I just needed to hang on. Congressman Ryans body was probably 15 feet away. 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. [2] The book is published in Italy, France, Australia, Germany, Thailand and United Kingdom. The parole examiner said he was deeply troubled that Larry had remained in prison for so long well in excess of the five years recommended by the sentencing judge and noted Larrys exemplary behavior while in federal custody. To the stretchers. Her mother, on discovering that her husband was having an affair with Lisa's English governess, gave Lisa a detailed account of it and threatened to commit suicide. Somehow, through the encroaching darkness of my final thoughts, I saw my 87-year-old Grandma Emma. Larry shot and wounded two people at the Port Kaituma airstrip on 18 November 1978, and he attempted to shoot a third. [11] He then began robbing jewelry stores along the Atlantic Coast,[3] using his contacts within the Gambino crime family to fence the stolen merchandise. He said the trial was not the place to examine the deaths of 913 people at the cult's settlement in Jonestown, Guyana. the attorney said. He. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Her life appears to be light-years from Peoples Temple. With the camp surrounded by his armed guards, he told his followers to give the medicinegrape FlavorAid and Kool-Aid laced with cyanide and tranquilizersto the children and the elderly first. ", 20 Years Later, Jonestown Survivor Confronts Horrors, LAYTON01/B/20OCT98/MN/SLF ---Deborah Layton is a survivor of Jonestown. Ryan invited members of the press and a few of the Concerned Relatives to join him. 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. Lisa Layton's youngest son, Larry, is now under arrest in Guyana, accused of murdering Representative Leo J. Ryan and four other persons in the attack that eventually led Mr. Jones to order the mass deaths. Biography Mini Bio (1) Larry Layton is known for Viva (2007) and Escape to Grizzly Mountain (2000). "[33] Lawton and the police chief later appeared before United States Congress in recognition of the program. The land later became the site of a large Union Carbide plant. 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. 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. Philip Wogaman, President and Mrs. Clintons pastor in Washington, D.C. made additional pleas for commutation of Larrys sentence. 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. Infants cannot commit suicide. We accompanied Assemblyman Ryan to shopping centers and campaign events to pass out pamphlets and speak with voters. The motion contends that Mr. Layton should be given a new trial because his previous defense attorneys did not know and thus failed to inform him that he faced a mandatory sentence of life in prison if convicted on the count of aiding and abetting in Mr. Ryan's murder. Within minutes, Ryan and four others were shot dead. The store owner managed to break free and grabbed a .38 caliber pistol and fired five shots at the robbers as they fled. Moments later, Congressman Ryan emerged from a throng of people with a torn and bloodied shirt. [10] Afterwards, another jewelry store in Lower Bucks County became suspicious of a person they believed was casing the place for a future robbery. 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. It made no sense that he would be trying to leave Jonestown. 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. He was born in the mountains of West Virginia, between White Sulphur Springs and Charleston, to a family that had helped settle Virginia 225 years earlier and claimed ancestors datmg from the Mayflower. While trying to keep the peace, he had been attacked with a knife. 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. Ive shared my Guyana story countless times, but its still a challenge to go back and relive those days. Five bullets hit me from point-blank range, piercing my right arm, leg, and back. [28] Often he appears discussing crimes in the media as an expert on robberies. "And I thought, if I get hit by a truck, my epitaph will be, 'Jonestown survivor dies on Bay Bridge.' By that time, darker elements had seeped into Jones sermons. Layton, Deborah 1953- PERSONAL: Born in 1953, in Tooele, UT; daughter of Laurence Laird and Lisa Layton; married; children: Lauren. "[2] He was critical of Brevard County stopping letters to inmates in 2013. The first trial ended in a hung jury. She had an extremely anxious demeanor, and we moved quickly as we went to her cabin to pack. At the airport, Temple members who found out she was fleeing implored her not to leave. See also Other Works | Publicity Listings | Official Sites View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro Getting Started | Contributor Zone Contribute to This Page Edit page Larry Layton Personal Details Contact Info As I was lying seven miles away waiting for medical help, Sam Houstons