Her brother, Larry, later became the only person ever charged in connection with the airstrip massacre and, after two . But I refused to spend the rest of my life as a victim of Guyanathere were too many of them. Five bullets hit me from point-blank range, piercing my right arm, leg, and back. Just click the "Edit page" button at the bottom of the page or learn more in the Biography submission guide. Rep. Ryan and I arranged to meet her. Traumatizing family rifts erupted on the spot, with mothers and fathers engaged in literal tug-of-wars over their children. While on the phone listening to the allegations that would soon be made public, Jones scribbled a note to his aides: We leave tonight.. Meanwhile, ex-devotees of the Peoples Temple began sharing stories about Jones darker side. [15] The robbers had dropped off jewelry for repairs, and later returned to rob the store. That date was later moved back to April 2004, after the board credited him for his time in the Georgetown jail. [8] In 1983, having earned his GED, he left the Coast Guard and began engaging in criminal activity, mostly loan sharking and bookmaking. 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. LOS ANGELES, Dec. 3 Her name was Lisa Philips and she was so beautiful that friends said she looked like Hedy Lamarr. [10] He also founded the Reality Check program which aims to show teens the consequences of a criminal life. As I scanned the hundreds of smiling faces, I never could have fathomed that within 24 hours, virtually every one of them would be dead. Besides, when had a congressman ever been assassinated on foreign soil while on a congressional delegation trip? well, it wasn't there. The petition for commutation filed with the Pardon Attorney in 1997 included 87 letters of support from former members of Peoples Temple, relatives of people who died in Jonestown, former prisoners and prison officials who knew Larry, scholars of religious studies and new religious movements, and members of the clergy. Layton was brought to trial in Guyana on charges of attempted murder and was acquitted. In the summer of 1977, after an expose of Peoples Temple in New West magazine, Jones and his followers fled to Guyana. He knew that Jones had considerable political clout, with close ties to Democratic leaders in San Francisco, Sacramento, and even with the State Department. Her childhood playmates included cousins and friends from some of the bestknown families of Germany's Jewish aristocracy, such as the Berensons and Rothschilds. On November 17, we landed at the tiny airstrip at Port Kaituma. A bone shot out of my right arm, and a huge hunk of flesh had been blown off my thigh. By that time, darker elements had seeped into Jones sermons. Her book "Seductive Poison" will be in bookstores in November. Larry, sister Debbie and their mother, Lisa, all joined the temple while it was located in California. After a while, Mrs. Layton began sleeping on the floor of their home in Berkeley and made her husband sell a Cadillac they owned. Later, Jones also became enamoured of the new Mrs. Layton and soon added her, too, to his growing harem of temple members. Port Royal Speedway hosts a weekly schedule of local Sprint Car, Late Model, and Pro-Stock dirt track racing, and is nicknamed "The Speed Palace".Several national touring series organizations visit the track during the racing season, including the World of Outlaws . '', He said that Mr. Layton ''did not kill anybody'' at the airstrip, nor did he ''aid and abet or conspire to kill Leo Ryan.'' As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 'Being in Peoples Temple wasn't always pleasant, but one had the feeling he was really doing something to advance society. He treasured it. I have no idea how much time passed until I turned my head and opened my eyes. '', See the article in its original context from. But, as interviews last week with family members and friends revealed, the Laytons slowly disintegrated under the pressures of family conflict, the disillusionment that gripped much of America during the 1960's, drug use, and the soothing, simplistic appeal of Mr. Jones. 1998-11-02 04:00:00 PDT CALIFORNIA -- For a young woman of 17, flinging herself on the world after the cloistered atmosphere of an English boarding school, Peoples Temple seemed daring and exciting. 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. All I could think was I am not going to make Grandma live through my funeral. The retrial was delayed for years because of complex appeals over the admissability of certain evidence excluded by Judge Peckham's rulings in the first trial. Education: Attended college in the area of San Francisco, CA. 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. I noticed an elderly woman stuffing pieces of bacon into her pockets; the ample spread was just another showpiece. [25], Law enforcement officials and judges have supported the program. 