[Editor’s note: This document was released both as a State Department cable as part of its 1981 FOIA release, and as Serial 481 of the FBI’s RYMUR release. The State Department release included several deletions in this cable that were later revealed in the RYMUR version of the document.]
0 R 261721Z NOV 78
FM AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN
TO RUEHSE/USSS WASHDC//ID-FIB IMMEDIATE
INFO RUEHFB/DIRECTOR FBI
RUEHC SECSTATE WASHDC 8216
BT
CONFIDENTIAL
LIMITED OFFICIAL USE GEORGETOWN 2946
E.O. 11652: N/A
TAGS: CASC, OREP (RYAN, LEO)
SUBJECT: ASSASSINATION THREAT AGAINST PRESIDENT/VICE PRESIDENT UNITED STATES
REF: Your msg, cite no. CO-2-78,978
1. Paragraph keyed to your queries. We will add USSS [US Secret Service] to list of addressees on future cables regarding return of living members of the Peoples Temple.
2. We plan to notify concerned agencies of the names of passengers, ETA in Charleston, SC, onward destinations, forwarding addresses, etc. when available. At present, it appears that 25 members of the Temple who are free to roam freely, but not to leave the country, will be released first. Best estimate at this time is that police will finish with them within 48 hours. The police have shown themselves to be a little undecided on their usefulness to the ongoing investigations however, and the time fram [frame] may expand. The 46 currently under guard at the PT HQs at Lamaha Gardens will apparently be held for a longer period, but again time frame is indefinite.
3. Don Sly is presumed dead. He was believed to be present at the mass suicide.
4. To date, Larry Layton has been charged with murder. He was born on January 11, 1946 in Greenbelt, MD. He is about 5’7 (unconfirmed), thin, fair complexion, light brown hair and blue eyes. Charles Beikman has been charged with the murders of Sharon Amos and her children at Lamaha Gardens. He was born on August 13, 1935 in Indiana. His passport no. is F 196101, issued in San Francisco on February 12, 1974. He is very fair, has light hair, is about 5’10 and weighs about 200 pounds.
Burke [John Burke, U.S. Ambassador to Guyana]