Dick Gregory Speaks Out Against The Jim Jones Memorial Wall -- And A Defector Tells His Story About Cult Madness

Famed social activist Dick Gregory protesting the Jim Jones Memorial Wall
arranged by cult apologists at Evergreen Cemetary

An interview with Dick Gregory by Jynona Norwood is scheduled to run on an internet radio network, which you should be able to tune in, by clicking on the above link.  As soon as I receive confirmation, I'll notify readers on its scheduled time and date, along with the scheduled air date of interviews with my sister Kathleen, myself, and my father.

Gregory is one of the many outraged by the inclusion of mass murderer Jim Jones on a memorial wall for those he and his executioners so brutally murdered.  His interview, like all his appearances, will prove enthralling.

There's so much misunderstanding about what drove so many people into the arms of this demon and his murderous thugs.  One of those who was able to defect--but inexplicably appeared at the May "dediciation" to this atrocious wall--was former member Garrett Lambrev.  One can only guess that Lambrev still has some of the brainwash not washed out of him, judging from his appearance at this cult apologist monstrosity.

But his words in this 2008 Cleveland Plain Dealer interview speak volumes about how bad the cult was BEFORE it even arrived in Jonestown and reveals how hard, and dangerous, it can be to break a cult's stranglehold.

Convinced Jim Jones was God, Garrett Lambrev was the first person to join Peoples Temple in Ukiah, Calif., in 1966 after the group moved from Indiana. Ten years later -- two years before the Jonestown tragedy -- he was part of a wave of defectors, shaken to the core by tales of torture and wanting nothing to do with a god who could sanction such things. He was reviled as a traitor and lived in fear for his life. 

 Back in 1966, Lambrev was a young grad student, searching for truth, for peace, for a new world. After his involvement in anti-Vietnam war protests that landed him in jail, he dropped out of a doctoral program in history at Stanford University and moved to Ukiah for a job as a welfare worker. When he met Jim Jones, who was teaching at a local school, he thought he had found the realization of all his dreams.

"I was utterly transfixed by him," Lambrev said. "He could talk for 14 hours, and I'd be fascinated. I'd never met anyone so intelligent, so cognizant of the human puzzle."

Even then, Lambrev took note of Jones' disturbing behavior. Lambrev had been in the temple only about two months, and he was listening one evening to Jones expound on environmentalism. "He was praising things the Soviets were doing to protect wildlife in the Soviet arctic. And I thought, 'What!' I spoke up, and I said, 'Jim, what about the Gulag? What about the labor camps?'

"He turned red and glared at me, and said, 'Who do you think you are? You're speaking to the Almighty God,' and he pounded his fist. I felt so humiliated. I wanted to be under the floor. But I thought, 'He's God. I'm not.' So I went along with that for years. I questioned myself, rather than him."

During the years, Lambrev was what he calls a "black sheep" in the Peoples Temple family. He'd had trouble dealing with the discipline, and had left previously -- five times, in fact. But he returned five times.

Garrett Lambrev, Peoples Temple Cult Defector

 
"Inevitably, every time I left, I would fall apart and turn back. The center of life was Jim Jones. He was the access to the divine. For years, I was very much a prisoner of that reality. Nothing could break that until the revelations about the torture."

'Garry, there was torture. Physical torture.'

It was August of 1976, and Lambrev had no plans to leave. He felt very good about his place in the Temple and what he was doing. But there was a friend and fellow member who was upset, and he feared she might kill herself, so he reached out to her. They met outside the Temple, at a pizza parlor at midnight.

"She told me, 'You don't know anything. You haven't seen what I saw,'" Lambrev said, dropping his voice. "She told me, 'Garry, there was torture. Physical torture.'

"I could find nothing to justify that," he said. "I was very, very angry. Enormously disappointed and shaken. I thought, if this guy is God, I want no part of his religion. So I left that night."

