Why Does FBI file on Jonestown talk about Mark Lane

[Robbie Robertson]

https://vault.fbi.gov/jonestown/jonestown-part-279-of/at_download/file

Edited August 14, 2022 by Robbie Robertson

[Robbie Robertson]

[Pat Speer]

Mark Lane was Jim Jones' lawyer. Lane made public statements suggesting that the government was conspiring against Jones.

I asked Mark about this once. I asked him if he felt any responsibility for what happened. He said no. That he was as surprised as anyone when Jones started killing people. Lane said furthermore that he was terrified for his life and had to race across the jungle to safety. I suspect he discusses this in his autobiography, which, strangely, I never got around to reading. 

[Bill Fite]

35 minutes ago, Pat Speer said:

Mark Lane was Jim Jones' lawyer. Lane made public statements suggesting that the government was conspiring against Jones.

I asked Mark about this once. I asked him if he felt any responsibility for what happened. He said no. That he was as surprised as anyone when Jones started killing people. Lane said furthermore that he was terrified for his life and had to race across the jungle to safety. I suspect he discusses this in his autobiography, which, strangely, I never got around to reading. 

He discusses it in the Pauley Perrette documentary - Citizen Lane which is an incredibly interesting film.

The Jonestown segment is quite harrowing.

 

[Pat Speer]

14 minutes ago, Bill Fite said:

He discusses it in the Pauley Perrette documentary - Citizen Lane which is an incredibly interesting film.

The Jonestown segment is quite harrowing.

 

Yes, thanks for the reminder. I watched that documentary a few years back. It was well worth the time. 

[Gerry Down]

I didn't know there was a "Plaza Man" version of Mark Lane. Nice.

[Paul Brancato]

5 hours ago, Bill Fite said:

He discusses it in the Pauley Perrette documentary - Citizen Lane which is an incredibly interesting film.

The Jonestown segment is quite harrowing.

 

Thanks for posting this. It’s nice to recall Mark Lane in this way. He was my intro to JFK. As a 16 yr old I saw him speak to groups twice in NYC, and a year or two later debate Melvin Belli on the subject. I wonder now if my father, who encouraged me to hear him speak, had known of him previously. We lived in East Harlem for the first 4 years of my life, and my father worked politically there are that time.

[James DiEugenio]

He actually wrote a whole book about this experience called The Strongest Poison.

And there is a chapter about it in his  memoir book Citizen Lane.  

The above film by Perrette is kind of adapted from that book.  And that film is well worth watching.