The Truth About Jonestown - NCCG.ORG Ning Network Archive 2008-10

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[Editor's Note: Recent documentaries appearing on CVV and CNBC have neglected to tell the whole truth about what really was going on in Jonestown. Instead, they continue to portray the events as a cult, run by a madman. Although Jones was certainly mad, the exact motives of his church are deeply rooted in the psychology and experiments of the CIA. Yes, as far fetched as this sounds, it is true. We ask readers to read the following story carefully and to take notice of the many facts in the life and history of Jones -- all true -- that were ommitted in the televised documentaries. Then, decide for yourself if you think the whole story has been told
Portions of this story are from John Judge's article, "The Black Hole of Guyana" (1985), which can be read in its entirety here. We are indebted to John Judge for his excellent work on this important subject.]

What You Were Told About Jonestown

It was November 15, 1978. The country had already survived the "peace and love" hippy movement of the 60's, the Viet Nam war, and was in the thralls of the materialistic Disco age. Gas prices were high and long lines were common at the pumps. It was a time when most "hippies" were more concerned with finding a job than changing society. Then there was breaking news. A religious cult, like so many that had developed in the late 60's, had apparently committed a mass suicide in the jungle of a South American country that few had known existed. The Guyana based, "Jonestown," named after its charismatic leader, Jim Jones, was depicted as a stereotype of the new breed of socialist based cults and communes that were springing up all over America.

In an era that was rife with war and protests, Americans in the late 60's had been divided among traditionalists who respected the old ways and the "counter culture" who had learned to distrust authority of any kind. When traditional faiths were lax in condemning the evils of the unjust Viet Nam war and racism, many sought to express their faith in more liberal churches, like that of Jim Jones.

The "People's Temple" at it was known, sought to break down the barriers of race, sex and wealth. It provided an alternative to the drugs and "free sex" that characterized the counter culture and "hippies." It all seemed like a Utopian dream. The church was originally established at the 'ground zero' of America'a counter culture movement - near San Francisco - home of the famous Haight/Ashbury neighborhood and the subject of numerous popular songs.

But, like the small cult of Charles Manson, news reports of Jonestown dramatically taught the folly of joining rogue churches and cults. Jones, like Manson, was portrayed as a mad man who had mesmerized his followers, making them do whatever he wanted -- even to take their own lives.

Despite the liberal culture on the sunny California coast, Jones' church had not been without criticism. Rumors and accusations had begun to interest local authorities while it was still in San Francisco. It was claimed that Jones had beat and punished members of his congregation; that he had engaged in kidnapping and had even committed sexual abuse. Some church members mysteriously died and others were threatened with death if they tried to leave. It was against this background that Jim Jones eventually moved his church, and its hundreds of members, to an agricultural camp in the remote jungle of Guyana, in South America.

Perhaps it was this abrupt move that raised more serious red flags with Jones' critics. The accusations of mistreatment continued at the Guyana camp and soon reached the official ear of congressman Leo Ryan. It was then, in November of 1968, that Ryan and some members of his staff and the press decided to visit Guyana and see the commune for themselves. Then all hell broke lose.

Ryan landed a tiny dual-prop airplane on the small, isolated airstrip at Port Kaituma, and visited the camp for one full day. The members of Jones' commune entertained Ryan's entouage with songs, prayers and smiles. Secretly, however, all was not well.

Before he was scheduled to leave, about a dozen members secretly slipped the congressman a note, begging to be taken back to America and claiming that they were being held against their wills. Recovered news film, taken at the time, recorded the event. Ryan confronted Jones and showed him the note. Jones dismissed the note as insignificant but appeared deeply disturbed. Ryan and his group then drove to the airstrip to return home. It was there that they were gunned down and murdered by members of Jones' security team.

Later, after the murder of Ryan and his staff, the entire congregation was alleged to have drunk purple kool-aid laced with cyanide in a mass suicide. Jones himself was shot in the head, also an apparent suicide. For days, the body count mounted, from 400 to nearly 1,000. The bodies were later flown to the United States and cremated or buried in mass graves.

For a few weeks, the horror of what happened at Jonestown was the cover stories of weekly tabloids. But the grizzly photos of contorted blue jean clad bodies soon reached saturation. Most Americans soon tuned out, focusing again on the Viet Nam war but remembering the lessons and dangers of "cults."

Unfortunately there was more to Jonestown than was first reported. Something more evil than a cult or even a demented leader was being covered up and, when it was finally revealed, it would receive less publicity than the sterilized version of the truth most people were fed.