"Dad" Jones, the mass murder memorialized

  Lambrev went back to his small commune in San Francisco and started packing. His commune-mates alerted a "posse" of Temple devotees to stop him, he said. A car showed up, just as Lambrev and his friend were driving away, and a chase ensued. "We finally lost them through back alleys of Chinatown," he said. "It was laughable, like a Marx Brothers movie."

Lambrev went to a hiding place where another friend was staying. For a while, he worked with a defectors' group in Berkeley, called Concerned Relatives. Then, finally, he felt he must distance himself completely from anyone connected with the Temple, moving to the woods of Oregon.

He was there when the tragedy in Jonestown happened.

"Like so many people, I didn't know what to make of it, whether this was done by a hit squad, if I was on the hit list, or if friends of mine were in danger," he said.

"I think we all knew Jim Jones was responsible for the deaths of about 1,000 people in Jonestown. There were others involved who carried it out. We'll never know who and how many committed suicide or who and how many were murdered. But the decision to carry that out was Jim's."

Questions about what happened haunt him

Questions about what happened still haunt Lambrev, however. In the years before and after Jonestown, there were some mysterious deaths, including the still-unsolved 1980 murders of Al and Jeannie Mills in Berkeley, who had started Concerned Relatives.

"My ambition in this life is to know what really happened," Lambrev said.

A good start, Garrett.  Unfortunately, kowtowing with those reprehensible revisionist/cult apologists (Becky Moore, Mac McGehee, Jimmy Jones, Jr, et al) is not a very positive beginning.  

Combatting Those That Are Honoring A Madman -- "The Kiss Of Death"-- On This Sad Anniversary

It's a special day.  An especially sad day.  33 years ago a massacre occurred that never should have happened.

But for those in today's New Peoples Temple, the cultish behavior goes on and on.  One of the red flags is when they attempt to sanitize and rationalize a monster, for his "good works," and to try any way they can to remain in denial about the true picture.

They really pulled it off this time, didn't they?  And this afternoon at an Oakland, California cemetery, where there's a mass grave for hundreds of his victim, adopted son Jim Jones, Jr. will join with his other New Temple cronies and pay homage to his father--as a official "victim."

How do they do it--placing the name of the mastermind of a massacre right along side his victims??  (And, for that matter, the names of his accomplices--the Moore Sisters, Larry Schacht, Thomas Kice, Sr, et al-- that carried out the killings like a regiment of crazed Nazi SS executioners?)

But they did.  And today these shameless cult apologists will pay their respects to a monster.  Although not before an earlier memorial service, the authentic one, by a courageous woman who lost 27 members of her family at the Jonestown Massacre in 1978.  

Her news release spells it out, revealing the added anguish of having to witness the memory of her murdered mother and 26 other family members defiled on this, one of the most painful days in her life:

   Dr. Jynona Norwood, Jonestown Memorial Services & Wall founder and executive director, LEADS33rd Annual OfficialJonestown Memorial Service in honor of the beloved children-not jim jones AKA "THE KISS OF DEATH"

