"When it really came down to it, I thought there wasn't any need, because I thought he'd be dead in a couple months anyway," he says. At first it was spanking of children. Relation: Name: Birth: Father: Jim Jones: May 13 1931: Mother: Marceline Jones: Spotted an error? Kristi Jones (1991 - present)( 3 children). Little Jimmy became part of their Rainbow Family of white, black, Korean-American and Native American children. Photos courtesy of Stephan Jones, acquired via Reiterman 134. The years have shaped another lesson for Stephan Jones, but it makes him uneasy to talk about it. . Some information may no longer be current. "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 . 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. That wont work. During a White Night in Spring 1978, he urged his father to stop, whispering, Youre putting people through unnecessary pain (Reiterman 391). This attitude continued into adulthood, and only intensified when in Jonestown. . He is the author with the late John Jacobs of Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. To just be somewhere with a machete, in khakis, and just decide I wanted to go somewhere and cut myself a trail." Stephan always argued against these plans. 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). Some of his siblings were adopted, so they arent well-known. But he said his discontent festered. He says the congregation was full of elderly people, many of them hard-working black men and women who had given this minister everything they possessed. He has been married to Kristi Jones since 1991. In an hour, that promise was broken.. I just have to love him and forgive him.. They must be prepared to die in the defense of socialism. He was in Georgetown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 with the Jonestown Basketball Team. The film, directed and written, respectively, by Canadians Tim Wolochatiuk and Jason Sherman, airs on Vision TV on March 13, and Mr. Jones, who appears in the program, is lending it some of his promotional muscle this week in Toronto. But cult leaders' kids have to face issues most children would never even dream of. Best Answer. ", But the apparent calm has been hard-won. For years, Vilchez was ashamed of the part she played in an idealistic group that imploded so terribly. Now, Stephan Jones is father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business. After the Jonestown massacre, Stephan moved back to San Francisco, where he stayed in close contact with other survivors of Peoples Temple, including the members of the basketball team. The tournament was in Georgetown, the Guyanese capital, 150 miles away. "It was not bad people who did it," he says. that one last act would be admitting he was a coward, and about nothing. "I did my time in hell on earth after it was all over," he confessed. Who wants to hear that shit? The friend hed said that to, Mike Touchette, reported his irreverence to Jones. There have been things Ive wanted to do (Reiterman 454). There, as part of Jones personal security detail, Cobb saw the once captivating minister strung out on drugs, afraid to venture anywhere for fear of his legal problems. 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). 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. Stephan Gandhi Jones was born on June 1, 1959 to parents Jim and Marceline Jones, the only natural-born son in the otherwise adopted family (Reiterman 63). But when he got there [in mid-1977] overnight it became a totally different place. Life became more tolerable after the couples baby, Martin Luther Smith, was born. I said there must be another way.. Getting to Know Irad Ortiz Jr.s Wife: What Does She Do? Of course, it's entirely understandable why Mr. Jones doesn't regularly mull over the fate of his notorious father or that of his beloved mother, Marceline, who swallowed the fateful poison-laced fruit punch that day in Jonestown. He too was a member of the basketball team. " Pause for effect. " Mr. Jones spent the night there, much of it "in a fetal position, sobbing like a baby, saying prayers, offering apologies." He has been married to Kristi Jones since 1991. He was so lost to his narcissism. As of December 2022, Stephan Jones is 63 years old. Stephan Gandhi Jones: Name Meaning Stephan Gandhi Jones is the son of the notorious religious cult leader Jim Jones. He was right, of course. For many years, Jones struggled with the guilt of survival, his fathers grim legacy, and his own subsequent substanceabuse. Though he waved and smiled at Peoples Temple services, seemingly enraptured like the rest, Stephan Gandhi Jones says he always had his doubts. "There's just nothing like it," he says. Neither were the White Nights where everyone stayed up, armed with machetes to fight enemies who never arrived. He did what was expected of him. Family (3) Trivia (4) Only natural son of Rev. "I still get very angry," Stephan Jones says. Stephan Jones (Stephan Gandhi Jones) was born on 1 June, 1959 in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, is an Actor. They divorced when Jordan was 6. 