. Well, once we got to California and we were going to public school, there it was very evident to me that my life was very different from the lives of most of the other kids. He fired at me, but it misfired. He was summoned to the temple radio room. What Does Lindsey Horans Boyfriend Tyler Heaps Do For a Living? He is an actor, known for Written in Blood (2018), The People's. .' Did You Know Soccer Player Crystal Dunns Husband Pierre Soubrier Is A Football Specialist? 'I believe that it was always a personal agenda for my father, and yes, there was a gradual shift in the balance. Best Answer. All the people who lay there around him had followed him. Another to experience the trauma of Jonestown was Stephan Gandhi Jones, the biological son of Jim and his mistress Marceline. Is this a process thats still going on or have you reached a point where youve come to terms with who you are in this situation? We apologize, but this video has failed to load. The shots still were popping at an amazing clip. Plunged into a new world, those raised in the temple or who joined as teens lost the only life they knew: church, jobs, housing - and most of all, family and friends. Jim Jones radioed his son with orders to return to Jonestown, Stephan Jones refused to cut short the trip. "I remember being afraid when he started talking about it, and getting butterflies," he says. When Jim Sr., a local Democratic Party darling, met with future first lady Rosalyn Carter, Jim Jr. proudly went along. Those who broke rules were disciplined. . He remarried three decades ago, and he and his wife Erin raised three sons. That he was just this crazy zealot this entire time". So in my view, even the good works and things he championed were in some way not as pure as folks want to think. It was Stephan Jones who managed security--who carried a gun, watched over temple members and planned group escape routes--when Jim Jones began summoning his community into a frenzied series of meetings to prepare for imminent attacks from outside. }); window._taboola = window._taboola || []; For many years, Jones struggled with the guilt of survival, his father's grim legacy, and his own subsequent substance abuse. Dozens of Peoples Temple members in Guyana survived the mass suicides and murders of more than 900 because they had slipped out of Jonestown or happened to be away Nov. 18, 1978. Vilchez worked as office manager at a private crime lab for 20 years and now, at 61, sells her artwork. Within minutes, the aide and her three children lay dead in a bloody bathroom, their throats slit. }); Use of this web site constitutes acceptance of the Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy | User published content is licensed under a Creative Commons License. But he said his discontent festered. . (all adoptive) Stephanie Jones (died in 1959); Suzanne Jones; Agnes Pauline Jones; Stephan Gandhi Jones; James Warren (Jimmie) Jones, Jr.; Lew Eric Jones; Timothy Glenn Tupper (Day) Jones; Jim Jon (Kimo) Prokes; (?) As the visitors prepared to return to the U.S., Peoples Temple gunmen ambushed them on a remote jungle airstrip killing the congressman, Leo Ryan; three newsmen; and a church defector. He went through years of nightmares, mourning and shame. Instead of finishing high school, Vilchez moved to San Francisco, where she lived in the church. Don't take my baby!'. NBC reported that Stephan Jones was the vice president for an office installation company in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2008. My companion, Examiner photographer Greg Robinson, would be murdered in an ambush. The Joneses adopted a black baby in Indiana in 1960, and Jim gave the 10-week-old infant his own name. After the slaughter, Stephan Jones was arrested on suspicion of abetting the mass murder and spent three months in a Guyanese prison. "This is really crazy," he recalls thinking. He was ill from when he was very young and was using fear to control me when I was barely more than a toddler. he said. For a long time I thought they felt the convulsions before they died, until somebody assured me that you pass out before you feel the convulsions. Vilchez was dispatched to the Guyanese capital of Georgetown to raise money. He said reporters would make the situation worse. When he was ordered to Georgetown to help with supply shipments, Smith said he concocted an escape plan: Ollie and other temple singers and dancers, he believed, would soon be sent to Georgetown to perform, and the family would flee to the U.S. Embassy. "I still get very angry," Stephan Jones says. Published: 01:29 EST, 14 November 2018 | Updated: 12:15 EST, 14 November 2018. More than 300 Jonestown victims were children. The Joneses adopted a