THE MESSIAH FROM UKIAH
In order to understand the strange events surrounding Jonestown, we must begin with a history of the people involved. The official story of a religious fanatic and his idealist followers doesn’t make sense in light of the evidence of murders, armed killers and autopsy cover-ups…
Jim Jones grew up in Lynn, in southern Indiana. His father was an active member of the local Ku Klux Klan that infest that area. His friends found him a little strange, and he was interested in preaching the Bible and religious rituals. Perhaps more important was his boyhood friendship with Dan Mitrione, confirmed by local residents… Mitrione, his friend, worked as chief of police… Dan Mitrione… moved on to the CIA-financed International Police Academy, where police were trained in counter-insurgency and torture techniques from around the world. Jones, a poor, itinerant preacher, suddenly had money in 1961 for a trip to “minister” in Brazil… An American police advisor, working closely with the CIA at that point, Dan Mitrione was there as well. Mitrione had risen in the ranks quickly, and was busy training foreign police in torture and assassination methods. He was later kidnapped by Tupemaro guerillas in Uruguay, interrogated and murdered. Costa Gavras made a film about his death, titled State of Siege. Jones returned to the United States in 1963, with $10,000 in his pocket…
With his new wealth, Jones was able to travel to California and establish the first People’s Temple in Ukiah, California, in 1965. Guarded by dogs, electric fences and guard towers, he set up Happy Havens Rest Home. Despite a lack of trained personnel, or proper licensing, Jones drew in many at the camp. He had elderly, prisoners, people from psychiatric institutions, and 150 foster children, often transferred to care at Happy Havens by court orders. He was contacted there by Christian missionaries from World Vision, an international evangelist order that had done espionage work for the CIA in Southeast Asia. He met “influential” members of the community, and was befriended by Walter Healy, the head of the local chapter of the John Birch Society. He used members of his “church” to organize local voting drives for Richard Nixon’s election, and worked closely with the Republican Party. He was even appointed chairman of the county grand jury…
Jones changed his image to that of a liberal. He had spent time studying the preaching methods of Father Divine in Philadelphia, and attempted to use them in a manipulative way on the streets of Frisco… Jones was able to use his followers in an election once again, this time for Mayor Moscone. Moscone responded in 1976, putting Jones in charge of the city Housing Commission. In addition, many of his key followers got jobs with the city Welfare Department, and much of the recruitment to the Temple in San Francisco came from the ranks of these unemployed and dispossessed people. Jones was introduced to many influential liberal and radical people ranging from Roslyn Carter to Angela Davis.
The period when Jones began the Temple there marked the end of an important political decade. Nixon’s election had ushered in a domestic intelligence war against the movements for peace, civil rights and social justice. Names like COINTELPRO, CHAOS, and OPERATION GARDEN PLOT or the HOUSTON PLAN made the news following in the wake of the Watergate revelations… These operations involved… a full-scale attempt to discredit, disrupt and destroy the movements that sprang up in the 1960’s. (”Jonestown: CIA, Assassinations, Drugs and Mind Control” by John Judge, Critique #21/22
