Survivor Profile: Vern Gosney

Vernon Gosney joined the Peoples Temple when he was 19 in 1971, in an attempt to limit the influences of drugs and alcohol, as well as find a place of belonging. Vernon Gosney and his wife Cheryl Wilson, were an interracial couple, Jones presented a charismatic acceptance of interracial relationships, which the couple enjoyed. After his wife was left brain-dead, as a result of an overdose of anesthetics during a C-section, Gosney and his newborn son Mark moved closer into the folds of the organization. Mark and Vernon Gosney lived in the Peoples Temple communal living facilities around San Francisco, after the death of Gosney’s wife. Edith Roller details that Vernon was punished as a result of him being spotted smoking while “pamphleting.” Vernon broke other temple rules as well including visiting gay bars and bathhouses. Gosney moved to Jonestown in Guyana in March of 1978, inspired by the socialist ideals of the group. After arriving in Jonestown, Gosney explained that there was a “numbing amount of public violence,” he also went on to explain that there would be “White Nights” rehearsals for mass “revolutionary” suicides. 

While Vernon acted as the “perfect Jonestown resident,” for fear of punishment, Gosney had serious hesitation and dislikes of Jonestown and Jones himself. Eight months after Vernon and his son’s arrival in Jonestown, comes the arrival of Congressman Leo Ryan, from California. Along with the Congressman came reporters investigating the “illusive” Jonestown. Tim Reiterman, author of “Raven,” and a report that traveled to Guyana explains, “the cautious optimism from the previous nights successes, Ryan’s positive statement, the polished entertainment, the basketball victory-faded into the past like a cloud over the horizon” (Reiterman 511). Gosney managed to get a note to Congressman Ryan, asking to get him out of Jonestown (04041). Vernon Gosney and Monic Bagby, along with two families, came forward that they had been plotting their escape from Jonestown. Gosney followed Congressman Ryan out of Jonestown, but left his young son Mark, thinking he would be safe. While the defectors followed Congressman Ryan to the airstrip (04041), they were ambushed and Vernon Gosney was shot twice in the abdomen and once in the leg. Congressman Leo Ryan was fatally shot. Gosney fled into the jungle and was eventually rescued by Guyanese authorities. Gosney later learned of his son, Mark’s, death in Jonestown. 

Gosney struggled with PTSD and the reentry into mainstream American society, after spending months in the jungles of Guyana. Gosney turned to self-medication and alcohol, to cope with the death of his son Mark and the others who died in Jonestown. Gosney assisted in the creation of Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple

In 1982, Gosney moved to Maui, Hawaii, looking for a method of healing. He eventually remarried and entered the Maui police force, he worked in undercover narcotics for two years and then worked as a uniformed officer. He was on the force for 27 years. Gosney bounced from relationship to relationship but eventually remarried and retired from the police force. Gosney passed away in January 2021.


Return to Survivor Profiles