where is larry layton today

Her startling introduction to life there quickly allowed Layton to see the cracks in the facade. Her life appears to be light-years from Peoples Temple. 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. Reportedly the court lifted restraints upon his travel after realizing they were not going to get paid. Fans on Twitter are criticizing the Georgia football "culture" after recruit Jamaal Jarrett uttered a racist remark during a live stream of the 2023 NFL Draft on Thursday.. Jarrett, a four . After a few weeks, Layton grew "accustomed to the unusual smells in the food and drink. "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. Her mother and brother stayed behind. 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. With heavy hearts, we announce the death of Larry Layton (Johnstown, Pennsylvania), who passed away on December 21, 2017 at the age of 55. I admired Ryans worthy missions, but questioned if I shared his bottomless capacity to bear witness. The cover of a Jonestown promotional booklet from 1978. It looked staged. As I shook his hand, I looked at his sideburns. If Layton waives his right to a hearing to establish his identity, he will be sent on to San Francisco to face the charges there. When people refer to the Jonestown massacre as a mass suicide, I am enraged. ', "O.J. The conspiracy to murder Ryan carried a mandatory life sentence, though federal law makes him eligible for parole in 10 years. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. Congressman Ryan assured me that there was nothing to worry about. [23][24] Lawton later said he was the biggest jewel thief of the 1980s and 90s operating within the United States of America. Lawton filed a lawsuit against the prison and staff alleging that they violated his rights. Behind the wheel of an airplane, I waited for the shooting to stop and said my Act of Contrition, praying for forgiveness and waiting for the lights to go out. But the moment I looked down at my own body is locked in my mind. As I was transferred onto a gurney, I was conscious enough to look up and see a big, gleaming white plane with The United States of America written on the side. 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. robes, Jones, known as Father to his flock, soon became a San Francisco And then I realized that confirming one tiny detail could mean that the worst of the testimonies were true. | AP. How did the Peoples Temple recruit members? 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. "The reason I did well," Layton says now, "is that I'm a little soldier and I follow orders so well.". As soon as it became clear that we would be bringing more than one or two defectors home with us, the communal faade cracked. Funeral directors say it is not uncommon for family members to never retrieve cremated remains. he at the airstrip. Hundreds of children and a U.S. congressman died at Jonestown, and 911 decomposing bodies were brought to Dover Air Force Base, home to the U.S. military's largest mortuary. 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. "[10], While in prison in 2003, Lawton was sent to solitary confinement for 27 days as punishment. The night before, our delegation watched Jones followers perform a show at their compound. November 18, 1978 Peoples Temple leader Jim Jones (left) shakes hands with San Francisco Mayor George Moscone (right) after being sworn in to serve on the San Francisco Housing Authority, Nov. 24, 1977. This was not a mass suicide. If there is such a thing as a spirit or essence of people . There are 40+ professionals named "Larry Layton", who use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas, and opportunities. The next day, preparing to leave with about 20 defectors, Ryan's party Ryan did not look or behave like your typical politician. Jonestown massacre In Jonestown Only one man, Temple member Larry Layton, was tried in the United States for his involvement in the November 18 events. 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. were sort of pushed onto the path of looking for answers -- and that Jim Politically, there was nothing to gainand everything to loseby taking on Jones, and there was no telling what hed do if confronted and challenged. 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. I would never have left Jonestown with Congressman Ryan. Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby, it read. 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. I was beaten once a month. [8] Lawton later said that he used a BB gun during the robbery. [15] The robbers had dropped off jewelry for repairs, and later returned to rob the store. He said that some of the recipients could be innocent. Layton was arrested shortly after the killings by Guyanese authorities and signed a confession taking responsibility for the airstrip deaths--a confession that his lawyers maintained was coerced. Along the way, she exorcised the family ghosts. "I understand what these well-meaning secrets were for," Layton says. I knew him well enough to understand what would happen next. With Joness wild gaze on us, I tape-recorded affidavits of their wishes to return to the United States. Copyright 2023 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Generator vs power station: Which one is right for you? in. Layton, 35, was scheduled for arraignment today before Magistrate John Caden in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn on charges of killing Ryan, D-Calif., who was gunned down on Nov. 18, 1978 by Peoples Temple members who wanted to block his investigation of their cult. Many hours before the plane came, somehow, word filtered in that after Jones had released his death squad to the airstrip, he had led more than 900 of his flock into his White Night of death. 