When one of Stephan Jones' adopted brothers once declared in a rage that they had to kill their father, Stephan remembers talking him out of it: "I said, 'God, you'd have chaos on your hands if you just went out and did this. The years are slowly weaning Stephan Jones from Jonestown; he reads, goes to movies, wants now to have a child of his own. I try not to speak in terms of what I couldve done because I see no value in that.. He is married to his wife Kristi Jones since 1991. The years have shaped another lesson for Stephan Jones, but it makes him uneasy to talk about it. Mud made the truck bed slick, so everyone clung to the sideboards. mode: 'thumbnails-rr', She gave her house to the Peoples Temple and they moved to San Francisco. Though he waved and smiled at Peoples Temple services, seemingly enraptured like the rest, Stephan Gandhi Jones says he always had his doubts. He keeps his voice very soft, as though practice has taught him to hold certain subjects to a whisper in public, but his gaze is direct. He is an actor, known for Written in Blood (2018), The People's. More at IMDbPro Contact info Agent info Resume Born June 1, 1959 Add to list Photos Known for The People's Advocate: The Life & Times of Charles R. Garry 7.0 Self - Interviewee 2007 P3 Dokumentr Dozens of members in Guyana slipped out of Jonestown or happened to be away that day. When he was 10 years old he listened as Jim Jones had sex with a mistress in the next room. Stephan Gandhi Jones is the son of the notorious religious cult leader Jim Jones. Its nose wheel had been broken the week before and four soldiers were guarding it with M-I6 rifles. She died in a tragic car accident only weeks before her mother, Marceline Mae Baldwin Jones, gave birth to her brother, Stephan Gandhi Jones. He built a long career in health care, while weathering his own serious health problems. Stephan Jones Seeks Forgiveness For Jonestown Massacre, Late Jim Jones Son Stephan Jones Is An Actor. "I got sick of the same speeches, the insisting people stay awake, the constantly testing people." Its not entirely surprising that many Americans and others want to understand how thousands of people can become blind followers of a tempestuous leader, and how it can end. Stephan is the only living son of Jim Jones and his late wife. Layton, who was insisting on taking the first plane, slipped to the other side of the plane before he could be frisked. He saw that the jungle would make him a man. I tried to fire - but nothing happened.'. Did you notice a point or phase where your fathers behavior shifted and he lost touch with the just causes that he once championed? He has taken a lead role in a 40th Jonestown anniversary memorial to be held Sunday at Oaklands Evergreen Cemetery, where remains of unclaimed and unidentified victims are buried. They have altogether three daughters. By subscribing to this BDG newsletter, you agree to our. They have three children. In "Raven," the detailed Jim Jones biography by Tim Reiterman and John Jacobs, it is Stephan Jones who stands in the shadows as his father lies and fakes and bends the people around him, his sickness mounting through the years. Sadly we were finally at a point where I felt I had enough support and we decided that we were going to take action'. Life became more tolerable after the couple's baby, Martin Luther Smith, was born. He was a genius, and he was unique. His LinkedIn profile indicates that he still has the position of vice president of operations at MB Contract Furniture. And I say, 'My name is Jones.' I believe that it was always a personal agenda for my father, and yes, there was a gradual shift in the balance. (Actually, the deadly beverage that day might have been based on a cheaper imitation, Flavor Aid. He says that to understand how a thing like that can happen, you have to do what leaders like Jim Jones and his successors dont want us to do to read. The reports were wrong, they say. But he was also very loving, especially during the early period'. And Smiths wife, son and mother died. He loved it. You used the word forgiveness, but I find love and compassion for him. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Stephan Gandhi Jonesis the son of the notorious religious cult leaderJim Jones. Ryan had planned to remain behind at the mission with several members who wished to return to the United States but couldn't get seating on the planes. . "I would have had to, especially if I saw other people doing it, and I right off the bat wasn't on top of things, and somehow wasn't right there starting some kind of--it's so hard--", Stephan Jones covers his face for a moment, fingers kneading his forehead. Stephan Gandhi Jones, age 60s, lives in Petaluma, CA. After the incident, Stephan was put into jail for three months and that led him to drug addiction. Oh yeah, I think you can see that from my writing. My arm was gushing blood so I stripped off my belt and pinched down the biggest wounds. Fortunately for him, few people recognise him. Stephan is among one of the Late Jim Jones sons survivors and he is still disturbed by those past events. mode: 'thumbnails-a', And I just flew out of bed, grabbed my ax, walked out to the post that was supporting the speaker and raised the ax like I was going to cut it down. First the Cessna was filled, with Ryan frisking each boarder looking for guns and knives. Stephan Jones was born on 1 June 1959 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Wiki User. At 16, she was put on the Planning Commission where the meetings were a strange mix of church business, sex talk and adulation for Jones. Only two days later did the picture became clear. Some have come to acknowledge that they helped enable Jim Jones to seize control over people drawn to his interracial church, socialist preaching and religious hucksterism. }); Use of this web site constitutes acceptance of the Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy | User published content is licensed under a Creative Commons License. But Stephan was the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones. Going by the first body count, the media reported 383 dead. For years it was largely forgotten along with a number of other insanities in the United States in the 1970s. 'I was his son.' A woman named Sharon Amos had slaughtered her three children and committed suicide. A second plane, a Guyana Airways 24-seater, was coming in for a landing. After years of struggles that included drug addiction, Jones says he's now living a pleasant life in the United States with his wife and three daughters. 2023 BDG Media, Inc. All rights reserved. He would rise before dawn, pick his way into the bush, and sit without moving as the quiet around him split slowly into bird cries and insect buzzing and the scuffling and calling of creatures he could not see. But it was too late. . _taboola.push({ He's 61 now. target_type: 'mix' Then, after a 1977 New West magazine expose of temple disciplinary beatings and other abuses, she was sent to Jonestown. He dreams he is arguing with his father, arguing passionately, and although he knows his arguments are better, his father always wins. It's unclear if he is currently married or if he retains a relationship with his surviving siblings. He has learned to train a particular kind of eye on himself, on his own imposing presence, the handsome face, the instinct for gently taking hold of a conversation and pulling it where he wants it to go. Another hit my wrist and knocked off my watch. Meanwhile, the tractor, with several men in the trailer, rolled toward the terminal shack and halted a short distance away. I would either have had to fight, or I would have taken it. His body was found with a gunshot wound in the head. They are Agnes Pauline Jones, Timothy Glen Jones, Jim Jon Prokes, Jim W. Jones Jr, Lew Eric Jones, John Moss Jones, Suzanne O. Jones, and Stephanie Jones. I mean, I saw things and was privy to things . Alongside it was a red tractor and trailer seen earlier at the mission. Theater of popular music. He is married to his wifeKristi Jones since 1991. More than 300 Jonestown victims were children. She gave her house to the Peoples Temple and they moved to San Francisco. A loud series of pops echoed across the field. He went through years of nightmares, mourning and shame. The only surviving child of Jim Jones, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. He imagines the guards with guns, and the sky clouding over, and the air suddenly wild with fear, and the sight of the children. At the far end of the strip sat a yellow government plane. mode: 'thumbnails-a', Thank goodness he lived before me.". I appreciate that question. When a friend invited her family to Peoples Temples wine country church, they were impressed by the integrated community. He rode bulldozers, dodged falling trees, killed snakes, lit brush fires and rode the slow boats upriver with loads of cut wood for flooring and walls. Best Answer. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. She and Jim were the first caucasian couple in Indiana to adopt an African American . 