Ukiah Daily Journal from Ukiah, California • Page 1

Ukioh Dailq Journal 118th Year No. 186 Ukiah, Mendocino County, California Wednesday, November 22, 1978 46 Pages 20 Page tab 12 Page Tab 7 Sections Cents Special services mark Thanksgiving Ukiahans will celebrate Thanksgiving tonight and tomorrow at special services and family gatherings. All government offices and schools, and most retail stores, will be closed Thursday. The Daily Journal will not publish. On Friday, merchants kick-off their Christmas selling season, with Santa arriving at the airporl at 10 a.m.

and touring downtown stores and shopping centers. While stores, banks, and state and federal offices will be open Friday, city and county offices and schools are closed. Rexall Drug will be open 10-3 Thursday, and both Thrifty stores will be open 9-7, but the pharmacies in each will be closed. A Union Thanksgiving Service, arranged by the Ukiah Ministerial Association, will be held tonight at 7:30 at the Assembly of God, 395 N. Barnes.

Rev. Arthur Combs of the Church of the Nazarene will deliver the message, and special music will be provided by the Youth Brass Ensemble of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and by the First Baptist Church youth choir. Grace Lutheran Church will hold a 7:30 service tonight, with Pastor Del Kjorvestad delivering the message, entitled "The Gifts of God's Grace." The church is located at 200 Wabash. The offering will go to the Ukiah Minsterial Association's emergency fund. Faith Lutheran Church will hold a Thanksgiving Day service at 10 a.m.

Thursday. Pastor Edwin Sohn will speak on the topic "The of Gratitude." President Carter's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation will be read, and the offering will go to the Lutheran World Relief fund. The church is at 560 Park Blvd. The arrival of Santa Claus by helicopter at the Ukiah airport Friday morning at 10 marks the beginning of the ChHstmas shopping season. St.

Nick, escorted by the Ukiah Fire Department, will be at the Deep Valley Shopping Center at 10:30, Mendo Mill at 11, Pear Tree Shopping Center at 11:30, Orchard Plaza center at noon, Ukiah Rexall at 12:30 p.m., in downtown Ukiah at 1, and in the Ukiah Theater lot at 1:30 The visit is sponsored by the Greater Ukiah Chamber Wednesday, from the desk By Jim Garner General consensus of Ukiahans concerning the People's Temple is "why wasn't something done when Jim Jones was in Redwood Valley?" In 1965, Jones moved here from Indiana with an estimated 40 to 50 followers. The following expanded to hundreds and then thousands within a relatively short period. The temple was built and the treasury bulged. Untold numbers of real estate parcels were signed over to Jones. All well and good.

And all very, very legal. But when barricades and armed guards were placed around the temple, this should have been a hint that something was out of kilter. Unofficial, but reliable, sources say an unusually large number of concealed weapons permits were issued at the temple. Strange for a non-violent religious group, wasn't it? And there was no shortage of weird stories of beatings from disillusioned ex- followers. But Jones maintained a high profile because of his political involvement.

The leader learned a valuable lesson here and used it to full advantage after moving the temple to San Francisco in 1971. He controlled the minds of his followers. He also controlled their votes. Therein probably lies the reason this atrocity was allowed to continue and flourish. The deaths of 405 people just might have been avoided if someone in authority 10 years ago had done only what three newsmen did last weekend.

Weather Northwestern California: Clearing today then fair through Thanksgiving day. Local morning fog. Cooler nights. Light winds. Fort Bragg 42 and 58, Ukiah 32 and 65.

Extended forecast Friday through Sunday: Showers likely near the Oregon Border and over the Sierra Nevada Friday and again about Sunday with chance of showers farther south. 1977 Date Hi Lo Date Hi 21 55 42 21 55 38 10 a.m. Today Low Today 47 38 Rainfall 3.56 Last Year 9.06 Five of Ryan's killers identified as Ukiahans By KATHY HUNTER Five of the nine men who gunned down Cong. Leo Ryan and four others as they were leaving Jonestown by chartered plane with nine Peoples Temple members who "wanted out" of their jungle "prison" were reportedly from Ukiah. The information was called in late this morning by a Guyanese government official.

In a guarded telephone call from Georgetown, where the government monitors nearly all incoming and outgoing calls, the informant said that ambushers Bob Kice and Al Touchette were dead but no information was available on Tom Kice, Joe Wilson and Ron Kelly, who were reportedly with the group who murdered the congressman, two NBC men and a San Francisco Examiner photographer, along with Patricia Parks of Ukiah. a Temple member who begged Ryan to "get me out." The information has yet to be confirmed and when the U.S. embassy in Georgetown was called a spokesman by the name of Kibble said he could give out no information "at this time." Many doors are locked and barricaded in Ukiah and other parts of California where the temple, led by Jim Jones, was active. Ukiahans were asking and receiving police protection from the possibility that Jones' pre-announced statement that no matter who died in Guyana a "hit squad" would return to the United States to "take care of" temple critics and church defectors. Several ex-members of the temple here have gone into hiding.

Temple sold most of Co. holdings By MITCHELL LANDSBERG Journal Staff Writer Little is left of the massive property holdings acquired by the People's Temple during its heyday in Mendocino County. Only two pieces of People's Temple property remain in the county the church itself on East Road in Redwood Valley and the "Happy Acres Ranch" on Road K. Nearly a million dollars worth of property was sold by the temple here in 1976 and 1977. Records in the county recorder's office show that much of that property had been given to the church by its members.

