Probers May Call on Lane to Provide Clues to Massacre by CLARK REID Representative
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The Knoxville News-Sentinel Thursday, December 14, 1918 Page 7 Probers May Call on Lane To Provide Clues to Massacre By CLARK REID Representative. Lane and another man - News-Sentinel Washington Correspondent were able to stop the attacker before WASHINGTON — Memphis lawyer Ryan was hurt. Mark Lane is expected to be called be- Less than two hours later, however, fore a House committee to testify on the Ryan and the four others were dead, ambush murder of Rep. Leo Ryan (D- murdered by several of Jones' top heti- Calif.) and four other Americans on are- tenants just -moments before the party mote airstrip near Jonestown, Guyana. was scheduled to fly to Georgetown, Rep. Edward Derwinski (R-Ill.), a Guyana's capital. member of the House International Rela- Lane and San Francisco attorney tions Committee which is looking into Charles Garry, who was also represent- Ryan's murder, said yesterday he ex- ing Jones, remained at Jonestown, only pects the hearing will be scheduled soon to find themselves in the middle of a after the 96th Congress convenes in mass suicide rite called for by Jones, fol- January. lowing the discovery that some members The Illinois Republican has more than of Ryan's party had survived the am- a casual interest in the investigation of bush. That mass suicide took the lives of the slaying of Ryan, three American 913 Jonestown residents, but Lane. and • newsmen and a disenchanted follower of Garry were able to escape. People's Temple cult leader Jim Jones. Since his return to the United States, Derwinski had been scheduled to Lane has done an about-face and is now accompany Ryan on his fateful fact-find- saying the People's Temple represents a ing tour of the People's Temple com- danger to U.S. politicians, newsmen and pound in Jonestown. He bowed Out of the others reportedly placed on an "assassi- trip at the last moment and is now inter- nations list" by Jones. ested in the investigations being Lane has appeared before the grand conducted by a grand jury in California, jury in San Francisco which is examining the FBI, the Congress and the govern- the possibility of .a conspiracy to kill ment of Guyana. Ryan (a violation of Federal law). "Mark Lane would be the most logical The Guyanese government would also witness for the committee to call," ob- like Lane to appear before its Criminal served Derwinski. Investigations Department which is Lane, who was representing Jones, building the case against those still alive flew to Guyana with Ryan and a party of and implemented in Ryan's murder. American newsmen. Ryan was investi- gating charges that Jones was holding members of the People's Temple cult against their will, employing torture and abuse to do so. Shortly before Ryan and his party were scheduled to leave Jonestown, a knife-wielding cultist attacked the .