we were eating the fruit. we felt like we were in heaven. in a way. in the states you didn t get that kind of food, necessarily. unbeknownst to me, they had to buy all that fruit. and i found out later there would be pictures of jim with his hand up holding, supposedly, like these are bananas. he was literally holding those bananas up there. they weren t growing on that tree. if jonestown was not yet a tropical paradise, jones was determined to one day make it the socialist utopia he dreamed and preached about. but for now home was san francisco. and by 1976, jones had made peoples temple a major player in local politics. if any movement in san francisco needed 100 bodies to show up for a demonstration, they d just call peoples temple and the temple would send 500 people. people s people reached into
seat where he was sitting. at the table to eat. he said, you can have my seat. jones and his wife practiced what they preached. they had a biological son, stephan, and adopted an african-american baby they named jim junior. it was indianapolis first adoption of a black child by a white family. he had this great family of all different colors. he had a wonderful wife. i loved his kids. i was enchanted by everything he had going. i really don t feel comfortable being photographed. i really don t. in 1965 jones moved his controversial flock to redwood valley in northern california. a place he had read about in esquire magazine was a safe haven from nuclear war. many of our homes were vandalized and we had been harassed and our lives threatened by our stand on integration. that s how we come to make a decision here. we started with about 141 people.
war to get her son back from jim jones. how is it that jim jones has your son? okay. i know this is very hard to believe and, i mean, if people out there don t believe me that s their problem, okay. it s easy for someone to stay out there and say if it was my child, i would have never left. i m a mother and i would have never left my child. it took me four years to gather the courage to leave. the key was this. jim told us that if we ever left we would be killed. i had a woman put a gun in my face and tell me she, personally, would take care of me. i said i m willing to make this decision for myself, i m not willing to make it for my son. and when i left, it was a very hard and trying time. i would say it took me maybe six years six years, excuse me, six months to recollect where i was at, who i was and what i had done. as soon as i snapped out of that
the die had been cast years earlier with macabre tests of loyalty. i can remember we were in a planning commission meeting, and jim goes, you know, i really love you, i m going to let you guys drink wine. you don t think i love you. so we were all given this wine. it was from the ranch that the grapes had turned into, i guess, wine, whatever. jim said, has everybody drank their wine? some people said, i don t want any. he said, no, everybody s going to drink that. we all drank it. he said, okay, has ever drank their wine? we said yes. okay, you all have ten minutes to live. so he handed the fruit juice around. he said that was poison because we need to commit revolutionary suicide. we needed to be totally committed to this cause, period.
unbeknownst to me, they had to buy all that fruit. and i found out later there would be pictures of jim with his hand up holding, supposedly, like these are bananas. he was literally holding those bananas up there. they weren t growing on that tree. if jonestown was not yet a tropical paradise, jones was determined to one day make it the socialist utopia he dreamed and preached about. but for now home was san francisco. and by 1976, jones had made peoples temple a major player in local politics. if any movement in san francisco needed 100 bodies to show up for a demonstration, they d just call peoples temple and the temple would send 500 people. peoples temple raced into the community with badly needed social services. all free. jones had become a darling of san francisco politicians.