Survivors, Families and Friends of Victims and Community Leaders Take Part

OAKLAND, CA - On Nov. 18, 1978 the world were reluctant witnesses to the human sacrifices in Jonestown, Guyana--that Paradise of Pain founded and led by James Warren "Jim" Jones, forever rendered infamous by its name "Jonestown." Total death toll: 918, Forty (40) tiny helpless infants, 265 frightened and tortured children from toddlers to teens a total of 305 innocent youths were ordered to be murdered by Jim Jones aka the Kiss of Death. Jim Jones - the Kiss of Death ordered the Assassination of U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan and a United Press International film crew. the Jonestown Massacre remains the only time in history in which a U.S. Congressman was killed in the line of duty. Reported by CNN only Thirty - three (33) people escaped Jonestown on that fatal day and now thirty - three years later Jim Jones as we know him has been honored and his name rests in desecration on top of the children's sacred final resting place at Evergreen Cemetery in an act to sanitize his bloody tenure on earth for the horrific acts that he committed against humanity. Jonestown was the single most deadly non-natural disaster in U.S. history until September 11, 2001 and it is critical to remember and honor the real victims on this historically important day.      Comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory said prior to the 2010 memorial, "As a family man with ten children and 12 grandchildren, I can feel the pain of that tragedy and I want to share the sympathy with family and friends."     WHO: Dr. Jynona Norwood, Special Guests, Civil Rights leaders, community leaders,ministers and family members WHAT: Prayer Vigil at 33rd Annual Jonestown Memorial Service WHEN: Friday, Nov. 18, 2011 | 11:00 a.m. WHERE: Evergreen Cemetery, 6450 Camden St. (at Foothill Blvd.), Oakland, CA WHY: To honor the victims and remind the public of the tragic murders of hard working and generous people, who had been in search of better lives for themselves and their children, were killed by Jim Jones PRESS RSVP: Dr. Jynona Norwood | 310.292.5800 | drnorwood4@aol.com Free refreshments Dr. Jynona Norwood is founder and executive director of Jonestown Memorial Services and Wall. On that fateful day, her family lost 27 loved ones including her beloved mother and three-month-old cousin Charles Garry Henderson--the youngest child to perish in Jonestown. "Throughout the last 33 years I have paused to reflect on the sparks of life that God created who perished in Jonestown," commented Dr. Norwood. "After losing 27 vibrant loved ones, my family and hundreds of other affected parties will come together to say, "Love never dies, but lives on in our hearts and deeds." The Jonestown victims deserve a fitting Memorial Wall in their honor." Survivors, families, and community, civic and ministerial leaders will honor the memories of all victims of the Jonestown massacre. To learn more about the Jonestown story, visit INNOCENT CHILDREN ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE @ www.305ICANR.org,

Accountability? What To Do With Those That Help To Create Heinous Crimes

For all too many today, it's an old, obscure story.

Millions who were born in years following the 1978 massacre have but one momento -- a cliche about somebody "drinking the Kool-aid."

Stumbled upon this clipping recently, showing Jim Jones as he was beginning his rise in Indianapolis in 1953.  That's one of the pages out of the sociopath's playbook; working with the needy and the downtrodden.  Looks so damn impressive that these predators can't help but win over the public.

And that's when they begin laying out their blueprint for the real work at hand.

Here's a more recent story, with some interesting parallels.

Think we're all well-versed with this other predator who just the other day got caught, a decade after having published this touching book.  One Amazon reviewer the other day commented it was "100% false advertising by Mr. Sandusky.  Not a single page in this book 'touches' on how to appropriately gain the trust of young, at-risk boys, and then use that trust to perpetrate horrifying sexual assaults on the very children who turned to you for guidance and support...."

No, Jerry seemed of have left out those little details.  But now we at least have been informed of the shocking & outrageous reality of the "Sandusky Story."

So what could this tale of a twisted football coach possibly have to do with a twisted, murderous cult leader, besides them both having savage predatory personalities?

Actually quite a bit similar in another very significant respect.   Have a look at the chronology of events in the Sandusky case, as reported by writer Sara Ryley:

1977: Sandusky starts The Second Mile, a group foster home for troubled young boys that grew into a statewide charity serving hundreds of young boys.

1998: Victim 6 tells his mother that he was lathered and bear-hugged by Sandusky in the shower. His mother tells Penn State campus police.

Serial Pedophile Jerry Sandusky

May 13 and 19, 1998: Police eavesdrop on a phone conversation during which Victim 6’s mother confronts Sandusky and tries to make him promise never to shower with a boy again. Sandusky will not promise. She asks if Sandusky’s “private parts” touched Victim 6; Sandusky responds, “Maybe,” and tells her, “I wish I were dead.”

June 1, 1998: Sandusky is interviewed by investigator Lauro and campus detective Schreffler, and admits to hugging Victim 6 naked in the shower, saying that he knows it was wrong. He is told to stop showering with children.

