Following the Flock

He had called the press conference, he said, to charge that the U.S. Government was withholding a tape recording that would show that no one had coerced the members of the Peoples Temple colony in Guyana into killing themselves. On the contrary, contended Michael Prokes, 32, who had been one of Jim Jones's top aides, the tape would prove that "they chose to die because it was an act of courage and a commitment to their beliefs."

Eight newsmen crowded into the motel room in Modesto, Calif., to hear Prokes read his statement. A former TV reporter, he had gone to Guyana with Jones in August 1977. Prokes had fled Jonestown just before the mass deaths. While carrying some $500,000 of the Temple's cash through the jungle, he and two others were arrested by Guyana police. They claimed they had been ordered by Jones to deliver the money to the Soviet embassy in Georgetown. Released by Guyana officials, Prokes had returned to California.

At his press conference, Prokes spoke for 25 minutes, defending Jones and insisting that the tape would show that the followers had gone serenely to their deaths. Then he walked into an adjoining bathroom, closed the door, placed a Smith & Wesson .38 against his right temple and killed himself.

Next day, when NBC-TV broadcast portions of the tape, it became clear that the mass suicides were not entirely voluntary. If Prokes had known that the tapes were about to become public, said his tearful mother, "he would, at the least, have waited" before joining his fellow cultists in death.

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