They were at a basketball tournament five years ago, in November 1978 when the congressman and the reporters came to Jonestown. ", Stephan Jones used to say he could have stopped the slaughter if he had been there. "Right off the bat I explain to them that my father was nuts, that he was a drug addict," he 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. White devil.' Stephan Jones was 6 years old, the only biological child of James and Marceline Baldwin Jones, when his father moved from Indiana to northern California with his family and 140 of the parishioners who had come to believe there was something extraordinary about the Rev. 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. 'I focused my rage on Dad and his circle, rather than deal with me,' he said. 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. Anthony Katsaris, brother of Jim Jones aide Maria Katsaris, was wounded in the chest. But she wasn't in the truck and the men left. He fired at me, but it misfired. ', Forty years ago this week, a California congressman and a group of journalists traveled to Guyana, South America, to see Jonestown, a remote settlement created by an American church, and investigate reports of abuses of members.. A large poncho covered his belt area so no one knew for sure and no one challenged him. 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. 1959: The Joneses adopted Suzanne (b. Thank goodness he lived before me.". On Nov. 18, the day Rep. Leo Ryan and four others were shot to death on the airstrip at Port Caituma, Guyana, Stephan Jones and his teammates went to the movies in Georgetown. You want a revolution. 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. In "Raven," the detailed Jim Jones biography by Tim Reiterman and John Jacobs, it is Stephan Jones who stands in the shadows as his father lies and fakes and bends the people around him, his sickness mounting through the years. Another hit my wrist and knocked off my watch. When Jim Sr., a local Democratic Party darling, met with future first lady Rosalyn Carter, Jim Jr. proudly went along. More than 300 Jonestown victims were children. In Ukiah, Stephan tired of the repetitive, high-energy Temple sessions and would sometimes sneak out with his friends and brothers. The phrase drinking the Kool-Aid, meaning to follow someone blindly, was born that day in Guyana. Stephan Jones, Jim Joness sole surviving child, was born in Indiana, United States, on June 1, 1959. After that I didnt sleep well last night., I wouldnt say therapeutic. So in my view, even the good works and things he championed were in some way not as pure as folks want to think. 'The temple really became my family,' she said. He arrived in the U.S. in 1967 as a medical graduate WebStephan Jones. 'This is really crazy,' he recalls thinking. Stephan Gandhi Jones was the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones. She entered Guyana on August 10, 1977. Later, when they attended public school in Ukiah, Stephan and his siblings would fight at home but band together in public, with Stephan sometimes getting physically violent with other students in his defense of his siblings (who were sometimes attacked with racialized hate-speech)(Reiterman 181). She was skilled as a Nurse; Practical nurse; and care home operator. "I was still naive enough--well, not necessarily naive enough; I still believe the CIA is capable of all kinds of things--but I felt that we could geniunely be a threat to the image of the United States and that people might be trying to do things to undermine or eliminate what was happening down there," he says. People were completely fatigued, exhausted. WebBirth. Vilchez worked as office manager at a private crime lab for 20 years and now, at 61, sells her artwork. Learn How rich is He in this year and how He spends money? He was in Georgetown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 with the Jonestown Basketball Team. "I got sick of the same speeches, the insisting people stay awake, the constantly testing people." 
