This highly important Ukiah Daily Journal expose by Eric Krueger, from March 9, 1979, on foster-care, welfare and social services fraud and abuse by Jim Jones' Peoples Temple, can be found in an OCR text version on pages 1 and 2 at the Newspaper Archives.
Interestingly, the article text from just the second page was posted to a Topix.com thread called DA race underway for June election. It is identical with the OCR reading except for one very significant difference: Missing from the for-pay newspaper-archive version is this single, potent paragraph:
Because the department kept a close watch on foster children placed in homes it licensed, temple members increasingly opted for legal guardianship, a tactic which removed them from social services jurisdiction. (Meaning the county welfare dept. was circumvented & the kids became wards of the state thereby eliminating local scrutiny.)According to an essay posted at Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple, titled, Did Peoples Temple commit welfare fraud, especially with the foster children under its care?, (The short answer is no), which uses as it sources the books: "A Sympathetic History of Jonestown," by Rebecca Moore, and "Raven," by Tim Reiterman and John Jacobs, the U.S. General Accounting Office was asked by California Senator Alan Cranston to investigate reports that 150 foster children had died on Nov. 18, 1978 at Jonestown in Guyana. The GAO final report on the matter, which wasn't issued until over two years after the tragedy, determined that:
...of the 294 children under age 18 who died in Guyana, 17 had been in foster care prior to their move to Guyana. However, only one child was in active foster care at the time of emigration, and that child survived the mass deaths.This is Moore and Reiterman's only mention on the issue of the life and death of minor children under some level of governmental supervision and support---be it county, state or federal---and by implication, no such children were among the 294 expatriate-minor deaths. However, Klueger's article states that
"Four of the seven children in Mendocino County guardianships died at Jonestown, according to [County Social Services Director Dennis] Denny, who said three children from Bay Area guardianships also died there."The complicity of Moore and Reiterman in covering up the massive fraud perpetrated on American taxpayers by federal officials in the State and Justice Departments, as well as California State and County counterparts, can be glimpsed when after the players first torture out two categories of "foster child" from "children in guardianship custody," they then separate out the guardians from the minors they aim to guard:
While foster children ultimately did not pose financial or moral problems for the government, over twenty children in guardianship care did. The State of California estimated that $20,000 had been overpaid under Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Adults in the Temple who maintained legal guardianships received these payments. Overpayment occurred when checks were issued to guardians who had moved to Guyana. Although some unwarranted payments were made, they generally happened by mistake, and welfare officials quickly caught the problem. An investigation by the California Attorney General's office also found that children in guardianship custody had permission to move to Guyana from at least one parent or guardian.The only possible interpretation for such convoluted logic and syntax is that the guardians moved to Guyana without children, and the children moved to Guyana without guardians---and nobody underage died. The "permission to move to Guyana" required for "children in guardianship custody" is whatever level of government is providing their supervision and support---and ultimately the federal authority that issues them passports.
But the biggest lie that Reiterman and Moore tell is how this whole mess began in the first place. They write:
The problem began when the California Social Services Department Director for Mendocino County claimed that Peoples Temple had cared for 150 foster children at one time or another. [emphasis added] Cranston believed this meant that Peoples Temple had 150 foster children in its care on November 18 and, by extension, that most had died in Jonestown.This claim is demonstrably false. The figure of "150 Foster-Care Children Move to Guyana," was established in a front-page headline in an issue of the Peoples Temple's own newspaper.
Finding such primary source material may be difficult for me, since the JonestownApologistsAlert.Blog, maintained by children of the Rev. Lester Kinsolving, informs us that________________________________________________________________________________
Denise Stephenson, a college roommate of Becky Moore, controls the Temple Archives at the California Historical Society.However, the fact this headline existed was referenced in a contemporary mainstream-newspaper article, which I shall post shortly. Such a secondary source will probably have to suffice to prove that at one point the Peoples Temple proudly crowed about it as a social, if not socialist, accomplishment. Proving the underlying fact itself may be impossible, for these identities could represent just hundreds of made-up names on a fraudulent welfare role, given the collusion of all involved. Or perhaps actual young people once existed, but were savagely eliminated at some earlier time convenient to the gameplayers. Either would help explain the... umm....discrepancies in counting the corpses after Nov. 18, 1978.
