Evil Dead: The Problematic Story of the Jonestown Corpses By Ted Malcolmson A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies The University of Manitoba In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Religion The University of Manitoba, The University of Winnipeg, Winnipeg ©2016 Ted Malcolmson Abstract “Evil Dead: The Problematic Story of the Jonestown Corpses” examines the issues that arose with handling the bodies after the mass suicide of Peoples Temple members on the Jonestown site in 1978. The Jonestown dead are treated as deviant and dangerous. This project examines strategies of classification and identification, and how these differed before and after the mass suicide. A particular emphasis will be on the disgust response as a shared signifier of danger. A comparison is drawn between the 2011 Jonestown memorial stone and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, examining how memorials can be made that separate the dead from controversial conflicts. The Peoples Temple saw themselves as participating in a ‘Revolutionary Suicide’ to advance a socialist agenda. This intent was lost in the aftermath of the suicides, and they were instead treated as irrational and excluded by their former allies. The eventual memorial only became possible by separating the dead from their cause. 2 Acknowledgements This project was only possible because of the support of a large number of people who took time out of their schedules to help in a variety of ways. Dr. MacKendrick has offered guidance at every step of this project, from conception to completion. His commentary has been clear and insightful, and he has been unfailingly generous with his time. His good humor and quick wit have brightened many days. I cannot imagine a better advisor. Dr. Alexandrin has offered guidance and suggestions both for my thesis and academia in general. Her experience with such a diverse range of materials never fails to astound, and the clarity of her insights has been a valued part of my time at the University of Manitoba. I would like to thank my external committee member Dr. Austin-Smith, for offering a valuable outsider perspective, and helping me keep perspective on this project. I would like to thank all of the faculty and staff at the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg for all of the guidance and conversations which have shaped me over these past few years. I would especially like to thank Rose Fiorillo who has been endlessly helpful in guiding me through bureaucracy, which is something I can barely spell, much less navigate unsupervised. A special thank you to Dr. Dickson as well, who offered guidance and support on some of my darkest days. I would like to thank the University of Manitoba Academic Learning Centre writing tutor program, especially Kathy Block. Between the training she conducted for writing tutors and her thorough and clear insights on the writing process, I am convinced that I received more help being trained as a writing tutor than I was ever able to give any student who had an appointment with me. I would also like to thank all the other writing tutors, especially Gretchen Derige, Allison Birch, and Laryssa Bogucki. We may not have seen eye to eye on the great Yams vs. Sweet Potatoes debate, but you certainly made every shift enjoyable. 3 I would like to thank all my peers in the program, especially those who made it out to the meetings in 336. Thank you to Alex Granke, Heather Penner, Nathan Dyck, Ryan Fics, Sharmane Reyes, Kyle Derkson, Liz Marshall, Adeana McNicholl, and all the other students who made going to class more fun. A very extra special thank you to Bethany Berard and Bethany Berard, whose assistance was so valuable that I have to list her twice. Her insights on every single aspect of academia have been immeasurably helpful. She offered such valuable insight and guidance that she was some kind of terrifying mix of guru, spirit animal, and friend. This project would not have been possible without her guidance, but please don’t hold that against her. I would like to thank my parents, Murray and Linda Malcolmson, for their unconditional love and support, as well as my brother Daniel, who honestly seemed a bit more on the fence about this whole thing. I would like to thank Liz Letourneau, who was there for all the long nights and listened to me rant and rave. I would especially like to thank her for the hundreds of times she had to politely explain to people that no, I wasn’t going to be a priest. Thank you to all my friends who listened to me blab on about things that they weren’t that interested in. A very special thank you to Andrew Valgardson for keeping a similarly strange schedule and always lending an ear. To Carrie Houston, for eventually deciding that I was fun weird and not scary weird. To Richard Kulesza, Jon Kuleza, and Mark Olson – together we went from strange children to strange adults. I’m glad that you all ended up good people, and I’m putting you all in my acknowledgements so when I need to beg you for some favour years down the line, you can’t say no. 4 Table of Contents Abstract 2 Acknowledgements 3 Table of Contents 5 A Note on Sources 6 Introduction 8 Chapter One – Overview of Events 10 Chapter Two – Classification 54 Chapter Three – Disgust 78 Chapter Four – Comparing Memorials 94 Conclusion 111 Bibliography 115 5 A Note on Sources As a result of Freedom of Information act requests, a substantial body of data is available on Jonestown from the US Government. The divide happens in two different files, the RYMUR files, named for the murder of congressman Leo Ryan – RYan MURder – and the Peoples Temple Mass Suicide files. The RYMUR files are a much smaller body of work, focusing specifically on the murder of Leo Ryan and the other victims who were shot attempting to leave Guyana, is available in PDF format. When referenced, the format will be RYMUR (Page). The general Jonestown files have a much more complicated numbering system, coming from a variety of different agencies, and in response to different FOIA requests filed at different times. At this point, the Jonestown FBI archives are available as a series of 287 PDF files, ranging from ten to several hundred pages each. When referenced, the format will be Jonestown (File) (Page). The varying agencies and timelines means that these files are redacted in different capacities, with information that was released earlier being much more heavily redacted. Readability of different sections varies from totally clear to entirely incomprehensible. At this point, originals have been destroyed, and we are resigned to dealing with ‘best available’ even when this information is indecipherable. Any references to these files is my own reading of the information contained on these pages. A substantial number of audio tapes recovered from the Jonestown site are available and are labeled Q001 through Q1059. Their numbers are largely irrelevant, and do not reflect chronological order, location where they were found, or any other information that might help a researcher. Audio cassettes are available for order through the FBI, but MP3s of nearly all tapes are available through the Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple project hosted by San Diego State University. In addition, their website also works with Jonestown scholars and survivors to provide more accurate dating and identification of speakers than is available based on FBI accounts. 6 The FBI RYMUR files are available at https://vault.fbi.gov/Jonestown, and the FBI general Jonestown files are available at https://vault.fbi.gov/jonestown. The URLs are case sensitive, with the upper case J going to the RYMUR files, the lower case going to the general Jonestown files. The index of tapes is available sorted by topic at http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=28703 or roughly chronologically at http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=29043 7 Introduction While religious studies scholars have done a great deal of work on the Peoples Temple and the Jonestown mass suicides, most don’t look at events that happen after the suicides on November 18, 1978. Most don’t even acknowledge Michael Prokes who committed suicide in solidarity with the Peoples Temple in March 1979. Chidester’s 1988 article “Rituals of Exclusion and the Jonestown Dead” focuses on the issues of the handling of the bodies directly. Jonathan Z. Smith’s “The Devil in Mr. Jones” from 1982 makes some reference to the handling of the bodies, but mostly focuses on the reaction in the academic world of religious studies. A 1990 article “The nature of a Traumatic Stressor: Handling Dead Bodies” obliquely references the Jonestown bodies, but is an article about the psychological effects of handling the dead, including information from some individuals who worked clearing the Jonestown site. Beyond this, there aren’t any published works I have been able to find dealing with the handling of the Jonestown dead. All of these were written before the availability of a substantial quantity of the FBI information was available, and before the building of the Jonestown memorial monument in 2011. The material used in this project comes from media sources and government archives which have been mostly overlooked in academic work. Focusing on these sources allows for a better understanding of how the public at large as well as government officials would have felt about the problem of the Jonestown dead. This project endeavors to give some explanation for how and why the Jonestown dead were excluded.