granddaughters, Patricia and Judy, 14 and 15, were murdered, along with their mother, dozens of other would-be defectors and the rest of the Peoples Temple. After her operation, Mrs. Layton moved to Guyana. Inquiry by Congressman. An uncle, Dr. James Franck, won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1935. The approach continued even after hed moved from Sacramento to Washington, D.C. "If I hadn't been sent to Georgetown that day (in May)," Deborah Layton says now, "I would have died in Jonestown. He has appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Christian Broadcasting Network, and Fox News. Later, Jones also became enamoured of the new Mrs. Layton and soon added her, too, to his growing harem of temple members. 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. Closing the Book on Case. But listening to one after the other after the other say the same choreographed thing made me uneasy. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. [8] In 1983, having earned his GED, he left the Coast Guard and began engaging in criminal activity, mostly loan sharking and bookmaking. 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. [25], Law enforcement officials and judges have supported the program. 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. He had engineered complete authoritycollecting members Social Security and disability checks, and determining when and how his disciples could communicate with their families. [7] He became known as one of America's biggest jewel thieves and made the FBI's most wanted list in 1996. [43] He also hosted a local talk radio show. As a temple member, Mrs. Layton separated from her husband and was said to have contributed $250,000 in family assets to the cult. [28], After release he went to Palm Bay, Florida and started LL Research and Consulting and met a business partner. By all accounts, Layton was on a small plane about to leave Jonestown when the plot to kill Ryan was set in motion. Besides, when had a congressman ever been assassinated on foreign soil while on a congressional delegation trip? The spellbinding preacher had a message that attracted many disaffected people of the 1960's, and soon Carolyn had stirred her husband's sense of social activism and brought him into the group. In addition, Mr. Layton was convicted of aiding and abetting the murder of Mr. Ryan and the attempted murder of Mr. Dwyer. All of those people I had been standing beside, speaking to, sharing a cabin with. Tom Layton, Larry's older brother, reported to his father that Larry had complained repeatedly of what a awful father the scientist had been. In 1969, to get her away from the drugs and other attractions in Berkeley, Dr. Layton and his wife decided to send Deborah to a Quaker school, Ackworth, in the countryside of Yorkshire, England. Chief among my concerns was how cozy Jones appeared to be with members of the embassy: How could any Jonestown resident feel safe reporting an injustice to a U.S. official who is arm in arm with Jim Jones in every image? "I was ready to be overwhelmed by emotion," she says, "but when we got into the area, it just wasn't there. | AP. [8][9] The 367-page book covers his early life, his string of crimes, and his post-release career. ", "I thought, what a waste. At Port Kaituma, while I ushered the defectors onto a plane, a large red tractor-trailer rumbled onto the airstrip. Mr. Jones repeatedly sent word to her that he could cure her from Guyana, and she waited for his efforts to work. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. [22] Fingerprint evidence connected Lawton to the October 1994 Palm Bay heist, and he was charged with that crime as well. 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. I couldnt immediately identify the deafening sound that filled the air. Her book "Seductive Poison" will be in bookstores in November. She mentioned a Bay Area couple, the Stoens, who had defected and were fighting for the return of their young son, John. Wed have to make multiple trips in the truck. 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. One, Karen Layton, died in the carnage at Jonestown. 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. From eyewitness and survivor accounts, the program recreates the last week before the mass murder-suicide on November 18, 1978. She died of cancer in Guyana three weeks before the death ritual. I grew up with the Bible and the Puritan work ethic, he recalled in an interview. He said the accusation probably been inspired by Mr. Jones as part of a systematic effort to break up families in the church. A few Temple members stood in front of a rusty dump truck waiting to shuttle us to the compound. This was not a mass suicide. I spoke with a woman named Edith Parks, the matriarch of three generations of Temple members who wanted out. My recovery continuedthough that very word is not an accurate description of the aftermath of being shot. Of the more than 900 members of Joness congregation who had moved there, nearly a third were children. Deborah said that before her escape she had obtained a bottle of wine and taken it to the commune against Mr. Jones's rules. Like all of the tracks in the United States, it closed during the World War II years (1941-1945) and re-opened in 1946. The child talked her out of it. '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. Increasing numbers of people approached us. A second jury convicted Larry, although four jurors took what the trial judge called an unprecedented step of asking for leniency in Larrys sentencing. So many people wanted to defect that we had to call Georgetown to request an extra plane. 