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PART I
DOCUMENTS RELATING TO
DAVID CONN AND THE
US TREASURY DEPARTMENT
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION: BACKGROUND TO EVENTS AND INFORMATION RELATING TO MR. DAVID CONN
II. CHAPTER 1 LEIGHMAN BRIGHTMAN AND DENNIS BANKS CONTACTED BY DAVID CONN
III. CHAPTER 2: INFORMATION GATHERED FROM UNDER CONNS’ HOUSE
IV. CHAPTER 3: TREASURY DEPARTMENT RESPONSES TO PEOPLES TEMPLE INQUIRIES ABOUT DAVID CONN AND OTHER APPARENT TREASURY DEPARTMENT REPRESENTATIVES’ PROBLEMS WITH REGARD TO PEOPLES TEMPLE
A. LETTER TO RICHARD D. TROPP FROM PAUL MOSNY, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
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B. LETTER TO RICHARD D. TROPP FROM ROBERT N. BATTARD, REGIONAL COMMISSIONER, DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
C. LETTER TO MICHAEL J. PROKES FROM ACTING CHIEF, EP/EO DIVISION, INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE
D. LETTER TO RICHARD D. TROPP FROM WILLIAM C. LA FOLLETT, ASSISTANT CHIEF, INTELLIGENCE DIV., INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE
E. LETTER TO REV. MICHAEL D. PROKES FROM J. BURDETTE, CHIEF EXEMPT ORGANIZATIONS OPERATIONS, INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE NEW I
F. LETTER TO MR. MICHAEL J. PROKES FROM WILLIAM C. LA FOLLETT, ASSISTANT CHIEF, INTELLIGENCE DIV., INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE
G. LETTER TO EUGENE CHAIKIN, ATTORNEY, FROM RICHARD ZANARINI, DISCLOSURE OFFICE, INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE
H. LETTER TO JEAN F. BROWN FROM RICHARD ZANARINI, DISCLOSURE OFFICE, INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE
I. LETTER TO MICHAEL J. PROKES FROM PAUL H. WALL, (GROUP MANAGER, I-3), INTELLIGENCE DIV., INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE
J. LETTER TO EUGENE CHAIKIN, ATTORNEY, FROM RICHARD ZANARINI, DISCLOSURE OFFICE, INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE
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V. CHAPTER 4
A. TESTIMONIES OF LEIGHMAN BRIGHTMAN AND DENNIS BANKS, AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT
B. NOTES TAKEN BY MR. BRIGHTMAN AND MR. BANKS DURING THE MEETING WITH DAVID CONN
C. ARTICLES IN THE SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER AND PEOPLES FORUM DOCUMENTING JIM JONES’ AND PEOPLES TEMPLE’S CONTINUED SUPPORT FOR DENNIS BANKS
VI. CHAPTER 5
A. INFORMATION VOLUNTEERED BY MRS. RITA TUPPER ABOUT DAVID CONN AND HIS CONNECTION TO ELMER MERTLE
B. HANDWRITTEN NOTE TO JIM JONES FROM ELMER MERTLE STATING HE HAS HAD SEXUAL RELATIONS WITH IRIS CONN, DAVID CONN, AND DONNA (BLACK) CONN
VII. CHAPTER 6
A. AFFIDAVIT OF SANDRA BRADSHAW DECLARING THAT SHE HEARD REV. J. R. PURIFOY SAY HE HAD RECEIVED A CALL FROM THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT
B. AFFIDAVIT OF TOM ADAMS DECLARING HE HEARD REV. PURIFOY DESCRIBED A PHONE CALL FROM THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT AND THAT PURIFOY HAD CALLED JIM JONES IN GUYANA TO TELL HIM OF THE CALL
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C. SEGMENT OF BANKS/BRIGHTMAN NOTES DURING MEETING WITH DAVID CONN SAYING THAT GRACE STOEN HAD BEEN VISITED BY TREASURY AGENTS
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INTRODUCTION
What follows is background information gathered from various sources on Mr. David Conn. Mr. Conn’s name comes up repeatedly in these pages. Our first recollection of him was seven years ago when he attended Peoples Temple Christian Church. He did not like the services and did not return thereafter.
However, in recent months, Mr. Conn has made himself known again. He approached Dennis Banks and asked him to sign a statement against the Temple. (Mr. Banks notified us immediately of Mr. Conn’s visit.) We have heard him and his wife Donna talk about having “high priority numbers” with the Treasury Department. We have evidence that he has contacted various ones who have left the church membership and asked them for information about us. He was seen sitting in the background of a recent press conference held with people who have come out against the Temple. He has called in his name and telephone number to a local radio station as a source of information on Peoples Temple for anyone wishing to contact him.
We believe that David Conn has been conducting an investigation on Peoples Temple for some six or seven years.
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We have reason to believe, also, that he is conducting a concerted campaign to destroy our organization. We believe he is being sponsored in this campaign. We do not know for a fact who is sponsoring him, but from the things that we have heard and seen, we do surmise he is in some way connected with the Treasury Department. We submit the following papers to document conversations and activities which we feel constitute an investigation of Peoples Temple and our pastor, Jim Jones, by David Conn working as an agent of or somehow in collusion with the US Department of Treasury.
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CHAPTER ONE
Peoples Temple received a call from Dennis Banks and Leighman Brightman saying that two people were coming over to Brightman’s house that night with “some information” they claim to have about Peoples Temple. Banks and Brightman invited the church to send some of our members to their house to listen to this meeting. They said they would notify us when the people had arrived.
We received the arranged notice from Mr. Brightman and several church members went over to his house. They stayed outside on the sidewalk and on the driveway until a young Native American came out of the house and got into a car. One of the Temple members photographed him at the time. Immediately thereafter Mr. Brightman came out of the house and stated that no pictures were to be taken. He then invited the group of Temple members to come up on the property and listen in on the conversations going on with Mr. Conn from a position he directed them to under an open window. The group did as he instructed, but found it difficult to have more than two people stand by the window without risking exposure. So one of the persons stayed under the window to take notes and the others took turns listening in.
When Mr. Conn and his Native American associate had both left Brightman’s home, two of the Temple members went into the home at Mr. Brightman’s invitation. Present were Dennis
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Banks, Leighman Brightman, two or three other young Native Americans, and the two Temple members. One of the young Native Americans had been taking notes during the previous conversations. Banks and Brightman also had taken notes throughout the meeting with Conn. (These notes are included as exhibits herein.)
Brightman said that he had been contacted several months before by this same young Native American man who had accompanied Conn that night. At that time he had asked to set up a meeting with Conn and Banks regarding Jim Jones, but Brightman had refused saying that he had appreciated what Jim Jones had done for him earlier in Ukiah.
It was the same person who had set up the meeting that actually did take place that night. The man had contacted Brightman’s wife and Brightman had returned his call. At that time Brightman had agreed to set up the meeting with Conn and it was scheduled for a future date. The man had called back, however, saying that the meeting would have to be sooner and asked for it that night.
Brightman said, and it was confirmed by those who have been listening outdoors, that the young Native American man did not know all the things about Peoples Temple that were discussed that night. Brightman concluded the man was being used by Conn as a means of gaining access to himself and Dennis Banks.
(Brightman’s neighbors observed the people who were listening under the window. They later said they could see clearly what was going on from the windows bordering on his property.)
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CHAPTER 2
INFORMATION GATHERED FROM UNDER CONNS’ HOUSE
Dennis Banks, leader of the American Indian Movement, showed his notes and information on David Conn to Peoples Temple members. Members then checked out Conn’s address and found it to be 2314 Darmuth, Oakland, California. To discover the identity of this man David Conn, we gained entrance to his house through an open garage door and smaller trap door that led to the area beneath the house. We went under the house a total of five times. From there we could distinctly hear conversations of Donna Conn, her ex-husband David Conn, and Donna’s daughter Susan. Sounds in the house were so audible to us that we could hear even a deep sigh. The hearing was augmented by the fact that the house’s central heating system provided a natural sound duct from all parts of the house to a central opening under the house.
On the first occasion, we went under the house at approximately 10:30 PM in early May, 1977. Entry under the house had followed upon a planned phone call to the Conns which was intended to provoke conversation related to Peoples Temple; it was our objective to flush out the alleged information Mr. Conn claimed to have and to determine in what capacity he was acting. The conversation going on as we came within earshot related to international politics,
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“monolithic communism,” the Korean situation – all from a radical right-wing point of view. The intended phone call came within two or three minutes, and Donna Conn received it. She became extremely agitated and began talking in a near hysterical voice. The caller claimed to be a freelance reporter who had heard Conn’s number quoted in wanted information regarding Peoples Temple. Donna Conn became alarmed when the caller would not leave a return address or telephone number. She was not convinced this was a reporter at all. She and David, who was visiting there at the time, speculated as to who might really have been.
At this point, Donna asked David and his friend, someone by the name of Larry, to leave the house. She told David to park his car down the block and not in front of her house in the future. She said he was followed there. Evidently she felt that the phone call was a result of David’s being there. She told him that several unrelated and unexplained incidents had occurred recently. Her water hose had been left running “for two hours,” her “car was messed up,” her gas had been turned off, as she said this was the third such anonymous phone call she had received. She associated David’s presence in her home with these incidents, apparently because she knew of some “investigatory” work he was involved in. She asked him to take precautions next time he came and to call an agent for help. His response was, “What can he do about it?” David left shortly thereafter.
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When David and Larry left, they drove around the block twice and were followed by one of our members who was watching from the street. David came back into the house to tell Donna she was right, he had been followed there. Then he left again and drove off.
When David was gone, Donna called her daughter on the phone and told her to come home immediately. She told Susan to have her boyfriend walk her to the door when they arrived. She then began calling a series of friends, perhaps five calls in all. The first person she contacted was named Ann. She explained to Ann that certain strange things had been happening to her, the same things she had described to David earlier, and about the phone calls she had received. Part of her conversation was that she had a “high-priority number” that she could call and, with no questions asked, she could get people there with guns in five minutes. Her exact words were, “They have guns and everything.” In response to whatever comment Ann made at that point, Donna answered, “No, it’s higher than that,” referring to the high priority number.
After she talked to Ann, Donna called a person named Bruce, whom we later heard her refer to jokingly as “Bruce Alexander.” She told him she was just letting him know there could be a problem and he should be ready to leave immediately, if she should call back.
Next she called another friend, no name ascertained, to
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whom she mentioned that “Bruce didn’t know very much.” Details that were remembered in subsequent, random fashion from further phone calls were: “The number is known now, but I am afraid to change it because then they will know there is no man in the house. I have gone to great lengths to show there is a man in the house.” She said she had been thinking for a long time her phone was tapped.
A half-hour later she called Ann back and told her to talk to Susan and convince her to stay the weekend at Ann’s house, since she did not want to leave Susan alone in the house, especially since the last phone call.
Then we overheard an argument between Donna and Susan and heard Donna scream, “They will get you, trying to get to your dad!”
A half-hour later Bruce showed up. Donna tried to get Susan to go into the other room so that Donna could talk to Bruce. Susan was watching a TV show and refused to go. All three watched the show together. It involved civil rights and black people, apparently, because Donna and Bruce made racist remarks throughout the movie. At one point Donna said, “I wish Larry were here, he would crack up.” The storyline, as best we could discern it, was about a black lawyer from the North who went to the South and experienced severe oppression there.
Bruce went in to take a bath when the movie ended. Donna went into the bathroom and began talking about Peoples Temple
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in general terms to Bruce. She had something she wanted to show him, and at first she could not find it. She was afraid she might have thrown it out, because she said, “I am afraid to have it on me.” Then we heard the words, “Treasury Agent…” Laughter. “Treasury Agent…” Again laughter. Then, “I am official, too. I have the secret code. A secret number…” Bruce replied, “How much does Sue know about this?” Donna replied: “Enough to be scared to death… But not that much… But enough to know not to go to the authorities. And that’s just where we want it.”
At this point, almost 3:00 AM, Bruce asks Donna to tell him more about all this. Donna refuses to discuss it further saying that it would take hours to explain it all. “I don’t know all the pieces myself,” she said. “David is more informed than I am and one of my sources has clammed up. The way I understand it works, if I am not involved, I shouldn’t be bothered.” Then she went further and said, “David didn’t do anything wrong, but he was involved in the investigation.” Then she suggested they talk about it Friday or Saturday. Donna continued to express anxiety about the phone calls, and Bruce made the statement, “Have you read enough books to know what’s going on? Haven’t you read… (Inaudible)… Blackmail?”
In the bedroom she made the statement, “A nice man from the Company… The Company is the CIA…” They went to bed and after an interval of small talk, Donna asked Bruce, “Have you ever heard of Jim Jones?” He replied with something
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inaudible, and she said, “Never mind.” She went on to say, “Isn’t there something we can do?… It is private property… Police…” (This part to the end is very inaudible.)
On a subsequent occasion, we went under the house at approximately 9:30 PM and heard Donna talking to her friend Ann, who was also in the house. They were discussing David’s involvement in surreptitious activities about which Donna was confessing extreme curiosity. She told Ann that she was “Extremely curious about David’s connections. For example, I am just dying to know who was on the other end of that phone call.” Donna called David on the phone and pumped him for information, especially regarding Peoples Temple and what he knew about other radical organizations. She tape-recorded that conversation and played it back for Ann to listen to, and both gloated over Donna’s considerable skill at getting information out of David. We could understand quite a bit of the type replay.