As Stephan Jones and a few others were walking away, they heard a gunshot and raced back to Jones hut, where they found him on the floor in shock, but unharmed. A black man with a 'corn rows' hairstyle came up to the rear of the truck. . present) (3 children). . PORT KAITUMA, Guyana - 'I feel sorry that we are being destroyed from within,' the Rev. In the days before Ryans fact-finding mission to the settlement, the players were in Georgetown for a tourney with the Guyana national teams. During the long night, the temple defectors told us that all the horror stories about Jim Jones and the church were true. They could leave any time they want.'. A loud series of pops echoed across the field. 1961: The Joneses adopted James Warren Jones Jr. (b. He was just 14, Stephan Jones and some other team members believe they might have changed history if they were there. Death. Some had the distinct impression that the two were close to opening fire on the truck. Stephan stalled, asking the regular radio operators if Jones had requested this and called it off before, which they affirmed. James Warren Jones, Sr. 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. I dropped to my belly. He limps this month, still recovering from a broken ankle bone that went undetected for a while, but when he is well he picks up a regular game in San Francisco, sometimes with the young men he played with before--the basketball team from the Peoples Temple settlement at Jonestown, Guyana. Stephan spent many hours visiting with her whenever he got the chance (Reiterman 400). Now, Stephan Jones is father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business. He rode bulldozers, dodged falling trees, killed snakes, lit brush fires and rode the slow boats upriver with loads of cut wood for flooring and walls. America was a genuinely unfriendly place for a boy from an interracial family and community, and Jim Jones knew how to fan that into a fear of everything that lay beyond the temple walls. 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. Because Dad was such a mess . 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'. The only surviving child of Jim Jones, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. He did. 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. But even Stephan Jones never imagined that death would come the way it did, so redolent of madness and evil, so savage that a kind of panic still crawls into his voice when he talks about it. I had been up all night unloading boats and I had to be at work in a couple of hours so I lay down for two hours of sleep after backbreaking and dangerous work, and Dad comes on the speaker in the wee hours of the morning. 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. 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. 
'When I left at 21, I left a part of myself there,' she said. In 1991, he married Kristi Jones, and they had three children together (IMBd). WebStephan Jones (Stephan Gandhi Jones) was born on 1 June, 1959 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, is an Actor. Stephan believed that church members preferred Jimmy (James Jones Jr.) over him, which sometimes resulted in teasing and fights between the two (Reiterman 104). Now, Stephan Jones is father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business. Maybe they saw no hope--because they didn't see themselves leaving, but they didn't want to go on with Jim Jones. When his mother eventually moved to Jonestown, he bonded with her over their anger toward Jim Jones (Reiterman 401). Greg's body was near the boarding steps with his camera bag and cameras scattered around him. This return to the cult of Jim Jones is part of a re-examination of dangerous cults and movements in Americas past, like the Osho cult, which had a similar murderous potential. Other Works You don't tell God he needs help. "I don't know what was happening . We demanded to see the locked buildings where some members lived in crowd, uncomfortable conditions. How do you explain the renewed interest in the Peoples Temple? Since his father, Late Jim Jones, carried out a horrendous massacre in Jonestown on Nov. 18, 1978, Stephan Jones, Jim Jones 59-year-old son, has been through a lot. Stephan fought him, swore at him, obeyed him, contemplated killing him, argued with his mother about how to bring Jim Jones under control. Hundreds of corpses were lying on the ground in front of them. '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., 'Being in Jonestown before Jim got there was the best thing in my life.'. 