Jonestown Audiotape
Primary Project : Summaries
Summary prepared by Fielding M. McGehee, III. If you
use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.
Tape Number : Q 1059 (Part 6 of 6)
To read the Tape Transcript, click
here. To listen to MP3, click here.
To return to the Tape Index, click here.
FBI Catalogue: Jones speaking
Date cues on tape: Fall 1974 (A man described as "doing fine" in segment
from Q 1059 (4) -- which was specifically dated to October 20, 1973 -- has died
on a recent September day.)
People named:
Bible verses cited:
o Creation story of Adam and Eve (generally, Genesis 2 & 3)
o Reference to Jonah (Book of Jonah)
o Discussion of Job, God and Lucifer (Book of Job)
o Reference to Noah and flood story (Genesis 7-9)
Summary:
This tape is a continuation of a Jim Jones address which started partway through
Q 1059 (4) and extended through the entirety of Q 1059 (5).
It opens with the end of the scatological version of the creation story, which
quickly becomes political. Eve was taken from Adam's side, Jones says, and that's
the beginning of women being treated less fairly than men. The lack of equal
pay for equal work can be blamed on the Bible, and if you blame it on the Bible,
then you have to blame your Skygod, Jones concludes.
In re-telling a version of the Garden of Eden story -- which appears in several
other sermons as well -- Jones comes to a familiar conclusion which combines
political, religious and social elements: "[Adam and Eve] did not die, their
eyes were opened, and they did have the knowledge of good and evil, they did
become like the gods, because they could choose whether they wanted evil or
good... God was a liar. The snake told the truth... And then, because they did what
was natural to anyone, to eat when you're hungry, Eve was cursed... And because
Adam ate the apple that his good wife brought him, he must work from that day
forward and earn his bread by the toil and sweat of his brow. He had to be a
nigger from that day forward."
Jones later tears apart the stories of Noah and the flood, and of Job as a
pawn between God and Satan.
He admits that he should probably back down on some of his rhetoric, to give
people a reason to stay a while longer (which represents a continuation of concerns
he voices on the previous tape). "[I]f I kept on, said all I had to do, and
all I want to say tonight, we'd only end up about a hundred here," he says.
More than that, the hundred that were left would be attacked by "those good
Christians" who stand against him, "those Bible-fearing people, those people
that love God on Sunday, and hate blacks Monday through Saturday." He then talks
about taking on all the honkies with "nigger power," which he would use until
they killed him. And he would, he concludes, if he did not love his followers
as much as he does.
Part of his prediction comes to pass: people get up and leave as he speaks.
He calls after them, asking if they want to get healed when they have a heart
attack. He also blasts those who criticize him when in his holy place. "[Y]ou
think that I'm in power when I'm up there talking about Jesus and God and the
Spirit and the Consciousness? Mess with me when I'm telling the truth."
Later, calmer, he returns to the theme and says he'd like to heal people and
keep them from danger, even though they work against him. God punished Job who
was faithful to a fault, he says, but he will reward those who even give him
"half-assed faithfulness."
His words have apparently affected an elderly woman in the congregation, but
Jones reassures her that she's not one of those "paper churchgoers" he was talking
about. He describes how she threw off her chains by burning her husband's Bible.
And when a woman does that, it makes the husband determined to murder Jones.
"I don't care," Jones says as the tape concludes, "because I'd rather have you
free. And I'd rather be dead than to see women slaves or blacks slaves. I'd
rather be dead than see how you were."
FBI Summary:
Date of transcription: 7/2/79
In connection with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's investigation into
the assassination of U.S. Congressman LEO J. RYAN at Port Kaituma, Guyana, South
America, on November 18, 1978, a tape recording was obtained. This tape recording
was located in Jonestown, Guyana, South America, and was turned over to U.S.
Officials in Guyana and subsequently transported to the United States.
On June 21, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B110-1.
This tape was found to contain the following:
JIM JONES concluding a sermon on the "evils" of the Bible.
Differences with FBI Summary:
The summary is accurate and meets the FBI's purposes.