He was 19 years old at the time. Jordan Vilchezs parents were Berkeley progressives in the 1960s her father African-American, her mother Scotch-Irish. Reporters were hearing. "It's a lifestyle, it's about getting honest, getting real, getting your own God and being of service." Haaretz.com. After the move to the idyllic Redwood Valley, California, things may have relaxed for a while. Retrieved December 10, 2022, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1983/11/07/jonestowns-haunted-son/f9369588-008b-497a-9ad3-b303dc01a8df/, IMDb. "It was the first thing I really worked hard for. The temple was the only life he knew but says he always had his doubts. Stephan GandhiJones was away at a basketball game in Georgetown when his father,Jim Jones, ordered the Peoples Temple mass suicide in 1978 at a compound in Guyana, dubbed "Jonestown." Stephan Jones was born on 06/01/1959 and is 63 years old.Stephan Jones currently lives in Petaluma, CA; in the past Stephan has also lived in San Rafael CA and Novato CA.In the past, Stephan has also been known as Stephan Gandhi Jones and Stephan G Jones. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. Thats what triggered it.. Retrieved December 10, 2022, from https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2861599/, Reflections and articles by Stephan Jones. Life became more tolerable after the couples baby, Martin Luther Smith, was born. Cobb lost 11 relatives that day, including his mother, youngest brother and four sisters. What they said. And the temple was his life first in Indiana, later in California. This past year, she returned to long-overgrown Jonestown. "I don't care what you think of my father," Jones wrote in 2015. . ", The thought of killing Jim Jones had occurred to his son, but Stephan never tried to do it. The type of unchecked power that comes with starting a cultoften seems to translate to sexual relationships as well. The only way you can take care of Jim Jones is to hope he dies naturally or gradually phase him out. Stephan Jones's net worth You'd have to deal with this elite that just revolved their lives around him' . He is charming. The name Stephan is derived from the Greek word stephanos, which means crown and garland. Gandhi is a phrase from India that means pharmacist., Also Read Leila Arcieri, Angel Adoree, Brendon Burchard, Jozadak. Eventually he married and had three children (IMDb), and as of 2022 he continues to be active in education around Jonestown, writing articles and contributing to multiple documentaries. "I dont care what you think of his ancestor or progeny. More than 900 people lived in the agricultural mission, with its dining pavilion, tidy cottages, school, medical facilities and rows of crops. He was in Georgetown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 with the Jonestown Basketball Team. . I just have to love him and forgive him.. He sought treatment, and eventually, the father of three settled into a quiet life in California. Who wants to hear that shit? The friend hed said that to, Mike Touchette, reported his irreverence to Jones. that one last act would be admitting he was a coward, and about nothing. When asked what Stephan wished people would take away from the Jonestown tragedy, he stated: Be aware of this message that was prevalent in the temple: The end justifies the means. And I see that throughout society. Who did Jim Jones have a son with? Looking back, I feel a sadness for him. (AP Photo/File), Connect with the definitive source for global and local news, assassination of U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan and four others. ", Stephan Jones' lips draw back when he talks about his father; he looks for an instant like a cornered dog. Stephan Jones was a nearly full-grown teen-ager when his father sent him to the Peoples Temple agricultural mission in the small South American coastal country of Guyana. He is talking, in the first of two evenings' long conversations, between spoonfuls of almond chicken at a Chinese restaurant. 15 Children Of Famous Cult Leaders: Where Are They Now. Looking haggard and contrite after a night in police custody, the late Rev. Cite this record He pushes through the crowd, but he cannot get to his father. He keeps his voice very soft, as though practice has taught him to hold certain subjects to a whisper in public, but his gaze is direct. Stephan Gandhi Jones was the biological son of Jim and Marceline Jones. " He smiles, imitates the sudden mask of disbelief. " . But cult leaders' kids have to face issues most children would never even dream of. Early Life Stephan Gandhi Jones was born on June 1, 1959 to parents Jim and Marceline Jones in Indiana. "I don't know. They were under siege, Jim Jones would cry; the snipers were after him; the Guyanese army was about to descend; the children would be taken away and probably tortured. He says his daughters have seen him gnash his teeth when he talks about his father, but they also have heard him speak lovingly of the man who taught him compassion and other virtues. Acting has become a hobby for Stephan Gandhi Jones. However, approximately a month before Stephans birth, Stephanie passed away in a car accident. I believe 100 percent that not everyone would have been dead, he said. Top right: Stephan Jones in Junior High. Vom Abt der Reichenau zum Weggefhrten des Kaisers. Vilchez worked as office manager at a private crime lab for 20 years and now, at 61, sells her artwork. Stephan Gandhi Jones was 19. That way no one else would want to live. In October 1978, Jones began sleeping with nineteen-year-old Shanda James (Reiterman 455), though when she wrote him a note saying she wanted to be with someone else, Jones had her put in the ECU and drugged, to the great displeasure of many of the younger men. As a self-taught bulldozer operator, he worked alongside other Peoples Temple members in the humid heat, his blade carving roads and sites for wooden buildings with