Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple Page #7

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- No.

- Well, then be seated and shut your mouth

and dont be in my face anymore.

Congressman Ryan was unique

in the political sphere.

He had this hands-on

approach to legislating.

He just didnt take no for an answer.

So when he was in the state assembly,

he went to Folsom State Prison

and spent a week as an inmate

to understand the prison issues

and prison reform.

He became concerned

because a number of residents

in San Mateo County had become

members of the Peoples Temple

and family members

started contacting him,

concerned about

their whereabouts

and concerned about whether or not

they were being held against their will.

The word we were getting was

that there was an armed encampment.

It was enough

for the Congressman to say,

You know what?

I want to go find out for myself.

There was a lot of preparation

for Congressman Ryans visit.

There was all these different

scenarios that were presented.

He wasnt going to let him in.

He was going to let him in.

We were going to wait

for them to come in

and we were going to kill 'em all

when they came in.

I was very fearful

about making the trip.

I had a copy of the Congressmans will

and placed it in a

particular drawer in my desk,

just in case.

We flew in sometime

in the afternoon, about 6pm.

We saw this beautiful sign,

Welcome to Jonestown.

As we approached Jonestown,

it was spartan,

but very impressive.

How could you not be impressed that

out of the jungles of Guyana,

they had carved out a community?

They had crops growing.

They had cabins.

They had a little medical clinic,

a little daycare area.

Flour, rice, black-eyed peas,

more peas.

We have different containers

surrounding the place

we couldnt go through all of the tremendous

inventory they built up. Kool-aid...

When Ryan came,

he came on a Friday night

and we put on a reception for him.

The songs that we sang

that night, it was people saying,

This is who we are

and this is what we are about.

It was a vibrant community.

I would never have imagined

that twenty-four hours later,

those people would be dead.

Everything up to that point

was, was... was good.

Everybody was thrilled

that Ryan was thrilled.

He just kind of praised us.

I think that all of you know that

I am here to find out more about...

Questions have been raised

about your operation here.

And I can tell you right now,

that from the few conversations

Ive had with some of the folks here

already this evening,

that whatever these comments are,

there are some people here who believe

that this is the best thing

theyve ever had in their whole lives.

That response to him

was spontaneous. It was loud.

It was emotional.

What I was feeling was,

this is an opportunity that I can vocalize

how much I believe

in what we are doing here.

The reporter next to me said,

Ive never felt anything

like this before, and I said,

Because you havent felt

anything like this before.

I actually felt pretty good overall.

This went probably as well

as it possibly could go, so far.

When Congressman Ryan came,

I wanted to pass him a note

that said, Help us

get out of Jonestown.

When one of the reporters was walking

around toward the edge of the pavilion,

I stuck the note in the fold of his arm

and it fell to the ground.

And so I picked up the note and I...

and I gave it back to him.

I said, You dropped something,

and this little boy, about nine years old,

started saying,

He passed a note! He passed a note!

Don Harris, who was theNBCreporter,

came up to me and Congressman Ryan

and handed us these two notes

from people that wanted to leave.

So at that point,

we knew that

something was very, very wrong.

I was like the first to rise up

the following morning.

It was a bright sunny day,

but it was a dark day.

It just didnt feel right.

We were there, supposed to interview

some of the family members

to ask them why they cannot leave.

Are you happy here?

Oh, I should say I am.

Ive never been any happier in my life.

Do you want to stay?

Definitely.

I certainly do.

Some people have said

they couldnt leave if they wanted to.

Do you think you could?

Yeah. If I really wanted to

Im... Im free to go,

if I really wanted to.

I would be free to go.

Well, I believe it. Ive been here

a few days and I have...

I have absolutely

no complaints at all.

It is really nice here.

It is really nice.

And Ill be leaving in a couple weeks

and they could come with me,

but they said they didnt want to come.

Literally, out of nowhere,

this storm came blowing in.

The sky turned black.

The wind came up and it just,

torrential rain.

But what I personally felt was

that evil itself blew into Jonestown.

It was about 11:
30 in the morning.

Edith Parks walked up to

Jackie Speier and said,

Im being held prisoner here,

I want to go home.

Now do I both

understand you to say that

you both want to leave

Jonestown on this date,

November 18th, 1978?

Immediately,

the whole vibe changed.

I mean this reporter said,

We got our story.

You know, The storys here.

Its happening right now.

Jim Jones came to talk to me

and the first thing he said was,

Dont say anything to the reporters.

Theyre all liars.

The last words I heard

from Jim Jones was,

I just want you to know that

you can come back to Jonestown

and visit your son

any time you want.

Last night, someone came

and passed me this note.

Hes the one that

Im just talking about.

This is the man that

wants to leave his son here.

Doesnt it concern you, though,

that this man, for whatever reason,

one of the people in your group

People play games, friend.

They lie. They lie.

What can I do about liars?

Are you people going to leave us.

I just beg you, please leave us.

Bill, we will bother nobody.

Anybody wants to

get out of here, can get out of here.

They have no problem

about getting out of here.

They come and go all the time.

I dont know what kind of games people like.

Who... people like publicity.

Some people do. I dont.

But some people like publicity.

But if its so damned bad,

why is he leaving his son here?

Can you give me

a good reason for that?

When word got out

that people were leaving,

all hell broke out.

You bring those kids back here!

You bring them back!

Dont you touch my kids!

More people wanted to leave.

And then Jim Jones started

to make pleas to people, saying,

You cant leave.

Youre my people.

Why do you want to leave?

It was an emotional roller coaster

for everyone there.

Dont you touch my kids!

Mother!

Youre not taking my kids!

No!

Jones was in the pavilion.

At one point, he said,

Well, of course

you can go if you want.

But clearly,

that was not the message.

The message was,

You are betraying me.

I went and I spoke to

the Congressman in the pavilion.

I told him, You are in extreme danger.

You need to leave.

And he said, You dont have

anything to worry about.

He says, You have the Congressional

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