THE UNEDITED JONESTOWN MASSACRE TRANSCRIPTS
JIM JONES: How very much I’ve tried my best to give you a good life. But in spite of all of my trying a handful of our people, with their lies, have made our lives impossible. There’s no way to detach ourselves from what’s happened today.
WILFORD BRIMLEY: Yep, moved their asses to a jungle and locked you in boxes. Can’t say he didn’t try. Bunch of nutlogs. Anybody seen my English to Siamese dictionary?
**JIM JONES:**Anybody. Anyone. Anyone that has any dissenting opinion, please speak. Yes. (Inaudible.) You can have an opportunity, but if the children are left, we’re going to have them butchered.
CHRISTINE MILLER: Is it too late for Russia?
**
JONES: **Here’s why it’s too late for Russia. They killed. They started to kill. That’s why it makes it too late for Russia. Otherwise I’d say, yes, sir, you bet your life. But it’s too late. …
**MILLER: **Well, I say let’s make an airlift to Russia. That’s what I say. I don’t think nothing is impossible if you believe it.
JONES: How are we going to do that? How are you going to airlift to Russia?
BRIMLEY: Hell, that Russian airplane food would kill ya more painfully than this Flavor Aid. Hell, I remember one time I was flying in to Novgorod and
**
MILLER: **Shut up Mr. Wilford! Well, I thought they said if we got in an emergency, they gave you a code to let them know.
**JONES: **Christine; it’s not–it’s just not worth living like this. Not worth living like this. (Applause.)
**MILLER: **I think that there were too few who left for twelve hundred people to give them their lives for those people that left.
JONES: Do you know how many left?
MILLER: Oh, twenty-odd. That’s a small …
JONES: Twenty-odd, twenty-odd.
**BRIMLEY: **Odd… you sure hell got that part right. Oddest damned folks I ever seen. Hurry up with that Kool Aid I’m sweatin’!
JONES: … That plane’ll come out of the air. There’s no way you can fly a plane without a pilot.
BRIMLEY: Well, maybe 'member you can always use that seat for a flotation device. Now I remember I was with Howard Hughes flying over the Utah desert…
**MILLER: **I wasn’t speaking about that plane. I was speaking about a plane for us to go to Russia.
BRIMLEY:…told him 'I thought ‘YOU’ had your June '65 urine jars…
**JONES: **How … to Russia ? Russia’s not gonna want us with all this stigma? We had some value, but now we don’t have any value.
BRIMLEY: and we sure as hell don’t have room for Ava Gardner and her damn poodle…
MILLER: Well, I don’t see it like that. I mean, I feel like that–as long as there’s life, there’s hope. That’s my faith.
BRIMLEY:…and never found out they was all filled with Tang!
**JONES: **I have twelve hundred people’s lives in my hands…
BRIMLEY: (singing) He’s got 1200 people’s lives, in his hands, he’s got 1200 people’s lives, in his hand, he’s got 1200 people’s lives in his hands. Everybody! If one of them people should drink poisoned Kool Aid and die in this land, he’d have eleven hundred and ninety nine people’s lives in his hands. Something’s wrong with this damned song… and it’s stuck in my head now anyway!
JONES: and I certainly don’t want your life in my hands. I’m going to tell you, Christine, without me, life has no meaning. (Applause.) I’m the best thing you’ll ever have.
**MILLER: **When you–when you–when we destroy ourselves, we’re defeated. We let them, the enemies, defeat us.
JONES: Did you see–did you see, “I will fight no more forever?” http://imdb.com/title/tt0073138/
MILLER: Yes, I saw that.
BRIMLEY: So did I, but you wanna see a good Injun movie, check out that LITTLE BIG MAN. That was one hell of a picture…
JONES: Did you not have some sense of pride and victory in that man?
BRIMLEY: I loved me that Chief Dan George, and he was funny as hell in Harry and Tonto up there with old Ed Norton from the Gleason show.
MILLER: Well I think where they made their mistake is when they stopped to rest. If they had gone on they would’ve made it. But they stopped to rest.
BRIMLEY: My mama used to say, why didn’t the dog catch the monkey? Cause he had to stop and shit! Heh heh… speakin’ of, you fixin’ to use that cyanide bucket for anything? Good, I’m gonna take it over here into these whatever the hell they are vines. I hope that Kool-Aid’s ready when I come back.
