Jonestown Massacre: Mourning Loss, Battling Denial

The anniversary of the nightmare is right around the corner, everyone.

This coming Thursday, November 18 is the day 32 years ago when an utterly preventable massacre took place in what history records as the largest single loss of American life in a non-natural disaster.  That is, of course, until it was surpassed by the horror of 9/11.

Too many of the culprits that helped pave the way for the Jonestown Massacre are still too gutless and dishonest  to make amends, to apologize, or accept any accountability whatsoever.  These shameless wonders, the politicians, the journalists, the clergy--and the especially appalling cult apologists--continue  hopelessly stuck in a mind-boggling collective state of denial.

It's that sad spectacle of what people are reduced to when they have blood on their hands.  Then there's the case of some of the surviving members and relatives of the victims of the People's Temple cult, who swim in their own especially deep pool of denial.

Five days from now the anniversary memorial service will be held at the same location as all the others:  Oakland, California's Evergreen Cemetery, home of the mass grave of 409 murdered men, women, children, and babies.  But this year.....something's changed.

The survivors and relatives, now bitterly divided into two different factions, can't seem to stand even being at the same service any longer.  The first is lead by the Rev. Jynona Norwood, a Los Angeles pastor who lost 27 relatives in the massacre.  She's overseen the construction of a Memorial Wall, part of which was unveiled at the cemetery during the service's 30th Anniversary two years ago.

But Norwood was emphatic about one thing:  When this wall is finally completed, the mass murderer that put her family to death will NEVER be memorialized.  "To put Jim Jones's name on that wall is an insult.....to all the dead," declared Norwood at the 2008 service.

This is not a feeling shared by Lela Howard, who lost an aunt at Jonestown.  She and her faction of survivors/relatives (which includes Jim Jones, Jr.) have railed against Norwood, demanding that Jones be memorialized.  There's been accusations of financial improprieties in the $100,000 wall project which has left Norwood outraged.

The animosity is now so bad that the two rival camps have arranged for separate services, with Norwood's faction going at 11 a.m. and Howard's at 3 p.m.  All of this, not surprisingly, has been ignored by the same local and national media that deliberately covered up the crimes of Jim Jones, empowering him to lay the groundwork for Jonestown.

History and its fateful repeat cycle.  Something like that.  Wasn't it written on a sign once in an extinct pavilion that got swallowed up by jungle?

Cult Survivor Laura Johnston Kohl is siding with the Howard faction.

"As the years have gone on," she explained recently," I found the peace at Evergreen more and more disturbed by the tone of the 11 a.m. religious service.  Its many expressions of anger towards Jim Jones – at the expense of honoring those under our feet – don’t speak to me, just as I believe the traditional Christian service doesn’t speak to my friends who are buried there.  After all, while they put the Christian ethic to work – they fed the hungry, clothed the naked, helped care for those afflicted, and tried to rid the world of hate – they had left traditional churches to become activists. In fact, they were 'practicing' Christians, and they practiced that religion day and night.

Last year, a fellow survivor set up her own memorial on the site. She put the name of each person who died on a small name tag, and wrapped the flowing sash around several trees. It was a wonderful tribute to them, and its silence provided a welcome counterbalance. We don’t want to forget them. We cannot afford to forget them.  [Editor's note:  It was stated in the earlier post that that fellow survivor was "presumably Howard."  Scratch that, please.  Have been informed it was in fact Kathy Barbour Tropp.  Thank you, friendly informant.  Apologies extended to Ms. Howard.] 

On that day, I determined what I needed for future anniversaries. After many conversations with other survivors and family members, we have come to a consensus about our day. We will begin holding a private, nondenominational gathering at 3 p.m. that same day. It will be the same time each year, on that rolling hillside. In that setting, we can gather and sit quietly or speak – whatever we are moved to do. It probably won’t be a place to lay blame or express hateful diatribes. It will be our time to reconnect and give thought". 

The Peoples Temple consisted of "practicing Christians"??

When you've finished gasping, try to remember this comes from someone  floundering at the very bottom of that special pool of denial where every cult apologist lives.  And this place is crowded with swimmers, rest assured.

The actual record shows there was just a bit more going on than "feeding, clothing, and caring for the afflicted by these so-called "practicing Christians."  Oh, quite a bit more activities, such as  fraud, extortion, slave labor, torture, death threats, sexual abuse and, yep, a whole lot of brain washing. 

