July 4, 1983, New York Times, Tragedy of Jonestown Cults is Shifting From Courts to History,

July 4, 1983, New York Times, Tragedy of Jonestown Cults is Shifting From Courts to History, 

SAN FRANCISCO, July 3— The stark wording of the final legal document filed by the State Attorney General barely suggests the magnitude of the tragedy.

''Because of the possibly historical significance of the events surrounding Peoples Temple on or about Nov. 18, 1978,'' it says, ''we deem it appropriate that information gathered by the Receiver not be destroyed but rather preserved for the use of historians and the general public.''

''The events'' were the murder of five people, including a United States Congressman, and the wounding of 11 others at Port Kaituma, Guyana, and the deaths of more than 900 followers of the Rev. Jim Jones, the leader of the Peoples Temple, at the cult's nearby outpost, Jonestown.

The temple's headquarters in San Francisco was sold years ago and, for a time, became the Korean Central Presbyterian Church. The boxes of index cards and metal files, the American flag and the mothballs, even Mr. Jones's oak pulpit, have all been auctioned. So have the duplex in Richmond, the bungalow in Watts, the vacant lot in Pasadena, all donated to the cult by members.

This month Robert H. Fabian, the man who has attended to every detail of the liquidation of the temple's assets, is to file his final report and deposit all his records and files with the California Historical Society.

With the filing of the report, legal action on the civil claims will come to a close. The plan for the safekeeping of the records was proposed by Mr. Fabian and approved by the Attorney General and the Superior Court in San Francisco. Mr. Fabian, a retired lawyer when he was appointed four and a half years ago to act as receiver of the cult's assets, closed out its bank accounts on June 30 after issuing the last checks in the total $9,485,760 awarded to 577 claimants.

The ''real challenge'' and ''the most emotional factor'' in settling the cult's business was dealing with the shipment and burial of 545 bodies that were returned from Guyana to California, Mr. Fabian said. Nearly 300 remained unclaimed and were buried in Oakland.

Mr. Fabian then turned to the monumental detective work of locating and consolidating the temple's assets and settling the $1.4 billion in claims against the estate. The bulk of the money, more than $7 million, was in Panamanian banks. Another $535,000 was gained for the estate from more than $1 million found in Guyana.

Because the money was brought into that country in violation of its currency regulations, it was technically contraband and subject to forfeiture. Mr. Fabian traveled to Guyana twice and filed five lawsuits before negotiating a settlement with Guyana's Government. U.S. Sought $4.3 Million

More than 70 lawsuits were filed against the estate, including one by the United States Government, which sought $4.3 million as reimbursement in expenses for recovering and transporting the bodies of temple members back to this country. Mr. Fabian was able to settle the claim for $1.4 million in actual costs to the estate.

The Federal Government also laid claim to temple assets in the form of unpaid taxes, successfully arguing that the organization had forfeited its tax-exempt status because of activities ''contrary to public policy.'' Although Federal tax agents spent nine months in his office going over records, income losses caused by the expense of moving the Peoples Temple and its members to Guyana meant that no Federal income taxes were owed, Mr. Fabian said.

In evaluating individuals' claims, Mr. Fabian said he did not attempt to investigate or assess fault for ''the events'' in Guyana. And because the claims far exceeded the assets of the estate, he negotiated a compromise amount for each one. The largest awards went to people wounded at the Port Kaituma airstrip and the families of those killed there. To evaluate those claims, Mr. Fabian reviewed extensive medical records and even viewed color photographs of the victims' wounds.

The single largest award went to one of those wounded, Jacqueline Speier, an aide to Representative Leo J. Ryan of California, who was shot to death on the airstrip. Miss Speier, now a member of the Board of Supervisors for San Mateo County, was granted about $360,000.

Mr. Ryan's five adult children received lesser amounts, as did the survivors of three journalists who had accompanied the Congressman on his fact-finding trip. Two cult defectors who were shot at the airstrip also received awards.

Larry Layton, a Peoples Temple member, was acquitted of attempted murder charges in connection with the shooting at a trial in Guyana. He was returned to the United States and tried in San Francisco on Federal charges of conspiring to murder Mr. Ryan and attempting to kill Richard C. Dwyer, the United States Deputy Chief of Mission to Guyana, who was wounded.

That case ended in a mistrial on Sept. 26, 1981, when the jury was unable to reach a verdict. The Government has reserved its decision on whether to try the case again, pending an appeal of some of the trial judge's rulings on evidence. Mr. Layton, according to one of his lawyers, is working and attending college.