RYMUR Section 13 – Serials 971-1070

The FBI’s investigation into the events of November 18, 1978 focused upon the assassination of Leo Ryan and any actions of members of Peoples Temple which may have shown evidence of a conspiracy related to that assassination. Code-named RYMUR – short for Ryan Murder – the investigation yielded 2750 serials totalling more than 10,000 pages, eventually separated into 42 large sections.

This page includes the contents of Section 13, including serials 971-1070. Most are dated during the last week of November and first two weeks of December 1978.

The table below lists each document by serial number, the number of pages within each serial, the date the serial was generated, the federal agency originating the serial, and a brief description. Each entry then includes the PDF and the text of the serial. Additional notes appear at the bottom of the page.

A listing of abbreviations used in the RYMUR documents – including FBI field offices and State Department embassies – is here.

In citing these documents, each serial should open with the official designation of “RYMUR 89-4286.” As an example, Serial 1036 would be cited as “RYMUR 89-4286-1036.”

Section 13 contains approximately three dozen administrative memos from the RYMUR investigation, most of them with variations of language found in Serial 1015:

Salt Lake [FBI office] indices negative regarding James Warren Jones, DOB May 13, 1931 or 1933, aka Jim Jones; the People’s Temple of Christian Disciples of God, and Congressman Leo J. Ryan of California.

The memos were likely written in response the instructions in Serial 999 and Serial 1001. They are contained in this Administrative Memo PDF, but were not individually transcribed.

The pdf of the complete section is here. It should be noted that this document is unique to this site, based upon the FBI’s official release of documents in 2014 and augmented with additional documents. The additional documents include: those released by the State Department; those released through the litigation of McGehee et al v. Justice; and those released by the FBI in 2001 but not included in the later release.

The information released in these serials may change as the FBI releases additional information pursuant to ongoing litigation under the Freedom of Information Act.