''They were trying to deny the horror of Jonestown and the deception that they underwent,'' Mr. Tamburello said. Layton was brought to trial in Guyana on charges of attempted murder and was acquitted. [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. Besides, when had a congressman ever been assassinated on foreign soil while on a congressional delegation trip? I was later told that he had been shot 45 times. By that time, it was obvious that some of his disciples intended to leave. . At one point, Congressman Ryan interrupted our tour to make sure that the press and Concerned Relatives had been given the transportation to join us. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. [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 have no idea how much time passed until I turned my head and opened my eyes. Jim Jones with a group of children living at Jonestown, circa 1978. [30][33] He was the first ex-con to ever become an honorary police officer. Ive shared my Guyana story countless times, but its still a challenge to go back and relive those days. Wiki Bio of Larry Layton net worth is updated in 2023. ''Look at whether their feelings against Jones were spilling over toward Larry Layton. When people refer to the Jonestown massacre as a mass suicide, I am enraged. Layton's mother, Lisa, had died of cancer 10 days before the mass suicide. Mrs. Layton divorced her husband in 1975 and their home on the Berkeley hilltop was sold. He is also charged with conspiring to harm Richard Dwyer, a United States diplomat who was wounded in the ambush. Mr. Tamburello accused prosecutors of going too far in describing the ambush on the Ryan party, which went to Guyana to investigate assertions that some members of the cult were being mistreated and were being held in Guyana against their wills. [15] The robbers had dropped off jewelry for repairs, and later returned to rob the store. Last year, Mrs. Layton became ill, and the diagnosis was what she feared most cancer. 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. 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. But when Larry Layton was growing up in the 1920's, the land was not worth much. Larry's parole came two years earlier than his previously-scheduled release date of April 2004. 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. When people refer to the Jonestown massacre as a mass suicide, I am enraged. Last spring Deborah decided she had to escape. As a temple member, Mrs. Layton separated from her husband and was said to have contributed $250,000 in family assets to the cult. Jones greeted us at the compound. 'Being in Peoples Temple wasn't always pleasant, but one had the feeling he was really doing something to advance society. ", Crimes for which children went to the well included "stealing food from the kitchen, expressing homesickness, failing a socialism exam, or even natural childish rebelliousness.". [22] Fingerprint evidence connected Lawton to the October 1994 Palm Bay heist, and he was charged with that crime as well. [16] Then in October 1994, four individuals robbed a jewelry store in Palm Bay, Florida. [2] The book is published in Italy, France, Australia, Germany, Thailand and United Kingdom. I was even unaffected by the rice weevils and other strange bugs we ingested daily.". 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. In fact, I would have been on that truck, with a rifle. Lawton filed a lawsuit against the prison and staff alleging that they violated his rights. While trying to keep the peace, he had been attacked with a knife. It was to be the secret of her life. See also [ edit] Jim Jones I barely got a wink of sleep. That was the last moment I remember with any real clarity before I surrendered my body to the medical staff. 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. Her childhood playmates included cousins and friends from some of the bestknown families of Germany's Jewish aristocracy, such as the Berensons and Rothschilds. The docket for Laytons trial through its various appeals through 1990 is here. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. [21] Lawton was arrested by the FBI on December 2, 1996, in Florida and charged with the Fairless Hills armed robbery. 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. I hope tonight is the last one. Lawton was critical of the move, saying that "[c]hain gangs send a bad message about [the US]." To the volatile flight home. 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. There is abundant evidence that Mr. Jones used such tactics to divide families and break up marriages. At Penn State, still barely able to speak English, she met Laurence Layton, who was studying for a doctorate in biochemistry and needed a tutor in German. Oh my God: Its true. 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. Wed have to make multiple trips in the truck. She got on the plane, leaving her mother behind. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 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. Mrs. Layton got a large share of the proceeds, as well as money from the sale of stock they had owned Jointly; this also was given to the cult. I had read the articles and listened to hours of testimony. They swallowed poison capsules in a suicide attempt and were removed, unconscious, from the train. #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. My ribs were broken. Once, Debbie continued, Jones woke up the camp in the early hours of the morning. The chaos persisted until, abruptly, a silence fell. After that trip, I remember telling myself that never again would I witness such violence at such close range. 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. Jim Jones, with his omnipresent dark glasses and his sweeping red robe, was the anchor of her newfound life and, like many Temple members, she was mesmerized by him. He said that some of the recipients could be innocent. 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. Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. In Jonestown, nobody could have any family attachments. [25], Law enforcement officials and judges have supported the program. I asked to speak to Monica Bagby, one of the names on Dons note. 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. I couldnt immediately identify the deafening sound that filled the air. Sure enough, I could tell he had. 