I noticed an elderly woman stuffing pieces of bacon into her pockets; the ample spread was just another showpiece. [10] In 2012, Lawton self-published Gangster Redemption, an autobiography co-written with Peter Golenbock. On November 17, we landed at the tiny airstrip at Port Kaituma. He said the trial was not the place to examine the deaths of 913 people at the cult's settlement in Jonestown, Guyana. Inquisitive by nature, he was a proponent of experiential legislating, preferring to go out and experience issues firsthand before he decided what to do. "I was ready to be overwhelmed by emotion," she says, "but when we got into the area, it just wasn't there. [1][2], In 2007, he started the Reality Check Program to help educate at-risk youths on the consequences of breaking the law. After over twenty years in prison, Larry Layton was released on parole in 2002, largely due to the testimony of Vernon Gosney, one of the few survivors of the massacre, and the Federal Chief Judge, Robert F. Peckham. #3 Journalists and Defector Killed Mr. Layton was the only person charged in the United States with criminal acts arising from the events of Nov. 18, 1978, when Mr. Ryan and a group of journalists and relatives of other cult members were ambushed at the Port Kaituma airstrip in the jungle near Jonestown. A short time later, Larry married his second wife, Karen,whom Dr. Layton would come to know as a loving, sweet person.. 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 we were doing something that had meaning. He preached a social gospel, attracting devotees while promoting a community that did not discriminate or take into account race, background, or previous circumstances. When cameras were rolling, he spoke of how he loved them and how there would always be a place for thembut those declarations would be followed by thinly veiled mutters about treason and liars. Jackie Speier manages a smile as she is wheeled on a stretcher at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, Nov. 20, 1978. Sam was far from the only person concerned about Jones malicious influence over a loved one. Jones became active in local politics, giving money, running food programs and busing Temple members to attend rallies and get out the vote for his favored candidates. [18], Lawton is believed to have hit around 20 to 25 jewelry stores,[11] stealing a self-estimated total of around $1518 million worth of high-value items, including watches, diamonds, and other gems. Anyone can read what you share. He attended Berkeley High School and was the editor of a campus newspaper called The Liberal. '', ''In a sense,'' he said, ''it would be easy to transfer the responsibility of Jones and put it on Larry Layton.'' | Amazon. Mrs. Layton saw Mr. Jones strip Larry of two wives. 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. A few Temple members stood in front of a rusty dump truck waiting to shuttle us to the compound. In a cabin with about six women from the Temple, I took a top bunk, sweating as a downpour opened up outside. Ten years later the road came to a dead end in the jungles of Guyana. Lawton filed a lawsuit against the prison and staff alleging that they violated his rights. They were cal culated to make you feel someone has to pay. We worked quickly to locate and speak to the individuals whose families had contacted our office and had been campaigning for their return. | AP. I barely got a wink of sleep. Ryan wanted to investigate. At the end of the evening, Rep. Ryan walked onstage and thanked the group. When people refer to the Jonestown massacre as a mass suicide, I am enraged. Much later, Layton writes, she would find them "on the bookshelf in Father's house with the many other prescription drugs taken from Temple members.". [10] Afterwards, another jewelry store in Lower Bucks County became suspicious of a person they believed was casing the place for a future robbery. Hours after the incident, the Rev. 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. But Lisa escaped from Hamburg, and in 1938, stunned by the antiSemitism she had seen, she arrived in New York with a determination never to reveal to anyone that she was Jewish. 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 in November 1978. White Night!" He. Mr. Layton believes that his wife gave Mr. Jones at least $250,000 and possibly more; he said she had some secret accounts of her own that apparently contained money from her father. Infants cannot commit suicide. Id come to Guyana as a congressional aide on a fact-finding mission. All of those children. [15] The robbers had dropped off jewelry for repairs, and later returned to rob the store. [25], Law enforcement officials and judges have supported the program. That same year, Congressman Ryan read a newspaper article about a constituent of his named Sam Houston, whose son had been a member of Jim Jones Peoples Temple and, in 1976, died under suspicious circumstances after having a phone conversation in which he confessed to wanting to leave the group. But, as interviews last week with family members and friends revealed, the Laytons slowly disintegrated under the pressures of family conflict, the disillusionment that gripped much of America during the 1960's, drug use, and the soothing, simplistic appeal of Mr. Jones. "They would be taken to