{"id":34351,"date":"2013-08-10T21:27:30","date_gmt":"2013-08-10T21:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alternativejonestown.com\/?page_id=34351"},"modified":"2026-03-02T15:32:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T23:32:04","slug":"yates1","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=34351","title":{"rendered":"Eugene Chaikin: A Story from Jonestown"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"05-03b-yates-chaikin\"<\/a>
Photo courtesy of the
California Historical Society.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Eugene Chaikin was born December 18, 1932. He grew up in a Jewish, Communist household in which his father was a dedicated socialist. Gene\u2019s grandmother was very politically inclined as well, with a socialite background. His father committed suicide when Gene was just fifteen years old. When Gene was twenty-seven, he married Phyllis Alexander, who was twenty-one and also came from a very political, Jewish Communist family. Together they had two children, a daughter named Gail, and a son named David.<\/p>\n

Gene attended UCLA, where he earned his law degree. He became a corporate attorney representing insurance companies. Eventually, Gene became a Deputy County Counsel for Shasta County, California. Despite their traditional vocations \u2013 Phyllis was a kindergarten teacher \u2013 they became involved in Transcendental Meditation and alternative lifestyles.<\/p>\n

It was around July of 1972, after the had been married about twelve years, that their friends, Claire and Richard Janaro, introduced them to a charismatic young preacher named Jim Jones, and his congregation Peoples Temple, in Redwood Valley, 175 miles away. They were immediately impressed by Jones and his work, and in turn, they were exactly the kind of couple that the Temple leader wanted to attract to his community: they were young, open to new ways of living, and \u2013\u00a0another source of potential for Jones \u2013 Gene was chafing on his job for Shasta County As a matter of fact, the Chaikins and other couples like them were \u201cjust what Jones needed to transform his church into a social organization.\u201d[1] <\/a><\/p>\n

Very shortly after joining Peoples Temple, Gene resigned from his position in order to devote his time and legal expertise to aiding Jones in his work for wayward teens. Gene negotiated numerous guardianship agreements for Peoples Temple: this meant that along with legal guardianship of the teens, the Temple was receiving money for their care, which was a \u201cvaluable source of income for the organization.\u201d[2] <\/a><\/p>\n

Gene threw himself into his work for the Temple with gusto. On top of wrangling guardianships, he became Jim\u2019s personal lawyer, especially after the defection of Tim Stoen in 1977. Indeed, it was Gene who provided Jones with legal representation during the crisis over the custody of John Victor Stoen. As for Phyllis, she was encouraged to get a degree in nursing so that she could help out at the Temple\u2019s elderly care facilities.<\/p>\n

Gene and Phyllis became such important members of Peoples Temple that they were both asked to join the Planning Commission, and the new positions quickly defined their lives. The Planning Commission in Peoples Temple was, \u201cloosely-speaking, a part of lower management. It started in Redwood Valley in the early 1970s, and was made up of many hard workers, people with important positions (Assistant Pastors, Treasurers, lawyers, Jim’s personal secretaries, mistresses, etc.) and people Jim wanted to watch, or whom he believed needed a position to feel appreciated\u2026 It was\u00a0a prestigious\u00a0job and people worked hard to get on it, and to deserve the position.\u00a0PC started in Redwood Valley, and soon included folks from SF and LA. They usually met one night a week, all night in Redwood Valley or into the early hours in SF or LA.\u201d[3] <\/a><\/p>\n

Gene remained diligent and enthusiastic about his work, that is, until December 13, 1973, when Jones was arrested inside of a movie theater in Los Angeles and charged with \u201chomosexual activity.\u201d Gene was aghast and disillusioned when he learned of Jones\u2019 faux pas. For the first time, Gene began to question his leader. Although the charges were soon dropped and the record sealed, real damage had been done to Gene\u2019s respect for Jim.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Gene had accompanied some of the earliest pioneers to Jonestown in mid-1974 and immersed himself in horticulture. He was able to release his anxieties by working with the first settlers to plant crops in the hopes that Jonestown would be self-sufficient. Moreover, the two years he spent in Guyana kept him out of sight from the ever-watchful eye of Jim Jones.<\/p>\n

