Even before Tim and Grace Stoen went to Guyanese courts with orders from California Superior Court awarding John Victor to Grace, the couple initiated contacts with both the Department of State in Washington, D.C. and the American Embassy in Guyana to assist them in their efforts to compel compliance. The response frustrated them: both State and the Embassy adhered to the official government policy of staying out of the internal affairs of a sovereign nation’s court system. Especially complicating the matter for the agencies was the fact that the disputants in the custody battle were American citizens with equal – and hence, ostensibly unbiased – access to consular services.
The Stoens were also frustrated by the speed – or rather, lack of it – of the Guyanese judicial system. They fully expected a decision on a habeas corpus petition for John Victor within a few days or, at the most, weeks of the hearing. Instead, months dragged by. The Stoens insisted that the Burnham government had intervened in the proceedings and had done so at the Temple’s request, even as Jones’ lawyers were questioning the very claim that the claim had any evidence to support it.
Throughout it all, both sides took their complaints – both legal and personal – to the Embassy in Guyana, to the State Department in Washington, and to their elected representatives in Congress.
The following documents were among the 6032 unindexed pages released by the Department of State to Rebecca Moore and Fielding McGehee pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request in 1981. The only identifying notation on each is a three- or four-digit handwritten number on the first page of many of the documents. Where they appear, those encircled numbers are noted below.
| U.S. Embassy note to Guyana Ministry of Foreign Affairs, September 16, 1977 | Text | |
| San Francisco DA Request to Secretary of State for Assistance, November 25, 1977 (Document 407) | Text | |
| Letters from Congress to State, late November 1977 (Document 406) | Text | |
| State Department Replies to Congressional Inquiries, December 1977 (Document 416) | Text | |
| State Department Reply to Joseph Freitas, December 16, 1977 (Document 426) | Text | |
| Letter from Margaret Ryan to State Department, December 30, 1977 (Document 432) | Text | |
| Richard McCoy Letter to State, January 12, 1978; Memo to the File, January 11 (Document 440) | Text | |
| Letter from State to Margaret Ryan, January 11, 1978 (Document 437) | Text | |
| Draft Embassy statement to Guyana Ministry of Foreign Affairs, January 14, 1978 | Text | |
| Stoen mailgram to Members of Congress, January 22, 1978 | Text | |
| Congressional letters in response to Stoen mailgram, January 1978 (Document 442 et al.) | Text | |
| State Department response to Congressional letters, January 1978 (Document 457) | Text | |
| State Drafts of letters, statements on Stoen custody, January/February 1978 (Documents 687 and 689) | ||
| Embassy Notes on Stoen case, January 27, 1978 (Document 448) | Text | |
| Embassy Memo on Stoen case, January 27, 1978 (Document 449) | Text | |
| Stoen statement of case, January 1978 | Text | |
| John Victor Stoen – Chronology of Events [attachment to Stoen statement] | Text | |
| Rep. McCloskey response to State, March 2, 1978 (Document 577) | Text | |
| Stoen correspondence with Vice President Mondale, February 1, 1978 | Text | |
| Letter of support for Stoens, February 2, 1978 (Document 462) | Text | |
| Letters of support for Peoples Temple, Winter 1978 (Document 496 et al.) | Text | |
| Correspondence between Richard Tropp and State Department (Documents 550 and 579) | Text | |
| Letter to Embassy from Jonestown resident, January 24, 1978 (Document 781) | Text | |
| Charles Garry letter on John Victor Stoen, February 10, 1978 (Document 484) | Text | |
| State Correspondence Office report on letters on Stoen Custody, March 6-10, 1978 (Document 625) | ||
| Undated letter to State Department from Temple member Guy Young (Document 681) | Text | |
| State Department memos to file, Winter 1978 (Documents 471, 494 and 501) | Text | |
| State Department informational sheets on Stoen inquiries, February 20, 1978 (Document 503) | Text | |
| Additional State Department informational sheets on Stoen inquiries, February 28, 1978 (Document 508) | Text | |
| Embassy response to Congressional queries, March 3, 1978 (Document 578) | Text | |
| Stoen correspondence with State, Embassy, March 1978 (Document 521) | Text | |
| Stoen Thank you note to State Department, March 15, 1978 (Document 526) | Text | |
| State Department progress report to Congress, March 17, 1978 (Document 527) | Text | |
| Follow-up State correspondence with Rep. McCloskey, March 21, 1978 (Document 558) | Text | |
| Haas-State Department correspondence, Spring 1978 (Documents 564 and 563) | Text | |
| Embassy letter to State, May 2, 1978 (Document 786) | Text | |
| Embassy draft/template letter on Stoen custody, June 1978 (Document 622) | Text | |
| Haas correspondence with State Department, June 15, 1978 (Documents 574, 575, and 578) | Text | |
| Memo of conversation between State Department and Tim Stoen, October 3, 1978 (Document 587) | Text | |
| Stoen “By Any Means Necessary” telegram, October 3, 1978 (Document 588) | Text | |
| Grace Stoen letter to Congress, November 1, 1978 (Document 594) | Text |
Documents from other sources – mostly from the FBI’s RYMUR release under the Freedom of information Act – relate directly to the Stoens’ efforts (and the Temple’s response) to involve the American Embassy in Georgetown, the State Department, and the US Congress in the custody battle over John Victor Stoen. They include:
| U.S. Embassy note to Guyana Ministry of Foreign Affairs, September 16, 1977 | Text | |
| Richard McCoy Memos to the Files, December 1978 | Text |