the Jonestown well in the dark of night, hung upside down by a rope around their ankles, and dunked into the water again and again while someone hidden inside the well grabbed at them to scare them. Anyone running afoul of Jonestowns security detail was put in a labor camp and forced to clear jungle. [8][12] At one point, he purchased an Italian pizza restaurant in North Lauderdale, Florida, which he later burned down as part of an insurance fraud. The outfits were a ridiculous gimmick, and the role was clearly objectifying. That date was later moved back to April 2004, after the board credited him for his time in the Georgetown jail. Mr. Layton cried as his attorney described conditions at Jonestown and said that many prosecution witnesses must feel guilty for leaving loved ones behind to die. The months passed, and suddenly I finished a book and looked up, and no one was here., I walked up and down the street and looked at the stars and, wondered what I had done wrong, I think she felt was not as affectionate as I might have been, he said. 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. Earlier, United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello asked Judge Peckham to sentence the 40-year-old defendant to life in prison, serving a minimum of 20 years before being considered for parole. 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 Richard Dwyer, a U.S. diplomat wounded in the attack. | AP. The bodies of Jones and 912 cult followers lay sprawled under the tropical trees of the commune, victims of an incredible murder-suicide rite. In 1972, Mr. Jones married Deborah Layton and Philip Blakey. The robbers drew what police at the time believed were firearms, and restrained the store owner. Jones had a penchant for suddenly getting on the compound loudspeaker long after everyone had gone to bed and shouting, "White Night! But this particular morning, Jones told his followers that they had to kill themselves to keep from being tortured by mercenaries who were preparing an ambush. Dr. Layton was from a world substantially different from the aristocratic one of his bride. Over the next decade, Jones moved his congregation and changed its name several times before settling on Peoples Temple around 1964. Not a single person we spoke to expressed a desire to leave, not even those whose family members had flown all the way to Guyana. | AP. Later that night, Jones had another suicide exercise. I asked to speak to Monica Bagby, one of the names on Dons note. From eyewitness and survivor accounts, the program recreates the last week before the mass murder-suicide on November 18, 1978. To the tarmac. Mrs. Layton divorced her husband in 1975 and their home on the Berkeley hilltop was sold. 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. The 35-year-old defendant is charged with conspiring to murder Representative Leo J. Ryan, the California Democrat who died Nov. 18, 1978, with three journalists and a temple defector in an ambush at an airstrip near Jonestown. 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. They recovered and with the help of friends managed to reach Italy, later coming to the United States. ref: Benjy Esteves Jr Mark Consentino 94-95 Larry Layton 94-95 John McKaie 94-95 Youll see what a wonderful place it is. He took us on a tour highlighting the most favorable aspects of the commune. They called it Jonestown. ''Look at whether their feelings against Jones were spilling over toward Larry Layton. Jones, who demanded that his flock call him Father, was one of the most politically powerful people in San Francisco, wined and dined by such luminaries as Rosalynn Carter, Assemblyman Willie Brown, Mayor George Moscone and Lieutenant Governor Mervyn Dymally. Please help us get out of Jonestown. Soon after, Don was approached by another member, who claimed that many Temple members desperately wanted to leave but were too terrified to come forward. Debbie stood in line to drink the red liquid that she was told would kill her in a matter of minutes. There were piles of used syringes at the scene. I did not recover my old self; bullets render that impossible. Ryan decided that we would wait until the morning and suggested we keep a low profile until then. See the article in its original context from. ''It is not the proper forum for answering questions about Jonestown.'' The "Greeting Committee" promptly confiscated all their clothes and belongings and, most important, their passports. It was an implausible ending for the fiery preacher, who had curried favor among the fashionable elite of the Democratic Party. Nearly 30 years later, her mother long dead in a rotting jungle outpost in Guyana, her brother doing life in a federal prison and her father so broken that he weeps at the mention of anything connected with Jones-, town, Deborah Layton has, as she put it the other day, "decided it was time to come out of the cobwebbed attic.". The defense attorney urged jurors to consider conditions at Jonestown and their impact on Mr. Layton. In 1970, as chairman of a committee overseeing prison reform, he assumed a pseudonym and had himself booked, strip-searched and incarcerated for 10 days at Folsom State Prison, revealing his. A year later, I applied to college, and he wrote me a letter of recommendation. Mr. Jones repeatedly sent word to her that he could cure her from Guyana, and she waited for his efforts to work. She is known by many of her relationships - longtime lover of Jim Jones, mother of Jones' child Jim Jon (Kimo) Prokes, sister of Annie Moore, former wife of Larry Layton, former sister-in-law of Debby Layton - as well as the sometimes-mysterious roles she played within the Peoples Temple hierarchy. 