Episode 14: Evangelical Profit

Jones Q994: Some children forget how dangerous it is out there without somebody that is so committed as Father. Some people forget mistakes more quickly than I do. I won't forget, not until you change, then I completely forget. Others will remember it and use it against you when they're doing something, but when you change I completely forget. When you haven't, fucker, I'm watching you. I'm watching you, and next time ain’t gonna be no tomorrow. I mean that, don’t pull no shit with me. Don’t slip any kind of shit, I'm onto you. I've got revolutionary committees onto you because a few more weeks and the future can be bright for our children. I don't give a goddamn. I don't give a continental shit, personally. But, I care a lot about those out there so much that some of you aren't able to care at all. Some woman rolled up here and said, said to me, day before yesterday, “I wouldn’t have come here if I’d know there were all these snakes around here, Jesus.” When have you seen one? When have you seen one? If you stay here and don't try to run away there’s no snakes out there that bothers you. Nobody, no snake’s ever come in here and bothered anybody. Said “I just can’t sleep at night. Father, you’ll have to help me, now. I hate to have to call on your Spirit, hate to call on your Spirit, but you’ll have to help me now since I know there’s snakes out there. Since they brought them big snakes in from the jungle, and you didn’t tell us there was. I, you liar, I told you as plain as the goddamn nose on your face there was snakes there. I told you there was no snakes in here, just like there was no mosquitoes. They come and go based on your goddamn attitude.

 Sure, if you got out in that jungle, if you try to get out of here, you're going to run into everything; snakes, tigers, cougars, you’ll run into every fucking thing. I never told you otherwise, cayman, eat you up for one bite, don't tell me I didn't tell you, but no snake crawled in here. Everybody's never gotten bit. It’s a goddamn miracle none of them’s ever come in here. None of you been bitten; run through that jungle, cutting and clearing the land, and none of you’ve been bitten. Set there worrying about a snake, can't sleep 'cause the snake coming in. That's something to worry about, jeez, that's all I wish I had to worry about. I wish a fuckin’ snake would come and he won’t come. =You oughta have our worries, sometimes wish one would come. And we, wouldn’t be our problem. We wouldn't be responsible. But just think of it by this at night, and hell, wouldn’t be our problem. We didn't lay down our lives, but we can find no fuckin’ snake. Snakes ignore us. No suicide, no, no snake’s going to kill us, so we got no way around it 'cause we’re too responsible to commit suicide. Wouldn’t do it, if you got any guts at all you wouldn't do it. If you do goddammit, I got there and bring you back, so fuck with me and try to do but most of you shouldn't have to tell you that. You wouldn't want to commit suicide because you’d hurt somebody. “And nobody cares,” the hell. You can't, you can't, I don't care if you got no children, nobody, you can't do it without hurting somebody. Right? [Crowd: Right!]

 Jim Jones lay the small, bloodied body down on the makeshift altar. His eyes were intense, black with focus, searching the faces of his audience seated on the floor below. Many of the older children, having tired of his long sermons, refused to come, but the younger children still came to see Jim Jones' menagerie of animals and play elaborate games of pretend in his barn. Jim Jones is ten years old, draped in a sheet stolen from his mother’s bed. The children watch Jim’s hands as he quotes scripture, first waving dramatically at the sky but now placed upon the already decomposing body of a raccoon. They are riveted by his every word.

 “Thus says the Lord God to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life.’” Ezekiel 37:14

As Jones lays hands upon the dead racoon, his eyes close and he begins to shake, forcibly concentrating all of his power and energy into performing the impossible, raising the dead. The moment his eyes close, giggles erupt from somewhere in the audience. Blasphemer. There were always one or two troublemakers who refused to play along. Down in front, a little girl shoooshed the unknown apostate, she had been listening intently and knew it would take the focus and concentration of the entire room if Jim was to pull off a miracle. Jim Jones knew it was already too late, their lack of faith had ruined the show and the giggles now spread like cancer throughout his makeshift church. He was the only one still playing the game. His tiny hands gripped the rotted fur as he choked back tears of anger, all the cuss words he could muster ready to spew forth and send the congregation back to their boring lives where nothing magical ever will or can happen. Ready to explode, Jim found himself caught in the steady gaze of the little girl up front, she watched patiently, quietly waiting for a miracle to come. Seems there was still one playing along after all. Maybe she could somehow help him convince the others to play along next time. “You down in front!” Jones growled, “Drop Dead!!” 

 You are listening to Transmissions from Jonestown; this is episode 14: “Evangelical Profit.”

 Q357 Child: And when I, I found a bird in front of my house, I asked my sister to go get some food for it and she went to go get some and I went to go get some food too… When I got it, I dropped the bird, and it fell dead and I told my sister to go get the picture of Jim, and she got it and I put it on the bird and it came back alive!

Archie Ijames: Yes, yes, yes, the beautiful faith of a child.

I believe in Jim Jones. Many of you have seen the photograph. An elderly woman of color dressed in her Sunday best with a resolute, if not revolutionary sparkle in her eye. I wish she was here to tell us exactly what she believed when she followed Jim Jones to the jungle in Guyana. On November 18, 1978, as she stood near the pavilion in Jonestown, watching the line in front of her grow shorter, knowing it would soon be her turn to drink the cyanide laced potion, did she still believe in Jim Jones?

Jim Jones' lack of faith and his personal spiritual beliefs differ depending on who you ask and which era of his life you examine. Researchers and historians have debated his beliefs and true motives as a religious leader. Traditional churches immediately wanted to distance themselves from the Peoples Temple Christian Church after the tragedy and claimed that Jim Jones only used religion to introduce people to socialism. To assume that whatever the Temple believed cannot be found in the Bible might seem reasonable, even comforting. Surely the foundation of a suicide cult, especially a communist one, could only grow outside of traditional religions and on foreign soil. But this assumption is wrong.

Branham singing: “He's my father, my mother, my sister, and my brother; he's everything to me!” 

 Jim Jones grew up in rural Indiana, inspired by the old-time religions of the Depression era. Peoples Temple members came from different religious and ethnic backgrounds found all over the United States. The congregation reflected all walks of American society and up until the tragedy in Jonestown, was recognized as a religious organization led by an ordained minister. Immediately after the massacre, one four letter word became the descriptor that defined what the Peoples Temple was: a cult. A powerful and exclusive word used to isolate the Temple's beliefs to the mind and will of one man.

By examining what Jim Jones did or did not believe, and exposing the roots of his doctrines, reveals a deeply conflicted religious leader, addicted to the adulation of his congregation, and constantly searching the horizon for opportunity. The circumstances and opportunities that contributed to Jim Jones' rise as a preacher are uniquely American as are the social issues and inherent beliefs that drew Temple followers.    

Jim Jones has been deified in the modern age as the most evil cult leader in American history. Using only the power of his mind, and the not always subtle influence of his most loyal followers, he orchestrated the murder suicide of nearly one thousand people. History praises his powers of influence, his keen ability to triumph over the will of his followers and control their lives like chess pieces on a board. Evidence suggests many living in Jonestown even during that horrible final white night, believed in Jim Jones and the cause. But what did Jim Jones believe?  

Jones (Q958): I don’t understand it. I wish I knew a man like Jim Jones. And I never preached like this before, but this is just the depth of my heart. I wish I had a man to follow like Jim Jones. I’d be so glad, oh, I would take just anything he said, I would do anything he wanted me to do, I’d give everything to follow a man like Jim Jones. But I have to be that man. It’s a lonely job being that man, because I’ve got to be the man that will never let you down, and I never will. I’ve got to be the man that’s as dependable as the Rock of Gibraltar. I’ve got to be as unchangeable as the sun. And I am. But oh, how I’d like to have a man to follow like you have.

In his youth, Jim Jones possessed a sharp, if not twisted mind and his determination to succeed seemingly knew no bounds. Of his many gifts, his love of public speaking and the delicate art of persuasion, combined with his desire for power could have steered his destiny towards the life of a politician, a celebrity, or a successful businessman. I spoke with Rebecca Moore, Professor Emerita of Religious Studies at the San Diego State University. She has written and published extensively on Peoples Temple and Jonestown. She is also the sister of Annie and Carolyn Moore, two of the highest-ranking members of Peoples Temple; both were close confidants of Jim Jones.

Why did Jim Jones choose the path of a preacher? 

Rebecca Moore:  I think for a lot of people back then, when he was, you know, in the 30s and 40s, but, but also even today, the way out of poverty for a number of African Americans is through religion and especially to become a preacher; that is considered a professional position like a doctor or lawyer, that has respect. And I think certainly, Jim Jones had the gift of gab, he had rhetorical ability, he also had a strong sense of outrage over racial injustice and maybe a sense of grievance concerning his own background, and so I think religion for him was, was a natural way to kind of do what he wanted in society. You know, he didn't want to become a businessman or a lawyer, doctor, police officer, or whatever. He saw religion as the vehicle by which he could achieve, certainly social aims, and also that recognized his own talents. 

