{"id":122784,"date":"2023-06-01T16:26:15","date_gmt":"2023-06-01T23:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=122784"},"modified":"2023-06-21T17:07:02","modified_gmt":"2023-06-22T00:07:02","slug":"q283-summary","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=122784","title":{"rendered":"Q283 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 return to the Tape Index, click here.<\/a> To read the Tape Transcript, click here<\/a>.
\nListen to MP3 (Part 1, Side 1<\/a>;\u00a0Part 1, Side 2<\/a>;\u00a0Part 2<\/a>).<\/p>\n

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

FBI preliminary tape identification note: <\/strong>Labeled in part \u201c19 Aug News Sat\u201d<\/p>\n

Date cues on tape:<\/b> Tape contents consistent with identification note<\/p>\n

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

Public figures\/National and international names:<\/i><\/p>\n

Jimmy Carter, U.S. president
\nRichard Nixon, U.S. president
\nDwight D. Eisenhower, U.S. president
\nJohn F. Kennedy, assassinated U.S. president
\nRobert F. Kennedy, assassinated U.S. Senator
\nFormer Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey
\nSen. John Stennis (D-MS)
\nRep. Charles Diggs (D-MI)
\nRep. Louis Stokes (D-OH)
\nDennis Kucinich, mayor of Cleveland
\nJ. Wyeth Chandler, mayor of Memphis
\nJohn Connally, Texas governor<\/p>\n

Adolf Hitler, German F\u00fchrer
\nLeonid Brezhnev, Communist Party General Secretary, Soviet Union
\nAlexei Kosygin, Premier of the Soviet Union
\nJosef Stalin, former Soviet dictator
\nLord David Owen, British Foreign Minister
\nMargaret Thatcher, leader of Conservative Party in Great Britain
\nAgostinho Neto, President of Angola
\nMobutu Sese Seko, president of Zaire
\nIan Smith, Prime Minister of Rhodesia
\nBishop Abel Muzorewa, leader of Zimbabwe independence
\nJoshua Nkomo, leader of Zimbabwean Patriotic Front in Rhodesia
\nRobert Mugabe, leader of Zimbabwean Patriotic Front in Rhodesia
\nJohannes Vorster, prime minister of Republic of South Africa
\nMenachem Begin, Israeli Prime Minister
\nAnwar Sadat, President of Egypt
\nMuhammad Ibrahim Kamel, Egypt Minister of Foreign Affairs [by reference]
\nReza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran
\nMohammad Mosaddegh, president of Iran [by reference]
\nHua Kuo-fenj, chairman of Chinese Communist Party
\nHo Chi Minh, leader of North Vietnam
\nPham Van Dong, premier of Vietnam [by reference]<\/p>\n

Forbes Burnham, Guyana Prime Minister
\nVincent Teekah, Guyana Minister of Education
\nMary Rodgers, Guyanese official<\/p>\n

Harriet Tubman, black activist, organized underground railroad
\nBen Chavis, black leader, member of Wilmington 10
\nJohn Harris, arrested civil rights activist
\nMalcolm X, assassinated civil rights activist
\nMartin Luther King, assassinated civil rights activist
\nJames Earl Ray, convicted assassin of Martin Luther King
\nWayne Chastain, Memphis Scimitar reporter on King assassination [by reference]
\nGrace Walden, witness to King assassination
\nLee Harvey Oswald, alleged assassin of Pres. John F. Kennedy
\nMarina Oswald, Lee Harvey Oswald\u2019s wife [by reference]
\nJack Ruby, assassin of Lee Harvey Oswald<\/p>\n

William Westmoreland, U.S. Army general in Vietnam
\nCurtis LeMay, Air Force General misquoted by Jones
\nMuhammad Ali, prizefighter
\nVeronica Porch\u00e9 Ali, wife of Muhammed Ali
\nCharles Manson, leader of criminal gang
\nEthel and Julius Rosenberg, executed U.S. spies
\nDavid Greenglass, brother of Ethel Rosenberg
\nAlger Hiss, Accused spy for the Soviet Union
\nHoward Jarvis, co-author of Proposition 13
\nPaul Gann, co-author of Proposition 13
\nHoward Hughes, eccentric American billionaire
\nGeorge Orwell, author of 1984<\/em><\/p>\n

Joseph Freitas, S.F. District Attorney [by reference]
\nCharles Garry, S.F. attorney
\nDon Freed, author and screenwriter
\nMark Lane, author and lawyer
\nRichard Hongisto, former S.F. sheriff
\nHuey Newton, leader of Black Panther Party
\nUnita May Blackwell Wright, mayor of Fayetteville, MS
\nThomas Dawsey, Air Force officer caught spying on Mayor Wright [by reference]
\nLeon Joly, Air Force officer caught spying on Mayor Wright [by reference]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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

David Betts \u201dPop\u201d Jackson
\nLuvenia \u201dMom\u201d Jackson
\nMarceline Jones
\nStephan Jones
\nCleave Swinney
\nTim Swinney<\/div>\n

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

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

Jim Jones reads news and issues instructions to the Jonestown community for August 19, 1978.<\/p>\n

While principally a news tape, there is a context which differentiates this from most such readings: American author Donald Freed, and soon-to-be Temple attorney Mark Lane are due to arrive at almost any minute. This means that much of the news revolves around the greater interests of the two guests, not only the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and of Martin Luther King, but the conspiracies in their deaths which involve the highest levels of government and corporate players. Jones also gives a synopsis of Executive Action<\/em>, a conspiracy thriller based on the JFK assassination, for which both Freed and Lane wrote the screenplay.<\/p>\n

