{"id":97519,"date":"2020-04-29T15:18:23","date_gmt":"2020-04-29T22:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=97519"},"modified":"2020-05-03T17:39:15","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T00:39:15","slug":"q229-summary","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=97519","title":{"rendered":"Q229 Summary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III. If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

To read the Tape Transcript, click here<\/a>. Listen to MP3 (Pt. 1<\/a>,\u00a0Pt. 2<\/a>).
\nTo return to the Tape Index, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

FBI Catalogue<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jones Speaking<\/p>\n

FBI preliminary tape identification note: <\/strong>Labeled in part \u201cAug 15 News\u201d<\/p>\n

Date cues on tape:<\/strong>\tContents consistent with note<\/p>\n

People named:\t<\/strong><\/p>\n

Public figures\/National and international names:<\/em>
\nSection 1<\/strong>
\nJimmy Carter, U.S. President
\nJohn F. Kennedy, assassinated U.S. President
\nGriffin Bell, Attorney General
\nAndrew Young, U.S. Ambassador to United Nations
\nSen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA)
\nSen. Robert F. Kennedy, assassinated presidential candidate
\nRep. Tip O\u2019Neill (D-MA), Speaker of the House
\nRep. Philip Crane (R-IL)<\/div>\n
Pope Paul VI [by reference]
\nHua Kuo-fenj, premier of China [by reference]
\nReza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran<\/p>\n

Jerry Brown, California governor
\nEvelle Younger, California Attorney General<\/p>\n

Adolf Hitler, German F\u00fchrer
\nMenachem Begin, Israeli Prime Minister
\nAnwar Sadat, President of Egypt
\nFidel Castro, leader of Cuba
\nFulgencio Batista, former Cuban dictator
\nChe Guevara, Latin American Revolutionary
\nTamara Bunke, companion to Che Guevara
\nAnastasio Somoza Debayle, President of Nicaragua<\/p>\n

Martin Luther King, civil rights activist
\nRalph Abernathy, civil rights activist
\nJames Earl Ray, convicted assassin of Martin Luther King
\nCesar Chavez, organizer of farm workers
\nAngela Davis, University professor, member of Communist Party<\/p>\n

Billy Graham, American evangelist
\nVictor Marchetti, author of Cult of Intelligence<\/em> [by reference]
\nMyron Farber, jailed New York Times reporter
\nDaniel Ellsberg, Defense Department analyst who leaked Pentagon Papers
\nGeorge Meany, labor leader, head of AFL-CIO
\nPatricia Hearst, newspaper heiress, kidnapped by SLA in 1974
\nAristotle Onassis, shipping magnate
\nChristine Onassis, daughter of shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis
\nSergei Kauzov, husband of Christine Onassis [by reference]
\nDiana Nyad, US long-distance swimmer [by reference]<\/p>\n

Alejo Carpentier, Cuban writer
\nAlexis Marquis, book critic, Venezuelan professor
\nGabriel Garcia Marquez, writer
\nCarlos Fuentes, writer
\nAlix Kates Shulman, writer
\nDonella and Dennis Meadows, writers<\/p>\n

Don Freed, author and screenwriter [by reference]
\nKathy Hunter, Ukiah reporter who visited Guyana in 1978 [by reference]<\/p>\n

Henry Weinstein, LA Times reporter
\nStephen Bingham, radical attorney
\nAlfred Mitchell Bingham, father
\nSylvia Bingham, mother
\nHiram Bingham, grandfather
\nJonathan Bingham, uncle, congressman
\nGeorge Jackson, radical black prisoner, Bingham\u2019s client
\nAllan Mancino, Soledad prisoner
\nRennie Davis, antiwar activist
\nMaharj Ji, guru<\/p>\n

Crusades figures<\/strong>
\nSaladin
\nGodfrey, king of Jerusalem
\nRichard of England, Coeur de Lion
\nLouis IX, king of France [by reference]
\nFrederick Barbarossa, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
\nCount Stephen of Blois
\nAdela, wife
\nBohemond I of Antioch
\nRaymond, Count of St. Gilles<\/p>\n

Section 2<\/strong>
\nFidel Castro, leader of Cuba
\nFulgencio Batista, former Cuban dictator<\/div>\n

Temple adversaries; members of Concerned Relatives:<\/em>
\nSection 1<\/strong>
\nTim Stoen<\/div>\n
Section 2<\/strong>
\nJohn Haynes
\nWade and Mabel Medlock [by reference]<\/div>\n
Jonestown residents, full name unknown:<\/em>
\nSection 2<\/strong>
\nDiane
\nJoyce
\nRichard (speaks)<\/strong>
\nSharon
\nThelma [Cannon or Jackson]<\/div>\n
Jonestown residents:<\/em>
\nSection 1<\/strong>
\nTeresa King
\nWillie Malone
\nLarry Schacht<\/div>\n
Section 2<\/strong>
\nJoe Beam, aka Joseph Helle
\nChuck Beikman
\nWalter Cartmell
\nJudy Ijames
\nTom Grubbs
\nMarceline Jones (speaks)<\/strong>
\nRennie Kice (speaks)<\/strong>
\nRichardell Perkins<\/div>\n

 
\nBible verses cited:<\/strong> \t<\/p>\n

\u201cBecome all things to all men that by any means you might save the more. That proverb goes back to Christian-Judeo roots.\u201d (I Corinthians 9:21-22, \u201cTo them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.\u201d)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Summary:<\/strong>\t<\/p>\n

This tape consists principally of Jim Jones reading the daily news for August 15, 1978. There is however the remnants of an undated Jonestown meeting at the end of the tape, with the balance of it likely recorded over by the news reading.<\/p>\n

