[Editor’s note: The companion piece to this article is The Inventory Records of the Jonestown Pharmacy: A Guide.]
The collections of records recovered in Jonestown by the FBI labeled J-1, OO-1, and OO-2 are, overall, the inventory records from the Jonestown pharmacy. The records have been organized into one searchable database and published with a detailed overview of how to read the records and use the database.1 These records span 236 days, beginning on March 14th, 1978, and ending abruptly on November 5th, 1978, about the time that Jones would have learned of Congressman Leo Ryan’s upcoming visit to the jungle commune.
These records tell us how much of a given medication was issued and when, but very rarely do they tell us what Temple member they were issued to. Even more of a mystery is the reason some of these medications were prescribed. Using audiotapes and Edith Roller’s journal entries from around the 236-day timeframe, we are able to learn a little more about the use of medications in Jonestown.
I’d like to begin with some basic data about the pharmacy inventory records. There are 956 pages in J-1, OO-1, and OO-2 that are the “normal” medication inventory forms. There are six additional pages in these records that include entries of medications being issued out from the pharmacy, spanning October 22nd, 1978, to November 5th, 1978.2 Of these 956 pages, 25 are blank or cover pages. Additionally, 382 inventory forms do not have any entries received or issued other than their initial creation. That leaves us with 555 pages with data, or 59% of the records.
In total, there are 104 pages for “Major Tranquilizers” and “Minor Tranquilizers,” to use the specific terms used by the Jonestown pharmacy staff, including some found in OO-2 in suppository or injectable form. Only 73 of these pages include entries of medications issued or received, about 13% of the 555 pages that have entries of the medication being issued or received. On the other hand, of all 937 pages, 111 of them are vitamins or supplements, roughly 12% of all medications in the pharmacy.
The prevalent use of vitamins and sedatives is reflected in the following table of the top six most issued medications according to pharmacy inventory records. The medications are listed by the total number of entries in the “issued” column of their appropriate inventory forms. These counts do not include the six additional pages of medications issued that do not match the inventory forms. Other than the two vitamins and two sedatives, we see antibiotics, with Tylenol topping all medications issued at 58 entries.
Most Issued Medications
|
Medication |
Dosage | Number of Times Issued* |
| Tylenol | 300mg |
58 |
|
Multivitamin |
All brands | 55 |
| Penbriten | 250mg |
54 |
|
Penicillin |
250mg | 51 |
| Vitamin C | 250mg |
48 |
|
Thorazine |
100mg | 45 |
| Benadryl | 50mg |
38 |
|
Phenobarbital |
30mg |
36 |
*Does not include OO-1-A13 – A16 or OO-2-158a+b
We know what medications the Jonestown pharmacy had in stock, how often they were issued and received, and how many were issued or received on a given date. But who, exactly, were these medications being issued to? More often than not, the medication is noted as being issued to the “Nurse’s Office” or “N.O.” if they wrote anything at all. However, there are enough entries with specific information to help us understand the use of medications in Jonestown.
There are a total of 3,646 entries of medications being issued, including the six additional pages that do not match the inventory forms. 31 of these medications were issued to guests or non-members of the Temple. All but three of these entries were noted as being issued to a “Guyanese guest,” a Guyanese woman and child, or simply a guest. The other three are known visitors to Jonestown: Rev. John V. Moore, father of Carolyn Layton and Annie Moore; Mark Lane; and Donald Freed, prominent conspiracy theorists hired by Jim Jones for a film project.
Another 20 entries include notations not for a person but for an emergency kit or E.R. tray. Most, but not all, of these medications have sedative properties and could be used for emergency pain management or sedation before or after a procedure. Unfortunately, none of these entries provide any additional information regarding why the medication needed to be added to or replaced in the emergency kit. If the entry for Narcan, or Naloxone, which is used to temporarily halt opioid overdoses, exists because the medication was replacing one used in an emergency, one has to wonder which person in Jonestown risked overdosing on opioids.
There are about 93 people named in the pharmacy records for medications issued out, including the three non-Guyanese guests, John Moore, Mark Lane, and Don Freed. A full list of these names is provided at the end of the article. Of the 90 people believed to be Peoples Temple members, five names could not be found in Don Beck’s “Jobs in Jonestown by Department” and are listed as “Unknown” in the list of names.3
According to Don Beck’s research, 18 of the names provided worked in the Medical Department. In the list of names, the medical department staff are listed with their job titles based on Beck’s work. When Gerald Parks was interviewed by the FBI, he claimed that Edith Parks, Dale Parks, Joyce Parks, and Diane Louie worked in the SCU.4 Edith Park is not named in the pharmacy records.