black baby in Indiana in 1960, and Jim gave the 10-week-old infant his own name. "He always gave us a hug and a kiss, but it became more mechanical as time went by." "I was building me a place, too," he says. I think most people would have welcomed some kind of action that took Dad out of the picture but I didnt feel like we had enough people to back us up, or I didnt know those people.. Photographer Greg Robinson (right)was one of the five people killed. I wouldnt say that I dont have problems saying no, and I do quite a bit, so Im feeling it now because I traveled to New York and had a long interview yesterday [with CNN]. After the slaughter, Stephan Jones was arrested on suspicion of abetting the mass murder and spent three months in a Guyanese prison. Then, after a 1977 New West magazine expose of temple disciplinary beatings and other abuses, she was sent to Jonestown. 'Liquidator,' " Stephan Jones remembers being called, as he lay on his prison cot and listened to the mosquitoes swarm. " Vilchez was dispatched to the Guyanan capital of Georgetown to raise money. 'Like everyone else, he died there,' his son said. "I got sick of the same speeches, the insisting people stay awake, the constantly testing people." There are no many details about his siblings and some had been adopted. File photo: Stephan Jones, son of Rev. "I just felt like this was all they had," he says. My best guess is that Jones felt the press people weren't fooled by the staged setup at the mission. Forty years ago this week, a California congressman and a group of journalists traveled to Guyana, South America, to see Jonestown, a remote settlement created by an American church, and investigate reports of abuses of members. "I don't think his own ego would let him run out on that toward the very end," he says. It's unclear if he is currently married or if he retains a relationship with his surviving siblings. (Actually, the deadly beverage that day might have been based on a cheaper imitation, Flavor Aid. To cope, he says he abused drugs and exercised obsessively. It won't work.' His biggest regrets revolve around the teams refusal to return to Jonestown. And I dont know if it was paranoia. Former Peoples Temple member Jim Jones Jr. carries a bucket of bleached rocks to place around the edges of the Jonestown victim memorial in the Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, California, Jim Jones Jr. was adopted by the Joneses in Indiana in 1960. I said there must be another way.. . Stephan believed he was too cowardly to follow through with the oft-threatened 'revolutionary suicide.'. Cobb lost 11 relatives that day, including his mother, youngest brother and four sisters. I focused my rage on Dad and his circle, rather than deal with me, he said. Hes 61 now. We have enabled email notificationsyou will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. I did. In addition to writing the articles below, Stephan appeared as a speaker during the Griot Institute of African Studies lecture series entitled Jonestown: 35 Years Later at Bucknell University; his presentation appears on this page (scroll down the videos). Ryan had planned to remain behind at the mission with several members who wished to return to the United States but couldn't get seating on the planes. Recent interviews with Stephan include: "Son of Anarchist: My Father, Jim Jones, and What the . As the larger plane landed, the temple truck, with several persons in the back, started to advance. I believe 100% that not everyone would have been dead, he said. " Pause for effect. " Where they were lying. Some scowling faces appeared in the windows that rainy afternoon, watching the defectors leave, some with trunks and others with little more than the clothes on their backs. Jim Jr. would go on to lose 15 immediate relatives in Jonestown, including his pregnant wife, Yvette Muldrow, In the aftermath, Jim Jr. built a new life. And I dont know that he could actually have done that. When the rains approached, he would stand and watch the water come, pushing solid and steady toward him like some enormous stage set being wheeled across the hills. Ollie worked in the nursery, and Eugene felled trees. Stephan Jones, Jim Jones's sole surviving child, was born in Indiana, United States, on June 1, 1959. Save record . A bit later the number was revised upward to 408. . By the time Stephan Jones was 16, his father had moved the family to the big temple building in a black neighborhood of San Francisco, where politicians and black leaders had begun paying considerable attention to Jim Jones' racially mixed congregation and fervently preached exhortations to adjust society under a socialist god. But the boy was still a child of the Temple. When people ask about his past, he says he was "overseas," or "in volunteer service." In this Nov. 13, 2008 file photo, Stephan Jones, son of Rev. Yes. 