Jim Jones
Jones at the 5th Annual Hip-Hop Summit Action Network's Action Awards in New York City in February 2008.
Background information
Birth name	Joseph Guillermo Jones II
Also known as	Jimmy Jones, CAPO
Born	(1976-07-15) July 15, 1976 (age 35) The Bronx, New York City, U.S.
Origin	Harlem, New York, U.S.
Genres	Hip hop
Occupations	Musician, actor
Years active	1997–present
Labels	Diplomat, E1, Asylum Records, ByrdGang Records, DD172/BluRoc
Associated acts	The Diplomats, ByrdGang, Skull Gang, Juelz Santana, Chink Santana, Cam'ron, Lil Wayne, DJ Webstar, Lloyd Banks, The Black Keys
Website	www.capolife.com

Joseph Guillermo Jones II (born July 15, 1976),^[1] better known by his stage name Jim Jones, is an American rapper and original member of The Diplomats, also known as Dipset. He is Co-CEO of Diplomat Records.^[2][3] Jones is also a noted video director under the name CAPO, for artists including Cam'ron, Remy Ma, and State Property.

In 2004, he released his first solo album, On My Way to Church. The release of his second album, Harlem: Diary of a Summer in 2005, coincided with Jones' landing an executive position in A&R at E1 Music. A year later he was on his third album, which spawned his biggest single to date, "We Fly High". In 2006, he formed the rap group, ByrdGang. He also has his own freestyle inline skating team, Dipskate, which he plans to take to the X Games in the near future.^[4] On April 5, 2011 Jones released his 5th studio album, Capo.^[5]

Early life[link]

Jim Jones was born in the Tremont section of The Bronx and was raised in Harlem. His mom, Nancy Jones, is Aruban and his late father was Puerto Rican and was raised mainly by his maternal grandmother.^[6] In an essay for Fader magazine, he stated that his mother would allow him to ride the train from their residence at 176th Street and Jerome Avenue to 110th Street and Lexington Avenue. He attended Catholic school but later began cutting church to loiter and play hooky at the train station. In Jim Jones' The Come Up DVD, Vol. 19, he tells stories about growing up with rapper Freekey Zekey. Jones claimed he would stay at a store a block from the church he attended, and would go in and hang out with the owner; when the owner left, Jones said he took all the money in the register and the candy and would sell it in school; he was later expelled.^[7]

Music career[link]

Before forming The Diplomats, Jones performed in the background as Cam'rons' hype man.^[8]

[edit] 2004: On My Way to Church

On My Way to Church is Jones' debut album. The album spawned two singles that made the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart: "Certified Gangstas" (featuring Cam'ron, Bezel and The Game), which reached #80, and "Crunk Muzik" (featuring his Dipset group members Cam'ron and Juelz Santana), which reached #84. The album peaked at #18 on the Billboard 200 chart, #3 on Billboard's Independent Albums chart, and #4 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.^[9]

[edit] 2005: Harlem: Diary of a Summer

Harlem: Diary of a Summer, Jones' second album, reached #5 on the Billboard 200 and topped the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums and Independent Albums charts, selling 350,000 copies.^[10] Three of its singles placed on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop chart: "Baby Girl", which reached #58; "Summer Wit' Miami", which reached #78;^[11] and "What You Been Drankin' On?" (featuring Diddy, Paul Wall, and Jha Jha), which reached #106.^[12]

	"We Fly High" noicon This song was among the most popular of 2006.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

[edit] 2006–08:Hustler's P.O.M.E. (Product of My Environment)

Jones' third album, Hustler's P.O.M.E. (Product of My Environment), was more commercial and once again featured Dipset members along with Lil Wayne. The album spawned Jones' biggest single to date, "We Fly High". Jones introduced a signature dance move in the "We Fly High" video, throwing up a fake jump shot every time the ad-lib "Ballin!'" was stated in the song. This dance move became so popular that it inspired Michael Strahan and Plaxico Burress to do the dance move after big plays during a Monday Night Football game in 2006.^[13]

From 2006 to 2008, Jones released a collaborative album with his rap group ByrdGang, titled M.O.B.: The Album, which peaked at #29 on the BillBoard 200, selling 16,000 the first week in stores and eventually selling 65,000 units. He has two Christmas compilation albums, A Dipset X-Mas and A Tribute To Bad Santa Starring Mike Epps, and a load of mixtapes, including Harlem's American Gangster, which peaked at #19 on the Billboard 200 chart and spawned his single "Love Me No More".