The name “Parks” appears in the records a total of 12 times, only two of which are sedatives. “J. Parks” was issued one 5 mg Valium on May 17th, 1978, and one 25 mg ampule of Phenergan on August 10th, 1978. Diane Louie’s name appears only once, and the medication was not a sedative. It is highly likely that any medication issued to a member of the Medical Department was for one or more of their patients, not for themselves, although that wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.
One way that we know that medications were issued for multiple people at a time is through Edith Roller’s journals. The Temple diarist mentions taking Premarin, a conjugated estrogen, twice in her March 1978 journal entries. On March 24th she tells of the difficulty in arranging an appointment with Temple doctor Larry Schacht to see about no longer taking the medication, as she doesn’t need it.5 In April she also argued that not having to take the medicine would keep her from spending up to a couple hours of her morning waiting in line at the medical department.6
There are two pages in the pharmacy records for Premarin, OO-1-A99 and OO-1-A100. Edith Roller is not mentioned in either of these pages, but we know that she received Premarin often, if not daily, from March through mid-April. Notably, the amounts issued are large, and they are issued every couple of days to a week. It is likely that the medication was issued to a member of the nurse’s office, as notated, who then distributed the medication to the appropriate Temple members.
The Roller journals allow us to corroborate a few unique exceptions to lack of identifying information in the pharmacy records, in which the name provided is the person the medication was intended for. Two notable examples are Orde Dennis and Barbara Walker. In her August 15th, 1978 entry, Roller mentioned Orde Dennis, who had previously had a seizure and had, at some point, attempted to attack Jim Jones.7 According to OO-2-272, Orde Dennis was issued half a milliliter of phenobarbital. This entry is even more fascinating, as not only does the writer mention Orde Dennis by name, but the reason for the medication is given: “seizure.” Roughly two weeks later, Roller’s journal entries recount an event in which Barbara Walker had to be tranquilized after attacking “Stephen.”8 Indeed, page OO-2-221 shows us that Barbara Walker was given a total of 6 ampules of 2 ml of injectable Thorazine on August 23rd, 1978.
Other than the Medical Department staff, the seniors of Jonestown are another prominent group in the pharmacy records, with 37 entries naming Temple members over the age of 61. 10 of these entries are medications being delivered to Temple members in Georgetown by Cleave Swinney on the Albatross, the Peoples Temple’s “other” to their main boat, the Cudjoe, as Cleave’s name in each entry is noted with “Georgetown.”9 One entry is listed twice, as it is noted with the names of two seniors: an October 2nd issue for Lanoxin to Cleave Swinney and Gladys Roberts. Out of all entries with names of seniors, not including those destined for Georgetown, only seven of these entries are sedatives.
These entries do not include one senior that happens to be named in the pharmacy records a total of 20 times: Lisa Layton. She was one of the few people who died in Jonestown prior to November 18th, 1978, of natural causes, in her case, lung cancer. Half of the entries for Lisa occurred on or before July 10th, 1978. Two of these entries are for antihistamines, diphenhydramine hydrochloride, or Benadryl, and hydroxyzine, also known as Atarax or Vistaril, which can also be prescribed for anxiety. Four of the first ten entries are for medications with sedative properties, with all but one being issued on July 10th.
A letter from Guyanese doctor H.S. Seawar informs us that Lisa was admitted to St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital in Georgetown on or around July 10th, 1978. Lisa’s lung cancer had spread from one lung to the second and to her liver. The July 19th letter, releasing her from the hospital, states, “There is nothing more that I can do, apart from relieving her pain and discomfort. … I feel she will be more comfortable in her own home surroundings…”10
The remaining ten entries for Lisa begin August 6th, 1978, when she was issued Dalmane, a benzodiazepine. Six of the last ten medications issued to Lisa have sedative properties, continuing the relief of her “pain and discomfort” that Dr. Seawar had mentioned in his letter releasing Lisa from the hospital. The other medications treat upset stomach and edema, or fluid retention. The last entry that mentions Lisa’s name is dated October 23rd. Lisa Layton died October 30th, 1978.
