", Stephan Jones used to say he could have stopped the slaughter if he had been there. And I looked around and there were at least 15 people looking at me. Going by the first body count, the media reported 383 dead. And when her 23-year-old sister joined, Jordan went to live with her at age 12. I wouldn't have run.". 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. She returned to Jonestown for the first time in 40 years in March, Jordan Vilchez poses for a portrait in Richmond, California last week. Though he waved and smiled at Peoples Temple services, seemingly enraptured like the rest, Stephan Gandhi Jones says he always had his doubts. I think there are different images being shown now, but its still too little, too late. American soldiers who arrived discovered that beneath the layer of bodies was another layer, and yet another. 'I'm real happy to be getting out,' Layton volunteered, then lapsed into a stare. And Smiths wife, son and mother died. "But there's a sadness . JONESTOWN 40 YEARS LATER: Mass suicide shocked world, Amanda Knox to host new true crime podcast: 'I tend not to be a fan of the genre'. Partner : Ava Phenice Jones, aka Ava Phenice Brown, Ava Phenice Cobb. 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. Stephan Jones, Jim Jones's sole surviving child, was born in Indiana, United States, on June 1, 1959. Now, Stephan Jones is the father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business. 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. Jim Jones (1931-1978) and Marceline Jones (1927-1978). 'So much was attractive and unique that we turned a blind eye on what was wrong,' he said, including his father's sexual excesses, drug abuse and rants. For years, Vilchez was ashamed of the part she played in the Peoples Temple, an idealistic group that imploded so terribly. Stephan Jones was a nearly full-grown teen-ager when his father sent him to the Peoples Temple agricultural mission in the small South American coastal country of Guyana. 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. His father spoke so ardently about his own self-sacrifice; Stephan Jones saw the specially prepared steaks and the color television, and in the temple apartment where they lived, he grew accustomed to glimpses of his father having sex with temple members--sometimes women, sometimes men. I appreciate that question. no one could ever relate to it unless they were in the same situation, or they were in the atmosphere my father created . Every loud sound put us on edge, with some wondering aloud: 'Will they come back to finish us off?'. 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. 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. When the truck was allowed to pass, we all breathed easier. 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. 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. He remarried three decades ago, and he and his wife, Erin, raised three sons. Which probably wasnt true. The slaughter at Jonestown was the worst civilian tragedy in U.S. history before September 11, 2001. I just have to love him and forgive him.. He went over the seats in a somersault and I flipped out of the plane with him. Jim Jones, pictured in 1976,dreamed up Jonestown. But before we could start out, we heard angry shouts. He has learned, he says, to understand his own resources and the depths of his emotions. They were shooting to kill, not just to stop us from leaving. And when her 23-year-old sister joined, Jordan went to live with her at age 12. 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. 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. someone shouted, and the driver attempted to turn the truck around. Partner of Terry Carter Jones, aka Mary Theresa Carter, Mary Theresa Jones, Terry Carter Jones (died November 18 . "I mellowed out. Court Records. "He used to say that I would acquire his gift in my late years. 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.. The phrase drinking the Kool-Aid, meaning to follow someone blindly, was born that day in Guyana. People do things for him. I just wish people could understand what was attractive about him. His LinkedIn profile indicates that he still has the position of vice president of operations at MB Contract Furniture. But the entertainers stayed in Jonestown to entertain Ryan. 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. OAKLAND, Calif. Jonestown was the highlight of Mike Touchettes life for a time. Layton, who was insisting on taking the first plane, slipped to the other side of the plane before he could be frisked. . "I think I'd probably be pretty messed up if I hadn't lost everybody I had and hadn't gone through the prison experience," Stephan told The Washington Post in 1983. container: 'taboola-right-rail-thumbnails', Among the hundreds of corpses, only one was different; he had died from a bullet to the head. So it was not this grand march to death, far from it. When he was 10 years old he listened as Jim Jones had sex with a mistress in the next room. File photo: Stephan Jones, son of Rev. 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. Stephan Jones says he can still remember his own terror the first time his father set off a Jonestown White Night. Well, he was using these words, I dont know if hed actually do that, hes a good and gentle man in so many ways, but he wanted to take dad out, and I was the one to convince him that dad would do that himself and we were going to have chaos on our hands. Or lost touch with reality? I was going back to retrieve that young person and also to say goodbye.. stephan gandhi jones Tatko na pesmaricu. This return to the cult of Jim Jones is part of a re-examination of dangerous cults and movements in Americas past, like the Osho cult, which had a similar murderous potential. Speier's right leg had a gaping wound, and her arm was injured. "They just needed this messiah, this purpose. "I'd go back in a minute. 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. 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. 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. Some of them had started out with him in the earliest days in Indiana and moved with him to California. And all of the children died first. (1991 - Stephan believed he was too cowardly to follow through with the oft-threatened revolutionary suicide.. . 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. Jim Jones radioed his son with orders to return to Jonestown, Stephan Jones refused to cut short the trip. '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. 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. In what he called "revolutionary suicide", Jones and the members of his inner circle orchestrated a mass murder-suicide in his remote jungle commune at Jonestown, Guyana, on November 18, 1978. He is able to weep, but worries about letting himself begin; he says it feels a little like pulling his finger from a crack in the dam. 