Congressman Ryan assured me that there was nothing to worry about. ", "I thought, what a waste. His battles with the church arent over, How Palm Springs ran out Black and Latino families to build a fantasy for rich, white people, U.N. envoy says Sudans warring sides agree to negotiate, Yellen says U.S. could hit debt ceiling as soon as June 1, U.S. says 20,000 Russians killed in Ukraine war since December, Speaker Kevin McCarthy addresses Knesset amid fraught U.S.-Israel ties, First Republic: Cheap, interest-only jumbo mortgages to Silicon Valleys elite fueled the banks failure. A few Temple members stood in front of a rusty dump truck waiting to shuttle us to the compound. 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. But how? Lawton was critical of the move, saying that "[c]hain gangs send a bad message about [the US]." [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. Mr. Layton's children said his one wish in his later years was that his son, Larry, could be freed. "It was a warm day and all of a sudden a breeze came up and the back door But Layton, saying he wishes he could ease the pain of survivors of the Jonestown massacre, could be freed within five years. Loudspeakers 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. Yes, Kool-Aid is bad for you. Those who refused were shot; children were injected with poison. Why is Frank McCourt really pushing it? How to plan a weekend getaway to Mount Shasta, Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). [8], In 2019, he made a video with Vanity Fair where he analyzed fictional robberies from films such as The Italian Job and Heat. I the doorbell in a frenzy of bright stripes and squiggles. [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. Sept. 26, 1981 Larry Layton: Survivor of the Peoples Temple Larry Layton, Quaker and pacifist, entered the Peoples Temple in 1968 to join the march to social justice as charted by the. However, Layton was acquitted of the lesser charges and the prosecution announced it would not try him on the murder counts, carrying a mandatory sentence of death by hanging. Moments later, Congressman Ryan emerged from a throng of people with a torn and bloodied shirt. The building showed few signs of its former use, although a floral design was etched in glass panes at the entrance. of Jones wove his way through the camp, repeating that he wasnt upset that they wanted to leave; it was just that they were doing it in the wrong way. It was a message that appealed to the dispossessed, which is why it made sense for the Peoples Temple to relocate to San Francisco around 1972. grandmother had committed suicide. broadcast Jones' voice at all hours. Layton was also quoted in a sentencing report to Peckham as saying that a cultist close to Jones had asked that he stop Ryan from leaving and gave him a gun. He. In fact, I would have been on that truck, with a rifle. Besides, when had a congressman ever been assassinated on foreign soil while on a congressional delegation trip? I did not feel confident this was a good idea. Laurence Laird Layton, a distinguished scientist whose later life was devastated by his family's involvement with the Peoples Temple cult, died Wednesday in his Emeryville home. A year later, I applied to college, and he wrote me a letter of recommendation. [10] He also founded the Reality Check program which aims to show teens the consequences of a criminal life. That Nov. 17, a delegation of reporters and relatives arrived in Guyana, It made no sense that he would be trying to leave Jonestown. 1970, and she was on summer vacation from the British boarding school He was met with mostly beaming declarations All of those people I had been standing beside, speaking to, sharing a cabin with. Their accounts led to an expos in New West Magazine planned for publication in summer 1977. The icon which characterizes Jonestown in the public mind is a picture of a galvanized metal vat, surrounded by bloated bodies. Then-State Assemblyman Leo J. Ryan behind the bars in a Folsom prison cell in Feb. 1970, where he spent a week living as an inmate to learn needs for reform. SAN FRANCISCO -- Former People's Temple member Larry Layton, freed from jail Thursday for the first time since the cult's 1978 mass murder-suicide ritual in Guyana, will be retried on. NBC news correspondent Don Harris was part of our delegation, and was well versed on the accusations against Jones. Returning to the pavilion area, I sought out other anxious-looking members. One of three family members who joined the cult, he was convicted Dec. 1 of conspiring with Jones to murder Ryan, a crusading San Mateo Democrat, and of conspiring in the attack on Richard C. Dwyer, then deputy chief of the U.S. mission in Guyana. The first issue is how do we settle it to make sure the ashes are where they belong at Evergreen where everybody is," she said, referring to the cemetery that is the site of the mass grave. For seven weeks, Clearing