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Jonestown conspiracy theories

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Houses in Jonestown.

From the moment the story of Jonestown broke, conspiracy theories began to surface which could allegedly reveal the truth of what happened there and explain the events leading up to the massacre. Almost all of them involve the American CIA.

The theories

The most predominant suggestion is that the settlement Jim Jones created in the jungle of northern Guyana, close to New Amsterdam, was either supported or infiltrated by the CIA to study the effects of truth serums and other drugs on cultural indoctrination as an offshoot of the MKULTRA program. It was thought[by whom?] at the time that these methods had already been developed by governments like the USSR and the PRC, and used to secure cooperation from captured political prisoners.

The CIA's ultimate goal was no less than to overthrow the government of Guyana, which was an English-speaking yet small, relatively poor country, carefully chosen to match the demographics of the Peoples Church. It was thought a nation run by Jones under CIA influence could be no worse than that of Forbes Burnham, and that such a state would provide an example of a communist nation the United States could engage with politically. The CIA kept Jonestown supplied with drugs, money, and weapons in the hopes they would eventually be able to convert the locals.

As the subjects in Jonestown became more and more resistant to outside control, and it became obvious that the conversion to a socialist dictatorship could not be undone, it became necessary for the CIA to end the experiment and eliminate the test subjects rather than risk losing them to the Soviet Union.

The CIA used their assets in the region to eliminate Representative Leo Ryan when the opportunity presented itself, mainly to send a message to supporters of the Hughes-Ryan Act. The CIA used the ensuing massacre and its aftermath to distract attention from Ryan's involvement in attempts to reform and constrain the agency and to distance themselves from the events and their participants. It was also useful to discredit Guyana's socialist regime specifically and socialism and communism in general.

The CIA was using the Peoples Temple and its unlicensed nursing home as a front to create false adoptions and other schemes intended to defraud U.S. government assistance programs. This money, which continued to flow even after the establishment of Jonestown, was then laundered through the church, and the congregation's private bank accounts which had all been signed over to the church. The money was used to fund political advertisements, busing voters to the polls, and secretly paying vagrants and other people who wouldn't normally vote to support their candidates.

Discrepancies in the body count and cause of death

Headlines in the New York Post,[1] the New York Times,[2] and the San Francisco Examiner[3] originally cited reports from the Guyanese army that 408 people had killed themselves while more than 500 others managed to flee into the surrounding jungle.

The American military arrived several days later and the body count quickly rose; first it was 700, then 780, to a final tally given seven days after the Guyanese report of 909 dead, 4 followers dead at the Temple offices in the capital of Georgetown, and 5 members of Ryan's delegation, including the Congressman himself, murdered at the Port Kaituma airstrip. Only 167 Jonestown inhabitants were reported to have survived.

In explaining the discrepancies, one U.S. official said the Guyanese "couldn’t count"[4] while another said that the 400 corpses initially found had just been stacked in such a way that they hid more than 500 more. The dead littered the compound, with piles of bodies decomposing atop one another near the pavilion, and corpses in other buildings or far-flung positions were not readily apparent.

While the total number of settlers living in Jonestown at the time of the massacre has never been properly verified, based on the population estimates there could be anywhere between 20 and 120 followers not accounted for. Conspiracy theorists and at least one Congressional aide claimed these people formed the so-called "Red Brigade", which was armed guards (or perhaps brainwashed assassins) who carried out the attack at the airport as well as providing more typical duties maintaining security along the roads and around the compound.

According to the New York Times,[5] the first trained medical official on the scene was the Guyanese coroner Dr. Leslie C. Mootoo. He and his assistants examined over 100 of the bodies during a 32-hour period and found that the adults had all been injected with cyanide in places which they could not have reached without assistance, such as between the shoulder blades, and that many of them had also been shot. (Charles Huff, one of the first American soldiers on the scene, also reported having seen "many gunshot victims', as well as other victims who had been shot with a crossbow, all of whom appeared to have been attempting to flee.) Mootoo also felt that the children were incapable of consenting to suicide. Based on his preliminary findings, Mootoo speculated that the majority of those who died in Jonestown may have been murdered.

Despite Guyana law requiring an autopsy for any unnatural death, the Americans insisted that the cause of death was readily apparent and additional inquiry was not necessary.[citation needed] Relatives and officials back in the United States complained about being kept from the remains, and according to the New York Times,[6] Dr. Sturmer, then 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. For a number of reasons, some legal and some merely logistical, the bodies were not flown out of the remote jungle location of Jonestown for up to a week before being flown to New Jersey, which allowed significant decomposition to occur. Ultimately seven autopsies were conducted but the medical examiners were not informed of Dr. Mootoo’s preliminary findings and the corpses were far too decayed for injection sites or other wounds to remain identifiable during the procedures.[7]

Richard Dwyer and the State Department's involvement

Despite the growing allegations of misconduct against the Peoples Temple in the U.S., the move to Jonestown was given the full support of the American Embassy in Guyana. Some[who?] claim their cooperation was facilitated by Larry Layton's brother-in-law, as well as people including Walter Mondale, Rosalynn Carter, and George Moscone. Others[who?] point out that the Georgetown CIA station was in office space within the U.S. Embassy building itself, and at least three diplomatic officials there were allegedly CIA assets.[citation needed]

