BB-25-a
June 14, 1978
Transcript from telephone patch between:
Larry Layton and Lisa Layton in Jonestown, Guyana
and Kevin Wallace of the San Francisco Chronicle
Operator: What are your questions, Mr. Wallace?
KW: I do not have any questions, just their response to what I read earlier. I don’t have any questions at all.
Operator: All right, I’ll ask that. There are no questions, it is simply what response do you have to what you were told earlier?
LL: My name is Lisa Layton, and I am her (Deborah Layton’s) mother. I am not the least bit surprised what she has said.
Operator: Please repeat.
LL: I am not surprised about what she is saying. She had been stealing thousands of dollars from me and others… I believe she had been on drugs, as she used to be before she was over here. I imagine she is probably still on drugs. She also took thousands of dollars from us, and me particularly.
Larry Layton: I am her brother, Larry Layton. I am an x-ray technician here. I live here with my wife [Karen Layton]. Seniors are treated beautifully here, do you copy?… I am 32 years old. I believe she is saying these things because we are socialists. And she is a thief.
Lisa: I am Lisa Layton and my son is very upset about the whole thing. I am the mother of Debbie. Since I am a senior, I think you can understand that I talked firsthand about the fact that seniors are treated beautifully here in Jonestown. We are socialists, and socialists treat their seniors very beautifully, always.
Larry L.: I would appreciate being able to say just a couple of words to refute these mountains of lies printed by my little sister, so-called. She is a thief! And that is the reason she is attacking us, because she stole money from her mother. That is why she is telling these ridiculous lies. And the reason they are being printed is because we are socialists; that’s what I think.
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Dr. Laurence Laird Layton
He was Chief of Chemical Warfare for the U.S. Army at Dugway Proving Grounds, Tooele, Utah. He started his career in an area of wound healing, but later developed ways of causing wounds. His work here was all top-secret. Although I was young, I do have memories of seeing a bomb test (that my dad was involved in) as I laid out on the desert watching. Dr. Layton’s job was to develop ways to kill people. At this US Army proving grounds they had all kinds of tests out there that killed sheep and other animals.
When I was in Berkeley later on in years, my dad once told me he could be tried as a war criminal for some of the things he had done.
He was very cruel to animals. He hates animals. He has wire around his yard in Berkeley to shock animals if they come around his yard. He wanted to borrow a pellet gun to be able to shoot raccoons if they came around his yard. He once gave a cute little animal an injection which caused it to die of anaphylactic shock.
He tried to start certain businesses from time to time. He was involved in a business venture when we lived in Maryland. One involved making a concrete additive that made the concrete waterproof. He also was trying to start a business that made tools rustproof. It went bad because Dr. Layton said this fellow took off with the money. The man he said took off with the money was Beverly Davenport. One of the persons who was in the business deal with Dr. Layton was Howard Farris. Howard Farris was a big investor in the company. He was a casino manager.
My dad, Dr. Layton, told me when Davenport ran off with the money Farris said he was going to put his “boys” on Davenport to get the money back. (Davenport used to have a home on the Potomac.)
Dr. Layton worked for the U.S. Navy as Asst. Director
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of Research at Indian Head, Maryland. He did research on missile propellants, developing solid state fuels for missiles. It was secret work. This place was a govt. munitions factory.
Dr. Layton treated me cruelly as a child. He was mean and would always yell at me. I remember on one occasion he threatened to put me in a mental institution. There was an old Quaker fellow who lives in Maryland by the name of Simon who was a very kind person who was opposing the war. He complained to my mother about how insensitive my father treated me.
My dad used to try to hypnotize me. He was mean to my mother, and was condescending and hostile to her most of the time.
My dad had some investments in some coal company.
/s/ Laurence John Layton
Laurence John Layton
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[Handwritten letter]
Dear Marcy ;
Words always fail me when I want to write something to someone like you. You have done so much to give inspiration to me and continue. I just heard that Sinanon [Synanon], a very well-to-do organization that was recently attacked by Time magazine, has just purchased $75,000 worth of weapons such as pump shotguns. Isn’t that horrible! I guess some people have no respect at all for the free press or our cherished way of life!
Well, it is the unseen things that bring about the greatest victories. And although I have always had to fight with elitist tendencies in myself, I have been greatly touched by your concern for the little people, those that the world has never remembered, much less forgotten. I hope you will be on a southbound plane by the time you read this letter. We will all be together soon. Give Jim my thanks for all he has done for us and me (perhaps someday I will think in that order of priorities.)
Larry L.