SECT MEMBERS WERE DRILLED IN SUICIDE, DEFECTORS REPORT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01315R000400260059-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 5, 2004
• Sequence Number: 59
• Publication Date: November 21, 1978
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2005/01/12: CIA-RDP88-01315R0004002Q99t,9 (;
''RTIC ZPPEAU
XEW YORK TIMES
21 NOVEMBER 1978
LOS ANGELES, Nov:. 20 - "He has
mass suicide drills, where he tells all the
people;, hundreds of people, to drink a cer-
tain drink, and he. says,,. 'That's fatal,-
you're all going to die in 43 minutes .I.
want to see bow you.feel about dying for
And, said Timothy Stoen, a San Fran.
cisco lawyer and former: aide to Jim
Jones, the founder of the People's Tem-
ple, when Mr. Jones ordered his followers
in his Guyana commune to drink the llq-
-uid, "everybody drank.,"..
'Blue-Eyed Monster' Is D rsibed
"It was like= he wanted to believe he
was God," Anna Mobley, a member for
four years, said. "He would get you so
tired it would makeyou lose your mind."
'blue.eyed. monster; a. thing they did tO ` New York Times: ? r c a rx : i,
According to former members, the cult
!was run as a 'police state by Mr : Jones; '
who was said to have.enforced discipline
by. beatings and death, threats; pursued`
`bizarre. sexual - activities, and..thdoctrir.
nated members in his personal; brand of;
`St i Desciibed as a Major Topic
Mr. Jones, he continued, had a "rela-
tionships committee0' that hadto approvel
all romantic entanglements among mem-
bers. Once, Mr. Stoen said, there was a
young woman who had been seeing a
male cult member, and Mr. Jopnes
forced her to engage in sexual relation-
ships with. another man before all 1,100
members of the commune.. .
..He was always talking about sex,"
According to this account, Mr. Janes
encouraged men and women. to live in.
separate quarters. Married couples whop
quired to live in bunk beds with a blanket
Mr. Stoehr said Mr. Jones was "pars.'
noid and always afraid," and turned
when newcomers arrived, he seized pass-
port and. money, holding them virtual
prisoners; Mr. Stoen said..
Mr. Jones. he said,. planned several es--
cape routes from Guyana because he beta
lieved that the authorities. might some
day Invade his commune and he '.ex
pected. to go out with a splasli.
Lawsult Deposition Is Quoted
'.Allegations about the oppressive na"
:tore of Mr. - -Jones's : leadership have
emerged in lawsuits in. California. One
former memberof the sect, Deborah Lay
ton Blakey, said about Mr. Jones in a suit
filed in San Franciso: ? ? ?
"He convinced?Tesnple^members that
if they did not follow him to Guyana, they
would be put into ? concentration camps
and killed. White members were instilled
I with the belief that their names ap ar d
on a secret list of enemies haw t
by the C.I.A.. and that they would- be
..tracked down, tortured, imprisoned
and
agrarian socialism. ?
According to Mr. Stoen,Mr Jones first
enticed members with a doctrine of self
"Le~ssness and a simple Christian faith of.
social equality that found support among
blacks and' upper- middle-class whites
who had become alienated in the 1960's:?:= '
Once he got. "control of their?minds, he,
would accept. no dissent: and told men..
bers that a defector had naright to live.'.'
Mr. Stoen said He is a former deputy dish`
trict' attorney in Mendocino-County wh6
had been attracted by Mr Jones's views
in the late 1960's and. became one. of his
lieutenants as - the, cult .spread- to. Sax
Francisco, and Los Angeles and.'.. ultimo
mately to the settlement in Guyana: ,Z_'=.1,
He said that as a sect official he- had
;transferred more than $ million'to for,
reign bank accounts and said he believed
..the church's assets,: probably - totaled'
Mr. Stoen said "people who disagreed'
would get phone calls at 3? A.M.. with.
heavy breathing" or cult officials would.
find a drunk and pay him to read.a script
containing threats over-the-telephone
The children of parents who decided to
leave the sect were often seized and kept
In Guyana under guard:
children," another former. member said:.
"They took children into 'a dads room and.
attached electrodes to them and, then
shocked them and told them never not t
"8?e sent spies to our home`and said
that if we didn.'tsell all our property, we
would die,", said ' Wayne Medlock, the
owner of. a Los -Angeles maintenance
company,. who; .turned over two`, of his
homes to the cult under threats
' The retharks were made at a meeting
of ag'op'called the Human-Freedom
Foundation, which was. set up here last..
summer by two psychics, Maria Papape.
tros and Jenita Carglle; aftersome mem-
to "deprogram:' themselves. A reairding_
:lu s e I yygp3......
"At various times, Rev. Jones claimed.
.that he was the:.reincamation of either-
Lenin; Jesus Christ,. or one of a variety of.
other religious or political' figures., He
claimed that he had divine-powers-and
healed the sick. He stated that he. had ex.-
trasensory perception and could tell what-
including the Mafia, :Idi -Amin- and` the
Approved For Release 2005/01/12 : CIA-RDP88-01315R000400260059-9