Jonestown Survivor: "I Am So Tired Of Hearing Jim Jones, Jr. Confess And Profess His Undying Love For This Sociopath...."

A week ago Jim Jones, Jr., adopted son of the murderous cult leader that obliterated over 900 Americans, made a dramatic spectacle on the Oprah Winfrey show.

Like all good apologists, Jones, Jr. wants the world to think that his long-extinct cult was "trying to build a better world," when they operated in California or in Guyana. Interestingly enough, he left out details of the seamier sides of the Peoples Temple "better world": Marxist, totalitarian, featuring all the charms of a criminal enterprise; extortion, fraud, child abuse, slave labor, torture, and murder.

And Oprah let him get away with it.

One of my readers, "Anonymous," had a quite different take on the show last Wednesday, saying:

"It seems like we were watching two shows. The one that I saw was not as you say, 'an apologist of someone's father.' It was a beautiful told story of the 'human spirt' and I actual take offense for minimizing that. It seems like Jones Jr. faced many internal demons and came out the better person for himself and his family. I can't understand how this creates honor or sympathy for Jones Sr. in my eyes.

What I saw was a candid description of why and maybe how come so many people were willing to travel to SA. I think it was Jones Jr's admiration for his lost loved ones for trying to build a new world that blinded them to the manipulations of his father. Additionally Oprah was in complete dismay/disdain of this tragedy and in my opinion not even close in doing a puff piece."

Well, "Anonymous," I don't happen to agree. Jones, Jr.'s description on the hows and whys all those people got shipped off to an even more terrible enslavement in a South American jungle was anything but candid.

That the man suffered, there is no doubt. He lost family members, friends in the massacre. But what seems obvious is that Jones, Jr.'s method of dealing with his "survivor's guilt" is to now try to paint a sweet-smelling rose garden along the path that lead to Jonestown.

While this now may enable him to sleep better at night, it still won't change the reality of the Peoples Temple. Only in his deluded mind and others, such as director Stanley Nelson and Religion Prof. Becky Moore, sister of Annie and Carolyn, who were vicious cult enforcers & baby killers.

One of my other readers, "Rhonda," (a former Temple captive who chooses to remain anonymous) had her own special assessment of Jones, Jr.'s performance:

"I am so tired of hearing Jim Jones, Jr. confess and profess his undying love for this sociopath, and now I wonder if these same traits are not fundamentally also inside of Jim Jones, Jr. Over the past 32 years he has gone overboard in his sharing of his philosophical views of this 'rainbow family.' Now there is no longer a rainbow family. The same man that created it took it away!

And yes, I am encouraged that he was finally honest enough with himself and others to state to millions of people that he did not know that he is Black. How do you forgive a man for the murder of 900 people, including your wife, unborn child, mother, brother, etc.?

Jim Jr., how do you look at yourself in the mirror each day? How do you justify genocide? How do you justify hatred? How do you justify the torture and punishment you witnessed of People’s Temple members that even occurred on U.S. soil? Finally how does a modern day Hitler like your Dad become a victim?

Another thing that bothers me: Why would he keep the name he was given at the time of his adoption? Why did Jones, Sr., provide the Black adopted son with his name and not the natural born son? (Hmmm, I wonder why??) It is obvious that everything Jim Jones, Sr., did had a deliberate reason and purpose. However, I can only assume that Jim, Jr., maintains the name of this murderous self-proclaimed con artist minister in order to strike up conversations with people and to feel a sense of importance in our society. Maintaining this name exhibits a potential lack of self-esteem and independence.

Obviously, he is still a child who has never surpassed the age of 18 years old living in an adult body. If Jim Jones, Sr. was so good and kind, then why has Tim Jones, another adopted son, never stepped up to the plate in support of his father? Why did Sue Jones never step up to the plate to tell others of his greatness? Why has Stephen Jones whom you refer to as “natural born” not been on major networks professing his love for Jim Jones, Sr.?

