Jones had a penchant for suddenly getting on the compound loudspeaker long after everyone had gone to bed and shouting, "White Night! 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. Personal Reflections. 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. Bodies lay crumpled on the tarmac around me. As the bodies were identified, the military asked about a half-dozen local funeral homes to help the families make arrangements. Deep inside me, I still have the demons of shame and guilt.". Witnesses offer conflicting accounts, Mars Voltas lead singer broke with Scientology and reunited with the band. In 1954, he was named director of research at the Navy's munitions factory in Indian Head, Md., where he designed missile fuels. It was a mass murder. Jones died of a gunshot wound to the head. It made no sense that he would be . 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. The icon which characterizes Jonestown in the public mind is a picture of a galvanized metal vat, surrounded by bloated bodies. 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. ", 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.". [15][18] Local police believed there was a connection between this robbery and a robbery that took place in May 1994 in Daytona Beach, and contacted the FBI. Five bullets had ripped through me, devastating the right side of my body. well, it wasn't there. As one of his top aides, I accompanied the delegation, venturing out on the ice floes where the clubbing took place. He was not paroled from an American prison until 2002. Many of the bodies were decomposed and could not be identified. In all, Layton was convicted of four charges--conspiracy and aiding and abetting in the shootings of Ryan and Dwyer. 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. ', "O.J. 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. [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. When people refer to the Jonestown massacre as a mass suicide, I am enraged. the mass I was feet away from Jones, close enough to hear him trying to convince people to change their minds. ", (The night before the trip in December 1977, another secret: The Ryan invited members of the press and a few of the Concerned Relatives to join him. But how? I noticed an elderly woman stuffing pieces of bacon into her pockets; the ample spread was just another showpiece. [2] The book is published in Italy, France, Australia, Germany, Thailand and United Kingdom. There are 40+ professionals named "Larry Layton", who use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas, and opportunities. But he was acquitted, partly because witnesses would not return there from the United States. November 18, 1978 When did the Jonestown massacre occur? grandmother had committed suicide. 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. What is one recurring theme in A Rose for Emily story? ", Looking back on it 20 years later, she says, "I put everything in denial and locked it down. He was found guilty of conspiracy and aiding and abetting in the murder of Ryan and the attempted murder of U.S. embassy official Richard Dwyer and was sentenced to life in prison, though he was released in 2002. [6], Lawton was born in North Hempstead, New York on October 3, 1961. [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. 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 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. The fact is, those who died in Jonestown were real people, with families, friends, and loved ones. Jim Jones' compound in Guyana, a witness testified Wednesday. 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. 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. But doubts were eased by Jones' reassuring "You are the Some bodies that arrived back in the U.S. at Dover Air Force Base in 1978 were claimed by families. I felt my stomach knot. "When I joined Peoples Temple, I was 17 and it was like joining the Peace Corps," she says. 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. 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. 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. 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. The cover of a Jonestown promotional booklet from 1978. 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. It was nothing of the kind. I did not feel confident this was a good idea. The "Greeting Committee" promptly confiscated all their clothes and belongings and, most important, their passports. I hope tonight is the last one. family members in the cult. [19][20] One bullet narrowly missed Lawton, but struck his brother. . 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. 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. 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. Notifications can be turned off anytime in the browser settings. But when her own child started asking questions, Layton broke family Inquisitive by nature, he was a proponent of experiential legislating, preferring to go out and experience issues firsthand before he decided what to do. With the dark glasses he wore indoors and out, his glossy black hair and Along the way, she exorcised the family ghosts. How to plan a weekend getaway to Mount Shasta, Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). Peoples Temple was successful in recruiting new members because they always provided what the community needed, a case of supply and demand. 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. First the children; poison was squirted into babies' mouths with a syringe. Dwyer, Speier and nine others were wounded. ordered 912 of his followers to drink cyanide-poisoned punch in the Guyana 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. Most complied, although survivors described some people being shot, injected with poison, or forced to drink the deadly beverage when they tried to resist. They also found 24 other containers of marked, identified remains, and five containers of remains they could not immediately identify, said Kimberly Chandler, spokeswoman for the Delaware Division of Forensic Science. 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. contentment. It felt as though my mother was standing there and she was saying, They all joined Peoples Temple, and Larry and Deborah Layton quickly became two of Jones's closest confidants. After the churchs initial development, it began to be based more and more on social and humanitarian efforts. 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. . "They were looking for something larger than themselves to be involved 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. 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. at the airstrip. Although he had no formal training as a minister and no affiliation with any organized religion, his high-octane enthusiasm and open-armed policy attracted a diverse range of followers. [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. Although he called it a very grave crime, Peckham said Layton has shown great remorse, and his actions in 1978 reflected how the cult leader, the Rev. Jim Jones, destroyed the will of his followers. He was found guilty of conspiracy and aiding and abetting in the murder of Ryan and the attempted murder of U.S. embassy official Richard Dwyer and was sentenced to Read More Charismatic and tall with salt-and-pepper hair, he commanded a room. [21] Lawton was arrested by the FBI on December 2, 1996, in Florida and charged with the Fairless Hills armed robbery. 