 Jim Jones did not come from a religious family, although his mother held some unusual Spiritual beliefs. She generally regarded preachers with distrust and was vocally critical of mainstream religions. Jim Jones' religious upbringing and Spiritual development became the concern of a well-meaning neighbor, Mrs. Myrtle Kennedy. She watched as a tiny Jones paraded stray dogs on her property, raggedy and unwashed, and even worse still, unsaved. Jim’s father Big Jim was disabled after World War I, and his mother Lynetta, worked around the clock to put food on the table. Myrtle Kennedy took pity on the Jones’s and made it her mission to save little Jim’s soul from damnation. Myrtle, a Nazarene, took Jim to church after dressing him in a clean suit, brushing his silky black hair and washing his grubby little face.

Myrtle was stunned at the little boy’s attentiveness during church services, no matter how long they lasted, he never seemed to want to leave. His ability to memorize and quote scripture and interpret the deeper meaning behind passages was miraculous. Jim Jones cherished his time with Mrs. Myrtle Kennedy and anticipated the lavish attention she and others in her congregation showed him every Sunday. It was unusual to be baptized more than once but little Jim was born again every single week. Before long, Jim started exploring other churches in town. He spent time with the Quakers, Baptists, Methodists, and his personal favorite, Pentecostal revivals.

Q134 Jones: Thus I acted out against the conformities in community. First way, uh, because I was never accepted — or didn’t feel accepted — I joined a Pentecostal church, the most extreme Pentecostal church, the Oneness, because they were the most despised. They were the rejects of the community. I found immediate acceptance, and I must say, in all honesty, about as much love as I could interpret love. They were persecuted beyond measure for their beliefs. But after some time, intellectually I outgrew Pentecostalism, but still a rebel, still not a part of the society, never accepted, born as it were on the wrong side of the tracks.

 According to Jim Jones' mother Lynetta, around the time Jim started going to the Pentecostal meetings, he started having horrific night terrors about snakes. Lynetta appreciated the time and effort Myrtle Kennedy had invested in Jim’s Spiritual growth. Church stimulated his keen mind and helped little Jim’s self-esteem. But the night terrors were becoming a nightly occurrence causing her son to suffer from sleep deprivation. She took Jim to the doctor and the doctor warned her that all that Bible thumping and Hell's fire might be inducing nightmares. Lynetta decided to see this church for herself.

Q987 Jones: And Rome was overthrown! It didn't happen that night, but the moment those 120 people of all races and all tongues got together, the moment they spoke with a new tongue, that wasn’t just an unknown tongue, but a new tongue, the moment they were set on fire with the revolution of Pentecostal socialism, that moment the dictatorship of Rome begin to fall. 

 [Peoples Temple Gospel Choir: “Something’s Got a Hold of Me”]

 Pentecostals believe that on the day of Pentecost apostles from all over the world gather to celebrate the feast of weeks, or white Sunday. The Holy Spirit takes hold of them with tongues of fire and they begin to speak in other languages. Through this utterance of the Holy Spirit, God's promise is fulfilled. Speaking in tongues in tandem with baptism of the Holy Spirit, bestows magical gifts upon the receiver. These supernatural graces include healing abilities, raising the dead, psychic discernments and speaking the word of God as an interpreter.  

Rebecca Moore: Pentecostalism is a Spirit filled form of Christianity so rather than sitting in a Pew and listening to a boring sermon or in a liturgical tradition like Catholic or Episcopalian: up, down, kneel, cross yourself, etc. Pentecostalism is lively, and ecstatic, and there's a lot of music, and you're overcome by the Spirit, and you start speaking in tongues, and it's more physical, and so you get this feeling that the Spirit of God is present and among you and with you. And so, it's a very appealing form and I think that that's why certainly, it’s growing both in the US and abroad today because it's, it's a form of like, ecstatic mysticism, right? It's like, that God is, is in you and with you. And you don't, you don't tend to have that experience in the traditional church format. And even, you know, the mega churches or the non denominational churches where they spend the first 30 minutes standing up and singing, and waving, and swaying, and that's, that's also influenced by Pentecostalism, and that's a part of that, you know, getting filled with the Spirit, so then you can hear and be prepared to hear the word of God as preached by the minister. 

 Lynetta watched as her son spoke in tongues and preached the Bible while the congregants praised God and rolled around on the floor. She realized her son was being groomed by the Pentecostals to be a child evangelist, and just as she suspected, they were trying to profit from her son's amazing theatrical gifts. We do not know if Lynetta witnessed snake handling at this service, a long-held tradition within the Pentecostal faith. We do know from her writings that Lynetta interpreted the snake from Jim’s night terrors to symbolize corruption in his path by comparing Jim’s snake to the snake from the garden of Eden. From then on, Jim was no longer allowed to go to that church. The nightmares stopped. But Jim’s journey of discovery with the Holy Ghost had just begun.   

Q1054-3 Jones: [Woman in the Spirit yelling] Say, you can be thirty percent God, sixty percent, or 100 percent. I am transforming the natural to the Spiritual. In other words, I am God, and I’m making the material things Spiritual, and the Spiritual things material. God is bringing the materialization of every good desire into our expression. Your fondest imagination is taking place if you look upon God, and know him aright, where you will no longer suppositionally discern that heaven is up there above the skies, but you will say along with me, that heaven is here, and all around you. The kingdom of heaven is within you, not up in the sky. The sky is nowhere, and is everywhere where there is nothing. But you will say with your redeemer, that the heavens are now unfolded, the kingdom of heaven is within you. God himself has come, to build a new world. (Whispers) God, God.

Jim Jones learned how powerful, even profitable words can be. Jim had a lifelong love of soda but as a child living in poverty just after the depression it was a luxury his family simply couldn’t afford. From the earliest age Jim Jones loved to cuss learning all the best swear words from his mother who frequently subjected his father to her expletives. One day, little Jim discovered if he cussed up a storm at the soda fountain, someone nearby would buy him a Coke. He swore for nickels to spend on penny candy, never caring if his audience was entertained or simply trying to get the strange little boy to go away.

Rebecca Moore: He began as a street corner preacher. He would go to various parts of Indianapolis, but also he seemed to, as I recall, travel to other cities. He'd go to the black section of town. He literally would stand on the corner and talk to people, preach out of the Bible and they would listen to him. So he got his start, really just trial and error. Now, if you read some of the biographies like Raven by Tim Reiterman and John Jacobs, you know he was practicing preaching, you know, as a little boy. I don't know if that's true or legend, but in any event, even as a teenager he was exhorting people on street corners and so that was kind of his training.

 As a teenager, Jim Jones became a student pastor of the Somerset Methodist Church after taking a correspondence course. As a traditional pastor, Jones claimed he felt Spiritually confined to the cold rigorous rules and boundaries of the antiquated church. The Methodists frowned upon faith healing and psychic discernments. The excitement Jones had felt during Pentecostal services and the skills he had learned were wasted in this subdued and conventional environment, stifling his passions. More importantly, Jones claimed he wanted to change the lives of his congregants by helping them navigate their problems in the real world. By righting the wrongs of society and emphasizing the needs of the poor, Jones had a strong desire to pursue the egalitarian message of the New Testament: to become Christlike, by living like the apostles. Churches in Indiana were still racially segregated, and Jones claimed that when he tried to racially integrate Somerset Methodist, he was dismissed. Years later, a former Somerset member told the FBI that Jim Jones was dismissed for lying and stealing money.

Q1056-4 Jones: You’ve never met a man like this man before. A man who does not have any future. A man who does not have any past. A man who has nothing but the actual presence, the ever present, the actual personal present tense of God in a body. I have no desire but to do the will of God. I have no future plan to retire on some lovely hill. I have no desire to be out under some palm tree. I have only the desire to be God in the flesh, manifest to bring forth salvation in the name of Jesus. I have no other desire. So what can you do with me? There’s nothing that you can kill, there’s nothing you can destroy! I have no dreams! I have no ambitions but to do the will of God Almighty! (Glossolalia) Some of you are not standing because you yet not know. You never met, and you still don’t know that you’ve not met a man like this man before.

Determined to have a church of his own and make use of his gifts, Jim Jones opened Community Unity, a small storefront church. He could now preach what he believed and perform faith healings and discernments. His church would feed the poor and help the oppressed, just as the Bible said. He promoted his church in Black communities and took a strong stance for equality and integration. In the 1920s, Indiana had its own chapter of the KKK boasting a quarter of a million members. Following the rape and murder of Madge Oberholtzer by Indiana’s Grand Wizard, membership had dropped significantly by the 1950s. But racism still was and is a systemic problem in Indiana and throughout the United States.

Rebecca Moore: I think we need to think of Peoples Temple in it's three or four distinct eras, right? The Indianapolis era; the Redwood Valley and San Francisco era; and then that in Guyana. So, in Indianapolis it really was a church. It functioned like a church, and it was not just about saving souls, but saving lives, so that, considering that Indianapolis was a pretty segregated city at the time; it was very radical to have integrated church services, to invite Black people into your homes, to help people navigate the welfare system. And so Indianapolis, there was in fact a social mission of outreach to help people with medical assistant-- assistance, court appearances, and so on. That really became a big part of the mission in San Francisco, but it had already started in Indianapolis, so it was to help people in the community, poor people to live better lives. You know, it wasn't about pie in the sky when you die, it was about helping people in the here and now. 