In the course of the tape, we heard David describe Temple history from the time Jim Jones was Human Rights Commissioner in Indianapolis, and his exodus to California. David quoted old articles that appeared several years ago in the press authored by Lester Kinsolving. He named the journalist and the newspaper, the Indianapolis Star. He brought Donna up-to-date in general terms of our sentiment in Redwood Valley and the relocation and growth in San Francisco. During the course of the conversation, Donna ask questions about “Mert” and “Larry Tupper” and particularly about Mert’s involvement in Temple activities. She was curious about his role as the
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church photographer and about Larry Tupper’s court case for the custody of his children. Donna also asked David about Deanna Mertle’s role in the Temple and “what they had on her?” David’s response was inaudible, but Donna’s reply was, “Oh, that’s gross!”
Donna and Ann spent some time congratulating themselves for being able to “work David like a pump.” Diana raised the question of Jim’s self-proclaimed socialist posture: “Why can he get away with openly calling himself a communist in his public meetings?” Ann explained that “When you proclaim yourself a member of a minority organization such as the Panthers or the AIM, then you are suspect and can no longer walk the streets safely. But, if you proclaim yourself to be a communist, you can do just about anything you want…”
A third visit produced no information, probably because the daughter had friends in the house. The phone call provoked no comment from Donna. Even though her daughter asked questions about the call, Donna passed the call off lightly.
In a subsequent visit, David and Susan were home alone. There were no conversations pertinent to Peoples Temple except one thing. Immediately after the phone call, Susan said to David, “What are they bothering us for?” She made the remark, “I wish they would sink them to the bottom of the ocean.” David went into the bathroom and called out from there to Susan: “What do you think we ought to do about it, Susan? Call the police or something?” She replied, “What good would
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that do?” His query to her was in a testing tone of voice, obviously staged and intending to send her out on her guard against alerting the authorities.
At one point Susan asked David why Peoples Temple was harassing them like this. He replied to her that the Temple was running scared. They knew the articles from them were about to break, and now with John Barbagelata’s initiative coming up… (At this point his voice dropped off). Susan, at some point in the conversation, remark to David that the garbage was missing. He said, “Susan, are you sure the garbage is missing?” She said, “Yes, it was half-full and I went out the next morning and it was all gone.”
On one occasion we heard Donna ask how Peoples Temple had gotten the number of the house, and then she said something about how the number must have come off of a letter she had written to Van Amberg. She surmised Van Amberg must have told Peoples Temple. She also talked about the tape of the last call she said Peoples Temple had made to their house. She said the caller had threatened to burn the place down, and that she had tape the call. She said she had sent the tape to the lab, in one whoever it was she was talking to to hear it sometime.
Our entrances under the Conns’ house ended with this last episode.
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CHAPTER 2 (unabridged)
SOME STATEMENTS THAT DAVID AND DONNA CONN HAVE MADE
– talk about international politics, monolithic communism, the Korean situation – all from a radical right-wing point of view.
– Donna tells David and his friend, someone named Larry, to leave their house. She told David to park his car down the block and not in front of the house in the future. She said that he was followed there. Donna talked about how her water hose had been left running for two hours, her car was messed up, her gas had been turned off, and she said that she had received three anonymous phone calls.
– Donna asked David to call an agent for help and he says what can they do?
– Donna talks to a person named Ann. Donna tells Ann that she has a high priority number and that all she would have to do is make one call and people could be there with guns in five minutes.
– Donna calls Bruce and asks him to be ready to come over and help her.
– Donna calls someone else and says that “Bruce doesn’t know very much.”
– Donna says “The phone number is known now, but I am afraid to change it because then they will know that there is no man in the house. I have gone to great lengths to show that there is a man in the house.”
– Donna asks Ann to ask Susan to stay with her for the weekend because Donna doesn’t want Susan to be alone in the house, especially since the last phone call.
– Donna says to Susan “They will get you, trying to get your Dad.”
– Donna says to Bruce “I am afraid to have it on me… Treasury Agent… (Laughter)… Treasury Agent… I am official too… I have a secret code and a secret number…” “How much does
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Susan know about this” says Bruce. Donna replies “Enough to be scared to death… But not that much… But enough to know not to go to the authorities. And that is just what we want it.”
– Donna says about Peoples Temple: “I don’t know all the pieces myself, David is more informed than I am and one of my sources has clammed up.”
– Donna says “The way I understand it, if I am not involved I shouldn’t be bothered… David didn’t do anything wrong, but he was involved in the investigation.”… Bruce says “Haven’t you read enough books to know what is going on… Haven’t you read… Blackmail.”
– Donna says “A nice man from the Company… The Company is the CIA…”
– Donna says “Have you heard about Jim Jones… Never mind… Isn’t there something we can do? … It is private property… Police…”
– Donna tells Ann that she is extremely curious about David’s connections. “I am just dying to find out who was on the other end of that phone call.” Donna tells Ann that she pumps David for information. Donna calls David to “pump” him about Peoples Temple and other radical organizations. She tape recorded the conversation and played it back for Ann to listen to. The tape played back revealed that David gave a rundown of the history of Peoples Temple. It was detailed. Tape mentions Larry Tupper and a court case over his children and also Mert and Deanna Mertle. Ann asks what “they have on Deanna” and Donna replies and Ann says “Oh, that’s gross.”
– Susan tells her dad that she wishes Peoples Temple would be sunk to the bottom of the ocean.
– Susan tells her dad that the garbage is missing.
– Donna mentions that Peoples Temple must have been given the Conn’s number by Van Amberg.
– Donna talks about a tape they have that has been “sent to the lab”
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CHAPTER 3
Treasury Department: Response to Peoples Temple Inquiry about David Conn and other apparent Treasury Department representatives’ probes with regard to Peoples Temple.
After hearing that David Conn was in some way connected with the Treasury Department, Mr. Prokes wrote to that department asking them what the facts were about any investigation that might involve Peoples Temple. The letters included here are the responses to our inquiries. Both Mr. Tropp and Mr. Prokes wrote letters of inquiry. Responses came from the Internal Revenue Service, the Treasury Department, and U.S. Customs Service.
In April, 1977, Rev. James Purifoy, a former member of Peoples Temple, reached Jim Jones by telephone in Guyana. He was calling because he had received a call from a person who said he worked for the Treasury Department and wanted to know anything Mr. Purifoy could remember about Jim Jones and Peoples Temple. Rev. Purifoy did not talk to the agent other than to say he had nothing to say. Mr. Purifoy’s address, as last we knew it, it is 35 E. Santa Ana St., Fresno, California. His telephone number is 227-8068. Following the
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letters including herein, is an affidavit of Sandra Bradshaw and Tom Adams, members of Peoples Temple who were present at Rev. Purifoy’s home when he made the call to Jim Jones. They verify the fact that Rev. Purifoy did indeed call Jim Jones in Guyana and relate to him the account of his call from the Treasury Department agent.
