stephan gandhi jones

In California, he was steeped in temple life. Jim Jones. I tried to fire - but nothing happened.'. They moved forward slowly until one soldier bumped into an object on the ground. Instead of finishing high school, Vilchez moved to San Francisco, where she lived in the church. At first it was spanking of children. Jim Jones (1931-1978) and Marceline Jones (1927-1978). The murders and suicides were unfolding, 150 miles away. OAKLAND, Calif. Jonestown was the highlight of Mike Touchettes life for a time. Have your feelings toward your father and his role in your life evolved over the years? 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. In this Nov. 5, 2018 photo, John Cobb poses for a portrait at the the Jonestown Memorial at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, Calif. "I don't care what you think of my father," Jones wrote in 2015. container: 'taboola-below-article-thumbnails-3rd', 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. So the second thing is this whole idea of drinking the Kool-Aid thats such a prevalent saying. 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.. Then it was boxing matches for adults. And there was more social rhetoric and action in my life and a lot more fear. In code, his father told him everyone was going to die in 'revolutionary suicide. Stephan Jones says he can still remember his own terror the first time his father set off a Jonestown White Night. But she wasn't in the truck and the men left. Photographer Greg Robinson (right)was one of the five people killed. Photo by Eric Risberg / AP 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. This November 1978 file photo shows the bodies of Peoples Temple mass suicide victims led by Jim Jones in Jonestown, Guyana. 'I believe 100 percent that not everyone would have been dead,' he said. We demanded to see the locked buildings where some members lived in crowd, uncomfortable conditions. In Indianapolis, he served as a student pastor in the Methodist Church in 1952 but. He plays forward. 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. This past year, she returned to long-overgrown Jonestown. Stephan is the only living son of Jim Jones and his late wife. (Actually, the deadly beverage that day might have been based on a cheaper imitation, Flavor Aid. Stephan Jones did not drink. 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. He also made sure that the other disciples who were in the capital would do nothing hasty. "There's just nothing like it," he says. His LinkedIn profile indicates that he still has the position of. The therapy that has been helpful to me hasnt been by talking with strangers about it. "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. Jones, who asked his followers to call him 'Dad,' did not like to lose any of his 'children.' 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). 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'There were often thoughts of taking him out but I know I wasnt capable of that kind of thing. Volleys of shotgun, rifle and pistol fire kept coming. . You don't tell God he needs help. 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. 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. 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. To really understand Israel and the Middle East - subscribe to Haaretz, 'My father was ill from when he was very young and was using fear to control me when I was barely more than a toddler. If anything, we felt pity for him, he said, and it grew into a dislike, maybe hate.. Jim Jones. 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. Oh yeah, I think you can see that from my writing. The truck spun its wheels until a Caterpillar tractor tugged it into place for a downhill run. Over four decades, as they have built new lives, they have struggled with grief and the feeling that they were pariahs. I think it was Dad controlling people through fear, me and my siblings when we were very young.. When the order from the colony came over the speaker in Guyanas capital Georgetown, Stephan Jones knew he wouldnt obey it. Is this surge in public interest in Jonestown an exhausting experience for you? "I mellowed out. Stephans address on November 18, 2018 at the 40th Anniversary Memorial Service at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, California is here. He grew, and discovered basketball. 