BB-27-a-1<\/p>\n
[Undated note relating to Chris Lewis, likely May 1978]<\/p>\n
Kathy Hunter (more): Relation to Radio Antilles person; pretexts for writing story<\/p>\n
Jim Wood: wanted to come to do story \u2013 was refused permission by Hearst himself.<\/p>\n
National Enquirer: background; their contact with us; desire to do story; the surveillance flight (illegal) we put them on notice; their response. The \u2018threatening’ calls they received.<\/p>\n
Debby Blakey<\/p>\n
Chris Lewis background:<\/p>\n
\u2013 reputation in San Francisco; \u2018street’ background<\/p>\n
\u2013 Dennis Banks says [David] Conn calls him \u2018Jim’s killer’ \u2013 that he had killed “11 men” for Jim Jones<\/p>\n
\u2013 Chris pictured as Jim’s \u2018bodyguard’ by [Marshall] Kilduff<\/p>\n
\u2013 Chris did threaten and rough up Mertles<\/p>\n
\u2013 Mertles’ FEAR of Chris Lewis<\/p>\n
\u2013 Jim Cobb said he got threat from Lewis (lie)<\/p>\n
\u2013 On Wednesday after he was shot, he had important hearing coming up, in which he would have beat the rap against him. The witnesses against him never got their stories right.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Early in 1977, Chris came back from Guyana to go to court to turn himself in. Hodge was his attorney. Then Hodge drops Chris Lewis \u2013 Hodge turns out to be very tight with Tim Stoen. Hodge dropped Chris shortly before he was killed.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Chris gets another attorney and is assured that his case is won, and for him to turn himself in. He does, and is put in jail. (Note: Chris is a notorious figure in San Francisco \u2013 a year earlier, the police had circulated his picture to everyone on the force). Dennis Banks mentions that Conn told him that two SF cops were working with him (Conn) and the government agents.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Chris’ wife goes to visit him in jail. She is told that he is \u2018not there.’ She brings his attorney over and he turns out to be there. She is fearful that they will kill him in jail. Attorney bails him out. He comes to the Temple, and things are looking up.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Then he gets very nervous. He says “someone is trying to kill me.” Won’t say who it is. He keeps going from motel to motel. Highly paranoid.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Friday before he is shot he says police are following him. He is accused of stealing fish by cops when he exits a little grocery store \u2013 wild, ridiculous charge. Chris \u2018blows up,’ starts taking<\/p>\n
—–<\/p>\n
BB-27-a-2<\/p>\n
clothes off right on the spot to show he is innocent. Goes to the police station and files a complaint against the police for harassment. They say they cannot do anything about the complaint until Monday. Next day, another cop makes a crack about the complaint to Chris \u2013 strange, since communications doesn’t go that fast in the department.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Friday night: Chris wants a gun \u2013 bad. He comes to PT for a gun, but we don’t give him any \u2013 we don’t have any, anyway. Saturday night, he is especially paranoid. He goes out to get some food, but is out a long time. At this point he will not move without a gun. One of his wife’s friends sees Chris’ car on a street.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Nobody is around: doors are open, trunk is open, blood on the ground. Wife drives by, and car surrounded by police. She calls next morning to find Chris (called to Temple). Teri Buford calls Chris’ attorney and a member who works at the morgue. Chris is in the morgue. Why were doors and trunk open? Only people who have a right to do this are the police: looks like a police job. Chris would not have stopped except for police. He had been shot in the navel and twice in the back. He dragged himself some distance before expiring.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Story in press: “Jim Jones’ bodyguard killed.” Portrayed as Temple \u2018tough guy.’<\/p>\n
—–<\/p>\n
BB-27-b-1<\/p>\n
[Editor’s note<\/strong>: This two-page draft of the account of the death of Chris Lewis includes many cross outs and handwritten additions.]<\/em><\/p>\n [Handwritten note at top of page: “Needs clearance for conspiracy book”]<\/p>\n STRANGE HOMICIDE<\/u><\/p>\n On (when), a [blank space]- year old San Francisco man named Christopher Lewis was killed (where). (Include photo of area where he was killed, taken at night). The facts surrounding the murder are peculiar. (Here detail strange events surrounding the murder to indicate it was not some ordinary gangland killing, no robbery motive, etc., but write it to indicate it was done by the cops.)<\/p>\n Chris Lewis was a member of Peoples Temple. But, more than that, Chris was typical of the many youths living in the black ghetto who strongly respected what Jim Jones was doing for people trapped in a street-culture of despair and alienation, where \u2018crime’ was often little more than a way to eat when there was no food, or a way to maintain a \u2018habit’ you couldn’t get along without, but dull the pain of some nameless hurt and humiliation.<\/p>\n Full of fury and outrage, but Chris couldn’t always control his temper in the face of injustice. He didn’t always listen to good advice. He was unpredictable, and had his own ways. He wanted to think that he knew what was best for himself, and that got him into trouble. Chris was helped by the Temple, along with many of his friends and family. He was one of the many people that Jim loved enough to risk his reputation to help, even though everybody would counsel him against it. Chris knew this well, and, despite his often outlandish behavior, maintained a deep sense of loyalty to Jim Jones.