Vilchez worked as office manager at a private crime lab for 20 years and now, at 61, sells her artwork. placement: 'Below Article Thumbnails 2nd', 'Baby killer. Ryan clearly was in good spirits. "Right off the bat I explain to them that my father was nuts, that he was a drug addict," he says. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. And it was necessary in my own healing for me to find acceptance for him, understanding of him. "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 . I want out of this.' You're not taking any more drugs." After the incident, Stephan was put into jail for three months and that led him to drug addiction. Jim Jones. He appeared in movies like Written in Blood (2018), The Peoples Advocate: The Life and Times of Charles R.Gary (2007) and The True Story (2003). The expression was born of the perception that Jim Jones disciples were gullible people who gladly drank the poison because their leader told them it would do them good. Over four decades, as they have built new lives, they have struggled with grief and the feeling that they were pariahs. 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. After Ollie became pregnant, she was sent to Jonestown; Eugene remained behind. We demanded to see the locked buildings where some members lived in crowd, uncomfortable conditions. 'Being in Jonestown before Jim got there was the best thing in my life.'. 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 dreams he is arguing with his father, arguing passionately, and although he knows his arguments are better, his father always wins. "My experience in Jonestown was this: when I first got there I was happy and I was really enjoying myself. 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. How could that be suicide? "They say, 'Yeah.' He built a long career in health care, while weathering his own serious health problems. To cope, he says he abused drugs and exercised obsessively. After that I didnt sleep well last night., I wouldnt say therapeutic. 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4. When a friend invited her family to Peoples Temple's wine country church, they were impressed by the integrated community. He says his daughters have seen him gnash his teeth when he talks. The years are slowly weaning Stephan Jones from Jonestown; he reads, goes to movies, wants now to have a child of his own. And thats why its so critical that people be wary of any leader who is held as superior to the people theyre leading. Where the machine shop once stood, there was only rusty equipment. . Cobb lost 11 relatives that day, including his mother, youngest brother and four sisters. (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; (?) You don't tell God he needs help. Grueling field work was not to her liking. After Ollie became pregnant, she was sent to Jonestown; Eugene remained behind. Now, Stephan Jones is father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business. The reunion with Jones was not as joyous. Jim Jones charismatic, volatile and ultimately evil. . Photographer Greg Robinson (right)was one of the five people killed. Instead, The Washington Post reported that Stephan escaped death with the Jonestown basketball team. Stephan Gandhi Jones is the son of the notorious religious cult leader Jim Jones. And I say, 'My name is Jones.' 'We were trying to build a new world, a progressive socialist organization.'. 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. With their lives, the story of Jonestown continues, even now. "I just felt like this was all they had," he says. While working as a hospital orderly, Jones met Marceline Baldwin, a nursing student, and they married in 1949. Over four decades, as they have built new lives, they have struggled with grief and the feeling that they were pariahs. And frankly, Im much more trusting of the reluctant leader, one who says Lets go and not Go.. Of those 25 percent that drank the poison, most of those people were just defeated and didnt know where else to turn and didnt want to run out on the others. In California, he was steeped in temple life. And he just went unchecked. Partner of Terry Carter Jones, aka Mary Theresa Carter, Mary Theresa Jones, Terry Carter Jones (died November 18 . He has been married to Kristi Jones since 1991. Forty years ago this week, a California congressman and a group of journalists traveled to Guyana, South America, to see Jonestown, a remote settlement created by an American church, and investigate reports of abuses of members. He used this kind of threat to control his people. Have your feelings toward your father and his role in your life evolved over the years? I could still hear the groaning and crying of the targets. Layton later was taken into custody by Guyanese authorities who seized a .38-caliber pistol and turned it over to U.S. Embassy officials. In code, his father told him everyone was going to die in revolutionary suicide., I argued with my Dad, he said. 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! 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. I refused. The Joneses adopted a black baby in Indiana in 1960, and Jim gave the 10-week-old infant his own name. Patricia Parks had had her head shattered before her husband's eyes. "I don't think his own ego would let him run out on that toward the very end," he says. He has nine siblings, most of whom are now dead. 'There were often thoughts of taking him out but I know I wasnt capable of that kind of thing. In this Nov. 13, 2008 file photo, Stephan Jones, son of Rev. 'He hit Monica and Vern. I focused my rage on Dad and his circle, rather than deal with me, he said. It makes him a little crazy sometimes. Speier's right leg had a gaping wound, and her arm was injured. 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. In Indianapolis, he served as a student pastor in the Methodist Church in 1952 but. Stephan Gandhi Jones is the son of the notorious religious cult leader Jim Jones. She died in a tragic car accident only weeks before her mother, Marceline Mae Baldwin Jones, gave birth to her brother, Stephan Gandhi Jones. Stephan Gandhi Jones was 19. And Smiths wife, son and mother died. "It's not--such a bad experience," he says. . Family (3) Trivia (4) Only natural son of Rev. 'She gives us the order that were supposed to kill ourselves,' Vilchez recalled. 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. In this photo taken Monday, Oct. 22, 2018, former Peoples Temple member Eugene Smith poses for a photo in a park in San Francisco. 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 is charming. 'I focused my rage on Dad and his circle, rather than deal with me,' he said. ", 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. "There's just nothing like it," he says. . Within minutes, the aide and her three children lay dead in a bloody bathroom, their throats slit. Im not trying to defend him. Wiki User. Jones berated three other new arrivals for misbehaviour on the trip; they were beaten and forced to work 24 hours straight. "This is really crazy," he recalls thinking. 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. tap here to see other videos from our team. These people have given their lives, for whatever reason . This answer is: Study guides. Three Half-Siblings Glen has three half-siblings named Jim Jon Prokes, Jim W. Jones Jr., and Suzanne O. Jones. ", Throughout the 40 years since the deaths at Jonestown, Stephan has been willing to give media interviews. The shooting triggered the mass murders and suicides in Jonestown of more than 900 people orchestrated by the Rev. Jones, who asked his followers to call him 'Dad,' did not like to lose any of his 'children.' 