[Editor’s note: Insofar as is possible, the letters and notes of Peoples Temple’s contacts with Lloyd Barker, Commissioner of National Police have been arranged below in chronological order.]
B-1-C-1(3)
COMMISSIONER BARKER 24/2/78 (Sharon, Marcie [Marceline jones], Terri [Jones]) Tim [Carter] came in later with Diane)
– he has seen newspaper clippings and heard a lot of rumours about us (he didn’t go into detail even when asked)
– he said that he tries to keep his police man serving the Guyana people tho its not his fault if they don’t because he gets the young men raw and it’s a reflection of society if they do not
– he tells them to be courteous to PT and in return he expects PT to realize that there is “law and order” in Guyana
– he said that Leon Broussard came to his office and also mentioned the incident with Tim saying goodbye to Grace and said that it gives the impression that people aren’t free to go from our group and our people should have the same rights as Guyanese people who are free to come and go (Of course we said that our people do have that right, and asked what Leon had said but he wouldn’t go into it)
– he said you can’t get rid of all the rumors, just work on the ones you can, because the PM has rumors against him too
– we asked him about donations as Mingo had told us we had to talk to him, he said we need to submit a letter showing the reasons for the donations, the period over which we’d be collecting, the district in which we’d be serving with the donations and will have to send in a statement eventually stating what amount was collected. He says the purpose has to show the countrywide basis of collection or the assistance to the particular district
– we asked him about our boat and could we show thru him that we checked in each time/ he said he didn’t know if we had checked in each time but it can’t be found from Marijuana if we checked in on certain trips but that wouldn’t show you checked in each time. He said that it is important to check in/ we said we know that and there is no reason to avoid that as it is a simple thing to do and we would let them ride our boat or do anything they suggest to verify we checked in, even having them write a us a paper in Marijuana every time we go by showing we had checked in. He said “you don’t have to do that.” I insisted that we would be wanting to do whatever would help as rumors when they are lies
[Handwritten note at bottom of page: “Impossible for Leon B. [Broussard] to have gone to Barker’s office”]
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B-1-C-1(6)
March 2, 1978
Police Commissioner Barker
Brickdam Police Station
Georgetown, Guyana
Dear Police Commissioner Barker;
I am writing to you to apply for permission for Peoples Temple agricultural project to accept and ask for donations in the Demerara and Essequibo areas.
Our medical hills are astronomical. We have paid for hospital bills for people outside of our community when they needed specialized treatment. We bring people into Georgetown on our boat for treatment and then they stay in our Georgetown residence while they are being treated. If there is a child being treated in the hospital we provide food and lodgings for the parent. Wb have cared for people in Georgetown for as long as three months.
We do not expect to defray our costs by accepting donations. Our yearly projection for what we have done so fare is a few thousand dollars. We just want to continue to give services to supplement what medical care is in our region. We have given antibiotics to people with social diseases in the surrounding community. We have taken in babies and their whole families while their children were being treated for gastroenteritis. Some of these cases required 24 hour care at first. In certain cases in the outlying community where babies were allergic to milk and were not thriving, whole cases of soy milk have been given out free.
We are attempting to be self-sufficient. We able to take care of the costs of medical and other expenses for our community of close to 1000 people, but we cannot take care of the costs of medical care, housing, food (for long periods while a person is getting care) for the outlying community without some donations. We are now being asked to pay for the GDF flights that come in to take emergency cases to Georgetown even though the majority of cases that fly in to Georgetown are not even from Jonestown.
There are only two young people accepting donations so it is not a large scale hard sell operation. They have found a lot of goodwill not only for our project but for Guyana in general because the people appreciate that this kind of work is being done. Many of the donations come from people we do business with anyway so it is a two-way street and we are supporting them with our business.
Thank you for giving consideration to this letter.
Cooperatively yours,
/s/ Sharon Amos
Sharon Amos
Administrative Assistant to Cde. Jim Jones
cc: Minister Vibert Mingo
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B-1-C-1(1)
Sharon Amos
Commissioner Barker 12/6/78 (Sharon & Anita [Kelley])
– took him a bottle, he said he’s not supposed to accept gifts but he wouldn’t want us to think it was because it was PT giving it to him so he would accept it
– I introduced Anita as a pilot and he said did we have a plane or were we getting a plane and we said we’d like a plane because of medical emergencies and he said that sounded like a good idea and we asked how we’d go about it and he said we’d have to apply thru I think it was Cde. Roberts and get it okayed etc. / they discussed what kind and Anita said we’d need a twin engine etc.
– we told him the message of hating to have burdened him thru the past and that members of the conspiracy took his time and that we’re sorry we’ve been such a pain to him etc./ we said JJ sends his regards and his thanks and he said to convey to JJ his greetings etc.
– we told him that it had been proven to us very substantially that these people were in the conspiracy and that we know this to be a fact
– as per instruction I was loving, kind and warm, agreeable, didn’t contradict him at all
– told him we had especially appreciated the kindness and help he had given in the period of transition
– that the info about the conspiracy against all black elected officials was in Sepia and they have already smeared these officials in the press and that better than 1/2 of them are under criminal indictment and criminal investigation at the present tine and this was brought out by Lieutenant Gov. Brown of Colorado and Lt. Gov Dymally of Calif.
– he agreed that people were trying to hurt us
– he said what about this situation with [Kathy] Hunter (but he mispronounced her name and called up Skip Roberts to get the right name)
– he said that he heard that she wanted to get in to see Jonestown/ yes, I said but she’s an alcoholic and quite a troublemaker
– I told him we had invited several reporters especially a black reporter as we wanted to be sure that when someone like her came, there were others who were objective who would give a fair story
– he was pleasant (veiled hostility) but outwardly pleasant and more relaxed than usual (as he got his whisky
– but gave us a lecture on how he has to uphold the law and that he has even fired a couple of policeman for not doing as they should
– said that he teaches his policemen to think of themselves as servants of the people not masters
– says he tells his policemen that they have to be an example (like reading illegal pornographic literature on the job)
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B-1-C-1(2)
Commissioner Barker
Before they got into Richartz [Pat Richartz, aide to Temple attorney Charles Garry] office Marcus came out of his. He walked by then returned and shook their hands. Sd that he would talk to the person directly – who deals with guns
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