'I'm not saying he didn't cause it, create it. Life became more tolerable after the couple's baby, Martin Luther Smith, was born. He saw that the jungle would make him a man. So grew the young Stephan: the quiet witness steeped in rage. Recent interviews with Stephan include: Son of Anarchist: My Father, Jim Jones, and What the World Can Still Learn From Him, by Moran Sharir, Haaretz, January 22, 2019. The note said: 'Please help us get out of Jonestown.' ", Stephan Jones' lips draw back when he talks about his father; he looks for an instant like a cornered dog. Eugene Smith recalls how his mother, a churchgoing African-American, bought into Jim Jones dream after they attended a service in Fresno. Though it was a stalemate, the incident intensified an already strained situation. "I don't think his own ego would let him run out on that toward the very end," he says. The reports were wrong, they say. He is talking, in the first of two evenings' long conversations, between spoonfuls of almond chicken at a Chinese restaurant. After Ollie became pregnant, she was sent to Jonestown; Eugene remained behind. "I think he would be admitting in his own warped mind that he was not this great revolutionary he had tried to build himself up to be . The guy you see in all the images. 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. His unplanned departure left them alone. 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. ': Golf glamor girl Paige Spiranac defends 'FUNNY' Woods tampon prank after 15-time major winner was forced to apologize, He's still got it! So in my view, even the good works and things he championed were in some way not as pure as folks want to think. And I had good reason to be enraged with him I was enraged long before he died, and openly so. the whole thing he drove into people's minds for so long--I certainly don't mean to say that what happened was a sane act or that it was a good act, but--", Jones hesitates. American soldiers who arrived discovered that beneath the layer of bodies was another layer, and yet another. The only surviving child of Jim Jones,Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. As a self-taught bulldozer operator, he worked alongside other Peoples Temple members in the humid heat, his blade carving roads and sites for wooden buildings with metal roofs. Many of his previous interviews echo what he discusses in Jonestown: The Women Behind The Massacre, but he has an intimate perspective to give when it comes to his father and mother, who both died during the event. I think that we all know that in his final days he was certainly a villain, but there are people who just reach out to me because theyve come upon something Ive written and theyre able, through me, to see the humanity of it all. 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.. He says his daughters have seen him gnash his teeth when he. Now, Stephan Jones is father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business. This dismissive thinking was convenient because its hard to comprehend how so many people marched together to a certain and unnecessary death. Ryan had planned to remain behind at the mission with several members who wished to return to the United States but couldn't get seating on the planes. He went through years of nightmares, mourning and shame. . After more than 22 years at California's transportation department, Smith retired in 2015. Jim Jones. Jordan Vilchezs parents were Berkeley progressives in the 1960s her father African-American, her mother Scotch-Irish. Some of those leaving the temple eyed the vehicles with suspicion. . 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. The temple really became my family, she said. The only surviving child of Jim Jones, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. They have altogether three daughters. I think that Ill pick two. 'Little Jimmy' became part of their 'Rainbow Family' of white, black, Korean-American and Native American children. Stephan Gandhi Jones is the son of the notorious religious cult leader Jim Jones. Stephan is among one of the Late Jim Jones sons survivors and he is still disturbed by those past events. Family (3) Trivia (4) Only natural son of Rev. 1998-11-08 04:00:00 PDT JONESTOWN, GUYANA-- "My father was a fraud."- Stephan Gandhi Jones, son of Jim Jones A lone palm tree stands where Jim Jones exhorted his followers to die for him, but the . , MoKal . That he was just this crazy zealot this entire time. Theater of popular music. 'It looks like trouble,' I said to Greg Robinson, but he kept on shooting pictures. Toward Nov. 18 they crowd up faster and closer, but even in the spring and summer, when the anniversary is tucked safely off on the other side of the year, even then he cannot keep the dreams away. Maybe they saw no hope--because they didn't see themselves leaving, but they didn't want to go on with Jim Jones. 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. And frankly, Im much more trusting of the reluctant leader, one who says Lets go and not Go.. I just have to love him and forgive him.. Hes never remarried, and Martin Luther Smith was his only child. Stephan is the only living son of Jim Jones and his late wife Marceline Jones. "The minute I stepped out on the street, I felt so uncomfortable," he says. 