March 9, 1979, Ukiah Daily Journal, page 1, Jones vs Denny: Temple foster homes weren't used, by Eric Krueger, Journal Staff Writer, (Last in a series of six articles)
Last Sunday, on Page 1, we carried a photograph of the late Jim Jones as part of the series on the Peoples Temple vs. Social Services. The photo was taken years ago at a rally in San Francisco. Backgrounding Jones were two photos of Dr. Martin Luther King. To those who found this offensive, we offer our apologies. There was no intent to link Jones and Dr. King. Tlie philosophy of Dr. King was 180 degrees from what Jones wound up preaching.
The series on Social Services has prompted more comment than we anticipated. Numerous people who were involved have stepped forth to offer very interesting comments. More on this next week.
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS - While the county grand jury met behind this door Thursday with the board of supervisors, the chambers within will be the scene of intense questioning of Social Services Director Dennis Denny in the future on his department's involvement with the late Jim Jones and his People's Temple.
—Journal photo by Dale Kalkman.
Mendocino County Social Services Director Dennis Denny seemed to fear and detest what he perceived as the life in store for any child whose parents were members of the temple. When some of those members began qualifying for foster home licenses and legal guardianships, Denny apparently feared they would come lo believe Jim Jones was God— without much opportunity to believe otherwise.
Social services licensed and monitored foster homes, which, according to Denny, Jones saw as a potential revenue source because people got welfare money to support the foster children they took in. Denny said Mendocino County, at any one time between 19 and 1977, had approximately 50 foster homes, six of them run by temple members between 1971 and 1976. The .six homes had licenses to take children from Alameda, San Francisco or Contra Costa Counties.
Social services department files identify them as follows:
- George Donald and Bonnie Jean Beck Jr., 400 Empire Drive, Ukiah; licensed for one child 1972, discontinued by choice 1974,
Among their references, the Becks list Tim Stoen. (The Becks were on Jones' infamous Planning Commission, according to temple defectors Al and Jeannie Mills, who served with the Becks. When last contacted Bonnie Beck had no comment on the subject.
The Planning Commission reportedly maintained discipline within temple ranks, among other governing duties.)
- Robert and Elizabeth Davis, 7550 East Road, Redwood Valley; licensed for one child 1976; cancelled 1976 when couple moved to unknown location.Denny said the department doesn't know how many children from Mendocino County foster homes run by temple members ended up dead in Jonestown but it's "checking on that right now."
- Donald and Thelma Jackson, 1119 S. Dora St., Ukiah; licensed for two children 1974; discontinued 1976 when couple moved to San Francisco.
- Frank and Georgia Lacy, 2260 Road K, Redwood Valley; licensed for five children 1974; discontinued 1976 when couple moved to San Francisco.
- Elmer J. and Deanna May Mertle (who ultimately defected from the temple and changed their names to Al and Jeannie Mills), Route 1, Box KK), Tomki Road, Redwood Valley; licensed for one child 1971; chose not to renew 1973.
- Myra Wilson, 2114 Carleton Drive, Ukiah; licensed for two children 1973; discontinued 1974 due to Wilson's death by heart attack.
(Cont'd on Page 2)
page 2--Ukiah Daily Journal,
Friday, March 9, 1979, TEMPLE
(Cont from page 1)
Said Denny, "We do not believe that any children were placed from this county in (Temple) foster homes here. But we're waiting to substantiate that. Our best evidence over the last two years is zero."
A "few" children placed here by other counties, he added, may have died in Jonestown.
Denny said his department didn't place children in temple foster homes because it believed they would not have "freedom of choice" in "religious training."
"We can't even count on one hand - over ten years - where we placed a kid in one of these licensed homes of theirs," said the welfare director. "Maybe we might have put one in for a day or two until we could find a place - because we had to put a kid where there was a bed - but we here didn't place them."
Asked what the department's policy was, Denny replied, "I'm saying our referral procedure was never to use any of their homes."
Because the department kept a close watch on foster children placed in homes it licensed, temple members increasingly opted for legal guardianship, a tactic which removed them from social services jurisdiction.(Meaning the county welfare dept. was circumvented & the kids became wards of the state thereby eliminating local scrutiny.)
Denny said temple members became legal guardians to 25 children in Mendocino, San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa and Los Angeles Counties.
Four of the seven children in Mendocino County guardianships died at Jonestown, according to Denny, who said three children from Bay Area guardianships also died there.