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.". My recovery continuedthough that very word is not an accurate description of the aftermath of being shot. Layton, expressionless for most of the hearing and dressed casually in a light blue sweater, said he extended his most sincere regrets to the families of the victims. 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. 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." for Lisa, Deborah and Larry Layton all went to Jonestown, but in May 1978, Deborah, increasingly disturbed by Jones' paranoid ravings and brutal treatment of his flock, escaped and flew back to the United States. 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. Never one to accept second-hand information, he decided to embark on a fact-findingand potentially life-savingtrip. The morning after our arrival, Congressman Ryan, Jim Schollaert and I attended a closed-door briefing by Ambassador John Burke and his staff at the U.S. Embassy. Jim Jones, with his omnipresent dark glasses and his sweeping red robe, was the anchor of her newfound life and, like many Temple members, she was mesmerized by him. I just | AP. Layton spent approximately 18 years in either the Georgetown Gaol in Guyana or U.S. federal prisons before his release in April 2002. 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In the early 1950s, he was chief of Chemical Warfare at the Army's Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. He was born June 30, 1940 in Long Branch NJ to William and Edna (Keller) Layton. By that time, darker elements had seeped into Jones sermons. She was entrusted with flights to Europe and Panama to open Temple bank accounts, where Jones stashed the millions he was taking from Temple. I wanted to be part of something that was doing things for other people, and besides, Peoples Temple offered a community of friends. Jim Jones orchestrated the mass murder-suicide of Peoples Temple cult members on November 18, 1978. Repeatedly, the defectors mentioned forced participation in mass-suicide rehearsals known as the White Night trials.. DOVER, Del. She was entrusted with flights to Europe and Panama to open Temple bank accounts, where Jones stashed the millions he was taking from Temple members who freely gave him their life savings, their homes and just about everything else. | AP/San Francisco Examiner. 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, already ill with cancer, died in early November 1978. Kool-Aid is high in sugar or contains artificial sweetener and has little to no nutritional value. [26] He was incarcerated in many prisons during his sentence, which included Jesup in Georgia, Riker's Island in New York, Edgefield in South Carolina, and Yazoo City in Mississippi. Breathing heavily, I pulled myself to my feet, stumbled to the planes baggage compartment and took shelter. 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. In 1954, he was named director of research at the Navy's munitions factory in Indian Head, Md., where he designed missile fuels. I was kicked. 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. Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every . . 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. Ryan traveled to Guyana after winning his fourth congressional term to investigate reports from cult defectors--including Laytons sister, Debra--that the cult was holding members against their will. Most complied, although survivors described some people being shot, injected with poison, or forced to drink the deadly beverage when they tried to resist. 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. After two trials, he was convicted in 1986 of conspiring to murder San Mateo Representative Leo Ryan. Dissent was unthinkable. The phrase drinking the Kool-Aid refers to followership at its worse. A year later, I applied to college, and he wrote me a letter of recommendation. We split up, as Jones had arranged. Ive shared my Guyana story countless times, but its still a challenge to go back and relive those days. Whatever impelled me to send in the card changed the course of my life. brother and I 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. Hes a jug, and nothing more. days before the murder-suicide, she hit an emotional wall. Sept. 26, 1981 Larry Layton: Survivor of the Peoples Temple Larry Layton, Quaker and pacifist, entered the Peoples Temple in 1968 to join the march to social justice as charted by the. She got a job in investment banking, married, had a child, divorced. Laytons lawyer said that made Layton more susceptible to Jones spell. Ryan decided that we would wait until the morning and suggested we keep a low profile until then. When she tried to write about abandoning her mother, who would die 10 In all, 913 died. Don put it in his pocket and took a few more steps before carefully unfolding it. Lawrence Robert Lawton (born October 3, 1961) is an American ex-convict, author, paralegal, motivational speaker, and YouTuber. the doorbell in a frenzy of bright stripes and squiggles. Family and friends can send flowers and condolences in memory of the loved one. Larry was released from Guyana into the custody of U.S. marshals, who escorted him to San Francisco. He told you precisely what was on his mind, no matter who you were or whether or not you wanted to hear it. [25] He received an additional sentence in 2002 for giving false witness. First the children; poison was squirted into babies' mouths with a syringe. Jones was found shot through the head. | Amazon. Monica confirmed that she wanted to leave. encampment about 250 miles (400 kilometers) from the Guyana capital of 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 As the bodies were identified, the military asked about a half-dozen local funeral homes to help the families make arrangements. The killings occurred shortly before more than 900 followers of Jones died in a mass suicide at Jonestown, a settlement founded by Jones in the remote Guyanese jungle of South America. Larry Howard Layton, 80, of Green Valley, AZ passed away December 10, 2020 from complications of COVID-19. NEW YORK -- Larry Layton, a member of Jim Jones' Peoples Temple cult, flew to New York Friday night to face arraignment for the killing of Rep. Leo Ryan in the Guyanese jungles two years ago. 