[Editor’s note: The State Department FOIA release of 1981 withheld the name of a supposed relative of a Peoples Temple member from this cable. It is denoted below in red type.
[The text for this document was released in 2014 by the now-defunct Wikileaks website at https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1978GEORGE00233_d.html. This URL may be available through the Wayback Machine.]
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PAGE 01 GEORGE 00233 181534Z POSS DUPE
ACTION SCS-06
INFO OCT-01 ARA-10 ISO-00 CA-01 HA-05 L-03 H-01 /027 W
——————044067 190436Z /73
R 181400Z JAN 78
FM AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 6060
LIMITED OFFICIAL USE GEORGETOWN 0233
E.O. 11652: N/A
TAGS: CASC
SUBJECT: W/W PEOPLE’S TEMPLE MISSION
REF: STATE 006185
1. DURING JANUARY 11 VISIT TO JONESTOWN CONSUL DID NOT FIND ANYONE WHO KNEW ANY MS. GWEN COLE. EMBASSY, HOWEVER, ALSO RECEIVED A LETTER FROM MS. COLE WHEREIN SHE MADE ACCUSATIONS AGAINST PEOPLE’S TEMPLE SIMILAR TO THOSE MENTIONED REFTEL. SHE DID NOT, HOWEVER, NAME ANY INDIVIDUAL WHO ALLGEDLY WAS BEING HELD IN BONDAGE.
2. THE PEOPLE’S TEMPLE IS HAVING PRIVACY ACT RELEASES SIGNED BY ITS MEMERS TO PERMIT THE EMBASSY TO RELAY FUTURE INFORMATION ABOUT MEMBERS’ ACTIVITIES AND WELLBEING. INITIALLY, INDIVIDUALS WERE RELUCTANT TO SIGN RELEASES BECAUSE THEY HAD BEEN SO ADVISED BY THE PEOPLE’S TEMPLE U.S. ATTORNEY CHARLES GARRY DURING HIS VISIT TO THE COMMUNITY IN NOVEMBER, 1977.
BURKE [U.S. Ambassador John Burke]
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