{"id":28183,"date":"2013-06-16T00:18:34","date_gmt":"2013-06-16T00:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alternativejonestown.com\/?page_id=28183"},"modified":"2024-07-17T14:35:10","modified_gmt":"2024-07-17T21:35:10","slug":"592-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=28183","title":{"rendered":"Q592 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 read the Tape Transcript, click here<\/a>. Listen to MP3 (Pt. 1<\/a>, Pt. 2<\/a>).
\nTo return to the Tape Index, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

FBI Catalogue<\/b>: Tapes Not Summarized<\/p>\n

FBI preliminary tape identification note: <\/strong>One unlabeled\/April 13 meeting<\/p>\n

Date cues on tape:<\/b>\u00a013 April 1978 (notation on tape box, confirmed in context)<\/p>\n

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

Public figures\/National and international names:<\/i>
\nSen. Robert Kennedy (D-New York)
\nSen. John Stennis (D-Mississippi)
\nCharles C. Diggs (D-Michigan) (by reference)
\nFidel Castro, leader of Cuba
\nEric Gairy, prime minister of Grenada
\nNikita Khrushchev, premier of the Soviet Union
\nKarl Marx, German economist, father of communism
\nAleksandro Voropaev, Tass Soviet news service correspondent (by reference)<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Forbes Burnham, Prime Minister of Guyana
\nPeter Fernandes, head of Guyana Livestock Board
\nHamilton Green, Guyana Minister of Health and Labor (by reference)
\nCheddi Jagan, leader of People\u2019s Progressive Party
\nGuyana Minister of Foreign Affairs (by reference) (either Fred Wills, former minister, or Rashleigh E. Jackson)<\/p>\n

Angela Davis, member of Communist Party, black activist
\nHuey Newton, leader of Black Panther Party
\nLee Harvey Oswald, alleged assassin of Pres. John F. Kennedy
\nThomas Dawsey, Kessler Air Force Base engineer (by reference)
\nDonald Freed, author and screenwriter (by reference)
\nLeon Joly, March Air Force Base engineer (by reference)
\nUnita Blackwell Wright, mayor of Mayersville, Mississippi (by reference)<\/p>\n

Mervyn Dymally, Lieutenant Governor of California
\nCharles Garry, Temple attorney
\nCarlton Goodlett, San Francisco physician, newspaper publisher
\nGenesda (phonetic), \u201chead of a\u00a0public advocates in San Francisco\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Temple adversaries; members of Concerned Relatives:<\/i>
\nMabel and Wade Medlock
\nElmer and Deanna Mertle, aka Al and Jeannie Mills
\nTim Stoen<\/p>\n

Temple members not on death or survivors\u2019 lists:<\/i>
\nOdessa Barnes
\nOzzie Holley
\nGarry Lambrev
\nChris Lewis
\nCharlie Newhouse
\nMonica Peters
\nRon Talley
\nPearl Walton<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Abigail (reference seemingly to stateside person)
\nHazel (reference seemingly to stateside person)<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Jonestown residents, full name unknown:<\/i>
\nCalvin (could be part of nickname of \u201cKool-Aid Calvin\u201d)
\nChristine (numerous in Jonestown; could be name used in colloquial expression)
\nIrene (numerous in Jonestown; could be name used in colloquial expression)
\nAlan\/Allen
\nAnn (probably either Annie Moore or Annie Rozynko)
\nClarence (probably Clarence Cole, aka Clarence Klingman)
\nConnie (probably Connie Frohm)
\nDan (probably Kutulas) (speaks)<\/b>
\nDiane (numerous in Jonestown) (speaks) <\/b>
\nKay (probably Nelson; specified later in tape)
\nMario
\nPhyllis (could be either Chaikin or Houston, although woman sounds older)
\nRebecca (probably either Rebecca Beikman or Rebecca Flowers) (speaks)<\/b><\/p>\n

Jonestown residents:<\/i>
\nSharon Amos
\nJack Barron
\nMoms [Mabley, likely Bertha Cook]
\nAvis Jocelyn Breidenbach, aka Avis Garcia (by reference)
\nWesley Breidenbach
\nTim Carter
\nGloria Rodriguez Carter
\nGene Chaikin (speaks)<\/b>
\nSandra Yvette Cobb aka Sandy Jones
\nEllihue Dennis
\nPenny Dupont
\nJames Edwards (\u201cReb\u201d)
\nDavid George (by reference)
\nJohn Harris (speaks)<\/b>
\nBeatrice Alberta Jackson
\nClaire Janaro
\nAva Phenice Jones, aka Ava Cobb, Ava Cobb- Brown
\nEliza Jones
\nJames Warren Jones, Jr. (by reference)
\nJohnny Jones, aka Johnny Moss Brown, Jr.
\nLew Eric Jones (by reference)
\nMarceline Jones (by reference)
\nMarchelle Jacole Jones (by reference)
\nMonyelle Maylene Jones (by reference)
\nStephan Jones (speaks)<\/b>
\nTimothy Glenn Tupper Jones (by reference)
\nCarrie Langston
\nKaren Lendo
\nTish Leroy
\nAlfred March
\nKay Nelson
\nBruce Oliver
\nShanda Michelle Oliver, aka Shanda Michelle James
\nMike Prokes
\nPat Rhea
\nEloise Sneed
\nDeborah Touchette
\nMichael Touchette<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Bible verses cited:<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201c[T]hey been following me around, \u2018cause I can turn water into wine.\u201d (John 2:1-10)<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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

