I think it was Dad controlling people through fear, me and my siblings when we were very young.. Other Works More than 300 Jonestown victims were children. He is now a 65-year-old grandfather who has worked for a Miami hydraulics company for nearly 30 years, Jordan Vilchez, pictured sitting at a memorial for mass murder and suicide victims at the Jonestown settlement in Guyana, moved to Jonestown to 1977. You describe yourself in your writings as a rebellious kid. Now 58, he owns a modular office furniture business in the East Bay and is married with a daughter. Yesterday morning 100 Guyanee troops came by train from Matthews Ridge, walking the last several miles as a precaution against sabotage or attack. The only sounds they heard came from the jungle animals going about their business. 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? I did. I think most people would have welcomed some kind of action that took Dad out of the picture but I didnt feel like we had enough people to back us up, or I didnt know those people.. In Indianapolis, he served as a student pastor in the Methodist Church in 1952 but. But he was also very loving, especially during the early period'. "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. 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. The woman sang as they coupled, and when Stephan Jones' mother told the boy she knew about it, she also told him--it is this he remembers as the crescendo of the betrayal--that his father had even described the song. Jim Jr. would lose 15 immediate relatives in Jonestown, including his pregnant wife, Yvette Muldrow. They divorced when Jordan was 6. The pilot had radioed for help after the shooting, but during the night the only thing we heard were more rumors about the imminent arrival of Guyanese troops and medical evacuation planes. Because Dad was such a mess . 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. He did what was expected of him. A second plane, a Guyana Airways 24-seater, was coming in for a landing. He loved it. He was the son of Jim Jones, who established Jonestown. . And based on what Stephan Jones is doing now, it seems he has tried to live his life as normally as anyone who has gone through what he has possibly could. When Jim Sr., a local Democratic Party darling, met with future first lady Rosalyn Carter, Jim Jr. proudly went along. 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. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. By 1978, the White Nights included a rehearsal for suicide, something Jim Jones previously had tried only with his small circle of confidants within the church. All the people who lay there around him had followed him. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. If anything, we felt pity for him, he said, and it grew into a dislike, maybe hate.. 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. Jim Jones had years earlier conceived his South American settlement as a distant haven where Peoples Temple members could live in communal isolation, protected from unfriendly reporters and all the other enemies Jones denounced through his congregation. But the reality is that it was far from a mass suicide. 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. And it was necessary in my own healing for me to find acceptance for him, understanding of him. Some of the defectors told me later that the men in the trailer were members of Peoples Temple. Stephan, Jim Jones son who was 19 at the time, says the warning signs that went unnoticed at Jonestown can be seen in the world today. They have altogether three daughters. The note said: 'Please help us get out of Jonestown.' He went over the seats in a somersault and I flipped out of the plane with him. The temple really became my family, she said. (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; (?) In Biographical Summaries of Notable People . He imagines the guards with guns, and the sky clouding over, and the air suddenly wild with fear, and the sight of the children. The shooting triggered the mass murders and suicides in Jonestown of more than 900 people orchestrated by the Rev. He fired at me, but it misfired. Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. And now some wanted to depart. I make a point of avoiding pointing fingers and giving specific names. Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Yes. His LinkedIn profile indicates that he still has the position of vice president of operations at MB Contract Furniture. In code, his father told him everyone was going to die in 'revolutionary suicide. They have altogether three daughters. target_type: 'mix' The rest of us were accommodated in a private home. In what he called "revolutionary suicide", Jones and the members of his inner circle orchestrated a mass murder-suicide in his remote jungle commune at Jonestown, Guyana, on November 18, 1978. She returned to Jonestown for the first time in 40 years in March, Jordan Vilchez poses for a portrait in Richmond, California last week. The younger man demanded that everyone in the truck move aside. Rev. Stephan Jones, Jim Jones's sole surviving child, was born in Indiana, United States, on June 1, 1959. OAKLAND, Calif. Jonestown was the highlight of Mike Touchettes life for a time. Guyanese civilians set up a guard station for us, standing watch all night armed with only a shotgun, a machete and a long-bladed knife. On Nov. 18 she was at the temple house when a fanatical Jones aide received a dire radio message from Jonestown. In fact, he thought he was the only one who could save the situation. He has nine siblings, most of whom are now dead. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. And there was more social rhetoric and action in my life and a lot more fear. The only surviving child of Jim Jones, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. Jon was born on January 31, 1975, in Oakland, California. Ryan clearly was in good spirits. I dove headlong into the three-foot-tall grass. His unplanned departure left them alone. ", 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. They were under siege, Jim Jones would cry; the snipers were after him; the Guyanese army was about to descend; the children would be taken away and probably tortured. 