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. 'I was going back to retrieve that young person and also to say goodbye.'. He has been married to Kristi Jones since 1991. In this photo taken Monday, Oct. 22, 2018, former Peoples Temple member Eugene Smith poses for a photo in a park in San Francisco. And I had good reason to be enraged with him I was enraged long before he died, and openly so. Jones himself, after some artfully applied pressure to the mayor's office, was appointed to the San Francisco Housing Authority, where once-tedious meetings about public housing suddenly erupted into vigorous cheering sessions, with temple members applauding the pronouncements of Commissioner Jones. Or lost touch with reality? Though it was a stalemate, the incident intensified an already strained situation. Relatives & Associates. Other Works To just be somewhere with a machete, in khakis, and just decide I wanted to go somewhere and cut myself a trail." Stephan is the only living son of Jim Jones and his late wife Marceline Jones. He has been married to Kristi Jones since 1991. "I just felt like this was all they had," he says. placement: 'Below Article Thumbnails 3rd', For moreEntertainment,Celebrity BabiesfolloweCelebrityMirror. Peoples Temple lost the game, but only by 10 points, which seemed worth celebrating. 'Naaah.' "They say, 'Yeah.' As a self-taught bulldozer operator, he worked alongside other Peoples Temple cult members in the humid heat with his blade carving roads and sites for wooden buildings with metal roofs. More than 900 people lived in the agricultural mission, with its dining pavilion, tidy cottages, school, medical facilities and rows of crops. Vilchez worked as office manager at a private crime lab for 20 years and now, at 61, sells her artwork. Its not that I had better sight than others; I had a better view of it and it really broke for me when he was unfaithful to my mother and told her about it in detail.. He is married to his wife Kristi Jones since 1991. mode: 'thumbnails-a', John was attending a San Francisco high school when he was allowed to join his best friends in Jonestown. "I'd go back in a minute. He says his daughters have seen him gnash his teeth when he talks about his father, but they also have heard him speak lovingly of the man who taught him compassion and other virtues. 'I'm not saying he didn't cause it, create it. 'They're in deep trouble now,' observed one of the relatives who had accompanied us. I appreciate that question. container: 'taboola-right-rail-thumbnails', From hair trends to relationship advice, our daily newsletter has everything you need to sound like a person whos on TikTok, even if you arent. "He was a gentle man in a lot of ways," Jones says, stretched now over the sofa in his small apartment. But we never felt he would go through with it because we saw him as such a coward.. I stopped and listened. And in his growing community near the town of Ukiah, Jim Jones preached to the faithful about communalism, racial equality, "apostolic social justice" and the power of belief. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 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. Don't take my baby!'. You're not taking any more drugs." Only two days later did the picture became clear. Patricia Parks had had her head shattered before her husband's eyes. I believe 100% that not everyone would have been dead, he said. For years, Vilchez was ashamed of the part she played in the Peoples Temple, an idealistic group that imploded so terribly. 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. 'This is really crazy,' he recalls thinking. His biggest regrets revolve around the team's refusal to return to Jonestown. He was right, of course. I try not to speak in terms of what I couldve done because I see no value in that.. We couldn't know then that the grim little world of this sick man would shatter within hours, taking hundreds of his followers to their deaths. Vilchez returned to Jonestown for the first time in 40 years. The minister gave the ritual a special name: White Night. There were many photographs of the bodies, taken from various angles, in color and black and white, and in each photograph, as though defying the viewer even to believe the report of the camera, row upon row of clothed human backs lay swelling in the jungle damp. As rapidly as possible Jacqueline Speier was signing on passengers at the fool of the boarding ladder while a reporter helped her check for weapons. There are moments when he glimpses the edges of power and understands precisely how it might be used. OAKLAND, Calif. Jonestown was the highlight of Mike Touchettes life for a time. Stephan escaped death with the Jonestown basketball team, Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. They also killed their dogs. America was a genuinely unfriendly place for a boy from an interracial family and community, and Jim Jones knew how to fan that into a fear of everything that lay beyond the temple walls. It would become a little town where people of all ages and colours raised food and children. Jim Jones. After the slaughter, Stephan Jones was arrested on suspicion of abetting the mass murder and spent three months in a Guyanese prison. How Twins Megan Rapinoe and Rachael Rapinoe are Breaking Barriers for the LGBTQ+ Community? Johnny Brown: Taking Care of His Own(2013), This site houses a variety of PDF documents. While religious leader Jim Jones has historically been blamed for the tragedy that occurred at his Guyana compound, the A&E special Jonestown: The Women Behind The Massacre argues that the women closest to Jones were also partially responsible. He was the son of Jim Jones, who established Jonestown. ", Stephan Jones used to say he could have stopped the slaughter if he had been there. Jones berated three other new arrivals for misbehavior on the trip; they were beaten and forced to work 24 hours straight. (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; (?) He built a long career in health care, while weathering his own serious health problems. I think there are different images being shown now, but its still too little, too late. "The minute I stepped out on the street, I felt so uncomfortable," he says. "It was not bad people who did it," he says. How could that be suicide? She gave her house to the Peoples Temple and they moved to San Francisco, where Eugene ran a temple construction crew. Manipulative tendencies. He was summoned to the temple radio room. Though he waved and smiled at Peoples Temple services, seemingly enraptured like the rest, Stephan Gandhi Jones says he always had his doubts. "But there's a sadness . Stephan Gandhi Jones is the son of the notorious religious cult leader Jim Jones. I thought there were reasons for people to want to get us. "It was the first thing I really worked hard for. 1998-11-08 04:00:00 PDT JONESTOWN, GUYANA-- "My father was a fraud."