(In might also be noted here that in the notes which Dennis Banks took during the meeting with David Conn, there is mention that “Grace (Stoen) had been visited by the Treasury agents.”)
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Affidavit of BETTY CARROLL
I, Betty Carroll, being duly sworn to declare that:
I lived with Elmer and Deanna Mettle in Redwood Valley, California, when both they and I were members of Peoples Temple Christian Church. One afternoon a man came to the house who claimed to be a long-standing friend of Elmer Mertle’s. The two of them went out to the bridge which leads to the house and talked for a long time.
Recently, I saw a man by the name of David Conn interviewed on Channel 2 by reporter Jim Clancey. I recognized the man, David Conn, as the same man who had come to the house to talk to Elmer Mertle while I was staying with them.
/s/ Betty Carroll
Signed before me this 23rd day of September, 1977.
[Notary seal]
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[Letterhead of the Treasury Department, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms]
May 09 1977
Mr. Richard D. Troop
P.O. Box 15157
San Francisco, California 94115
Dear Mr. Tropp:
This is in response to your letter dated April 20, 1977, received in this office April 25, 1977, requesting information in ATF files concerning the Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ.
A search of our electronic record system and a physical search of our file records reveals no file or other information of any kind concerning the Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ.
Sincerely yours,
/s/ Paul Mosny
Paul Mosny
Assistant to the Director (Disclosure)
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[Letterhead of the Treasury Department, U.S. Customs Service]
June 27 1977
Mr. Richard D. Tropp
Post Office Box 15157
San Francisco, California 94115
Dear Mr. Tropp:
Your letter dated April 20, 1977, refers to a letter written previously by a representative of the Peoples Temple to several governmental agencies indicating officials of the Peoples Temple were under some type of official “scrutiny”. You have asked us to clarify what you term to be a “fishing expedition”.
Although this office is unaware of such a letter being directed to this agency, we did receive a copy of a letter from Mr. Michael J. Prokes, addressed to the Internal Revenue Service, Washington, D.C. The letter mentions no activity or incidents involving the United States Customs Service.
We are unaware of any activity by Customs officials in this Region of the Customs Service which would be in the nature of a “fishing expedition” as discussed in your letter.
The Customs Service does have broad responsibility for enforcing many laws and regulations concerning the entry of merchandise and other items into this country, as well as the exportation of many items. Necessarily encompassed within this responsibility is the requirement to investigate any suspected violations of those laws.
I trust that this clarifies any concern that you might have with the functions of the Customs Service. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.
Sincerely yours,
Robert N. Battard
Regional Commissioner
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[Letterhead of the Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service]
June 10 1977
Mr. Michael J. Prokes
Associate Minister
Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ
P.O. Box 15023
San Francisco, CA 94115
Dear Sir:
Reference your letter of May 20, 1977, to Mr. Stan Long.
This office is not conducting an examination of your organization at this time.
If an examination is contacted in the future, it will he carried out under procedures that are in effect at that time.
It is recommended that if your organization is contacted by someone claiming to represent the Treasury Department that you ask them for Treasury Department credentials. All Internal Revenue Service employees are issued pocket commissions which will identify them as Treasury Department employees.
Sincerely,
[illegible signature]
Acting Chief, EP/EO Division
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[Letterhead of the Treasury Department, Intelligence Division, Internal Revenue Service]
5 May 1977
Mr. Richard D. Tropp
Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ
P.0. Box 15157
San Francisco, CA 94115
Dear Mr. Tropp:
Before we responded to your letter dated April 20, 1977, regarding any investigative action by the Internal Revenue Service concerning the Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ, a delegation from the Peoples Temple visited our office. The delegation was led by Mr. Michael J. Prokes. Mr. Prokes spoke with Group Manager Paul H. Wall of our office.
It is my understanding that Reverend Prokes raised the same questions that are expressed in your letter. Group Manager Wall explained to the delegation the rules and regulations pertaining to the Freedom of Information Act. Subsequently, Group Manager Wall wrote to Reverend Prokes outlining the Freedom of Information Act procedures.
If you do not have convenient access to the material regarding the Freedom of Information Act procedures which was sent to Reverend Prokes, please advise, and I will send you the same material.
Very truly yours.
/s/ William C. LaFollett
William C. LaFollett
Assistant Chief, Intelligence Division
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[Letterhead of the Treasury Department, Intelligence Division, Internal Revenue Service]
5 May 1977
Mr. Michael J. Prokes
Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ
P.0. Box 15023
San Francisco, CA 94115
Dear Reverend Prokes:
The copy of your letter dated April 17, 1977, addressed to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, has been referred to me for reply.
I understand that you and a delegation from the Peoples Temple visited our office on April 25, 1977 and discussed the questions raised in your letter with Group Manager Paul H. Wall of this office. I also understand that Group Manager Wall explained the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act to you, and later mailed you additional information regarding the Freedom of Information Act.
If, after your discussion with Group Manager Wall, you still desire additional Information, any information that is releasable to authorized representatives of the Peoples Temple, under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, will be released, in accordance with the provisions of the Act.
Very truly yours.
/s/ William C. LaFollett
William C. LaFollett
Assistant Chief, Intelligence Division
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[Letterhead of the Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service]
May 5 1977
Reverend Michael J. Prokes
Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ
P.0. Box 15023
San Francisco, California 94115
Dear Reverend Prokes:
Your Communication Dated: April 17, 1977
In re: Peoples Temple of the Disciples of Christ
Thank you for your recent communication.
The information you need is in the office of the Director at the address shown below. To give you better service, we have sent your communication to him and asked that he reply directly to you.
If you have any further questions about this matter, that office will be glad to help you.
Sincerely yours,
/s/ J. Burdette
J. Burdette, Chief
xempt Organizations
Operations Branch
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[Letterhead of the Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service]
Date: May 16, 1977
Eugene Chaikin, Attorney-at-Law
P.O. Box 15156
San Francisco, CA 94115
Re: Timothy 0. Stoen, Past Chairman of the Board of Peoples Temple Christian Church
Dear Mr. Chaikin:
We received your Freedom of Information Act request, dated May 7, 1977. Recently, we discovered that you have a similar request pending in the San Francisco District Office; therefore, we are forwarding this request to be associated and handled in conjunction with their case.
Any further questions or additional requests should be directed to the San Francisco District Disclosure Officer. Thank you for your cooperation.
