The State - News from March 13, 1987

Former Peoples Temple member Larry Layton said the Rev. Jim Jones used fear, blaring loudspeakers and food deprivation to brainwash his followers before the mass suicides that claimed more than 900 lives. Layton, who has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in the 1978 murder of a congressman, said Jones gave his followers “a completely distorted view of what was going on around them so their actions were matched up to a world that was trying to destroy them, when in fact it was a creation of his mind.” Layton, 41, made the remarks in an interview with Charles Gibson that will be televised today on ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America.” Alice Serrano, the show’s publicist, said Layton told Gibson that it was the first time he had granted an interview. “It’s the most horrible event in history and it’s something that will constantly haunt me,” he said. Layton, who will be eligible for parole in four years, has appealed his Dec. 1 conviction, saying that he received inadequate legal representation.