Marking Time ‘Til We Die

The plane touched down safely in Panama City, despite, or perhaps because of, the six-pack of Budweiser the pilot had shared with the co-pilot. The posse and the film crew agreed to try to look each other up if they were back in Panama City at the same time, and then went their separate ways.

Within half a day, the gang from Atlanta had traded a few hundred American dollars, some illicit trade goods, and a promise to cast some locals as “extras” in exchange for two Army surplus Jeeps, a Browning .50 caliber machine gun, enough supplies for Lightnin’ to rig up some Molotov cocktails and ammonia explosives, and contact with a fellow who had escaped “Frankstown.”

Over a few beers, Jefferson Tyler informed the group of the layout and population of the cult compound in the jungles of the Darien Gap, six or eight miles up the Rio Chucunaque from Yaviza, 150 or so miles southeast of Panama City. Fred Franks, leader of the Temple of the People’s Truth, had led about 1100 followers to the compound, where they spent their days listening to Franks’s sermons and working the compound’s fields and mines. Specifically, the black followers worked in the mines, while the white followers worked the fields and the Hispanic followers fished the river. Franks had hired a former Green Beret to handle security, and the guy had done a good job. There were numerous guard towers scattered about the compound, with a fence encompassing the grounds and a 100 yard swath of cleared ground beyond each fence. Tyler estimated 40-70 armed guards, some of whom stayed in the towers while the others patrolled the fence. The only ways into the compound were by boat up the Chucunaque, by rail up a rusty track that terminated at the abandoned gold mine, or by a muddy track that might be mistaken for a road if one squinted and had good shocks on his vehicle. When asked why he left, Tyler said that he’d gotten fed up with the camp after his wife’s latest “turn” with Franks, and snuck out before the guards could feed him to the camp’s pigs.

Alarmed by the Tyler’s description and details, the group discussed various plans for getting into and back out of the compound. Tyler shot down the “disguise ourselves as followers” idea, as most of the people in the camp had been through multiple weeks of brainwashing prior to being allowed into the flock. Lightnin’ suggested sneaking up to the camp to get some reconnaissance, but Milton didn’t seem to relish the idea of hacking through the jungle. Some of the other guys advocated sowing as much mayhem and confusion as possible, and looking for Dorothea Banks (Shanky’s girl) and Susan Flower amid the chaos.

During all this discussion, the posse kept noticing small groups of vehicles blasting through town, sometimes accompanied by small arms fire. Asking around revealed that there were a pair of long-distance races going on at the moment in celebration of the completion of one of the last stretches of the Pan-American Highway system. The northern section of the Highway ran from Alaska to Panama, terminating at Yaviza, while the southern section started in Colombia and ran to the southern tip of South America. One of the races ended at Yaviza, while the other ran all the way to Quellon, Chile. The group was heartened to hear about the race, because it meant they wouldn’t be the only gringos in Yaviza.

So, without agreeing to much of a plan other than, “Let’s go and see what happens,” the group thanked Jefferson Tyler, mounted up, and hit the road to Yaviza.