Harold Cordell interviewed with the FBI on December 29, 1978, and although there have been two interviews posted, they appear to have many deletions. Serial 1552-2 and Serial 1681-13, however, reveal what Cordell witnessed as an original Pentecostal member for “Pastor Jones” and traces the origins of the Peoples Temple to its end. In the JFK International Airport, the FBI and Secret Service met Cordell at Hangar 17, Pan American airlines. The interview Cordell conducted helped the FBI and Secret Service acquire knowledge of the authoritative operation that Jonestown was and identify the structure in which it operated. While also helping them understand the murder of Congressman Leo Ryan.
Serial 1552-2 begins by discussing how Harold Cordell first heard of Reverend Jones in 1955 in Indianapolis, Indiana, as he was graduating high school. His age is deleted and could not be found in other documents at this time. However, Harold’s fascination with the Reverend can be traced to his choice of religion and family influence. His aunt Edith Cordell had purchased monkeys from Jones in the ’50s and became a proud member of the Peoples Temple, in which her grandnephews Harold Cordell Jr. and Richard Cordell would become guards at the service at Los Angeles. The Cordells were known as the Pentecostal side of the family. Then in a later interview with Rick Cordell, Rick describes how Harold, a senior in high school during 1955, had been visiting the Church of Pastor Jim for a year and a half because of the family’s grounding in Pentecostal religions. According to his brother, Harold was enamored with the Church and what it stood for as opposed to his lack of religious association previously.
Shifting back to the interview document Serial 1552-2, Cordell remembers being involved with the Church as the Peoples Temple Full-Gospel and saw the Temple upholding Christianity by helping the poor and sick and enacting the actions of the apostles. Cordell was an active member in the Peoples Temple from the 1950s to the 1960s, and his position is deleted from the document, but it can be inferred that he was involved with the youth group. Cordell explains how in 1952, Jones had prophesied Nuclear war was coming and that he and Jack went to Brazil together, which according to Esquire Magazine, was a great place to be for Nuclear war. In 1963, when Jones and Beam returned, Jones moved the Church to Ukiah, which was seen as another safe place from nuclear war. Cordell was among the 50-60 members who went with Jones; he went with his wife and later his brother Richard.
Cordell’s wife was deleted in this document but named in the Band Member’s document, Loretta, in which the marriage in 1969 would see its troubles. Loretta was undergoing a sexual identity crisis, and in 1972 confided in a peer in which she said that Cordell could not help her womanly needs. Despite this, they remained married through 1977 and went to Guayana together. Loretta Cordell played a pivotal role in the Jonestown Express in Guayana. The Jonestown Express is an R/B soul band led by the vocalist Deanna Wilkinson. She was involved with Deanna Wilkinson, the principal vocalist for the Express.
The document, 1552-2, proceeds to explain how Richard Cordell would leave the Church in 1977 after being confused and discouraged by Jones’s vision. Previous to this, the interview notes how in Ukiah Jones had become more political. He blamed worldly issues on the rich and capitalism and provoked The Peoples Temple to move in a socialist direction. Jones did not tolerate opposing viewpoints and humiliated anyone who stood up to him.
By 1974 and 1975, Cordell was working two jobs, donating 25% of his salary to the Church, and unable to spend time with his wife and kids. In the Band Members article, it had claimed that Loretta and Harold were still married in 1977. However, in the FBI interview of Serial 1552-2, Cordell explains that he was being overworked, which created a strain on his relationship with his wife, which they divorced in 1975. In 1976 the Church moved to San Francisco out of animosity for the black population for the Temple and the racist attacks that followed.
Cordell, at this time, began his role on the Planning commission of the Church, in which the group planned decisions and policies for the Church. However, Jones could veto any decision made by this group as he was an authoritarian presence. Jones, at this time, became more physically abusive by requiring beatings and boxing matches between members. Jones would justify this violence by saying that society was full of rough conditioning and that people needed to be “rugged and capable of self-defense”(Reiterman 259).