The dreams of the pioneers suffered a severe \u2013 perhaps inevitably lethal \u2013 blow in the summer of 1977, when unfavorable publicity about the Temple in the Bay Area led Jones to order an immediate mass migration to Jonestown. The community was never intended to sustain more than 750 people, and when 1000 new people flooded in \u2013\u00a0most of them in the course of a few weeks \u2013 it was obvious that the settlement was nowhere near being self-sufficient. There wasn\u2019t enough housing, there weren\u2019t enough crops. Gene saw his hopes for his horticultural work, which he was ever so devoted to, dashed. Even worse, Jim Jones had come to Guyana \u201cbeset with crises, grudges and obsessions\u201d (Isaacson 2008<\/a>). Jones was obsessed with the John Victor Stoen custody case<\/a>, which created more work for Gene. The custody case \u201chad become a rallying point for the Temple\u2019s enemies in the US, including both the press and a newly formed protest group organized by Timothy and Grace Stoen, called the Concerned Relatives\u201d (Isaacson 2008<\/a>).<\/p>\n

As Jones\u2019 chief counsel, Gene had to handle the Stoen case in the Guyanese courts. As part of their efforts to get their son out of Jonestown, Timothy and Grace Stoen prevailed upon these courts to serve warrants for both Jones and John Victor, hoping to force the Temple leader to bring the boy to Georgetown, Guyana\u2019s capital. The Stoens\u2019 lawyer, Jeffrey Haas, was indeed able to get the Guyanese government to serve these warrants on Jones in Jonestown, but when the marshal arrived, the people of Jonestown said that Jones was not in the encampment and they refused to physically accept the warrants. The Guyanese official \u201cserved\u201d the papers by nailing them to a wooden wall.<\/p>\n

The action precipitated a deep crisis for the community. With his friends in the Guyanese government out of the country on business, Jones was terrified that he would be physically removed from Jonestown. For six full days, he was out of his mind with worry. He talked about leaving Guyana for Cuba if Cuba would offer sanctuary for him and his entire community. Using the HAM radio, he also threatened that if the Guyanese could not ensure their safety and independence, all the residents of Jonestown would commit suicide. The period in the aftermath of the attempt to serve the court papers on Jones came to be known as the \u201csix day siege.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gene watched all of this go down with trepidation, but the final straw came when Jones called a \u201cWhite Night\u201d and ordered everyone in the community to encircle the encampment with weapons and wait for what he said was an imminent attack. He followed this up with a mock suicide ritual, and directed his people to drink punch that was supposedly laced with cyanide. Gene watched his two beloved children, Gail and David, stand in the circle and then drink the punch. When Jones called off the \u201cWhite Night\u201d and allowed the people to disperse, Gene decided that he had seen enough. In Gene\u2019s mind, Jim Jones was mentally unstable and a danger to them all.<\/p>\n

Gene decided that he had to get out of Jonestown and try to appeal to others regarding Jim\u2019s behavior. As Jim\u2019s lawyer, Gene had access to his passport (a luxury that most in Jonestown did not have, as their passports were confiscated when they arrived in Jonestown). Gene got out to Georgetown and then flew to San Francisco and the Temple headquarters. Once there, \u201cGene spent time in the Temple\u2019s legal office in Geary Street church and imprudently confided his suspicions about Jones\u2019 deteriorating sanity to the staff\u201d (Isaacson 2008<\/a>). Gene even went so far as to speak with Jones\u2019s wife Marceline about the dangers that he foresaw as a result of Jim\u2019s actions during the six day siege. He was concerned about the lives of everyone in Jonestown, but he also felt that Jim\u2019s threats of suicide had made the community look bad and childish to their Guyanese hosts.<\/p>\n

Jones was furious when he learned what Gene had been saying. Speaking on the HAM radio from Guyana, Jones angrily defended himself and called the situation \u201cthe Chaikin crisis.\u201d He ordered his attorney to return to Jonestown immediately, but Gene had other ideas. Instead of flying back to Georgetown, Gene went to Trinidad in an attempt to put space between himself and Jones.<\/p>\n

