{"id":110058,"date":"2021-06-23T17:42:43","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T00:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=110058"},"modified":"2021-07-23T16:21:11","modified_gmt":"2021-07-23T23:21:11","slug":"q985-summary","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=110058","title":{"rendered":"Q985 Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III. If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

To read the Tape Transcript,\u00a0click here<\/a>. Listen to MP3 (Pt. 1<\/a>,\u00a0Pt. 2<\/a>,\u00a0Pt. 3<\/a>,\u00a0Pt. 4<\/a>)
\nTo return to the Tape Index, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

FBI Catalogue<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jones Speaking<\/p>\n

FBI preliminary tape identification note: <\/strong>None<\/p>\n

Date cues on tape:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Early August 1978, in context with Q 192<\/a><\/p>\n

People named:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Public figures\/National and international names:<\/em>
\nJimmy Carter, U.S. President
\nJohn F. Kennedy, assassinated President
\nLyndon Johnson, former President
\nRichard Nixon, former President
\nSen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass)
\nSen. Robert Kennedy (D-NY), assassinated presidential candidate
\nSen. Edward Brooke (R-Mass.)
\nRemigia Ferrari-Scacco, wife of Sen. Brooke
\nRep. Yvonne Burke (D-CA)
\nRep. Shirley Mae Chisholm (D-NY)
\nRep. Charles Diggs (D-MI)
\nRep. Barbara Jordan (D-Texas)<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stansfield Turner, head of CIA (by reference)
\nLeon Jaworski, House investigator
\nAndrew Young, U.S. representative to United Nations
\nMaynard Jackson, Mayor of Atlanta
\nRonald Reagan, former governor of California<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Genghis Khan, leader of Mongol Empire
\nAdolf Hitler, German Fuhrer
\nMargaret Thatcher, leader of British Conservative Party
\nAldo Moro, kidnapped Italian prime minister
\nEleonora Chiavarelli, wife of Aldo Moro (by reference)
\nNikita Khrushchev, former Soviet premier
\nReza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran
\nMuhammad bin Abdulaziz, leader of Saudi Arabia (by reference)
\nIdi Amin, Uganda dictator
\nJulius Nyerere, president of Tanzania
\nKim Il Sung, leader of North Korea
\nKim Bo-hyon, grandfather of Kim Il Sung (by reference)
\nFidel Castro, leader of Cuba
\nAnastasio Somoza, dictator of Nicaragua
\nGeneral Augusto Pinochet, leader of Chilean junta
\nSalvador Allende, assassinated Chilean leader
\nOrlando Letelier, assassinated Chilean foreign minister<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Forbes Burnham, Guyana Prime Minister
\nGeorge King, Guyana Minister of Trade
\nLaurence Mann, Guyana Ambassador to US (by reference)
\nDr. Ng-A-Fook, Guyana dentist<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Alexander Ginzburg, Soviet dissident (by reference)
\nNatan Sharansky, Soviet dissident (by reference)<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Billy Carter, brother of Pres. Carter (by reference)
\nAngela Davis, black activist
\nMervyn Dymally, California Lieutenant Governor
\nDaniel Ellsberg, Defense analyst who leaked Pentagon Papers
