{"id":28221,"date":"2013-06-16T00:18:40","date_gmt":"2013-06-16T00:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alternativejonestown.com\/?page_id=28221"},"modified":"2014-04-01T22:28:14","modified_gmt":"2014-04-01T22:28:14","slug":"643-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=28221","title":{"rendered":"Q643 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 60 min Compact cassette \/ April 12 1978 Meeting #9<\/p>\n

Date cues on tape:<\/b>\u00a0 February 16, 1978 (Edith Roller\u2019s journal)<\/p>\n

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

Public figures\/National and international names: <\/i>
\nCheddi Jagan, leader of People\u2019s Progressive Party, Guyana opposition party
\nformer Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev
\nAngela Davis, university professor, black activist
\nCarlton Goodlett, publisher of Sun-Reporter, physician
\nHuey Newton, Black Panther leader<\/p>\n

Jonestown residents, full name unknown: <\/i>
\nCarolyn (several in Jonestown, probably Layton)
\nChristine (several in Jonestown, probably Miller)
\nJane (several in Jonestown, probably Mutschmann)
\nKay (several in Jonestown) (speaks) <\/b>
\nRegina (probably Regina Bowser, could be Sonja Regina Duncan)
\nSonya (either Sonja Regina Duncan or Sonya Evans)<\/p>\n

Jonestown residents:<\/i>
\nSharon Amos (speaks)<\/b>
\nJohnny Moss Brown
\nRobert Christian
\nFarene Douglas
\nJames Edwards (\u201cReb\u201d) (speaks)<\/b>
\nJulius Evans
\nTom Grubbs
\nLee Ingram (speaks)<\/b>
\nMargrette Jeffery
\nChuck Kirkendall
\nPam Moton, aka Pam Bradshaw (speaks)<\/b>
\nEdith Roller (speaks)<\/b>
\nVennie Thompson
\nCharlie Touchette<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Bible verses cited:<\/b>\u00a0None<\/p>\n

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

The tape is the third in a series of four (preceded by Q 641<\/a> and Q 642<\/a>, and concluding on Q 644<\/a>) of a White Night \u2013 the most serious White Night since the previous September, Jim Jones says at one point in Q 642<\/a> \u2013 in February 1978.<\/p>\n

Much of this tape finds the residents of Jonestown discussing the options that are open to them, if the war against them should erupt with the fascists invading their jungle settlement. Jones himself is absent for the first part of the tape \u2013 he interrupts one speaker to explain his absence by saying that he is in \u201cstrategy\u201d with the Soviet Union \u2013\u00a0 but others (mostly unidentified males) stand in for him.<\/p>\n

There are not a lot of options, and most of them are met with pointed questions. People who suggest fleeing into the jungle or standing and defending what they have built \u2013 as many of them do \u2013 are asked about the weaker members of the community who might not be able to endure such hardships. Those who argue that they should return to the U.S. are questioned how all of them could return. The man who suggests that a contingent of the community go to Africa and fight for liberation is greeted with a sigh of exasperation or frustration. Even though Jones himself offered this possibility for consideration on a tape recorded earlier in the evening, he is apparently against it now: \u201cI have no intention of sending nobody\u2013 some to Africa and some here\u2026 We\u2019ll have to be all<\/i> together.\u201d Only the \u201crevolutionary suicide\u201d option requires no defense.<\/p>\n

Those who endorse the suicide option do not escape all questions, though, but rather are challenged about the depth of their commitment. In a conversation following a tape edit, a woman says she is willing to do anything. \u201cNow that\u2019s not answering the question,\u201d a man says. \u201cI\u2019m willing to give up my child, too,\u201d she replies. \u201cAre you willing to kill your child?\u201d the male asks. \u201cSure,\u201d the woman says. \u201cWhy do you think it would be important to kill your child?\u201d another woman asks her. \u201c\u2019Cause I wouldn\u2019t want to leave her back here for the fascists to kill her.\u201d After a moment she adds, \u201cYou know, and torture her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another woman tries to parse the debate, by saying that they should threaten<\/i> revolutionary suicide in order to get their demands met, but if that doesn\u2019t work, \u201cI feel we should fight for what we worked for.\u201d The woman is able to express her arguments, but \u2013 through a combination of her soft voice and an increasingly-cranky P.A. system \u2013\u00a0 her words apparently don\u2019t reach the back of the audience. As the crowd exhorts her to speak up, Jones adds, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you shout like you grunted when you got fucked<\/i> one time? \u2026 [S]urely to Christ, sometime or another, when you were involved in some kind of sexual shit, you made more noise than that<\/i>.\u201d (There is an irony here: the woman here is Sharon Amos, one of Jones\u2019 most faithful followers. She died on November 18, but \u2013 unlike the others in the community \u2013 she was in the Temple\u2019s Georgetown headquarters, where she led her children to a bathroom, slit their throats and then killed herself.)<\/p>\n

