Word: ryans
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...cult member has been charged with murder in the deaths of Rep. Leo J. Ryan (D.-Calif.), three newsmen and a disaffected cultist, who were shot as they attempted to leave the commune. Another has been accused of killing four cultists in Georgetown...
...anything about appeared in Guyana last week. The events rankled of third-world terrorism, possible mercenary involvement (in the airstrip murders), government corruption and laziness, both on the part of Guyana and the United States. The presence of conspiracy-man Mark Lane as Jones's attorney, warning that Ryan's investigation would have disastrous results, even adds heat to the conspiracy theories. One gets the nagging feeling that all of these seemingly random things are tied up somehow, but in fact they aren't, at least not in any discernable pattern...
After getting many complaints from constituents about relatives being kept against their will by a California cult that had decamped to the jungles of Guyana, Democratic Congressman Leo Ryan decided to see for himself. Last week, he flew to the small Latin American country and set out for the commune known as the "People's Temple." Accompanying him were an aide, a U.S. embassy official, eight newsmen and leftist attorneys Mark Lane and Charles Garry, who were representing the commune. From Georgetown, the capital, the party chartered two planes to reach a dirt airstrip 145 miles away. Then they...
...Ryan's group managed to get inside and bring out six to ten members who wanted to leave. As they boarded the planes, one of the defectors drew a gun and started firing. That was a signal for other commune members, who suddenly appeared on the runway and shot at the planes. Ryan, 53, was killed, as were four others: NBC Reporter Don Harris, 41, and Cameraman Robert Brown, 36; San Francisco Examiner Photographer Gregory Robinson, 27; and an unidentified woman. At least eight others were wounded. In Georgetown, a woman member of the sect killed herself...
Meanwhile, the bodies of Rep. Leo J. Ryan (D-Calif.), three employees of NBC News, and a cult member who was trying to leave Guyana under Ryan's protection, were returned to the United States for burial...