away those cobwebs meant writing a book -- it's called "Seductive Poison: A Jonestown Survivor's Story of Life and Death in the Peoples Temple." [15][18], In 1996, there was a robbery of a jeweler in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania. Lawton gained notoriety for committing a string of jewelry store robberies along the Atlantic Seaboard prior to his arrest in 1996. Larry Layton Obituary. because I was too Larry now lives in Northern California. Debbie said the couple had gone to court to try to compel the Guyanese government to intervene; Rev. My recovery continuedthough that very word is not an accurate description of the aftermath of being shot. The cremated remains of nine Jonestown victims were discovered in a decrepit, now-shuttered funeral home in Dover, officials said. [30][33] He was the first ex-con to ever become an honorary police officer. Hundreds of followers moved. believed he could best survive the atomic apocalypse he expected. Witnesses offer conflicting accounts, Mars Voltas lead singer broke with Scientology and reunited with the band. Authority; he (CHRONICLE PHOTO BY SUSANNA FROHMAN), Horoscope for Monday, 5/01/23 by Christopher Renstrom, Dubs fans picking apart video of possible Poole-Draymond incident, Destructive landslide closes historic California institution, Major SF retail store slated to permanently close, Warriors' biggest hater made a cowardly Game 7 'bet', Draymond Green rips Domantas Sabonis: 'Lost a lot of respect', More rain, 'unseasonably chilly' temperatures coming to Bay Area, Esalen Institute sued over alleged use of video with the N-word, Shock, fear as 2 killings in 3 days rock quiet Davis, Bay Area mom influencer found guilty of lying about kidnapping, Bay Area preschool teacher suspected of dumping body along road, 49ers out in full force at Warriors-Kings Game 7. On Nov. 18, 1978, on a remote jungle airstrip, gunmen from the group ambushed and killed U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan of California, three newsmen and a defector from the group. "They were looking for something larger than themselves to be involved . Don hung back for a moment before approaching Congressman Ryan and me at the picnic table and surreptitiously passing along the note. [10] In 2012, Lawton self-published Gangster Redemption, an autobiography co-written with Peter Golenbock. Peoples Temple gunman Larry Layton would not testify on his own behalf and opposed an insanity plea . Increasing numbers of people approached us. It was just a matter of time. Five months later, on the night of November 18, 1978, Jones sent a gang of gunmen to an airstrip in Port Kaituma, where Representative Leo Ryan of San Mateo and a fact-finding party that had visited Jonestown were preparing to leave. He also gave the former Peoples Temple follower credit for spending a year and 49 days in jail while his trial was pending--thereby reducing the potential sentence by that amount of time. Deep inside me, I still have the demons of shame and guilt.". and 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. In 1977, after a magazine expose, Jones and his followers fled to Jonestown, a compound carved out of the remote jungles of Guyana. "We would do what they wanted, either cremation or send the bodies back home. White Night!" The fact is, those who died in Jonestown were real people, with families, friends, and loved ones. ", (The night before the trip in December 1977, another secret: The | AP. SAN FRANCISCO . at the airstrip. Syringes surround one of the vats used to mix up the position drink used in the mass murder at Jonestown. grotesque dance of death. Layton was originally charged in Guyana with the attempted murder of three defectors from the Peoples Temple. died drinking juice?". The approach continued even after hed moved from Sacramento to Washington, D.C. He is. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. With the camp surrounded by his armed guards, he told his followers to give the medicinegrape FlavorAid and Kool-Aid laced with cyanide and tranquilizersto the children and the elderly first. All of those children. The article dissected Joness rise, revealing his practices of manipulation, public humiliation and fake faith healings, called out the Temples corrupt financial structure, and included ex-members testimonies of sexual assault and brutal beatings by Jones or at his command. consulate officials. United Press International. jumped out a New York apartment window before Layton was born.). Some were cremated. Then a tractor-trailer from the People's Temple arrived, and its occupants opened fire on the entire group, including both planes. 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. I wanted to be part of something that was doing things for other people, and besides, Peoples Temple offered a community of friends. "But The store owner managed to break free and grabbed a .38 caliber pistol and fired five shots at the robbers as they fled. Infants cannot commit suicide. 