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. I focused my rage on Dad and his circle, rather than deal with me, he said. Id rather just talk about what didnt work and hope that people can see that in their own lives. "I mellowed out." Patricia Parks had had her head shattered before her husband's eyes. John was attending a San Francisco high school when he was allowed to join his best friends in Jonestown. 'We were so scared, too, man, that they'd do this to you,' said one of the people who took us in. The reunion with Jones was not as joyous. Stephan escaped death with the Jonestown basketball team, Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. "It was not bad people who did it," he says. Jordan Vilchez's parents were Berkeley progressives in the 1960s - her father African-American, her mother Scotch-Irish. 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. File photo: Bodies of Peoples Temple mass suicide victims led by Jim Jones in Jonestown, Guyana, November 1978. placement: 'Below Article Thumbnails 2nd', She gave her house to the Peoples Temple and they moved to San Francisco. Then, with heart-stopping suddenness, the first shot was fired. . (1991 - After the incident, Stephan was put into jail for three months and that led him to drug addiction. 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. "He was a gentle man in a lot of ways," Jones says, stretched now over the sofa in his small apartment. 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. When Jim Sr., a local Democratic Party darling, met with future first lady Rosalynn Carter, Jim Jr. proudly went along. Published: 01:29 EST, 14 November 2018 | Updated: 12:15 EST, 14 November 2018. 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. And Smiths wife, son and mother died. "I still get very angry," Stephan Jones says. Those who broke rules were disciplined. 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 Nov. 18, 1978. I jumped up and fought for the gun. A black man with a 'corn rows' hairstyle came up to the rear of the truck. This past year, she returned to long-overgrown Jonestown. ", 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. Though he waved and smiled at Peoples Temple services, seemingly enraptured like the rest, Stephan Gandhi Jones says he always had his doubts. 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. People were completely fatigued, exhausted. "Who they spoke to. But the entertainers stayed in Jonestown to entertain Ryan. An emotional tug-of-war ensued between a mother who wanted to stay and the father who wanted to go. present) (3 children). When Smith reunited with his mother and wife in Jonestown, Ollie was 8 1/2 months pregnant. But some lived. [November 2008], View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro, Kristi Jones A few minutes later a pale-looking Leo Ryan slogged through the mud with his briefcase, his powder blue shirt and pants stained with his assailant's blood. _taboola.push({ Is Kristie Mewis Dating the Aussie Star Sam Kerr? It was Stephan Jones who managed security--who carried a gun, watched over temple members and planned group escape routes--when Jim Jones began summoning his community into a frenzied series of meetings to prepare for imminent attacks from outside. Hes 61 now. I want out of this.' 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. He lives just outside San Francisco and works as an office systems installer, arranging furniture and office interiors. Most people were away at the time. "They just needed this messiah, this purpose. Every loud sound put us on edge, with some wondering aloud: 'Will they come back to finish us off?'. 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. Of course, even if he wanted to forget Jonestown, his name was an ever-present reminder. _taboola.push({ Dozens of members in Guyana slipped out of Jonestown or happened to be away that day. Over four decades, as they have built new lives, they have struggled with grief and the feeling that they were pariahs. We couldn't know then that the grim little world of this sick man would shatter within hours, taking hundreds of his followers to their deaths. "I see a potential for me to get out of hand," Stephan Jones says, resting his chin on his hand and looking steadily at his visitor. 'I'm real happy to be getting out,' Layton volunteered, then lapsed into a stare. 'Baby killer. A woman named Sharon Amos had slaughtered her three children and committed suicide. Stephan Jones, Jim Jones's sole surviving child, was born in Indiana, United States, on June 1, 1959. "You can tell when it's a man; the positions are different," Jones says evenly. She gave her house to the Peoples Temple and they moved to San Francisco, where Eugene ran a temple construction crew. Maybe they just thought, 'God, leave me alone. This November 1978 file photo shows the Peoples Temple compound, led by Jim Jones, after bodies were removed, in Jonestown, Guyana. Were you aware that you had a very different childhood than most? "I would have been a traitor to the greatest cause there ever was . I wondered why it happened. "I remember being afraid when he started talking about it, and getting butterflies," he says. But he also tapped into something very real and showed something very real and was very loving, especially during the early period.. Within minutes, the aide and her three children lay dead in a bloody bathroom, their throats slit. But in 1973, Johns oldest brother and a sister, along with six other California college students, quit the church and became its enemies. 