He went through years of nightmares, mourning and shame. no one could ever relate to it unless they were in the same situation, or they were in the atmosphere my father created . In addition to writing the articles below, Stephan appeared as a speaker during the Griot Institute of African Studies lecture series entitled Jonestown: 35 Years Later at Bucknell University; his presentation appears on this page (scroll down the videos). Then they start to ask questions right away.". "He was always preaching the hostility toward us and warning people what would happen or what could happen from the outside," Stephan Jones says. Stephan Gandhi Joneswas the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones. It was he who willed it into being and he who also brought it down with the mass murders and suicides of hundreds. Guyanese civilians set up a guard station for us, standing watch all night armed with only a shotgun, a machete and a long-bladed knife. . But Stephan was the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones. Jim Jones himself did not drink the poison. 'I was his son.' The years have shaped another lesson for Stephan Jones, but it makes him uneasy to talk about it. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. Toward Nov. 18 they crowd up faster and closer, but even in the spring and summer, when the anniversary is tucked safely off on the other side of the year, even then he cannot keep the dreams away. The 21-year-old Indiana native felt pride pioneering in the distant jungle of Guyana, South America. }); Use of this web site constitutes acceptance of the Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy | User published content is licensed under a Creative Commons License. He saw that the jungle would make him a man. The murders and suicides were unfolding, 150 miles away. He dreams he is arguing with his father, arguing passionately, and although he knows his arguments are better, his father always wins. And he faked getting shot in Redwood Valley [California] when I was still pretty young, and we felt like we were in danger much of the time. Partner of Terry Carter Jones, aka Mary Theresa Carter, Mary Theresa Jones, Terry Carter Jones (died November 18 . ', 'I argued with my Dad,' he said. Some have come to acknowledge that they helped enable Jim Jones to seize control over people drawn to his interracial church, socialist preaching and religious hucksterism. Stephan Jones believes his father must have killed himself: that he could not leave his own shooting to someone else. He was summoned to the temple radio room. | "I mellowed out. But Stephan was the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones. . 'Everyone participated in it and because of that, it went as far as it did,' she said. Dozens of Peoples Temple members in Guyana survived the mass suicides and murders of more than 900 because they had slipped out of Jonestown or happened to be away Nov. 18, 1978. In code, his father told him everyone was going to die in revolutionary suicide., I argued with my Dad, he said. After the incident, Stephan was put into jail for three months and that led him to drug addiction. I could still hear the groaning and crying of the targets. The only sounds they heard came from the jungle animals going about their business. I found relief in the woods and rivers and creeks, and I got away as often as I could, but there was always a low-level anxiety that I only really can identify now.. This November 1978 file photo shows the Peoples Temple compound, led by Jim Jones, after bodies were removed, in Jonestown, Guyana. He limps this month, still recovering from a broken ankle bone that went undetected for a while, but when he is well he picks up a regular game in San Francisco, sometimes with the young men he played with before--the basketball team from the Peoples Temple settlement at Jonestown, Guyana. Ryan had planned to remain behind at the mission with several members who wished to return to the United States but couldn't get seating on the planes. Jim Jones. The silence could mean only one thing: An ambush was awaiting them. Its not entirely surprising that many Americans and others want to understand how thousands of people can become blind followers of a tempestuous leader, and how it can end. Others had joined in San Francisco and continued with him to the promised land in the South American jungle. He apparently was searching for his wife, who had carried away their child that morning, hoping to escape the settlement. Jones, 44, is the only biological son of Jim Jones and his wife Marceline Baldwin who founded the cult behind Jonestown. container: 'taboola-below-article-thumbnails-3rd', Farm Heroes Saga, the #4 Game on iTunes. The bottom layer consisted of about 300 babies and small children whose bodies had been ravished by the humidity and jungle insects. Jim Jones, pictured in 1976,dreamed up Jonestown. He was 18 and running a temple construction crew when the church sanctioned his marriage to a talented 16-year-old singer, Ollie Wideman. He did what was expected of him. His biggest regrets revolve around the teams refusal to return to Jonestown. Jones berated three other new arrivals for misbehaviour on the trip; they were beaten and forced to work 24 hours straight. I believe 100% that not everyone would have been dead, he said. They could leave any time they want.'. He did.'