{"id":114243,"date":"2022-05-14T17:01:41","date_gmt":"2022-05-15T00:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=114243"},"modified":"2025-08-18T15:10:34","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T22:10:34","slug":"q982-summary","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=114243","title":{"rendered":"Q982 Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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

FBI Catalogue:<\/b> Jones speaking<\/p>\n

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

Date cues on tape:<\/b> Likely winter 1978 (after Lynetta Jones death in December 1977; before Lela Murphy death March 1978)<\/p>\n

People named: <\/b>
\nPublic figures\/National and international names:<\/i><\/p>\n

Adolf Hitler, German Fuhrer
\nSteve Biko, South African black activist
\nPaul Robeson, American black singer, political activist<\/div>\n

Temple adversaries; members of Concerned Relatives:<\/em><\/p>\n

Grace Stoen Jones
\nWalter Jones
\nWade and Mabel Medlock (by reference)
\nHoward and Beverly Oliver (by reference)
\nTim Stoen<\/div>\n

Jonestown residents, full name unknown:<\/em><\/p>\n

Cheryl (either Cheryle Darnell or Cheryl Wilhite)
\nDiane (several in Jonestown)
\nEarl (likely either McKnight or Johnson)
\nJoyce (likely either Touchette or Parks)
\nLarry
\nStephan\/Stephen (likely Stephan Jones, could be Stephen Addison)<\/div>\n

Jonestown residents:<\/em><\/p>\n

Linda Arterberry (speaks<\/strong>)
\nTerri Buford
\nNaoma Johnson (speaks<\/strong>)
\nMartha Ellen Klingman
\nLynetta Jones
\nVincent Lopez
\nYvette Muldrow
\nLela Murphy
\nMike Prokes
\nLula Ruben
\nHelen Snell
\nAlbert Touchette<\/div>\n

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

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

(This tape was transcribed by Nightrissa Crosby. The<\/em> editors gratefully acknowledge her invaluable assistance.)<\/em><\/p>\n

This undated meeting of the Jonestown community occurs sometime in the winter of 1978, the only markers being the death of Lynetta Jones in December 1977 and the fact that Lela Murphy, who died in March 1978, is alive. The themes of the meeting are those which would carry throughout the year \u2013 the evils of life in the US, the perfidy of the relatives in the States, the benefits of Jonestown, and the protections that Father has made through his sacrifices \u2013 but, with one or two exceptions, there is neither the angry tone nor the personal wrath that would increasingly become a part of these sessions.<\/p>\n

There is talk of death. Several times, it is in telling the crowd before him, for example, if they can\u2019t live justly, then they can at least die justly. More often, it\u2019s about himself: he has died a number of times for them, he\u2019s ready to die, he would consider it a relief to be given an opportunity to die in three months so he wouldn\u2019t have to deal with all the pain he has in leading the project. \u201cI\u2019ve been three times ready to die in the last few weeks. I don\u2019t give a fuck. I don\u2019t give a continental fuck.\u201d<\/p>\n

The meeting begins with Jones encouraging people to \u201clook at this matter of gratitude\u201d and to be happy in Jonestown. There is both a carrot-and-stick approach to these remarks: they are away from the famine and the nuclear holocaust that is coming to the world, they are away from their pasts filled with racism and their enemies in the US which currently plague them; and they live in a community which will spare no expense in meeting their every need.<\/p>\n

By this time, there are numerous ongoing campaigns by relatives trying to retrieve their relatives,\u00a0 ranging from Tim Stoen, to Grace Stoen \u2013 who not only is the mother of John Victor Stoen but also, together with Walter Jones, the guardian of Vincent Lopez \u2013 to the parents of Bruce and William Oliver, as well as others. The Concerned Relatives have not released the Accusation<\/a> against Jim Jones, but their preliminary activities against the community are apparant. Jones attributes these campaigns, not only to greed and elitism, but to the critics\u2019 secret envy of what the people of Jonestown enjoy. \u201cIt\u2019s the purest society I\u2019ve ever seen. It\u2019s the only alternative for children, the only hope for seniors to have a little peace in their lasting days.\u201d<\/p>\n

But it isn\u2019t perfect. Some people in the community do not follow his example, but rather their own selfish desires. What can be done about them? In a calm voice, he says, \u201cA classical communist would not even deal with the subject. He\u2019d wait till some moment he had a time and shoot you. A classical communist would not discuss it, he would eliminate it.\u201d Then he adds, \u201cBut I\u2019m not a classical communist, I\u2019m an idealist as well as a communist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones asks the people not to play games, to try to fool him, or to try to assume leadership positions that they aren\u2019t ready for. None of them are that smart or that good.<\/p>\n

Most of the meeting is devoted to what is supposed to be a gripe session \u2013 folks can express any problem they have, no matter how small, and it will be handled \u2013 but Jones\u2019 initial request for discussion is met with silence. \u201cDoes anybody have anything to say? Everybody\u2019s happy with everybody? That\u2019s strange. That somewhat belies all of these mass of notes I have.\u201d He also questions that wall of silence by remarking that he himself has noticed some things, and again urges people to speak up, to confess for themselves, or to call out members of their own family. \u201cIf you are doing something that is counterrevolutionary, if you\u2019re covering for your child or your wife or your husband, and you\u2019re doing it because you think they cannot be dealt with, then it\u2019s your duty then to get yourself out in the open.\u201d<\/p>\n

When people do start to speak their minds, he turns several answers into stories about himself. In trying to resolve a \u00a0grudge of some long standing between mother and daughter, he tells of how his mother asked him to come to peace with someone who had wronged him. \u00a0When addressing a woman\u2019s observation that some of the roughhouse play among the young men seemed to evidence signs of hostility, he speaks of how he learned about guilt and the ways of dealing with it as a child in caring for an injured dog.<\/p>\n

There are problems that he addresses, but there is a double standard in that he gives several elderly black women a pass for their confessed transgressions. When one woman admits to appropriating a sheet that wasn\u2019t hers, he replies, \u201cevery time somebody steps up that\u2019s black, there\u2019s that kind of agony behind them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The session ends with a suggestion: \u201cPromise not tomorrow to think about your life.\u201d That means, a day without hostility or selfishness, a day to understand one\u2019s own guilt. It is a challenge that he extends to himself as well \u2013 \u201cYou do it, I do it\u201d \u2013 but, in a final acknowledgment of awareness of his own strength, \u201cit’s easier for me to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Date of transcription: 7\/6\/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 24, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B110-7R47. This tape was found to contain the following:<\/p>\n

JONES lecturing to the members of PT.<\/p>\n

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

The summary is accurate and meets the FBI\u2019s purposes.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Tape originally posted\u00a0May 2022.<\/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, click here. Listen to MP3 (Pt. 1,\u00a0Pt. 2). To return to the Tape Index, click here. FBI Catalogue: Jones speaking FBI preliminary tape identification note: None Date cues on tape: Likely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":27996,"menu_order":654,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-114243","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/114243","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=114243"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/114243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131540,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/114243\/revisions\/131540"}],"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=114243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}