 Community Unity was successfully feeding people and gaining a fellowship. As Jones poured his energy into the church, the financial needs of the ministry increased. Jim Jones began importing South American monkeys and selling them door to door. He advertised the monkeys as prizes for church fundraisers. The monkeys drew the curiosity of the press. “Who was this young preacher selling monkeys for Christ?” Tragically, when a shipment of monkeys arrived sick, Jim Jones left them to die in customs. The story hit the news and may have been Jim’s first publicity stunt gone wrong.

Mike Wood, a former Peoples Temple member remembers the monkeys:

Mike Wood: Oh my God, the monkeys! The monkeys, monkeys have a perverse sense of humor, I gotta tell you. They are, they love to torment. I remember that gibbon monkey that Jim had in the Parsonage. That son of a bitch, it would piss on everybody except for Stephan. Stephan was his go to guy, so he wouldn't piss on him, but you can look at a monkey and try to, and he’ll just piss all over you [laughs]. It loved to torment, loved to torment the other animals, for example, you know, every time it passed by the parrot for work, it would pull his tail feathers. Pissed off that parrot every time you're in parrots have pretty damn good eyesight, so he could, he could figure out where that fucking monkey was before you could see it, and man you knew he was looking at that monkey 'cause the feathers on the back of his neck would rise, you know he was ready for that little bastard. [Laughs] That didn’t stop the monkey, and the monkey loved to torment the dogs. Oh my God, it just fuckin’ fun, those dogs are just constantly trying to kill that damn monkey. That was just a joke for the monkey, and it just, it just cracked me up, and I remember one day watching the monkey jump on the back of the alpha male dog, Husky, and riding it around the parsonage, like a, that monkey could ride, he looked just like a jockey leaning into the turns, and holding on and sitting up high, and getting down. I just, I thought, that fucking monkey knows how to ride [laughs]! It was just hilarious. My recollection, and I cannot speak with any certainty about this at all, because it was before my time, but I think he got most of the monkeys from Brazil. He would always say “Oh yeah, you know, these monkeys were used in research, and I saved `em, and I'm such a wonderful human being…” but I think he was just buying them from some importer, and we all thought that Mr. Muggs, the chimpanzee was an ape that he got from some research center, and you know, by telling him what a wonderful guy he was, and what wonderful work he was doing they’d just gave him this chimpanzee, and then I learned that no, he just bought it from a pet store. And I believe that. Jim had, he wasn't somebody who was ever just going to do anything that was decent just for the sake of being decent. He was, he was doing it for his own personal purposes.

 Q964 Jones: We have a– I think a little fellow here I thought it might be of– of interest to you that I saved from being in an unnecessary experiment. His name is Mr. Muggs.

 Mr. Muggs: (vocalizes)

 Jones: Where is he? Where is Mr. Muggs?

 Mr. Muggs: (vocalizes)

 Jones: Come on and see me, Muggs.

 Mr. Muggs: (vocalizes)

 Jones: He’s a part of our congregation. He claps and he worships.

 Congregation: Applause.

 Mr. Muggs: (vocalizes)

 Jones: He talks to me. We have our own little language. He’s so sensitive, and I think we need to be concerned about the treatment of animals, because you know, it’s so easy, we step from the treatment– the adverse treatment of animals

 Mr. Muggs: (vocalizes)

 Jones: She’s been so helpful to us in raising him. Want to say something to the public?

 Mr. Muggs: (vocalizes)

 Jones: He says he’s not used to television. All right. All right. All right. He says I’m not used to– All right.

 Mr. Muggs: (vocalizes)

 Mike Wood: He left the monkey with somebody, and he wouldn't feed the damn things, I mean he, he would get the monkeys and then he would tie `em down in his bathtub or something or other, and just leave `em there for a couple of weeks. I mean, you know I'm sure that some of those monkeys died just from malnourishment. Now as soon as the camera was on him he’d show himself feeding him a banana, one thing and another, but it was just total phony bullshit. I heard a story in the Temple once from an old member, or an old time member who had said that Jim had one day was doing something else, so he needs to leave the monkey with somebody else, and the monkey got in the medicine cabinet and the vanity and just threw powder and creams and pills all over the fucking place, and then shit all over everything [laughs]. You know, these are wild animals. I mean, not only, they are intelligent animals and you know, they don't live their lives by the same standards you and I do. You really don't want a monkey as a pet unless you, unless you have a great, big, open space and a very secure cage you can keep them in, and a large one too, so that they don't get bored because, you know, a bored monkey is a mischievous animal. You gotta keep that sucker entertained [laughs]. Jim didn’t take care of Mr. Muggs, by the way, that was Joyce Touchette-- that, Joyce was really his mother. During church services, I mean, Joyce would bring Mr. Muggs from time to time, no doubt at Jim’s, under Jim's instruction, and then you know let Jim hold it for 10 minutes and talk about how wonderful he was in terms of his relationship with this monkey or chimpanzee but, but Joyce was the, you know, parent of that monk... of the chimpanzee, and the chimp knew it. you know. Let me tell you, with that chimp around, you wouldn't even want to raise your voice to Joyce, he’d be on your ass in a heartbeat. That was his mother and chimpanzees love their mother. 

 Jim Jones acquired Mr. Muggs while driving back to Redwood Valley from Los Angeles. At the time the tiny chimp was wearing diapers but not for long, as Muggs rained down chaos, spreading his excrement throughout the car, Jim Jones realized Muggs was going to need a full-time caretaker. The Touchette family joined the Temple in the early 70s. Joyce, her husband Charlie and their children Mickey, Albert, Mike, and Michelle cared for Mr. Muggs as an adopted member of the family. I had the opportunity to speak with Mike Touchette. He grew up with Mr. Muggs. 

 Mike Touchette: [laughter] Oh, Mr Muggs! My mom, they gave my mom Mr. Muggs when he-- when they had rescued him or whatever they did, which to this day I really don't know if they kidnapped him or whatever, but they gave Muggs to my mom, and he was a little tiny baby and my mom raised him and he was part of the family. He was a riot. When we went to Guyana, they brought him down there and we built a big cage for him and all this and he was like a, he was like a little brother in a lot of respects to both myself and everybody else that was down there. He was, he was pretty cool.

 Before Mr. Muggs went to live in his enclosure in Jonestown he lived on the parsonage behind Jim Jones’ house in Redwood Valley. Up until just a few months ago Muggs’ cage still stood behind Jim Jones' former home.

 Mike Touchette: Myself and my uncle (Tim Swinney), we built that, we built Muggs’ his house, if you want to call it. My uncle was a professional block and bricklayer and so they made it all out of block and I got to help him actually build the whole thing.

 Was Muggs a friendly chimp?

 Mike Touchette: He was friendly with only certain people. I mean, that was from the time he was a baby until I left Guyana, until he died. But he was only friendly with certain people, and if he didn't like you, you got close enough, he would try to grab you, and he would, he would hurt you if he got you.

 Q964 Jones: And in each service we... [Muggs vocalizes] Right. They're not. I think he's a little conscious of these, maybe being weapons. Uh, interestingly enough, if anyone moves in my direction he automatically attacks unless I stop him. If people won’t stand by me, the chimpanzees will.

 Tragically, Mr Muggs died in Jonestown on November 18, when he was shot along with several other animals. During a conversation I had with Fielding McGehee, the editor in chief of the Jonestown Institute, I learned more grisly details of what became of Mr. Muggs while we discussed the bullets recovered in Jonestown.

Fielding McGehee: So, there were like scattered shots in the afternoon. One of them killed Jim Jones, they killed the dogs, they shot Mr Muggs twice, although Mr. Muggs, the chimpanzee was still alive when they, when they showed up two days later yeah. He was still alive, which just breaks my heart. Yeah, no he was, he was still alive when they found him. 

 According to Guyana’s Assistant Police Commissioner Skip Roberts, Mr. Muggs was shot three times, but was still alive when the Guyana Defense Force arrived in Jonestown 36 hours later. He died soon afterwards. As if this story couldn’t get any more macabre, Jeff Brailey, the senior medic of the Joint Humanitarian Task Force sent to Guyana in November 1978 to retrieve the remains of the Peoples Temple from Jonestown wrote in his book, The Ghosts of November about the recovery of Mr Muggs remains.

Jeff Brailey recounted that as the graves team collected the remains in Jonestown and placed them into body bags, a dazed commander jokingly asked if the military would be supplying any psych techs. He had witnessed members of the Graves team trying to cram the giant body of a gorilla into a body bag. There was a discussion about whether or not to use a machete to hack the gorilla’s limbs off to make it fit into the bag. The body bags were loaded onto planes and flown to Dover Air Force Base where their contents were inspected and, on rare occasion, autopsied. When Jeff Brailey asked the soldier why go through the difficulty of fitting the animal's remains into a body bag the soldier responded, “wait til they open this one in Dover!”

