WHERE IT ONCE STOOD TALL, 1859 Geary Blvd. was the site of Jim Jones's infamous People's Temple before it was razed after the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989. Today, a US Post Office stands on the property.

By Roy Morlidge / Beat Columnist

November 18, 1978.

It was a day that would scar not only the city of San Francisco, but the United States as a whole. On this day, over 900 people lost their lives in Guyana, among them a United States Congressman and a highly respected reporter.

What happened that day has been speculated and reported on so much that I won’t bother rehashing it here. What I will focus on is the fact that even though California has tried to relegate what occurred in Guyana to the pages of history, traces still remain to remind us that the world is not the peaceful utopia that many wish to see.

Of the over 900 victims of the tragedy, 412 would go unclaimed. Next to the mausoleum at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, you can find a single headstone marking the mass grave where these 412 have found rest. Plans also call for a new memorial wall to be erected carrying the names of all the victims of the tragedy, with exception to one.

Nearby the single headstone, one will also find a marker on which nine names are inscribed. Even though her husband found fault in the words of Rev. Jim Jones, Doris Jane Lewis chose to follow Jones to Guyana and brought her seven children with her.

Of all the victims, those that are best known are the five people who died not at the Jonestown itself, but at the Point Kaituma airstrip. They were the members of Congressman Leo Ryan’s fact-finding visit to Jonestown. It is with their deaths that the tragedy spun out of control.

Among them were forty-four year old Jonestown defector Patricia Parks of Ukiah and Gregory Alan Robinson, a twenty-seven year old photographer from Burbank, California working for the San Francisco Examiner. A graduate of San Francisco State University, the Greg Robinson Memorial Photojournalism Scholarship was established in his memory there.

Thirty-six year old NBC cameraman Robert “Bob” Brown had over twelve years of experience in filming. His footage of Jonestown and ultimately the first few seconds of the attack at the airstrip (at the cost of his life) would be forever etched in history.

Born Roy Darwin Humphrey in Vidalia, Georgia, forty-two year old veteran NBC news correspondent Don Harris was no stranger to dangerous assignments. Newspaper accounts state about 500 people would attend his memorial service.

Then there was Congressman Leo Ryan. A World War Two veteran and teacher, he moved to politics in order to make a difference. Formerly a mayor of South San Francisco and California State Assemblyman, he was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1973.

In 1983, five years after his death, Congress would honor their fallen colleague by posthumously awarding him the Congressional Gold Medal for his service. Today he rests peacefully at San Bruno’s Golden Gate National Cemetery next to war heroes like Admiral Chester Nimitz and Vice Admiral Charles Lockwood in Sec C, Row C, Grave 15-A.

After Jonestown, the San Francisco headquarters of People’s Temple at 1859 Geary Blvd. was bought by the Korean Central Presbyterian Church. In 1989 the building was seriously damaged in the Loma Prieta Earthquake. The city of San Francisco gave the order for its demolition the next year. As you walk past the location today, all you will find is a United States Post Office.

However if something good could be pulled from all the tragic events of November 18th, it could come in the form of Congresswoman Jackie Speier. In 1978 she was a member of Congressman Ryan’s staff and would be wounded five times in the shooting at the airstrip. Recovering from the wounds, she went on to serve in the California State Assembly and Senate before being elected to the House of Representatives by special election, following the death of Congressman Tom Lantos, representing the district that Ryan once called home.

For San Francisco, this was only the beginning half of a nightmare.

One week later, on November 27th, Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk were shot and killed by disgruntled former Supervisor Dan White. Almost immediately speculation began that this was part of Jim Jones’ orders.

Just like Bob Brown’s footage from the airstrip, San Franciscans would forever have the Diane Feinstein’s announcement of the deaths burned into their memories. Moscone was laid to rest at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma while a memorial niche to Harvey Milk can be visited at the San Francisco Columbarium. Dan White committed suicide in 1985 and today rests in Golden Gate National Cemetery.

It has been thirty years since that month of terror. Those who lived through that time still remember it clearly. No matter how much has changed the memories will remain and all that we can do is to remember and hopefully learn from them so that in the future lives can be saved.

I dedicate this to the memory of all the victims of Jonestown, George Moscone, and Harvey Milk. Never Forgotten.

Learn More:

From The Chronicle/ SFGate.com: Ten Days that Shook San Francisco (Part One), Rep. Jackie Speier’s gripping tale of surviving Jonestown in her own words (Part Two), former SF Chronicle Reporter Duffy Jennings recalls covering Moscone/ Milk killings (Part Three)

From The Oakland Tribune/ InsideBayArea.com: A defector recalls time with Peoples Temple