[Editor’s note: One of the subjects of this serial whose name is deleted is Suzanne Jones Cartmell, an adopted daughter of Jim and Marceline Jones who left Peoples Temple about two years before the deaths. The deleted information from the memorandum – designated by brackets – which is known to the editor has been indicated by red type. In addition, many of the FBI interviews summarized in the FD-302s also deleted the verb following the deleted name; most oftentimes, In addition, many of the FBI interviews summarized in the FD-302s also deleted the verb following the deleted name; most oftentimes, that word was “advised”.]
FD-302
Federal Bureau of Investigation
Date of transcription 12/14/78
On December 4, 1978, [name deleted] [Suzanne Jones Cartmell] was interviewed at the La Guardia Sheraton Hotel, Queens, New York (NY), and also at the Brooklyn-Queens Resident Agency of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), also at Queens, NY. She still expressed a concern for her well-being if information related by her to the FBI became known. She then provided the following information:
During the 1975 or 1976, [1/2 line deleted] in the Northern California area (possibly Roseville, California), there was a train carrying either nerve gas or a nuclear liquid, which derailed. Reverend Jones boasted to the members that he had been responsible for the derailment. [2 lines deleted]
Reverend Jones always spoke in parables to the members. He would state that he was reincarnated from God, from the Budda [Buddha], and from Lenin. Reverend Jones would send pieces of his “Robe” through the mails to people who requested it.
Concerning the “box”, which supposedly was used to discipline children, [Suzanne Jones Cartmell] someone who had been to Jonestown, told her that the children were placed in a dark box, and/or a well in the ground for discipline. The children were kept there until they confessed they had done something wrong and ask for forgiveness.
[Suzanne Jones Cartmell] the last contact she had with her mother was during the early part of October, 1978. Her mother had traveled from Jonestown to the San Francisco Peoples Temple (PT). [Suzanne Jones Cartmell] telephonically contacted her mother approximately three or four times while her mother was in San Francisco, but never personally met with her, because her mother wanted to meet her at the PT and [Suzanne Jones Cartmell] refused to go there. The reason her mother was in San Francisco was because of a [2 lines deleted]
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BQ 89-495
[several lines deleted] telephonically talked to her mother one time while her mother was [3 lines deleted]
[Suzanne Jones Cartmell] was presently residing in the San Francisco PT, advised [3 lines deleted]
[line deleted] is probably now in Southern California with her [several words deleted]
[Suzanne Jones Cartmell] advised either during late 1976 or early 1977, Reverend Jones had told her that he was “very sexually active and he was cursed with a large penis.” During this time, Reverend Jones’ wife was in traction and he was making sexual advances [to Suzanne Jones Cartmell]. Reverend Jones would tell [Suzanne] how attractive she was [several lines deleted]. Reverend Jones’ wife said she understood and that it was all right with her. [Several lines deleted]
[Suzanne Jones Cartmell] advised that Reverend Jones would have “tests” to see what women were attracted to him. Reverend Jones told her that she was supposed to [words deleted] during these “tests.” During the Planning Commission (PC) meetings
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BQ 89-495
Reverend Jones would ask the women present at the meeting to make a list of the men they found most attractive. He would also ask the men to list what women they found attractive. If Reverend Jones did not come out at the top of the list, he would yell at everyone. [2 lines deleted] [Suzanne Jones Cartmell] stated that Reverend Jones was obsessed with sex and in her opinion had perverted sexual desires. She also stated that he “went both ways” when it came to sex and she thinks he may have compromised [name deleted].
[Suzanne Jones Cartmell] she may have been set up one time [several words deleted] so that people would think they were having sex. She stated that she had gone to his apartment in the PT to take him some paperwork and that when she arrived at the apartment, he was in the bedroom. [Approximately 12 lines deleted]
[Suzanne Jones Cartmell] during the time she was a member of the PT, Introduction to Socialism was required reading. Other books they had to read were Soul on Ice, Mao Tse Tung’s Little Red Book, Sayings and Philosophies of Mao Tse Tung, which were studied heavily by the youth groups and the X Factor, which concerned a nuclear war between the US and Russia.
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BQ 89-495
[Suzanne Jones Cartmell] the following Identification Orders (IO):
[3 listings deleted]
She advised that [2 names] looked vaguely familiar to her, but that they were not members of the San Francisco PT. She stated that they may have been to some of the rallies the PT held. [Name deleted] was unknown to her. [Suzanne Jones Cartmell] asked if she was familiar with the [several words deleted], but she was not.