Sincerely,
/s/ Richard Zanarini
Richard Zanarini
Disclosure Officer
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[Identical letter as X-4-b-29, addressed to Jean F. Brown, Assistant Secretary, Peoples Temple]
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[Letterhead of the Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Service]
April 5, 1977
Peoples Temple Christian Church
1859 Geary Boulevard
P.O. Box 15023
San Francisco, California 94115
Attention: Michael J. Prokes
Associate Minister
Dear Reverend Prokes:
In response to our meeting this morning I have enclosed a copy of the Rules and Regulations pertaining to the Freedom of Information Act, The regulations are fairly involved, therefore, it may be advisable to have them reviewed by the Church’s legal representative.
Some of the main points relating to making requests for information are as follows:
1. Mail request to:
District Director Internal Revenue, 450 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco District Office, Attention: Disclosure Officer, Freedom of Information Request, P.O. Box 36020, San Francisco, California 94102
2. The request should be in the form of a letter signed by the person making the request. A request on behalf of the church should be signed by an official of the church,
3. State that the request is made pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC 552, or regulations thereunder,
4. You must be fairly specific as to what records are being requested, as an example you could request the following:
(a) Copies of all information items on file in the Intelligence, Audit or Collection Divisions of IRS relative to Peoples Temple Christian Church.
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x-4-b-32
(b) Any files, correspondence inquiries concerning the tax exempt status of the Peoples Temple Christian Church,.
(c) Is the Peoples Temple Christian Church presently under investigation by any division of the IRS?
After reading the enclosed regulations your attorney may wish to request additional information or use a different format.
I would suggest that a separate request be made for each individual or organization. If a separate request is made for Reverend Jones, he should be identified by Social Security Number and sign his own request.
If the church’s main office is within the San Francisco District, the inquiry should be made to the San Francisco District.
If the church has headquarters in another district, the request should be sent to that District Office,
I hope this information is helpful to you.
Very truly yours,
/s/ Paul H. Wall
Paul H. Wall
Group Manager (1-3)
Intelligence Division
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x-4-b-33 & 34 is the carbon copy of x-4-b-31 & 32
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x-4-b-35 – b-45
[Treasury Department publication on public access to information]
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x-4-b-46
[Duplicate of X-4-b-29]
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x-4-b-47
CHAPTER FOUR
Included in this section are documents relating to the meeting that took place when Dennis Banks and Leighman Brightman were visited by David Conn. The documents include affidavits from both Mr. Banks and Mr. Brightman; copies of the notes they took during the meeting and submitted to Peoples Temple; and, finally, newspaper articles from the San Francisco Examiner and Peoples Forum documenting the continuing support Dennis Banks has received from Jim Jones and Peoples Temple.
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x-4-b-48
[Editor’s note: This document also appears at B-2-b-4.]
I, Dennis Banks, ___________, declare that I am a citizen of the United States, and that I am [Handwritten addition: “44”] years old.
Several months ago, in May 1977, my friend Leighman [Handwritten correction: “Lehman”] Brightman was contacted on the phone by a man named George Coker. He wanted Lee to set up a meeting between myself and a man named David Conn, concerning the question of my extradition to South Dakota. Naturally I was concerned about this when I was notified of the call. In the next couple of days there were other calls. Lee called David Conn and asked him for some more information about my extradition. Conn told Lee that he wanted to talk to me about Peoples Temple and Jim Jones.
Lee asked Conn what Jim Jones had to do with my extradition. Conn wouldn’t tell him. He said it was strictly confidential and that he would only talk about it with him and me personally.
So Lee set up a meeting between myself and David Conn at Lee’s house in El Cerrito for that night.
At the meeting, Conn showed up with a folder of papers. He read notes from the papers. I noticed the paper was stationery from the Standard Oil Company of California. Conn said that he was working with the U.S. Treasury Department, with an IRS agent, and with two men from the San Francisco Police Department. He told me the first name of the Treasury agent [Handwritten insertion: “(Jim)”] he was working with. But Conn did not talk about my extradition problem. He read material that was disparaging to Jim Jones. He went on for some time. Finally I interrupted Conn. I asked him what all this stuff about Jim Jones had to do with my extradition. Conn asked me, “Well, you took money from the church, didn’t you?” He said that my association with Peoples Temple could reflect very badly on my extradition. He then asked me to make a
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x-4-b-49
Statement of Dennis Banks
page 2
public denunciation of Jim Jones. He assured me that if I made such a denunciation, the rulings on my extradition would go in my favor. I asked him why a statement against Jim Jones could help my extradition.
Conn said that such a statement would be a determining factor with people like the Governor and other government agencies making decisions about my extradition. He said that if I came out with a statement against Jim Jones that a decision against my extradition could well be forthcoming.
Conn was obviously making a deal with me, and I was being blackmailed. Conn let me know that besides working with the Treasury agents and other government agents, that he was already working with ex-members of Peoples Temple, such as Grace Stoen, and that he had other people who would talk against Jim Jones. He said that the Treasury agents had already talked with Grace Stoen.
Conn pressed hard for me to meet with a U.S. Treasury Department agent alone that very night.
Conn also said—and he was very emphatic about this—THAT HE IN NO WAY WANTED THIS INFORMATION REVEALED FOR FEAR THAT IT WOULD “BLOW THEIR COVER” AND RUIN ANY POSSIBLE MEETING BETWEEN ME AND THE TREASURY AGENT.
I was further pressured to meet with the agent from the Treasury Department. The deal was to meet with the agent and to prepare a public statement against Jim Jones in return for some kind of immunity against my being extradited. I refused to talk with any Treasury agent without my attorney, Dennis Roberts. Conn insisted that I had to do it alone.
At this point, Lehman Brightman asked Conn to leave the house.
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x-4-b-50
Statement of Dennis Banks
page 3
The next night I was called at D.Q. University by Conn. Conn told me that it was very urgent that I meet with the Treasury agent that very night, alone. I said to Conn that I had already told him I wouldn’t meet with the Treasury agent without my attorney.
These agents all knew that I had a lot hanging over me. Besides the extradition (which to me is certainly a life and death matter), I also had a case in Federal Court in which the Treasury Department was involved. I have often made it clear that if I am extradited to South Dakota, that is like a sentence of death, because I am certain that I will be killed there.
So this was definitely a deal that I was being offered. Because it was not just a matter of Conn indicating that it would go well with me if I co-operated, but the implication was that if I didn’t co-operate, it would go badly for me. This was to me a threat, and obvious blackmail.
I declare, under penalty of perjury, that all of the foregoing is true and correct, executed this _6_ day of September, 1977 at Davis, California.
(Signed) Dennis J. Banks
Dennis Banks
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x-4-b-51 – b-60
[Ten pages of handwritten notes taken by Dennis Banks and Lehmsn Brightmasn, mostly illegible]
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x-4-b-61 – 65
[Newspaper articles from the San Francisco Examiner, Peoples Forum, and Berkeley Barb, on Temple support of Dennis Banks]
b-61: “Indian leader regains his family,” San Francisco Examiner, February 28, 1976
b-62 – 63: “Banks Rally – Sat.,” Peoples Forum, April 1976
b-63: “5000 at Banks Rally”
b-64 – 65: “A Conspiracy Behind Peoples Temple Exposé?”, Berkeley Barb, September 23, 1977
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x-4-b-66
CHAPTER 5
This information was obtained from Mrs. Rita Tupper. Mrs. Tupper knew the Conns and the Mertles before she came to Peoples Temple. Mrs. Tupper is now living in the interior of Guyana along with her children.