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. | AP. She mentioned a Bay Area couple, the Stoens, who had defected and were fighting for the return of their young son, John. [16] Then in October 1994, four individuals robbed a jewelry store in Palm Bay, Florida. After being airlifted to a U.S. military base in Puerto Rico, he was sent onward on to a hospital in Santa Rosa, California, where his father and brothersall of them armedprotected him from the "angels" he believed the late Jones would send to finally finish him. Twenty years ago this month, Jones and 912 of his followers committed mass suicide at the jungle compound. fixture. Infants cannot commit suicide. Jones then orchestrated a ritual of mass murder and suicide at the group's nearby agricultural commune, ordering followers to drink cyanide-laced grape punch. The killings occurred shortly before more than 900 followers of Jones died in a mass suicide at Jonestown, a settlement founded by Jones in the remote Guyanese jungle of South America. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? While on the phone listening to the allegations that would soon be made public, Jones scribbled a note to his aides: We leave tonight.. 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. Laytons two ex-wives--both had been lured from Layton by Jones--also encouraged him to somehow stop Ryan, Russoniello said. was ambushed Then, as a group of men dug the truck out of the mud, we heard a loud commotion from the pavilion. 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. Jonestown was the agricultural compound Jones' followers carved out of the Guyanese jungle, 150 miles northwest of the nation's capital, Georgetown. Dwyer, who was wounded in the attack, has retired from the Foreign Service. rite of Breathing heavily, I pulled myself to my feet, stumbled to the planes baggage compartment and took shelter. Larry Layton, a passenger posing as a defector, started shooting. into mass suicide. And he assigned two of his staff members to come along: Jim Schollaert and me. He had engineered complete authoritycollecting members Social Security and disability checks, and determining when and how his disciples could communicate with their families. We worked quickly to locate and speak to the individuals whose families had contacted our office and had been campaigning for their return. The Guyanese did not release Layton until now because one of his defense lawyers said his client owed him $37,000 in unpaid bills. I am taking solace in knowing that Larry Layton is going to pay back society for having assassinated the first congressman ever in this country, said Assemblywoman Jackie Speier (D-San Mateo), who had accompanied Ryan on the trip as an aide. for A man followed him and slipped a folded piece of paper into his hand, then disappeared back into the crowd. Jones had become increasingly paranoid, convinced that the CIA, the FBI and the media were out to destroy him. Layton, the cult's X-ray technician and a former conscientious objector, allegedly posed as a false defector from Jones and left the Jonestown commune the day of the mass-suicide. | AP. Lawton gained notoriety for committing a string of jewelry store robberies along the Atlantic Seaboard prior to his arrest in 1996. Larry Layton was the only person prosecuted for any of the events in and around Jonestown. At the compound, Don wandered off to smoke a cigarette. Robert Bryan, who took over the case after Laytons conviction, said he hopes to win a new trial for Layton. (AP) -- Thirty-five years ago, funeral directors in Delaware struggled to quickly bury and cremate the remains of more than 900 people who died in a suicide-murder in Jonestown, Guyana, many of them Peoples Temple followers who drank cyanide-laced punch. Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. Hurrying out of bed, Layton would race toward Jones "in my mud-caked boots, past the tin-roofed cabins, past the wooden outdoor showers where we're allowed our two-minute wash at the end of our 11-hour days in the field." How did the Peoples Temple recruit members? 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. 'It's time to come in and say, 'Goodbye.' Jones ran the Peoples Temple in San Francisco in the early 1970s. where her worried parents had sent her to curb adolescent rebellion. We landed in Georgetown, Guyanas capital, on November 14, 1978. I had no idea. "If I hadn't been sent to Georgetown that day (in May)," Deborah Layton says now, "I would have died in Jonestown. I wanted to leave my daughter a legacy that wasn't that simple.". Larry Layton later became the only person ever charged in connection with a massacre at the nearby Port Kaituma airstrip. Ryan, three journalists and a defector were killed. (It was the 60s.) As I shook his hand, I looked at his sideburns. He and four others were killed. November 18, 1978 When did the Jonestown massacre