Ukiah Daily Journal from Ukiah, California • Page 4

Daily Journal, Uklah, Calif. Monday, November 27, 1978 THE JONESTOWN HORROR: A reprise Editor's Note: Alvin B. Webb, former UPI Europe and Asia news editor and chief reporter in Vietnam, is head of a special UPI news-photo team from North and South America in Guyana to gather facts on the mass suicide that the State Department reports took the lives of 900 members of the Rev. Jim Jones Peoples Temple deep in the Guyana jungle. In addition, UPI bureaus in San Francisco, Washington, Houston, Indianapolis, and many other points have contributed additional information on Jones and his sect for this story.

UPI New York "I am God! I am God!" the Rev. Jim Jones By ALVIN B. WEBB GEORGETOWN, Guyana (UPI) They killed the babies first. Mothers brought their infants to the altar of death, cradled in their arms. Children were led by the hand.

Nurses moved from one trusting child to another, squirting cyanide down their throats with syringes while their parents looked on. Near the altar the Rev. Jim Jones, 46, sat on a throne-like chair on a platform, presiding calmly over this great extravaganza of death. Within moments convulsions began to wrack the liny bodies of the children, white foam frothing from their lips. The children began to cry, small voices wailing in a wilderness of murderous suicidal mania.

They trembled, fear in their eyes. For one brief moment, panic swept the disciples of the Peoples Temple. Jones sensed it. He leaped to his feet, exhorting, shouting. "We must die with dignity." As if by godlike command, all doubt vanished and as the last rays of sun filtered through the Guyanese jungles, hundreds of followers of Jim Jones drank poison and died in satanic ritual.

Most were Californians. Most were black. "The first adult to die was a young woman who went up with a baby in her arms, had the poison shot down her throat, walked into a field and sat down and died," said Odell Rhodes, the only known living witness of the mass suicide. That last hour is almost impossible to visualize. Rhodes, 36, a recovered drug addict with a long arrest record in Detroit, provided a rambling account: "They (the medical teams) took equipment into a tent, used as a library and school, large syringes minus the needles, plastic containers with the poison." The poison was cyanide and contained tranquilizers and painkillers to ease the agony of the deadly poison.

It was washed down with grape KoolAid. "They would draw an amount out in the syringes and administer it by simply squirting it in people's mouths. "Then they would give them a small drink of punch to wash it down. "Many of the chiildren volunteered to take the poison. I can't say why most people were found face down.

They were falling different ways." "Then the children started to cry." Rhodes said he escaped when he went with a nurse to find a stethoscope. "I went out the back door and crawled under a said. Most of the disciples went into the main auditorium to die. At the back of the hall, mounted on a stage, was a placque in black. It read: "Love one Another." Not since the Nazi death camps of World War II has a scene so stunned the world.

Fields covered with the dead, many lying in embrace, surrounded the Peoples Temple, a ramshackle wooden structure in the center of the commune victims of one of the most awesome mass suicides in history. Within the space of a few minutes at dusk on Saturday, Nov. 18, the lexicon of history's horrors had to be expanded to include: Jonestown. James Warren Jones was born in 1932 in Lynn, the son of a poor family Which lived mainly off an army pension the father received for being gassed in World War I. A childhood friend, Thelma Manning of Fort Myers, remembered that Jones' mother was a "strong, independent, intense" person who worked at different jobs to help support the family.

"Old Jim (the father) didn't do much," Mrs. Manning said. "Just went uptown to play cards with the boys." Jones loved animals as a child and Barbara Shaffer, a first cousin who still lives in Lynn, recalled, "sometimes he'd have six or seven cats or dogs following him around." "I also remember we always had funerals for our pets," Mrs. Shaffer said "Another thing I remember is he was always interested in being a minister." "He was always interested in the church," Mrs. Vera Price, another childhood playmate from Lynn recalled "We used to play pretend church and he's be the preacher, standing up and making sermons." Jones used to "baptize" the other children in a creek that ran through the town.

"He never drowned anybody I know of," Mrs. Price said. "I had a hunch something bad was going to happen to him," said a former acquaintance who did not want to use his name. "He was smart as a whip but had some strange ideas. He never Tit in the town.

He was different." If the town of Lynn did not like Jones, Jones detested Lynn. He attended high school in nearby Richmond where he was known as something of a loner. The only mention of him in the graduating class year book said inexplicably, "Jim's six-syllable medical vocabulary astounds us all:" Later on, when he had built his fanatical following, Jones tried to go home again. In June, 1976, he detoured 11 busloads of disciples to his hometown. But even then, Lynn, was not impressed with its native son.

