Jim Jones would order more than 900 of his followers to commit suicide. The approach continued even after hed moved from Sacramento to Washington, D.C. Her book "Seductive Poison" will be in bookstores in November. 'Being in Peoples Temple wasn't always pleasant, but one had the feeling he was really doing something to advance society. Ryan decided that we would wait until the morning and suggested we keep a low profile until then. Ever on the alert for malcontents, Jones would order recalcitrant Temple members -- those who questioned his authority -- into "The Box," a stifling underground cubicle the size of a coffin. [2] The book is published in Italy, France, Australia, Germany, Thailand and United Kingdom. Nearly 300 children were administered the poison with no comprehension of what it meant, including a number of infants in the arms of their parents. I would be in the first group; Congressman Ryan insisted that he stay behind to make certain that every person who wanted to leave made it to Port Kaituma safely. Judge Peckham also set April 21 for a hearing on a motion for a new trial filed by Mr. Layton's new defense attorney, Robert R. Bryan. I heard screams and the rapid pounding of gunfire. Individually, their insistence would have been hard to question. January 15, 2007. He genuinely believed that he had some sort of protective shield around him, despite the fact that we werent traveling with any military escort or protection. ''Look at whether their feelings against Jones were spilling over toward Larry Layton. Also there was a strong feeling of community -- people of all races who really cared about each other.'. There was no movement, but I thought the others might also be playing dead. Mrs. Layton's daughter, Deborah, joined the cult five years ago. [10] He was sentenced for racketeering and robbery and spent 11 years in prison before being released in 2007. On November 17, we landed at the tiny airstrip at Port Kaituma. I knew him well enough to understand what would happen next. But he ordered them separated before they had consummated the marriage, and Mr. Blakey eventually left California to join the party establishing the cult's Guyana settlement. They called it Jonestown. A few Temple members stood in front of a rusty dump truck waiting to shuttle us to the compound. Dr. Layton recalls that his wife began to resist his sexual advances and, when he protested, offered to move out. (It was the 60s.) Mr. Jones also apparently widened the rift between Larry Layton and his father. By Katherine Bishop, Special To the New York Times. Just click the "Edit page" button at the bottom of the page or learn more in the Biography submission guide. Many hours before the plane came, somehow, word filtered in that after Jones had released his death squad to the airstrip, he had led more than 900 of his flock into his White Night of death. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Twelve hours had passed as I lay, teetering on deaths precipice when a light turned on inside me: The simple fact that I knew I was dying was proof that I was, indeed, still alive. The morning after our arrival, Congressman Ryan, Jim Schollaert and I attended a closed-door briefing by Ambassador John Burke and his staff at the U.S. Embassy. Politically, there was nothing to gainand everything to loseby taking on Jones, and there was no telling what hed do if confronted and challenged. He was found guilty of conspiracy and aiding and abetting in the murder of Ryan and the attempted murder of U.S. embassy official Richard Dwyer and was sentenced to Read More Mr . In a book written by his brother, Thomas, after Ryan's death, Larry is quoted as saying he believed in the goals of the community, even though life was not always Utopian. 'I was a fool to leave California, but then I was a fool long before that,' he said. Should they have any doubt of his intentions, they could look to the vibrant community of believers who echoed his sentiments and treated his words as gospel. Last spring Deborah decided she had to escape. Congressman Ryan and I were among the first shift of the delegation to climb in for the excruciatingly slow six-mile drive to the commune. Family Tragedy: Hitler's Germany to Jones's Cult, https://www.nytimes.com/1978/12/04/archives/family-tragedy-hitlers-germany-to-joness-cult-the-layton-familys.html. Jonestown: 13 Things You Should Know About Cult Mas. UNDAUNTED: Surviving Jonestown, Summoning Courage, and Fighting Back, write a letter to President Jimmy Carter extolling Joness work, California's road to recovery runs through D.C. Republicans, Why New Jerseys ventilator guidelines may favor younger, whiter patients, Rhode Island ends specific restrictions on New Yorkers by making them national. I'm so desperately tired. [10] He also founded the Reality Check program which aims to show teens the consequences of a criminal life. Before I could even comprehend what was happening, about a dozen men leapt from the tractor, leveled their automatic weapons, and fast approached. My mother had cared a lot for my father, but Jim broke it up.. Youll see what a wonderful place it is. He took us on a tour highlighting the most favorable aspects of the commune. In 1996, the family and friends of Larry launched a campaign for a presidential commutation. -- the signal that meant an attack was imminent, an excuse for conducting a suicide drill. I wanted to be part of something that was doing things for other people, and besides, Peoples Temple offered a community of friends. Deborah and Larry Layton were still with Mr. Jones at that point, having remained as key lieutenants even after his doctrine of good works and selflessness had begun to become an increasingly paranoid selfadulation. 