[Editor’s note: This document was released both as a State Department cable as part of its 1981 FOIA release, and as Serial 1982 of the FBI’s RYMUR release.]
UNCLASSIFIED
[Listing of agencies receiving informational copies on pdf]
R 061939Z MAR 79
FM AMEMBASSY GEORGETOWN
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 9129
UNCLAS GEORGETOWN 0993
E.O. 12065: NA
TAGS: CARR, (LAYTON, LARRY) (PEOPLE’S TEMPLE)
SUBJ: W/W ARRESTS: LARRY LAYTON
REF: GEORGETOWN 0909
For Department’s information, here are the six reasons, put forward in court on February 28, why, in the opinion of Senior Defense Counsel Rex McKay, Chief Justice Harold Bollers should have disqualified himself from hearing the Layton case:
1) Sharon Amos (who was in charge of the People’s Temple headquarters in Georgetown) was a close friend of the Chief Justice and his family;
2) Amos and her children often visited the home of the Chief Justice and he and his family also visited the Lamaha Gardens PT residence in Georgetown;
3) On November 17 and 18, 1978, Amos and her children visited the Chief Justice’s home;
4) On the night of November 18, 1978 Amos and her three children were allegedly murdered by two other Temple members, namely Stephan Jones and Charles Beikman;
5) Jones was discharged of the murders at the inquiry;
6) Beikman was committed to stand trial at the April session of the High Court for the murders of Amos and
UNCLASSIFIED
UNCLASSIFIED
PAGE 02 GEORGE 081131Z
her children.
Burke [John Burke, American ambassador to Guyana]