{"id":13115,"date":"2013-02-17T21:49:35","date_gmt":"2013-02-17T21:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alternativejonestown.com\/?page_id=13115"},"modified":"2024-04-24T09:29:47","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T16:29:47","slug":"laytonmemo","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=13115","title":{"rendered":"Carolyn Layton’s Analysis of Future Prospects"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among the thousands of anonymous documents that the State Department and FBI recovered in Jonestown after November 18 was an unsigned, undated memo entitled \u201cAnalysis of Future Prospects<\/a>.\u201d It proposes and discusses a variety of options for the people of Jonestown: organizing the return of everyone back to the United States; facilitating the return of those people who express a desire to return but leaving the balance of the community intact; migrating \u2013 either en masse or as a small group \u2013 to another country like Cuba; and taking a \u201cfinal stand.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are numerous references to death throughout the five-page document, beyond the ultimate option. Some are almost casual, indicating how deeply embedded the subject was in general conversation and how inured the people of Jonestown had become to the prospect of self-destruction. For example, in discussing whether their own actions \u201cin playing brinkmanship (which I agree we have to constantly do)\u201d might lead Embassy consul Richard McCoy to involve the \u201cfull force\u201d of the U.S. against them, the writer says, \u201cIf we decide to die, then of course that will not matter because if [it] would not hurt us historically since he is a real pig anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although there are a couple of references to \u201cJJ,\u201d the memo is addressed in the second person and is undoubtedly directed to Jim Jones. Equally as certain is the writer: Few people would have been able to write as strategically, frankly, and critically as Carolyn Layton, Jones\u2019 most trusted aide.<\/p>\n

There are other clues of Carolyn Layton\u2019s authorship as well.<\/p>\n