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. We compiled similar testimonies from other defectors who corroborated Debbies reports of physical and sexual abuse, forced labor and captivity. View the profiles of professionals named "Larry Layton" on LinkedIn. Layton became a senior insider in Jones' entourage. He called Layton the ultimate victim of Jim Jones.. secret, that her mother had fled Nazi Germany.). I did not recover my old self; bullets render that impossible. Hundreds of followers moved. They are arranged in chronological order. Somehow, through the encroaching darkness of my final thoughts, I saw my 87-year-old Grandma Emma. [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. See also Jim Jones [30] The Lake St. Louis police chief praised Larry's message about the consequences of going to prison and said it is not a scared straight program, noting that Lawton said "fear doesn't have a lasting impact. To the stretchers. Debbie stood in line to drink the red liquid that she was told would kill her in a matter of minutes. [31] The DVDs contained condensed versions of Lawton's program and were 67 minutes long. [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. 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. Ten days later, on November 18, Jones and 912 of his followers committed mass suicide. "It's just so sad, for me as a survivor," said Yulanda Williams, 58, now a sergeant with the San Francisco Police Department. Traumatizing family rifts erupted on the spot, with mothers and fathers engaged in literal tug-of-wars over their children. Youll see what a wonderful place it is. He took us on a tour highlighting the most favorable aspects of the commune. But doubts were eased by Jones' reassuring "You are the The cremated remains of nine Jonestown victims were discovered in a decrepit, now-shuttered funeral home in Dover, officials said. Larry Layton, a former member of the People's Temple cult, is to be released on $250,000 bail pending an appeal of his conviction last December for aiding and abetting the murder of. believed he could best survive the atomic apocalypse he expected. | California Historical Society. It turned out to be a sort of family When we touched down in Georgetown, a U.S. Air Force medevac plane was waiting. grotesque dance of death. Lawton was critical of the move, saying that "[c]hain gangs send a bad message about [the US]." In August 1979, he joined the Coast Guard[9] and took part in the Mariel boatlift. The next year, his church relocated to Redwood Valley, a small community in northern California. It was the final stop for a group that for nearly 10 years had fascinated and, in the end, horrified the Bay Area. They all joined Peoples Temple, and Larry and Deborah Layton quickly became two of Jones's closest confidants. He was jailed at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. After Jonestown, Layton retreated to secrets again -- "I was so ashamed. Generator vs power station: Which one is right for you? sentence in federal prison. We worked quickly to locate and speak to the individuals whose families had contacted our office and had been campaigning for their return. only one I Kool-Aid mixed with water is not the same as plain water or a beverage such as Gatorade or Powerade. I did not feel confident this was a good idea. Layton was 17 when her already converted brother, Larry, introduced her "So we as a family all sat down and we voted him out of his job." I was even unaffected by the rice weevils and other strange bugs we ingested daily.". Five months later, on the night of November 18, 1978, Jones sent a gang of gunmen to an airstrip in Port Kaituma, where Representative Leo Ryan of San Mateo and a fact-finding party that had visited Jonestown were preparing to leave. Then the adults. [32] By 2010, Lawton had shipped 10,000 DVDs across the country. So many people wanted to defect that we had to call Georgetown to request an extra plane. I barely got a wink of sleep. In 1965, after riots shook Watts, an African-American neighborhood in Los Angeles, Ryan briefly took a job there as a substitute teacher while serving in the state Assembly, and used the experience to shape education policy. 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. 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. Although some of Joness most zealous followers may have consumed the poison voluntarily, the vast majority were murdered outright and against their will. The suit was later dismissed. Jones 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. Among them were Sams teenaged granddaughters. Even later, she learned another He had completed his mission and was trying to take off from an airstrip six miles from the jungle compound of Jonestown when a trailer filled with eight armed Jones devotees pulled onto the runway and began firing. [28] In 2013, Lawton was made an honorary police officer by the Lake St. Louis, Missouri Police Department due to his work after prison. They all swore that Jonestown was the one and only place they could ever consider home. Lawrence Robert Lawton (born October 3, 1961) is an American ex-convict, author, paralegal, motivational speaker, and YouTuber. The store owner managed to break free and grabbed a .38 caliber pistol and fired five shots at the robbers as they fled. It wasnt unusual for Temple members to be awakened at dawn over the loudspeaker and summoned to the pavilion for one of his increasingly unhinged sermons. This time, it was not a drill. [28], After release he went to Palm Bay, Florida and started LL Research and Consulting and met a business partner. During World War II, he did research on cancer and the healing of wounds at Johns Hopkins University's School of Hygiene and Public Health in Baltimore. Leo Ryan wanted answers. sat there. grandmother had committed suicide. 