NN-1-G1<\/p>\n
[Letterhead of attorney Dennis Roberts, San Francisco]<\/p>\n
Rev. Jim Jones
\nPeople’s Temple
\n1859 Geary Street
\nSan Francisco, CA<\/p>\n
July 28, 1977<\/p>\n
Dear Rev. Jones,<\/p>\n
I have been following with great interest the vituperative and defamatory attacks against you and the People\u2019s Temple which have appeared in New West magazine and, more recently, reprinted in the Mendicino Grapevine. I recently saw the July 21 editorial in the Sun Reporter.<\/p>\n
I initially met you in my capacity as attorney for Dennis Banks. At the time of our first meeting his\u2028wife, Ka-Mook was incarcerated in Kansas under a $20,000\u2028bail. The defense fund was virtually non-existent and\u2028the possibility of Ka-Mook obtaining bail was slim indeed. Then you and the Temple stepped forward and out of the\u2028goodness of your heart produced virtually the entire bail\u2028for Ka-Mook. This put her in the position of being free\u2028to help prepare our defense. Today, we got the wonderful\u2028news that the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth\u2028Circuit in San Francisco held that the government’s case\u2028against her must be dismissed. If you did not provide the\u2028bail, she would have had to sit in jail for about two years\u2028until she was ultimately vindicated, and instead of being\u2028free to be with her family and small babies. If I knew\u2028nothing else about you, this would be sufficient for me to\u2028sing your praises to every available ear. However, after\u2028our initial meeting I was so impressed with your “good works”\u2028that I started to do my own “investigation”. Everyone spoke\u2028in the most glowing terms of you, the Temple, and the work\u2028that you have performed. You have constantly articulated\u2028the position of the underdog and provided the support necessary\u2028to stand up to overwhelming governmental attack. In so many\u2028cases you and the Temple made the crucial difference in the\u2028ability to withstand these attacks.<\/p>\n
I am not a Christian and for many years have felt strongly about the hypocrisy of so many who called themselves\u2028”Christians”. It is only upon coming in contact with the\u2028People’s Temple that I was able to start to reappraise this\u2028opinion and realize that there were people who did take their\u2028professed religion seriously and who, in fact, did live up to<\/p>\n
——<\/p>\n
NN-1-G2<\/p>\n
what I would like to believe being a Christian means.<\/p>\n
If there is any way that I can assist you in helping to expose the falsity of the vile attacks against you, please do not hesitate to call on me. It would be but small repayment for the debt that the people of this area owe you.<\/p>\n
Sincerely,
\n\/s\/ Dennis Roberts
\nDennis Roberts<\/p>\n
——<\/p>\n
NN-1-K<\/p>\n
[Letterhead of ACLU, San Francisco]<\/p>\n
September 15, 1977<\/p>\n
Charles R. Garry
\nGarry, Dreyfus, McTernan, Brotsky, Herndon & Pesonen, Inc,
\n1256 Market Street at Civic Center
\nSan Francisco, California 94102<\/p>\n
Dear Mr. Garry:<\/p>\n
As I am sure you know, dealing with People’s Temple is sometimes like trying to nail jello to the wall. Nevertheless, the present difficulties of the church make me very uneasy and if you think there are free exercise questions involved here and that the ACLU might be of help, I would be interested in discussing the matter with you or the person you designate.<\/p>\n
Sincerely yours.
\n\/s\/ David Fishlow
\nDavid M. Fishlow<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NN-1-G1 [Letterhead of attorney Dennis Roberts, San Francisco] Rev. Jim Jones People’s Temple 1859 Geary Street San Francisco, CA July 28, 1977 Dear Rev. Jones, I have been following with great interest the vituperative and defamatory attacks against you and the People\u2019s Temple which have appeared in New West magazine and, more recently, reprinted in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":88214,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-137851","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/137851","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=137851"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/137851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137852,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/137851\/revisions\/137852"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/88214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=137851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}