By the time I returned, more than 900 people died. ''This is a criminal case against Larry Layton,'' he said. 'I was a fool to leave California, but then I was a fool long before that,' he said. [15][18], In 1996, there was a robbery of a jeweler in Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania. It looked staged. Mr . There were piles of used syringes at the scene. [28], After release he went to Palm Bay, Florida and started LL Research and Consulting and met a business partner. [15] The robbers had dropped off jewelry for repairs, and later returned to rob the store. But ladies and gentlemen, it is notLarry Layton. Ryan decided that we would wait until the morning and suggested we keep a low profile until then. The two store owners were bound while two individuals robbed the store and a third acted as a lookout and the other as the getaway driver. After a while, Mrs. Layton began sleeping on the floor of their home in Berkeley and made her husband sell a Cadillac they owned. ", "I thought, what a waste. 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. 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. He treasured it. Mr. Jones, they said, could cure cancer. At the compound, Don wandered off to smoke a cigarette. [8][9] The 367-page book covers his early life, his string of crimes, and his post-release career. To preserve these articles as they originally appeared, The Times does not alter, edit or update them. He preached a social gospel, attracting devotees while promoting a community that did not discriminate or take into account race, background, or previous circumstances. Peoples Temple follower Larry Layton, center, stands with police following his arrest in the shooting of two people, including California Congressman Leo Ryan, on a remote Guyana airstrip, Nov. 18, 1978. It was the final stop for a group that for nearly 10 years had fascinated and, in the end, horrified the Bay Area. Wiki Bio of Larry Layton net worth is updated in 2023. ', "O.J. The child talked her out of it. After a year or so Dr. Layton and his wife heard from Carolyn's father that the couple had been divorced. The U.S. trial was confined to the question of whether he plotted to kill Ryan and U.S. diplomat Richard Dwyer. '', ''In a sense,'' he said, ''it would be easy to transfer the responsibility of Jones and put it on Larry 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 asked to speak to Monica Bagby, one of the names on Dons note. Sam was certain Jones had something to do with his sons death. See the article in its original context from. At one point, Congressman Ryan interrupted our tour to make sure that the press and Concerned Relatives had been given the transportation to join us. 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. [23][24] Lawton later said he was the biggest jewel thief of the 1980s and 90s operating within the United States of America. 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. Others, who presumably refused to drink the Kool-Aida flippant, misguided phrase I very much wish could be scrubbed from our lexiconwere injected with cyanide and other poisons. And, I thought of them like Mormons. 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. It paints a convincing picture of what it was like to spend seven years in the notorious cult, only to escape a few months before the tragedy that gave Jonestown its infamous place in history as the site of the largest mass suicide in modern times. We listened as she offered a detailed and disturbing account of her experience. [22] Fingerprint evidence connected Lawton to the October 1994 Palm Bay heist, and he was charged with that crime as well. Hours after the incident, the Rev. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. "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. 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. [8] Lawton later said that he used a BB gun during the robbery. He attended Berkeley High School and was the editor of a campus newspaper called The Liberal. "I was ready to be overwhelmed by emotion," she says, "but when we got into the area, it just wasn't there. Never one to accept second-hand information, he decided to embark on a fact-findingand potentially life-savingtrip. I would never have left Jonestown with Congressman Ryan. 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. [18], Lawton is believed to have hit around 20 to 25 jewelry stores,[11] stealing a self-estimated total of around $1518 million worth of high-value items, including watches, diamonds, and other gems. 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. American author, Youtuber and jewel thief, "Police hunt clues in Cannes jewelry heist; ex-jewel thief says it was a pro job", "Florida sheriff reintroduces chain gang", "Ex-jewel thief says of Kim K's purloined baubles: 'They're gone. Layton joined the temple in the summer of 1968 at Redwood Valley, Calif., near the town of Ukiah, after his wife, Carolyn, became interested in the social philosophy of Jones, preaching from his wooded compound. | AP/San Francisco Examiner. Larry Layton Net Worth is $14 Million. Five bullets had ripped through me, devastating the right side of my body. There was no movement, but I thought the others might also be playing dead. Port Royal Speedway hosts a weekly schedule of local Sprint Car, Late Model, and Pro-Stock dirt track racing, and is nicknamed "The Speed Palace".Several national touring series organizations visit the track during the racing season, including the World of Outlaws . 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. Lawrence Robert Lawton (born October 3, 1961) is an American ex-convict, author, paralegal, motivational speaker, and YouTuber. It was nothing of the kind. 