-Caveat Lector-
A Konformist Special:The Jonestown Jenocide
by Robert Sterling
A LONG, LONG TIME AGO IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY...
... One recent ugly element of the seventies has returned in the news
recently: krazy kults led by psychotic would-be dictators, a la Jim Jones and
The People's Temple. Of course, there is the Aum Supreme cult of Japan, the
"Branch Davidians" of Waco, Texas, and, with the most disturbing sense of
deja vu, the 39 "suicides" of members of Heaven's Gate. Yes, we were told
from the korporate media (with a strong dab of paranoia), the threat of such
uncontrolled cults preying on the weakest members of society is certainly
something to beware, especially now that cults have the nefarious internet as
an ally. The undercurrent of such talk, of course, is that something must be
done about these cults, or a whole bunch of mass suicides are sure to ensue.
What happened at Rancho Santa Fe (as well as in Waco and Tokyo) is still not
completely clear, but the real story behind the events in Guyana are fairly
evident during an honest inspection of the facts. And when one compares the
level of deceit in the reportage of the deaths in Jonestown, there is little
doubt that the "mainstream" korporate media is an unreliable source for truth
in this area.
THE SUICIDE HOAX
Let's start with the biggest lie of the whole Jonestown affair: that this was
a mass suicide. This has been repeated so many times that it is accepted as
fact, and the association is so great that when most people hear "Jonestown",
the first thing which pops in their head is "Kool-Aid".
The association is false. The source of the "Kool-Aid Suicide" stories was
the U.S. State Department, who presented the story immediately after the
"suicides" were reported as though it was the only obvious truth. A U.S.
Army Spokesman pronounced with complete authority, "No autopsies are needed.
The cause of death is not an issue here." The bodies were then allowed to
rot in the jungle, making it impossible for American officials to perform any
such unneeded autopsy.
Despite the lack of need, Dr. C. Leslie Mootoo, the top Guyanese pathologist,
was at Jonestown hours after the deaths, and, refusing the assistance of U.S.
pathologists, accompanied the teams that examined the bodies. His
conclusions? Dr. Mootoo found fresh needle marks at the back of the left
shoulder blades on 80 - 90% of the victims. Others had been shot or
strangled. A surviving witness stated that those who resisted were forced by
armed guards to comply. Dr. Mootoo's opinion, and that of the Guyanese grand
jury investigating Jonestown, was that all but three (only two of which were
"suicides") were murdered by "persons unknown."
If one was to go over the deaths in Auschwitz, it is almost a certainty,
considering the horrendous conditions those who were there were under, that
0.2 % of all deaths could be attributed to suicides. Yet, if anyone was to
argue that Auschwitz was a suicide camp housing a bunch of religious freaks
and not the compounds of murder that they were, they would (rightfully) be
condemned for intellectual dishonesty, and their motives would be questioned.
No such actions are taken on those who continue to insist the same about
Jonestown, despite how the facts speak to the contrary.
BODY COUNT BAD MATH
But that is merely the beginning of the deception. The original count of
numbers of deaths was 408 (an odd number to use if the number was an
estimate), with the added claim that 700 had fled into the jungle. The final
total was changed to 913. To explain this rather minor difference in
arithmetic, American authorities first explained that those backward ignorant
Guyanese "could not count." Perhaps because the first "official" explanation
of the bad math was so insulting, it was then proposed that they missed a
pile of bodies, as if a pile of dead bodies is something easily overlooked.
Finally, the "official" explanation that settled the whole question was
presented: bodies were stacked on top of each other.
Of the 150 photos taken of the massacre, not one shows any body lying under
any others. Those who first worked on the bodies, to release the gasses of
decay, had to puncture the dead, making it unlikely that they missed any of
the dead. Even without these facts, one must wonder how 408 bodies - 82
belonging to children - could cover 505 others.
With minor exceptions, pictures show the dead were found in neat rows, face
down. The pictures also show drag marks leading to the bodies, indicating
that victims were murdered elsewhere and placed there by someone else.
