Timothy Stoen
Encyclopedia
Timothy Oliver Stoen is best known for his central role as a member of the Peoples Temple
and later opposition to the group in a multi-year custody battle over John Stoen that led to an investigation of the Peoples Temple's settlement at Jonestown
, Guyana
. Jonestown became internationally notorious after the events of November 18, 1978, when 918 people—including Stoen's six-year-old son, John—died in the settlement as well as in a nearby airstrip and in Georgetown
, Guyana's capital. Tim Stoen is currently an assistant district attorney in Mendocino County, California
.
An otherwise unremarkable event that would later become important occurred when Stoen spent a year in England on a Rotary Foundation scholarship in college. During that time, he visited communist East Berlin
and wrote in a journal "the first thing that I noticed was the blank expression on the faces of everyone" and "You could tell they were just waiting for the day when they might have some freedom..."
Stoen graduated from Stanford in 1964 and was soon thereafter admitted to the California bar. Stoen worked for a year in an Oakland real estate office before joining the Mendocino County prosecutor's office in Ukiah, California
in 1965 as a Deputy District Attorney.
In 1967, Stoen left the prosecutor's office with the intention of doing work for flower children in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury district. Stoen's charitable instincts took him to Alameda County where was a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Alameda County, and where he adopted a religious world view from a leftist perspective. Though he represented black militants and supported an ecological platform, he briefly considered running for office as a Republican.
In 1970, Stoen married Grace Lucy Grech, whom he had met at march at the San Francisco Civic Center against overpopulation and pollution.
when it was suggested he call the group to help renovate legal aid offices in Mendocino County. Two dozen Temple volunteers showed up the following Sunday, and Stoen began sending people to the Temple for drug and marriage counseling.
Stoen became impressed with Temple leader Jim Jones
' character and good deeds, especially when he saw Jones scrubbing toilets in the Temple building himself. Stoen also was impressed that Jones and his wife were the first Caucasian couple to adopt a black child in Indiana. Stoen and Jones became personal friends and Stoen drove to Redwood Valley to attend Temple services. By the end of 1969, when Berkeley became a war zone over Peoples Park and Third World students' right, Stoen began to integrate his personal life with the Temple.
In 1970, Stoen moved to the Temple's headquarters in Ukiah and worked as an Assistant District Attorney as the head of the Mendocino County's civil division. His presence in the DA's office discouraged people, including Temple members, from filing complaints against the Temple. Stoen began providing legal aid for the Temple and wrote of his political conversion to the Temple's socialism vision.
After working hard for the Temple, Jim Jones granted Stoen a "reward" by suggesting that he engage in sexual relations with certain willing female Temple members, such as Sharon Amos, to help him with stress. Early in the summer of 1971, Jones told Grace Stoen about the philandering, never mentioning that he originally suggested it.
At around this time, Grace became pregnant. Grace resisted Temple members' pressure to abort the child for reasons including that child birth purportedly furthers "overpopulation." In January 1972, John Stoen was born.
On February 1, 1972, the Stoens received the birth certificate listing Tim and Grace Stoen as John's parents. On February 6, 1972, Stoen secretly signed a document stating that Jones had fathered the child with Grace at Stoen's suggestion because Stoen had been unable "to sire one [him]self." The document was signed by Stoen "under penalty of perjury" and witnessed by Jim Jones' wife, Marceline. Stoen did not tell Grace about the document and stated that he assumed that the document would be placed in a safe. Stoen has since acknowledged signing the letter, but stated that its contents are false. He refuses to say why he signed it. Stoen stated "I signed it, and I was a fool," and "it was an immoral thing to do and it was a sinful thing to do."
Although Jones stated that all one-on-one relationships were "counterrevolutionary", he promoted interracial marriage. Thus, Jones suggested that various Temple members of differing racial backgrounds, including those with no romantic relationship, should marry to show their commitment to the cause. However, Jones also stated that child bearing was wrong and "greedy", which frustrated many Temple members in their child bearing years.
Because of this, Grace Stoen was subjected to abuse, with Temple members referring to her as an "elitist bitch." Jones did not trust Grace and, in 1974, he elevated her to a position on the Temple's top governing body, the Planning Commission, in order to attempt to keep her close to the Temple. Jones also pressured Grace into quitting her job and working for the Temple full time.
At the same time, Grace and Tim grew apart as Tim turned his attention to Temple activities and referred to Grace as a shabby socialist. Grace did not know that Jones had instructed Tim to pay less attention to her to "make her a better socialist."
, Joseph Freitas and Richard Hongisto
in successful election bids. Shortly thereafter, San Francisco District Attorney Freitas hired Tim Stoen as an Assistant District Attorney in the consumer frauds division.
After the election, Moscone and others believed that votes and campaign efforts by Temple members were instrumental in Moscone's close victory. Some suspected that Moscone was helped by illegal voting by Temple members that were bussed in from outside San Francisco, as well as help through alleged voting by illegal immigrants.
Freitas named Stoen to lead the special unit to investigate election fraud charges. The Temple was not mentioned in the proceedings that followed.
