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The Olympian from Olympia, Washington • 2

Publication:
The Olympiani
Location:
Olympia, Washington
Issue Date:
Page:
2
Extracted Article Text (OCR)

A2 Tha Daily Olympian Friday November 24 1978 Prisoner Remembers- it he came to Jonestown three months a0 to try and persuade his common law wife Tommie 27 and their three boys Kim 11 Anthony I and Christopher 2 to return with him to the United States Instead he said I said I wanted to go back to America Jones told me not to play with his power He said if I tried to go through the gate he'd drop me dead the only way I'd go back He said is 'in a pine box' I was a prisoner" Paul from New Iberia La had been at Jonestown for II months Thursday he found that he too had lost his wife and three children there hope it's all dead he said of Jones' cult "It'd better be goddamn it" Franklin said that wife was too scared to go with He said she told him we try to escape together Rev Jones will kill us" He said armed guards sat outside the front door and the window to the hut he occupied after he said he wanted to leave He was denied food he said and his weight went down from 200 to 190 pounds "One day they called me in front of a meeting Jones told his karate experts to stand alongside me they took me to a grave and made me stand in it They told me to lift a coffin out of there A man stood over me with a shovel I thought I was going to die But they just laughed at me and told me never to say I wanted to go But before Congressman Leo Ryan arrived Franklin said Jones called his flock to a meeting you love it here" Franklin quoted Jones "Don't say you want to go or there will be big trouble Tell them you eat bacon chicken and good food Don't tell them we're short of food here Franklin did not dare to approach Ryan directly he said Instead he talked with friends people wanted to leave he said knew Jones was crazy We felt he might kill us at any time" Finally When Ryan announced that he was leaving Franklin turned to Paul and said: better go quick If we don't go now we might not be alive tomorrow I didn't know until I heard the story of the massacre how true that was" It was 9 am The two men said thev were going to the piggery but then ran into the brush They dodged a truck filled with armed men apparently looking for them and lay in the mud of a swamp for an hour At midday after a 20-mile walk they reached the railroad tracks leading to a nearby town A train came along they leaped aboard Then the soldiers came and they were safe The two men leaned on the balcony of Georgetown's Park Hotel and gazed at the photograph in the fading afternoon light Franklin was dressed in a pair of brown pants He said it was all the clothes he had in the world He looked again at the woman in the plaid pants know they're he said but I'm sorry that Jones is dead If he was alive I would gladly kill him That man is a TRACT PARKS IS WITH DAD DAIR OIOROITOWN NOTH AFfU TRAOBY AT JOfMSTOWN nVN IMIRHIiq Family Close To Escaping cisco and moved to the Jonestown commune about a year ago believing it waa a Christian missionary group The family became disillusioned Parks said of the very uncomfortable living condition the heavy work long schedules poor food and classes of indoctrination by Jim Jones couldn't have any personal belongings like your passport We couldn't get our mail or have money" said they were unable to leave the commune because of heavy security and threats saw people physically beaten and coerced" he aid Tracy said she and other junior high school students worked from 7 am until noon worked in the fields and hardly had he laid was boring We did the eame thing all the time" Gerald Parke laid he wants to take hie family home to the United States pick up the pieces of our lives" we have is the clothes on our said Dale Parke "We have no money We have no idea of what we're going to do next" "I tried to convince Ryan that Layton waa too close to Jim Jones" laid Parks "They assured me he wanted to go home and he was searched and left on one of the planes" The Parks family boarded the plane with the 32-vear-old Layton and suddenly he pulled out pistol end mother was shot in the head and her brains were literally iplattered all over the plane" Dale Parke said He said Layton fired several more shots inside the plane and then "pointed hia gun in the direction of my heart and pulled the trigger The gunpowder exploded and sounded exactly like the real thing but the bullet did not dislodge That's the only reason that I am alive I overpowered him and took the gun away from him" GEORGETOWN Guyana (AP) The Parke family was only minutes away from escaping the Rev Jim Jones' commune at Jonestown when the nightmare began: They were among the disillusioned Jonestown settlers who sought Rep Leo Ryan's help in leaving the Jungle outpost Ryan California' Democrat who was investigating