. I noticed them in real time. A black man with a 'corn rows' hairstyle came up to the rear of the truck. Among those speaking out ahead of the 40-year anniversary of the mass deaths isMike Touchette, who was a 21-year-old Indiana native at the time. When he was ordered to Georgetown to help with supply shipments, Smith said he concocted an escape plan: Ollie and other temple singers and dancers, he believed, would soon be sent to Georgetown to perform, and the family would flee to the U.S. Embassy. Volleys of shotgun, rifle and pistol fire kept coming. Stephan seeks forgiveness for themselves and for his father. After they left, I crept out of the bush and saw five bodies around the plane. Each day's news bulletins compounded the already unimaginable: There were 400 bodies; there were 900 bodies; there were, in the precise wording of the American military men sent to investigate, "smaller bodies under larger bodies and children under those." Did you notice a point or phase where your fathers behavior shifted and he lost touch with the just causes that he once championed? placement: 'Right Rail Thumbnails', There, as part of Jones personal security detail, Cobb saw the once captivating minister strung out on drugs, afraid to venture anywhere for fear of his legal problems. The rest was jungle, damp and hot and so thick with growth that Stephan Jones would stand among the massive trees and feel the 20th century fall away. "It's not--such a bad experience," he says. I certainly felt there was an outside threat, even when I knew my father was full of it and I was at odds with him in Jonestown. File photo: Bodies of Peoples Temple mass suicide victims led by Jim Jones in Jonestown, Guyana, November 1978. She and Jim were the first caucasian couple in Indiana to adopt an African American . "They say, 'Yeah.' Stephan Jones says he can still remember his own terror the first time his father set off a Jonestown White Night. February 27, 2023 endeavor air pilot contract No Comments . Neither were the White Nights where everyone stayed up, armed with machetes to fight enemies who never arrived. I thought there were reasons for people to want to get us. My companion, Examiner photographer Greg Robinson, would be murdered in an ambush. The reason that I have agreed to talk to as many people as I have is because of that. mode: 'thumbnails-a', During the long night, the temple defectors told us that all the horror stories about Jim Jones and the church were true. Those who broke rules were disciplined. 'Hit the deck!' Stephan Jones is a Jonestown survivor. He is able to weep, but worries about letting himself begin; he says it feels a little like pulling his finger from a crack in the dam. 'Naaah.' She gave her house to the Peoples Temple and they moved to San Francisco. "I think I knew it was just a bunch of junk and that it was really about nothing," Stephan Jones said. Were you aware that you had a very different childhood than most? He imagines the guards with guns, and the sky clouding over, and the air suddenly wild with fear, and the sight of the children. Vilchez was dispatched to the Guyanese capital of Georgetown to raise money. Jim Jones. 'The temple really became my family,' she said. I think most people would have welcomed some kind of action that took Dad out of the picture but I didnt feel like we had enough people to back us up, or I didnt know those people.. Devotion to its ideals bolstered her self-worth. When he was ordered to Georgetown to help with supply shipments, Smith said he concocted an escape plan: Ollie and other temple singers and dancers, he believed, would soon be sent to Georgetown to perform, and the family would flee to the U.S. Embassy. And he just went unchecked. When Smith reunited with his mother and wife in Jonestown, Ollie was 8 months pregnant. Meanwhile, the tractor, with several men in the trailer, rolled toward the terminal shack and halted a short distance away. He was in Georgetown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 with the Jonestown Basketball Team. All I can do is tell what I saw and heard. File photo: Stephan Jones, son of Rev. There, as part of Jones' personal security detail, Cobb saw the once captivating minister strung out on drugs, afraid to venture anywhere for fear of his legal problems. When John Cobb was born in 1960 in a black section of Indianapolis, his mother and older siblings already were temple members. Yet he submitted to a new search, then returned to his seat. window._taboola = window._taboola || []; At the end of Ryan's two-day visit to the mission Saturday, a woman suddenly charged down a slippery boardwalk shouting at her husband, 'I'll kill you! Four decades later, Americans often use this phrase in political and business contexts without knowing its origin. With those people surrounding him, constantly doing the right thing, and doing what he says, and you're surrounded by a combination of them and those people who don't neccessarily agree, but are acting like they agree . How Twins Megan Rapinoe and Rachael Rapinoe are Breaking Barriers for the LGBTQ+ Community? More than 300 Jonestown victims were children. Then they could identify and allow themselves to step into the story and understand how such a thing could happen. He has taken a lead role in a 40th Jonestown anniversary memorial to be held Sunday at Oaklands Evergreen Cemetery, where remains of unclaimed and unidentified victims are buried. This November 1978 file photo shows the bodies of Peoples Temple mass suicide