Seductive Poison (59 page)

Grace Stoen holding her son, John-John.
(COURTESY GRACE STOEN)

John-John before Grace left the
church.(COURTESY GRACE STOEN)

Me, going public with my affidavit in June 1978, one month after my escape from Guyana.
Congressman Leo Ryan would soon contact me, discuss my allegations, and invite me to
Washington, D. C. to testify before the State Department.
(©
THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE,
REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION)

Congressman Leo Ryan visiting Jonestown the night before his death.
(COURTESY
SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER)

Jonestown residents hours before everyone perished. (COURTESY
SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER)

Maria and her brother, Anthony
Katsaris. He came to Jonestown
to convince her to leave with
Congressman Ryan and was
critically wounded at the airstrip
a few hours later.
(COURTESY
SAN FRANCISCO
EXAMINER)

Papa, upon learning that his
youngest son, Larry, was facing
execution by hanging in
Guyana, Christmas 1978.
(COURTESY DR. THOMAS LAYTON)

Larry talking to family through thick
protective prison windows during his
first U.S. trial, 1981. The outcome was
a mistrial (eleven to one for acquittal).
Larry would be tried again four years
later and convicted.
(COURTESY DR. THOMAS LAYTON)

My daughter, Lauren, at age four,
when she began asking questions
about “Grandma Nanni” and her
Uncle Larry. (DEBORAH LAYTON)

Visiting Larry at the federal prison, where he
is serving a life sentence, 1997.
(DEBORAH LAYTON)

Lauren, when I began telling her the truth.
(DEBORAH LAYTON)

To protect the privacy of the living, I have omitted some last names and changed the given names of a few others.

All my conversations, including those with Jim Jones, are recreated from memory and from hours of tape recordings my brother, Dr. Thomas N. Layton, made of me immediately after my escape.

Copyright © 1998 by Deborah Layton
Foreword Copyright © 1998 by Charted Krause

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright conventions. Published in the United States by Anchor Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Originally published in hardcover in the United States by Anchor Books in 1998.

Anchor Books and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

The quotation from
Man’s Search for Meaning
by Viktor Frankl is reprinted from the Beacon Press edition. The quotation from
Sleepyhead
by Walter de la Mare is reprinted by permission from the Literary Trustees of Walter de la Mare, and the Society of Authors as their representative. “In a Grove,” from
Rashomon and Other Stories
by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, translated by Takashi Kojima. Translation copyright 1952 by Live-right Publishing Corporation. Reprinted by permission of Live-right Publishing Corporation.