Collecting his thoughts, Gene wrote a letter to Jones<\/a> in which he listed his reasons for leaving, including the crisis of the six day siege and his general feelings towards Jim Jones as his leader. At the top of his mind were his children: Gene wanted them to come out of Jonestown so that they would be safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that some will feel that I split because I was afraid of dying in the situation \u2013 or for my children to do so,\u201d the letter began. \u201cWhile the latter is somewhat true my main motivation was not that at all. I always expected that this particular aspect\u00a0of the immediate threat of arrest of John and\/or yourself would be resolved. I left because I am no longer willing to live in a situation of weekly or biweekly crisis, and the atmosphere of anxiety, hysteria and depression that exist with it\u2026 I feel that the crisis environment is to some extent created and maintained by your state of mind and methodology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gene reserved most of his anger for Jones\u2019 behavior during the six day siege: \u201cA relatively modest and ultimately controllable incident was made, by you<\/em>, into a catastrophe of major proportions involving the full expenditure of such goodwill and energies as we have available. Hindsight? I don\u2019t think so, just reasonable analysis. The whole thing has been handled in an hysterical and destructive fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gene was risking a lot by dissenting from Jim Jones, perhaps more than he was aware. Barry Isaacson feels that Gene was \u201ca bit na\u00efve\u2026 not aware of the waves that he was making\u201d with his letter.[4] <\/a> Certainly, there is no evidence that anyone inside the Temple had dared to speak to Jones in such a fashion prior to this letter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think you have gotten so \u2018uptight\u2019 that you use bullets to kill bumblebees,\u201d the letter continued, \u201cbut that you only have so many in your pocket and when the tigers come, you will have none left to fire at them. I think this has become reactive<\/em> on your part\u2026 I think that to some extent<\/em> you use the \u2018crisis mentality\u2019 to get positive reinforcement and approval.\u201d Gene then directly addressed his personal relationship with Jones. \u201cI detest being lied to and manipulated. You have, over the years, done a lot of both\u2026 How would you feel if I had ever<\/em> (and I never have) knowingly gave false factual reports or false legal opinions to you in order to manipulate your behavior? Would you find that conduct acceptable in me on the grounds that: (1) my goal was pure (2) the ends justified the means (3) I understood the situation better than you? Hell no you wouldn\u2019t \u2013 you would be totally pissed when you found out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou (Jim Jones) leave me very few choices,\u201d the letter concluded. \u201cPhyllis will come in tonight and I suppose we will talk \u2026 but I think you and I now have very little to say to each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gene had expressed his concern for his children and his desire to get them out of Jonestown, noting that his wife, Phyllis, was being sent to talk to him in Trinidad. But Phyllis\u2019 role had changed in her months in Jonestown: now that she was an integral part of the medical team, she had been asked about what she thought would be the easiest and \u201ccleanest\u201d way for the community in Jonestown to commit suicide if need be. Phyllis had answered<\/a> unflinchingly: \u201cWe prepare the people by reading the words of strong, assertive revolutionaries of the past who took this choice over the p.a. system \u2026 We will meet in the pavilion surrounded with highly trusted security with guns. Names will be called off randomly. People will be escorted to a place of dying by a strong personality \u2026 who is loving, supported [supportive] but nonsympathetic. They are accompanied by two strong security men with guns. (I don\u2019t trust people to arrange their own death \u2026 but [it] can be arranged by outside pressure and no alternatives left open.) At the place of dying they are shot in the head, and if Larry [Dr. Larry Schacht] does not believe they are definitely dead, their throat is slit with a scalpel. I would be willing to help here if it is necessary. The bodies would be thrown in a ditch. It might be advisable to blindfold the people before going to the death place in that the blood and body remains on the ground might increase the agitation\u201d (Isaacson 2008<\/a>).<\/p>\n

In other words, Phyllis was not going to support her husband in his request to remove the Chaikin children from Jonestown. Instead, she convinced Gene to let things be and to return to the community. With no other options open to him, he agreed.<\/p>\n

