larry layton biography

It was imminently clear Jonestown was a hierarchical community, with the power structure resembling some sort of plantation: the majority of the Temple members were black, while the leadership was almost exclusively white. "[10], Lawton also founded the Reality Check Foundation, which is a 501(C)(3) charity that includes a mentoring program, and an annual golf outing. 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. 'Being in Peoples Temple wasn't always pleasant, but one had the feeling he was really doing something to advance society. 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. The shootings took place on one of the airplanes which were to take the party of Congressman Leo Ryan to Georgetown after his visit to Jonestown. With Joness wild gaze on us, I tape-recorded affidavits of their wishes to return to the United States. "The reason I did well," Layton says now, "is that I'm a little soldier and I follow orders so well.". 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. In the summer of 1978, Lisa Philips Layton died of cancer in Jonestown, Guyana, three months before the Rev. ", 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.". [22] Fingerprint evidence connected Lawton to the October 1994 Palm Bay heist, and he was charged with that crime as well. To go back to the gunshots. ", 20 Years Later, Jonestown Survivor Confronts Horrors, LAYTON01/B/20OCT98/MN/SLF ---Deborah Layton is a survivor of Jonestown. Larrys parole came two years earlier than his previously-scheduled release date of April 2004. Hours after Mr. Ryan and four others were shot to death at the airstrip near Jonestown, which was the headquarters of the cult, the cult's leader, the Rev. By Robert Lindsey Special to The New York Times. 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.". [19][20] One bullet narrowly missed Lawton, but struck his brother. 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. Closing the Book on Case. My list kept growingwhat started with two names was now more than 40. It did not sit well with me. "[27] Another time he said: "I had my arms pinned down, and I was beaten and peed on by the guards. This site houses a variety of PDF documents. Lawrence Robert Lawton (born October 3, 1961) is an American ex-convict, author, paralegal, motivational speaker, and YouTuber. Until she was 20 years old, when she was denied admission to a university in Hamburg, Lisa Philips didn't know what it meant to be Jewish in Germany in 1935. The temple sent Layton to school for training as an X-ray technician. In the summer of 1977, after an expose of Peoples Temple in New West magazine, Jones and his followers fled to Guyana. 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. 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. After graduating from the University of California campus at Davis in 1968 with a degree in social science, Layton and his wife moved to the Ukiah area and soon met up with the temple. Its hard to know when it became obvious that he was dead, or when I realized that others werent pretending. Mr. Jones repeatedly sent word to her that he could cure her from Guyana, and she waited for his efforts to work. He was not paroled from an American prison until 2002. Once, Debbie continued, Jones woke up the camp in the early hours of the morning. While asserting that Mr. Jones was ''primarily responsible'' for the killings at the airstrip, Federal District Judge Robert F. Peckham said Mr. Layton would be eligible for parole after five years. Three witnesses appeared on Larrys behalf before a parole hearing at the federal prison at Lompoc, California, including attorney Frank Bell and Loren Buddress, the former Chief Probation Office for the Northern District of California. Almost 22 hours after the ambush, I heard the groan of a planes enginefinally our escape had arrived. Larry Layton Biography It looks like we don't have any Biography for Larry Layton yet. Other Peoples Temple. -- the signal that meant an attack was imminent, an excuse for conducting a suicide drill. In the mid and late 1960's, when Berkeley became the scene of frequently tumultuous antiwar demonstrations and other protests, Larry and Deborah Layton joined many of the demonstrations and began experimenting with drugs. Subsequently, she arranged to leave the settlement on an errand for Mr. Jones and left Guyana on May 13. The "Greeting Committee" promptly confiscated all their clothes and belongings and, most important, their passports. Asserting that the Government wanted to make Mr. Layton a scapegoat for the Jonestown massacre, he said, ''From the State Department point of view, from the U.S. Embassy point of view, the whole matter would be easily resolved if you blamed Larry Layton.'' Jones had become increasingly paranoid, convinced that the CIA, the FBI and the media were out to destroy him. Lawton filed a lawsuit against the prison and staff alleging that they violated his rights. ''It is not the proper forum for answering questions about Jonestown.'' Lisa Layton's youngest son, Larry, is now under arrest in Guyana, accused of murdering Representative Leo J. Ryan