[edit] 2009: Pray IV Reign and The Rooftop

Jones' fourth studio album, Pray IV Reign, released March 24, 2009, was his major record label debut. The album peaked at #9 on the Billboard 200 chart. On July 8, Jones released a promotional single titled "The Good Stuff" featuring NOE.^[14][15] The album features "Pop Champagne", producer Ron Browz, and Juelz Santana. A bonus track on the album is "Jackin' Swagga From Us" with Twista, NOE, and Lil Wayne, which takes shots at T.I. and Jay-Z for allegedly stealing their styles and mocking their song "Swagga Like Us".^[16] It is his first solo album under Columbia Records. Along with releasing the album, Jones headlined in an off-Broadway musical called Hip-Hop Monologues: Inside the Life and Mind of Jim Jones, produced by Damon Dash and Footage Entertainment.^[17] In 2009, Jim Jones became Vice President of Urban A&R at Koch Records, which is now E1 Music.^[18]

On June 11, Jim Jones appeared on 106 & Park along with DJ Webstar and announced that they will be releasing an album together titled The Rooftop.^[19] He also announced that his documentary, This Is Jim Jones, will be released June 30, 2009. The first single off the album is "Dancin on Me", featuring Juelz Santana. It was officially released via iTunes, April 28. On September 22, hip hop website, RapRuckus, stated the album was scheduled for an October 6, 2009 release. The second single is titled "She Can Get It".^[20]

In late 2009, Jones left Columbia. According to XXLMag.com, Jones signed a deal to release his next solo album on E1, as well as a mixtape.^[21] The mixtape, titled The Ghost of Rich Porter, was released March 23, 2010.

[edit] 2010–present: Capo, Dipset reunion and The Rooftop 2

Jones' fifth studio album, Capo, was released April 5, 2011 on E1.^[5] On November 3, Jones released a mixtape, titled Capo Life, to promote the album and celebrate the launch of his new website.^[22] The lead single off Capo, "Perfect Day" featuring Chink Santana and LOGiC, was released on iTunes December 7, 2010.^[23] The album is the first to feature Cam'ron since Hustler's P.O.M.E. (Product of My Environment), other guest appearances include rappers Game, Lloyd Banks, Prodigy, Raekwon and R&B singers Rell and Ashanti among others, and features notable production from longtime collaborator Chink Santana, Aaron LaCrate, Wyclef Jean, Drumma Boy and Lamont "LOGiC" Coleman. The album peaked at number 20 on the Billboard 200, selling 21,000 copies in its first week, making Capo his lowest charting album to date.

In April 2010, Cam'ron and Jim Jones announced they ended their feud.^[24] On June 26, 2010 Jones reunited with Cam'ron and Juelz Santana on a track titled "Salute", marking the return of The Diplomats.^[25] They have begun working on an album together, and have been reportedly working with Dr. Dre.^[26]

On October 1, 2011 when Funkmaster Flex premiered a song on New York City's Hot 97 titled "It Ain't My Fault" featuring rappers T-Rex, Boogie Black and Sen City, it was revealed that it was the first offering off of Webstar and Jones' upcoming second collaborative effort The Rooftop 2.^[27] On October 30, 2011, for the Halloween holiday, Jones released a mixtape titled Vampire Life: We Own the Night. The tape features twenty-four tracks, including bonus tracks, freestyles, and guest appearances from Meek Mill, J.R. Writer, Chink Santana, Tity Boi, Maino, Yo Gotti and Jadakiss, among others.^[28][29]

Controversy[link]

This article's Criticism or Controversy section may compromise the article's neutral point of view of the subject. Please integrate the section's contents into the article as a whole, or rewrite the material. (November 2010)

Tru-Life[link]

According to an interview with Tru-Life in the June/July 2006 issue of Complex Magazine, rumors had spread that Tru-Life was referring to Jim Jones in his diss song "New New York". Jim Jones reportedly began calling several rappers and telling them that he had a DVD of Tru-Life dissing them. Tru-Life responded by calling Dipset bosses Cam'ron & Jim Jones "bitches"^[30]

Jones responded by challenging Tru-Life to a brawl with US$50,000 at stake.^[31] Months later, Jones told an interviewer that Tru-Life did not respond to the challenge, does not count in the rap industry, and lacked the money and heart to accept Jones' challenge.^[32]

The argument continued into 2007, when Tru-Life released his DJ J-Love hosted mixtape titled Tru York with Dipset diss tracks and whose cover superimposes an image of Jim Jones' face over a swimsuit-clad Borat picture.^[33]

Jay-Z[link]

Jones' dispute with Tru-Life may have stemmed from a dispute between Cam'ron and Jay-Z, as Tru-Life was signed to Jay-Z's Roc-La-Familia label at the time. Jim Jones has also dissed Jay-Z's performance as president of Def Jam Recordings.^[34]

Jay-Z has since responded with a "diss" track called "Brooklyn High" over the beat from Jones' "We Fly High".^[35] On December 1, 2006, BET's Access Granted debuted the video for Jones' "We Fly High" remix, with Diddy, Baby, T.I., Young Dro, and added Juelz Santana's verse from his response on the "We Fly High Beef Mix".

