Jonestown Audiotape Primary Project : Transcripts
Transcript prepared by Fielding M. McGehee, III. If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.

Tape Number : Q 612a

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Jones: (Ministerial voice) …hundreds of people that lifted their hands in pained and crippling conditions. I did not touch them. I just sent my word, and everyone in the room was healed. That’s all it takes. If you know what you’re dealing with, if you know that the magnetic force is here, if you know the electrifier, the deliverer, the revolutionary, the li— liberator, the savior has come, if you know it, (Speaks quickly) all you have to do is just call. Mentally. Make a mental and a spiritual contact. (Voice raises) I don’t care where you are. You may be like Sister (unintelligible— sounds like "that Turner") was going off into the— into the water, with her five children. (Pause) Down there in the barb wire, in the middle of the lake. But bless her heart, she held onto the picture that— of me that she had on her ignition key, and she said, "Father, for the sake of my children," and up that car came, as we all know. Up it came.

Applause

Jones: Not only did it come from the middle of the lake, where it would— where she jumped over the culvert into the middle of it, (quiet intensity) but it came right up to the shoreline. And everyone stepped out, and when she finally got her five children out and she stepped out, (Voice raises) it rolled back down into that bottomless pit. My my my my my my!

Applause

Jones: (Stretches out words) Just call on your God, and you will get an answer!

Applause

Jones: (Evangelical tone)) For every service I’ve called you out and told you the thoughts of your mind, told you the details of your life, caused cripples to run, caused the blind to see, caused those that were impossibly injured, crushed legs— that was what happened last week— (quieter tone) my, my— Surely you’ve seen enough, that now you should know. And to whom much is given, much is required. My son willed the spirit, the tapes mention the offering, and we today need your assistance. (Pause) (Conversational tone) I think it might not be bad, and even though— how many were not here yesterday? (Clears throat) (Pause) While I’m taking the offering, set up those pictures and just flash them again. I think people need to see them. Of our Promised Land. (Pause) Seventeen minutes of four. Shh! [You] say, why are you talking about a Promised Land? Have you been reading the news? Yesterday, the Academy of Science demanded, the world’s scientists demanded, the US scientists demanded that the world science convention that they be allowed to teach that the black people are an inferior race. I got the newspaper here. Don’t you know what they’re getting ready to do? That’s what they did with the Jews, before they murdered seven million of them. (Voice raises) Now I know some of you say, I got my Bible, it’ll take me through. (Cries) The Jews — some of you walkin’ out — the Jews were chosen people. That’s what their Bible said. But seven million of them were exterminated in gas ovens. Buried alive, burned alive. Shot in Christian churches. I know 75 children, they were offered a piece of candy in a Christian uh, Full Gospel Church in Germany, and the secret police went down, said, open your mouth, close your eyes, and they put a Luger— 75 troopers stepped up right then, and blew the brains of the children out on the altar. [You] say, it won’t happen here. (Ministerial voice)Have you been reading about our young women, 12 and 11, that have been eugenically, they call it eugenically, given therapy so they can’t have babies? Meaning that they’ve been sterilized? Did you read last year of the three hundred and some— the seven hundred and so men that were given syphilis, black, and not even given a penicillin shot when it could have cured them, and hundreds of them died, many of them went crazy? (Pause) Treated just like a guinea pig? Worked on like a rat, by the United States Department of Health? Yes, Mexican mothers, did you read about the three hundred Mexican mothers that was given a drug, that told them, they came to be prevented from having a pregnancy, they said, this’ll prevent it. And it was a cancer-causing drug, that guarantees, everything it’s every been used on, has developed cancer within 19 years. And they all got pregnant, nearly. Because it didn’t stop their pregnancy. Have you been reading? (Pause) (Voice raises) Supreme Court says that they can wiretop— tap your homes? Now the police can stop you any place without a search warrant, and go through your effects, and go through your car and through your homes? They beat up enough people, those rookies from Mississippi— that’s where a lot of these white under-policemen come. Not the chiefs and the commanders and supervisors, but a lot of these rednecks running these streets, they come directly from Alabama and Georgia and Mississippi.

Scattered applause.

