While rumors of untold millions still find their way into various Internet postings – some associated with rumors that Jim Jones survived the events of November 18, and is still living comfortably with some of his most trusted lieutenants who escaped with him – the most credible accounting comes from the files of the Receiver who was tasked by a California court with recovering and distributing the Temple’s assets in the first few years after the deaths in Jonestown.

A San Francisco court appointed attorney Robert Fabian as Receiver to identify and amass what monies and properties he could locate. Working from the Temple’s records and with the cooperation of surviving members of the financial staff, Fabian identified approximately $10 million in assets, ranging from bank accounts in the Temple’s name, secret accounts in such places as Panama and Switzerland, and real assets such as buildings and property owned by the Temple. By the time the California court approved the disbursements to settle claims against the Temple, another $3 million in interest had accrued to that amount.

Of that $13 million, the first $1.6 million went to the U.S. government for reimbursement of transferring the bodies from Jonestown to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Another $1.5 million paid the fees of numerous attorneys who had worked on behalf of the court, including almost a half million to Fabian and the receiver staff. Smaller amounts had been disbursed earlier to the Guyana Emergency Relief Committee which had arranged for transport and burial of the unidentified and unclaimed bodies at Evergreen Cemetery in May 1979.