On December 22, 2008, Jones had an altercation with Jay-Z associate, Vaughn "Jayvon" Smith, at a Louis Vuitton store on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue and turned himself into the police shortly afterward. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge and was sentenced to time served – the few hours he was in custody after turning himself in to police in January. Jones' defense attorney, Scott Leemon, stated that Jones didn't start the fight but pleaded guilty because he did not want to risk probation – and potential touring restrictions – if convicted. Jones still faced a civil suit Smith filed after the incident. MTV reports: Smith is the brother of Tyran "Ty Ty" Smith, who works with Ne-Yo and the longtime best friend and colleague of Jones' lyrical nemesis, Jay-Z. In February 2009, Ne-Yo stated on Power 106 radio in Los Angeles that Jones and Smith "have had drama in the past".^[36][37]

Jayvon was shopping with Ne-Yo when the altercation occurred, and initial reports indicated that Jones' altercation was with Ne-Yo. However, it was later revealed that Jones did not get into an altercation with Ne-Yo; the false rumor was intended to increase tension.^[36][37]

Discography[link]

Filmography[link]

Jim Jones appeared on Season 5, episode 8 of the critically acclaimed TV drama The Wire on HBO on August 29, 2009. He is seen as one of Marlo Stanfield's henchmen.

Jones also appears in seasons 1 and 2 of the VH1 show Love & Hip Hop (which premiered March 14, 2011 and November 11, 2011, respectively); the show loosely follows events in his, and his fiance Chrissy Lampkin's, personal life.

Awards[link]

Urban Music Awards

• 2009, Best Collaboration ft. Ron Browz & Juelz Santana ‘Pop Champagne’ (Won)

See also[link]

	Puerto Rico portal
	Biography portal

• List of famous Puerto Ricans

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Jim Jones at Allmusic

Jim Jones
Born	James W. Jones (1931-05-13)May 13, 1931 Randolph County, Indiana, U.S.
Died	November 18, 1978(1978-11-18) (aged 47) Jonestown, Guyana
Occupation	Religious leader
Religion	Agnostic/Atheist[1]
Spouse	Marceline Baldwin Jones (1927 - 1978)
Children	Agnes Paulette Jones (1943 - 1978) Suzanne Jones Cartmell (1953 - 2006) Stephanie Jones (1954 - 1959) Lew Eric Jones (1956 - 1978) Jim Jon Prokes (1975 - 1978) Stephan Gandhi Jones (1958- ) James Warren Jones, Jr. (1961-)
Parents	James Thurman Jones (1887 - 1951) Lynetta Putnam Jones (1902 - 1977)

Reverend James Warren "Jim" Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, which is best known for the November 18, 1978 mass suicide of 909 Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana along with the killings of five other people at a nearby airstrip. Over 200 children were murdered at Jonestown, almost all of whom were forcibly made to ingest cyanide by the elite Temple members.

Jones was born in Indiana and started the Temple in that state in the 1950s. Jones and the Temple later moved to California, and both gained notoriety with the move of the Temple's headquarters to San Francisco in the mid-1970s.

The incident in Guyana ranks among the largest mass suicides in history, though most likely it involved forced suicide and/or murder, and was the single greatest loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the events of September 11, 2001. Among the dead was Leo Ryan, who remains the only Congressman assassinated in the line of duty as a Congressman in the history of the United States.^[2]

Early life[link]

Jim Jones was born in a rural area of Randolph County near the Ohio border,^[3] to James Thurman Jones (May 31, 1887 – May 29, 1951), a World War I veteran, and Lynetta Putnam (April 16, 1902 – December 11, 1977).^[4] He was of Irish and Welsh descent.^[5] Jones would later claim partial Cherokee ancestry through his mother, though this was likely false according to his maternal second cousin Barbara Shaffer.^{[5][note 1]} Economic difficulties during the Great Depression necessitated that Jones' family move to nearby Lynn, Indiana, in 1934.^[6] Jim Jones and a childhood friend both claimed that Jones' father was associated with the Ku Klux Klan.^[6]

In interviews for the 2006 documentary Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, childhood acquaintances recalled Jones as being a "really weird kid" who was "obsessed with religion ... obsessed with death". They alleged that as a child, Jones frequently held funerals for small animals and had reportedly stabbed a cat to death.^[7]

Jones was a voracious reader as a child and studied Joseph Stalin, Karl Marx, Mahatma Gandhi and Adolf Hitler carefully,^[8] noting each of their strengths and weaknesses.^[8] After Jones' parents separated, he moved with his mother to Richmond, Indiana.^[9] He graduated from Richmond High School early and with honors in December 1948.^[10]

Jones married nurse Marceline Baldwin in 1949, and moved to Bloomington, Indiana.^[11] He attended Indiana University at Bloomington, where a speech by Eleanor Roosevelt about the plight of African Americans impressed him.^[11] Jones' sympathetic statements about communism offended Marceline's grandmother.^[11] In 1951, Jones moved to Indianapolis, where he attended night school at Butler University, earning a degree in secondary education in 1961.^[12]

Building the Temple[link]

Jim Jones' first church in Indianapolis, Indiana

Indiana beginnings[link]

In 1951, Jones became a member of the Communist Party USA, and began attending meetings and rallies in Indianapolis.^[13] He became flustered with harassment he received during the McCarthy Hearings,^[13] particularly regarding an event he attended with his mother focusing on Paul Robeson, after which she was harassed by the FBI in front of her co-workers for attending.^[14] He also became frustrated with ostracism of open communists in the United States, especially during the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.^[15] This frustration, among other things, provoked a seminal moment for Jones in which he asked himself "how can I demonstrate my Marxism? The thought was, infiltrate the church."^[13][14]

