The People’s Temple resources:
1. This is the video that is mentioned a couple times above. This is from a documentary called "Jonestown: The Life and Death of People's Temple” (full documentary can be seen at http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/jonestown-the-life-and-death-of-peoples-temple/
In this film, childhood acquaintances, eye-witnesses, and former temple members talk about Jones from the beginning to the end of his life. This particular clip has audio from Jones describing how he was outcast as a child (I wonder why? couldn't possibly the murdered animal funerals right?). It also shows a couple childhood acquaintances talking about how they knew Jim. (7:30 - 8:32 - Jones recalls how he was an outcast as a child. His childhood friends talk about his obsession with death and religion. At about 8:45 - a couple people talk about how his parents were absent).
2. This is another clip from the same documentary mentined above. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_myD9eXv20U
This clip talks about the healing of the paraplegic woman. The lady recounting this story says that it was the most amazing healing that she ever saw. She talks about how she later found out that this healing wasn't all Jones had claimed it to be. The relevance of this clip is just to show that Jones lied to his people. He would do whatever he could and whatever was necessary to get followers. He wanted to manipulate people so that he could gain their trust. The second clip in this same video discusses Jim's beliefs about homosexuality. Some former members discuss how he thought all people were homosexuals except for him. (2:57 – 4:40 - Shows Jones “healing” the paraplegic woman. 8:15 –woman tells about how Jim said all followers were homosexuals except for him).
00:05 - 1:36 - This clip talks about how the congregation and Jim handle their own discipline. A couple members talk about Jim having "sinners" box/fight in front of the congregation. They discuss the beatings that he would dole out to some members. The "sins" were often times not serious at all. Maybe he thought they weren't paying attention to his sermon. This clip shows how brutal he was and how he would manipulate people. It shows how his desire to harm small animals has transferred to humans.
4. Jonestown: The Life and Death of the Peoples Temple. Dir. Stanley Nelson. Perf. Rebecca Moore, Janet Shular, Tim Carter. Firelight Media Inc., 2006.
Entire documentary can be found at http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/jonestown-the-life-and-death-of-peoples-temple/
This particular clip of the film discusses Jonestown and daily life while living there. At 4:50 a woman talks about how there was a speaker system in Jonestown that played only Jim’s voice all day every day. Some of what was broadcast over the system was recordings of Jim. He would discuss the news of the world but it was obviously from his perspective.
5. “Edith Roller Journals.” Transcribed by Don Beck and Michael Bellefountaine. 6 December 2009. Accessed 4 February 2012. <http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/JTResearch/eRollerJournals/>
These are the journal entries of a member of The People’s Temple. They were only recently released by the FBI. She had a Ph. D in English and would write rough drafts and then type up her journal entries every day. She was lucky enough to get a type writer to take to Jonestown. She gives insight into what daily life was like in Jonestown. These are the only firsthand account of Jonestown that I could find online.
6. Kilduff, Marshall and Phil Tracy. “Inside the Peoples Temple.” San Francisco Chronicle. 1 August 1977. Accessed 4 February 2012. < http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/1977/08/01/jonestown.DTL&ao=all>
This source is the article that partially caused Jones to move his people to Guyana. Ten people got in touch with the journalist with the desire to expose Jones and tell their stories. Some have experienced financial manipulation by Jones; others experienced sexual and physical abuse. The journalist starts off by describing a political rally at which Rosalynn Carter spoke to the crowd and received only a little applause. She is followed by Jones who gets an outpour of cheers. The article ends with a section about why Jones should be investigated.
7. “Remembering Jonestown.” November 1998. Guyana News and Information. 11 February 2012. http://www.guyana.org/features/jonestown_20.html
This webpage provides brief information on anything and everything about Jonestown. It is a kind of an “in memory of” thing for the 20th anniversary of Jonestown. It covers everything from Jim’s childhood and life to the involvement of Congressman Ryan. It was helpful to me in finding out the specific reasons for Ryan’s investigation in to Jonestown. It touches briefly why Ryan went there, and the events of the day he arrived all the way up until he died on the next day.