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. Also there was a strong feeling of community -- people of all races who really cared about each other.'. Mr. Jones's cult included, at ohe time or another, six members of the Layton family. Dont know why youre here, but were happy to have you, Jones said. Larry Layton, a former member of the People's Temple cult, was sentenced today to life in prison for aiding and abetting in the murder of Representative Leo J. Ryan at a jungle airstrip in Guyana in November 1978. Larry, sister Debbie and their mother, Lisa, all joined the temple while it was located in California. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Layton and her mother arrived in Jonestown in December 1977. Initially she was allowed to recuperate in a cabin of her own, but later she was moved into a crowded dormitorystyle cabin with other elderly women. Mrs. Layton saw Mr. Jones strip Larry of two wives. I was later told that he had been shot 45 times. Deborah Layton is now 45, lives in an elegant house in Piedmont and takes her 12-year-old daughter to play in soccer games. We saw an impressive community with dozens of pathways, cabins, a medical center, a little school, and a large pavilion where the members congregated regularly. As soon as it became clear that we would be bringing more than one or two defectors home with us, the communal faade cracked. With its bell-ringing calls for social justice -- this was in the fractious 1960s and early '70s -- the little-known church near Ukiah catered to the closet revolutionary in Deborah Layton. 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. ( 2007-01-15) [1] Jonestown: Paradise Lost is a 2007 documentary television film on the History Channel about the final days of Jonestown, the Peoples Temple, and Jim Jones. Education: Attended college in the area of San Francisco, CA. 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. Jim Jones had taken my place. As he grew older, Dr. Layton gravitated from Methodism to Quakerism, a faith with roots in the Reformation whose tenets included nonviolence, racial and religious toleration, rigorous selfdiscipline, and love and good works for the needy. It was to be the secret of her life. Her involvement in the cult, he said, was useful activity, taking care of poor people; she said so much that she looked down at wealth and had guilt feelings, and Jim Jones helped her get rid of them. 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. Meanwhile, ex-devotees of the Peoples Temple began sharing stories about Jones darker side. 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. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. 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. His suggestion that I would learn far more from first-hand experience was in step with the way he approached politics. [10] In 2012, Lawton self-published Gangster Redemption, an autobiography co-written with Peter Golenbock. Ryan did not look or behave like your typical politician. I was feet away from Jones, close enough to hear him trying to convince people to change their minds. I dove beneath the plane, hiding behind the wheel as bullets thumped against the metal above me. 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.''. 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. Indescribable pain consumed me, leaving room only for a fleeting thought that I should pretend to be dead. 2023 Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple, Alternative Considerations of Jonestown and Peoples Temple is a, The Campaign to Release Larry Layton from Federal Prison, to petition then-President Clinton to commute Larrys sentence. To go back to the gunshots. Traumatizing family rifts erupted on the spot, with mothers and fathers engaged in literal tug-of-wars over their children. He is the son of Lawrence L. Layton, a prominent biolgist at the University of California, and was raised in a cultural, intellectual atmosphere. Mrs. Layton divorced her husband in 1975 and their home on the Berkeley hilltop was sold. "The reason I did well," Layton says now, "is that I'm a little soldier and I follow orders so well.". 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