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. "I mellowed out." What they said. 2010-10-03 19:23:36. He played at school. A large poncho covered his belt area so no one knew for sure and no one challenged him. In the days before Ryan's fact-finding mission to the settlement, the players were in Georgetown for a tourney with the Guyana national teams. He dreams he is arguing with his father, arguing passionately, and although he knows his arguments are better, his father always wins. 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. And I had good reason to be enraged with him'. That he was just this crazy zealot this entire time". I see it in politics, I see it in advertising, I see it in a variety of places, and I feel theres no more pernicious or toxic belief than that. ", Stephan Jones used to say he could have stopped the slaughter if he had been there. Number one: People cant understand what was attractive about Dad. In fact, he thought he was the only one who could save the situation. For years, Vilchez was ashamed of the part he played in an idealistic group that imploded so terribly. Hes never remarried, and Martin Luther Smith was his only child. Best Answer. They have three children. Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Some of the defectors told me later that the men in the trailer were members of Peoples Temple. But we never felt he would go through with it because we saw him as such a coward.. There had been underground boxes to punish the lazy; public beatings; drills where guns and bows and arrows were hauled out on call of 'white knight,' and plans for mass suicides. NBC reported that Stephan Jones was the vice president for an office installation company in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2008. Layton, who was insisting on taking the first plane, slipped to the other side of the plane before he could be frisked. She died in a tragic car accident only weeks before her mother, Marceline Mae Baldwin Jones, gave birth to her brother, Stephan Gandhi Jones. After the slaughter, Stephan Jones was arrested on suspicion of abetting the mass murder and spent three months in a Guyanese prison. Recent interviews with Stephan include: "Son of Anarchist: My Father, Jim Jones, and What the . Its not entirely surprising that many Americans and others want to understand how thousands of people can become blind followers of a tempestuous leader, and how it can end. When Jim Sr., a local Democratic Party darling, met with future first lady Rosalynn Carter, Jim Jr. proudly went along. Stephan Jones was born on June 1, 1959 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA as Stephan Gandhi Jones. Stephan, Jim Jones son who was 19 at the time, says the warning signs that went unnoticed at Jonestown can be seen in the world today. After years of struggles that included drug addiction, Jones says he's now living a pleasant life in the United States with his wife and three daughters. 'The reality was we were folks who could be counted on to stand up,' he said. 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. "I usually try to tell people when we're in a good time to talk about it, because my God, it takes two hours just to scratch the surface," Stephan Jones says. A bit later the number was revised upward to 408. ), 'It was necessary in my own healing for me to find acceptance for him, understanding of him. I also didnt really know what Id be dealing with if I did, but sadly we were finally at a point where I felt I had enough support and we decided that we were going to take action. Joining him was an older black man who fingered something in his right pocket. Stephan is among one of the Late Jim Jones sons survivors and he is still disturbed by those past events. At first it was spanking of children. I stopped and listened. Over four decades, as they have built new lives, they have struggled with grief and the feeling that they were pariahs. ", He does not think he loved his father even a little by then, but blood tied them in some way he did not entirely understand, and leaving was unimaginable. For 19 of his 24 years, they were all he knew. This dismissive thinking was convenient because its hard to comprehend how so many people marched together to a certain and unnecessary death. But the boy was still a child of the Temple. He's never remarried, and Martin Luther Smith was his only child. John was attending a San Francisco high school when he was allowed to join his best friends in Jonestown. 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I got the gun. How do you explain the renewed interest in the Peoples Temple? I wouldn't have run.". Stephan is the only living son of Jim Jones and his late wife. Finally, attorneys for both Ryan and the temple decreed that the courtroom was the proper place to decide the custody issue. Relatives & Associates. Stephan Jones was born on June 1, 1959 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. He contacted the people at the San Francisco branch of the Peoples Temple and instructed them not to take action. In "Raven," Reiterman and Jacobs describe the minister presenting the congregation with a batch of fruit punch: "We're going to drink poison and kill ourselves," Jim Jones declared, and it was not until many people had drunk that Jones said he had simply wished to test his followers' loyalty. Also dead was Bob Brown, the NBC cameraman and the kind of guy who loved action stories. 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. Not so many people died. Stephan Jones was born on 1 June 1959 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. 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. "He always gave us a hug and a kiss, but it became more mechanical as time went by." By nightfall, the seriously wounded, some of them on litters provided by the community, were sheltered in army soldiers' tents. 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. Partner of Terry Carter Jones, aka Mary Theresa Carter, Mary Theresa Jones, Terry Carter Jones (died November 18 . At 16, she was put on the Planning Commission where the meetings were a strange mix of church business, sex talk and adulation for Jones. The years are slowly weaning Stephan Jones from Jonestown; he reads, goes to movies, wants now to have a child of his own. Where they were lying. "Who they spoke to. 