And Stephan Jones sometimes thinks that he might have taken the poison, too. More than 900 people lived in the agricultural mission, with its dining pavilion, tidy cottages, school, medical facilities and rows of crops. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. 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 Nov. 18, 1978, then with the mass murders and suicides of hundreds, a horror that remains nearly unimaginable 40 years later. I wouldn't have run.". At 16, she was put on the Planning Commission where the meetings were a strange mix of church business, sex talk and adulation for Jones. "I think I knew it was just a bunch of junk and that it was really about nothing," Stephan Jones said. Vilchez worked as office manager at a private crime lab for 20 years and now, at 61, sells her artwork. Stephan escaped death with the Jonestown basketball team, Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. . She died in a tragic car accident only weeks before her mother, Marceline Mae Baldwin Jones, gave birth to her brother, Stephan Gandhi Jones. In California, he was steeped in temple life. Layton later was taken into custody by Guyanese authorities who seized a .38-caliber pistol and turned it over to U.S. Embassy officials. After the slaughter, Stephan Jones was arrested on suspicion of abetting the mass murder and spent three months in a Guyanese prison. "This is really crazy," he recalls thinking. target_type: 'mix' You used the word forgiveness, but I find love and compassion for him. And when her 23-year-old sister joined, Jordan went to live with her at age 12. His son was not among the boosters. mode: 'thumbnails-rr', Besides the tragic story behind his ancestors, Stephan Jones has set his great work as an actor in the Hollywood Industry. Some of the defectors told me later that the men in the trailer were members of Peoples Temple. 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. He has nine siblings, most of whom are now dead. ': 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 does not know. People were completely fatigued, exhausted. He called his church "Peoples Temple"--"Wings of Deliverance" had been tried earlier and discarded. Only two days later did the picture became clear. The guy you see in all the images. 'In an hour, that promise was broken.'. He was not prepared for suicide. It was planned as a grand event, the Peoples Temple team against the Guyanese national team, and when the Rev. As the larger plane landed, the temple truck, with several persons in the back, started to advance. Stephan Gandhi Jones. Hes 61 now. File photo: Stephan Jones, son of Rev. He is a businessman in Northern California, married, with three daughters. 'The reality was we were folks who could be counted on to stand up,' he said. I crawled until I came to taller bushes and brambles, clawing my way into a pocket in the brush. 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. "I think I'd probably be pretty messed up if I hadn't lost everybody I had and hadn't gone through the prison experience," Stephan Jones says. I think it was Dad controlling people through fear, me and my siblings when we were very young.. "It's like you went to a vacation in Europe and found out the United States had sunk," he says. He too was a member of the basketball team. I believe that it was always a personal agenda for my father, and yes, there was a gradual shift in the balance. 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. Cobb lost 11 relatives that day, including his mother, youngest brother and four sisters. Stephan Gandhi Joneswas the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones. Dozens of members in Guyana slipped out of Jonestown or happened to be away that day. Write by: . "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. "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. Stephan Jones and some other team members believe they might have changed history if they were there. "I don't know what was happening . . that one last act would be admitting he was a coward, and about nothing. Going by the first body count, the media reported 383 dead. This November 1978 file photo shows the bodies of Peoples Temple mass suicide victims led by Jim Jones in Jonestown, Guyana. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings. Stephan Jones is a Jonestown survivor. 'We were trying to build a new world, a progressive socialist organization.'. Do not sell or share my personal information. He is an actor, known for Written in Blood (2018), The People's. 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. Do you think people can ever see your father not just as a villain but as a complex figure? He was ill from when he was very young and was using fear to control me when I was barely more than a toddler. 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. Ollie worked in the nursery, and Eugene felled trees. . Finally, attorneys for both Ryan and the temple decreed that the courtroom was the proper place to decide the custody issue. container: 'taboola-right-rail-thumbnails', 'It looks like trouble,' I said to Greg Robinson, but he kept on shooting pictures. The temple was the only life he knew but says he always had his doubts. 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. 