What REALLY Happened: The Truth Is In The Numbers

The first headlines the day of the massacre read: "Cult Dies in South American Jungle: 400 Die in Mass Suicide, 700 Flee into Jungle." By all accounts in the press, as well as People's Temple statements, there were at least 1,100 people living at Jonestown. There were 809 adult passports found there, and reports of 300 children (276 found among the dead, and 210 never identified). The headline figures from the first day added to the same number: 1,100.The Guyanese body count was originally only 408.This figure was verified by U.S. Army authorities on site. However, over the next few days, the total of reported dead began to increase dramatically. In the end, about a week later, the US Army had placed the final body count at 913. Only 16 survivors were reported to have returned to the U.S.

Members of Jonestown were mostly black adults, the elderly and children who were apparently selected to reflect a cross section of the American public.

Where were the others cult members?
During the first press conference, the Americans asserted that the initial errors were because the Guyanese "could not count." The Guyanese had the gruesome task of counting the bodies as they lay festering in the hot, tropical heat. They later were asked to assist the American troops by systematically poking holes in the flesh to release gas formed by the decay, thus preventing the bodies from exploding. Then another theory was given by the Americans: they had initially forgotten about the pile of bodies in back of the main pavillion. This excuse didn't hold water either. The pavillion was small, a little bigger than a two car garage. The teams had been processing bodies for days. How could they make such a lame mistake? In the end, the reason for the discrepancy was stated that some of the bodies had fallen on top of other bodies, adults covering children, and were thus uncounted.

But how can this be? How could 408 bodies, discovered at first count, be able to cover 505 bodies for a total of 913? Also, is it possible that those who first worked on the bodies, punching holes to release the gas, would likely miss bodies lying beneath each other? Further, 82 of the bodies first found and reported were children. How could these bodies have hidden other beneath them? A careful examination of nearly 150 photographs, aerial and close-up, fails to show even one body lying under another.

As it turns out, the first reports were likely true. About 400 people had died, and about 700 had escaped to the jungle. It was reported that American authorities had searched unsuccessfully for the 700 people who were missing. They were soon joined by at least a hundred Guyanese troops who were ordered to search the jungle for any survivors. Coincidentally, nearly 600 British Black Watch comandos were on "training exercises" in this same area and joined in the search. Then, as if these were not enough, American Green Berets were on site as well. The presence of all these soldiers, trained in covert killing operations, perhaps can explain the hundreds of additional bodies that were eventually counted around the pavillion.

How did the other cult members die?

Photographs taken at the site show most of the bodies lying in neat rows, face down. Close-ups reveal linear drag marks. It is as though the bodies were brought there and positioned by someone after death. This leads to the horrible thought that almost 700 people, mostly Black and many women and children, could have been tracked down in the surrounding jungle, executed, and then carefully added to the original pile of bodies.

If this did happen then it should be easy to prove by determining the actual cause of death: cyanide ingested kool-aide or some other method. Dr. Mootoo was the top Guyanese pathologist at the time and was at the Jonestown site within a few hours. He accompanied the Guyanese who initially counted the bodies and punctured them. He examined them to see their cause of death. His professional opinion was that most deaths were NOT caused by cyanide laced kool-aid.

Forensic scientists recognize certain physical signs that suggest a particular cause of death, such as poisoning. Cyanide in a nerve blocking agent. It stops all neural activity to such vital organs as the heart and lungs and scrambles nerve messages to the muscles. Muscles twitch and contract making the death an unusually painful one. The diaphram muscles cease to function, causing loss of breathing and eventually the heart fails to pump, resulting in death. Muscles in the face likewise contract, causing what pathologists call "cyanide rictus," or the "deadly grin." Dr. Mootoo saw none of these signs in the bodies at Jonestown. Instead, the victims appeared to lie in a relaxed position with normal muscle tone. These bodies, in his opinion, did NOT die from ingesting cyanide.

What Dr. Mootoo did find was just as significant. About 80-90% of the victims had needle marks from a hypodermic syringe in their upper shoulder, as if administered from behind. Others had been shot or strangled. Many exhibited ligature marks or other signs of having been restrained just prior to their death. Several photographs clearly showed gun shot wounds. Who could have done this?

Also, although reports stated that Jim Jones, the cult leader, had committed suicide, the gun that killed him was found nearly 200 feet from his body! Dr. Mootoo, acting in the capacity of Chief Medical Examiner at the Guyanese grand jury investigation concluded that, "All but three of the people were murdered by "persons unknown." Only two had committed suicide they said. Despite this startling evidence, Lt. Col. Schuler,the U.S. Army spokesman said, "No autopsies are needed. The cause of death is not an issue here."