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. John was attending a San Francisco high school when he was allowed to join his best friends in Jonestown. Though it was a stalemate, the incident intensified an already strained situation. 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.. 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. As a San Francisco high school student, he was dispatched to help build Jonestown. Rebelling, they refused Jones order to come back. _taboola.push({ 'If anything, we felt pity for him,' he said, 'and it grew into a dislike, maybe hate.'. Ryan Seacrest, 48, is all smiles with stunning girlfriend Aubrey Paige, 25, as they enjoy Miami shopping trip, a day after it was announced he's being replaced on Live with Kelly and Ryan by Ripa's husband, Who needs Tinder when you've got Duolingo? To cope, he says he abused drugs and exercised obsessively. . Thank goodness he lived before me.". And frankly, Im much more trusting of the reluctant leader, one who says Lets go and not Go.. I heard a few more shots and saw the tractor pull away. There are no many details about his siblings and some had been adopted. Instead, The Washington Post reported that Stephan escaped death with the Jonestown basketball team. And I dont know if it was paranoia. After that I didnt sleep well last night., I wouldnt say therapeutic. He lives just outside San Francisco and works as an office systems installer, arranging furniture and office interiors. (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; (?) To access these PDF files you must have the free Adobe Reader installed. 2023 Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple, Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple is a, Reflections and Articles by Stephan Jones, Son of Anarchist: My Father, Jim Jones, and What the World Can Still Learn From Him,. But he said his discontent festered. Vilchez worked as office manager at a private crime lab for 20 years and now, at 61, sells her artwork. 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. He did what was expected of him. He went through years of nightmares, mourning and shame. February 27, 2023 endeavor air pilot contract No Comments . Though he waved and smiled at Peoples Temple services, seemingly enraptured like the rest, Stephan Gandhi Jones says he always had his doubts. I make a point of avoiding pointing fingers and giving specific names. He said he considered it a failing on his part when he did. They would survive and both return home to California. .' He dreams he is in a crowd, and his father is talking about suicide. I did. He is married to his wife Kristi Jones since 1991. Vilchez was dispatched to the Guyanan capital of Georgetown to raise money. My mother got me an apartment, I got a job and my father came and tried to talk me into coming back. They had nothing to go back to." Altogether, 909 people died at Jonestown on November 18, 1978, by swallowing a grape-flavored beverage mixed with potassium cyanide, or from injections of poison. , MoKal . Alongside it was a red tractor and trailer seen earlier at the mission. That way no one else would want to live. 'I'm not saying he didn't cause it, create it. "This is really crazy," he recalls thinking. NBC reported that Stephan Jones was the vice president for an office installation company in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2008. If anything, we felt pity for him, he said, and it grew into a dislike, maybe hate.. The years have shaped another lesson for Stephan Jones, but it makes him uneasy to talk about it. People were completely fatigued, exhausted. 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. 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. Then they start to ask questions right away.". File photo: Bodies of Peoples Temple mass suicide victims led by Jim Jones in Jonestown, Guyana, November 1978. John was attending a San Francisco high school when he was allowed to join his best friends in Jonestown. He is married to his wifeKristi Jones since 1991. Oh yeah, I think you can see that from my writing. Stephan Gandhi Jones is 6-foot-5, lean, broad at the shoulder, olive-eyed, black-haired, handsome as a billboard model. . 'He made a promise - once we get to Jonestown there is no corporal punishment,' Smith said. Were you aware that you had a very different childhood than most? Stephan is the only living son of Jim Jones and his late wife. PORT KAITUMA, Guyana - 'I feel sorry that we are being destroyed from within,' the Rev. There, as part of Jones' personal security detail, Cobb saw the once captivating minister strung out on drugs. This November 1978 file photo shows the bodies of Peoples Temple mass suicide victims led by Jim Jones in Jonestown, Guyana. Stephan helped erect a basketball court and form a team. He is talking, in the first of two evenings' long conversations, between spoonfuls of almond chicken at a Chinese restaurant. Hes 61 now. People raced over to the outdoor pavilion. He built a long career in health care, while weathering his own serious health problems. That way no one else would want to live. Sadly we were finally at a point where I felt I had enough support and we decided that we were going to take action'. The only sounds they heard came from the jungle animals going about their business. For moreEntertainment,Celebrity BabiesfolloweCelebrityMirror. Jones wasn't the same man. Unauthorized distribution, transmission or republication strictly prohibited. The only surviving child of Jim Jones, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. 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 that day, The bodies of five people, including Rep. Leo J. Ryan, D-Calif., are shown above on the airstrip at Port Kaittuma, Guyana, after an ambush by members of the Peoples Temple cult on November 18, 1978, John Cobb looks at names of family members on the Jonestown Memorial in Oakland, California. 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. Hes an executive at the office furniture company where he began working immediately after Jonestown. He too was a member of the basketball team. }); window._taboola = window._taboola || []; During that period, more than 900 people died including Stephans mom and some of his siblings. He was not prepared for suicide. After the temple exodus to Guyana, he was given a public relations post in Georgetown - and was part of the basketball team. Jim Jr., followed that July and was 16 years old at the time. Stephan Gandhi Jones is the son of Jim Jones, the controversial religious cult leader. I crawled until I came to taller bushes and brambles, clawing my way into a pocket in the brush. Copy. He was summoned to the temple radio room. Jones, who asked his followers to call him 'Dad,' did not like to lose any of his 'children.' They could leave any time they want.'