1 09-18-88 11:37 aed Jonestown `diary of the dead' resurfaces SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) _ Prophe

   1 09-18-88 11:37 aed Jonestown `diary of the dead' resurfaces

   SAN FRANCISCO (UPI) _ Prophetic notes written just before more
than  900  people died a decade ago in a mass murder-suicide at a
Guyana cult  commune  have  resurfaced  among  boxes  of  records
unsealed this month.

   Many of the notes were written by Mike Prokes, a lieutenant of
Peoples Temple  leader the Rev.  Jim Jones, and a survivor of the
cyanide killings of 913 people in November 1978.

   The letters by Prokes and other dissatisfied  Jones  followers
indicated  the  commune in South America was falling apart in its
final days.

   "I don't know how much longer I can take it," Prokes wrote. "I
mean the 'witchcraft.' I feel like I'm being programmed. I  enjoy
the  violence  when  I do it, but sometimes like right now I feel
sorry I did it.

   "I think I'm going to end it all with my .38; I  only  wish  I
could see my brains blown out."

   While Prokes survived the temple commune's mass suicide, a few
months  later  during a news conference he pulled out his .38 and
fatally shot himself in the head.

   The notes resurfaced this month among eight boxes  of  records
deposited  in  the  Peoples  Temple  archives  at  the California
Historical Society.      The   records   were   unsealed   by   a
court-appointed  receiver and excerpts were published in Sunday's
editions of the San Francisco Examiner.

   Jones, a San  Francisco  minister  who  used  sex,  drugs  and
brainwashing  to  keep  his  flock  together,  feared that temple
enemies such as defectors, reporters  and  federal  investigators
would invade and destroy his jungle empire.

   The  letters,  however,  indicate that the greatest threats to
Jones's power came from within.

   Jones and his commune shot into the international spotlight on
Nov. 18, 1978,  when  Rep.    Leo  Ryan,  D-Calif.,  an  Examiner
photographer, two NBC reporters and a temple defector were killed
during a fact-finding visit to Jonestown.

   Jones  then  issued the order for the mass murder-suicide, and
913 people including Jones drank or were forced to drink a  grape
drink laced with cyanide.

   Prokes was  not  the  only  dissatisfied  temple  member.  The
archives also include notes from Jones's son, Stephen, denouncing
his father, and one from an unnamed temple member  who  wrote  to
Jones,  "I  don't think a day has gone by that I fail to think of
me calling the FBI n you."

   Jones follower Gene Chaikin, a lawyer, wrote Jones that he was
"unwilling to continue in atmosphere of anxiety" and intended  to
leave. "I  detest being lied to and manipulated.  You have done a
lot of both."

   Witnesses said Chaikin was one of the  "suicide"  victims  who
was poisoned against his will.

   The newly released documents also include:

   _The  temple's  offer  to  be  part  of  a  massive  Vitamin C
experiment for Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling.  The  offer  was
rejected.

   _Memos from aides to Jones on how Vitamin B complex deficiency
and sleep deprivation were useful brainwashing tools.

   _Dozens  of  notes  from  temple  members  to Jones suggesting
revenge on  temple  defectors,  including  the  idea  of  selling
poisoned Christmas candy door-to-door.

   _Temple  letters  urging Soviet officials to let them set up a
commune on the Black Sea.