He has appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Christian Broadcasting Network, and Fox News. ", "I thought, what a waste. 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. 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. Larry's parole came two years earlier than his previously-scheduled release date of April 2004. Jones had become increasingly paranoid, convinced that the CIA, the FBI and the media were out to destroy him. Deep inside me, I still have the demons of shame and guilt.". Layton said the temple started out as a civil rights movement and he compared Jones to Martin Luther King Jr., but 'obviously things turned out differently,' he said. It was impossible to cope with the pain. As a temple member, Mrs. Layton separated from her husband and was said to have contributed $250,000 in family assets to the cult. Jonestown: 13 Things You Should Know About Cult Mas. Ryan was gunned down by a band of temple members intent on stopping the visitors from leaving and reporting the doings of the cult to the outside world. 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. At the end of the evening, Rep. Ryan walked onstage and thanked the group. [43] He also hosted a local talk radio show. Indescribable pain consumed me, leaving room only for a fleeting thought that I should pretend to be dead. The spellbinding preacher had a message that attracted many disaffected people of the 1960's, and soon Carolyn had stirred her husband's sense of social activism and brought him into the group. In August 1979, he joined the Coast Guard[9] and took part in the Mariel boatlift. Mr. Layton was also convicted of conspiracy in the attempted murder of Richard C. Dwyer, the deputy chief of the United States mission to Guyana, who was among those wounded at the airstrip. "[10], Lawton also founded the Reality Check Foundation, which is a 501(C)(3) charity that includes a mentoring program, and an annual golf outing. Everybody bolted in different directions. Mr. Layton's first trial ended in a mistrial on Sept. 26, 1981, when the jury was unable to reach a verdict on any of the counts. American author, Youtuber and jewel thief, "Police hunt clues in Cannes jewelry heist; ex-jewel thief says it was a pro job", "Florida sheriff reintroduces chain gang", "Ex-jewel thief says of Kim K's purloined baubles: 'They're gone. He is bewildered at how it all happened, groping for an explanation of what he called a Greek tragedy.. 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. Ryan did not look or behave like your typical politician. Mr. Jones, Deborah said, callously gave Mrs. Layton that news. Their accounts led to an expos in New West Magazine planned for publication in summer 1977. 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. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. We heard that the church had weapons, and that Jones was paranoid and possibly on drugs. 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. There is a sickening recording of Jones coercing his followers that day. His mother and father were cousins who had lived on adjoining estates, and in earlier generations the family's land, worked by slaves, had been prosperous. Infants cannot commit suicide. The child talked her out of it. 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. To the stretchers. Youll see what a wonderful place it is. He took us on a tour highlighting the most favorable aspects of the commune. 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. The cover of a Jonestown promotional booklet from 1978. 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. "If I hadn't been sent to Georgetown that day (in May)," Deborah Layton says now, "I would have died in 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. Hours later at the Jonestown emcampment, Jones led the death rite of himself and his followers. I wanted to leave my daughter a legacy that wasn't that simple.". 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. I spoke with a woman named Edith Parks, the matriarch of three generations of Temple members who wanted out. Layton complied, and Jones took Carolyn as his mistress. [28], After release he went to Palm Bay, Florida and started LL Research and Consulting and met a business partner. They swallowed poison capsules in a suicide attempt and were removed, unconscious, from the train. Her mother's cancer pain medications were taken away. I did not feel confident this was a good idea. '', See the article in its original context from. As I scanned the hundreds of smiling faces, I never could have fathomed that within 24 hours, virtually every one of them would be dead. I had read the articles and listened to hours of testimony. Inquiry by Congressman. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Debbie stood in line to drink the red liquid that she was told would kill her in a matter of minutes. We landed in Georgetown, Guyanas capital, on November 14, 1978. Sure enough, I could tell he had. Larry Layton Net Worth is $14 Million. [15] The robbers took $480,000 ($910,600.81 in 2022)[17] worth of gold and diamonds making it the biggest robbery in the city's history. Jones greeted us at the compound. Returning to the pavilion area, I sought out other anxious-looking members. Before going to print, the editor of the magazine, who held some esteem for Jones, felt compelled to call him and read aloud the article before it went to press. Mrs. Layton's daughter, Deborah, joined the cult five years ago. [10], Lawton executed his first robbery when he was 28, an inside job to collect insurance money. Congressman Ryans body was probably 15 feet away. 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. By the following year, Jones was making a reputation for himself in. He is the son of Lawrence L. Layton, a prominent biolgist at the University of California, and was raised in a cultural, intellectual atmosphere. Once, Debbie continued, Jones woke up the camp in the early hours of the morning. '', See the article in its original context from. [31] The DVDs contained condensed versions of Lawton's program and were 67 minutes long. One of the defectors wed interviewed claimed that Jones dyed them black. Debbie said the couple had gone to court to try to compel the Guyanese government to intervene; Rev. It was utter pandemonium. Her book "Seductive Poison" will be in bookstores in November. The bodies of Jones and 912 cult followers lay sprawled under the tropical trees of the commune, victims of an incredible murder-suicide rite. It looked staged. She mentioned a Bay Area couple, the Stoens, who had defected and were fighting for the return of their young son, John. View Source Suggest Edits Memorial Photos Flowers Created by: Mike Added: 6 Apr 2021 'Being in Peoples Temple wasn't always pleasant, but one had the feeling he was really doing something to advance society. Whatever impelled me to send in the card changed the course of my life. Deborah nursed her mother and tried to conceal that a physician had told her the cancer was fatal. ref: Benjy Esteves Jr Mark Consentino 94-95 Larry Layton 94-95 John McKaie 94-95 A few Temple members stood in front of a rusty dump truck waiting to shuttle us to the compound. Larry, sister Debbie and their mother, Lisa, all joined the temple while it was located in California. Nearly 300 children were administered the poison, including a number of infants in the arms of their parents. This time, it was not a drill. All of those people I had been standing beside, speaking to, sharing a cabin with. But finally her cancer became so advanced that It was necessary for surgeons to remove a lung. Onboard, every bump we hit shot an arrow of pain through my body. I couldnt immediately identify the deafening sound that filled the air. Its leader, the Rev. Years later, after Lisa Layton Joined the People's Temple, she would tell other members of the cult that her husband had been antiSemitic and was ashamed of her being a Jew. The Laytons were a family that seemed to have everything: intelligence, plenty of money, education, a proud family tradition of Quaker nonviolence. Jackie Speier manages a smile as she is wheeled on a stretcher at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, Nov. 20, 1978. Deborah said that before her escape she had obtained a bottle of wine and taken it to the commune against Mr. Jones's rules. [21] Lawton was arrested by the FBI on December 2, 1996, in Florida and charged with the Fairless Hills armed robbery. Over the next decade, Jones moved his congregation and changed its name several times before settling on Peoples Temple around 1964. Mrs. Layton divorced her husband in 1975 and their home on the Berkeley hilltop was sold. I knew him well enough to understand what would happen next. ''Why not pin this on Larry Layton, then close the book and not look at the hard questions of why Leo Ryan and all those Americans died?'' Among them were George Moscone, who the Peoples Temple played a significant role in electing mayor in 1975, and Harvey Milk, the pioneering openly gay city supervisor, who went so far as to write a letter to President Jimmy Carter extolling Joness work and rebutting charges that he was abusive. Charismatic and tall with salt-and-pepper hair, he commanded a room. I was later told that he had been shot 45 times. There were piles of used syringes at the scene. His appearance was part of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program. Almost immediately, Jones ordered Layton to Jonestown. ", 20 Years Later, Jonestown Survivor Confronts Horrors, LAYTON01/B/20OCT98/MN/SLF ---Deborah Layton is a survivor of Jonestown. After that trip, I remember telling myself that never again would I witness such violence at such close range. It was nothing of the kind. While he was never charged with shooting Mr. Ryan, the Government contended that Mr. Layton conspired with Mr. Jones and other cult members to kill the Congressman and others in his group to prevent them from returning to the United States with negative reports about Jonestown. Mr. Blakey survived the killings and suicides at Jonestown; he was on a boat owned by the commune at the time of the deaths. She carne back from that meeting in a state of shock, as if she had seen a ghost, her husband recalled. 