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. [10] He also founded the Reality Check program which aims to show teens the consequences of a criminal life. By that time, darker elements had seeped into Jones sermons. 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. I have no idea how much time passed until I turned my head and opened my eyes. We listened as she offered a detailed and disturbing account of her experience. I wanted to leave my daughter a legacy that wasn't that simple.". Religion: "Raised as a Quaker." Hobbies and other interests: Theater, music, painting, gardening. [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. [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. I just needed to hang on. 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. According to trial testimony, as the attack began, Layton pulled a gun inside the plane and wounded two temple defectors. 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. ''It is not the proper forum for answering questions about Jonestown.'' Last year, Mrs. Layton became ill, and the diagnosis was what she feared most cancer. 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. As I took down their names, I looked over at Don Harris, who was interviewing Jones. Youll see what a wonderful place it is. He took us on a tour highlighting the most favorable aspects of the commune. Ryan and I asked one or two Temple members at a time to come talk to us. Infants cannot commit suicide. 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. Later, after being barred from the university as a Jew, Lisa took training as physical therapist, which was permitted by the Nazis. Larry's parole came two years earlier than his previously-scheduled release date of April 2004. Whatever impelled me to send in the card changed the course of my life. Larry Layton Biography It looks like we don't have any Biography for Larry Layton yet. The 35-year-old defendant is charged with conspiring to murder Representative Leo J. Ryan, the California Democrat who died Nov. 18, 1978, with three journalists and a temple defector in an ambush at an airstrip near Jonestown. Members of the press and the Concerned Relatives waited behind on the airstrip until the truck could come back for a second load. 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. [43] He also hosted a local talk radio show. The letters were presented during the hearing which resulted in a recommendation for Larrys release. 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. Mr. Layton cried as his attorney described conditions at Jonestown and said that many prosecution witnesses must feel guilty for leaving loved ones behind to die. It was nothing of the kind. After a while, Mrs. Layton began sleeping on the floor of their home in Berkeley and made her husband sell a Cadillac they owned. | AP. 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. One of the defectors wed interviewed claimed that Jones dyed them black. I never played; I never learned how. It was the final stop for a group that for nearly 10 years had fascinated and, in the end, horrified the Bay Area. [8] Lawton later said that he used a BB gun during the robbery. ", She blithely ignored the warning signs -- the fake "cancer healings" and the increasingly hostile confrontations, when Jones would scream at members of his flock for faintly perceived faults or have them paddled harshly with the "board of education.". The hospital was not far from the People's Temple community Mr. Jones had established in Redwood Valley. [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. To the tarmac. Deborah and Larry Layton were still with Mr. Jones at that point, having remained as key lieutenants even after his doctrine of good works and selflessness had begun to become an increasingly paranoid selfadulation. 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 Meanwhile, ex-devotees of the Peoples Temple began sharing stories about Jones darker side. [10] Afterwards, another jewelry store in Lower Bucks County became suspicious of a person they believed was casing the place for a future robbery. By all accounts, Layton was on a small plane about to leave Jonestown when the plot to kill Ryan was set in motion. Hurrying out of bed, Layton would race toward Jones "in my mud-caked boots, past the tin-roofed cabins, past the wooden outdoor showers where we're allowed our two-minute wash at the end of our 11-hour days in the field." He is serving a life sentence in the federal prison at Lompoc. Rep. Ryan and I arranged to meet her. Deborah nursed her mother and tried to conceal that a physician had told her the cancer was fatal. Later, Jones also became enamoured of the new Mrs. Layton and soon added her, too, to his growing harem of temple members. 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. His father was a research scientist. View Source Suggest Edits Memorial Photos Flowers Created by: Mike Added: 6 Apr 2021 The book describes the events that occurred in Jonestown, Guyana, where over 900 people lost their lives as the result of mass forced suicide, which constituted the largest loss of American civilian life (other than due to natural disasters or during the course of violence with Native Americans) in United States history until the events of 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. 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. Mr. Tamburello accused prosecutors of going too far in describing the ambush on the Ryan party, which went to Guyana to investigate assertions that some members of the cult were being mistreated and were being held in Guyana against their wills. How could I not like the good things they were doing?. Once, Debbie continued, Jones woke up the camp in the early hours of the morning. In August 1979, he joined the Coast Guard[9] and took part in the Mariel boatlift. 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. Wiki Bio of Larry Layton net worth is updated in 2023. In addition, Mr. Layton was convicted of aiding and abetting the murder of Mr. Ryan and the attempted murder of Mr. Dwyer. Is the Stanley Quencher tumbler worth its TikTok hype? It was an implausible ending for the fiery preacher, who had curried favor among the fashionable elite of the Democratic Party. Layton's mother, Lisa, had died of cancer 10 days before the mass suicide. A second jury convicted Larry, although four jurors took what the trial judge called an unprecedented step of asking for leniency in Larrys sentencing. Hours after the incident, the Rev. Oh my God: Its true. I'm so desperately tired. | AP. [16] Then in October 1994, four individuals robbed a jewelry store in Palm Bay, Florida. [19][20] One bullet narrowly missed Lawton, but struck his brother. [10] While in prison, Lawton earned a paralegal qualification and became a gang mediator. Dont know why youre here, but were happy to have you, Jones said. Leo Ryan wanted answers. In a cabin with about six women from the Temple, I took a top bunk, sweating as a downpour opened up outside. Layton grew up in an affluent Berkeley family. | AP. Her book "Seductive Poison" will be in bookstores in November. ''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. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Her brother, Larry, later became the only person ever charged in connection with the airstrip massacre and, after two . An uncle, Dr. James Franck, won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1935. It was a mass murder. She arrived in London at 16, was met by some cousins and got what she would later call the biggest surprise of her life: I discovered that I was Jewish.. Congressman Ryan assured me that there was nothing to worry about. | California Historical Society. 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. [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. [42][13], Lawton has made many media appearances. I was even unaffected by the rice weevils and other strange bugs we ingested daily.". Larry Layton was the only person prosecuted for any of the events in and around Jonestown. 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. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. It was impossible to cope with the pain. 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. Layton's mother, who came from a wealthy family, divorced her husband and donated $300,000 to Jones' cause. The robbers had been there the day before and returned asking about a ring. Before I could even comprehend what was happening, about a dozen men leapt from the tractor, leveled their automatic weapons, and fast approached. In May 1978, she was sent by Jones to Georgetown to chaperone some Temple children on a cultural exchange. Charismatic and tall with salt-and-pepper hair, he commanded a room. Mrs. Layton got a large share of the proceeds, as well as money from the sale of stock they had owned Jointly; this also was given to the cult. His suggestion that I would learn far more from first-hand experience was in step with the way he approached politics. 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. By that time, it was obvious that some of his disciples intended to leave. All of those children. And it wasn't an isolated incident. "[27] Another time he said: "I had my arms pinned down, and I was beaten and peed on by the guards. [30] In 2009, the Brevard County Sheriff's Office spent $4500 on 500 DVDs from the Reality Check program. And, I thought of them like Mormons. 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. I was beaten once a month. 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. 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. Layton said the temple started out as a civil rights movement and he compared Jones to Martin Luther King Jr., but 'obviously things turned out differently,' he said. ", Looking back on it 20 years later, she says, "I put everything in denial and locked it down. Besides, when had a congressman ever been assassinated on foreign soil while on a congressional delegation trip? In the weeks leading up to the White House decision on the petition, a number of former congressmen and religious leaders including Rev. Lawrence Robert Lawton (born October 3, 1961) is an American ex-convict, author, paralegal, motivational speaker, and YouTuber. 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