Maria Katsaris (June 9, 1953 – November 18, 1978)[1] was a member of the Peoples Temple cult led by Jim Jones. She is known for being one of the most high-ranking figures in Temple leadership and one of Jim Jones' lovers.[2]
Maria S. Katsaris | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 9, 1953 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | November 18, 1978 (aged 25) |
| Cause of death | Suicide, likely by cyanide poisoning |
| Occupation | Financial secretary |
| Known for | Leadership figure in Peoples Temple cult, Jonestown massacre |
| Family | Steven Katsaris (father) Anthony Katsaris (brother) |
Background edit
Katsaris was born in 1953 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania into a middle-class Greek Orthodox family.[3] She attended high school in Belmont, California before moving with her family to Ukiah, California, where she became acquainted with the Peoples Temple.[4][5] According to her father Steven, Katsaris became "emotionally confused" during the 1960s due to political changes in the United States.[3] She worked as a teacher's aide at Trinity School in Ukiah, where her father also worked, and attended the College of the Redwoods and Sonoma State University[6] before dropping out to join the Peoples Temple in 1973.[7]
Peoples Temple role edit
Katsaris began her tenure in the Peoples Temple by helping with letter-writing campaigns, rising through the ranks to take on a major role in the organization's Planning Commission.[8] She moved to Guyana, where the Temple had established its Jonestown settlement, in June 1977.[1] Katsaris was heavily involved in the Peoples Temple's financial activities, which included transferring large sums of money between the United States and foreign bank accounts, and held the post of financial secretary at the time of her death.[8][9] Her father Steven stated his belief that Katsaris was one of the three most powerful people in the organization.[3] Katsaris and fellow inner circle member Carolyn Layton are noted to have assumed increased leadership responsibilities in the Temple's later years, as Jim Jones' heavy drug use escalated.[8]
During the high-profile custody battle between the Temple and defectors Timothy and Grace Stoen, whose son John Victor had been left with the Temple and sent to Jonestown in 1977, Katsaris cared for the boy.[10][11] It was reported that John Victor addressed Katsaris as "mother".[6]
Like other high-ranking Peoples Temple women such as Carolyn Layton, Grace Stoen and Teri Buford, Katsaris was sexually involved with Jim Jones.[8]
Research by journalist Julia Scheeres has found that Katsaris was intended to be part of an unrealized plot to hijack a commercial airliner and deliberately crash it. In 1975, Katsaris attended the Sierra Academy of Aeronautics in Oakland and received a private pilot's license, though she was instructed by Temple officials to only complete enough training to learn how to take the plane's controls.[12]
Events at Jonestown edit
Katsaris' father Steven was the chief organizer of the Concerned Relatives, a group of family members and Temple defectors who believed Temple members in Jonestown were being held against their will, and whose pressure prompted Congressman Leo Ryan to investigate the settlement in person.[13][14] Katsaris' 23-year-old brother Anthony traveled to Jonestown on November 17, 1978, with Ryan, other Jonestown relatives and a news team, while Steven stayed behind in Guyana's capital, Georgetown.[15][6]
Katsaris and her brother Anthony were interviewed side by side in Jonestown by NBC journalist Don Harris. Katsaris stated that she was happy in Jonestown, that she did not intend to return to the United States, and that there was "absolutely no problem between my brother and myself". Anthony expressed concern for his sister, and that it was hard to know that the words she was saying weren't "coming from somebody else's mouth".[16]
On November 18, Leo Ryan left Jonestown with his entourage, including Anthony, and several defectors. Jim Jones sent Temple gunmen to ambush them at the Port Kaituma airstrip, killing Ryan and four others and wounding Anthony.[17] Later that day, Jones called all Temple members in Jonestown to the pavilion to commit suicide.[18] Katsaris and Jones' other aides prepared a large metal tub with poisoned Flavor Aid for that purpose.[19][20]
Before the mass murder, Temple members Tim Carter, his brother Mike Carter, and Mike Prokes were given luggage by Katsaris containing $550,000 in US currency, $130,000 in Guyanese currency, and an envelope, which they were told to deliver to the Soviet Union embassy in Georgetown. Katsaris also reportedly arranged for money to be transferred from accounts in Swiss banks in Panama to the Soviet Union.[9][21]
Katsaris was a signed witness to the last will and testament of Jim Jones' wife, Marceline, as well as Carolyn Layton.[22][23]
An audio recording, known as the Peoples Temple "Death Tape", documents events leading up to, and a portion of, the mass suicide. On the tape, as the adults are giving the poisoned Flavor Aid to their children, a woman tells the crowd to keep calm, and infamously says that the children are "not crying from pain. It’s just a little bitter tasting". This woman is widely believed to be Maria Katsaris.[19][24][25]
Death and legacy edit
Katsaris died on the night of November 18 along with over 900 other Jonestown residents, though unlike the vast majority of victims, she died in Jim Jones' cabin.[26] The cause of death was assessed as probable cyanide poisoning.[27] A coroner's jury in Guyana ruled that of the victims of Jonestown, only Katsaris and Anne Moore, another of Jones' mistresses, had committed suicide of their own free will.[28]
Katsaris is buried in Potter Valley, California.[1] Her brother Anthony, though badly injured from the airstrip attack, recovered and became a teacher.[6][29]
References edit
- ^ a b c "KATSARIS, Maria S." Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
- ^ Cahill, Tim (1979-01-25). "In the Valley of the Shadow of Death: Guyana After the Jonestown Massacre". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
- ^ a b c "Did Sister Know About Brother's Ambush?". Los Angeles Herald Examiner. November 23, 1978. Retrieved October 27, 2023.
