Bible sermons by Jim Jones (CA) / Peoples Temple Sermons (CA) / Jonestown (Guyana)
Progressive Marxism / Socialism / Communism / Atheism and leftist Liberation theology .. page 2
Jonestown death tape: audio from the last hours of a mass suicide . . . Lurking in the bowels of the Internet Archive is the Jonestown Death Tape,
a recording made by Jim Jones of the final hours of his cult, as he fed them poison and watched them all die, men, women and children. I wasn't able to listen to this -- just reading about the children screaming and Jones berating parents who balked at killing them was enough to give me a serious bout of willies. Still, this is one of those historical documents that I'm glad is out there -- atrocities like Jonestown don't happen every day (thankfully), and getting some insight into those who commit them is a worthwhile endeavor (for someone with a stronger stomach than mine).
..... Death tape / November 18 1978 Jones Winter 77-78
One Realistic C-60 magnetic tape cassette marked in part “Jones Winter 77-78
001-Q836a ... Radio logistics / unintelligible / static ... 001-Q836b ... Radio logistics / unintelligible / Morse Code ... Agriculture meeting
No notation on tape box, tape transcript itself specifies "January 19th, 1978
002-Q240a ... Agriculture Q&A discussion Jan 19th 1978 ... the production and mgmt of livestock / Milk and Eggs 002-Q240b ... Agriculture Q&A discussion continued ... plowing land and planting trees and bananas mgmt of workers disputes / shock treatments ?
One Scotch AVC-90 cassette marked “Guyana 1 and 2 Feb 13 & 15, 1978
003-Q055a ... Feb 13th 1978 .. George + Bill and vs Mr Rogers .... Misc transmissions / mgmt of workers disputes ... 00.27 He said / She said - omG ! the conflicts 003-Q055b ... Are these people speaking of the "med procedure" Electric Shock Treatment ? < I believe so ... trying to do so in secret / they won't mention terms .... preventative cures and steps Jones discusses work assignments
No notation on tape box, context places tape in March 1978
004-Q744a ... Jones: what I do you cannot understand by natural law - it's paranormal ... 03.30 Jones: I love you all so much .. you'll never know how much ... SSSH !! ...
06.00 Jones "sings" about socialism .. getm up off the floor ??
White Night in Jonestown
No notation on tape box, Edith Roller entry places tape on March 20, 1978
005-Q833a ... We're being attacked by the CIA - one of our people is punished in isolation - Cuba pointing missiles at the USA - Cuban Missile Crisis (White Nights) ... 07.15 Jones: My Wife and I we'd been Communists all our life - our Socialist Revolution Liberation will not come easily
17.00 Jones: Just as the Cubans, we must be willing to die for what we believe ... (G Damn this n G Damn that) .. peace !!
22.00 Jones: maybe there is CIA sitting here tonight ... (death threat) ... crowd gettn wild .. study your neighbor ..
praise for the USSR and orders from the PPP Peoples Progressive Party or N Korea ... we will obey
26.30 Jones: there is nothing as pure as Socialism as I am ... (G Damn this n G Damn that)
41.20 Jones: I have managed to resurrect people .... we are equipped to commit revolutionary suicide .... Jones: I believe that there is no loving God
45.00 Jones: Revolutionary suicide is an honorable act ... even in killing others in the process of killing yourself , an honorable act ...
