Jonestown conspiracy theory

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Houses in Jonestown
Houses in Jonestown

Jonestown was the communal settlement made in northwestern Guyana by the Peoples Temple, a cult from California. Jonestown was founded in the mid-1970s by the cult leader, Jim Jones, for whom it was named, but it was occupied only for a few years. It stood amidst jungle, about seven miles (11 km) southwesterly from Port Kaituma.

Jonestown gained lasting international notoriety in 1978, when nearly its whole population died in a mass murder-and-suicide ordered by Jones, who was among the slain, numbering somewhat over nine hundred men, women and children.

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[edit] Conspiracy theory

A theory that a conspiracy existed beyond the members of the Peoples Temple related to the November 18, 1978 deaths in Jonestown and the Port Kaituma aristrip is based, in part, upon purported inconsistencies and unexplained (or allegedly poorly explained) events related to those deaths. Early reports claimed that about 400 Temple members had been killed, and the remainder had fled into the jungle; see headlines in the New York Post[1] and stories in the New York Times[2] and San Francisco Examiner.[3] That death count was revised over the next week until the final total of more than 900 was reached. In explaining the discrepancies, at least one U.S. officials first claimed, among other things, that Guyanese officials "couldn’t count"[4] (despite the fact that locals were charged with the task of puncturing the abdomen of each corpse to prevent their swelling and possibly exploding in the heat), then that bodies had been heaped in piles, hiding one another.

According to the New York Times,[5] the first official doctor on the scene was Guyanese Coroner Dr. Leslie C. Mootoo. Although he made no final determination, and examined only a portion of the bodies, based upon factors such that many people in Jonestown were children incapable of consent to suicide and that many bodies had injection marks, Mootoo speculated that a majority of those dead in Jonestown may have been murdered. The coroners for the few autopsies of Jonestown victims conducted in Delaware were not informed of Dr. Mootoo’s findings. [6] For a number of reasons, some legal and logistical, the bodies were not flown out of the remote jungle location of Jonestown for up to a week, allowing significant decomposition to occur, before being flown to New Jersey. Relatives and New Jersey officials complained about being kept from the remains, and according to the New York Times[7] Dr. Sturmer, President of the National Association of Medical Examiners, sent an open letter to the U.S. Army, complaining about the handling of remains, and the illegal cremations of most of the Jonestown victims.

On September 27, 1980, a column by respected investigative reporter Jack Anderson was published under the title "CIA Involved In Jonestown Massacre."[8][citation needed] According to Anderson, both Richard Dwyer and Jim Jones had ties to the CIA, with Dwyer's ties dating to at least 1959; when quizzed directly about this alleged CIA involvement, Dwyer responded "no comment." At one point on the sound-recording made during the mass suicide, Jones' own voice commands, "Take Dwyer on down to the east house" and a short time later, Jones says "Get Dwyer out of here before something happens to him."[9] This is considered by some to be evidence that Richard Dwyer, a U.S. embassy official, was really a CIA operative.[citation needed]

However, rather than being in Jonestown, numerous witnesses, including reporters for the Washington Post and San Franscisco Chronicle, saw Richard Dwyer miles away at the Port Kaituma airstrip. [10] Dwyer arrived there with some local constables just before the ambush by the Jonestown "Red Brigade" security squad.[11]. Dwyer was also shot in the buttocks during the Red Brigade's ambush at that location. [12]. Dwyer stayed at the airstrip with the survivors during the night. [13] Although no one can be certain, Jones' slurred speech and the apparent confusion at his initial reference to Dwyer might indicate that Jones mistook someone else (perhaps Charles Garry) for Dwyer.