Years later, Temple members revealed to the New York Times that the Temple arranged for "busloads" of members to be bused from Redwood Valley to San Francisco to vote in the election. A former Temple member stated that many of those members were not registered to vote in San Francisco, while another former member said "Jones swayed elections." Another former Temple member stated of Jones that "he told us how to vote." She stated that Temple members were required to produce booth stubs to prove that they voted, and members that could not produce such stubs were "pushed around, shoved and physically abused." When asked how Jones could know for whom they voted, the member responded "You don't understand, we wanted to do what he told us to." Stoen later stated that he was not aware at the time of voter fraud but that it could have happened without his knowledge because "Jim Jones kept a lot of things from me."
In July 1976, Grace and Smitty fled to Lake Tahoe. Jim Jones became furious at her, telling her over the telephone that she had selfishly abandoned the cause. Jim Jones vowed that he would never give her John, who had been trained at the Temple in the image of Jones. After a series of telephone calls and meetings, in November 1976, Grace learned that John had been relocated to Jonestown
. Jim Jones had earlier pressured both Grace and Tim Stoen to sign documents giving Jones permission to bring John to Jonestown, which comported with Jones' frequent practice of pressuring Temple members to sign documents that Jones could later use against them.
In February 1977, Grace threatened to legally divorce Tim. Fearing that a possible contempt citation against Tim would make public the dispute, Jones sent Tim to Jonestown.
After Tim Stoen traveled to Jonestown in February 1977, he discovered that Jones had turned John against his mother. Stoen had quit his job as Assistant District Attorney and worked long hours in Jonestown as well as in the Temple's headquarters in Guyana's capital Georgetown
.
In Georgetown, Temple members secretly examined Stoen's briefcase. In it, they discovered, among other things, a second passport and Stoen's notes of traveling to East Berlin as a college student, stating harsh things about the living conditions of the communist country. Temple members became convinced that Tim was a "dual" agent working for the United States government.
On June 12, 1977, Stoen disappeared from the Temple's Georgetown headquarters.
, Harvey Milk
and Art Agnos, among others.
Jones felt especially vulnerable after the defection of Tim Stoen because Stoen had designed, and had knowledge of, the Temple's complex system of covertly transferring millions of dollars into foreign bank accounts.
After this exodus, Tim and Grace Stoen began a custody battle for John that would shake the Jonestown community like nothing else until its ultimate demise. In September 1977, the Stoens' battle in a Georgetown
court produced an order for the Temple to show cause why a final order should not be issued compelling the return of John to Grace Stoen. A few days later, that same court issued a second order for the arrest of John by authorities.
The fear of possibly being held in contempt of the orders caused Jones to set up a false sniper attack upon himself and begin a series of "White Night" rallies, called the "Six Day Siege", where Jones spoke to Temple members about attacks from outsiders and had members surround Jonestown with guns and machetes. The fiery rallies took an almost surreal tone as Angela Davis
and Huey Newton communicated via radio-telephone to the Jonestown crowd, urging them to hold strong against the "conspiracy." Jones made radio broadcasts stating "we will die unless we are granted freedom from harassment and asylum." Deputy Minister Ptolemy Reid finally assured Jones' wife Marceline that Guyanese Defense Forces would not invade Jonestown. The Stoens' attorney stated that, at that point, the clerk in Guyana refused to sign an arrest warrant for Jones, and there was talk of government interference in the legal process.
After this initial round of the Stoen custody dispute, Jones no longer believed the Guyanese government could be trusted. He directed Temple members to write over a dozen foreign governments inquiring about immigration policies relevant to another exodus by the Temple. He also wrote the U.S. State department inquiring about North Korea
and Stalinist Albania
.
with others related to Jonestown residents. The group began calling themselves the "Concerned Relatives." They shared details of their encounters with the Temple, interviewed Temple defectors and went over short wave radio transcripts containing communications between Jonestown and the Temple's San Francisco headquarters. Meanwhile, Temple surveillance teams checked license plates in front of the Mills' house to determine the identity of their "enemies." Tim's addition to the group was vital because of his knowledge of Temple operations, his letter writing campaigns to the Secretary of State and the government of Guyana and his travels to Washington to attempt to begin an investigation.
After pressing for legal action in the United States, in November 1977, an order was issued in a San Francisco court granting Grace Stoen custody of John. In January 1978, Tim Stoen traveled to Georgetown, Guyana with hopes to gain Guyanese actions to take custody of the child, but he was unsuccessful. The judge recused himself from the case because his life had been threatened over it, and stated that a new judge would have to restart the process from the beginning. A Guyanese official approached Stoen and told him he had to leave within one day, one week before his visa expired. While at the airport, three Temple members surrounded Stoen and threatened his life unless he dropped his legal action. Although Stoen wanted to travel to Jonestown to retrieve John himself, he thought "if I went back, I thought I would probably be a corpse within 30 days."
After Stoen returned to Washington D.C. from Georgetown in January 1978, he visited with nine Congressman, including Leo Ryan
. Unbeknownst to Stoen, after his visits, the Temple sent members to visit eight of the nine Congressman in order to discredit Stoen.
