Summary prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III. If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.
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FBI Catalogue Tapes Not Summarized
FBI preliminary tape identification note: One Tracs 60/ “News April 16 1978”
Date cues on tape: Reference to “this Sunday afternoon,” the same day of the week as April 16, 1978
People named:
Takeo Fukuda, prime minister of Japan (by reference)
Pham Van Dong, prime minister of Vietnam (by reference)
Malcolm Fraser, Prime Minister of Australia
Patrice Lumumba, assassinated Prime Minister of Zaire
Bible verses cited: None
Summary:
Jim Jones reads three commentaries, all likely provided by Soviet or Warsaw Pact news sources. The first – already in progress and near its end when the tape begins – focuses on the efforts of the European Common Market to assert its influence in Asia and Australia. The second discusses the border dispute between Vietnam and Kampuchea, but with a pro-Vietnamese (i.e. anti-Chinese) perspective. The final analyzes the war between Somalia and Ethiopia, in which Somalia is depicted as the aggressor against its neighbor, a nation more closely allied with the Soviet Union.
FBI Summary:
Date of transcription: 3/21/79
In connection with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation into the assassination of U.S. Congressman LEO J. RYAN at Port Kaituma, Guyana, South America, on November 18, 1978, a tape recording was obtained. This tape recording was located in Jonestown, Guyana, South America, and was turned over to U.S. Officials in Guyana and subsequently transported to the United States.
On March 20, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B62-63.
This tape was reviewed, and nothing was contained thereon which was considered to be of evidentiary nature or beneficial to the investigation of Congressman RYAN.
Differences with FBI Summary:
There is nothing to compare between the two summaries, since the FBI did not write anything for this, or 64 other tapes which bear the notation “Tapes Not Summarized.” These tapes seems to have little on them which the FBI could use for its purposes of investigating crimes arising from the Jonestown tragedy, but then again, that describes many other tapes as well. The difference seems to be that one or two FBI agents catalogued this set of tapes – as evidenced by the typewriter used in writing the reports – and that generally, the transcriptions were made early in the process, before someone may have asked for greater detail in the reports.
Tape originally posted January 2013