8. This is a video clip from the following documentary:
Jonestown: The Life and Death of the People’s Temple. PBS. 2006. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzAoktGxDNo&feature=related
This particular clip begins talking about the day that Ryan arrived. They talk about the reception party and how everything looked great to Ryan and his group. Then they move to the next day and eye-witnesses talk about how even the weather was morbid in a way. This clip shows how Jones could put on a good show for outsiders and how quickly that can change. (3:48 – Ryan goes around asking people if they are happy here. This was the day after he received letters from those who wanted to leave. *5:30 – Ryan confronts Jones about the Temple members who want to leave Jonestown).
9. Jonestown: The Life and Death of the People’s Temple. PBS. 2006. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkzw5YUGpRs&feature=related
This clip is also from the documentary just mentioned (but a different web address). This is the last clip of the documentary that talks about the deaths on November 18. They pick up right at the shooting at the airstrip. They then return to talking about the drinking of the punch while Jones is making his speech. This clip is a little unnerving because towards the end you can hear some people crying and kids yelling. But it is also frightening to hear Jones trying to calm them. It shows that he didn’t really care about these people. He just wanted to hurry up and kill them. (0:00 – Airstrip shooting that killed 5 people, one of which was Congressman Ryan. 3:15 – Jones has opened the mic to anyone who had a “dissenting opinion” to his request for suicide, and this is when Christine Miller stands up and objects. 8:58 – A letter from one of the deceased saying how they did not want to die initially. Talks about how all that happened at Jonestown needed to be remembered).
The Family International resources:
10. Lattin, Don. Jesus Freaks. New York : HarperCollins, 2007.
This is a book about the cult discussed here. I read it a couple of years ago. It goes through how The Family International began and about David Berg’s childhood and his parents. It is a very informative book. It also tells the story of a murder that I will be discussing later. The author did all his research and wrote the book very well, and so it was very helpful in starting this blog topic.
11. Kent, Stephen A. “Lustful Prophet: A Psychosexual Historical Study of the Children of God’s Leader, David Berg”. Dept. of Sociology, University of Alberta. 2000. Accessed 18 February 2012. < http://www.arts.ualberta.ca/~skent/Linkedfiles/lustfulprophet.htm>
This article was written by a professor in Canada as a sort of psychoanalysis of David Berg. He delves into the topic of Berg’s sexuality and what made him that way. It mainly examines his childhood and makes the argument that his mother had a lot to do with Berg’s thoughts on sex.
12. “David Berg.” XFamily.org. 2012. 18 February 2012. < http://www.xfamily.org/index.php/David_Berg>
This site was created for/by ex-family members. It gives people that are not members an inside look at David Berg but it also has areas on the site where ex-members can share their stories if they want. This site was really important to have because unless you are/were a member, you can’t really know too much about the cult. They don’t leak information because of Berg’s controversial teachings which I will delve into soon. But on this particular page of the site, you can learn about Berg’s early life, and then about The Family International. It also describes some of the sexual abuse that occurred.
13. Lattin, Don. Jesus Freaks. New York : HarperCollins, 2007.
I used this book again because it is so full of information that is well presented, and is therefore very helpful for this particular topic. As I’ve said before, this book covers the beginning of Berg’s life to the end of it and even a little beyond that. (It also covers a murder-suicide that I will discuss in the next post) The parts of the book that I used pertain to Berg’s sexual advances towards his daughters, his daughter-in-law, the Flirty Fishing, and Aaron’s suicide.