Stoen also wrote a "white paper" to Congress detailing Jones' alleged illegal kidnapping of John. The white paper stated that any action by the Guyanese Army to retrieve the child could result in harm to John or others and that members of Congress should write Guyanese Prime Minister Forbes Burnham to take action but to be cognizant of the potential dangers of confrontation. Congressman Leo Ryan
's interest was aroused by the Stoen custody fight and he wrote a letter on Stoen's behalf. Several Congressmen in total wrote Burnham about the concerns raised by Stoen.
At the end of January, Stoen and fellow Concerned Relative Steven Katsaris met with State Department officials. Stoen communicated his concern that Jones' mental condition was deteriorating and that he was suffering from "paranoid megalomania." He urged that the State Department move Guyana to "speedily enforce" the custody orders that the Stoens' had won.
The exchange of claims by Jones and Stoen in the article tore Jones' credibility beyond mending. The repercussions were devastating for the Temple's reputation, and made most former supporters even more suspicious of the Temple's claim that it was being subjected to a "rightist vendetta." The bizarre carnal transaction upon which Jones purportedly based his custody cast doubt on Jones' prior statements. Temple attorneys immediately sent a letter to the Examiner stating "this is the straw that broke the camel's back" and "we . . will litigate." Jones told the San Francisco Temple staff to prepare for the media blast.
One day later, on Sunday February 19, 1978, San Francisco Board of Supervisor member Harvey Milk
wrote a letter to President Jimmy Carter
supporting Jones and making statements about the Stoens. After the Temple assisted in Milk's 1976 election race to become a California State assembly member, Milk had visited and spoke at rallies at the Temple, though he privately had told friends he saw them as "weird" and "creepy."
In the letter to President Carter, Milk wrote "Rev. Jones is widely known in the minority communities and elsewhere as a man of the highest character." Regarding the Stoens, Milk wrote "Timothy and Grace Stoen, the parties attempting to damage Rev. Jones reputation". Milk also wrote "[i]t is outrageous that Timothy Stoen could even think of flaunting this situation in front of Congressman with apparent bold-faced lies." The letter ended with "Mr. President, the actions of Mr. Stoen need to be brought to a halt. It is offensive to most in the San Francisco community and all those who know Rev. Jones to see this kind of outrage taking place."
In order to attempt to combat the damage, the Temple sent to various newspapers the February 6, 1972 Temple document Stoen had signed detailing the alleged strange events surrounding John's conception. Herb Caen reprinted the document in his San Francisco Chronicle
column.
On April 11, 1978, the Concerned Relatives distributed a packet of documents, including letters and affidavits, many of which were drafted by Stoen, that they titled an "Accusation of Human Rights Violations by Rev. James Warren Jones" to the Peoples Temple, members of the press and members of Congress. The accusations chronicled mistreatment in Jonestown, which it portrayed as an armed camp, and described hard labor, passport confiscation and statements about Jones' speeches speaking of suicide and conspiracies against the Temple.
On May 10, 1978, the Peoples Temple fired back with their own "Open Statement" alleging the Concerned Relatives were part of a massive conspiracy and attacking the "so called Free Enterprise system" and "racist" "corporate power." It portrayed the Concerned Relatives as just the "latest ploy" of a larger conspiracy that was "growing desperate" and had a "total inability to understand the dynamics of a collective unit." It further portrayed the group as lying and attempting to "destroy us."
In June 1978, Stoen assisted Peoples Temple defector Deborah Layton in drafting a further affidavit detailing alleged crimes by the Peoples Temple and substandard living conditions in Jonestown. What became somewhat problematic for later investigation attempts was that Layton's affidavit exaggerated some claims about Jonestown. As was customary, the Temple had also previously directed Layton to sign affidavits when she was a member denigrating Stoen, making such claims as that Stoen possessed "capitalist selfishness", mistreated "black truckers" and was not the father of John Stoen.
Stoen and other Concerned Relative members had monitored Temple shortwave radio broadcasts and Stoen filed complaints with the FCC in the Fall of 1977 for Temple regulation violations. In later affidavits and lawsuits filed in 1978, Stoen cited communications the group had intercepted through their monitoring.
Stoen also acted as the lawyer in three different lawsuits filed in May and June 1978 on behalf of members of the Concerned Relatives against Jim Jones and other Temple members collectively seeking over $56 million in damages. He was representing Steven Katsaris, whose daughter Stoen had previously urged to flee to Jonestown, and Jim Cobb, whom Stoen had previously attempted to frighten into silence after Cobb defected in 1973.
On July 10, 1978, the Temple sued Stoen for $150 million, charging that Stoen violated his attorney-client relationship with the Temple by using privileged information in his suits against the Temple. Charles R. Garry
represented the Temple in the suit. The suit alleged that Stoen was attempting to "harass and oppress" his former client and sought to enjoin Stoen from soliciting former members as clients in suits against the Temple. Garry believed that a court would issue a temporary restraining order.
