That's what triggered it.'. I jumped up and fought for the gun. }); window._taboola = window._taboola || []; This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Gandhi is an Indian word meaning Pharmacist. Not so many people died. Other Works And when her 23-year-old sister joined, Jordan went to live with her at age 12. She gave her house to the Peoples Temple and they moved to San Francisco. 1931. Some of them had started out with him in the earliest days in Indiana and moved with him to California. Ryan clearly was in good spirits. Being in Jonestown before Jim got there was the best thing in my life.. "Who they spoke to. }); window._taboola = window._taboola || []; But mention "Jim Jones" and "Jonestown" and many people would make the connection. He was 18 and running a temple construction crew when the church sanctioned his marriage to a talented 16-year-old singer, Ollie Wideman. 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. As we rode onto the black gravel, jungle-bordered runway, a small six-passenger Cessna was parked to one side of the corrugated metal shack which served as the airport terminal. But of course Dad was most terrified about anybody turning against him because it really screwed with the illusion that he had created. 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. When Smith reunited with his mother and wife in Jonestown, Ollie was 8 1/2 months pregnant. He promised that he wouldnt. The closest thing to a law enforcement official - a pleasant young policeman with a pink shirt and a 16-gauge shotgun - was disarmed by temple members. And I just flew out of bed, grabbed my ax, walked out to the post that was supporting the speaker and raised the ax like I was going to cut it down. 'Like everyone else, he died there,' his son said. Patricia Parks had had her head shattered before her husband's eyes. Then it was boxing matches for adults. The minister gave the ritual a special name: White Night. 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I refused. And she could only sense the site of the pavilion, the once-vibrant centre of Jonestown life where so many died including her two sisters and two nephews. And the temple was his life first in Indiana, later in California. A while later, the young temple escort on the tailgate shook his head and said: 'I don't understand why they did it this way. Where the machine shop once stood, there was only rusty equipment. And Smith's wife, son and mother died. For years, Vilchez was ashamed of the part he played in an idealistic group that imploded so terribly. 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. They were forced. "I remember being afraid when he started talking about it, and getting butterflies," he says. Like why would they follow such a madman and to such a crazy final act, and we probably know by now that it wasnt a mass suicide, but thats how it has been portrayed.. And I had good reason to be enraged with him I was enraged long before he died, and openly so. This November 1978 file photo shows the bodies of Peoples Temple mass suicide victims led by Jim Jones in Jonestown, Guyana. 'I believe 100 percent that not everyone would have been dead,' he said. Jim Jones charismatic, volatile and ultimately evil. "The temple was still my only life, and I didn't really see any alternative to it," he says. But the entertainers stayed in Jonestown to entertain Ryan. "It's like you went to a vacation in Europe and found out the United States had sunk," he says. A black man with a 'corn rows' hairstyle came up to the rear of the truck. To cope, he says he abused drugs and exercised obsessively. Court Records. 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. "I would have had to, especially if I saw other people doing it, and I right off the bat wasn't on top of things, and somehow wasn't right there starting some kind of--it's so hard--", Stephan Jones covers his face for a moment, fingers kneading his forehead. The reason I ended up in Jonestown is that I left. ", The thought of killing Jim Jones had occurred to his son, but Stephan never tried to do it. She gave her house to the Peoples Temple and they moved to San Francisco, where Eugene ran a temple construction crew. Jim Jones (1931-1978) and Marceline Jones (1927-1978). They don't normally believe it at first. "I mellowed out. Springing to my feet, I ran 40 yards across the runway. He remarried three decades ago, and he and his wife Erin raised three sons. In this Nov. 5, 2018 photo, John Cobb poses for a portrait at the the Jonestown Memorial at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, Calif. And now some wanted to depart. Jim Jones. However, they have moved on with their life. In Indianapolis, he served as a student pastor in the Methodist Church in 1952 but. placement: 'Below Article Thumbnails 2nd', Stephan believed he was too cowardly to follow through with the oft-threatened 'revolutionary suicide.'. When the order from the colony came over the speaker in Guyanas capital Georgetown, Stephan Jones knew he wouldnt obey it. None of it makes sense. That way no one else would want to live. Family (3) Trivia (4) Only natural son of Rev. Despite his unconventional upbringing and the horrific tragedy brought about by his father's religious group, the Peoples Temple, Stephan speaks candidly about his experience in the documentary. After years of struggles that included drug addiction, Jones says hes now living a pleasant life in the United States with his wife and three daughters. Then he waits a while, until they have come to know him--the very tall young man with the kind voice and the black mustache. Quietly the men with the tractor motioned aside a group of curious Guyanese children and other bystanders. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group, American Idol star Kellie Pickler's husband, 49, 'commits suicide by shooting himself dead' in bedroom of their $2.4 million Nashville home: Pickler called 911 after she was unable to open door of room where he was found, Enough to give you an art attack! If you or someone you know are experiencing suicidal thoughts, call 911, or call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255. If anything, we felt pity for him, he said, and it grew into a dislike, maybe hate.. 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 did what was expected of him. Fear of an external threat was a major component of your fathers philosophy. He was the son of Jim Jones, who established Jonestown. He dreams he is in a crowd, and his father is talking about suicide. "I was building me a place, too," he says. Official Sites. He has been married to Kristi Jones since 1991. 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. STEPHAN Gandhi Jones is - in the eyes of the world - the son of a mass murderer. Of course, even if he wanted to forget Jonestown, his name was an ever-present reminder. People raced over to the outdoor pavilion. "I think he would be admitting in his own warped mind that he was not this great revolutionary he had tried to build himself up to be . . 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. Then two Guyanese medical evacuation planes flew us to the capital city of Georgetown, where a U.S. Air Force C-141 took us to Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C., stopping off on their way at the Roosevelt Roads Naval Base in Puerto Rico. I didn't see who fired the shot but the sound came from the tractor and trailer. He went through years of nightmares, mourning and shame. Anthony Katsaris, brother of Jim Jones aide Maria Katsaris, was wounded in the chest. He says the congregation was full of elderly people, many of them hard-working black men and women who had given this minister everything they possessed. And the temple was his life - first in Indiana, later in California. After the temple exodus to Guyana, he was given a public relations post in Georgetown - and was part of the basketball team. Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. I wondered why it happened. "This was when he started bragging about taking 16 people on in one day, and all that crap. After Ollie became pregnant, she was sent to Jonestown; Eugene remained behind. , MoKal . A lot more conversation about the outside threat that was anyone that wasnt in the temple. "The minute I stepped out on the street, I felt so uncomfortable," he says. I focused my rage on Dad and his circle, rather than deal with me, he said. Jim Jones radioed his son with orders to return to Jonestown, Stephan Jones refused to cut short the trip. American soldiers who arrived discovered that beneath the layer of bodies was another layer, and yet another. Jones, who asked his followers to call him 'Dad,' did not like to lose any of his 'children.' 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. It was easy to see and feel what was attractive about my father. Vilchez worked as office manager at a private crime lab for 20 years and now, at 61, sells her artwork. 'The temple really became my family,' she said. And he would have arrived too late, anyway. 'It looks like trouble,' I said to Greg Robinson, but he kept on shooting pictures. (Actually, the deadly beverage that day might have been based on a cheaper imitation, Flavor Aid. What would you say is the biggest misconception people have about the Peoples Temple or your father? Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings. She was the adoptive daughter of Rev. As for those people in his life, NBC reported in a 2008 article that Stephan has three daughters and there's a photo of Stephan presumably with one of his daughters on the Alternative Considerations website. And I dont know if it was paranoia. Dozens of members in Guyana slipped out of Jonestown or happened to be away that day. I believe that it was always a personal agenda for my father, and yes, there was a gradual shift in the balance. We didnt see that coming. He has taken a lead role in a 40th Jonestown anniversary memorial to be held Sunday at Oakland's Evergreen Cemetery, where remains of unclaimed and unidentified victims are buried. The first attacks on the town, I thought they were real. Jim Jones of the Peoples Temple, poses for a portrait near San Rafael, Calif. 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. 'I focused my rage on Dad and his circle, rather than deal with me,' he said. View their profile including current address, phone number 415-785-XXXX, background check reports, and property record on Whitepages, the most trusted online directory. "There's just nothing like it," he says. _taboola.push({ Jim Jones. In the aftermath, he built a new life. They have three children. But a lot of the rage that I kept for years was keeping me from looking at my part and seeing what I hope I would do differently if in similar circumstances. He will read it when he is ready, he says. And frankly, Im much more trusting of the reluctant leader, one who says Lets go and not Go.. Joining him was an older black man who fingered something in his right pocket. 