Jones was openly against anyone trying to leave and took leaving as a grave sign of disobedience. Anyone who left the Church was rumored to be watched and tracked down by a specially trained group who Cordell believed consisted of Patty Cartmell (Mother of Mike), Carolyn Layton (Divorced wife of Larry), Jack Beam, and Paula Adams from Georgetown. Jones preached the move to Guayana as a necessary means to ensure that the group could live the socialist lifestyle they needed to avoid classism, sexism, and racism. However, Cordell was against this move. The members began moving in 1977 to Jonestown, and Cordell’s wife and children would be there in the fall.
To see his Children, Cordell would leave the United States and arrive in Jonestown in 1978 and was told his only exit was death. Harold would even account for watching a member get beaten up for trying to leave. Harold Cordell described Jonestown’s atmosphere as a “concentration camp,” where they would prevent aggressors and escape through violent means. An example of punishment was being placed in a 4×7 foot cubicle underground for several days, known as “the box,” to create a complete sensory loss.
Cordell notes the Security detail, in which he remarks that Jones was always surrounded by Security who had guns, and Jones himself always carried a .38 Special or .357 magnum. Jones, at this time, talked about dying and how the hopelessness of the world had forced Peoples Temple members to take their own lives. However, Cordell claimed that this type of activity was a suicide drill. Jones’s obsession with self-destruction and siege escalated as the emergence of White nights was created, in which armed guards were placed throughout the crowd while Jones’s explained what the problem was. In fact, during a “White Night” in the spring of 1978, Jones was now preaching destruction over self-defense, in which he stated, “We’re going to drink poison and kill ourselves”(Reiterman, 391).
When government officials came to Jonestown, Cordell comments on how these visitors were placed with a specially trained group of Peoples Temple members.
These members included: Mike Prokes, Tim Carter, Lee Ingram, Dick Tropp, Harriet Tropp, Carolyn Layton, Maria Katsaris, and Johnny Jones. Edith Roller, in her journal, recalls these people as people in charge during a White night on February 16, 1978. Previous to Congressman Leo Ryan arriving in Jonestown, Jim Jones began to rhetorically label him as a racist against the poor to slander him.
Members of the Peoples Temple were told to avoid Ryan, and if they saw him, they could only speak positively about Jonestown. Jones, in an agitated state, according to Cordell, even proclaimed, “Somebody ought to shoot Ryan.” However, when Ryan arrived, he was treated with hospitality and even slept in Jonestown with his lawyers.
Harold Cordell went through enough of the Nazi-like state that was Jonestown, and on November 18, 1978, he spoke with the Bogues, Parks, and Simmons families about escaping. Out of fear, many people did not want to leave abruptly. However, the Parks family had told Leo Ryan they wanted to get out of Jonestown. Richard and Ryan Dwyer told the Parks that they would leave with Leo Ryan and have protection. The ordeal sketched out Harold Cordell because he overheard Larry Layton planning to leave with them.
Leo Ryan waited until all those who wanted to leave arrived at his plane, but while he was waiting, Don Sly attacked him. Don Sly was a husky man from the Temple who went up to the Congressman and called him a “motherfucker” attempting to slice his throat with a homemade knife(Reiterman 520). Harold Cordell told the FBI that he believed Jim Jones ordered the stabbing of Ryan to make Ryan get out of the camp so he could be killed at the airport in Port Kaituma.
Cordell and the other defectors were taken in a dump truck driven by Eddie Crenshaw(Could not find any details on him) to the Port Kaituma airport. The dump truck went to the end of the runway and faced the planes as it parked. When Cordell and the other defectors boarded a larger plane(the De Havilland), Cordell noticed a tractor-trailer coming next to the dump truck. The tractor-trailer began to come closer to the plane’s left side until it was sixty feet away. Three armed men came out of the tractor-trailer: Tom Kice(automatic pistol, .45 caliber?), Albert Touchette(armed with a rifle), Joseph Wilson(shotgun). The three men fired into the plane from the left and right side for about two minutes, in which the tractor-trailer pulled away, and Cordell saw the pilot heading back to Jonestown.
