“Being in Jonestown before Jim got there was the best thing in my life.”. But after temple gunmen killed the congressman, three newsmen and a church defector on the Port Kaituma airstrip, Jones ordered a poisoned grape-flavored drink administered to children first. “People ask, ’How can you ever be proud of your father?”’ he said. The Jonestown memorial is at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, Calif. “I said there must be another way.”. The murders and suicides were unfolding, 150 miles away. “I was going back to retrieve that young person and also to say goodbye.”. That way no one else would want to live. Some were part of the group’s logistical base in Guyana’s capital, some were in the city for business or medical reasons, and some were there to participate in a basketball tournament. “We were trying to build a new world, a progressive socialist organization.”. But Stephan was the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones. He’s 61 now. “The temple really became my family,” she said. But the entertainers stayed in Jonestown to entertain Ryan. “I’m not saying he didn’t cause it, create it. The day was cathartic, a "turning point" for survivors and families of those who died, according to Moore. He and other survivors helped create the Jonestown memorial at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, Calif., where the remains of more than 400 victims were … We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. ... More than 300 Jonestown victims were children. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings. OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Jonestown was the highlight of Mike Touchette’s life — for a time. Jonestown survivors and reporters who covered the massacre reflect on how Jonestown still affects them today. More than 900 people lived in the agricultural mission, with its dining pavilion, tidy cottages, school, medical facilities and rows of crops. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Life became more tolerable after the couple’s baby, Martin Luther Smith, was born. He was a master manipulator and was the youngest person ever to win the show at age 22. Jones berated three other new arrivals for misbehaviour on the trip; they were beaten and forced to work 24 hours straight. © 2020 Canoe.com, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. Even the dogs that lived in Jonestown had been poisoned and now lay dead on sidewalks near the pavilion. Most of the remaining survivors were Temple members in Georgetown. “This is really crazy,” he recalls thinking. It marched for four jailed Fresno newsmen. 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. OAKLAND, Calif. — Jonestown was the highlight of Mike Touchette’s life — for a time. Cobb lost 11 relatives that day, including his mother, youngest brother and four sisters. He did.”. The 21-year-old Indiana native felt pride pioneering in the distant jungle of Guyana, South America. It's a sacred time and space. Neither were the White Nights where everyone stayed up, armed with machetes to fight enemies who never arrived. Read more about cookies here. The reunion with Jones was not as joyous. 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. Author: Rich Van Wyk 365 Bloor Street East, Toronto, Ontario, M4W 3L4. 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 was 18 and running a temple construction crew when the church sanctioned his marriage to a talented 16-year-old singer, Ollie Wideman. For an optimal experience visit … “The reality was we were folks who could be counted on to stand up,” he said. The Joneses adopted a black baby in Indiana in 1960, and Jim gave the 10-week-old infant his own name. Jim Jones of the Peoples Temple, poses for a portrait near San Rafael, Calif. Then, after a 1977 New West magazine expose of temple disciplinary beatings and other abuses, she was sent to Jonestown. 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. Jim was the Rev. “People ask, ‘How can you ever be proud of your father?’” he said. For one thing, you have Survivor… In California, he was steeped in temple life. “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. They divorced when Jordan was six. Gruelling field work was not to her liking. Rescue came the next day. “Like everyone else, he died there,” his son said. Of course, even if he wanted to forget Jonestown, his name was an ever-present reminder. She gave her house to the Peoples Temple and they moved to San Francisco. He built a long career in health care, while weathering his own serious health problems. When Smith reunited with his mother and wife in Jonestown, Ollie was 8½ months pregnant. Where the machine shop once stood, there was only rusty equipment. Neither were the White Nights where everyone stayed up, armed with machetes to fight enemies who never arrived. "The names of the people who died in the Twin Towers were read immediately, but it took 33 years for the Peoples Temple to get this public memorial," she said. The church provided free drug rehabilitation, medical care, food. Jordan Vilchez’s parents were Berkeley progressives in the 1960s — her father African-American, her mother Scotch-Irish. 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. He was briefly romantically involved with Spencer Duhm, a contestant on Survivor: Tocantins. He was summoned to the temple radio room. And Smith’s wife, son and mother died. They had done their research, and they figured out who would present the best case for Jonestown. “There is no way we would be shooting at the airstrip. When the prodigals visited, the Cobbs kept it secret from Jones. John was attending a San Francisco high school when he was allowed to join his best friends in Jonestown. More than 900 people lived in the agricultural mission, with its dining pavilion, tidy cottages, school, medical facilities and rows of crops. 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. For years, Vilchez was ashamed of the part she played in an idealistic group that imploded so terribly. He too was a member of the basketball team. He too was a member of the basketball team. image caption Jonestown survivors and their friends gathered at a 38th anniversary event "Sometimes when we gather, people speak or we sing songs. Stephan Jones and some other team members believe they might have changed history if they were there. Stephan helped erect a basketball court and form a team. 