Al and Jeannie Mills were some of the most famous defectors from the Peoples Temple. They thought they were safe from Jim Jones — until death arrived at their door in Berkeley.
Reverend Jim Jones and his wife, Marceline, are seen in a photograph taken from a pink photo album left behind in Jonestown, Guyana.After Al and Jeannie Mills defected from the Peoples Temple, Jeannie wrote a memoir about their life in the cult. She called it “Six Years With God.”
A photograph of the Mills family taken around 1973, when they still were members of the Peoples Temple. The top row shows Al, Diana and Jeannie. The bottom row shows Daphene and Eddie.In late 1969, a friend told them about a fascinating preacher named Jim Jones who was leading a congregation in Mendocino County. In “Six Years With God,” Deanna wrote that her ears pricked up when the friend mentioned Jones had “helped thirty young people kick the drug habit.
The Mertles were powerful allies as Jones expanded his empire. They were also ruthless and paranoid. In “Road to Jonestown,” crime writer Jeff Guinn recounted the story of a 19-year-old girl who hitchhiked her way to Mendocino County. The Mertles, who often cared for temple children, took her in. The teen wrote letters to her family back home, but no one ever replied. Heartbroken, she stopped writing.
It was finally too much for the Mertles. In the fall of 1975, they defected. Guinn called them “the worst sort of enemies that Jones could have imagined.” “Eddie and Daphene didn’t want to go to school alone, so I started driving them to and from,” Jeannie wrote. “Each time we went out in our car, another car followed us. We were now living under Jim’s reign of terror.”Matthew NAYTHONS/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Peoples Temple follower Larry Layton stands with police following his arrest on Nov. 18, 1978, on a remote Guyana airstrip near Jonestown.The news was devastating — and terrifying — for former Peoples Temple members in the Bay Area. Berkeley police put the Human Freedom Center under 24-hour surveillance amid rumors that assassins were roaming the streets, sent by Jones to eliminate defectors.
Around 9 p.m., Berkeley police received a frantic call from Al’s mother, who had left her room for a quick visit to the cottage. When police arrived at the scene, a bloodbath awaited them.
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