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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. [25], Law enforcement officials and judges have supported the program. Jones responded by telling them that if any actions were taken to remove John, the entire Jonestown population would commit suicide. Besides, when had a congressman ever been assassinated on foreign soil while on a congressional delegation trip? Larry Layton, who posed as a defector, was captured after badly wounding two people inside a plane trying to take off. I was an orphan and my grandfather didn't let me forget it; he wanted me to work hard; he didn't want to ruin me with praise; I was supposed to be humble. "If I hadn't been sent to Georgetown that day (in May)," Deborah Layton says now, "I would have died in Jonestown. Hours after the incident, the Rev. I hope tonight is the last one. As I took down their names, I looked over at Don Harris, who was interviewing Jones. ''This is a criminal case against Larry Layton,'' he said. After Larry and Carolyn Layton joined the cult, Larry stopped writing to his parents and would not accept phone calls from them. Jackie Speier manages a smile as she is wheeled on a stretcher at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, Nov. 20, 1978. I wanted to be part of something that was doing things for other people, and besides, Peoples Temple offered a community of friends. Under the Federal parole system, a person sentenced to life in prison is not normally considered for parole until 10 years have been served. In 1996, the family and friends of Larry launched a campaign for a presidential commutation. To the stretchers. How could I not like the good things they were doing?. 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. Leo Ryan assured me that there was nothing to worry about. Her mother's cancer pain medications were taken away. Deborah said that before her escape she had obtained a bottle of wine and taken it to the commune against Mr. Jones's rules. [43] He also hosted a local talk radio show. [15][18], In 1996, there was a robbery of a jeweler in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania. 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. This site houses a variety of PDF documents. [28] In 2013, Lawton was made an honorary police officer by the Lake St. Louis, Missouri Police Department due to his work after prison. [32] By 2010, Lawton had shipped 10,000 DVDs across the country. 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.. Debbie stood in line to drink the red liquid that she was told would kill her in a matter of minutes. | AP. But it was the testimony of Vern Gosney, one of Larrys shooting victims at the Port Kaituma airstrip, who traveled from Hawaii for the sole purpose of attending the hearing and who delivered the most impassioned plea for Larrys release, that apparently made the difference. It was impossible to cope with the pain. My ribs were broken. LOS ANGELES, Dec. 3 Her name was Lisa Philips and she was so beautiful that friends said she looked like Hedy Lamarr. Layton was attracted to the Utopian principles of the temple and its multi-racial flock, living and working together under the guidance of Jones, a combination professed faith-healer and leftist political prophet. Repeatedly, the defectors mentioned forced participation in mass-suicide rehearsals known as the White Night trials.. '', See the article in its original context from. [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. Everybody bolted in different directions. 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. I was even unaffected by the rice weevils and other strange bugs we ingested daily.". [28], After release he went to Palm Bay, Florida and started LL Research and Consulting and met a business partner. The child talked her out of it. He was born in the mountains of West Virginia, between White Sulphur Springs and Charleston, to a. [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]. But Layton, saying he wishes he could ease the pain. Last year, Mrs. Layton became ill, and the diagnosis was what she feared most cancer. 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. Last May, while serving Mr. Jones as a trusted aide, she escaped from Jonestown and tried in vain to alert the world that he was preparing for a mass suicide in order to establish a place for himself in history. [41], In 2017, he appeared in a middle school in Havelock, North Carolina to explain his prison experiences. 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. In Congress, he joined a March 1978 Greenpeace mission to investigate the slaughter of baby seals in Newfoundland, Canada. Mr. Jones, they said, could cure cancer. Children had their own special punishment, Layton writes. Deborah Layton is now 45, lives in an elegant house in Piedmont and takes her 12-year-old daughter to play in soccer games. He said the trial was not the place to examine the deaths of 913 people at the cult's settlement in Jonestown, Guyana. There were piles of used syringes at the scene. I have no idea how much time passed until I turned my head and opened my eyes. 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. Mr. Jones also apparently widened the rift between Larry Layton and his father. Infants cannot commit suicide. I couldnt immediately identify the deafening sound that filled the air. Traumatizing family rifts erupted on the spot, with mothers and fathers engaged in literal tug-of-wars over their children. Dr. Layton was from a world substantially different from the aristocratic one of his bride. At Port Kaituma, while I ushered the defectors onto a plane, a large red tractor-trailer rumbled onto the airstrip. Ryan decided that we would wait until the morning and suggested we keep a low profile until then. Deep inside me, I still have the demons of shame and guilt.". The letters were presented during the hearing which resulted in a recommendation for Larrys release. Sure enough, I could tell he had. Ryan and I asked one or two Temple members at a time to come talk to us. By the time I returned, more than 900 people died. 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. He was acquitted after presenting a defense of brainwashing. They were issued four T-shirts, four pairs of socks, a toothbrush and toothpaste, four pairs of underwear and a bar of soap. Though driven by the kind of underlying insecurity that so often fuels tyrants, Jones appeared to offer hope, redemption, and an idealistic new life. His appearance was part of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program. Mrs. Layton saw Mr. Jones strip Larry of two wives. 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. 'Being in Peoples Temple wasn't always pleasant, but one had the feeling he was really doing something to advance society. So many people wanted to defect that we had to call Georgetown to request an extra plane. 