Once back in Jonestown, Gene was once again at the mercy of Jim Jones. From his position of power, Jones told those in his inner circle to\u00a0drug Gene and keep him under surveillance within the compound. Gene was given\u00a0Thorazine, a powerful sedative, and was placed in the \u201cExtended Care Unit\u201d to\u00a0be watched. There is some irony to the fact that Gene was forcibly kept so\u00a0close to where Phyllis worked, considering that their viewpoints were so vastly\u00a0different. Gene was not out of it all of the time, though. He was still\u00a0occasionally seen working in the garden, doing his beloved horticulture. He was\u00a0also functional enough \u2013 at least at times \u2013 to continue doing some legal work\u00a0for the Temple, as is seen in his correspondence with Temple attorney Charles\u00a0Garry in San Francisco. However, when any dignitaries arrived at Jonestown,\u00a0such as Soviet consular officer Feodor Timofeyev, Gene would be kept in the \u201cExtended Care Unit\u201d to preempt any ideas he might have about voicing his\u00a0dissent and compromising his leader with his words.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gene remained a perceived threat to Jones all the way to\u00a0the end. On November 18, 1978, the final day in Jonestown, Charles Garry \u2013 who had gone to Jonestown at Jones\u2019 request to help the community during Leo Ryan\u2019s\u00a0visit \u2013 desperately wanted to see his friend Gene, but again, he was kept out\u00a0of sight. \u201cIn an interview with Robert Scheer in the Los Angeles Times<\/em> on November 26, 1978, eight days after the catastrophe, Garry recalled, \u2018I kept wanting to see Gene Chaikin. They kept telling me he\u00a0was sick. And Mark [Lane] kept telling me not to ask them anymore. He said,\u00a0\u2018They\u2019re not going to let you, don\u2019t ask anymore.\u2019 And when we were in the\u00a0jungle, I said, \u2018Why did you keep telling me not to ask?\u2019 Then he told me the\u00a0whole story. He said, \u2018Gene Chaikin is drugged, if he\u2019s still alive.\u2019 If I had\u00a0known all of this, I would not have been a party to going [to Jonestown], I\u00a0would not have asked anybody to go down there, and I would have gotten the hell\u00a0off the case\u201d <\/span>(Isaacson 2008<\/span><\/a><\/span>).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Eugene Chaikin died in Jonestown, along with Phyllis and\u00a0their two children, Gail and David. Exactly how Gene died is a matter for debate: all that is known is that he was in the \u201cExtended Care Unit\u201d at the time. Whether he drank the poison voluntarily or was forcibly injected will\u00a0never be known.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is<\/i> known is that Eugene Chaikin showed great\u00a0personal fortitude in the face of the insurmountable force of Jim Jones and his\u00a0whims.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gene left a legacy that is very complex. To author Barry\u00a0Isaacson, Gene represents \u201cthe voice of common sense and principle in a world\u00a0that had become fanatical.\u201d[5] <\/a>Indeed, Gene was a voice of common sense: he was also a voice of bravery.\u00a0Although he may have been na\u00efve regarding how he would be punished for speaking\u00a0out, he had to know that he was taking a great risk in doing so, but he chose\u00a0to speak out anyway. When the going got rough and he realized that he could not get his children out of Jonestown, Gene chose to stick with the group, no matter the risk to himself, in the hopes that he could somehow affect change.\u00a0Gene was not able to do so.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is one addition to this legacy of bravery and\u00a0outspoken dissent. \u201cThe biggest misconception about Jonestown was that it was\u00a0brainwashing by Jim Jones; Gene disproves this.\u201d[6] <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

I agree with this assessment: many people believe that Jim Jones brainwashed\u00a0the people of Jonestown and that is why they died on November 18, 1978. Through\u00a0Gene, however, and others, such as Christine Miller, we can see that there\u00a0wasn\u2019t brainwashing at Jonestown. Indeed, in Gene\u2019s case, we can see that\u00a0people kept their individuality and their personal beliefs even if they clashed\u00a0with those of Jim Jones.<\/p>\n

(Bonnie Yates earned a B.A. in Psychology from Northern Illinois University. She has performed work in an Adolescent Suicidology lab, including the gathering, compiling and interpretation of data. Bonnie is a regular contributor to <\/span><\/i>the jonestown report. Her other article in this\u00a0<\/i>edition is The Courage of Dissent<\/span><\/a><\/span>. Her previous articles appear here<\/span><\/a>. She may be reached here<\/span><\/a>.)<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Footnotes<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
1<\/a>\u00a0Conversation with Barry Isaacson, 2012.<\/div>\n
2<\/a> Isaacson, 2012.<\/div>\n
3<\/a> Conversation with Laura Johnston-Kohl, 2012.<\/div>\n
4<\/a> Isaacson, 2012.<\/div>\n
5<\/a> Isaacson, 2012.<\/div>\n
6<\/a> Isaacson, 2012.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eugene Chaikin was born December 18, 1932. He grew up in a Jewish, Communist household in which his father was a dedicated socialist. Gene\u2019s grandmother was very politically inclined as well, with a socialite background. His father committed suicide when Gene was just fifteen years old. When Gene was twenty-seven, he married Phyllis Alexander, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":34370,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-34351","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34351","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=34351"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134554,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34351\/revisions\/134554"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/34370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}