{"id":86629,"date":"2019-03-15T16:22:47","date_gmt":"2019-03-15T23:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=86629"},"modified":"2019-03-15T16:23:01","modified_gmt":"2019-03-15T23:23:01","slug":"historical-footnote-tim-stoens-interaction-with-the-fbi-during-waco","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=86629","title":{"rendered":"Historical footnote: <br>Tim Stoen\u2019s interaction with the FBI during Waco"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 1993 \u2013 fifteen years after Jonestown \u2013 the FBI engaged in a 51-day stand-off with the Branch Davidians at their Mount Carmel ranch near Waco, Texas. The siege ended when the FBI launched an assault on the group, resulting in the deaths of 76 people. The cause of the deaths has been a matter of debate ever since \u2013 was the fire that killed the Branch Davidians result from the assault, or did the members of the group commit suicide? \u2013 but during the 51-day siege, many former group members, religious scholars and others contacted the FBI on the question of how Davidian leader David Koresh would respond, should an attack ensue.<\/p>\n<p>One of the people who contacted the FBI was Tim Stoen. On March 28 \u2013 about halfway through the stand-off \u2013Stoen spoke on the phone with FBI negotiators. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Waco-Stoen.pdf\">an FBI message sheet<\/a> summarizing the conversation, Stoen suggested that the FBI &#8220;immediately withdraw all tanks, armor, uniformed personnel, and other signs of a military invasion (which simply feeds the Armageddon consciousness of the leader and plays into his hold over his followers).&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/SuicideAddendum4-18-93.pdf\">A \u201cSuicide Addendum\u201d<\/a> to an FBI status report dated April 18, 1993 \u2013 one day before the final assault \u2013 catalogues various communications the bureau had received. According to the document, \u201cTimothy Stoen, attorney for Jim Jones, wrote in a letter that, based on his experience with cults, he believed it increasingly likely that a mass suicide would occur. He saw \u2018disquieting parallels\u2019 between Jonestown and Waco. Stoen did not further define the parallels, but offered suggestions for resolution.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 1993 \u2013 fifteen years after Jonestown \u2013 the FBI engaged in a 51-day stand-off with the Branch Davidians at their Mount Carmel ranch near Waco, Texas. The siege ended when the FBI launched an assault on the group, resulting in the deaths of 76 people. The cause of the deaths has been a matter [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":13841,"menu_order":20,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-86629","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/86629","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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=86629"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/86629\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86633,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/86629\/revisions\/86633"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=86629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}