In audiotape Q182, Temple doctor Larry Schacht recounts several medical “miracles” performed by Jim Jones since his arrival in Jonestown. One Temple senior whom Dr. Schacht recalls is Earl McKnight. According to Schacht, the medical team took an x-ray of Earl and found he had a “gigantic heart and a large amount of fluid in his lungs.” Schacht claims that Earl’s edema had caused his legs to become “almost a foot around.”11
In all likelihood, it was likely the Lanoxin that Earl was issued on July 25th that helped him with irregular heartbeats or heart failure. Additionally, it was probably the Furosemide injection issued to Earl sometime between June 29th and August 16th, 1978, that relieved his edema of the lungs. According to devotee Larry Schacht, it was only until Jim Jones was informed of Earl’s condition and said, “[Earl]’s going to be alright,” that Earl came back from the brink of death.12
In the same audiotape, Q182, Dr. Schacht also mentions Plickards C., or P.C., Norris, another senior who is named in the pharmacy records. Norris, like Lisa Layton, died of natural causes in Jonestown prior to November 18th, 1978. On the tape, believed to be recorded around October 9th, Dr. Schacht states, “There was a man who passed recently…”13 However, Norris was issued three medications just four days prior to the likely date the tape was recorded, October 9th. None of the pharmacy records include the time the medication was issued, so there’s no telling which of the following medications Norris were issued first: potassium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, and Demerol.
Potassium chloride, as an injectable, is used to treat severely low potassium levels in the body. Sodium bicarbonate is typically used in emergency situations to treat certain drug intoxications, including barbiturates; severe metabolic acidosis caused by renal disease, shock, or cardiac arrest; and high potassium levels in the body. Demerol is a strong opioid painkiller that, when used intravenously, is typically used for sudden and severe pain such as after surgery. All of these medications were issued on October 5th, and Pickards Norris died October 6th, 1978.
The stories of these men carry another connection as well. In regard to Earl McKnight, Temple doctor Larry Schacht warns, “it’s to be pointed out that the reason that Earl McKnight [was so sick] and almost died is because he was calling on Jesus… the wrong name.” Plickards Norris also committed this sin against Jones, calling on Jesus when sick or dying. In Q182, Dr. Schacht claims that Norris could have saved himself by calling on the power of Jones, but he never did. According to Schacht, “when Dad heard [Norris] calling on Jesus, he said, ‘That’s it.'” “There’s no hope.” You have to call on Dad; you have to call on the power and the light that’s in him.”14 Although it appears neither man called on Jones, only Plickards Norris died in Jonestown.
When it comes to drugs in Jonestown, particularly sedatives, one cannot help but mention the Special Care Unit or SCU, sometimes called the Extended Care Unit or ECU. The Special Care Unit was a part of the medical department in a building attached to the nurse’s office. We know that at least one purpose for the SCU was to drug and control dissidents, like Temple lawyer and attempted defector Gene Chaikin, or like Shanda James, who refused Jim Jones’s sexual advances.15 16
Indeed, in tape Q182, Dr. Schacht describes the fate of two Temple members who had admitted to wanting to return to the United States. Schacht warns, “Those who look back to Babylon and don’t accept Dad as their savior and don’t accept his power…like two we have now in the Special Care Unit, lying deathly ill, we have to arouse them every hour, just to be sure that they haven’t passed.”17
Not surprisingly, only 15 entries are noted as being issued to the SCU, only two of which are sedatives. The majority of medications issued are antibacterial or antifungal, like Neosporin, and a few are upset stomach medications and aspirin as well. Although Shanda James was admitted to the SCU, the only medication that is noted as having been issued to her is Nystatin, a vaginal cream, sometime between August 7th and 22nd, 1978.18
SCU Entries
| FBI Section Designation | Page Number | Medication | Dosage | Date | Amount |
| J1 | A5h | Valium | 5mg | 4/20/78 | 2 tabs |
| OO1 | A204 | Lomotil | 2.5mg/0.025mg | 5/21/78 | 21 tabs |
| OO1 | A22 | Aspirin | 300mg | 5/28/78 | 210 tabs |
| OO1 | A22 | Aspirin | 300mg | 6/6/78 | 12 tabs |
| J1 | A5h | Valium | 5mg | 6/11/78 | 1 tab |
| OO2 | 136 | Halotex Antifungal | 1% | 6/12/78 | 1 tube |
| OO1 | A204 | Lomotil | 2.5mg/0.025mg | 6/27/78 | 2 tabs |
| OO1 | A204 | Lomotil | 2.5mg/0.025mg | 6/29/78 | 2 tabs |
| OO2 | 143 | Neosporin | 1/32g | 7/3/78 | 2 pcks |
| OO2 | 143 | Neosporin | 1/32g | 7/6/78 | 5 pcks |
| OO2 | 143 | Neosporin | 1/32g | 7/21/78 | 3 pcks |
| OO1 | A174 | Indocin | 25mg | 8/27/78 | 20 tabs |
| OO2 | 3 | Tylenol | 120mg/5cc | 8/27/78 | 22cc |