In anticipation of the imminent arrival, he calls upon people to set up \u201cDisplays, displays, displays, displays. Who\u2019s responsible for displays? Bricks and soap, all those things, bricks and soap\u2026 Some of the teachers, get your stuff here together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tape does seem to have a greater number of exhortations for people to feel grateful about where they are. This may be due in part to the fact that Jones wants to show the important guests a bright, shining community; it may be due in part to the fact that, in general, the exhortations increased during Jonestown\u2019s final months; it may be due in part that this is a longer newstape than most, and Jones finds more opportunities to speak. Whatever the reason, there are several examples:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Commenting upon a report of problems with drinking water in Georgetown, Jones says that the water in Jonestown is good and fresh, coming from mineral springs on the property. \u201cI like its taste, myself. Some of you wouldn\u2019t like anything, you couldn\u2019t make them happy in any way possible. If you were to give them all the gold on the world, and give them St. Peter\u2019s Gate, they still would be complaining.\u201d<\/li>\n
  • Jones compares the community to a summer camp, the type of retreat many americans try to get to, to escape big city life. \u201cHow much beauty we have,\u201d he adds, \u201cbut we\u2019re always kicking\u2026 Everybody would love this. This is like being in \u2026 a nature outing all year long, and some people gripe all the time.\u201d<\/li>\n
  • Following a report about education in the Soviet Union, how mothers are glad their children can live communally, where they can study and play, Jones comments, \u201cSome people here will gripe because their child is in communal care just a little while.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Jones doesn\u2019t understand the lack of gratitude, and tries to remind the people how much he\u2019s done for them. He takes on their pain so that they might live in comfort, even of those who do not care about him. \u201cIt certainly [is] much more act of courage for me to go on living and producing. That is what you need.\u201d He is their savior, he observes, more even \u201cthan Jesus Christ, who\u2019s supposed to have done something by dying on a cross. No one can help another person\u2019s pain by dying on a cross.\u201d<\/p>\n

    As for those who don\u2019t recognize any of this and who try to escape through Venezuela, he reminds them of the difficulties they would encounter. Caracas is a thousand miles away, he says, and it\u2019s hard to get there. The people they would meet along the way are not friendly as the Guyanese are, and would kill them. \u201cIt\u2019s safe for us here,\u201d he concludes.<\/p>\n

    As for its news content, the tape is reflective of others from the period. While he periodically cites Voice of America and BBC as news sources, he more often quotes Radio Peking and Radio Moscow. The language in the items from these socialist and communist sources finds its way into \u2013 or at least influences \u2013 his own. The US is always racist, fascistic, and corrupt, driven by monopoly capitalist or imperialist forces; its allies are lackeys who use US foreign aid to crush liberation struggles throughout the world, and who place their political opponents into concentration camps. The Communist superpowers of the USSR and (to some degree) China are the opposite.<\/p>\n

    The specter \u2013 the inevitability \u2013 of nuclear war also undergirds several news items, characterizing Jones\u2019 worldview for much of his life.<\/p>\n

    In part because of the visitors\u2019 work on the conspiracies surrounding the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and of Martin Luther King, Jones spends much of the news discussing recent testimony in hearings held by the House committee on assassinations, including the false testimony which convicted James Earl Ray.<\/p>\n

    Among other items covered in the reading:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • The combatants in the war for Zimbabwean independence may agree to talks;<\/li>\n
    • Zambia kicks out all foreigners;<\/li>\n
    • China is financing liberation efforts in Africa;<\/li>\n
    • American multinationals sending in weapons to Africa through CIA, which does not have accountability;<\/li>\n
    • Palestinian groups agree to meet in response to Israeli attacks;<\/li>\n
    • Egypt will not accept a partial solution to problems in the Mideast;<\/li>\n
    • The Shah of Iran celebrates 25 years in power, but cites are under martial law;<\/li>\n
    • Ethnic Chinese wish to return to Vietnam, but Vietnam is leery;<\/li>\n
    • Bombs rocks British night clubs;<\/li>\n
    • US speaks out against human rights abuses in the Soviet Union;<\/li>\n
    • President Carter pressures his home church in Georgia to admit blacks;<\/li>\n
    • The US can\u2019t send a delegation to the UN conference on racism because of what it would have to acknowledge from its past;<\/li>\n
    • A Florida couple collects damages from doctor who destroyed test tube baby;<\/li>\n
    • The recall efforts of Cleveland mayor Dennis Kucinich is unsuccessful;<\/li>\n
    • Memphis police and firefighter unions may end strike;<\/li>\n
    • The authors of California Proposition 13 go nationwide;<\/li>\n
    • A prostitution ring exploiting Chinese women in San Francisco is broken;<\/li>\n
    • Guyana\u2019s education minister says teachers need to be grounded in socialist principles;<\/li>\n
    • An international trade union conference is being held in Guyana;<\/li>\n
    • Fears of negative impacts of the recent referendum in Guyana turn out to be baseless.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

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

      Date of transcription: 6\/13\/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 May 31, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B93-29. This tape was found to contain the following:<\/p>\n

      JIM JONES reading news, commentary, and announcements.<\/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\u00a0June 2023.<\/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 return to the Tape Index, click here. To read the Tape Transcript, click here. Listen to MP3 (Part 1, Side 1;\u00a0Part 1, Side 2;\u00a0Part 2). FBI Catalogue: Jones speaking FBI preliminary tape identification note: Labeled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":27996,"menu_order":140,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-122784","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/122784","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=122784"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/122784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123322,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/122784\/revisions\/123322"}],"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=122784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}