29. It's unclear if he is currently married or if he retains a relationship with his surviving siblings. 'Little Jimmy' became part of their 'Rainbow Family' of white, black, Korean-American and Native American children. container: 'taboola-below-article-thumbnails-3rd', They have a total of three daughters. Reporters were hearing disturbing allegations about Jim Jones' church--there were stories of beatings, armed guards, extensive sexual activity. At first it was spanking of children. Then they start to ask questions right away.". I believe 100% that not everyone would have been dead, he said. He sought treatment, and eventually, the father of three settled into a quiet life in California. . 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. How do you explain the renewed interest in the Peoples Temple? And thats why its so critical that people be wary of any leader who is held as superior to the people theyre leading. You'd have to deal with this elite that just revolved their lives around him' . 'I was his son.' "He used to say we were the only two people of our kind in the universe," Jones says, clasping his hands behind his head and gazing out his apartment window. Stephan fought him, swore at him, obeyed him, contemplated killing him, argued with his mother about how to bring Jim Jones under control. If you or someone you know are experiencing suicidal thoughts, call 911, or call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255. "I don't know. Hes 61 now. Contact & Personal Details. The picture, he recalls, was about hit men. Court Records. ", Stephan Jones used to say he could have stopped the slaughter if he had been there. Joining him was an older black man who fingered something in his right pocket. Everyone participated in it and because of that, it went as far as it did, she said. ", Jim Jones moved to Guyana in 1977, just as New West magazine was preparing to publish a lengthy account of defectors' allegations about Peoples Temple. The bodies of followers that drank the poison are strewn around the commune, The Peoples Temple compound, led by Jim Jones, is shown above in November 1978 after the dead bodies were removed. "This is really crazy," he recalls thinking. Stephan Gandhi Jones is the son of Jim Jones, the controversial religious cult leader. The slaughter at Jonestown was the worst civilian tragedy in U.S. history before September 11, 2001. "People cant understand what was attractive about Dad", Get email notification for articles from Moran Sharir, The Jewish Guy Fighting the Legacy of the 'Wild Wild Country' Cult, Waco: The Jerusalem Revelation That Ended With 76 Dying in a Fire. placement: 'Below Article Thumbnails 2nd', Id rather just talk about what didnt work and hope that people can see that in their own lives. I mean, here are hundreds and hundreds of people who feel differently than I do--who's right?". Cobb lost 11 relatives that day, including his mother, youngest brother and four sisters. He was not prepared for suicide. someone hollered as we scrambled over the gravel to the far side of the plane. File photo: Peoples Temple compound, led by Jim Jones, after bodies were removed, in Jonestown, Guyana, November 1978. "I just felt like this was all they had," he says. , MoKal . All I can do is tell what I saw and heard. He plays forward. 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. It was he who willed it into being and he who also brought it down with the mass murders and suicides of hundreds. Stephan escaped death with the Jonestown basketball team, Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. He climbed aboard the truck and we took off. Stephan was around 17 years old when he moved to Jonestown in February 1977 to help build the compound. After years of struggles that included drug addiction, Jones says he's now living a pleasant life in the United States with his wife and three daughters. I believe that it was always a personal agenda for my father, and yes, there was a gradual shift in the balance. He dreams he is in a crowd, and his father is talking about suicide. 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"I say, 'Mom,' " Stephan Jones says, recalling a desperate mother-son huddle toward the end, " 'We're talking about a man who think's he's God. I know Ive reached a better place and I dont fear lapsing back into the darkest times, but its a daily process and one that Im grateful to have.. But some lived. Maybe they saw no hope--because they didn't see themselves leaving, but they didn't want to go on with Jim Jones. It was just more controlled. I refused. When I left at 21, I left a part of myself there, she said. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. He was in Georgetown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 with the Jonestown Basketball Team. "You can tell when it's a man; the positions are different," Jones says evenly. So in my view, even the good works and things he championed were in some way not as pure as folks want to think. He does not know. 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. 1978. Stephan may be reached at moreheart1@comcast.net. I had been hammered for years with the message that there was an outside threat, and from an early age my father talked about people wanting to bomb us. The phrase drinking the Kool-Aid, meaning to follow someone blindly, was born that day in Guyana. First the Cessna was filled, with Ryan frisking each boarder looking for guns and knives. "This is really crazy," he recalls thinking. View their profile including current address, phone number 415-785-XXXX, background check reports, and property record on Whitepages, the most trusted online directory. Aboard the truck and we took off during the early period ' have dead!, here are hundreds and hundreds of people who lay there around him ' was about hit men him. 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