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 . Subsequently, he said, she urged him to have an affair. Moments later, Congressman Ryan emerged from a throng of people with a torn and bloodied shirt. "[2] He was critical of Brevard County stopping letters to inmates in 2013. [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. I felt my stomach knot. There is abundant evidence that Mr. Jones used such tactics to divide families and break up marriages. 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, 1978. She carne back from that meeting in a state of shock, as if she had seen a ghost, her husband recalled. ", 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.". The robbers had been there the day before and returned asking about a ring. Layton became a senior insider in Jones' entourage. Anyone can read what you share. 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. His father, an electrical engineer, died when Larry was 8 and the boy had to move in with his grandfather, a stern Methodist preacher. ''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. In a cabin with about six women from the Temple, I took a top bunk, sweating as a downpour opened up outside. They recovered and with the help of friends managed to reach Italy, later coming to the United States. ''I submit they were presented to inflame you, to arouse your passions, to prejudice you. 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. ", 20 Years Later, Jonestown Survivor Confronts Horrors, LAYTON01/B/20OCT98/MN/SLF ---Deborah Layton is a survivor of Jonestown. 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. See also [ edit] Jim Jones But he ordered them separated before they had consummated the marriage, and Mr. Blakey eventually left California to join the party establishing the cult's Guyana settlement. Other Peoples Temple. Layton grew up in an affluent Berkeley family. We split up, as Jones had arranged. She mentioned a Bay Area couple, the Stoens, who had defected and were fighting for the return of their young son, John. Later, after being barred from the university as a Jew, Lisa took training as physical therapist, which was permitted by the Nazis. [35][36] It also hosts an annual bowling tournament. As a temple member, Mrs. Layton separated from her husband and was said to have contributed $250,000 in family assets to the cult. [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. The defense attorney urged jurors to consider conditions at Jonestown and their impact on Mr. Layton. He said the accusation probably been inspired by Mr. Jones as part of a systematic effort to break up families in the church. I did not feel confident this was a good idea. The land later became the site of a large Union Carbide plant. Larry shot and wounded two people at the Port Kaituma airstrip on 18 November 1978, and he attempted to shoot a third. A bone shot out of my right arm, and a huge hunk of flesh had been blown off my thigh. 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. [8] Lawton later said that he used a BB gun during the robbery. 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. Its hard to know when it became obvious that he was dead, or when I realized that others werent pretending. One of the defectors wed interviewed claimed that Jones dyed them black. I dove beneath the plane, hiding behind the wheel as bullets thumped against the metal above me. It made no sense that he would be trying to leave Jonestown. Jonestown was the agricultural compound Jones' followers carved out of the Guyanese jungle, 150 miles northwest of the nation's capital, Georgetown. From what Ive seen, he said, there are a lot of people here who think this is the best thing that happened in their whole life. He was interrupted by manically enthusiastic cheering. A few Temple members stood in front of a rusty dump truck waiting to shuttle us to the compound. Besides, when had a congressman ever been assassinated on foreign soil while on a congressional delegation trip? Before I could even comprehend what was happening, about a dozen men leapt from the tractor, leveled their automatic weapons, and fast approached. I was beaten once a month. 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. [10] While in prison, Lawton earned a paralegal qualification and became a gang mediator. Jones died from a bullet to the brain. [8][9] The 367-page book covers his early life, his string of crimes, and his post-release career. 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. Indescribable pain consumed me, leaving room only for a fleeting thought that I should pretend to be dead. Perhaps death is better than this.". (It was the 60s.) 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. This time, it was not a drill. I would never have left Jonestown with Congressman Ryan. Layton, 35, emerged as the only defendant alive and available for prosecution in the government's attempt to exact justice from the Jonestown horrors. Lawton gained notoriety for committing a string of jewelry store robberies along the Atlantic Seaboard prior to his arrest in 1996. Whatever impelled me to send in the card changed the course of my life. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. '', He said that Mr. Layton ''did not kill anybody'' at the airstrip, nor did he ''aid and abet or conspire to kill Leo Ryan.'' 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. Don put it in his pocket and took a few more steps before carefully unfolding it. 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. 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. I did not recover my old self; bullets render that impossible. But her childhood, she said later, was not a happy one. He is bewildered at how it all happened, groping for an explanation of what he called a Greek tragedy.. What an evil thing that Jim Jones did. I was later told that he had been shot 45 times. 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. #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. ''You've heard graphic details about what happenened on the airstrip,'' he said. In May 1978, she was sent by Jones to Georgetown to chaperone some Temple children on a cultural exchange. In 1972, Mr. Jones married Deborah Layton and Philip Blakey. During my freshman year at UC Davis, when I told him about my major, he offered encouragement: If you really want to learn about political science, you should come and intern in my office. I did, and over the years, worked my way up from volunteer to intern to staffer to senior aide, just as he climbed from the state Assembly to the U.S. Congress. The first trial ended in a hung jury. Her life appears to be light-years from Peoples Temple. Layton and her mother arrived in Jonestown in December 1977. The approach continued even after hed moved from Sacramento to Washington, D.C. Inquiry by Congressman. In Jonestown, nobody could have any family attachments. 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. Like all of the tracks in the United States, it closed during the World War II years (1941-1945) and re-opened in 1946. Be dead the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems ; are! 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