{"id":28240,"date":"2013-06-16T00:18:42","date_gmt":"2013-06-16T00:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alternativejonestown.com\/?page_id=28240"},"modified":"2014-03-28T01:33:34","modified_gmt":"2014-03-28T01:33:34","slug":"679-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=28240","title":{"rendered":"Q679 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>. To listen to MP3, click here<\/a>.
\nTo return to the Tape Index, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

FBI Catalogue: <\/b> Unidentified Individuals Speaking<\/p>\n

FBI preliminary tape identification note: <\/strong>One Tracs 90\/ 9\/8\/76<\/p>\n

Date cues on tape: <\/b> 8 September 1976 (notation on tape box, confirmed in context)<\/p>\n

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

Public figures\/National and international names:<\/i>
\nFormer President Lyndon Baines Johnson
\nFormer President John F. Kennedy
\nFormer President Richard Nixon
\nThomas Jefferson
\nDennis Banks, Native American activist
\nKa-mook Banks, wife
\nPope John XXIII
\nFBI Director Clarence M. Kelley (by reference)
\nJack Anderson, newspaper columnist
\nHarry Reames, pornography star
\nCalifornia governor Jerry Brown
\nCalifornia lieutenant governor Mervyn Dymally (by reference)
\nSan Francisco mayor George Moscone (by reference)
\nSan Francisco Police Chief Charles Gain
\nDr. Carlton Goodlett, S.F. newspaper publisher
\nCecil Williams, minister at Glide Methodist Church
\nSusan Bartholomew, crime victim (by reference)
\n(first name unknown) Main, man convicted for crime
\nKitty Genovese, crime victim (by reference)<\/i><\/p>\n

Peoples Temple members:<\/i>
\nMarceline Jones (by reference)
\nLaetitia Leroy, aka Tish Leroy
\nMike Prokes (speaks)<\/b><\/p>\n

Peoples Temple members, full name unknown:<\/i>
\nKay (speaks)<\/b><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Bible verses cited:<\/b>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Matthew 25:34-40<\/p>\n

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

(Note<\/strong>: This was one of 53 tapes which the FBI initially withheld from disclosure.)<\/em><\/p>\n

This tape consists of two substantive segments \u2013 a radio interview with Jim Jones, and a telephone conversation between Peoples Temple leader Mike Prokes and a former member named Kay \u2013 as well as several short segments. The only one of the short segments with any contextual sense is a television news items about the Fresno 4, a group of reporters who risked jail rather than reveal their sources for a series of news stories. The item includes a quote by Jim Jones.<\/p>\n

In the first segment, a public affairs reporter \u2013 most likely for KPFK radio in San Francisco, although he never identifies the station \u2013 tapes a lengthy interview with Jim Jones, with an eye towards editing it for a future broadcast. The interview opens with a brief discussion of the church\u2019s activism with the Fresno 4. However, the interview is wide-ranging, covering Jim Jones\u2019 belief in God; the role of the church in society; the relationship between church and state; and the government\u2019s reception of church-based community groups. The reporter also asks about the services which Peoples Temple provides to San Francisco, and whether Jones believes the church is making any impact upon the social problems facing the city.<\/p>\n

The interview provides a general description of Peoples Temple activities in 1976, ranging from services to Vietnam veterans, to health care and shelter to senior citizens, to legal aid for poor people. Jones also describes the assistance the Temple gave to Dennis Banks, the Native American activist who was fighting extradition to South Dakota.<\/p>\n

The forum gives Jones an opportunity to articulate his personal politics, which includes criticism of multinationals, support for better health care, and a call for the rich to pay their \u201cfair share\u201d of taxes.<\/p>\n

Jones does hesitate when the interviewer asks, \u201cWhat is our moral responsibility to our fellow men and women?\u201d At first he asks if they\u2019re on the air \u2013\u00a0they\u2019re not; it\u2019s a taped segment, and the interviewer says they won\u2019t use it if Jones doesn\u2019t want them to \u2013 but Jones eventually replies. \u201cI think you\u2019re going to have to get into a society that teaches some form of cooperativism, call it socialism or what\u2026 I don\u2019t see how we\u2019re going to possibly get cooperation, when we teach competition, competition, competition.\u201d It is the word \u201csocialism\u201d which hangs Jones up, and he says he has received death threats because of his use of it. When Jones asks later if they can revisit the question, he speaks in more religious terms: \u201cThe Judeo-Christian concept, in fact, I think it runs through all the great world faiths, is that we are our brother and \u2013 not to be chauvinistic \u2013\u00a0sister\u2019s keeper. I think that there\u2019s been too much stress placed upon competition, from the school up, and in sports and everything. There ought to be more emphasis upon cooperation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second substantive segment of the tape is a telephone conversation between Mike Prokes and a young black woman named Kay, who had been a member of the Planning Commission \u2013 the Temple\u2019s decision-making body under Jones \u2013 until she quit the council for health reasons. She has also been absent from Temple services and meetings for an unknown period of time, and Prokes has called at Jones\u2019 request to find out what her feelings about the church are.<\/p>\n

