larry layton biography

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. [35][36] It also hosts an annual bowling tournament. [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. Dr. Layton recalls that his wife began to resist his sexual advances and, when he protested, offered to move out. Please help us get out of Jonestown. Soon after, Don was approached by another member, who claimed that many Temple members desperately wanted to leave but were too terrified to come forward. To the stretchers. Traumatizing family rifts erupted on the spot, with mothers and fathers engaged in literal tug-of-wars over their children. 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. We compiled similar testimonies from other defectors who corroborated Debbies reports of physical and sexual abuse, forced labor and captivity. -- the signal that meant an attack was imminent, an excuse for conducting a suicide drill. 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. ", 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.". 'Being in Peoples Temple wasn't always pleasant, but one had the feeling he was really doing something to advance society. He was not paroled from an American prison until 2002. Later on, I decided I had to show them. 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. Lawton gained notoriety for committing a string of jewelry store robberies along the Atlantic Seaboard prior to his arrest in 1996. But Layton, saying he wishes he could ease the pain. March 5, 1999. 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. In some way, I think he was a substitute husband and father figure who filled all the needs that I failed to give.. 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. January 15, 2007. 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. | AP. [15] The robbers had dropped off jewelry for repairs, and later returned to rob the store. There is abundant evidence that Mr. Jones used such tactics to divide families and break up marriages. ''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. 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. There was no movement, but I thought the others might also be playing dead. His following grew, and Jones became the leader of one of the first mixed-race churches in Indiana. None of those red flags made the congressman reconsider. But as Hitler consolidated his power in the 1930's, her parents began to see the Nazi holocaust taking shape and they urged her to go to New York to join relatives there. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/17/us/cult-member-cries-over-plea-to-jury.html. Larry Layton Net Worth is $14 Million. | AP/San Francisco Examiner. This time, it was not a drill. We heard that the church had weapons, and that Jones was paranoid and possibly on drugs. After that, she never stopped going back, Dr. Layton said. When people refer to the Jonestown massacre as a mass suicide, I am enraged. The land later became the site of a large Union Carbide plant. 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 ''You've heard graphic details about what happenened on the airstrip,'' he said. It was an implausible ending for the fiery preacher, who had curried favor among the fashionable elite of the Democratic Party. [28], After release he went to Palm Bay, Florida and started LL Research and Consulting and met a business partner. 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.' I wanted to be part of something that was doing things for other people, and besides, Peoples Temple offered a community of friends. On the plane to Guyana, Nov. 18, 1978. (It was the 60s.) Left-right: Jim Schollaert, Jackie Speier and Congressman Leo Ryan. Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby, it read. 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 leader, the Rev. It was just a matter of time. Syringes surround one of the vats used to mix up the position drink used in the mass murder at Jonestown. A bone shot out of my right arm, and a huge hunk of flesh had been blown off my thigh. Her marriage was ruptured by Mr. Jopes even before it could be consummated. In 1978, I went to Guyana on a fact-finding mission. Then-State Assemblyman Leo J. Ryan behind the bars in a Folsom prison cell in Feb. 1970, where he spent a week living as an inmate to learn needs for reform. Over the next decade, Jones moved his congregation and changed its name several times before settling on Peoples Temple around 1964. In June, she filed an affidavit with the State Department detailing the horrors in Jonestown, but got no response. 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. 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. Years later, after Lisa Layton Joined the People's Temple, she would tell other members of the cult that her husband had been antiSemitic and was ashamed of her being a Jew. He knew that Jones had considerable political clout, with close ties to Democratic leaders in San Francisco, Sacramento, and even with the State Department. She is known by many of her relationships - longtime lover of Jim Jones, mother of Jones' child Jim Jon (Kimo) Prokes, sister of Annie Moore, former wife of Larry Layton, former sister-in-law of Debby Layton - as well as the sometimes-mysterious roles she played within the Peoples Temple hierarchy. The daughter of Hugo and Anita Philips, Lisa Philips Layton was born in Germany in 1915 into a family that had engaged in banking for at least 200 years. It was nothing of the kind. Earlier, United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello asked Judge Peckham to sentence the 40-year-old defendant to life in prison, serving a minimum of 20 years before being considered for parole. Jones became active in local politics, giving money, running food programs and busing Temple members to attend rallies and get out the vote for his favored candidates. 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. [21] Lawton was arrested by the FBI on December 2, 1996, in Florida and charged with the Fairless Hills armed robbery. Within minutes, Ryan and four others were shot dead. [38][5][9] In 2013, the Brevard County Jail re-introduced chain gangs as a pilot project with the goal of deterring crime. [23][24] Lawton later said he was the biggest jewel thief of the 1980s and 90s operating within the United States of America. Much later, Layton writes, she would find them "on the bookshelf in Father's house with the many other prescription drugs taken from Temple members.". | Amazon. [16] Then in October 1994, four individuals robbed a jewelry store in Palm Bay, Florida. [37], Lawton is an advocate for prisoners and their rights, and comments on the justice system. Though driven by the kind of underlying insecurity that so often fuels tyrants, Jones appeared to offer hope, redemption, and an idealistic new life. Later, Jones also became enamoured of the new Mrs. Layton and soon added her, too, to his growing harem of temple members. 