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GUYANA, From Al least, many Peoples Temple members Guyanese Panel seemed to take the poison voluntarily, mitted suicide of their free will. Graham said: "I was not there, so how Moore fired a shot into her own head will I ever know?" Rules All but 2 and Katsaris swallowed poison, evi- But Graham went on to explain the dence showed. jurors had reasoned that even if some The jury's finding that the rest of those who lived at the agricultural Were Vurdered were, in effect. victims of murder was commune drank the poison of grape s 2_I2 / not based, however, on unconfirmed drink, cyanide and tranquilizers, By Charles A. Krause news reports of the past week that "they were under the influence of Washington Poet Foreign. Service .many of those found dead at Jones- Jones at the time." IVIATTHEWS RIDGE, Guyana, Dec. town had apparently been killed by Since Jones Clearly ordered the 22 — A coroner's jury ruled here to poison injected into them by the deaths and armed guards were there day that all but two of the more than Jonestown medical staff after they re- to enforce his order, the jurors rea- 900' persons who died at Jonestown fused to drink the poison. soned, he was criminally responsible. Nov. 13 were murdered heeause they The only evidence introduced dur- were coerced into taking poison by ing the 10-day inquest that indicated cult leader Jim Jones and his hench- that anyone might have been injected To some extent, the debate over men. with the cyanide poison came from whether members of the Peoples Tem- The jury's rejection of the notion Dr. Mootoo, who is the Guyanese gov- ple committed suicide or were mur- that his followers committed mass sui- ernment's official pathologist. dered depends on how suicide and cide by drinking the poison voluntar- In a letter that was introduced to murder are defined. The hundreds of ily was based on its conclusion that augment his oral testimony, Mootoo children who died at Jonestown were "Jim Jones masterminded the situa- said "several" of the 39 bodies he had clearly murdered, whether or not ted," According to the jury's foreman, examined on the ground in Jonestown their mothers gave them their poison, Albert Graham. had needle marks on their arms. He because they did not have the mental "The man made people believe he drew no conclusions from this finding ability to choose to live or to die. was a god," Graham said of Jones, in his letter. According to Rhodes and Stanley "and naturally they moved to his com- . Other officials have said pri- Clayton, another survivor who wit- mand." vately that these victims could have nessed much of the killing before he others made no move to After some confusion, the jury,, chosen to be injected rather than escaped, drink the poison because it is difficult drink the poison and were escorted to composed of five laborers from this their deaths by the armed guards. mining outpost about 35 miles from to hold a person still enough for an injection if the person is resisting vio- Most did not actively protest, but nei- Jonestown in remote northwestern ther did they choose death willingly, Guyana, also ruled that Jones was lently. It is also possible that the needle Rhodes and Clayton said. murdered by "some person or persons But a large number of those who unknown." marks could have been made by injec- tions prior to the "white night," of died did so according to both of the The jury first announced that it had living witnesses without having to be decided that Jones had committed sui- death. Some Jonestown survivors forced in any way. Jones exhorted cide, apparently basing its conclusion have told of injections of tranquilizers them "to die with dignity," and they on testimony by Dr. Leslie Mootoo, a that were given to troublemakers and old people. approached the vat of poison without pathologist, that Jones was shot from further persuasion. very close range in the "suicide area" Today's ruling has the practical ef- The jurors concluded that this of the brain, above and slightly be- fect of clearing the way for authori- Jones, who convinced them that ene- hind his ear. ties in the United States to issue mies of the Peoples Temple were set But Magistrate Haroon Bacchus death certificates for the 914 bodies to destroy it—especiallY after Rep. airlifted by the U.S. military from Leo J. Ryan and four others were shouted at the jurors, asking them, Jonestown to Dover. "What evidence do you have to sup- port suicide?" The coroner's jury found that cyan- ide poisoning was responsible for the killed by gunmen sent from Jones- Bacchus told the jurors that Mootoo town. These Peoples Temple members had stated that the gun was found 20 deaths of all but three