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. Jonestown: 13 Things You Should Know About Cult Mas. From her childhood, friends said, Mrs. Layton had carried a deep fear of cancer. Jones responded by telling them that if any actions were taken to remove John, the entire Jonestown population would commit suicide. 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. Before the New West issue hit the stands, Jones and hundreds of his followers had left San Francisco for Jonestown, their promised land in Guyana. Her father, a wealthy banker in Hamburg, and her mother would be marched off at gunpoint to a train bound for a concentration camp. 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. Larrys parole came two years earlier than his previously-scheduled release date of April 2004. Mini Biography. "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. When people refer to the Jonestown massacre as a mass suicide, I am enraged. [23][24] Lawton later said he was the biggest jewel thief of the 1980s and 90s operating within the United States of America. After Jones moved to Jonestown, and with Layton still in California, Layton's sister, a power in the hierarchy of the temple, defected and began to tell of atrocities at the jungle agricultural project. In fact, I would have been on that truck, with a rifle. But Dr. Layton denied strongly in a separate interview that he had ever been antiSemitic. Her startling introduction to life there quickly allowed Layton to see the cracks in the facade. Layton complied, and Jones took Carolyn as his mistress. He spent 12 years in prison, and once released, began a career as a motivational speaker, life coach, and author. Their courtship began in the spring of 1941, and theywere married in October. [22] Fingerprint evidence connected Lawton to the October 1994 Palm Bay heist, and he was charged with that crime as well. Before going to print, the editor of the magazine, who held some esteem for Jones, felt compelled to call him and read aloud the article before it went to press. But finally her cancer became so advanced that It was necessary for surgeons to remove a lung. Mrs. Layton moved out of their home on Labor Day 1979. What an evil thing that Jim Jones did. ''They were trying to deny the horror of Jonestown and the deception that they underwent,'' Mr. Tamburello said. Her father, a talented violinist hated his father for making him go into banking rather than music. 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. 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. But it was the testimony of Vern Gosney, one of Larrys shooting victims at the Port Kaituma airstrip, who traveled from Hawaii for the sole purpose of attending the hearing and who delivered the most impassioned plea for Larrys release, that apparently made the difference. Though driven by the kind of underlying insecurity that so often fuels tyrants, Jones appeared to offer hope, redemption, and an idealistic new life. Hours after the incident, the Rev. But Layton, saying he wishes he could ease the pain. Larry Layton wiki ionformation include family relationships: spouse or partner (wife or husband); siblings; childen/kids; parents life. I never played; I never learned how. As soon as it became clear that we would be bringing more than one or two defectors home with us, the communal faade cracked. Her mother's cancer pain medications were taken away. We compiled similar testimonies from other defectors who corroborated Debbies reports of physical and sexual abuse, forced labor and captivity. Judge Peckham imposed the same five-year parole date on those counts. She said that she knew that to do so would endanger her mother and brother because Mr. Jones kept dissident members in line by holding relatives hostage. 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 temple's mesmerizing. There is abundant evidence that Mr. Jones used such tactics to divide families and break up marriages. Wiki Bio of Larry Layton net worth is updated in 2023. Peoples Temple follower Larry Layton, center, stands with police following his arrest in the shooting of two people, including California Congressman Leo Ryan, on a remote Guyana airstrip, Nov. 18, 1978. Dick Dwyer, an embassy official, showed us a slideshow of his visit to Jonestown the previous Mayimages in which he and Jim Jones looked unnervingly chummy; images of tables filled with food, of joyful children on a swingset, of bountiful crops and an exuberant church session. 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. Jim Jones with a group of children living at Jonestown, circa 1978. Jim Jones, and 912 of his followers died by poison and gunfire in mass killings and suicides. 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 . They had passed. March 5, 1999. History. Secretly, she offered her mother a glass of the wine. Don hung back for a moment before approaching Congressman Ryan and me at the picnic table and surreptitiously passing along the note. [18], Lawton is believed to have hit around 20 to 25 jewelry stores,[11] stealing a self-estimated total of around $1518 million worth of high-value items, including watches, diamonds, and other gems. Larry Layton, who posed as a defector, was captured after badly wounding two people inside a plane trying to take off. He was to use the skill when the flock made its planned migration to the Guyana settlement, which Jones already had picked out and named Jonestown. 