District Attorney Ray Gricar

Schreffler and Gricar, the district attorney, decide against criminal charges. A similar incident with a victim referred
to as B.K. was also investigated.
Schreffler testified that Harmon,
then campus police director,
told him to close the case.

May 1999: Paterno tells Sandusky he will not be the next head coach of Penn State. Sandusky retires but negotiates emeritus status, giving him an office and access to facilities.

Fall 2000: Calhoun, the janitor, observes Sandusky in the shower of the Lasch Building performing oral sex on a young boy pinned up against the wall, and tells other janitors and his supervisor. Fellow janitor Petrosky later testifies they were afraid they’d lose their jobs if they told anyone what they saw.

March 1, 2002: McQueary enters the locker room at Penn State’s football building at about 9:30 p.m. and hears the shower running and “rhythmic, slapping sounds.” He sees Sandusky having anal sex with Victim 2, who appears to be 10 years old. McQueary goes to his office and calls his father.

March 2, 2002: McQueary shows up at Paterno’s house and reports what he saw.

Penn State Head Coach Joe Paterno

March 3, 2002: Paterno calls Curley to his house to report that McQueary saw Sandusky doing something sexual in the locker room showers.

Schultz testifies that he was then called to a meeting with Paterno
and Curley, during which Paterno reported “disturbing” and “inappropriate” conduct in the shower by Sandusky.

Penn State Asst. Coach Mike McQueary

Approx. March 13, 2002: McQueary is called to meet with Curley and Schultz, and reports what he saw. Curley and Schultz say they will look into it. Curley later testifies that McQueary only reported “inappropriate contact,” not anal sex. However, Schultz testifies that he had the impression that Sandusky grabbed the boy’s genitals.

April 2002: McQueary hears from Curley, who says that Sandusky returned his keys to the locker room and was prohibited from bringing youths on campus, and that the incident was reported to The Second Mile executive director Raykovitz.

July 2009: Victim 1’s mother calls the high school to report inappropriate behavior. Sandusky is barred from the school and police are called.

September 2010: Sandusky retires from The Second Mile.

December 2010: McQueary testifies to the grand jury.

Nov. 5, 2011: Sandusky is arrested.

Nov. 9, 2011: Paterno and Spanier are fired.

So, happy ending, now that Sandusky is behind bars and these two spineless wonders Joe Paterno & Graham Spanier have been sacked?

Not quite.  There's of course the life-long destruction of the mental health of those abused boys.  But something else and this is where it rings a sickening echo with the Peoples Temple saga--WHY didn't the powers-that-were act to stop this crime rampage at Penn State?

Maybe for just the very same unforgivable reasons that California's powers-that-were did nothing to stop the Jim Jones crime rampage,  which of course took far more casualties.  Sandusky could and should have been stopped.  Just like Jones, who would murder everyone of the children in this picture and many, many more.

But no.  The "authorities" in Pennsylvania and California who we counted on to be responsible, conscionable, to do the right thing in the face of evil, instead embraced it, covered up the crime, and let it go on and on and on until it was too late.

Perhaps now, with this appalling Penn State scandal, the people not old enough to remember Jonestown will now be able to grasp its real causes, the ones our mass media still will not owe up to.  Today's print and broadcast reporters that sing the same story line, year after year, one anniversary after another, do so because they're far more comfy playing stupid, lazy, and frequently arrogant.

Now that this Penn State tragedy has demonstrated the horrifying byproduct of inaction, people might just reexamine the cult tumor that was the Peoples Temple.  It won't be difficult to find out about all those "honorable" politicians, police officials, clergy and journalists that were not only cowardly and ineffectual but aided & abetted Jim Jones.

September 1976 testimonial dinner honoring Jim Jones;  Willie Brown, Jr. (far left) and Jones (far right).

There were so many of them lining up to cheer Jones on.  Then-Assemblyman Willie Brown was one of the worst.

  "I have had the great pleasure of knowing a leader with tremendous character and integrity," declared Brown, who would be rewarded by going on be San Francisco's mayor, "Rev. Jones is regarded among government officials, civic and religious leaders, and particularly the black community and working class people, with utter respect for what he has done to upgrade the quality of life in our area and to bring greater health and well-being to thousands of poor, minority, and disadvantaged people."