When it came to torture, Temple Cult members had a real flair for it with children.  One of the young victims, a five year-old girl, remembered the horror: 

"I got in trouble in the church because I lied, and Father (Jones) said I'd have to go to the Blue-Eyed Monster. Then they took me in this dark room, and the monsters were all over the room. They said, " I am the Blue-Eyed Monster and I'm going to get you"....Then a monster grabbed my shirt and tore it open.  Then all of a sudden the monsters started to say, "I'm going to get you again‚ and then one hit me right here, she said, pointing to her chest.  Then it felt like a knife was going right down to my back, and my body started to shake back and forth like this....Then my teeth were tied together so I couldn't open them....I couldn't believe it--it hurted so bad."

What the little girl had been describing was a darkened room filled with adults armed with cattle prods (which explained the blue electric light).  They zapped the child with the cattle prods, then the impact of the electric current would lock the child's teeth together as they were propelled across the room to be hit yet again.

This, of course, all took place in California, years before Jonestown, where it evolved into a new torture: "Big Foot," a horrendous series of well-dunkings for the children.

Those "practicing Christians."  It's just hard to believe how Temple apologists like Kohl can perpetuate this charade.  But she and her ilk do.  And people are beginning to be taken in by this twisted revisionism.

A few years ago, I made a visit to the Redwood Valley church where the crime spree really took off, a place where Rev. Jim Jones first planted his "flock" in California in 1965.  I had been brought there by one of the original members of Ukiah's Concerned Citizens group, which had tried so desperately to get help in stopping this growing, menacing cult.

No one listened to them, as we now know.  And according to our forthright mainstream media, all was well right up to 1977.  

Today it's the home of an Assembly of God congregation.  I didn't get a chance to talk with its pastor.  I would have asked him how he felt about preaching in a building that once contained a demon.  I looked over the place, the front and back, for a long, long time, trying to imagine the place when my father first went there to interview Jim Jones in 1972 and discover his gun-toting enforcers.

Off to the left side of the church today stands a cross and statues of a smiling Jesus holding a lamb, reaching out to child.  I thought of all the children abused and tortured so savagely by Temple members here once.  Perhaps this monument was a good way to cleanse that awful karma. 

It's a poignant sight.  The tragedy is how often, still today, religious charlatans are able to put on that smile and deceive a willing public as Jones did.  Cults like Scientology thrive because they, like the Peoples Temple, can produce a good enough performance to trap a person in a web, as the spider does a fly.

Across from the church building stood a single modest house.  Yes, that was where the monster once lived and drew up his plans for destruction.  Someone else lives there now but something caught my eye in the flower garden in the front of that house.

It was one of the roses.  Still with green leaves, it had wilted.  The more I looked at it, the more I saw what looked like, well, something grotesque.  With horns.  I had to photograph it because it gave me an eerie feeling.  Made me wonder even futher about karma, maybe a type that remains, manifesting in all manner of  shapes and matter.

Then again, it was probably just a simple wilted blossom, viewed by someone in a melodramatic funk.  Still, that thing in front of Jim Jones's house gave me an uneasy sensation I won't forget.

The sensation, however, which I get each and every time November is one of sadness.  Frustration.  A longing for what could have been, if just only enough people in those high places--a clergyman who suddenly found his conscience or an editor his courage or a politician his morality--acted to stop Jim Jones from his hellish mission.

If just only.

Jonestown Survivor: "I Am So Tired Of Hearing Jim Jones, Jr. Confess And Profess His Undying Love For This Sociopath...."

A week ago Jim Jones, Jr., adopted son of the murderous cult leader that obliterated over 900 Americans, made a dramatic spectacle on the Oprah Winfrey show.

Like all good apologists, Jones, Jr. wants the world to think that his long-extinct cult was "trying to build a better world," when they operated in California or in Guyana. Interestingly enough, he left out details of the seamier sides of the Peoples Temple "better world": Marxist, totalitarian, featuring all the charms of a criminal enterprise; extortion, fraud, child abuse, slave labor, torture, and murder.

And Oprah let him get away with it.

One of my readers, "Anonymous," had a quite different take on the show last Wednesday, saying:

"It seems like we were watching two shows. The one that I saw was not as you say, 'an apologist of someone's father.' It was a beautiful told story of the 'human spirt' and I actual take offense for minimizing that. It seems like Jones Jr. faced many internal demons and came out the better person for himself and his family. I can't understand how this creates honor or sympathy for Jones Sr. in my eyes.

