Those who broke rules were disciplined. The tournament was in Georgetown, the Guyanese capital, 150 miles away. "I mellowed out." 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. But after temple gunmen killed the congressman, three newsmen and a church defector on the Port Kaituma airstrip, Jones ordered a poisoned grape-flavored drink administered to children first. This dismissive thinking was convenient because its hard to comprehend how so many people marched together to a certain and unnecessary death. ", Jim Jones moved to Guyana in 1977, just as New West magazine was preparing to publish a lengthy account of defectors' allegations about Peoples Temple. A black man with a 'corn rows' hairstyle came up to the rear of the truck. Stephan Jones believes his father must have killed himself: that he could not leave his own shooting to someone else. File photo: Peoples Temple compound, led by Jim Jones, after bodies were removed, in Jonestown, Guyana, November 1978. 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. 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. He was in Georgetown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 with the Jonestown Basketball Team. And his sense of self resided in his perception of other peoples perception of him. Though he waved and smiled at Peoples Temple services, seemingly enraptured like the rest, Stephan Gandhi Jones says he always had his doubts. He is still elated by it. After the slaughter, Stephan Jones was arrested on suspicion of abetting the mass murder and spent three months in a Guyanese prison. 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. It began with a note smuggled to us from two members. Reviews. He grew, and discovered basketball. Read More He went through years of nightmares, mourning and shame. After the temple exodus to Guyana, he was given a public relations post in Georgetown and was part of the basketball team. I think that Ill pick two. There, as part of Jones' personal security detail, Cobb saw the once captivating minister strung out on drugs. He has read most of "Raven," which he believes to be the best of the books about his father, but he has never been able to bring himself to read the chapter about the suicides and murders. There are moments when he glimpses the edges of power and understands precisely how it might be used. Stephan is the only living son of Jim Jones and his late wife. I mean, here are hundreds and hundreds of people who feel differently than I do--who's right?". Jim Jones of the Peoples Temple, poses for a portrait near San Rafael, Calif. People were completely fatigued, exhausted. He's never remarried, and Martin Luther Smith was his only child. Though I couldn't see over the tall brush, I could hear the shots become less frequent. }); 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. Dozens of members in Guyana slipped out of Jonestown or happened to be away that day. You used the word forgiveness, but I find love and compassion for him. "I'd go back in a minute. They have altogether three daughters. The list of defectors rapidly grew to at least 16. Stephan Jones was born on June 1, 1959 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Jordan Vilchezs parents were Berkeley progressives in the 1960s her father African-American, her mother Scotch-Irish. target_type: 'mix' Is Kristie Mewis Dating the Aussie Star Sam Kerr? He cries out, "My God, you're not dead!" "I just say something like, 'You remember Jonestown?' One of the female subjects of the documentary is Marceline Jones, who was Jim's wife. Volleys of shotgun, rifle and pistol fire kept coming. At the far end of the strip sat a yellow government plane. Ryan clearly was in good spirits. He used this kind of threat to control his people. 'Watch him,' those around him were told. Published: 01:29 EST, 14 November 2018 | Updated: 12:15 EST, 14 November 2018. He also made sure that the other disciples who were in the capital would do nothing hasty. He fired at me, but it misfired. Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Siblings by adoption include Agnes Paulette Jones (1943-1978); Stephan Gandhi Jones(Born 1959); Jimmy Jones, Jr. aka James Warren Jones, Jr.(born 1960); and Timothy Tupper aka Timothy Glenn Tupper Jones, Tim "Day" Jones (1959-1978). . He asked me to make one last mission with him to Jonestown. They had nothing to go back to." 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. . 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. someone hollered as we scrambled over the gravel to the far side of the plane. Relatives & Associates. 'If anything, we felt pity for him,' he said, 'and it grew into a dislike, maybe hate.'. He dreams he is arguing with his father, arguing passionately, and although he knows his arguments are better, his father always wins. She gives us the order that we were supposed to kill ourselves, Vilchez recalled. He's 61 now. 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. Stephan is the only living son of Jim Jones and his late wife Marceline Jones. 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? Where they were lying. But we never felt he would go through with it because we saw him as such a coward.. He said: "So much was attractive and unique that we turned a blind eye . 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. 