metal roofs. are james acaster and rose matafeo still friends; denver flight 9 crash 99 dead; san luis obispo murders 2020; catriona pendrigh found dead 1959: The Joneses adopted Suzanne (b. He is married to his wifeKristi Jones since 1991. ", Follow James Adams on Twitter: @JglobeadamsOpens in a new window. Stephan was extremely passionate about athletics, participating in track, football, and baseball (Reiterman 181), with his true passion being for basketball, to Jones chagrin (Reiterman 308). Or it was before Dad showed up there. Mr. Jones first travelled to Jonestown in early 1977 and worked on clearing land for the settlement and building housing for the devotees of the Peoples Temple. Written in Blood (2018), The Peoples Advocate: The Life and Times of Charles R. Gary (2007), and The True Story of Charles R. Gary (2007) were among the films in which he appeared (2003). Stephan resented the attention other Temple children sometimes demanded of Jones, and would remind them in no uncertain terms that Jones was his father, not theirs (Reiterman 105). "I was still naive enough--well, not necessarily naive enough; I still believe the CIA is capable of all kinds of things--but I felt that we could geniunely be a threat to the image of the United States and that people might be trying to do things to undermine or eliminate what was happening down there," he says. 5 Things You Didnt Know About Flavien Prats Wife, Places Where Celebrities Like to Spend Their Vacations, Meet Stephan Gandhi Jones Photos Of Late Jim Jones Son With Wife Marceline Jones. "He used to say that I would acquire his gift in my late years. Soon after, in December 1976, Jones requested that Stephan go to start working in Jonestown, possibly afraid that he was at risk of defecting (Reiterman 311). Stephan Gandhi Jones: Name Meaning Stephan Gandhi Jones is the son of the notorious religious cult leader Jim Jones. When Jim Sr., a local Democratic Party darling, met with future first lady Rosalynn Carter, Jim Jr. proudly went along. Retrieved December 10, 2022, from https://www.haaretz.com/life/2019-01-22/ty-article-magazine/.premium/four-decades-on-jim-jones-son-tells-how-it-was-at-jonestown/0000017f-e640-d62c-a1ff-fe7b2ea00000, A collaborative project of Cowles Library at Drake University and the Special Collections Department of Library and Information Access at San Diego State University, Chronological List of Annotated Documents, Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple, https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1983/11/07/jonestowns-haunted-son/f9369588-008b-497a-9ad3-b303dc01a8df/, https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=17058, https://www.haaretz.com/life/2019-01-22/ty-article-magazine/.premium/four-decades-on-jim-jones-son-tells-how-it-was-at-jonestown/0000017f-e640-d62c-a1ff-fe7b2ea00000. In the aftermath, he built a new life. "There was always that guilt fed to you by my father that kept you in check, kept you thinking, 'Maybe I'm wrong'--the guilt for being selfish and questioning this.". As a San Francisco high school student, he was dispatched to help build Jonestown. You're not taking any more drugs." Jim Jones radioed his son with orders to return to Jonestown, Stephan Jones refused to cut short the trip. Some information may no longer be current. They have altogether three daughters. He grew up in Indiana, then eventually moved with the Peoples Temple to Ukiah, California. He was in Georgetown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 with the Jonestown Basketball Team. . "They say, 'Yeah.' "But there's a sadness . Everything to Know About the Love Life of a Social Media Influencer, Chase Landry of Swamp People Is a Father, According to His Alleged Relationship With Cheyenne Wheat, Exploring Pat McAfees Beautiful Wedding with Wife Samantha, Who Is Luke Braceys Girlfriend? . On the night of November 17, Stephans basketball team competed against the Guyana national team. During a White Night in Spring 1978, he urged his father to stop, whispering, Youre putting people through unnecessary pain (Reiterman 391). They have altogether three daughters. He was summoned to the temple radio room. One day, in response to Jones speaking over the loudspeaker, Stephan snapped, Oh, fuck. It would become a little town where people of all ages and colors raised food and children. "I would have been a traitor to the greatest cause there ever was . "It was," he said, "absolutely the best time of my life. His biggest regrets revolve around the teams refusal to return to Jonestown. I mean, one thing's for sure: it happened, and there's no taking it back, so, my God, let's make the best of it. Learn How rich is He in this year and how He spends money? "It's like you went to a vacation in Europe and found out the United States had sunk," he says. Suggest an alternative. But the boy was still a child of the Temple. Jones himself, after some artfully applied pressure to the mayor's office, was appointed to the San Francisco Housing Authority, where once-tedious meetings about public housing suddenly erupted into vigorous cheering sessions, with temple members applauding the pronouncements of Commissioner Jones. For 19 of his 24 years, they were all he knew. "It was not bad people who did it," he says. This is really crazy, he recalls thinking. In 1954, Jones adopted Agnes Jones, who was part Native American, when she was 11 years old. She gave her house to the Peoples Temple and they moved to San Francisco. Stephan Jones and some other team members believe they might have changed history if they were there. Raven: The untold story of the rev. He converted to Catholicism and registered Republican. You know what would happen if you killed Jim Jones now?Some of the seniors think hes God and hes their only hope. Jones decided that it would be best for his son to grow up without prejudices and a month later they became the first white couple in Indiana to adopt