The conversation has the feel of two people breaking up a romantic relationship. At some points, the people speak tenderly to each other and express their regrets; at others, the tone is one of anger and frustration; there are mixtures of cajoling the other back into the relationship, and resignation that that will never be. And, as happens in a break-up, the two seem to talk past each other several times, although Kay does notice that on at least one occasion. In general, though, the conversation is distinguished by a painful intimacy.<\/p>\n

Kay says that her decision to leave the church was based on her physical and emotional health. She says she can\u2019t stay up all night with the Planning Commission, and still hold down a job and go to school. \u201cI know what the obligations [to the church] are and I would just rather not even be Council, you know, because I just cannot handle that. I mean, emotionally, I just cannot handle it\u2026 It wasn\u2019t a question of whether [I] wanted to or not. To me, it was just a question of whether my body could continue to hack that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as Prokes listens and says he understands, he tries to persuade her to return. Kay says she cannot reduce her role or ask for special consideration of her schedule, since people would not understand why she would be allowed to do that, so she would just rather not return at all. Prokes agrees that her return to the church but not to the Planning Commission would set a terrible precedent, but insists he can\u2019t understand why she won\u2019t return to the PC.<\/p>\n

Prokes also wonders how the church will explain this situation to others, that she used to be on the council and now she\u2019s not. At first she replies that it isn\u2019t her problem, then she softens and says, she doesn\u2019t know what the answer is. \u201c[I] obviously haven\u2019t had any solutions \u2026 or I wouldn\u2019t have been in the state \u2026 I was in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Up until this point, the conversation has been cordial, and Kay says she doesn\u2019t feel hostile towards the church. As they begin to cover the same ground over again, though, Kay confronts Prokes: \u201cI\u2019m trying to say to you what my problem is, and you\u2019re saying to me, how my problem\u2019s going to affect everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prokes replies that she\u2019s trying to let herself off the hook, that \u201cwe feel that we each have limits that we set ourselves as far as how much pain we\u2019re willing to endure, when we all could go much farther.\u201d When Kay agrees \u2013 her tone more of resignation than of acquiescence \u2013 Prokes presses his argument. \u201cAnd so, it gets down to a matter of character, for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The conversation that follows gives a deep insight into how Temple loyalists perceived their own roles, and how disaffected members came to view those same roles. When Kay says that everyone has the right to set his or her own limits, Prokes replies simply, \u201cI don\u2019t know that we do, Kay. I don\u2019t know that we do.\u201d When she insists that she<\/i> has the right to set hers<\/i>, again Prokes replies: \u201cWell, you do, if you give yourself the right.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Temple spokesman expands upon the issue later in the conversation. \u201cWhen we\u2019re involved in a revolution, we lose personal rights,\u201d he says. \u201cWe don\u2019t have the right to decide \u2026 how far we can commit ourselves, how far we can go, \u2026 because there are others who go through much worse, who aren\u2019t even in here, the people that we\u2019re trying to rescue.\u201d The cause itself becomes \u2013 or should<\/i> become \u2013 all-consuming, he says. \u201cIf we kept our eyes focused on what\u2019s outside [the Temple], I don\u2019t think we\u2019d get the internal individual problems that we have inside.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kay vehemently disagrees. She says she can\u2019t see how the cause is advanced by staying up all night, by making themselves sick, by asking for consideration of their own human frailties. She was \u201cbegging\u201d to have her responsibilities lessened, she said, but \u201cnobody wanted to hear it. Nobody would listen. And nobody ever does, until you\u2019re pushed against the fucking wall, and you can\u2019t breathe, and all you can do is come out screaming.\u201d A moment later, she raises the same issue with an almost wistful question: \u201cIf you\u2019re there [in the Temple], and you\u2019re there for what you say that you\u2019re there for, and you can\u2019t hear people screaming around you, how in the hell you gonna hear them from afar?\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Date of transcription: 3\/29\/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 1, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B62-3. This tape was found to contain the following:<\/p>\n

A radio interview of JIM JONES. Telephone calls from the People\u2019s Temple.<\/p>\n

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

The summary is accurate and meets the FBI\u2019s purposes.<\/p>\n

Tape originally posted April 2002<\/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. To listen to MP3, click here. To return to the Tape Index, click here. FBI Catalogue: Unidentified Individuals Speaking FBI preliminary tape identification note: One Tracs 90\/ 9\/8\/76 Date […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":27996,"menu_order":450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-28240","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28240","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=28240"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59132,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28240\/revisions\/59132"}],"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=28240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}