Peoples Temple Collection; Box 21, Virtual Item 12, Q740a- Jonestown leaders react to Concerned Relatives petition (April 1978)

Digital Record

Identifier: ms-0831_21.12

Staff Only

Digital Object (mixed_materials)

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Dates

Digitized: April 1978

Creator

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

Summary Note

This short tape, made in the radio room in Jonestown, shows the Temple in the early stages of preparing a response to the Concerned Relatives petition of mid-April 1978. Jonestown has not yet seen the petition, but has heard about it. The community also knows that Hue Fortson, an associate pastor for the Temple, accepted the petition when members of the Concerned Relatives delivered it in person, but it disowns the acts, saying that Fortson “does not speak for the people of this project.” (In another tape made about the same time, Jones expresses his anger over the pastor’s decision: “Hue Fortson made a mistake, went out and took their petition, I’d a throwed the petition in the goddamned face, hit the camera, shoved their asses off.”) The response to the petition is at this moment still scattered and ad hoc. Feeding instructions line by line to the unknown woman speaking on the radio, Jim Jones says that members of the press will be invited to Jonestown, then a moment later adds, “those who are objective. Full summary of the recording available atAlternative Considerations of Jonestown website, along with the tape transcript.

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