What I saw was a candid description of why and maybe how come so many people were willing to travel to SA. I think it was Jones Jr's admiration for his lost loved ones for trying to build a new world that blinded them to the manipulations of his father. Additionally Oprah was in complete dismay/disdain of this tragedy and in my opinion not even close in doing a puff piece."

Well, "Anonymous," I don't happen to agree. Jones, Jr.'s description on the hows and whys all those people got shipped off to an even more terrible enslavement in a South American jungle was anything but candid.

That the man suffered, there is no doubt. He lost family members, friends in the massacre. But what seems obvious is that Jones, Jr.'s method of dealing with his "survivor's guilt" is to now try to paint a sweet-smelling rose garden along the path that lead to Jonestown.

While this now may enable him to sleep better at night, it still won't change the reality of the Peoples Temple. Only in his deluded mind and others, such as director Stanley Nelson and Religion Prof. Becky Moore, sister of Annie and Carolyn, who were vicious cult enforcers & baby killers.

One of my other readers, "Rhonda," (a former Temple captive who chooses to remain anonymous) had her own special assessment of Jones, Jr.'s performance:

"I am so tired of hearing Jim Jones, Jr. confess and profess his undying love for this sociopath, and now I wonder if these same traits are not fundamentally also inside of Jim Jones, Jr. Over the past 32 years he has gone overboard in his sharing of his philosophical views of this 'rainbow family.' Now there is no longer a rainbow family. The same man that created it took it away!

And yes, I am encouraged that he was finally honest enough with himself and others to state to millions of people that he did not know that he is Black. How do you forgive a man for the murder of 900 people, including your wife, unborn child, mother, brother, etc.?

Jim Jr., how do you look at yourself in the mirror each day? How do you justify genocide? How do you justify hatred? How do you justify the torture and punishment you witnessed of People’s Temple members that even occurred on U.S. soil? Finally how does a modern day Hitler like your Dad become a victim?

Another thing that bothers me: Why would he keep the name he was given at the time of his adoption? Why did Jones, Sr., provide the Black adopted son with his name and not the natural born son? (Hmmm, I wonder why??) It is obvious that everything Jim Jones, Sr., did had a deliberate reason and purpose. However, I can only assume that Jim, Jr., maintains the name of this murderous self-proclaimed con artist minister in order to strike up conversations with people and to feel a sense of importance in our society. Maintaining this name exhibits a potential lack of self-esteem and independence.

Obviously, he is still a child who has never surpassed the age of 18 years old living in an adult body. If Jim Jones, Sr. was so good and kind, then why has Tim Jones, another adopted son, never stepped up to the plate in support of his father? Why did Sue Jones never step up to the plate to tell others of his greatness? Why has Stephen Jones whom you refer to as “natural born” not been on major networks professing his love for Jim Jones, Sr.?

Why must there be a person who appears to be Black in skin color be compelled to stand up publicly as an “Uncle Tom” during Black History Month on national television in front of Oprah Winfrey Show, defending the genocide of 900 people that by your own statement were 70% Black Americans? Is it for money, fortune, fame, notoriety, publicity?

Or is it to protect a white racist communist pig responsible for annihilating innocent people (including babies). I have several questions for you, Jim Jones, Jr.: Are you the second coming of Jim Jones, Sr.? Or are you really loathing over the fact that you were never allowed to minister over a large congregation like your Dad, the monster you idolize?

And shame on Oprah for letting him off so easy, especially during Black History Month. Jim Jones, Jr. you are obviously still under the lure of your Dad and the brainwashing you endured no doubt is irreversible. Perhaps, if you are fortunate, God Almighty will allow you to come back in another life for a second time (the process reincarnation.)

And this time, God might make you strong like Martin or Malcolm, and not like your adoptive parent--the conniving, manipulative, coward dictator 'Rev. James Warren Jones, Sr.' I pity and feel sorry for you because you are truly experiencing a roller coaster ride, attempting to make something virtuous out of something that fundamentally went deceitfully wicked."

Ouch.

Clearly Rhonda is no fan of Jim Jones, Jr. And I join her in these sentiments.

Meanwhile, our detractor "Anonymous" added this in his/her comment:

"I am not aware of your references about Stanley Nelson, but from what I surmise, he is a film maker that tried to capture the voices of survivors of this horrific event. I think Oprah using this footage was so beneficial to explaining the story. I now want to look up his work and view his complete piece on my own."

Oh, Lord Nelson is sure to delight you, "Anonymous," probably even more than the cult monster's adoring son. His cult-coddling film classic has a closing scene with the voice over reading of the "Final Letter From Jonestown."

"....We wanted to live, to shine, to bring light to a world that is dying for a little bit of love,” wrote Jones henchman, Richard Tropp.

Bring light to a world?

Was this before or after Comrades Jones, Tropp, and their fellow sadists were regularly getting their thrills dunking terrified little children into a dark, deep well in that jungle utopia?

Nelson and Jones, Jr. Now THAT is an apologist duo from hell. But don't just take my word for it. Below, a 2006 promo of the revisionist wonder movie that no doubt could effectively dress up and sparkle even the most heinous cult in the neighborhood.

Just imagine, a Charlie Mason, Jr., shaggy beard, coat & tie, telling us how much he "embraces" his daddy's famous name.

Now take a deep breath, and watch this.....

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Wednesday, Oprah's Big Question: John Wayne Gacy & Jim Jones -- Monsters? Or Just Terribly Misunderstood??

Get ready for an irresistible cult apologist's BIG splash, everybody -- smack-dab in the middle of the world-famed Oprah Olympic Pool!


That's right. But this time it's unlikely to be anything as sensational as Scientologist Cruise's notorious couch hysterics that we all remember.

No, not quite that. But Harpo's Royal Highness still has something to show the world tomorrow afternoon that might just be as valuable a ratings bonanza.

All over the Info Highway, the thrilling announcements: "WEDNESDAY ALL NEW! Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy's Sister & Mass Murderer Jim Jones's Son Speak Out...."


"....What is it like to be related to the most notorious and reviled people in history? First, in 1978 the Reverend Jim Jones led over 900 of his followers to the biggest mass murder suicide in modern history. Now his son, Jim, Jr., speaks out about living in the shadow of his father's horrific crimes and explains the burden of bearing his adoptive father's name...."

No doubt this promises to be a memorable show. Imagine, we'll have the sister of John Wayne Gacy talking about how "good and kind" her brother actually was. Sure, he may have lost it 33 times, torturing & murdering that many boys and men, burying them under his house so everybody would stay convinced he truly was "good and kind."

And one more thing, she says, needs to be cleared up -- he was not a monster.

Well, okay, if she insists. Tell that to the families of the people her crazed sibling butchered so efficiently.

Now if this is what we'll be hearing from Sis Gacy, just try imagining the promos Mr. Jones, Jr. might be tossing out about the "good and kind" sides of his dearly departed relative?

If his past statements are any sign, it ought to be more breath-taking than practically any of the hogwash floating around Becky Moore's propaganda palace, "The Jonestown Institute."

In a 2006 interview, Jones, Jr. commented about his father's "functional" side when being asked about Director Stanley Nelson's twisted whitewash "documentary," entitled "Jonestown: Life and Death of Peoples Temple." Jones(R) is seen standing here with the scowling master of cult apologist cinema, Lord Nelson.

"He [father Jim] must have presented something to them to make him trust them," said Jones, Jr. "And I think Stanley's film shows this functional world of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple." Two years later, at the 30th anniversary memorial service for the 900 victims of his "functional" father, he made the astounding claim that this mass-murdering monster "should not be villianized."

Why?

Because, according to Jones, Jr., his savage, sadistic father was "a victim," just as much as the nearly 300 children and babies he subjected to agonizing death sentences by cyanide.

Painful beyond belief, it must have been, this victim father's gift of dying "with a degree of dignity."

Perhaps something like this:

A toddler, screaming that her throat is on fire, heart racing uncontrollably, world around her spinning. She can barely breath.

A dark, complete terror wracks her brain.

The screaming slowly descends into a helpless moaning.

Bathed in sweat, she begins vomiting.

Then, her entire body surrenders to ghastly convulsions.

More.

And more.

And more.

Finally.

She's still.


"Crossed over," just as the monster and his planning commission executioners had hoped.

Imagine, if you can, this horror repeated 900 more times. Official estimate was that the great majority of Father Jones's victims did not in fact have their "C" served up in a cup of Flavor-Aid. They were forcibly injected in the back.

So much for the notion of "revolutionary suicide."

So tomorrow on Oprah, besides hearing how "good and kind" John Wayne Gacy was, will we also endure the sick spectacle of someone arguing the master mind behind this unspeakable Crime of the Century was "a victim"??