The church building is reported to be in escrow at present. Informed sources say it is being sold to the Redwood Valley Community Church. The temple building, including the adjacent home formerly occupied by Rev. Jim Jones, has been assessed at close to $200,000. This is at Prop.

or values. Happy Acres, also known as the Road Ranch, is assessed at around $180,000. It takes in some 37 acres, including 11 acres of vineyard, and has been used as a care home for the mentally retarded. County Assessor Duane Wells has indicated that the temple like any could probably be sold for considerably more than their assessed value. And Wells confirmed that People's Temple property could be listed under some other name, making it difficult to locate in county records.

There is no property listed under the name of James Jones. Jones' signature is found on numerous transactions made by the temple over the past few years, however. Records indicate that the church underwent a campaign of getting rid of its Mendocino County property during 1976 and 1977. During those years, some 25 pieces of property owned by the People's Temple were sold. There are few rates listed before 1976, and none after Dec.

1977 And county deed records show an interesting pattern: in a number of cases, the church was given property by its members for immediate resale. In these cases, property was given to the temple and sold the same day It is also likely that many properties were given to the temple and sold after a period of months or years, but this is more difficult to establish During 1976, the temple sold 11 properties worth $217,909. There were actually 14 parcels involved in the 11 sales, and six of these were given to the church the day of the sale. In 1977, 14 sales were made. Four of these involved property given to the church the same day.

Total sales in 1977 amounted to $703,000, records show. The total for the two years is some $921,000. Wells said the actual sales were probably more than the assessed cash value, which is the figure indicated in the deeds. One former member of the People's Temple has told the San Francisco Chronicle that members were routinely ordered to sign blank deeds, often without knowing what they were. During 1976 and 1977, all deeds were notarized by one of three notary publics Stoen, James Randolph and Harold Cordell.

All were members of the temple at the time Among the people who gave the temple property were Linda Amos and Gerald and Patricia Parks. Amos is reported to have killed herself at temple headquarters in Georgetown, Guyana, on Saturday. Patricia Parks was one of those killed at the Port Kaituma airstrip that night Others who handed over property include: Emma Jurado, Raymond and Violet Godshalk, Tim and Grace Stoen, Eugene and Phyllis Chaikin (Eugene Chaiken was the temple's attorney), James and Betty Purifoy, Tom and Wanda Kice, Charles and Carol Touchette and Deborah Evans. At least 17 area residents died in Temple mass suicide Names of 17 former residents of Ukiah and Redwood Valley were on a partial list of 173 victims of the Jonestown mass suicide and massacre which occurred Saturday in Jonestown, the Guyana religious and agricultural community founded by Jim Jones, pastor of the Peoples Temple Church. Included, all from Ukiah, are Velma Barnes, Jack Beam, Dorothy Buckley, Patricia Cartnell, Patty Cartnell, Candace Cordell, Chris Cordell, Amanda Fair, a Mr.

Fair, Magnolia Harris, Paulette Jackson, and Karen Layton. From Redwood Valley: Jim Jones, Marceline Jones, Danny Kutulas, Tim Swaney, and Billy Jones, reportedly the pastor's grandson. According lo latest reports, 409 Temple members committed suicide or were shot shortly after an execution squad killed Cong. Leo Ryan, three newsmen, and Patricia Parks of Ukiah, who was leaving the commune with the delegation, as they prepared to take off from a small airport near the Temple commune Journal photo by Dale Kalkman BOS proceeds with caution to revise GP By NANCY STENSON Journal Staff Writer A lawsuit filed by the state is not going to shove the county board of supervisors into any hasty moves to revise the General Plan, as was apparent from the supervisors action during Tuesday's board meeting. Instead, the supervisors are proceeding cautiously, and using the normal channels in an effort to start work on the General Plan.

A $32,000 bid from the Sacramento-based firm of Gennis Associates to act as consultants on the General Plan was reviewed by the board and then referred to the planning commission for a recom menda tion. To show, however, that they are taking steps towards developing a new General Plan, the supervisors also requested a copy of the bid be sent to the state attorney general's office, which has filed suit against Mendocino County for alleged inadequacies in the General Plan. Even after they develop a revised General Plan, the supervisors are not sure it will satisfy the attorney general. Furthermore, even with speedy action, the county will not be able to meet the submission date of Jan. 1, 1979, established by the state attorney general's office for a revised General Plan According to Donald F.

Johnson, AIP, a subcontractor for Gennis and Associates, "No way can we meet the Jan. 1 deadline." Johnson estimated the revision would require at least 90 to 180 days. Although Johnson said he believed he and Edward A. Wheatley of Gennis "have a realistic solution" to the county's General Plan problems, he said he could make no guarantees. Johnson, a planner for 26 years and a Lakeport resident, said the county's principal problem is the housing element of the General Plan.

The housing element designates by policy where amounts of low-income housing should be located, and contains a myriad of information on county housing. It is also, accoring to Jerry Heath, a county senior planner, the largest element in the General Plan. According to Johnson, the housing element will require a number of public meetings. "It will have to reflect community choices," he added. The bid price of $32,000 could result in a $64,000 cost to the county if an environmental report is needed, cautioned Johnson.

Said John Drummond, county counsel: "We had hoped to put our efforts into settlement of the matter. The county was not planning to spend money on litigation as well as revising the General Plan." At the end of the General Plan discussion, William Randolph of William Randolph Associates, an environmental consulting firm, asked why the proposal process was not opened to other local consultants. "I've been interested in the General Plan and had hoped I could at least submit a bid." said Randolph. "1 at least want an opportunity to make an arm's length offer.