Harold Cordell helped others disembark the plane, where they ran for the jungle in fear that the attackers would return. He spent the night near the airport of Port Kaituma until Guyanese officials discovered him. Harold Cordell Jr. survived the shootings that killed Leo Ryan on that plane, and his brother Rick Cordell also survived because he was in Georgetown. Ironically, the Cordell and McCoy family believed that he survived because he was on a basketball trip in Georgetown, and they also say he was around 40 years old.
The next segment of interviews, Serial 1552-2 and Serial 1681-13 contain info that helped the FBI pinpoint everyone at the top of this hierarchal structure. While also telling the FBI his knowledge about the weapons and procedural means of Jonestown. The people he pinpointed were: Jones’s bodyguards, Peoples Temple Security force, The Planning Committee of 100 people before it being dismissed in Jonestown, Jones’s inner core Planning Committee that made decisions, Politicians and Public Officials, a Russian embassy member named Feodor Timofeyev, Radio operates of Jonestown, probable suspects who would assassinate Leo Ryan, Paula Adamas as a Peddler and sexual partner for Jones, Doctor Lawrence Schact and his associates in the medical field of Jonestown.
Harold Cordell then told the FBI descriptive information about various individuals from the Peoples Temple and where their whereabouts could be. Cordell also told the FBI that the Peoples Temple had a storage room filled with drugs in the medical bond. The drugs were not from Peoples Temple in Guyana, but according to Jones, “A wealthy benefactor was donating thousands of dollars worth of drugs.”
Harold Cordell informed the FBI that two boats in Jonestown, one of two, were mentioned. The boat mentioned was the trawler Cudjoe. It carried supplies between Georgetown and Cape Kaituma, and the Albatross. Also, Kay Nelson supervised the creation of dolls by the Pavillion, where they were sold for profit to J.P Santos(a large store in Guyana).
His last statement to the FBI was that he plans on marrying Edith Bogue after she divorces James Bogue.
Harold Cordell then went before the Federal Grand Jury for the Northern District of California, San Francisco, California, on January 10, 1979, by subpoena of the FBI.
Harold Cordell Jr. was a direct survivor of the shooting that killed the congressman and a stern defector. The first-hand information he provided to the FBI and Secret Service was critical in understanding how the Peoples Temple operated in Jonestown and what happened with the murder of the congressman.
Tom Graddon, “Band Member Profiles,” The Jonestown Report 11 (2009). Accessed at https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=108766.
FBI(Names deleted), Secret Service(Names deleted), Harold Cordell Jr. “Serial 1552-2,” The Jonestown Report 11 (2009). Accessed at https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=100789.
FBI(Names deleted), Secret Service(Names deleted), Harold Cordell Jr. “Serial 1681-13,”The Jonestown Report 11 (2009). Accessed at https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=71276.
Don Cordell, “Edith Cordell and the Cordell Family Legacy,” The Jonestown Report 11 (2009). Accessed at https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=40196
Cordell and McCoy Families, “Serial 364,” The Jonestown Report 11 (2009). Accessed at https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=85232.
Transcribed by Don Beck, “Edith Roller Journals: February 1978,” The Jonestown Report 11 (2009). Accessed at https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=35693.
Isaac Zukin, “The Inspiration of the Jonestown Express,” The Jonestown Report 11 (2009). Accessed at https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=61754.
Tim Reiterman, Raven, 1982(E.P. Dutton, Inc.)
Pictures:
David M. Matthews, “Jim Jones’ followers enthralled by his skills as a speaker,” CNN.
Mark Stricherz, “JONESTOWN Government inaction haunts 41 years after grisly deaths,” Marcia Meyers(Ed.), Roll Call, November 18, 2019.
Wikipedia, “Jonestown,” December,9, 2021.
Juanell Smart,”INDIVIDUAL001 Jonestown 1978, Kay Nelson,” Facebook, November 5,2011.
Jolene McDonald, “Feodor Timofeyev’s Visit to Jonestown: Inaccuracies vs. Facts Part 10,”The Jonestown Report 11 (2009). Accessed at https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=93991.
Tom Kinsolving, “Jonestown Anniversary Gets Near-Universal Blackout–By The Same Media That Largely Condoned People’s Temple Terror,” Jonestown Apologists Alert, November 25,2007.