| OO2 | 147 | Polysporin | 1/32g | 9/25/78 | 10 pcks |
| OO2 | 147 | Polysporin | 1/32g | 10/2/78 | 6 pcks |
While the entries noted specifically for the SCU are limited, these inventory records lead us to more information. Continuing with tape Q182 and the seniors named in the pharmacy records, we find that Henry Mercer and Earl McKnight were admitted to the SCU, apparently for reasons other than control. After his x-ray that found an enlarged heart and edema of the lungs, Earl was “moved… over to the Special Care Unit.” From this point, Dr. Schacht’s telling of Earl’s story claims that Jones saved Earl from death.19
Henry Mercer, another Temple senior named in the pharmacy records, is also mentioned in Q182. Schacht claimed, “[Mercer] didn’t die because Dad said he would not die. And we put him in the Special Care Unit…” Mercer was treated for severe pain in his legs and an electrolyte imbalance, the latter of which was probably treated with the vial of potassium chloride Henry was issued on May 20th, 1978. Something I want to highlight about this particular quote from Q182 is the order in which Schacht said the actions took place; first Jones says that Henry will not die, and only then is Henry Mercer admitted to the SCU, as if Jones gave the medical staff permission to save Henry’s life.20
We know that the SCU was used inhumanely to sedate human beings into utter powerlessness, but I believe the SCU was also Jonestown’s Intensive Care Unit, or I.C.U., found in a typical hospital. It seems an appropriate space for those Jones deemed unfit for consciousness, as an ICU-type room would be equipped with beds and resources for IV bags and to monitor vital signs. The Jonestown community was exceptionally resourceful; they had to be, and the SCU was no exception. The fact that the SCU was used to save the lives of Henry Mercer and Earl McKnight in no way negates or washes away what was stolen from people like Shanda James and Gene Chaikin.
This wicked resourcefulness shapes my theory on why Jonestown had so many sedatives in stock at any given time, but especially in November of 1978. I believe that the excessive amount of sedative medications was in Jonestown for multiple reasons. We know that Jones himself was abusing phenobarbital to the point where his tolerance was above the typical lethal dose for an average adult. Jones’s autopsy was heavily botched and much delayed, and we may never know what other medications were in his system when he died.21 We also know from the more terrible uses of the SCU that sedatives were used as a form of behavior control, which might also explain their use in the Jonestown nursery, as pointed out by Bonnie Yates’s “The Nursery & West House: Tracing the Path of Barbiturates in Jonestown.”22 Jones himself admits to as much in audiotape Q384, when he offers anyone feeling suicidal help by way of “mood elevation, medication that will help the situation.”23 Suicide of Temple members was likely on Jones’s mind at this time because 20-year-old Ricky Jonson had recently made his own attempt to end his life by drinking gasoline.24
It is Lisa Layton’s story that inspired my third theory regarding the use of sedatives in Jonestown. If one third of Jonestown residents were seniors, with little earthly time remaining, what was the Temple’s plan for end-of-life care? Marceline Jones and other Temple members had decades of experience caring for elderly people, so it seems very likely that they would have prepared for the deaths of elderly Temple members in Jonestown. Additionally, the Medical Department was quite impressive for a jungle commune but still extremely limited in resources. Even St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital in Georgetown’s only plan for Lisa’s advanced cancer was for her to be home and have her pain managed.
It is my theory that one of several reasons that the Jonestown pharmacy was so well-equipped with sedative and pain-killing medications is because they were aware that the seniors of Jonestown, one-third of their community, were going to need end-of-life care much sooner than later. If this theory is correct, there is always the potential that Jones or his closest aides used this reason with the medical department or regular temple members as a disguise for their true intentions. Just as the sodium cyanide had a “reason” for being in Jonestown other than to commit murder, so too do the sedative medications.25
Regardless of the reason these strong drugs were present in Jonestown, the amount of them was alarming. The latest date found in the pharmacy records is November 5th, 1978, and as of that date there were roughly over 200,000 milligrams of Thorazine and roughly 150,000 milligrams of phenobarbital. For comparison, the average single dose of Thorazine issued in Jonestown was 100 mg, and the average single dose of phenobarbital issued was 30 mg. That’s not including the many other sedatives found in the pharmacy records, including Pentothal, known colloquially as “truth serum.”
