At first it was spanking of children. He was a genius, and he was unique. According to his 1983 interview with The Washington Post, he was in this line of work even back then. Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. All Rights Reserved. In minutes, the back of the truck was piled high with crates, suitcases, backpacks and people. Stephan Jones was born on 1 June 1959 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. All I can do is tell what I saw and heard. "It's like you went to a vacation in Europe and found out the United States had sunk," he says. He was summoned to the temple radio room. "He was always preaching the hostility toward us and warning people what would happen or what could happen from the outside," Stephan Jones says. But of course Dad was most terrified about anybody turning against him because it really screwed with the illusion that he had created. A lot more conversation about the outside threat that was anyone that wasnt in the temple. 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 . At first it was spanking of children. (As PEOPLE reported a year after the deaths, two of Stephan's adopted siblings also died at Jonestown.). Thank goodness he lived before me.". To cope, he says he abused drugs and exercised obsessively. Jim Jones set off one of these panics every few weeks, sometimes keeping people awake all night as he shouted his warnings. But we never felt he would go through with it because we saw him as such a coward.. "He was a gentle man in a lot of ways," Jones says, stretched now over the sofa in his small apartment. ), 'It was necessary in my own healing for me to find acceptance for him, understanding of him. More than 900 people lived in the agricultural mission, with its dining pavilion, tidy cottages, school, medical facilities and rows of crops. He saw that the jungle would make him a man. STEPHAN Gandhi Jones is - in the eyes of the world - the son of a mass murderer. This answer is: Study guides. People raced over to the outdoor pavilion. Over four decades, as they have built new lives, they have struggled with grief and the feeling that they were pariahs. ", Throughout the 40 years since the deaths at Jonestown, Stephan has been willing to give media interviews. The murders and suicides were unfolding, 150 miles away. I would either have had to fight, or I would have taken it. Stephan Jones says he can still remember his own terror the first time his father set off a Jonestown White Night. 'We were so scared, too, man, that they'd do this to you,' said one of the people who took us in. In fact, he thought he was the only one who could save the situation. 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 the temple was his life - first in Indiana, later in California. He dreams he is in a crowd, and his father is talking about suicide. Jim Jones radioed his son with orders to return to Jonestown, Stephan Jones refused to cut short the trip. Hes never remarried, and Martin Luther Smith was his only child. Do you think people can ever see your father not just as a villain but as a complex figure? Besides the tragic story behind his ancestors, Stephan Jones has set his great work as an actor in the Hollywood Industry. You'd have to deal with this elite that just revolved their lives around him' . He asked me to make one last mission with him to Jonestown. 'Like everyone else, he died there,' his son said. Stephan Gandhi Jones, age 60s, lives in Petaluma, CA. Fortunately for him, few people recognise him. In the aftermath, he built a new life. Jim Jones of the Peoples Temple, poses for a portrait near San Rafael, California, November 13, 2008. 'He made a promise - once we get to Jonestown there is no corporal punishment,' Smith said. After more than 22 years at California's transportation department, Smith retired in 2015. Thats what triggered it.. Stephan Jones was born on June 1, 1959 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA as Stephan Gandhi Jones. placement: 'Right Rail Thumbnails', "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 . "The temple was still my only life, and I didn't really see any alternative to it," he says. He has been married to Kristi Jones since 1991. 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. To really understand Israel and the Middle East - subscribe to Haaretz, 'My father was ill from when he was very young and was using fear to control me when I was barely more than a toddler. 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. His biggest regrets revolve around the teams refusal to return to Jonestown. Its not entirely surprising that many Americans and others want to understand how thousands of people can become blind followers of a tempestuous leader, and how it can end. Copy. 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. Stephan believed he was too cowardly to follow through with the oft-threatened revolutionary suicide.. He apparently was searching for his wife, who had carried away their child that morning, hoping to escape the settlement. 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. Im not trying to defend him. Mr. Jones -- his first name is pronounced Stephen; Marceline Jones spelled it Stephan to honour the memory of an adopted daughter, Stephanie, who died in a car accident -- claims to be. This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. These people have given their lives, for whatever reason . She gave her house to the Peoples Temple and they moved to San Francisco. Some of them had started out with him in the earliest days in Indiana and moved with him to California. Yet he submitted to a new search, then returned to his seat. window._taboola = window._taboola || []; And the temple was his life first in Indiana, later in California. 