 Mike Wood: I never saw him harm an animal, period. And there were always lots of animals around, and he always seemed to be kind of an animal, guy you know, somebody who liked animals, petting dogs, and all that. He had a bunch of animals in the barnyard area behind the parsonage. I never once saw him do anything which in any way could be construed as being harmful or what’s the word I'm looking for, in a, torturous to an animal. Having said that, I'm not at all surprised to learn that he may have either tortured animals when he was a kid or buried them in funerals. I’m sure he did that. I think it, kind of think that, that kind of sermonizing appealed to him, even at a young age. But, I kind of believe that he, he could have done that when he was just a little boy. I'm sure you’ve seen these articles in the paper too, back in the early 50s when Jim was selling monkeys. Apparently you know, he got these goddamn monkeys from Brazil or someplace in South America, and [laughs] put them in cages in his bathroom and then he would take off and go places, not feed the damned animals, so you know I guess some neighbors found out about it and they called the animal welfare people and they came in and it was a big problem for him, he had to go in and…. So I suspect, since that is obviously true, that he may have been, I mean I don't know if he would have harmed animals directly, but certainly being indifferent to their welfare was kind of a basic part of his view of the world as a whole. He liked to protest that he was on, had all these concerns, but in terms of actual demonstration, nah. 

 Q964 Jones: In each service we also – every service – distribute animals, cats, dogs, the unwanted. We uh– You know, the mixed people. That’s what I am. Mixed with everything under the sun. So the little alley cats and the alley dogs. I’m an alley human, and I feel very much for these animals. In every service we give them out, distribute them, and before we do, we have them properly inoculated, and we see that they’re neutered. And I could not tell you the thousands of animals that we reach every year. So– and then we’ve taken in a host of beautiful children, which I do not wish to single out, of every ethnic background. We not only support our own denominational welfare services, but we supported Jewish welfare services, the welfare services of many other groups. And then we have perhaps 80 children that had uh, the worst kind of background you can imagine environmentally, and now they are children in our jurisdiction. They have guardianship, they are in homes– adopted, been given homes in the past few months. About 80, I think. So, we’re very thrilled that we– we have a uh, practical religion and that’s what we need more of. Practical.

 Driven by a desire to recruit new members and growing financial needs, Jim Jones went on the road preaching at tent revivals, and performing sermons as a guest speaker. He was making connections throughout the Pentecostal circuit and his fame and notoriety was spreading. Jim Jones' origin story, his alleged power to heal, and his desire to integrate his congregation mirrored the history of the founders of the Pentecostal faith.

Charles Fox Parham, one of the founding fathers of the Pentecostal church, was also a Methodist who left behind traditional denominations to start his own evangelical ministry. By 1904, Charles Fox Parham accompanied by many faithful followers traveled through Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas setting up tents, healing the sick, and performing discernments. He opened a Bible school in Houston Texas where despite Jim Crow laws, he allowed African Americans to attend. Although Charles Parham was a segregationist, he is credited as the first to include African Americans into the Pentecostal movement. Speaking in tongues was central to Charles Parham’s theological system. He taught that it was a sign of baptism by the Holy Spirit. Two of his students Lucy Farrow and William J. Seymour went on to become African American Holiness leaders and founded the Azusa Street Revival, considered to be the birthplace of the Pentecostal movement.

Vinson Synan: This is an exciting day to be alive right here in Los Angeles. A great movement took place right here on this spot. The Azusa Street revival took place right on this open lot. But one of the greatest revivals in church history because the worldwide Pentecostal movement had its beginning here and services went on day and night for three years in this place, and from this place, Spirit baptized people went all over the world spreading the story of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. 

 Reverend Lawrence Catley: This was originally an African Methodist Church. 

 Vinson Synan: Was it true that both of you received tremendous healings here at this spot? 

 Maddie Cummings: Yes, I received healing. I was deaf and God healed me and now I can hear. 

 Vinson Synan: How many years ago? 

 Maddie Cummings: Oh, that's been around 70 years ago now. 

 Vinson Synan: Somebody said healings don't last. 

 Maddie Cummings: Oh, they do, and sometimes I think I hear too much but thank God for hearing. 

 Vinson Synan: You mean you really were, were deaf?

 Maddie Cummings: Deaf, yes.

 Vinson Synan: Hey, this is quite an exciting day to be alive, isn't it?

 Maddie Cummings: First it was, because they came and begin to speak in tongues and people heard them speaking their own language, the Japanese, Chinese and all the different nationalities they heard them speak and the Gospel was preached to them.

 Vinson Synan: You mean they had not learned these languages?

 Maddie Cummings: Oh no, they had not learned because the Spirit of God filled them, and they really knew what the people were talking about and they too were saved.

 Vinson Synan: Now you saw this and heard this with your own ears?

 Maddie Cummings: I certainly did.

 Vinson Synan: And there were people from all races and nations and tribes came here and there was no distinction on race, was there?

 Maddie Cummings: No, no, nobody, nobody ever said, well you're black, or you’re white, but we were just children of God; rejoicing and praising God for all of His love, and all of His mercy, and His kindness, for His healing, and that was what brought the people.

 In 1906, at the height of his success Charles Parham was arrested in San Antonio, Texas on a charge of commission of an unnatural act- in other words, Charles was accused of soliciting 22-year-old JJ Jordan for sex. Charles Parham denied he was gay, and the district attorney eventually dropped the charges, but his ministry never recovered. Later, allegations of theft and aberrations in the church’s doctrine caused a catastrophe amongst his followers when three members were killed during violent exorcisms. The focus of the Pentecostal movement shifted away from Charles Parham.

Over the years the rise and fall of Pentecostal tent revivals coincided with American tragedies. These self-proclaimed prophets, ready to heal the legions of sick during the Spanish flu, or feed the hungry during the Dust Bowl, constantly evolved their message according to the needs of the people. One such prophet, William Branham, rose to fame just after World War II, when his massive tent revival attended by thousands, attracted the attention of news media. Thousands watched as William Branham laid hands on the sick, driving demon forces from their body and healing them with his divine powers. From 1947-48, Branham traveled the United States and Canada, creating the Latter Rain Pentecostal movement.

Q951 Jones: The hundredfold consciousness is available principle to everyone. It’s a free expression of divine universal law. You could have thirty percent of God, as most churches do. Or you could have sixty percent of God as some endeavor to do in the so-called Pentecostal and Latter Rain movements. Or you could move on, on beyond the sixty percent, in which forty percent of you are still dead, and only sixty percent alive. You could move on up to the consciousness of one hundred percent, where there is nothing but God. 

Branham was famous for his paranormal healing abilities, and his name and reputation drew massive crowds. During the revivals, Branham would issue a warning to the audience about the level of faith required for his healings to work. If one of his healings failed, it was due to your lack of faith. As the faithful arrived to be healed, they would be greeted at the entrance and asked to fill out a prayer card that would record their names, addresses and afflictions. This information furnished Branham with all he needed to make his discernments and call out the sick. A discernment is perception in the absence of judgment with a view to obtaining spiritual guidance and understanding. As hard as it is to imagine the angels having time to whisper people’s social security numbers and medical history into Branham’s ear, thousands of believers fought their way to the front of the crowd to be healed with a word or gesture of the prophet. Branham was known for elaborate theatrics that accompanied his revivals including pillars of fire and the appearance of angels. But the healings were what really attracted audiences and filled the offering buckets.

Branham singing: It’s dripping with blood, yes, it's dripping with blood dripping with blood, this Holy Ghost Gospel, it’s dripping with blood. 

 Throughout William Branham’s career he would prophesize the end times and he urged his people to run to Christ and prepare for Armageddon. He predicted that the world would end in 1977, just a year off from the year Jim Jones’ would end his world and that of his followers.

As to the question of how a supposed prophet can maintain a fellowship even after a doomsday date passes and the prophecies are proven false. A psychological study by Festinger, Riecken, and Schachter found that people turned to a cataclysmic worldview after they had repeatedly failed to find meaning in mainstream movements and religions. The study further illustrated that even after a failed doomsday prediction, followers of end time movements become more loyal to the mythology, either believing the leader successfully stopped the apocalypse, or they simply succumbed to their own cognitive dissonance. Rather than be embarrassed or uncomfortable by dealing with inaccuracies that challenge their perceptions and beliefs, many cults turn doomsday hyperbole into self-fulfilling prophecy. The fear and isolation caused by these beliefs benefit their leader tremendously.   

According to William Branham historian John Collins, critical to understanding Branham’s unique theology is prophet deification. Followers believe that the Bible itself is a mystery and requires a prophet to interpret hidden meanings. God sends his prophet to correct the mistakes made by theologians. God’s prophet not only preaches the Word of God already written in the Bible, but can interpret the spoken word of God, adding new chapters to the Bible. Branham’s sermons were called “The Message,” the message originating directly from God. When Branham speaks, his voice is to be regarded as the voice of God.