1959. While working as a hospital orderly, Jones met Marceline Baldwin, a nursing student, and they married in 1949. More than 900 members of the Peoples Temple had lived in theagricultural missionin the distant jungle of Guyana, South America, led by the cult leader Rev. More than 300 Jonestown victims were children. Peoples Temple lost the game, but only by 10 points, which seemed worth celebrating. Partner : Ava Phenice Jones, aka Ava Phenice Brown, Ava Phenice Cobb. To really understand Israel and the Middle East - subscribe to Haaretz, 'My father was ill from when he was very young and was using fear to control me when I was barely more than a toddler. For the young Caucasian, there was more: "The white man was so preached against by my father as a way of winning black people, and here I am a white man, feeling like everybody resents me and I have something to apologize for," he says. stephan gandhi jones Tatko na pesmaricu. I dont think he went from being an altruistic, selfless, humble man to what he became. "Who they spoke to. 29. Do you think people can ever see your father not just as a villain but as a complex figure? The only sounds they heard came from the jungle animals going about their business. "He was always preaching the hostility toward us and warning people what would happen or what could happen from the outside," Stephan Jones says. He remarried three decades ago, and he and his wife, Erin, raised three sons. Write by: . 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He is married to his wife Kristi Jones since 1991. I crawled until I came to taller bushes and brambles, clawing my way into a pocket in the brush. Then it was boxing matches for adults. 1931. He was in Georgetown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 with the Jonestown Basketball Team. When he was ordered to Georgetown to help with supply shipments, Smith said he concocted an escape plan: Ollie and other temple singers and dancers, he believed, would soon be sent to Georgetown to perform, and the family would flee to the U.S. Embassy. I guess maybe somebody who hadnt been in the temple their entire lives and was just stepping into it couldve seen it coming. We'd also just seen the warm, cheerful embraces between some of those leaving and some who were staying. I get it, Im not upset about that. Well, he was using these words, I dont know if hed actually do that, hes a good and gentle man in so many ways, but he wanted to take dad out, and I was the one to convince him that dad would do that himself and we were going to have chaos on our hands. It was he who dreamed up Jonestown, he who willed it into being, and he who brought it down: First, with the assassination of U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan and four others by temple members on a nearby airstrip on November 18, 1978, then with the mass murders and suicides of hundreds, a horror that remains nearly unimaginable 40 years later. 'There is no way we would be shooting at the airstrip. "And it could happen to anybody.". But the reality is that it was far from a mass suicide. Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby, the two temple members who asked for help in the note, also were seriously injured. He went through years of nightmares, mourning and shame. In this photo taken Monday, Oct. 22, 2018, former Peoples Temple member Eugene Smith poses for a photo in a park in San Francisco. 'The reality was we were folks who could be counted on to stand up,' he said. "They just needed this messiah, this purpose. I said there must be another way.. Jim Jones of the Peoples Temple, poses for a portrait near San Rafael, Calif. 'When I left at 21, I left a part of myself there,' she said. JONESTOWN 40 YEARS LATER: Mass suicide shocked world, Amanda Knox to host new true crime podcast: 'I tend not to be a fan of the genre'. present) (3 children). I would say that there are times when its very enriching to speak with people about it All too often people want to write everyone off as a bunch of crazies. And she could only sense the site of the pavilion, the once-vibrant center of Jonestown life where so many died - including her two sisters and two nephews. And I had good reason to be enraged with him'. A black man with a 'corn rows' hairstyle came up to the rear of the truck. placement: 'Right Rail Thumbnails', Stephan Jones did not drink. Jim Jones (1931-1978) and Marceline Jones (1927-1978). This June 2016 photo provided by Jim Jones Jr. shows, from left, Ross Jones, 21, Erin Fowler-Jones, Robert Jones, 27, and Ryan Jones, 25, and Jim Jones Jr., in Pacifica, Calif. Court Records. Then he decides it is time, and he falters, and he tells them they may not believe what he is about to say. If anything, we felt pity for him, he said, and it grew into a dislike, maybe hate.. In his spare time he swims, or rides his bicycle, or lifts weights, or plays basketball. He was cleared of any complicity--another Peoples Temple member served a prison sentence for his role in the deaths--but Stephan Jones has come to believe that surviving Guyanese prison somehow braced him for his own re-entry to the world. " The next day, when soldiers of the Guyanese army, one of the most ragged in South America, hesitantly entered the Jonestown compound, they were blinded by the thick morning mist. 