14. “Time Magazine: Tracking the Children of God.” XFamily.org. 22 August 1977. Accessed 25 February 2012. <http://www.xfamily.org/index.php/Time_Magazine:_Tracking_the_Children_of_God>
This was an article written in a time when the cult was at its peak (basically during the 1970’s). It gives a very brief definition of the Children of God, and then moves on to talk about life in the cult. It talks about Flirty Fishing, Mo Letters and how those originated, and one of Berg’s wives, “Queen” Rachel. This article was beneficial because it came from a time in history when the Children of God was a relatively new organization (only about a decade old). So it gives a different perspective on the things I was interested in discussing for this post.
15. “First Tuesday: The Ultimate Trip.” NBC. 1971. Accessed 25 February 2012. < http://www.xfamily.org/index.php/NBC_First_Tuesday:_The_Ultimate_Trip>
This is a documentary on the Children of God/The Family International by NBC. It focuses on the Texas Soul Clinic and life at this place. It interviews a lot of people on how they got to be there and why they liked it so much. There are 3 key parts that relate to this post: 7:20 – Talks about how members had to turn everything over to the group. Also talks about their aim to become self-sufficient. Next is at 11:20 – Talks about the group traveling on the buses all around the country and converting people along the way. Finally, 16:29 – Discusses how Bible study is the major activity of the Soul Clinic every day. Also shows how they focus on the end of time.
16. Lattin, Don. Jesus Freaks. New York : HarperCollins, 2007.
This book is about the Children of God cult and specifically Ricky Rodriquez. The author did a great job researching the cult and interviewing significant people that I have mentioned here, like Davida. It has been very helpful for me in writing all three of these blog posts. In this particular post I obtained information about Ricky from this book. I also used it to get information about Davida and Merry Berg and the abuse that all of them experienced. I really liked getting these things from this book because the author actually tracked down and interviewed some of the people and got first-hand experiences.
17. Ajemian, Sam. The Children of God Cult, aka The Family. California: 2005. Accesed 8 March 2012. http://books.google.com/books?id=HdOoVjaSfqsC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
This is a book that had some pages available to read online. The pages I read were pertaining to the Victor Camps. The author had quoted many different people on their individual experiences. Some of the people quoted were parents of some of the kids that went through the camps. I believe these individuals’ stories were told at a court hearing involving Merry Berg and The Family. Although I could not access the entire book, it seems to focus on the whole cult not just certain individuals.
18. This is Ricky Rodriguez’s suicide video, that he made this right before he went to go meet Sue Kauten. He talks about what he is doing and why and how he plans to do it. Unfortunately it is broken up into parts, but I have listed significant sections of each part below.
2:35 – Ricky talks about Merry (sometimes called Mene) and how she was better at pleasing the adults and how she set the bar high for the rest of them. He also talks about the bruises he used to see on her.
2:22 – He talks about the need for revenge.
1:50 – Talks about how Davida has nightmares of being dragged out of bed to go to Berg in the middle of the night.
Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
19. Krakaur, Jon. Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. New York: Anchor Books. 2003.
This is maybe one of the best books I have ever read. There is so much information packed into it and it is very well written. It consists of everything you would want to know about the fundamentalist Mormons. It focuses not only on the faith but also on a brutal murder committed by cult believers (which I will delve into later). For this particular post, I just used it for the information it had on Joseph Smith and the foundation and how the Fundamentalist group started.
20. Crosgrove, Sondra. “Mormons and Native Americans: A Historical Overview”. Online Nevada Encyclopedia. 2011. Accessed 20 March 2012. < http://www.onlinenevada.org/mormons_and_native_americans:_a_historical_overview >
I discovered this website when I was looking for more information on the history of America according to the Mormons. This discusses the relationship between the Mormons and the Native Americans. They had forced encounters when the Mormons moved farther west, so they had to try to get along. I used this source when I was describing the Mormon belief of how people got to America and the reasons why Native Americans are here. It seems like a strange history in which they believe.