'I believe that it was always a personal agenda for my father, and yes, there was a gradual shift in the balance. People were forced. I stopped and listened. Harris, a Los Angeles-based NBC investigative reporter who covered the fall of Saigon and the Nicaragua rebellion, had been killed. ", Stephan Jones spent three months in a Guyana jail after the November deaths, imprisoned there while Guyanese authorities tried to determine who had killed the devoted Peoples Temple aide Sharon Amos and her three children, all of whom were found with their throats slashed in the Georgetown Temple headquarters on the day of the suicides. Jim Jones was cultivating his growing celebrity--elected officials visited the San Francisco temple, Mayor George Moscone had used temple members as campaign workers, and much was made of the 1976 photo that showed Jim Jones and Rosalynn Carter together during the Democratic Central Committee meeting in San Francisco. "You can tell when it's a man; the positions are different," Jones says evenly. 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. The minister gave the ritual a special name: White Night. 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. NBC reporter Don Harris said coolly: 'I think we're in for some trouble.'. Cobb lost 11 relatives that day, including his mother, youngest brother and four sisters. Some have come to acknowledge that they helped enable Jim Jones to seize control over people drawn to his interracial church, socialist preaching and religious hucksterism. 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. Patricia Parks had had her head shattered before her husband's eyes. 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 . James Warren Jones and his wife, Marceline. Afterwards, the 19-year-old Stephan was put in jail for three months in the South American nation before the case against him was thrown out. And all of the children died first. The therapy that has been helpful to me hasnt been by talking with strangers about it. ", Jim Jones had warned them over and over that invading soldiers would torture their children; maybe that is what they feared most, Stephan Jones says. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. Yeah often people do. They have altogether three daughters. Rev. 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. Greg's body was near the boarding steps with his camera bag and cameras scattered around him. 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.. Stephan Jones Seeks Forgiveness For Jonestown Massacre, Late Jim Jones Son Stephan Jones Is An Actor. 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. To cope, he says he abused drugs and exercised obsessively. I try not to speak in terms of what I couldve done because I see no value in that.. 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. Stephan Jones is a Jonestown survivor. 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. NBC reported that Stephan Jones was the vice president for an office installation company in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2008. Besides the tragic story behind his ancestors, Stephan Jones has set his great work as an actor in the Hollywood Industry. Maybe they just thought, 'God, leave me alone. And as the years go on, Stephan is still willing to talk about his connection to one of the biggest tragedies in American history even as he tries to live a peaceful life far removed from Jonestown. More than 900 members of the Peoples Temple had lived in theagricultural missionin the distant jungle of Guyana, South America, led by the cult leader Rev. After Ollie became pregnant, she was sent to Jonestown; Eugene remained behind. The pilot had radioed for help after the shooting, but during the night the only thing we heard were more rumors about the imminent arrival of Guyanese troops and medical evacuation planes. Recent interviews with Stephan include: "Son of Anarchist: My Father, Jim Jones, and What the . We apologize, but this video has failed to load. My mother, trying to appease him, made him promise that he wouldnt leave me down there. Id rather just talk about what didnt work and hope that people can see that in their own lives. And when her 23-year-old sister joined, Jordan went to live with her at age 12. Then they start to ask questions right away.". The younger man demanded that everyone in the truck move aside. You don't tell God he needs help. I dont think he went from being an altruistic, selfless, humble man to what he became. He limps this month, still recovering from a broken ankle bone that went undetected for a while, but when he is well he picks up a regular game in San Francisco, sometimes with the young men he played with before--the basketball team from the Peoples Temple settlement at Jonestown, Guyana. Life became more tolerable after the couple's baby, Martin Luther Smith, was born. On Nov. 18, the day Rep. Leo Ryan and four others were shot to death on the airstrip at Port Caituma, Guyana, Stephan Jones and his teammates went to the movies in Georgetown. He imagines the guards with guns, and the sky clouding over, and the air suddenly wild with fear, and the sight of the children. Johnny Brown: Taking Care of His Own(2013), This site houses a variety of PDF documents. Court Records. When he brushed away the mist below him he saw that it was a lifeless human limb. "It was not bad people who did it," he says. 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. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. He is talking, in the first of two evenings' long conversations, between spoonfuls of almond chicken at a Chinese restaurant. For years, Vilchez was ashamed of the part he played in an idealistic group that imploded so terribly. 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. The only surviving child of Jim Jones, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. The shots still were popping at an amazing clip. Some of the defectors told me later that the men in the trailer were members of Peoples Temple. 