'Baby killer. When that was pointed out to Ryan, Layton contended he already had been frisked. Though he waved and smiled at Peoples Temple services, seemingly enraptured like the rest, Stephan Gandhi Jones says he always had his doubts. 'The temple really became my family,' she said. His unplanned departure left them alone. The note said: 'Please help us get out of Jonestown.' They have three children. Published: 01:29 EST, 14 November 2018 | Updated: 12:15 EST, 14 November 2018. John was attending a San Francisco high school when he was allowed to join his best friends in Jonestown. When a friend invited her family to Peoples Temple's wine country church, they were impressed by the integrated community. He also made sure that the other disciples who were in the capital would do nothing hasty. She was the adoptive daughter of Rev. In this Nov. 5, 2018 photo, John Cobb poses for a portrait at the the Jonestown Memorial at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, Calif. So grew the young Stephan: the quiet witness steeped in rage. . Life became more tolerable after the couples baby, Martin Luther Smith, was born. But before we could start out, we heard angry shouts. 'They're in deep trouble now,' observed one of the relatives who had accompanied us. And the temple was his life first in Indiana, later in California. They must be prepared to die in the defense of socialism. 'I was going back to retrieve that young person and also to say goodbye.'. He loves basketball; he is agile and strong and was tall even before he reached high school. I jumped up and fought for the gun. You used the word forgiveness, but I find love and compassion for him. Jonestown was the highlight of his life for a time and he recalls feeling pride pioneering in the distant jungle of Guyana. We were trying to build a new world, a progressive socialist organization.. By the fall of that year, almost 1,000 Temple members emigrated to Jonestown, but for Stephan Jones, the pleasure crumbled when his father arrived. Now, Stephan Jones is father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business. Contact & Personal Details. Stephan helped erect a basketball court and form a team. I wondered why it happened. He has been married to Kristi Jones since 1991. The only surviving child of Jim Jones, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. Be aware of this message that was prevalent in the temple: The end justifies the means. And I see that throughout society. This figure, though shocking, gave room for hope maybe the remaining hundreds of people of the colony had fled into the jungle and were saved. Where the machine shop once stood, there was only rusty equipment. The only surviving child of Jim Jones,Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. So much was attractive and unique that we turned a blind eye on what was wrong, he said, including his fathers sexual excesses, drug abuse and rants. It marched for four jailed Fresno newsmen. He dreams he sees the men and women he knew, older now, changed by the years. Jones had suffered a setback. What would you say is the biggest misconception people have about the Peoples Temple or your father? . Yes. But he said his discontent festered. They have three children. Then, after a 1977 New West magazine expose of temple disciplinary beatings and other abuses, she was sent to Jonestown. Neither were the White Nights where everyone stayed up, armed with machetes to fight enemies who never arrived. The tournament was in Georgetown, the Guyanese capital, 150 miles away. The younger man demanded that everyone in the truck move aside. After the slaughter, Stephan Jones was arrested on suspicion of abetting the mass murder and spent three months in a Guyanese prison. "I think I knew it was just a bunch of junk and that it was really about nothing," Stephan Jones said. "But there's a sadness . He is able to weep, but worries about letting himself begin; he says it feels a little like pulling his finger from a crack in the dam. Stephan escaped death with the Jonestown basketball team, Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. Which probably wasnt true. Vilchez was dispatched to the Guyanese capital of Georgetown to raise money. Some of them had started out with him in the earliest days in Indiana and moved with him to California. While religious leader Jim Jones has historically been blamed for the tragedy that occurred at his Guyana compound, the A&E special Jonestown: The Women Behind The Massacre argues that the women closest to Jones were also partially responsible. 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