victims led by Jim Jones in Jonestown, Guyana. And I looked around and there were at least 15 people looking at me. Harris, a Los Angeles-based NBC investigative reporter who covered the fall of Saigon and the Nicaragua rebellion, had been killed. When a friend invited her family to Peoples Temple's wine country church, they were impressed by the integrated community. His LinkedIn profile indicates that he still has the position of vice president of operations at MB Contract Furniture. Jon was born on January 31, 1975, in Oakland, California. Of course, even if he wanted to forget Jonestown, his name was an ever-present reminder. She gave her house to the Peoples Temple and they moved to San Francisco. In an hour, that promise was broken.. To me, the ends justified the means, he said. "He used to say that I would acquire his gift in my late years. According to former members, Jones would not tolerate defections from the mission project and many of the church members considered those who leave to be traitors. Johnny Brown: Taking Care of His Own(2013), This site houses a variety of PDF documents. , MoKal . STEPHAN Gandhi Jones is - in the eyes of the world - the son of a mass murderer. If you or someone you know are experiencing suicidal thoughts, call 911, or call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings. A vat that contained a drink laced with deadly cyanide sits on a sidewalk at Peoples Temple in Jonestown, Guyana in November 1978. He appeared in movies like Written in Blood (2018), The Peoples Advocate: The Life and Times of Charles R.Gary (2007) and The True Story (2003). In a telephone interview he sounds serene, though it cant be easy for him to talk about the tragedy that took his parents, a number of his siblings and many of his friends. But the reality is that it was far from a mass suicide. 'She gives us the order that were supposed to kill ourselves,' Vilchez recalled. Unauthorized distribution, transmission or republication strictly prohibited. Garry (2007) and The Real Story (2002). At the temple-exit guard post, the truck was halted. Among the hundreds of corpses, only one was different; he had died from a bullet to the head. Instead of finishing high school, Vilchez moved to San Francisco, where she lived in the church. Dozens of members in Guyana slipped out of Jonestown or happened to be away that day. . Quietly the men with the tractor motioned aside a group of curious Guyanese children and other bystanders. 'This is really crazy,' he recalls thinking. Stephan escaped death with the Jonestown basketball team, Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. . Wiki User. "I don't know what was happening . 'We think he's got a gun. Dozens of Peoples Temple members in Guyana survived the mass suicides and murders of more than 900 because they had slipped out of Jonestown or happened to be away that day, The bodies of five people, including Rep. Leo J. Ryan, D-Calif., are shown above on the airstrip at Port Kaittuma, Guyana, after an ambush by members of the Peoples Temple cult on November 18, 1978, John Cobb looks at names of family members on the Jonestown Memorial in Oakland, California. 'I was going back to retrieve that young person and also to say goodbye.'. He has been married to Kristi Jones since 1991. I mean, I saw things and was privy to things . In the aftermath, he built a new life. I was going back to retrieve that young person and also to say goodbye.. It won't work.' "But there's a sadness . It was all about survival in his domain. As we rode onto the black gravel, jungle-bordered runway, a small six-passenger Cessna was parked to one side of the corrugated metal shack which served as the airport terminal. When a friend invited her family to Peoples Temples wine country church, they were impressed by the integrated community. The minister gave the ritual a special name: White Night. So yes, many people were disenchanted., Im sure he feared it and Im sure he had people telling him it existed. 'I'm real happy to be getting out,' Layton volunteered, then lapsed into a stare. I would have been doing more than just leaving a family. It's like my hurt for them, or my missing them, is the only thing I have left of them." Though he waved and smiled at Peoples Temple services, seemingly enraptured like the rest, Stephan Gandhi Jones says he always had his doubts. Alongside it was a red tractor and trailer seen earlier at the mission. My arm was gushing blood so I stripped off my belt and pinched down the biggest wounds. We demanded to see the locked buildings where some members lived in crowd, uncomfortable conditions. He has read most of "Raven," which he believes to be the best of the books about his father, but he has never been able to bring himself to read the chapter about the suicides and murders. Stephan Jones was born on June 1, 1959 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA as Stephan Gandhi Jones. . I would either have had to fight, or I would have taken it. Stephan Jones did not drink. "I don't think his own ego would let him run out on that toward the very end," he says. He lives just outside San Francisco and works as an office systems installer, arranging furniture and office interiors. Jim Jones. Now, Stephan Jones is father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business. Peoples Temple lost the game, but only by 10 points, which seemed worth celebrating. Trailers, a few clearings and some wood or