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." [10] High school students can use the time spent in the program towards the 75 hours of community service required for the Bright Futures Scholarship Program. 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. Mr. Jones also apparently widened the rift between Larry Layton and his father. Among them were Sams teenaged granddaughters. [31] The DVDs contained condensed versions of Lawton's program and were 67 minutes long. The bodies of Jones and 912 cult followers lay sprawled under the tropical trees of the commune, victims of an incredible murder-suicide rite. He was acquitted after presenting a defense of brainwashing. The next year, his church relocated to Redwood Valley, a small community in northern California. After a year or so Dr. Layton and his wife heard from Carolyn's father that the couple had been divorced. 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. Dr. Layton recalls that his wife began to resist his sexual advances and, when he protested, offered to move out. He was not paroled from an American prison until 2002. Jim could really get to people, Deborah recalled in an interview. Religion: "Raised as a Quaker." Hobbies and other interests: Theater, music, painting, gardening. As a temple member, Mrs. Layton separated from her husband and was said to have contributed $250,000 in family assets to the cult. 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. To the volatile flight home. She mentioned a Bay Area couple, the Stoens, who had defected and were fighting for the return of their young son, John. [7] Lawton attended Intermediate IS 192 and Lehman High School, but did not graduate. It was an implausible ending for the fiery preacher, who had curried favor among the fashionable elite of the Democratic Party. [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. Layton's mother, Lisa, had died of cancer 10 days before the mass suicide. I felt my stomach knot. 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. "If I hadn't been sent to Georgetown that day (in May)," Deborah Layton says now, "I would have died in Jonestown. [26] Lawton does not hold a degree in child psychology or criminology. Whatever impelled me to send in the card changed the course of my life. But listening to one after the other after the other say the same choreographed thing made me uneasy. At the end of the evening, Rep. Ryan walked onstage and thanked the group. Deborah Layton is now 45, lives in an elegant house in Piedmont and takes her 12-year-old daughter to play in soccer games. 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. [28] In 2013, Lawton was made an honorary police officer by the Lake St. Louis, Missouri Police Department due to his work after prison. See also Other Works | Publicity Listings | Official Sites View agent, publicist, legal and company contact details on IMDbPro 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.". Last year, Mrs. Layton became ill, and the diagnosis was what she feared most cancer. At 16, Im not sure I understood what a state assemblyman did, but when my parents received a solicitation from Leo Ryans reelection campaign in 1966, I mailed back a note: Im in high school. Mr. Layton believes that his wife gave Mr. Jones at least $250,000 and possibly more; he said she had some secret accounts of her own that apparently contained money from her father. 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. 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. His appearance was part of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program. 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. Their accounts led to an expos in New West Magazine planned for publication in summer 1977. Congressman Ryans body was probably 15 feet away. I asked to speak to Monica Bagby, one of the names on Dons note. But, she said, I had to tell somebody what was happening in Jonestown. ''The story of Jonestown is really the story of a world gone mad. [28] Often he appears discussing crimes in the media as an expert on robberies. She carne back from that meeting in a state of shock, as if she had seen a ghost, her husband recalled. At Port Kaituma, while I ushered the defectors onto a plane, a large red tractor-trailer rumbled onto the airstrip. ''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. Members of the press and the Concerned Relatives waited behind on the airstrip until the truck could come back for a second load. The defense attorney urged jurors to consider conditions at Jonestown and their impact on Mr. Layton. His father, an electrical engineer, died when Larry was 8 and the boy had to move in with his grandfather, a stern Methodist preacher. 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