By October 1978, all of the defectors had allied with Tim Stoen and the Concerned Relatives. On October 3, Stoen told the State department that he would retrieve John from Jonestown by force if necessary. Three days later he sent a telegram reiterating the threat and warning of the danger of mass suicide at Jonestown.
After pressure grew, the Temple learned that Stoen would accompany a Congressional investigatory trip by Leo Ryan
to Guyana. On November 15, 1978, Grace and Tim Stoen both traveled with the Ryan delegation to Georgetown
. Knowing Jones would never allow Tim and Grace to enter Jonestown
, they were not permitted to accompany the delegation on its November 17 trip to the Temple settlement.
While the Stoens remained in Guyana, the Ryan delegation was attacked on November 18 at an airstrip near Jonestown. Congressman Ryan and four others were killed at the airstrip by Temple members wielding rifles and shotguns, while several others were injured. The murder of Congressman Ryan is the only murder
of a Congressman in the line of duty in the history of the United States.
Tim Stoen encountered an angry Stephan Jones in his Georgetown hotel, while neither knew that the incident was unfolding in Jonestown. As they spoke, 200 miles away in the Temple's final "White Night", 909 inhabitants of Jonestown, 276 of them children, died of apparent cyanide poisoning, mostly in and around a pavilion.
Specific references to Tim Stoen, including the logistics of possibly murdering him, exist on a recording of the final death meeting made by the Temple. Jones stated:
Jones also discussed whether the Temple should include John Stoen among those committing "revolutionary suicide." When the discussion of including children occurred, Jones stated:
John Stoen was found poisoned in Jim Jones' cabin. The incident at Jonestown was the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the incidents of September 11, 2001
.
Later, Stoen went on to work for the district attorneys offices in Humboldt and Mendocino counties. Regardless of his considerable career accomplishments, Stoen has never been able to completely leave his history behind.
Colleagues say that Stoen is an excellent attorney. Mendocino County District Attorney Norm Vroman, who hired Stoen back to the Ukiah office in 2000, stated "frankly, I've never seen him lose a case."
Stoen never gave up on his dream of entering politics, and is now a Republican because he opposes abortion and he feels that Republicans have an easier time accepting an environmentalist than Democrats do a pro-life candidate.
Peoples Temple
Peoples Temple was a religious organization founded in 1955 by Jim Jones that, by the mid-1970s, included over a dozen locations in California including its headquarters in San Francisco...
and later opposition to the group in a multi-year custody battle over John Stoen that led to an investigation of the Peoples Temple's settlement at Jonestown
Jonestown
Jonestown was the informal name for the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, an intentional community in northwestern Guyana formed by the Peoples Temple led by Jim Jones. It became internationally notorious when, on November 18, 1978, 918 people died in the settlement as well as in a nearby...
, Guyana
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
. Jonestown became internationally notorious after the events of November 18, 1978, when 918 people—including Stoen's six-year-old son, John—died in the settlement as well as in a nearby airstrip and in Georgetown
Georgetown, Guyana
Georgetown, estimated population 239,227 , is the capital and largest city of Guyana, located in the Demerara-Mahaica region. It is situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the mouth of the Demerara River and it was nicknamed 'Garden City of the Caribbean.' Georgetown is located at . The city serves...
, Guyana's capital. Tim Stoen is currently an assistant district attorney in Mendocino County, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
Early life
Tim Stoen was born January 16, 1938, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Stoen was the child of religious middle-class parents from Littleton, Colorado. He proceeded through high school and college as a scholar, athlete and devout Christian. He graduated from Wheaton College with a B.A. in Political Science.An otherwise unremarkable event that would later become important occurred when Stoen spent a year in England on a Rotary Foundation scholarship in college. During that time, he visited communist East Berlin
East Berlin
East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...
and wrote in a journal "the first thing that I noticed was the blank expression on the faces of everyone" and "You could tell they were just waiting for the day when they might have some freedom..."
Stoen graduated from Stanford in 1964 and was soon thereafter admitted to the California bar. Stoen worked for a year in an Oakland real estate office before joining the Mendocino County prosecutor's office in Ukiah, California
Ukiah, California
The average high temperature is 73.5 °F . Average low temperature is 46.1 °F . Temperatures reach 90 °F on an average of 65.6 days annually and 100 °F on an average of 14.4 days annually. Due to frequent low humidity, summer temperatures normally drop into the fifties at night. Freezing...
in 1965 as a Deputy District Attorney.
In 1967, Stoen left the prosecutor's office with the intention of doing work for flower children in San Francisco's Haight Ashbury district. Stoen's charitable instincts took him to Alameda County where was a staff attorney for the Legal Aid Society of Alameda County, and where he adopted a religious world view from a leftist perspective. Though he represented black militants and supported an ecological platform, he briefly considered running for office as a Republican.
In 1970, Stoen married Grace Lucy Grech, whom he had met at march at the San Francisco Civic Center against overpopulation and pollution.
Introduction to Peoples Temple
Tim Stoen first encountered the Peoples TemplePeoples Temple
Peoples Temple was a religious organization founded in 1955 by Jim Jones that, by the mid-1970s, included over a dozen locations in California including its headquarters in San Francisco...
when it was suggested he call the group to help renovate legal aid offices in Mendocino County. Two dozen Temple volunteers showed up the following Sunday, and Stoen began sending people to the Temple for drug and marriage counseling.