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. Ten years later the road came to a dead end in the jungles of Guyana. In 1996, the family and friends of Larry launched a campaign for a presidential commutation. 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.. 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. Larry Howard Layton, 80, of Green Valley, AZ passed away December 10, 2020 from complications of COVID-19. She looks away for a moment, then brightens and starts to talk about a visit she made to Jonestown only a few months ago, accompanied by a crew from the Arts & Entertainment network, which is making a documentary on Peoples Temple. Jones responded by telling them that if any actions were taken to remove John, the entire Jonestown population would commit suicide. Mr. Jones also apparently widened the rift between Larry Layton and his father. I heard screams and the rapid pounding of gunfire. He spoke often of apocalypseJones chose Redwood Valley because he believed it was one of a few places in the country that could survive a nuclear holocaustyet insisted the Peoples Temple would exist as a sort of heaven on Earth, with himself in the role of God. "I felt we were doing something that had meaning. 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. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. None of those red flags made the congressman reconsider. Mr. Jones's cult included, at ohe time or another, six members of the Layton family. 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." Breathing heavily, I pulled myself to my feet, stumbled to the planes baggage compartment and took shelter. Congressman Ryans body was probably 15 feet away. Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby, it read. Jim Jones. [10], Lawton executed his first robbery when he was 28, an inside job to collect insurance money. 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. It was nothing of the kind. We split up, as Jones had arranged. 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. A former high school teacher, he was swept into politics by the idealism of the Kennedy era and elected mayor of South San Francisco before running for state Assembly. John Ford. Twenty years ago this month, Jones and 912 of his followers committed mass suicide at the jungle compound. Jim Jones, and 912 of his followers died by poison and gunfire in mass killings and suicides. 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. -- the signal that meant an attack was imminent, an excuse for conducting a suicide drill. 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. [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. [1][2], In 2007, he started the Reality Check Program to help educate at-risk youths on the consequences of breaking the law. Under the Federal parole system, a person sentenced to life in prison is not normally considered for parole until 10 years have been served. I would never have left Jonestown with Congressman Ryan. Anyone can read what you share. Jim Jones would order more than 900 of his followers to commit suicide. Mrs. Layton's daughter, Deborah, joined the cult five years ago. The outfits were a ridiculous gimmick, and the role was clearly objectifying. The night before, our delegation watched Jones followers perform a show at their compound. Her brother, Larry, later became the only person ever charged in connection with the airstrip massacre and, after two . "If I hadn't been sent to Georgetown that day (in May)," Deborah Layton says now, "I would have died in Jonestown. [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. 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. Like all of the tracks in the United States, it closed during the World War II years (1941-1945) and re-opened in 1946. By the time I returned, more than 900 people died. We heard that the church had weapons, and that Jones was paranoid and possibly on drugs. There is a sickening recording of Jones coercing his followers that day. They all swore that Jonestown was the one and only place they could ever consider home. It wasnt unusual for Temple members to be awakened at dawn over the loudspeaker and summoned to the pavilion for one of his increasingly unhinged sermons. Layton joined the temple in the summer of 1968 at Redwood Valley, Calif., near the town of Ukiah, after his wife, Carolyn, became interested in the social philosophy of Jones, preaching from his wooded compound. 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. ref: Sparkle Lee Larry Layton 40-36 Tony Lundy 40-36 Lindsey Page 40-35 2020-01-10: Alicia Napoleon Espinosa: L-UD. So many people wanted to defect that we had to call Georgetown to request an extra plane. While asserting that Mr. Jones was ''primarily responsible'' for the killings at the airstrip, Federal District Judge Robert F. Peckham said Mr. Layton would be eligible for parole after five years. 'A Tremendous Amount of Guilt'. 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. https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/17/us/cult-member-cries-over-plea-to-jury.html. ''Look at the poor diet, the loss of weight, the physical exhaustion, the desperation, the lingering illness and death of his mother and the fear of punishment and humiliation,'' he said. How could I not like the good things they were doing?. In the summer of 1977, after an expose of Peoples Temple in New West magazine, Jones and his followers fled to Guyana. It made no sense that he would be trying to leave Jonestown. Lawrence Robert Lawton (born October 3, 1961) is an American ex-convict, author, paralegal, motivational speaker, and YouTuber. Mr. Layton was also sentenced to three concurrent terms of 15 years each in related charges of conspiring to kill Mr. Ryan and in the attempted murder of a United States diplomat in the same incident. Her startling introduction to life there quickly allowed Layton to see the cracks in the facade. The first trial ended in a hung jury. He is bewildered at how it all happened, groping for an explanation of what he called a Greek tragedy.. Larry Layton can be an professional, known for Get away to Grizzly Hill (2000) and Viva . 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. The temple sent Layton to school for training as an X-ray technician. We accompanied Assemblyman Ryan to shopping centers and campaign events to pass out pamphlets and speak with voters. 