Dewy said the four dead youngsters from local guardianships did not come from here originally, but just where they came from remains a mystery.
He would not release the names of children involved in temple guardianships, saying they were confidential on orders from Mendocino County District Attorney Joe Allen and the U.S. General Accounting Office, which is investigating foster child placement and the temple.
Former Mendocino County Assistant District Attorney Tim Stoen said temple attorney Eugene Chaikin did the legal work for temple guardianships in Mendocino County, according to Denny, who mentioned but didn't reveal "documentation" supporting his assertion.
Denny also said Jones brought or had placed here approximately 150 foster children who were "in and out" of licensed and unlicensed homes between 1966 and 1977.
More than 100 of the imported youngsters were from the Bay Area and Los Angeles, living illegally with temple families not licensed to have them, alleged Denny who recalled, "We then were asking those jurisdictions in the Bay Area what was going on and why they were placing those kids here without our authority."
When social services discovered children in unlicensed temple homes, it forced Jones to send them back to where they had come from, he said.
Denny declined to name Bay Area probation officers and social workers who were sending foster youngsters to licensed or unlicensed temple homes here.
Although People's Temple didn't include child abuse in the repertoire of twisted behavior that led to Jonestown, some of its members allegedly practiced it at home in ways ranging from beatings to sexual molestation, according to the social services director.
Denny, who could not "hazard a guess" as to the total number of Child Protective Service cases involving temple adults, said that in five of the cases, Jones or his aides intervened on behalf of the accused and hired the "best" attorneys for them. The cases are not public record, said Dewey, declining to name the "best" attorneys.
Nevertheless, parents who were temple members committed no more child abuse than members of any other religious group, said Denny whose department monitored the temple very closely for violations against children.
Neither informants nor anyone else, said Denny, reported child abuse or batterings at temple meetings. "We never," he said. "went to the temple and saw a kid that had been beaten in the temple - never happened, never happened."
Relying on reports from ex-members and informants, Denny said that what took place at the temple was "at least" paddling and usually the paddling of adults.
Even though social services didn't make life easy for Jones in Mendocino County, Denny said Jones left the area mostly because of the income, power and ego, rewards big cities offered.
"I think he had to broaden his base, he had to get to San Francisco, and set up a base there where he could control the political environment..."
"I don't think he did that up here, I didn't see it then, and I'm not seeing it in retrospect now."
According to Denny, controlling the political environment largely manipulating politicians by showing an ability to produce votes for or against them, and "in the arena down south that's an acceptable practice."
Outside Tim Stoen, Denny didn't think Jones controlled powerful people in Mendocino County, nor did Denny have any evidence to show Jones controlled public agencies like the Ukiah Police Department or the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.
Were Denny's efforts to stop Jones from breaking welfare law in Mendocino a success?
"He survived," said Denny, "I'm questioning the success. You can always do better. We did as good a job as we could at the time - I'm convinced of that, yes."
Life seems quaint now at the Mendocino County Social Services Department.
Welfare applicants sit in a tiny waiting area with a soda machine. Venetian blinds cleave the sunlight of a winter afternoon. Behind a tall partition shutting out the waiting area, department staffers go about their well-oiled business in the systems and procedures labyrinth.
Dennis Denny is working another endless day.
He has a lot to do this month, sending the Mendocino County Grand Jury information about the man who again permeates his life, about the war that was hot and cold, the success of internal security, the way he could admire Jones' charisma and detest his duplicity.
Denny may one day testify before the grand jurors, who no doubt will listen to his story of his war against apocalypse with a measure of awe, humility and gratitude - and perhaps with some perplexity over what measures government should take to curb a religion's abuse of freedom.
________________________________________________________________________________
May 14 2012, Jonestown.sdus.edu, Did Peoples Temple commit welfare fraud, especially with the foster children under its care?,
The short answer is no.
In January 1979, Senator Alan Cranston (D-California) scheduled a hearing on allegations of welfare fraud by Peoples Temple. Cranston acted on what turned out to be erroneous information.
The problem began when the California Social Services Department Director for Mendocino County claimed that Peoples Temple had cared for 150 foster children at one time or another. Cranston believed this meant that Peoples Temple had 150 foster children in its care on November 18 and, by extension, that most had died in Jonestown. The California Senator asked the General Accounting Office to learn if federal dollars had been spent on those children while they lived in Guyana. That kind of payment was illegal, since the children would have lost eligibility once they left the U.S.