Branham: How could a man, or woman, or child of God, that's born out of the Spirit of God, deny the Word of God? When God himself interpreted it and said, this is it, for marvel not at this, for the hour's coming. I've never, just my last message in California, where I thought I'd never go back again, when I predicted Los Angeles would go beneath the ocean, thus sayeth the Lord: it will. She's done, she's washed, she's finished what hour I don't know when but it will be soon. Judgment will strike the West Coast. Remember that same God that said, that said Los Angeles is doomed. She's finished. I don't know when, I can’t tell you. I told God, I can't look at it, let me die, let me, let me fade away, God bless you, do you love the Lord Jesus? Remember, we’re in the last hours.

 [Singing] These nations are breaking, Israel's awakening, the signs that the Bible foretold, the gentile’s days numbered, with horrors encumbered, return oh dispersed to your own, the day of redemption is near, man's hearts are failing for fear, be filled with the Spirit, your lamps trimmed and clear, look up your redemption is near. You know that? False prophets are lying, God's truth they're denying. We know that all is true, don’t we?

 William Branham and his message evolved, and, in the end, he preached all who did not receive Branham and his Message as a harbinger of the end times would be sacrificed during the coming battles of Armageddon. Branham redefined the rapture and now he was the gatekeeper of heaven, the only way to salvation. Branham’s extreme teachings created a division amongst the Pentecostal faith resulting in a resolution from the governing Assemblies of God Council that greatly diminished the legitimacy of William Bramham’s New Order of the Latter Rain. This resolution created a division between the Assemblies of God and the now radical Independent Assemblies of God.

 In 1953, William Branham held a series of revivals in Connersville, Indiana. It is believed Jim Jones attended because not long after, Jones started preaching the message of the Latter Rain. As he became well known amongst Pentecostal circles, Jim Jones was invited to preach at the Laurel Street Tabernacle. Laurel Street's Reverend Price was soon to retire, and Jim Jones seemed a likely candidate to take over. Laurel Street may have been intrigued by Jones' Latter Rain sermons and ignored the warnings of the Assemblies of God Council. Jim Jones became Rev. Price’s associate pastor and changed the name to the New Laurel Street Tabernacle. The church now advertised healings and miracles, a deliverance center for all people claiming over 500 miracles a month. When Jim Jones left Laurel Street Tabernacle he took several members with him, including board member Jack Beam. Jack would later become one of Jim Jones associate pastors, and most trusted confidants.

Woman: I knew they were rednecks (laughter)…

Q777 Jack Beam: The word had got around by this time that some– oh, what was the reference called of these people that never had no church home. They were Pentecostal people, but they ran all over and they would take in everything. Well, anyway Jim had been in down in Franklin–

 Woman: Latter Rain.

 Beam: Huh?

 Woman: Latter Rain Movement.

 Beam: Yeah, the Latter Rain Movement. But anyhow they had had a meeting down in Franklin, Indiana, and Jim had been asked to come down there and speak and–and so his gift began to operate while he was down there and I mean he was just running like ticker tape, but in the meantime, John Price had heard about this, and so he went fishing, and he got this vision out while he was fishing that Jim should be his successor, that he was ready to retire. He was an old man. And–

 Richard Tropp: So, he just realized that Jim would bring a lot of people into his church?

 Beam: Right.

 Richard Tropp: Okay.

 Beam: And his retirement is predicated, you know, I mean his retiring salary is predicated on what kind of good income come in there, and so if he had a moneymaker in there, you know, then he was guaranteed to get–

 Richard Tropp: I see.

 Beam: You dig? Okay, so–

 Richard Tropp: Is he dead now?

 Beam: Oh yeah– he died horribly. Stood there and watched the old fucker die. Hypochondriac. He fantasized him a heart attack. [laughter] So Price come in and made this proposal, what it was fine, and so Jim said, well, bring him in, let him do his act, you know, we’ll see if we dig him. He had healed about three people, and I mean, the word went out like wildfire, the next Sunday afternoon, you couldn’t even get in the place. It was packed out and people out in the parking lot looking in the doors and everything, uhhhh.

 Richard Tropp: They were all white, you’re saying?

 Beam: Oh, yes, these were all white people, and some black people had come and they’d been crammed way back on the back row, and some didn’t even get in.

 Marceline Jones: It was so crowded that I didn’t realize 

 Beam: Yeah, that’s right, but what I’m saying, he never even took the offering. The Laurel Street Tabernacle took the offering, and they took it back in their room, and they counted it and would tell him, and it’d be speazily you know, because we were stealing off of Jim Jones at that time. The reason I say “we.” I was young people’s leader. and I was in on all of what went on, you know, on the money and all–

 Richard Tropp: They give him– they gave a salary or–?

 Beam: They give him a cut of the offering supposed to be wacko

 Richard Tropp: Yeah, so they told him–

 Beam: But it was wacko.

 Richard Tropp: Yeah, I understand.

 Beam: Okay. So, But right after that, when the black people got put up there on the alter, right after that meeting, we had a meeting, a board meeting, or we did, ‘cause I was on the board, you know, you you know don’t be bringing the niggers on the front. I mean, it was sophisticated, but that’s what– now don’t bring the niggers up front. I’ll tell you what we’ll do. We’ll build a church for the niggers, and you can minister them and then you can come and minister the white people. And Jim said, I’ll have no part of that and (makes a sound of finality). Well–He walked it– Right, right. Yeah, he walked out of that goddamn thing. As soon as Jim walked out of there, they said, well, you said that somebody– They was tired of Price anyhow, and so a hell of a fight broke out in the goddamn board meeting. A fist fight.

 Richard Tropp: A fist fight?

 Beam: A fist fight.

 Richard Tropp: Who were they fighting over?

 Beam: Well, Jim.

 Woman: I didn’t know this.

 Beam: Price didn’t want just any fucker coming in there and taking over on his retirement, because he wanted his retirement guaranteed.

 Richard Tropp: So he wasn’t–

 Beam: And his salary would be predicated–

 Richard Tropp: Yeah.

 Beam: –on the drawing power of who took his place. And he was insistent on a money winner, which Jim Jones was the front runner, you know. He could outpreach, at that time. His social commentary and all of– everything that he said was relevant, and it made sense. And it would electrify people that– and I mean he would wrap it in the scripture to such a way–that you had to look at it, you know, you had to look at it. And then, by God, you know, by looking at it, then he’d heal your ass, and it was the Word being accompanied by signs and wonders, which was their scripture. [Marceline laughing], You see? Alright. 

 Reverend Price was replaced by a youth organizer for the Assemblies of God with no affiliations to the Latter Rain. Even though Jim Jones had no qualifications to take over Laurel Street Tabernacle he successfully increased the size of their membership and their coffers, he likely felt disappointed at not being offered the position. Once again feeling the constraints and racism of more traditional church services Jones started holding services of his own under the name Community Unity and later the Wings of Deliverance. Comfortably seated behind his very own pulpit Jones was finally able to speak his mind and use the language he preferred. He retranslated Bible passages and spoke out against racism in the church. As Jim Jones interracial ministry grew, he rented an old Jewish Synagogue and because the word temple was already carved onto its stone facade, called it Peoples Temple Full Gospel Church. In January 1956, William Branham agreed to preach at Peoples Temple bringing with him a huge following of fervent Pentecostal worshipers and all the theatrical splendor of his revivals.  

Less than a month later, Latter Rain evangelist Rev. Joseph Mattsson-Boze offered Jim Jones an honorary Certificate of Ordination into the Independent Assemblies of God.

Church leaders watched in horror as Jim Jones took the pulpit. Uneducated, unqualified self-proclaimed prophets could now seize leadership roles in a church turned movement growing by dozens every Sunday. All while preaching that traditional churches were antiquated and corrupt. In fact, Jim Jones preached that the Bible itself was a tool used to enslave Africa and brainwash people into blind obedience.

 Q953 Jones: The fact is that King James was a slave runner, deviate– the English will not even use his Bible. They know what he is. They know he wrote Bibles that were filled with lies, that he took out sacred, earlier translations and added lies to the present translation. So the English use the Authorized Version. They will not call it King James. Only Americans are dumb enough to use it. ...So King James has put a lot of things in the Bible that are not true. That’s why you have to have a prophet. How can you hear without a prophet or preacher, how can he preach lest he be sent? Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. And the Word of God is sitting in this room. In King James, there’s racism. He says, slaves, obey your master. Servants, obey your master. If you have a good master, be thankful. If you have a bad master, endure him. But the story makes no sense. So you see, you can’t make that old Bible anything more than it is, the slave runner’s tool to keep the poor people down and keep the boot on the back of the oppressed.

 Jones: Whatcha got to say, say it to me. I know your thoughts. Say it to me.

 Congregation: Right.

 Jones: I sit up here, I know thoughts. You got any thoughts, say it to me. I don’t mind. I don’t mind being disagreed with. Whatsoever. But you– if you can deny what I just said, do it. Otherwise, throw aside these weights that beset you. Throw aside religion. The reason America has not freed itself of racism, the reason the women in America only make half the salary of men, is because of the Bible. The Bible is the root of all of our problems today. Racism is taught in it. Oppression is taught in it. Other mind– Otherworldliness is taught in it. If the Bibles would disappear, if religion would disappear, then we would do something to make this ecological system a better world. We would clean up the nation. We would clean up the world. We would do something about the here and now. But the Bible says by and by. When the morning comes, there’s gonna be a beautiful city, or God’s gonna come down and rapture his people, and take them up in the sky. Bull!