These facts have lead to another likely conclusion: 408 was indeed the
correct original body count. The other 505 were hunted down and slaughtered,
then dragged back.
But who would do such a thing? And why? And why were American officials
giving such deceptive answers about Jonestown? To answer these questions,
one must unravel the mystery of who Jim Jones was.
GANGSTER WITH A BIBLE
On May 13, 1931, James Warren Jones was born in Indiana ... His father was in
the Ku Klux Klan. Jones became a Bible-thumping "faith healer", with a side
business of selling monkeys. He used wet chicken livers as evidence of
cancer which he removed by "divine powers." He adopted eight children, both
black and white. Already the stench of criminal activity surrounded him, and
his landlady referred to him as "A gangster who used the Bible instead of a
gun." Fortunately for Jones, the local police chief at the time was Dan
Mitrione, a friend from childhood. Mitrione kept him from being arrested or
run out of town. Mitrione would later enter the International Police
Academy, a CIA front for training counterinsurgency and torture techniques.
Despite having few sources for known funds, Jones found the money to travel
with his wife and family to Brazil in 1961. Coincidentally, Mitrione was
there as well, having advanced quickly in the IPA, and, while training
security forces in torture and assassination, had beggars kidnapped so he
could keep in practice. Mitrione was later kidnapped and murdered by
guerrillas in Uruguay, which became the basis of the Costa Gavras film "State
of Siege". Jones made regular trips to Belo Horizonte, site of CIA
headquarters in Brazil - and where Mitrione was located.
Apparently, this wasn't the only curious intelligence link to Jones. He
claimed he was part of U.S. Naval Intelligence to some of his neighbors. The
U.S. Embassy provided him with transportation, groceries, and a large home.
"Some people here believed he was an agent for the American CIA," one person
was quoted as saying. Considering his dear friendship to Mitrione and the
funding of "ministries" in Latin America by the CIA, the belief makes quite a
bit of sense.
In any case, according to his neighbor, Jones "lived like a rich man."
MADMAN OR MESSIAH IN UKIAH?
Soon after the JFK assassination, Jones returned to the states with $10,000.
In 1965, he formed the first People's Temple in Ukiah, California, and set up
Happy Havens Rest Home. Without trained personnel or proper licensing,
Jones' camp drew in the elderly, prisoners, people from mental institutions,
and 150 foster children transferred often by court order. Among those who
contacted him: "missionaries" from World Vision (an international evangelical
order that often fronts for the CIA), the local chapter head to the John
Birch Society, and leaders of the Republican party, whom his "church" members
did voter organization and fund-raising for the Dick Nixon '68 campaign. His
advisers included a mercenary from UNITA, the CIA-backed Angola army. Also
jumping on board was the Layton family, whose patriarch, UC Berkeley chemist
Dr. Laurence Laird Layton, had worked on the Manhattan Project and was chief
of the Army's Chemical Warfare Division in the early 50's. (Mrs. Layton was
the daughter of Hugo Phillips, a German banker/stockbroker who became rich
representing Siemans & Halske and I.G. Farben, two notorious Nazi Holocaust
profiteers.)
Despite his rather right-wing history, Jones suddenly declared himself a
liberal and a socialist, and a reincarnation of Jesus Christ and V.I. Lenin.
At this point, suspicions were developing of his church, which was backed by
jack-booted armed thugs who dressed in black uniforms. Using blackmail,
extortions, and any other way possible to swindle money from those in his
clutches, Jones took all he could from his followers, much of it in the form
of welfare and social security checks. The local press reported about "seven
mysterious deaths" of those who attempted to leave the "church" due to
conflict with Jones. Accusations of kidnapping, beatings, and sexual abuse
began to be whispered.
To escape controversy, Jones moved to San Francisco, and became an important
fund-raiser for the political establishment there. Soon, he was schmoozing
with the liberal and radical elite, meeting with (among others) Rosalynn
Carter and Angela Davis.