\nPaul Erdman, author of The Crash of 1979<\/em> (by reference)
\nMarcus Garvey, Pan-African black nationalist
\nJ. Paul Getty, Getty Oil heir, philanthropist
\nJ. Paul Getty III, grandson of Getty (by reference)
\nTheodore Hesburgh, member of Civil Rights Commission
\nBenjamin Hooks, NAACP President
\nMartin Luther King, assassinated civil rights leader
\nMalcolm X, assassinated civil rights leader
\nSun Myung Moon, religious leader
\nRupert Murdoch, newspaper magnate
\nHuey Newton, leader of Black Panthers
\nMark Twain, American humorist
\nBarbara Walters, broadcast journalist<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thomas Fleming, reporter for San Francisco Sun-Reporter
\nDon Freed, screenwriter (by reference)
\nCharles Garry, Temple attorney (by reference)
\nSteve Gavin, editor of San Francisco Chronicle<\/em>
\nKathy Hunter, Ukiah reporter
\nMark Lane, Temple attorney (by reference)
\nJohn V Moore, Methodist minister
\nCleo Wallace, San Francisco Housing Commissioner<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jim Jones Jr. grandfather, either James Thurman Jones, or Walter Baldwin (by reference)<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Temple adversaries; members of Concerned Relatives:<\/em>
\nMike Cartmell
\nJim Cobb
\nTim Stoen<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Temple members not in Jonestown:<\/em>
\nNorman Ijames
\nChris Lewis, murdered Temple member
\nPearson family
\nNell Smart<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jonestown residents, full name unknown:<\/em>
\nCarol [likely Kerns]
\nKim [likely Brewster, could by Fye]
\nJessie [three in Jonestown, likely Jessie Jones]
\nNancy [three in Jonestown: Jones, Clay or Sines]
\nNena [likely Herring, could be Downs] (speaks)<\/strong>
\nOdell [either Blackwell or Rhodes] (speaks)<\/strong><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jonestown residents:<\/em>
\nPaula Adams (by reference)
\nGerry Bailey (speaks)<\/strong>
\nCarl Barnett
\nJack Beam
\nPhilip Blakey
\nWesley Breidenbach
\nEugene Chaikin (speaks but too soft)<\/strong>
\nVernetta Christian
\nEdith Cordell
\nHarold Cordell
\nLoretta Cordell
\nMark Cordell
\nNena Downs
\nJohn Gardener
\nDanielle Mitchell Gardfrey (speaks)<\/strong>
\nAmondo Griffith
\nPauline Groot
\nFlorence Heath (speaks)<\/strong>
\nAnthony Hicks (speaks)<\/strong>
\nDaren Janaro (by reference)
\nMauri Janaro (by reference)
\nRichard Janaro
\nJim Jones Jr.
\nMarceline Jones (speaks)<\/strong>
\nStephan Jones
\nTeresa King
\nCarolyn Kirkendall
\nDan Kutulas
\nTish Leroy
\nPaul McCann
\nJim McElvane
\nJoyce McIntyre
\nBeverly Mitchell (speaks)<\/strong>
\nGuy Mitchell (speaks)<\/strong>
\nCleveland Newell
\nKarl Newell
\nKeith Newsome (speaks)<\/strong>
\nKen Norton, aka Gerald Richard Grubbs
\nKenny Reed
\nEdith Roller (speaks)<\/strong>
\nLula Ruben
\nLaurence Schacht (speaks but too soft)<\/strong>
\nAlvin Simon (by reference)
\nJose Simon
\nJewell James Simpson
\nYoulanda Smith (speaks)<\/strong>
\nDorrus Soloman
\nTracy Stone
\nBobby Stroud
\nCleave Swinney
\nHelen Swinney
\nTim Swinney
\nRon Talley
\nEtta Thompson (speaks)<\/strong>
\nAl Touchette
\nDick Tropp
\nCornelius Truss
\nWalter Williams
\nJan Wilsey
\nBurrell Wilson
\nEzekiel Wilson
\nDorothy Worley<\/div>\n

