James Cobb v. Peoples Temple, Jim Jones, Teresa Buford, Jean Brown, Pamela Moton et al. was filed by Tim Stoen on June 19, 1978, following almost five years of harassment and threats from the Temple. The suit sought damages of almost $22 million.
Jim Cobb was one of the Eight Revolutionaries, a group of young adults who defected from the Temple in September 1973, and who left behind a letter criticizing the church for straying too far from its socialist principles and instead concentrating too much on sex. Since that time, Cobb alleged in his suit, he had been subjected to late night phone calls and harassing letters, which labeled him as a radical terrorist who had plotted to blow up bridges and engaging in other acts of mayhem. Other calls and letters accused him of having “committed acts of sexual perversion with young people.”
As inflammatory and damaging to him and his career as these were, he charged, the threats against him and members of his family – many of whom were still in the Temple – had caused him the greater emotional distress. The few times he was able to contact his family before they left for Guyana were met with suspicion and fear.
The culmination of the campaign against him was an anonymous letter he received in mid-March 1978, which began: “If you think that you are working only to destroy our friend, you’re badly underestimating the course you are on.”
Three months later, in mid-September 1978, Charles Garry, the attorney for Peoples Temple filed several motions in court asking that Cobb’s suit be dismissed. The demurrer states that, even if the facts alleged by Cobb were true, they are not “sufficient to constitute a cause of action,” nor are they “sufficient to constitute a cause of action for intentional infliction of emotional distress because they do not allege outrageous and extreme conduct.”
Most of the defendants in this case, as well as many members of the Cobb family, died in Jonestown on November 18, 1978.
The three suits were pending when Temple lawyers filed for dissolution of the Peoples Temple corporation in December 1978, as was a countersuit that the Temple filed against Stoen. In the petition seeking dissolution, Temple attorney Charles Garry asked for guidance in how to proceed in all four suits. They were eventually dismissed.
James Cobb v. Peoples Temple, Jim Jones, Teresa Buford, Jean Brown, Pamela Moton et al., RYMUR, 89-4286-BB-11-a (Note: The pages of this document were not separately numbered.)
Document Number of pages Text Complaint 29 Text Exhibit A – Undated letter to Cobb 2 Text Exhibit B – March 14, 1978 letter to Congress from Pam Moton 1 Text Exhibit C – Peoples Temple News Release of April 18, 1978 5 Text Exhibit D – “Grim Report From Jungle” 2 Text Exhibit E – Peoples Temple Open Statement, May 10, 1978 4 Text Exhibit F – Anonymous Letter of May 15, 1978 3 Text Exhibit G – Accusation of Human Rights Violations by Rev. James Warren Jones Against Our Children and Relatives at the Peoples Temple Jungle Encampment in Guyana, South America 48 Text
Peoples Temple response to James Cobb v. Peoples Templeet al., RYMUR, 89-4286-BB-11-b
Document Number of pages Text Demurrer to Complaint 11 Text Notice of Motion to Strike 5 Text Points and Authorities in Support of Demurrer 6 Text Notice of Hearing on Demurrer 2 Text