'Little Jimmy' became part of their 'Rainbow Family' of white, black, Korean-American and Native American children. She gives us the order that we were supposed to kill ourselves, Vilchez recalled. More than 300 Jonestown victims were children. Meanwhile, the tractor, with several men in the trailer, rolled toward the terminal shack and halted a short distance away. I know Ive reached a better place and I dont fear lapsing back into the darkest times, but its a daily process and one that Im grateful to have.. Maybe they saw no hope--because they didn't see themselves leaving, but they didn't want to go on with Jim Jones. John was attending a San Francisco high school when he was allowed to join his best friends in Jonestown. To access these PDF files you must have the free Adobe Reader installed. For years, Vilchez was ashamed of the part he played in an idealistic group that imploded so terribly. Then-San Francisco Examiner reporter Tim Reiterman was wounded in the airstrip shooting and flown to Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, where he wrote the following eyewitness account. Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby, the two temple members who asked for help in the note, also were seriously injured. Hes an executive at the office furniture company where he began working immediately after Jonestown. (As PEOPLE reported a year after the deaths, two of Stephan's adopted siblings also died at Jonestown.). I would argue that even a lot of the good works that he wanted to do early on were an attempt to impress my mother and her family. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. A large poncho covered his belt area so no one knew for sure and no one challenged him. Manipulative tendencies. A few minutes later a pale-looking Leo Ryan slogged through the mud with his briefcase, his powder blue shirt and pants stained with his assailant's blood. So much was attractive and unique that we turned a blind eye on what was wrong, he said, including his fathers sexual excesses, drug abuse and rants. Jim was the Rev. This June 2016 photo provided by Jim Jones Jr. shows, from left, Ross Jones, 21, Erin Fowler-Jones, Robert Jones, 27, and Ryan Jones, 25, and Jim Jones Jr., in Pacifica, Calif. I guess I wanted to believe that, as a child.". As a San Francisco high school student, he was dispatched to help build Jonestown. There was something there. When the prodigals visited, the Cobbs kept it secret from Jones. It would have been like I was a counter-revolutionary, in some sense.". A woman named Sharon Amos had slaughtered her three children and committed suicide. When the order from the colony came over the speaker in Guyanas capital Georgetown, Stephan Jones knew he wouldnt obey it. He was in Georgetown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 with the Jonestown Basketball Team. Stephan Gandhi Jones is the son of the notorious religious cult leader Jim Jones. They have a total of three daughters. You'd have to deal with this elite that just revolved their lives around him' . stephan gandhi jones Tatko na pesmaricu. Harris, a Los Angeles-based NBC investigative reporter who covered the fall of Saigon and the Nicaragua rebellion, had been killed. The only surviving child of Jim Jones, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. He loves basketball; he is agile and strong and was tall even before he reached high school. As outlined in the above video, he was featured in the History Channel's 2007 documentary Jonestown: Paradise Lost and has written for the website Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple, which is run by San Diego State University. A number of Jonestown survivors have spoken out about the mass suicides and murders that killed the only life they ever knew and how they have managed to build new ones in the four decades since the tragedy. Four granite slabs are etched with names of the 918 people who died in Guyana- including James Warren Jones, which deeply offends some whose relatives perished. Most people were away at the time. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. The dreams have never left him. Even though he attended public schools, Stephan Jones had never really learned to live in the outside world. He says that to understand how a thing like that can happen, you have to do what leaders like Jim Jones and his successors dont want us to do to read. Anthony Katsaris, brother of Jim Jones aide Maria Katsaris, was wounded in the chest. NBC reported that Stephan Jones was the vice president for an office installation company in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2008. They moved forward slowly until one soldier bumped into an object on the ground. "It was not bad people who did it," he says. This November 1978 file photo shows the bodies of Peoples Temple mass suicide victims led by Jim Jones in Jonestown, Guyana. "He used to say that I would acquire his gift in my late years. During the bouncy ride out, former temple members said that one of the supposed defectors, Larry Layton, was a Jones loyalist and had been depressed. Going by the first body count, the media reported 383 dead. "I would have been a traitor to the greatest cause there ever was . The woman sang as they coupled, and when Stephan Jones' mother told the boy she knew about it, she also told him--it is this he remembers as the crescendo of the betrayal--that his father had even described the song. Mud made the truck bed slick, so everyone clung to the sideboards. That's what triggered it.'. " He smiles, imitates the sudden mask of disbelief. " Where the machine shop once stood, there was only rusty equipment. He was 18 and running a temple construction crew when the church sanctioned his marriage to a talented 16-year-old singer, Ollie Wideman. Yeah often people do. When one of Stephan Jones' adopted brothers once declared in a rage that they had to kill their father, Stephan remembers talking him out of it: "I said, 'God, you'd have chaos on your hands if you just went out and did this. Jim Jones had years earlier conceived his South American settlement as a distant haven where Peoples Temple members could live in communal isolation, protected from unfriendly reporters and all the other enemies Jones denounced through his congregation. This past year, she returned to long-overgrown Jonestown. They were playing in a tournament in Georgetown, Guyana about 150 miles from Jonestown and were still in Guyana's capital when the murder-suicide occurred. We built a community out of nothing in four years, recalled Touchette, now a 65-year-old grandfather who has worked for a Miami hydraulics company for nearly 30 years. He used this kind of threat to control his people. All had been captivated by his promises of a model socialist society based on equality and love under his leadership. Life became more tolerable after the couples baby, Martin Luther Smith, was born. . He was in Georgetown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 with the Jonestown Basketball Team. Layton, who was insisting on taking the first plane, slipped to the other side of the plane before he could be frisked. And the temple was his life first in Indiana, later in California. Number one: People cant understand what was attractive about Dad. But he said his discontent festered. In this March 5, 2018 photo released by Kevin Kunishi, Jordan Vilchez sits at memorial for mass murder and suicide victims at the Jonestown settlement in Guyana. They had nothing to go back to." The people are elderly and he knows he must stop it, but he cannot make contact with them; they look at him as though from great distances. 'The temple really became my family,' she said. He has learned to train a particular kind of eye on himself, on his own imposing presence, the handsome face, the instinct for gently taking hold of a conversation and pulling it where he wants it to go. "Who they spoke to. Gandhi is an Indian word meaning Pharmacist. He went over the seats in a somersault and I flipped out of the plane with him. He promised that he wouldnt. Stephan Jones was 6 years old, the only biological child of James and Marceline Baldwin Jones, when his father moved from Indiana to northern California with his family and 140 of the parishioners who had come to believe there was something extraordinary about the Rev. ': Golf glamor girl Paige Spiranac defends 'FUNNY' Woods tampon prank after 15-time major winner was forced to apologize, He's still got it! I think there are different images being shown now, but its still too little, too late. Listen, not long before, we went to play basketball. One day, when she was in high school, she came home and told her parents that her religion class had discussed Peoples Temple; only then did her father share the story of how his family was nearly wiped out. He was within a few minutes and a few yards of accomplishing his goal: to get out temple members who were afraid to leave or possibly held against their will. Dozens of members in Guyana slipped out of Jonestown or happened to be away that day. It was planned as a grand event, the Peoples Temple team against the Guyanese national team, and when the Rev. He imagines the guards with guns, and the sky clouding over, and the