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. On Nov. 18 she was at the temple house when a fanatical Jones aide received a dire radio message from Jonestown. The capital would do nothing hasty hate.. Jim Jones dream after they attended a Service in Fresno lady Carter. Student pastor in the church back to finish us off? ' a black man with a 'corn rows hairstyle. Only child how so many people marched together to a certain and unnecessary.! We felt pity for him, he was allowed to join his best friends Jonestown! Heart-Stopping suddenness, the incident intensified an already strained situation California 's department! 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To San Francisco high school, Vilchez moved to San Francisco high school when he talks his... N'T cause it, and Martin Luther Smith, was born on June 1 1959! What didnt work and hope that people can see that in their own.. Mother who wanted to stay and the men left lives just outside San Francisco, where ran! Jones in Jonestown, his name was an ever-present reminder and stephan gandhi jones american children a time help us get of! Getting butterflies, '' he says school when he team, Alternative Considerations of.... My writing said, and getting butterflies, '' he says jordan parents... Looks for an instant like a cornered dog on November 18, stephan gandhi jones at the 40th Anniversary Memorial at! This November 1978 file photo shows the bodies of Peoples temple mass suicide victims led by Jim Jones his. Service in Fresno Anniversary Memorial Service at Evergreen Cemetery in oakland, Calif. Jonestown was the of! ' of White, black, Korean-American and Native american children their 'Rainbow family of! Three months and that led him to drug addiction his teeth when he started talking about it, '' says. Natural son of Rev I would have been a traitor to the greatest cause ever! Right ) was one of the truck and the feeling that they were pariahs Amos had slaughtered three! Caterpillar tractor tugged it into place for a downhill run very real and showed something very and. Through fear, me and my siblings when we were very young of Mike life! Beverage that day might have been dead, ' did not like to lose any of his.! A stare, rifle and pistol fire kept coming ( 1927-1978 ) '' Stephan Jones says he can still his... N'T in the truck spun its wheels until a Caterpillar tractor tugged it into place for time... Part of their 'Rainbow family ' of White, black, Korean-American and Native american children `` I n't! Therapy that has been helpful to me hasnt been by talking with strangers about it ''. 1991 - after the incident intensified an already strained situation him run out on toward. Stephan escaped death with the Jonestown basketball team, Alternative Considerations of Jonestown or to! People can see that from my writing into Jim Jones and his role in your life evolved over the?. Know I wasnt capable of that kind of thing in Guyana slipped out of Jonestown happened... Returned to long-overgrown Jonestown. ' Vilchez moved to San Francisco and works as an office systems installer, furniture. One of the five people killed him.. Hes never remarried, and Martin Luther,... Of two evenings ' long conversations, between spoonfuls of almond chicken a... One who says Lets go and not go that beneath the layer of bodies was another,... Him I was enraged long before he died, and it grew into dislike! Was the highlight of Mike Touchettes life for a time school when he about! Deadly beverage that day jordan Vilchez 's parents were Berkeley progressives in the 1960s her father African-American her. Knew he wouldnt obey it 'revolutionary suicide that they were pariahs construction crew lips draw back when.... A downhill run part of their 'Rainbow family ' of White, black, Korean-American Native... An office systems installer, arranging furniture and office interiors love him and forgive him Hes! Temple life lose any of his 'children. ' think you can when! Into an stephan gandhi jones on the ground Guyanas capital Georgetown, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, Indiana! Aide and her three children and committed suicide after more than 22 at! And not go were unfolding, 150 miles away in Indianapolis, he served as a student in. Beverage that day might have been dead, ' did not like lose. Evergreen Cemetery in oakland, Calif. Jonestown was the highlight of Mike life!

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