pole-and-canvas buildings were all that marked the Jonestown settlement when Stephan Jones arrived. container: 'taboola-right-rail-thumbnails', . "By that time, I know, he was way off into drugs, and his perspective was so warped," Stephan Jones says. He is still elated by it. Four granite slabs are etched with names of the 918 people who died in Guyana- including James Warren Jones, which deeply offends some whose relatives perished. While Jonestown: The Women Behind The Massacre focuses on the women who were involved with Jim Jones, Stephan continues to have empathy and love for his mother, who apparently struggled with her husband's affairs. He sought treatment, and eventually, the father of three settled into a quiet life in California. It would become a little town where people of all ages and colours raised food and children. Ollie worked in the nursery, and Eugene felled trees. target_type: 'mix' Now, Stephan Jones is father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business. Stephan Jones tells Haaretz about the man who would convince his followers to drink the Kool-Aid. "The media has done a poor job; theyve demonized him. He converted to Catholicism and registered Republican. Jones berated three other new arrivals for misbehavior on the trip; they were beaten and forced to work 24 hours straight. I tried to fire - but nothing happened.'. It makes him a little crazy sometimes. Among those speaking out ahead of the 40-year anniversary of the mass deaths is Mike Touchette, who was a 21-year-old Indiana native at the time. Though I couldn't see over the tall brush, I could hear the shots become less frequent. But Stephan was the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones. Stephanie was one of six victims in the car accident coming back from Cincinatti.Birth name: . In the days before Ryan's fact-finding mission to the settlement, the players were in Georgetown for a tourney with the Guyana national teams. I also didnt really know what Id be dealing with if I did, but sadly we were finally at a point where I felt I had enough support and we decided that we were going to take action. He is a businessman in Northern California, married, with three daughters. During that period, more than 900 people died including Stephans mom and some of his siblings. Then-San Francisco Examiner reporter Tim Reiterman was wounded in the airstrip shooting and flown to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, where he wrote the following eyewitness account. Yes. Copy. Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby, the two temple members who asked for help in the note, also were seriously injured. The murders and suicides were unfolding, 150 miles away. 'In an hour, that promise was broken.'. Jim Jones radioed his son with orders to return to Jonestown, Stephan Jones refused to cut short the trip. His LinkedIn profile indicates that he still has the position of. The closest thing to a law enforcement official - a pleasant young policeman with a pink shirt and a 16-gauge shotgun - was disarmed by temple members. I get it, Im not upset about that. This past year, she returned to long-overgrown Jonestown. I appreciate that question. Stephan Gandhi Jones is the son of the notorious religious cult leader Jim Jones. When the order from the colony came over the speaker in Guyanas capital Georgetown, Stephan Jones knew he wouldnt obey it. The tournament was in Georgetown, the Guyanese capital, 150 miles away. One of the female subjects of the documentary is Marceline Jones, who was Jim's wife. We couldn't know then that the grim little world of this sick man would shatter within hours, taking hundreds of his followers to their deaths. The only surviving child of Jim Jones, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. The media has done a poor job; theyve demonized him. . someone shouted, and the driver attempted to turn the truck around. Her only natural child, Stephan Gandhi Jones and adopted son, Jimmy Jones, Jr. aka James Warren Jones, Jr. were both in Georgetown, Guyana for a basketball game representing Jonestown on November 18, 1978. His son was not among the boosters. "I don't know. There are moments when he glimpses the edges of power and understands precisely how it might be used. Or lost touch with reality? Jones, who asked his followers to call him 'Dad,' did not like to lose any of his 'children.' He pushes through the crowd, but he cannot get to his father. John Victor Stoen. He has been married to Kristi Jones since 1991. From hair trends to relationship advice, our daily newsletter has everything you need to sound like a person whos on TikTok, even if you arent. Most people were away at the time. "I think I'd probably be pretty messed up if I hadn't lost everybody I had and hadn't gone through the prison experience," Stephan Jones says. So much was attractive and unique that we turned a blind eye on what was wrong, he said, including his fathers sexual excesses, drug abuse and rants. He rode bulldozers, dodged falling trees, killed snakes, lit brush fires and rode the slow boats upriver with loads of cut wood for flooring and walls. This figure, though shocking, gave room for hope maybe the remaining hundreds of people of the colony had fled into the jungle and were saved. I heard a few more shots and saw the tractor pull away. After more than 22 years at California's transportation department, Smith retired in 2015. He's 61 now. My mother got me an apartment, I got a job and my father came and tried to talk me into coming back. 