Jones also interprets seemingly-ambiguous answers as endorsing the option for death. One man describes their defenses in stages, talks about Jonestown\u2019s victory in the first battles, and then discusses the preparations to take care of everyone. Jones interrupts at that point to say, \u201cHe says, that means everybody oughta die. If people have to be taken care of.\u201d Later, after arguing against a woman who stubbornly advocates defending themselves \u2013 either in Jonestown or in the jungle \u2013 Jones turns his momentary capitulation to her plan onto its head. \u201cOkay, it has its merit. Or, commit revolutionary suicide here before we do any fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The only real consideration on Jones\u2019 mind seems to be how the act of revolutionary suicide will be viewed afterwards. \u201cWe gotta think about history<\/i>. We are communist<\/i>. We gotta think about history<\/i>.\u201d He says he knows what would happen if they followed the suggestion of some and fought against the invaders. Whether the troops came from the Guyanese Defense Force or the U.S. Marines, they would be black, and history would judge any armed resistance to such a force as \u201cinhumane.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the night wears on, the rhetoric of Jones \u2013 and the Jonestown leadership \u2013 is increasingly that of advocating death. Death is everywhere, Jones says. Everyone dies, he says at another. Whatever option they choose, people will die, he says at another. It won\u2019t be easy to see people die, but we\u2019ve seen people die, he says at another. And all these references to death occur in the course of five minutes. \u201cWe got no right to always live, when others die,\u201d he concludes. \u201cWe shoulda felt just as much about the several million that died in Bangladesh two years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet the people who come to the microphone to speak maintain their resistance. One unidentified female returns to the theme of the judgment of history, and challenges Jones\u2019 belief that they are commanded to acquiesce to death. \u201cI feel that, if we took a stand \u2026 where we all decided to die, that it\u00a0might never be interpreted correctly in history, and that we owe our commitment to socialism to stay alive as long as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there is a note of despair that creeps in periodically, especially in the language of Jones and the others who speak with authority. Even as the options involving survival echo, Jones answers with a contradictory observation: \u201cwe\u2019ve got to think as if there was nothing but our hands. And a lot of you write in with dreams. Every time we hear dreams. Pipe\u2013\u00a0yes, unfortunately.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the midst of the White Night, and even as the conversation is about to turn back to death, Jones whistles as he marvels about the beauty of what they\u2019ve built. \u201cWhat a night, that is, what a night out there. No walls for the whistle to come back. If you only saw that once, it was worth it. What a place to be here where you see the sunrises and the sunsets. If you only saw it once, it was worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is apparent that Jones needs people to agree about the wisdom of the decision to emigrate to Guyana. The people came out of a sense of purpose rather than just on a search for peace, he says \u2013 and, upon his prompting, the audience agrees with him \u2013 and then he asks, \u201cHow many\u00a0still glad you came?\u201d Those who don\u2019t raise their hands immediately are asked to explain themselves. \u201cCatch \u2018em,\u201d he tells the Jonestown security. \u201cThat\u2019s what you\u2019re supposed to do is catch \u2018em. Anybody don\u2019t have their hand [up]. Catch \u2018em.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the more immediate concerns of the night is how they will respond to the decision of Guyana\u2019s government to offer a temporary medical license to the Jonestown doctor and pharmacy. Will they accept the compromise, Jones asks, \u201cOr do we want to make a total demand for total license\u2026 I don\u2019t know whether we want to make an issue saying giving him a pure license or we\u2019re gonna have a White Night, we\u2019re going to have a death stand.\u201d On the other hand, he continues, they may not need more than a six-month license. \u201cShit, by the end of six months, the goddamn nuclear war<\/i> may come and the bombs drop, and there won\u2019t be no more USA, then we won\u2019t have no more trouble up here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tape ends with the intrusion of another more mundane, yet crucial, issue. After arguing through the night about revolutionary suicide, fighting against black troops or fleeing to the jungle, the community is jolted with the news that the electrical crew burned up a water pump. The accident was caused by human error, and there is a chance the crew can make the repair, but they really need another pump \u2013 even if just for back-up \u2013 and the White Night is sidetracked by the debate on how the Jonestown budget can afford $2100 for an essential piece of machinery.<\/p>\n

This White Night concludes on Tape Q 644<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

Date of transcription: 3\/15\/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 1B47-88, 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 60 min Compact […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":27996,"menu_order":425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-28221","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28221","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=28221"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59584,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28221\/revisions\/59584"}],"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=28221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}