1998-11-02 04:00:00 PDT CALIFORNIA -- For a young woman of 17, flinging herself on the world after the cloistered atmosphere of an English boarding school, Peoples Temple seemed daring and exciting. The defense attorney urged jurors to consider conditions at Jonestown and their impact on Mr. Layton. In the months leading up to the trip, my boss, Congressman Leo Ryan, had been contacted by worried constituents whose loved ones were members of a San Francisco-based religious group called the Peoples Temple, which had fled to South America for the promise of a utopian commune led by their preacher, Jim Jones. Leo Ryan assured me that there was nothing to worry about. Jones died from a bullet to the brain. | Amazon. Syringes surround one of the vats used to mix up the position drink used in the mass murder at Jonestown. His first encounter with organized crime was through his father, a metal worker who delivered bribes to the New York mafia. His father was a research scientist. View Source Suggest Edits Memorial Photos Flowers Created by: Mike Added: 6 Apr 2021 On the plane to Guyana, Nov. 18, 1978. Larry Layton was convicted in 1986 by a federal jury in San Francisco of conspiring in the 1978 murder of California congressman Leo Ryan and aiding and abetting in the attempted murder of. The shootings took place on one of the airplanes which were to take the party of Congressman Leo Ryan to Georgetown after his visit to Jonestown. While trying to keep the peace, he had been attacked with a knife. The store owner managed to break free and grabbed a .38 caliber pistol and fired five shots at the robbers as they fled. A year later, I applied to college, and he wrote me a letter of recommendation. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. "And I thought, if I get hit by a truck, my epitaph will be, 'Jonestown survivor dies on Bay Bridge.' Her involvement in the cult, he said, was useful activity, taking care of poor people; she said so much that she looked down at wealth and had guilt feelings, and Jim Jones helped her get rid of them. His family, too, had had great wealth. Layton complied, and Jones took Carolyn as his mistress. "[33] Lawton and the police chief later appeared before United States Congress in recognition of the program. He was born in the mountains of West Virginia, between White Sulphur Springs and Charleston, to a family that had helped settle Virginia 225 years earlier and claimed ancestors datmg from the Mayflower. Then, as a group of men dug the truck out of the mud, we heard a loud commotion from the pavilion. It was impossible to cope with the pain. ", Looking back on it 20 years later, she says, "I put everything in denial and locked it down. Jones became enamoured with Carolyn Layton and told Larry he wanted her for his own. In Jonestown, nobody could have any family attachments. They recovered and with the help of friends managed to reach Italy, later coming to the United States. He is bewildered at how it all happened, groping for an explanation of what he called a Greek tragedy.. In 1969, to get her away from the drugs and other attractions in Berkeley, Dr. Layton and his wife decided to send Deborah to a Quaker school, Ackworth, in the countryside of Yorkshire, England. After his campaign received my note, I started volunteering as a Ryan Girl, part of a troop of young women clad in houndstooth bobby hats, miniskirts, black tights, black turtlenecks and bright-white boots. Their daughter, after working briefly as a physical therapist in New York, went for graduate study as a therapist to Pennsylvania State University, where her uncle, Dr. Franck, was teaching. Jackie Speier manages a smile as she is wheeled on a stretcher at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, Nov. 20, 1978. But her childhood, she said later, was not a happy one. When people refer to the Jonestown massacre as a mass suicide, I am enraged. He said the trial was not the place to examine the deaths of 913 people at the cult's settlement in Jonestown, Guyana. Nearly 300 children were administered the poison, including a number of infants in the arms of their parents. [26] Lawton does not hold a degree in child psychology or criminology. They had passed. Lisa Layton was the next member of the family to join the cult. The next year, his church relocated to Redwood Valley, a small community in northern California. Jackie Speier is a congresswoman representing Californias 14th congressional district, which includes San Francisco and the peninsula.Excerpt from UNDAUNTED: Surviving Jonestown, Summoning Courage, and Fighting Back