of those who died inside Jonestown. Besides the may well have believed they would be Yards away from Jones' body, and that tortured and killed as Jones had told was inconsistent with a finding of sui- gunshot deaths of Jones and Moore, another unidentified victim found in them, and so chose poison instead. cide. What the jurors did not know Others believe that this group of was that the first police officials who the Jonestown psychiatric ward in a pool of blood may have been killed by persons simply took the poison be- reached Jonestown after the mass kill- cause they believed in Jones and be- ings had told reporters that the gun a bullet rather than poison. A Guyanese police official testified lieved for political or religious rea- was found no more than five or ten sons that those who lived at Jones- feet from Jones' body on the podium today that neither he nor U.S. authori- ties are certain about how that mail town, would, after death, "meet in an- of Jonestown's central pavillion. other place," as they were told. Al- In any event, the jurors filed back died. The jury left the cause of his death open. though a certain mass hysteria occur- out, deliberated for 10 more minutes red at the time, it can be argued that and returned to announce that "some The jurors deliberated a total of 17 minutes before reaching their find- these people chose to die voluntarily, person or persons unknown is clearly in effect committing suicide. responsible for the death of James ings, which were clearly influenced by Warren Jones." Magistrate Bacchus. At times, he be- 12 Jonestown Survivors Magistrate Bacchus and the jurors rated the jurors and made strong sug- agreed that two of Jones' mistresses, gestions to them of what he thought happened during the final hours at Arrive in United Stales Anne Elizabeth Moore and Maria Kat- Jonestown. saris, were the only ones to have dom. NEW YORK (AP)—A dozen mem- Jury foreman Graham expressed bers of the Peoples Temple who left See GUYANA, Al2, Col. 4 displeasure both with Bacchus and his Jonestown weeks, ago with Rep. Leo J. own jury's findings after the inquest Ryan and survived an ambush that ended. Asked about testimony by killed Ryan' and four others have fi- Odell Rhodes, one of the Jonestown nally arrived in the United States. survivors, that at the beginning, at The 12 arrived here from Guyana Thursday night and were questioned briefly by Secret Service and FBI agents before clearing custom& Some Cult Ex-Members Suspicious of 'Defector' By Paul Grabowica fear she may still be wedded to Special to The Washington Post Jones's philosophy. SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 22—Recent A spokesman for the Berkeley-based efforts by Terri Buford, one of the Human Freedom Center (HFC), run Rev. Jim Jones' former top aides, to by several temple ex-members, ex- blame others for alleged illegal activi- pressed extreme skepticism about her ties by the Peoples Temple, may indi- defection from the temples. "Just the cate that she is still loyal to the dead way they (Buford and Lane) are at- temple leader and is carrying out his tacking Tim Stoen, it's like a final sa- orders to discredit defectors from the lute to Jim Jones." church, accoding to several temple "It was pretty well known by the ex-members. entire congregation that Tim Stoen The former church members claim was going to be slandered" by Jones' that Jones had instructed his top loyalists if the temple collapsed, the aides to destroy the repuations of any HFC spokesman added. "traitors" to the temple should any- The temple ex-members are particu- thing happen to him or his congrega- larly distrustful of Buford because tion. At the top of his list of enemies, she sought out Mark Lane when she according to the ex-members, was for- defected from the church in October. mer temple attorney Timothy Stoen, They point out that Lane at the time whom Buford is now blaming for most was one of the attorneys for the tem- of the church's questionable activities. ple and subsequently went back to Guyana and conferred with Jones. Buford appeared Wednesday before "The last place in the world she a federal grant jury in San Francisco would have gone," says Patrick Halli- investigation the Peoples Temple and nan, Stoen's attorney in San Fran- the murder of Rep. Leo J. Ryan (D- cisco, "was to Mark Lane. into the Calif.). At a 'news conference the next jaws of a possible trap." day Buford charged that Stoen was Meanwhile, the federal grand jury the central figure in many alleged impaneled in San Francisco is contin- church activities, including plans to uing its investigation into the temple's poison the water supply in Washing- affairs.

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