Let's hope to God he doesn't dare.

The Beast And His Jonestown Baby Killers-- Commemorate Them??

Bitterness and controversy on the right way to memorialize the dead of Jonestown just won't go away.


A few months ago I got this elated message from "Rhonda" (who's requested anonymity), a survivor of the Jonestown Massacre:

"I wanted to advise you," she said, "and I am glad to report that the memorial plaque constructed by Lela Howard bearing the name of Jim Jones along with the names of the real victims has not and will never be placed in the African American Historical Society in San Francisco. They are sensitive and understanding about the insensitivity of placing such a permanent fixture in their museum on a permanent or temporary basis. So I guess Lela best move on to perhaps the City of Los Angeles or some other city that will deem Jim Jones a victim of himself."

The above photo from the Jonestown Massacre's 30th Anniversary Memorial Service is something altogether different, of course. Shown is one of the first two panels of a granite memorial wall unveiled at the site of a mass grave of Jonestown victims, most of them children, in Evergreen Cemetery nestled in the hills of Oakland, California.

Seen praying over one of the panels at the far right is Jynona Norwod, who has overseen the project to build the wall. She has as good a reason as any other surviving relative, having suffered the devastating loss of 27 family members to Jim Jones and his executioners in November, 1978.

She is rightfully adamant the monster that destroyed so much of her family never, ever be recognized as a "victim," which would honor him with all the men, women, children, and babies he savagely murdered.

Other concerned parties, however, strongly object. They formed a rival group that constructed a separate memorial--a Lucite plaque--featuring the name of certain "faith healing" mass murderer. They apparently echo the sentiments of adopted son, Jim Jones, Jr., who claimed at the memorial service that "the tragedy is we're villianizing Jim Jones....also a victim, of his own madness. We need to memorialize all the bodies, as a great loss."

Granted, this was his adapted father. But it just can't change the fact that Jim Jones, Sr. was little more than a sadistic, psychotic killer. Memorialize a perfectly hideous beast that caused such unspeakable suffering, years and years even before the Jonestown Holocaust, as a "great loss"??

The revisionists and shameless cult apologists that we're so well acquainted with might be well pleased, because their desperate hope will forever be to one day dupe today's public that the People's Temple's demonic essence was shadowed by its bright, cheery sides.


"....Peoples Temple members were engaged in the world, and tried to make concrete differences in individuals' lives and in society as a whole." --Rebecca Moore
San Diego State Prof. of Religion and
Sister of Temple mass murderers, Carolyn & Annie Moore

Food kitchens--and extortion. Miracle healings--and fraud.

Foster families--and child torture. Spiritual redemption--and brain washing.

Drug rehab--and murder.

All brought to us by that racially enlightened Marxist marvel, Comrade James Warren Jones and his near lily-white politburo, The Planning Commission.

Jones, honored? Along with his murderous organized crime family, including Sharon Amos, Larry Schacht, Annie & Carolyn Moore, Jim McElvane, and those gun-wielding death camp guards that so efficiently coerced all the other cult members to the slaughter?

Commemorate baby killers? Are you kidding??

Rival memorial group leader Lela Howard is deadly serious. She's the one Rhonda spoke of in her message. Howard lost an aunt at Jonestown and said, "This is the first time they will be recognized as human beings. It restores the humanity of these people and gives their names back."

It's hard to say where Howard and her group will place their memorial, now that it's reportedly been rejected for permanent placement in San Francisco's African American Historical Society.

That clearly will do little to cool down the rage and resentment Howard has for Norwood. At the end of 2007, she wrote to the Apologists Alert claiming:

"A memorial wall at Oakland cemetery is great! But I thought money was collected for that many years ago--what happened to those funds? It seems as if there's an unnecessary competition in regards to memorials for the victims, which takes away from the focal point of remembering them.

This makes me very sad and confused, because this separates us or leans towards a school yard 'choosing sides' type of mentality, instead of family and survivors coming together and honoring our loved ones. It's more about the living and their egos, rather than those who perished...very, very, very sad."

Then, about a year later, came another attack on Norwood. This time from another critic claiming anonymity as "Confused and Getting Upset." It was an even harsher denunciation [see November 9, 2009 JAA post], questioning both Norwood's financial accounting as well as her personal integrity.

Without any outright evidence, there's no way to go beyond mere speculation that this diatribe came from someone in Howard's group or Howard herself.