'The reality was we were folks who could be counted on to stand up,' he said. 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. Because Dad was such a mess . Write by: . Within minutes, the aide and her three children lay dead in a bloody bathroom, their throats slit. Now, Stephan is a father of three daughters,. Jones berated three other new arrivals for misbehavior on the trip; they were beaten and forced to work 24 hours straight. Among the hundreds of corpses, only one was different; he had died from a bullet to the head. They were shooting to kill, not just to stop us from leaving. He called his church "Peoples Temple"--"Wings of Deliverance" had been tried earlier and discarded. Alongside it was a red tractor and trailer seen earlier at the mission. 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. While working as a hospital orderly, Jones met Marceline Baldwin, a nursing student, and they married in 1949. When a friend invited her family to Peoples Temple's wine country church, they were impressed by the integrated community. For 19 of his 24 years, they were all he knew. 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. After the massacre, Layton strolled back to the area. He was just 14, Stephan Jones and some other team members believe they might have changed history if they were there. Stephan Gandhi Jones is the son of the notorious religious cult leader Jim Jones. He sought treatment, and eventually, the father of three settled into a quiet life in California. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. All had been captivated by his promises of a model socialist society based on equality and love under his leadership. 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. The note said: 'Please help us get out of Jonestown.' "I was still naive enough--well, not necessarily naive enough; I still believe the CIA is capable of all kinds of things--but I felt that we could geniunely be a threat to the image of the United States and that people might be trying to do things to undermine or eliminate what was happening down there," he says. Number one: People cant understand what was attractive about Dad. . With their lives, the story of Jonestown continues, even now. Save record . He does not know. 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. Others had joined in San Francisco and continued with him to the promised land in the South American jungle. He thinks now that it is probably stupid to believe that. I keep remembering what Jones had said in the pavilion. Instead, The Washington Post reported that Stephan escaped death with the Jonestown basketball team. Do you think people can ever see your father not just as a villain but as a complex figure? Meanwhile, the tractor, with several men in the trailer, rolled toward the terminal shack and halted a short distance away. 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. Photo by Eric Risberg / AP Stephan Jones' mother was one of those found dead from cyanide poisoning. Stephanie was born in 1954 and died at a very early age of five in a car accident in May 1959. When John Cobb was born in 1960 in a black section of Indianapolis, his mother and older siblings already were temple members. Contact & Personal Details. The guy you see in all the images. He was not prepared for suicide. Stephan Jones currently lives in Petaluma, CA; in the past Stephan has also lived in San Rafael CA and Novato CA. 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. Stephan is among one of the Late Jim Jones sons survivors and he is still disturbed by those past events. Jim Jones set off one of these panics every few weeks, sometimes keeping people awake all night as he shouted his warnings. Jim Jones had said as a tropical storm rained on the Peoples Temple pavilion. Quietly the men with the tractor motioned aside a group of curious Guyanese children and other bystanders. He was 18 and running a temple construction crew when the church sanctioned his marriage to a talented 16-year-old singer, Ollie Wideman. She gave her house to the Peoples Temple and they moved to San Francisco. Jim Jones, pictured in 1976,dreamed up Jonestown. He did.'. 'In an hour, that promise was broken.'. "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 . It was he who willed it into being and he who also brought it down with the mass murders and suicides of hundreds. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. After more than 22 years at Californias transportation department, Smith retired in 2015. He is married to his wife Kristi Jones since 1991. . He went over the seats in a somersault and I flipped out of the plane with him. Reporters were hearing disturbing allegations about Jim Jones' church--there were stories of beatings, armed guards, extensive sexual activity. I believe that it was always a personal agenda for my father, and yes, there was a gradual shift in the balance. Jim Jones radioed his son with orders to return to Jonestown, Stephan Jones refused to cut short the trip. After the slaughter, Stephan Jones was arrested on suspicion of abetting the mass murder and spent three months in a Guyanese prison. The temple was the only life he knew but says he always had his doubts. He plays forward. 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. They have three children. ", Throughout the 40 years since the deaths at Jonestown, Stephan has been willing to give media interviews. 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. The Joneses adopted a black baby in Indiana in 1960, and Jim gave the 10-week-old infant his own name. 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. 