Jones was rewarded with being put in charge of the city Housing Commission,
and key followers were awarded jobs in the Welfare Department. The bulk of
their membership came from the unemployed and dispossessed people found here.
The cult preyed on the poor and helpless, going out of the way to enlist
women, children, and minorities. They recruited many of their members
directly from S.F. mental hospitals. The move did little to change the
controversy surrounding his "church", and a 1977 expose was called an attack
by Jones. He then moved his Utopia to Guyana, aided once again by the U.S.
Embassy.
KOUNTDOWN TO NOWHERE
After receiving complaints lodges by relatives of cult members, Congressman
Leo Ryan visited Jonestown of November 18, 1978 to investigate human rights
abuse. Congressman Ryan was a noted CIA critic, and had authored
the Hughes-Ryan Amendment, which would have
required CIA disclosure in advance to the congressional committees
on all covert operations. Ryan had been given no answers or help
from the State department despite the numerous inquiries. He
arrived with U.S. Embassy official Richard Dwyer, as well as some
journalists, including Tim Reiterman (who had covered the Patty
Hearst story for the San Francisco Examiner.) It is likely Ryan
already suspected what was going on.
And then all hell broke loose.
At the airstrip, Leo Ryan soon became the first congressman to die
in the line of duty, along with four other reporters. (The Hughes-
Ryan Amendment was killed in congress soon afterwards.) The
assassins were described by witnesses as "glassy eyed",
"mechanically-walking zombies", and "devoid of any emotion." Others
were shot, including Dwyer and Reiterman. Soon after that, the mass
slaughter began.
A plausible explanation for the events that unfolded is that Jim
Jones (or someone else) ordered the murders when Ryan's unexpected
visit threatened to expose what was happening. In the chaos that
followed, a mass extermination was carried out.
Just who were the zombie assassins? Well, besides the 913 dead,
there were 167 survivors who returned from the camp. All news
reports concede there were at least 1100 individuals at the camp
(and most place it at 1200.) Who are these 20 or more people
unaccounted for?
The survivors report that there was a special all-white group that
were armed, well-treated and free to exit the compound. These
guards were never accounted for by any news reports. Perhaps it is
these same guards (assuming the total population was 1200) a
congressional aide was referring to in a AP quote which stated,
"There are 120 white, brainwashed assassins out from Jonestown
awaiting the trigger word to pick up their hit."
Of course, they may have had a little help. Over 300 American Green
Berets - trained for CIA covert assassinations - were in the area at
the time. So were nearly 600 British Black Watch commandos, who
were there on a "training exercise." Suddenly the death toll seems
relatively low.
DAN WHITE'S LITTLE GAME OF SOLITAIRE AND OTHER CURIOUS DEATHS
But these weren't the last strange deaths involved with Jonestown.
Nine days later, San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor
Harvey Milk were slain by Dan White, who was either a "disgruntled
police agent" or "angry about gays." These explanations were
supplied to explain his utterly irrational behavior during the
killings, as, sure enough, he was described as being in a bizarre
zombie state. During the trial, his lawyers came up with the
inventive but deservedly mocked "Twinkie defense", in which they
claimed he went insane by a sugar high caused by eating too many
sweets. Implausible, but easier to report in the news than stating
he was a brainwashed assassin. Moscone and Milk had extensive
financial backing from Jones during his stay by the Bay, and soon
they both were going to be investigated in connection to missing
funds from the People's Temple. That is, until a lone gunman took
care of them.
Michael Prokes, a Jones aide, held a press conference and stated the
CIA and FBI were withholding an audiotape of the massacre. He also
stated that he was an FBI informant. Right after that, he went to
the restroom... and never left. His death was proclaimed a
"suicide".
In Georgetown, several Temple members were killed after the
massacre. The man charged with the murders, Charles Beikman, was an
early follower of Jones and had become an "adopted son" of his.
Beikman was a Green Beret.