Although preliminary figures came out a few months after Cranston's hearing, the GAO's final report didn't appear until the end of 1980. According to the GAO, of the 294 children under age 18 who died in Guyana, 17 had been in foster care prior to their move to Guyana. However, only one child was in active foster care at the time of emigration, and that child survived the mass deaths.
While foster children ultimately did not pose financial or moral problems for the government, over twenty children in guardianship care did. The State of California estimated that $20,000 had been overpaid under Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Adults in the Temple who maintained legal guardianships received these payments. Overpayment occurred when checks were issued to guardians who had moved to Guyana. Although some unwarranted payments were made, they generally happened by mistake, and welfare officials quickly caught the problem. An investigation by the California Attorney General's office also found that children in guardianship custody had permission to move to Guyana from at least one parent or guardian.
Because the Temple had extensive welfare dealings in California, the State Attorney General’s office studied the group's relationship with local welfare officials. The Investigative Report, prepared by the Deputy Attorney General, concluded that there had been no collusion or unusual involvement. In addition to its own findings, the report noted the Mendocino Grand Jury's investigation of the Temple after the suicides. “The county welfare fraud investigation was closed,” the report observed, “as no evidence of welfare fraud involving members of Peoples Temple was found. Welfare Director Dennis Denny agreed that no fraud had been found in his search of county social service records…
"All cases of welfare fraud uncovered by the counties were frauds perpetrated by individuals for personal gain and were not part of any conspiracy by Peoples Temple to finance its operations by fraudulently obtaining public monies."
While there was apparently no evidence of welfare fraud, there are also reports that Peoples Temple took advantage of the system. According to Raven, Denny believed that one reason for the Temple’s relocation to Ukiah was Jones’ recognition – and appreciation – of Mendocino County’s policy on board-and-care homes for mental hospital patients. The Temple abided by county rules – the ten homes set up by the church were clean, and county inspectors found that everyone in the homes to be eligible for aid – but the homes also generated a great deal of revenue for Temple coffers.
Tim Reiterman also reports in Raven that the Temple went around the county to take custody of foster children: "with state aid, the Temple would set up foster homes housing orphans or problem children imported from the San Francisco Bay Area. Soon, as planned, probation offices from all over California were sending children to the Temple, bypassing Denny. The welfare director told the Temple that they had to license their foster homes. After twenty-four months of being stalled, he threatened prosecution. The Temple then circumvented the law by securing ‘guardianships’ for the children, obviating the need for foster home licensing.”
While undoubtedly manipulative, none of these actions rose to the level of fraud.
(The information above was adapted from A Sympathetic History of Jonestown, by Rebecca Moore (Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1985), pp. 363-364, 366, and from Raven by Tim Reiterman and John Jacobs (New York: E.P.Dutton, Inc., 1982) p. 155.)
Denny, who could not "hazard a guess" as to the total number of Child Protective Service cases involving temple adults, said that in five of the cases, Jones or his aides intervened on behalf of the accused and hired the "best" attorneys for them. The cases are not public record, said Dewey, declining to name the "best" attorneys.
Nevertheless, parents who were temple members committed no more child abuse than members of any other religious group, said Denny whose department monitored the temple very closely for violations against children.
Neither informants nor anyone else, said Denny, reported child abuse or batterings at temple meetings. "We never," he said. "went to the temple and saw a kid that had been beaten in the temple - never happened, never happened."
Relying on reports from ex-members and informants, Denny said that what took place at the temple was "at least" paddling and usually the paddling of adults.
Even though social services didn't make life easy for Jones in Mendocino County, Denny said Jones left the area mostly because of the income, power and ego, rewards big cities offered.
"I think he had to broaden his base, he had to get to San Francisco, and set up a base there where he could control the political environment..."
"I don't think he did that up here, I didn't see it then, and I'm not seeing it in retrospect now."
According to Denny, controlling the political environment largely manipulating politicians by showing an ability to produce votes for or against them, and "in the arena down south that's an acceptable practice."
Outside Tim Stoen, Denny didn't think Jones controlled powerful people in Mendocino County, nor did Denny have any evidence to show Jones controlled public agencies like the Ukiah Police Department or the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.
Were Denny's efforts to stop Jones from breaking welfare law in Mendocino a success?
"He survived," said Denny, "I'm questioning the success. You can always do better. We did as good a job as we could at the time - I'm convinced of that, yes."
