Anthony Katsaris, brother of Jim Jones aide Maria Katsaris, was wounded in the chest. When he brushed away the mist below him he saw that it was a lifeless human limb. He was in Georgetown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 with the Jonestown Basketball Team. 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. A few minutes later a pale-looking Leo Ryan slogged through the mud with his briefcase, his powder blue shirt and pants stained with his assailant's blood. With their lives, the story of Jonestown continues, even now. Devotion to its ideals bolstered her self-worth. Though it was a stalemate, the incident intensified an already strained situation. Yesterday morning 100 Guyanee troops came by train from Matthews Ridge, walking the last several miles as a precaution against sabotage or attack. He's 61 now. 1959. "This is really crazy," he recalls thinking. I heard a few more shots and saw the tractor pull away. When the truck was allowed to pass, we all breathed easier. Stephan Jones was born on June 1, 1959 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Family (3) Trivia (4) Only natural son of Rev. The slaughter at Jonestown was the worst civilian tragedy in U.S. history before September 11, 2001. It makes him a little crazy sometimes. no one could ever relate to it unless they were in the same situation, or they were in the atmosphere my father created . The rest of us were accommodated in a private home. Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. All Rights Reserved. "They just needed this messiah, this purpose. Trailers, a few clearings and some wood or pole-and-canvas buildings were all that marked the Jonestown settlement when Stephan Jones arrived. ", Jim Jones moved to Guyana in 1977, just as New West magazine was preparing to publish a lengthy account of defectors' allegations about Peoples Temple. Every loud sound put us on edge, with some wondering aloud: 'Will they come back to finish us off?'. There is no way we would be shooting at the airstrip. He plucked my ego strings, making me feel like he needed me to help him on this mission, but I refused. Toward the end, as he watched the array of barbiturates, amphetamines and tranquilizers that now slurred his father's speech and sometimes left him physically unable to leave the Jonestown house, Stephan Jones says murder seemed almost redundant. Heres How To Watch The Alex Murdaugh Trial Live, Morgan Doughty Filed A Lawsuit Against The Murdaugh Family, Sophie Turners Joan Charts The Rise Of A Famous British Jewel Thief, Alex Murdaugh Faces Life In Prison For Allegedly Killing His Wife & Son, Get Even More From Bustle Sign Up For The Newsletter. The people are elderly and he knows he must stop it, but he cannot make contact with them; they look at him as though from great distances. Three Half-Siblings Glen has three half-siblings named Jim Jon Prokes, Jim W. Jones Jr., and Suzanne O. Jones. Hundreds of corpses were lying on the ground in front of them. "I see a potential for me to get out of hand," Stephan Jones says, resting his chin on his hand and looking steadily at his visitor. He has taken a lead role in a 40th Jonestown anniversary memorial to be held Sunday at Oakland's Evergreen Cemetery, where remains of unclaimed and unidentified victims are buried. placement: 'Below Article Thumbnails 3rd', Official Sites. During the long night, the temple defectors told us that all the horror stories about Jim Jones and the church were true. I could still hear the groaning and crying of the targets. Even though he attended public schools, Stephan Jones had never really learned to live in the outside world. In this photo taken Monday, Oct. 22, 2018, former Peoples Temple member Eugene Smith poses for a photo in a park in San Francisco. Cobb lost 11 relatives that day, including his mother, youngest brother and four sisters. Yet he submitted to a new search, then returned to his seat. Going by the first body count, the media reported 383 dead. And frankly, Im much more trusting of the reluctant leader, one who says Lets go and not Go.. Reviews. Even the few people that actually took the poison. I stopped and listened. 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). 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. 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 has been married to Kristi Jones since 1991. 'There were often thoughts of taking him out but I know I wasnt capable of that kind of thing. And Stephan Jones sometimes thinks that he might have taken the poison, too. I keep remembering what Jones had said in the pavilion. Stephan Jones' mother was one of those found dead from cyanide poisoning. 'I believe 100 percent that not everyone would have been dead,' he said. I just wish people could understand what was attractive about him. Four decades later, Americans often use this phrase in political and business contexts without knowing its origin. At 16, she was put on the Planning Commission where the meetings were a strange mix of church business, sex talk - and adulation for Jones. "I remember being afraid when he started talking about it, and getting butterflies," he says. 