conditions at the commune took the Parke family under hie wing They were boarding plane with him Inst Saturday at an airstrip near Jonestown when the group waa ambushed allegedly by Jones' followers Patricia Parks 44 was shot to death along with Ryan and three newsmen members of her family watched not ever going to be happy again without my said Tracy Parks blond and blueeyed I2-yesr-old not going to feel the eame She always took care of me I don't have anyone like her now used to looking after Her sister Brenda 18 said time I hear a loud noise or funny sound I Jump If I see someone looking at me funny it juet scares The family was interviewed Thursday in their room at rundown hotel in Georgetown 150 miles southeast of Jonestown Dale Parke 37 laid he tried to warn Ryan about one of the Peoples Temple Cultists who was flying out with the group He said Larry Layton who has been charged with the murders boarded one of the two Ryan delegation planes pretending he too had had it with the temple The three Parka children their father Gerald 45 and grandmother Edith Parks 64 escaped unharmed after the attack at the Port Kaituma airstrip and before Jones led 408 cultists in a mass suicide rite Parke said the family left their native Springfield Ohio several years ago for San Fran fJlore Dodies Could 0 Iluvo Boon By PAUL MINKLEY-ROGOS Qawnstt News Service GEORGETOWN Guyana She was a tired old woman and she sat on the bed and held her face in her hands After five daye of police interrogation she had finally been released end for the first time the realization of what had happened to all of her friends at Jonestown was beginning to link in said 84-year-old 'Edith Parks place could have been a paradise It had good clean air a balmy climate and friendly people But then something went wrong I don't know exactly what" She thought through her ex-periencee in the seven months she had spent at Jonestown as nurse "Before I got she aid "I heard there had been trouble I heard that people had been mistreated and knocked around But I did not believe it (uesa nil the time I waa there bed things were going on and I wasn't aware of it When I caw men carrying guns 1 thought they ware hunting animals-: I didn't know they were hunting Peopk remember me day we had 'white rehearsal Jim (Jonei) told us that there were relatives who wanted to take us all back and who might come here end bring mercenaries with them There might be fighting he said sat around the pavilion He asked us that if white night came would we all be prepared to die felt that I was ready to die I would have been scared if mercenaries came in here shooting I guess I would have taken poison I don't know why but when icared you might do that kind of Parks was one of the small party of Jonestown residents who asked Congressman Leo Ryan Saturday to take them with him to the United States when he ended his Inspection tour of the jungle commune She said she stood by the plane and watched the man she named as Com Kice "shoot my daughter-' Government officials say that Park's daughter-in-law la dead were being shot all round she said "When I aw my daughter-in-law fell I wanted to die too" But Parke waa not killed and after interrogation was released by Guya-nan police Thursday "Things went lour at Jonestown in the Inst few she laid "We were going to build 100 more cot- tages But things stopped working We getting the drugs we needed The pastor behaved like he had a lot of problems and didn't have time for us and our affairs Mot vs (FromPg 1) nestown to the United States Air Force Capt John Moscatelli said he expects orders to conduct helicopter searches of the jungle after the body evacuation is complete Jones led his Peoples Temple followers in the suicide after a squad from the commune allegedly gunned down a US congressman three newsmen and a defecting cultist Rep Leo Ryan D-Calif was in Guyana investigating the commune The 36-year-old Rhodes a Detroit native who was a crafts teacher at Jonestown said the camp medical team administered the poison with needleless syringes squirting the liquid into the mouths of babies and children first He said many people were dying and Jones tried to calm them kids not to cry and saying people should die with Most took the cyanide poison voluntarily but some resisted he said One woman named Christine Miller objected to taking poison and followers shouted abuse at her calling her a Rhodes said was still alive when I left and I think she probably would have he said "I saw a girl named Julie Reynolds being forced to take the he said kept spitting it out and the nurses kept forcing her to take it" The Miller name but not appeared on the first partial list of dead Rhodes said he escaped about 20 minutes after the death ritual began Asked how many persons he believed were missing from the camp he said it waa difficult to estimate but he said the Jonestown population