Secret and Suppressed: Banned Ideas and Hidden History (24 page)

One of the architects under then-Governor Reagan in California was now-Attorney General Edwin Meese. He coordinated “Operation Garden Plot” for military intelligence and all police operations and intelligence in a period that was plagued with violations of civil and constitutional rights.
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Perhaps you recall the police attacks on People’s Park, the murder of many Black Panthers and activists, the infiltration of the Free Speech Movement and anti-war activity, and the experimentation on prisoners at Vacaville, or the shooting of George Jackson.
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Meese later bragged that this activity had damaged or destroyed the people he called “revolutionaries.”
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It was into this situation Jones came to usurp leadership.
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After his arrival in Ukiah, his methods were visible to those who took the time to investigate.
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His armed guards wore black uniforms and leather jackboots. His approach was one of deception, and if that wore off, then manipulation and threats. Loyalty to his church included signing blank sheets of paper, later filled in with “confessions” and used for blackmail purposes, or to extort funds.
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Yet the vast membership he was extorting often owned little, and he tried to milk them for everything, from personal funds to land deeds.
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Illegal activities were regularly reported during this period, but either not investigated or unresolved. He clearly had the cooperation of local police. Years later, evidence would come out of charges of sexual solicitation, mysteriously dropped.
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Those who sought to leave were prevented and rebuked. Local journalist Kathy Hunter wrote in the Ukiah press about “seven Mysterious Deaths” of the Temple members who had argued with Jones and attempted to leave. One of these was Maxine Swaney.
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Jones openly hinted to other members that he had arranged for them to die, threatening a similar fate to others who would be disloyal.
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Kathy Hunter later tried to visit Jonestown, only to be forcibly drugged by Temple guards, and deported to Georgetown.
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She later charged that Mark Lane approached her, falsely identifying himself as a reporter for
Esquire,
rather than as an attorney for Jim Jones. He led her to believe he was seeking information on Jones for an exposé in the magazine, and asked to see her evidence.

The pattern was to continue in San Francisco. In addition, Jones required that members practice for the mysterious “White Night,” a mass suicide ritual that would protect them from murder at the hands of their enemies.
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Although the new Temple had no guards or fences to restrict members, few had other places to live, and many had given over all they owned to Jones. They felt trapped inside this community that preached love, but practiced hatred.
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Following press exposure, and a critical article in
New West
magazine, Jones became very agitated, and the number of suicide drills increased.
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Complaints about mistreatment by current and ex-members began to appear in the media and reach the ears of congressional representatives. Sam Houston, an old friend of Leo Ryan, came to him with questions about the untimely death of his son following his departure from the Temple.
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Later, Timothy and Grace Stoen would complain to Ryan about custody of their young son, who was living with Jones, and urge him to visit the commune.
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Against advice of friends and staff members, Ryan decided to take a team of journalists to Guyana and seek the truth of the situation.
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Some felt that Ryan’s journey there was planned and expected, and used as a convenient excuse to set up his murder. Others feel that this unexpected violation of secrecy around Jonestown set off the spark that led to the mass murder. In either case, it marked the beginning of the end for Ryan and Jones.
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At one point, to show his powers, Jones arranged to be shot in the heart in front of the congregation. Dragged to a back room, apparently wounded and bleeding, he returned a moment later alive and well. While this may have been more of his stage antics to prompt believers’ faith, it may also have marked the end of Jim Jones.
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For undisclosed reason, Jones had used “doubles.”
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This is very unusual for a religious leader, but quite common in intelligence operations.
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Even the death and identification of Jim Jones were peculiar. He was apparently shot by another person at the camp.
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Photos of his body do not show identifying tattoos on his chest. The body and face are not clearly recognizable due to bloating and discoloration.
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The FBI reportedly checked his fingerprints twice, a seemingly futile gesture since it is a precise operation. A more logical route would have been to check dental records.
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Several researchers familiar with the case feel that the body may not have been Jones. Even if the person at the site was one of the “doubles,” it does not mean Jones is still alive. He may have been killed at an earlier point.