A Cover-Up. But Of What?

John Judge, in his article, "The Black Hole of Guyana" (1985), states:

There are other indications that the Guyanese government participated with American authorities in the extermination of the cult members and then covered-up the real story. One good example was Guyanese Police Chief Lloyd Barker, who interfered with investigations, helped "recover" 2.5 million for the Guyanese government, and was often the first to officially announce the cover stories relating to suicide, body counts and survivors. Among the first to the scene were the wife of Guyanese Prime Minister Forbes Burnham and his Deputy Prime Minister, Ptolemy Reid. They returned from the massacre site with nearly $1 million in cash, gold and jewelry taken from the buildings and from the dead. Inexplicably, one of Burnham's political party secretaries had visited the site of the massacre only hours before it occurred. When Shirley Field Ridley, Guyanese Minister of Information, announced the change in the body count to the shocked Guyanese parliament, she refused to answer further questions. Other representatives began to point a finger of shame at Ridley and the Burnham government, and the local press dubbed the scandal "Templegate." All accused them of taking a ghoulish payoff.
Perhaps more significantly, the Americans brought in 16 huge C-131 cargo planes, but claimed they could only carry 36 caskets in each one. These aircraft can carry tanks, trucks, troops and ammunition all in one load. At the scene, bodies were stripped of identification, including the medical wrist tags visible in many early photos. Dust-off operations during Vietnam clearly demonstrated that the military is capable of moving hundreds of bodies in a short period. Instead, they took nearly a week to bring back the Jonestown dead, bringing in the majority at the end of the period. The corpses, rotting in the heat, made autopsy impossible. At one point, the remains of 183 people arrived in 82 caskets. Although the Guyanese had identified 174 bodies at the site, only 17 (later 46) were tentatively identified at the massive military mortuary in Dover, Delaware.

[Above: Jones is handed a note by Ryan that was passed to him by members seeking to leave with the Congressman. This upsets Jones who then apparently gives orders for the murder to supress the truth of what was really going on in Jonestown.]

The badly decomposed bodies were sent to Dover, Maryland for autopsies, but their poor condition made it impossible to determine their exact cause of death. Not everyone was quiet about the lack of forensic procedure enacted by the American military.The President of the National Association of Medical Examiners, in an open letter to the U.S. military, called the whole operation "badly botched." He noted that by sampling the blood or body fluids on the site, the cause of death could have confirmed or ruled out cyanide, yet this was never attempted. These military doctors who attempted these autopsies were totally unaware of Dr. Mootoo's conclusions. Characterizing the Guyanese grand jury findings, American officials simply said they had uncovered "few facts."

John Judge further writes:

Guyanese troops, who had arrived with American Embassy officiala and CIA operative, Richard Dwyer, also failed to defend Congressman Leo Ryan and others who came to Guyana with him when they were shot down in cold blood at the Port Kaituma airstrip, even though the troops were nearby with machine guns at the ready. Witnesses described the murderers as "zombies," walking mechanically, without emotion, and "looking through you, not at you" as they murdered. Only certain people were killed, and the selection was clearly planned. Certain wounded people, like Ryan's aide Jackie Speiers, were not harmed further, but the killers made sure that Ryan and the newsmen were dead. In some cases they shot people, already wounded, directly in the head.

Richard Dwyer was a known CIA agent who accompanied Ryan on his fact finding trip. He is seen [Above] in a film of Ryan's departure securing his boarding pass. Later [Above] he can be seen accompanying Ryan to the small plane before the murders of Ryan and other members of the team. He mysteriously separates away from the group just before the shooting begins. Just as mysteriously, he was not a target.

It is believed that Dwyer was aware of the impending massacre and had a special relationship with Jones. A tape found at the camp recorded the voice of Jones telling his guards, "Get Dwyer out of here before something happens to him." Later, a radio transmission on a special CIA frequency reported the massacre -- a transmission believed made by Dwyer after he terminated Jones.

Who Was Jim Jones?

Jim Jones spent his youth in Lynn, Indiana. Some have described him as a loner, yet he was not shy about public speaking and seemed to enjoy immitating preachers and giving testamony about the Bible. These were perhaps early indications that Jim had a pension for ruling the pulpit.

It is important to note that he had one special childhood friend named Dan Mitrione. This friend would later play an important role in Jim's future.