006-Q051a ... ... March 20, 1978 ... The tape begins in the midst of a discussion about rooting out a traitor or an enemy, either within or outside the Jonestown community. Most of the tape, though, is a long session with an elderly member, Rev. Edward Moore, on the floor over letters and communications he tried to smuggle out to his daughter. He tries several responses – a calm and rational explanation for his action, an acknowledgment that he wasn’t thinking, an attempt to say he couldn’t remember why he had approached one member to get a letter out, an attempt to ask questions of clarification, several apologies – and every time, he is attacked, sometimes by Jones, principally by Jack Beam acting in the role of Jones, as he leads the community criticism of him. With the silent acquiescence of Jones, people pile on him, rehashing seemingly innocent incidents from months before. Moore doesn’t break down, except to offer apologies, but neither is he defiant ---- 44:40 006-Q051b ---- 16:39 007-Q940a ... ... Jonestown community considers punishment for runaways ... No notation on tape box, context places tape in Spring 1978] ... Thom Bogue and Brian Davis have been caught outside of Jonestown after the community turned out in force to hunt for the two young men who had escaped the previous night. They had supplies which they hoped would sustain them in their escape – supplies stolen from the community – as well as a number of condoms which they planned to sell. They now appear before a community meeting, listening to the anger of the crowd. As the tape opens – with the meeting in progress – a number of people propose punishments for the two young men, all of which will be aired before Jones makes his decision as to what to do ---- 32:08 008-Q814a ... ... News March 31, 1978 ... Woven throughout this news tape of late March 1978 are Jim Jones’ usual editorial comments – most of them familiar to the residents of Jonestown by that time – as well as extended commentary on the reality of Jonestown as a communistic society, where everyone works for the common good, where all possessions are held in common, and how everyone benefits as a result ..... The address also includes his description of a healing miracle performed on an elderly woman who would have died without his intervention – an event which allows him to remind his followers of the protection that his unique paranormal powers provide to this community – but the description includes an acknowledgment of the physical toll that the healings take on him ---- 1:01:36
Q805a ... Temple Members pledging violence and assination (1978) ---- 40:58 009-Q049-1 ... ... In this undated – and non-contextual – tape, Jim Jones holds a meeting of the Jonestown community during which he prepares them for the arrival of a few unnamed reporters, by posing random questions to random (almost all unidentified) members and passing or revising the answers he hears. While Jones coaches the people to improve their answers, the tone is generally light-hearted, and there are numerous moments of levity ---- 49:06 009-Q049a ... The bulk of this tape consists of Jim Jones questioning different people about living conditions at the Jonestown commune and, later, about the news. The tape has numerous edits, some lasting for more than a few seconds. It is impossible to know how long the pauses are, although in some cases, they seem short, in that Jones is on the same subject and his tone of voice is about the same. At other places, the community is discussing a new subject when the tape switches back on. Nevertheless, it seems to be all from one session ---- 32:58 010-Q757a ... ... This meeting of the Jonestown community includes long statements of Jim Jones’ personal philosophy. It is self-pitying at times, in part because he says he isn’t feeling well .... Jones begins the conversation by saying he is sensitive to noise. He criticizes members of the community for their selfishness, and says they might not miss him if he were dead. And he could do that, he adds, he could die tonight. But even though that would mean they could do what they want, he ponders what would it mean for the movement. He didn’t have the moral right to die, he says ..... He speaks of Cuba, the Soviet Union, and Congress. He says that the Soviets are threatened by the community’s goodness and its lack of elitism; they’re also impressed by their atheism ---- 45:50 012-Q781a ... ... “Don’t expect to come over here and find Hollywood,” Jones says as the tape opens. There are problems in Jonestown. Living conditions are more crowded than what they want, family housing has not yet been constructed – although couples can live together – and people are working harder than he intended them to. Both the CIA and Social Security have blocked their money, there are essential supplies needlessly – and sinisterly – being held up at the docks in Georgetown, and the Federal Communications Commission is giving them trouble about their radio transmissions ---- 1:00:04 012-Q781b ---- 59:20 018-Q807a ... ... April 6 1978 .. This is a general meeting of the Jonestown community, held late into the night and presided over by Jim Jones and Temple member Lee Ingram. With a few notable exceptions, the meeting’s tenor is unremarkable: Jones raises issues which have been brought to his attention, and the community discusses them; Jones singles out people for praise and criticism; the subjects of discussion rarely stray beyond the gates of the settlement. There are only a few references to the Temple’s unnamed enemies, to White Nights, or to Jones’ own sense of pain and apocalyptic vision ---- 1:02:56 018-Q807b ... The conversation turns to individual relationships among the community’s young people – who is breaking up with whom, who is sleeping with whom – and Jones is disgusted. “Getting ready to fight a revolution,” he complains, “and this kind of bullshit going on.” He returns to the thought later, saying the focus on sexual relationships will “stop us from being able to function ---- 1:00:12 021-Q596a ... ... April 8 1978 .. The Jonestown community meets to discuss whether they should go to Cuba. They talk about life there in general, about some of its laws, and about people reporting on each other. There is honor in reporting on each other in Cuba, Jones says, just as there should be honor in reporting on each other in Jonestown .... They also talk about whether Jones would be permitted to lead the group, what kind of threat his leadership would represent to the Cuban government. There is also discussion about whether everyone from Peoples Temple would be allowed to go. If anyone is barred from entry, Jones promises, he wouldn’t go either. Others follow up with the vow that if Jones doesn’t go, they won’t go either ---- 45:54 022-Q579a ... ... April 8 1978 .. In this tape of a Jonestown community meeting of an unknown date, Jones reviews the various praises and criticisms of different residents. While the tone of the meeting becomes difficult and angry towards the end, most of it is joyous — @ 03:20 with (Satanic) laughter, music, dancing, and forgiveness — even if that joy is expressed in irreverent ways .... Although the tape starts with ongoing conversation, it seems to be close to the beginning of the meeting. People seem to be settling into their seats, and there is light sexual banter before the business of the meeting gets underway ........ @ 04:30 Corporate Mocking of Jesus and Holiness movements ... @30:00 The meeting loses its joy and spontaneity, when a six-year-old boy doesn’t dance as Jones asks him to. Jones asks him how that would translate into the defense of the community. “Son, how would we know you wouldn’t go to battleline, if we asked you to fight… the racist that want to kill, and the capitalist. Would you go out there tonight? Hmm?… Show me you’ll go fight. There’s the enemy down there. Go fight him. Go. Take your hand and go.” ..... The young boy eventually caves in to pressure from Jones and the rest of the community. The next child, a 15-year-old boy, is more stubborn, and resists even as voices in the crowd urge him on with calls of encouragement, demands, and derision. Eventually, the crowd becomes angry with him. “[Jones] told you to do it, punk, now you run up the fucking aisle,” one unknown male says ---- 46:26 022-Q579b ... ... April 8 1978 .. Other people dance, but the mood has soured. Jones offers other reasons for people to dance, and lists the miracles they’ve all witnessed, the injuries he’s prevented and the healings he’s performed. Jones then leads the community in a song about the miracles, and about socialism ... The meeting breaks up with Jones making a few house-keeping announcements. In context, it appears that the following day was supposed to be a day off, but he has asked the community to work a half day. He tells people they can sleep an extra hour, but puts the work detail in political terms: “Get up at seven and be out there, if you care about the liberation of our people.” The reward will be fried chicken for lunch, even though he points out how expensive that treat is to the community. ---- 19:26======================================
022-Q600a ... ... April 10 1978 .. This meeting of the Jonestown community in April 1978 includes most of the elements from the gatherings of this period: there are reports from the various administrative departments, and a reading of praises and warnings; people are analyzed as they present their reports, they enter into arguments with each other and with Jim Jones, and several are disciplined; the crowd is often involved and animated, sometimes angry, sometimes quiet, often filled with laughter. Jim Jones directs the meeting, but many people participate, including those with some authority ---- 47:54 022-Q600b ... ... April 10 1978 .. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ---- 47:44Jonestown: Paradise Lost (Jonestown Cult Documentary) - Real Stories
