Listen, not long before, we went to play basketball. Stephan Jones was a nearly full-grown teen-ager when his father sent him to the Peoples Temple agricultural mission in the small South American coastal country of Guyana. I mean, here are hundreds and hundreds of people who feel differently than I do--who's right?". "You can tell when it's a man; the positions are different," Jones says evenly. The note said: 'Please help us get out of Jonestown.' When the rains approached, he would stand and watch the water come, pushing solid and steady toward him like some enormous stage set being wheeled across the hills. "This is really crazy," he recalls thinking. He was in Georgetown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 with the Jonestown Basketball Team. 'I'm not saying he didn't cause it, create it. According to his 1983 interview with The Washington Post, he was in this line of work even back then. Only two days later did the picture became clear. 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. American soldiers who arrived discovered that beneath the layer of bodies was another layer, and yet another. Everyone participated in it and because of that, it went as far as it did, she said. All these lives were wasted and I don't know why. But after temple gunmen killed the congressman, three newsmen and a church defector on the Port Kaituma airstrip, Jones ordered a poisoned grape-flavoured drink administered to children first. When more than 900 people were killed at Jonestown by consuming punch laced with cyanide on Nov. 18, 1978, Stephan was not at the settlement founded by his father. He keeps his voice very soft, as though practice has taught him to hold certain subjects to a whisper in public, but his gaze is direct. The reunion with Jones was not as joyous. Jim Jones of the Peoples Temple, poses for a portrait near San Rafael, Calif. mode: 'thumbnails-a', stephan gandhi jones. He says his daughters have seen him gnash his teeth when he talks about his father, but they also have heard him speak lovingly of the man who taught him compassion and other virtues. But it was too late. Yes. They have altogether three daughters. Stephan fought him, swore at him, obeyed him, contemplated killing him, argued with his mother about how to bring Jim Jones under control. 'There were often thoughts of taking him out but I know I wasnt capable of that kind of thing. That he was just this crazy zealot this entire time". What they said. They have altogether three daughters. 'They're in deep trouble now,' observed one of the relatives who had accompanied us. someone hollered as we scrambled over the gravel to the far side of the plane. It appeared in the Examiner on Nov. 20, 1978, two days after the tragedy: San Francisco Examiner reporter Tim Reiterman (left)was wounded in the airstrip shooting. You don't tell God he needs help. "I usually try to tell people when we're in a good time to talk about it, because my God, it takes two hours just to scratch the surface," Stephan Jones says. Within minutes, the aide and her three children lay dead in a bloody bathroom, their throats slit. And he would have arrived too late, anyway. [November 2008], View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro, Kristi Jones And then he went to my mother. . The reunion with Jones was not as joyous. And I dont know if it was paranoia. And I had good reason to be enraged with him I was enraged long before he died, and openly so. Then, after a 1977 New West magazine expose of temple disciplinary beatings and other abuses, she was sent to Jonestown. For many years, Jones struggled with the guilt of survival, his father's grim legacy, and his own subsequent substance abuse. In fact, he thought he was the only one who could save the situation. However, they have moved on with their life. She died in a tragic car accident only weeks before her mother, Marceline Mae Baldwin Jones, gave birth to her brother, Stephan Gandhi Jones. I keep remembering what Jones had said in the pavilion. After Ollie became pregnant, she was sent to Jonestown; Eugene remained behind. It was just more controlled. John Victor Stoen. 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. Yesterday morning 100 Guyanee troops came by train from Matthews Ridge, walking the last several miles as a precaution against sabotage or attack. .' "He was always preaching the hostility toward us and warning people what would happen or what could happen from the outside," Stephan Jones says. Hes 61 now. My best guess is that Jones felt the press people weren't fooled by the staged setup at the mission. 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", The thought of killing Jim Jones had occurred to his son, but Stephan never tried to do it. There is little his father said or taught him then that stays with him now; his memory is of a man wandering around the house in his underwear or his pajamas, sleeping by day, watching the news or "Hogan's Heroes" on television and announcing that he could tell whether his son was lying simply by staring into his eyes. What would you say is the biggest misconception people have about the Peoples Temple or your father? This is really crazy, he recalls thinking. When one of Stephan Jones' adopted brothers once declared in a rage that they had to kill their father, Stephan remembers talking him out of it: "I said, 'God, you'd have chaos on your hands if you just went out and did this. Sadly we were finally at a point where I felt I had enough support and we decided that we were going to take action'. 1998-11-08 04:00:00 PDT JONESTOWN, GUYANA-- "My father was a fraud."- Stephan Gandhi Jones, son of Jim Jones A lone palm tree stands where Jim Jones exhorted his followers to die for him, but the . It was easy to see and feel what was attractive about my father. He called his church "Peoples Temple"--"Wings of Deliverance" had been tried earlier and discarded. 