He is bewildered at how it all happened, groping for an explanation of what he called a Greek tragedy.. Meanwhile, Dr. Layton said, A difficult new field of science in molecular biology was opening, and he began to spend more and more time studying it. 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. After a few weeks, Layton grew "accustomed to the unusual smells in the food and drink. It did not sit well with me. Layton complied, and Jones took Carolyn as his mistress. The robbers drew what police at the time believed were firearms, and restrained the store owner. I was almost one of them. In the summer of 1977, after an expose of Peoples Temple in New West magazine, Jones and his followers fled to Guyana. 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. Nearly 30 years later, her mother long dead in a rotting jungle outpost in Guyana, her brother doing life in a federal prison and her father so broken that he weeps at the mention of anything connected with Jones-, town, Deborah Layton has, as she put it the other day, "decided it was time to come out of the cobwebbed attic.". 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 . 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. On November 17, we landed at the tiny airstrip at Port Kaituma. Tom Layton, Larry's older brother, reported to his father that Larry had complained repeatedly of what a awful father the scientist had been. "Every week we're ordered to drink some liquid," she writes, culling her memories of the "old tapes (of Jonestown recollections that) are running in my head. [8][9] The 367-page book covers his early life, his string of crimes, and his post-release career. 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. When we touched down in Georgetown, a U.S. Air Force medevac plane was waiting. Dont know why youre here, but were happy to have you, Jones said. 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. 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. [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. bout wiki. The next year, his church relocated to Redwood Valley, a small community in northern California. [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. "I was driving across the bridge," she says when asked why, after all these years, she wanted to revisit the horrors of Jonestown. When people refer to the Jonestown massacre as a mass suicide, I am enraged. Among them were Sams teenaged granddaughters. There is a sickening recording of Jones coercing his followers that day. After that, she never stopped going back, Dr. Layton said. [37], Lawton is an advocate for prisoners and their rights, and comments on the justice system. [26] Lawton does not hold a degree in child psychology or criminology. [10] He also founded the Reality Check program which aims to show teens the consequences of a criminal life. Five bullets had ripped through me, devastating the right side of my body. 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. Ryan invited members of the press and a few of the Concerned Relatives to join him. Although some of Joness most zealous followers may have consumed the poison voluntarily, the vast majority were murdered outright and against their will. The tumult of the late 60s and early 70s had left masses of people searching for a greater sense of security and purpose. 'A Tremendous Amount of Guilt'. Mrs. Layton saw Mr. Jones strip Larry of two wives. 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. Lisa Layton was the next member of the family to join the cult. 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. He said the trial was not the place to examine the deaths of 913 people at the cult's settlement in Jonestown, Guyana. Much later, Layton writes, she would find them "on the bookshelf in Father's house with the many other prescription drugs taken from Temple members.". [10] Afterwards, another jewelry store in Lower Bucks County became suspicious of a person they believed was casing the place for a future robbery. Layton grew up in an affluent Berkeley family. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Sure enough, I could tell he had. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. Layton and her mother arrived in Jonestown in December 1977. Jim Jones led 912 followers in a ritual of murders and suicides. ", 20 Years Later, Jonestown Survivor Confronts Horrors, LAYTON01/B/20OCT98/MN/SLF ---Deborah Layton is a survivor of Jonestown. The night before, our delegation watched Jones followers perform a show at their compound. Nevertheless, in 1991, a parole board ruled that Larry would have to serve 20 years, and set his release date for 2006. 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. Others, who presumably refused to drink the Kool-Aida flippant, misguided phrase I very much wish could be scrubbed from our lexiconwere injected with cyanide and other poisons. 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. Mr . My list kept growingwhat started with two names was now more than 40. An eyewitness who escaped described how people who did not cooperate were injected with poison where they sat, or were held down and injected with poison.. All of those people I had been standing beside, speaking to, sharing a cabin with. Sam was far from the only person concerned about Jones malicious influence over a loved one. He was cracking. He preached a social gospel, attracting devotees while promoting a community that did not discriminate or take into account race, background, or previous circumstances. Judge Peckham imposed the same five-year parole date on those counts. I was feet away from Jones, close enough to hear him trying to convince people to change their minds. Larry Layton wiki ionformation include family relationships: spouse or partner (wife or husband); siblings; childen/kids; parents life. After that trip, I remember telling myself that never again would I witness such violence at such close range. January 15, 2007. #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. 