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. The night before, our delegation watched Jones followers perform a show at their compound. At both trials here the prosecution presented a confession signed by Mr. Layton in Guyana shortly after the killings, saying that he took ''full responsibility'' for the deaths at the airstrip but also saying, ''I don't know why I did it. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Larry Layton was the only person prosecuted for any of the events in and around Jonestown. Before I could even comprehend what was happening, about a dozen men leapt from the tractor, leveled their automatic weapons, and fast approached. Jim Jones. Philip Wogaman, President and Mrs. Clintons pastor in Washington, D.C. made additional pleas for commutation of Larrys sentence. Anyone can read what you share. [30][33] He was the first ex-con to ever become an honorary police officer. The land later became the site of a large Union Carbide plant. Five bullets hit me from point-blank range, piercing my right arm, leg, and back. 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." They reported the car's license plate, which linked the car to Lawton. [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. Port Royal Speedway hosts a weekly schedule of local Sprint Car, Late Model, and Pro-Stock dirt track racing, and is nicknamed "The Speed Palace".Several national touring series organizations visit the track during the racing season, including the World of Outlaws . I felt my stomach knot. Education: Attended college in the area of San Francisco, CA. But when Larry Layton was growing up in the 1920's, the land was not worth much. The approach continued even after hed moved from Sacramento to Washington, D.C. Her marriage was ruptured by Mr. Jopes even before it could be consummated. When people refer to the Jonestown massacre as a mass suicide, I am enraged. Be the first to contribute! In June, she filed an affidavit with the State Department detailing the horrors in Jonestown, but got no response. The chaos persisted until, abruptly, a silence fell. Officers & convicted felon give 'real talk' to Havelock Middle School students", "Real-Life Jewel Thief Breaks Down Inaccuracies of GTA 5's Jewelry Heist Mission", "Was ein Ex-Hftling zu "Prison Architect" zu sagen hat", Former Jewel Thief Reviews Famous Heist Movies, From Oceans Eleven to Heat, Posey Presents Reality Check Community Champion Award to Thomas Reed of Rockledge, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Larry_Lawton&oldid=1140595137, Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 20 February 2023, at 20:41. Deborah watched at close hand her brother's mental deterioration under Mr. Jones's oppressiveness: Larry had been very hung upon Carolyn, he loved her, and Jim took her away from him and gave him Karen, but then he took Karen away, too. 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. We listened as she offered a detailed and disturbing account of her experience. | AP. Larry Layton, a former member of the People's Temple, broke into tears today at his trial on charges of conspiring to commit murder as his attorney told jurors not to make him a scapegoat ''for the horror of Jonestown.''. ''You've heard graphic details about what happenened on the airstrip,'' he said. Behind the wheel of an airplane, I waited for the shooting to stop and said my Act of Contrition, praying for forgiveness and waiting for the lights to go out. He spent 12 years in prison, and once released, began a career as a motivational speaker, life coach, and author. 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. Mrs. Layton saw Mr. Jones strip Larry of two wives. History. Dont know why youre here, but were happy to have you, Jones said. Jones responded by telling them that if any actions were taken to remove John, the entire Jonestown population would commit suicide. Layton, 35, emerged as the only defendant alive and available for prosecution in the government's attempt to exact justice from the Jonestown horrors. In 1972, Mr. Jones married Deborah Layton and Philip Blakey. 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. After Jones moved to Jonestown, and with Layton still in California, Layton's sister, a power in the hierarchy of the temple, defected and began to tell of atrocities at the jungle agricultural project. [40] Lawton has also shown concern over the prevalence of fentanyl-laced heroin, noting that in the past dealers had tried to sell pure heroin without any additives. Deborah Layton is now 45, lives in an elegant house in Piedmont and takes her 12-year-old daughter to play in soccer games. I dont have any money to donate, but Id like to volunteer. 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