- Stephan Gandhi Jones, son of Jim Jones A lone palm tree stands where Jim Jones exhorted his followers to die for him, but the . This figure, though shocking, gave room for hope maybe the remaining hundreds of people of the colony had fled into the jungle and were saved. But it was too late. When the order from the colony came over the speaker in Guyanas capital Georgetown, Stephan Jones knew he wouldnt obey it. He used this kind of threat to control his people. I dont think he went from being an altruistic, selfless, humble man to what he became. Jim Jones, pictured in 1976,dreamed up Jonestown. She gave her house to the Peoples Temple and they moved to San Francisco. By nightfall, the seriously wounded, some of them on litters provided by the community, were sheltered in army soldiers' tents. 'People ask, 'How can you ever be proud of your father?'' That way no one else would want to live. We'd also just seen the warm, cheerful embraces between some of those leaving and some who were staying. Jim Jones had said as a tropical storm rained on the Peoples Temple pavilion. All I can do is tell what I saw and heard. 'Destroyed,' he said, 'from within '. The bottom layer consisted of about 300 babies and small children whose bodies had been ravished by the humidity and jungle insects. Jordan Vilchezs parents were Berkeley progressives in the 1960s her father African-American, her mother Scotch-Irish. "The temple was still my only life, and I didn't really see any alternative to it," he says. He imagines the guards with guns, and the sky clouding over, and the air suddenly wild with fear, and the sight of the children. 'Hit the deck!' 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. She was the adoptive daughter of Rev. Did You Know Soccer Player Crystal Dunns Husband Pierre Soubrier Is A Football Specialist? that one last act would be admitting he was a coward, and about nothing. More than 300 Jonestown victims were children. someone hollered as we scrambled over the gravel to the far side of the plane. Many of his previous interviews echo what he discusses in Jonestown: The Women Behind The Massacre, but he has an intimate perspective to give when it comes to his father and mother, who both died during the event. I just wish people could understand what was attractive about him. I get it, Im not upset about that. The minister was famous for his faith healings, which expelled bloody growths from the bodies of the ailing; it was not for many years that Stephan Jones learned about the sleight of hand with raw chicken giblets. I dont know about the inner circle but many of us, and even my brother Tim, when he turned to my side, he wanted to kill my father, he was so angry. I made that last trip with him and he made me stay in Jonestown. It's like my hurt for them, or my missing them, is the only thing I have left of them." And I had good reason to be enraged with him'. For many years, Jones struggled with the guilt of survival, his father's grim legacy, and his own subsequent substance abuse. A second plane, a Guyana Airways 24-seater, was coming in for a landing. Four decades later, Americans often use this phrase in political and business contexts without knowing its origin. 'Baby killer. And I looked around and there were at least 15 people looking at me. Then there were just a few. Fortunately for him, few people recognise him. Stay in the game with the best sports newsletters from across the Postmedia network, Stay posted with the best sports newsletters from across the network, JONESTOWN SURVIVORS: Where they are 40 years later, Chris Rock will finally hit back at Will Smith over Oscars slap, Rich girl sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell sent to solitary confinement, Paulina Gretzky hits social media hole-in-one at LIV Golf kickoff tournament, Elizabeth Holmes has second child as she tries to avoid prison, Meghan Markle bummed Prince Harry 'had very little money': Royal expert. I think it was Dad controlling people through fear, me and my siblings when we were very young.. Ollie worked in the nursery, and Eugene felled trees. target_type: 'mix' When John Cobb was born in 1960 in a black section of Indianapolis, his mother and older siblings already were temple members. Stephan Gandhi Jones is the son of Jim Jones, the controversial religious cult leader. "This was when he started bragging about taking 16 people on in one day, and all that crap. By the fall of that year, almost 1,000 Temple members emigrated to Jonestown, but for Stephan Jones, the pleasure crumbled when his father arrived. Vilchez worked as office manager at a private crime lab for 20 years and now, at 61, sells her artwork. He loved it. 'Everyone participated in it and because of that, it went as far as it did,' she said. It marched for four jailed Fresno newsmen. Stephan helped erect a basketball court and form a team. He says his daughters have seen him gnash his teeth when he. Save record . 'He made a promise - once we get to Jonestown there is no corporal punishment,' Smith said. , MoKal . Outside of his career, he has discussed how he is spiritual in his personal life in interviews, like a 2007 one with Canada's The Globe and Mail though his beliefs are different than the fringe Christian ones his father once preached about. This November 1978 file photo shows the Peoples Temple compound, led by Jim Jones, after bodies were removed, in Jonestown, Guyana. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. The shooting triggered the mass murders and suicides in Jonestown of more than 900 people orchestrated by the Rev. He fired at me, but it misfired. One of the female subjects of the documentary is Marceline Jones, who was Jim's wife. In California, he was steeped in temple life. "Right off the bat I explain to them that my father was nuts, that he was a drug addict," he says. We were trying to build a new world, a progressive socialist organization.. "I mellowed out." 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? And she could only sense the site of the pavilion, the once-vibrant center of Jonestown life where so many died - including her two sisters and two nephews. 1959. "I was building me a place, too," he says. The bodies of followers that drank the poison are strewn around the commune, The Peoples Temple compound, led by Jim Jones, is shown above in November 1978 after the dead bodies were removed. Jones wasn't the same man. Jon was born on January 31, 1975, in Oakland, California. He dreams he is in a crowd, and his father is talking about suicide. They have a total of three daughters. The list of defectors rapidly grew to at least 16. A loud series of pops echoed across the field. And based on what Stephan Jones is doing now, it seems he has tried to live his life as normally as anyone who has gone through what he has possibly could. 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. _taboola.push({ The tournament was in Georgetown, the Guyanese capital, 150 miles away. 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