Jackie Speier was catapulted into national prominence when her congressman boss was murdered, and she survived five gunshot wounds in the notorious Jonestown massacre 37 years ago.
As a staffer for The Associated Press, I wrote many stories about Speier and Jonestown then and over the years, but I met her face-to-face for the first time on her recent visit to a San Quentin News Forum.
I was able to fill in a gap in her view of how the Jonestown story began. It happened this way:
After ahalf-dozen years in other AP bureaus, I returned to the San Francisco office in 1978.
One of the first people I encountered was Robert “Sammy” Houston, a long-time friend and AP colleague who was the bureau’s photo darkroom guy.
“How you doin’, Sammy?” I asked.
“Not very well,” he replied. Since I had seen him last, he had surgery for throat cancer and used a gadget pressed to his neck to talk. But that wasn’t his main concern.
Sammy explained that his son had become involved with the Jim Jones cult based in San Francisco. The son was a probation officer who also had worked a night job in the Southern Pacific rail yard. At one point, he tried to break ties with the Jones cult.
Then one night the son was run over by a rail car and died. Suspicions linger to this day as to whether it was an accident or murder.
Not long after that, Jones became concerned about investigations into some of his activities and by stories in the San Francisco Examiner by Tim Reiterman. Jones fled, moving his flock of about 1,000 men, women and children to a jungle site in Guyana, South America.
The group included the widow of Sammy’s son and Sammy’s two young granddaughters.
“I’ve tried everything to reach them, but they don’t respond to phone calls or letters,” Sammy told me. “I’m worried sick, and I don’t know what to do.”
“Well,” I replied, “if I were you, I’d ask my congressman to look into it.”
“That’s a great idea!” Sammy enthused. “My congressman is Leo Ryan. I know him, and he knows me because he taught my son and daughter in high school.”
So Sammy contacted Congressman Ryan, who put together a group to go to Jonestown, Guyana, on a fact-finding mission. Ryan’s group included Sammy’s wife and daughter and several people from the news media, including journalist Reiterman, who is now AP news editor in San Francisco.
After visiting Jonestown, Ryan told the residents that anyone who wanted to leave could go with him. A few did, but when Ryan’s group reached the airplane landing strip, some of Jones’ thugs showed up with guns blazing.
Ryan and several of the group died, and several others were wounded, including Speier and Reiterman. The survivors, including Sammy’s wife and daughter, hid in the locked airplane and in the jungle, flying out the next day.
When investigators returned to Jonestown, they found 911 bodies, including Jones and Sammy’s two granddaughters and their mom. The hundreds died from cyanide-laced Kool-Aid. Jones died of a gunshot to his head.
After her recovery, Speier served on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, the California Assembly and is now in the U.S. House of Representatives, in the seat once held by Leo Ryan.