Why must there be a person who appears to be Black in skin color be compelled to stand up publicly as an “Uncle Tom” during Black History Month on national television in front of Oprah Winfrey Show, defending the genocide of 900 people that by your own statement were 70% Black Americans? Is it for money, fortune, fame, notoriety, publicity?

Or is it to protect a white racist communist pig responsible for annihilating innocent people (including babies). I have several questions for you, Jim Jones, Jr.: Are you the second coming of Jim Jones, Sr.? Or are you really loathing over the fact that you were never allowed to minister over a large congregation like your Dad, the monster you idolize?

And shame on Oprah for letting him off so easy, especially during Black History Month. Jim Jones, Jr. you are obviously still under the lure of your Dad and the brainwashing you endured no doubt is irreversible. Perhaps, if you are fortunate, God Almighty will allow you to come back in another life for a second time (the process reincarnation.)

And this time, God might make you strong like Martin or Malcolm, and not like your adoptive parent--the conniving, manipulative, coward dictator 'Rev. James Warren Jones, Sr.' I pity and feel sorry for you because you are truly experiencing a roller coaster ride, attempting to make something virtuous out of something that fundamentally went deceitfully wicked."

Ouch.

Clearly Rhonda is no fan of Jim Jones, Jr. And I join her in these sentiments.

Meanwhile, our detractor "Anonymous" added this in his/her comment:

"I am not aware of your references about Stanley Nelson, but from what I surmise, he is a film maker that tried to capture the voices of survivors of this horrific event. I think Oprah using this footage was so beneficial to explaining the story. I now want to look up his work and view his complete piece on my own."

Oh, Lord Nelson is sure to delight you, "Anonymous," probably even more than the cult monster's adoring son. His cult-coddling film classic has a closing scene with the voice over reading of the "Final Letter From Jonestown."

"....We wanted to live, to shine, to bring light to a world that is dying for a little bit of love,” wrote Jones henchman, Richard Tropp.

Bring light to a world?

Was this before or after Comrades Jones, Tropp, and their fellow sadists were regularly getting their thrills dunking terrified little children into a dark, deep well in that jungle utopia?

Nelson and Jones, Jr. Now THAT is an apologist duo from hell. But don't just take my word for it. Below, a 2006 promo of the revisionist wonder movie that no doubt could effectively dress up and sparkle even the most heinous cult in the neighborhood.

Just imagine, a Charlie Mason, Jr., shaggy beard, coat & tie, telling us how much he "embraces" his daddy's famous name.

Now take a deep breath, and watch this.....

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Wednesday, Oprah's Big Question: John Wayne Gacy & Jim Jones -- Monsters? Or Just Terribly Misunderstood??

Get ready for an irresistible cult apologist's BIG splash, everybody -- smack-dab in the middle of the world-famed Oprah Olympic Pool!


That's right. But this time it's unlikely to be anything as sensational as Scientologist Cruise's notorious couch hysterics that we all remember.

No, not quite that. But Harpo's Royal Highness still has something to show the world tomorrow afternoon that might just be as valuable a ratings bonanza.

All over the Info Highway, the thrilling announcements: "WEDNESDAY ALL NEW! Serial Killer John Wayne Gacy's Sister & Mass Murderer Jim Jones's Son Speak Out...."


"....What is it like to be related to the most notorious and reviled people in history? First, in 1978 the Reverend Jim Jones led over 900 of his followers to the biggest mass murder suicide in modern history. Now his son, Jim, Jr., speaks out about living in the shadow of his father's horrific crimes and explains the burden of bearing his adoptive father's name...."

No doubt this promises to be a memorable show. Imagine, we'll have the sister of John Wayne Gacy talking about how "good and kind" her brother actually was. Sure, he may have lost it 33 times, torturing & murdering that many boys and men, burying them under his house so everybody would stay convinced he truly was "good and kind."

And one more thing, she says, needs to be cleared up -- he was not a monster.

Well, okay, if she insists. Tell that to the families of the people her crazed sibling butchered so efficiently.

Now if this is what we'll be hearing from Sis Gacy, just try imagining the promos Mr. Jones, Jr. might be tossing out about the "good and kind" sides of his dearly departed relative?

