T77:: NEW YORK TIMES, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1978 Sect Lawyer Explains Role T., 'Custody Fight Over Boy By WALLACE TURNER Speciat to The New York Times People's Temple Becomes a Client .; SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 26 — For The Boy Is Dead Charles Garry, the mystery of his late A few weeks later a group came to Mr. Garry's office with a check for $10,000 Within a week or so, Mr. Garry said, client, the Rev. Jim Jones, is no mystery the pastor told him in Jonestown, "We at all. He sees the People's Temple and a request that he take over the group's legal problems. He accepted. are so solid that if something happens to !vender as a clever dictator whose mind one of us, it is happening to all of us. This gave way to paranoia when he felt he was One of the first strange stories told to him was about John Victor Stoen because child cannot go back because it would be on the verge of exposure. mined." Mr. Garry lamented the loss of the so much of the Temple's trouble seemed to involve custody of this small boy. Sitting in his office, Mr. Garry snorted: - agrarian socialist village, Jonestown, "Where's the kid now?" His body was Guyana, and not the death of its founder. The boy's mother, Grace, had been a member of the Temple but had quit. Her found next to Mr. Jones's in the tangled The lawyer is a fixture in one branch of-J, pile of corpseeat Jonestown. the liberal left in San Francisco and is husband, Timothy, a deputy district at- torney here, had for a time been Mr. Pressed to explain how the nature of widely respected. He describes his politi-1 Jonestown had escaped him, Mr. Garry cal beliefs as "socialist but I insist on the-. Jones's.main legal adviser and the sec- ond most important figure in the Temple. said that until his visit there on Nov. 17 HUI of Rights and individual guarantees and 18 at the time of the tragedies, he had and I can't steed dictators." Timothy Stoen took John Victor Stoen to Jonestown in August 1976, stayed for a seen only two aspects of Mr. Jones that "Why did he do it when he had a winner were inconsistent with his public image. the way?" he asked in an interview in while, then returned to San Francisco. By the time Mr. Garry was hired, Timothy "I think I knew some of this kookie his office, which would overlook Civic stuff about his sex life," Mr. Garry said. Center Plaza had not the Federal Bureau Stoen had dropped out of the Temple. The Stoens separated but worked together to "He told me when I was there in October of Investigation suggested that he keep a year ago about how he had it with 14 tee drapes drawn for the next few weeks. try to get back the child. Mr. Jones fought them. women and two men in one day. This tied Perhaps because of his year as a trial them closer to him, he said. He told it in lawyer, Mr. Garry's judgment is that Many months ago, Mr. Garry an- front of a bunch of people at Jonestown. Jim Jones fell apart over his determina- nounced here that Mr. Jones was the "The other thing I knew about him that tion to keep custody of a handsome six- boy's father. The People's Temple was screwy was that his faith healing was , year-old boy, John Victor Stoen. produced a notarized statement in which phony," Mr. Garry said. "But that didn't ll The Story of the Boy Timothy Stoen said Mr. Jones had fa- bother me because I think all that faith I "I'm convinced this guy was stark rav- thered the child at his request, and that healing stuff is phony." ing mad," said the lawyer, whose clients Mrs. Stoen had agreed. The reason, ac- cording to the statement, was that Mr. Another Lawyer Appears have included the Black Panther leaders, Mr. Garry still rhapsodizes about the' -luny Newton, Bobby Seale and Eldridge Stoen wanted to rear a child fathered by his pastor. beauties of the settlement. He said the so- Cleaver. "I think it started with this kid. cialist in him was thrilled at people work- Edward gave up the throne for a woman. The Stoens replied that the document ing together and sharing. There was the This guy gave up a successful operation was false. They said it was one of a series jungle. Crops. Quiet nights.