Peoples Temple Collection; Box 17, Virtual item 12, Q594- Fantasy on torturing defectors, Jonestown meeting

Digital Record

Identifier: ms-0183_17.12

Staff Only

Digital Object (mixed_materials)

Go to file

Dates

Digitized: April 13, 1978

Creator

Jones, Jim (Jones, James Warren) (Person)
Peoples Temple (Organization)

Summary Note

"Just tell us, what do you think should be done with your relatives?" While Jim Jones does not speak those words until midway through the second side of the tape – although the tape starts with the Jonestown community meeting in progress, so he might have issued the invitation earlier – this is the theme of the gathering. One by one, people come forward to the microphone, talk about what the church has done for them or their relatives, tell how the relatives then betrayed the church, and then describe increasingly graphic ways of killing them. The more well-known traitors – among them, the Stoens, the eight defectors from Ukiah, the Medlocks – also are tortured over and over with words. As one elderly woman says, the enemies of Peoples Temple "don't know who they're messin' with." Full summary of the recording available at Alternative Considerations of Jonestown website, along with the tape transcript.

Rights Statement Note

The copyright interests in these materials have not been transferred to San Diego State University. Copyright resides with the creators of materials contained in the collection or their heirs. The nature of historical archival and manuscript collections is such that copyright status may be difficult or even impossible to determine. Requests for permission to publish must be submitted to the Head of Special Collections, San Diego State University, Library and Information Access. When granted, permission is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical item and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder(s), which must also be obtained in order to publish. Materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials.