[Editor’s note: This document was released both as a State Department cable as part of its 1981 FOIA release, and as Serial 841 of the FBI’s RYMUR release. Both the State Department and RYMUR releases deleted the names of two Jonestown families from this cable. They were released in 2015.
[The text for this document was released in 2014 by the now-defunct Wikileaks website at https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/1978GEORGE04021_d.html.]
UNCLASSIFIED
PAGE 01
GEORGE 04021 041630Z
ACTION VOE-00
INFO OCT-01 ARA-15 ISO-00 SCS-06 CA-01 FBIE-00 USSS-00
SY-05 /028 W
——————009895 042056Z /50
R 301705Z NOV 78
FM AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 8273
UNCLAS GEORGETOWN 4021
E.O. 11652: N/A
TAGS: CASC (BEIKMAN, REBECCA MAY)
SUBJECT: MESSAGES TO PEOPLE’S TEMPLE GROUP
REF: A. STATE 300533
B. GEORGETOWN 3898
1. REF A. ASKS US TO PASS MESSAGE TO INDIVIDUAL WHO IS NOT RPT NOT LISTED AMONG THE SURVIVING MEMBERS OF PEOPLE’S TEMPLE. (REF. B)
2. WE HAVE RECEIVED PHONE CALLS FROM MEMBERS OF BOTH THE BEIKMAN AND BOGUE FAMILIES STATING THAT THE DEPARTMENT HAS INFORMED THEM THAT MEMBERS OF THOSE FAMILIES ARE ALIVE, WHEN IN FACT THEY ARE PRESUMED DEAD.
3. EMBASSY ASKS THAT CAREFUL ATTENTION BE PAID TO FIRST NAMES OF SURVIVING MEMBERS AS WELL AS SURNAMES, SINCE MOST FAMILIES INVOLVED HAVE SOME MEMBERS ALIVE AND SOME PRESUMED DEAD.
BURKE [John Burke, U.S. Ambassador to Guyana]
NOTE BY OC/T: TELEGRAM DELAYED IN TRANSMISSION.
UNCLASSIFIED