This late in the story, and given the fact that Jones and his aides and/or medical staff used sedative medications for behavioral control, it seems highly plausible that those same people, or the same person, could have secreted these drugs into the food and drink of Temple members one or both days of Congressman Leo Ryan’s visit. Bonnie Yates showed a large amount of Thorazine being issued the day of Soviet Union Consular Feodor Timofeyev’s visit, October 2nd—why wouldn’t Jones and staff use these same solutions for Leo Ryan?26 And if the drug was successful in preventing any “problems” for Mr. Timofeyev’s visit, why not try it on a much grander scale the day after discovering that Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby wanted to leave with Congressman Leo Ryan? We are not likely to know for certain.
In working so intimately with the Jonestown pharmacy records, I feel obligated to mention Annie Moore’s letter to Jim Jones, dated November 5th, 1978, the last recorded date that medications were issued in Jonestown. Annie accuses Joyce Touchette of poisoning or drugging Jim Jones’s milkshakes.27 There is no time in the pharmacy records that Joyce Touchette is named as having been issued any sedative medications, though we know that medications were often dispensed through the nurse’s office. This means that just because we do not see Joyce Touchette’s name in the records does not mean she wasn’t issued any medications.
While there were large amounts of sedatives issued in the days leading up to and including November 5th, there is no way of knowing exactly who they were issued to. Additionally, Annie believed that Joyce Touchette was capable of trying to poison someone based on a confession letter she wrote in which she claimed to have tried to poison her husband.28 I believe this confession should be taken with a grain of salt, as Jones and his aides often made Temple members sign or make incriminatory statements as blackmail. Was Touchette trying to end Jones’s life before something terrible happened? Was she perhaps a new source of drugs for Jones’s ever-growing tolerance when Annie would refuse him? Was Annie simply overcome with the growing sense of paranoia that Jones had been brewing in the community? Unfortunately, the Jonestown pharmacy records do not provide us any new lead on this topic.
The odds are stacked against Peoples Temple historians in finding the answers to some of the questions posed in this article and many others, especially as the 50th anniversary of the mass murder approaches, but such is our task. The Jonestown pharmacy records, J-1, OO-1, and OO-2, are only parts of a much larger puzzle, and it is my hope that this article and the work it is built upon will help serve others in their quests for answers about the Jonestown story while honoring the memory of those who never left.
Notes
1 Criglow, B. (2026). The Inventory Records of the Jonestown Pharmacy: A Guide
2 RYMUR 89-4286-00-1-A13 – A16, RYMUR 89-4286-00-2-158a – 158b
3 Beck, D. (n.d.). Jobs in Jonestown by Department. Jonestown & Peoples Temple.
4 RYMUR 89-4286-1644-3
5 Roller, E. (n.d.). Edith Roller Journals: March 1978
6 Roller, E. (n.d.-a). Edith Roller Journals: April 1978
7 Roller, E. (n.d.-b). Edith Roller Journals: August 1978
8 Roller, August 1978.
9 Beck, D. (n.d.). Jobs in Jonestown by Department.
10 RYMUR 89-4286-FF-1-5
11 McGehee, F. (Ed.). (n.d.). Q182 transcript
13 Original transcription believed this person could be Plickards Norris or Emmett Griffith. Emmett did not die until November 5th.
14 Either Norris or Grifffith.
15 Yates, B. (n.d.). Eugene Chaikin: A story from Jonestown
16 Reiterman, T., & Jacobs, J. (2008). Raven: The untold story of the reverend Jim Jones and his people. Tarcher/Penguin.
18 RYMUR 89-428-OO-2-430
21 RYMUR 89-4286-2178
22 Yates, B. (n.d.-b). The Nursery & West House: Tracing the path of barbiturates in Jonestown
23 McGehee, F. (Ed.). (n.d.-b). Q384 transcript
24 McGehee, F. (Ed.). (n.d.-b). Q380 transcript
25 Criglow, B. (n.d.-a). The Definitive Guide to Cyanide in Jonestown
26 Yates, B. (n.d.-b). Murder by thorazine: A look at the use of sedatives in Jonestown –
27 RYMUR 89-4286-N-A-43a – N-A-43e
28 RYMUR 89-4286-N-1-a-42a
(Brittni Criglow is a Park Ranger at a State Historic Park, a Certified Interpretive Guide through the National Association for Interpretation. She began researching Peoples Temple early into her sobriety from alcohol. She has contributed both articles and research into the medications maintained at the Jonestown pharmacy. She can be reached at brittnilkoski@gmail.com.)