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. Read More 29. She gave her house to the Peoples Temple and they moved to San Francisco. Eugene Smith recalls how his mother, a churchgoing African-American, bought into Jim Jones' dream after they attended a service in Fresno. They have a total of three daughters. The temple really became my family, she said. Ollie worked in the nursery, and Eugene felled trees. The only surviving child of Jim Jones, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article. But some lived. Each day's news bulletins compounded the already unimaginable: There were 400 bodies; there were 900 bodies; there were, in the precise wording of the American military men sent to investigate, "smaller bodies under larger bodies and children under those." When people ask about his past, he says he was "overseas," or "in volunteer service." Most people were away at the time. Jones wasn't the same man. 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. At the far end of the strip sat a yellow government plane. None of it makes sense. 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. 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. But mention "Jim Jones" and "Jonestown" and many people would make the connection. The minister gave the ritual a special name: White Night. He built a long career in health care, while weathering his own serious health problems. 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. I get it, Im not upset about that. They were shooting to kill, not just to stop us from leaving. He is married to his wife Kristi Jones since 1991. It was Stephan Jones who managed security--who carried a gun, watched over temple members and planned group escape routes--when Jim Jones began summoning his community into a frenzied series of meetings to prepare for imminent attacks from outside. They have altogether three daughters. People do things for him. "I knew I didn't want to, but I didn't know quite how to confront him or present my case . You'd have to deal with this elite that just revolved their lives around him' . They divorced when Jordan was six. Fortunately for him, few people recognise him. 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. 'The reality was we were folks who could be counted on to stand up,' he said. 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. There, as part of Jones personal security detail, Cobb saw the once captivating minister strung out on drugs, afraid to venture anywhere for fear of his legal problems. 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. . But she wasn't in the truck and the men left. Thank goodness he lived before me.". Not so many people died. With those people surrounding him, constantly doing the right thing, and doing what he says, and you're surrounded by a combination of them and those people who don't neccessarily agree, but are acting like they agree . Now, Stephan Jones is father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business. After more than 22 years at California's transportation department, Smith retired in 2015. I heard a few more shots and saw the tractor pull away. I found relief in the woods and rivers and creeks, and I got away as often as I could, but there was always a low-level anxiety that I only really can identify now.. The reason I ended up in Jonestown is that I left. Then, with heart-stopping suddenness, the first shot was fired. 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. 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. 'He started firing at the front and missed the pilot,' said Dale Parks, who left the temple Saturday. But Stephan was the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones. I know Ive reached a better place and I dont fear lapsing back into the darkest times, but its a daily process and one that Im grateful to have.. stephan gandhi jones Tatko na pesmaricu. Then, after a 1977 New West magazine expose of temple disciplinary beatings and other abuses, she was sent to Jonestown. There, as part of Jones' personal security detail, Cobb saw the once captivating minister strung out on drugs. 'To me the ends justified the means,' he said. Five others were wounded seriously. For 19 of his 24 years, they were all he knew. The only surviving child of Jim Jones, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. I keep remembering what Jones had said in the pavilion. Stephan escaped death with the Jonestown basketball team, Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. Do not sell or share my personal information. He was summoned to the temple radio room. After the slaughter, Stephan Jones was arrested on suspicion of abetting the mass murder and spent three months in a Guyanese prison. In addition to writing the articles below, Stephan appeared as a speaker during the Griot Institute of African Studies lecture series entitled Jonestown: 35 Years Later at Bucknell University; his presentation appears on this page (scroll down the videos). Number one: People cant understand what was attractive about Dad. 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. They were at a basketball tournament five years ago, in November 1978 when the congressman and the reporters came to Jonestown. But before we could start out, we heard angry shouts. I just wish people could understand what was attractive about him. 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,. Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby, the two temple members who asked for help in the note, also were seriously injured. So it was not this grand march to death, far from it. I would say that there are times when its very enriching to speak with people about it All too often people want to write everyone off as a bunch of crazies. 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. They don't normally believe it at first. They felt there was an outside threat, and that was hammered into them. Devotion to its ideals bolstered her self-worth. target_type: 'mix' 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 . Ollie worked in the nursery, and Eugene felled trees. When a friend invited her family to Peoples Temples wine country church, they were impressed by the integrated community. When the prodigals visited, the Cobbs kept it secret from Jones. 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. But of course Dad was most terrified about anybody turning against him because it really screwed with the illusion that he had created. That's what triggered it.'. 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. He was just 14, Stephan Jones and some other team members believe they might have changed history if they were there. 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. Stephanie was born in 1954 and died at a very early age of five in a car accident in May 1959. I would either have had to fight, or I would have taken it. Stephan Gandhi Jones was the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones. In an hour, that promise was broken.. Manipulative tendencies. target_type: 'mix' 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. . "There was always that guilt fed to you by my father that kept you in check, kept you thinking, 'Maybe I'm wrong'--the guilt for being selfish and questioning this.". Jim Jr. would lose 15 immediate relatives in Jonestown, including his pregnant wife, Yvette Muldrow. It was he who dreamed up Jonestown, he who willed it into being, and he who brought it down: First, with the assassination of U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan and four others by temple members on a nearby airstrip on November 18, 1978, then with the mass murders and suicides of hundreds, a horror that remains nearly unimaginable 40 years later. Stephan helped erect a basketball court and form a team. 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