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. They are Agnes Pauline Jones, Timothy Glen Jones, Jim Jon Prokes, Jim W. Jones Jr, Lew Eric Jones, John Moss Jones, Suzanne O. Jones, and Stephanie Jones. Also dead was Bob Brown, the NBC cameraman and the kind of guy who loved action stories. That he was just this crazy zealot this entire time". In this Nov. 13, 2008 file photo, Stephan Jones, son of Rev. The only surviving child of Jim Jones, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. She gave her house to the Peoples Temple and they moved to San Francisco. Trailers, a few clearings and some wood or pole-and-canvas buildings were all that marked the Jonestown settlement when Stephan Jones arrived. 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He sought treatment, and eventually, the father of three settled into a quiet life in California. In the past, Stephan has also been known as Stephan Gandhi Jones and Stephan G Jones. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. His son was not among the boosters. 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. Jim Jones. They could leave any time they want.'. Devotion to its ideals bolstered her self-worth. He has taken a lead role in a 40th Jonestown anniversary memorial to be held Sunday at Oaklands Evergreen Cemetery, where remains of unclaimed and unidentified victims are buried. . "He was a gentle man in a lot of ways," Jones says, stretched now over the sofa in his small apartment. Other people were injured. On Nov. 18 she was at the temple house when a fanatical Jones aide received a dire radio message from Jonestown. Do not sell or share my personal information. She returned to Jonestown for the first time in 40 years in March, Jordan Vilchez poses for a portrait in Richmond, California last week. 'If anything, we felt pity for him,' he said, 'and it grew into a dislike, maybe hate.'. He went through years of nightmares, mourning and shame. This dismissive thinking was convenient because its hard to comprehend how so many people marched together to a certain and unnecessary death. Farm Heroes Saga, the #4 Game on iTunes. The only surviving child of Jim Jones, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. 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. 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. 'To me the ends justified the means,' he said. Jones had suffered a setback. With their lives, the story of Jonestown continues, even now. 'She gives us the order that were supposed to kill ourselves,' Vilchez recalled. Vilchez was dispatched to the Guyanan capital of Georgetown to raise money. His LinkedIn profile indicates that he still has the position of vice president of operations at MB Contract Furniture. In code, his father told him everyone was going to die in 'revolutionary suicide. He imagines the guards with guns, and the sky clouding over, and the air suddenly wild with fear, and the sight of the children. There are moments when he glimpses the edges of power and understands precisely how it might be used. 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]. 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. According to his 1983 interview with The Washington Post, he was in this line of work even back then. What they said. He asked me to make one last mission with him to Jonestown. When he was 10 years old he listened as Jim Jones had sex with a mistress in the next room. Guyanese civilians set up a guard station for us, standing watch all night armed with only a shotgun, a machete and a long-bladed knife. Instead, The Washington Post reported that Stephan escaped death with the Jonestown basketball team. Instead of finishing high school, Vilchez moved to San Francisco, where she lived in the church. Eugene Smith recalls how his mother, a churchgoing African-American, bought into Jim Jones dream after they attended a service in Fresno. The murders and suicides were unfolding, 150 miles away. " He smiles, imitates the sudden mask of disbelief. " In a recent interview, he revealed that he was sober. 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. . During the long night, the temple defectors told us that all the horror stories about Jim Jones and the church were true. He remarried three decades ago, and he and his wife Erin raised three sons with two now coaching basketball at the high school and college level. He dreams he is arguing with his father, arguing passionately, and although he knows his arguments are better, his father always wins. It would have been like I was a counter-revolutionary, in some sense.". So yes there were often thoughts of taking him out but I know I wasnt capable of that kind of thing. The rest of us were accommodated in a private home. The temple was the only life he knew but says he always had his doubts. Photographer Greg Robinson (right)was one of the five people killed. Thank goodness he lived before me.". After they left, I crept out of the bush and saw five bodies around the plane. More than a few bottles of rum were consumed or poured on wounds. And I say, 'My name is Jones.' That way no one else would want to live. He's too close to Jim Jones to leave.'