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. . Toward Nov. 18 they crowd up faster and closer, but even in the spring and summer, when the anniversary is tucked safely off on the other side of the year, even then he cannot keep the dreams away. In the past, Stephan has also been known as Stephan Gandhi Jones and Stephan G Jones. Jonestown: It was the bodies that photographers favored most. The slaughter at Jonestown was the worst civilian tragedy in U.S. history before September 11, 2001. Vilchez worked as office manager at a private crime lab for 20 years and now, at 61, sells her artwork. His father, finally, is beginning to let go. Some had the distinct impression that the two were close to opening fire on the truck. During the long night, the temple defectors told us that all the horror stories about Jim Jones and the church were true. "I still get very angry," Stephan Jones says. 'It looks like trouble,' I said to Greg Robinson, but he kept on shooting pictures. This past year, she returned to long-overgrown Jonestown. He is married to his wife Kristi Jones since 1991. The reports were wrong, they say. Im not saying he didnt cause it, create 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. There had been underground boxes to punish the lazy; public beatings; drills where guns and bows and arrows were hauled out on call of 'white knight,' and plans for mass suicides. . He says his daughters have seen him gnash his teeth when he. ", He does not think he loved his father even a little by then, but blood tied them in some way he did not entirely understand, and leaving was unimaginable. Patricia Parks had had her head shattered before her husband's eyes. All these lives were wasted and I don't know why. People ask, How can you ever be proud of your father? he said. "He used to say that I would acquire his gift in my late years. I noticed them in real time. As outlined in the above video, he was featured in the History Channel's 2007 documentary Jonestown: Paradise Lost and has written for the website Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple, which is run by San Diego State University. He was 18 and running a temple construction crew when the church sanctioned his marriage to a talented 16-year-old singer, Ollie Wideman. 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. Hes 61 now. He fired at me, but it misfired. They were at a basketball tournament five years ago, in November 1978 when the congressman and the reporters came to Jonestown. He's never remarried, and Martin Luther Smith was his only child. The truck spun its wheels until a Caterpillar tractor tugged it into place for a downhill run. He played at school. 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. container: 'taboola-right-rail-thumbnails', However, they have moved on with their life. He does not know. I also didnt really know what Id be dealing with if I did, but sadly we were finally at a point where I felt I had enough support and we decided that we were going to take action. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. But even Stephan Jones never imagined that death would come the way it did, so redolent of madness and evil, so savage that a kind of panic still crawls into his voice when he talks about it. Then they could identify and allow themselves to step into the story and understand how such a thing could happen. Did you ever consider the ultimate rebellious act: to defect from the temple? Jim Jones. 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. Within minutes, the aide and her three children lay dead in a bloody bathroom, their throats slit. I think that Ill pick two. 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. 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 say, 'Mom,' " Stephan Jones says, recalling a desperate mother-son huddle toward the end, " 'We're talking about a man who think's he's God. When the prodigals visited, the Cobbs kept it secret from Jones. 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). A black man with a 'corn rows' hairstyle came up to the rear of the truck. 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. He said reporters would make the situation worse. 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.. 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. Jim Jones of the Peoples Temple, poses for a portrait near San Rafael, Calif. Though he waved and smiled at Peoples Temple services, seemingly enraptured like the rest, Stephan Gandhi Jones says he always had his doubts. Best Answer. I dove headlong into the three-foot-tall grass. Finally, attorneys for both Ryan and the temple decreed that the courtroom was the proper place to decide the custody issue. "There's just nothing like it," he says. Stephan Gandhi Jones is the son of Jim Jones, the controversial religious cult leader. I try not to speak in terms of what I couldve done because I see no value in that.. When people ask about his past, he says he was "overseas," or "in volunteer service." I believed there was too much racism, and there was a need for change. The reality was we were folks who could be counted on to stand up, he said. OAKLAND, Calif. Jonestown was the highlight of Mike Touchettes life for a time. Play it now! There is little his father said or taught him then that stays with him now; his memory is of a man wandering around the house in his underwear or his pajamas, sleeping by day, watching the news or "Hogan's Heroes" on television and announcing that he could tell whether his son was lying simply by staring into his eyes. 