 The Peoples Temple hosted the Brotherhood Healing Crusade at the Cadle Tabernacle. Guest speakers included William Branham, and ads boasted one thousand ministers would attend. Branham and Jones claimed that the forces of evil were working through formal churches and the way to salvation was through the Living Word. William Bramham’s fame and notoriety drew massive crowds and Jim Jones watched as Branham performed miracles and healed people. We may never know just how many healing and discernment techniques Jim Jones learned from Branham. Later in life Jones would reminisce on this period of his life and recount that before he had helpers, he would wander the crowd and eavesdrop, memorizing as much as he could before he took the stage.  

For the next year, Jim Jones and William Branham paths’ crossed traveling the revival circuit together going as far as Ohio. Throughout his travels Jones would develop and nurture relationships with Temple members that would later become his inner circle. In Ohio, Jones met Patty Cartmell, an overweight evangelical zealot who would become one of his most trusted and loyal secretaries. Her flair for theater and memory skills were virtues Jim Jones could not live without when performing healings and discernments. 

Q963 Patty Cartmell: Several tigers, there’s the black cat, the 14-foot turtle tiger, there some other tigers. I don’t know the names of all of them, but he said that last week, Melvin said last week, that a man was eaten by a tiger and the tiger ate him. Found [unintelligible] cut into him with a cutlass, that the man had been eaten, he ate the man, what he said.

Jones: Mmmhmmm, that’ll do it. Yet, they never come into our property. Snakes don’t bother us, they’ve never been bitten. All the years we’ve been here, we’ve never had a bite. And they’ve stepped on them and the snakes have died. All kinds of marvelous things have happened.

Throughout his travels Jim Jones would establish satellite headquarters, usually someone’s house where he would prepare for his next sermon and gather intelligence on potential congregants. Patty played an instrumental role as she spied and went through people's trash while making notes about the details of people’s lives on index cards. Another important member of Peoples Temple leadership Jones met around this time was Archie Ijames. Archie heard Jones speak at a Branham revival and was unimpressed but later decided to join the Temple when he learned of Jones' strong stance for racial integration. As a Black man in Indiana, Archie was impressed by Jim Jones’ dedication to unifying congregations across the state. Archie, a Seventh Day Adventist who would later refer to himself as a Universalist, loved nothing more than to debate philosophy. Jim Jones eventually promoted Archie Ijames to Associate Pastor. 

Jones: Archie out there, he designed this and did most of the work on this, one, this particular annex. Come in Archie and let them meet you. He’s also the Associate Minister to Peoples Temple. [Laughter]

Archie Ijames: [laughing-unintelligible] In my religious background I was taught that you could never be funny, or find anything to be amused about. You had to be serious, or somber. You know being around this wonderful family that’s done such a passionate care. It broke down my inhibitions and made it possible for me to really be myself.

Jim Jones, like many tent preachers, had a knack for drawing entire families into his congregation, with jobs and a meaningful place in his flock for all ages. Many families who joined the Temple during this period would be loyal to Jones till the end, dedicating their lives and property to the prophet who would eventually murder them all.

Within the Latter Rain there was a subsect growing, the Manifest Sons of God. The Manifest Sons of God elevated church leaders to apostles and prophets, tasked with bringing down traditional churches and exposing their inherent corruption. Jones and Branham both taught that the earth was waiting for humankind to be manifested as gods to rule the earth. Jones and Branham claimed to have already achieved god-like status. At a Latter Rain revival, a woman introduced Jim Jones to the congregation with a prophecy: you shall go all around the world as a prophet. According to the Latter Rain, Jones now had the authority to claim his words were in fact the voice of God.  

William Branham researcher and historian John Collins made a chilling discovery on the last recording ever made in Jonestown, also referred to as the “death tape.” On the tape, Jim Jones can be heard referencing the Manifest Sons of God theology. Jones states that he has “made [his] manifestation,” and that Peoples Temple members must leave this world in order to testify to the other people in the current age:

Q042 Jones: I’ve saved them. I saved them, but I made my example. I made my expression. I made my manifestation, and the world was ready — not ready for me. Paul said, “I was a man born out of due season.” I’ve been born out of due season, just like all we are, and the best testimony we can make is to leave this goddamn world.

 By 1958, Jim Jones had become disenchanted with William Branham and the Latter Rain.

Q612 Jones: They won’t tell you the truth, because the black book is the easiest gravy train that they’ve ever been on. Yet Allen [A.A. Allen, Pentecostal evangelist] came to me, Oral Roberts [Pentecostal evangelist] spoke this, Billy Graham came right to us – [Archie] Ijames, Jack [Beam], and me – in Claypool Hotel, said “I don’t believe a thing in that Bible, hardly.” But he said, “it’s the way to make a living.” Billy Graham, who I prophesied his death, Billy Branham rather, said his head would be— I said he’d lose his head. His head was cut off in Texas. He said you can’t preach the truth about that Bible, you will be in trouble. I said, I choose to preach the truth. He said, well, I’ll be around, while you will be in trouble. Well, I’m still here, and his head is cut off from his body.

In 1965, while traveling with his family through Texas, Branham's car was hit by a drunk driver. He died on Christmas Eve. Years after his death, his associates and followers started mass producing audiotapes of his sermons, claiming they should be included in an updated version of the Bible. These recordings were sold under the title “The Voice of God Recordings.” To this day, The Message created by William Branham is being spread throughout the third world.

 Branham signing: They were gathered in the upper room all praying in His name, baptized with the Holy Ghost and power for service came, now what he did for them that day, He’ll do for you the same, I'm so glad that I can say I'm one of them. I’m one of them, I’m one of them….

 The exact reason for Jim Jones departure from the Manifest Sons of God or the Latter Rain are unknown, but here is a theory.

In 1947, an Iranian faith healer named Avak Hagopian was making news in California, healing the disabled with his powerful psychic gifts. Avak drew crowds of 40,000 people and the Palm Beach Police Department worried that he would becoming a security risk.  Sponsored by Thomas Kardashian, great grandfather of Kim Kardashian, Avak embarked on a national tour healing the sick and performing miracles across America. Tom Kardashian teamed up with Ku Klux Klansman Clem Davies to support  Avak and the two quickly realized their investment was paying off. They decided to sponsor another faith healer who shared ties with the KKK and was vocally anti-Semitic: A Pentecostal evangelist from Indiana named William Branham. Together Branham and Avak, using the theme of world destruction, traveled the revival circuit spreading faith, and anti-Semitism.

Coincidentally and I say that ironically…another follower of William Branham was the founder of Colonia Dignidad, Paul Schafer. Colonia Dignidad was an isolated jungle compound in Chile established by Nazi war criminals after World War II. Famous for murdering dissidents during the military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, it functioned like a concentration camp. Paul Schafer arrived in Colonia Dignidad with 70 of his followers in 1961, the same year Jim Jones left the United States for Brazil.

 Mike Wood: No, I didn't hear about Branham until, Jesus, I was reading some article on the Website [Jonestown Institute], you know, a few years ago. He never mentioned him. Never, ever. Even in private, Jim’s statement as to how he came, how his powers came to be revealed and used by him, he had gone as a skeptic to some Pentecostal meeting as the young college student, I guess, I think he said he was 19, and the lady minister,  the lady preacher called him out and laid hands on him and made all these prophecies and told that he would be able to, you know, do all the speaking in tongues and have the gift of healing and this and that and understanding and blah blah blah, and you know, she said and “you now can do this,” boom! And so, there was sort of sprang boom! right there. And he said that “at first, I thought she was crazy, and I just closed my eyes and it all just happened, it was just amazing,” and that's how he explained it. Now why that, and here's why first of all, he did not want anybody to think that there was any real human being who actually had an influence on him, that you could find he didn’t want….I think a connection with somebody like Branham would have caused people to question what he was really all about. Was he genuine or was he just another con man? One thing that I notice about cult leaders, I mean the question of why do they lie all the time? I mean, I remember Tim Stoen asking Jim, “why do we have to lie all the time?” Jim got really pissed, “what do you mean lie, we don’t lie…” But the answer is, I’ll use a lie even if the truth would produce a better result. And the reason why is because you can’t control the truth. As a cult leader, you’re all about control. Your message has got to be self-contained, totally controlled. You know, so even if truth comes in there somehow, it has to be twisted to maintain your control. I mean that this is my theory, it’s all I can tell you.

 Q956 Jones: Sing little children, sing about God in the body, sing little children sing, sing little children sing...

 In the late 50s, Jim Jones would have his first of many meetings with Black spiritual leader Father Divine. Father Divine, the founder of the International Peace Mission Movement prospered during the Depression spreading his message of heaven on earth. In the early days, Father Divine’s followers called him The Messenger but as his church gained momentum, he revealed himself to be God. Jim Jones visited Father Divine’s massive estate Woodmont in Pennsylvania and was greatly affected by what he saw. During a massive banquet served only on the finest china, Jim Jones watched as Divine’s followers, primarily Black, celebrated every day like Easter Sunday. Their god was alive and sitting at the head of the table. The people, well fed and dressed in frilly Edwardian era clothing, seemed to be seated at the right hand of god.  

