On a quiet evening in Berkeley, California, on February 26, 1980, a brutal crime shattered the silence. Inside their modest home, Jeannie Mills, her husband Al Mills, and their teenage daughter Daphene were found executed—each killed by a single bullet to the head. Nothing was stolen. No signs of forced entry. Just a calm, calculated triple homicide that left more questions than answers. But this wasn’t just another unsolved murder.
This was the aftermath of Jonestown—a massacre that had claimed over 900 lives in a remote jungle in Guyana just one year earlier. And Jeannie Mills wasn’t just another victim. She was one of the first and loudest voices to defect from Jim Jones’ Peoples Temple—a voice that helped expose the cult’s dark underbelly. And that made her a target.
Born Deanna Gustafson, Jeannie Mills was once deeply embedded in Jim Jones’ vision. Along with her husband George (who would later change his name to Al) and their children, the family joined the Peoples Temple during its rise in California in the early 1970s. The Temple promised racial equality, spiritual fulfillment, and a utopian community. For a time, it delivered exactly that. But things changed.
As Jeannie got closer to Jones, she began to see behind the curtain—abuse, control, threats, and mind games. Their daughter Daphene was even given over to Jones in a disturbing show of loyalty, something the family would later deeply regret. In 1975, the Mills family did what few dared: they left. They took back their daughter, changed their names, and tried to reclaim their lives. But they didn’t go quietly.
Rather than disappear, Jeannie chose to fight back. She became a prominent member of Concerned Relatives, a group of ex-members and loved ones of current Temple members who lobbied the government to investigate Jones and Jonestown. She held press conferences, gave interviews, and tirelessly raised alarm bells about the atrocities being committed.
In 1979, she published “Six Years with God”, a scathing memoir of her time inside the Temple. It was one of the first firsthand accounts to lay bare the psychological manipulation and authoritarian control exercised by Jim Jones.
Jeannie was instrumental in drawing national attention to the growing cult, which eventually led to Congressman Leo Ryan’s ill-fated trip to Guyana in 1978. That visit ended in Ryan’s assassination—followed by the horrifying mass suicide-murder of over 900 people, including children, orchestrated by Jones.
Just over a year after Jonestown, tragedy returned to the Mills family.
On the night of February 26, 1980, Jeannie, Al, and Daphene were shot to death inside their Berkeley home. Their 17-year-old son Eddie Mills was home at the time but claimed he heard nothing, as he was listening to music through headphones in another room.
The scene was disturbingly quiet,
- No signs of forced entry.
- No robbery.
- No struggle.
Each victim was killed execution-style, suggesting the killer was familiar with the house and its occupants. Police were baffled.