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. After the Jonestown massacre, Stephan moved back to San Francisco, where he stayed in close contact with other survivors of Peoples Temple, including the members of the basketball team. When he arrived back to the Lamaha Gardens house, he found that one of Jones dedicated followers, Sharon Amos, had killed her children and committed suicide (Reiterman 545). Where they were lying. Retrieved December 10, 2022, from https://www.haaretz.com/life/2019-01-22/ty-article-magazine/.premium/four-decades-on-jim-jones-son-tells-how-it-was-at-jonestown/0000017f-e640-d62c-a1ff-fe7b2ea00000, A collaborative project of Cowles Library at Drake University and the Special Collections Department of Library and Information Access at San Diego State University, Chronological List of Annotated Documents, Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1983/11/07/jonestowns-haunted-son/f9369588-008b-497a-9ad3-b303dc01a8df/, https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=17058, https://www.haaretz.com/life/2019-01-22/ty-article-magazine/.premium/four-decades-on-jim-jones-son-tells-how-it-was-at-jonestown/0000017f-e640-d62c-a1ff-fe7b2ea00000. The soldiers realized very quickly that the enemy wasnt waiting for them. Discover Stephan Jones's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. He is charming. I crawled until I came to taller bushes and brambles, clawing my way into a pocket in the brush. 'Hit the deck!' There was a gaping wound in his shoulder and possibly his ribs. Richmond, Wayne County, Indiana, USA. On Nov. 18 she was at the temple house when a fanatical Jones aide received a dire radio message from Jonestown. When Smith reunited with his mother and wife in Jonestown, Ollie was 8 months pregnant. There were times when Jones reassured Stephan, or convinced him that they were a special pair. Stephan believed that that time in prison helped prepare him for re-entry into the world, and helped him to mellow out (Gorney). Do not sell or share my personal information. 'I was his son.' WebStephan Gandhi Jones, the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones, said the temple was his life _ first in Indiana, later in California. The expression was born of the perception that Jim Jones disciples were gullible people who gladly drank the poison because their leader told them it would do them good. Some scowling faces appeared in the windows that rainy afternoon, watching the defectors leave, some with trunks and others with little more than the clothes on their backs. 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 that day, The bodies of five people, including Rep. Leo J. Ryan, D-Calif., are shown above on the airstrip at Port Kaittuma, Guyana, after an ambush by members of the Peoples Temple cult on November 18, 1978, John Cobb looks at names of family members on the Jonestown Memorial in Oakland, California. Eventually, when it came close to poison being rolled out, Stephan muttered, Oh fuck, and Jones jumped on the opportunity, claiming Stephan was too afraid to die, and using that as the redirection to call off the White Night (Reiterman 426). 19621964: The Jones family resided in Brazil. A bit later the number was revised upward to 408. . They have three children. I get it, Im not upset about that. He is married to his wife Kristi Jones since When a friend invited her family to Peoples Temple's wine country church, they were impressed by the integrated community. It makes him a little crazy sometimes. He has been married to Kristi Jones since 1991. What would you say is the biggest misconception people have about the Peoples Temple or your father? So it was not this grand march to death, far from it. Jim Jr., followed that July and was 16 years old at the time. Some of his siblings were adopted, so they arent well-known. However, approximately a month before Stephans birth, Stephanie passed away in a car accident. I see it in politics, I see it in advertising, I see it in a variety of places, and I feel theres no more pernicious or toxic belief than that. The minister gave the ritual a special name: White Night. 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. She gave her house to the Peoples Temple and they moved to San Francisco, where Eugene ran a temple construction crew. And Smith's wife, son and mother died. This past year, she returned to long-overgrown Jonestown. WebMini Bio (1) Stephan Jones was born on June 1, 1959 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. The first attacks on the town, I thought they were real. Haaretz.com. And frankly, Im much more trusting of the reluctant leader, one who says Lets go and not Go.. They felt there was an outside threat, and that was hammered into them. Its not that I had better sight than others; I had a better view of it and it really broke for me when he was unfaithful to my mother and told her about it in detail.. 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. At the end of Ryan's two-day visit to the mission Saturday, a woman suddenly charged down a slippery boardwalk shouting at her husband, 'I'll kill you! When the order from the colony came over the speaker in Guyanas capital Georgetown, Stephan Jones knew he wouldnt obey it. In "Raven," Reiterman and Jacobs describe the minister presenting the congregation with a batch of fruit punch: "We're going to drink poison and kill ourselves," Jim Jones declared, and it was not until many people had drunk that Jones said he had simply wished to test his followers' loyalty. Photographer Greg Robinson (right)was one of the five people killed. .' 
