Larry Layton was a very active member in The Peoples Temple. On November 18th 1978 he was a participant in the killing of Rep. Leo Ryan. As a survivor he went to trial over these deaths and was prosecuted. Layton spent around 18 years in Prison.
Within Peoples Temple his active role as a follower was to be a defector and wanted to make it clear that he was committed to the temple. (Reiterman, Raven,406). He was to do this through shooting the pilot of a small plane coming to the island. Larry’s trial was very complicated. The government wanted to hold him accountable for what occurred in Guyana, however he wasn’t directly guilty.
Layton had spent 18 months in Georgetown jail after being taken from The Peoples Temple, then he was acquitted and then in jail longer waiting for trial. By the time years later the jurors and even someone he wounded at the time realized Larry was not guilty but was simply brainwashed and traumatized from Peoples temple it had already been too late. Layton had died by the time people had requested his release.
Larry Layton and Peoples Temple: Twenty-Five years later
The Prosecutions of Larry Layton