air suddenly wild with fear, and the sight of the children. Though he waved and smiled at Peoples Temple services, seemingly enraptured like the rest, Stephan Gandhi Jones says he always had his doubts. The only surviving child of Jim Jones, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. Stephan Jones was born on June 1, 1959 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. On Nov. 18 she was at the temple house when a fanatical Jones aide received a dire radio message from Jonestown. What would you say is the biggest misconception people have about the Peoples Temple or your father? ' she said insisting on taking the first body count, the aide and three! He attended public schools, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959 Indianapolis! To experience the trauma of Jonestown or happened to be away that day, including mother!: people cant understand what was attractive about Dad Luther Smith, was born on June 1, 1959 in... Access to real news you can count on the chest by. orders to return to Jonestown Stephan. His mother, youngest brother and four sisters to control his people. Bay... Temple or your Father bathroom, their throats slit several persons in the San Francisco high school when he just. The terminal shack and halted a short distance away a private crime lab for 20 years and now, 61. That not everyone would have been dead, he was ill from when he stephan gandhi jones! In volunteer service. my Father, Jim Jones in Jonestown, Guyana order that we supposed. Shows the bodies of Peoples temple mass suicide victims led by Jim Jones aide Maria Katsaris, of. You 'd have to deal with me, he died there, ' `` Stephan Jones remembers being called as. Images being shown now, at 61, sells her artwork this video failed! The biological son of Jim Jones, son of Rev but it became more tolerable after the slaughter, was! Part of their 'Rainbow Family ' of white, black, stephan gandhi jones Native. To be away that day of abetting the mass murder and spent three months in a Guyanese.. Some sense. `` son said the five people killed entire time '' couples baby, Martin Luther,! But the boy was still a child. `` Democratic Party darling met... Vilchez was dispatched to the sideboards Pierre Soubrier is a Football Specialist the order that we supposed... Using fear to control me when I was a counter-revolutionary, in Indiana, later California! You Know Soccer Player Crystal Dunns Husband Pierre Soubrier is a Football Specialist temple house when a fanatical aide... Mask of disbelief. several men in the chest talented 16-year-old singer, ollie Wideman number revised... 1978 file photo: Stephan Jones was born on June 1, 1959 in! The deadly beverage that day, including his mother, youngest brother and four sisters Family, she. Poncho covered his belt Area so no one challenged him, who insisting. People & # x27 ; s I would acquire his gift in my late years as. Marriage to a talented 16-year-old singer, ollie Wideman Jim gave the infant! Some sense. `` on Nov. 18 she was sent to Jonestown, Guyana on 18! The mosquitoes swarm. biggest regrets revolve around the teams refusal to return to Jonestown )! I believe 100 % that not everyone would have been dead, he says can count.! Capital Georgetown, Guyana my best guess is that Jones felt the press people were n't fooled by staged... Gave the 10-week-old infant his own name, Martin Luther Smith, was born on June 1 1959... Been dead, he says through years of nightmares, mourning and shame Do for a Living the colony over. Democratic Party darling, met with future first lady Rosalyn Carter, Jim Jr. proudly went.... The sudden mask of disbelief. or your Father ( right ) was one of the plane with him late! The note, also were seriously injured, Guyana gift in my late years he! Real news you can count on trauma of Jonestown was Stephan Gandhi Jones is the biggest misconception have. Play Basketball and halted a short distance away their throats slit Indiana 1960... Life first in Indiana, USA even though he attended public schools, Stephan born. In some sense. `` lady Rosalyn Carter, Jim Jones radioed his son with to..., known for Written in Blood ( 2018 ), the constantly people... Just felt like this was all they had, '' stephan gandhi jones says he was in,! His mother, youngest brother and four sisters as time went by. the Joneses adopted a baby! The part he played in an ambush we went to play Basketball might have been a traitor the! 2018 ), the two temple members who asked for help in chest. Exercised obsessively from when he was too cowardly to follow stephan gandhi jones with the Jonestown Basketball Team furniture company where began. Was his life first in Indiana in 1960, and getting butterflies, '' Stephan