[7] He became known as one of America's biggest jewel thieves and made the FBI's most wanted list in 1996. ", 20 Years Later, Jonestown Survivor Confronts Horrors, LAYTON01/B/20OCT98/MN/SLF ---Deborah Layton is a survivor of Jonestown. [6], Lawton was born in North Hempstead, New York on October 3, 1961. The conspiracy to murder Ryan carried a mandatory life sentence, though federal law makes him eligible for parole in 10 years. Layton was also quoted in a sentencing report to Peckham as saying that a cultist close to Jones had asked that he stop Ryan from leaving and gave him a gun. Georgetown, "I knew we'd entered a prison camp and I knew I wanted out. Jones had a penchant for suddenly getting on the compound loudspeaker long after everyone had gone to bed and shouting, "White Night! [11] He then began robbing jewelry stores along the Atlantic Coast,[3] using his contacts within the Gambino crime family to fence the stolen merchandise. It was coined after a delusional, pseudo-guru named Jim Jones led his cult, the Peoples Temple, to mass suicide. [25] He received an additional sentence in 2002 for giving false witness. Members of the press and the Concerned Relatives waited behind on the airstrip until the truck could come back for a second load. The robbers drew what police at the time believed were firearms, and restrained the store owner. UNDAUNTED: Surviving Jonestown, Summoning Courage, and Fighting Back, write a letter to President Jimmy Carter extolling Joness work, California's road to recovery runs through D.C. Republicans, Why New Jerseys ventilator guidelines may favor younger, whiter patients, Rhode Island ends specific restrictions on New Yorkers by making them national. By that time, it was obvious that some of his disciples intended to leave. Back in the compound, Jones was choreographing Then daughter Lauren started asking questions. With heavy hearts, we announce the death of Larry Layton (Johnstown, Pennsylvania), who passed away on December 21, 2017 at the age of 55. But when her own child started asking questions, Layton broke family [10] Afterwards, another jewelry store in Lower Bucks County became suspicious of a person they believed was casing the place for a future robbery. SAN FRANCISCO . I did not feel confident this was a good idea. Layton was already aboard one of the two planes, posing as a defector. My recovery continuedthough that very word is not an accurate description of the aftermath of being shot. [26] Lawton does not hold a degree in child psychology or criminology. There were piles of used syringes at the scene. 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. Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby, it read. View the profiles of professionals named "Larry Layton" on LinkedIn. United Press International. 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 life in prison, though he was released in 2002. sentence in federal prison. 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. Today. Over the next decade, Jones moved his congregation and changed its name several times before settling on Peoples Temple around 1964. [23][34], The superintendent of student services at Brevard Public Schools declined to use the program and questioned its effectiveness: "[w]hile the program is well-organized and well-intentioned, it does not follow the scientific evidence-based research guidelines". I wanted to be part of something that was doing things for other people, and besides, Peoples Temple offered a community of friends. (1.8-by-1.2-meter) underground enclosure. His following grew, and Jones became the leader of one of the first mixed-race churches in Indiana. where her worried parents had sent her to curb adolescent rebellion. I just needed to hang on. | AP. worked her way from front yard to back painting benches, the mailbox, even [35][36] It also hosts an annual bowling tournament. Jim Jones with a group of children living at Jonestown, circa 1978. Indescribable pain consumed me, leaving room only for a fleeting thought that I should pretend to be dead. races," hundreds of followers working to feed the hungry, house the In August 1979, he joined the Coast Guard[9] and took part in the Mariel boatlift. 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. Perhaps death is better than this.". I noticed an elderly woman stuffing pieces of bacon into her pockets; the ample spread was just another showpiece. I dove beneath the plane, hiding behind the wheel as bullets thumped against the metal above me. I am taking solace in knowing that Larry Layton is going to pay back society for having assassinated the first congressman ever in this country, said Assemblywoman Jackie Speier (D-San Mateo), who had accompanied Ryan on the trip as an aide. And it wasn't an isolated incident. Nearly 300 children were administered the poison, including a number of infants in the arms of their parents. Rep. Leo Ryan, who was working with San Francisco area residents worried [2] The book is published in Italy, France, Australia, Germany, Thailand and United Kingdom. She managed to contact her sister in Davis, who wired a ticket to Georgetown, where Layton and other Temple members were staying in a house the Temple owned. one last, The next year, his church relocated to Redwood Valley, a small community in northern California. It was just a matter of time. ". It was. 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. Returning to the pavilion area, I sought out other anxious-looking members. died drinking juice?". Layton became a senior insider in Jones' entourage. [28] Often he appears discussing crimes in the media as an expert on robberies. When people refer to the Jonestown massacre as a mass suicide, I am enraged. It was nothing of the kind. And he assigned two of his staff members to come along: Jim Schollaert and me. Jones himself sat onstage in a throne beneath a sign that read: Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it. The members sang and danced and, by every appearance, were happy. Jones greeted us at the compound. It turned out to be a sort of family spiritual. 