. My arm was gushing blood so I stripped off my belt and pinched down the biggest wounds. All had been captivated by his promises of a model socialist society based on equality and love under his leadership. 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. 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. His body was found with a gunshot wound in the head. He loved it. target_type: 'mix' 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. 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. He is a businessman in Northern California, married, with three daughters. In a 2007 interview with Religion News Service published by Dallas News, Stephan said that he struggled with drug addiction after Jonestown, but that he's sober now. There was something there. ', 'I argued with my Dad,' he said. On Nov. 18 she was at the temple house when a fanatical Jones aide received a dire radio message from Jonestown. All I can do is tell what I saw and heard. When John Cobb was born in 1960 in a black section of Indianapolis, his mother and older siblings already were temple members. Stephan Jones' mother was one of those found dead from cyanide poisoning. Stephan Jones was born on 1 June 1959 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. 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. People were forced. 'There is no way we would be shooting at the airstrip. The only surviving child of Jim Jones, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. Stephan Jones Seeks Forgiveness For Jonestown Massacre, Late Jim Jones Son Stephan Jones Is An Actor. We didnt see that coming. He said reporters would make the situation worse. 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. 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's too close to Jim Jones to leave.'. Dozens of members in Guyana slipped out of Jonestown or happened to be away that day. The younger man demanded that everyone in the truck move aside. 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. An In-Depth Look at Naomi Girmas Salary in Professional Soccer. "I knew I didn't want to, but I didn't know quite how to confront him or present my case . Jonestown was the highlight of his life for a time and he recalls feeling pride pioneering in the distant jungle of Guyana. It would become a little town where people of all ages and colours raised food and children. John Victor Stoen. I think that Ill pick two. He led the Peoples Temple, a new religious movement, between 1955 and 1978. 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. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. To me, the ends justified the means, he said. We used curtains for bandages. The only surviving child of Jim Jones, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. Cobb lost 11 relatives that day, including his mother, youngest brother and four sisters. When Smith reunited with his mother and wife in Jonestown, Ollie was 8 months pregnant. The rest was jungle, damp and hot and so thick with growth that Stephan Jones would stand among the massive trees and feel the 20th century fall away. I certainly felt there was an outside threat, even when I knew my father was full of it and I was at odds with him in Jonestown. 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 would have been doing more than just leaving a family. . 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The therapy that has been helpful to me hasnt been by talking with strangers about it. 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. Now, Stephan Jones is father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business. Quietly the men with the tractor motioned aside a group of curious Guyanese children and other bystanders. "I remember being afraid when he started talking about it, and getting butterflies," he says. Life became more tolerable after the couple's baby, Martin Luther Smith, was born. It marched for four jailed Fresno newsmen. . I focused my rage on Dad and his circle, rather than deal with me, he said. In California, he was steeped in temple life. 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. But Stephan was the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones. Don't take my baby!'. For years it was largely forgotten along with a number of other insanities in the United States in the 1970s. He says his daughters have seen him gnash his teeth when he talks. Other people were injured. It was just more controlled. "I don't know what was happening . 1978. _taboola.push({ They also killed their dogs. 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.. They have three children. After Ollie became pregnant, she was sent to Jonestown; Eugene remained behind. Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. And his sense of self resided in his perception of other peoples perception of him. Be aware of this message that was prevalent in the temple: The end justifies the means. And I see that throughout society. 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 contacted the people at the San Francisco branch of the Peoples Temple and instructed them not to take action. "I was building me a place, too," he says. Play it now! What we were calling the cause really was Jim, she said. 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. To cope, he says he abused drugs and exercised obsessively. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. I thought there were reasons for people to want to get us. container: 'taboola-below-article-thumbnails-3rd', 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. So in my view, even the good works and things he championed were in some way not as pure as folks want to think. . He is married to his wife Kristi Jones since 1991. They divorced when Jordan was six. 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're in deep trouble now,' observed one of the relatives who had accompanied us. There was a gaping wound in his shoulder and possibly his ribs. 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. 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Jones says he can still remember his own serious health problems Peoples Temple, an idealistic group that imploded terribly! Drinking the Kool-Aid, meaning to follow someone blindly, was born in 1960 a. Is the son of Jim Jones and some had been captivated by promises! A black section of Indianapolis, his mother, youngest brother and four sisters went over seats... His 'children. ' me hasnt been by talking with strangers about it Phenice.! Not go: Ava Phenice Jones, Stephan was born office interiors pilot Contract no.!