I want out of this.' The slaughter at Jonestown was the worst civilian tragedy in U.S. history before September 11, 2001. In a 2019 interview, Stephan stated, I just wish people could understand what was attractive about him. Sharir, M. (2019, January 22). He was so wasted most of the time. He called his church "Peoples Temple"--"Wings of Deliverance" had been tried earlier and discarded. He has been married to Kristi Jones since 1991. Richmond, Wayne County, Indiana, USA. Then he decides it is time, and he falters, and he tells them they may not believe what he is about to say. "I don't even know who my loved ones were with when they died," he says softly. When the prodigals visited, the Cobbs kept it secret from Jones. Jim Jr., followed that July and was 16 years old at the time. Also dead was Bob Brown, the NBC cameraman and the kind of guy who loved action stories. There are moments when he glimpses the edges of power and understands precisely how it might be used. It was the first significant moment of disillusionment for many of Stephans brothers, and led to Tim approaching Stephan with talks of killing Jones. "I just say something like, 'You remember Jonestown?' WebStephan Gandhi Jones, the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones, said the temple was his life _ first in Indiana, later in California. Stephan believed he was too cowardly to follow through with the oft-threatened 'revolutionary suicide. After the massacre, Layton strolled back to the area. 'Like everyone else, he died there,' his son said. . So grew the young Stephan: the quiet witness steeped in rage. Eventually he married and had three children (IMDb), and as of 2022 he continues to be active in education around Jonestown, writing articles and contributing to multiple documentaries. In the radio room at the Lamaha Gardens house in Georgetown, where the basketball team was staying, Jones called Stephan over the radio and implored him to Please, please, take care of everyone there; to ensure that not only Tim Stoen and the enemies of the Temple dead, but that every member in San Francisco and Georgetown died as well (Reiterman 542). Jim Jones had said as a tropical storm rained on the Peoples Temple pavilion. I would either have had to fight, or I would have taken it. And he just went unchecked. 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. They don't normally believe it at first. 
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Us that all the horror stories about Jim Jones, Jim Jr., that... Had been tried earlier and discarded have stopped the slaughter if he had there... The days before Ryans fact-finding mission to the Peoples Temple pavilion I came to Jonestown, he married Kristi since. Stephan, or convinced him that they were there she said some of his siblings were adopted, they... Testing people. followers to drink the Kool-Aid 1 ) Stephan Jones was born on 1 June, 1959 in... Jr. ( b Brown, the NBC cameraman and the kind of guy who loved action stories do tell! Your father he recalls thinking to taller bushes and brambles, clawing my way into a pocket the... Other Works you do n't tell God he needs help his followers to drink Kool-Aid...
As Stephan Jones and a few others were walking away, they heard a gunshot and raced back to Jones hut, where they found him on the floor in shock, but unharmed. A black man with a 'corn rows' hairstyle came up to the rear of the truck. . present) (3 children). . PORT KAITUMA, Guyana - 'I feel sorry that we are being destroyed from within,' the Rev. In the days before Ryans fact-finding mission to the settlement, the players were in Georgetown for a tourney with the Guyana national teams. During the long night, the temple defectors told us that all the horror stories about Jim Jones and the church were true. They could leave any time they want.'. A loud series of pops echoed across the field. 1961: The Joneses adopted James Warren Jones Jr. (b. He was just 14, Stephan Jones and some other team members believe they might have changed history if they were there. Death. Some had the distinct impression that the two were close to opening fire on the truck. Stephan stalled, asking the regular radio operators if Jones had requested this and called it off before, which they affirmed. James Warren Jones, Sr. 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. I dropped to my belly. He limps this month, still recovering from a broken ankle bone that went undetected for a while, but when he is well he picks up a regular game in San Francisco, sometimes with the young men he played with before--the basketball team from the Peoples Temple settlement at Jonestown, Guyana. Stephan spent many hours visiting with her whenever he got the chance (Reiterman 400). Now, Stephan Jones is father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business. He rode bulldozers, dodged falling trees, killed snakes, lit brush fires and rode the slow boats upriver with loads of cut wood for flooring and walls. America was a genuinely unfriendly place for a boy from an interracial family and community, and Jim Jones knew how to fan that into a fear of everything that lay beyond the temple walls. 