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. Everybody bolted in different directions. He'd work you so hard you didn't have time to complain, and he'd blackmail you; he destroyed marriages and humiliated you.. In addition, Mr. Layton was convicted of aiding and abetting the murder of Mr. Ryan and the attempted murder of Mr. Dwyer. Jim Jones, and 912 of his followers died by poison and gunfire in mass killings and suicides. Subsequently, she arranged to leave the settlement on an errand for Mr. Jones and left Guyana on May 13. He is the son of Lawrence L. Layton, a prominent biolgist at the University of California, and was raised in a cultural, intellectual atmosphere. In the summer of 1977, after an expose of Peoples Temple in New West magazine, Jones and his followers fled to Guyana. Somehow, through the encroaching darkness of my final thoughts, I saw my 87-year-old Grandma Emma. 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. Jonestown: 13 Things You Should Know About Cult Mas. I barely got a wink of sleep. Her brother, Larry, later became the only person ever charged in connection with the airstrip massacre and, after two . What an evil thing that Jim Jones did. 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. Mrs. Layton moved out of their home on Labor Day 1979. Jim Jones would order more than 900 of his followers to commit suicide. 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 Read More [39] Other issues he is concerned with include prison conditions as well as post-release debt loads and their influence on unemployed ex-convicts. Among them were Sams teenaged granddaughters. 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. Instead he proposed a better use of law enforcement resources would be to "help inmates with drug addiction. 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. Five bullets hit me from point-blank range, piercing my right arm, leg, and back. His suggestion that I would learn far more from first-hand experience was in step with the way he approached politics. Lawton gained notoriety for committing a string of jewelry store robberies along the Atlantic Seaboard prior to his arrest in 1996. The robbers had been there the day before and returned asking about a ring. . ''Look at whether their feelings against Jones were spilling over toward Larry Layton. In some way, I think he was a substitute husband and father figure who filled all the needs that I failed to give.. The motion contends that Mr. Layton should be given a new trial because his previous defense attorneys did not know and thus failed to inform him that he faced a mandatory sentence of life in prison if convicted on the count of aiding and abetting in Mr. Ryan's murder. Jones died from a bullet to the brain. [28] Often he appears discussing crimes in the media as an expert on robberies. 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. ADDRESSES: Home Berkeley, CA. Answer (1 of 2): Above: Jonestown Before The Massacre Larry Layton was the only "armed guard" at Jonestown at the time of the massacre to outlive November 18, 1978, when all but a few dozen of the roughly 1,000 residents of Jonestown perished. Also there was a strong feeling of community -- people of all races who really cared about each other.'. 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. 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. I spoke with a woman named Edith Parks, the matriarch of three generations of Temple members who wanted out. But Dr. Layton denied strongly in a separate interview that he had ever been antiSemitic. 'A Tremendous Amount of Guilt'. I have no idea how much time passed until I turned my head and opened my eyes. Ryan invited members of the press and a few of the Concerned Relatives to join him. It made no sense that he would be trying to leave Jonestown. I did not feel confident this was a good idea. At 16, Im not sure I understood what a state assemblyman did, but when my parents received a solicitation from Leo Ryans reelection campaign in 1966, I mailed back a note: Im in high school. Later that night, Jones had another suicide exercise. Inquisitive by nature, he was a proponent of experiential legislating, preferring to go out and experience issues firsthand before he decided what to do. Individually, their insistence would have been hard to question. His father, an electrical engineer, died when Larry was 8 and the boy had to move in with his grandfather, a stern Methodist preacher. well, it wasn't there. Layton's mother, Lisa, had died of cancer 10 days before the mass suicide. Debbie said the couple had gone to court to try to compel the Guyanese government to intervene; Rev. Mrs. Layton divorced her husband in 1975 and their home on the Berkeley hilltop was sold. But Layton, saying he wishes he could ease the pain. 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. (CHRONICLE PHOTO BY SUSANNA FROHMAN), Restaurant chain slated to close site at Bay Area mall, One of the largest movie theaters in SF to close permanently, Grapevine closed indefinitely due to heavy snow and ice, Plan to bring bullet train from LA to Vegas is underway, 'Zero visibility' conditions: All roads to Tahoe are closed, What it looks like inside Coit Towers former apartment, Graupel falls on Disneyland, shocks guests, Avalanche slams into Tahoe apartment building amid blizzard, Hundreds of thousands of workers have abandoned downtown SF, Tahoe's snowfall totals are on track to break records, Report: Matthew McConaughey has a massive Salesforce paycheck, Popular yet divisive fast food chain coming to this Bay Area town. 