occur? Some were shot by It was a mass murder. It was utter pandemonium. Excerpt from UNDAUNTED: Surviving Jonestown, Summoning Courage, and Fighting Back by Jackie Speier, reprinted under a license arrangement originating with Amazon Publishing. (The night before she'd left for the school, her father had stunned her Young and unanchored, Layton was charmed as Jones fixed his penetrating Besides, when had a congressman ever been assassinated on foreign soil while on a congressional delegation trip? [3][4] He has acted as a spokesman for prisoners and prisoner issues,[5] been a vocal advocate for prison reform, and made appearances in the media as an expert on robberies. In between his trials, he lived under an assumed name in Eureka and, more recently, in San Francisco, where he sold real estate and took computer classes. 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. I hope tonight is the last one. This time, it was not a drill. The Kool-Aid Man is merely a jug a sentient jug whose morning routine is filling himself with water and then pouring some Kool-Aid powder into his head, so he can then crash through walls and provide sugary goodness to the neighborhood kids. Layton's sister Debbie's departure from the Peoples Temple and denunciation of Jones in May 1978 led her brother to leave California to join the settlement in Guyana. He has appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Christian Broadcasting Network, and Fox News. I couldnt bear the vision of her sitting in front of my casket. Northern California Larry now lives in Northern California.. Jim Jones' compound in Guyana, a witness testified Wednesday. 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.". "Whatever journey the ashes took in the U.S. is secondary. It was. Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby, it read. The tumult of the late 60s and early 70s had left masses of people searching for a greater sense of security and purpose. [19][20] One bullet narrowly missed Lawton, but struck his brother. The night before, our delegation watched Jones followers perform a show at their compound. I had read the articles and listened to hours of testimony. November 18, 1978 I just needed to hang on. Escape came in May 1978 when Jones sent Layton to Georgetown as Offenders sweltered in "The Box," a 6-by-4-foot "I understand what these well-meaning secrets were for," Layton says. Individually, their insistence would have been hard to question. He treasured it. Where is Larry Layton today? Lawrence Robert Lawton (born October 3, 1961) is an American ex-convict, author, paralegal, motivational speaker, and YouTuber. Larry Lawton is the only ex-con in the US to be sworn in as an Honorary Police Officer and the only ex-con to be recognized on the Floor of the United States Congress for helping Young People . In the two years since, Jones and most of his followers had left the Bay Area and moved to Jones commune deep in the jungle of Guyana. Layton was arrested shortly after the killings by Guyanese authorities and signed a confession taking responsibility for the airstrip deaths--a confession that his lawyers maintained was coerced. [13], In May 1994, three males robbed a jewelry store in Daytona Beach, Florida, netting $500,000 (nearly $950,000 in 2022)[14] worth of gold and diamonds. homeless and help addicts get clean. Ryan joined us for the trekone of roughly two dozen of us crammed in the bed of the truck, with dozens of would-be defectors left behind, belongings packed, waiting to escape. Back in the compound, Jones was choreographing He said that some of the recipients could be innocent. and He would hang a picture of my mom in his office and look at it in an effort to immunize himself to the feeling of loss, to challenge himself so he would get over it. [42][13], Lawton has made many media appearances. Youll see what a wonderful place it is. He took us on a tour highlighting the most favorable aspects of the commune. To the stretchers. Members of the press and the Concerned Relatives waited behind on the airstrip until the truck could come back for a second load. I dove beneath the plane, hiding behind the wheel as bullets thumped against the metal above me. As I was lying seven miles away waiting for medical help, Sam Houstons granddaughters, Patricia and Judy, 14 and 15, were murdered, along with their mother, dozens of other would-be defectors and the rest of the Peoples Temple. When she tried to write about abandoning her mother, who would die 10 in. In all, 913 died. [26] He was incarcerated in many prisons during his sentence, which included Jesup in Georgia, Riker's Island in New York, Edgefield in South Carolina, and Yazoo City in Mississippi. Jones, who founded his church in Indiana and moved here in 1970, relocated to Guyana, a former British colony in South America, in 1977 after critical press accounts about his politically prominent sect.

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