[LONG BRIMLEY FREE SECTION]
BRIMLEY: I’m back. That wadn’t a loaf I dropped, that was a damned wheat field, heh heh… Kool-Aid ready?
JONES: All of you, Lay down your burden. I’m gonna lay down my burden. Down by the riverside.
BRIMLEY: (singing)"…down by the riverside, down by the riverside, gonna lay down my…’ Rev, you’re getting these songs stuck in my head on purpose!
JONES: … But when they start parachuting out of the air, they’ll shoot some of our innocent babies. I’m not lying–I don’t wanna (inaudible). But … I’m not letting them take your child. Can you let them take your child?
BRIMLEY: Alright, what’d I miss?
VOICES: No, no, no, no.
JONES: I want to see (voices shouting) … please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please…
BRIMLEY: (singing) Please please me, whoa yeah, like I please you. Goddamn it Rev, stop that! Gettin’ these things stuck in my head. Ever tell you 'bout the time I opened for the Beatles?
JONES:Who walked out of here today? …there’s no point to this. We are born before our time…
BRIMLEY: Just like that Enik, that turtle-looking fellow, whatever he was, on that show with the talking monkeys and the dinosaurs and that girl reminds me of a little Ellie Mae…
]ONES: Say. Say. Say peace. Say Peace. Say Peace. Say Peace…
BRIMLEY: Say, say, say, what you like but don’t play games with my affection… Oh alright, you are so doin’ this on purpose!
WOMAN 7: Some of the others who endure long enough in a safe place could write about the goodness of Jim Jones.
JONES: I don’t know how in the world they’re ever going to write about us. It’s just too late. It’s too late. The congressman’s dead. The congressman lays dead. Many of our traitors are dead. They’re all layin’ out there dead. (Inaudible.)
JONES: I didn’t, but my people did. My people did. They’re my people, and they’ve been provoked too much. They’ve been provoked too much. What’s happened here’s been since Tuesday’s been an act of provocation.
WOMAN 9: Thank you for everything. You are the only. You are the only. And I appreciate you. (Applause.)
JONES: Please, can we hasten? Can we hasten with that medication? You don’t know what you’ve done. I tried. (Applause, music, singing.) They saw it happen and ran into the bush and dropped the machine guns. I never in my life. 22 But not any more. But we’ve got to move. Are you gonna get that medication here? You’ve got to move. Marceline,23 about forty minutes.
]ONES: (Inaudible.) It’s the only way to step. That choice is not ours now. It’s out of our hands. (Children crying in the background.)
[large Brimley Free Section]
JONES: Death is–I tell you, I don’t care how many screams you hear. I don’t care how many anguished cries. Death is a million times preferable to ten more days of this life.
BRIMLEY: Well, if the heat breaks it’ll be okay. And they’re having Bingo and a movie night over in the mission in the town tonight.
JONES: If you knew what was ahead of you–if you knew what was ahead of you, you’d be glad to be stepping over tonight.
BRIMLEY: Well I’m probably one up on y’all since I can remember the future as well as the past, but for me it ain’t that bad. Couple of TV shows, some big roles in big movies, endorsement deal. Y’all are gonna miss New Coke but don’t worry about that. I’d rather have this here Alpaca Piss Flavor Aid with the Cy’nide in it. .
JONES: No, no sorrow–that it’s all over. I’m glad it’s over. Hurry, hurry my children. Hurry. All I think (inaudible) from the hands of the enemy. Hurry, my children. Hurry. There are seniors out here that I’m concerned about. Hurry. I don’t want to leave my seniors to this mess. Only quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly… Good knowing you. --------
JONES: Remember the Oliver woman said she–she’d come over and kill me if her son wouldn’t stop her? These, these are the people–the peddlers of hate.
BRIMLEY: That reminds me, stop me if you heard this one… there’s this travellin’ peddler going through Iowa, stops at this farmhouse, man has eight daughters…[Inaudible] …says ‘don’t stop til it gets two gallons!’
JONES: (Clapping-- not applause.) Stop this, stop this, stop this. Stop this crying, all of you.
BRIMLEY: Can’t blame 'em for laughing til they cry! It was a good joke! ‘Don’t stop til it gets two gallons!’
JONES: All they do is taking a drink. They take it to go to sleep. That’s what death is, sleep.
