Jonestown - Ryan Delegation Visits Jonestown

Ryan Delegation Visits Jonestown

By late morning on Friday, November 17, Lane and Garry informed Jones that Ryan would likely leave for Jonestown at 2:30 pm, regardless of Jones' schedule or willingness. Ryan's party did so at roughly that time, accompanied by Lane and Garry, and came to Port Kaituma airstrip, 6 miles (10 km) from Jonestown, some hours later. Because of aircraft seating limitations, only four of the Concerned Relatives were allowed to accompany the Ryan delegation on its flight into Jonestown. Only Ryan and three others were initially accepted into Jonestown, but the rest of Ryan's group was allowed in after sunset. It was later reported (and verified by audiotapes recovered by investigators) that Jones had run rehearsals on how to convince Ryan's delegation that everyone was happy and in good spirits.

That night, the Ryan delegation attended a reception in the pavilion. While the party received a friendly reception, Jones said he felt like a dying man and ranted about government conspiracies and martyrdom as he decried attacks by the press and his enemies. Two Peoples Temple members, Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby, made the first move for defection that night. In the pavilion, Gosney passed a note to Don Harris (mistaking him for Ryan), reading "Dear Congressman, Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby. Please help us get out of Jonestown."

That night Ryan, Speier, Dwyer, and Annibourne stayed in Jonestown. Other members of the Ryan delegation, including the press corps and members of Concerned Relatives, were told that they had to find other accommodations, and so they went to Port Kaituma and stayed at a small café.

In the early morning of November 18, eleven Temple members sensed danger enough to walk out of the colony toward train tracks to take a train to Matthew's Ridge, which is located in the opposite direction from the airstrip at Port Kaituma. Those defectors included members of the Evans family and the Wilson family (the family of Jonestown's head of security, Joe Wilson). When reporters and Concerned Relatives arrived in Jonestown later that day, Jim Jones' wife Marceline gave them a tour of the settlement.

That afternoon, two families stepped forward and asked to be escorted out of Jonestown by the Ryan delegation. They were the Parks and the Bogue families, along with Christopher O'Neal and Harold Cordell, who were partners of women in the two families. When Jones' adopted son Johnny attempted to talk Jerry Parks out of leaving, Parks told him "No way, it's nothing but a communist prison camp."

Jones gave the two families, along with Gosney and Bagby, permission to leave. Under the Pavilion, Don Harris of NBC handed Jones the note written by Vernon Gosney while other reporters huddled around Jones. Jones told those reporters that, like others who left the community, the defectors would "lie" and destroy Jonestown.

After a sudden violent rainstorm started, some emotional scenes developed between family members. Al Simon, an American Indian member of the Peoples Temple, attempted to take two of his children to Ryan to process the requisite paperwork for transfer back to the United States. Al's wife, Bonnie, summoned on the loudspeakers by Temple staff, loudly denounced her husband. Al pleaded with Bonnie to return to the U.S., but Bonnie rejected his suggestions.