Jones' interest in religion began during his childhood, primarily because he found making friends difficult, though initially he vacillated on his church of choice.^[5] Jones was surprised when a Methodist superintendent helped him to get a start in the church even though he knew Jones to be a communist and Jones did not meet him through the Communist Party.^[15] In 1952, Jones became a student pastor in Sommerset Southside Methodist Church, but claims he left that church because its leaders barred him from integrating blacks into his congregation.^[13] Around this time, Jones witnessed a faith-healing service at the Seventh Day Baptist Church.^[13] He observed that it attracted people and their money and concluded that, with financial resources from such healings, he could help accomplish his social goals.^[13]

Jones then began his own church, which changed names until it became the Peoples Temple Christian Church Full Gospel.^[13] The People's Temple was initially made as an inter-racial mission.

Jones moved away from the Communist Party and Maoists when CPUSA members and Mao Zedong became critical of some of the policies of former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.^[15]

Integrationist[link]

In 1960, Indianapolis Democratic Mayor Charles Boswell appointed Jones director of the Human Rights Commission.^[16] Jones ignored Boswell's advice to keep a low profile, finding new outlets for his views on local radio and television programs.^[16] When the mayor and other commissioners asked Jones to curtail his public actions, he resisted and was wildly cheered at a meeting of the NAACP and Urban League when he yelled for his audience to be more militant, and climaxed with "Let my people go!"^[17]

During this time, Jones also helped to integrate churches, restaurants, the telephone company, the police department, a theater, an amusement park, and the Methodist Hospital.^[13] After swastikas were painted on the homes of two African American families, Jones personally walked the neighborhood comforting African Americans and counseling white families not to move, in order to prevent white flight.^[18] He also set up stings to catch restaurants refusing to serve African American customers^[18] and wrote to American Nazi leaders then leaked their responses to the media.^[19] When Jones was accidentally placed in the black ward of a hospital after a collapse in 1961, he refused to be moved and began to make the beds, and empty the bed pans of black patients.^[20] Political pressures resulting from Jones' actions caused hospital officials to desegregate the wards.^[20]

Jones received considerable criticism in Indiana for his integrationist views.^[13] White-owned businesses and locals were critical of him.^[18] A swastika was placed on the Temple, a stick of dynamite was left in a Temple coal pile, and a dead cat was thrown at Jones' house after a threatening phone call.^[19] Other incidents occurred, though some suspect that Jones himself may have been involved in at least some of them.^[19]

Jones' "Rainbow Family"[link]

Brochure of the Peoples Temple, portraying leader Jim Jones as the father of the "Rainbow Family"

Jim and Marceline Jones adopted several children of at least partial non-Caucasian ancestry; he referred to the clan as his "rainbow family,"^[21] and stated: "Integration is a more personal thing with me now. It's a question of my son's future."^[22] Jones portrayed the Temple overall as a "rainbow family."

The couple adopted three children of Korean-American ancestry: Lew, Suzanne and Stephanie. Jones had been encouraging Temple members to adopt orphans from war ravaged Korea.^[23] Jones had long been critical of the United States' opposition to communist leader Kim Il-Sung's 1950 invasion of South Korea, calling it the "war of liberation" and stating that "the south is a living example of all that socialism in the north has overcome."^[24] In 1954, he and his wife also adopted Agnes Jones, who was partly of Native American descent.^[22][25] Agnes was 11 at the time of her adoption.^[26] Suzanne Jones was adopted at the age of six in 1959.^[26] In June 1959, the couple had their only biological child, Stephan Gandhi Jones.^[25]

Two years later, in 1961, the Joneses became the first white couple in Indiana to adopt a black child, James Warren Jones, Jr.^[27] Marceline was once spat upon while she carried Jim Jr.^[19]

The couple also adopted another son, who was white, named Tim.^[25] Tim Jones, whose birth mother was a member of the Peoples Temple, was originally named Timothy Glen Tupper.^[22]

Asylum[link]

Belo Horizonte

Rio de Janeiro

Jones' Brazilian locations

After a 1961 Temple speech about nuclear apocalypse,^[20] and a January 1962 Esquire Magazine article listing Belo Horizonte, Brazil, as a safe place in a nuclear war, Jones traveled with his family to the Brazilian city with the idea of setting up a new Temple location.^[28]

On his way to Brazil, Jones made his first trip into Guyana.^[29] After arriving in Belo Horizonte, the Joneses rented a modest three bedroom home.^[30] Jones studied the local economy and receptiveness of racial minorities to his message, though language remained a barrier.^[31] Jones was careful not to portray himself as a communist in a foreign territory, and spoke of an apostolic communal lifestyle rather than of Castro or Marx.^[32]

