front gate security. The next day, I wrote to you and told you that you should not let people go to the front gate who volunteer for the job because they could have the same thing in mind as I did. I also told you the same thing that Penny [Kerns] suggested last night at that time… There should be at least 2 people awake at all times on the front gate. It is an opportunity to get out or to pass on information outside.
I think it would be helpful to you if you did not discourage people from writing up people in leadership (those who know the most to divulge). Most are fearful of writing them up. If persons had felt free to write up Debbie Blakey, then you may have received some valuable information. I certainly never felt free in writing of anyone in leadership after I wrote up Debbie Blakey on Bus 7 (above). I said never again… No matter what it is. Others feel the same way. They are afraid to since you support leadership. I am not trying to tear down leadership. Frankly, I am satisfied with all leadership except Dick and Harriet Tropp, both of whom I have written up, reluctantly. I wrote Dick up for his elitism more than 10 times – he was never dealt with on the floor like I felt he should have been. Harriet is very condescending and talks down to others. She is brilliant and wears it proudly. I feel very uncomfortable around her in the radio room as she rarely fails to make me feel stupid. She just kills whatever motivation I have. Sometimes my ideas are good but she just squashes them to bits and I withdraw and say nothing. I am not saying that either of these two people are any more traitorous than anyone else. We are all potential traitors and all of us have entertained it at one time or another.
over
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I am not an intellectual person. I don’t know enough to be. I feel dumb all the time. I feel like shit most of the time. I am very uncomfortable around intellectuals yet I chose one as my companion to make me feel more secure. Now I am uncomfortable around him (insecure) but would never let him know it. I feel inadequate around you all the time because you have so many brilliant minds around you all the time. I think others have so much to say and I have [illegible word] to say anything. I’ve actually become repressed about it when I was once known for my sharp, outspoken words. I sure was never incapable of telling it just like it is to the capitalists, i.e., Internal Revenue supervisors, etc. I was known for my courage to let them have it. Somewhere here, it is dying and I don’t think that is good. It is happening because I feel frightened by the brilliant minds of others. I have wanted to tell you this a very long time. I have no private world to retreat to like intellectuals when I am [illegible word] or when I don’t want to follow structure, but in a way, I am glad for it, because it makes me know for sure that the principle is the only security. I will not leave here nor shall I leave any other place where we might be. I could have done so in Georgetown as I had plenty of opportunity but I know, for me, there is no place to go, not for someone like me that is too old, too tired, too ugly, too stupid and too black. This is the best live I have and I really had not suffered them much financially or materially so. I come from a well-to-do bourgeois family that was black but acted white. I acted white myself for a very long time and I thought I was better than black people. I was taught to think it but deep down inside, I did not like it. I hated my bourgeois stepmother intensely. I still do with her cooks and maids and chauffeurs and butlers all of whom are black too. It still goes on today in N.C. [North Carolina] and I left there for California because it made me sick on the stomach. Most of my suffering in capitalism has been emotional; the other came about while attempting to survive while raising a son. The system has always appeared to be unjust to me. I have always hated it and would rather be dead than go back.
Walking out is not the only way of becoming a traitor, however; there is one category left that bothers me personally. I say that I would endure torture rather than betray but I wonder if I really am that strong. I think about it a lot and I have tried to imagine what it would feel like to have my leg slowly sawed off or my fingernails pulled out. I have wondered how long it would take me to go into unconsciousness and if I could bear it that long. I think about it than more a lot because I think I am going to be one who will be in that position one day. Will I be able to pass the test. I frankly do not know, therefore, since I do not know, I should not be put in that position… Not to save me from the pain of it but to save the cause from the consequences of it. I am not afraid to die when I am afraid of the pain that precedes it… Or could precede it. But yet, I feel uneasy about leaving this subject at this point as you do need to be able to count on some to endure torture. I must work on it more so you can count on me, because I do understand your goodness, and I won’t waste words explaining it. I just do. I do feel good about being loyal. I have always been one who likes to be loyal and faithful and this is the first time in my life that I have found something worthwhile being loyal to. Because it is right. Now and then I place myself in the United States. I’ve wondered how I would feel if I just woke up one morning and find myself there surrounded by the circle of traitors. First, I think of what an opportunity it would be for me to put poison in their drinks. I also think of it the other way around. Suppose they convinced me that they were right and I was looking through colored lenses. Would I buy it even temporarily. It is not impossible with the temporary pleasantness of drugs and capitalist luxuries… But I would not be satisfied there very long. My conscience would haunt me and you would be paramount in my mind. I did try it once about 4 years ago. I wrote you about it, not with traitors but with outsiders. I couldn’t enjoy anything for thinking about you. I was overpowered by you and couldn’t get out fast enough to write my damn self up… So if I found myself among traitors, I would get the hell out of that place to let you know what I had found.
You have mentioned in People’s Rally occasionally about the possibility of all of us going back. We may have to someday and I remember your saying years ago that most of us will say we do not know you on the courthouse steps when you are being tried. I also know you said in the garage in the Valley when the church was that small, that thousands would follow you but in the end, only that handful would be loyal to you. I will have to be one of them. I have to endure the torture, otherwise all of this that I am living will be hypocritical and in vain. Somehow, upon touching on this now, I am finding it tearfully painful to write. It is sad to come to the
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realization that so few see your goodness, that so few would endure the torture to the end, that even I am having second thoughts about it. How sad it is that we are so weak. It is a [illegible word] revelation to look at one’s self to ponder if you will be strong enough.
I feel like shit never having anything to offer you on strategy no not even having anything to [illegible word] you from the brilliance of mind. I feel stupid and unworthy but the one thing I can do is [illegible word] the torture I speak of (whether it be daily or suddenly by the fascist) – and cannot last forever… Nothing does. Somehow I am finding my rationale to be this. Since I have no brilliance to offer you like others do, then the one thing I know I can do and must do now [illegible word] have searched myself about it, is to endure that torture whenever it does come. I will keep that in mind on that day, when it comes, that I never had the brilliant mind that you need, but I do have the ability to endure for the rightness that you are – and not your personality as your personality has only a short time with us (I feel very short) and I wonder then how many will continue to give their loyalty. On that day, when the pain increases, the [illegible word] I will think on this. It will help me to hold out and to feel worthwhile, even if it’s only for a moment.