Rev. Jones' Attorneys Lane and Garry Are Still Sparring
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SFChronicle NOV. 1 7 107Q, Rev. Jones' Attorneys Lane And Garry Are Still Sparring By Ron Javers indirectly involved Lane with the drugged. Former Peoples Temple law- temple in the first place. Sando told The Chronicle that yers Mark Lane and Charles Garry Garry was seeking a writer he sent his complaint to the bar were bitter foes long before they who could counteract the negative last January. He said bar officials flew to Jonestown with Represent- publicity the Temple had been wrote back that they had received ative Leo Ryan and his party, and receiving in the Bay Area when he his complaint.But he still has not their mutual flight for survival contacted Los Angeles author Don- heard what, if anything, has come through the jungle apparently did ald Freed about the prospect of of it little to cement friendship. doing a favorable biography of Sando said he had been "out- Garry — who staunchly de- Jones and his church. raged" at Lane's conduct in Guy- fended Jones and the temple be- Freed visited Jonestown but ana as described by Washington fore the killings a year ago and declined the book offer. Instead, Post reporter Charles Krause. now insists that he was duped by he told his longtime friend, Mark Krause, one of the reporters Jones — has been speaking before Lane, about the bizarre sect in the who accompanied Ryan to Jones- lawyers' groups around the coun- jungle and its leader who spoke of town, wrote that Lane told him try describing Lane as the "cata- a farflung government conspiracy after the massacre that he had not lyst" who triggered the tragedy at to destroy hint eaten any of the sandw,iches, but Jonestown by assuring the cult Shortly thereafter, unbe- . instead had overcome his hunger leader that he was the target of a by eating coughdrops. vast conspiracy. knownst to Garry, Lane flew to Jonestown, talked to Jones and Garry confirms that account, Garry obtained a tape of a later prepared a memo confirming saying that Lane told him on the rousing speech Lane made to tem- Jones's worst fears about the pur- night the two lawyers spent hud- ple members in San Francisco just ported conspiracy. dled in the jungle after escaping a month before the massacre. He also requested a $20,000 Jonestown that he believed the On that tape, which was made retainer to defend the Temple sandwiches were drugged, but that available to the Chronicle, Lane against a government plot that, by he had not warned anyone in Ryan's party. told the cultists that Jones was "a most accounts, existed only in the saint" who was being persecuted mind of Jim Jones. There never was any evidence by the FBI, CIA, IRS, the U.S. Post that the sandwiches were drugged, Office and the news media. Lane was no stranger to con- spiracy theory. He gained national and for his part, Lane has repeat- Garry also displayed the confi- fame by challenging government edly denied saying they were."I dential memorandum Lane wrote accounts of the slayings of both never even saw any cheese sand- to Jones two months before the President John F. Kennedy and wiches," he told The Chronicle. mass killings. It begins: Martin Luther King Jr. - and He added that he intended to: "Even a cursory examination earned substantial sums on books sue several other publications for reveals that there has been a and lectures that alleged dark libel because of stories written coordinated campaign to destroy plots in both assassinations. about him in the Peoples Temple the Peoples Temple and to impugn Now Lane's conduct in other case. the reputation of its leader." aspects of the Peoples Temple case Lane told The Chronicle he Despite the memorandum, has become the subject of a formal had retained prominent New York Lane disputes Garry's charge that complaint to the New York Bar attorney Jonathan W. Lubell to he contributed to Jones's fears of Association. represent him in the libel matters. government conspiracy against In an interview, Lane insisted But in a telephone interview, him. that no such complaint had been Lubell declared, "I am not repre- "I think really the strain has filed against him. senting him. I never agreed to been too much on poor Charles," But the complaint — though represent him. There must have Lane said. held "confidential" by the New been some misunderstanding." What has happened, he said, is York Bar, which would consider The matter of the cheese sand- that the "news media have been such matters — is quite real to wiches now rests with the New utilized by U.S. intelligence organi- Jack Sando, the Washington attor- York Bar's grievance committee in zations and the intelligence organi- ney who filed it. Sando asked for Brooklyn. zations have been utilized by the an investigation, after reading a news story which quoted Lane Frank Finnerty, the grievance media" to ruin the reputation of committee's chief counsel, told Mark Lane. saying he had not eaten any of the cheese sandwiches offered by the The Chronicle that "particularly Despite the acrimony between cultists to the Ryan party because complicated" complaints often the two lawyers, it was Garry who he had reason to believe they were take years to resolve. .