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. Instead of finishing high school, Vilchez moved to San Francisco, where she lived in the church. I want out of this.' "You can tell when it's a man; the positions are different," Jones says evenly. Stephan Gandhi Jones is the son of the notorious religious cult leader Jim Jones. "I knew I didn't want to, but I didn't know quite how to confront him or present my case . Dozens of Peoples Temple members in Guyana . Since murderous mastermindCharles Manson hada tendency to say things like "Youre all my children," its been difficult to prove the paternity of several kids he may have fathered. He built a long career in health care, while weathering his own serious health problems. "This is really crazy," he . . Stephan believed, for a time, that his father was a great man, and that they were so similar they may have had a telepathic connection (Reiterman 120). Most read in News BEHIND BARS 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. Jonestown: Paradise Lost, a 100-minute TV docudrama about the final crazed days of the wannabe multiracial utopia in equatorial South America and the 47-year-old zealot and megalomaniac who ordered the mass suicide and murder, thereby ensuring that Nov. 18, 1978, would be a day that would live in infamy. You don't tell God he needs help. . In the days before Ryans fact-finding mission to the settlement, the players were in Georgetown for a tourney with the Guyana national teams. People do things for him. It's like my hurt for them, or my missing them, is the only thing I have left of them." He was a genius, and he was unique. Im not saying he didnt cause it, create it. The people involved include Agnes Pauline Jones, Timothy Glen Jones, Jim Jon Prokes, Jim W. Jones Jr, Lew Eric Jones, John Moss Jones, Suzanne O. Jones, and Stephanie Jones. . After Ollie became pregnant, she was sent to Jonestown; Eugene remained behind. "But there's a sadness . Wiki, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth, Ethnicity, Career, Renee Raducanu- All About The Mother Of Emma Raducanu, Denny Siregar- Wiki, Age, Girlfriend, Net Worth, Height, Career, How much is Tom Austen Net Worth 2023? the whole thing he drove into people's minds for so long--I certainly don't mean to say that what happened was a sane act or that it was a good act, but--", Jones hesitates. The Jones rainbow family acted as a symbol of racial integration within the temple community (Reiterman 63). ", Eventually, he "got so sick of himself and hurting others" that he joined Alcoholics Anonymous and developed a strong attachment to its famous 12-step program. 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. Now, Stephan Jones is father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business. They have altogether three daughters. In California, he was steeped in temple life. Jim was the Rev. . 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. Since 1991, he has been married to Kristi Jones. The people are elderly and he knows he must stop it, but he cannot make contact with them; they look at him as though from great distances. This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Rosalynn Carters first name. Jones declined to answer questions until he had the opportunity to speak to an attorney. Its been almost ten years that Ive been putting up with this shit. After the move to the idyllic Redwood Valley, California, things may have relaxed for a while. Now, Stephan Jones is father of three daughters, ages 16, 25 and 29, and works in the office furniture installation business. When people ask about his past, he says he was "overseas," or "in volunteer service." As of December 2020, Stephan Jones has remained active in the conversation around Jonestown, taking part in interviews, appearing in documentaries, and writing reflections and articles of his own. In a 1983 Penthouse interview, DeWolfharshly criticized his father and revealed many sordid details of their personal lives and Scientology's doctrines, though he later disavowed his statements. "I don't know what was happening . It would have been like I was a counter-revolutionary, in some sense.". "I just say something like, 'You remember Jonestown?' Michael Brunnerwas born in 1968 toMary Brunner. Following his fathers wrongdoings, Stephan Gandhi Jones pushes for peace. 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. 3.9K views, 14 likes, 3 loves, 7 comments, 10 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from ABC 20/20: In this 1998 interview, Jim Jones' son Stephan Jones is overcome with emotion as he returns to where. She gave her house to the Peoples Temple and they moved to San Francisco. Then he waits a while, until they have come to know him--the very tall young man with the kind voice and the black mustache. 1931 Only natural son of Rev. In fact, he feels "obligated to do something well with the fact that I survived and I hope that I do. "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.". But the entertainers stayed in Jonestown to entertain Ryan. Early Life Stephan Gandhi Jones was born on June 1, 1959 to parents Jim and Marceline Jones in Indiana. Today, Mr. Jones seems the very model of caring California calm. OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) Jonestown was the highlight of Mike Touchettes life for a time. He is married to his wife Kristi Jones since 1991. 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