Timothy “Tim” James Carter was born on August 24, 1958, in Berkley, California to parents Francis “Mike” Emmett Carter and Betty Coblentz Carter. The oldest of three children, Tim’s siblings included Mary Theresa “Terry” Carter Jones and Michael Julian Carter. Though his mother, who died when Tim was fifteen, was of Jewish faith, Tim and his siblings were raised as Catholics. After graduating from high school, Tim entered the USMC (United States Marine Corps) in 1966. He would serve three years, during which he survived combat in the Vietnam War before being honorably discharged. Plagued by the violence he saw during the war, Tim soon after joined the counterculture movement of the sixties and seventies. During this time, he reportedly hung around with various Californian “rock groups” and drifted around the state.
According to Tim’s father, during Tim’s time in the counterculture movement he came across the self-styled evangelistic Disciples of Christ group. He was introduced and became affiliated to the Peoples Temple during this time. Drawn to the temple’s integrative nature, Tim soon after moved onto the San Francisco Peoples Temple premises at 1859 Geary Blvd. Before joining the temple in January of 1973, he was employed as a typewritten and word processing specialist. He began doing secretarial work for the Peoples Temple soon after joining. While Tim had been separated but legally married to Barbara Hoyer, he maintained a long-term relationship with Gloria Maria Rodriguez, and referred to her as his wife. She gave birth to their son, Malcolm James Carter, while in Georgetown in August 1977. Tim arrived in Guyana fourteen days after his son’s birth, on August 24th, 1977.
Retrieved from https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=30341
In his time in the Peoples Temple, Tim became a member of the inner circle. He became the chief enforcer for the Peoples Temple, and a member of both Jones’s security force and hit squad. A public relations operative and lead radio operator, Tim regularly assisted Jones and other inner circle members with difficult or important tasks. He was also in charge of publications. On November 18, 1978, Tim offered to pose with his family as defectors and go to San Francisco to kill a former member and defector. He was told to change and pack a suitcase, which he did. Soon after, he found his son, Malcolm, and his wife, Gloria, dead and dying from the cyanide mixture. He was then directed to join his brother, Michael Carter, and Mike Prokes to take three suitcases, containing a collective $1,600,000, to the Soviet embassy in Guyana’s capital. They hiked to the village of Port Kaituma before burying some of the cash and ditching the suitcases. They were soon after arrested by Port Kaituma police.
Though Tim and his brother Michael both survived, their family had extensive loss. Among the losses were Tim’s wife Gloria Carter, his son Malcolm Carter, who was only a year and a half old, and his sister “Terry” Carter. Also among the deceased were his niece, his nephew, his sister-in-law, and his brother-in-law. Tim has since become a known and traveled speaker on Jonestown, and features in the Jonestown documentaries Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (2006), Most Evil (2006), Witness Jonestown (1998), and Terror in the Jungle (2018). He has also published multiple texts, appeared as a guest speaker during the Griot Institute of African Studies “Jonestown: 35 Years Later” lecture series, and appeared as a speaker at the Jonestown 40th Anniversary Memorial Service.
Retrieved from https://abcnews.go.com/International/peoples-temple-members-describe-horrors-jonestown-massacre-day/story?id=57887375
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