{"id":13920,"date":"2013-02-17T21:50:40","date_gmt":"2013-02-17T21:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alternativejonestown.com\/?page_id=13920"},"modified":"2024-04-24T10:27:49","modified_gmt":"2024-04-24T17:27:49","slug":"lanetoryan","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/?page_id=13920","title":{"rendered":"Mark Lane\u2019s Letters to Leo Ryan & Richard McCoy"},"content":{"rendered":"

(Nota del editor<\/b>: una traducci\u00f3n al espa\u00f1ol de estas cartas se encuentra aqui<\/a>.<\/span><\/em>)<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

Peoples Temple attorney Mark Lane learned in early November 1978 of the telegram<\/a> that Rep. Leo Ryan sent to Jonestown on November 1, and responded immediately. He made calls to Ryan aide James Schollaert and \u2013 when the calls were not immediately returned \u2013 wrote a letter to Ryan<\/a> on November 6, to discuss with the congressman and his staff the possibility of postponing the trip.<\/p>\n

There were a couple of reasons for the request, as Lane outlined in his letter. First, Ryan and other members and staff of the International Relations Committee had so far spoken only to people whom Lane described as \u201chostile to the People\u2019s Temple and the project in Jonestown.\u201d Secondly, as the legal representative of Jim Jones, Lane said he should be present during Ryan\u2019s visit with his client, and the lawyer had previous commitments during the timeframe that Ryan proposed to go.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, this is not the letter of a supplicant. It points out that, since \u201cJonestown is a private community\u201d and the Ryan party would be guests, the delegation should accede to the Temple\u2019s \u2013 and Lane\u2019s \u2013 requests for accommodation.<\/p>\n

More significantly, Lane reminds Ryan that the Temple has been under attack from \u201cvarious agencies of the U.S. Government.\u201d Thus far, the Temple had taken steps in response \u2013 migrating to another country, considering legal action against those agencies, etc. \u2013 but it had other steps it could take, including accepting an offer of refuge in one of \u201ctwo different countries, neither one of which has entirely friendly relations with the U.S.\u201d If the Temple believed it was being subjected to a witch hunt \u2013 such as a visit by an uninvited guest in the form of a hostile congressman, a circumstance unstated but implied \u2013 it might lead to \u201ca most embarrassing situation for the U.S. Government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan\u2019s response appears here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lane\u2019s letter to State Department Guyana Desk Officer Richard McCoy<\/a>, also dated November 6, is even more combative. It makes reference to the Temple\u2019s \u201cserious consideration\u201d accepting an offer of sanctuary from a country \u201cwhich does not enjoy friendly relations with the U.S.\u201d and adds a reminder of \u201chow embarrassing this might be to the Government in view of President Carter\u2019s continued reference to abuses of human rights in other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lane\u2019s letter to McCoy attaches a copy of the letter to Ryan.<\/p>\n

Mark Lane\u2019s Letter to Leo Ryan,<\/b> RYMUR 89-4286-AA-1-i, pp. 1-2
\nPDF<\/a><\/span>
\nText<\/a><\/span>
\nMark Lane\u2019s Letter to Richard McCoy,<\/b> RYMUR 89-4286-AA-1-i-3
\nPDF<\/a><\/span>
\nText<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Array<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":13940,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-13920","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13920"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82778,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13920\/revisions\/82778"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonestown.sdsu.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}