I just wish people could understand what was attractive about him. Now, Stephan Jones is father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business. They were under siege, Jim Jones would cry; the snipers were after him; the Guyanese army was about to descend; the children would be taken away and probably tortured. 'Baby killer. Johnny Brown: Taking Care of His Own(2013), This site houses a variety of PDF documents. Trailers, a few clearings and some wood or pole-and-canvas buildings were all that marked the Jonestown settlement when Stephan Jones arrived. And he faked getting shot in Redwood Valley [California] when I was still pretty young, and we felt like we were in danger much of the time. With those people surrounding him, constantly doing the right thing, and doing what he says, and you're surrounded by a combination of them and those people who don't neccessarily agree, but are acting like they agree . "This is really crazy," he recalls thinking. . It seemed the temple was generous: It willingly provided passports to those who wished to leave, and advanced $5,000 to help defray transportation costs. 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. ", The thought of killing Jim Jones had occurred to his son, but Stephan never tried to do it. Partner of Terry Carter Jones, aka Mary Theresa Carter, Mary Theresa Jones, Terry Carter Jones (died November 18 . He was in Georgetown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 with the Jonestown Basketball Team. But in 1973, John's oldest brother and a sister, along with six other California college students, quit the church and became its enemies. According to his 1983 interview with The Washington Post, he was in this line of work even back then. Be aware of this message that was prevalent in the temple: The end justifies the means. And I see that throughout society. My arm was gushing blood so I stripped off my belt and pinched down the biggest wounds. They could leave any time they want.'. Then two Guyanese medical evacuation planes flew us to the capital city of Georgetown, where a U.S. Air Force C-141 took us to Andrews Air Force Base near Washington, D.C., stopping off on their way at the Roosevelt Roads Naval Base in Puerto Rico. And she could only sense the site of the pavilion, the once-vibrant centre of Jonestown life where so many died including her two sisters and two nephews. Stephan ran to the U.S. Embassy and appealed for a helicopter to take him to the colony to try to stop the disaster, but no one listened. 'They're in deep trouble now,' observed one of the relatives who had accompanied us. Instead, The Washington Post reported that Stephan escaped death with the Jonestown basketball team. Seating assignments were chosen after Ryan briefed the press on the knife attack and credited Mark Lane with saving his life. 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These people have given their lives, for whatever reason . For moreEntertainment,Celebrity BabiesfolloweCelebrityMirror. I guess I wanted to believe that, as a child.". In a recent interview, he revealed that he was sober. He grew, and discovered basketball. Stephan is the only living son of Jim Jones and his late wife Marceline Jones. Jim Jones radioed his son with orders to return to Jonestown, Stephan Jones refused to cut short the trip. 'He started firing at the front and missed the pilot,' said Dale Parks, who left the temple Saturday. someone shouted, and the driver attempted to turn the truck around. Jim Jones (1931-1978) and Marceline Jones (1927-1978). And I had good reason to be enraged with him I was enraged long before he died, and openly so. He says his daughters have seen him gnash his teeth when he. Its not that I had better sight than others; I had a better view of it and it really broke for me when he was unfaithful to my mother and told her about it in detail.. There are no many details about his siblings and some had been adopted. You'd have to deal with this elite that just revolved their lives around him' . He used this kind of threat to control his people. Stephan Jones was 6 years old, the only biological child of James and Marceline Baldwin Jones, when his father moved from Indiana to northern California with his family and 140 of the. He asked me to make one last mission with him to Jonestown. It makes him a little crazy sometimes. 2023 Canoe.com, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. . Afterwards, the 19-year-old Stephan was put in jail for three months in the South American nation before the case against him was thrown out. Is this surge in public interest in Jonestown an exhausting experience for you? . John was attending a San Francisco high school when he was allowed to join his best friends in Jonestown. Official Sites. Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group, American Idol star Kellie Pickler's husband, 49, 'commits suicide by shooting himself dead' in bedroom of their $2.4 million Nashville home: Pickler called 911 after she was unable to open door of room where he was found, Enough to give you an art attack! According to former members, Jones would not tolerate defections from the mission project and many of the church members considered those who leave to be traitors. "He was a gentle man in a lot of ways," Jones says, stretched now over the sofa in his small apartment. But the boy was still a child of the Temple. I think it was Dad controlling people through fear, me and my siblings when we were very young.. Stephan Gandhi Jones is the son of the notorious religious cult leader Jim Jones. There, as part of Jones personal security detail, Cobb saw the once captivating minister strung out on drugs, afraid to venture anywhere for fear of his legal problems. "I'd go back in a minute. A bit later the number was revised upward to 408. A number of Jonestown survivors have spoken out about the mass suicides and murders that killed the only life they ever knew and how they have managed to build new ones in the four decades since the tragedy. target_type: 'mix' Fear of an external threat was a major component of your fathers philosophy. 'People ask, 'How can you ever be proud of your father?'' ", Throughout the 40 years since the deaths at Jonestown, Stephan has been willing to give media interviews. He does not know. He is an actor, known for Written in Blood (2018), The People's. And I looked around and there were at least 15 people looking at me. ", He does not think he loved his father even a little by then, but blood tied them in some way he did not entirely understand, and leaving was unimaginable. And he just went unchecked. For many years, Jones struggled with the guilt of survival, his father's grim legacy, and his own subsequent substance abuse. They divorced when Jordan was 6. The shooting triggered the mass murders and suicides in Jonestown of more than 900 people orchestrated by the Rev. The 59-year-old, Jim Jones son Stephan Jones has gone through a lot after the mass massacre in Jonestown led by his father, Late Jim Jones on Nov. 18, 1978. Cobb lost 11 relatives that day, including his mother, youngest brother and four sisters. Vilchez worked as office manager at a private crime lab for 20 years and now, at 61, sells her artwork. Four granite slabs are etched with names of the 918 people who died in Guyana including James Warren Jones, which deeply offends some whose relatives perished. The slaughter at Jonestown was the worst civilian tragedy in U.S. history before September 11, 2001. "I still get very angry," Stephan Jones says. His father spoke so ardently about his own self-sacrifice; Stephan Jones saw the specially prepared steaks and the color television, and in the temple apartment where they lived, he grew accustomed to glimpses of his father having sex with temple members--sometimes women, sometimes men. But Stephan was the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones. . We used curtains for bandages. Court Records. Instead of finishing high school, Vilchez moved to San Francisco, where she lived in the church. When more than 900 people were killed at Jonestown by consuming punch laced with cyanide on Nov. 18, 1978, Stephan was not at the settlement founded by his father. . Hes an executive at the office furniture company where he began working immediately after Jonestown. Stephan Jones was born on 06/01/1959 and is 63 years old. Recent interviews with Stephan include: "Son of Anarchist: My Father, Jim Jones, and What the . He dreams he is arguing with his father, arguing passionately, and although he knows his arguments are better, his father always wins. Those who broke rules were disciplined. Plunged into a new world, those raised in the temple or who joined as teens lost the only life they knew: church, jobs, housing and most of all, family and friends. The temple really became my family, she said. 'Liquidator,' " Stephan Jones remembers being called, as he lay on his prison cot and listened to the mosquitoes swarm. " He did what was expected of him. I certainly felt there was an outside threat, even when I knew my father was full of it and I was at odds with him in Jonestown. More than a few bottles of rum were consumed or poured on wounds. , & quot ; this is really crazy, & quot ; recalls... Office manager at a private crime lab for 20 years and now '... Him I was enraged long before he died, and openly so been to... And his late wife Marceline Jones ( died November 18, 1978 with Jonestown. 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