Stoen became impressed with Temple leader Jim Jones
Jim Jones
James Warren "Jim" Jones was the founder and leader of the Peoples Temple, which is best known for the November 18, 1978 mass suicide of 909 Temple members in Jonestown, Guyana along with the killings of five other people at a nearby airstrip.Jones was born in Indiana and started the Temple in...
' character and good deeds, especially when he saw Jones scrubbing toilets in the Temple building himself. Stoen also was impressed that Jones and his wife were the first Caucasian couple to adopt a black child in Indiana. Stoen and Jones became personal friends and Stoen drove to Redwood Valley to attend Temple services. By the end of 1969, when Berkeley became a war zone over Peoples Park and Third World students' right, Stoen began to integrate his personal life with the Temple.
In 1970, Stoen moved to the Temple's headquarters in Ukiah and worked as an Assistant District Attorney as the head of the Mendocino County's civil division. His presence in the DA's office discouraged people, including Temple members, from filing complaints against the Temple. Stoen began providing legal aid for the Temple and wrote of his political conversion to the Temple's socialism vision.
"Reward" and the birth of John
On February 1, 1972, the Stoens received the birth certificate listing Tim and Grace Stoen as John's parents. On February 6, 1972, Stoen secretly signed a document stating that Jones had fathered the child with Grace at Stoen's suggestion because Stoen had been unable "to sire one [him]self." The document was signed by Stoen "under penalty of perjury" and witnessed by Jim Jones' wife, Marceline. Stoen did not tell Grace about the document and stated that he assumed that the document would be placed in a safe. Stoen has since acknowledged signing the letter, but stated that its contents are false. He refuses to say why he signed it. Stoen stated "I signed it, and I was a fool," and "it was an immoral thing to do and it was a sinful thing to do."
Strain in the Temple
Because of this, Grace Stoen was subjected to abuse, with Temple members referring to her as an "elitist bitch." Jones did not trust Grace and, in 1974, he elevated her to a position on the Temple's top governing body, the Planning Commission, in order to attempt to keep her close to the Temple. Jones also pressured Grace into quitting her job and working for the Temple full time.
At the same time, Grace and Tim grew apart as Tim turned his attention to Temple activities and referred to Grace as a shabby socialist. Grace did not know that Jones had instructed Tim to pay less attention to her to "make her a better socialist."
San Francisco Assistant District Attorney
Jones supported George MosconeGeorge Moscone
George Richard Moscone was an American attorney and Democratic politician. He was the 37th mayor of San Francisco, California, US from January 1976 until his assassination in November 1978. Moscone served in the California State Senate from 1967 until becoming Mayor. In the Senate, he served as...
, Joseph Freitas and Richard Hongisto
Richard Hongisto
Richard D. Hongisto was a businessman, politician, sheriff and police chief of San Francisco, California, and Cleveland, Ohio.-Early life and education:...
in successful election bids. Shortly thereafter, San Francisco District Attorney Freitas hired Tim Stoen as an Assistant District Attorney in the consumer frauds division.
After the election, Moscone and others believed that votes and campaign efforts by Temple members were instrumental in Moscone's close victory. Some suspected that Moscone was helped by illegal voting by Temple members that were bussed in from outside San Francisco, as well as help through alleged voting by illegal immigrants.
Freitas named Stoen to lead the special unit to investigate election fraud charges. The Temple was not mentioned in the proceedings that followed.
Years later, Temple members revealed to the New York Times that the Temple arranged for "busloads" of members to be bused from Redwood Valley to San Francisco to vote in the election. A former Temple member stated that many of those members were not registered to vote in San Francisco, while another former member said "Jones swayed elections." Another former Temple member stated of Jones that "he told us how to vote." She stated that Temple members were required to produce booth stubs to prove that they voted, and members that could not produce such stubs were "pushed around, shoved and physically abused." When asked how Jones could know for whom they voted, the member responded "You don't understand, we wanted to do what he told us to." Stoen later stated that he was not aware at the time of voter fraud but that it could have happened without his knowledge because "Jim Jones kept a lot of things from me."
Grace defects
Grace Stoen had grown to greatly dislike the Temple. She had given up her son John to have him raised communally, been berated in Planning Commission meetings for not stating that Jim Jones was the father of John, watched John be paddled in Temple proceedings, listened to Jones portray Tim as a homosexual, experienced Jones once waving a gun at her in Planning Commission meeting threatening to shoot her if she fell asleep and witnessed the beating of a 40 year old woman who had claimed the Temple turned members into robots. Grace and Temple member Walter Jones, known as Smitty, agreed to leave together.In July 1976, Grace and Smitty fled to Lake Tahoe. Jim Jones became furious at her, telling her over the telephone that she had selfishly abandoned the cause. Jim Jones vowed that he would never give her John, who had been trained at the Temple in the image of Jones. After a series of telephone calls and meetings, in November 1976, Grace learned that John had been relocated to Jonestown
Jonestown
Jonestown was the informal name for the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, an intentional community in northwestern Guyana formed by the Peoples Temple led by Jim Jones. It became internationally notorious when, on November 18, 1978, 918 people died in the settlement as well as in a nearby...