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. Jim Jones himself did not drink the poison. Though he waved and smiled at Peoples Temple services, seemingly enraptured like the rest, Stephan Gandhi Jones says he always had his doubts. "It was not bad people who did it," he says. STEPHAN Gandhi Jones is - in the eyes of the world - the son of a mass murderer. Vilchez was dispatched to the Guyanan capital of Georgetown to raise money. She was the adoptive daughter of Rev. Among those speaking out ahead of the 40-year anniversary of the mass deaths isMike Touchette, who was a 21-year-old Indiana native at the time. 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. Jim Jones charismatic, volatile and ultimately evil. 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. He rode bulldozers, dodged falling trees, killed snakes, lit brush fires and rode the slow boats upriver with loads of cut wood for flooring and walls. 'I believe that it was always a personal agenda for my father, and yes, there was a gradual shift in the balance. Family (3) Trivia (4) Only natural son of Rev. You describe yourself in your writings as a rebellious kid. 'The temple really became my family,' she said. The temple really became my family, she said. Theater of popular music. So yes there were often thoughts of taking him out but I know I wasnt capable of that kind of thing. Stephan is the only living son of Jim Jones and his late wife Marceline Jones. It was all about survival in his domain. I just wish people could understand what was attractive about him. 'We think he's got a gun. Jones had suffered a setback. But even Stephan Jones never imagined that death would come the way it did, so redolent of madness and evil, so savage that a kind of panic still crawls into his voice when he talks about it. A lot more conversation about the outside threat that was anyone that wasnt in the temple. As a self-taught bulldozer operator, he worked alongside other Peoples Temple members in the humid heat, his blade carving roads and sites for wooden buildings with metal roofs. They were shooting to kill, not just to stop us from leaving. . He built a long career in health care, while weathering his own serious health problems. Other people were injured. window._taboola = window._taboola || []; American soldiers who arrived discovered that beneath the layer of bodies was another layer, and yet another. "I would have been a traitor to the greatest cause there ever was . It seemed the temple was generous: It willingly provided passports to those who wished to leave, and advanced $5,000 to help defray transportation costs. target_type: 'mix' Now, Stephan Jones is father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business. A vat that contained a drink laced with deadly cyanide sits on a sidewalk at Peoples Temple in Jonestown, Guyana in November 1978. Jim Jones of the Peoples Temple, poses for a portrait near San Rafael, California, November 13, 2008. He went through years of nightmares, mourning and shame. When he was 10 years old he listened as Jim Jones had sex with a mistress in the next room. Among those speaking out ahead of the 40-year anniversary of the mass deaths is Mike Touchette, who was a 21-year-old Indiana native at the time. 'He made a promise - once we get to Jonestown there is no corporal punishment,' Smith said. Listen, not long before, we went to play basketball. The picture, he recalls, was about hit men. . You used the word forgiveness, but I find love and compassion for him. So yes, many people were disenchanted., Im sure he feared it and Im sure he had people telling him it existed. More at IMDbPro Contact info Agent info Resume Born June 1, 1959 Add to list Photos Known for The People's Advocate: The Life & Times of Charles R. Garry 7.0 Self - Interviewee 2007 P3 Dokumentr File photo: A vat that contained a drink laced with deadly cyanide sits on a sidewalk at Peoples Temple in Jonestown, Guyana, November 20, 1978. At the temple-exit guard post, the truck was halted. He remarried three decades ago, and he and his wife Erin raised three sons. For moreEntertainment,Celebrity BabiesfolloweCelebrityMirror. It's like my hurt for them, or my missing them, is the only thing I have left of them." someone hollered as we scrambled over the gravel to the far side of the plane. Did you ever think there might be a physical threat to yourself? In code, his father told him everyone was going to die in revolutionary suicide., I argued with my Dad, he said. In the aftermath, he built a new life. "It's not--such a bad experience," he says. "They just needed this messiah, this purpose. "He used to say we were the only two people of our kind in the universe," Jones says, clasping his hands behind his head and gazing out his apartment window. When Jim Sr., a local Democratic Party darling, met with future first lady Rosalyn Carter, Jim Jr. proudly went along. placement: 'Below Article Thumbnails 3rd', 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. ", Throughout the 40 years since the deaths at Jonestown, Stephan has been willing to give media interviews. "You can tell when it's a man; the positions are different," Jones says evenly. When Smith reunited with his mother and wife in Jonestown, Ollie was 8 months pregnant. According to former members, Jones would not tolerate defections from the mission project and many of the church members considered those who leave to be traitors. }); 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. 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. He would rise before dawn, pick his way into the bush, and sit without moving as the quiet around him split slowly into bird cries and insect buzzing and the scuffling and calling of creatures he could not see. And I think he genuinely cared about those things, but my understanding of my father just from my own experience and stories is that unconsciously he was always primarily managing other peoples perception of him. The next day, when soldiers of the Guyanese army, one of the most ragged in South America, hesitantly entered the Jonestown compound, they were blinded by the thick morning mist.
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