The attacks have outraged Norwood. She's issued a very lengthy rebuttal.

Some of the highlights:

"Your named and anonymous bloggers," she wrote, "are attempting to distract our focus in memorializing the 305 innocent babies that Jim Jones murdered. Remember that these are the types of tactics that was encouraged and taught by Jim Jones. I remember as a teenager that whoever did not join Jones's church was to be misaligned at home, within the family, and in public....

....It has to do with what is right or wrong. It is about correcting a wrong. In your blog an anonymous contributor compared me with Jim Jones and called me a charlatan because I minister in the five-fold ministry, of which the gift of prophecy is one such anointing....

....I have never said that I would list the names of the murderers at Jonestown. This is another lie. Our decision to include the names of all the fallen except Jim Jones is not complicated. We are neither judge nor jury. We do not know with any certainty all of whom were actually involved in the massacre, but we do know who the leader was.

Would your bloggers also desire that I not accept the support, prayers and commendation's of the political, civil and community leaders who were deceived into befriending Jim Jones? They did not know that he would cause the murder of babies that included over 900 loving people. Therefore, instead of picking through the ruins, we are moving up from the valley of tears to build a monument to repentance, renewal and revival....

....Lela Howard garnered support from leaders and built a memorial honoring everyone including Jim Jones in her 2008 ceremony in San Francisco. She had the audacity to inscribe Jim Jones's name next to the victims and innocent children. She tried to have it placed in the African American Center in San Francisco where she held the ceremony, but when the African American community and leaders found out that she was honoring Jim Jones they called the center and put a stop to it....

...My books are open and I have nothing to hide....As soon as my CPA finishes his YTD report we will make these records available to the Office of the Attorney General and any reputable organization. Therefore, I call upon good people of the nations to help us do good in the face of evil and continue to love in a sea of hate. If we can do this together, we will never see another Jonestown massacre again."



One can only hope.

Guyana Finally Finds The Time "Ripe" To Officially Recognize People's Temple Cult Mass Murder Victims

It was over before anyone knew it. And long, long overdue.


The unannounced ceremony this past November 18th was as simple as the white stone plaque they erected at the Guyanese jungle clearing.

It's taken far too long for Guyana's government to officially recognize the Crime of the Century that took place in their impoverished nation more than three decades ago. The stigma, however, seems to have finally lifted with the passing of enough years.

"We think the time is now ripe for some sort of memorial to remember those who died as 31 years have passed and the wound is not so raw," said Indranauth Haralsingh, the director of the Guyana Tourism Authority. "There should be something to remember them as people do come."

"In memory of the victims of the Jonestown tragedy, November 18, 1978, Jonestown, Guyana"

That's the memorial's sole inscription, just as it reads on Oakland's Evergreen Cemetery tombstone (with the added words "Guyana Emergency Relief Committee") where over 400 Jonestown victims are buried.

Since the 30th anniversary of the massacre, the Evergreen site now has an emerging memorial wall of names of all the dead, save one, mass murderer Jim Jones--which has been some of the surviving relatives' vocal point for controversy.

"I hope," said U.S. Embassy charge d'affairs Karen Williams, who helped unveil the Guyana's Jonestown Memorial, "that this simple and very reverent service today and monument will serve to help heal those wounds in both of our nations."

"Wounds"??

Interesting perspective, Madam Charge D'affairs.

Far more ethical and forthright would have been to come clean with her employer's disgraceful derelection of duty in the lead-up to the clearly avoidable massacre that cost over 900 lives, including Rep. Leo Ryan, the only congressman in history to die--senselessly--in the line of duty.

Ryan had had five, count 'em, five briefings provided by that useless and duplicitious State Department prior to this extremely dangerous rescue mission, which not one single other member of Congress had the guts to accompany. With all the testimony about people in the Guyana Gulag being held prisoner, being tortured, and threatened with murder, Ryan requested that some critically needed straight answers be provided by those bumbling bureaucrats.

"Nonsense." That was what that oh-so conscientious, competent State Department told the doomed congressman regarding the peril he was about to enter.

And nothing more.

They deliberately sat on the critical information that would have saved Ryan, his delegation, and surely the rest of the Jonestown cult captives.

So as with the journalists, clergy, and American & Guyanese politicians in the Cast Of Shameless Wonders that enabled Jim Jones and his cult mafia to run amok, our U.S. Dept. of State also has plenty of blood on its hands.