Jeanne and Al Mills, who were writing a book on Jonestown, were
bound and shot to death at their home. In Detroit another survivor
was killed near his home, and another was involved in a mass murder
of school children in Los Angeles.
Ironically, the dead may not have included Jim Jones himself, as was
claimed. The body alleged to be his didn't show his tattoos in the
photographs. Fingerprints had to be checked twice, and his dental
records were never looked at. He was known to use doubles.
THE CIA AT GUYANA AND THE TWO BILLION DOLLAR BLACK HOLE
As the massacre unfolded, Jones is tape recorded as yelling, "Get
Dwyer out of here!" Jim Dwyer was later found at the airstrip,
methodically washing his hands.
In 1968, Dwyer was listed in the publication entitled, "Who's Who in
the CIA". When asked if the allegation was true, he replied, "No
comment."
Of course, Dwyer isn't the only link to CIA in Guyana. Besides
those previously mentioned, John Burke, the U.S. ambassador, and
Richard McCoy, another official, were both heavily involved with the
intelligence community. The U.S. Embassy in Georgetown also housed
the Georgetown CIA station. At the time, Guyana had a socialist
government, and thus was a likely target for covert operations. Dan
Webber, sent to Guyana after the massacre, was CIA as well.
The "official" attorney for the survivors, Joseph Blatchford, was
involved in a scandal involving CIA infiltration of the Peace Corps.
Then there is the missing money that just "disappeared" after the
mass death. Conservative estimates place the amount at $26 million.
Others place it at $2 billion. Judging the history of bank loot
understatements, the second figure is likely closer to the truth.
At the time, a major international money laundering operation was
headquartered in Italy involving the Vatican and a mysterious
fascist quasi-Masonic lodge known as the P-2. (The operation
probably led to the murder of Pope John Paul I, but that's another
conspiracy.) The P-2 had a major operation located in nearby
Panama, and had numerous CIA links themselves. All this was
disturbingly echoed in the S & L swindle of the eighties, which had
CIA and Mafia prints all over the place.
Add in the FBI files on the Black Panthers and Weathermen found at
the site, an attempt to lure Mark Lane (JFK assassination critic and
James Earl Ray lawyer, among other things) and Donald Freed (Lane's
sometime JFK collaborator and recent Simpson case investigator who
has linked the Brentwood murders to Mafia in the L.A. underworld) to
Guyana (which succeeded in having Lane witness the airstrip murders
after Jones hired him as a lawyer) and a bizarre plot to kidnap
Grace Walden Stephens (witness to the Martin Luther King
assassination) and smuggle her to Jonestown, and you have the
makings of a full fledge spook operation.
DID JIM JONES READ "CATCHER IN THE RYE"?
Perhaps the strangest CIA connection of all to Jonestown was the
previously mentioned World Vision. As stated, the evangelical order
often fronts for the CIA. They performed espionage work for the CIA
in Southeast Asia while Operation Phoenix (the murderous project
that left 40,000 people dead) was in full effect. In Honduras, they
were a presence at CIA Contra recruiting camps in the war against
the Sandinistas. In Lebanon, their camps were where the fascist
Phalange butchered Palestinians. In Cuba, their refugee camps
hosted numerous members of the anti-Castro terrorist group Alpha 66
of Bay of Pigs fame.
After the Guyana massacre, World Vision developed a scheme to
repopulate Jonestown with CIA-linked mercenaries from Laos. Laos,
of course, was where the CIA was running it's "secret war" during
Vietnam, which for the most part was a smokescreen for a widespread
opium trafficking operation.
One particularly important World Vision official was John Hinckley,
Sr., an oil man, reputed CIA officer, and friend of George Bush.
You may have heard of his son.
