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." Before I could even comprehend what was happening, about a dozen men leapt from the tractor, leveled their automatic weapons, and fast approached. Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby, it read. Deborah Layton is now 45, lives in an elegant house in Piedmont and takes her 12-year-old daughter to play in soccer games. Later on, I decided I had to show them. ref: Benjy Esteves Jr Mark Consentino 94-95 Larry Layton 94-95 John McKaie 94-95 He went, and pursued the destiny that brought him to trial in San Francisco. Hours later at the Jonestown emcampment, Jones led the death rite of himself and his followers. 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. Mrs. Layton was convinced the man had been cured by Mr. Jones, who is known to have faked such cures by presenting chicken and cattle entrails as cancerous tissue he claimed to have removed. I noticed an elderly woman stuffing pieces of bacon into her pockets; the ample spread was just another showpiece. '', He said that Mr. Layton ''did not kill anybody'' at the airstrip, nor did he ''aid and abet or conspire to kill Leo Ryan.'' In San Francisco, his church was lauded for its social programs, and Jones efforts to feed the poor and fight segregation found receptive ears with progressive politicians. Infants cannot commit suicide. 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. With Joness wild gaze on us, I tape-recorded affidavits of their wishes to return to the United States. Layton's mother, who came from a wealthy family, divorced her husband and donated $300,000 to Jones' cause. 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. Don put it in his pocket and took a few more steps before carefully unfolding it. 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. 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 She had an extremely anxious demeanor, and we moved quickly as we went to her cabin to pack. 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. He was then returned to the United States and charged under a Federal statute against assassinating members of Congress and internationally protected people. In addition, Mr. Layton was convicted of aiding and abetting the murder of Mr. Ryan and the attempted murder of Mr. Dwyer. Its hard to know when it became obvious that he was dead, or when I realized that others werent pretending. Ive shared my Guyana story countless times, but its still a challenge to go back and relive those days. 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. But the moment I looked down at my own body is locked in my mind. ''The story of Jonestown is really the story of a world gone mad. [42][13], Lawton has made many media appearances. Jim Jones would order more than 900 of his followers to commit suicide. After he passed legislation improving prison conditions, the inmates showed their gratitude by giving him a chess set they had sculpted from toothpaste and toilet paper. | Amazon. The suit was later dismissed. Should they have any doubt of his intentions, they could look to the vibrant community of believers who echoed his sentiments and treated his words as gospel. Last year, Mrs. Layton became ill, and the diagnosis was what she feared most cancer. [10][26] While recounting his prison experiences he said: "I saw inmates stabbed and friends die" and "I saw young men raped and pimped out as prostitutes for other inmates. He. Its leader, the Rev. Mr. Jones, Deborah said, callously gave Mrs. Layton that news. 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.. It was an implausible ending for the fiery preacher, who had curried favor among the fashionable elite of the Democratic Party. [28] In 2013, Lawton was made an honorary police officer by the Lake St. Louis, Missouri Police Department due to his work after prison. Nevertheless, in 1991, a parole board ruled that Larry would have to serve 20 years, and set his release date for 2006. He said that some of the recipients could be innocent. [3], Lawton was offered a three-year sentence in exchange for disclosing his accomplices but did not take the deal. [28] Often he appears discussing crimes in the media as an expert on robberies. The U.S. trial was confined to the question of whether he plotted to kill Ryan and U.S. diplomat Richard Dwyer. Members of the press and the Concerned Relatives waited behind on the airstrip until the truck could come back for a second load. [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. In August 1979, he joined the Coast Guard[9] and took part in the Mariel boatlift. Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple. Mr. Layton was also convicted of conspiracy in the attempted murder of Richard C. Dwyer, the deputy chief of the United States mission to Guyana, who was among those wounded at the airstrip. Nearly 300 children were administered the poison with no comprehension of what it meant, including a number of infants in the arms of their parents. | AP. Larry Layton Net Worth is $14 Million. [7] He became known as one of America's biggest jewel thieves and made the FBI's most wanted list in 1996. Mini Biography. [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 knew him well enough to understand what would happen next. 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. Family Tragedy: Hitler's Germany to Jones's Cult, https://www.nytimes.com/1978/12/04/archives/family-tragedy-hitlers-germany-to-joness-cult-the-layton-familys.html. In 1996, the family and friends of Larry launched a campaign for a presidential commutation. He was cracking. This time, it was not a drill. 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. The approach continued even after hed moved from Sacramento to Washington, D.C. [21] Lawton was arrested by the FBI on December 2, 1996, in Florida and charged with the Fairless Hills armed robbery. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. 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. To the volatile flight home. The campaign succeeded in making it to the Oval Office, and seemed to be viable up until 20 January 2001, President Clintons last day in office, but Larrys name did not appear on the final list of pardons and commutations. Dr. Layton was perplexed by his wife's behavior but began sleeping beside her on the floor. '', ''In a sense,'' he said, ''it would be easy to transfer the responsibility of Jones and put it on Larry Layton.'' Sam was far from the only person concerned about Jones malicious influence over a loved one. Mr. Jones, they said, could cure cancer. He is also charged with conspiring to harm Richard Dwyer, a United States diplomat who was wounded in the ambush. 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. 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 . [8] In 1983, having earned his GED, he left the Coast Guard and began engaging in criminal activity, mostly loan sharking and bookmaking. 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. He said the accusation probably been inspired by Mr. Jones as part of a systematic effort to break up families in the church. In a cabin with about six women from the Temple, I took a top bunk, sweating as a downpour opened up outside. ", 20 Years Later, Jonestown Survivor Confronts Horrors, LAYTON01/B/20OCT98/MN/SLF ---Deborah Layton is a survivor of Jonestown. Hours after the incident, the Rev. 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. American author, Youtuber and jewel thief, "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. [19][20] One bullet narrowly missed Lawton, but struck his brother. Politics: Liberal. Over the next decade, Jones moved his congregation and changed its name several times before settling on Peoples Temple around 1964. well, it wasn't there. A second jury convicted Larry, although four jurors took what the trial judge called an unprecedented step of asking for leniency in Larrys sentencing. Subsequently, he said, she urged him to have an affair. 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. (It was the 60s.) "[27] Another time he said: "I had my arms pinned down, and I was beaten and peed on by the guards. 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.". Layton01/B/20Oct98/Mn/Slf -- -Deborah Layton is now 45, lives in an elegant in. 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