Remembering Jonestown

“After Guyana, I thought we all got our fair share of tragedy. . .and it was mine. After (my husband) Steve was killed, I realized there is no ‘fair share’ and you deal with what you got and make the best of a bad situation.”

--State Senator Jackie Speler (D-Burlingame), who as a congressional aide was severely wounded on Rep. Leo Ryan’s fact-finding trip to Jonestown and whose husband was killed in an auto accident in 1994

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“When that incident occurred in Waco, I thought ‘When are they really ever gonna learn?’ That drives me. . .People must get that you can’t give yourself over to another person. People say, ‘That would never happen to me.’ They just don’t know.”

--Sherwin Harris of Hayward, whose 20-year-old daughter Liane was one of the few Peoples Temple members outside Jonestown to follow Jim Jones’ suicide order.

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“I think the key was loyalty to each other and not (so much) Jim Jones, and that is why they were willing to do that. . .There was a total loss of perspective, and giving one’s loyalty can have devastating consequences.”

--The Rev. John Moore of Davis, whose daughters Carolyn and Annie were part of the inner circle that died in Jones’ cottage in Jonestown.

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“I used to go seven days a week (to the grave site) and just sit on the hill before going to work. I’d just sit there and pray and ask how they went (to Jonestown) and why. I still don’t know. . .And a whole lot of other people don’t know why it happened.”

--Fred Lewis of San Francisco, who lost 27 relatives, including his wife and seven children.

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“I thought I could not wait until 20 years had passed--not to get over it, because no one ever gets over something like this. I am (still) so stunned. My vision is just falling down to the ground. . .just a total collapsing, every part of you being falling to the ground. . .It’s devastation.”

--Grace Jones, whose son John Victor Stoen, died in Jonestown after she fought unsuccessfully to wrest him away from Jones.

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“Every year at this time I prepare myself for the media calls and unexpectedly turning on the TV and seeing my father shot. It’s very hard.”

--Patricia Ryan of Sacramento, whose father, Rep. Leo Ryan, was slain while checking the welfare of Jonestown inhabitants.