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. [44] Lawton has a YouTube channel, and he has made videos analyzing heists in movies and video games such as Grand Theft Auto V; he also plays Prison Architect.[44][45]. Before I could even comprehend what was happening, about a dozen men leapt from the tractor, leveled their automatic weapons, and fast approached. Instead he proposed a better use of law enforcement resources would be to "help inmates with drug addiction. None of the Temple members showed any interest in receiving correspondence from home. In the mid and late 1960's, when Berkeley became the scene of frequently tumultuous antiwar demonstrations and other protests, Larry and Deborah Layton joined many of the demonstrations and began experimenting with drugs. The next year, his church relocated to Redwood Valley, a small community in northern California. https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/17/us/cult-member-cries-over-plea-to-jury.html. ", Looking back on it 20 years later, she says, "I put everything in denial and locked it down. Within minutes, Ryan and four others were shot dead. Jones died from a bullet to the brain. They were issued four T-shirts, four pairs of socks, a toothbrush and toothpaste, four pairs of underwear and a bar of soap. There is abundant evidence that Mr. Jones used such tactics to divide families and break up marriages. It was just a matter of time. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. See also [ edit] Jim Jones ''They were trying to deny the horror of Jonestown and the deception that they underwent,'' Mr. Tamburello said. Larry Layton was the only person prosecuted for any of the events in and around Jonestown. bout wiki. Not long after she left, her parents were rounded up with other Jews and placed on a train to a death camp. [8], In 2019, he made a video with Vanity Fair where he analyzed fictional robberies from films such as The Italian Job and Heat. Jim Jones led 912 followers in a ritual of murders and suicides. [37], Lawton is an advocate for prisoners and their rights, and comments on the justice system. [19][20] One bullet narrowly missed Lawton, but struck his brother. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. The hundreds of elderly were told that if they attempted escape, they would be left to die prolonged deaths alone in the depths of the jungle. In Jonestown Only one man, Temple member Larry Layton, was tried in the United States for his involvement in the November 18 events. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Education: Attended college in the area of San Francisco, CA. Deep inside me, I still have the demons of shame and guilt.". This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Jim could really get to people, Deborah recalled in an interview. She died of cancer in Guyana three weeks before the death ritual. Returning to the pavilion area, I sought out other anxious-looking members. Mrs. Layton's daughter, Deborah, joined the cult five years ago. This was not a mass suicide. Leo Ryan wanted answers. [26] Lawton does not hold a degree in child psychology or criminology. 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 . Almost immediately, Jones ordered Layton to Jonestown. At 16, Im not sure I understood what a state assemblyman did, but when my parents received a solicitation from Leo Ryans reelection campaign in 1966, I mailed back a note: Im in high school. It was nothing of the kind. Larry's parole came two years earlier than his previously-scheduled release date of April 2004. Later, Jones also became enamoured of the new Mrs. Layton and soon added her, too, to his growing harem of temple members. An uncle, Dr. James Franck, won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1935. Members of the press and the Concerned Relatives waited behind on the airstrip until the truck could come back for a second load. 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. In June, she filed an affidavit with the State Department detailing the horrors in Jonestown, but got no response. But I refused to spend the rest of my life as a victim of Guyanathere were too many of them. Breathing heavily, I pulled myself to my feet, stumbled to the planes baggage compartment and took shelter. She got on the plane, leaving her mother behind. [21] Lawton was arrested by the FBI on December 2, 1996, in Florida and charged with the Fairless Hills armed robbery. As I took down their names, I looked over at Don Harris, who was interviewing Jones. In addition, Mr. Layton was convicted of aiding and abetting the murder of Mr. Ryan and the attempted murder of Mr. Dwyer. And he assigned two of his staff members to come along: Jim Schollaert and me. They had passed. 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. ", "Every week we're promised death, a relief from this miserable life. Congressman Ryan assured me that there was nothing to worry about. [35][36] It also hosts an annual bowling tournament. 