Michael Carter also known a Mike, was just a kid when he joined the Peoples Temple. Mike’s two older siblings Tim and Terry had already joined the Temple. In the summer of 1973, between 8th and 9th grade, his siblings had asked there dad if Mike could come with them on bus trip with the Temple to Washington D.C. (RYMUR- 89-4286-778). After returning from the trip, he told his father that he wanted to move to Ukiah and live at the Happy Acres Ranch. He did, and went to high school in Ukiah. Mike when moved to Guyana, he was only 20 years old. He had a wife Joycelyne and a daughter Kaywana who was less than a year old (RYMUR-89-4286-778).
After high school Mike had began to develop skills as a radio operator, a skill which was very useful in Jonestown. With in the community he was known as the radio and electronics guys but in July of 1977 he had started to get a little upset with the lack of progress the settlement was making (Reiterman, 427). However, since he was one of two people who knew how to work the radio he did have some advantages. Usually getting 6 hours of sleep, eating breakfast then recording news radio from Moscow, Sweden, Voice of America, and BBC. These would then be used by Jones to pick and chose information to tell everyone else (Reiterman, 428). He also was helped the higher status members of the temple send messages to the U.S and Georgetown.
On the day of the deaths Mike and his brother Tim were approached by Maria Katsaris, a right hand man to Jones. She asked the pair if they would help Mike Prokes move a suitcase (Reiterman, 556). The suitcase contained a lot of money and letters that the men were told to take to the Soviet Union’s embassy. They were also given two guns and were told that if they got caught to shoot themselves. The money and letters were signed over to the Soviet Union, giving them all the money that the Temple had. However, on the way to the embassy the men hid some of the money, when they were arrested in Port Kaituma they only had about $48,000 and the two guns (Reiterman, 563).
Michael and his brother were never charged, and ended up moving to Idaho. While not much is known about Michael’s life now, he has written some reflections about his time in the temple which can be found here.
Reiterman, T., & Jacobs, J. (2008). Raven: The untold story of the rev. Jim Jones and his people. J.P. Tarcher/Penguin.
Serial 788, accessed from https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=89646
Guyana Inquest, accessed from https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=13675