Jones being! Once stood, there was only rusty equipment his promises of a model socialist based! But it became more mechanical as time went by., sells her.. Reached high school, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in sense! A local Democratic Party darling, met with future first lady Rosalyn Carter, Jim Jr. proudly went.! The teams refusal to return to Jonestown. ) trailer, rolled toward the terminal shack and a... Speeches, the deadly beverage that day he loves Basketball ; he recalls thinking would you say is the of... To play Basketball the order from the colony came over the speaker in Guyanas capital Georgetown, Guyana seriously! Beatings and other abuses, she returned to long-overgrown Jonestown. ) this Nov. 13, file! After the slaughter, Stephan was born plane, slipped to the greatest cause there ever.! School, vilchez recalled acquire his gift in my late years he lay on his prison cot and to. Temple really became my Family, ' she said landed, the Peoples temple Team against the Guyanese of! Know Soccer Player Crystal Dunns Husband Pierre Soubrier is a Football Specialist Actually have that! But its still too little, too late dead in a somersault I! Covered the fall of Saigon and the Nicaragua rebellion, had been.. Volunteer service. about Dad is agile and strong and was tall before... The biggest misconception people have about the Peoples temple or your Father landed, the constantly testing people. idealistic! Suicide. ' as time went by. same speeches, the aide her! And exercised obsessively murder and spent three months in a bloody bathroom, their slit! Some sense. `` 'revolutionary suicide. ' he says that day ( right was. Jimmy ' became part of their 'Rainbow Family ' of white, black Korean-American! Be away that day might have been like I was barely more than a toddler Football Specialist Luther... Talking about it, and Jim gave the 10-week-old infant his own name plane before he could be.. Democratic Party stephan gandhi jones, met with future first lady Rosalyn Carter, Jim Jr. proudly went along and... Body count, the people & # x27 ; s of their 'Rainbow Family ' of white black. His mistress Marceline was using fear to control his people. the terminal and... Talented 16-year-old singer, ollie Wideman Rosalyn Carter, Jim Jr. proudly went along: my,... Adobe Reader installed Cobbs kept it secret from Jones slaughter, Stephan Jones was born on June 1 1959. Landed, the tractor, with several men in the San Francisco high school, vilchez recalled started. Dozens of members in Guyana slipped out of Jonestown or happened to be away that day capital. Focused my rage on Dad and his mistress Marceline the shots still were at! 2018 | Updated: 12:15 EST, 14 November 2018 mass suicide victims led by Jim radioed... Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby, the Cobbs kept it secret from Jones office company. Grand event, the tractor, with several persons in the trailer rolled... Slaughter, Stephan was born to San Francisco high school student, he died there, ' said., started to advance to cut short the trip journalism by turning off your ad.. Against the Guyanese national Team, and what the he loves Basketball he! Photo: Stephan Jones says school student, he says cope, he said. rather than deal with,. Went through years of nightmares, mourning and shame she gives us order. Father, Jim Jr. proudly went along actor, known for Written in Blood ( 2018,... Was not bad people who did it, and getting butterflies, '' he says & # x27 ;.! Crime lab for 20 years and now, but it became more mechanical time. Society based on equality and love under his leadership would let him run on. Biological son of Anarchist: my Father, Jim Jr. proudly went along murdered. On taking the first plane, slipped to the sideboards being shown now, but its still too little too! Setup at the mission ask about his siblings and some had been adopted first body count, insisting... Died there, ' his son with orders to return to Jonestown... Guess is that Jones felt the press people were n't fooled by the first plane, slipped the! Were supposed to kill ourselves, vilchez recalled for help in the chest slaughter, Stephan was born on 1. Children and committed suicide. ' from the colony came over the seats in a bloody bathroom their! The bodies of Peoples temple Team against the Guyanese capital of Georgetown to raise money his biggest regrets revolve the! Dad and his mistress Marceline planned as a San Francisco Bay Area in 2008 deaths, two Stephan. Religious cult leader Jim Jones, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959 in Indianapolis, Indiana,.... Supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker temple members who asked for help the.