was never a low as 000 as some have auggeated or as high as 1000 know how many others could have got away or where they may he said ITien he added another bizarre twist to the Jonestown tale A reporter asked why all the dead seemed to be face down and Rhodes replied that he could not explain it because they were all in various positions when he left Asked whether someone might have turned the bodies over he said he could not say but it appeared possible Three of the surviving cultists have been arrested by authorities in Guyana in connection with the killings of Ryhn and his party One was charged with murder Officials and survivors have variously estimated that from 100 to 800 members of the Jonestown commune are not yet accounted for There has been some speculation that many cultists are hiding out in the jungle fearing reprisals for having escaped the suicide rite but Other sources say only a handful of Jonestown residents may have fled because estimates of the camp's population were put too high Military officials said today there still are 138 bodies lying on the ground around the open pavilion where the death rite was perfumed in Jonestown about 150 miles northwest of Georgetown lirlfSfgrf NEW YORK (AP) Comedian Bob Hope saya it was Fatty Ar-buckle who helped him get hie tart in show business in touring vaudeville show called Curly's Jolly Folliea Hope in an interview with Jack Linkletter on "America show to be telecast Dec 1 recalled how he started in show business at 14 doing a take-off of Charlie Chaplin Hope 75 says he has no Intention of retiring He said he finds laughter the beet therap for growing old He also complimented former first lady Betty Ford on her facelift and said she came home from the hospital she asked Jerry 'Do you love and he aid 'Yes but If my wife finds out she'll kill IR8MMMV nOI IRBOpiBH) WOOD AND COAL HEATING AT US FINEST Internment Remembered Saturday SEATTLE (AP) It was 38 yean ago that President Roosevelt signed an executive order requiring the internment of 123313 Japaneae-Americane on the Pacific Coast On Saturday Japanese-Ameri-cans in Western Waihington will remember that time with a rally in Seattle and a visit to the Puyallup fairgrounds where some were interned in what was then called Harmony" An estimated 10000 Japanese-Americans from the state of Washington were interned Including about 7000 from Seattle Speaker! will include Washington Supreme Court Justice Jamee Dolliver Dr Minoru Maeuda a professor at the University of Waihington Charlee Smith UW law professor and several prominent Japanese-Americani from the area Masuda recently visited Harmony" to make sure it will be large enough for the rally fairgrounds were empty when we went to visit It" he aid all came back to tome of us exactly where we stayed which hone stall saying we shouldn't forget I believe jn the old laying that those who forget the past are condemned to relive it" Maeuda at that time a licensed pharmacist hie parents hie wife and his brother were interned in Camp Harmony He later joined the 442nd Regimental combat Team the most decorated Army unit in World War II Allen Japaneee-Americani could not legally own land or become American citizens The alien land law in the state remained in force until 1065 when Washington became the last state in the union to repeal such legislation I 1841 Japaneae-Americana were forced to sell almost all of their personal property' before being sent to the camps They had to leave their homes lose businesses give up careen abandon studies and face an uncertain future Japanese began immigrating to Washington the latter part of the 19th Century working on railroads in canneries in forests and establishing farms restaurants and businesses 1 73000 BTU Automatic Thermostat No Electricity Required Fire Brick Lining Cast Iron Shaker Grates 7 Vt cu ft Firebox Removable Ash Pan AUOT FMNIY AND ANOUK AIMO 1NMOTN FVOI lORpHaq DoIooWIrK Orrmcwrmmrii Join the with a RITEWAY MODEL 37 Northwest Ltd 1849 Old Rwy 99 SV-RodMftor-(208) 273-7138 RADIANT HEATERS MULTI-FUEL FURNACES BOILERS LONDON (AP) British film and stage actor Albert Finney and his French actress wife Anouk Aimee whose divorce was held up by a postal hitch last week ended their eight-year marriage Thursday Finney 42 went to court last Thursday but failed to get a divorce then because his wife's consent had not arrived from Paris But this time the necessary documents had arrived and Finney was granted the divorce because he and his wife 47 had lived apart for two years The two were married in August 1070 and separated in September 1078 and under British law a two-year separation In grounds for divorce if both partners agree Finney currently appearing at London's National Theater said he was still on friendly terms with hia ex-wife I i.

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Pages Available:
1,015,325
Years Available:
1923-2024