{"id":64529,"date":"2015-10-27T16:19:26","date_gmt":"2015-10-27T16:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=64529"},"modified":"2026-02-27T14:19:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T22:19:50","slug":"peoples-temple-in-the-news-2015","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=64529","title":{"rendered":"Peoples Temple in the News 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"o'neal\"<\/a> Jonestown survivor Christopher O\u2019Neal was shot to death during an altercation with police in Lucerne, California, in November 2014. He was 56.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neal had traveled to Jonestown to be with his girlfriend Brenda Parks \u2013 and not as a member of Peoples Temple himself \u2013\u00a0and joined the Parks family in leaving with Congressman Leo Ryan on November 18, 1978. He was one of several survivors who returned to Jonestown in the aftermath of the deaths to assist in identifying bodies.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neal suffered from depression stemming from his experiences, including night terrors which apparently increased as the anniversaries approached. On this occasion, about a week before the 36th<\/sup> anniversary, O\u2019Neal reportedly used a fake name when calling the police about a domestic disturbance involving himself, then menaced responding officers with a knife. He was shot seven times. The county district attorney\u2019s report<\/a>, released in February 2015, described the incident as \u201csuicide by cop\u201d and ruled the killing as a justifiable homicide.<\/p>\n

An earlier story in the immediate aftermath of the incident is here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neal, who had had several previous scrapes with the law, had lived in the Ukiah area since his return from Jonestown.<\/p>\n

Other obituaries appear here<\/a>. Jennifer Kathleen Gibbons\u2019 reflection on Christopher O\u2019Neal appears here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His most well-known appearances are on several places on NBC\u2019s news footage<\/a> from Jonestown\u2019s final weekend, such as on a minute-long segment beginning at 13:39 and following \u2013 including a short conversation with him and Jim Jones at 14:12-14:20 \u2013 and in a minute long clip from 28:16 – 29:17. His interview with the FBI upon his return to the United States from Guyana in December 1978 appears here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Chris Lewis, the son of the Peoples Temple member of the same name whom Jim Jones considered as his bodyguard, faced court dates in mid-November in California Superior Court in Sacramento County in connection with charges of assault with a deadly weapon and threats to commit a crime resulting in death or grievous bodily injury. The incident, for which he is being held on bail in excess of $600,000, occurred in May 2015. If convicted, he faces a possible life sentence.<\/p>\n

\u2022 A lawsuit which would have forced Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, California to remove four memorial panels<\/a> at the mass grave where more than 400 unidentified and unclaimed bodies from the Jonestown tragedy are buried, is dead. Filed in May 2011 by the Guyana Tribute Foundation<\/a>, the case was dismissed in May 2014, but foundation head Dr. Jynona Norwood appealed the dismissal. Earlier this year, a state appeals court rejected the effort to keep the case alive.<\/p>\n

\"06-08-norwood\"<\/a>In an unrelated development, the PR Newswire reported<\/a> on January 14, 2015, that Rev. Norwood\u2019s church, the Family Christian Cathedral in Inglewood, California, may be forced to close. According to the news release, \u201c[Norwood] claims that she has a forensic handwriting declaration stating that her name was forged on documents, that there have been ACH [Automated Clearing House] debits she is unaware of, and that authorities suspect this to be a case of identity theft and possible money laundering.\u201d There have been no further developments on this story.<\/p>\n

Rev. Norwood has led memorial services for the Jonestown dead at Evergreen Cemetery every year on November 18 since 1979. Coverage from the 2014 service appeared in Oakland North<\/a>, a news project of UC Berkeley\u2019s Graduate School of Journalism, on November 19.<\/p>\n

Other News Stories from 2015<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Jim Jones made the news on at least two occasions this past year in Indianapolis, Indiana, the city of Peoples Temple\u2019s origin.<\/p>\n