025-Q598a ... ... People's Rally April 12 1978 .. This April 1978 meeting in Jonestown focuses on some of the problems facing the collective, ranging from the philosophical, such as the elitism and racism which seems to be creeping into some people’s behavior, to the pragmatic, such as the difficulties with raising enough foodstuffs on the farm to feed all the people. Especially during times of calling people out for discipline, the community relies on self-confession and community chastisement, although there are certainly times in which Jim Jones leads the criticism and other times when the community members give mixed messages to those who have done wrong .... The tapes begins (in mid-sentence) with Jones criticizing those in leadership positions who feel they are above others in avoiding some meetings or arriving late to others. “It’s most disarming, and painful and agonizing to watch people who are supposed to be leaders show no respect whatsoever, talk and even come in after I speak the news, as if that’s their prerogative,” he shouts. “Well, goddamn you to hell, it’s not your prerogative. You have no right to do that. This organization is built upon the dictatorship of the proletariat, and I am, goddammit, very much in control.” ---- 34:09 025-Q598b ... ... People's Rally April 12 1978 .. While you’re out there with, with your friends, she’s in town doing the techni— technical work of this cause, when this shithead wanted to take over my radio, when I— we’re in the middle of crisises. Why don’t you think you should take of him? Make people so ashamed that they have got normal sized breasts, that they’re, they’re, they’re some kind of peculiar creature. You got what he needs, honey. (Pause) Why don’t you take some responsibility? You played with him against our rules. You sexually carried on against our rules, now you don’t want— now you don’t want to take your responsibility? Cause she wants to go on to dental college, and she should. She wants to do something, she wants to train her mind, she wants to do something with her mind. ---- 33:35---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- W H I T E - N I G H T
027-Q635a ... ... People's Rally April 12 1978 / Meeting 1 .. Recorded during a White Night probably in April 1978, this tape alternately shows the anger, fear, and isolation within Jonestown. Jones feels under attack due to the pressure from the Concerned Relatives and the absence of some of his supporters within the Guyana government from the country. The danger of a fascist coup growing within the USA adds more tension to the meeting .... The tape begins with Jones talking about being under attack for holding a child named Dana Truss. He says the community needs to make its decision about what to do, but he knows what he wants to do for himself: he’ll take Dana and John Victor Stoen into the jungle, get to America, kill some enemies, and then die someplace. He faces death as a reality, he says, and lives with it every day. ---- 29:32 027-Q635b ... ... People's Rally April 12 1978 / Meeting 1 .. Jones: Now tell us what you really meant. (Pause) (Stern) And you better talk straight, ‘cause I consider you right now a class enemy. All the people that have destroyed our young people, the CIA transporting the drugs that I gave you news, right through Colombia, through the US white ambassador to dump in our ghettos, and you help distribute some of that shit? I consider you a class enemy. Now you tell me really what you were saying to her, before I tell you. (Angry) Because I know what you were saying to her ---- 29:38----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
028-Q636a ... ... People's Rally April 12 1978 / Meeting 2 .. This tape is from a White Night that opens with tape Q 635, that continues on Q 637, and that extends through Q 638 and Q 639 ..... This tape picks up on the themes from Q 635: Stanley Clayton is still before the community, undergoing criticism and periodic taunts by Jim Jones and others; the leadership is consumed by the response to the Concerned Relatives’ statement delivered to the San Francisco headquarters; and Jones speaks of the ways he can keep tabs on everyone. The intimidation, rage and isolation earlier in the evening has somewhat dissipated, and the tape ends with a cry of defiance. ---- 30:43 028-Q636b ... ... People's Rally April 12 1978 / Meeting 2 .. Towards the end of the tape, though, Jones says he is watching people all the time, looking for treason all the time, “see where people’s attitudes are about death.” .... The tape ends with a testimony by an elderly black woman, and a song about Jones. No man ever lived who was so strong, so courageous, so principled. The community then cries into the jungle to scare its enemies with a high trilling sound, and the tape ends. ---- 31:14----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