After becoming frustrated with the lack of resources in the locale, in mid-1963, the Joneses moved to Rio de Janeiro.^[33] There, they worked with the poor in Rio's slums.^[33] Jones also explored local Brazilian religion.^[34]

Jones was plagued by guilt for leaving behind the Indiana civil rights struggle and possibly losing what he had struggled to build there.^[33] When Jones' associate preachers in Indiana told him that the Temple was about to collapse without him, Jones returned.^[35]

California Eden[link]

Los Angeles

San Francisco

Ukiah

Bakersfield

Fresno

Sacramento

Santa Rosa

Some of the Peoples Temple's California locations

After Jones' return to Indiana from Brazil, in 1965, Jones claimed that the world would be engulfed in a nuclear war on July 15, 1967, that would then create a new socialist Eden on earth, and that the Temple must move to Northern California for safety.^[13][36] Accordingly, the Temple began moving to Redwood Valley, California, near Ukiah.^[13]

While Jones always spoke of the social gospel's virtues, before the late 1960s Jones chose to conceal that his gospel was actually communism.^[13] By the late 1960s, Jones began at least partially openly revealing in Temple sermons his "Apostolic Socialism" concept.^[13] Specifically, "those who remained drugged with the opiate of religion had to be brought to enlightenment — socialism."^[37] Jones often mixed those concepts, such as preaching that "If you're born in capitalist America, racist America, fascist America, then you're born in sin. But if you're born in socialism, you're not born in sin."^[38]

By the early 1970s, Jones began deriding traditional Christianity as "fly away religion," rejecting the Bible as being white men’s justification to subordinate women and subjugate people of color and stating that it spoke of a "Sky God" who was no God at all.^[13] Jones authored a booklet titled "The Letter Killeth," criticizing the King James Bible.^[39] Jones also began preaching that he was the reincarnation of Jesus of Nazareth, Mahatma Gandhi, Buddha, Vladimir Lenin, and Father Divine. In the documentary Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, former Temple member Hue Fortson, Jr. quoted Jones as saying, "What you need to believe in is what you can see ... If you see me as your friend, I'll be your friend. As you see me as your father, I'll be your father, for those of you that don't have a father ... If you see me as your savior, I'll be your savior. If you see me as your God, I'll be your God."^[7]

By the spring of 1976, Jones began openly admitting even to outsiders that he was an atheist.^[40] Despite the Temple's fear that the IRS was investigating its religious tax exemption, by 1977 Marceline Jones admitted to the New York Times that, as early as age 18 when he watched his then idol Mao Zedong overthrow the Chinese government, Jim Jones realized that the way to achieve social change through Marxism in the United States was to mobilize people through religion.^[36] She stated that "Jim used religion to try to get some people out of the opiate of religion," and had slammed the Bible on the table yelling "I've got to destroy this paper idol!"^[36] In one sermon, Jones said that, "You're gonna help yourself, or you'll get no help! There's only one hope of glory; that's within you! Nobody's gonna come out of the sky! There's no heaven up there! We'll have to make heaven down here!"^[7]

Move to San Francisco[link]

The move of Peoples Temple headquarters to San Francisco in 1975 invigorated Jones' political career. After the Temple served an important role in the mayoral election victory of George Moscone in 1975, Moscone appointed Jones as the Chairman of the San Francisco Housing Authority Commission.^[41]

Unlike most other figures deemed as cult leaders, Jones was able to gain public support and contact with prominent local and national United States politicians. For example, Jones and Moscone met privately with vice presidential candidate Walter Mondale on his campaign plane days before the 1976 election and Mondale publicly praised the Temple.^[42][43] First Lady Rosalynn Carter also personally met with Jones on multiple occasions, corresponded with him about Cuba, and spoke with him at the grand opening of the San Francisco Democratic Party Headquarters where Jones garnered louder applause than Mrs. Carter.^[42][44][45]

In September 1976, Willie Brown served as master of ceremonies at a large testimonial dinner for Jones attended by Governor Jerry Brown and Lieutenant Governor Mervyn Dymally and other political figures.^[46] At that dinner, while introducing Jones, Willie Brown stated "Let me present to you what you should see every day when you look in the mirror in the early morning hours.... Let me present to you a combination of Martin King, Angela Davis, Albert Einstein... Chairman Mao."^[47] Harvey Milk, who spoke at political rallies at the Temple,^[48] and wrote to Jones after a visit to the Temple: "Rev Jim, It may take me many a day to come back down from the high that I reach today. I found something dear today. I found a sense of being that makes up for all the hours and energy placed in a fight. I found what you wanted me to find. I shall be back. For I can never leave."^[49][50]

In his San Francisco Temple apartment, Jones hosted San Francisco radical political figures such as Angela Davis for discussions.^[51] He spoke with friend and San Francisco Sun-Reporter publisher Dr. Carlton Goodlett about Jones' remorse regarding not being able to travel to socialist countries such as Peoples Republic of China and the Soviet Union, speculating that he could be Chief Dairyman of the Soviet Union.^[52] After his criticisms caused increased tensions with the Nation of Islam, Jones spoke at a huge rally healing the rift between the two groups in the Los Angeles Convention Center attended by many of Jones' closest political acquaintances.^[53] Jones also enjoyed a favorable relationship with Warith Deen Mohammed, son of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad.^{[citation needed]}

While Jones forged media alliances with key columnists and others at the San Francisco Chronicle and other media outlets,^[54] the move to San Francisco also brought increasing media scrutiny. After Chronicle reporter Marshall Kilduff encountered resistance to publishing an exposé, he brought his story to New West Magazine.^[55] In the summer of 1977, Jones and several hundred Temple members moved to the Temple's "Agricultural Project" in Guyana after they learned of the contents of Kilduff's article to be published in which former Temple members claimed they were physically, emotionally, and sexually abused.^[45][56] Jones named the settlement Jonestown after himself.

Jonestown's formation and operation[link]

Jonestown

Georgetown

Kaituma

Peoples Temple Agricultural Project ("Jonestown", Guyana)

Jones had first started building Jonestown in 1970 as a means to create both a "socialist paradise" and a "sanctuary" from the media scrutiny which had started in 1972.^[57] Here they also established a cooperative called the "People's Temple Agricultural Project". Regarding the former goal, Jones purported to establish Jonestown as a benevolent model communist community stating, "I believe we’re the purest communists there are."^[58] In that regard, like the restrictive emigration policies of the then Soviet Union, Cuba, North Korea and other communist states, Jones did not permit members to leave Jonestown.^[59]

Religious scholar Mary McCormick Maaga argues that Jones' authority decreased after he moved to the isolated commune, because he was not needed for recruitment and he could not hide his drug addiction from rank and file members.^[60] In spite of the allegations prior to Jones' departure to Jonestown, the leader was still respected by some for setting up a racially mixed church which helped the disadvantaged; 68 percent of Jonestown's residents were black.^[61] Jonestown was where Jones began his belief called "Translation" where he and his followers would all die together and move to another planet and live blissfully.

New children[link]

Jim Jones claimed that he was the biological father of John Victor Stoen, although the birth certificate lists Grace and Timothy Stoen as the parents of the boy.^[62] The Temple repeatedly claimed that Jones fathered the child when, in 1971, Temple member Tim Stoen had requested that Jones have sex with Grace Stoen to keep her from defecting.^[63] After Grace Stoen later defected in 1976 and began divorce proceedings against Tim Stoen in 1977, in order to avoid potentially giving up the boy in a custody dispute with Grace, Jones ordered Tim to take John to Guyana in February 1977.^[64]

After purported father Tim Stoen defected from the Temple in June 1977, the Temple kept John Stoen in Jonestown.^[65] The custody dispute over John Stoen would become a linchpin of several battles between the Temple and the Concerned Relatives.^[66]

Jim Jones also fathered a son, Jim Jon (Kimo), with Carolyn Louise Moore Layton, a Temple member.^[67]

Pressure and waning political support[link]

Congressional Pictorial of Leo Ryan

While most of Jones' political allies broke ties after Jones' departure,^[68] some did not. As a show of support, Willie Brown spoke out against enemies at a rally at the Peoples Temple, also attended by Harvey Milk and Art Agnos.^[69] Most importantly for Jones and the Temple, Moscone's office shortly thereafter issued a press release saying that Jones had broken no laws.^[70]

In the Fall of 1977, Tim Stoen and other relatives in Jonestown formed a "Concerned Relatives" group.^[71] Stoen traveled to Washington D.C. in January 1978 to visit with Congressmen, including Leo Ryan and State Department officials, and wrote a "white paper" to Congress detailing the dispute and pressing for Congressional correspondence.^[72] Stoen's efforts aroused the curiosity of Ryan, who wrote a letter on Stoen's behalf to Guyanese Prime Minister Forbes Burnham.^[73]

Amidst growing pressure in the United States to investigate the Temple, on February 19, 1978, Harvey Milk wrote a letter of support for the Peoples Temple to President Jimmy Carter.^[74][75][76] Therein, Milk wrote that Jones was known "as a man of the highest character."^[76] Regarding the leader of those attempting to extricate relatives from Jonestown, Milk wrote he was "attempting to damage Rev. Jones reputation" with "apparent bold-faced lies."^[76]

On April 11, 1978, the Concerned Relatives distributed a packet of documents, including letters and affidavits, that they titled an "Accusation of Human Rights Violations by Rev. James Warren Jones" to the Peoples Temple, members of the press and members of Congress.^[77] In June 1978, escaped Temple member Deborah Layton provided the group with a further affidavit detailing alleged crimes by the Peoples Temple and substandard living conditions in Jonestown.^[78]

Facing increasing scrutiny, in the summer of 1978, Jones also hired noted JFK assassination conspiracy theorists Mark Lane and Donald Freed to help make the case of a "grand conspiracy" by intelligence agencies against the Peoples Temple.^[79] Jones told Lane he wanted to "pull an Eldridge Cleaver", referring to a fugitive Black Panther who was able to return to the United States after repairing his reputation.^[79]

Visit by Congressman Ryan, murders[link]

In November 1978, U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan led a fact-finding mission to Jonestown to investigate allegations of human rights abuses.^[80] Ryan's delegation included relatives of Temple members, Don Harris, an NBC network news reporter, an NBC cameraman and reporters for various newspapers.^[81] The group arrived in Georgetown on November 15.^[80] On November 17, Ryan's delegation traveled by airplane to Jonestown.^[82] The delegation left hurriedly the afternoon of November 18 after Temple member Don Sly attacked Ryan with a knife.^[83] The attack was thwarted, bringing the visit to an abrupt end.^[83] Congressman Ryan and his people succeeded in taking with them fifteen People's Temple members who had expressed a wish to leave.^[84] At that time, Jones made no attempt to prevent their departure.^[85]

Port Kaituma Airstrip shootings[link]

As members of Ryan's delegation boarded two planes at the airstrip, Jones' "Red Brigade" armed guards arrived in a tractor-pulled trailer and began shooting at the delegation.^[86] The guards killed Congressman Ryan and four others near a twin engine Otter aircraft.^[87] At the same time, one of the supposed defectors, Larry Layton, drew a weapon and began firing on members of the party that had already boarded a small Cessna.^[88] An NBC cameraman was able to capture footage of the first few seconds of the shooting at the Otter.^[87] The five killed at the airstrip were Congressman Ryan; Don Harris, a reporter from NBC; Bob Brown, a cameraman from NBC; San Francisco Examiner photographer Greg Robinson; and Temple member Patricia Parks.^[87] Surviving the attack were future Congresswoman Jackie Speier, then a staff member for Ryan; Richard Dwyer, the Deputy Chief of Mission from the U.S. Embassy at Georgetown; Bob Flick, a producer for NBC News; Steve Sung, an NBC sound engineer; Tim Reiterman, a San Francisco Examiner reporter; Ron Javers, a San Francisco Chronicle reporter; Charles Krause, a Washington Post reporter; and several defecting Temple members.^[87]

Deaths in Jonestown[link]

Later that same day, 909 inhabitants of Jonestown,^[89] 303 of them children, died of apparent cyanide poisoning, mostly in and around a pavilion.^[90] This resulted in the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the September 11, 2001 attacks.^[91] No video was taken during the mass suicide, though the FBI did recover a 45 minute audio recording of the suicide in progress.^[92]

On that tape, Jones tells Temple members that the Soviet Union, with whom the Temple had been negotiating a potential exodus for months, would not take them after the Temple had murdered Ryan and four others at a nearby airstrip.^[92] The reason given by Jones to commit suicide was consistent with his previously stated conspiracy theories of intelligence organizations allegedly conspiring against the Temple, that men would "parachute in here on us," "shoot some of our innocent babies" and "they'll torture our children, they'll torture some of our people here, they'll torture our seniors."^[92] Parroting Jones' prior statements that hostile forces would convert captured children to fascism, one temple member states "the ones that they take captured, they're gonna just let them grow up and be dummies."^[92]

Given that reasoning, Jones and several members argued that the group should commit "revolutionary suicide" by drinking cyanide-laced grape flavored Flavor Aid (not Kool-Aid despite the popular phrase). However, later released video made to show the best of Jonestown shows Jones opening a storage container full of Kool-Aid in large quantities. This may have been what was used to mix the "potion" (as was referred to in several statements obtained by the FBI in the final tape recordings) along with a sedative.^[92] One member, Christine Miller, dissents toward the beginning of the tape.^[92] When members apparently cried, Jones counseled, "Stop this hysterics. This is not the way for people who are Socialists or Communists to die. No way for us to die. We must die with some dignity."^[92] Jones can be heard saying, "Don't be afraid to die," that death is "just stepping over into another plane" and that it's "a friend."^[92] At the end of the tape, Jones concludes: "We didn't commit suicide; we committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhumane world."^[92] According to escaping Temple members, children were given the drink first and families were told to lie down together.^[93] Mass suicide had been previously discussed in simulated events called "White Nights" on a regular basis.^[78][94] During at least one such prior White Night, members drank liquid that Jones falsely told them was poison.^[78][94]

Jones was found dead in a deck chair with a gunshot wound to his head that Guyanese coroner Cyrill Mootoo stated was consistent with a self-inflicted gun wound.^[95] However, Jones' son Stephan believes his father may have directed someone else to shoot him.^[96] An autopsy of Jones' body also showed levels of the barbiturate Pentobarbital which may have been lethal to humans who had not developed physiological tolerance.^[97] Jones' drug usage (including LSD and marijuana) was confirmed by his son, Stephan, and Jones' doctor in San Francisco.

Other issues[link]

On December 13, 1973, Jones was arrested and charged with soliciting a man for sex in a movie theater bathroom known for homosexual activity, in MacArthur Park in Los Angeles.^[98] The man was an undercover Los Angeles Police Department vice officer. Jones is on record as later telling his followers that he was "the only true heterosexual", but at least one account exists of his sexual abuse of a male member of his congregation in front of the followers, ostensibly to prove the man's own homosexual tendencies.^[98]

While Jones banned sex among Temple members outside of marriage, he himself voraciously engaged in sexual relations with both male and female Temple members.^[99][100] Jones, however, claimed that he detested engaging in homosexual activity and did so only for the male temple adherents' own good, purportedly to connect them symbolically with him (Jones).^[99]

One of Jones' sources of inspiration was the controversial International Peace Mission movement leader Father Divine.^[101] Jones had borrowed the term "revolutionary suicide"^[102] from Black Panther leader and Peoples Temple supporter Huey Newton who had argued "the slow suicide of life in the ghetto" ought to be replaced by revolutionary struggle that would end only in victory (socialism and self determination) or revolutionary suicide (death).^{[citation needed]}

Family aftermath[link]

Marceline

Jim Jones' wife, Marceline, was found poisoned at the pavilion.^[103] On the final morning of Ryan's visit, Marceline had taken reporters on a tour of Jonestown.^[104]

Stephan, Jim Jr. and Tim Jones

Stephan, Jim Jr., and Tim Jones did not take part in the mass suicide because they were playing with the Peoples Temple basketball team against the Guyanese national team in Georgetown.^[25][102] At the time of events in Jonestown, Stephan and Tim were both nineteen and Jim Jones Jr. was eighteen.^[105] Tim's biological family, the Tuppers, which consisted of his three biological sisters,^{[106][107][108]} biological brother,^[109] and biological mother,^[110] all died at Jonestown. Three days before the tragedy, Stephan Jones refused, over the radio, to comply with an order by his father to return the team to Jonestown for Ryan's visit.^[111]

During the events at Jonestown, Stephan, Tim, and Jim Jones Jr. drove to the American Embassy in Guyana in an attempt to receive help. The Guyanese soldiers guarding the embassy refused to let them in after hearing about the shootings at the Port Kaituma airstrip.^[112] Later, the three returned to the Temple's headquarters in Georgetown to find the bodies of Sharon Amos and her three children.^[112] Guyanese soldiers kept the Jones brothers under house arrest for five days, interrogating them about the deaths in Georgetown.^[112] Stephan Jones was accused of being involved in the Georgetown deaths, and was placed in a Guyanese prison for three months.^[112] Tim Jones and Johnny Cobb, another member of the Peoples Temple basketball team, were asked to go to Jonestown and help identify the bodies of people who had died.^[112] After returning to the United States, Jim Jones Jr. was placed under police surveillance for several months while he lived with his older sister, Suzanne, who had previously turned against the Temple.^[112]

When Jonestown was first being established, Stephan Jones had originally avoided two attempts by his father to relocate to the settlement. He eventually moved to Jonestown after a third and final attempt. He has since said that he gave into his father's wishes to move to Jonestown because of his mother.^[113] Stephan Jones is now a businessman, and married with three daughters. He appeared in the documentary Jonestown: Paradise Lost which aired on the History Channel and Discovery Channel. He stated he will not watch the documentary and has never grieved for his father.^[114] Jim Jones Jr., who lost his wife and unborn child at Jonestown, returned to San Francisco. He remarried and has three sons from this marriage,^[102] including Rob Jones, a high-school basketball star who went on to play for the University of San Diego before transferring to Saint Mary's College of California.^[115]

Lew, Agnes and Suzanne Jones

Lew and Agnes Jones both died at Jonestown. Agnes Jones was thirty-five years old at the time of her death.^[116] Her husband^[117] and four children^{[118][119][120][121]} all died at Jonestown. Lew Jones, who was twenty-one years old at the time of his death, died alongside his wife Terry and son Chaeoke.^{[122][123][124]} Stephanie Jones had died at age five in a car accident.^[25]

Suzanne Jones married Mike Cartmell; both turned against the Temple and were not in Jonestown on November 18, 1978. After this decision to abandon the Temple, Jones referred to Suzanne openly as "my goddamned, no good for nothing daughter" and stated that she was not to be trusted.^[125] In a signed note found at the time of her death, Marceline Jones directed that the Jones' funds were to be given to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and specified: "I especially request that none of these are allowed to get into the hands of my adopted daughter, Suzanne Jones Cartmell."^[126] Cartmell had two children and died of colon cancer in November 2006.^[127][128] Found near Marceline Jones' body was a signed and witnessed will leaving all bank accounts "in my name" to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and writing that Suzanne Jones Cartmell should receive no assets.^[129]

John Stoen and Kimo

Specific references to Tim Stoen, the father of John Stoen, including the logistics of possibly murdering him, are made on the Temple's final "death tape," as well as a discussion over whether the Temple should include John Stoen among those committing "revolutionary suicide."^[92] At Jonestown, John Stoen was found poisoned in Jim Jones' cabin.^[130]

Both Jim Jon (Kimo) and his mother, Carolyn Louise Moore Layton, died during the events at Jonestown.^[131]

See also[link]

• Cult suicide
• Doomsday cult
• List of people who have claimed to be Jesus
• List of Buddha claimants

References[link]

Explanatory notes

Citations