{"id":127381,"date":"2024-06-09T16:23:27","date_gmt":"2024-06-09T23:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=127381"},"modified":"2024-06-09T16:38:47","modified_gmt":"2024-06-09T23:38:47","slug":"jim-jones-letters-to-guyana-government-officials-1977","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=127381","title":{"rendered":"Jim Jones letters to Guyana government officials, 1977"},"content":{"rendered":"

The FBI\u2019s organization of its FOIA files on Peoples Temple and Jonestown includes one section (RYMUR 89-4286-BB-17) that contains documents specifically related to Jim Jones, ranging from college transcripts, teaching certificates and ministerial ordinations to transcripts of interviews with him on California radio and television stations.<\/p>\n

About a third of the section comprises letters which end with room for Jones\u2019 signature. All of these letters were addressed to top leaders in the Guyana government, almost all to the Temple\u2019s most important political patron, Deputy Prime Minister Ptolemy Reid. They are dated in a seven-month period between May and December 1977.<\/p>\n

It is unlikely that Jones wrote many of these letters himself. That task probably fell to Paula Adams at the Temple\u2019s headquarters in Georgetown, Guyana, as evidenced by her name on several proposed P.S. remarks, as well as the notation on others that she was the typist (e.g., \u201cJJ\/pa\u201d).<\/p>\n

With that said, it is also certain that Jones participated in the letter-writing process \u2013 including dictation of some of the letters\u2019 contents \u2013 and that none were mailed without his authorization. Much of the language reflects mirrors his remarks in Jonestown meetings, and several of the letters include words unique to him (e.g., \u201cchap\u201d as a synonym for \u201cfellow\u201d or \u201cguy\u201d).<\/p>\n

Two sections of letters follow. The first consists of 16 letters which are either dated or which have a specific reference to a specific event, such as Charles Garry\u2019s trip to Jonestown in late October 1977. These letters have been arranged in chronological order. Six undated letters comprise the second section, appearing in their order on the FBI\u2019s pdf.<\/p>\n

The full citation for each of these pages begins with the section designation of \u201cRYMUR 89-4286-BB-17-\u201c.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Page <\/strong><\/td>\nDate<\/strong><\/td>\nRecipient<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
zzz <\/a><\/td>\n5\/10\/77<\/td>\nDeputy Prime Minister Ptolemy Reid<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
eee<\/a><\/td>\n7\/18\/77<\/td>\nPtolemy Reid<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vvv<\/a><\/td>\n7\/21\/77<\/td>\nPtolemy Reid<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ttt<\/a><\/td>\n7\/21\/77<\/td>\nPtolemy Reid<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
uuu <\/a><\/td>\n7\/26\/77<\/td>\nPtolemy Reid<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
hh <\/a><\/td>\n9\/26\/77<\/td>\nPrime Minister Forbes Burnham<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ww <\/a><\/td>\n9\/19\/77<\/td>\nPtolemy Reid<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
gg <\/a><\/td>\n10\/9\/77<\/td>\nPtolemy Reid<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ee <\/a><\/td>\n10\/15\/77<\/td>\nPtolemy Reid<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ff <\/a><\/td>\n10\/19\/77<\/td>\nForbes Burnham<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
bbb <\/a><\/td>\n10\/26\/77<\/td>\nPtolemy Reid<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
kkk <\/a><\/td>\nearly 11\/77<\/td>\nPtolemy Reid<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
jj <\/a><\/td>\n11\/15\/77<\/td>\nPtolemy Reid, Forbes Burnham, Foreign Minister Fred Wills, Home Affairs Minister Vibert Mingo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ss <\/a><\/td>\n11\/29\/77<\/td>\nPtolemy Reid, Forbes Burnham, Fred Wills, Vibert Mingo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
rr <\/a><\/td>\n12\/9\/77<\/td>\nPtolemy Reid<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
bbbb <\/a><\/td>\nlate 11\/77<\/td>\nPtolemy Reid<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ii <\/a><\/td>\nUndated<\/td>\nForbes Burnham<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
pp <\/a><\/td>\nUndated<\/td>\nPtolemy Reid<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
qq <\/a><\/td>\nUndated<\/td>\nPtolemy Reid<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
fff-jjj<\/a><\/p>\nundated<\/td>\nFred Wills, Ptolemy Reid<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
mmm <\/a><\/td>\nUndated<\/td>\nPtolemy Reid<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
ppp, aaaa<\/a><\/p>\nUndated<\/td>\nPtolemy Reid, Vibert Mingo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The FBI\u2019s organization of its FOIA files on Peoples Temple and Jonestown includes one section (RYMUR 89-4286-BB-17) that contains documents specifically related to Jim Jones, ranging from college transcripts, teaching certificates and ministerial ordinations to transcripts of interviews with him on California radio and television stations. About a third of the section comprises letters which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":88030,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-127381","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/127381","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=127381"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/127381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127388,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/127381\/revisions\/127388"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/88030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=127381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}