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. The Joneses adopted a black baby in Indiana in 1960, and Jim gave the 10-week-old infant his own name. Many people were scarred by their experience in Peoples Temple and in Jonestown. Over four decades, as they have built new lives, they have struggled with grief and the feeling that they were pariahs. When a friend invited her family to Peoples Temple’s wine country church, they were impressed by the integrated community. Jim Jones — charismatic, volatile and ultimately evil. Life became more tolerable after the couple’s baby, Martin Luther Smith, was born. Mike Touchette, a survivor of the Jonestown mass suicides and murders in Guyana, poses for a portrait on Monday, Nov. 12, 2018, in Miami Springs, Fla. “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. And I must say, they did. Devotion to its ideals bolstered her self-worth. Vilchez was dispatched to the Guyanese capital of Georgetown to raise money. “So much was attractive and unique that we turned a blind eye on what was wrong,” he said, including his father’s sexual excesses, drug abuse and rants. She is often said to be the only survivor of Jonestown, though … On Nov. 18 she was at the temple house when a fanatical Jones aide received a dire radio message from Jonestown. But Stephan was the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones. Rebelling, they refused Jones’ order to come back. “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. This June 2016 photo provided by Jim Jones Jr. shows, from left, Ross Jones, 21, Erin Fowler-Jones, Robert Jones, 27, and Ryan Jones, 25, and Jim Jones Jr., in Pacifica, Calif. His biggest regrets revolve around the team’s refusal to return to Jonestown. In 2010, the Jonestown Memorial Fund, a three-person committee including McGehee and two Jonestown survivors — Jim Jones, Jr. and John Cobb … Though he waved and smiled at Peoples Temple services, seemingly enraptured like the rest, Stephan Gandhi Jones says he always had his doubts. They, too, are counted as survivors, though most of them remained in Georgetown and never got to Jonestown. But after temple gunmen killed the congressman, three newsmen and a church defector on the Port Kaituma airstrip, Jones ordered a poisoned grape-flavoured drink administered to children first. 1998-11-18 04:00:00 PDT SAN FRANCISCO; JONESTOWN, GUYANA-- There were no tears shed at the gathering of family members, friends and survivors who lost loved ones at Jonestown… Then it was boxing matches for adults. “I just have to love him and forgive him.”. Rebelling, they refused Jones’ order to come back. With their lives, the story of Jonestown continues, even now. Jim Jr. would lose 15 immediate relatives in Jonestown, including his pregnant wife, Yvette Muldrow. “He made a promise — once we get to Jonestown there is no corporal punishment,” Smith said. As a San Francisco high school student, he was dispatched to help build Jonestown. He’s never remarried, and Martin Luther Smith was his only child. More than 300 Jonestown victims were children. His biggest regrets revolve around the team’s refusal to return to Jonestown. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. In this Nov. 5, 2018 photo, John Cobb poses for a portrait at the the Jonestown Memorial at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, Calif. The Peoples Temple's pet around the altar, many of them arm-in-arm. After Ollie became pregnant, she was sent to Jonestown; Eugene remained behind. Ollie worked in the nursery, and Eugene felled trees. At first it was spanking of children. Within minutes, the aide and her three children lay dead in a bloody bathroom, their throats slit. “In an hour, that promise was broken.”. “To me, the ends justified the means,” he said. 29. “I believe 100% that not everyone would have been dead,” he said. After his stint on the series, Herzog went on to try being a hairstylist. Those who broke rules were disciplined. “What we were calling the cause really was Jim,” she said. “Everyone participated in it and because of that, it went as far as it did,” she said. Devotion to its ideals bolstered her self-worth. When a friend invited her family to Peoples Temple’s wine country church, they were impressed by the integrated community. They divorced when Jordan was 6. Jim Jones and His People.”. “I just have to love him and forgive him.”. Vilchez returned to Jonestown for the first time in 40 years. Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. The two survivors of the Jonestown tragedy who recently revisited the scene and relived memories of what they once called home,’ are looking to have … Jonestown survivor talks about escaping mass suicide. And when her 23-year-old sister joined, Jordan went to live with her at age 12. “The temple really became my family,” she said. Even after everything happened, I still, because of them, I … Jim Jones — charismatic, volatile and ultimately evil. But some lived. Now, Stephan Jones is father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business. But he said his discontent festered. When John Cobb was born in 1960 in a black section of Indianapolis, his mother and older siblings already were temple members. Jonestown survivor Jakari Wilson (above) is serving life in prison for attempted murder. “Everyone participated in it and because of that, it went as far as it did,” she said. 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. Parvati Shallow, Yul Kwon, Rob Mariano and Michele Fitzgerald: If you've been wondering where these Survivor winners are today, then you're in luck. “There is no way we would be shooting at the airstrip. He converted to Catholicism and registered Republican. In the days before Ryan’s fact-finding mission to the settlement, the players were in Georgetown for a tourney with the Guyana national teams. After the temple exodus to Guyana, he was given a public relations post in Georgetown — and was part of the basketball team. Now 58, he owns a modular office furniture business in the East Bay and is married with a daughter. Finally, the list of survivors who were neither in Jonestown nor Georgetown include: “Now I just hit the hell out of drums instead of raising my voice. He went through years of nightmares, mourning and shame. In the days before Ryan’s fact-finding mission to the settlement, the players were in Georgetown for a tourney with the Guyana national teams. Stephan believed he was too cowardly to follow through with the oft-threatened “revolutionary suicide.”. In this Nov. 13, 2008 file photo, Stephan Jones, son of Rev. Then it was boxing matches for adults. He is the author with the late John Jacobs of “Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. 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'. In code, his father told him everyone was going to die in “revolutionary suicide.”, “I argued with my Dad,” he said. When John Cobb was born in 1960 in a black section of Indianapolis, his mother and older siblings already were temple members. 29. “In an hour, that promise was broken.”. Those who broke rules were disciplined. It marched for four jailed Fresno newsmen. 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