029-Q637a ... ... People's Rally April 12 1978 / Meeting 3 .. The tape opens with a man seemingly agreeing with what Jones has said before, that he would die for his child. The question arises from the floor: what if that means the fascists would get her. Would you leave her for the fascists? After a moment, the man says he would kill her. Jones then asks how old she is. Eleven, he replies. Then she can fight, Jones says. “She would take up a cutlass and fight till she was dead, unless it came to an overwhelming invasion, and then we would gently put them to sleep.” Jones says they would also die if the battle appeared to be set up to be black against black, in which case, they would all die. “But you don’t do that as long as there’s alternatives in which you can make a mark.” He also says suicide for selfish reasons will leave you cursed ..... The debate goes back and forth with conflicting points, until Jones says, “If it’s going to cause dishonor to socialism, it’d be best to just lay down our lives, and what’s that called? Revolutionary suicide.” ---- 26:48 029-Q637b ... ... People's Rally April 12 1978 / Meeting 3 .. The tape ends on an angry note, as the man says to Janice, “You’re a stupid ass, too. I want to tell you this, too. Dad talked the other day about, don’t put pressure on him.” Turning to Stanley, he says, “Dying – killing you is too good for you, Stanley. To kill you would be too good for you, ’cause you wouldn’t have to bear any responsibility or any guilt.” ---- 23:27----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
030-Q638a ... ... People's Rally April 12 1978 / Meeting 4 .. Jim Jones touches on the familiar themes that have characterized the White Night: the desire to get back at their enemies, the sense of betrayal in the actions of former members, the underlying social “evils” of the racist US system, the strength of the Jonestown community to stand together as one, and the commitment to die if all else fails ..... In the course of talking about problems with a Temple member named Kenny, one woman speaks of the allegations of child molestation against him. Jones points out the difference between a socialistic society like Jonestown and US society. “If you’re a child molester, we don’t isolate you, we just say, you’ve got a sickness in a certain area. We recognize you’re good. In the United States, you’re done. They lock you up, and put you away forever.” ---- 29:55 030-Q638b ... ... People's Rally April 12 1978 / Meeting 4 .. Crowd: Applause and cheers ... Jones: You smile, bitch, or I’ll pour it up your vagina. Yeeheeheehee! (Pause) Shit, you could drink anybody under the house and stand there smilin’. (Pause) Don’t count on no shit tonight, though, ‘cause I’m gonna keep me awake till I get sober. Woo! (Pause) It don’t do nothing for you, though, honey, you still know what reality is. I’m drunker than a skunk, but I still know what reality is. So don’t think it’s any way out. It isn’t. (Pause) Well, hell, I couldn’t help but be happy! ---- 29:33----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
031-Q639a ... ... People's Rally April 12 1978 / Meeting 5 .. Jones is drunk at the beginning of the tape. He says he wishes he could do it on a peaceful night, not so much for the thrill of a drunk, but so he could sleep. Later, as he comes down from the drunk, he tells people it isn’t good; he repeats that after he vomits. He elaborates upon that twice to say, “there ain’t nothing good but socialism.” ..... One concern Jones mentions early is the radio. He is afraid that the enemies will succeed in cutting them off. “Without communications, you’re dead,” he warns. ---- 29:26 031-Q639b ... ... People's Rally April 12 1978 / Meeting 5 .. Jones says, one of the reasons Jonestown survives is because of its watchfulness. “Everything you do, everything you say, the way you look, the way you move, where you walk, whether you smile just right, everything’s under a microscope.” According to Jones, though, that lack of privacy is a benefit, and the problems that arise as a result are his to deal with. ---- 29:14----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