David and Donna Conn were friends of Mr. and Mrs. Larry Tupper. They all went to the same church in Richmond, California: Barrett Avenue Christian Church. The Conns were also good friends of Elmer and Deanna Mertle. The Mertles and the Conns had lived together for some time. According to Rita Tupper, David Conn had sexual relations with Zoe Mertle (the former wife of Elmer Mertle). Also, according to Mrs. Tupper, Elmer Mertle and had sex with both David Conn’s former wife, Iris Conn, and his present wife, Donna (Black) Conn. Elmer (Mert) Mertle and David Conn have also had oral sex with each other, as documented in Elmer’s written statement to Jim Jones.
David Conn works for Standard Oil in Richmond, California, where he is employed as an operator in the lab. He worked with Elmer Mertle, who has since quit. Mr. Tupper also worked there as an operator for years. Mrs. Tupper believes, although she is not entirely sure, that David Conn worked at Standard Oil when they were on strike. If this were the case, it would have been against the union.
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x-4-b-67
Elmer Mertle writes to Jim Jones listing people who he has had sexual relations with. On this list are Iris Conn, David Conn, and Donna Black (now Donna Conn).
[Handwritten note]
Chairman Jim,
I put my penis in a girl named Cleda Rivers age 12 or 13-14. I was nine or 10 or 11. I had it in for about 10 seconds – no orgasm – scared me “stiff.”
- girl in Paris France (forgot name)
- Zoe Mertle 1st wife
- Iris Conn
- Dave Conn – brief oral – didn’t like
- Donna Black
- Lulu – prostitute in Paris – no feeling, no hard on, no orgasm
- Joan ? (Maiden name Powers)
- Pat Clark
- Eleanor Chastaine
- Lawana ?
- Deanna Mertle 2nd wife
- Lady with 4 boys, forgot her name
Elmer Mertle
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x-4-b-68
CHAPTER 6
The following are documents to show that the Treasury Department, or someone posing as a Treasury Department agent, has in fact contacted ex-members of Peoples Temple asking for information about the church and Rev. Jones.
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x-4-b-69
[Editor’s note: This document also appears at BB-6-A]
Affidavit of Sandra Bradshaw
I, Sandra Bradshaw, being duly sworn, declare:
In April, 1977 Tom Adams and myself visited J.R. Purifoy at his home in Fresno, California. While I was there J.R. Purifoy stated that a Treasury agent had called him. J.R. said that this person who said that he was from the Treasury Department told J.R. that he knew that J.R. was an ex-member of Peoples Temple and that he wanted to know anything that J.R. Purifoy could remember about the church. J.R. told the man that he had nothing to say about Peoples Temple.
Dated this August 27, 1977.
Sandra Bradshaw
[unsigned notary statement]
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x-4-b-70
Affidavit of Tom Adams
I, Tom Adams, being duly sworn, declare:
In April, 1977, Sandy Bradshaw and myself visited James R. Purifoy at his home in Fresno, California. While I was there Mr. Purifoy said that he had been called by a man who said that he was from the Treasury Department. J.R. Purifoy said that he did not get the man’s name but that he was sure that the man said that he was with the Treasury Department. J.R. told us that the man asked him to tell him everything that he could remember about Peoples Temple and that he knew that J.R. Purifoy used to be a member. J.R. told us that he told the man that he had nothing to say about Peoples Temple. J.R. Purifoy also called Rev. Jim Jones who was in Georgetown Guyana that night and told Rev. Jones what had happened.
Dated this 27th day of August, 1977.
Tom Adams
[unsigned notary statement]
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x-4-b-71
SEGMENT OF BANKS/BRIGHTMAN NOTES DURING MEETING WITH DAVID CONN SAYING GRACE STOEN HAD BEEN VISITED BY TREASURY AGENTS.
[Handwritten addition: “Grace has been visited by the treasury agents [Three illegible words]”]
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x-4-b-72a
[Editor’s note: A version of this document also appears at N-1-c-6a – 6j]
[Letterhead of Peoples Temple Agricultural Mission, Guyana]
RE: THE FBI AND JIM JONES
The following discussion of the intense interest of the Federal Bureau of investigation in the activities of one of the most progressive civil rights leaders in the United States (and a dedicated socialist) is by no means intended to be an indictment of the United States government or of the President, but rather another instance of the already well-known and highly-publicized excesses of the US intelligence community, which has practically set itself up as a national and international policing agency to crush progressive, civil rights, and socialist leaders and organizations, even going so far as the finance and otherwise equip personnel to destabilize and overthrow leftist governments, as in Chile.
Jim Jones is only one of many who have worked for peace, social justice, and civil rights in the United States who have been monitored, harassed, and even persecuted by agencies within the intelligence community. Perhaps the most notable figure who was doubtlessly destroyed by this most vicious aspect of the US intelligence establishment is Dr. Martin Luther King. The efforts against him have been exhaustively documented, as I am sure you are aware, in the revelations of the FBI’s: COINTELPRO operation, which also attempted to decimate the Socialist Workers Party in the USA. The US Attorney–General has recently refused, and this later situation, to turn over the files which are vital to litigation against the FBI and, in so acting, has risked a citation for contempt of court. We want to make it clear that the right wing excesses of the US intelligence community do not necessarily reflect upon
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x-4-b-72b
-2-
Re: The FBI and Jim Jones
the government in general. For example, Rev. Jones met with Mrs. Rosalynn Carter at a dinner engagement some months before coming to Guyana, and she seemed favorably inclined to Rev. Jones’ suggestion that the US send medical supplies to Cuba, and wrote to him (letter enclosed) in a supportive vein. Our concern is about right-wing trends in the United States which can be detected within government agencies, and which have been widely discussed and remarked uponeven in the major news media (i.e., Newsweek magazine). Not surprisingly, the FBI director himself, William Webster, recently admitted that he was a member of four racist organizations. Congress did not require him to drop his affiliations for confirmation of his post.
We wish to document here a few examples of evidence that the FBI has maintained an interest in Jim Jones for nearly thirty years, while at the same time officially denying that they have had any interest in him at all. When Jim Jones made application to see the contents of his FBI files in accordance with his privileges under the Freedom of Information Act, the FBI actually claimed that they kept no file on him. This astounding claim must be weighed against the evidence which follows.