. Jim Jones had earlier pressured both Grace and Tim Stoen to sign documents giving Jones permission to bring John to Jonestown, which comported with Jones' frequent practice of pressuring Temple members to sign documents that Jones could later use against them.
In February 1977, Grace threatened to legally divorce Tim. Fearing that a possible contempt citation against Tim would make public the dispute, Jones sent Tim to Jonestown.
Tim defects
Georgetown, Guyana
Georgetown, estimated population 239,227 , is the capital and largest city of Guyana, located in the Demerara-Mahaica region. It is situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the mouth of the Demerara River and it was nicknamed 'Garden City of the Caribbean.' Georgetown is located at . The city serves...
.
In Georgetown, Temple members secretly examined Stoen's briefcase. In it, they discovered, among other things, a second passport and Stoen's notes of traveling to East Berlin as a college student, stating harsh things about the living conditions of the communist country. Temple members became convinced that Tim was a "dual" agent working for the United States government.
On June 12, 1977, Stoen disappeared from the Temple's Georgetown headquarters.
White Nights
In July 1977, Jim Jones and several hundred Temple members moved to Jonestown to escape building pressure from media investigations. Jones left the same night that an editor at New West magazine read Jones an article to be published by Marshall Kilduff detailing allegations by former Temple members. Tim Stoen had actually designed the exodus plan before Stoen defected. Most politicians broke ties with Jones, although a rally against Jones' enemies was held at the Temple attended by Willie BrownWillie Brown (politician)
Willie Lewis Brown, Jr. is an American politician of the Democratic Party. He served over 30 years in the California State Assembly, spending 15 years as its Speaker, and afterward served as the 41st mayor of San Francisco, the first African American to do so...
, Harvey Milk
Harvey Milk
Harvey Bernard Milk was an American politician who became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors...
and Art Agnos, among others.
Jones felt especially vulnerable after the defection of Tim Stoen because Stoen had designed, and had knowledge of, the Temple's complex system of covertly transferring millions of dollars into foreign bank accounts.
After this exodus, Tim and Grace Stoen began a custody battle for John that would shake the Jonestown community like nothing else until its ultimate demise. In September 1977, the Stoens' battle in a Georgetown
Georgetown, Guyana
Georgetown, estimated population 239,227 , is the capital and largest city of Guyana, located in the Demerara-Mahaica region. It is situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the mouth of the Demerara River and it was nicknamed 'Garden City of the Caribbean.' Georgetown is located at . The city serves...
court produced an order for the Temple to show cause why a final order should not be issued compelling the return of John to Grace Stoen. A few days later, that same court issued a second order for the arrest of John by authorities.
The fear of possibly being held in contempt of the orders caused Jones to set up a false sniper attack upon himself and begin a series of "White Night" rallies, called the "Six Day Siege", where Jones spoke to Temple members about attacks from outsiders and had members surround Jonestown with guns and machetes. The fiery rallies took an almost surreal tone as Angela Davis
Angela Davis
Angela Davis is an American political activist, scholar, and author. Davis was most politically active during the late 1960s through the 1970s and was associated with the Communist Party USA, the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Panther Party...
and Huey Newton communicated via radio-telephone to the Jonestown crowd, urging them to hold strong against the "conspiracy." Jones made radio broadcasts stating "we will die unless we are granted freedom from harassment and asylum." Deputy Minister Ptolemy Reid finally assured Jones' wife Marceline that Guyanese Defense Forces would not invade Jonestown. The Stoens' attorney stated that, at that point, the clerk in Guyana refused to sign an arrest warrant for Jones, and there was talk of government interference in the legal process.
After this initial round of the Stoen custody dispute, Jones no longer believed the Guyanese government could be trusted. He directed Temple members to write over a dozen foreign governments inquiring about immigration policies relevant to another exodus by the Temple. He also wrote the U.S. State department inquiring about North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
and Stalinist Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
.
Concerned Relatives press for action
The Stoens participated in meetings at the home of Jeannie MillsJeannie Mills
Jeannie Mills was an early defector from the Peoples Temple cult, author of the book Six Years with God , and co-founder of the Concerned Relatives of Peoples Temple Members organization and the Human Freedom Center...
with others related to Jonestown residents. The group began calling themselves the "Concerned Relatives." They shared details of their encounters with the Temple, interviewed Temple defectors and went over short wave radio transcripts containing communications between Jonestown and the Temple's San Francisco headquarters. Meanwhile, Temple surveillance teams checked license plates in front of the Mills' house to determine the identity of their "enemies." Tim's addition to the group was vital because of his knowledge of Temple operations, his letter writing campaigns to the Secretary of State and the government of Guyana and his travels to Washington to attempt to begin an investigation.