032-Q640a ... ... People's Rally April 12 1978 / Meeting 6 .. While portions of a Jonestown community meeting (or meetings) take up a substantial part of side two of this tape, much of it is unintelligible and impossible to place in context, given the combination of radio interference and popoular music tracks that overwhelm the conversation(s) ---- 29:46 032-Q640B ... ... People's Rally April 12 1978 / Meeting 6 .. In a short segment near the beginning of side two, Jones presides over a community in crisis. Armed members of the security team have apparently been dispatched to the front gate of Jonestown, and phone calls are going back and forth to Georgetown to see how much trouble they’re in and how soon it’s coming ---- 26:02----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
033-Q641a ... ... People's Rally April 12 1978 / Meeting 7 .. As he has in a few – but only a few – other taped meetings, Jones has been drinking alcohol, and in sufficient quantity that his speech is affected at times. It is also apparent he is the only one in the crowd who has been allowed to do so .... The tape opens with a woman named Viola Forks standing before the community to account for herself. She has a hard time concentrating on the questions that Jones and others ask her, and cries softly when she is flustered. While there are a few voices in the crowd that defend her, most of the others – including Jones – seem angry with her. They bring up recent incidents which may or may not have led to her being called before the people of Jonestown, but they also hearken back to transgressions that occurred in the States. Even her explanation of the things that happened months or even years earlier stir the antagonism of some. “[Y]ou’re so ready to defend yourself … you can think of something happening in Los Angeles and Berkeley and every place else,” one unidentified male shouts at her, but when she’s asked to recall only one of Jones’ virtues that have been discussed that night, she can’t do it ---- 30:00 033-Q641b ... ... People's Rally April 12 1978 / Meeting 7 .. The option of resisting this threat through an act of revolutionary suicide does not arise in this tape – it does later in the evening – and the subject of death comes up only near the end of this tape. In the course of his repeated efforts to keep people from falling asleep, Jones follows up one cry – “Stay awake, goddamnit. Son of a bitch” – with a warning: “You may be all dying someday, very soon.” A moment later, he refers to a woman as being “the one protest against the cup that would’ve delivered us from our misery,” likely a reference to previous plans for mass suicide .... For the moment, though, Jones talks about their survival. He describes the struggle of socialists around the world, and includes themselves in that number. “When you live, it’s a struggle, and you have to fight, it’s a struggle. Socialism should not come easy when people have died all over the goddamn world for it.” ---- 30:41----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
034-Q642a ... ... People's Rally April 12 1978 / Meeting 8 .. The community is in a crisis, especially with some of their advocates in the government out of the country, and they need to discuss the options of what they can do. There are a number of suggestions, but the conversation turns repeatedly to “revolutionary suicide” as the only realistic and reasonable alternative. ---- 32:26 034-Q642b ... ... People's Rally April 12 1978 / Meeting 8 .. Another man who votes “to stay here and fight and die that way” is grilled about the other suggestions, until one leader asks him, “how do you figure we take care of the children, if we gone stay here and fight?” The man says he doesn’t want his daughter to fall into the hands of the fascists. “If necessary what would you do then?” Jones asks. “As much as I wouldn’t like it, there’s only one way to go,” the man replies. “She would have to be put to sleep.” .... In general, though, the direction of the conversation seems to frustrate Jones. “Die? Die?” he calls out at one point. “Now there all kindsa ways you can die.” Only once does he make a suggestion about their method of death. “Take a potion and we go, all of us go.” ---- 32:27April 12 1978 Meeting 09
035-643a
revolutionary suicide -- run into the jungle -- fight and see their heads blown off -- all may not survive -- I would kill my child before I would allow the fascists kill my child -- after a nuclear war, we would be in position to overtake S America -- if you make a threat of revolutionary suicide, you'd better be ready to carry it out
035-643b
viewtopic.php?p=3460#p3460 .... > next
011-782a
b One TDK C-120/ News April 1 013-737a
b One Tracs 60/ “News 4-3-78? 014-780a
b One ConcerTape C-120/ “News of the Day, April 4, 1978? 019-742a
One Sony C90/ “News of the Day April 7, 1978? 020-732a
b One Trans 60/ “News of the Day April 8? 021-738a
One Craig 90/ “News April 9, 78? 023-662a
One Craig 90/ News April 11, 1978 024-792a
b One Certron C-60/ “News April 11 (16?)” ======================================
000-Q000a ... ... People's Rally April 6 1978 .. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX ---- 00:00======================================