During the 1950s, a current member of Peoples Temple, Mr. Charles Touchette (now farm manager at the) Agricultural Project) was hostile towards Jim Jones because his entire family had decided to join Peoples Temple, a militantly civil rights and fully integrated organization. At the time Mr. Touchette was anti-socialist and racist. He called the FBI to investigate us, speculating that Jim Jones was “in with the communists” (a catchphrase in those days, now being revived in the neo-McCarthyite atmosphere in the United States). Mr. Touchette’s report prompted investigators to interrogate members of Peoples Temple. One of these was an elderly woman who had been given a home by Jim Jones when she was unable to support herself, without even a Social Security check. She was queried extensively: ‘Did Jim Jones
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x-4-b-72c
-3-
Re: The FBI and Jim Jones
buy you clothes?’ ‘Did he buy you the hose you are wearing?’ ‘Is Jim Jones a member of the NAACP?’ ‘Is Jim Jones a communist?’ (We note that Mr. Touchette has for many years been a devoted member of Peoples Temple, and has renounced his former views, and is today a staunch integrationist. His total acceptance into Peoples Temple even after he tried to get the FBI to destroy Jim Jones is a reflection on the kind of character that Jim Jones has. The woman in question who was interrogated, Mrs. Muller [Esther Mueller], was in her 60s at the time and is now approaching 80, residing here in Guyana.)
Later, after Jim Jones moved from the Midwest (where the above incidents took place) to Ukiah, California in the mid-1960s, the Chief of Police of that town informed Jim Jones that the FBI had compiled a long list of his activities, in conjunction with local police anti-subversive units (called ‘red squads’ in those days). The Ukiah chief, though holding right-wing views, admired Jim Jones and his church members for their good citizenship, and his efforts to rehabilitate young people and care for the elderly, as well as his emphasis on law-abiding behavior. The chief, in addition, did not feel that the FBI should have any control over local police departments. This, we speculate, is what prompted him to disclose the above information to Jim Jones, which is at total variance with the denial of the FBI that any files have been kept on him. It is also probably the case that, although this police chief had become friendly to Peoples Temple, he would not be so disposed today, in view of the resurgence of racist and right-wing attitudes in US society.
Another important clue that we have come upon revealing FBI monitoring and activity to discredit and destroy Jim Jones, concerns a report from a Midwestern journalist, Mrs. Caroline Pickering, to the effect that the FBI and San Francisco police conspired to instigate a series of smear-type stories about Jim Jones in 1972, using a racist journalist who has since been exposed as working for US corporate interests in South Africa. The action against Jim Jones was prompted by the church
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x-4-b-72d
-4-
Re: The FBI and Jim Jones
donating a large sum to the defense of Angela Davis and other civil rights and black activists who were in no way socialists or Marxists-Leninists. (Note: Mrs. Pickering is currently married to a right-wing judge, and would probably not repeat this information to anyone representing us: the comment was made when she was talking with a person whom she thought shared her views. We have not been able, unfortunately, to locate the names of the FBI agent and police officials in our files, though a complaint was filed at the time.)
Another indication that the FBI has had an interest in Jim Jones happened in the mid-1960s when he applied for a visa to visit the Soviet Union as part of a projected trip to several European countries. Several weeks after making the visa application, Jim Jones was contacted by the FBI and searchingly interrogated as to why he wanted to visit the Soviet Union. (Jim Jones replied that he thought he had the right to travel as an American citizen). Even though this was long after the McCarthy Era, and many people were visiting the Soviet Union, the FBI insisted on questioning him. (Note: Jim Jones was unable to carry out his travel plans because of arrangements concerning moving with his family to California).
On yet another occasion, famous Washington columnist Drew Pearson, who had revealed much corruption in US foreign affairs, was planning to visit Jim Jones because of support and encouragement that he and members of Peoples Temple had consistently given to Pearson when he stuck his neck out to reveal various unsavory practices in the US government both at home and abroad. Pearson, who was to pass away soon after, had lost a major network radio broadcast and even was close to losing his nationally-syndicated column. Pearson was also at one time brutally attacked in a restaurant by none other than Senator Joe McCarthy. Pearson never got to visit Jim Jones, but he wanted him to know that “the FBI was after him” (Jones).
In the early 1950s, during the McCarthy period, Jim Jones went to see Paul Robeson, in Chicago. The FBI learned of this (and could have only learned of it through a telephone wire-tap)
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x-4-b-72e
-5-
Re: The FBI and Jim Jones
and subsequently interrogated Rev. Jones’ mother for seven hours. Mrs. Jones knew that her son was a good person, but she was not at all aware of his socialist ideology and she thought that her son was ‘crazy’ to be involved with it – a typical attitude of many people, even with progressive ideas, in that period of intense anti-communist propaganda and the climate of fear and intimidation that went along with it. Mrs. Jones absolutely refused to tell her interrogators anything. She was questioned at her place of employment where she was a shop steward is in her union, and lost her position as a result. Later, Mrs. Jones became a devoted socialist and died here in Guyana, where she enjoyed the happiest months of her life.
The very recent series of concerted efforts that have been directed against the work of Jim Jones was perhaps touched off by an incident in late 1976, when a high-ranking military intelligence surveillance team was discovered spying on a Peoples Temple meeting in San Francisco, where the black mayor of Mayersville, Mississippi, Mrs. Unita Wright, was speaking about places she had visited. Our personnel checked the license plate of the car that the men had arrived in, and traced it through the District Attorney (after much probing and difficulty) to an Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi. Further investigation confirmed that they were receiving their instructions from a racist, reactionary US Senator, John Stennis. The Air Force denied that these individuals were in our area at all. Congressmen who we asked to help in exploring this matter further could get nowhere. And a prominent editor in one of the major establishment newspapers in San Francisco told us that “this time you have gone too far.” Nobody would touch the story, except for the president of the black press, a friend of Jim Jones who should be visiting here soon. It was only two days after this story was released to the press that (we later learned) a group of people who were conspiring to discredit Jim Jones began to coordinate their activities with the aid of a prominent public relations outfit. We would discover later that one of their tactics would be to use people who had left our organization to ‘bait’ the media with ridiculous stories about Peoples Temple. The people involved had both ultra-right backgrounds along with some
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x-4-b-72f
-6-
Re: The FBI and Jim Jones
who were part of an anarchist/Trotskyite group that advocated irresponsible activities and courses of violence in total contradiction with our beliefs. We now have good reason to believe that their insane, ‘revolutionary’ schemes were advanced as a provocative ruse, as has been done with other groups advocating social change.
There are other incidents. But the above highlights, we feel, amply illustrate that there has been a continuing effort on the part of the FBI to undermine, thwart, discredit, and ultimately destroy Jim Jones and Peoples Temple, and effort that is not at all inconsistent with the shameful activities that have been catalogued with respect to many groups and principled leaders who have been attempting to work for constructive social change in the United States. We also note that the CIA has similarly denied that any files are maintained on Jim Jones – a curious statement in view of the fact that it has released material it has kept on several members of Peoples Temple.