"I didn't agree with some of the things he was supposed to have done," Mrs. Myrtle Kennedy recalled of the 1976 visit. "Like healing people. I believe that's God's work." Jones left Lynn upon graduation to pursue his climb toward self- deification. "Jones started out in the Methodist church but got disenchanted," said Thomas Dickson of Tampa, a former associate minister of Jones' Peoples Temple.

"He told me there was no love in the (Methodist) Church and he said that's what made him decide to start his own church," Dickson said. Jones enrolled in Indiana University and his freshman roommate, Kenneth E. Lemons, recalled "Jones believed himself then to bea Messiah." Jones spent a summer at Purdue and then enrolled in Butler University in Indianapolis in 1951. He spent the next 10 years as a part time student earning a degree in secondary education. By this time Jones had married a nurse at Reid Memorial Hospital whom he had met while working as an orderly one of many jobs he held while putting himself through school.

In 1956 Jones opened his first Peoples Temple ind adopted his first cause the plight of blacks in a city with its share of racial unrest. He had worked in several small churches in the city and at the last, the Laurel Street Tabernacle, he was expelled for advocating the admittance of Special DAC meet set Wednesday blacks to the congregation. Jones and his wife adopted eight children some of them black and kept his fledgling church going by opening a soup kitchen and by giving away old clothes they collected. Jones, who would later confide in a friend that his father had been "a Ku Klux Klan type' and that he had "never seen a Negro until I was 12," moved his church into a black neighborhood. For his pains he earned the wrath of many whites and his church was the target of macabre menaces dead cats were thrown into the congregation and crosses burned on the lawn.

But he also was named executive director of Indianapolis' Human Rights Commission where former Mayor Churches H. Boswell remembered him as a "very quiet, non-aggressive person" who, in 1964, was ordained a minister in the Christian Church. One year later he gave up the fight and, denouncing Indiana as a "racist" state, led 140 of his faithful to Ukiah, Calif. It was the first step on the journey to death. In Ukiah, Jones horizons began to expand.

Jones began to draw disciples from the lonely, the elderly, the desperate hopeless people who would give all they had for the promise of eternity. Many of the elderly new converts turned over their Social Security checks to Jones. He promised to take care of them for the rest of their lives and gave them a $2-a-week allowance. "He made them cash in their insurance," former member Birdie Marable said. Jones told them they did not need insurance, promising they would never die.

Jones began to buy property from the donations. At the time of his move to Guyana, Jones had sold nearly all of his property in Redwood Valley. The county assessor had put the value at $1 million but Jones sold it for much more. More and more converts donated land to Jones' church. Jones promptly sold it.

In 1976, records show Jones sold 11 pieces of property worth 1217,000. Six of those were sold by Jones on the same day the owner gave them to the church. Jones also learned the boundless capability of human belief. At church services Jones would sell pictures of himself to his disciples. Each picture was designed to protect the holder from fire, assault, even cancer.

But each picture would work for only one catastrophe, so church members had to buy a full set to get total protection. Al Mills, the church photographer, said the picture concession alone netted up to $3,000 each weekend. By the early 1970s, weekend church services in San Francisco and Los Angeles were bringing in between $25,000 and $35,000. But other, more sinister changes were taking place in the heart and mind of Jim Jones. He began to believe in his own messianic mission and he learned the power of fear.

"He would tell them something tragic would happen if they left," Dickson recalled. "No one else was supposed to have anything but he had three Cadillacs and plenty of money. He was making slaves out of the people." "I told him the day I left, 'Jim, you're a devil. Something serious is going to happen to Dickson said. "And he said, 'It won't happen to me.

You're speaking against the annointed Prophet of God." Another member who left the cull, Deanna Mertle of San Francisco, said he fbrced members to stand on street corners with donation boxes and beg. "They made us go," she said. "If we said you'd have to answer to Jim and the Council. Jim would decree a punishment The punishments began to turn more and more toward the physical boxing matches, flagellation and, of course, sex "1 am God! I am God!" Jones would shout at his congregation. "He pointed toward a 70-year-old woman," ex-cull member Grace Stoen recalled.

don't worship me enough. Strip She refused and the entire congregation about 200 people moved in around her to make her do it." "Then he pointed to another woman and said, 'You strip. Mrs. Stoen said. "She started to unbutton her blouse and he said.

"Because you believe, you don't have But that old woman had to. Right in front of everybody Steve Katsaris, a pyschologist from Potter Valley. who failed to pry his 25-year-old daughter from the cult, said Jones' policy was "not to allow husbands and wives to have sex together "He (Jones) reserves the right to have sexual relations with both men and women because he is the only one capable of giving true love," Katsaris said. Katsaris said that if a man and woman wanted to have sexual relations, they had to apply to the "relations committee" and wait three months for a decision. "One young couple couldn't wait three months and was found to have had intercourse before the three month waiting period was over." Katsaris said "As punishment they had to have sex in front of the whole group 1.200 people." Sophia Smith of East Oakland said that members had to go through regular confessionals "catharsis" sessions, the church called them in which they had to write down and give to Jones an account of all their sexual experiences.

"This was a sign of loyalty demanded by Jones. To have to make up your own confessions and it was always about adultery, child molesting, homosexual activity, exposing oneself in the park." Two California newspapers, the San Jose Mercury and the Los Angeles Times, carried reports which said Jones forced both male and female members of the Peoples Temple to have sex with him. Jones had a secretary who would call up both male and female members and say, "Father hates to do this but he has this tremendous urge and could you the Times quoted Mills as saying After the "catharsis" sessions, Jones would prescribe punishn.ent. Usually they were beatings "It started with light spankings," Gary Lambrev said. "Then small sticks, then the oak board, then boxing matches." Miss Mertle estimated she saw up to 300 beatings of people, some as young as four, others up to their late 50s "The blows were usually administered by a 200-pound woman," she said.

"If the victim struggled, he was spreadeagled by other members A microphone was placed near his mouth to amplify the screams." Jones would stand by impassively while the beatings were going on. Miss. Mertle said, "Occasionally he would say hit him harder' and sometimes he would laugh." The spankings led to boxing matches in which strong members would keep whoever was being punished in the ring until he was completely whipped "Some of them couldn't even get up of the floor," she said. "Even children weren't exempt from the boxing bouts." Through terror and brainwashing, Jones began to marshal a small army. He turned it toward political battles.

Jones became popular with several California politicians and Willie Brown Jr a state legislator, explained: "Numbers of people gave him clout. He is virtually able to produce physically more people (at a rally) than anyone I know." Jones presented himself as a champion of liberal causes. Jones political work gained him chairmanship of the San Francisco Housing Authority, a post he resigned by telegram after he reached Guyana. Visitors to his temple included Gov. Edmund G.

Brown Jr San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley Letters praising his work came from First Rosalvnn Carter and late Sen Hubert H. Humphrey Shortly before he left for Guyana, Jones was accused of stuffing ballot boxes District attorney Joseph Freitas appointed Timothy Stoen, assistant DA and a member of the Peoples Temple, to investigate. Stoen cleared Jones of the charges. However, it was because of the Stoens that Jones decided to flee the United States a flight that would lead him and hundreds of his followers to perhaps the most bizarre deaths in modern times. Grace Stoen joined the Peoples Temple in November, 1969.

Her husband was already a member. They had a child, John Victor. Jones claimed the child as his own. A heated custody battle ensued. Grace Stoen insisted she had never had sexual relations with Jones.

Others said she did Grace Stoen and her husband became estranged. Jones had decided to move his church to a foreign country The California Supreme Court awarded custody of the boy to the Stoens. But Jones took the boy with him to the jungles of Guyana The child died with Jones in the ritutal suicides "When I was in the church I truly believed that nobody could ever leave," Grace said. "Then a group of eight left. This was when the suicides first began to be brought up." Suicide became more and more of a fixation for Jones For 14 months Jones and his cult lived in the beautiful jungle wilderness that is Guyana, his temple "dedicated against the evils of racism, hunger and injustice." Then came danger.

Rep. Leo Ryan, would go to see the Peoples Temple first hand to investigate charges by voters that Jones was holding members against their will. Ryan and his party spent a day at the commune. He found disciples who wanted to leave "They will never make it to the United States," Jones said Then came the death knell "We will all commit suicide." Jones had ordered the "hit squad" to attack Ryan and his party of defectors at the Port Kaituma air strip. The gunmen attacked the plane with precision and returned to headquarters.