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4. The slaughter at Jonestown was the worst civilian tragedy in U.S. history before September 11, 2001. that one last act would be admitting he was a coward, and about nothing. 'We built a community out of nothing in four years,' recalled Touchette, now a 65-year-old grandfather who has worked for a Miami hydraulics company for nearly 30 years. I mean, here are hundreds and hundreds of people who feel differently than I do--who's right?". I guess I wanted to believe that, as a child.". What Are Essential Oils and Do They Work. 'Baby killer. It was Harris who had been contacted by the first two groups of temple members expressing a desire to leave. Some of those leaving the temple eyed the vehicles with suspicion. For years it was largely forgotten along with a number of other insanities in the United States in the 1970s. Ollie worked in the nursery, and Eugene felled trees. More than 900 people lived in the agricultural mission, with its dining pavilion, tidy cottages, school, medical facilities and rows of crops. Even the few people that actually took the poison. Devotion to its ideals bolstered her self-worth. As a San Francisco high school student, he was dispatched to help build Jonestown. Now, Stephan is a father of three daughters,. Layton later was taken into custody by Guyanese authorities who seized a .38-caliber pistol and turned it over to U.S. Embassy officials. There was something there. Photo by Eric Risberg / AP Being in Jonestown before Jim got there was the best thing in my life.. . Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Vilchez worked as office manager at a private crime lab for 20 years and now, at 61, sells her artwork. 'I'm not saying he didn't cause it, create it. Id rather just talk about what didnt work and hope that people can see that in their own lives. I'll kill you! Stephan is the only living son of Jim Jones and his late wife. Rebelling, they refused Jones' order to come back. Jim Jones charismatic, volatile and ultimately evil. Now 58, he owns a modular office furniture business in the East Bay and is married with a daughter. Recent interviews with Stephan include: "Son of Anarchist: My Father, Jim Jones, and What the . He has been married to Kristi Jones since 1991. He was cleared of any complicity--another Peoples Temple member served a prison sentence for his role in the deaths--but Stephan Jones has come to believe that surviving Guyanese prison somehow braced him for his own re-entry to the world. " Save this record and choose the information you want to add to your family tree. "There's just nothing like it," he says. Save record . We have enabled email notificationsyou will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. His handshake was weak. Relatives & Associates. Jim Jones set off one of these panics every few weeks, sometimes keeping people awake all night as he shouted his warnings. And there was more social rhetoric and action in my life and a lot more fear. Publicity Listings . And when her 23-year-old sister joined, Jordan went to live with her at age 12. This dismissive thinking was convenient because its hard to comprehend how so many people marched together to a certain and unnecessary death. After the slaughter, Stephan Jones was arrested on suspicion of abetting the mass murder and spent three months in a Guyanese prison. Springing to my feet, I ran 40 yards across the runway. Don't take my baby!'. But in 1973, Johns oldest brother and a sister, along with six other California college students, quit the church and became its enemies. someone hollered as we scrambled over the gravel to the far side of the plane. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. They were at a basketball tournament five years ago, in November 1978 when the congressman and the reporters came to Jonestown. Eugene Smith recalls how his mother, a churchgoing African-American, bought into Jim Jones' dream after they attended a service in Fresno. And I just flew out of bed, grabbed my ax, walked out to the post that was supporting the speaker and raised the ax like I was going to cut it down. America was a genuinely unfriendly place for a boy from an interracial family and community, and Jim Jones knew how to fan that into a fear of everything that lay beyond the temple walls. I believed there was too much racism, and there was a need for change. It was just more controlled. I believe that it was always a personal agenda for my father, and yes, there was a gradual shift in the balance. Did You Know Soccer Player Crystal Dunns Husband Pierre Soubrier Is A Football Specialist? Twins Megan Rapinoe and Rachael Rapinoe are Breaking Barriers for the LGBTQ+ Community incident! Later, Americans often use this phrase in political and business contexts without its! He used to say goodbye. ' siblings already were Temple members a. Female subjects of the documentary is Marceline Jones to U.S. Embassy officials dozens of members in Guyana slipped out the... 'M Real happy to be away that day his mother, a Los Angeles-based investigative! Like my hurt for them, is the only biological son of Jones! 'In an hour, that promise was broken. ' she and Jim were the Nights. Him a man he submitted to a certain and unnecessary death or pole-and-canvas buildings were all that the... 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