{"id":94902,"date":"2020-02-11T10:36:35","date_gmt":"2020-02-11T18:36:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=94902"},"modified":"2026-02-23T14:21:45","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T22:21:45","slug":"the-fbi-and-peoples-temple","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=94902","title":{"rendered":"The FBI and Peoples Temple"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Of all the agencies with records on Peoples Temple and Jonestown, the one with the largest collection \u2013 some 48,000 pages \u2013 is the FBI.<\/p>\n

There are two sets of records in the possession of the FBI. The first, smaller collection of about 10,000 pages \u2013 code-named RYMUR for Ryan Murder \u2013 is of the FBI\u2019s investigation into the assassination of Leo Ryan and the deaths of November 18, 1978. The second, larger collection of documents \u2013 some 38,000 pages \u2013 is of records which were generated by Peoples Temple itself and recovered by the FBI in Jonestown in 1978.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. RYMUR Sections 1 \u2013 42<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Peoples Temple records collected by the FBI during RYMUR, Sections 43 \u2013 160<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. \u201cBulky\u201d folders released by FBI, Sections 161 \u2013 175<\/a> <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    A list of people who were listed in the FBI\u2019s RYMUR documents and who did not die in Jonestown appears here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

    Access to government records has not been easily obtained. Beginning in December 1978, the managers of this website have filed scores of FOIA requests and three lawsuits under the law, the most significant of which is McGehee and Moore v. Justice<\/em>.\u00a0 Filed in 2000, this lawsuit seeks all documents and photographs in the FBI\u2019s possession. The litigation has resulted in the release of unredacted Temple records. The FBI still claims FOIA exemptions for many of the RYMUR records \u2013 especially privacy exemptions, but also national security and grand jury exemptions \u2013 and the litigation continues.<\/p>\n

    This section will also include coverage of McGehee and Moore v. Justice <\/em>in the jonestown report<\/em> and other publications, as well as documents from the litigation itself.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. News coverage of McGehee and Moore v. Justice<\/em><\/li>\n
    2. Court filings in McGehee and Moore v. Justice<\/em>\n
        \n
      1. Decision of District Judge Gladys Kessler, DC Circuit<\/a> (August 5, 2011)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Of all the agencies with records on Peoples Temple and Jonestown, the one with the largest collection \u2013 some 48,000 pages \u2013 is the FBI. There are two sets of records in the possession of the FBI. The first, smaller collection of about 10,000 pages \u2013 code-named RYMUR for Ryan Murder \u2013 is of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":13764,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-94902","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/94902","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=94902"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/94902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133988,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/94902\/revisions\/133988"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=94902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}