-Happiness. It and the lives of eight or nine hundred peo- of false, damaging statements that Mr. looked that way to him. ple for one kid." • • Jones required his intimate associates to He was determined, he said, to reveal i "Then destroys the kid," said Mr. make so ha could blackmail them if they these positive aspects to the public. Mr. Garry, his voice rising. "Kills the kid," tried.to leave. Jones finally agreed in August that a , and his chin sinks on his chest as he leans In the autumn of 1977, a Guyanese writer could come to Jonestown. • He hack in a swivel chair. • court honored an American court's cus- picked Donald Freed of Los Angeles from Mr. Garry and Mr. Jones met about, tody order favoring Mrs. Stoen, a list provided by Mr. Garry. five years ago and their relationship and issued a writ ordering Mr. Jones to Mr. Freed has said that Mr. Jones =Taw in a pattern familiar to those who learned of Mr. Freed's association with , cave studied Mr. Jones's methods. At the produce the child. "He freaked out," Mr. Garry said of Mark Lane's Citizens' Committee of In- time, Mr. Garry was one of the defense quiry and offered to help pay part of the- lawyers at the San Quentin Six murder Mr. Jones. The lawyer said he was in De- trial. The defendants were convicts troit when he was called and told that 300 costs of the James Earl Ray appeal if Mr. charged with murdering guards the day or so people were clustered around the Lane would try to stop what the cult George Jackson, the black revolutionary, shortwave radio in Jonestown and were leader called the United States Govern- ready to commit suicide if authorities ment's harassment of Jonestown. Mr. tried to escape and was himself killed. came to get the boy. The People's Temple of Jim Jones in- Lane has said he was retained to press a vited Mr. Garry to speak about defense "I talked to Jones on a radio patch and Freedom of Information Act suit for problems in the trial. "You know, the guy he said 'the people have made that deci- records about the People's Temple and hao all the attributes of being a good sion here,' " Mr. Garry said. He said, went to Jonestown in September. guy," Mr. Garry said remembering a "Over one child he was going to destroy a When Mr. Garry found out about Mr. warm reception. whole movement." Mr. Garry said, "I had Huey Newton ' Lane's connection with the People's Tem- In July 1977, New West magazine and Angela Davis and some others call ple, he started to extricate himself from printed an article attacking Mr. Jones him that I knew would impress him, and the Temple's affairs. However, he says,' and his church. The pastor left town, re- he had just begun when, on Nov. 15, here-' signing as chairman of the San Francisco got him to stall." ceived a message from Guyana that Mr.. Housing Authority, a post Mayor George With the help of Mrs. Marceline Jones, wife of the pastor, Guyanese officials Jones wanted him to come help deal with Moscone had given him, and went tcr . the visit of Representative Leo J. Ryan: I were reached and they recalled the writ. ‘. Jonestown. and concerned relatives and reporters. • The Afternoon of the Attack He flew to Dulles Airport outside Wash-' ington and "as I went through the elec-i Ironic gate. at Dulles to board the flight to Georgetown, there was Mark Lane. I nearly turned around and went home." They f:ew in the same plane but stayed apart and were polite but cool throughout the visit until the afternoon of Nov. 18 when Mr. Ryan- and the others left Jones- town for the Port Kaituma airstrip where they were attacked and some killed. Unaware of that attack,.. the two law- yers strolled through Jonestown, assess- ing the effect of the Ryan visit and agree- ing that it was beneficial. Then Jim Jones joined them as a meet- itlg of all residents was being convened. "Ile said to me 'Larry Layton,. Jerry. Parks and Joe Wilson are gone and I'm satisfied they've taken all the guns with them,' " Mr. Garry related. "I said, 'Jim, I didn't know you had any guns.' " "He said, 'Whatever guns there are, one or two, they have taken them all with them and I'm sure they're using them for: a purpose.' " • Mr. Garry said there was an exchange among himself, Mr. Lane and Mr. Jones- out of which he came to believe that Mr. Jones's plan was for Larry Layton to pose as a defector and murder the plane's pilot is flight. but Mr. Layton got on the wrong plane and began to shoot a true defector, United Pr= totems [taint • At Port Kaltuma, Guyanese children sat on coffin made by their uncle for a relative_ .