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. Because Dad was such a mess . 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'. The only surviving child of Jim Jones, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. He did. 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. But even Stephan Jones never imagined that death would come the way it did, so redolent of madness and evil, so savage that a kind of panic still crawls into his voice when he talks about it. I had been up all night unloading boats and I had to be at work in a couple of hours so I lay down for two hours of sleep after backbreaking and dangerous work, and Dad comes on the speaker in the wee hours of the morning. 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. 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. 'When I left at 21, I left a part of myself there,' she said. In 1991, he married Kristi Jones, and they had three children together (IMBd). WebStephan Jones (Stephan Gandhi Jones) was born on 1 June, 1959 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, is an Actor. Stephan believed that church members preferred Jimmy (James Jones Jr.) over him, which sometimes resulted in teasing and fights between the two (Reiterman 104). Now, Stephan Jones is father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business. Maybe they saw no hope--because they didn't see themselves leaving, but they didn't want to go on with Jim Jones. When his mother eventually moved to Jonestown, he bonded with her over their anger toward Jim Jones (Reiterman 401). Greg's body was near the boarding steps with his camera bag and cameras scattered around him. This return to the cult of Jim Jones is part of a re-examination of dangerous cults and movements in Americas past, like the Osho cult, which had a similar murderous potential. Other Works You don't tell God he needs help. "I don't know what was happening . We demanded to see the locked buildings where some members lived in crowd, uncomfortable conditions. How do you explain the renewed interest in the Peoples Temple? Since his father, Late Jim Jones, carried out a horrendous massacre in Jonestown on Nov. 18, 1978, Stephan Jones, Jim Jones 59-year-old son, has been through a lot. Stephan fought him, swore at him, obeyed him, contemplated killing him, argued with his mother about how to bring Jim Jones under control. Hundreds of corpses were lying on the ground in front of them. '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., 'Being in Jonestown before Jim got there was the best thing in my life.'. 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. After the Jonestown massacre, Stephan moved back to San Francisco, where he stayed in close contact with other survivors of Peoples Temple, including the members of the basketball team. When he arrived back to the Lamaha Gardens house, he found that one of Jones dedicated followers, Sharon Amos, had killed her children and committed suicide (Reiterman 545). Where they were lying. Retrieved December 10, 2022, from https://www.haaretz.com/life/2019-01-22/ty-article-magazine/.premium/four-decades-on-jim-jones-son-tells-how-it-was-at-jonestown/0000017f-e640-d62c-a1ff-fe7b2ea00000, A collaborative project of Cowles Library at Drake University and the Special Collections Department of Library and Information Access at San Diego State University, Chronological List of Annotated Documents, Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1983/11/07/jonestowns-haunted-son/f9369588-008b-497a-9ad3-b303dc01a8df/, https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=17058, https://www.haaretz.com/life/2019-01-22/ty-article-magazine/.premium/four-decades-on-jim-jones-son-tells-how-it-was-at-jonestown/0000017f-e640-d62c-a1ff-fe7b2ea00000. The soldiers realized very quickly that the enemy wasnt waiting for them. Discover Stephan Jones's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. He is charming. I crawled until I came to taller bushes and brambles, clawing my way into a pocket in the brush. 'Hit the deck!' There was a gaping wound in his shoulder and possibly his ribs. Richmond, Wayne County, Indiana, USA. On Nov. 18 she was at the temple house when a fanatical Jones aide received a dire radio message from Jonestown. When Smith reunited with his mother and wife in Jonestown, Ollie was 8 months pregnant. There were times when Jones reassured Stephan, or convinced him that they were a special pair. Stephan believed that that time in prison helped prepare him for re-entry into the world, and helped him to mellow out (Gorney). Do not sell or share my personal information. 'I was his son.' WebStephan Gandhi Jones, the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones, said the temple was his life _ first in Indiana, later in California. The expression was born of the perception that Jim Jones disciples were gullible people who gladly drank the poison because their leader told them it would do them good. Some scowling faces appeared in the windows that rainy afternoon, watching the defectors leave, some with trunks and others with little more than the clothes on their backs. 