Less than four months before Hinckley Jr. became known as Jodie
Foster's biggest fan, another member of the World Vision order, Mark
Chapman, gunned down John Lennon in what may have been a practice
run for the bigger hit on President Reagan. A policeman who found
him was convinced he was a mind-kontrolled assassin. Chapman was
clutching the novel "Catcher in the Rye" - which was also owned by
Hinckley Jr. (The book was written by J.D. Salinger, who worked in
military intelligence with Henry Kissinger in W.W.II.) Before going
to trial, Chapman plead guilty after a voice in his head (he
attributed it to God) commanded him to do so.
Considering the history of World Vision and what went on previously
in Guyana, it is likely that the real purpose behind repopulating
Jonestown was to create another breeding ground for brainwashed
zombies like Chapman and Hinckley. Even after the massacre, nearby
there was a place called Hilltown, a compound of 8,000 blacks that
followed kult leader Rabbi David Hill, who held his flock with an
iron fist. Hill had so much power behind him that he was referred
to as the "vice prime minister" of Guyana. There was also another
place in Guyana called "Johnstown", as well as similar operations in
the Phillipines and Chile. It appears that Jonestown (and World
Vision's later attempt) is hardly the exception to the rule of using
obscure locations in Third World nations as laboratories for kult
operations.
KRAZY KULT OR KONCENTRATION KAMP?
The site in Guyana was originally a Union Carbide mine, and was
loaded with an abundance of precious natural resources. It is very
likely that the site was chosen to exploit these resources with
cheap labor - and cheap labor was plentiful. Members of Jim Jones'
"church" were bound and gagged immediately after landing in Guyana
and taken to the compound. They were pumped with drugs, and
Jonestown had enough to drug 200,000 people for over a year. Among
the drugs found: Quaaludes, Valium, morphine, Demerol, Thorazine (a
dangerous tranquilizer), sodium pentathol (a truth serum), chloral
hydrate (a hypnotic), and thallium (which confuses thinking), and,
of course, cyanide. They had both cramped living quarter and meager
rations of often spoiled food. They were then forced to work slave
labor for 16-18 hours a day and required to stay up day and night
listening to Jim Jones lecture. Among the charming punishments the
flock endured were forced druggings, sensory isolation in an
underground box, physical torture, public sexual rape and
humiliation, not to mention your average ordinary beatings and
verbal abuse.
If all this leaves a strange feeling of deja vu, the reason may be
because all these drugs and treatments were used in the CIA's
notorious MK-ULTRA program, which was implemented to test and
implement brainwashing and mind control techniques, supposedly to
protect us from some nefarious "communist threat". A 1974
government report admitted that certain "target populations" were
used, namely blacks, women, prisoners, the elderly, children, and
inmates of psychiatric wards. The Orwellian-named Center for the
Study and Reduction of Violence, using the research of
Strangelovian-doctors Jose Delgado and Louis "Jolly" West, was
attempting to draw guinea pigs from the "target populations" to test drugs,
implants, and psycho surgery techniques on at an isolated military missile
base in California. The dead at Jonestown were 90% women, 80% blacks, and
included 276 children.
Which leads us back to Auschwitz and the ultimate deja vu. Auschwitz, after
all, was not just a death camp: it also was a slave labor camp for chemical
monolith I.G. Farben. There, the outcasts and refuse of society that no one
cared about were treated to similar abuses while a select few profited from
the misery. The brains behind the Final Solution became much of the brains
behind MK-ULTRA. The MK is often said to stand for "Mind Kontrol" -
representing the Germanic origins of the project. Going the full ten yards,
however, it is possible that MK merely stands for "Mein Kampf".
SOME OPINIONS THE HISTORY BOOKS FORGET TO INCLUDE
Much of this was known by Congressman Ryan, who probably suspected that
Jonestown was a front for something even more sinister. In 1980, Ryan aide
Joseph Holsinger received a paper, entitled "The Penal Colony", which
explained that CIA MK-ULTRA operations did not terminate in 1973, as
officially proclaimed, but were instead continued in public hospitals,
prisons, and religious kults which were used as fronts. Holsinger later
stated at a S.F. psychologist forum on Jonestown that he believed the CIA
worked with Jones to perform medical and mind kontrol experiments at People's
Temple. If Congressman Ryan had not been killed - a big if - much of this
information would have undoubtedly been uncovered, and many skeletons in the
CIA closet would have been uncovered with a domino effect.