 
\nBible verses cited: <\/strong> None<\/p>\n

Summary:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jim Jones presides over a meeting of the Jonestown community, likely in late July or early August 1978. The meeting focuses on two things: preparation for a news quiz which will be held the following night, and a discussion of disciplinary problems.<\/p>\n

The preparation for the test is consistent with the multiple news tapes from this period, and while Jonestown residents answer the questions he poses, he often limits their replies to one or two sentences before he expands upon them to reinforce the messages he has given them before. Almost all news items place the U.S. in a bad light, showing how \u201chorrible\u201d and \u201cterrifying\u201d the country they left behind continues to treat blacks and minorities \u2013 how the Ku Klux Klan continues to grow, how black legislators are singled out for reprimands and censure, how black prisoners fill the jails of America to overcapacity \u2013 and all the ways capitalism works against the interests of the poor and middle class, both home and abroad. The editorial asides he makes are reminiscent of his newscasts as well: the tax dollars we spend to support the regime of South Africa should cause them great guilt, capitalists will turn upon their own if it\u2019s in their own interests, the work camps proposed for wayward youth are like Hitler\u2019s concentration camps.<\/p>\n

Jones\u2019 lifelong belief in the inevitability of nuclear war pervades this portion of the tape as well. The subject arises almost a dozen times in the two-hour tape, including his quoting of Daniel Ellsberg that the atomic holocaust would turn the US into a nuclear desert, that they wouldn\u2019t have been safe anywhere in the US (although they are safe in the zone of peace in Guyana), and that China urges the onset of the war to get it over with \u201cbefore bombs spread to every nation in the southern hemisphere.\u201d Indeed, Jones says twice, there are governments that believe World War III has already started.<\/p>\n

There are other familiar subjects. A news item about a Mormon family whose parents killed their children before committing suicide themselves allows Jones to criticize both religion and \u201cselfish\u201d suicide, the latter being \u201ca counterrevolutionary act.\u201d Suicide is wrong, he says, because \u201cit hurts other people, it leaves a void, it leaves a vacuum somewhere, and somebody\u2019s bound to be hurt.\u201d Part of that void is the fact that others are left behind to take on the work the suicide has left undone. Moreover, the soul of a suicide will return to earth in a life which is even more miserable than the one it left behind. The same considerations don\u2019t apply, of course, if the act is \u201crevolutionary suicide, and we who are socialist\u2026 would give our bodies for a cause if there was a last stand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones reminds his followers on several occasions of how much he has done for them, and continues to do for them, then bemoans how ungrateful so many of them are. \u201cThey never remember the times I got people out of jail, even some of their own loved ones, even themselves, they never remember the times I risked going to jail myself\u2026 for their own damn foolishness, I was willing to die in jail, be tortured, whatever for them, they don\u2019t remember that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He insists that his life is full of pain that they cannot know, that he wishes it could be over, but in return, he gets nothing. That\u2019s okay for him, but he wants them to know about it. \u201cThere oughta be more respect here. When Mother [Marceline Jones] walks in, Dad walks in, I don\u2019t want it, I hate it, \u2018cause leadership is pain. I haven\u2019t had a happy personal thought for I don\u2019t know how long. I\u2019m in a prison here, I\u2019m in a prison, I\u2019d like to\u2019ve died in a jail cell over nothing but a protest, because that\u2019s what I want to do, but that\u2019d been selfish, because I owed it to the children.\u201d <\/p>\n

He also continues because he is the only true communist, and all he\u2019s trying to do is to bring others to where he is. \u201cUnless somebody is a communist, they cannot understand me. And if they\u2019re not willing to give of themselves, I represent such a threat to them that they would kill me in a minute.\u201d<\/p>\n

The community considers several issues affecting their own survival. After pointing out that Jonestown is the envy of the communist paradise of North Korea because it has been able to function without cash money, Jones does reiterate that things cost money, that they need to find new ways to make money. \u201cWe will be self-sufficient. And that\u2019s why we\u2019re trying to do that here in Jonestown, is to build our soap, make our own clothes, make our own bricks, do our own things, provide our own foods.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also asks his followers several times to avoid the things that waste money. That waste includes food, the portions that people take and don\u2019t eat, \u201cand you\u2019re wasting it when you\u2019re waddling around here like a duck, too heavy, you\u2019re wasting it when you dump it inside you.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the decisions in Jonestown should be for the advancement of the community, Jones says, even if it means self-sacrifice. \u201cI\u2019d even hate to see people fall in love, because they fall in love, they\u2019ll forget the problems of the greater family. You can see \u2018em preoccupied.\u201d It\u2019s nothing but selfish needs and narcissism that drives those relationships, and we should \u201cforget our own needs \u2026 until every one of our people are safe.\u201d There is no indication of when that moment will be, especially when he considers that there are \u201chundreds more that we can give liberty to,\u201d and when that\u2019s done, \u201cwe could then have them organized to go back or go in this continent and help with other liberation movements, or in Africa. The future is bright if we get our shit together.\u201d <\/p>\n