and four other persons in the attack that eventually led Mr. Jones to order the mass deaths. [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. bout wiki. I asked to speak to Monica Bagby, one of the names on Dons note. Inquisitive by nature, he was a proponent of experiential legislating, preferring to go out and experience issues firsthand before he decided what to do. Later, after being barred from the university as a Jew, Lisa took training as physical therapist, which was permitted by the Nazis. I heard screams and the rapid pounding of gunfire. He spent 12 years in prison, and once released, began a career as a motivational speaker, life coach, and author. [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. His father was a research scientist. A bone shot out of my right arm, and a huge hunk of flesh had been blown off my thigh. ''I feel a tremendous amount of guilt and remorse for the events that happened,'' he said. ''Look at whether their feelings against Jones were spilling over toward Larry Layton. Ryan invited members of the press and a few of the Concerned Relatives to join him. I was beaten once a month. In 1972, Mr. Jones married Deborah Layton and Philip Blakey. Twelve hours had passed as I lay, teetering on deaths precipice when a light turned on inside me: The simple fact that I knew I was dying was proof that I was, indeed, still alive. Their courtship began in the spring of 1941, and theywere married in October. Debbie said the couple had gone to court to try to compel the Guyanese government to intervene; Rev. At the pavilion for breakfast, I did my best to appear unruffled. My ribs were broken. 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. We didnt want a group to present a canned response or any individual to look to others for their answers. [29][13] The program is four hours long. His father, an electrical engineer, died when Larry was 8 and the boy had to move in with his grandfather, a stern Methodist preacher. 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." Ryan did not look or behave like your typical politician. Initially she was allowed to recuperate in a cabin of her own, but later she was moved into a crowded dormitorystyle cabin with other elderly women. But Layton, saying he wishes he could ease the pain. "I was driving across the bridge," she says when asked why, after all these years, she wanted to revisit the horrors of Jonestown. He is also charged with conspiring to harm Richard Dwyer, a United States diplomat who was wounded in the ambush. He knew that Jones had considerable political clout, with close ties to Democratic leaders in San Francisco, Sacramento, and even with the State Department. 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. [41], In 2017, he appeared in a middle school in Havelock, North Carolina to explain his prison experiences. 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 We landed in Georgetown, Guyanas capital, on November 14, 1978. Mrs. Layton moved out of their home on Labor Day 1979. Indescribable pain consumed me, leaving room only for a fleeting thought that I should pretend to be dead. | AP. Jim Jones. 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. After spending 18 years in Guyana jails and U.S. federal prisons, Larry Layton, the only man convicted on criminal charges arising from the events of November 18, 1978, was released in April 2002. 1978 CULT FIGURE GETS LIFE TERM IN CONGRESSMAN'S JUNGLE SLAYING, https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/04/us/1978-cult-figure-gets-life-term-in-congressman-s-jungle-slaying.html. Mr. Jones, Deborah said, callously gave Mrs. Layton that news. From her childhood, friends said, Mrs. Layton had carried a deep fear of cancer. Five bullets had ripped through me, devastating the right side of my body. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. They all swore that Jonestown was the one and only place they could ever consider home. That was the last moment I remember with any real clarity before I surrendered my body to the medical staff. One night, when Mr. Jones was conducting an hourslong lecture to the commune, she arranged to be placed on duty helping to operate a shortwave radio that transmitted Mr. Jones's directives to cult members in San Francisco. They recovered and with the help of friends managed to reach Italy, later coming to the United States. The hundreds of elderly were told that if they attempted escape, they would be left to die prolonged deaths alone in the depths of the jungle. At the airport, Temple members who found out she was fleeing implored her not to leave. Children had their own special punishment, Layton writes. To access these PDF files you must have the free Adobe Reader installed. I felt my stomach knot. 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. Education: Attended college in the area of San Francisco, CA. A man followed him and slipped a folded piece of paper into his hand, then disappeared back into the crowd. In the weeks leading up to the White House decision on the petition, a number of former congressmen and religious leaders including Rev. Her life appears to be light-years from Peoples Temple. Dr. Layton recalls that his wife began to resist his sexual advances and, when he protested, offered to move out. I was almost one of them. Layton and her mother arrived in Jonestown in December 1977. Jones then gave Layton permission to remarry a woman named Karen Tow. 