- ^ McCarthy, Ryan (2023-11-18). "45 years later". San Mateo Daily Journal. Retrieved 2023-11-20.
- ^ Stumbo, Bella (March 9, 1979). "Maria Katsaris: Jones Follower All the Way to the End". The Los Angeles Times. p. 3.
- ^ a b c d "Safe at Home". Ukiah Daily Journal. December 22, 1978. Retrieved October 27, 2023.
- ^ Weightman, J.M. (1984). Making Sense of the Jonestown Suicides: A Sociological History of Peoples Temple (PDF). Studies in religion and society. E. Mellen Press. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-88946-863-4. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
- ^ a b c d Abbott, Catherine B.; Moore, Rebecca (2018-09-27). "Women's Roles in Peoples Temple and Jonestown – Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple". Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
- ^ a b "Financial Letters of November 18 – Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple". Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. 1978-11-18. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
- ^ "The Custody Battle for John Victor Stoen and Its Fallout – Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple". Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. 1972-02-06. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
- ^ Yates, Bonnie (1978-11-18). "John Victor Stoen: The Unfortunate Son – Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple". Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
- ^ James, Scott (2011-08-12). "On Jim Jones's Agenda, a Prequel to Sept. 11". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2017-07-08. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
- ^ Scheeres, J. (2011). A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown. Free Press. p. 115. ISBN 978-1-4516-2896-8. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
- ^ "Peoples Temple and The Concerned Relatives – Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple". Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. 2013-02-17. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
- ^ Scheeres, Julia (2021-11-17). "'Help Us Get Out of Jonestown'". Newsweek. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
- ^ "NBC News archive footage of Jonestown". YouTube. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
- ^ "Reporter's 1978 account of deadly ambush, Jonestown tragedy". AP News. 2018-11-14. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
- ^ "Jonestown Audiotape Primary Project." Archived December 5, 2010, at the Wayback Machine Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple
- ^ a b Lusher, Adam (2018-03-07). "The Jonestown massacre and how 918 people followed a cult leader to Guyana and died in a single day". The Independent. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
- ^ Sutton, Candace (2018-10-27). "'How I survived Jonestown massacre'". NZ Herald. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
- ^ Reiterman, T.; Jacobs, J. (1982). Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People. Dutton. pp. 562–563. ISBN 978-0-525-24136-2. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
- ^ "Letter from Marceline Jones." Archived 5 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.
- ^ "Letter from Carolyn Layton." Archived February 5, 2015, at the Wayback Machine Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple. Jonestown Project: San Diego State University.
- ^ Scheeres, J. (2011). A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown. Free Press. p. 229. ISBN 978-1-4516-2896-8. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
- ^ Janos, Adam (2021-06-16). "What Was It Like to Die of Cyanide Poisoning at Jonestown?". A&E. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
- ^ "Coroner's Jury and a Cult Survivor Visit the Death Scene at Jonestown". The New York Times. 1978-12-15. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
- ^ "Autopsy Protocol" (PDF). jonestown.sdsu.edu. 2020-06-27. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2023-04-20. Retrieved 2023-10-28.
- ^ Krause, Charles (1978-12-23). "Guyanese Panel Rules All but 2 Were Murdered". Washington Post. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
- ^ Geniella, Mike (2003-11-16). "The day they 'stepped across'". The Press Democrat.