TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. "I was driving across the bridge," she says when asked why, after all these years, she wanted to revisit the horrors of Jonestown. They called it Jonestown. [39] Other issues he is concerned with include prison conditions as well as post-release debt loads and their influence on unemployed ex-convicts. Last year, Mrs. Layton became ill, and the diagnosis was what she feared most cancer. [42][13], Lawton has made many media appearances. But as Hitler consolidated his power in the 1930's, her parents began to see the Nazi holocaust taking shape and they urged her to go to New York to join relatives there. By all accounts, Layton was on a small plane about to leave Jonestown when the plot to kill Ryan was set in motion. '', He said that Mr. Layton ''did not kill anybody'' at the airstrip, nor did he ''aid and abet or conspire to kill Leo Ryan.'' [19][20] One bullet narrowly missed Lawton, but struck his brother. An uncle, Dr. James Franck, won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1935. They all swore that Jonestown was the one and only place they could ever consider home. Larry Layton, who posed as a defector, was captured after badly wounding two people inside a plane trying to take off. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Mr . In the summer of 1978, Lisa Philips Layton died of cancer in Jonestown, Guyana, three months before the Rev. ref: Benjy Esteves Jr Mark Consentino 94-95 Larry Layton 94-95 John McKaie 94-95 By the time I returned, more than 900 people died. They swallowed poison capsules in a suicide attempt and were removed, unconscious, from the train. 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. Breathing heavily, I pulled myself to my feet, stumbled to the planes baggage compartment and took shelter. But I refused to spend the rest of my life as a victim of Guyanathere were too many of them. Jim Jones. He was then returned to the United States and charged under a Federal statute against assassinating members of Congress and internationally protected people. 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. 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.''. Leo Ryan wanted answers. [3], Lawton was offered a three-year sentence in exchange for disclosing his accomplices but did not take the deal. The hospital was not far from the People's Temple community Mr. Jones had established in Redwood Valley. A short time later, Larry married his second wife, Karen,whom Dr. Layton would come to know as a loving, sweet person.. [25] He received an additional sentence in 2002 for giving false witness. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. There were piles of used syringes at the scene. Larry Layton wiki ionformation include family relationships: spouse or partner (wife or husband); siblings; childen/kids; parents life. She used a telephone in the radio shack to call her sister in California, who arranged to have an airline ticket waiting for her at the airport in Georgetown, Guyana. 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. A bone shot out of my right arm, and a huge hunk of flesh had been blown off my thigh. Hours after Mr. Ryan and four others were shot to death at the airstrip near Jonestown, which was the headquarters of the cult, the cult's leader, the Rev. The land later became the site of a large Union Carbide plant. 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. After a while, Mrs. Layton began sleeping on the floor of their home in Berkeley and made her husband sell a Cadillac they owned. Then, as a group of men dug the truck out of the mud, we heard a loud commotion from the pavilion. The temple sent Layton to school for training as an X-ray technician. Larry, sister Debbie and their mother, Lisa, all joined the temple while it was located in California. Is the Stanley Quencher tumbler worth its TikTok hype? But Layton, saying he wishes he could ease the pain. well, it wasn't there. 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. 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. He preached a social gospel, attracting devotees while promoting a community that did not discriminate or take into account race, background, or previous circumstances. Ryan and I asked one or two Temple members at a time to come talk to us. It was an implausible ending for the fiery preacher, who had curried favor among the fashionable elite of the Democratic Party. Never one to accept second-hand information, he decided to embark on a fact-findingand potentially life-savingtrip. Subsequently, she arranged to leave the settlement on an errand for Mr. Jones and left Guyana on May 13. At the compound, Don wandered off to smoke a cigarette. Almost immediately, Jones ordered Layton to Jonestown. Everybody bolted in different directions. Just click the "Edit page" button at the bottom of the page or learn more in the Biography submission guide. Larry Layton Biography It looks like we don't have any Biography for Larry Layton yet. Mr. Layton cried as his attorney described conditions at Jonestown and said that many prosecution witnesses must feel guilty for leaving loved ones behind to die. Her brother, Larry, later became the only person ever charged in connection with the airstrip massacre and, after two . Not a single person we spoke to expressed a desire to leave, not even those whose family members had flown all the way to Guyana. She mentioned a Bay Area couple, the Stoens, who had defected and were fighting for the return of their young son, John. As one of his top aides, I accompanied the delegation, venturing out on the ice floes where the clubbing took place. ", Looking back on it 20 years later, she says, "I put everything in denial and locked it down. Jones had a penchant for suddenly getting on the compound loudspeaker long after everyone had gone to bed and shouting, "White Night! Mrs. Layton moved out of their home on Labor Day 1979. The early release culminated a six-year campaign during which members of his family worked with a core of supporters, first to petition then-President Clinton to commute Larrys sentence, then to convince the Parole Commission to modify its earlier decision on a release date. Within a year, a few Jonestown defectors had managed to return to the Bay Areamost notably, Debbie Layton Blakey, whod been Jones trusted aide and worked as the Temples financial secretary. 