Jim finally realized his dream and was ordained to a Christian ministry in the 1950s. He also met and married his lifelong companion, Marceline. To supplement his income as a minister, Jim sold pet monkeys that he purchased from the research department at Indiana State University. Supposedly, these monkeys had been used for experiments and were later of no use to researchers. The irony of this will also become evident in Jim's future.

Jim's work as a minister resembled a side show. He would operate from a tent and pretend to heal people of all types of illnesses, often showing raw chicken livers and claiming they were "cancers" he had removed by "divine power." He perhaps would have been tarred and feathered but for the intervention of the local police chief and close childhood friend, Dan Mitrione. His landlady described Jim at that time as "a gangster who used a Bible instead of a gun."

The next chapter in Jim Jones' life again involved Dan Mitrione who had graduated from being a police chief to join the CIA-financed International Police Academy. Mitrone was trained there in counter-insurgency and torture techniques. Somehow, at about the same time, Jones, barely able to support his family as a fake "healer," was financed to move his family to Brazil and minister to the Brazilians -- despite the fact that he spoke no Portugese!

In Brazil, Jim and his family occupied a large apartment in an upscale neighborhood and always seemed to have ample food and cash. Instead of preaching, he told neighbors he worked with U.S. Navy Intelligence and that his income was provided by the U.S. Embassy.

Those close to Jim Jones in Brazil claim that he was secretly studying the mind control techniques of Voodoo cults and religions, such as Santa Ria, which still control thousands of followers in South America. These occult religions are known to utilize fake healings, exotic rituals and even drugs to manipulate and control their followers.

Remember Dan Mitrone? Coincidentally he was also in Brazil, not far from Jones. During this period he working with the CIA, teaching interrogation and torture techniques. He would later be kidnapped and killed by Tupermaro guerillas in Uruguay.

Shortly after Mitrone's demise, in 1963, Jones returned to the United States with $10,000 -- a large amount of cash at the time. He used the money to establish the first People's Temple in Ukiah, California, in 1965. He then established a rest home with the ironic name of "The Happy Havens Rest Home" and began to attract the elderly, people from other rest homes, psychiatric patients, foster children and prisoners -- the down-trodden of society. He appeared to be assembling a large population of individuals, all with few family or social attachments -- people that nobody cared about or would miss... But for what?

Those who "joined" Jones' Peoples Temple found it hard or impossible to leave. Jones surrounded himself with an entourage of armed guards, dressed like Gestapo in leather boots. New members were "persuaded" to turn over all of their possessions to the church. To demonstrate their loyalty they were asked to sign blank pieces of paper and to make confessions which would be used against them if they tried to leave. Since members had no family ties and few options after they lost their homes, most stayed with the People's Temple out of necessity and fear.

What Was Jonestown... Really?
In an obscure article in Esquire Magazine, South America was described as one of the best places to live in the event of a nuclear war. Based on this article, Jones is said to have decided to establish his commune in Guyana. But was this the real reason? Jones originally had his eyes on the island of Grenada. He had even courted Grenadian Prime Minister, Sir Eric Gairy, and invested $200,000 in the Grenada National Bank to begin the camp. After the Jonestown massacre, about $76,000 was still in this bank. Whatever the reason for changing his mind, we may never know. Perhaps the camp in Guyana was more remote and private for his needs. Jones finally settled on the Matthew's Ridge section in Guyana - the former site of a Union Carbide bauxite and manganese mine.

After the site was leased, trusted members of the Jones entourage flew to Guyana and began making the camp ready for the rest of the congregation. On the surface, it looked like Jones was a benevolent leader, concerned for the safety and well-being of his poor and socially outcast congregation, ushering them far away from the dangers of the Cold War. But on closer inspection, the loving facade was missing even from the start.

Church members were literally herded in busses in San Francisco and driven post haste to Florida where they were again herded into specially chartered planes that transported them to Guyana. The congregation, mostly black, were seen bound and gagged as they were taken off the plane and driven to the camp. This seemed an odd way to treat people and was more like the treatment of slaves or, maybe, "laboratory animals." Apparently, to get even more "subjects," children were reportedly "bought" from local Guyanese!

Once at the camp, the "congregation" was forced to work like slaves. Their work day was often 18 hours long after which they would be fed rancid, rotting food, usually rice or bread. At night, as they tried to sleep, they would be forced to listen to loud sermons, narrated by Jim Jones, that blasted from the PA system. "Slackers" were forced to work and threatened. Those that thought about leaving were quickly persuaded otherwise by individuals who were punished in full view of the public as "examples," and by the security force of armed guards that patrolled the camp.