At this point, we would like to bring up some related considerations that will help put the foregoing into a wider perspective.
As we have noted, the intense campaign to impugn the reputation of Jim Jones, smear his character, and sow discord about his work, is nothing new to the progressive community in the United States. Many leaders and organizations working for social change have been similarly victimized.
Community and civil rights activists who know of the work of Jim Jones and Peoples Temple intimately, have remained staunch supporters. These are people of all races and varying political persuasions. We cite just a few of the more notable examples:
– Mr. Robert Gnaizda, Director of Public Advocates, Inc., an important legal collective that has exposed much corruption in government, is a strong supporter. Mr. Gnaizda, incidentally, was a key aid to California Governor Edmund Brown, Jr.
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x-4-b-72g
-7-
Re: The FBI and Jim Jones
– California’s Lieutenant Governor and former Congressman Mervyn Dymally has been a close friend. Mr. Dymally, a native West Indian, has visited the Agricultural Project, and has published a book through Peoples Temple documenting a national conspiracy to harass and ruin hundreds of black elected officials, himself included;
– Progressive California State Assemblyman Willie Brown;
– Dr. Carlton Goodlett, MD and PhD, President of the in NNPA (which is the major black press Association in the US), who has publicly and repeatedly denounced the efforts against Jim Jones;
– Mr. Thomas Fleming, editor of the largest Afro-American newspaper in the San Francisco Bay Area;
– Jane Fonda, internationally-acclaimed actress;
– Angela Davis, rights activist; (Note: Ms. Davis has been very supportive of our position here and she is very much aware of our support of the government)
– John Maher, nationally-known for his rehabilitation work with ex-convicts, and who currently has his own ABC-TV program. Maher has offered his assistance to Peoples Temple in locating a doctor to help get a local Guyanese child here in the North West Region a corneal transplant operation that will save his vision. Incidentally, Mr. Maher, in order to ‘survive’ in a climate prejudicial to the collective lifestyle of his prison-rehabilitation foundation, has had to moderate his views in public, something that Jim Jones refused to do, and which helps explain the kinds of attacks to which he has been;
– Other local supporters, which include long-term civil rights activists Enola Maxwell and Yvonne Golden (Ms. Golden is President of the San Francisco Black Teachers Caucus); author Albert Kahn (whose works are among the most translated of any American writer); organizations such as the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), the World Peace Council, the NAACP; the head of the San Francisco Council of Churches; members of the San Francisco Human Rights Commission, and many progressive clergymen.
All of these people, and many more, I have been outraged by the despicable use of false witnesses to air monstrous lies about Peoples Temple. The entire catalog of media-sponsored stratagems and bogus investigations are already well-known and have shocked many people. Those who have followed the campaign against our movement have concurrent with our profound dissatisfaction that the US Embassy here was unable to prevent a
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x-4-b-72h
-8-
Re: The FBI and Jim Jones
young woman from walking out of Guyana with several thousands of dollars she stole from elderly people here in our community, and who subsequently proceeded to cover her crime by shamelessly lying to the press about the nature of our community. There was nothing we could do about it. Our refutations were only marginally covered in a prejudiced media – a typical pattern. We cannot afford, in addition, to become encumbered any further with libel actions which would require that we send witnesses back to the United States to testify.
We recommend, to put all of the foregoing into perspective, that you see the recent issue of Ebony] magazine were extensive, magazine quasi-genocidal efforts are exposed that seek to destroy all black elected officials. A similar exposé aslo appreared [also appeared] in Sepia magazine a few months ago in an article by Mary Warner, excerpted from a volume printed through Peoples Temple. The extensive list of targeted individuals includes Rep. Charles Diggs (founder of the Congressional Black Caucus), Senator Edward Brooke (the only black US Senator since the Reconstruction Era), in moderate civil rights leader Jesse Jackson of Operation PUSH (who at one time, it has been suggested, even gave information to the FBI, along with Roy Wilkins, about Dr. Martin Luther King).
All of this is nightmarish, and is producing a neo-McCarthyite climate of fear in the United States that is stifling dissent and decimating any vestiges of forthright black leadership in the wake of successful right-wing efforts to cut back important programs for minority and poor people, and other key civil rights gains in many areas of US society.
We are also alarmed and disturbed – as is a large segment of the American public – at the actions of President Carter in backing down from what had promised to be a progressive administration. We don’t believe that Mr. Carter is a hypocrite. We can only speculate there have been some enormous pressure is brought to bear upon him, and that these are perhaps related to the selective assassinations of the 1960s of several progressive leaders (the
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x-4-b-72i
-9-
Re: The FBI and Jim Jones
conspiratorial nature of which is now being investigated and exposed, revealing high-level complicity).
The effect of this is quickly clarifying who rules America – and who in effect dictates the policies of government: a super-rich military/industrial complex, run by a corporate oligarchy. This kind of pressure has extended into all areas of government, especially the U.S. Congress, which has recommended courses of action (such as breaking relations with Cuba) that have even shocked State Department officials. Another disturbing sign was the frustration experienced by former Watergate Chief Prosecutor Leon Jaworski, who was assigned to investigate U.S. Congress payoff-taking from KCIA go-betweens. Jaworski concluded that the investigation he was to carry out was really only designed to make it appear that the government was policing corruption in its ranks, because when he seriously began to get at the roots of the situation, he was rebuffed, and was himself investigated, and had to curtail his efforts. Similar things happened during the Church Committee investigations of the US intelligence community.
We could cite much more evidence that points to the resurgence of a right-wing, fascist -like mentality so frightening that hundreds of people – many of whom we do not even know – who have heard of our work here our expressing a desire to join us. Many of these are people who express a sense of alienation and lack of personal fulfillment, bred by an advanced technological state that looks up in human beings, increasingly, as mere commodities, and which is losing touch with the needs of millions of people.
A final note in this vein that is particularly chilling: we know a young man in the U.S. Air Force whose mother is residing here in our community. He tells her that people in the military have a joke about the neutron bomb. They call it the ‘nigger bomb,’ referring to is projected, special tactical use on black ghettos
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x-4-b-72j
-10-
Re: The FBI and Jim Jones
to wipe out the population while saving the property, adding that it will be sent to South Africa for the same purpose.
Our purpose in providing you with this information has not been, again, to cast aspersions on the United States, but to illustrate the kind of activity which has worked to undermine progressive movements. The reactionary and right-wing currents within US society can work to undermine, additionally, our quest for international cooperation and peace. These issues have troubled millions of people of conscience in the United States, including many people in all areas of government.
Should you have any questions or reflections on the foregoing material, please do not hesitate to contact us.