According to one story, Jones was seeking a place on earth that would survive the effects of nuclear war, relying only on an article in
Esquire
magazine for his list.
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The real reason for his locations in Brazil, California, Guyana and elsewhere deserve more scrutiny.
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At one point Jones wanted to set up in Grenada, and he invited then-Prime Minister Sir Eric Gairy to visit the Temple in San Francisco.
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He invested $200,000 in the Grenada National Bank in 1977 to pave the way, and some $76,000 was still there after the massacre.
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His final choice, the Matthew’s Bridge section in Guyana, is an interesting one. It was originally the site of a Union Carbide bauxite and manganese mine, and Jones used the dock they left behind.
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At an earlier point, it had been one of seven possible sites chosen for the relocation of the Jews after World War II.
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Plans to inhabit the jungles of Guyana’s interior with cheap labor date back to 1919.
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Resources buried there are among the richest in the world, and include manganese, diamonds, gold, bauxite and uranium.
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Forbes Burnham, the Prime Minister, had participated in a scheme to repatriate Blacks from the UK to work in the area. Like all earlier attempts, it failed.
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Once chosen, the site was leased and worked on by a select crew of Temple members in preparation for the arrival of the body of the church. The work was done in cooperation with Burnham and the U.S. Embassy there.
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But if these were idealists seeking a better life, their arrival in “Utopia” was a strange welcome. Piled into busses in San Francisco, they had driven to Florida. From there, Pan American charter planes delivered them to Guyana.
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When they arrived at the airport, the Blacks were taken off the plane, bound and gagged.
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The deception had finally been stripped bare of all pretense. The Blacks were so isolated and controlled that neighbors as close as five miles from the site did not know that Blacks lived at Jonestown. The only public representatives seen in Guyana were White.
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According to survivors’ reports, they entered a virtual slave labor camp. Worked for 16 to 18 hours daily, they were forced to live in cramped quarters on minimum rations, usually rice, bread and sometimes rancid meat.
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Kept on a schedule of physical and mental exhaustion, they were also forced to stay awake at night and listen to lectures by Jones. Threats and abuse became more common.
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The camp medical staff under Dr. Lawrence Schacht was known to perform painful suturing without anesthetic. They administered drugs, and kept daily medical records.
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Infractions of the rules or disloyalty led to increasingly harsh punishments, including forced drugging, sensory isolation in an underground box, physical torture and public sexual rape and humiliation. Beatings and verbal abuse were commonplace. Only the special guards were treated humanely and fed decently.
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People with serious injuries were flown out, but few ever returned.
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Perhaps the motto at Jonestown should have been the same as the one at Auschwitz, developed by Larry Schacht’s namesake, Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, the Nazi minister of economics, “Arbeit Macht Frei,” or “Work Will Make You Free.” Guyana even considered setting up an “Auschwitz-like museum” at the site, but abandoned the idea.
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By this point, Jones had amassed incredible wealth. Press estimates ranged from $26 million to $2 billion, including bank accounts, foreign investments and real estate. Accounts were set up worldwide by key members often in the personal name of certain people in the Temple.
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Much of this money, listed publicly after the massacre, disappeared mysteriously. It was a fortune far too large to have come from membership alone. The receivership set up by the government settled on a total of $10 million. Of special interest were the Swiss bank accounts opened in Panama, the money taken from the camp, and the extensive investments in Barclay’s Bank.
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Other sources of income included the German banking family of Lisa Philips Layton, Larry’s mother.
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Also, close to $54,000 a month income was claimed to come from welfare and social security checks for 199 members, sent to the Temple followers and signed over to Jones.
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In addition, there are indications that Blakey and other members were supplementing the Temple funds with international smuggling of guns and drugs.
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At one point, Charles Garry noted that Jones and his community were “literally sitting on a gold mine.” Mineral distribution maps of Guyana suggest he was right.
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To comprehend this well-financed, sinister operation, we must abandon the myth that this was a religious commune and study instead the history that led to its formation. Jonestown was an experiment, part of a 30-year program called MK-ULTRA, the CIA and military intelligence code name for mind control.
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A close study of Senator’s Ervin’s 1974 report, “Individual Rights and the Government’s Role in Behavior Modification,” shows that these agencies had certain “target populations” in mind, for both individual and mass control. Blacks, women, prisoners and elderly, the young, and inmates of psychiatric wards were selected as “potentially violent.”
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There were plans in California at the time for a Center for the Study and Reduction of Violence, expanding on the horrific work of Dr. Jose Delgado, Drs. Mark and Ervin, and Dr. Jolly West, experts in implantation, psychosurgery, and tranquilizers. The guinea pigs were to be drawn from the ranks of the “target populations,” and taken to an isolated military missile base in California.
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In that same period, Jones began to move his Temple members to Jonestown. They were the exact population selected for such tests.
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The meticulous daily notes and drug records kept by Larry Schacht disappeared, but evidence did not.
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The history of MK-ULTRA and its sister programs (MK-DELTA, ARTICHOKE, BLUEBIRD, etc.) records a combination of drugs, drug mixtures, electroshock and torture as methods for control. The desired results ranged from temporary and permanent amnesia, uninhibited confessions, and creation of second personalities, to programmed assassins and preconditioned suicidal urges. One goal was the ability to control mass populations, especially for cheap labor.
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Dr. Delgado told Congress that he hoped for a future where a technology would control workers in the field and troops at war with electronic remote signals. He found it hard to understand why people would complain about electrodes implanted in their brains to make them “both happy and productive.”
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