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. And thats why its so critical that people be wary of any leader who is held as superior to the people theyre leading. 'Watch him,' those around him were told. 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. After the slaughter, Stephan Jones was arrested on suspicion of abetting the mass murder and spent three months in a Guyanese prison. A bit later the number was revised upward to 408. Then he waits a while, until they have come to know him--the very tall young man with the kind voice and the black mustache. Have your feelings toward your father and his role in your life evolved over the years? In California, he was steeped in temple life. It would become a little town where people of all ages and colors raised food and children. I believe that it was always a personal agenda for my father, and yes, there was a gradual shift in the balance. 'I just have to love him and forgive him.'. Springing to my feet, I ran 40 yards across the runway. 'Like everyone else, he died there,' his son said. But the entertainers stayed in Jonestown to entertain Ryan. . The silence could mean only one thing: An ambush was awaiting them. They were shooting to kill, not just to stop us from leaving. Going by the first body count, the media reported 383 dead. During the long night, the temple defectors told us that all the horror stories about Jim Jones and the church were true. 'I was his son.' He lives just outside San Francisco and works as an office systems installer, arranging furniture and office interiors. When that was pointed out to Ryan, Layton contended he already had been frisked. 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. Stephan is the only living son of Jim Jones and his late wife Marceline Jones. ", 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. 'He made a promise - once we get to Jonestown there is no corporal punishment,' Smith said. And Stephan Jones sometimes thinks that he might have taken the poison, too. But some lived. 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." . 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. Jim Jones himself did not drink the poison. 'Baby killer. There is no way we would be shooting at the airstrip. "I think I have a lot of the same tendencies he had. The therapy that has been helpful to me hasnt been by talking with strangers about it. The younger man demanded that everyone in the truck move aside. Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. You're not taking any more drugs." Jones had suffered a setback. This November 1978 file photo shows the Peoples Temple compound, led by Jim Jones, after bodies were removed, in Jonestown, Guyana. target_type: 'mix' When people ask about his past, he says he was "overseas," or "in volunteer service." (all adoptive) Stephanie Jones (died in 1959); Suzanne Jones; Agnes Pauline Jones; Stephan Gandhi Jones; James Warren (Jimmie) Jones, Jr.; Lew Eric Jones; Timothy Glenn Tupper (Day) Jones; Jim Jon (Kimo) Prokes; (?) "I was still naive enough--well, not necessarily naive enough; I still believe the CIA is capable of all kinds of things--but I felt that we could geniunely be a threat to the image of the United States and that people might be trying to do things to undermine or eliminate what was happening down there," he says. Temple attorneys Charles Garry and Mark Lane, along with Ryan, subdued the man. People were completely fatigued, exhausted. Thank goodness he lived before me.". She gave her house to the Peoples Temple and they moved to San Francisco. 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. And it was necessary in my own healing for me to find acceptance for him, understanding of him. 2010-10-03 19:23:36. I would say that there are times when its very enriching to speak with people about it All too often people want to write everyone off as a bunch of crazies. "This was when he started bragging about taking 16 people on in one day, and all that crap. 'I focused my rage on Dad and his circle, rather than deal with me,' he said. Stephan is the only living son of Jim Jones and his late wife. "I just say something like, 'You remember Jonestown?' that one last act would be admitting he was a coward, and about nothing. I think it was Dad controlling people through fear, me and my siblings when we were very young.. He's 61 now. What we were calling the cause really was Jim, she said. When a friend invited her family to Peoples Temple's wine country church, they were impressed by the integrated community. 1959. Stephan Gandhi Jones is 6-foot-5, lean, broad at the shoulder, olive-eyed, black-haired, handsome as a billboard model. "He was a gentle man in a lot of ways," Jones says, stretched now over the sofa in his small apartment. John was attending a San Francisco high school when he was allowed to join his best friends in Jonestown. He went through years of nightmares, mourning and shame. At first it was spanking of children. Because Dad was such a mess . What Are Essential Oils and Do They Work. window._taboola = window._taboola || []; So in my view, even the good works and things he championed were in some way not as pure as folks want to think. Eugene Smith recalls how his mother, a churchgoing African-American, bought into Jim Jones' dream after they attended a service in Fresno. They were forced. 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. For years, Vilchez was ashamed of the part she played in the Peoples Temple, an idealistic group that imploded so terribly. When Smith reunited with his mother and wife in Jonestown, Ollie was 8 months pregnant. Dozens of members in Guyana slipped out of Jonestown or happened to be away that day. 