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[Letterhead of Florida attorney Margaret L. Cooper]
June 22, 1978
Eugene B. Chaiken, Esquire
Box 893
Georgetown, Guyana
Dear Mr. Chaiken:
I represent The National Enquirer, and I have been given your mailgram of June 19, 1978. There was no return address on the mailgram. However, I attempted to contact you by phone in San Francisco, but I was given the above address in Guyana.
The National Enquirer rejects your charges that it has been acting maliciously and with reckless disregard for the truth against Peoples Temple in gathering the news and publishing defamatory matter concerning the Temple. In fact, The Enquirer has published no stories about the Temple thus far.
We do wish to learn the official position of Peoples Temple, and we have made attempts to interview Reverend James Jones and to visit the plantation in Guyana. However, our reporters have been refused entrance into the country.
This letter is to request that you and/or Reverend Jones contact the Minister of Home Affairs in Guyana and request permission for our reporters to enter the country for the purpose of visiting the plantation and interviewing Reverend Jones and other members of Peoples Temple who are living on the plantation.
Sincerely,
JONES, PAINE AND FOSTER
Margaret L. Cooper
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[Editor’s note: This letter was signed by Jim Jones himself. Many documents supposedly signed by Jones were signed by other Temple members.]
[Letterhead of San Francisco attorney Frederick P. Furth]
September 22, 1972
Mr. Lester Kinsolving
The San Francisco Examiner
San Francisco, California
Demand For Retraction and Correction of Defamatory Statements
HAND DELIVER
Sir:
On the afternoon of September 19, 1972, you made the following false and defamatory statements with reference to me, during the course of a television broadcast:
“I think he is a phony;
He is a hypocrite;
He is a phony in several respects.”
You are hereby notified, pursuant to Section 48a of the Civil Code of the State of California that I demand that you retract and correct said false and defamatory statements, in substantially as conspicuous a manner as said defamatory statements were broadcast by you, within twenty-one days of the service of this notice on you.
/s/ Jim Jones
Jim Jones
Lester Kinsolving hereby acknowledges receipt of this notice this 22nd day of September, 1972. [blank space for signature]
Authorized Agent
[Handwritten note: “This one raises big discovery problems [illegible word] we’ve had our TV rebuttal.”]
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[Letterhead of Oakland attorney Janet L. Evans]
April 20, 1977
Franchise Tax Board
Sacramento, CA 95857
Attention Ronald Maddox, Supervisor, Exempt Application Processing
Re: Apostolic Corporation, Corporate Number 7640140
Dear Mr. Maddox:
We represent Apostolic Corporation and have been asked to reply to your letter of March 23, 1977, inquiring as to the federal status of this corporation.
An application for exemption under IRC Section 501(d), the federal counterpart to Revenue and Taxation Code Section 23701k, was submitted shortly after the incorporation of Apostolic Corporation. There followed a series of exchanges clarifying certain aspects of the organization, and we were finally notified in late 1976 that no action would be taken on the application for exemption for an undetermined period of time, pending a decision by the Treasury Department of its position with respect to several aspects of such groups.
We were notified in March of this year that the necessary decisions had been made and were issued a prospective ruling by the technical branch of the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, D. C. We submitted a response to that prospective ruling in early April of 1977 and expect the technical office to issue a final ruling ordering the District Director of the Internal Revenue Service in San Francisco to rule on the exempt status of Apostolic Corporation.
I therefore expect a determination on the exempt status of Apostolic Corporation to be issued in the near
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future and will contact you as soon as I receive it.
Let me know if I can be of any additional assistance.
Very truly yours,
Janet L. Evans
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[Letterhead of San Francisco attorney David M. McClain]
August 10, 1978
John Van de Kamp
210 West Temple
Los Angeles, Ca. 90012
Dear Mr. Van de Kamp:
I am writing to you on behalf of South Folsom Law Firm, a private law office located in San Francisco, California. It has come to our attention that the attacks on People’s Temple and Reverend Jim Jones are increasing. These attacks, as best as we can determine, are unsubstantiated with facts. It appears that there is a slander campaign going on against the People’s Temple that was initiated first by the media and has been taken up by other entities.
These attacks have caused us great concern as they are directed towards an organization which has been in the forefront of the fight for equal rights and human justice. Our office has witnessed many examples of the good work the People’s Temple has done in the various San Francisco communities. Therefore, any unfounded attacks trouble us as they only serve to undermine an organization that is struggling to rectify the problems we all recognize.
It appears that the source of many of these attacks comes from Tim Stoen, a person with a very questionable reputation. None of the accusations against the People’s Temple have ever been documented, as far as we have been able to ascertain.
It is our understanding that these attacks on the People’s Temple are increasing. We’ve been told that their mail has been checked and in the past Social Security checks have been delayed ‘ or stopped and that there have been other harassing investigations.
We ask that you as a chief law enforcement officer in Los Angeles initiate an investigation into these allegations .and put an immediate stop to these harassments.
Yours truly,
David M. McClain
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[Letterhead of Los Angeles attorney David W. Kwan]
October 31, 1977
James Warren Jones
7630 East Road
Redwood Valley, California
Dear Sir:
It is most urgent that you contact me as soon as possible. This is in regard to a matter which I handled with Tim Stoen several years ago.
Very truly yours,
David W. Kwan
PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL/ADDRESSEE ONLY