Surviving Jonestown - POLITICO Magazine afraid. No names were released publicly because relatives hadn't been notified. The Prosecutions of Larry Layton - Alternative - Jonestown He pulled out a gun and shot and wounded two cult defectors. It was 1970, and she was on summer vacation from the British boarding school I had no idea. Find showtimes and movie tickets near you at Megaplex Theatres. Don hung back for a moment before approaching Congressman Ryan and me at the picnic table and surreptitiously passing along the note. They reported the car's license plate, which linked the car to Lawton. he Besides, when had a congressman ever been assassinated on foreign soil while on a congressional delegation trip? well, it wasn't there. They had passed. Laytons lawyer said that made Layton more susceptible to Jones spell. 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. grandmother Layton thought had died of a heart attack in Hamburg actually Northern California 1978 Cult Figure Gets Life Term in Congressman'S Jungle Slaying Funeral directors say it is not uncommon for family members to never retrieve cremated remains. The phrase drinking the Kool-Aid refers to followership at its worse. [7] He became known as one of America's biggest jewel thieves and made the FBI's most wanted list in 1996. 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. Peoples Temple Defectors Feared Layton, Witness Testifies [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. But I was one of very few women who held senior staff positions in Congress at the time, and I was concerned that if I gave in to my reluctance and let a male colleague go in my place, Id be setting back women in politics. announcing her mother was Jewish. Layton Guilty of Role in '78 Ryan Murder - Los Angeles Times My list kept growingwhat started with two names was now more than 40. Larry Layton is a scapegoat for everyone connected with the Peoples Temple mass deaths eight years ago and had no part . where her worried parents had sent her to curb adolescent rebellion. 35 years later, remains of Jonestown victims found | kvue.com One thing that was in need was the expansion of social services. were sort of pushed onto the path of looking for answers -- and that Jim ", "Every week we're promised death, a relief from this miserable life. Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby, it read. Don't Miss Audio:. Though driven by the kind of underlying insecurity that so often fuels tyrants, Jones appeared to offer hope, redemption, and an idealistic new life. There is a sickening recording of Jones coercing his followers that day. I was kicked. Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every . Former Peoples Temple member Larry John Layton was convicted Monday of conspiring to kill a U.S. congressman and a diplomat in a 1978 jungle ambush that led to a mass murder . [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. Layton became a senior insider in Jones' entourage. The moment Layton and her mother, Lisa, arrived at Jonestown, a jungle A man followed him and slipped a folded piece of paper into his hand, then disappeared back into the crowd. days before the murder-suicide, she hit an emotional wall. [10][26] While recounting his prison experiences he said: "I saw inmates stabbed and friends die" and "I saw young men raped and pimped out as prostitutes for other inmates. at the [28], After release he went to Palm Bay, Florida and started LL Research and Consulting and met a business partner. Some were shot by Charismatic and tall with salt-and-pepper hair, he commanded a room. Once out, Layton sounded the alarm: Jones planned to force his followers Jim Jones, destroyed the will of his followers. By the early 1970s, however, Mr. Layton's personal life changed in ways he had hardly thought possible. Five bullets hit me from point-blank range, piercing my right arm, leg, and back. [6], Lawton was born in North Hempstead, New York on October 3, 1961. The "Greeting Committee" promptly confiscated all their clothes and belongings and, most important, their passports. He was met with mostly beaming declarations The base has handled mass casualties of both military personnel and civilians from wars, the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon and the NASA Challenger and Columbia space shuttle missions. By that time, it was obvious that some of his disciples intended to leave. Syringes surround one of the vats used to mix up the position drink used in the mass murder at Jonestown. Mr. Layton is survived by two sons, Thomas and Larry (Laurence John Layton); two daughters, Deborah Layton and Annalisa Layton Valentine, both of Piedmont, and three grandchildren. Lawton gained notoriety for committing a string of jewelry store robberies along the Atlantic Seaboard prior to his arrest in 1996. His wife, Lisa, his daughter, Deborah, and another son, Larry, all became disciples of the Rev. Some bodies that arrived back in the U.S. at Dover Air Force Base in 1978 were claimed by families. passage; Larry had been told years earlier. Before I could even comprehend what was happening, about a dozen men leapt from the tractor, leveled their automatic weapons, and fast approached. [19][20] One bullet narrowly missed Lawton, but struck his brother. The robbers drew what police at the time believed were firearms, and restrained the store owner. ", 20 Years Later, Jonestown Survivor Confronts Horrors, LAYTON01/B/20OCT98/MN/SLF ---Deborah Layton is a survivor of Jonestown. 