'Destroyed,' he said, 'from within '. Johnny Brown: Taking Care of His Own(2013), This site houses a variety of PDF documents. He does not know. 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. Stephan Gandhi Jones is the son of the notorious religious cult leader Jim Jones. In this March 5, 2018 photo released by Kevin Kunishi, Jordan Vilchez sits at memorial for mass murder and suicide victims at the Jonestown settlement in Guyana. More than 300 Jonestown victims were children. The list of defectors rapidly grew to at least 16. Jon was born on January 31, 1975, in Oakland, California. Where the machine shop once stood, there was only rusty equipment. 'Liquidator,' " Stephan Jones remembers being called, as he lay on his prison cot and listened to the mosquitoes swarm. " Jonestown was the highlight of his life for a time and he recalls feeling pride pioneering in the distant jungle of Guyana. Read More Others had joined in San Francisco and continued with him to the promised land in the South American jungle. 'This is really crazy,' he recalls thinking. And the temple was his life first in Indiana, later in California. Rebelling, they refused Jones order to come back. NBC sound man Steve Sung had chunks of one arm blown away. How do you explain the renewed interest in the Peoples Temple? He was 18 and running a temple construction crew when the church sanctioned his marriage to a talented 16-year-old singer, Ollie Wideman. And when her 23-year-old sister joined, Jordan went to live with her at age 12. Afterwards, the 19-year-old Stephan was put in jail for three months in the South American nation before the case against him was thrown out. Ryan, his thick gray hair bloodied, was near the front of the plane. He was in Georgetown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 with the Jonestown Basketball Team. For moreEntertainment,Celebrity BabiesfolloweCelebrityMirror. His body was found with a gunshot wound in the head. When he wakes, at dawn or in the middle of the night, it takes him some time to come back. "I say, 'Mom,' " Stephan Jones says, recalling a desperate mother-son huddle toward the end, " 'We're talking about a man who think's he's God. As the larger plane landed, the temple truck, with several persons in the back, started to advance. Now 58, he owns a modular office furniture business in the East Bay and is married with a daughter. With their lives, the story of Jonestown continues, even now. He will read it when he is ready, he says. I would argue that even a lot of the good works that he wanted to do early on were an attempt to impress my mother and her family'. My companion, Examiner photographer Greg Robinson, would be murdered in an ambush. Hundreds of corpses were lying on the ground in front of them. 'It looks like trouble,' I said to Greg Robinson, but he kept on shooting pictures. . Being in Jonestown before Jim got there was the best thing in my life.. Dozens of members in Guyana slipped out of Jonestown or happened to be away that day. File photo: Peoples Temple compound, led by Jim Jones, after bodies were removed, in Jonestown, Guyana, November 1978. Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby, the two temple members who asked for help in the note, also were seriously injured. The reason I ended up in Jonestown is that I left. He thinks now that it is probably stupid to believe that. He contacted the people at the San Francisco branch of the Peoples Temple and instructed them not to take action. It was planned as a grand event, the Peoples Temple team against the Guyanese national team, and when the Rev. " He smiles, imitates the sudden mask of disbelief. " Hes an executive at the office furniture company where he began working immediately after Jonestown. The bodies surrounded a podium from which Jim Jones, aided by armed men to hold down the unwilling, had cried out in encouragement while men, women, and children drank red Flavor-Aid mixed with potassium cyanide. Devotion to its ideals bolstered her self-worth. Stephan Jones currently lives in Petaluma, CA; in the past Stephan has also lived in San Rafael CA and Novato CA. (As PEOPLE reported a year after the deaths, two of Stephan's adopted siblings also died at Jonestown.). Id rather just talk about what didnt work and hope that people can see that in their own lives. 'I believe 100 percent that not everyone would have been dead,' he said. The guy you see in all the images. He dreams he is arguing with his father, arguing passionately, and although he knows his arguments are better, his father always wins. 'When I left at 21, I left a part of myself there,' she said. Photographer Greg Robinson (right)was one of the five people killed. ", Throughout the 40 years since the deaths at Jonestown, Stephan has been willing to give media interviews. Stephan Gandhi Jones is the son of the notorious religious cult leader Jim Jones. There was something there. While religious leader Jim Jones has historically been blamed for the tragedy that occurred at his Guyana compound, the A&E special Jonestown: The Women Behind The Massacre argues that the women closest to Jones were also partially responsible. This return to the cult of Jim Jones is part of a re-examination of dangerous cults and movements in Americas past, like the Osho cult, which had a similar murderous potential. Then they start to ask questions right away.". He says his daughters have seen him gnash his teeth when he talks. People were forced. The Joneses adopted a black baby in Indiana in 1960, and Jim gave the 10-week-old infant his own name. OAKLAND, Calif. Jonestown was the highlight of Mike Touchettes life for a time. 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