 Rebecca Moore: Jim Jones was pretty well connected on the Pentecostal and revival circuit. He was an interesting person in that he, although he did go to college, he was largely self-taught and was quite a voracious reader and so, I'm sure either on the revival circuit or somehow through the Black community, he heard about Father Divine and the Peace Mission, and in fact, anyone really growing up in the 1930s, which Jones did, could not have avoided hearing of the Peace Mission, which was this amazing new religion founded by Father Divine. So, Jones had heard of Father Divine and the Peace Mission Movement, and I think it seemed to be again compatible with the outlook he was trying to create in Peoples Temple: it was self-sustaining, it promoted racial equality, Father Divine was a charismatic leader. The main thing that the Peace Mission was known for were these heavenly banquets, especially during the Great Depression where anyone could come and eat on Sunday, you know, eat a huge Sunday dinner and they'd be served on china, and a fine china and so on. Father Divine really was into Black entrepreneurship, and so members of the Peace Mission had their own businesses, you know, barbershop, hair stylist, cleaners, shoeshine, shoe repair, and so on, and restaurants, and so it was really kind of not Black bourgeoisie, but kind of Black economics, so that they could be self-sustaining and live really apart from white society in their own enclave. Key difference between the Peace Mission and Peoples Temple, and again this is because of the time period in which the Peace Mission arises, is Father Divine preached a message of sexual celibacy. This was because it was against the law for you know, blacks and whites to have sex back then and so he was strictly, you know, if you were a member the Peace Mission, you were celibate and, so that kind of forestalled any criticism, you know, that people were having sex with other races. Of course, Father Divine himself had sex with a number of different people and married a white woman, and so on. Obviously, Jones adopted some of that in a weird way but other way not.

 Father Divine: Brethren and sistern, be seated...

 “Accentuate the Positive” by Johnny Mercer plays

 Father Divine’s real name is George Baker Jr although, because he is thought to have been the son of freed slaves, accurate records to his birthdate or place of birth are disputed. Divine started preaching at a Baptist church in 1907. His early religious influences included the New Thought movement, a growing influence during the turn of the century that explores metaphysics, faith healing, and the power of positive thinking. Father Divine preached throughout the South calling himself The Messenger, the Son of God. In 1914, after serving some time in a chain gang, Father Divine gained a following in Georgia, mostly elderly ladies. He preached against gender bias and promoted celibacy. Several preachers and angry husbands of his followers had Divine committed for lunacy. During his trial, Divine refused to furnish his name to the court, only referring to himself as God. He was tried as John Doe and found to be mentally sound if not eccentric.

Newsie: Day or night, Father Divine is in touch with his executive secretary, and whenever the Spirit moves him, he is able to chat with his flock.

Father Divine: “Peace everyone. Everybody happy? [Crowd: Yes!] So am I.”

Father Divine then went to New York and formed a commune in an apartment building. Newsreels from the time depicted Divine’s commune as a technological wonder. The house was equipped with a loudspeaker system so Father could speak to his followers from anywhere in the house. Though he claimed to not receive any payment for his spiritual services, Father Divine loved to flaunt his wealth. There were also persistent rumors about his harem of women. Father Divine prohibited sex, alcohol, and gambling amongst his followers

Newsie: Only on rare occasions does Father Divine hold a press conference.

Father Divine: I did not, and do not, and will not receive compensation, remuneration, love offerings, donation, or anything of that sort for my spiritual works and activities from any individual. I’m a free gift to this world, gratis to mankind.

Divine bought a house in a white neighborhood and his new neighbors nearly rioted. During the Depression, Divine’s Movement went through a period of expansion. From New York to California, Divine gained followers and was able to purchase more apartment buildings he called Heavenly Housing. He ensured his people could always eat and find jobs, something every American desperately needed during the Depression. In 1934, Father Divine formed an alliance with the Communist Party; he was impressed with their Civil Rights work.

A mentally deranged follower of Father Divine, John Hunt, made the news when he kidnapped an underage girl, took her over state lines and molested her. John Hunt now called himself John the Revelator. He allegedly brainwashed the girl into believing she was the Virgin Mary. This was only the beginning of several negative news stories about Father Divine’s Movement in the 30s. When Father Divine’s wife Pinninah, also called Mother Divine, took sick, they moved to Philadelphia.  After she died, Father married a 21-year-old white woman named Edna Rose claiming she was the reincarnation of Mother Divine.

Father Divine was a pioneer of the Civil Rights movement. He helped sponsor an anti-lynching bill and focused his ministry on helping African Americans obtain jobs, access to education, and affordable housing. He successfully improved the standards of living for many of his followers. It did not go unnoticed. Father Divine was gifted a massive estate -- Woodmont, which would become his home and headquarters situated along the Hudson across from the home of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Jim Jones corresponded and visited Father Divine for several years. He would study the International Peace Mission Movement and later try to recreate the utopia Divine had built for his people. Jones was particularly inspired when he learned that most of the food served during Divine’s heavenly banquets was grown at the commune’s Promised Land farms. Even during times of famine, Divine would be able to provide. Jim Jones had always told his followers that a higher purpose had called upon him to save humanity. But after spending time with Father Divine and seeing what heaven on earth looked like, Jim Jones started saying he was more than just a messenger, he, like Father Divine, was a living God. 

Q1059-1 32 Jones: You are now so all-fired capable– you’re so capable that you can take voice-a-graphs and you can study the electronic frequencies of the voice, and you can determine whether someone’s telling the truth, or whether they believe in what they’re doing, and I’m gonna tell you, when you get through analyzing my voice, you’re gonna know I believe in every damn thing I’m doing! You write it down. You can call me an egomaniac, megalomania or whatever you wish with the messianic complex. I don't have any complex, honey. I happen to know I'm the Messiah! Now you take that in your pipe and smoke it, honey. 

On One of Jim Jones’ trips to Woodmont, he noticed that Father Divine was in ill health. Jim Jones wondered what would happen to all of Divine’s wealth, the estate, the apartment houses, the Cadillac, and even more importantly what would happen to his followers. When Mother Divine died in the 40s, her soul had passed into Edna Rose as did her place in the Movement. Jim Jones wondered if he could move Father Divine’s Spirit to do the same.

 John Facenda voice over: Father Divine became God to millions, both black and white. To the followers of his International Kingdom of Peace Movement he was the second coming of Christ, but to non-believers he was a mystery. Despite the lavishness of his palatial 73 acre country estate, Woodmont, his followers insist that Father Divine never personally profited from the Movement, that he in fact never exploited the so-called “God Game.”

 After Father Divine died in 1965, the Peace Mission Movement was led by his surviving wife Edna Rose. In 1971, Jim Jones visited Mother Divine and spent several days trying to convince her that the Spirit of Father Divine had transmutated into his body. Jim had instructed Peoples Temple members to call him father and encouraged them to recruit from within the Peace Mission during the trip. 

During a banquet, Jim Jones declared the affair to be bourgeois and the followers of the Peace Mission to be too materialistic. Mother Divine asked Jones and his followers to leave. Temple members sent several letters to followers of the Peace Mission attempting to lure them away from Woodmont. One such chain letter implored that Father Divine, now inside of Jim Jones’ body was calling his children home and would park a bus at a certain time and place to retrieve his children and take them home to California. When the day came no more than half a dozen members of the Peace Mission Movement joined the Temple. Those who joined were elderly and as Jim Jones would complain later, cost the Temple more than they earned. To his own followers, Jim Jones claimed that Mother Divine had attempted to seduce him, and he was repelled when she ripped open her blouse and accosted him. Though Jim Jones now shifted his focus away from the Peace Mission, he incorporated what he had learned from Father Divine into his sermons, he also kept the moniker, father.

David Wise: Try to imagine a God in flesh: well, that's really good for Jim’s background, and I think there's a whole separate manner of a cult in the tonality of those religions, you know? There's just, it's a completely different tone before he met Father Divine. Went in and brought members from the Father Divine collapse, basically, and before that, you know, he was much warmer, nicer, friendlier but when he decided to try to be Father Divine and that meant that there's a whole rule set to try to imitate what this guy did, and it's a very complex you know, to be like, you know: “You Shannon are given a choice. You're going to become 20% God, or 30% God, or 40% God, where you're good, you’re nothing but good all the time, you become 100% God, Almighty God!” Now, then suddenly, he's got you believing in this mathematical principle. He can declare himself God a lot easier, you know? He can say, he’d say, “But as for me, I'm 100% principle, 100%...” whatever, you know, so you know, whatever you want to throw in there. So, there you can understand the bait and switch a little bit more and how the Father Divine was a bizarre thing.

 In 1960, the Peoples Temple is accepted into the Disciples of Christ denomination, and in 1964, Jim Jones is officially ordained as a minister. But why did Jim Jones choose the disciples of Christ?