After Stoen returned to Washington D.C. from Georgetown in January 1978, he visited with nine Congressman, including Leo Ryan
Leo Ryan
Leo Joseph Ryan, Jr. was an American politician of the Democratic Party. He served as a U.S. Representative from California's 11th congressional district from 1973 until he was murdered in Guyana by members of the Peoples Temple shortly before the Jonestown Massacre in 1978.After the Watts Riots...
. Unbeknownst to Stoen, after his visits, the Temple sent members to visit eight of the nine Congressman in order to discredit Stoen.
Stoen also wrote a "white paper" to Congress detailing Jones' alleged illegal kidnapping of John. The white paper stated that any action by the Guyanese Army to retrieve the child could result in harm to John or others and that members of Congress should write Guyanese Prime Minister Forbes Burnham to take action but to be cognizant of the potential dangers of confrontation. Congressman Leo Ryan
Leo Ryan
Leo Joseph Ryan, Jr. was an American politician of the Democratic Party. He served as a U.S. Representative from California's 11th congressional district from 1973 until he was murdered in Guyana by members of the Peoples Temple shortly before the Jonestown Massacre in 1978.After the Watts Riots...
's interest was aroused by the Stoen custody fight and he wrote a letter on Stoen's behalf. Several Congressmen in total wrote Burnham about the concerns raised by Stoen.
At the end of January, Stoen and fellow Concerned Relative Steven Katsaris met with State Department officials. Stoen communicated his concern that Jones' mental condition was deteriorating and that he was suffering from "paranoid megalomania." He urged that the State Department move Guyana to "speedily enforce" the custody orders that the Stoens' had won.
Media spotlight
Feeling pressure from the United States, on February 17, Jones submitted to an interview with San Francisco Examiner journalist Tim Reiterman over a radio-telephone. Reiterman immediately wrote a story about the Stoens' attempts to gain custody of their son in the San Francisco Examiner, which appeared in the Saturday February 18 preview editions of the Sunday paper.The exchange of claims by Jones and Stoen in the article tore Jones' credibility beyond mending. The repercussions were devastating for the Temple's reputation, and made most former supporters even more suspicious of the Temple's claim that it was being subjected to a "rightist vendetta." The bizarre carnal transaction upon which Jones purportedly based his custody cast doubt on Jones' prior statements. Temple attorneys immediately sent a letter to the Examiner stating "this is the straw that broke the camel's back" and "we . . will litigate." Jones told the San Francisco Temple staff to prepare for the media blast.
One day later, on Sunday February 19, 1978, San Francisco Board of Supervisor member Harvey Milk
Harvey Milk
Harvey Bernard Milk was an American politician who became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors...
wrote a letter to President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
supporting Jones and making statements about the Stoens. After the Temple assisted in Milk's 1976 election race to become a California State assembly member, Milk had visited and spoke at rallies at the Temple, though he privately had told friends he saw them as "weird" and "creepy."
In the letter to President Carter, Milk wrote "Rev. Jones is widely known in the minority communities and elsewhere as a man of the highest character." Regarding the Stoens, Milk wrote "Timothy and Grace Stoen, the parties attempting to damage Rev. Jones reputation". Milk also wrote "[i]t is outrageous that Timothy Stoen could even think of flaunting this situation in front of Congressman with apparent bold-faced lies." The letter ended with "Mr. President, the actions of Mr. Stoen need to be brought to a halt. It is offensive to most in the San Francisco community and all those who know Rev. Jones to see this kind of outrage taking place."
In order to attempt to combat the damage, the Temple sent to various newspapers the February 6, 1972 Temple document Stoen had signed detailing the alleged strange events surrounding John's conception. Herb Caen reprinted the document in his San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
column.
Affidavits and lawsuits
On March 14, 1978, the Peoples Temple member Pam Moten sent an open letter to Congress, suggesting that members of the Concerned Relatives group were conspiring with the FCC and IRS against the Temple. It stated "radical Trotskyite elements which defected from our organization when we refused to follow their violent course have been orchestrating a campaign against us." Matching later more direct statements the Temple would make to Congressman Ryan in November, the Temple suggested that Soviet overtures to assist the Temple might embarrass the U.S.: "[i]n fact, several overtures have been made from Russia, which sees our current harassment as a form of political persecution. We do not want to take assistance from any people nor do we want to become an international issue."On April 11, 1978, the Concerned Relatives distributed a packet of documents, including letters and affidavits, many of which were drafted by Stoen, that they titled an "Accusation of Human Rights Violations by Rev. James Warren Jones" to the Peoples Temple, members of the press and members of Congress. The accusations chronicled mistreatment in Jonestown, which it portrayed as an armed camp, and described hard labor, passport confiscation and statements about Jones' speeches speaking of suicide and conspiracies against the Temple.
On May 10, 1978, the Peoples Temple fired back with their own "Open Statement" alleging the Concerned Relatives were part of a massive conspiracy and attacking the "so called Free Enterprise system" and "racist" "corporate power." It portrayed the Concerned Relatives as just the "latest ploy" of a larger conspiracy that was "growing desperate" and had a "total inability to understand the dynamics of a collective unit." It further portrayed the group as lying and attempting to "destroy us."
