In between distributing food at the Kendall County Food Pantry, working as a Laboratory Aide for her Honors Biomedical Science class, and serving as president of the high school Ecology Club, Charlie Puterbaugh volunteers for the Jonestown digital archive.
In less than a year, the high school junior has transcribed and organized testimonials about Jim Jones’ miracles and healings and typed numerous affidavits relating to the defections of Tim and Grace Stoen. Many of the documents were handwritten, which meant they have never been previously accessible through any internet search engine. This work led to her researching and writing articles published in the 2026 issue of the jonestown report about the presentation of Jonestown on the internet, the myth of the third gunshot victim, and an analysis of why the Stoens, as a white bourgeois couple, received different treatment than African American and working class defectors.
But why the interest in Peoples Temple and Jonestown, given her many other activities. “I’ve always been interested in religion and cults,” she says, noting that she first learned about Peoples Temple through art and music. But what really interests her is “the capabilities of the human mind from a psychological perspective. I find it interesting that people can be persuaded to do things, or not do things.” She adds: “Cults are a good way to learn about people.”
A serious head injury sustained while playing softball led Charlie to experience post-concussive syndrome, intense migraines, brain fog, and depression. With grit and determination, however, she was determined to recover her cognitive abilities and, moreover, excel. She had always enjoyed problem solving, so she turned to science and math for her recovery. “With seemingly infinite STEM-related clubs and classes, I was in paradise. I love to learn and was thrilled to have the chance to explore these uncharted waters.”
Sorting through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) documents is one way Charlie put her problem-solving talents to work. For example, she organized a listing of documents that testified to miracle healings conducted by Jim Jones from raw FOIA materials. The documents had been scattered throughout a dozen files released under the Freedom of Information Act. It was Charlie’s efforts in locating, compiling and arranging them in chronological order in a single place that make these documents fully accessible to researchers.
She admits that “a lot of what I’ve done has been organizing things, mainly affidavits and testimonials, some transcribing. I had to cross reference State Department cables to what was already on website.” She completed a similar organizing project on the documents relating to John Victor Stoen and his parents. The Stoen case “was initially one of the things that interested me the most,” she declares. Both the couple’s defection and the custody lawsuit were important in the history of the Temple. Her research “taught me how things were run in the Temple during the late 1977s early mid-1978s.” It was eye-opening to learn that “people in California were still running things.”
Charlie’s parents were a little confused by her interest in Jonestown at first, although she had already been talking a lot about Peoples Temple. With her attention turned to documents in the digital archive, “they were relieved that they didn’t have to listen to me about it and that I have an outlet for my passion.” They’re also very proud of the research she has done that is posted to the archive.
“The biggest challenge wasn’t anything related to working,” Charlie observes, “but a lot of it was the emotional weight that comes with it. It is heavy stuff.” But that’s one of the reasons she finds it so interesting.
One of Charlie’s projects analyzed the way Jonestown and Peoples Temple are treated on r/Jonestown subreddit. She writes of the disrespect shown to all Temple members, heroes and villains alike, both in the news media and on Reddit. “The members of Peoples Temple and those who died in Guyana are not fictional characters nor our personal friends, and we need to treat them as they are: real, human people.”
Although Charlie’s work has focused on historical documents, the skills she has developed as a website volunteer are transferable to the biological sciences, the field she hopes to enter. Researching primary sources, organizing and cross-referencing large amounts of data, charting the data, and analyzing it in published articles are useful in whatever endeavor she undertakes.
Her innate curiosity is also a plus when it comes to all kinds of research. “People have told me curiosity and the ability to ask questions is a strength, and I agree. You shouldn’t be satisfied with what you know.” Charlie Puterbaugh’s curiosity about the people of Peoples Temple will benefit researchers for years to come.
(Rebecca Moore is Professor Emerita of Religion at San Diego State University, and has written and published extensively on Peoples Temple and Jonestown. Rebecca is also the co-manager of this website. Her full collection of articles on this site may be found here. She may be reached at remoore@sdsu.edu.)