With the assistance and participation of members of the Concerned Relatives organization, Tim and Grace Stoen began a campaign in late 1977 and early 1978 to support their efforts to retrieve John Victor from Jonestown. The campaign included letters to elected officials and the media, demonstrations against Jim Jones, and additional lawsuits. Those letters located within FBI and State Department files appear below.<\/p>\n
Peoples Temple responded in kind. While its efforts were challenging at times \u2013 especially since much of the Temple leadership was in Guyana, thousands of miles away from the focal point of the custody lawsuit in San Francisco \u2013 it was still successful in soliciting letters from its supporters to defend its cause. Indeed, there is some evidence that members of the Temple assisted in drafting the letters themselves. <\/p>\n
Among the letters to members of Congress and the president was one from Harvey Milk, the San Francisco Supervisor who had attended several Temple services before the emigration to Jonestown and who himself would be assassinated about ten days after the Jonestown tragedy. In a letter to President Jimmy Carter dated February 19, 1978, Milk defended the character of Jim Jones and attacked that of Tim Stoen, declaring in the letter\u2019s close that \u201cthe actions of Mr. Stoen need to be brought to a halt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Letters located within FBI and State Department files appear below.<\/p>\n
California Lt. Gov. Mervyn Dymally to Guyana Prime Minister Forbes Burnham<\/strong>, 1977 (2 letters), RYMUR 89-4286-LL-2-c-1 \u2013 3, e-1 \u2013 2 San Francisco Councilman Harvey Milk to Pres. Jimmy Carter<\/strong>, January 19, 1978, RYMUR 89-4286-LL-5-j (also at RYMUR 89-4286-X-3-e-7, and State Department document 499) Opportunity High School Principal Yvonne Golden to S.F. District Attorney Joseph Freitas<\/strong>, February 14, 1978, RYMUR 89-4286-LL-5-f Yvonne Golden to Reps. Timothy Wirth and George Miller<\/strong> (undated, mid-February 1978) RYMUR 89-4286-x-3-e-10 Former President of S.F. Black Teachers Caucus Gloria Davis to Reps. Timothy Wirth and George Miller, <\/strong>February 15, 1978, RYMUR 89-4286-x-3-e-11 Portrero Hill Neighborhood House Director Enola Maxwell to Rep. George Miller<\/strong>, February 15, 1978, RYMUR 89-4286-x-3-e-9b (also State Department document 496) American Indian Movement leader Dennis Banks to Pres. Jimmy Carter<\/strong>, February 17, 1978, RYMUR 89-4286-x-3-e-8 Dennis Banks to S.F. District Attorney Joseph Freitas<\/strong>, February 17, 1978, RYMUR 89-4286-x-3-e-9a Political activist Angela Davis to S.F. District Attorney Joseph Freitas<\/strong>, February 18, 1978RYMUR 89-4286-x-3-e-17 Trade unionists Gabriel Schack and Yvonne V. Nahem to Reps. Timothy Wirth and George Miller<\/strong>, February 18, 1978, RYMUR 89-4286-x-3-e-12 Political activist Tom Hayden to Pres. Jimmy Carter<\/strong>, February 19, 1978, RYMUR 89-4286-x-3-e-18 Political activist Jane Fonda to Pres. Jimmy Carter<\/strong>, February 19, 1978, RYMUR 89-4286-x-3-e-19 Calif. State Assemblyman Willie Brown to Pres. Jimmy Carter<\/strong>, February 27, 1978, State Department document 513 Angela Davis to Pres. Jimmy Carter<\/strong>, February 28, 1978, RYMUR 89-4286-x-3-e-16 (also State Department document 516) With the assistance and participation of members of the Concerned Relatives organization, Tim and Grace Stoen began a campaign in late 1977 and early 1978 to support their efforts to retrieve John Victor from Jonestown. The campaign included letters to elected officials and the media, demonstrations against Jim Jones, and additional lawsuits. Those letters located […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":13841,"menu_order":15,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-19039","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19039","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=19039"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":126954,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19039\/revisions\/126954"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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