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. Answering wasn't easy -- "How do you tell a child that hundreds of children That same day, precipitated by the shootings, over 900 members of the People's Temple Cult led by Reverend Jim Jones died in Jonestown, Guyana of mass murder and suicide. Larry Layton was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for his role in conspiring to murder Rep. Leo Ryan in Guyana in 1978. I did not recover my old self; bullets render that impossible. For seven weeks, March 5, 1999 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. Peoples Temple follower Larry Layton, center, stands with police following his arrest in the shooting of two people, including California Congressman Leo Ryan, on a remote Guyana airstrip, Nov. 18 . My recovery continuedthough that very word is not an accurate description of the aftermath of being shot. Ryan traveled to Guyana after winning his fourth congressional term to investigate reports from cult defectors--including Laytons sister, Debra--that the cult was holding members against their will. Jonestown was the agricultural compound Jones' followers carved out of the Guyanese jungle, 150 miles northwest of the nation's capital, Georgetown. A year later, I applied to college, and he wrote me a letter of recommendation. Jackie Speier manages a smile as she is wheeled on a stretcher at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, Nov. 20, 1978. Personal Reflections. On the plane to Guyana, Nov. 18, 1978. Children had their own special punishment, Layton writes. I would never have left Jonestown with Congressman Ryan. After two trials, he was convicted in 1986 of conspiring to murder San Mateo Representative Leo Ryan. Back in the compound, Jones was choreographing 20 Years Later, Jonestown Survivor Confronts Horrors - SFGATE What is one recurring theme in A Rose for Emily story? By the time I returned, more than 900 people died. 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. Layton Sentenced to Life in Ryan's Death - Los Angeles Times I couldnt bear the vision of her sitting in front of my casket. [8], In 2019, he made a video with Vanity Fair where he analyzed fictional robberies from films such as The Italian Job and Heat. 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. "If I hadn't been sent to Georgetown that day (in May)," Deborah Layton says now, "I would have died in Jonestown. 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. On November 17, we landed at the tiny airstrip at Port Kaituma. Born to poverty in the small West Virginia coal-mining town of Boomer, Mr. Layton went from Gauley Bridge High School to a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the West Virginia Institute of Technology and, later, a doctorate in biochemistry from Pennsylvania State University. Glenn Youngkin rules out presidential campaign while in California, 7 bodies found during search for missing Oklahoma teens, US to lift most federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates next week, Multiple fatalities on Illinois highway during a blinding windstorm. This was not a mass suicide. SAN FRANCISCO . I noticed an elderly woman stuffing pieces of bacon into her pockets; the ample spread was just another showpiece. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. 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. 40+ "Larry Layton" profiles | LinkedIn So many people wanted to defect that we had to call Georgetown to request an extra plane. She got a job in investment banking, married, had a child, divorced. Soon, her mother would also join the Temple. didn't want people to know who I was.". Larry Layton: Survivor of the Peoples Temple - UPI Archives 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. On Thursday, officials revealed that not all had been brought to a final resting place. Some were cremated. It paints a convincing picture of what it was like to spend seven years in the notorious cult, only to escape a few months before the tragedy that gave Jonestown its infamous place in history as the site of the largest mass suicide in modern times. Larry Layton, who posed as a defector, was captured after badly wounding two people inside a plane trying to take off. At the compound, Don wandered off to smoke a cigarette. "I was driving across the bridge," she says when asked why, after all these years, she wanted to revisit the horrors of Jonestown. 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. 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. 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. "We would do what they wanted, either cremation or send the bodies back home. With the dark glasses he wore indoors and out, his glossy black hair and 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. In August 1979, he joined the Coast Guard[9] and took part in the Mariel boatlift. The night before, our delegation watched Jones followers perform a show at their compound. "So we as a family all sat down and we voted him out of his job." All of those children. Northern California Larry now lives in Northern California.. I was later told that he had been shot 45 times. Jones was found shot through the head. [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. I did not feel confident this was a good idea. 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. dangled head-first into the well late at night, Layton writes. 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. Seductive Poison - Wikipedia Among them were Sams teenaged granddaughters. "[2] He was critical of Brevard County stopping letters to inmates in 2013. I dove beneath the plane, hiding behind the wheel as bullets thumped against the metal above me. Layton became a senior insider in Jones' entourage. We landed in Georgetown, Guyanas capital, on November 14, 1978. 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. rite of View the profiles of professionals named "Larry Layton" on LinkedIn. Twelve hours had passed as I lay, teetering on deaths precipice when a light turned on inside me: The simple fact that I knew I was dying was proof that I was, indeed, still alive. (The night before she'd left for the school, her father had stunned her What finally happened to Larry Layton? - Quora At Port Kaituma, while I ushered the defectors onto a plane, a large red tractor-trailer rumbled onto the airstrip. [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. Excerpt from UNDAUNTED: Surviving Jonestown, Summoning Courage, and Fighting Back by Jackie Speier, reprinted under a license arrangement originating with Amazon Publishing. [1][2], In 2007, he started the Reality Check Program to help educate at-risk youths on the consequences of breaking the law. "The people that joined Peoples Temple were really good people. To go back to the gunshots. I just needed to hang on. she couldn't write. PIEDMONT, California (AP) -- Suddenly, my body was crushed by a blow to my side. races," hundreds of followers working to feed the hungry, house the Lawrence Robert Lawton (born October 3, 1961) is an American ex-convict, author, paralegal, motivational speaker, and YouTuber. [25], Law enforcement officials and judges have supported the program. Oh my God: Its true. 