. . Jonestown: It was the bodies that photographers favored most. They have a total of three daughters. The bodies surrounded a podium from which Jim Jones, aided by armed men to hold down the unwilling, had cried out in encouragement while men, women, and children drank red Flavor-Aid mixed with potassium cyanide. To just be somewhere with a machete, in khakis, and just decide I wanted to go somewhere and cut myself a trail." I had been hammered for years with the message that there was an outside threat, and from an early age my father talked about people wanting to bomb us. 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? 'Little Jimmy' became part of their 'Rainbow Family' of white, black, Korean-American and Native American children. target_type: 'mix' Unauthorized distribution, transmission or republication strictly prohibited. When he brushed away the mist below him he saw that it was a lifeless human limb. Stephan Gandhi Jones is the son of the notorious religious cult leader Jim Jones. (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; (?) The 40th anniversary is offering Americans an opportunity to deal with this neglected sore, with the story receiving treatment in both book and documentary form, a story of a trajectory from charismatic preacher and leader to head of a murderous cult. 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. But in 1973, John's oldest brother and a sister, along with six other California college students, quit the church and became its enemies. I appreciate that question. 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. All these lives were wasted and I don't know why. The Joneses adopted a black baby in Indiana in 1960, and Jim gave the 10-week-old infant his own name. They must be prepared to die in the defense of socialism. Greg's body was near the boarding steps with his camera bag and cameras scattered around him. "You can tell when it's a man; the positions are different," Jones says evenly. But we never felt he would go through with it because we saw him as such a coward.. You used the word forgiveness, but I find love and compassion for him. These people have given their lives, for whatever reason . He played at school. 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 all of the children died first. There is no way we would be shooting at the airstrip. File photo: Stephan Jones, son of Rev. He has been married to Kristi Jones since 1991. He said: "So much was attractive and unique that we turned a blind eye . After that I didnt sleep well last night., I wouldnt say therapeutic. I guess maybe somebody who hadnt been in the temple their entire lives and was just stepping into it couldve seen it coming. Stephan Jones, Jim Jones's sole surviving child, was born in Indiana, United States, on June 1, 1959. More than 900 people lived in the agricultural mission, with its dining pavilion, tidy cottages, school, medical facilities and rows of crops. I want out of this.' 'I believe that it was always a personal agenda for my father, and yes, there was a gradual shift in the balance. The slaughter at Jonestown was the worst civilian tragedy in U.S. history before September 11, 2001. Recent interviews with Stephan include: Son of Anarchist: My Father, Jim Jones, and What the World Can Still Learn From Him, by Moran Sharir, Haaretz, January 22, 2019. He converted to Catholicism and registered Republican. Because Dad was such a mess . Have your feelings toward your father and his role in your life evolved over the years? The reunion with Jones was not as joyous. He made a promise once we get to Jonestown there is no corporal punishment, Smith said. He has been married to Kristi Jones since 1991. Jordan Vilchezs parents were Berkeley progressives in the 1960s her father African-American, her mother Scotch-Irish. They have three children. He's 61 now. 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. "I would have been a traitor to the greatest cause there ever was . . Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. All Rights Reserved. He thinks now that it is probably stupid to believe that. "I always explain to them that it's not what people think--it wasn't a bunch of starry-eyed people in line waiting to take the potion . My arm was gushing blood so I stripped off my belt and pinched down the biggest wounds. I think there are people who are interested in it because of whats going on in the world. When a friend invited her family to Peoples Temple's wine country church, they were impressed by the integrated community. Theater of popular music. No one now living saw Jim Jones die, so there is some dispute about whether he also performed what he had taught his followers to call "revolutionary suicide." Reviews. Which probably wasnt true. Do you think people can ever see your father not just as a villain but as a complex figure? Then they could identify and allow themselves to step into the story and understand how such a thing could happen. "But there's a sadness . 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. Stephan Jones says he can still remember his own terror the first time his father set off a Jonestown White Night. Is Kristie Mewis Dating the Aussie Star Sam Kerr? Jim Jones. I make a point of avoiding pointing fingers and giving specific names. 'I'm not saying he didn't cause it, create it. He was in Georgetown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 with the Jonestown Basketball Team. In Indianapolis, he died there, ' I said to Greg (! 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