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. When the time of their supposed deaths came and went with everybody still alive, Jones announced it had just been a drill to test their loyalty. Among them were Sams teenaged granddaughters. Subsequently, he said, she urged him to have an affair. 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. The U.S. trial was confined to the question of whether he plotted to kill Ryan and U.S. diplomat Richard Dwyer. LOS ANGELES, Dec. 3 Her name was Lisa Philips and she was so beautiful that friends said she looked like Hedy Lamarr. The defense rested its case without presenting witnesses. "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. [27] Lawton says he regrets his time spent in prison, because he missed out on seeing his children grow up; his grandmother died, and his father became afflicted with Alzheimer's disease while he was inside. Of the more than 900 members of Joness congregation who had moved there, nearly a third were children. Is the Stanley Quencher tumbler worth its TikTok hype? That date was later moved back to April 2004, after the board credited him for his time in the Georgetown jail. 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. Jones became enamoured with Carolyn Layton and told Larry he wanted her for his own. Congressman Ryan assured me that there was nothing to worry about. Philip Wogaman, President and Mrs. Clintons pastor in Washington, D.C. made additional pleas for commutation of Larrys sentence. This was not a mass suicide. In 1970, as chairman of a committee overseeing prison reform, he assumed a pseudonym and had himself booked, strip-searched and incarcerated for 10 days at Folsom State Prison, revealing his. But, she said, I had to tell somebody what was happening in Jonestown. 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. By his own admission, Layton came of age in Berkeley, Calif., during the turmoil of student protests and the Vietnam war. Dr. Layton was from a world substantially different from the aristocratic one of his bride. While on the phone listening to the allegations that would soon be made public, Jones scribbled a note to his aides: We leave tonight.. 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. 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. The bodies of Jones and 912 cult followers lay sprawled under the tropical trees of the commune, victims of an incredible murder-suicide rite. "[10], While in prison in 2003, Lawton was sent to solitary confinement for 27 days as punishment. In the two years since, Jones and most of his followers had left the Bay Area and moved to Jones commune deep in the jungle of Guyana. Ryan joined us for the trekone of roughly two dozen of us crammed in the bed of the truck, with dozens of would-be defectors left behind, belongings packed, waiting to escape. 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. He had engineered complete authoritycollecting members Social Security and disability checks, and determining when and how his disciples could communicate with their families. Suddenly, my body was crushed by a blow to my side. Hours later at the Jonestown emcampment, Jones led the death rite of himself and his followers. He treasured it. [3][4] He has acted as a spokesperson for prisoners and prisoner issues,[5] been a vocal advocate for prison reform, and made appearances in the media as an expert on robberies. Inquisitive by nature, he was a proponent of experiential legislating, preferring to go out and experience issues firsthand before he decided what to do. 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. 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. He said that some of the recipients could be innocent. [7] He became known as one of America's biggest jewel thieves and made the FBI's most wanted list in 1996. He'd work you so hard you didn't have time to complain, and he'd blackmail you; he destroyed marriages and humiliated you.. 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. [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. Mr. Jones, Deborah said, callously gave Mrs. Layton that news. #3 Journalists and Defector Killed Mr. Layton was the only person charged in the United States with criminal acts arising from the events of Nov. 18, 1978, when Mr. Ryan and a group of journalists and relatives of other cult members were ambushed at the Port Kaituma airstrip in the jungle near Jonestown. He was born in the mountains of West Virginia, between White Sulphur Springs and Charleston, to a family that had helped settle Virginia 225 years earlier and claimed ancestors datmg from the Mayflower. Judge Peckham also set April 21 for a hearing on a motion for a new trial filed by Mr. Layton's new defense attorney, Robert R. Bryan. It was a mass murder. My recovery continuedthough that very word is not an accurate description of the aftermath of being shot. His suggestion that I would learn far more from first-hand experience was in step with the way he approached politics. [10], Lawton executed his first robbery when he was 28, an inside job to collect insurance money. After her operation, Mrs. Layton moved to Guyana. In Congress, he joined a March 1978 Greenpeace mission to investigate the slaughter of baby seals in Newfoundland, Canada. Mr. Ryan, three journalists and a cult defector were killed and 11 others were wounded. Her book "Seductive Poison" will be in bookstores in November. Their courtship began in the spring of 1941, and theywere married in October. [8], In 2019, he made a video with Vanity Fair where he analyzed fictional robberies from films such as The Italian Job and Heat. 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. 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. Education: Attended college in the area of San Francisco, CA. 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. . After a year or so Dr. Layton and his wife heard from Carolyn's father that the couple had been divorced. Besides, when had a congressman ever been assassinated on foreign soil while on a congressional delegation trip? Larry Howard Layton, 80, of Green Valley, AZ passed away December 10, 2020 from complications of COVID-19. [3], Lawton was offered a three-year sentence in exchange for disclosing his accomplices but did not take the deal. 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. Larry's parole came two years earlier than his previously-scheduled release date of April 2004. She had an extremely anxious demeanor, and we moved quickly as we went to her cabin to pack. Infants cannot commit suicide. He was acquitted after presenting a defense of brainwashing. Twenty years ago this month, Jones and 912 of his followers committed mass suicide at the jungle compound. Jones responded by telling them that if any actions were taken to remove John, the entire Jonestown population would commit suicide. Was imminent, an excuse for conducting a suicide drill before settling Peoples... Some of the first mixed-race churches in Indiana a congressional delegation trip 2004, after release he went to,... That very word is not an accurate description of the more than 900 of his followers commit... 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