In the meeting, which seems to be from a period later in Jonestown\u2019s history \u2013 perhaps earlier in the summer of 1978 \u2013 Jones laments the damage that former members have done to the movement, after everything he has done for them in the past. He is also leery about what current residents are thinking. He has always criticized gossip, but now, it has become a bigger problem. While he would like to give people more time off from work, they can\u2019t afford it, both in terms of lost production but also \u201cbecause of people plotting, talking. You can\u2019t give them enough time to plot to do something.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both he and Marceline Jones are critical of people making decisions on their own without proper consultation. Workers are drawing conclusions on their own or coming to arrangements with each other, acting on \u201chalf information.\u201d These decisions need to go through the Jonestown leadership.<\/p>\n

The meeting also includes the tape\u2019s main reference to suicide. In talking about Cuba in the years since Castro took power, Jones notes that the people took risks, but the risks were worthwhile, since they overcame oppression. It\u2019s the same for the people of Jonestown. \u201cSure, we risked our lives. All this crap about suicide, it wasn\u2019t suicide. It was a mass demonstration against injustice. \u2026 If we all have to die, we will stand up for everyone\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The majority of the tape consists of several segments constituting the reading of the news, with periodic announcements and a number of lengthier pieces. Jones makes numerous editorial asides with invective that is often quite fierce \u2013 the US is not only a racist garrison state, but, as he strings in one clause, it is \u201cthat fascist military state of USA, monopoly capitalist imperialism\u201d \u2013 matched only by his characterizations of Zionist Israel.<\/p>\n

The latter comments come during his reading of an article from an unknown source, and some of the language may be in the article itself. The piece on the history and motivations of Zionism comes from a Marxist perspective, he says, and shows why Israel will never agree to the creation of a Palestinian state. Zionism provides a religious cover to the worst elements of capitalism and fascism, he says. The conspiratorial allegations could be from the piece itself, although Jones has spoken of them before; the repeated assertions that Israel\u2019s actions may result in a \u201cnuclear hell\u201d are more likely those of Jones himself.<\/p>\n

Other longer pieces include a geography lesson on Surinam, Guyana\u2019s neighbor to the east; a Los Angeles Times article about Stephen Bingham, a radical lawyer who was indicted for allegedly smuggling a gun into black revolutionary prisoner George Jackson at Soledad in California in 1971; and a short history of the Crusades. As with the piece on Zionism, the synopsis on the Crusades concludes with an overtly Marxist message, although Jones seems to make numerous asides along the way, comparing the Crusades to current times in terms of failing economic systems, the mistreatment of blacks, and the \u201casininity\u201d of religion, such as that practiced by Billy Graham, who says \u201cthat God would not suffer nuclear bombs to fall on America.\u201d In a laughing dismissal of Jesus, Jones ties the oppression of Christianity with the need for Marxism: \u201cJesus, if he ever did live and if he ever did really walk the earth, has certainly been able to create a great opiate \u2026 that diverts the people from the class struggle and economic awareness, so they can build a utopia on earth, which we have the best. And,\u201d he concludes, \u201cwe should be grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

The announcements reflect the period in Jonestown\u2019s history. The Federal Communications Commission wants to cut off their ham radio, but they won\u2019t succeed. Evidence has emerged \u2013 from their writer friend, Don Freed \u2013 that Tim Stoen was in \u201cthe conspiracy\u201d before he joined the Temple. Jones still has his powers of prophecy, as the people of Jonestown want to see for themselves by reviewing tapes from earlier than month, in which their leader predicted the earthquake that rattled California (which in fact, he did, on July 19 link to 311 ). And throughout it all, Jones remarks on how little sleep he is getting, how much pain he is in, and how much he continues to do for them. <\/p>\n

Jones does remind the people that they need to turn in their autobiographical sketches \u2013 he refers to them as \u201cinterviews\u201d \u2013 which, as described on other tapes, will be the foundation for a book and\/or movie about the Temple movement. But, he cautions, just talk about yourselves and what a new person each of you is. \u201cPlease don\u2019t politicize,\u201d he adds. \u201cDon\u2019t be talking things in terms of capitalism and socialism.\u201d <\/p>\n

Among the shorter news items covered:<\/p>\n

\u2022 During an interview, Attorney General Griffin Bell discusses recently-released files on the Martin Luther King assassination, as well as the Wilmington 10, a reporter jailed for refusing to turn over sources, and his own contempt citation by a congressional committee;
\n\u2022 The House assassination committee will hear James Earl Ray, MLK\u2019s convicted killer;
\n\u2022 Two candidates \u2013 one from each party \u2013 move towards challenging Carter in 1980;
\n\u2022 Pope Paul VI is dead;
\n\u2022 The Chinese premier is en route to Iran to discuss his Doctrine of Three Worlds<\/a>;
\n\u2022 A Cuban writer is celebrated as the most important storyteller in the Spanish language;
\n\u2022 Nicaraguan forces battle against hunger strikers, protestors and guerilla activists;
\n\u2022 Fire and police officers continue to strike in Memphis, despite court orders;
\n\u2022 Christine Onassis returns to her husband in Moscow.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

FBI Summary:<\/strong>\t<\/p>\n

Date of transcription: 6\/27\/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 May 29, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B70-15. This tape was found to contain the following:<\/p>\n

A recording of current events by JIM JONES<\/p>\n

Differences with FBI Summary:\t<\/strong><\/p>\n

The summary is accurate and meets the FBI\u2019s purposes.\t<\/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. Listen to MP3 (Pt. 1,\u00a0Pt. 2). To return to the Tape Index, click here. FBI Catalogue\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jones Speaking FBI preliminary tape identification note: Labeled in part \u201cAug 15 News\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":27996,"menu_order":97,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-97519","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/97519","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=97519"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/97519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97750,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/97519\/revisions\/97750"}],"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=97519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}