<\/p>\n When the attacks came down heavily against Peoples Temple, the attackers knew that there was a Chris Lewis out there, a big man who knew no fear, an impulsive \u2018crazy nigger’ who might not just get angry at what they were doing\u2026 They knew that Chris would quite possibly take matters into his own hands.<\/p>\n So they feared him.<\/p>\n Chris was like a living representative of their guilt \u2013 he symbolized the youths who were up to their eyes in crime and violence, addicts, hustlers, gang-members\u2026 A host of urban casualties of racism and injustice. They knew \u2013 but didn’t want to accept \u2013 that Chris Lewis symbolized the youths who only had a chance to get out of it because of the man they were trying to destroy, an extraordinary man whose courage to care meant the difference for hundreds of kids who were condemned to a shiftless future of failure, probably jail.<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n BB-27-b-2<\/p>\n Chris was a man who, perhaps more than anyone else, gave the lie to their liberalish illusions. It is only possible to believe that things “aren’t so bad” in America without people like Chris to remind you of what you have to exclude to harbor such an illusion. So they feared Chris, and their fear was not only a physical fear, but a psychological one. He was a threat in several ways to their cowardly imaginations, their reluctance, and fear to face reality.<\/p>\n [The following two paragraphs were written as an insert, with the notation “needs to be said better”]<\/p>\n When something stands between a person and his illusion, in order to preserve the illusion he will become a murderer. Such is the story of racism in America, and the key to a hundred thousand murders.<\/p>\n The murder of Chris Lewis crystallized what the attacks on Jim Jones and Peoples Temple are all about. Some urbanite dreamers want the Chris Lewises of America (who they helped to create) out-of-the-way. They don’t want any institutions around that bring the realities that they want to exclude into focus, institutions that don’t just give the victims of oppression a handout, and hope they\u2019ll go away, but point the finger of guilt at the oppressors. Ghettos and poverty are fine if they remained confined to television sets, where they can be glamorized into police serials and situation comedies. And this, too, is a form of murder.<\/p>\n And, today, we know that Chris\u2019 murder \u2013 his \u2018strange homicide’ \u2013 was what some of the false witnesses were demanding before they would go further in their lies and schemes. They wanted Chris \u2018out of the way\u2019, and they made that plain.<\/p>\n [Arrow pointing to following paragraph suggesting this might be substitute language]<\/p>\n It is only possible to believe that things \u2018aren’t so bad’ in America when you can exclude people like Chris, and the environment which spawned him and millions of other people who are nagging reminders, and irrefutable evidence that such a belief is really only a wish, a delusion.<\/p>\n Chris Lewis was barely cold in his grave when the attacks (against Jim Jones) (which had died down for some time) were renewed.<\/p>\n The case of the murder of Chris Lewis is not closed.<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n BB-27-c<\/p>\n [Undated, non-contextual note]<\/p>\n Your plane flew over approximately 11 times. We had had mercenary threat because one of the conspirators had stood up and you can talk to him when the time comes, the court action comes. He said they had been flying over here to get a surveillance picture and that they had bazookas and high-powered rifles and that they were out there trying to kill us. They missed JJ’s head by 2 inches. He is right smack in the middle of it. They think that the person is their friend but he is not. (Change the gender of the person to “it”; we don’t want to review the gender of the person.) We don’t want any harm to come to them. You should look elsewhere for violence. We know Chris Lewis was no angel, but when he was sobered he would come and give money for clothes and food out of probably his ill-gotten gains. I don’t know. Nothing but money was accepted and he would always tell us that it was on the up and up. But I know that he was a drinker. But I also know by what this conspiracy has shown that 4 people have said that they would not want to work against Peoples Temple unless he was taken care of. We know that. It is not a matter of guesswork \u2013 we know it.<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n BB-27-d-1<\/p>\n call to Bertha:<\/p>\n \u2013 KNIGHTON and SANTONE JOHNSON \u2013 he wants J to check them out. He thinks they are the ones that are responsible for C.\u2019s [Chris Lewis] death. They have a connection with Dorothy’s ex-husb. (who is a big drug dealer \u2013 been arrested several times but never been busted seriously \u2013 the police want him bad \u2013 but Bertha thinks he is connected with the CIA \u2013 has all kinds of money). Dorothy uses “coke” and thinks that she got C. involved in drugs to make fast money. C. was going to deal drugs with these two guys Knighton and Johnson the night he was killed. It was supposed to be a big \u2013 thousands of dollars deal. Those guys told Bertha that they had not met C.