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. 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. It was the final stop for a group that for nearly 10 years had fascinated and, in the end, horrified the Bay Area. encampment about 250 miles (400 kilometers) from the Guyana capital of Notifications can be turned off anytime in the browser settings. At the airport, Temple members who found out she was fleeing implored her not to leave. In 1977, after a magazine expose, Jones and his followers fled to Jonestown, a compound carved out of the remote jungles of Guyana. Youll see what a wonderful place it is. He took us on a tour highlighting the most favorable aspects of the commune. 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. Mrs. Layton's former husband, Dr. Laurence Layton, an eminent scientist, was left behind in Berkeley, Calif., having lost a wife and at least $250,000 that she gave to Mr. Jones. ", She blithely ignored the warning signs -- the fake "cancer healings" and the increasingly hostile confrontations, when Jones would scream at members of his flock for faintly perceived faults or have them paddled harshly with the "board of education.". GUYANA - NOVEMBER 18: People's Temple follower Larry Layton (C) stands with police following his arrest November 18, 1978 in the shooting of two people on a remote Guyana airstrip. The outfits were a ridiculous gimmick, and the role was clearly objectifying. Deep inside me, I still have the demons of shame and guilt.". Deborah Layton is now 45, lives in an elegant house in Piedmont and takes her 12-year-old daughter to play in soccer games. As soon as it became clear that we would be bringing more than one or two defectors home with us, the communal faade cracked. ", 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.". sweeping He preached a social gospel, attracting devotees while promoting a community that did not discriminate or take into account race, background, or previous circumstances. 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. Where is Larry Layton today? 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. [37], Lawton is an advocate for prisoners and their rights, and comments on the justice system. With Joness wild gaze on us, I tape-recorded affidavits of their wishes to return to the United States. "[27] Another time he said: "I had my arms pinned down, and I was beaten and peed on by the guards. When did the Jonestown massacre occur? While trying to keep the peace, he had been attacked with a knife. In the summer of 1977, after an expose of Peoples Temple in New West magazine, Jones and his followers fled to Guyana. Monica confirmed that she wanted to leave. Twenty years after Jonestown, a survivor looks back. Larry now lives in Northern California. Several cemeteries refused to take them until the Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, California, stepped forward in 1979 and accepted 409 bodies. In 1978, I went to Guyana on a fact-finding mission. brown eyes on her and warmly invited her to "join me and my family of all I knew him well enough to understand what would happen next. "It was a warm day and all of a sudden a breeze came up and the back door Williams spent a decade with the Peoples Temple, including three months in Jonestown, named after the group's founder, Jim Jones. Then daughter Lauren started asking questions. "All the hair on my arm and my neck came up. What episode does Luna get Ancient Fairy Dragon? A few showers this morning with mostly cloudy conditions during the afternoon hours. [16] Then in October 1994, four individuals robbed a jewelry store in Palm Bay, Florida. Then, she wrote "Seductive Poison," her account of events leading up to Nearly 300 children were administered the poison, including a number of infants in the arms of their parents. Long-term consumption may increase the risk of obesity, diabetes, and even cancer. Example video title will go here for this video. Dissent was unthinkable. Layton and other temple members then ambushed the congressman and his party at the airstrip, according to an indictment returned against Layton last month in San Francisco. Anyone running afoul of Jonestowns security detail was put in a labor camp and forced to clear jungle. Laytons first trial ended in a hung jury in 1981, with 11 of the 12 jurors voting to acquit him. Most were poisoned, some forcibly. But doubts were eased by Jones' reassuring "You are the [8] Lawton later said that he used a BB gun during the robbery. . He is. Moments later, Congressman Ryan emerged from a throng of people with a torn and bloodied shirt. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, Hollywood writers strike over streaming pay after talks fail, El Chapo sons send Mexico cartels cheap fentanyl into U.S., indictment says, Far from Russia, a pro-Moscow sliver of land tries to cling to its identity and keep war at bay, Virginia Gov. He never did.". 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. The next year, his church relocated to Redwood Valley, a small community in northern California. I was one of Larry's lead lawyers in his first U.S. trial in 1981, which resulted in an 11 to 1 vote for acquittal on faulty charges of conspiracy to kill the congressman. 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. Layton and her mother arrived in Jonestown in December 1977. ". 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. Robert Bryan, who took over the case after Laytons conviction, said he hopes to win a new trial for Layton. The dilapidated former funeral home in Dover had a padlock on the double front doors. Family Tragedy: Hitler's Germany to Jones's Cult Personal Reflections - Alternative Considerations of Jonestown There was a scary side to the Peoples Temple -- beatings of fractious members, SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ Former Peoples Temple member Larry Layton was met with frightened screams when he boarded a truck full of people trying to flee the Rev. U.S. Atty. "They were looking for something larger than themselves to be involved seemed to have them for us.". 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.