Speculation on the Tucker relatives [message #8471] |
Wed, 12 November 2014 16:31  |
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I have a speculative thought on just why Bill Tucker insisted on leaving his family for an uncertain future with the USMC: that they were members of the People's Temple, and that he or someone he knew had been molested by Rev. Jones at some point when he was in his teens, and he was desperate to get away from Jones and his disciples. This would have been around the period when the San Francisco branch temple was formed (1970), and he may have used that as an excuse to distance himself from the main temple in Rosewood, CA before he got up the courage to talk his father into signing the enlistment papers.
This would also explain why none of them have tried to get in touch with him again - they are all dead, killed during the Jonestown Massacre. It is possible some others escaped the cult as well and survived, but if so, Bill probably doesn't know about them.
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Re: Speculation on the Tucker relatives [message #8472] |
Wed, 12 November 2014 23:17  |
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Sir Lee Messages: 440 Registered: October 2003 Location: São Paulo, Brazil |
Senior Member |
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Well, it's an interesting theory, certainly. It also might fit with his choosing M.I.T. rather than Berkeley or Stanford -- put as distance as possible between he and his family.
But I don't know. Bill never struck me as a Californian type. And if they had all died in 1978, his attitude regarding his family might have mellowed a bit -- seeing at least some of them as victims, for instance. Yet he still seems to be very hostile to them.
Also, there are two minor inconsistencies with Bill's characterizations:
1. The Peoples Temple doctrine had explicit socialist leanings. Bill considers himself a leftist. One would expect that his hatred towards the "cultists" in his family to extend to leftist doctrine.
2. The Peoples Temple had its roots in Indiana. Best guess regarding the location of Tuck stories is in an Indiana suburb of Cincinnati. Sarah's family apparently is from the East Coast, so no links there; they probably moved to Indiana for job-related reasons.
I would think that, if his family were in the Temple, Bill would look for jobs anywhere *but* California and Indiana.
[Updated on: Wed, 12 November 2014 23:31] Don't call me Shirley. You will surely make me surly.
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