If his past statements are any sign, it ought to be more breath-taking than practically any of the hogwash floating around Becky Moore's propaganda palace, "The Jonestown Institute."

In a 2006 interview, Jones, Jr. commented about his father's "functional" side when being asked about Director Stanley Nelson's twisted whitewash "documentary," entitled "Jonestown: Life and Death of Peoples Temple." Jones(R) is seen standing here with the scowling master of cult apologist cinema, Lord Nelson.

"He [father Jim] must have presented something to them to make him trust them," said Jones, Jr. "And I think Stanley's film shows this functional world of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple." Two years later, at the 30th anniversary memorial service for the 900 victims of his "functional" father, he made the astounding claim that this mass-murdering monster "should not be villianized."

Why?

Because, according to Jones, Jr., his savage, sadistic father was "a victim," just as much as the nearly 300 children and babies he subjected to agonizing death sentences by cyanide.

Painful beyond belief, it must have been, this victim father's gift of dying "with a degree of dignity."

Perhaps something like this:

A toddler, screaming that her throat is on fire, heart racing uncontrollably, world around her spinning. She can barely breath.

A dark, complete terror wracks her brain.

The screaming slowly descends into a helpless moaning.

Bathed in sweat, she begins vomiting.

Then, her entire body surrenders to ghastly convulsions.

More.

And more.

And more.

Finally.

She's still.


"Crossed over," just as the monster and his planning commission executioners had hoped.

Imagine, if you can, this horror repeated 900 more times. Official estimate was that the great majority of Father Jones's victims did not in fact have their "C" served up in a cup of Flavor-Aid. They were forcibly injected in the back.

So much for the notion of "revolutionary suicide."

So tomorrow on Oprah, besides hearing how "good and kind" John Wayne Gacy was, will we also endure the sick spectacle of someone arguing the master mind behind this unspeakable Crime of the Century was "a victim"??

Let's hope to God he doesn't dare.

The Beast And His Jonestown Baby Killers-- Commemorate Them??

Bitterness and controversy on the right way to memorialize the dead of Jonestown just won't go away.


A few months ago I got this elated message from "Rhonda" (who's requested anonymity), a survivor of the Jonestown Massacre:

"I wanted to advise you," she said, "and I am glad to report that the memorial plaque constructed by Lela Howard bearing the name of Jim Jones along with the names of the real victims has not and will never be placed in the African American Historical Society in San Francisco. They are sensitive and understanding about the insensitivity of placing such a permanent fixture in their museum on a permanent or temporary basis. So I guess Lela best move on to perhaps the City of Los Angeles or some other city that will deem Jim Jones a victim of himself."

The above photo from the Jonestown Massacre's 30th Anniversary Memorial Service is something altogether different, of course. Shown is one of the first two panels of a granite memorial wall unveiled at the site of a mass grave of Jonestown victims, most of them children, in Evergreen Cemetery nestled in the hills of Oakland, California.

Seen praying over one of the panels at the far right is Jynona Norwod, who has overseen the project to build the wall. She has as good a reason as any other surviving relative, having suffered the devastating loss of 27 family members to Jim Jones and his executioners in November, 1978.

She is rightfully adamant the monster that destroyed so much of her family never, ever be recognized as a "victim," which would honor him with all the men, women, children, and babies he savagely murdered.

Other concerned parties, however, strongly object. They formed a rival group that constructed a separate memorial--a Lucite plaque--featuring the name of certain "faith healing" mass murderer. They apparently echo the sentiments of adopted son, Jim Jones, Jr., who claimed at the memorial service that "the tragedy is we're villianizing Jim Jones....also a victim, of his own madness. We need to memorialize all the bodies, as a great loss."

Granted, this was his adapted father. But it just can't change the fact that Jim Jones, Sr. was little more than a sadistic, psychotic killer. Memorialize a perfectly hideous beast that caused such unspeakable suffering, years and years even before the Jonestown Holocaust, as a "great loss"??

The revisionists and shameless cult apologists that we're so well acquainted with might be well pleased, because their desperate hope will forever be to one day dupe today's public that the People's Temple's demonic essence was shadowed by its bright, cheery sides.