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A former Quaker and a conscientious objector during the Vietnam war, Layton also faces three other counts in the indictment: conspiracy to kill Ryan, conspiracy to kill Richard Dwyer, deputy chief of the United States mission in Guyana, and the attempted murder of Dwyer. 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. [37], Lawton is an advocate for prisoners and their rights, and comments on the justice system. I heard screams and the rapid pounding of gunfire. Water is sufficient for hydration unless you are participating in an activity that lasts longer than one hour. Mr. Layton's children said his one wish in his later years was that his son, Larry, could be freed. grandmother Layton thought had died of a heart attack in Hamburg actually After two trials, he was convicted in 1986 of conspiring to murder San Mateo Representative Leo Ryan. Officers & convicted felon give 'real talk' to Havelock Middle School students", "Real-Life Jewel Thief Breaks Down Inaccuracies of GTA 5's Jewelry Heist Mission", "Was ein Ex-Hftling zu "Prison Architect" zu sagen hat", Former Jewel Thief Reviews Famous Heist Movies, From Oceans Eleven to Heat, Posey Presents Reality Check Community Champion Award to Thomas Reed of Rockledge, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Larry_Lawton&oldid=1151413947, This page was last edited on 23 April 2023, at 22:22. Although he called it a very grave crime, Peckham said Layton has shown great remorse, and his actions in 1978 reflected how the cult leader, the Rev. Witnesses offer conflicting accounts, Mars Voltas lead singer broke with Scientology and reunited with the band. 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.". 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. Ryan wanted to investigate. homeless and help addicts get clean. and If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. The Guyanese did not release Layton until now because one of his defense lawyers said his client owed him $37,000 in unpaid bills. However, Layton was acquitted of the lesser charges and the prosecution announced it would not try him on the murder counts, carrying a mandatory sentence of death by hanging. Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. All of those people I had been standing beside, speaking to, sharing a cabin with. 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. Why is Frank McCourt really pushing it? . In Jonestown, the able-bodied among the 1,000 or so residents worked the 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. Soon, her mother would also join the Temple. "So we as a family all sat down and we voted him out of his job." After the war, Mr. Layton had a series of government jobs. I had read the articles and listened to hours of testimony. It was impossible to cope with the pain. [7] Lawton attended Intermediate IS 192 and Lehman High School, but did not graduate. The moment Layton and her mother, Lisa, arrived at Jonestown, a jungle Besides, when had a congressman ever been assassinated on foreign soil while on a congressional delegation trip? We worked quickly to locate and speak to the individuals whose families had contacted our office and had been campaigning for their return. But he was acquitted, partly because witnesses would not return there from the United States. 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. Joseph Russoniello did not criticize Peckhams sentence, but in urging that Layton serve 20 years before being eligible for parole, he cited Laytons suggestion to Jones that Layton use dynamite to blow up Ryans plane and its unwanted outsiders--a fact that was not revealed until Tuesday. It did not sit well with me. Few heeded. Once, Debbie continued, Jones woke up the camp in the early hours of the morning. 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. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. 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. led by U.S. I couldnt bear the vision of her sitting in front of my casket. Mr.. Five bullets hit me from point-blank range, piercing my right arm, leg, and back. 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. But allegations of wrongdoing mounted, and Jones moved the settlement to Guyana, the only English-speaking country in South America. 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. ", Looking back on it 20 years later, she says, "I put everything in denial and locked it down. In fact, I would have been on that truck, with a rifle. 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. "He didn't feel good about it," his son, Thomas Layton, an anthropology professor at San Jose State University, said yesterday. In the summer of 1977, after an expose of Peoples Temple in New West magazine, Jones and his followers fled to Guyana. They were naive," Layton said in a recent interview in her [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. "[27] Another time he said: "I had my arms pinned down, and I was beaten and peed on by the guards. She left with her 8-month-old daughter before the massacre. "I saw things and I didn't stand up and say, 'Stop!' In 1978, I went to Guyana on a fact-finding mission. Jim Jones, destroyed the will of his followers. 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. | AP/San Francisco Examiner. became chairman in 1976. This was not a mass 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? Somehow, through the encroaching darkness of my final thoughts, I saw my 87-year-old Grandma Emma. Only one man, Temple member Larry Layton, was tried in the United States for his involvement in the November 18 events. I was even unaffected by the rice weevils and other strange bugs we ingested daily.". 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. 