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. It was the final stop for a group that for nearly 10 years had fascinated and, in the end, horrified the Bay Area. I hope tonight is the last one. 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. Months previously, her husband had begun noticing that money and family possessions were dis appearing from the household. [31] The DVDs contained condensed versions of Lawton's program and were 67 minutes long. 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. Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). Larry's parole came two years earlier than his previously-scheduled release date of April 2004. All of those children. The chaos persisted until, abruptly, a silence fell. Anyone can read what you share. Dr. Layton was from a world substantially different from the aristocratic one of his bride. He preached a social gospel, attracting devotees while promoting a community that did not discriminate or take into account race, background, or previous circumstances. 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 In 1973, when Larry and Deborah Layton and their spouses were living at the Ukiah temple, an acquaintance of Mrs. Layton thought he had cancer, and her children urged Mrs. Layton to bring him to Ukiah. We saw an impressive community with dozens of pathways, cabins, a medical center, a little school, and a large pavilion where the members congregated regularly. 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I was later told that he had been shot 45 times. I knew him well enough to understand what would happen next. [43] He also hosted a local talk radio show. Her startling introduction to life there quickly allowed Layton to see the cracks in the facade. 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. Later that night, Jones had another suicide exercise. But her childhood, she said later, was not a happy one. And then I realized that confirming one tiny detail could mean that the worst of the testimonies were true. Deborah nursed her mother and tried to conceal that a physician had told her the cancer was fatal. ", 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.". Congressman Ryan and I were among the first shift of the delegation to climb in for the excruciatingly slow six-mile drive to the commune. Larry, sister Debbie and their mother, Lisa, all joined the temple while it was located in California. 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. While trying to keep the peace, he had been attacked with a knife. Jim Jones, and 912 of his followers died by poison and gunfire in mass killings and suicides. "They would be taken to the Jonestown well in the dark of night, hung upside down by a rope around their ankles, and dunked into the water again and again while someone hidden inside the well grabbed at them to scare them. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. 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. "[2] He was critical of Brevard County stopping letters to inmates in 2013. Traumatizing family rifts erupted on the spot, with mothers and fathers engaged in literal tug-of-wars over their children. Jackie Speier manages a smile as she is wheeled on a stretcher at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, Nov. 20, 1978. Mrs. Layton divorced her husband in 1975 and their home on the Berkeley hilltop was sold. ''They were trying to deny the horror of Jonestown and the deception that they underwent,'' Mr. Tamburello said. We heard that the church had weapons, and that Jones was paranoid and possibly on drugs. Mr. Layton was also sentenced to three concurrent terms of 15 years each in related charges of conspiring to kill Mr. Ryan and in the attempted murder of a United States diplomat in the same incident. 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. They were married in 1966 and a year later Larry, who as a Quaker had obtained a draft deferment as a consciencious objector, moved with his new wife to Ukiah in northern California to serve in lieu of military duty as a medical technician at the Mendocino State Hospital. [32] By 2010, Lawton had shipped 10,000 DVDs across the country. 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. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. 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. At both trials here the prosecution presented a confession signed by Mr. Layton in Guyana shortly after the killings, saying that he took ''full responsibility'' for the deaths at the airstrip but also saying, ''I don't know why I did it. I had read the articles and listened to hours of testimony. I noticed an elderly woman stuffing pieces of bacon into her pockets; the ample spread was just another showpiece. 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.

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