<\/p>\n \u2013 Dorothy knew about the death before the police told her. After an hour she went looking for him to where he was shot. She knew where to go looking for him \u2013 doesn’t believe the pork chop thing because it was 6 when she sent him out and everything closes at 5.<\/p>\n \u2013 he thought there was some connection with TOS [Timothy Stoen] \u2013 said C. had property in Trinidad \u2013 downtown or something \u2013 supposedly worth money. Said he didn’t know where TOS came in \u2013 but when told that CIA was involved \u2013 he said yes \u2013 that would explain why Dorothy’s ex-husb. never got busted if the CIA was really that involved.<\/p>\n \u2013 Dorothy was cut off by her ex-husb. when she was with Chris \u2013 now it looks like she may be getting back with her old man \u2013 to support her coke habit \u2013 cause before C. she was getting couple thousand a month alimony etc.<\/p>\n \u2013 police didn’t even question anyone. Not even Bertha \u2013 and they were best friends. Lane Jenkins was the house where C. was shot at \u2013 kids there said they were going to let C. in cause they had seen him \u2013 but they started shooting the windows out etc. and they slammed the door. C. was shot after that.<\/p>\n \u2013 Chris felt for the gun that he carried \u2013 and Dorothy had taken it out. That’s what Bertha thinks \u2013 otherwise C. wouldn’t have run if he had had his gun. Dorothy said she had took the gun out and not told C. \u2013 she told Bertha that she was going to give C. the shotgun and she wanted the handgun for herself.<\/p>\n \u2013 Forrest Brown \u2013 old friend \u2013 and Bertha agree Dorothy sold out C. and she was in on his murder.<\/p>\n \u2013 tell J he has his own personal reasons for not going to FL [Freedom Land] now \u2013 told C. he was a fool for coming back. Bertha wants to beat up Dorothy \u2013 but decided against it.<\/p>\n \u2013 He said the funeral was supposed to be on Fri. \u2013 and he was planning on it then and so was everybody else that C. knew \u2013 and Dorothy called him 4 AM Thurs. morning \u2013 and said the funeral was on Thurs. \u2013 and nobody knew it had been changed \u2013 they all showed up on Fri. and no funeral. She refused to let Bertha see the body.<\/p>\n \u2013 Glad J was taking care of Dana \u2013 said he was the reason C. let Dana go over \u2013<\/p>\n \u2013 that Thurs. Bertha was going to kill Dorothy \u2013 but her husb. locked the door and wouldn’t let her go out. She had loaded her gun and was going to do it.<\/p>\n Knighton and Johnson act funny when Bertha comes around \u2013 they always leave \u2013 even though they knew him etc. also funny \u2013 the police were going to list C. as address unknown \u2013 when he had definite addresses \u2013 and didn’t even pick anyone up for questioning \u2013 very strange.<\/p>\n —–<\/p>\n BB-27-d-2<\/p>\n Bertha cont.<\/p>\n \u2013 nobody could understand C. not having a gun \u2013 he always had one and let everybody know it.<\/p>\n \u2013 the people chasing C. hollered at the kids in the house if they let him in \u2013 they would kill them too \u2013<\/p>\n \u2013 Bertha said C. would lie to her about the drug deals because he knew she didn’t go for that.<\/p>\n \u2013 Dorothy denied having any knowledge about who lived in that area that C. would have been running towards. And Bertha knows for sure that Dorothy and C. knew drug dealers in that area \u2013 yet she said she didn’t know anyone there.<\/p>\n \u2013 He doesn’t know how all the lawyers are connected \u2013 first Hallinan, Hodge, McGinnis\u2026<\/p>\n \u2013 Something about the property in Trinidad \u2013 C. grandfather, and father owned it \u2013 and now C. only found out recently that he did \u2013 and something about the American govt. hassling him about it.<\/p>\n \u2013 Bertha said she never approved of Dorothy and she knew the kind of person Dorothy was \u2013 just a game\u2026<\/p>\n \u2013 Dorothy is now either with her ex-husb. or another drug dealer \u2013 last week he knocked her off the bar stool and said he was not a punk like C. and she said “no, you are a man\u2026 etc.<\/p>\n \u2013 Bertha hears everything Dorothy does \u2013 cause people that didn’t like C. and Bertha \u2013 always tell her things that will make her feel bad about C.<\/p>\n \u2013 she said Dorothy’s ex-husb. must be worth 20 million, Rolls-Royces, Jaguars, Porsche, etc. he called him the biggest dope dealer in America.<\/p>\n [Hand written addition]<\/p>\n Radio Harassment BB-27-a-1 [Undated note relating to Chris Lewis, likely May 1978] Kathy Hunter (more): Relation to Radio Antilles person; pretexts for writing story Jim Wood: wanted to come to do story \u2013 was refused permission by Hearst himself. National Enquirer: background; their contact with us; desire to do story; the surveillance flight (illegal) we put them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":88301,"menu_order":22,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-125529","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/125529","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=125529"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/125529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125530,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/125529\/revisions\/125530"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/88301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=125529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWelfare Recipients
\nyou should be back here & [illegible word, could be “dead” or “deal”]
\nYou don’t pay your taxes
\nPraise the Lord, go to heaven, hell
\nBig snatch, take a douche \u2013 religious douche<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"