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. Her brother, Larry, later became the only person ever charged in connection with the airstrip massacre and, after two trials, was convicted in 1986 of conspiring to murder Ryan. "But 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. and I spoke with a woman named Edith Parks, the matriarch of three generations of Temple members who wanted out. I was even unaffected by the rice weevils and other strange bugs we ingested daily.". Larry Layton is a scapegoat for everyone connected with the Peoples Temple mass deaths eight years ago and had no part . His first encounter with organized crime was through his father, a metal worker who delivered bribes to the New York mafia. In the fall of 1978, Ryan decided to visit Guyana to find out what was happening to the more than 900 members of Jonestown, many of whom were his constituents from the San Francisco area who'd. I I only wish there was something I could do to ease the pain, he said, fighting to keep his voice from breaking. Escape came in May 1978 when Jones sent Layton to Georgetown as for [28], After release he went to Palm Bay, Florida and started LL Research and Consulting and met a business partner. To the stretchers. Children had their own special punishment, Layton writes. At the airport, Temple members who found out she was fleeing implored her not to leave. 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. At least 10 other Americans were wounded in the attack. 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. Don't Miss Audio:. With Ryan dead, Jones concluded that the United States would retaliate, so he exhorted his followers to kill themselves by drinking cyanide-laced punch. He treasured it. about I knew him well enough to understand what would happen next. While trying to keep the peace, he had been attacked with a knife. 1970, and she was on summer vacation from the British boarding school United Press International. Infants cannot commit suicide. Raised as a Quaker -- and, in turn, raising his own family in the Quaker faith -- Mr. Layton was continually tormented by the dichotomy between his professional pursuits, which focused on technical warfare, and his faith, which preached peace and nonviolence. [42][13], Lawton has made many media appearances. days before the murder-suicide, she hit an emotional wall. 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. Layton was 17 when her already converted brother, Larry, introduced her "The people that joined Peoples Temple were really good people. 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. All I could think was I am not going to make Grandma live through my funeral. | AP. Unrivaled Mac notes apps for fuss-free note-taking, 6 Actionable Tips for Improving Your Websites SEO, Copyright 2023 | WordPress Theme by MH Themes. Former Jonestown cult member Larry Layton was convicted of conspiracy today in the killing of California Rep. Layton Guilty of Role in '78 Ryan Murder - Los Angeles Times It was coined after a delusional, pseudo-guru named Jim Jones led his cult, the Peoples Temple, to mass suicide. [28] Often he appears discussing crimes in the media as an expert on robberies. This image dehumanizes the victims, however, and disconnects us from the tragedy. 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. | AP. They had passed. believed he could best survive the atomic apocalypse he expected. Don hung back for a moment before approaching Congressman Ryan and me at the picnic table and surreptitiously passing along the note. Hes a jug, and nothing more. Deborah Layton is now 45, lives in an elegant house in Piedmont and takes her 12-year-old daughter to play in soccer games. 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." Young and unanchored, Layton was charmed as Jones fixed his penetrating As soon as it became clear that we would be bringing more than one or two defectors home with us, the communal faade cracked. consulate officials. died drinking juice?". fixture. His suggestion that I would learn far more from first-hand experience was in step with the way he approached politics. I was later told that he had been shot 45 times. grandmother Layton thought had died of a heart attack in Hamburg actually 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. As a trusted financial lieutenant for cult leader Jim Jones, she kept secrets 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. Ive shared my Guyana story countless times, but its still a challenge to go back and relive those days. "It was devastating to him. 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. jungle. Jim Jones orchestrated the mass murder-suicide of Peoples Temple cult members on November 18, 1978. Don put it in his pocket and took a few more steps before carefully unfolding it. Ryan had gone to Guyana to investigate reports that relatives of his San Francisco-area constituents wre being held against their will. Joseph Russoniello did not criticize Peckhams sentence, but in urging that Layton serve 20 years before being eligible for parole, he cited Laytons suggestion to Jones that Layton use dynamite to blow up Ryans plane and its unwanted outsiders--a fact that was not revealed until Tuesday. When people refer to the Jonestown massacre as a mass suicide, I am enraged. There were piles of used syringes at the scene. Although he was indicted in San Francisco, arraignment was scheduled for New York because that is where he first landed on his return to the United States from Guyana, where he has been jailed for the past two years. We compiled similar testimonies from other defectors who corroborated Debbies reports of physical and sexual abuse, forced labor and captivity. What an evil thing that Jim Jones did. They called it Jonestown. Her book "Seductive Poison" will be in bookstores in November. He. Reassured that they were on their way, we parked ourselves at a few picnic tables in the far corner of the pavilion area. 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. [44][45], "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. In Jonestown, the able-bodied among the 1,000 or so residents worked the Answering wasn't easy -- "How do you tell a child that hundreds of children His wife, Lisa, his daughter, Deborah, and another son, Larry, all became disciples of the Rev. View the profiles of professionals named "Larry Layton" on LinkedIn. ", "I thought, what a waste. 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. 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 . It was the final stop for a group that for nearly 10 years had fascinated and, in the end, horrified the Bay Area. The robbers drew what police at the time believed were firearms, and restrained the store owner.
Female Country Singers 2000s,
Radium Treatments 1950s,
Articles W