SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) _ Prophetic notes written just before more than
900 people died a decade ago in a mass murder-suicide at a Guyana cult
commune have resurfaced among boxes of records unsealed this month.
Many of the notes were written by Mike Prokes, a lieutenant of
Peoples Temple leader the Rev. Jim Jones, and a survivor of the cyanide
killings of 913 people in November 1978.
The letters by Prokes and other dissatisfied Jones followers
indicated the commune in South America was falling apart in its final
days.
"I don't know how much longer I can take it," Prokes wrote. "I
mean the witchcraft. I feel like I'm being programmed. I enjoy the
violence when I do it, but sometimes like right now I feel sorry I did
it.
"I think I'm going to end it all with my .38; I only wish I could
see my brains blown out."
While Prokes survived the temple commune's mass suicide, a few
months later during a news conference he pulled out his .38 and fatally
shot himself in the head.
The notes resurfaced this month among eight boxes of records
deposited in the Peoples Temple archives at the California Historical
Society. The records were unsealed by a court-appointed receiver and
excerpts were published in Sunday's editions of the San Francisco
Examiner.
Jones, a San Francisco minister who used sex, drugs and
brainwashing to keep his flock together, feared that temple enemies such
as defectors, reporters and federal investigators would invade and
destroy his jungle empire.
The letters, however, indicate that the greatest threats to Jones's
power came from within.
Jones and his commune shot into the international spotlight on Nov.
18, 1978, when Rep. Leo Ryan, D-Calif., an Examiner photographer, two
NBC reporters and a temple defector were killed during a fact-finding
visit to Jonestown.
Jones then issued the order for the mass murder-suicide, and 913
people including Jones drank or were forced to drink a grape drink laced
with cyanide.
Prokes was not the only dissatisfied temple member. The archives
also include notes from Jones's son, Stephen, denouncing his father, and
one from an unnamed temple member who wrote to Jones, "I don't think a
day has gone by that I fail to think of me calling the FBI n you."
Jones follower Gene Chaikin, a lawyer, wrote Jones that he was
"unwilling to continue in atmosphere of anxiety" and intended to
leave. "I detest being lied to and manipulated. You have done a lot of
both."
Witnesses said Chakin was one of the "suicide" victims who was
poisoned against his will.
The newly released documents also include:
_The temple's offer to be part of a massive Vitamin C experiment
for Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling. The offer was rejected.
_Memos from aides to Jones on how Vitamin B complex deficiency and
sleep deprivation were useful brainwashing tools.
_Dozens of notes from temple members to Jones suggesting revenge on
temple defectors, including the idea of selling poisoned Christmas candy
door-to-door.
_Temple letters urging Soviet officials to let them set up a
commune on the Black Sea.