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. This November 1978 file photo shows the Peoples Temple compound, led by Jim Jones, after bodies were removed, in Jonestown, Guyana. Its not entirely surprising that many Americans and others want to understand how thousands of people can become blind followers of a tempestuous leader, and how it can end. I made that last trip with him and he made me stay in Jonestown. Read more about cookies here. I would say that there are times when its very enriching to speak with people about it All too often people want to write everyone off as a bunch of crazies. No one now living saw Jim Jones die, so there is some dispute about whether he also performed what he had taught his followers to call "revolutionary suicide." 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. Vilchez was dispatched to the Guyanese capital of Georgetown to raise money. Because people were disenchanted with him by that time? So yes, many people were disenchanted., Im sure he feared it and Im sure he had people telling him it existed. someone shouted, and the driver attempted to turn the truck around. He is charming. The slaughter at Jonestown was the worst civilian tragedy in U.S. history before September 11, 2001. The church provided free drug rehabilitation, medical care, food. We used curtains for bandages. He cries out, "My God, you're not dead!" [November 2008], View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro, Kristi Jones Partner : Ava Phenice Jones, aka Ava Phenice Brown, Ava Phenice Cobb. When he brushed away the mist below him he saw that it was a lifeless human limb. It would become a little town where people of all ages and colors raised food and children. "He always gave us a hug and a kiss, but it became more mechanical as time went by." It was just more controlled. I found relief in the woods and rivers and creeks, and I got away as often as I could, but there was always a low-level anxiety that I only really can identify now.. People do things for him. placement: 'Right Rail Thumbnails', View their profile including current address, phone number 415-785-XXXX, background check reports, and property record on Whitepages, the most trusted online directory. And I say, 'My name is Jones.' I think that Ill pick two. Instead of finishing high school, Vilchez moved to San Francisco, where she lived in the church. Another hit my wrist and knocked off my watch. Vilchez worked as office manager at a private crime lab for 20 years and now, at 61, sells her artwork. "And it could happen to anybody.". 'He made a promise - once we get to Jonestown there is no corporal punishment,' Smith said. My companion, Examiner photographer Greg Robinson, would be murdered in an ambush. Siblings by adoption include Agnes Paulette Jones (1943-1978); Stephan Gandhi Jones(Born 1959); Jimmy Jones, Jr. aka James Warren Jones, Jr.(born 1960); and Timothy Tupper aka Timothy Glenn Tupper Jones, Tim "Day" Jones (1959-1978). Little Jimmy became part of their Rainbow Family of white, black, Korean-American and Native American children. Hes never remarried, and Martin Luther Smith was his only child. container: 'taboola-below-article-thumbnails-2nd', Jim Jones had said as a tropical storm rained on the Peoples Temple pavilion. They have three children. While Jonestown: The Women Behind The Massacre focuses on the women who were involved with Jim Jones, Stephan continues to have empathy and love for his mother, who apparently struggled with her husband's affairs. Stephan Gandhi Jones, age 60s, lives in Petaluma, CA. "Because then it would have been like, 'I'm running out on these people. But the entertainers stayed in Jonestown to entertain Ryan. Stay in the game with the best sports newsletters from across the Postmedia network, Stay posted with the best sports newsletters from across the network, JONESTOWN SURVIVORS: Where they are 40 years later, Chris Rock will finally hit back at Will Smith over Oscars slap, Rich girl sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell sent to solitary confinement, Paulina Gretzky hits social media hole-in-one at LIV Golf kickoff tournament, Elizabeth Holmes has second child as she tries to avoid prison, Meghan Markle bummed Prince Harry 'had very little money': Royal expert. He used this kind of threat to control his people. They must be prepared to die in the defense of socialism. ", The thought of killing Jim Jones had occurred to his son, but Stephan never tried to do it. 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. He was in Georgetown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 with the Jonestown Basketball Team. " He smiles, imitates the sudden mask of disbelief. " In code, his father told him everyone was going to die in revolutionary suicide., I argued with my Dad, he said. mode: 'thumbnails-a', The Joneses adopted a black baby in Indiana in 1960, and Jim gave the 10-week-old infant his own name. When a friend invited her family to Peoples Temple's wine country church, they were impressed by the integrated community. .' "But there's a sadness . He saw that the jungle would make him a man. 'We were so scared, too, man, that they'd do this to you,' said one of the people who took us in. Photo by Eric Risberg / AP And it was necessary in my own healing for me to find acceptance for him, understanding of him. "They say, 'Yeah.' Jones, 44, is the only biological son of Jim Jones and his wife Marceline Baldwin who founded the cult behind Jonestown. 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