placement: 'Right Rail Thumbnails', .' . He said reporters would make the situation worse. Among those speaking out ahead of the 40-year anniversary of the mass deaths is Mike Touchette, who was a 21-year-old Indiana native at the time. He is talking, in the first of two evenings' long conversations, between spoonfuls of almond chicken at a Chinese restaurant. He made a promise once we get to Jonestown there is no corporal punishment, Smith said. But he was also very loving, especially during the early period'. He was so wasted most of the time. By the time Stephan Jones was 16, his father had moved the family to the big temple building in a black neighborhood of San Francisco, where politicians and black leaders had begun paying considerable attention to Jim Jones' racially mixed congregation and fervently preached exhortations to adjust society under a socialist god. Stephan ran to the U.S. Embassy and appealed for a helicopter to take him to the colony to try to stop the disaster, but no one listened. This past year, she returned to long-overgrown Jonestown. John was attending a San Francisco high school when he was allowed to join his best friends in Jonestown. 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. As rapidly as possible Jacqueline Speier was signing on passengers at the fool of the boarding ladder while a reporter helped her check for weapons. In an hour, that promise was broken.. 'He hit Monica and Vern. Where they were lying. , MoKal . Former Peoples Temple member Jim Jones Jr. carries a bucket of bleached rocks to place around the edges of the Jonestown victim memorial in the Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, California, Jim Jones Jr. was adopted by the Joneses in Indiana in 1960. I didn't see who fired the shot but the sound came from the tractor and trailer. 2023 Canoe.com, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. placement: 'Below Article Thumbnails 2nd', Jon was born on January 31, 1975, in Oakland, California. He pushes through the crowd, but he cannot get to his father. But the entertainers stayed in Jonestown to entertain Ryan. "This is really crazy," he recalls thinking. And to have any fray in that fabric would cause an unraveling that he couldnt handle.. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. Instead, The Washington Post reported that Stephan escaped death with the Jonestown basketball team. . The only surviving child of Jim Jones, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. Jim Jones, pictured in 1976,dreamed up Jonestown. His father spoke so ardently about his own self-sacrifice; Stephan Jones saw the specially prepared steaks and the color television, and in the temple apartment where they lived, he grew accustomed to glimpses of his father having sex with temple members--sometimes women, sometimes men. ", Stephan Jones spent three months in a Guyana jail after the November deaths, imprisoned there while Guyanese authorities tried to determine who had killed the devoted Peoples Temple aide Sharon Amos and her three children, all of whom were found with their throats slashed in the Georgetown Temple headquarters on the day of the suicides. Jim was the Rev. After the temple exodus to Guyana, he was given a public relations post in Georgetown and was part of the basketball team. A few of us jumped from the truck and ran over there. After the massacre, Layton strolled back to the area. (As PEOPLE reported a year after the deaths, two of Stephan's adopted siblings also died at Jonestown.). Eugene Smith recalls how his mother, a churchgoing African-American, bought into Jim Jones dream after they attended a service in Fresno. Stephan Gandhi Jones was the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones. "This is really crazy," he recalls thinking. Some of those leaving the temple eyed the vehicles with suspicion. But she wasn't in the truck and the men left. Jim Jones had said as a tropical storm rained on the Peoples Temple pavilion. "I'm blessed to have hit enough of a bottom and to have been surrounded by amazing, wonderful, honest, compassionate and challenging people to see me through that," Stephan said. He was a genius, and he was unique. It marched for four jailed Fresno newsmen. With their lives, the story of Jonestown continues, even now. 'There is no way we would be shooting at the airstrip. You don't tell God he needs help. 'The reality was we were folks who could be counted on to stand up,' he said. 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. They divorced when Jordan was 6. 'I just have to love him and forgive him.'. When he brushed away the mist below him he saw that it was a lifeless human limb. When John Cobb was born in 1960 in a black section of Indianapolis, his mother and older siblings already were temple members. Well, once we got to California and we were going to public school, there it was very evident to me that my life was very different from the lives of most of the other kids. In the days before Ryans fact-finding mission to the settlement, the players were in Georgetown for a tourney with the Guyana national teams. People raced over to the outdoor pavilion. An emotional tug-of-war ensued between a mother who wanted to stay and the father who wanted to go. Were you aware that you had a very different childhood than most? More than 300 Jonestown victims were children. Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby, the two temple members who asked for help in the note, also were seriously injured. Alongside it was a red tractor and trailer seen earlier at the mission. He was within a few minutes and a few yards of accomplishing his goal: to get out temple members who were afraid to leave or possibly held against their will. He was in Georgetown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 with the Jonestown Basketball Team. Dozens of members in Guyana slipped out of Jonestown or happened to be away that day. He was summoned to the temple radio room. But Stephan was the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones. OAKLAND, Calif. Jonestown was the highlight of Mike Touchettes life for a time. He apparently was searching for his wife, who had carried away their child that morning, hoping to escape the settlement. They were shooting to kill, not just to stop us from leaving. "And it could happen to anybody.". 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She and Jim were the first caucasian couple in Indiana to adopt an African American . After the slaughter, Stephan Jones was arrested on suspicion of abetting the mass murder and spent three months in a Guyanese prison. Stephan Jones was born on 1 June 1959 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. We demanded to see the locked buildings where some members lived in crowd, uncomfortable conditions. And as the years go on, Stephan is still willing to talk about his connection to one of the biggest tragedies in American history even as he tries to live a peaceful life far removed from Jonestown. My mother got me an apartment, I got a job and my father came and tried to talk me into coming back. Haaretz.com, the online English edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, gives you breaking news, analyses and opinions about Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World. And I looked around and there were at least 15 people looking at me. But of course Dad was most terrified about anybody turning against him because it really screwed with the illusion that he had created. Ryan Seacrest, 48, is all smiles with stunning girlfriend Aubrey Paige, 25, as they enjoy Miami shopping trip, a day after it was announced he's being replaced on Live with Kelly and Ryan by Ripa's husband, Who needs Tinder when you've got Duolingo? Is this surge in public interest in Jonestown an exhausting experience for you? Jones himself, after some artfully applied pressure to the mayor's office, was appointed to the San Francisco Housing Authority, where once-tedious meetings about public housing suddenly erupted into vigorous cheering sessions, with temple members applauding the pronouncements of Commissioner Jones. Stephan Jones Seeks Forgiveness For Jonestown Massacre, Late Jim Jones Son Stephan Jones Is An Actor. If anything, we felt pity for him, he said, and it grew into a dislike, maybe hate.. Now, Stephan Jones is the father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business. Among those speaking out ahead of the 40-year anniversary of the mass deaths isMike Touchette, who was a 21-year-old Indiana native at the time. Neither were the White Nights where everyone stayed up, armed with machetes to fight enemies who never arrived. Did you ever consider the ultimate rebellious act: to defect from the temple? Peoples Temple lost the game, but only by 10 points, which seemed worth celebrating. What Does Lindsey Horans Boyfriend Tyler Heaps Do For a Living? ", The thought of killing Jim Jones had occurred to his son, but Stephan never tried to do it. After Ollie became pregnant, she was sent to Jonestown; Eugene remained behind. 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. At first it was spanking of children. The only surviving child of Jim Jones, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. "By that time, I know, he was way off into drugs, and his perspective was so warped," Stephan Jones says. Stephan is the only living son of Jim Jones and his late wife Marceline Jones. Then he decides it is time, and he falters, and he tells them they may not believe what he is about to say. My best guess is that Jones felt the press people weren't fooled by the staged setup at the mission. Quietly the men with the tractor motioned aside a group of curious Guyanese children and other bystanders. He played at school. Springing to my feet, I ran 40 yards across the runway. You don't tell God, "You're not going out of the house. We're talking 30 people, but that's a lot of people to be looking over your shoulder.". Stephan Gandhi Jones, age 60s, lives in Petaluma, CA. And thats why its so critical that people be wary of any leader who is held as superior to the people theyre leading. It would have been like I was a counter-revolutionary, in some sense.". So the second thing is this whole idea of drinking the Kool-Aid thats such a prevalent saying. More than 900 people lived in the agricultural mission, with its dining pavilion, tidy cottages, school, medical facilities and rows of crops. The murders and suicides were unfolding, 150 miles away. He too was a member of the basketball team. placement: 'Below Article Thumbnails 3rd', "He was a gentle man in a lot of ways," Jones says, stretched now over the sofa in his small apartment. 'We think he's got a gun. He remarried three decades ago, and he and his wife Erin raised three sons. They have altogether three daughters. "He always gave us a hug and a kiss, but it became more mechanical as time went by." I keep remembering what Jones had said in the pavilion. Do not sell or share my personal information. 'I believe 100 percent that not everyone would have been dead,' he said. 29. In addition to writing the articles below, Stephan appeared as a speaker during the Griot Institute of African Studies lecture series entitled Jonestown: 35 Years Later at Bucknell University; his presentation appears on this page (scroll down the videos). Stephan Gandhi Jones is the son of the notorious religious cult leader Jim Jones. 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 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. Stephan Jones believes his father must have killed himself: that he could not leave his own shooting to someone else. Layton, who was insisting on taking the first plane, slipped to the other side of the plane before he could be frisked. As a San Francisco high school student, he was dispatched to help build Jonestown. "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 only surviving child of Jim Jones, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. He was just 14, Stephan Jones and some other team members believe they might have changed history if they were there. . (all adoptive) Stephanie Jones (died in 1959); Suzanne Jones; Agnes Pauline Jones; Stephan Gandhi Jones; James Warren (Jimmie) Jones, Jr.; Lew Eric Jones; Timothy Glenn Tupper (Day) Jones; Jim Jon (Kimo) Prokes; (?) 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. Then it was boxing matches for adults. Partner of Terry Carter Jones, aka Mary Theresa Carter, Mary Theresa Jones, Terry Carter Jones (died November 18 . His wife has learned at those moments to let him be. After the incident, Stephan was put into jail for three months and that led him to drug addiction. ", Stephan Jones' lips draw back when he talks about his father; he looks for an instant like a cornered dog. Jones, who asked his followers to call him 'Dad,' did not like to lose any of his 'children.' "I always explain to them that it's not what people think--it wasn't a bunch of starry-eyed people in line waiting to take the potion . Rebelling, they refused Jones order to come back. ), 'It was necessary in my own healing for me to find acceptance for him, understanding of him. It was he who dreamed up Jonestown, he who willed it into being, and he who brought it down: First, with the assassination of U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan and four others by temple members on a nearby airstrip on November 18, 1978, then with the mass murders and suicides of hundreds, a horror that remains nearly unimaginable 40 years later. We have enabled email notificationsyou will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Others had joined in San Francisco and continued with him to the promised land in the South American jungle. Among the hundreds of corpses, only one was different; he had died from a bullet to the head. The name Stephan is from the Greek word and it means a crown and garland. When that was pointed out to Ryan, Layton contended he already had been frisked. James Warren Jones and his wife, Marceline. More than 300 Jonestown victims were children. "There was always that guilt fed to you by my father that kept you in check, kept you thinking, 'Maybe I'm wrong'--the guilt for being selfish and questioning this.". ", 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. The only surviving child of Jim Jones,Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. "They just needed this messiah, this purpose. (Actually, the deadly beverage that day might have been based on a cheaper imitation, Flavor Aid. Stephan Jones was born on 06/01/1959 and is 63 years old. 'Liquidator,' " Stephan Jones remembers being called, as he lay on his prison cot and listened to the mosquitoes swarm. " ". There were many photographs of the bodies, taken from various angles, in color and black and white, and in each photograph, as though defying the viewer even to believe the report of the camera, row upon row of clothed human backs lay swelling in the jungle damp. During the long night, the temple defectors told us that all the horror stories about Jim Jones and the church were true. On Nov. 18 she was at the temple house when a fanatical Jones aide received a dire radio message from Jonestown. For years, Vilchez was ashamed of the part she played in the Peoples Temple, an idealistic group that imploded so terribly. Jim Jr. would lose 15 immediate relatives in Jonestown, including his pregnant wife, Yvette Muldrow. An In-Depth Look at Naomi Girmas Salary in Professional Soccer. 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. I think that Ill pick two. The murders and suicides were unfolding, 150 miles away. 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. "I just felt like this was all they had," he says. The list of defectors rapidly grew to at least 16. And the temple was his life first in Indiana, later in California. Stephan Gandhi Jones is the son of the notorious religious cult leader Jim Jones. Wiki User. The truck spun its wheels until a Caterpillar tractor tugged it into place for a downhill run. All these lives were wasted and I don't know why. 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. Ryan clearly was in good spirits. What they said. 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