there\u2019s<\/em> an authority on grisly deaths.<\/p>\nStill, with such an intriguing title, and the promise of \u201cover 250 photos\u201d mentioned in the introduction, and the circumstances of the unlikely discovery of the forgotten work of an anonymous photographer, I expected much more that I got.<\/p>\n
First off, I expected to see a complete set of new images. Second, I expected the promised 250 photos instead of the 165 that appear in this volume. I expected to see the work of a professional photographer, professionally reproduced, professionally published.<\/p>\n
It is true, there were many brand new photos that I had never seen, but there were others the originality of which was that they were reversed images of previously-published pictures. One obvious example, on page 19, is a photo of a cargo plane that transported the bodies back to the States: the tail number of the aircraft is backwards.<\/p>\n
The lack of the author\u2019s familiarity is also obvious in the order \u2013 or lack of it \u2013 in presenting the photos. No one associated with the clean-up of the Jonestown site, the transfer of the bodies to the States, and the identification of the decomposing remains will ever describe the experience as anything but chaotic, and yet, with photos arranged in an almost random order, the resulting confusion seems almost deliberate. As an example: There are two pictures of troops on a truck that may look as if they were taken on the same day at different angles. One appears they are going into Jonestown for the first time, and in the second, they have snow shovels\u2026 the snow shovels that the military requested after being at the site for several days so they could recover the last bodies without them falling apart.<\/p>\n
Once we\u2019re in the military morgue \u2013 and the pages devoted to the mobile freezers, caskets, all things related \u2013 we get to the forensic photos in full color! There are actually are some important photos in this section, including a photo of a switchblade knife next to a placard showing \u201c23-B\u201d. This is the toe tag for Donald Sly, aka Ujara, known \u2013 if for nothing else in his life \u2013 as the man who attacked the congressman while he was still in Jonestown. With a knife. Was this that knife? There is no caption for the weapon, much less the context \u2013 even a speculative one \u2013 for its inclusion.<\/p>\n
The photos that follow are in fact unique to this book, and incredibly graphic, since they consist of identified remains of Jim Jones, Annie Moore (the only other person besides Jones to die of a gunshot wound), Annie\u2019s sister Carolyn Layton, and Ujara. People of all ages, from infant to elderly, show up here. Some photos are simply of bloated bodies, but others show more advanced stages of decomposition.<\/p>\n
From a research angle, this book may offer more than meets the eye, things like that switchblade, or the articles of clothing that can be matched to what people were wearing. Still, this is not a coffee table book. But it could have been so much more, if the author spent a few extra hours writing copy to accompany the pictures. It could have been a dispassionate portrayal of a sensitive humanitarian operation and a considerate presentation of death, rather than an obscene celebration of the grotesque.<\/p>\n
These are pieces of history, and the images should be preserved, just not by Chase Mehan.<\/p>\n
As a footnote to the researchers and attorneys who read this review: The author claims the copyright to the contents of the book. However, these photos were taken by a photographer working for the US government. As such, there are two important issues: 1) these should be public domain; and 2) it is possible that these photos were \u201clost\u201d before a decision could be made to declassify them. In other words, the author may be claiming a right to be the only one to make money on photos he has no authority to possess in the first place. It is a question that requires more knowledge of the law and more money than I have to challenge either the author or the publisher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(Jason Schwechter is a frequent contributor to the jonestown report. He can be reached at jschwechter@gmail.com.) It happens again and again. Bits of history are lost, only to be found again by amateur sleuths.\u2026 This story begins with the purchase of some cabinets at an estate sale. Inside them, Chase Mehan found an archive of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":123916,"menu_order":33,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-121839","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/121839","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=121839"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/121839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121843,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/121839\/revisions\/121843"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/123916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=121839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Jonestown-forensic-photos-210x300.jpg\")
<\/a>This story begins with the purchase of some cabinets at an estate sale. Inside them, Chase Mehan found an archive of photos and slides belonging to an unknown forensic photographer in the U.S. Air Force. A letter at the beginning of the resulting book, Jonestown: The Forensic Photos<\/em>, tells the story of the cabinet and how the author came into his possession. Unfortunately, this letter contains more text then the rest of the book combined.<\/p>\n