Ryan’s Former Aide Recalls Violence on Trip to Jonestown

Rep. Leo Ryan’s former aide recalled on Thursday the violent fact-finding trip to the People’s Temple cult commune called Jonestown where the congressman and four others were slain.

Jackie Speir testified as the prosecution wound down its case against Larry Layton, a former follower of People’s Temple leader Jim Jones. Layton, 40, is charged with conspiracy and aiding and abetting in the death of Ryan and the wounding of diplomat Richard C. Dwyer.

As the Ryan party prepared to depart from the airstrip near the Jonestown settlement in the Guayana jungle on Nov. 18, 1978, they were met with gunfire.

Shortly after the attack, Jones and 912 disciples commited mass suicide at their camp. Ryan’s killers are believed to have been among those who died there. The defense contends that there is no evidence Layton knew of the ambush plan or participated in it.

Speir said she was working as legal counsel and legislative assistant to Ryan, a U.S. representative from San Mateo, in 1978 when his office decided to investigate complaints it received about conditions at the jungle settlement established by Jones and his followers.

Entrance Denied

Now a San Mateo County supervisor and recently elected to the state Assembly, Speir said Jones initially denied the Ryan party entrance to Jonestown but finally relented.

A handful of temple members--some of them armed--escorted the Ryan group to Jonestown, about an hour’s drive from the Port Kaituma airstrip, she testified. Several members of the news media and a handful of concerned relatives of temple members were allowed into the compound later, Speir said.

Throughout most of the day, she said, temple members said they were happy with their lives in Jonestown and conditions there. But following an after-dinner speech by Ryan, she said she got word of people wanting to leave. “It was clear people were fearful,” Speir said.

“There was a high level of anxiety; people appeared very upset and agitated,” she said. “There was a great tenseness in the air.”

Speir said she talked with Layton and his wife at Jonestown, saying he tried to convince her that his sister--a defector who had talked with Ryan--was unreliable and that her complaints about settlement conditions were not to be believed.