Like the "Brown Shirts" of Nazi Germany, children were made to inform on the deviant conversations of their parents and elders. Jones told the camp that certain individuals would be "posing" as dissidants who wanted to leave the camp. He warned others to be diligent and report these people as a test of their loyalty. Thus, he perpetrated fear and distrust among members of his congregation.

Dr. Lawrence Schacht, the camp physician, was known to perform painful suturing without anaesthetic. Oddly, as they discovered following the massacre, the doctor and his staff kept meticulous medical records of every member of the congregation and performed routine physical exams, sometimes daily. This again sounds more like treatment of some experiemtnal lab animals than the routine first aid of a communal clinic.

A Mind Control Experiment Gone Crazy

Jonestown was, in reality, an experiment. It was part of a 30-year program called MK-ULTRA, the CIA and military intelligence code name for mind control. A close study of Senator Ervin's 1974 report, Individual Rights and the Government's Role in Behavior Modification, shows that these agencies had certain "target populations" in mind, for both individual and mass control. Blacks, women, prisoners, the elderly, the young, and inmates of psychiatric wards were selected as "potentially violent." There were plans in California at the time for a Center for the Study and Reduction of Violence, expanding on the horrific work of Dr. José Delgado, Drs. Mark and Ervin, and Dr. Jolly West, experts in implantation, psychosurgery, and tranquilizers. These "laboratory monkeys" were to be drawn from the ranks of the "target populations," and taken to an isolated military missile base in California. In that same period, Jones began to move his Temple members to Jonestown. They were the exact population selected for such tests. All of the population received daily medical exams and wore medical identification bracelets.

The meticulous daily notes and drug records kept by Larry Schacht, the camp doctor, disappeared, but evidence did not. Jeff Brillie, who helped with the "clean up" operation was asked to guard a metal case containing thousands of files. He was told to shoot anyone who tried to take them from him and that they contained "highly sensitive" information. He later turned the files over to CIA agents who denied that such records existed when questioned by a congressional investigation. The history of MK-ULTRA and its sister programs (MK-DELTA, ARTICHOKE, BLUEBIRD, etc.) records a combination of drugs, drug mixtures, electroshock and torture as methods for control. The desired results ranged from temporary and permanent amnesia, uninhibited confessions, and creation of second personalities, to programmed assassins and preconditioned suicidal urges. One goal was the ability to control mass populations, especially for cheap labor. Dr. Delgado told Congress that he hoped for a future where a technology would control workers in the field and troops at war with electronic remote signals. He found it hard to understand why people would complain about electrodes implanted in their brains to make them "both happy and productive."

The people of the People's Temple were little more than experimental "monkeys," being drugged and monitored by daily medical exams and miticulous records of their health and behavioral changes. Once the terrible experiment was discovered there was nothing else to do but exterminate them and crush any link to the CIA's experimental mind control program.

On the scene at Jonestown, Guyanese troops discovered a large cache of drugs, enough to drug the entire population of Georgetown, Guyana (well over 200,000) for more than a year. According to survivors, these were being used regularly "to control" a population of only 1,100 people. One footlocker contained 11,000 doses of thorazine, a dangerous tranquilizer. Drugs used in the testing for MK-ULTRA were found in abundance, including sodium pentathol (a truth serum), chloral hydrate (a hypnotic), demerol, thalium (confuses thinking), and many others. Schacht had supplies of haliopareael and largatil as well, two other major tranquilizers. The actual description of life at Jonestown is that of a tightly run concentration camp, complete with medical and psychiatric experimentation. The stresses and isolation of the victims is typical of sophisticated brainwashing techniques. The drugs and special tortures add an additional experimental aspect to the horror. This more clearly explains the medical tags on the bodies, and why they had to be removed. It also suggests an additional motive for frustrating any chemical autopsies, since these drugs would have been found in the system of the dead.

The story of Jonestown is that of a gruesome experiment, not a religious utopian society. One Temple director, Joyce Shaw, described the Jonestown massacre as, "some kind of horrible government experiments, or some sort of sick racial thing, a plan like that of the Germans to exterminate Blacks." If we refuse to look further into this nightmarish event, there will be more Jonestowns to come. They will move from Guyana to our own back yard.

The ultimate victims of mind control at Jonestown are the American people. If we fail to look beyond the constructed images given us by the television and the press, then our consciousness is manipulated, just as well as the Jonestown victims' was. If the discrepancy between the truth of Jonestown and the official version can be so great, what other lies have we been told about other major events?

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