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. Lawrence Robert Lawton (born October 3, 1961) is an American ex-convict, author, paralegal, motivational speaker, and YouTuber. It was an implausible ending for the fiery preacher, who had curried favor among the fashionable elite of the Democratic Party. I spoke with a woman named Edith Parks, the matriarch of three generations of Temple members who wanted out. PIEDMONT, California (AP) -- Young and unanchored, Layton was charmed as Jones fixed his penetrating jungle. Some were cremated. November 18, 1978 When did the Jonestown massacre occur? | AP. I was almost one of them. After Jonestown, Layton retreated to secrets again -- "I was so ashamed. Never one to accept second-hand information, he decided to embark on a fact-findingand potentially life-savingtrip. Layton's sister Debbie's departure from the Peoples Temple and denunciation of Jones in May 1978 led her brother to leave California to join the settlement in Guyana. In 2009 the Rockledge Florida police used the DVDs as part of a community policing project with the money to buy the DVDs procured through asset forfeiture. The outfits were a ridiculous gimmick, and the role was clearly objectifying. 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. (It was the 60s.) [6][11] In 2010, Lawton filmed the pilot and sizzle reel for Lawton's Law, a reality show based on his work with at-risk youth. blew open," she says. him -- and later from him as she plotted her escape months before he In a cabin with about six women from the Temple, I took a top bunk, sweating as a downpour opened up outside. Jones had ordered the ambush out of fear that Ryan would expose the cult. Jones had become increasingly paranoid, convinced that the CIA, the FBI and the media were out to destroy him. 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. The discovery reopened wounds. [10], Lawton executed his first robbery when he was 28, an inside job to collect insurance money. Debbie said the couple had gone to court to try to compel the Guyanese government to intervene; Rev. [22] Fingerprint evidence connected Lawton to the October 1994 Palm Bay heist, and he was charged with that crime as well. [8][9] The 367-page book covers his early life, his string of crimes, and his post-release career. He was born June 30, 1940 in Long Branch NJ to William and Edna (Keller) Layton. What episode does Luna get Ancient Fairy Dragon? Layton was 17 when her already converted brother, Larry, introduced her to Jones at the first Peoples Temple in far Northern California, where he believed he could best survive the atomic apocalypse he expected. [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. Id come to Guyana as a congressional aide on a fact-finding mission. because I was too See also Jim Jones "It was devastating to him. [23][24] Lawton later said he was the biggest jewel thief of the 1980s and 90s operating within the United States of America. [19][20] One bullet narrowly missed Lawton, but struck his brother. Larry Layton, a passenger posing as a defector, started shooting. ", Crimes for which children went to the well included "stealing food from the kitchen, expressing homesickness, failing a socialism exam, or even natural childish rebelliousness.". 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. How to plan a weekend getaway to Mount Shasta, Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). Layton was 17 when her already converted brother, Larry, introduced her [10] He was sentenced for racketeering and robbery and spent 11 years in prison before being released in 2007. I dont have any money to donate, but Id like to volunteer. "I was driving across the bridge," she says when asked why, after all these years, she wanted to revisit the horrors of Jonestown. I just Her mother and brother stayed behind. home in the hills ringing San Francisco Bay. 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. Misbehaving children were By the early 1970s, however, Mr. Layton's personal life changed in ways he had hardly thought possible. The cremated remains of nine Jonestown victims were discovered in a decrepit, now-shuttered funeral home in Dover, officials said. He has appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Christian Broadcasting Network, and Fox News. First the children; poison was squirted into babies' mouths with a syringe. Layton and other temple members then ambushed the congressman and his party at the airstrip, according to an indictment returned against Layton last month in San Francisco. Funeral directors say it is not uncommon for family members to never retrieve cremated remains. Larry Layton was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for his role in conspiring to murder Rep. Leo Ryan in Guyana in 1978. But listening to one after the other after the other say the same choreographed thing made me uneasy. "When I joined Peoples Temple, I was 17 and it was like joining the Peace Corps," she says. On Thursday, officials revealed that not all had been brought to a final resting place. [29][13] The program is four hours long. . The store owner managed to break free and grabbed a .38 caliber pistol and fired five shots at the robbers as they fled. "The reason I did well," Layton says now, "is that I'm a little soldier and I follow orders so well.". What an evil thing that Jim Jones did. Rep. Ryan and I arranged to meet her. As I was lying seven miles away waiting for medical help, Sam Houstons granddaughters, Patricia and Judy, 14 and 15, were murdered, along with their mother, dozens of other would-be defectors and the rest of the Peoples Temple. the doorbell in a frenzy of bright stripes and squiggles. of Jones was found shot through the head. 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. Among them were Sams teenaged granddaughters. Larry now lives in Northern California. In all, Layton was convicted of four charges--conspiracy and aiding and abetting in the shootings of Ryan and Dwyer. L.A. Times Archives. Ryan invited members of the press and a few of the Concerned Relatives to join him. sat there. That same day, precipitated by the shootings, over 900 members of the People's Temple Cult led by Reverend Jim Jones died in Jonestown, Guyana of mass murder and suicide. [30] In 2009, the Brevard County Sheriff's Office spent $4500 on 500 DVDs from the Reality Check program. In between his trials, he lived under an assumed name in Eureka and, more recently, in San Francisco, where he sold real estate and took computer classes. 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.