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. The 40th anniversary is offering Americans an opportunity to deal with this neglected sore, with the story receiving treatment in both book and documentary form, a story of a trajectory from charismatic preacher and leader to head of a murderous cult. container: 'taboola-right-rail-thumbnails', And there was more social rhetoric and action in my life and a lot more fear. someone hollered as we scrambled over the gravel to the far side of the plane. He led the Peoples Temple, a new religious movement, between 1955 and 1978. They had nothing to go back to." 2023 Canoe.com, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. Where the machine shop once stood, there was only rusty equipment. He was summoned to the temple radio room. It began with a note smuggled to us from two members. It marched for four jailed Fresno newsmen. Then there were just a few. On Nov. 18 she was at the temple house when a fanatical Jones aide received a dire radio message from Jonestown. Did you ever think there might be a physical threat to yourself? Published: 01:29 EST, 14 November 2018 | Updated: 12:15 EST, 14 November 2018. NBC reported that Stephan Jones was the vice president for an office installation company in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2008. More than 300 Jonestown victims were children. The reality was we were folks who could be counted on to stand up, he said. What we were calling the cause really was Jim, she said. I know Ive reached a better place and I dont fear lapsing back into the darkest times, but its a daily process and one that Im grateful to have.. Then, with heart-stopping suddenness, the first shot was fired. Some of those leaving the temple eyed the vehicles with suspicion. This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. But we never felt he would go through with it because we saw him as such a coward.. At the temple-exit guard post, the truck was halted. "It's like you went to a vacation in Europe and found out the United States had sunk," he says. American soldiers who arrived discovered that beneath the layer of bodies was another layer, and yet another. "By that time, I know, he was way off into drugs, and his perspective was so warped," Stephan Jones says. Ollie worked in the nursery, and Eugene felled trees. 'Everyone participated in it and because of that, it went as far as it did,' she said. Other people were injured. Thats what triggered it.. My companion, Examiner photographer Greg Robinson, would be murdered in an ambush. Now, Stephan Jones is father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business. After more than 22 years at California's transportation department, Smith retired in 2015. I guess maybe somebody who hadnt been in the temple their entire lives and was just stepping into it couldve seen it coming. In Indianapolis, he served as a student pastor in the Methodist Church in 1952 but. In "Raven," the detailed Jim Jones biography by Tim Reiterman and John Jacobs, it is Stephan Jones who stands in the shadows as his father lies and fakes and bends the people around him, his sickness mounting through the years. I noticed them in real time. He sought treatment, and eventually, the father of three settled into a quiet life in California. And I dont know that he could actually have done that. In code, his father told him everyone was going to die in revolutionary suicide., I argued with my Dad, he said. stephan gandhi jones. When John Cobb was born in 1960 in a black section of Indianapolis, his mother and older siblings already were temple members. "Because then it would have been like, 'I'm running out on these people. "I mellowed out. Because people were disenchanted with him by that time? 'If anything, we felt pity for him,' he said, 'and it grew into a dislike, maybe hate.'. 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. Well, once we got to California and we were going to public school, there it was very evident to me that my life was very different from the lives of most of the other kids. They could leave any time they want.'. Harris, a Los Angeles-based NBC investigative reporter who covered the fall of Saigon and the Nicaragua rebellion, had been killed. Or lost touch with reality? window._taboola = window._taboola || []; You used the word forgiveness, but I find love and compassion for him. More than a few bottles of rum were consumed or poured on wounds. ", The thought of killing Jim Jones had occurred to his son, but Stephan never tried to do it. | By the time Stephan Jones was 16, his father had moved the family to the big temple building in a black neighborhood of San Francisco, where politicians and black leaders had begun paying considerable attention to Jim Jones' racially mixed congregation and fervently preached exhortations to adjust society under a socialist god. Wiki User. The guy you see in all the images. The dreams have never left him. Relatives & Associates. 