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 that day, The bodies of five people, including Rep. Leo J. Ryan, D-Calif., are shown above on the airstrip at Port Kaittuma, Guyana, after an ambush by members of the Peoples Temple cult on November 18, 1978, John Cobb looks at names of family members on the Jonestown Memorial in Oakland, California. Eventually, when it came close to poison being rolled out, Stephan muttered, Oh fuck, and Jones jumped on the opportunity, claiming Stephan was too afraid to die, and using that as the redirection to call off the White Night (Reiterman 426). 19621964: The Jones family resided in Brazil. A bit later the number was revised upward to 408. . They have three children. I get it, Im not upset about that. He is married to his wife Kristi Jones since When a friend invited her family to Peoples Temple's wine country church, they were impressed by the integrated community. It makes him a little crazy sometimes. He has been married to Kristi Jones since 1991. What would you say is the biggest misconception people have about the Peoples Temple or your father? So it was not this grand march to death, far from it. Jim Jr., followed that July and was 16 years old at the time. Some of his siblings were adopted, so they arent well-known. However, approximately a month before Stephans birth, Stephanie passed away in a car accident. I see it in politics, I see it in advertising, I see it in a variety of places, and I feel theres no more pernicious or toxic belief than that. The minister gave the ritual a special name: White Night. 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. She gave her house to the Peoples Temple and they moved to San Francisco, where Eugene ran a temple construction crew. And Smith's wife, son and mother died. This past year, she returned to long-overgrown Jonestown. WebMini Bio (1) Stephan Jones was born on June 1, 1959 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. The first attacks on the town, I thought they were real. Haaretz.com. And frankly, Im much more trusting of the reluctant leader, one who says Lets go and not Go.. They felt there was an outside threat, and that was hammered into them. Its not that I had better sight than others; I had a better view of it and it really broke for me when he was unfaithful to my mother and told her about it in detail.. 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. At the end of Ryan's two-day visit to the mission Saturday, a woman suddenly charged down a slippery boardwalk shouting at her husband, 'I'll kill you! When the order from the colony came over the speaker in Guyanas capital Georgetown, Stephan Jones knew he wouldnt obey it. In "Raven," Reiterman and Jacobs describe the minister presenting the congregation with a batch of fruit punch: "We're going to drink poison and kill ourselves," Jim Jones declared, and it was not until many people had drunk that Jones said he had simply wished to test his followers' loyalty. Photographer Greg Robinson (right)was one of the five people killed. .' I want out of this.' The slaughter at Jonestown was the worst civilian tragedy in U.S. history before September 11, 2001. In a 2019 interview, Stephan stated, I just wish people could understand what was attractive about him. Sharir, M. (2019, January 22). He was so wasted most of the time. He called his church "Peoples Temple"--"Wings of Deliverance" had been tried earlier and discarded. He has been married to Kristi Jones since 1991. Richmond, Wayne County, Indiana, USA. Then he decides it is time, and he falters, and he tells them they may not believe what he is about to say. "I don't even know who my loved ones were with when they died," he says softly. When the prodigals visited, the Cobbs kept it secret from Jones. Jim Jr., followed that July and was 16 years old at the time. Also dead was Bob Brown, the NBC cameraman and the kind of guy who loved action stories. There are moments when he glimpses the edges of power and understands precisely how it might be used. It was the first significant moment of disillusionment for many of Stephans brothers, and led to Tim approaching Stephan with talks of killing Jones. "I just say something like, 'You remember Jonestown?' WebStephan Gandhi Jones, the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones, said the temple was his life _ first in Indiana, later in California. Stephan believed he was too cowardly to follow through with the oft-threatened 'revolutionary suicide. After the massacre, Layton strolled back to the area. 'Like everyone else, he died there,' his son said. . So grew the young Stephan: the quiet witness steeped in rage. Eventually he married and had three children (IMDb), and as of 2022 he continues to be active in education around Jonestown, writing articles and contributing to multiple documentaries. 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