'The Family - The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power' by Jeff Sharlet

[Jan Klimkowski]

From Was Jonestown a CIA medical experiment? by Michael Meiers.

XII ONE COOKIE

The first outsiders to reach the Jonestown Medical Clinic in
the aftermath of the carnage found enough drugs to supply an
average U.S. city for over a year. Predominant in the stock
of narcotics were the hypnotic drugs Pentothal and Nembutal
as well as over ten thousand injectible dosages of a
chloral-hydrate compound known as chlorpromazine or
Thorazine. Thorazine increases the production of certain
histamines in important parts of the brain. It is used
primarily to alter the violent behavior of mental patients
and, according the one article published by the Black
Panthers, Thorazine and its related compounds are common
ingredients in the CIA's MK ULTRA experiments. The article
buttressed its argument by quoting Jones who reportedly told
a visiting Swiss psychologist that his Black followers were
given Thorazine on a regular basis as per orders of the CIA.
Although these drugs are used to alter a person's behavior,
it is highly unlikely that they were the test drugs used in
the Jonestown experiment as Jones would never have allowed
such incriminating evidence to be




Orignal page 408 Jonetown



discovered in the aftermath. The two unidentified drugs used
in the experiment were far more advanced than those found in
the rubble of Jonestown but, due to the top secret nature of
the experiment, the precise chemical formulas will never be
disclosed.

In order to accurately compare the effects of mind control
or behavior modification drugs on a group of test persons
all other stimuli must first be removed. The jungle
community provided the isolation necessary for Jones to
substitute himself for all outside influences of society.
Jonestown residents were forbidden to consume alcohol,
tobacco and even sugar; necessary but ironic as Guyana ranks
among the world's sugar-producing nations. The diet of
Jones-town, though prepared by the kitchen staff, was under
the direct and stringent control of the medical staff. Once
all outside influences had been removed and "ground zero"
reached, the medical staff proceeded to drug the different
test groups without their knowledge. Since the intent was
long-term control, the drugs were administered in small
repeated doses rather than one large dose. The most
successful drug tested could then be deployed in society by
introducing it into fast foods or the water supply or the
glue on the back of postage stamps.

A few visitors to Jonestown noted that the residents were
drugged. One such observer was Frank Tumminia, the State
Department's desk officer for Guyana, who visited Jonestown
on February 2, 1978, with John Blacken, the Deputy Chief of
Missions at the United States Embassy in Georgetown.
Tumminia stated:

One of the things that struck me at the time and
upon which I



Orignal page 409 Jonetown



remarked to Embassy staff as well as to
Department officials, was my feeling that many
of the people with whom I met and spoke appeared
drugged and robot-like in their reactions to
questions and, generally, in their behavior
towards us visitors.[165]

Tumminia and Blacken held positions in the State Department
that were very important to this story. Tumminia's
predecessor was President Kennedy, who was so concerned
about a possible communist take-over in Guyana in the early
1960's that he personally manned the Guyana desk at the
State Department to direct the efforts of the CIA operatives
there. Among the operatives was one Jim Jones. Blacken's
successor was CIA operative Dick Dwyer, who would be present
at the airstrip to witness the assassination of Congressman
Leo Ryan.

Though it will never be known which mind control drugs were
administered to the test persons, it is known _h_o_w the drugs
were administered. In the post-Jonestown murder trial of
Larry Layton, the defense attempted to establish that Layton
had been drugged into participating in the assault team that
killed congressman Leo Ryan and others at the airstrip.
According to his defense lawyer, "Layton looked spaced out
and was mumbling of a CIA conspiracy during the fatal
airstrip shootout.[166] Prosecution witness Dale Parks, a
member of the Jonestown medical staff who allegedly defected
with the Ryan party and wrestled the gun from Layton at the
airstrip, was pressed under cross-examination to admit to
drugging Layton and


____________________

[165Y]ee and Layton, P. 213.

[166"]Some Emotional Arguments in Layton's Murder Plot Trial,"
_S_a_n _F_r_a_n_c_i_s_c_o _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e_, August 19, 1981.



Orignal page 410 Jonetown



others. According to a newspaper account of the court
proceedings:

Parks agreed that large quantities of Thorazine
and other drugs used in mental hospitals were
available at Jonestown, but he denied knowing
that milk shakes "spiked" with so-called mind-
control drugs were given to Jonestown cultists
on a regular basis.[167]

If milk shakes were used in administering the drugs , the
practice was abandoned early in the experiment as this
method would have been terribly inefficient. The
experimenter would not have been able to determine if the
test person had consumed the entire drink (hence the
premeasured dosage) or, worse yet, had given some of their
drink to others unobserved. Also, the milkshake containers
might survive and under chemical analysis expose the true
nature of the experiment.