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. I had read the articles and listened to hours of testimony. 2023 Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple, Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple is a, The Campaign to Release Larry Layton from Federal Prison, to petition then-President Clinton to commute Larrys sentence. She arrived in London at 16, was met by some cousins and got what she would later call the biggest surprise of her life: I discovered that I was Jewish.. The book describes the events that occurred in Jonestown, Guyana, where over 900 people lost their lives as the result of mass forced suicide, which constituted the largest loss of American civilian life (other than due to natural disasters or during the course of violence with Native Americans) in United States history until the events of LOS ANGELES, Dec. 3 Her name was Lisa Philips and she was so beautiful that friends said she looked like Hedy Lamarr. But, she said, I had to tell somebody what was happening in Jonestown. Her book "Seductive Poison" will be in bookstores in November. While the tathiiy was unique in its deep involvment with Mr. Jones, the story of the Laytons tells a great deal about why and how hundreds of other families became tangled in his persuasive web of religion mixed with social activism. The store owner managed to break free and grabbed a .38 caliber pistol and fired five shots at the robbers as they fled. In 1970, as chairman of a committee overseeing prison reform, he assumed a pseudonym and had himself booked, strip-searched and incarcerated for 10 days at Folsom State Prison, revealing his identity only when it was time to be released. We heard that the church had weapons, and that Jones was paranoid and possibly on drugs. He is also charged with conspiring to harm Richard Dwyer, a United States diplomat who was wounded in the ambush. Is the Stanley Quencher tumbler worth its TikTok hype? Almost 22 hours after the ambush, I heard the groan of a planes enginefinally our escape had arrived. Inquiry by Congressman. [15][18] Local police believed there was a connection between this robbery and a robbery that took place in May 1994 in Daytona Beach, and contacted the FBI. He has appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Christian Broadcasting Network, and Fox News. Left-right: Jim Schollaert, Jackie Speier and Congressman Leo Ryan. Dick Dwyer, an embassy official, showed us a slideshow of his visit to Jonestown the previous Mayimages in which he and Jim Jones looked unnervingly chummy; images of tables filled with food, of joyful children on a swingset, of bountiful crops and an exuberant church session. We didnt want a group to present a canned response or any individual to look to others for their answers. Lawrence Robert Lawton (born October 3, 1961) is an American ex-convict, author, paralegal, motivational speaker, and YouTuber. But at the time, none of that occurred to me; I was thrilled to be working for a candidate I believed inone who always treated me with respect. 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. [42][13], Lawton has made many media appearances. He was acquitted after presenting a defense of brainwashing. In 1968, Carolyn Layton became the first member of the family to be enticed by Mr. Jones's diatribes against the rich, the Vietnam War, social injustice and racism. Her brother, Larry, later became the only person ever charged in connection with the airstrip massacre and, after two . Behind his dim glasses, Jones preached love and equality while manipulating his followerstaking their property and having them sign over their paychecks and Social Security. Life in Jonestown became a drab and exhausting routine of dawn-to-dusk labor in the fields, replete with swarms of voracious mosquitoes that even went after the toughened soles of people's feet. Larry Layton had gotten onto the truck with us, which struck me as a glaring red flaghe was an entrenched member of the hierarchy, one of the true believers. Suddenly, my body was crushed by a blow to my side. Indescribable pain consumed me, leaving room only for a fleeting thought that I should pretend to be dead. A growing body of constituents known as the Concerned Relatives wrote Congressman Ryan with increasing alarm about their daughters or sons who had accompanied the charismatic demagogue to Guyana. Though driven by the kind of underlying insecurity that so often fuels tyrants, Jones appeared to offer hope, redemption, and an idealistic new life. One night, when Mr. Jones was conducting an hourslong lecture to the commune, she arranged to be placed on duty helping to operate a shortwave radio that transmitted Mr. Jones's directives to cult members in San Francisco. The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, better known by its informal name "Jonestown", was a remote settlement in Guyana established by the Peoples Temple, a U.S.