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. That date was later moved back to April 2004, after the board credited him for his time in the Georgetown jail. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. "When I joined Peoples Temple, I was 17 and it was like joining the Peace Corps," she says. 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. [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. He knew that Jones had considerable political clout, with close ties to Democratic leaders in San Francisco, Sacramento, and even with the State Department. In Congress, he joined a March 1978 Greenpeace mission to investigate the slaughter of baby seals in Newfoundland, Canada. 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 Layton, who had boarded the small Cessna aircraft began open firing on its occupants which wounded several of them before he was disarmed by one of the people inside. The Laytons were a family that seemed to have everything: intelligence, plenty of money, education, a proud family tradition of Quaker nonviolence. 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. She died of cancer in Guyana three weeks before the death ritual. [7] Lawton attended Intermediate IS 192 and Lehman High School, but did not graduate. 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 . Not long after she left, her parents were rounded up with other Jews and placed on a train to a death camp. Layton's mother, who came from a wealthy family, divorced her husband and donated $300,000 to Jones' cause. Never one to accept second-hand information, he decided to embark on a fact-findingand potentially life-savingtrip. I was kicked. Although his mother was of German-Jewish descent, his family practiced the Quaker faith, and Larry was the family's firmest believer, according to his brother. | Amazon. They had passed. 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. In Jonestown Only one man, Temple member Larry Layton, was tried in the United States for his involvement in the November 18 events. Sam was far from the only person concerned about Jones malicious influence over a loved one. Later that night, Jones had another suicide exercise. [43] He also hosted a local talk radio show. Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Though driven by the kind of underlying insecurity that so often fuels tyrants, Jones appeared to offer hope, redemption, and an idealistic new life. He had engineered complete authoritycollecting members Social Security and disability checks, and determining when and how his disciples could communicate with their families. Inquiry by Congressman. After Larry and Carolyn Layton joined the cult, Larry stopped writing to his parents and would not accept phone calls from them. [15][18], In 1996, there was a robbery of a jeweler in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania. In May 1978, she was sent by Jones to Georgetown to chaperone some Temple children on a cultural exchange. He'd work you so hard you didn't have time to complain, and he'd blackmail you; he destroyed marriages and humiliated you.. 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 . I'm so desperately tired. Almost 22 hours after the ambush, I heard the groan of a planes enginefinally our escape had arrived. It was a mass murder. This time, it was not a drill. In addition, Mr. Layton was convicted of aiding and abetting the murder of Mr. Ryan and the attempted murder of Mr. Dwyer. Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). [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]. 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. 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. A bone shot out of my right arm, and a huge hunk of flesh had been blown off my thigh. I just needed to hang on. Traumatizing family rifts erupted on the spot, with mothers and fathers engaged in literal tug-of-wars over their children. [3], Lawton was offered a three-year sentence in exchange for disclosing his accomplices but did not take the deal. I noticed an elderly woman stuffing pieces of bacon into her pockets; the ample spread was just another showpiece. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. There were piles of used syringes at the scene. And then I realized that confirming one tiny detail could mean that the worst of the testimonies were true. Left-right: Jim Schollaert, Jackie Speier and Congressman Leo Ryan. His family, too, had had great wealth. Philip Wogaman, President and Mrs. Clintons pastor in Washington, D.C. made additional pleas for commutation of Larrys sentence. 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. 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. Subsequently, she arranged to leave the settlement on an errand for Mr. Jones and left Guyana on May 13. Reassured that they were on their way, we parked ourselves at a few picnic tables in the far corner of the pavilion area. Peoples Temple leader Jim Jones (left) shakes hands with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone (right) after being sworn in to serve on the San Francisco Housing Authority, Nov. 24, 1977. The letters were presented during the hearing which resulted in a recommendation for Larrys release. At Port Kaituma, while I ushered the defectors onto a plane, a large red tractor-trailer rumbled onto the airstrip. "[27] Another time he said: "I had my arms pinned down, and I was beaten and peed on by the guards. They visited her brother in Ukiah, listened to Mr. Jones's teachingswhich in many ways paralleled those of the Quakers and before long even Mr. Blakey's mother had flown from England to join the People's Temple for a short while. In San Francisco, his church was lauded for its social programs, and Jones efforts to feed the poor and fight segregation found receptive ears with progressive politicians. 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 . Phone calls from them occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems ; we are continuing to to! ] the book is published in Italy, France, Australia, Germany, Thailand and United.... Of attempted murder of Mr. Dwyer reassured that they were doing? Jones followers perform show... '' she says inside job to collect insurance money murder of Mr. Dwyer May 1978 she... 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