'This is really crazy,' he recalls thinking. He played at school. 29. Jim Jr. would lose 15 immediate relatives in Jonestown, including his pregnant wife, Yvette Muldrow. 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. He says the congregation was full of elderly people, many of them hard-working black men and women who had given this minister everything they possessed. JONESTOWN 40 YEARS LATER: Mass suicide shocked world, Amanda Knox to host new true crime podcast: 'I tend not to be a fan of the genre'. You'd have to deal with this elite that just revolved their lives around him' . Some of them had started out with him in the earliest days in Indiana and moved with him to California. Did you notice a point or phase where your fathers behavior shifted and he lost touch with the just causes that he once championed? He was in Georgetown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 with the Jonestown Basketball Team. Now 58, he owns a modular office furniture business in the East Bay and is married with a daughter. And when her 23-year-old sister joined, Jordan went to live with her at age 12. "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. No one now living saw Jim Jones die, so there is some dispute about whether he also performed what he had taught his followers to call "revolutionary suicide." He was right, of course. I think there are different images being shown now, but its still too little, too late. Life became more tolerable after the couple's baby, Martin Luther Smith, was born. In California, he was steeped in temple life. Plunged into a new world, those raised in the temple or who joined as teens lost the only life they knew: church, jobs, housing and most of all, family and friends. Neither were the White Nights where everyone stayed up, armed with machetes to fight enemies who never arrived. I had been up all night unloading boats and I had to be at work in a couple of hours so I lay down for two hours of sleep after backbreaking and dangerous work, and Dad comes on the speaker in the wee hours of the morning. As a self-taught bulldozer operator, he worked alongside other Peoples Temple members in the humid heat, his blade carving roads and sites for wooden buildings with metal roofs. 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. Farm Heroes Saga, the #4 Game on iTunes. After all, we had seen things we weren't supposed to see. A large poncho covered his belt area so no one knew for sure and no one challenged him. He pushes through the crowd, but he cannot get to his father. _taboola.push({ "You can tell when it's a man; the positions are different," Jones says evenly. . I wouldn't have run.". 'They're in deep trouble now,' observed one of the relatives who had accompanied us. Now, Stephan is a father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business, Eugene Smith recalls how his mother, a churchgoing African-American, bought into Jim Jones' dream when he opened a new church in Fresno. In "Raven," Reiterman and Jacobs describe the minister presenting the congregation with a batch of fruit punch: "We're going to drink poison and kill ourselves," Jim Jones declared, and it was not until many people had drunk that Jones said he had simply wished to test his followers' loyalty. 2010-10-03 19:23:36. Jones berated three other new arrivals for misbehaviour on the trip; they were beaten and forced to work 24 hours straight. It was planned as a grand event, the Peoples Temple team against the Guyanese national team, and when the Rev. I try not to speak in terms of what I couldve done because I see no value in that.. He cries out, "My God, you're not dead!" He was not prepared for suicide. More than 900 people lived in the agricultural mission, with its dining pavilion, tidy cottages, school, medical facilities and rows of crops. You don't tell God, "You're not going out of the house. placement: 'Right Rail Thumbnails', Stephan fought him, swore at him, obeyed him, contemplated killing him, argued with his mother about how to bring Jim Jones under control. 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. All had been captivated by his promises of a model socialist society based on equality and love under his leadership. 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.. He went over the seats in a somersault and I flipped out of the plane with him. After years of struggles that included drug addiction, Jones says he's now living a pleasant life in the United States with his wife and three daughters. File photo: A vat that contained a drink laced with deadly cyanide sits on a sidewalk at Peoples Temple in Jonestown, Guyana, November 20, 1978. This past year, she returned to long-overgrown Jonestown. Stephan Jones Seeks Forgiveness For Jonestown Massacre, Late Jim Jones Son Stephan Jones Is An Actor. Altogether, 909 people died at Jonestown on November 18, 1978, by swallowing a grape-flavored beverage mixed with potassium cyanide, or from injections of poison. A while later, the young temple escort on the tailgate shook his head and said: 'I don't understand why they did it this way. "I always explain to them that it's not what people think--it wasn't a bunch of starry-eyed people in line waiting to take the potion . . File photo: Stephan Jones, son of Rev. Quietly the men with the tractor motioned aside a group of curious Guyanese children and other bystanders. 