Among those who told Ryan he wanted to leave was Gerald Parks, 46. He wanted to take his family. Another was Larry Layton As they prepared to leave the commune with the defectors, Ryan and his party ran into trouble. One of the disciples grabbed the California congressman and held a knife to his throat. Lawyer Mark Lane, who with attorney Charles Garry represented the Peoples Temple, intervened and Jones finally ordered Ryan released.

But at the airstrip, death waited. As the party was about to board one of two light planes to take them back to Georgetown. Layton pulled a pistol and opened fire. From the side of the runway a tractor-trailer moved into a gear and a group of six armed men opened fire on the whole group. Ryan, 53, NBC television reporter Don Harris, 42, NBC cameraman Robert Brown, 36, both from Los Angeles; Gregory Robinson, a photographer for The San Francisco Examiner, and Parks wife, Patricia, 45, a cult member who was trying to escape, all were killed.

But the horror of the ambush was only a prelude of what was to come. Jones called his council together and made the announcement that the entire commune was to commit suicide. One young woman protested. "Traitor! traitor!" the others shouted. For some months Jones had put his disciples through a mass suicide drill.

Now was the time for the real thing. Jones called the commune physician, Dr. Larry Schacht of Houston, and told him to prepare the cyanide poison. Schacht emptied his medicine chest into a huge tub which he then filled with grape-flavored Kool Aid. He gave what was left of the cyanide to the nurses to administer to the children.

One after another, the disciples of Jim Jones drank the poison. Within four or five minutes after drinking the devil's brew, each died. Most lay face down. Men and women were found in final embraces. Friends had their arms around one another's backs One couple had placed their small boy between them and the three died together, their arms entwined.

Bodies were piled on bodies. Here and there arms and legs protruded upward in grotesque positions One 76-year-old woman, Hyacinth Thrush, slept through it all and survived When the first Guyanan troops entered Jonestown, they counted 409 corpses lying around the commune. But they didn't disturb the bodies and look underneath. The shock and horror struck again five days later when U.S. officials announced the number of dead would be more than double that figure.

The question was why. "He thought that if the Parks (family of defectors) were allowed to leave and got away with it, others would come from the United States and take away their family members," Rhodes said. "Jones couldn't see his organization break up. He had a tremendous ego." But for those who had escaped from Jones power before the Jonestown horror, fear still remained. Grace Stoen and others swear that Jones had formed an assassination squad charged with murdering anyone who left the commune.

San Francisco police chief Charles Gain conceded, 'We have a knowledge of a purported hit squad' and a 'hit Neva Sly, another ex-member whose husband had put the knife to Ryan's throat in Jonestown, said she is certain he is now oneof Jones' "Angels," as the hit team is called. "My main plea is to the assassintion squad," she said. "Please stop! People have a right to their beliefs." For others, Jones' death was the final undoing of evil incarnate. Marjorie Terry said her daughter-in- law and four grandchildren were at Jones' temple at the time of the Jonestown suicides. "He was a prophet of the devil," she said.

"He was the her husband added. A special meeting of the Ukiah Unified School District Advisory Committee has been called for Nov. 29 at 7:30 p.m. in the board room of the district office, 445 S. Dora in Ukiah.

Purpose of the meeting is to hold nominations and elections of officers for the current 78-79 school year. It is most important that each target school attendance PIANO ORGAN SALE MENDOCINO VAN AND STORAGE CO. Detailed ad on page 3 area has representation at this meeting, according to Richard Malek. Target schools are those schools which are served with compensatory education programs supported by state and federal dollars. These schools include Calpella, Frank Zeek, HopJand, Nokomis, Redwood Valley and River.

Two non- public schools are also served by these programs Saint Mary's and Mariposa. Community members are also encouraged to attend, he said. Polish Partitions For 118 years, between 1795 and 1918, Poland did not exist. The last of three partitions among Russian, Prussia and Austria, in 1795, erased the nation of Poland from the map of Europe and not until after World War 1 did it reappear. Now You Know By United Press International The largest iceberg ever found in the South Pacific in 1956 was 208 miles long and 60 miles wide for a total of 12,000 square miles, making it larger than Belgium.

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and one has to admit all scenic wonders are complex and interrelated. These things could not possibly have been brought about by them selves. Surely there is a purpose and an intelligence seen in all of nature, no matter what part of the world you view. Without even referring to the Bible, you can have proof positive there IS a God. He reveals Himself daily in His handiwork 925 state st.

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