by Jackie Speier, reprinted under a license arrangement originating with Amazon Publishing. The "Greeting Committee" promptly confiscated all their clothes and belongings and, most important, their passports. Larry Layton can be an professional, known for Get away to Grizzly Hill (2000) and Viva . [11] He then began robbing jewelry stores along the Atlantic Coast,[3] using his contacts within the Gambino crime family to fence the stolen merchandise. SAN FRANCISCO Larry Layton was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for his role in conspiring to murder Rep. Leo Ryan in Guyana in 1978. History. Over the next decade, Jones moved his congregation and changed its name several times before settling on Peoples Temple around 1964. Larry Layton, a former member of the People's Temple cult, was sentenced today to life in prison for aiding and abetting in the murder of Representative Leo J. Ryan at a jungle airstrip in Guyana . She had an extremely anxious demeanor, and we moved quickly as we went to her cabin to pack. Sam was certain Jones had something to do with his sons death. His appearance was part of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program. Larry Layton, Quaker and pacifist, entered the Peoples Temple in 1968 to join the march to social justice as charted by the temple's mesmerizing leader, the Rev. I grew up with the Bible and the Puritan work ethic, he recalled in an interview. To the stretchers. Larry, after graduating from Berkeley High School, enrolled at the University of California at Davis and soon was living with Carolyn Moore, a student whose father was a Protestant minister in Davis. By the time I returned, more than 900 people died. As I was transferred onto a gurney, I was conscious enough to look up and see a big, gleaming white plane with The United States of America written on the side. The news at the time and the history lessons to follow usually fail to mention that a number of Peoples Temple members were shot, several of whom were in the field between the pavilion and the jungle, clearly trying to escape the massacre. Mini Biography. It was nothing of the kind. After she left, he discovered that she had given a number of family valuables to the People's Temple. Dr. Layton was perplexed by his wife's behavior but began sleeping beside her on the floor. Three witnesses appeared on Larrys behalf before a parole hearing at the federal prison at Lompoc, California, including attorney Frank Bell and Loren Buddress, the former Chief Probation Office for the Northern District of California. Her brother, Larry, later became the only person ever charged in connection with the airstrip massacre and, after two trials, was convicted in 1986 of conspiring to murder Ryan. I never played; I never learned how. The parole examiner said he was deeply troubled that Larry had remained in prison for so long well in excess of the five years recommended by the sentencing judge and noted Larrys exemplary behavior while in federal custody. With its bell-ringing calls for social justice -- this was in the fractious 1960s and early '70s -- the little-known church near Ukiah catered to the closet revolutionary in Deborah Layton. She used a telephone in the radio shack to call her sister in California, who arranged to have an airline ticket waiting for her at the airport in Georgetown, Guyana. I felt my stomach knot. Dr. Layton had learned of his wife's religious background after they were married, but the couple had agreed not to tell anyone, especially their children. All of those people I had been standing beside, speaking to, sharing a cabin with. [16] Then in October 1994, four individuals robbed a jewelry store in Palm Bay, Florida. Mr. Blakey survived the killings and suicides at Jonestown; he was on a boat owned by the commune at the time of the deaths. Mr. Jones's cult included, at ohe time or another, six members of the Layton family. The two store owners were bound while two individuals robbed the store and a third acted as a lookout and the other as the getaway driver. In the summer of 1978, Lisa Philips Layton died of cancer in Jonestown, Guyana, three months before the Rev. [10][26] While recounting his prison experiences he said: "I saw inmates stabbed and friends die" and "I saw young men raped and pimped out as prostitutes for other inmates. This was not a mass suicide. We compiled similar testimonies from other defectors who corroborated Debbies reports of physical and sexual abuse, forced labor and captivity. Breathing heavily, I pulled myself to my feet, stumbled to the planes baggage compartment and took shelter. The tumult of the late 60s and early 70s had left masses of people searching for a greater sense of security and purpose. Larry Howard Layton, 80, of Green Valley, AZ passed away December 10, 2020 from complications of COVID-19. Dont know why youre here, but were happy to have you, Jones said. [27] Lawton says he regrets his time spent in prison, because he missed out on seeing his children grow up; his grandmother died, and his father became afflicted with Alzheimer's disease while he was inside. 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