In June 1978, Stoen assisted Peoples Temple defector Deborah Layton in drafting a further affidavit detailing alleged crimes by the Peoples Temple and substandard living conditions in Jonestown. What became somewhat problematic for later investigation attempts was that Layton's affidavit exaggerated some claims about Jonestown. As was customary, the Temple had also previously directed Layton to sign affidavits when she was a member denigrating Stoen, making such claims as that Stoen possessed "capitalist selfishness", mistreated "black truckers" and was not the father of John Stoen.
Stoen also acted as the lawyer in three different lawsuits filed in May and June 1978 on behalf of members of the Concerned Relatives against Jim Jones and other Temple members collectively seeking over $56 million in damages. He was representing Steven Katsaris, whose daughter Stoen had previously urged to flee to Jonestown, and Jim Cobb, whom Stoen had previously attempted to frighten into silence after Cobb defected in 1973.
On July 10, 1978, the Temple sued Stoen for $150 million, charging that Stoen violated his attorney-client relationship with the Temple by using privileged information in his suits against the Temple. Charles R. Garry
Charles R. Garry
Charles R. Garry was an American civil rights attorney who represented a number of high-profile clients in political cases during the 1960s and 1970s, including representing the Peoples Temple in Jonestown during the 1978 tragedy that occurred at that location.-Early life:Born in Bridgewater,...
represented the Temple in the suit. The suit alleged that Stoen was attempting to "harass and oppress" his former client and sought to enjoin Stoen from soliciting former members as clients in suits against the Temple. Garry believed that a court would issue a temporary restraining order.
Final trip
After pressure grew, the Temple learned that Stoen would accompany a Congressional investigatory trip by Leo Ryan
Leo Ryan
Leo Joseph Ryan, Jr. was an American politician of the Democratic Party. He served as a U.S. Representative from California's 11th congressional district from 1973 until he was murdered in Guyana by members of the Peoples Temple shortly before the Jonestown Massacre in 1978.After the Watts Riots...
to Guyana. On November 15, 1978, Grace and Tim Stoen both traveled with the Ryan delegation to Georgetown
Georgetown, Guyana
Georgetown, estimated population 239,227 , is the capital and largest city of Guyana, located in the Demerara-Mahaica region. It is situated on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the mouth of the Demerara River and it was nicknamed 'Garden City of the Caribbean.' Georgetown is located at . The city serves...
. Knowing Jones would never allow Tim and Grace to enter Jonestown
Jonestown
Jonestown was the informal name for the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, an intentional community in northwestern Guyana formed by the Peoples Temple led by Jim Jones. It became internationally notorious when, on November 18, 1978, 918 people died in the settlement as well as in a nearby...
, they were not permitted to accompany the delegation on its November 17 trip to the Temple settlement.
While the Stoens remained in Guyana, the Ryan delegation was attacked on November 18 at an airstrip near Jonestown. Congressman Ryan and four others were killed at the airstrip by Temple members wielding rifles and shotguns, while several others were injured. The murder of Congressman Ryan is the only murder
Murder
Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
of a Congressman in the line of duty in the history of the United States.
Tim Stoen encountered an angry Stephan Jones in his Georgetown hotel, while neither knew that the incident was unfolding in Jonestown. As they spoke, 200 miles away in the Temple's final "White Night", 909 inhabitants of Jonestown, 276 of them children, died of apparent cyanide poisoning, mostly in and around a pavilion.
Specific references to Tim Stoen, including the logistics of possibly murdering him, exist on a recording of the final death meeting made by the Temple. Jones stated:
Jones also discussed whether the Temple should include John Stoen among those committing "revolutionary suicide." When the discussion of including children occurred, Jones stated:
John Stoen was found poisoned in Jim Jones' cabin. The incident at Jonestown was the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the incidents of September 11, 2001
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
.
Career after Jonestown
From 1980 to 1984, Stoen was Corporate Counsel for Pacific Energy & Minerals, Ltd. For some time thereafter, Stoen worked at a private practice. In 1998, Stoen ran for the California State Senate and lost in the Democratic Party primary, receiving 34.5% of the party vote. On his political philosophy page, Stoen listed the following:Later, Stoen went on to work for the district attorneys offices in Humboldt and Mendocino counties. Regardless of his considerable career accomplishments, Stoen has never been able to completely leave his history behind.
Colleagues say that Stoen is an excellent attorney. Mendocino County District Attorney Norm Vroman, who hired Stoen back to the Ukiah office in 2000, stated "frankly, I've never seen him lose a case."
Stoen never gave up on his dream of entering politics, and is now a Republican because he opposes abortion and he feels that Republicans have an easier time accepting an environmentalist than Democrats do a pro-life candidate.
External links
- American Experience documentaryJonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples TempleJonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, is a 2006 documentary film made by Firelight Media. The documentary reveals new footage of the incidents surrounding the Peoples Temple and its leader Jim Jones who led over 900 members of his Cult to a settlement in Guyana called Jonestown, where he...
, "Jonestown: The Life And Death Of Peoples Temple", shown on PBS - Transcript of Jones' final speech, just before the mass suicide