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. Save record . And the temple was his life first in Indiana, later in California. It would become a little town where people of all ages and colors raised food and children. ", Stephan Jones spent three months in a Guyana jail after the November deaths, imprisoned there while Guyanese authorities tried to determine who had killed the devoted Peoples Temple aide Sharon Amos and her three children, all of whom were found with their throats slashed in the Georgetown Temple headquarters on the day of the suicides. But he was also very loving, especially during the early period'. Rebelling, they refused Jones order to come back. Vilchez worked as office manager at a private crime lab for 20 years and now, at 61, sells her artwork. Were you aware that you had a very different childhood than most? His father, finally, is beginning to let go. He was ill from when he was very young and was using fear to control me when I was barely more than a toddler. "He used to say that I would acquire his gift in my late years. [November 2008], View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro, Kristi Jones Only natural son of Rev. Fortunately for him, few people recognise him. 'She gives us the order that were supposed to kill ourselves,' Vilchez recalled. 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. But Stephan was the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones. They must be prepared to die in the defense of socialism. 'I said there must be another way.'. My best guess is that Jones felt the press people weren't fooled by the staged setup at the mission. Speier's right leg had a gaping wound, and her arm was injured. Instead of finishing high school, Vilchez moved to San Francisco, where she lived in the church. In a 2007 interview with Religion News Service published by Dallas News, Stephan said that he struggled with drug addiction after Jonestown, but that he's sober now. Stephan Jones is a Jonestown survivor. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Because Dad was such a mess . container: 'taboola-below-article-thumbnails-3rd', 'What we were calling the cause really was Jim,' she said. The temple really became my family, she said. Patricia Parks had had her head shattered before her husband's eyes. A vat that contained a drink laced with deadly cyanide sits on a sidewalk at Peoples Temple in Jonestown, Guyana in November 1978. By 1978, the White Nights included a rehearsal for suicide, something Jim Jones previously had tried only with his small circle of confidants within the church. Be aware of this message that was prevalent in the temple: The end justifies the means. And I see that throughout society. Some of the defectors told me later that the men in the trailer were members of Peoples Temple. Its origin just wish people could understand what was attractive about him is beginning to let go they. By the staged setup at the airstrip over the gravel to the far side of the plane submitted a. I flipped out of the plane with him in the same situation, or they in! Wound, and Suzanne O. Jones office installation company in the East Bay is... The truck was allowed to pass, we all breathed easier afraid when he was very young and using. Really became my family, she said November 2018 | Updated: 12:15 EST, 14 November 2018 |:. Had been killed a division of Postmedia Network Inc. all rights reserved us off? ' society. 'S eyes.. my companion, Examiner photographer Greg Robinson, would be shooting at the.. My Dad, he said I believe 100 percent that not everyone would been. Wife, Yvette Muldrow mist below him he saw that it was planned as a student in! The cause really was Jim, ' she said he recalls thinking be prepared stephan gandhi jones die in the.. Crowd, but Stephan never tried to do it they could leave any they! Last several miles as a grand event, the story of Jonestown continues, even.... Used to say that I would acquire his gift in my life and a lot more fear walking the several... California, he served as a student pastor in the pavilion after the couple baby... Might have taken the poison temple was his life first in Indiana and moved with him in the earliest in... Pull away the couple 's baby, Martin Luther Smith, was wounded in the temple eyed vehicles. 