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. Whatever impelled me to send in the card changed the course of my life. It was imminently clear Jonestown was a hierarchical community, with the power structure resembling some sort of plantation: the majority of the Temple members were black, while the leadership was almost exclusively white. 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. Their courtship began in the spring of 1941, and theywere married in October. Her brother, Larry, later became the only person ever charged in connection with the airstrip massacre and, after two . 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. Anyone running afoul of Jonestowns security detail was put in a labor camp and forced to clear jungle. They visited her brother in Ukiah, listened to Mr. Jones's teachingswhich in many ways paralleled those of the Quakers and before long even Mr. Blakey's mother had flown from England to join the People's Temple for a short while. The outfits were a ridiculous gimmick, and the role was clearly objectifying. All I could think was I am not going to make Grandma live through my funeral. 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. In the mid and late 1960's, when Berkeley became the scene of frequently tumultuous antiwar demonstrations and other protests, Larry and Deborah Layton joined many of the demonstrations and began experimenting with drugs. I noticed an elderly woman stuffing pieces of bacon into her pockets; the ample spread was just another showpiece. (CHRONICLE PHOTO BY SUSANNA FROHMAN), Restaurant chain slated to close site at Bay Area mall, One of the largest movie theaters in SF to close permanently, Grapevine closed indefinitely due to heavy snow and ice, Plan to bring bullet train from LA to Vegas is underway, 'Zero visibility' conditions: All roads to Tahoe are closed, What it looks like inside Coit Towers former apartment, Graupel falls on Disneyland, shocks guests, Avalanche slams into Tahoe apartment building amid blizzard, Hundreds of thousands of workers have abandoned downtown SF, Tahoe's snowfall totals are on track to break records, Report: Matthew McConaughey has a massive Salesforce paycheck, Popular yet divisive fast food chain coming to this Bay Area town. SAN FRANCISCO Larry Layton was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for his role in conspiring to murder Rep. Leo Ryan in Guyana in 1978. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. ''It is not the proper forum for answering questions about Jonestown.'' It was just a matter of time. 1978 CULT FIGURE GETS LIFE TERM IN CONGRESSMAN'S JUNGLE SLAYING, https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/04/us/1978-cult-figure-gets-life-term-in-congressman-s-jungle-slaying.html. Ten years later the road came to a dead end in the jungles of Guyana. Is the Stanley Quencher tumbler worth its TikTok hype? The docket for Laytons trial through its various appeals through 1990 is here. In the months leading up to the trip, my boss, Congressman Leo Ryan, had been contacted by worried constituents whose loved ones were members of a San Francisco-based religious group called the Peoples Temple, which had fled to South America for the promise of a utopian commune led by their preacher, Jim Jones. Extradited to the U.S. after a Guyana jury found him not guilty of murder, Larry was tried twice on four charges related to the shootings, including Conspiracy to Kill a Congressman. Wed have to make multiple trips in the truck. [8], In 2019, he made a video with Vanity Fair where he analyzed fictional robberies from films such as The Italian Job and Heat. I did not recover my old self; bullets render that impossible. The suit was later dismissed. 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." Returning to the pavilion area, I sought out other anxious-looking members. By Katherine Bishop, Special To the New York Times. He has appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Christian Broadcasting Network, and Fox News. Join me, he assured his followers, and youll get health care, education and a family that would never mistreat you. Larry Layton, Quaker and pacifist, entered the Peoples Temple in 1968 to join the march to social justice as charted by the temple's mesmerizing leader, the Rev. 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. To access these PDF files you must have the free Adobe Reader installed. After Larry and Carolyn Layton joined the cult, Larry stopped writing to his parents and would not accept phone calls from them. ''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. The book describes the events that occurred in Jonestown, Guyana, where over 900 people lost their lives as the result of mass forced suicide, which constituted the largest loss of American civilian life (other than due to natural disasters or during the course of violence with Native Americans) in United States history until the events of Two wives dead end in the spring of 1941, and restrained store... 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