Another big Jones cheerleader was Rev. John Moore.  Two of his daughters, Carolyn and Annie, committed suicide at Jonestown--that is, after they had brutally murdered babies, children, elderly, and others held at gunpoint by Temple thugs.

Rev. John V. Moore (Right) and his mass murderer daughters, Carolyn (Left), Annie (Center) 

Rev. Moore, who officiated at the May dedication of the Jim Jones Memorial Wall, had earlier proclaimed that the cult was a "model for other churches."  Much like, say, Sandusky was a model for a youth leader?

This begs another question:  Besides Jones, why should the names of ANY of the other mass murderers, such as Carolyn and Annie, as well as others like Jonestown death doctor Larry Schacht, be on this new memorial?

These blood-thirsty beasts have no more right being honored with the defenseless children and adults they butchered than does Jim Jones.  What next, adding the names of the "victimized" Nazi SS executioners on the Auschwitz memorial? 

Frankie Fountain, murdered by Jim Jones

Jewel Fountain, murdered by Jim Jones

This memorial is for those that couldn't defend themselves--not Jones, not crazed killers like Schacht, or the Moore Sisters, the armed guards, and airport assassins such as Thomas Kice, Sr. and Ronnie Dennis, who shot to death a U.S. Congressman and three journalists.

Take off these murderers' names.  Stop this horrendous desecration of the real victims of a senseless massacre that could have easily been avoided, contrary to the myths still promoted by cult apologists and media alike.

Or just leave them on.  Let the revisionists and cult apologists win so that Santayana's grim prophecy will prosper.  

Another Murderous Candidate For Memorial Status: Richard Speck

Most successful murderers:  Hitler, Pol Pot, and Stalin

So far we've explored the perversion of anyone honoring some of history's most heinous mass murderers--Hitler, Pol Pot, Stalin--especially in memorials for the people they exterminated so ruthlessly.

These three were monsters in an obvious big way, judging from the numbers of their victims.  Murder, however, is murder.  Most of the time its nothing more than just bloodlust, committed by an apolitical psycho.  It could be just, say, eight people who the killer decided on because it "wasn't their night."

The eight young women slaughtered by Speck in 1966

Do these eight Chicago student nurses look at all familiar?  They ought to.  About 12 years before the night that Jim Jones launched his orgy of slaughter, another maniac named Richard Franklin Speck systematically tortured, raped and murdered Gloria, Patricia, Nina, Pamela, Suzanne, Mary Ann, Merlita, and Valentina.

Like Jones, Speck was reportedly high on drugs at the time of his hideous crime.  Like Jones, he was complete sociopath, with no compunction at all about snuffing out human life.

Murderer Richard Speck

Also like Jones, Speck had been an abused child.  He was a victim, of his own madness.....just like, well, Jim Jones.

Murderer Jim Jones on the day of his massacre

It would be safe to say that the co-captain of Cult Apologists Central would very well agree.  "Indeed," says Jonestown Institute front man Mac McGehee, "some people have argued that, if one views Jim Jones as being mad at the end of his life, he was as much a victim of his own delusions and paranoia as anyone else."

Yes of course, Mac, if the creator of victims was a victim himself, that changes everything.  Enough, in fact, to offically qualify them to go on a memorial with the men, women, children, and infants they butchered like cattle.

In the case of fellow killer Richard Speck, it would be very easy to arrange his picture on a nice polished granite memorial, surrounded by the eight photos of those young women he destroyed.  Much easier, in fact, than having to carve Jones's name into a memorial one with his fellow 900 plus victims, don't you think?