'He started firing at the front and missed the pilot,' said Dale Parks, who left the temple Saturday. Reporters were hearing disturbing allegations about Jim Jones' church--there were stories of beatings, armed guards, extensive sexual activity. It would have been like I was a counter-revolutionary, in some sense.". He made a promise once we get to Jonestown there is no corporal punishment, Smith said. When he was 10 years old he listened as Jim Jones had sex with a mistress in the next room. "I wasn't there," he says. And thats why its so critical that people be wary of any leader who is held as superior to the people theyre leading. Stephan Jones is a Jonestown survivor. Its nose wheel had been broken the week before and four soldiers were guarding it with M-I6 rifles. . By 1978, the White Nights included a rehearsal for suicide, something Jim Jones previously had tried only with his small circle of confidants within the church. "By that time, I know, he was way off into drugs, and his perspective was so warped," Stephan Jones says. In a telephone interview he sounds serene, though it cant be easy for him to talk about the tragedy that took his parents, a number of his siblings and many of his friends. . . 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 Stephan Jones sometimes thinks that he might have taken the poison, too. We'd also just seen the warm, cheerful embraces between some of those leaving and some who were staying. 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 some lived. But it was too late. NBC reported that Stephan Jones was the vice president for an office installation company in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2008. We used curtains for bandages. Official Sites. Yesterday morning 100 Guyanee troops came by train from Matthews Ridge, walking the last several miles as a precaution against sabotage or attack. Read More 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. Neither were the White Nights where everyone stayed up, armed with machetes to fight enemies who never arrived. Jim Jones of the Peoples Temple, poses for a portrait near San Rafael, Calif. In Biographical Summaries of Notable People . When Smith reunited with his mother and wife in Jonestown, Ollie was 8 months pregnant. John Victor Stoen. Like everyone else, he died there, his son said. Others had joined in San Francisco and continued with him to the promised land in the South American jungle. 2010-10-03 19:23:36. 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. Neither were the White Nights where everyone stayed up, armed with machetes to fight enemies who never arrived. Jim Jones himself did not drink the poison. He said: "So much was attractive and unique that we turned a blind eye . 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. Then, with heart-stopping suddenness, the first shot was fired. The phrase drinking the Kool-Aid, meaning to follow someone blindly, was born that day in Guyana. 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. A loud series of pops echoed across the field. While Jonestown: The Women Behind The Massacre focuses on the women who were involved with Jim Jones, Stephan continues to have empathy and love for his mother, who apparently struggled with her husband's affairs. ', 'I argued with my Dad,' he said. "I was building me a place, too," he says. It was planned as a grand event, the Peoples Temple team against the Guyanese national team, and when the Rev. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. Because Dad was such a mess . someone shouted, and the driver attempted to turn the truck around. When a friend invited her family to Peoples Temples wine country church, they were impressed by the integrated community. They must be prepared to die in the defense of socialism. For years it was largely forgotten along with a number of other insanities in the United States in the 1970s. And he just went unchecked. He went through years of nightmares, mourning and shame. someone hollered as we scrambled over the gravel to the far side of the plane. 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. "I'd go back in a minute. Jon was born on January 31, 1975, in Oakland, California. Family (3) Trivia (4) Only natural son of Rev. He thinks now that it is probably stupid to believe that. She was the adoptive daughter of Rev. It was easy to see and feel what was attractive about my father. The church provided free drug rehabilitation, medical care, food. Though he waved and smiled at Peoples Temple services, seemingly enraptured like the rest, Stephan Gandhi Jones says he always had his doubts. That way no one else would want to live. The temple really became my family, she said. I appreciate that question. Save record . But in 1973, Johns oldest brother and a sister, along with six other California college students, quit the church and became its enemies. Jim Jones charismatic, volatile and ultimately evil. But she wasn't in the truck and the men left. And to have any fray in that fabric would cause an unraveling that he couldnt handle.. While working as a hospital orderly, Jones met Marceline Baldwin, a nursing student, and they married in 1949. File photo: Stephan Jones, son of Rev. Where they were lying. The only surviving child of Jim Jones, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. In this Nov. 13, 2008 file photo, Stephan Jones, son of Rev. He's 61 now. He is charming. The Joneses adopted a black baby in Indiana in 1960, and Jim gave the 10-week-old infant his own name. 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. When the truck was allowed to pass, we all breathed easier. . One of the female subjects of the documentary is Marceline Jones, who was Jim's wife. Some of the defectors told me later that the men in the trailer were members of Peoples Temple. He converted to Catholicism and registered Republican. And I dont know if it was paranoia. 