-based cult under the leadership of Jim Jones.Jonestown became internationally infamous when, on November 18, 1978, a total of 909 people died at the settlement, at the nearby airstrip in Port Kaituma, and at a Temple-run building in . Elin Cederroos: Ocean Resort Casino, Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA. [25] He received an additional sentence in 2002 for giving false witness. Jim Jones, and 912 of his followers died by poison and gunfire in mass killings and suicides. An eyewitness who escaped described how people who did not cooperate were injected with poison where they sat, or were held down and injected with poison.. I heard screams and the rapid pounding of gunfire. The land later became the site of a large Union Carbide plant. [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. We saw an impressive community with dozens of pathways, cabins, a medical center, a little school, and a large pavilion where the members congregated regularly. I would never have left Jonestown with Congressman Ryan. [28], After release he went to Palm Bay, Florida and started LL Research and Consulting and met a business partner. Anyone can read what you share. Larry Layton Biography It looks like we don't have any Biography for Larry Layton yet. [29][13] The program is four hours long. At Port Kaituma, while I ushered the defectors onto a plane, a large red tractor-trailer rumbled onto the airstrip. Jones greeted us at the compound. Layton and her mother arrived in Jonestown in December 1977. By the time I returned, more than 900 people died. Jim Jones had taken my place. '', See the article in its original context from. The chaos persisted until, abruptly, a silence fell. [7] In grades one through six, Lawton served as an altar boy at St. Francis de Chantal in The Bronx,[8] where he was sexually abused by a Catholic priest. As he grew older, Dr. Layton gravitated from Methodism to Quakerism, a faith with roots in the Reformation whose tenets included nonviolence, racial and religious toleration, rigorous selfdiscipline, and love and good works for the needy. ', "O.J. Oh my God: Its true. The approach continued even after hed moved from Sacramento to Washington, D.C. Lisa Layton's youngest son, Larry, is now under arrest in Guyana, accused of murdering Representative Leo J. Ryan and four other persons in the attack that eventually led Mr. Jones to order the mass deaths. Lawrence Robert Lawton (born October 3, 1961) is an American ex-convict, author, paralegal, motivational speaker, and YouTuber. Mr . When Deborah came home from school in England in 1971, she brought a boyfriend, George Philip Blakey, a fellow Quaker and the son of a welltodo farming family in Northumberland. Traumatizing family rifts erupted on the spot, with mothers and fathers engaged in literal tug-of-wars over their children. In August 1979, he joined the Coast Guard[9] and took part in the Mariel boatlift. That was the last moment I remember with any real clarity before I surrendered my body to the medical staff. "If I hadn't been sent to Georgetown that day (in May)," Deborah Layton says now, "I would have died in Jonestown. 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. Tony Tamburello, the defense attorney, told jurors in his closing arguments that the prosecutors had sensationalized the case against Mr. Layton in the three-week trial in Federal District Court. I grew up with the Bible and the Puritan work ethic, he recalled in an interview. [7] He became known as one of America's biggest jewel thieves and made the FBI's most wanted list in 1996. After graduating from the University of California campus at Davis in 1968 with a degree in social science, Layton and his wife moved to the Ukiah area and soon met up with the temple. 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. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. I felt my stomach knot. 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. After her operation, Mrs. Layton moved to Guyana. She managed to contact her sister in Davis, who wired a ticket to Georgetown, where Layton and other Temple members were staying in a house the Temple owned. The petition for commutation filed with the Pardon Attorney in 1997 included 87 letters of support from former members of Peoples Temple, relatives of people who died in Jonestown, former prisoners and prison officials who knew Larry, scholars of religious studies and new religious movements, and members of the clergy. To the volatile flight home. [6][11] In 2010, Lawton filmed the pilot and sizzle reel for Lawton's Law, a reality show based on his work with at-risk youth. Although some of Joness most zealous followers may have consumed the poison voluntarily, the vast majority were murdered outright and against their will. [10] High school students can use the time spent in the program towards the 75 hours of community service required for the Bright Futures Scholarship Program. Jim Jones. I was kicked. Dr. Layton recalls that his wife began to resist his sexual advances and, when he protested, offered to move out. | AP. It was impossible to cope with the pain. The early release culminated a six-year campaign during which members of his family worked with a core of supporters, first to petition then-President Clinton to commute Larrys sentence, then to convince the Parole Commission to modify its earlier decision on a release date. I just needed to hang on. After that trip, I remember telling myself that never again would I witness such violence at such close range. ''This is a criminal case against Larry Layton,'' he said. 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