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Item 095.Pdf "and he asked me to do mat,- sum 2D Fri., February 2, 1979 St LOWS POST-OISPATCH Lane. "I was not planning to return there," he continued. "I was wait- ing for material when I received a call from Temple people in San jape me earthy Francisco saying that Ryan had sent a message to Jones that he was a personal opinion coming to Guyana. "Jones' said by radio that he didn't want Ryan to come. He saw this as the great provocation. He believed that, since he had set up a communist society in Jonestown, lie Guyana Diary I would be subject to harassment by the FBI and the ,CIA if he were to Mark Lane, the attorney who visit Jonestown and deliver a lec, return to the U.S." enjoys turning' over rocks on the ture on the King assassination. According to Lane, Jones had Ainerican soil to let the bugs crawl Lane and Dick Gregory in 1977 had • sent a message early in 1978 "ask- el)t, says the State Department co-authored a book on the King ing for assurances that if he came knew 13 months in advance that the murder, titled "Code Name 'Zor- back to the U.S. he would not be fiev. Jim Jones was serious about ro.," harassed, and in return he would *ass murder in Jonestown, Guya- Lane knew others who had visit- pull an Eldridge Cleaver, tour the na. ed Jonestown "and a colleague of country and denounce communism. Terri Buford, 26, formerly one of mine had just come back and said it But this project failed, and it was .l9nes' top aides, says that in Octo- was Interesting," he told me. "They one of the reasons he was panicky." ber 1977, Jones threatened to kill Said they had no money to pay me, Another reason, said Lane, is the entire colony, which he had but would send me a ticket. I went that Jonestown had failed as a kunded earlier that summer. But because it was just an intriguing communal experiment., "After tones was talked out of it by radio idea to observe what they said was heroically Clearing a part of the iftessages from militant leaders an experiment in communal life." jungle," Lane said, "they found - Huey Newton, Angela Davis and the So Lane went and met Jones tot they could grow almost, nothing. American Indian Movement's the first time. They had to import rice. They had tfennis Banks, all of whom Jones• ; "The first thing that struck me some cattle, but the grass had para- ;Oinked. / was that the power structure in the sites and the cattle would die. They ▪ At the time, says Lane, Jones' organization was not very different had to import food for their chick- radio broadcasts back to the states from the United States. It was basi- ens. They couldn't feed themselves. were being monitored daily by the cally white middle-class profession- It was costing them $500,000 a year Federal Communications Commis- * dominating a vast majority of to keep it going and feed the peo- sion. Jones' knowledge of this in- pg~oor blacks. It was more a ple." flamed his paranoia. And, says tarn of American society than a After Jones' overtures to the Lane, Jones had 'pleaded by radio rejection of it," Lane said. State Department had failed, said with government authorities not to Nevertheless, he went on, he Lane, Jones began to negotiate with let U.S. Representative Leo J. Ryan detected a sense of panic on the part the Soviet Union and had met twice of California come to Guyana on a with the Soviet Embassy in George- tact-finding mission. Ryan and four town -- not to take 1,000 Americans members of his party were assassi- ' at once but to absorb them gradual- nated as they tried to leave, and the ly as family units, after which the great disaster of Jonestown fol- Americans could later leave the lowed the same day, Nov. 18. U.S.S.R. if they. wished. Lane was there. He was one of Of the Peoples Temple that the U.S., "But when Jones learned that the few to leave alive: I talked with would destroy it. Jones had been Ryan was coming, accompanied by him by phone from Memphis the told by a private investigatar in- some of the most hostile parents of other day, where he has taken up volved in Temple affairs that there Jonestown residents, people who residence while he is representing were CIA agents in Jonestown and had filed many lawsuits, he saw this James Earl Ray in the case of the this, said Lane, "helped drive him as the 'great provocation,'" said assassination of the Rev. Dr. Mar- over the edge." ' Lane. "By now he had been driven tin Luther King Jr.-It is this work, beyond paranoia and was heavily On this first visit in September, medicated. Lane believes, that saved his life in said Lane, Jones told him that ,I. begged Ryan not to go. Jonestown. "they are trying to destroy us; they I said, 'Jim JOheeliikand will see Lane also represents Terri Bu- it as a provocation." are working out a provocation in But Ryan went, and so did Lane. ford, who is the chief witness in Georgetown (capital of Guyana) grand jury proceedings now taking What Lane saw will be reported and probably in. San Francisco as. next time. place in San Francisco. She was in well."' The Peoples Temple, Lane Lane's office when I called, and I alleged, had already drawn up a spoke to her, too. Her life was "hit list" of enemies, and Jones, spared because she fled from Jones- Who apparently knew of the FCC town two months before the end. monitoring, was convinced that the Her life was threatened when she CIA had become involved. returned to America. Lane told Jones that he could file Lane says he had never heard of suit under the Freedom of Informa- the Rev. Jim Jones or the Peoples tion Act to ascertain if this was true Temple or Jonestown until last September, when he was invited to .
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