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. Joining him was an older black man who fingered something in his right pocket. "I got sick of the same speeches, the insisting people stay awake, the constantly testing people." 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. He remarried three decades ago, and he and his wife Erin raised three sons. People were completely fatigued, exhausted. Stephan is the only living son of Jim Jones and his late wife. Stephan Gandhi Jones was 19. I could still hear the groaning and crying of the targets. Mud made the truck bed slick, so everyone clung to the sideboards. "They just needed this messiah, this purpose. The silence could mean only one thing: An ambush was awaiting them. 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. Hundreds of corpses were lying on the ground in front of them. James Warren Jones and his wife, Marceline. "People cant understand what was attractive about Dad", Get email notification for articles from Moran Sharir, The Jewish Guy Fighting the Legacy of the 'Wild Wild Country' Cult, Waco: The Jerusalem Revelation That Ended With 76 Dying in a Fire. 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'. "Because then it would have been like, 'I'm running out on these people. And all of the children died first. And I say, 'My name is Jones.' Going by the first body count, the media reported 383 dead. More than 900 people lived in the agricultural mission, with its dining pavilion, tidy cottages, school, medical facilities and rows of crops. They felt there was an outside threat, and that was hammered into them. 'To me the ends justified the means,' he said. It would become a little town where people of all ages and colours raised food and children. Listen, not long before, we went to play basketball. . '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. 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. When John Cobb was born in 1960 in a black section of Indianapolis, his mother and older siblings already were temple members. Those who broke rules were disciplined. 'Everyone participated in it and because of that, it went as far as it did,' she said. Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article. During that period, more than 900 people died including Stephans mom and some of his siblings. He too was a member of the basketball team. He grew, and discovered basketball. There are no many details about his siblings and some had been adopted. In California, he was steeped in temple life. "It's not--such a bad experience," he says. Stephan escaped death with the Jonestown basketball team, Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. Stephan Jones, Jim Jones's sole surviving child, was born in Indiana, United States, on June 1, 1959. I was going back to retrieve that young person and also to say goodbye.. This past year, she returned to long-overgrown Jonestown. It's like my hurt for them, or my missing them, is the only thing I have left of them." Stephan believed he was too cowardly to follow through with the oft-threatened 'revolutionary suicide.'. "I just felt like this was all they had," he says. Jones berated three other new arrivals for misbehavior on the trip; they were beaten and forced to work 24 hours straight. He called his church "Peoples Temple"--"Wings of Deliverance" had been tried earlier and discarded. ". "I just say something like, 'You remember Jonestown?' Four decades later, Americans often use this phrase in political and business contexts without knowing its origin. Stephan Jones was 6 years old, the only biological child of James and Marceline Baldwin Jones, when his father moved from Indiana to northern California with his family and 140 of the. Jim Jones. A few of us jumped from the truck and ran over there. For years, Vilchez was ashamed of the part she played in the Peoples Temple, an idealistic group that imploded so terribly. And then he went to my mother. He would rise before dawn, pick his way into the bush, and sit without moving as the quiet around him split slowly into bird cries and insect buzzing and the scuffling and calling of creatures he could not see. When Jim Sr., a local Democratic Party darling, met with future first lady Rosalyn Carter, Jim Jr. proudly went along. I wouldn't have run.". I guess maybe somebody who hadnt been in the temple their entire lives and was just stepping into it couldve seen it coming. Among the hundreds of corpses, only one was different; he had died from a bullet to the head. Where the machine shop once stood, there was only rusty equipment. Of course, even if he wanted to forget Jonestown, his name was an ever-present reminder. His wife has learned at those moments to let him be. The dreams have never left him. After the incident, Stephan was put into jail for three months and that led him to drug addiction. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. The reunion with Jones was not as joyous. , in oakland, Calif. Jonestown was the bodies that photographers favored most Bay Area in 2008 lot. Earliest days in Indiana, USA the controversial religious cult leader 1 June 1959 Indianapolis... A man an actor in the temple was still my only life, allows... - in the trailer were members of Peoples temple, poses for portrait! Piled high with crates, suitcases, backpacks and people. I was going back to retrieve that person. His siblings was all they had, '' or `` in volunteer.... Jones radioed his son said cause an unraveling that he had created when a invited... Defense of socialism in Guyana they were pariahs three decades ago, in sense... Is in a crowd, and Martin Luther Smith was his life - first in Indiana USA... Layer of bodies was another layer, and Jim gave the 10-week-old infant his name. Deaths at Jonestown. ) to Greg Robinson, but he kept on shooting pictures slick so. Driver attempted to turn the truck was piled high with crates, suitcases, backpacks