Power HungerCalled Drivin By HENRY BAILEY entourage as they left for the airplane that critics say — attorney for James Earl Ray, Press-Scimitar Staff Writer was to take them away from the area; Lane convicted assassin of the Rev. Martin Lu- said. • Now, even four days after the insanity in ther King, Jr., arrived back at his home at the Guyanese jungle, attorney Mark Lane And it was Jones who voiced a grisly 1177 Central late Tuesday. four-step program for his fanatical follow- wonders how it really came about. He and another ettorney, Charles Garry, ing that included the killing of "defectors" famous for his defense of the Black Pan- "I haven't been able to figure that one and the assassination of government offi- thers, had accompanied the Ry out," he said quietly. "I just don't know." cials "to politicize" their actions, he said. in the hope of serving as counseloh He brushed his steely gray streaked hair "All this seems far-fetched,". Lane says. tween the lawmaker and members of the with a handiwhose fingers were dotted "But so does mass murder and it hap- religious sect who considered Ryan "an with bandages. ,pened.,:rhe government should take these enemy, an outsider" there to incite betray- So was the-other hind, mute reminders threats seriously"' • ' ' als. Ryan, accompanied by several staff of his desperate run into the briars, "Jim Jones' thirst for absolute power members and newsmen, had gone to the branches and spikes of a tropical rain for- was so incredible," said Lane, his voice South' American country to investigate est to escapellse death by poison and bul- echoing a tone of bitterness tinged with first-hand — as was his custom — reports lets meted odrto more than 400 members disbelief. "I guess the ultimate proof is that American citizens were being abused of the People's Temple cult at the word of somewhere here: when Hitler died, he at the jungle commune in Guyana. their leader,' the Rev. Jim Jones. Jones, took Eva Braun a few others with him. •When did Lane.khow that disaster was now dead, is a man Lane calls a tyrant, When Jones died, he said he was going to imminent? • whose obesslon with power bordered on take 1,200 people with' him, voluntarily. k the obscene. `When Jim Jones told me over the radio I "But even that was like the way he sup- he was going to put a hector in the middle It was Jones who ordered a knife-wield- y healed people _on TV," Lane said. of the airstrip, and there is only one, so we ing truck driver named Don Sly to murder 'It was all a deception. It was no mass would't be able to land, end he wanted me U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan, D-Calif., he said. suicide, as the medjaAas already been sold to be on the plane, I knew, something ivas wiling in that attempt, it was Jones who on it. It was Insaskjawriler,,, Those babies wrong. ordered several members of the cult, this Who had poison: iikarree Whin their throats "I told' him these two conditions were time armed with shotguns and semi-auto- didn't take a 1.?iste.N• . , mutually exclusive," said Lane, a wry matic weapons, to gun down Ryan and his Lane, the famed -7 or notorious, as some smile barely evident.. MEMPHIS PRESS-SCIMITAR, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23,' 1978 nGuyana Deaths "He (Jones) said, 'I don't want those peo- rest of them to get back on the plane.' " ple there,' but I told him, 'Look, it won't be Lane said he took Jones aside and told so bad.' him this type of reception "was the worst "Jones said, 'They'll just say it's a con- possible thing" that could be done. The centration camp,' but I told him there was young man was adamant. nothing to worry about. If I know anything "Garry and I got into a truck and were now about Jim Jones, it's that he is clever taken to Jonestown (a settlement named and deceptive. The kind of person who for Jim Jones), and the others were left would tell you, with someone else nearby behind. On the way, we passed a tractor but unable to hear, that, 'You know, you're pulling a trailer. At the wheel was Harriet the only one I can trust, just:you. But I Traub, a 1977 law school graduate and a don't trust that other person at all.' very crazy lady. "Looking back on it, I don't know wheth- ATTORNEY MARK LANE er I talked him into it (allowing Ryan's "She shouted, 'Stop! The orders have party to visit the compound), or he just been changed,' and the new command was terrible thing. Something will happen.' " engineered that whole conversation, for to bring in Ryan and the rest." He said that Jones and his staff stayed whatever reasons he had," Lane said. Lane said he knew Jones would be upset close together and it seemed that some at least by the presence of a man named members with qualms about the cult were "The next indication I had that trouble Gordon Lindsay, a writer for the National hesitant to talk to them. was coming was when we landed and the Enquirer who supposedly had written a Mane was immediately surrounded by sensational account of the sect, but which "But Don Harris (an NBC news corre- ome very grim and determined men, had not been printed. spondent) stayed apart from the group, ohn Jones, Jim Jones' adopted black son, Later, finally able to reach Jones by tele- sort of on the outside of the area, and was mong them. There was one policeman phone at the compound, Lane said Jones approached, first by a woman, and later by sere, armed with a rifle, but he just wore still had reservations but he finally was a family of six," he said. Lane said the shirt and slacks, and I thought at the time able to convince the commune leader to family expressed a desire to leave Guyana was another member. admit Ryan and his party. but were afraid to approach Ryan for help. "We all got off, and (John) Jones said, "But Jones told me, 'If one person leaves, lily you and Garry can come. Tell the if there is one act of betrayal, it would be a (Continued on Page 13) 1"1-118 PRESS-SCIMITAR, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1978 cihei;-RecitStoryls-. Why. Disciples Followed Jones ..(Continued from Page 12)- gressman with the knife occurred, he said. he gave the orders to do so." "Then we'Ifeard small aria fire," Lane But Jones saw this and was determined to Lane, Garry and several other members of He said Sly approached them and, acting Said. Garry and he saw three men approach- do something about it , Ryan's group surrounded the attacker and as a guard, herded the two men down a "Jones talked to them (the family) for quickly disarmed the man, whose blood hill. "We saw eight or 10 men go to the ing from the other side of the road, carry- about an hour, saying if they left it.would stained Ryan's shirt- guard shack and took out a lot of guns, ing a foot locker. mean betrayal and there could be attacks Ryan and his group left for the airstrip including automatic weapons. There was a "I knew there was at least $3 million in shortly thereafter. lot 'of firepower there. cash there, and that locker didn't look on the compound. He suggested, if: they heavy enough to be ammunition," Lane really, wanted to go, to wait a week and "I went to talk to. Garry, and I told him ..:t-,"I.saw two men pick up a heavy case. It that I thought Sly never really wanted to must have been-ammunition;hecituse they said. Not wanting to get too inquisitive, he leave quietly." said, he and Garry went into the jungle. By Presently, Lane said, Jones said the fam- kill Ryan," Lane said: "It just didn't add up, could only carry it a few feet and then had now it was 7 p.m. and dark.. ily had something to say and the son, Dale if he really meant to kill him, he could to stop. They took it all' p to the commun- have done it quickly, one-two-three, in- ity center, where Jones was talking to the "We couldn't tell where we were, so we Parki, asked Lane to write a letter to Jones sat down. We stayed in the brush until on their behalf and they would leave the stead of saying, 'I'm going to kill you, you — crowd about 'the dignity of death' and ,know following week. The attorney said he saw -,' and then holding the knife on his throat 'how great it was to die.' - dawn. About 7 a.m., Charles said 'I no reason why they would not be free to and chest and not doing anything. "He (Jones) was always big on central how to get out" leave at any time and that a note "one way "I believe Jones ordered him to kill the democracy. Well, big on centralization, "I said, 'Charles, obviously you have • or the other would do no good. It was abOut Congressman, but he didn't want to and but weak on democracy." contempt for this brush. 'I do not I have wanted to make it look like he tried." Lane said several men -pointed their been lost in New Hampshire and Vermont.' as good as a subway token in the jungle.