Members of Peoples Temple were aware of the efforts of families in the United States to retrieve their relatives from Jonestown, and they knew of Joe Mazor’s involvement in the efforts. They just weren’t sure how Mazor was going about it. More to the point, they weren’t sure that the private detective and the people in the Concerned Relatives organization which had hired him wouldn’t resort to kidnapping children from Jonestown.
To learn more about Mazor’s intentions and strategies, Temple loyalist Carol McCoy set up a meeting with the investigator, pretending to be a distraught parent trying to get her four children back from Jonestown. Soon after she returned, she sat with Jean Brown and June Crym from the San Francisco headquarters of the Temple and recounted what was said during the interview. She then transcribed the tape, noting that its beginnings are from her memory since the “first part of tape is messed up.”
Mazor talks about Jim Jones’ influence with the Guyana government, about the difficulty a parent would face, and about commitment in time and money it would require. As wide-ranging as the conversation apparently was, it is nevertheless a transcription of the recollections of a conversation in which each party is uncertain about the other, which means both parties are undoubtedly wary about what they’ll reveal. Nevertheless, it does seem to confirm much of what the Temple feared about Mazor’s plans.
This meeting likely followed Carol McCoy’s call to Joe Mazor, which was recorded on tape Q 689.
Carol McCoy Transcription of Mazor Interview, RYMUR 89-4286-S-1-b7a – S-1-8a(1)
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