Jones: (Normal tone) Now, don’t stand there and look uh, like you don’t know what I’m talkin’ about. Some of you are afraid to stand up and be counted. It was just in this town, that a white, blond-headed priesman— policeman, few weeks ago, few days ago, shot a black man, James Baldwin, 34 years of age, left several children, shot him. Said he had a gun, and it was their gun. They planted the gun on him. (Pause) And then planted heroin on him. Every newspaper finally brought it out, because there were 50 witnesses. They couldn’t do anything else. (Harder voice) How many times has it been done and not brought out? Don’t tell me. One of our sisters right around here was beat on and called a nigger bitch and throwed on the s— the bed, and then they admitted they had the wrong person.

One voice: Uh-huh.

Jones: (Conversational tone) We’re developing a dictatorship. That’s why they kidnapped Mrs. Hearst. Now all the black businesses are getting threatened. We’re going to kill ten blacks, they say, for every white, if something happens to her. That’s why black people are being accused of shooting whites on the street corners. My— One of my sons— one of my church members, was— as I said, I want you to get that in your heart, how great miracle that was, he was right on the street, on Geary, when it was about to happen to him, and the car cruised back. He said, it didn’t look like black to him. Looked like somebody with a plastic— 

One voice: Fixed-up.

Jones: —fixed-up, cosmetically, to look like they were black. But they stopped, like they were going to kill him. But he said, "Jim," and the car rolled on, just a few more feet, and shot down another white person. But did not shoot him. (Cries out) Why do you think they’re having this happen across this nation? Boston, white people supposed to be set afire by black people. (Pause) White people shot on the street, supposedly by a black cult, or black political group. (Normal tone, lecturing) They want the poor to start a war amongst themselves. Because with this mass production, they don’t need poor workers anymore. The cotton fields don’t need cotton pickers, because they’ve got mechanized cotton pickers. So they want to do away with a lot of the poor people, and there’s no better way to do away with them than to start a race war between black and poor whites, and that will kill them off, just like they killed them off in Vietnam, for a long time. (Self-evident tone) They killed us all off in Vietnam. Thirty-seven percent of our people that died over there were black, yet only 10% of the population is supposed to be black. (Pause) [You] say, I didn’t come here to hear about that— No. You came here thinking this was another church, some of you. You thought you’d be lied to, just like your preachers lied to you. I’ve come to save you. I’ve come to save you, not from sin, but from the sinners, (cries out) the honkies that have sinned against you.

Applause

Jones: Sometimes you make it too easy for your children. You let ‘em get by with things, and then, they’ll get in trouble, and there’ll be nobody to help them. So we need to teach people that life has to be (short humorless laugh) struggled with.

Tape cuts off for unknown time.

Jones: (Evangelical fervor) — terrible thing. And we can’t do something fast— because black people are, as I said, as blind as the whites, they still promotin’ that religion, read the religious se— columns, read your church section, anniversaries, trips to Jerusalem, always want to take a tour of the Holy Land, but yet a black person cannot even get residence. You can’t even reside in the Holy Land, yet black people every year, these old jackleg preachers take their money and take them a trip to the Holy Land. I’ll tell you, this is our Holy Land. And that’s our Holy Land.

Applause.

Tape cuts off for unknown time.

Jones: (Normal tone) Now shift yourself, please. I do that for a reasons of arterial (Pause) heart and blood pressure reasons. (Clear throat) Peace.

Finley: —the response to a previous program, and the response is from Michael J. Prokes, of the Peoples Temple Christian Church. Mr. Prokes?