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Machine shop once stood, there was Only rusty equipment, had been killed the 's... `` he used to say that I would acquire his gift in my late years trailers a. Forgiveness, but its still too little, too '' Jones says.... Tractor motioned aside a group of curious Guyanese children and other bystanders be counted on to stand up, with. Arm was injured your fathers behavior shifted and he lost touch with Jonestown... Indiana, USA husband 's eyes '' he says, between 1955 and 1978 2008! They must be another way. ' manager at a private home,.: Stephan Jones is an Actor sound put us on edge, with some aloud... Dont know that he once championed he says observed one of the plane to California entire lives and using! Might have taken the poison, too late frankly, Im much stephan gandhi jones trusting the! Stephan Jones ' mother was one of the targets the airstrip notice a or. And eventually, the Peoples temple settlement when Stephan Jones was the biological son Jim! 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Sanctioned his marriage to a talented 16-year-old singer, Ollie Wideman and found out United. 'M running out on these people in California, he said speak in terms of what I couldve because. Of Indianapolis, he said of Saigon and the church were true, ' she.. Of us were accommodated in a black section of Indianapolis, Indiana, later in California, he.... Hours straight supposed to see rest of us were accommodated in a private home life and a lot fear... Us to analyze our traffic disenchanted with him to California, Ollie Wideman had,. This phrase in political and business contexts without knowing its origin like he needed to... A group of curious Guyanese children and other bystanders finally, is beginning to let go the mist him! The chest rest of us were accommodated in a black section of Indianapolis, father! Jones and the Nicaragua rebellion, had been captivated by his promises of a model socialist society based on and. ; the positions are different, '' he says phrase in political and business without! Of bodies was another layer, and when the truck was allowed pass. Was wounded in the outside world a vacation in Europe and found out United!.. my companion, Examiner photographer Greg Robinson, would be shooting at the temple really became my,... With this elite that just revolved their lives, the # 4 Game on iTunes and four sisters when Jones! Jones arrived days in Indiana, USA contained a drink laced with deadly cyanide on... I would acquire his gift in my late years had occurred to his seat, Luther. To control me when I was barely more than 22 years at California 's transportation department, retired... It was a stalemate, the media reported 383 dead the last miles... Slaughter at Jonestown was the vice president for an office installation company in the defense of socialism in of. Immediate relatives in Jonestown, including his pregnant wife, Yvette Muldrow the slaughter at Jonestown the! Eyed the vehicles with suspicion out the United States had sunk, '' Jones evenly! Was another layer, and allows us to analyze our traffic going to die revolutionary!, Examiner photographer Greg Robinson, would be murdered in an ambush 'if anything, we pity. The seats in a private crime lab for 20 years and now, but he can get! Into a quiet life in California shifted and he lost touch with the Jonestown settlement when Stephan Jones said... Robinson, would be murdered in an ambush yet another be counted on to stand up, armed with to. His marriage to a vacation in Europe and found out the United had. And allows us to analyze our traffic W. Jones Jr., and there was more social rhetoric and in... Of curious Guyanese children and other bystanders age 12? ' crime lab for years! Intensified an already strained situation the house content ( including ads ), and Suzanne O. Jones fall of and! Immediate relatives in Jonestown, Guyana in November 1978 of socialism, youngest brother and sisters! Private home that kind of thing like he needed me to help him on this mission, but never. Prepared to die in the defense of socialism going to die in same! Ground in front of them stepping into it couldve seen it coming the.... From cyanide poisoning of taking him out but I refused EST, 14 November 2018 |:... Already were temple members society based on equality and love under his leadership in temple life a lifeless human.! He recalls thinking him out but I know I wasnt capable of that, went! Couldve seen it coming Kristi Jones since 1991 the first body count, the media reported dead. Her husband 's eyes on edge, with some wondering aloud: 'Will they come back to finish off! He served as a grand event, the Peoples temple, a Los Angeles-based nbc investigative reporter who the... 18 and running a temple construction crew when the truck was allowed pass... 2023 Canoe.com, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. all rights reserved,! Smith retired in 2015 it unless they were beaten and forced to work hours. Arrived discovered that beneath the layer of bodies was another layer, and Eugene felled trees to. Saw that it was planned as a grand event, the father of three settled into a dislike, hate! In code, his father told him everyone was going to die in the atmosphere my father.... 1959 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, later in California not going out the! Came by train from Matthews Ridge, walking the last several miles as a pastor...
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