Michael Meiers, author of "Was Jonestown a CIA Medical Experiment?", had this
to say: "The Jonestown experiment was conceived by Dr. Layton, staffed by
Dr. Layton and financed by Dr. Layton. It was as much his project as it was
Jim Jones's." Layton, remember, was head of the Army's Chemical Warfare
Division.
Former Temple member Joyce Shaw said it best, when wondering out loud if
Jonestown was "some kind of horrible government experiment, or some sort of
sick, racist thing... a plan like that of the Germans to exterminate blacks."
In October of 1981, Jonestown survivors filed a $63 million lawsuit against
Jonestown era Secretary of State Cyrus Vance and CIA director Stansfield
Turner. The suit stated that the State Department and CIA conspired to
"enhance the economic and political powers of James Warren Jones," conducting
"mind control and drug experimentation" there. The suit was dismissed four
months later for "failure to prosecute timely," and all requests for appeal
were denied. (Turner would become a director of Monsanto, now best known for
providing the world with the benignly named poison and brain-damaging
substance "NutraSweet".)
All this, of course, is forgotten in "official" or "mainstream" accounts of
the event. Instead, the "acceptable" version of describing Jonestown blames
the victims, echoing the ignorant grunt uttered by Pete Hamill, who dismissed
the dead as "all the loose change of the sixties."
CONCLUSION
Hanging over Jonestown was a mocking sign that proclaimed, "THOSE WHO DO NOT
REMEMBER THE PAST ARE CONDEMNED TO REPEAT IT." One of the most elegant
slogans of Holocaust survivors is "Never forget."
Jonestown makes it clear that, no matter how well meaning, all these slogans
are but words. Never forget? We obviously already have. That Jonestown
could unfold before our eyes without the realization of precisely what was
going on says volumes. Certainly the blame falls partly at the feet of a
powerful military-industrial complex that feels no shame for its deeds, and
certainly partly at a Korporate Media that has become the witting mouthpiece
(and collaborator) for this same cabal. But ultimately, the blame falls at
the feet of the people, their brains dulled during the glorious seventies.
By the time the Guyana massacre rolled around, the masses were too ignorant
and apathetic to neither know nor care about the truth. Instead, they
swallowed the official version and
waited obediently for their next piece of mindless glop.
What's worse, if one was to try to inform people of the truth, instead of
outrage at those behind the evil deeds, the attacks would be leveled at the
informant for uttering such disturbing facts. See Gary Webb (of CIA-crack
fame) and his treatment from his editors and his fellow "journalists" for
proof. Or try bringing up this story in polite company and see the kind of
response you get.
Could the Holocaust happen again? It already has, and will continue to
happen. One wonders if it ever really ended.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
"The Black Hole of Guyana," John Judge
>From "Secret and Suppressed," edited by Jim Keith
Most of the infomation in this report is taken directly from Mr. Judge's
work. It is highly recommended to all interested in learning more to read
this vital source.
"Operation Mind Control," Walter Bowart
"Who Killed John Lennon?," Fenton Bresler
"Psychic Dictatorship in the U.S.A.," Alex Constantine
Fonald Freed, Interview by Author
"Raven: The Untold Story of the Reverend Jim Jones and His People," John
Jacobs and Tim Reiterman
"Guyana Massacre: The Eyewitness Accounts," Charles Krause
"The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control," John
Marks
"Was Jonestown a CIA Medical Experiment?," Michael Meiers
"The Big Book of Conspiracies," Doug Moench
"A Sympathetic History of Jonestown," Rebecca Moore
"Conspiracies, Coverups, and Crimes," Jonathan Vankin
"60 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time," Jonathan Vankin & John
Whalen
"The CIA's Greatest Hits," Mark Zepezauer
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