"....Peoples Temple members were engaged in the world, and tried to make concrete differences in individuals' lives and in society as a whole." --Rebecca Moore
San Diego State Prof. of Religion and
Sister of Temple mass murderers, Carolyn & Annie Moore

Food kitchens--and extortion. Miracle healings--and fraud.

Foster families--and child torture. Spiritual redemption--and brain washing.

Drug rehab--and murder.

All brought to us by that racially enlightened Marxist marvel, Comrade James Warren Jones and his near lily-white politburo, The Planning Commission.

Jones, honored? Along with his murderous organized crime family, including Sharon Amos, Larry Schacht, Annie & Carolyn Moore, Jim McElvane, and those gun-wielding death camp guards that so efficiently coerced all the other cult members to the slaughter?

Commemorate baby killers? Are you kidding??

Rival memorial group leader Lela Howard is deadly serious. She's the one Rhonda spoke of in her message. Howard lost an aunt at Jonestown and said, "This is the first time they will be recognized as human beings. It restores the humanity of these people and gives their names back."

It's hard to say where Howard and her group will place their memorial, now that it's reportedly been rejected for permanent placement in San Francisco's African American Historical Society.

That clearly will do little to cool down the rage and resentment Howard has for Norwood. At the end of 2007, she wrote to the Apologists Alert claiming:

"A memorial wall at Oakland cemetery is great! But I thought money was collected for that many years ago--what happened to those funds? It seems as if there's an unnecessary competition in regards to memorials for the victims, which takes away from the focal point of remembering them.

This makes me very sad and confused, because this separates us or leans towards a school yard 'choosing sides' type of mentality, instead of family and survivors coming together and honoring our loved ones. It's more about the living and their egos, rather than those who perished...very, very, very sad."

Then, about a year later, came another attack on Norwood. This time from another critic claiming anonymity as "Confused and Getting Upset." It was an even harsher denunciation [see November 9, 2009 JAA post], questioning both Norwood's financial accounting as well as her personal integrity.

Without any outright evidence, there's no way to go beyond mere speculation that this diatribe came from someone in Howard's group or Howard herself.

The attacks have outraged Norwood. She's issued a very lengthy rebuttal.

Some of the highlights:

"Your named and anonymous bloggers," she wrote, "are attempting to distract our focus in memorializing the 305 innocent babies that Jim Jones murdered. Remember that these are the types of tactics that was encouraged and taught by Jim Jones. I remember as a teenager that whoever did not join Jones's church was to be misaligned at home, within the family, and in public....

....It has to do with what is right or wrong. It is about correcting a wrong. In your blog an anonymous contributor compared me with Jim Jones and called me a charlatan because I minister in the five-fold ministry, of which the gift of prophecy is one such anointing....

....I have never said that I would list the names of the murderers at Jonestown. This is another lie. Our decision to include the names of all the fallen except Jim Jones is not complicated. We are neither judge nor jury. We do not know with any certainty all of whom were actually involved in the massacre, but we do know who the leader was.

Would your bloggers also desire that I not accept the support, prayers and commendation's of the political, civil and community leaders who were deceived into befriending Jim Jones? They did not know that he would cause the murder of babies that included over 900 loving people. Therefore, instead of picking through the ruins, we are moving up from the valley of tears to build a monument to repentance, renewal and revival....

....Lela Howard garnered support from leaders and built a memorial honoring everyone including Jim Jones in her 2008 ceremony in San Francisco. She had the audacity to inscribe Jim Jones's name next to the victims and innocent children. She tried to have it placed in the African American Center in San Francisco where she held the ceremony, but when the African American community and leaders found out that she was honoring Jim Jones they called the center and put a stop to it....

...My books are open and I have nothing to hide....As soon as my CPA finishes his YTD report we will make these records available to the Office of the Attorney General and any reputable organization. Therefore, I call upon good people of the nations to help us do good in the face of evil and continue to love in a sea of hate. If we can do this together, we will never see another Jonestown massacre again."



One can only hope.