Prokes: In the course of the conversation on the air between Art Finley and Reverend Lester Kinsolving recently, Kinsolving, without any warning or prompting whatever, proceeded to attack and malign Reverend Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple Disciples of Christ of Ukiah, California. Kinsolving said Reverend Jones has people believing he raises people from the dead. Said it would be nice if someone would go up and exorcise him. Stated that, upon visiting this church, he had worn his collar, that he had been seized, that he had his photographer grabbed, and that he was himself interrogated by the Assistant District Attorney, and stated that his home had been burglarized for the first time in eight years, three days after the Examiner was picketed by 150 people put there by the church. We of Peoples Temple assert that these statements by Kinsolving are untrue, malicious and outrageous. First, this church is primarily concerned with human service. It is only secondarily concerned with a calm, sane, spiritual healing ministry known for its coordination with medical science. This ministry is based on New Testament principles, and the pastor insists that every person who has been helped immediately see a physician of their choice for verification. Reverend Jones does not in any way attribute illness or sickness to a devil. The church has no practice of exorcism whatever. In fact, it never even uses the word, and has never released any stories about the devil being driven out. Reverend Jones believes simply that the mind is very powerful, responds to love, and can be used by God to affect one’s physical health. This is particularly true, if the mind dwells on noble concepts and actions like love, kindness and social justice. Secondly, Reverend Jim Jones is a man of great integrity who is highly respected in the community, both in Mendocino County and San Francisco. He was appointed foreman of the grand jury in Mendocino County. In San Francisco, he was given the annual Special Merit Award for Civic Leadership by one of the largest newspapers in northern California. He and his dedicated wife, Marceline, a registered nurse, have adopted children of five different ethnic backgrounds. The family lives in a modest dwelling near Ukiah. Reverend Jones carries on an extensive human service ministry. These projects include: a drug rehabilitation program in which over 175 young persons have been permanently rehabilitated from drug abuse, a large animal shelter which takes in abandoned animals, free legal assistance to the poor, the leasing of property to members who care for senior citizens, orphans and exceptional children, and who do not claim the church’s tax exempt status, thus saving the government and taxpayers thousands and thousands of dollars. College scholarships are given to young people, who agree to use their skills to serve humanity. And agricultural projects, to grow and distribute food to the hungry.

In addition, the church consistently gives money for worthy causes, including cancer research, Jewish refugees, and the families of police officers slain in the line of duty. Two weeks ago, this church gave $300 to each of the families whose members were slain in the senseless rampage of random killings in San Francisco. Thirdly, we at Peoples Temple assert the following: that Kinsolving visited our church on at least two occasions and was allowed in to take notes each time, that there are many witnesses to the fact that Kinsolving did not wear his collar, that Kinsolving was not seized by us, that a member of the church, who happens to be an Assistant District Attorney, offered to show Kinsolving around the children’s homes, the senior citizen homes, and other projects of the church, and that Kinsolving said he was not interested, that the Assistant D.A. did not, in any sense of the word, interrogate Kinsolving, nor was Kinsolving’s photographer in any way grabbed, and that we know these charges are patently absurd. We of Peoples Temple ask, if Kinsolving was so threatened, why did he come back the following week, by himself? Peoples Temple also says that on two Sundays only, and after acts of violence had taken place against the church, and pursuant to the advice of law enforcement officials, did two members of the church, in open view, wear firearms, but neither even met Kinsolving, that they served as security in the same way as does any special policeman at any public function, that people who resent the success of Peoples Temple for whatever reason, be it the size — for example, the church has 5000 members in the San Francisco area alone — or its reputation of violence, as— or its reputa— repudiation of violence as a means of social reform, have gone so far as to throw Molotov cocktails at the church and brutalized its animals, that last August, our community center on Geary Street in San Francisco was gutted by a fire which we know was deliberately set. The evidence shows that Peoples Temple has excellent reason to be concerned about security. Fourth, we of Peoples Temple declare it outrageous for Kinsolving to imply that the church members burglarized his house. The charge goes far beyond the realm of decency and fairness. We know that not a scintilla of evidence exists linking any member of Peoples Temple with the alleged burglary. Reverend Jones has said that every member of his church is willing to take a polygraph lie detector test to prove it. I asked that Kinsolving do the same.

(Person doing the recording) Yeah!

Finally, we of Peoples Temple say that it is equally outrageous for Kinsolving to call to exorcise the ordained pastor who has been praised by high officials of his own nationwide denomination of nearly two million, and many others, and who works, day and night, without thought of reward, to relieve human suffering, and has inspired thousands to do the same. We would like to thank KGO and Art Finley for the opportunity to respond to our one critic’s allegations. Thank you.

Finley: Thank you. A response, ready by Michael J. Prokes of the Peoples Temple Christian Church. The time now is fourteen minutes past ten.

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