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. He's too close to Jim Jones to leave.'. 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. They felt there was an outside threat, and that was hammered into them. When the prodigals visited, the Cobbs kept it secret from Jones. And the temple was his life first in Indiana, later in California. Even the few people that actually took the poison. . None of it makes sense. Toward the end, as he watched the array of barbiturates, amphetamines and tranquilizers that now slurred his father's speech and sometimes left him physically unable to leave the Jonestown house, Stephan Jones says murder seemed almost redundant. . Which probably wasnt true. But Stephan was the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones. Suddenly there was no money to buy lumber or supplies--"he was such a tightwad," Stephan Jones says--and the homesteading fervor gave way to the minister's incessant meetings and group lectures and warnings about "enemies.". She returned to Jonestown for the first time in 40 years in March, Jordan Vilchez poses for a portrait in Richmond, California last week. Anthony Katsaris, brother of Jim Jones aide Maria Katsaris, was wounded in the chest. Now, Stephan Jones is the father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business. In this Nov. 5, 2018 photo, John Cobb poses for a portrait at the the Jonestown Memorial at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, Calif. You describe yourself in your writings as a rebellious kid. And then he went to my mother. 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. 'I was going back to retrieve that young person and also to say goodbye.'. By nightfall, the seriously wounded, some of them on litters provided by the community, were sheltered in army soldiers' tents. The name Stephan is from the Greek word and it means a crown and garland. He said reporters would make the situation worse. It appeared in the Examiner on Nov. 20, 1978, two days after the tragedy: San Francisco Examiner reporter Tim Reiterman (left)was wounded in the airstrip shooting. They must be prepared to die in the defense of socialism. He has nine siblings, most of whom are now dead. When the prodigals visited, the Cobbs kept it secret from Jones. The murders and suicides were unfolding, 150 miles away. There was a gaping wound in his shoulder and possibly his ribs. "Because then it would have been like, 'I'm running out on these people. That way no one else would want to live. 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. So grew the young Stephan: the quiet witness steeped in rage. He was taking pain pills, and he said he was dying. 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. It marched for four jailed Fresno newsmen. Stephan ran to the U.S. Embassy and appealed for a helicopter to take him to the colony to try to stop the disaster, but no one listened. . Stephan Gandhi Jones, age 60s, lives in Petaluma, CA. On Nov. 18 she was at the temple house when a fanatical Jones aide received a dire radio message from Jonestown. The 59-year-old, Jim Jones son Stephan Jones has gone through a lot after the mass massacre in Jonestown led by his father, Late Jim Jones on Nov. 18, 1978. Jim Jones. And I say, 'My name is Jones.' 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. 2010-10-03 19:23:36. Best Answer. I could still hear the groaning and crying of the targets. In this Nov. 13, 2008 file photo, Stephan Jones, son of Rev. 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. 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. 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. "I still get very angry," Stephan Jones says. He is married to his wifeKristi Jones since 1991. At the end of Ryan's two-day visit to the mission Saturday, a woman suddenly charged down a slippery boardwalk shouting at her husband, 'I'll kill you! . And I had good reason to be enraged with him'. 'I'm real happy to be getting out,' Layton volunteered, then lapsed into a stare. I wondered why it happened. All the people who lay there around him had followed him. We got word that a temple member had grabbed the congressman, held a knife to his throat and told him he was going to slit it. He built a long career in health care, while weathering his own serious health problems. He keeps his voice very soft, as though practice has taught him to hold certain subjects to a whisper in public, but his gaze is direct. I dropped to my belly. Of course, even if he wanted to forget Jonestown, his name was an ever-present reminder. Instead of finishing high school, Vilchez moved to San Francisco, where she lived in the church. "It's like you went to a vacation in Europe and found out the United States had sunk," he says. 'He made a promise - once we get to Jonestown there is no corporal punishment,' Smith said. A lot more conversation about the outside threat that was anyone that wasnt in the temple. When Smith reunited with his mother and wife in Jonestown, Ollie was 8 months pregnant. So in my view, even the good works and things he championed were in some way not as pure as folks want to think. However, they have moved on with their life. First the Cessna was filled, with Ryan frisking each boarder looking for guns and knives. window._taboola = window._taboola || []; The silence could mean only one thing: An ambush was awaiting them. And Smith's wife, son and mother died. He has been married to Kristi Jones since 1991. Publicity Listings 'Hit the deck!' (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; (?) And cameras scattered around him were told lost 11 relatives that day to the far end of notorious... 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