Peoples Temple Cult Apologist
Fielding "Mac" McGehee

"The most basic consideration," claims McGehee, "is that a memorial stone cannot be an opinion piece, but a factual piece. It will be around for at least another 100 years–since it is granite–long after we have all died, and our passions with us. In the years to come, people will come to look at the names of those who died. Whatever his degree of ultimate culpability, however much he did share it with others, whatever the role of madness played in his actions, the fact is, 918 people died that day, and Jim Jones is one of them."

I see.  Well, Mac (and all the rest of your comrades in today's revived People's Temple), word is that we're coming up on another special date next month--the 20th anniversary of the death of victim Richard Speck.  So in the spirit of revisionist abandon and unfettered denial, how about putting in a good word to the city of Chicago to post an "all inclusive" memorial for their tragedy?

Just be sure to mention the advantages of a hundred years built-to-last murderer's memorial.  You want to be certain that all passions--and objections--over honoring a homicidal maniac will have time to expire.

Activist Dick Gregory protesting with others against
memorializing a mass murderer

Clearly it will take some time. 

Bracing For A Grim Anniversary And, Now, With A Mass Murderer On The Memorial

Got another candidate for official memorial status.

This fellow, in fact, had some things in common with Jim Jones.  Both, very dynamic leaders.  And true believers in social change.  Dedicated as hell and more than willing to, as the saying goes, "crack a few eggs to make that [socialist] omelette."

And both of 'em took radical steps to gettin' things done their way.
  

 
This one, of course, was the original Stalinist.  But James Warren Jones loved his style and really dug Uncle Joe's politics.  So much so that, besides injecting totalitarianism into the People's Temple cult, "Dad" Jim held regular Russian language lessons at Jonestown.

Like Jones, Stalin had a bloodthirsty side, on the kind of scale one would expect from the murderous dictator of an imprisoned nation.  The early '30's Ukranian Famine, known as the "Holodymor," was one of his big successes.  Killing by withholding food is a convenient form of slaughter although much less prompt than the "revolutionary suicide" of cyanide.

Anyone that knows Stalin's story should really appreciate what an abused child he was and the terrible conditions that he grew up under.  He basically went more insane as time progressed.  Like his protégé, Rev. Jones, the Man of Steel would surely qualify for "victimhood" too, alongside his victims.  And why not?

Which is precisely why this Kiev memorial to the Ukranian Massacre should have some added inscription that also honors the long-suffering Stalin.  Right?  Yeah, there might be a few Ukranians that would object.  But they'll just have to understand that the only way to really heal is to include all the victims in such tragedies, in what ever form they might take. 

Of course, the funds to modify this memorial could come from an "anonymous source," since disclosure of the source of such an act could prove awkward.  Just carry it out nice and surreptitiously, as did the Peoples Temple boosters when they incorporated the predator with his prey once again.
Which reminds me of a recent question by reader Stephanie Clare who demanded this secret donor come clean, especially in light of the searing controversy of memorializing a psychotic that orchestrated mass murder.

"I'd love to know the anonymous person who donated the money for this sick memorial to Jones," said Clare. "Why won't they give their name? Are they ashamed of themselves?"    A lot of us are wondering the same thing.  Unfortunately the same mass media that failed so abysmally to stop Jones and his cult assassins in all the years they operated in California is behaving likewise today--doing nothing to investigate. So exactly who showed the money, then?   Jim Jones, Jr.?

Fielding "Mac" McGehee?

Rebecca "Becky" Moore?

  

John Cobb?

The three men pictured here, Jones, Jr., McGehee, and Cobb, make up the muscle of the "Jonestown Memorial Fund," while Becky serves as their most able and lettered cult apologist, exploiting her  religious studies professorship at San Diego State Univ.

When this travesty of a memorial was unveiled last May, the mass murderer's adopted son reasoned that his father was a "victim of his own madness," hence, an "inclusive" monument.

"We are concerned that our relatives be remembered," claimed Jones, Jr. "We are not thinking about who caused it and what happened after 32 years."

 
Selective memory and revisionism is a neat trick, albeit sometimes with some very dirty consequences.  "Not thinking" about the cause behind the effect that resulted in a mass homocide is the kind of risky business that drives the wheels of history repeating itself, over and over again.