 Rebecca Moore:  The Disciples of Christ is a liberal Protestant denomination, and unlike other denominations like Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and so on, it was willing to ordain ministers who had not necessarily been trained at a disciples of Christ seminary, and I think that that was a real advantage for Jim Jones and Peoples Temple. Prior to that, the Church had been incorporated really just independently of any denominational affiliation. You know, Jim Jones, his wife Marceline Jones, and others were the boards of directors and they created their own little church, which is actually how non denominational churches start today. But being affiliated with Disciples of Christ gave them a lot more credibility with other people in, you know, San Francisco certainly, that you know, we're a real church, we're not just a storefront church and that denominational affiliation really legitimized it as a church. 

 Even though Jim Jones would often express his disgust with mainstream churches, under Indiana law, only ministers representing established denominations were entitled to personal tax breaks. This may have helped dictate the necessity of making the church legitimate. 

 Rebecca Moore: It’s kind of a weird thing about life in the United States. The single most important government entity in defining and describing religion in America is the Internal Revenue Service. Because the IRS is the entity that states what is a religion and what is not a religion through the tax exemption process. So, Church of Scientology fought for many years to be declared a religion and eventually was by IRS. Other countries don't do it that way, but in this country if you can persuade Internal Revenue Service that you’re a religion you’re a religion. So, the US government definitely helps shape the religious landscape, just through the process of taxation. But of course, there are other ways in which it functions as well but that's, that's a big one because if you get a tax break, and you own a very expensive piece of property in the middle of Manhattan or Chicago, that's a big, that's a big tax loss for the government, and that's a big tax break for the religion.

 The United States has a very unique religious history, because unlike countries in Europe and elsewhere in the world, we don't have an established religion that receives tax support, and paradoxically because no religion receives cash grants, tax support in that way, it's allowed for numerous religions to startup, or individual churches to exist, which in other parts of the world there's not the extent of religious pluralism, diversity, or just sheer numbers that exist in this country. So, it's not just government that shapes the religious landscape, it's our heritage of separation of church and state, our heritage of rejecting an establishment of religion, but at the same time respecting freedom of religion and freedom of conscience, and those are all many of them unique to what happened historically in the United States. In terms of Peoples Temple, it's hard to judge what impact if any Peoples Temple and the events in Jonestown have had on religion in American life. Certainly, Jonestown is held up as an example of the worst possible thing that a cult can do, and that all cults will eventually end up in Jonestown. Jonestown happened in 1978, and this was when there were so called cult wars going on between people who were concerned about their adult children being in new religions, and kind of taking over their lives with conservatorships trying to enact legislation that really violated some fundamental principles of religious freedom, which they said you know, were needed in order to protect their children's personal rights. So after Jonestown, this was like in a way a boon to all the groups that were concerned about cults.

 I think today, there's a little bit more sophistication, although not much, about new religions and religious pluralism and so on, like we have in our own country, lots of different religions now, and religious neighbors that we didn't have, or like were kind of invisible, you know? Whether they're Sikh religion, or Muslims, or Wicca, or Pagan, or all sort, well the Hari Krishna's you know, ISKCON, in the 1960s and 70s, was this really strange and scary group, and they were involved in some violence themselves after the death of their swami, but now if you look at ISKCON today, it's a, it's a kind of a mainstream group run by South Asians from India. It’s not a weird cult anymore, just like one more example of religious diversity in America. But Jonestown because of the horrible nature of what happened there does loom large in our own minds, I mean in the, in the minds of people in this country. I've developed this thing, what I call Jones’s Corollary to Godwin's Law. Godwin's law states that anyone online discussion will eventually mention Hitler or Nazis. It was first coined by Mike Godwin, which is true, I mean if you look at almost any online debate, eventually Hitler or Nazis will be mentioned, right, and then he says that's the end of the debate. I have Jones's Corollary to Godwin's Law which is this: that any discussion of new religions starts with Jonestown, in other words, you start with the most outrageous, the most horrible, the most horrifying example of a new religion to discuss any religion, and then you take it from there. As soon as you mention Jonestown or Kool-Aid you've already classified what is the nature of that religion or what is the nature of that religious group, and I don't think this happens worldwide but certainly, I think it's a part of American culture: this Jones’s Corollary, that the first thing you mention is Jonestown when you talk about a new religion, maybe not in the first paragraph, but by the end of the story, Jonestown or Kool-Aid will definitely be mentioned.

 In 1961, Jim Jones became the Executive Director of the Indianapolis Human Rights Commission, which was created to address racial problems in the city. Jim Jones focused his energy on integrating businesses, fighting for equality in the workplace and as a consumer. Jim Jones put pressure on local businesses to integrate their lunch counters and movie theaters. When a business owner refused to comply, Jones would lead his flock, now numbering in the hundreds, to protest outside. To reward businesses that integrated and welcomed Black patrons, Jones would supply an endless stream of customers, recommending from behind the pulpit where to get the best enchiladas. According to Jim Jones, his foray into politics was not met well by racists in Indiana. He claimed to have received death threats, bricks thrown through his windows, and even his wife Marceline was spat on while walking their children. By this time Jim Jones and Marceline had their son, Stephan and several adopted children. Jim Jones claimed Jimmie, Jr. was the first African American baby to be adopted by white parents in Indiana. The Peoples Temple was feeding people with soup kitchens, clothing people with donations and helping the disenfranchised with legal issues. The Temple even helped the elderly, some of whom could not read, navigate government assistance programs.

Despite living his supposed dream of doing humanitarian work and having a church of his own, history records this period of Jim Jones life as being troubled. Hospitalized with stomach ulcers and questioning his purpose in life, there are indications that Jim Jones may have had a mental breakdown. At home, Marceline was troubled by Jim’s attitudes towards the church. She was raised in a more religious environment. Jones became increasingly hostile towards her Christian beliefs. I had the opportunity to speak with Jim Jones' son Stephan Jones about his parents' religious beliefs. 

Stephan Jones: Mom and dad had different values ideologically, and in so many other respects. Dad presented something very different to her and her family when he was courting her, of course. And once he had her in the bag, so to speak, he started to speak ill of conventional religion, traditional religion, and speak more of radical social change. Not that mom was against social justice at all, she was very much for it. Her approach, I think, to it would be more peaceful than dad espoused: I mean, dad talked a good game. I don't know how willing he was to get in the street and get roughed up, and jailed, and just be one of many people lined up on a curb with their hands tied, cuffed behind his back, dogs sicced on him. I don't know how willing he would be to do that honestly, but he certainly talked a good game. In the household, I don't remember religion. I don't remember prayer before meals. I remember it was a big deal to have all of us at a meal and dad would be there and mom was there and you know all the kids at the table. I really, I really loved that, but I don't remember religion and I don't remember spirituality. I remember talk of reincarnation, but with no understanding of what that meant in the much larger context, and much greater understanding of that point of view; the transmigration of the soul, the origin of the soul, the path of the soul, the ultimate goal of the soul, there was no conversation of that. It was just, when you die you come back as something else and it could be anything. Well that's not comforting! I mean, I guess when you're when, I know when I'm, when I was really little I did not like the idea of just ending. No more, ever, but then I would become something else and forget what I had been felt like the same thing to me. It wasn’t long before dad was talking about him being God. As I was saying earlier, I don't think he believed half the stuff he was telling people about himself, and I don't think he believed half the stuff people believed about him, and that's why he was at war constantly. Constantly trying to manage his perception of other people's perception of him, and that's why I think, that was the greatest reason for the drugs, it was unsustainable.

Q1054-3 Jones: You’ve got to have a preacher. How can you hear without the– faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God, and the word of God will discern the thoughts. How much you need to see what I’m saying to you today. How much you need to hear this vivid reality and get it in your soul, because it’ll make you free! This woman [Marceline Jones] that’s standing beside me, been married to me for twenty-some years. You think this woman would’ve stood beside me? She’s very straight when it comes to things like that. You look at her face. Do you think she would’ve sh– upheld me if I am not what I say I am? Do you think that this woman would’ve stood by me all these years if I’m not what I say I am? Oh no, she wouldn’t’ve. Oh no! She had to have it proven to her, because she too thought it was up there, until she saw me go through walls, and saw me, she was given up to die, when her back was crippled, and she was laying on her back in traction, and they said her spine would never be able to walk again, and I said you shall live and I touched her and she got out her bed and walked! She had to have it proven to her! She had to have it proven to her. And I don’t blame you for having to have it proven to you, so stick around. Stick around. Just come more than once, stick around. 

The Attention Span Recovery Project would like to thank our special guests for this episode: David Wise, Fielding McGehee, Rebecca Moore, Mike Touchette, and Mike Wood. We would also like to thank the Jonestown Institute, otherwise known as the Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple. Their website can be found at jonestown.sdsu.edu. The Institute houses a massive collection of Peoples Temple research lovingly organized and curated by fielding McGehee, Rebecca Moore, and countless others who have donated their time and energy to ensure these materials will live on forever. The Attention Span Recovery Project wants to thank our listeners. Your enthusiastic support of this program inspires us and ensures our continued commitment to The Cause. You have the power to bind yourself to our Cause by performing small acts of kindness throughout your community: donate food to your local food bank or donate your time to help end the suffering within your community. The power to create change lives in you.

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