Jeannie Mills, Date of Birth, Date of Death

Jeannie Mills

American cult defector

Date of Birth: 02-Jul-1939

Date of Death: 27-Feb-1980

Zodiac Sign: Cancer

Jeannie Mills (July 2, 1939 – February 27, 1980), formerly Deanna Mertle, née Gustafson, was an early defector from the Peoples Temple movement headed by Jim Jones.
With her husband and Timothy Stoen, she co-founded the Concerned Relatives of Peoples Temple Members organization in 1977. Jeannie, her husband Al, and her children joined the Peoples Temple in 1969.
As Deanna and Elmer Mertle, Jeannie served as head of the Temple's publications office while her husband Al was the official photographer.
They left the group with their five children in 1974 after Jones beat their daughter Linda 70 times with a paddle for a minor infraction.
The family changed their surname to Mills to void the power of attorney they had earlier given Jones.After her defection, Mills published a memoir, Six Years with God: Life inside Rev.
Jim Jones's Peoples Temple, and established the Berkeley Human Freedom Center with her husband.
She later co-founded the Concerned Relatives of Peoples Temple Members, a support group for Jonestown defectors and their families.
The Concerned Relatives eventually persuaded United States Congressman Leo Ryan to undertake a fact-finding mission to Guyana that led Ryan's death, and to the Jonestown mass-murder.
After these events in Guyana, the Mills family initially holed up with other defectors in the protective custody of a police SWAT team, but eventually decided to resume normal life.