After over twenty years in prison, Larry Layton was released on parole in 2002, largely due to the testimony of Vernon Gosney, one of the few survivors of the massacre, and the Federal Chief Judge, Robert F. Peckham. To go back to the gunshots. January 15, 2007. Everybody bolted in different directions. 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.''. ", "Every week we're promised death, a relief from this miserable life. 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. He told you precisely what was on his mind, no matter who you were or whether or not you wanted to hear it. 'I was a fool to leave California, but then I was a fool long before that,' he said. [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. [41], In 2017, he appeared in a middle school in Havelock, North Carolina to explain his prison experiences. Biography Mini Bio (1) Larry Layton is known for Viva (2007) and Escape to Grizzly Mountain (2000). 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. His first encounter with organized crime was through his father, a metal worker who delivered bribes to the New York mafia. Ryan and I asked one or two Temple members at a time to come talk to us. Mr. Ryan, three journalists and a cult defector were killed and 11 others were wounded. Increasing numbers of people approached us. Jones, who demanded that his flock call him Father, was one of the most politically powerful people in San Francisco, wined and dined by such luminaries as Rosalynn Carter, Assemblyman Willie Brown, Mayor George Moscone and Lieutenant Governor Mervyn Dymally. Instead he proposed a better use of law enforcement resources would be to "help inmates with drug addiction. Five bullets hit me from point-blank range, piercing my right arm, leg, and back. Dr. Layton recalls that his wife began to resist his sexual advances and, when he protested, offered to move out. well, it wasn't there. [8] In 1983, having earned his GED, he left the Coast Guard and began engaging in criminal activity, mostly loan sharking and bookmaking. [8], In 2019, he made a video with Vanity Fair where he analyzed fictional robberies from films such as The Italian Job and Heat. [44] Lawton has a YouTube channel, and he has made videos analyzing heists in movies and video games such as Grand Theft Auto V; he also plays Prison Architect.[44][45]. The chaos persisted until, abruptly, a silence fell. Later on, I decided I had to show them. Subsequently, she arranged to leave the settlement on an errand for Mr. Jones and left Guyana on May 13. Education: Attended college in the area of San Francisco, CA. How could I not like the good things they were doing?. This was not a mass suicide. At the compound, Don wandered off to smoke a cigarette. Jim Jones would order more than 900 of his followers to commit suicide. "And I thought, if I get hit by a truck, my epitaph will be, 'Jonestown survivor dies on Bay Bridge.' She got on the plane, leaving her mother behind. Wed have to make multiple trips in the truck. There were piles of used syringes at the scene. It looked staged. As I took down their names, I looked over at Don Harris, who was interviewing Jones. He went, and pursued the destiny that brought him to trial in San Francisco. He. But at the time, none of that occurred to me; I was thrilled to be working for a candidate I believed inone who always treated me with respect. Religion: "Raised as a Quaker." Hobbies and other interests: Theater, music, painting, gardening. Leo Ryan assured me that there was nothing to worry about. In May 1978, she was sent by Jones to Georgetown to chaperone some Temple children on a cultural exchange. His father, an electrical engineer, died when Larry was 8 and the boy had to move in with his grandfather, a stern Methodist preacher. Mr. Layton, who was arrested at the airstrip, was initially tried in Guyana, a small country on the northern coast of South America, on charges of attempted murder against two cult defectors in the airport ambush. Later, after being barred from the university as a Jew, Lisa took training as physical therapist, which was permitted by the Nazis. [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. By that time, darker elements had seeped into Jones sermons. Before I could even comprehend what was happening, about a dozen men leapt from the tractor, leveled their automatic weapons, and fast approached. Larry shot and wounded two people at the Port Kaituma airstrip on 18 November 1978, and he attempted to shoot a third. [30][33] He was the first ex-con to ever become an honorary police officer. Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby, it read. In 1972, Mr. Jones married Deborah Layton and Philip Blakey. 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. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 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. 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. I dont have any money to donate, but Id like to volunteer. 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. [38][5][9] In 2013, the Brevard County Jail re-introduced chain gangs as a pilot project with the goal of deterring crime. He was cracking. But, she said, I had to tell somebody what was happening in Jonestown. All I could think was I am not going to make Grandma live through my funeral. And then I realized that confirming one tiny detail could mean that the worst of the testimonies were true. 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. Jonestown was the agricultural compound Jones' followers carved out of the Guyanese jungle, 150 miles northwest of the nation's capital, Georgetown. 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. Jones greeted us at the compound. 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. He'd work you so hard you didn't have time to complain, and he'd blackmail you; he destroyed marriages and humiliated you.. 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. Though driven by the kind of underlying insecurity that so often fuels tyrants, Jones appeared to offer hope, redemption, and an idealistic new life. 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. '', See the article in its original context from. None of those red flags made the congressman reconsider. Secretly, she offered her mother a glass of the wine. What an evil thing that Jim Jones did. [7] Lawton attended Intermediate IS 192 and Lehman High School, but did not graduate. It did not sit well with me. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. The docket for Laytons trial through its various appeals through 1990 is here. By all accounts, Layton was on a small plane about to leave Jonestown when the plot to kill Ryan was set in motion. Monica confirmed that she wanted to leave. A short time later, Larry married his second wife, Karen,whom Dr. Layton would come to know as a loving, sweet person.. My ribs were broken. In June, she filed an affidavit with the State Department detailing the horrors in Jonestown, but got no response. From what Ive seen, he said, there are a lot of people here who think this is the best thing that happened in their whole life. He was interrupted by manically enthusiastic cheering. A second jury convicted Larry, although four jurors took what the trial judge called an unprecedented step of asking for leniency in Larrys sentencing. 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. As soon as it became clear that we would be bringing more than one or two defectors home with us, the communal faade cracked. They all swore that Jonestown was the one and only place they could ever consider home. 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. Larry Layton, who had boarded the small Cessna aircraft began open firing on its occupants which wounded several of them before he was disarmed by one of the people inside. 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. Five bullets had ripped through me, devastating the right side of my body. White Night!" It made no sense that he would be trying to leave Jonestown. I was kicked. Children had their own special punishment, Layton writes. Jim Jones with a group of children living at Jonestown, circa 1978. He had engineered complete authoritycollecting members Social Security and disability checks, and determining when and how his disciples could communicate with their families. 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. 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. bout wiki. After she left, he discovered that she had given a number of family valuables to the People's Temple. I was beaten once a month. He is bewildered at how it all happened, groping for an explanation of what he called a Greek tragedy.. If there is such a thing as a spirit or essence of people . Just click the "Edit page" button at the bottom of the page or learn more in the Biography submission guide. ( 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. [42][13], Lawton has made many media appearances. 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. Initially discouraged, Larrys family pressed ahead with the petition for early release, collecting another 50 letters in support, including letters from former Temple members and critics, numerous religious leaders, and a former congressman. | AP. By the following year, Jones was making a reputation for himself in. But Dr. Layton denied strongly in a separate interview that he had ever been antiSemitic. Dr. Layton was from a world substantially different from the aristocratic one of his bride. He was born in the mountains of West Virginia, between White Sulphur Springs and Charleston, to a. Deborah said that before her escape she had obtained a bottle of wine and taken it to the commune against Mr. Jones's rules. 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. 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