Jim Jones

=== Mounting pressure and waning political support ===
{{Further|Timothy Stoen}}
[[File:JIMJONES1977.jpg|thumb|300px|Rev. [[Cecil Williams (pastor)|Cecil Williams]] and Jones protest evictions at the [[International Hotel (San Francisco)|International Hotel]] in San Francisco, January 1977.|alt=Cecil White and Jim Jones, both wearing trench coats, stand together in front of a doorway.]]

Among the followers Jones took to Guyana was John Victor Stoen. John's birth certificate listed [[Timothy Stoen]] and Grace Stoen as his parents. Jones had a sexual relationship with Grace Stoen, and claimed he was the biological father of John.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|pp=130–131}} Grace Stoen left Peoples Temple in 1976, leaving her child behind.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=445}} Jones ordered the child to be taken to Guyana in February 1977 to avoid a [[Child custody|custody dispute]] with Grace.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=377}} After Timothy Stoen also left Peoples Temple in June 1977, Jones kept the child at his own home in Jonestown.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=324}}{{sfn|Chidester|2004|p=7}}

In January 1977, Jones travelled to Cuba with Carlton Goodlett in order to establish an import-export trading relation with Cuba for a San Francisco Bay Area company that he had founded. While visiting Goodlett's business contacts and touring schools and other facilities, Jones was annoyed that President Fidel Castro had not consented to see him, and remarked that Castro had to be living better than the people. While in Cuba, Jones visited the residence of Huey Newton in Havana for an hour, and they talked about Newton's family members who had attended the Peoples Temple. They also discussed his desire to return to the United States. Jones commented that Newton only "missed his luxurious apartment and his favorite bars in Oakland".{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=284}}

In the autumn of 1977, Timothy Stoen and other Temple defectors formed a "Concerned Relatives" group because they had family members in Jonestown who were not being permitted to return to the United States.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=408}} Stoen traveled to [[Washington, D.C.]], in January 1978 to visit with [[United States Department of State|State Department]] officials and members of [[United States Congress|Congress]], and wrote a [[white paper]] detailing his grievances against Jones and the Temple and to attempt to recover his son.{{sfn|Hall|1987|p=227}} His efforts aroused the curiosity of California Congressman [[Leo Ryan]], who wrote a letter on Stoen's behalf to [[List of prime ministers of Guyana|Guyanese Prime Minister]] [[Forbes Burnham]].{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=458}} The Concerned Relatives began a legal battle with the Temple over the custody of Stoen's son.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=}}{{sfn|Chidester|2004|p=8}}

Most of Jones's political allies broke ties after his departure,<ref>{{cite news|author=Liebert, Larry|date=November 20, 1978|title=What Politicians Say Now About Jones|publisher=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]}}</ref> though some did not. Willie Brown spoke out against the Temple's purported enemies at a rally that was attended by Harvey Milk and Assemblyman [[Art Agnos]].{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=327}} Mayor Moscone's office issued a press release saying Jones had broken no laws.{{sfn|Moore|1985|p=143}} On April 11, 1978, the Concerned Relatives distributed a packet of documents, letters, and [[affidavit]]s to the Peoples Temple, members of the press, and members of Congress which they titled an "Accusation of Human Rights Violations by Rev. James Warren Jones".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13080|title=Accusation of Human Rights Violations by Rev. James Warren Jones|website=Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple|publisher= San Diego State University|date= April 11, 1978}}</ref>

In June 1978, Deborah Layton, a Peoples Temple member who escaped Jonestown six months before the massacre, provided the group with a further affidavit detailing crimes by the Temple and substandard living conditions in Jonestown.<ref name="laytonaff" /> Layton's affidavit stated that Jonestown residents were being deliberately undernourished:<ref name="laytonaff" /> "There was rice for breakfast, rice water soup for lunch, and rice and beans for dinner. On Sunday, we each received an egg and a cookie. Two or three times a week we had vegetables. Some very weak and elderly members received one egg per day." Jonestown stood on poor soil, so it was not self-sufficient and had to import large quantities of commodities such as wheat. However, Layton noted that Jones did not rely on the same diet as his followers. Instead, he consumed more substantial meals that frequently contained meat while "claiming problems with his blood sugar". He also permitted a few chosen members of his inner circle to eat from his personal supplies, and they appeared to be in much better health than the other residents.

Jones was facing increasing scrutiny in the summer of 1978 when he hired [[John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories|JFK assassination conspiracy theorists]] [[Mark Lane (author)|Mark Lane]] and [[Donald Freed]] to help make the case of a "grand conspiracy" against the Temple by [[United States Intelligence Community|U.S. intelligence agencies]]. Jones told Lane that he wanted to "pull an [[Eldridge Cleaver]]", referring to a [[fugitive]] member of the [[Black Panthers]] who was able to return to the U.S. after rebuilding his reputation.{{sfn|Reiterman|Jacobs|1982|p=440}}

Jones attempted to negotiate for his commune to resettle in the Soviet Union.{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=371-372}} In October 1978, Feodor Timofeyev, Soviet [[Consul (representative)|consul]] to Guyana, visited Jonestown for two days and gave a speech. Jim Jones stated beforehand, "For many years, we have let our sympathies be quite publicly known, that the United States government was not our mother, but that the Soviet Union was our spiritual motherland."<ref name="q3522">{{cite web|author=Jones, Jim.|url=http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=27428|title=Transcript of Recovered FBI tape Q 352|date=March 4, 2016|accessdate=March 4, 2016|publisher=San Diego State University}}</ref> Timofeyev declared Jonestown in "harmony of theory" with "Marx, Engels, Lenin" and the "practical implementation of... some fundamental features of this theory," and personally thanked Jim Jones.<ref name="q3522" />{{sfn|Guinn|2017|p=371-372}}