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. Deborah nursed her mother and tried to conceal that a physician had told her the cancer was fatal. They all swore that Jonestown was the one and only place they could ever consider home. In Congress, he joined a March 1978 Greenpeace mission to investigate the slaughter of baby seals in Newfoundland, Canada. Family Tragedy: Hitler's Germany to Jones's Cult, https://www.nytimes.com/1978/12/04/archives/family-tragedy-hitlers-germany-to-joness-cult-the-layton-familys.html. 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. Ryan was gunned down by a band of temple members intent on stopping the visitors from leaving and reporting the doings of the cult to the outside world. Of the more than 900 members of Joness congregation who had moved there, nearly a third were children. 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=1140595137, Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 20 February 2023, at 20:41. NBC news correspondent Don Harris was part of our delegation, and was well versed on the accusations against Jones. Larry Layton was the only person prosecuted for any of the events in and around Jonestown. [31] The DVDs contained condensed versions of Lawton's program and were 67 minutes long. Members of the press and the Concerned Relatives waited behind on the airstrip until the truck could come back for a second load. But the moment I looked down at my own body is locked in my mind. 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. 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. Mr. Jones also apparently widened the rift between Larry Layton and his father. Larry Layton was the only person prosecuted for any of the events in and around Jonestown. Not a single person we spoke to expressed a desire to leave, not even those whose family members had flown all the way to Guyana. Mr. Ryan, three journalists and a cult defector were killed and 11 others were wounded. At the pavilion for breakfast, I did my best to appear unruffled. [23][34], However, the superintendent of student services at Brevard Public Schools declined to use the program, and questioned its effectiveness, claiming that "[w]hile the program is well-organized and well-intentioned, it does not follow the scientific evidence-based research guidelines. He knew that Jones had considerable political clout, with close ties to Democratic leaders in San Francisco, Sacramento, and even with the State Department. 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. [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. 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. Its leader, the Rev. We landed in Georgetown, Guyanas capital, on November 14, 1978. One of the defectors wed interviewed claimed that Jones dyed them black. [7] He became known as one of America's biggest jewel thieves and made the FBI's most wanted list in 1996. 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. 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. The "Greeting Committee" promptly confiscated all their clothes and belongings and, most important, their passports. 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Mr. Jones, Deborah said, callously gave Mrs. Layton that news. But I was one of very few women who held senior staff positions in Congress at the time, and I was concerned that if I gave in to my reluctance and let a male colleague go in my place, Id be setting back women in politics. Larrys parole came two years earlier than his previously-scheduled release date of April 2004. The article dissected Joness rise, revealing his practices of manipulation, public humiliation and fake faith healings, called out the Temples corrupt financial structure, and included ex-members testimonies of sexual assault and brutal beatings by Jones or at his command. He is bewildered at how it all happened, groping for an explanation of what he called a Greek tragedy.. The suit was later dismissed. He genuinely believed that he had some sort of protective shield around him, despite the fact that we werent traveling with any military escort or protection. 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. Secretly, she offered her mother a glass of the wine. Don hung back for a moment before approaching Congressman Ryan and me at the picnic table and surreptitiously passing along the note. And he assigned two of his staff members to come along: Jim Schollaert and me. By the following year, Jones was making a reputation for himself in. 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. 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. March 5, 1999. Oh my God: Its true. ''They were trying to deny the horror of Jonestown and the deception that they underwent,'' Mr. Tamburello said. Jones had become increasingly paranoid, convinced that the CIA, the FBI and the media were out to destroy him. bout wiki. Layton and her mother arrived in Jonestown in December 1977. Before I could even comprehend what was happening, about a dozen men leapt from the tractor, leveled their automatic weapons, and fast approached. Mr. Jones's cult included, at ohe time or another, six members of the Layton family. Anyone can read what you share. [30][33] He was the first ex-con to ever become an honorary police officer. 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. To the tarmac. ''You've heard graphic details about what happenened on the airstrip,'' he said. His first encounter with organized crime was through his father, a metal worker who delivered bribes to the New York mafia. He is serving a life sentence in the federal prison at Lompoc. The store owner managed to break free and grabbed a .38 caliber pistol and fired five shots at the robbers as they fled. Jones then gave Layton permission to remarry a woman named Karen Tow. 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.