BRIMLEY: Yeah, but the next day you got worse morning breath than usual. Heh heh heh! Y’all hear what I just said?
JONES: Where’s the vat, the vat, the vat? Where’s the vat with the Green C on it? The vat with the Green C in. Bring it so the adults can begin.
BRIMLEY: Don’t look at me, I thought you had it! Shit Jim, this here’s a tiny compound in a jungle, how many places can you put it a vat with a big Green C. There it is!
WOMAN 16: Go on unto the sing, and thank you Dad.
BRIMLEY: Hell, that didn’t even make good nonsense, Woman 16. Hurry up with that Kool-Aid, I’m thirsty. I sure hope it’s Mountain Berry.
JONES: (Inaudible .) … They set an example for others. We said --one thousand people who said, we don’t like the way the world is.
VOICE: Take some.
BRIMLEY: Don’t mind if I do…
JONES: Take our life from us. We laid it down. We got tired.
BRIMLEY: (spewing sounds) What is this stuff? Alpaca piss? This stuff ain’t Kool-Aid it’s Flavor-Aid! Dammit Daddy Jimbo, I know for a fact you’ve got about $9 million just buried under your bed in garbage bags, you couldn’t spring the extra six cents for Kool-Aid!?
JONES: Take our life from us. We laid it down. We got tired. We didn’t commit suicide, we committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhumane world.
WB: Well, suicide, revolutionary suicide, potato potahto really. [singing] You say potayta and I say potahta/you say tomayter and I say tomahta…
JONES: The members of the Peoples Temple were not the only ones with this ambiguous nature. The Concerned Relatives who sought to destroy the organization used some of the very methods of propaganda that they criticized the Peoples Temple for…
BRIMLEY: Hell. Now I got that damned song stuck in my head.
JONES: They were worried and at a loss as to why their family members would join such a group. They were willing to step beyond the law if necessary to rescue their loved ones who must have been brainwashed. It seems possible that the love the Concerned Relatives had for their families may have clouded their judgment and would not allow for the possibility
BRIMLEY: I gotta say, even though it’s Flavor-Aid and filled with cyanide, put a little pack of Sweet’n’Low in it and it’s still better than Crystal Lite. Not so bad if you get used to it- barkeep, a refill. This time don’t be so stingy with the cyanide.
JONES: No. You’re not going. You’re not going. You’re not going. I can’t live that way. I cannot live that way. I’ve lived with–for all. I’ll die for all. (Applause.)
BRIMLEY: Gives it a sort of almondy flavor. Ain’t it funny how cyanide just don’t work on some folks? Me and my buddy Greg Rasputin used to play this shooter game for money back when we was sophomores at Tunguska Community College, get these freshmen to come in and…[inaudible]
JONES: And the Eskimos, they take death in their stride.
BRIMLEY: Hell, if my woman used walrus fat for a douche I’d take death in stride too! I remember this Eskimo gal Regis Philbin and me was doin’ one time… [inaudible]
JONES: Adults, adults, adults. I call on you to stop this nonsense…
BRIMLEY: That’s exactly what she said! We just gave her the six dollars and left!
[ANOTHER LONG SECTION WITH JUST JONES AND VARIOUS FOLLOWERS, THEN…]
BRIMLEY: Damn, some folks can’t hold their cy’nide can they? Gimme some more Kool Aid- sorry, Flavor Aid there shug. That reminds me, y’all ever look at that TV show GOOD TIMES where JJ says he likes Kool Aid & Grits casserole! That tickled me. Like when he said Dynamite.
JONES: I, with respect, die with a degree of dignity.
BRIMLEY: Oh damn is he still blatherin’ on…
JONES: Lay down your life with dignity. Don’t lay down with tears and agony. There’s nothing to death. It’s like Mac said, it’s just stepping over to another plane. Don’t be this way.
BRIMLEY: Wonder how that would taste. Hey, anybody got any grits? Should be in the big vat with a big green G. That’s a G. Like in grits.
[UNKNOWN VOICE with Southern accent]I hear somebody say something about a Kool-Aid grits casserole? Man, I ain’t had one of them since I left Memphis…
JONES: Get Dwyer out of here before something happens to him.
BRIMLEY: Goddamn it Elvis! I mean, Dwyer! Get your hillbilly ass back in that hut or you’re fixing to be as dead as you want folks to think you are!