And like their reprehensible cohorts, it's a sure bet that "State" will never, ever owe up to its appalling guilt. Thank you, Ms. Williams, for clarifying that for all of us.

Staboek News, an independent Guyanese newspaper, published this observation by one of the country's political parties on the day their memorial was erected:

"The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) says while the public continues to be baffled by the events that led to the Jonestown disaster, it was important to note that the tragedy could have been avoided if not for political interference in the judicial process....

....The WPA said while questions continue to arise about the purpose of the Temple, what is clear is that Jim Jones and his group were allowed to establish a settlement by the PNC [People's National Congress] government in Guyana’s interior and there was little governmental oversight of the operations of that organisations. It is also clear that the Temple 'had acquired considerable influence among certain political officials in the then government who among other things, attempted to influence the course of justice.'

The WPA said the action by then minister of home affairs Vibert Mingo to get Justice Aubrey Bishop [pictured here] to reverse his decision that Jones 'must appear and give evidence in the Baby Stoen case' that had been engaging his attention, is just one example. Jones ignored the judge’s order, the WPA said, adding that perhaps the outcome at Jonestown might have been different if Justice Bishop’s order had been heeded...."

Albert Einstein once wrote that the world is a dangerous place "not because of the people who are evil but because of the people who don't do anything about it.”

Sound social insight from a legendary scientist. It perfectly compliments the other plague: People that knowingly aid and abet evil in its most heinous forms.


On the 25th anniversary of the massacre, Guyanese pilot Capt. Gerry Gouveia made a crude but very reality show-like series of videos of his and a small group's journey into what remains of Jonestown. He might very well be the Guyanese reality show star, considering what he personally witnessed in 1978 and later found in this intriguing look at a notorious killing field that today is devoured by merciless jungle.



The Guyana Tourism Authority, despite the government's new memorial, continues to refuse the proposal to develop the place as a tourism attraction. Perhaps it might come in future years, if the country gets cash-strapped enough.

Let's just pray that they make very, very sure that the cult apologists don't get their paws on the plans should the project ever come to fruition.

Think of the possibilities, and then help yourself to a nice long shudder.

Stanley Nelson's stomach-churning apologist film would look positively honest by comparison.

It would bring new meaning to historic fiction and revisionism. Think of the fantasy & fairy tales that would make up a visitor's center sponsored by the Jonestown Institute.

And instead of a watching it on DVD or reading about it in one of Becky Moore's Temple Tall Tales books--the latest which I'm going to review very soon--you could pay homage to all the "good works" of the cult "pioneers" that blazed a path shimmering with fraud, extortion, slave labor, and child torture.

Better scenario: Let it be administered by genuine historians. And by authentic survivor testimony.

Allow bona fide facts, not embellishments and half-truths, to tell the real story.

Jonestown, like any of the world's other resurrected gulags, should be revealed to tourists in all its true horrifying colors.

"Conditions at Jonestown were even worse than I had feared they would be. The settlement was swarming with armed guards. No one was permitted to leave unless on a special assignment and these assignments were given only to the most trusted. We were allowed to associate with Guyanese people only while on a "mission".

The vast majority of the Temple members were required to work in the fields from 7 A.M. to 6 P.M. six days per week and on Sunday from 7 A.M. to 2 P.M. We were allowed one hour for lunch. Most of this hour was spent walking back to lunch and standing in line for our food. Taking any other breaks during the workday was severely frowned upon.

The food was woefully inadequate. There was rice for breakfast, rice water soup for lunch, and rice and beans for dinner. On Sunday, we each received an egg and a cookie. Two or three times a week we had vegetables. Some very weak and elderly members received one egg per day. However, the food did improve markedly on the few occasions when there were outside visitors.

In contrast, Rev. Jones, claiming problems with his blood sugar, dined separately and ate meat regularly. He had his own refrigerator which was stocked with food. The two women with whom he resided, Maria Katsaris and Carolyn Layton, and the two small boys who lived with him, Kimo Prokes and John Stoen, dined with the membership. However, they were in much better physical shape than everyone else since they were also allowed to eat the food in Rev. Jones' refrigerator...."
--Debra Layton Blakely

No doubt that our Alternative Considerations of Jonestown apologists can put a mind-controlling spin on this "utopian community," as they've proven repeatedly in the popular media.

Let's just say no to them this time.