a black child (Rittenmeyer, 2018). They have altogether three daughters. He dreams he is arguing with his father, arguing passionately, and although he knows his arguments are better, his father always wins. Top left: Stephan with his father, Jim Jones. As of December 2022, Stephan Jones is 63 years old. "I do have a path -- it's private -- but I wouldn't call it religion. Eugene Smith recalls how his mother, a churchgoing African-American, bought into Jim Jones dream after they attended a service in Fresno. The only surviving child of Jim Jones, Stephan was born on June 1, 1959, in Indiana, USA. His son was born Lafayette Ronald HubbardJr., but later changed his name to RonaldDeWolf after rejecting Scientology. Jim Jones had adopted other children, gathering around him what he liked to call his "rainbow family"--Stephan's brothers and sisters were black and Korean--but Stephan remembers days spent mostly by himself: there was a cleared-out place in the underbrush where he could crouch and become Hercules, or a soldier of war. When he was ordered to Georgetown to help with supply shipments, Smith said he concocted an escape plan: Ollie and other temple singers and dancers, he believed, would soon be sent to Georgetown to perform, and the family would flee to the U.S. Embassy. Marceline often confided to him about Jones and her anger toward him (Reiterman 401). Plunged into a new world, those raised in the temple or who joined as teens lost the only life they knew: church, jobs, housing and most of all, family and friends. "I think he would be admitting in his own warped mind that he was not this great revolutionary he had tried to build himself up to be . "This was when he started bragging about taking 16 people on in one day, and all that crap. . Youve known about it for a month and youre going nuts. 1959 (May 11): Adopted daughter Stephanie Jones died in a car crash. Stephan went into shock, horrified by the finality of the deaths, and overwhelmed with hopelessness (Reiterman 546). Maybe they saw no hope--because they didn't see themselves leaving, but they didn't want to go on with Jim Jones. Basement Rejects is the source of this image. The woman sang as they coupled, and when Stephan Jones' mother told the boy she knew about it, she also told him--it is this he remembers as the crescendo of the betrayal--that his father had even described the song. Also learn how He earned most of networth at the age of 62 years old? In "Raven," Reiterman and Jacobs describe the minister presenting the congregation with a batch of fruit punch: "We're going to drink poison and kill ourselves," Jim Jones declared, and it was not until many people had drunk that Jones said he had simply wished to test his followers' loyalty. 'Liquidator,' " Stephan Jones remembers being called, as he lay on his prison cot and listened to the mosquitoes swarm. " Being in Jonestown before Jim got there was the best thing in my life.. We have estimated . Until, that is, I have to do something like this.". Photo from Peoples Temple files, acquired from Reiterman 393. For the young Caucasian, there was more: "The white man was so preached against by my father as a way of winning black people, and here I am a white man, feeling like everybody resents me and I have something to apologize for," he says. Here's how some of the kids of famous cult leaders moved on with their lives. ", Stephan Jones spent three months in a Guyana jail after the November deaths, imprisoned there while Guyanese authorities tried to determine who had killed the devoted Peoples Temple aide Sharon Amos and her three children, all of whom were found with their throats slashed in the Georgetown Temple headquarters on the day of the suicides. He apparently lives as an anonymous citizen. Jones stated he has not had an opportunity to secure an attorney for himself at this time. Four granite slabs are etched with names of the 918 people who died in Guyana including James Warren Jones, which deeply offends some whose relatives perished. Dozens of Peoples Temple members in Guyana survived the mass suicides and murders of more than 900 because they had slipped out of Jonestown or happened to be away Nov. 18, 1978. Though Stephan was public about his sorrow toward the movement and his anger toward his father, he used his platform to constantly reemphasize the humanity and sanity of the members of Peoples Temple. On receipt of information from re-interviews and facts known to the FBI, it was concluded that immunity was desired for four persons. Stephan Gandhi Jones is the son of Jim and Marceline Jones. Unsurprisingly, that "free love" attitude means there are lots of kids of cult leaders. the jones firstborn Though he waved and smiled at Peoples Temple services, seemingly enraptured like the rest, Stephan Gandhi Jones says he always had his doubts. "Because then it would have been like, 'I'm running out on these people. [November 2008]. Today, Mr. Jones seems the very model of caring California calm. What we were calling the cause really was Jim, she said. Prior to Stephan's birth, Jim and Marceline had adopted two children from Korea: a four-year-old named Stephanie and a two-year-old renamed Lew Eric. He has taken a lead role in a 40th Jonestown anniversary memorial to be held Sunday at Oaklands Evergreen Cemetery, where remains of unclaimed and unidentified victims are buried. (2008). How do you live down the fact that your father orchestrated the biggest mass suicide in history? They don't normally believe it at first. Jim Jones was cultivating his growing celebrity--elected officials visited the San Francisco temple, Mayor George Moscone had used temple members as campaign workers, and much was made of the 1976 photo that showed Jim Jones and Rosalynn Carter together during the Democratic Central Committee meeting in San Francisco. I would have been doing more than just leaving a family. 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