Richard Dwyer, whose name was listed in Who's Who in the CIA, was Deputy Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy to Guyana at the time. There exists a strong likelihood[citation needed] that Ryan would not have been at the airstrip during the attack without direct intervention by Dwyer. Ryan had intended to remain at the Jonestown compound to continue interviewing families while those wishing to return to the United States were taken to the airstrip, but as the dump truck was leaving Ryan was attacked by Peoples Temple follower and alleged Red Brigade member Don Sly (also known as Ujara). Ujara wielded only a knife and the attack was quickly ended. Ryan was cut in the attack[8] and decided to board the dump truck headed to the airstrip. Already on the dump truck was Larry Layton, who, despite warnings by the defectors that Layton was a strong supporter of Jim Jones[citation needed], had been allowed to join the group at the last minute. Layton participated in the attacks on the Ryan delegation, ultimately serving nearly twenty years in prison after being disarmed and failing to kill his targets on the Cessna, becoming the only Peoples Temple follower to face criminal charges for these events.

On September 27, 1980, a column by investigative reporter Jack Anderson was published under the title "CIA Involved In Jonestown Massacre."[9] According to Anderson, Dwyer and ones 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."[10]

However, rather than being in Jonestown, numerous witnesses, including reporters for the Washington Post and San Franscisco Chronicle, saw Dwyer miles away at the Port Kaituma airstrip.[11] 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 evidenced in his followers on the tape at his reference to Dwyer may indicate that Jones mistook someone else (perhaps Charles Garry) for Dwyer.[citation needed]

Other conspirators

Joseph Blatchford and Dan Webber are two other people associated with Jonestown or its aftermath with alleged links to the CIA.

Jim Jones' alleged childhood friend Dan Mitrione, whom Jones was reported to have coincidentally ran across in Brazil during his two years spent there looking for appropriate locations for his commune, is also supposed to be a CIA agent who provided Jones with $10,000 to use upon his return to the United States.[citation needed]

"The Jonestown Carnage: A CIA Crime (1978)" published in the USSR

In 1987, The Jonestown Carnage: A CIA Crime (1978) (Russian: Гибель Джонстауна - преступление ЦРУ) [14] by S.F. Alinin, B.G. Antonov and A.N. Itskov was published in 1987 in the USSR, relying upon both unfounded allegations and some relatively indisputable 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 U.S. 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 the commune for being a socialist haven, wagging its collective finger in the face of the U.S. government.[15]

In addition to documented events, the book also includes contentious allegations not revealed in the Jonestown tapes or other available evidence. One such item describes a statement by Timofeyev of a purported meeting on November 18, 1978, with Deborah Touchette, whom Timofeyev claimed passed him a briefcase with cash and Peoples Temple documents inside. Another report in the book concerned a call from Sharon Amos, staying at the Peoples Temple office in Georgetown with her three children on the day of the massacre, where Amos allegedly described a radio message from out of Jonestown about military helicopters and armed men approaching the compound. Amos and her three children died upon Jones' order.

Based upon these and other allegations, the author contends that the cult members were assassinated by CIA agents and mercenaries to prevent further political emigration from the U.S. as well as suppress opposition to the U.S. regime.

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, November 25, 1978
  5. ^ New York Times, December 14, 1978
  6. ^ New York Times, December 12, 1978
  7. ^ New York Times November 26, 1978
  8. ^ Jonestown:The Life and Death of the People's Temple, retrieved July 2010 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  9. ^ Anderson, Jack, "CIA Involved In Jonestown Massacre, September 27, 1980
  10. ^ "Jonestown Audiotape Primary Project : Transcripts, Tape Number : Q 042, the so-called "Death Tape"". Retrieved 2007-03-08.
  11. ^ a b Tim Reiterman (1982) "Raven: The Untold Story of The Rev. Jim Jones and His People" ISBN 0-525-24136-1 page 527
  12. ^ Tim Reiterman (1982) "Raven: The Untold Story of The Rev. Jim Jones and His People" ISBN 0-525-24136-1 page 534
  13. ^ Tim Reiterman (1982) "Raven: The Untold Story of The Rev. Jim Jones and His People" ISBN 0-525-24136-1 page 537
  14. ^ Гибель Джонстауна - преступление ЦРУ: excerpts (in Russian language)
  15. ^ See, e.g., Jim Jones, Transcript of Recovered FBI tape Q 352

Bibliography

  • Renardo Barden,. Cults (Troubled Society series). Rourke Pub Group. ISBN 0-86593-070-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  • 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.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  • 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.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  • 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.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  • Raven: The Untold Story of The Rev. 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
  • Snake Dance: Unravelling the Mysteries of Jonestown by Laurie Efrein Kahalas, Trafford Publ 1998. ISBN 978-152122075. Controversial 'insider' material.
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