• After Ryan and others were killed, and the situation became perilous, Nick Thimmesch Lane was put Undef artnedimard.. Two of Jones' men came at Lane with guns and declared: "Mark, you are going to die. We'll all die. It's the struggle Mark Lane, against fascism." Since Laie discovers fascism , in about everything which lives or Again ,C,rhe breathes in the United States, this must have been a frightfully ironic moment. The man does not know what 're- "How do we get out of here?"• he re- straint, grace or decent interval are. plied, apparently forgetting the impor- Mark Lane had scarcely arrived home tance of the struggle. after playing an off role in the Peoples It it just one excitement after an- Temple horror, when he was babbling other for Mark Lane. Only a few days on about a "master plan," a $10-million • before he went to Guyana,-Lane was secret fund, the possibility of more castigated by one of his former murders, and the negligence of the FBI supporters, the Rev, Walter Fauntroy, and the CIA in preventing Jonestown's D.C.'s delegate in Congress, as "a man monumental grisly tragedy. who thrives on publicity—good or bad." It was inevitable, I guess, that Lane Fauntroy finally concluded, after . would become involved. The man has won- platform, large audience, transient hours of Lane's outrages during the as- congressional approval, and much sassination hearings, that, "Mr. Lane's repeated attempts, to spitefully use the A money from his career of playing vul- death of Dr. King . for his own pur- ture around tragedies such as the assas- poses requires that I remain silent no sinations of John F. Kennedy and Dr. _ Martin Luther King. more." Though Lane was instrumental in After surviving Jonestown, Lane is getting Congress to investigate the likely planning another book, laced murders of Kennedy and King, he with conspiratorial theory, and more wound up stinking up the hearings. He years on the lecture and TV-radio talk produced his client, King's killer, circuit for his bucks. One must be Don James Earl Ray, to tell a' yarn which Quixote to hope that he will be ignored. should have won him the permanent Lane Was hired by the late Rev. Jim championship of the Liars' Club. Ulti- Jones to pacify the late Rep. Leo J. mately, Lane stormed out of the hear- Ryan and a team of accompanying ing room when asked to testify about a journalists concerned that evil might former mental patient whom he • indeed lurk in Jonestown. claimed was locked up for 10 years to Two weeks before that lamentable keep her silent. trip to Guyana, Lane wrote Ryan an in- Alas, for a long time, Lane made par. timidating letter about the jeopardies anoia and conspiracy theories respect- inherent in his mission. Lane charged ful. His book on JFK's assassination was that agencies of the U.S. government a best seller, and a fictionalized version had "oppressed" the Peoples Temple, became a flawed, but financially., suc- and warned that if "persecution" of cessfull movie. Jones' sect continued, there would be He saw Lee Harvey Oiwald as a vic- "important consequences" and "a most tim of a frame-up. lie loves, to defend embarrassing situation for the U.S. gov- Fidel Castro's Cuba. He went to com- ernment." munist Hungary to call for an interna- Enroute to Jonestown, Lane told tional commission to probe Kennedy's Ryan and his group that Jones and his death, which he has blamed on the CIA. true-believers were victims of sensa- Finally he turned to King, and wound tional journalism and a mean U.S. gov- up implicating the FBI in that assas- ernment out to destroy this beautiful sination. experiment in loving socialism. Now Lane has the Jonestown tragedy Now, according to Lane's reconstruc- to play with. He will shout• conspiracy, tion in the press, he, knew there had and blame it on fascist elements. The been suicide drills at Jonestown, that FBI plans to interview all survivors of drugs and even drugged food was used Jonestown, including Lane, because it to keep" the believers in line, hence, he is charged by law with investigating wouldn't eat the sandwiches offered,. any killing of a congressman.'Lane will though he didn't warn the other visi- likely cry that he is being persecuted. tors about them. • It is up to the media to ignore Mark Lane claims he advised Ryan that Lane, but he probably will not be ig- Jones was sick and there might be trou- nored. There is still appetite and re- ble, but others aboard the plane say ward money for those who can cry Lane didn't tell them, and some argue "wolf" the loudest. Lane should have spoken out. Lane gal%Los Angeles Times Syndicate counters by charging that the FBI and CIA had agents at Jonestown (both agencies deny this), although he of- fered no proof.