Rev. Jynona Norwood and son Ed
at the original memorial stone

Jynona Norwood, who lost a staggering number of relatives--27-- to this murderous cult has a more realistic view on this obscene apologist memorial that she's battling as the anniversary gets closer.  "It's like putting Hitler's name on a memorial for the Jewish community," she said.

Or, of course, Stalin's name on a memorial for the Ukranians.

Let this perversity come to an end.  Remove that mass murderer's name.

    



Social Activist Dick Gregory: "“This is outrageous and an insult! Tear down this wall!”

What if this man's name was inscribed in a memorial as a "victim," right along side all the names of those he had exterminated?

It would be inconceivable.  Grotesque.  Beyond unspeakable.  No mass murderer, whether the slaughter was six million or a thousand people, could ever be honored.  Unless, of course, the ones honoring the maniac were diehard Neo-Nazis or some other crazed, cultish group.

But believe it or not, two weeks from today in Oakland, California, this blood-thirsty monster will get his second official tribute, by what one critic calls the "New Peoples Temple Leaders."

Who are these people that could be so callous and deluded to memorialize a ruthless psychopath, some of them that even had close relatives--their parents, their children, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins--MURDERED by the Rev. Jim Jones??

There's of course no Holocaust memorial anywhere in the world  featuring Adolf Hitler's name.  But here's the name of the mastermind of the 1978 Jonestown Massacre, etched in stone along with those he brutally and senselessly killed.

James Warren Jones.  Consider yourself now honored.

How is it possible for people to sink to the level of creating this travesty?  And how much longer will they continue to get away with sticking this gigantic obscenity in our faces?  In the two week countdown to the memorial service on November 18, it'll be a subject well-worth exploring.

Wouldn't you agree, Prof. "Cult Apologist" Moore?  Or do you and the other perpetrators really think this is a positive step??   

"The 'Jim Jones Honor Wall' impedes the healing process," charges Dr. Jynona Norwood, who lost 27 relatives, "for the families, the public at large and children who are being victimized today and provides no solace by this malicious act perpetrated by a handful of holdovers of the People’s Temple."

Sadly, Jynona, cult madness never seems to ever lose quite all of its toxic steam.

The Memorial To A Mass Murderer: Please Come To Oakland And See How It's Done

The Rev. Jim Jones and his executioners have been given a freshly washed new face, ladies and gentlemen.

Now let us pray......for a return to sanity.

It all became official at noon time last Sunday during an Oakland, California ceremony that loudly proclaimed all murderous psychopaths -- no matter how notorious, whatever heinous crimes, tortures, or executions they perpetrated -- are now eligible to be honored as "victims."

And with just the right supporters, these monsters can even be memorialized in marble, right along side the men, women, children, and babies they happened to have exterminated.  Just think -- all the other colorful personalities that can now be featured on memorials worldwide.  Mr. Pol Pot, now your departed spirit really has something  to smile about!

Let's propose that Pol's pic be featured in the photo gallery of all his murder victims posted in  Cambodia's Tuol Sleng Museum, formerly the notorious prison where his Khmer Rouge "inner circle" goons did their ghastly work.  And why on earth not; it's the healthiest way acknowledge the entirety of the tragedy.  Brings closure to ALL the relatives of those who suffered in the madness, be they givers or receivers.  That's right.

The very disturbed Mister Pot surely had good intentions at the start of his divine mission, didn't he?  His nation-devouring Khmer cult simply wanted to create an egalitarian world with a rather radical form of "social engineering," where everyone could farm communally, peacefully, and free of bourgeoise contaminants.

Give him credit at least for being truly sincere, even if he did fall far short of the dream of "Apostolic Socialism."  That little utopian notion belonged all to James Warren Jones and his Peoples Temple cult.  But due to the little problem of Jones being a raging sociopath since childhood -- killing animals for "pet funerals," shooting guns at friends that didn't follow his directions and beating others -- his Brave New World was pretty much doomed from the start.