The Jonestown community is in the \u201cmiddle of a White Night,\u201d as Jim Jones describes the meeting held in mid-April 1978, and there is a lot to discuss: an upcoming visit from the head of Tass, the official news agency of the Soviet Union; a press conference which the Jonestown leadership will hold in a few days with their critics in the media and relatives; a potential relocation of the settlement to Cuba; and the financial strain of checks being blocked from the U.S. and the Guyanese currency being devalued. There are other petty frustrations, such as a faltering sound system and audio bleed-through from the radio room. Despite these problems, both mundane and seemingly monumental, the tone of the meeting is, for the most part, open and warm, with Jones in a good mood and laughter echoing on a number of occasions.<\/p>\n

The tape begin, as do most others in this collection, in mid-thought. Jones is recalling some of the political difficulties they had back in the States, telling familiar stories of the people that the Temple defended and chastising those same people for refusing to stand up for the Temple. He uses the occasion to remind people how miserable their lives had been in the States in general, and wonders aloud how any of them could consider returning to a place of such racist and capitalist exploitation.<\/p>\n

Instead of returning to the US, the subject of a massive migration to Cuba recurs several times in the tape. Jones spends some time talking about the beauties of the island country and its commitment to social welfare. Even the problems with physical infrastructure the people of Jonestown may have heard about should be of no great concern, because Cuba is channeling its resources into true necessities. \u201cSome of their streets are not up to par, because they been putting more care in the hospitals\u00a0and the schools,\u201d Jones says.<\/p>\n

Describing the Jonestown community as an \u201copen democracy,\u201d Jones asks for a discussion of the idea as they move towards a decision. He himself points out benefits and drawbacks to the proposal: they wouldn\u2019t need a security force as they have in Jonestown, because the reactionary forces aligned against them wouldn\u2019t be able to get close, \u201cand I can assure you then that there\u2019d be no more hassle in terms of the families\u201d who want to get their relatives out of the community. At the same time, the Cuban government might not allow Jones to retain his position as leader, and he would be inclined to accept that decision, since he wasn\u2019t the kind of man with an \u201cego [that] has to defend his throne.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Jones himself raises obstacles to the idea of moving. While at one point he says that the Cuban government has no problem taking all of them \u2013 provided there was no \u201crightwing fascist coup\u201d between now and then \u2013 he answers a question at another point by saying, if Cuba blocks any of them from going, then none of them should go. More specifically, he talks about people they might not let in, like babies born in Jonestown, or a Guyanese youth who now lives in the Jonestown settlement. Jones suggests that they raise these issues with Cuba, then \u2013\u00a0as he proposes on other tapes on which the subject of migration to Cuba comes up \u2013 \u201cif there\u2019s any hang-up, here I die, with [my children]. The rest of you can go, but I die. No, I\u2019m just telling you, I\u2019m just telling you for me<\/i>, that\u2019s just the way it is, I\u2019m sick of it, I ain\u2019t gone through that shit no more.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are alternatives to Cuba besides death \u2013 Jones mentions the Caribbean island nation of Grenada, which has a sympathetic government with which the Temple leadership has previously negotiated (and this time, he adds, they would be negotiating from a stronger position than they had when they were in the States) \u2013 but he also mentions death at least twice.<\/p>\n

He also raises the subject of nuclear war extinguishing the community, once as an argument for going to Cuba \u2013\u00a0\u201cEverybody goes sometime, and it would be lovely to be where there\u2019re the most fantastic cooperatives I\u2019ve ever seen in my life\u201d \u2013\u00a0and once as an obstacle to their departure for Cuba. The Castro government is protected by the Soviet Union, but the fact is, Cuba has been active in liberation movements in Africa, and all their own plans have to remain contingent upon the timing of the nuclear war, which he describes (as he has in other tapes) as inevitable.<\/p>\n