21. “The fourteen fundamental articles or beliefs of Mormons”. Recovery from Mormonism. Accessed 20 March 2012. http://exmormon.org/d6/drupal/fourteen
This is a website I discovered when I was looking for information on the beliefs of Mormons. This site appears to be run by a former member of the Latter Day Saints. He/she denotes the 14 primary beliefs of Mormons. He/she adds a bit of sarcasm which made it fun to read. This person obviously did not care much for the Mormons. They claim that a lot of other Mormon sites found are full of propaganda that just aims to make the church look good. I used the information on this site when I described some of the beliefs of Mormons. I chose this site because it is actually from the perspective of a former Mormon.
22. Krakaur, Jon. Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. New York: Anchor Books. 2003.
This is the same book mentioned above. It is so well written and so full of information. The information on the Kingston clan is compacted into a couple of pages but is still tremendously informative and useful. This is obviously why I used this book again: because it is such a great source of facts and it had a great section on this clan. Mr. Krakaur really did his research very thoroughly for this book.
23. Adams, Brooke. “Kingston Inc.: Polygamy’s Entrepreneurial Empire. A Company, a Clan, a Corp. with a Plan”. Salt Lake Observer.1998. Accessed 20 March 2012. < http://user.xmission.com/~plporter/lds/kingston.htm >
I found this site when I was searching for more information on the Kingston clan. This article is from a Salt Lake newspaper and it discusses how the Kingston clan is like a corporation. She discusses the part about Mary Ann and how that put them back in the lime light. She also talks about how much land and other assets they own and where they are located. The article also mentions the approximate worth of the Kingston’s businesses. She talks about the minimum wage that the wives and children receive and other common practices of the clan.
24. “Latter Day Church of Christ”. Wikipedia. 2012. Accessed 20 March 2012. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latter_Day_Church_of_Christ >
Although this website may not be thought of very highly when it comes to resources but it was very helpful for me in writing this post. It helps delineate the family tree of the Kingston family. It talks about the establishment of the clan and how it came about. It talks about their beliefs and how they made/make their money. It also touches a little bit on the incest that is a common practice in the clan. So I found this site very helpful for writing this blog post. It has a lot of information on the very messed up and deranged clan/cult.
25. Krakaur, Jon. Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. New York: Anchor Books. 2003.
This is a great novel about the Mormon Fundamentalists and about the ruthless murders of Brenda and Erica Lafferty. I used it in previous posts and am using it again in this one for its information on Ron and Dan Lafferty. It also has a great deal of information on the abduction of Elizabeth Smart. This is such a great resource because Jon Krakaur has actually gotten interviews with some of these people or acquaintances of them. For instance, he interviewed Dan Lafferty.
26. “Brian David Mitchell Interrogation (March 12, 2003)”. Youtube.com. Uploaded 2011. Accessed 31 March 2012. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QybphTUd-o0 >
This is a video recording of part of the interrogation of Brian David Mitchell, the man who abducted Elizabeth Smart. I thought this would be a good source to get inside his head and see what he is thinking, but what you really see is that he is either crazy or just desperately evading questions. There are only a several good clips that I could find but it is still interesting to watch his responses and defense tactics. (6:55 – they ask Mitchell how old Elizabeth is, and he says that she is 18 because that is what God told him. 23:50 – Mitchell says he has compassion for the Smart family. He reiterates that he did not take Elizabeth from her home but that God had delivered her. 29:20 – Mitchell says that Elizabeth has had a glorious experience while with him).
27. Moses, Jeanette. “Smart’s Alleged Kidnapper: Grim Portrait of a ‘Righteous Man’.” 23 November 2010. Accessed 31 March 2012. < http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2032820,00.html >
This is an article describing the beginnings of the Elizabeth Smart trial. It includes a testimony from Wanda Barzee, his legal wife. She talks about their early marriage, when they first met and how manipulating he is and how she had resisted him along the way but found it difficult to leave him. She also discusses how he quit his jobs and started to have revelations or “blessings” that became more and more sinister. It also tells how Brian David Mitchell’s attorney was pushing for an insanity plea. I thought this was a good source because it gives an eyewitness account of what happened and how Mitchell proceeded through this whole thing.
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