Some have come to acknowledge that they helped enable Jim Jones to seize control over people drawn to his interracial church, socialist preaching and religious hucksterism. Is this surge in public interest in Jonestown an exhausting experience for you? Stephan Jones was born on 1 June 1959 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. It marched for four jailed Fresno newsmen. [November 2008], View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro, Kristi Jones "I don't even know who my loved ones were with when they died," he says softly. 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 Jones was a nearly full-grown teen-ager when his father sent him to the Peoples Temple agricultural mission in the small South American coastal country of Guyana. Because Dad was such a mess . I guess maybe somebody who hadnt been in the temple their entire lives and was just stepping into it couldve seen it coming. Published: 01:29 EST, 14 November 2018 | Updated: 12:15 EST, 14 November 2018. 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. But Stephan was the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones. His biggest regrets revolve around the team's refusal to return to Jonestown. Be aware of this message that was prevalent in the temple: The end justifies the means. And I see that throughout society. He was just 14, Stephan Jones and some other team members believe they might have changed history if they were there. He appeared in movies like Written in Blood (2018), The Peoples Advocate: The Life and Times of Charles R.Gary (2007) and The True Story (2003). (Actually, the deadly beverage that day might have been based on a cheaper imitation, Flavor Aid. container: 'taboola-below-article-thumbnails-2nd', He cries out, "My God, you're not dead!" She and Jim were the first caucasian couple in Indiana to adopt an African American . Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. A bit later the number was revised upward to 408. Stephan was around 17 years old when he moved to Jonestown in February 1977 to help build the compound. View their profile including current address, phone number 415-785-XXXX, background check reports, and property record on Whitepages, the most trusted online directory. Stephan fought him, swore at him, obeyed him, contemplated killing him, argued with his mother about how to bring Jim Jones under control. 'Baby killer. "I would have been a traitor to the greatest cause there ever was . A number of Jonestown survivors have spoken out about the mass suicides and murders that killed the only life they ever knew and how they have managed to build new ones in the four decades since the tragedy. I would argue that even a lot of the good works that he wanted to do early on were an attempt to impress my mother and her family. But the entertainers stayed in Jonestown to entertain Ryan. All these lives were wasted and I don't know why. While religious leader Jim Jones has historically been blamed for the tragedy that occurred at his Guyana compound, the A&E special Jonestown: The Women Behind The Massacre argues that the women closest to Jones were also partially responsible. They have altogether three daughters. 'People ask, 'How can you ever be proud of your father?'' We were turned back by Johnny Jones, Jim Jones' stern-faced adopted black son. 'Naaah.' With their lives, the story of Jonestown continues, even now. By the fall of that year, almost 1,000 Temple members emigrated to Jonestown, but for Stephan Jones, the pleasure crumbled when his father arrived. It would have been like I was a counter-revolutionary, in some sense.". He was in Georgetown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 with the Jonestown Basketball Team. Recent interviews with Stephan include: "Son of Anarchist: My Father, Jim Jones, and What the . Being in Jonestown before Jim got there was the best thing in my life.. Stephan Jones did not drink. I wouldnt say that I dont have problems saying no, and I do quite a bit, so Im feeling it now because I traveled to New York and had a long interview yesterday [with CNN]. A vat that contained a drink laced with deadly cyanide sits on a sidewalk at Peoples Temple in Jonestown, Guyana in November 1978. 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. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. Anthony Katsaris, brother of Jim Jones aide Maria Katsaris, was wounded in the chest. People raced over to the outdoor pavilion. Now 58, he owns a modular office furniture business in the East Bay and is married with a daughter. The minister was famous for his faith healings, which expelled bloody growths from the bodies of the ailing; it was not for many years that Stephan Jones learned about the sleight of hand with raw chicken giblets. 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 . Some of them had started out with him in the earliest days in Indiana and moved with him to California. That's what triggered it.'. 'I said there must be another way.'. Then, after a 1977 New West magazine expose of temple disciplinary beatings and other abuses, she was sent to Jonestown. I said there must be another way.. Partner : Ava Phenice Jones, aka Ava Phenice Brown, Ava Phenice Cobb. But some lived. For a long time I thought they felt the convulsions before they died, until somebody assured me that you pass out before you feel the convulsions. Rep. Leo Ryan, D-San Mateo, had come to the temple's agricultural project to determine whether the followers of Jones were free to leave the jungle settlement. As for those people in his life, NBC reported in a 2008 article that Stephan has three daughters and there's a photo of Stephan presumably with one of his daughters on the Alternative Considerations website. 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. When the order from the colony came over the speaker in Guyanas capital Georgetown, Stephan Jones knew he wouldnt obey it. Stephan Gandhi Jones is the son of the notorious religious cult leader Jim Jones. Only two days later did the picture became clear. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group, American Idol star Kellie Pickler's husband, 49, 'commits suicide by shooting himself dead' in bedroom of their $2.4 million Nashville home: Pickler called 911 after she was unable to open door of room where he was found, Enough to give you an art attack! In the aftermath, he built a new life. This past year, she returned to long-overgrown Jonestown. Copyright 2017-2018 Free Articles by ecelebritymirror.com, All rights reserved. I crawled until I came to taller bushes and brambles, clawing my way into a pocket in the brush. He used this kind of threat to control his people. I did. More at IMDbPro Contact info Agent info Resume Born June 1, 1959 Add to list Photos Known for The People's Advocate: The Life & Times of Charles R. Garry 7.0 Self - Interviewee 2007 P3 Dokumentr Cobb lost 11 relatives that day, including his mother, youngest brother and four sisters. He climbed aboard the truck and we took off. When John Cobb was born in 1960 in a black section of Indianapolis, his mother and older siblings already were temple members. 'Hit the deck!' Yesterday morning 100 Guyanee troops came by train from Matthews Ridge, walking the last several miles as a precaution against sabotage or attack. He says his daughters have seen him gnash his teeth when he talks about his father, but they also have heard him speak lovingly of the man who taught him compassion and other virtues. The temple was the only life he knew but says he always had his doubts. Some have come to acknowledge that they helped enable Jim Jones to seize control over people drawn to his interracial church, socialist preaching and religious hucksterism. A while later, the young temple escort on the tailgate shook his head and said: 'I don't understand why they did it this way. I would either have had to fight, or I would have taken it. Jonestown: It was the bodies that photographers favored most. Stephan Jones is a Jonestown survivor. The silence could mean only one thing: An ambush was awaiting them. target_type: 'mix' He is an actor, known for Written in Blood (2018), The People's. 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. At first it was spanking of children. "I still get very angry," Stephan Jones says. And thats why its so critical that people be wary of any leader who is held as superior to the people theyre leading. mode: 'thumbnails-a', 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. 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. . This November 1978 file photo shows the bodies of Peoples Temple mass suicide victims led by Jim Jones in Jonestown, Guyana. "Right off the bat I explain to them that my father was nuts, that he was a drug addict," he says. He dreams he is in a crowd, and his father is talking about suicide. Jim Jr. would lose 15 immediate relatives in Jonestown, including his pregnant wife, Yvette Muldrow. I tried to fire - but nothing happened.'. Publicity Listings He was ill from when he was very young and was using fear to control me when I was barely more than a toddler. How could that be suicide? But the reality is that it was far from a mass suicide. Jones, 44, is the only biological son of Jim Jones and his wife Marceline Baldwin who founded the cult behind Jonestown. They don't normally believe it at first. placement: 'Right Rail Thumbnails', 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 remarried three decades ago, and he and his wife, Erin, raised three sons. The reports were wrong, they say. So in my view, even the good works and things he championed were in some way not as pure as folks want to think. I refused. I made that last trip with him and he made me stay in Jonestown. Stephan escaped death with the Jonestown basketball team, Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. 'I just have to love him and forgive him.'. He dreams he sees the men and women he knew, older now, changed by the years. And she could only sense the site of the pavilion, the once-vibrant centre of Jonestown life where so many died including her two sisters and two nephews. Did you notice a point or phase where your fathers behavior shifted and he lost touch with the just causes that he once championed? He went over the seats in a somersault and I flipped out of the plane with him. | 'This is really crazy,' he recalls thinking. He is charming. mode: 'thumbnails-a', After more than 22 years at Californias transportation department, Smith retired in 2015. Stephan Jones tells Haaretz about the man who would convince his followers to drink the Kool-Aid. "The media has done a poor job; theyve demonized him. February 27, 2023 endeavor air pilot contract No Comments . 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). You don't tell God he needs help. Plunged into a new world, those raised in the temple or who joined as teens lost the only life they knew: church, jobs, housing and most of all, family and friends. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings. Copy. Is Kristie Mewis Dating the Aussie Star Sam Kerr? Jones berated three other new arrivals for misbehaviour on the trip; they were beaten and forced to work 24 hours straight. His LinkedIn profile indicates that he still has the position of vice president of operations at MB Contract Furniture. But in 1973, John's oldest brother and a sister, along with six other California college students, quit the church and became its enemies. And Stephan Jones sometimes thinks that he might have taken the poison, too. Jordan Vilchez's parents were Berkeley progressives in the 1960s - her father African-American, her mother Scotch-Irish. He converted to Catholicism and registered Republican. This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. The people are elderly and he knows he must stop it, but he cannot make contact with them; they look at him as though from great distances. After all, we had seen things we weren't supposed to see. Over four decades, as they have built new lives, they have struggled with grief and the feeling that they were pariahs. It was just more controlled. It was all about survival in his domain. Dozens of members in Guyana slipped out of Jonestown or happened to be away that day. Now, Stephan Jones is the father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business. He built a long career in health care, while weathering his own serious health problems. 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. Other people were injured. And I dont know that he could actually have done that. What would you say the biggest lesson is from Jonestown? The slaughter at Jonestown was the worst civilian tragedy in U.S. history before September 11, 2001. Gruelling field work was not to her liking. Jon was born on January 31, 1975, in Oakland, California. "I think I knew it was just a bunch of junk and that it was really about nothing," Stephan Jones said. And now some wanted to depart. ': Golf glamor girl Paige Spiranac defends 'FUNNY' Woods tampon prank after 15-time major winner was forced to apologize, He's still got it! He has been married to Kristi Jones since 1991. When Smith reunited with his mother and wife in Jonestown, Ollie was 8 months pregnant. For years, Vilchez was ashamed of the part she played in an idealistic group that imploded so terribly. Yes. If anything, we felt pity for him, he said, and it grew into a dislike, maybe hate.. He's never remarried, and Martin Luther Smith was his only child. stephan gandhi jones. James Warren Jones and his wife, Marceline. . But of course Dad was most terrified about anybody turning against him because it really screwed with the illusion that he had created. Then, with heart-stopping suddenness, the first shot was fired. he said. 'The temple really became my family,' she said. _taboola.push({ He saw that the jungle would make him a man. "The minute I stepped out on the street, I felt so uncomfortable," he says. Jim Jones. And the temple was his life - first in Indiana, later in California. ", Jim Jones had warned them over and over that invading soldiers would torture their children; maybe that is what they feared most, Stephan Jones says. Cobb lost 11 relatives that day, including his mother, youngest brother and four sisters. To just be somewhere with a machete, in khakis, and just decide I wanted to go somewhere and cut myself a trail." In code, his father told him everyone was going to die in 'revolutionary suicide. Some had the distinct impression that the two were close to opening fire on the truck. Photo by Eric Risberg / AP As the visitors prepared to return to the U.S., Peoples Temple gunmen ambushed them on a remote jungle airstrip killing the congressman, Leo Ryan; three newsmen; and a church defector. . Only natural son of Rev. "They say, 'Yeah.' The rest of us were accommodated in a private home. Suddenly there was no money to buy lumber or supplies--"he was such a tightwad," Stephan Jones says--and the homesteading fervor gave way to the minister's incessant meetings and group lectures and warnings about "enemies.". And the temple was his life first in Indiana, later in California. It marched for four jailed Fresno newsmen. He has learned, he says, to understand his own resources and the depths of his emotions. Toward the end, as he watched the array of barbiturates, amphetamines and tranquilizers that now slurred his father's speech and sometimes left him physically unable to leave the Jonestown house, Stephan Jones says murder seemed almost redundant. In fact, he thought he was the only one who could save the situation. Jim Jones had said as a tropical storm rained on the Peoples Temple pavilion. The picture, he recalls, was about hit men. After years of struggles that included drug addiction, Jones says hes now living a pleasant life in the United States with his wife and three daughters. They are amused; they embrace him. Another to experience the trauma of Jonestown was Stephan Gandhi Jones, the biological son of Jim and his mistress Marceline. Hes 61 now. Stephans address on November 18, 2018 at the 40th Anniversary Memorial Service at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, California is here. 'I focused my rage on Dad and his circle, rather than deal with me,' he said. At first it was spanking of children. An In-Depth Look at Naomi Girmas Salary in Professional Soccer. And I think he genuinely cared about those things, but my understanding of my father just from my own experience and stories is that unconsciously he was always primarily managing other peoples perception of him. He has been married to Kristi Jones since 1991. 'He started firing at the front and missed the pilot,' said Dale Parks, who left the temple Saturday. Did You Know Soccer Player Crystal Dunns Husband Pierre Soubrier Is A Football Specialist? target_type: 'mix' As a San Francisco high school student, he was dispatched to help build Jonestown. Do you think people can ever see your father not just as a villain but as a complex figure? There are no many details about his siblings and some had been adopted. 'We think he's got a gun. He loves basketball; he is agile and strong and was tall even before he reached high school. 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. When the truck was allowed to pass, we all breathed easier. If you or someone you know are experiencing suicidal thoughts, call 911, or call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255. Now, Stephan Jones is father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business. Jim Jones (1931-1978) and Marceline Jones (1927-1978). 'It looks like trouble,' I said to Greg Robinson, but he kept on shooting pictures. "I wasn't there," he says. The list of defectors rapidly grew to at least 16. They were shooting to kill, not just to stop us from leaving. In Indianapolis, he served as a student pastor in the Methodist Church in 1952 but. But before we could start out, we heard angry shouts. He played at school. 'There is no way we would be shooting at the airstrip. Not so many people died. And his sense of self resided in his perception of other peoples perception of him. 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. 2023 Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple, Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple is a, Reflections and Articles by Stephan Jones, Son of Anarchist: My Father, Jim Jones, and What the World Can Still Learn From Him,. Quietly the men with the tractor motioned aside a group of curious Guyanese children and other bystanders. A lot more conversation about the outside threat that was anyone that wasnt in the temple. Manipulative tendencies. He led the Peoples Temple, a new religious movement, between 1955 and 1978. Stephan is the only living son of Jim Jones and his late wife Marceline Jones. The name Stephan is from the Greek word and it means a crown and garland. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. 'I'm real happy to be getting out,' Layton volunteered, then lapsed into a stare. placement: 'Below Article Thumbnails 3rd', 'Being in Jonestown before Jim got there was the best thing in my life.'. Stephan is among one of the Late Jim Jones sons survivors and he is still disturbed by those past events. present) (3 children). To cope, he says he abused drugs and exercised obsessively. The reason I ended up in Jonestown is that I left. The reunion with Jones was not as joyous. The phrase drinking the Kool-Aid, meaning to follow someone blindly, was born that day in Guyana. They have altogether three daughters. His handshake was weak. More than 300 Jonestown victims were children. The therapy that has been helpful to me hasnt been by talking with strangers about it. Stephan may be reached at moreheart1@comcast.net. It would become a little town where people of all ages and colors raised food and children. We'd also just seen the warm, cheerful embraces between some of those leaving and some who were staying. "He always gave us a hug and a kiss, but it became more mechanical as time went by." The shots still were popping at an amazing clip. The reunion with Jones was not as joyous. A black man with a 'corn rows' hairstyle came up to the rear of the truck. Hes never remarried, and Martin Luther Smith was his only child. I wouldn't have run.". He went through years of nightmares, mourning and shame. How Twins Megan Rapinoe and Rachael Rapinoe are Breaking Barriers for the LGBTQ+ Community? "Who they spoke to. They must be prepared to die in the defense of socialism. "When it really came down to it, I thought there wasn't any need, because I thought he'd be dead in a couple months anyway," he says.
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