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? Larry now lives in Northern California. She was 16 before she found out she was Jewish, 24 before she learned her (AP) -- 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. Most of them were sent back home," said funeral director William Torbert Sr., 79. Jim Jones, destroyed the will of his followers. Don hung back for a moment before approaching Congressman Ryan and me at the picnic table and surreptitiously passing along the note. Few heeded. [8][12] At one point, he purchased an Italian pizza restaurant in North Lauderdale, Florida, which he later burned down as part of an insurance fraud. By that time, it was obvious that some of his disciples intended to leave. . I heard screams and the rapid pounding of gunfire. They had passed. He said Layton was insane at the time and was drugged by Jones with a mood-enhancing stimulant. What episode does Luna get Ancient Fairy Dragon? 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. In May 1978, she was sent by Jones to Georgetown to chaperone some Temple children on a cultural exchange. 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. Larry Lawton. Jones greeted us at the compound. The family moved from Maryland to Northern California, where Mr. Layton was appointed chief of pharmacology at the Western Regional Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 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. April 24, 1987 12 AM PT. Mr. Layton died of congestive heart failure, five days before his 85th birthday. Jones then orchestrated a ritual of mass murder and suicide at the group's nearby agricultural commune, ordering followers to drink cyanide-laced grape punch. Although Larry Layton must be held responsible for his actions, a just sentence requires consideration of the environment in which Layton and other members were virtually imprisoned, Peckham said. [29][13] The program is four hours long. I felt my stomach knot. After being airlifted to a U.S. military base in Puerto Rico, he was sent onward on to a hospital in Santa Rosa, California, where his father and brothersall of them armedprotected him from the "angels" he believed the late Jones would send to finally finish him. What an evil thing that Jim Jones did. Jones ran the Peoples Temple in San Francisco in the early 1970s. How to plan a weekend getaway to Mount Shasta, Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). The moment Layton and her mother, Lisa, arrived at Jonestown, a jungle Jones died from a bullet to the brain. Left-right: Jim Schollaert, Jackie Speier and Congressman Leo Ryan. 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. Larry Layton, who had posed as a defector and wounded two people, is serving A self-anointed minister, as a young man he started proselytizing outside a storefront church in Indianapolis, and by 1955, had formed the Wings of Deliverance church. The fact is, those who died in Jonestown were real people, with families, friends, and loved ones. broadcast Jones' voice at all hours. In 1977, after a magazine expose, Jones and his followers fled to Jonestown, a compound carved out of the remote jungles of Guyana. Later that night, Jones had another suicide exercise. Roper estimates that if the Kool-Aid Man were brought up to the scale represented in the iconic ads, he would measure about 6 feet tall, have a dry weight of almost 6,000 pounds (11,000 pounds when filled with Kool-Aid), and his glass frame would measure 3.6 inches thick. I couldnt bear the vision of her sitting in front of my casket. It felt like a Mack truck had just sped over me. How to plan a weekend getaway to Mount Shasta, Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). It was utter pandemonium. [7] Lawton attended Intermediate IS 192 and Lehman High School, but did not graduate. The news at the time and the history lessons to follow usually fail to mention that a number of Peoples Temple members were shot, several of whom were in the field between the pavilion and the jungle, clearly trying to escape the massacre. 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. 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. Layton had denounced his sister Debbie for defecting, telling Speier that Jonestown was "an extraordinarily good . All I could think was I am not going to make Grandma live through my funeral. My ribs were broken. Debbie said the couple had gone to court to try to compel the Guyanese government to intervene; Rev. I spoke with a woman named Edith Parks, the matriarch of three generations of Temple members who wanted out. At the airport, Temple members who found out she was fleeing implored her not to leave. He knew that Jones had considerable political clout, with close ties to Democratic leaders in San Francisco, Sacramento, and even with the State Department. United Press International. His appearance was part of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program. Don't Miss Audio:. Onboard, every bump we hit shot an arrow of pain through my body. Glenn Youngkin rules out presidential campaign while in California, 7 bodies found during search for missing Oklahoma teens, US to lift most federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates next week, Multiple fatalities on Illinois highway during a blinding windstorm.

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