The Saddest Portrait Of Today's Jonestown Massacre Anniversary

Today, these babies would have likely had families of their own.

Of all the victims, they were the most senseless and heart-wrenching.

The perpetrator list runs long and wide, as does the continuing coverup. As we mourn the dead today, a short film reminds us of one part of the coverup that continues.



More on this today.

Prayers go out to the relatives of those killed by this Marxist Monster and his executioners 31 years ago.

Continuing Rancor Over Jim Jones & Memorial: "He is not--and never was--a victim!"

This scene look familiar?

Happened in Texas, courtesy of a cult maniac swaggering in the footsteps of another megalomaniac who hosted his own holocaust 15 years earlier in a Guyanese jungle.

A memorial for the victims of the 1993 Waco Massacre was established by Branch Davidian survivors two years later on the privately-owned Mount Carmel property. It was a layout of crape myrtle trees, which later had headstones representing victims placed at the base of each tree.

Amazingly, one of those headstones--until it was rightfully destroyed by the property owner in 2006--was dedicated to a murderous, crazed sexual predator.

As controversial as was the ATF raid on the Branch Davidian compound, it's outrageous watching muddle-headed wonders award victim hood status to ruthless, sadistic monsters like David Koresh.

Koresh's crime spree, however, was something of a virtual misdemeanor next to the unspeakable horrors inflicted by Jim "Dad" Jones and his People's Temple Mafia. So why, once again, are people stepping up to actually honor another raging psychopath as a "victim"??

One of those is a group of family survivors lead by Lela Howard (whose aunt died in Jonestown) that tried but failed to erect their own memorial that included Jones in San Francisco's African American Cultural Center, thanks to protests by other survivors.

One of the protesting survivors, "Rhonda" (who's requested anonymity), told the Apologists Alert:

"It was insulting, illogical, and outright disrespectful of Black Americans. Jewish people have never proclaimed Hitler as a victim, nor has his name been placed on a memorial wall erected for those he ordered murdered.

Ms. Howard was never a member [of the cult] and she should have conferred with others prior to making her decisions to be disrespectful. Instead she selected to speak with Jones's sons and other white members who were part of the hierarchy. My suggestion is that Ms. Howard maintain her memorial in Los Angeles so that she can frequently visit a site locally for remembrance. Don't smear our faces in it or bring this back to San Francisco."

The late cult leader's adopted son, Jim Jones, Jr., is clear about his place in the revisionist camp, alleging that "the tragedy is we're villainizing Jim Jones," who he claims "was also a victim, of his own madness. We need to memorialize all the bodies, as a great loss."

It's obvious that Rhonda appreciates the Jones, Jr. perspective about as much as she does Howard's. We get the feeling she's equally unenthused over our favorite cult apologist film maker, Stanley Nelson.

"I am tired of those who continue to surface as self-appointed spokespersons for black victims of People's Temple," she says, "I'm tired of the ignorance, lies, and misstatements of Jimmy Jones, Jr., who....is an embarrassment to every intelligent black person in the world.

Jim Jones, Jr. makes ridiculous statements about what a great man his dad was. We must remember that his dad killed his wife and their unborn child in Jonestown. He goes on speaking engagements for pay and has used the death of others as a major source of income.

My question: Why would you continue to bear the name of a murderer? This is sick, just as disgustingly sick as his adopted dad.

I think of the Lela Howards and Stanley Nelsons as the “Aunt Janes” and “Uncle Toms” of the world....Their mission is an attempt to portray Jim Jones as a "victim". They attempt unconvincing arguments that Jim Jones’ name should appear on a wall with the true victims’ names. He is not--and never was--a victim!"

Rhonda voices much support for Dr. Jynona Norwood's work in getting the Jonestown Memorial Wall erected, calling her "a faithful and humble servant trying to give the lost souls their own identity, a name, and dignity. However, she meets constant roadblocks."


Obviously one of the biggest challenges has been raising funds for the wall. It's time to petition former Jones allies such as Willie Brown and Cecil Williams to cough up a substantial chunk of the expense. After all, they're part of that California political rabble with blood on their hands from November 18, 1978.

Let Brown, Williams, and the rest of those self-serving elites make their financial amends next Wednesday at Oakland's Evergreen Cemetery, right after they've publicly apologized to the grieving relatives of every one of the real victims of their Prized Marxist Missionary.

I'm sure they'll have an undoubtedly receptive audience, judging from last year's memorial service: