Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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The Temple's advance team had primed the local press for the
pilgrims' arrival. George Hunter, the managing editor of the
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, and his reporter wife
Kathy were
offered gifts intended to produce the favorable press
coverage necessary if the Caucasian locals were to tolerate
what would be their only Black neighbors. Kathy Hunter wrote
the front page article that introduced the Peoples Temple to
Ukiah in the July 26, 1965 edition of the__
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Represented in the group and indicative of the
substantial background of the membership are
nurses, teachers, a pilot, a traffic engineer,
an electronics man, salespeople and private
businessmen. One of the new- comers has already
purchased an apartment house, another has bought
a Ukiah motel, and still another is negotiating
the purchase of a rest home here.
Far from being a closed, tightly knit group
living in a communal existence, members of the
church live their own lives as part of the
community as a whole, held together only by
their belief that all men-- white, black,
yellow, or red--are one brotherhood.[62]
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____________________
[62]
Klineman, Butler and Conn, p. 73.
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____________________
[63]
Ibid. pp. 77-78.
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permit was issued to build a roof over the pool with the
stated purpose of creating a youth center. When the roof was
finished in October, Jones applied for and received a third
permit to enclose the structure as a church. Possibly the
only church in America built over a swimming pool. The word
"church" is really not approhriate. There were no crosses or
statues or pictures of deities or saints. The redwood
structure was rustic and modern and not at all like a
church. Only a star-shaped stained glass window, which was
more Satanic than Christian, gave the impression that this
was a house of worship. The rural setting of Jones' estate
provided the privacy required to conduct his business in
secret and stands as an example of the Temple's introverted
personality. It was a closed group that did not attempt to
recruit or even mingle with the locals. Though the location
of the Redwood Valley Temple is understandably desirable,
the roundabout method of construction used to build a church
over a swimming pool is without apparent reason. The indoor
pool was used for recreation, quasi-baptisms and
occasionally punishment, but its role as the focal point of
the Redwood Valley Temple has never been fully understood.
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____________________
[64]
Ibid. p. 84.
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l but as soon as the
alleged
threat against Jones had been established, he dropped all
charges and Bush was released after Paying a misdemeanor
fine.
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for keeping to itself yet the Rev. Jim Jones broke the
barriers and even recruited from its ranks. Perhaps it was
he who was being tested under difficult circumstances; a
test he apparently passed. In the end, Jones did retain the
services of some of his sixth grade class. Some came to
Jones because the CIA had assigned them. Some came because
they were duped and some came because they were brainwashed
in a painstakingly slow process that began in the sixth
grade.
Jones used the same scenario to get a job teaching American
history and government in Ukiah's fledgling adult education
program. The evening classes were closed to all but the
Temple hierarchy and remains as an example of how Jones used
an existing system to his own ends. He would have taught his
class anyway. With the arrangement, he received the free use
of a classroom and even a salary for his efforts. Rather
than draw from the CIA's labor pool, Jones would maintain
ultimate security and actually create some of the operatives
that would aid him in the experiment.
In 1967, Superior Court Judge Robert Winslow appointed Jones
foreman of the Mendocino County Grand Jury. The following
year, he was appointed to the Juvenile Justice Commission,
an advisory board to the courts. Between the two positions
he had the ability to bring charges for or against anyone in
the county, especially considering his close relationship
with Assistant District Attorney Tim Stoen.
In May of 1967, Jones formed the Legal Services Foundation
of Mendocino County, a nonprofit group offering free legal
services to the needy, most of whom were his followers who
needed the services of an attorney to petition the courts
for welfare support, to
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____________________
[65]
65 Marshall Kilduff and Ron Javers, _
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York: Bantam Books, 1978), p. 87.
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sense of humor.
In exchange for their donations of money and labor, the
Temple provided its members with at least the bare
essentials of food and housing. Members lived in Temple
communes that were no more than over-crowded
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[66]
Ibid., p. 85.
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tenement houses. Each was charged rent that when totaled and
weighed against expenses, netted the Temple an additional
eight to ten thousand dollars a month. The Temple also
operated dormitories at Santa Rosa Junior college where as
many as twenty-five Caucasian members were packed into a
cardboard-partitioned, single family house. Student board at
Santa Rosa added another twenty-eight thousand dollars to
the coffer every year.
Feeding his flock was a monumental task that Jones lessened
by milking government poverty programs. Each member applied
for and received government food rations thanks in no small
part to the Temple aides who had infiltrated such government
funded programs. The surplus powdered milk incident is a
prime example.
On March 5, 1971, Mrs. Eunice Mock, supervisor of the
Mendocino County surplus commodities program, and a
colleague were driving along a county road near Redwood
Valley when they spotted two open pick-up trucks loaded with
between fifty and eighty cases of USDA powdered milk. Mrs.
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county's poor and that he was "incensed with the idea that
the church was involved." His rebuttal did not satisfy the
Department of Agriculture that dispatched two fraud
investigators to speak with Jones in Redwood Valley. Jones
denied that the truck was owned by the Temple. He also
denied any knowledge of the milk in question and avoided
further questioning by grabbing his chest as if in pain and
retiring to his parsonage where he phoned Tim Stoen for
help. Stoen was in the middle of an important county Board
of Supervisors meeting but left abruptly when he received
the message. He arrived at the Temple and immediately
questioned the rights of the investigators and defended
Bogue, Jones and the Temple. Reports vary slightly from one
account to the next but apparently both the investigators
and the Board of Supervisors questioned the priorities of
the Assistant District Attorney who said that his church
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____________________
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Books,
[67]
67 James Reston, Jr., _
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s (New York: Times
1981), p. 245.
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all U.S. aid. It was a critical year for Guyana and the
prime minister called for help from his old CIA buddy. Jones
first flew to Cuba, where he met with Fidel Castro after
which he continued on to Georgetown, Guyana for his meeting
with Burnham. What was accomplished on this trip is
uncertain.
Jones was not the only Temple member who traveled. His fleet
of eleven used Greyhound buses carried the congregation on
weekly trips to San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles
where in a single weekend the Temple might receive as much
as twenty thousand dollars in donations. As a show of
strength, Jones always took his Redwood Valley congregation
on such tours. The buses were said to have been overcrowded, with people riding in the overhead storage racks
and down below in the baggage compartment. Members
complained that the air conditioners and toilets did not
work and that they were driven too long without food or
rest. Jones had a special bus with air conditioning, a
working bath and a private, bulletproof compartment. Each
summer, members were given the opportunity to take a crosscountry vacation and many boarded the Temple buses bound for
national parks, monuments and other points of interest;
sites never seen by these inner-city Blacks. The Temple's
advance team arranged to rent auditoriums and leafletted the
major cities to herald the group's arrival. Jones put on his
usual show with its many collections all across the country.
Such a trip was expected to net one to two hundred thousand
dollars. The 1973 cross country trip was the most
noteworthy. The buses stopped in Washington, D.C. where the
Temple called on congressmen and succeeded in getting a
description of the Peoples Temple entered in the
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