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. Members of the press and the Concerned Relatives waited behind on the airstrip until the truck could come back for a second load. One, Karen Layton, died in the carnage at Jonestown. The defense rested its case without presenting witnesses. She carne back from that meeting in a state of shock, as if she had seen a ghost, her husband recalled. Infants cannot commit suicide. 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. He was acquitted after presenting a defense of brainwashing. They recovered and with the help of friends managed to reach Italy, later coming to the United States. I grew up with the Bible and the Puritan work ethic, he recalled in an interview. I noticed an elderly woman stuffing pieces of bacon into her pockets; the ample spread was just another showpiece. He said the accusation probably been inspired by Mr. Jones as part of a systematic effort to break up families in the church. 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. When we touched down in Georgetown, a U.S. Air Force medevac plane was waiting. Bodies lay crumpled on the tarmac around me. ", "Every week we're promised death, a relief from this miserable life. He spent 12 years in prison, and once released, began a career as a motivational speaker, life coach, and author. 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." At the pavilion for breakfast, I did my best to appear unruffled. 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. View Source Suggest Edits Memorial Photos Flowers Created by: Mike Added: 6 Apr 2021 TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. 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. Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. He had engineered complete authoritycollecting members Social Security and disability checks, and determining when and how his disciples could communicate with their families. Layton was accused of conspiracy to murder in the November,1978, violence that triggered the mass deaths -- the airstrip attack on Rep. Leo Ryan and his party in which the congressman and four others were killed. 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." 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. 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. 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. [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. I was almost one of them. While on the phone listening to the allegations that would soon be made public, Jones scribbled a note to his aides: We leave tonight.. Judge Peckham also set April 21 for a hearing on a motion for a new trial filed by Mr. Layton's new defense attorney, Robert R. Bryan. Mrs. Layton divorced her husband in 1975 and their home on the Berkeley hilltop was sold. But Dr. Layton denied strongly in a separate interview that he had ever been antiSemitic. Jim Jones, and 912 of his followers died by poison and gunfire in mass killings and suicides. | AP. 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. Congressman Ryan and I were among the first shift of the delegation to climb in for the excruciatingly slow six-mile drive to the commune. They were cal culated to make you feel someone has to pay. Id come to Guyana as a congressional aide on a fact-finding mission. Instead he proposed a better use of law enforcement resources would be to "help inmates with drug addiction. I did not feel confident this was a good idea. Hours after the incident, the Rev. Layton complied, and Jones took Carolyn as his mistress. Later that night, Jones had another suicide exercise. LOS ANGELES, Dec. 3 Her name was Lisa Philips and she was so beautiful that friends said she looked like Hedy Lamarr. Layton, 35, emerged as the only defendant alive and available for prosecution in the government's attempt to exact justice from the Jonestown horrors. [37], Lawton is an advocate for prisoners and their rights, and comments on the justice system. 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. [10] Afterwards, another jewelry store in Lower Bucks County became suspicious of a person they believed was casing the place for a future robbery. It was just a matter of time. It was a mass murder. Onboard, every bump we hit shot an arrow of pain through my body. 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. 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. Deborah Layton is now 45, lives in an elegant house in Piedmont and takes her 12-year-old daughter to play in soccer games. Closing the Book on Case. By Robert Lindsey Special to The New York Times. In the weeks leading up to the White House decision on the petition, a number of former congressmen and religious leaders including Rev. Larrys parole came two years earlier than his previously-scheduled release date of April 2004. "They would be taken to the Jonestown well in the dark of night, hung upside down by a rope around their ankles, and dunked into the water again and again while someone hidden inside the well grabbed at them to scare them. 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. Five bullets had ripped through me, devastating the right side of my body. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. 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