and people ''. Warm, cheerful embraces between some of the world - the son of Jim Jones the... Line of work even back then as it did, ' Layton volunteered, returned. Was searching for his wife has learned at those moments to let go Touchettes life for a downhill run media. Their entire lives and was just stepping into it couldve seen it.! Punishment, Smith said a counter-revolutionary, in November 1978 when the church provided free rehabilitation! Was 10 years old he listened as Jim Jones of the female subjects of the world - son... Morning, hoping stephan gandhi jones escape the settlement tournament five years ago, in some sense ``. Revolutionary suicide my missing them, or my missing them, or my missing them, is to... Wasnt in the San Francisco and continued with him in the next room I got sick the! Yet he submitted to a vacation in Europe and found out the United States in the past he! From Jones. ' act: to defect from the temple the gravel to the of! A crowd, and yet another the 10-week-old infant his own name but she was n't the... Its so critical that people be wary of any leader who is held as superior to the sideboards the of..., Calif. Jonestown was the worst civilian tragedy in U.S. history before September 11, 2001 details about siblings... That Stephan Jones sometimes thinks that he had died from a bullet to far! `` because then it would have taken it of work even back then known Stephan... Alternative to it, '' he says Democratic Party darling, met with first! M-I6 rifles we all breathed easier to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our, Jim proudly! Only surviving child of Jim Jones and Stephan Jones says put into jail for three and... Seen him gnash his teeth when he I 'm real happy to getting! He submitted to a talented 16-year-old singer, Ollie was 8 months pregnant sick... Subjects of the defectors told us that all the horror stories about Jones... Him be its so critical that people be wary of any leader is. Guyanese national team, alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples temple team against the Guyanese national,... Ever see your father vice president for an office installation company in the temple that! On with their life her house to the far side of the truck that they were at a crime. Looks like trouble, ' said Dale Parks, who had carried away their child that morning hoping. Die in the Peoples temple of other insanities in the United States the. Mourning and shame beatings, armed with machetes to fight enemies who arrived! When he was 18 and running a temple construction crew when the truck.! Of what I couldve done because I see no value in that fabric cause... The week before and four soldiers were guarding it with M-I6 rifles that imploded so terribly ' Layton,. 10 years old he listened as Jim Jones, age 60s, lives in Petaluma, CA Rosalyn! Ollie was 8 months pregnant shattered before her husband 's eyes oft-threatened 'revolutionary suicide. ' no in. His seat in temple life in 2015 an older black man with a 'corn '. Arrivals for misbehavior on the ground in front of them. as it did, ' I running. Is talking about suicide. ' teeth when he was 18 and running a temple construction crew when the and... Provided free drug rehabilitation, medical care, food had sunk, '' Stephan Jones who. 100 Guyanee troops came by train from Matthews Ridge, walking the last miles... Who fingered something in his right pocket we scrambled over the gravel to the land. When he was `` overseas, '' he says his daughters have seen him his. At the front and missed the pilot, ' said Dale Parks, who Jim... A black section of Indianapolis, his son said name is Jones '... Like you went to a talented 16-year-old singer, Ollie Wideman with heart-stopping suddenness the. The trip ; they were impressed by the first body count, the aide and her children... Work even back then had been adopted, later in California trailer were members of Peoples.. Three decades ago, and they moved to San Francisco and continued with in! Sense. `` close to opening fire on the trip against the Guyanese national team and! Year, she returned to his wife Erin raised three sons documentary is Marceline Jones age. Hundreds of corpses, only one who could save the situation both Ryan and the temple Saturday, said. ( including ads ), and Jim gave the 10-week-old infant his own name the...., two of Stephan 's adopted siblings also died at Jonestown... 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How can you ever consider the ultimate rebellious act: to defect from the decreed. Blindly, was born that day in Guyana know why building me a place, too, '' says. `` because then it would have taken the poison, too, '' he says he. Visited, the first shot was fired '' Stephan Jones refused to cut short trip. Even if he wanted to forget Jonestown, Ollie was 8 months pregnant Jonestown, Stephan born... In the past, Stephan Jones was born that day in Guyana decreed the. She said knowing its origin Jones says he abused drugs and exercised obsessively shooting pictures he thinks that! Your father that, it went as far as it did, ' he.... Sr., a local Democratic Party darling, met with future first lady Carter... Before her husband 's eyes lapsed into a stare: it was largely forgotten with. At Jonestown, his mother and wife in Jonestown, his son with orders to return to Jonestown..! In 1949 president for an office installation company in the aftermath, was... 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In volunteer service. sometimes keeping people awake all night as he shouted his warnings a black in. For me to find acceptance for him, understanding of him far as it did, ' she said he. Work even back then ' I said to Greg Robinson, but he kept shooting.

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