In 1987, The Jonestown Carnage: A CIA Crime (1978) by S.F. Alinin, B.G. Antonov and A.N. Itskov was published in the USSR, relying upon both disputed allegations and some relatively undisputed facts. The book cites many characteristics of the Peoples Temple which may have made it unpopular with the U.S. Government. For example, citing the numerous tapes and writings of the Temple, the book notes that the Peoples Temple practiced apostolic socialism, preached atheism and opposed what it termed to be capitalist imperialism by the US government. The book also cites the numerous meetings that representatives of the Peoples' Temple had with Soviet embassy officials to negotiate a potential exodus to the Soviet Union. The book also references the October 2, 1978 visit to Jonestown by Soviet Embassy representative Feodor Timofeyev, who praised it for being a socialist haven, wagging its collective finger in the face of the US government.[14] In addition to these undisputed characteristics, the book also includes disptued allegations not contained in Jonetown tapes or receovered documents, such as a statement by Timofeyev of a purported meeting on November 18, 1978 with Deborah Touchette (she allegedly passed a briefcase with cash and documents of People's Temple to him) and a purported call from Sharon Amos where Amos allegedly mentioned a radio message from Jonestown about military helicopters and armed people approaching Jonestown on November 18, 1978. Based upon these and other allegations, the book argues that members of the cult were assassinated by CIA agents and mercenaries to prevent further political emigration from the USA and to repress the opposition to the US regime.

[edit] Bibliography

  • Renardo Barden,. Cults (Troubled Society series). Rourke Pub Group. ISBN 0-86593-070-8. 
  • Sean Dolan (2000). Everything you need to know about cults. New York: Rosen Pub. Group. ISBN 0-8239-3230-3. 
  • Jack Sargeant, (2002). Death Cults: Murder, Mayhem and Mind Control (True Crime Series). Virgin Publishing. ISBN 0-7535-0644-0. 
  • Jonestown Carnage: A CIA Crime - S.F. Alinin, B.G.Antonov, A.N.Itsko (Gives USSR version of the Jonestown massacre, argues that it was a crime committed by CIA.)
  • Rebecca Moore (1985). A sympathetic history of Jonestown: the Moore family involvement in Peoples Temple. Lewiston: E. Mellen Press. ISBN 0-88946-860-5. 
  • Charles A. Krause; with exclusive material by Laurence M. Stern, Richard Harwood and the staff of The Washington Post; with 16 pages of on-the-scene photos. and commentary by Frank Johnston (1978). Guyana massacre: the eyewitness account. [New York]: Berkley Pub. Corp. ISBN 0-425-04234-0. 
  • Shiva Naipaul (1982). Journey to nowhere: a New World tragedy. Harmondsworth [Eng.]: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-006189-4.  (published in the UK as Black and White) Shiva Naipaul
  • Phil Kerns, (1978). People's Temple, People's Tomb. Logos Associates. ISBN 0-88270-363-3. 
  • Raven: The Untold Story of the Reverend Jim Jones and His People by Tim Reiterman with John Jacobs
  • by Marshall Kilduff and Ron Javers (1978). The suicide cult: the inside story of the Peoples Temple sect and the massacre in Guyana. New York: Bantam Books. ISBN 0-553-12920-1. 
  • Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple a film by Stanley Nelson

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ New York Post, Nov 28, 1978: "Cult Dies in South American Jungle: 400 Die in Mass Suicide, 700 Flee into Jungle."
  2. ^ New York Times, Nov 21, 1978; Nov 22, 1978; Nov 23, 1978
  3. ^ San Francisco Examiner, Nov 22, 1978
  4. ^ New York Times, Nov 25, 1978
  5. ^ New York Times, Dec 14, 1978
  6. ^ New York Times Nov 26, 1978
  7. ^ New York Times, December 12, 1978
  8. ^ Anderson, Jack, "CIA Involved In Jonestown Massacre, September 27, 1980
  9. ^ Jonestown Audiotape Primary Project : Transcripts, Tape Number : Q 042, the so-called "Death Tape". Retrieved on 2007-03-08.
  10. ^ Tim Reiterman (1982) "Raven: The Untold Story of Reverand Jim Jones and His People" ISBN 0-525-24136-1 page 527
  11. ^ Tim Reiterman (1982) "Raven: The Untold Story of Reverand Jim Jones and His People" ISBN 0-525-24136-1 page 527
  12. ^ Tim Reiterman (1982) "Raven: The Untold Story of Reverand Jim Jones and His People" ISBN 0-525-24136-1 page 534
  13. ^ Tim Reiterman (1982) "Raven: The Untold Story of Reverand Jim Jones and His People" ISBN 0-525-24136-1 page 537
  14. ^ See, e.g., Jim Jones, Transcript of Recovered FBI tape Q 352
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