Life seems quaint now at the Mendocino County Social Services Department.
Welfare applicants sit in a tiny waiting area with a soda machine. Venetian blinds cleave the sunlight of a winter afternoon. Behind a tall partition shutting out the waiting area, department staffers go about their well-oiled business in the systems and procedures labyrinth.
Dennis Denny is working another endless day.
He has a lot to do this month, sending the Mendocino County Grand Jury information about the man who again permeates his life, about the war that was hot and cold, the success of internal security, the way he could admire Jones' charisma and detest his duplicity.
Denny may one day testify before the grand jurors, who no doubt will listen to his story of his war against apocalypse with a measure of awe, humility and gratitude - and perhaps with some perplexity over what measures government should take to curb a religion's abuse of freedom.
________________________________________________________________________________
May 14 2012, Jonestown.sdus.edu, Did Peoples Temple commit welfare fraud, especially with the foster children under its care?,
The short answer is no.
In January 1979, Senator Alan Cranston (D-California) scheduled a hearing on allegations of welfare fraud by Peoples Temple. Cranston acted on what turned out to be erroneous information.
The problem began when the California Social Services Department Director for Mendocino County claimed that Peoples Temple had cared for 150 foster children at one time or another. Cranston believed this meant that Peoples Temple had 150 foster children in its care on November 18 and, by extension, that most had died in Jonestown. The California Senator asked the General Accounting Office to learn if federal dollars had been spent on those children while they lived in Guyana. That kind of payment was illegal, since the children would have lost eligibility once they left the U.S.
Although preliminary figures came out a few months after Cranston's hearing, the GAO's final report didn't appear until the end of 1980. According to the GAO, of the 294 children under age 18 who died in Guyana, 17 had been in foster care prior to their move to Guyana. However, only one child was in active foster care at the time of emigration, and that child survived the mass deaths.
While foster children ultimately did not pose financial or moral problems for the government, over twenty children in guardianship care did. The State of California estimated that $20,000 had been overpaid under Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Adults in the Temple who maintained legal guardianships received these payments. Overpayment occurred when checks were issued to guardians who had moved to Guyana. Although some unwarranted payments were made, they generally happened by mistake, and welfare officials quickly caught the problem. An investigation by the California Attorney General's office also found that children in guardianship custody had permission to move to Guyana from at least one parent or guardian.
Because the Temple had extensive welfare dealings in California, the State Attorney General’s office studied the group's relationship with local welfare officials. The Investigative Report, prepared by the Deputy Attorney General, concluded that there had been no collusion or unusual involvement. In addition to its own findings, the report noted the Mendocino Grand Jury's investigation of the Temple after the suicides. “The county welfare fraud investigation was closed,” the report observed, “as no evidence of welfare fraud involving members of Peoples Temple was found. Welfare Director Dennis Denny agreed that no fraud had been found in his search of county social service records…
"All cases of welfare fraud uncovered by the counties were frauds perpetrated by individuals for personal gain and were not part of any conspiracy by Peoples Temple to finance its operations by fraudulently obtaining public monies."
While there was apparently no evidence of welfare fraud, there are also reports that Peoples Temple took advantage of the system. According to Raven, Denny believed that one reason for the Temple’s relocation to Ukiah was Jones’ recognition – and appreciation – of Mendocino County’s policy on board-and-care homes for mental hospital patients. The Temple abided by county rules – the ten homes set up by the church were clean, and county inspectors found that everyone in the homes to be eligible for aid – but the homes also generated a great deal of revenue for Temple coffers.
Tim Reiterman also reports in Raven that the Temple went around the county to take custody of foster children: "with state aid, the Temple would set up foster homes housing orphans or problem children imported from the San Francisco Bay Area. Soon, as planned, probation offices from all over California were sending children to the Temple, bypassing Denny. The welfare director told the Temple that they had to license their foster homes. After twenty-four months of being stalled, he threatened prosecution. The Temple then circumvented the law by securing ‘guardianships’ for the children, obviating the need for foster home licensing.”
While undoubtedly manipulative, none of these actions rose to the level of fraud.
(The information above was adapted from A Sympathetic History of Jonestown, by Rebecca Moore (Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1985), pp. 363-364, 366, and from Raven by Tim Reiterman and John Jacobs (New York: E.P.Dutton, Inc., 1982) p. 155.)
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