But for some reason, Jones's cult apologists just won't quit trying to resuscitate this demon.  So on Sunday they took it a step further and included his name on a new memorial to all the Jonestown dead at Evergreen Cemetery.  When this perverse proposal was  being bandied about last November by one of his surviving sons, Jim Jones, Jr., one of my readers expressed the outrage:

"What a horrid, bloody nightmare and it just indicates that there is a serious and sustained effort to sanitize Jim Jones's image to the public," wrote Jei Hu Quan, " Jones was a psychopath, a rapist, a paedophile, a rampant abuser and grinning, braying sadist.  It's clear that there's a concerted push by the same parties that engineered the massacre and other interests to minimize the actual atrocities carried out there.  Every year around this time I see vile propaganda pushing the 'official story'.....making sure the story adheres to the deployed line.  Monsters infiltrated amongst true survivors to synthesize credibility....." 

Jynona Norwood (white dress), who has tried for the last ten years to erect a memorial wall -- one that would never feature the name of the monster that destroyed 27 members of her family -- leads the camp of relatives and their supporters (including the legendary Dick Gregory) that are understandably outraged.   She went to court to try to have the new Jim Jones enhanced memorial blocked but failed.

According to the Oakland Tribune, "Norwood's work to build a memorial wasn't successful -- the stones that were unveiled Sunday were the work of organizers including Jones' adopted son, Jim Jones Jr. -- and her efforts in court to stop the version with Jones' name from being made public were turned down by a judge last week.

She promised to protest the ceremony, calling Jones' inclusion a deep insult to his victims, but she was not present Sunday, and the ceremony concluded without any disruption. Despite her conflict with the organizers, though, Norwood's name was spoken with respect during the ceremony.

'I want to take a moment to appreciate the faithfulness of Jynona Norwood,' said Rebecca Moore, a survivor whose husband was among the fundraising organizers for the memorial. Year in and year out, she said, Norwood has diligently worked for the well-being of her fellow survivors and organized numerous ceremonies to help them come together."


Ahhhh, Becky Moore and hubby Mac McGehee.  Should have seen their greasy cult apologist prints all over this "new & improved memorial" travesty. (The real question is who exactly is the money bagman behind this desecration.)  Now she adds insult to injury by patronizing Norwood while she, Mac, Jones, Jr., and the rest of 'em turning the knife round and round.

And a couple of corrections are in order regarding Becky:  She's not a "survivor" since she never was a member of this cult (though a hell of a Temple publicist to this day, yes) and, secondly, there's the matter of her two sisters, Annie and Carolyn, who both died at Jonestown.  These two were in Jim Jones's inner circle and were busy murdering babies, children and anyone else they could find during that horrendous day in November, like a couple of obedient Manson girls.  The same question should apply:  As with Jones, should the homocidal Annie and Carolyn (and any other of  his mass murderering thugs that day) also have the privilege of being memorialized with their victims? 

  One of the members of their camp, Jonestown survivor Leslie Wagner-Wilson, called their Jones-The-Victim salute a "healing wall" that's in the spirit of "inclusiveness and forgiveness."

Jim Jones, Jr., pictured on left, appeared delighted last Sunday at their triumph (while his brother Stephen Jones, on the right, looked less than thrilled.)  But the only victory here was one for the revisionists and cult apologists for whom this is far more than an issue of just "inclusiveness."  What it sadly demonstrates is just how desperate people will behave in order to blast to smithereens that elephant in their room that just won't go away.

If some people actually believe putting the sadistic killer (and his depraved executioners) of this little child on the same memorial is not only healing but moral, then our society is clearly much further along the road to depravity than previously imagined.

On the other hand, I'm sure there are also some diehard disciples of the Khmer Rouge that would have no problem with adorning any and all future memorials in Cambodia with the "healing" inclusion of the brutally efficient man that had children bludgeoned to death with iron bars and pickaxes.

In all likelihood, that was probably far more merciful a fate than that cyanide.