The potential migration leads to a conversation about the imminent arrival of a correspondent from the Soviet news agency Tass. Jones directs a general community clean-up \u2013 elimination of eyesores, setting up park benches, hanging plants outside of cottages \u2013\u00a0but spends more time discussing who from Georgetown should accompany the Soviet delegation.<\/p>\n

The people also discuss the upcoming news conference to take place in the States, but most of the conversation consists of proposals to disrupt it. One person suggests the use of tear gar, another offers the idea of a stink bomb, and yet a third notes that a phoned-in threat of a gunman would serve to delay the event. Another woman says that, even though she doesn\u2019t want to go back to the US, \u201cI would like to go there on account of [Temple critics Elmer and Deanna Mertle, aka Al and Jeannie Mills]\u2026 I would like to go there and kill a bunch of them and then let the policemen kill me, or give up, let \u2018em kill me, because I\u2019d like to get a lot of them before they get me.\u201d<\/p>\n

It might not be that easy, another woman counters, you might be tortured rather than killed. At that point \u2013 with Jones\u2019 participation \u2013 the conversation turns to ways to resist, endure, and eventually succumb to torture. \u201cYou can quit eating and quit drinking,\u201d Jones notes, \u201cand they can\u2019t keep you alive indefinitely with intravenous. No way. They can try, but they can\u2019t do it\u2026 Don\u2019t let them feed you. Don\u2019t let them give you a drop of water. Then the torture will stop pretty soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although there is a bit of nervous laughter at the gallows humor around the idea of disrupting the press conference and suffering the consequences for it, the laughter is genuine and hearty elsewhere. Jones joins in as well, even poking fun at himself and some of the petty frustrations that annoy him elsewhere on the tape (such as mimicking the radio voice that bleeds through and interrupts the P.A. system).<\/p>\n

Still, it is a White Night, and Jones asks people to prepare for it by staying close to the pavilion, limiting the portions of what they eat, allowing seniors to sleep, and enabling security forces to encircle the general population.<\/p>\n

Jones is the most agitated in the tape towards the end when he talks about money, the devaluation of the Guyanese currency, the machinations of the International Monetary Fund (as well as the fact the people in Jonestown don\u2019t even seem to know what the IMF is), and the checks which are being blocked. Although he is concerned about threats to the $4 million which he says they have in Guyana banks, he also downplays the significance of that amount. \u201cThat isn\u2019t all we got, now. I don\u2019t put all eggs in one basket. That ain\u2019t all we got. We got some buried over yonder, and here and there and elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throughout the White Night \u2013 throughout the history of Jonestown \u2013\u00a0people stood by their leaders and accepted the hardships of living in a foreign country, separated from everything that was familiar to them, and harassed (as they felt they were) by the US government, the media and their families. Midway through this tape, an older unidentified male expresses his loyalty to Jones that still remained strong:<\/p>\n

\u201cDad, I\u2019d taken this lady home a lot of many nights from the Temple, and one night, me and my wife was taking her home, and we was telling her about we was getting ready to sell out everything we had, we didn\u2019t want anything, we was going to join the cause. She said, you all ain\u2019t nothing but damn fools, to sell your property and go with him out there. You should keep some for your children. I said, I don\u2019t want anything. I don\u2019t have any children. I got some nephews and nieces, and I don\u2019t want to leave them anything<\/i>, because they don\u2019t care nothing about me. So I\u2019m going to sell out everything I got and go with him. That\u2019s what me and my wife did.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Date of transcription: 3\/7\/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 March 6, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B47-33. This tape was found to contain the following:<\/p>\n

This tape was reviewed, and nothing was contained thereon which was considered to be of evidentiary nature or beneficial to the investigation of Congressman RYAN.<\/p>\n

Differences with FBI Summary:<\/b><\/p>\n

There is nothing to compare between the two summaries, since the FBI did not write anything for this, or 64 other tapes which bear the notation \u201cTapes Not Summarized.\u201d These tapes seems to have little on them which the FBI could use for its purposes of investigating crimes arising from the Jonestown tragedy, but then again, that describes many other tapes as well. The difference seems to be that one or two FBI agents catalogued this set of tapes \u2013 as evidenced by the typewriter used in writing the reports \u2013 and that generally, the transcriptions were made early in the process, before someone may have asked for greater detail in the reports.<\/p>\n

Tape originally posted April 2006<\/b><\/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 read the Tape Transcript, click here. Listen to MP3 (Pt. 1, Pt. 2). To return to the Tape Index, click here. FBI Catalogue: Tapes Not Summarized FBI preliminary tape identification note: One unlabeled\/April 13 meeting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":27996,"menu_order":376,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-28183","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28183","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28183"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127871,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28183\/revisions\/127871"}],"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=28183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}