Larry Layton's sister, Deborah Layton Blakey, hinted at the
truth in her post-defection affidavit that warned of the
threat of mass suicide in Jonestown , "On Sunday we each
received a cookie. "[168] She later elaborated on her
statement in an account published in the Layton family's
history in which was written:

But the culinary high point came every week on
Sunday evening, when the entire population would
line up to receive a cookie from the hand of Jim
Jones. The


____________________

[167"]Layton Trial Told of Jones' Brutal Control," _S_a_n
_F_r_a_n_c_i_s_c_o _C_h_r_o_n_i_c_l_e_, August 29, 1981. 168Yee and Layton,
P. 333.

[168Y]ee and Layton, p 333.



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cookies, made from cassava flour , were the only
sweets allowed in Jonestown, and they were doled
out by Jones himself.[169]

The cookies were made in Jonestown's "Experimental and
Herbal Kitchen" that a 1977 Temple brochure described as:
"The all-purpose kitchen where meals and treats are provided
for workers and residents."[170]

The test drugs were added to the cassava flour in the
Jonestown flour mill. It was quite simple to keep the
batches of flour, hence cookies, separated through the
baking and distribution process. Extreme precautions were
required in handling the potent drugs and the "Experimental
Kitchen" soon adopted the stringent procedures of a research
laboratory, as indicated by this published Temple report:

The dishes are cold water rinsed, washed and
stacked, then washed in a soapy detergent with
bleach and boiling water and put away...all
surfaces are continually scrubbed and sanitized
from ceiling to floor to provide the most
healthful environment.[171]

On Sunday evening, as each of the test persons approached
the throne, Jones would select a cookie from one of the
three containers at his side. He was intelligent enough to
have memorized which test persons were in which group but,
more than likely, the person's group was designated by his
or her Temple membership



____________________

[169I]bid., P. 199.

[170N]aiPaul, P. 133.

[171I]bid. P. 134.




Orignal page 412 Jonetown



number or perhaps just in the predetermined perhaps order in
which they lined up every Sunday evening to receive their
one cookie.

One and only one cookie was the rule._ _ _N_o_ _o_n_e_, not even a
preferred aide who otherwise enjoyed special privileges, was
allowed more than one cookie. On one occasion, a young
Black girl who was baking the cookies, in the kitchen,
unaware that the flour had been spiked with drugs, handed
one out an open window to her boyfriend. Temple guards, who
monitored every step of the cookie production, reported the
infraction to Jones. At the next community-wide meeting, the
young girl and boy were called to the stage, ordered to
disrobe and forced to have sex in full view of the entire
congregation. Such was the humiliating punishment for
violating the one cookie rule and understandably so, as such
an infraction would alter the controlled dosage and taint
the test results.

There were only two other mandatory weekly rituals in
Jonestown and both were related to the one cookie. The first
was a weekly TPR examination in which the medical staff
examined each of the test persons and recorded their
temperature, blood pressure, respiratory system, weight and
other health monitors in the Test Person's medical records.
This was necessary to determine if the mind control drugs
could be detected in standard medical examinations. Though
the average American might have a physical examination once
in five years, and the medical profession recommends (to
their profit) a yearly exam, the Jonestown residents
received a weekly examination. The second weekly ritual in
Jonestown was the White Night rehearsal in which Jones
ordered his congregation to




Orignal page 413 Jonetown



drink what they were told was poison and commit suicide for
the "cause."

Following the final White Night, the Jonestown guards
identified the dead and catalogued them in two separate
groups, those who voluntarily drank cyanide and those who
had to be forcibly injected. This took time to accomplish
which accounts for the long delay before outsiders were
allowed to enter the compound. As the cause of death was
noted on the medical records of each Test Person, the
corpses were dragged to one side and placed in neat, orderly
piles. This was a mistake, as death from cyanide poisoning
is preceded by such violent contortions that victims often
die with only the top of their head and the heels of their
feet touching the ground. The Jonestown residents could
never have died in the neat, orderly piles in which they
were found.

The medical records, the embodiment of racial weaponry, were
missing in the aftermath of Jonestown which was another
mistake. The existence of such extensive records had been
well documented and their absence in the aftermath confirms
that some unknown residents escaped and considered the
records worth taking; an interesting priority judgment
considering that several hundred thousand dollars in cash
was not taken. It would have been better to have kept two
separate sets of medical records and left one phony copy
behind but, considering the complexity of the project, Jones
is granted these few damning mistakes.

END 12

http://www.fonebone.net/Jonestown/12.Chap.txt