1*HE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1978

Lawyer Says the Leader of Cult Had 'Lost His Reason' -commune to be shown to the American quiry. He said in a telephone interview By WALLACE TURNER 'people. today that he spent six days at the com- Special to The !leer York Times Eleven members of the People's Tem- mune after Aug. 18. SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 22 — The Rev. ple were present at today's news confer- Mr. Freed said he believed the settle- was described today as having ence. They denied they had been coerced ment broke apart because. of suspicion "lost his reason" by Charles Garry, one into signing compromising documents, among its top command that one of them of his lawyers and once one of the strong- denied that an assassination squad had IA as an agent of outside opponents who est supporters of the People's Temple, been organized by Mr. Jones, and said had been members but had since broken the cult group led by Mr. Jones. that no threats had been made against away. Donald Freed, an associate of Mark children to insure compliance with Mr. Mr. Freed went to because Lane, another of the late Mr. Jones's law- Jones's orders. • Mr. Carry had persuaded Mr. Jones that yers, said in a separate statement: They said they planned to continue the someone on the outside should visit and "Jones became a devil. There is this anti-racist, humanitarian projects of the report on what they saw. Mind of mentality—it you cannot be God, Temple as it was operated under the lead- Mr. Freed said he had access to "a high you don't just fall back 'to the rank and ership of Mr. Jones. level defector" from the sect's inner file; you become the great sinner. If you Mr. Freed is the West Coast director of councils, whose identity he would not pro- win, you're Moses; if you lose, .you're Mr. L•ane's Citizens' Committee of In- vide. Charles Manson." Mr. Garry and Mr. Lane were at the Jonestown, Guyana, settlement on Satur- day with the party led by Representative Leo J. Ryan, who was among five people murdered at the airstrip that serves the comune. Mr. Garry and Mr. Lane were not at the airstrip, but were witntsses at the commune to the start of the that claimed more than 400 lives, includ- ing that of Mr. Jones. Eyes Reddened, Voice Breaking At a news conference here today, Mr. Garry said he learned of the suicides from two armed members of the People's Temple. "They told us," he said, his eyes red- dened and his voice breaking, "'We are going to die for revolutionary protest as an expression against racism and fas- cism."' "They hugged us both," said Mr. Garry. "Lane asked, 'How do we get out of here?' And they told us how to go over the hill and through what tt sy called the Buzh and hit the road that multi take us to the airstrip." Just before he learned tf at there was a suicide plan in the maki rg, Mr. Garry said, he noticed the first g ins he had seen in his three trips to Jonestown. He said he . asked Mr. Jones to let someone speak to the people who were sitting silent and pensive before the pavilion where Mr. Ryan and the others had appeared. 'A Beautiful Experiment' "Jim said 'Charles, let them sit there. Let them think,' " Mr. Garry said. Within a short time the poisonous mixture of cyanide and Kool-Aid was being dis- pensed to them. • Mr. Garry insisted today that the Jonestown experiment was "a beautiful thing," and denied that Mr. Jones re- ..a•-■::.aaa..1 a ftazs sisted people leaving. He said Mr. Jones In Vidalia, Ga., Shirley Humphrey attends funeral services for her husband, had admitted the reporters who accom- panied Mr. Ryan because Mr. Garry , the NBC correspondent slain in Guyana. With her are daughters wanted the high qualities he saw h the Lunt 5, left, and flaire, and a son, Jeffrey. •