Much of the final portion of the tape consists of criticism, both of the self and by the community. One woman confesses that her acceptance of a friend\u2019s offer to cover her work shift, rather than viewing it as considerate, made her guilty of favoritism. Dick Tropp, one of Jonestown\u2019s lawyers, admitted that he was guilty of intellectualism because he was using his education to get out of work and as an excuse for anarchy, and as Jones said, \u201che said, people like him should be shot at the end.\u201d A woman gave Jones a number of good ideas on an undisclosed issue, but when she added she though Dad might be na\u00efve on the subject, that\u2019s where she stepped out of bounds.<\/p>\n

The harshest and most prolonged criticism, however, is reserved for 13-year-old Danielle Gardfrey, who \u2013 according to a friend \u2013 wants to go back to her home in Texas. Danielle denies the charge numerous times \u2013 she says she wondered what was happening back there, but \u201cI didn\u2019t say nothing about going back to the States\u201d \u2013 but that doesn\u2019t stop Jones from using her as a whipping boy during his continued attacks on life in the US. Eventually, other people in the community take their cues from Jones, and contribute their own criticisms. <\/p>\n

She is reminded about the racism and oppression in the States, and asked whether she remembers the testimony of older black women and indeed of her own foster father who\u2019ve spoken of their experiences. She\u2019s told that attitudes like her contribute to sickness and death. She\u2019s criticized by one teacher who says that, even though Danielle is a good student, \u201cyour theory doesn\u2019t fit your practice at all, makes you a theoretical Marxist.\u201d Even the flash floods that recently devastated Texas \u2013 and that\u2019s not even considering the devastation that nuclear war would bring \u2013 should count against any consideration of going back. What it comes down to, Jones concludes, is that it is a \u201ccardinal offense here to talk about United States and glorify it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to everything else, Danielle doesn\u2019t smile nor speak to anyone, which she acknowledges. Jones says he always does, no matter how tired or preoccupied he is, that he always greets people passing by. Marceline says she thinks Danielle\u2019s sullenness is \u201cbecause this is your way of saying, I want your attention, Dad. I\u2019m pouting.\u201d Everyone agrees \u2013 \u201cWon\u2019t you start smiling now?\u201d one woman calls out \u2013 but in the end, it goes to a pronouncement by Jones: \u201cI\u2019m going to demand people smile here, or we\u2019re gonna make it a Public Service offence.\u201d<\/p>\n

FBI Summary:\t<\/strong><\/p>\n

Date of transcription: 6\/27\/79<\/p>\n

In connection with the Federal Bureau of Investigation\u2019s investigation into the assassination of U.S. Congressman LEO J. RYAN at Port Kaituma, Guyana, South America, on November 18, 1978, a tape recording was obtained. This tape recording was located in Jonestown, Guyana, South America, and was turned over to U.S. Officials in Guyana and subsequently transported to the United States.<\/p>\n

On June 25, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B110-50. This tape was found to contain the following:<\/p>\n

JIM JONES quizzing the membership on the news during a \u201cPeople\u2019s Rally\u201d followed by criticisms of the membership.<\/p>\n

Differences with FBI Summary:<\/strong>\t<\/p>\n

The summary is accurate and meets the FBI\u2019s purposes.\t<\/p>\n

Tape originally posted June 2021.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III. If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you. To read the Tape Transcript,\u00a0click here. Listen to MP3 (Pt. 1,\u00a0Pt. 2,\u00a0Pt. 3,\u00a0Pt. 4) To return to the Tape Index, click here. FBI Catalogue\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jones Speaking FBI preliminary tape identification note: None Date cues on tape:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":27996,"menu_order":655,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-110058","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/110058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=110058"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/110058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110638,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/110058\/revisions\/110638"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=110058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}