Official San Francisco and Jim Jones: The Untold Story

Photo copyright: Michael Abrahamson, 1979

Author Kenneth Wooden’s “The Children of Jonestown”* views the coffins of the children brought back to the Bay Area from Guyana

Excerpt of the previously classified document listing the family members who had formally petitioned the United States government to intervene in the Jonestown situation

Among those murdered in Jonestown were 287 children. 240 of them were under the age of 16. Because US military personnel sent to Guyana removed IDs and personal papers from the dead – under direct orders from the Carter White House – approximately 210 were unable to be identified.

New Jersey state officials protested the handling of the dead, specifically the fact that state coroners were excluded from the examinations and that many of the bodies were cremated, an act they deemed “illegal.” Source: New York Times 12/3/78, 12/21/78 and 1/10/79

Jones’ supporters in San Francisco


* This experience led Mr. Wooden to create an educational program, Child Lures, to teach children to recognize and protect themselves from abusers. Wooden personally recommended the statewide implementation of a similar program for California schoolchildren to Governor Jerry Brown and Assemblyman Willie Brown. Neither showed any interest in the idea.