Leo Ryan

Leo Joseph Ryan, Jr. (May 5 1925–November 18 1978) was an American politician of the Democratic Party. He served as a U.S. Representative from the 11th Congressional District of California from 1973 until he was murdered in Guyana by members of the Peoples Temple shortly before the Jonestown Massacre.

After the Watts Riots of 1965, then-Assemblyman Ryan took a job as a substitute school teacher to investigate and document conditions in the area. In 1970, he experienced life as an inmate in Folsom Prison, while presiding as chairman on the Assembly committee that oversaw prison reform. During his time in Congress, Ryan traveled to Newfoundland to investigate the inhumane killing of seals.

Ryan was also famous for vocal criticism of the lack of Congressional oversight of the CIA, and authored the Hughes-Ryan Amendment; the Amendment was dropped after his death. He was also an early critic of L. Ron Hubbard and his Scientology movement and of the Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon. On November 3, 1977, Ryan read into the United States Congressional Record a testimony by John Gordon Clark about the health hazards connected with destructive cults.

Ryan was the first and only Congressman to be killed in the line of duty. He was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, in 1983.

Early career
Leo Ryan was born in Lincoln, Nebraska. Throughout his early life, his family moved frequently through Illinois, Florida, New York, Wisconsin, and Massachusetts. He graduated from Campion Jesuit High School in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin in 1943. He then received V-12 officer training at Bates College and served with the United States Navy from 1943 to 1946 as a submariner.

Ryan graduated from Nebraska's Creighton University with an A.B. in 1949 and an M.S. in 1951. He taught History at Capuchino High School, and chaperoned the marching band in 1961 to Washington, D.C. to participate in President John F. Kennedy's inaugural parade. Ryan was inspired by Kennedy's call to service in his inaugural address, and decided to run for higher office. He served as a teacher, school administrator and South San Francisco city councilman from 1956 to 1962.

State of California
In 1962, Ryan was elected mayor of South San Francisco. He served less than a year as Mayor, before taking a seat in the California State Assembly's 27th district, winning his assembly race by a margin of 20,000 votes. He had previously ran for the State Assembly's 25th district in 1958, but lost to Republican Louis Francis.

Ryan served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention from 1964 to 1968, and he held his Assembly seat through 1972, when he was elected to the United States House of Representatives. He was successively elected three more times to the United States Congress.

Throughout his life, Ryan was known for his colorful personality and for the aplomb with which he tackled social inequality. After the Watts Riots of 1965, Assemblyman Ryan went to the area and took a job as a substitute school teacher to investigate and document conditions in the area. In 1970, using a pseudonym, Ryan had himself arrested, detained and strip searched to investigate conditions in the California prison system. He stayed as an inmate for ten days in the Folsom Prison, while presiding as chairman on the Assembly committee that oversaw prison reform. California State Senator Jackie Speier refers to this style of investigation as "experiential legislating".

As a California Assemblyman, Ryan also served as the Chairman of legislative subcommittee hearings, and presided over hearings involving his later successor as Congressman, Tom Lantos. Ryan pushed through important educational policies in California, and authored what came to be known as the Ryan Act, which established an independent regulatory commission to monitor educational credentialing in the state.

United States Congress
During his time in Congress, Ryan went to Newfoundland with James Jeffords to investigate the inhumane killing of seals, and he was famous for vocal criticism of the lack of Congressional oversight of the CIA, authoring the Hughes-Ryan Amendment, which would have required extensive CIA notification of Congress about planned covert operations. Congressman Ryan once told Richard Cheney that leaking a state secret was an appropriate way for a member of Congress to block an "ill conceived operation". Shortly after his death, the Amendment was quietly dropped, contributing to the development of the Jonestown conspiracy theory relating to his death.

Ryan was also an early critic of L. Ron Hubbard and his Scientology movement, and of the Unification Church of Sun Myung Moon. On November 3, 1977, Ryan read into the United States Congressional Record a testimony by John Gordon Clark about the health hazards connected with destructive cults. Congressman Ryan supported Patricia Hearst, and along with Senator S. I. Hayakawa, delivered Hearst's application for a presidential commutation to the Pardon Attorney.

Peoples Temple
In 1978, reports regarding widespread abuse and human rights violations among the Peoples Temple, led by cult leader Jim Jones, began to filter out of the organization's Guyana enclaves. After reading an article in the San Francisco Examiner, Ryan declared his intention to go to Jonestown, the Peoples Temple's main enclave. He was influenced both by an organization of citizens called Concerned Relatives of Peoples Temple Members (primarily Californians, as were most Temple members) and by his own characteristic distaste for social injustice. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, while investigating the events, the United States Department of State "repeatedly stonewalled Ryan's attempts to find out what was going on in Jonestown", and told him that "everything was fine". The State Department described the situation to Ryan as a potential "legal controversy", but Ryan rejected this viewpoint. In a later article in The Chronicle, Ryan was described as having "bucked the local Democratic establishment and the Jimmy Carter administration's State Department", in order to prepare for his investigation.

Travels to Jonestown
In late October and early November of 1978, Congressman Ryan declared his intention to travel to Jonestown as part of a government investigation and received permission and government funds to do so. He made the journey in his role as chairman of a congressional subcommittee with jurisdiction over U.S. citizens living in foreign countries. He asked the other members of his Bay Area congressional delegation to join him on the investigation to Jonestown, but they all declined his invitation. Ryan had also asked his friend Dan Quayle to accompany him &mdash; Quayle had served with Ryan on the Government Operations Committee &mdash; but Quayle was unable to go on the trip.

While the party was initially planned to consist of only a few members of the Congressman's staff and press as part of the congressional delegation, once the media learned of the trip the entourage ballooned to include, among others, Concerned Relatives members. Congressman Ryan traveled to Jonestown with 17 Bay Area relatives of Peoples Temple members, several newspaper reporters and an NBC TV team. When the legal counsel for Jones attempted to impose several restrictive conditions on the visit, Ryan responded that he would be traveling to Jonestown whether Jones permitted it or not. Ryan's stated position was that a "settlement deep in the bush might be reasonably run on authoritarian lines". However, residents of the settlement must be allowed to come and go as they pleased. He further asserted that if the situation had become "a gulag", he would do everything he could to "free the captives."

Jungle ambush
On 14 November, according to the Foreign Affairs Committee report, Ryan and his congressional delegation left Washington and arrived in Georgetown, Guyana. That night they stayed at a local hotel, where (despite confirmed reservations) most of the rooms had been cancelled and reassigned, leaving the delegation sleeping in the lobby. For three days, Ryan continued negotiation with Jones's legal counsel and held perfunctory meetings with embassy personnel and Guyanese officials. Finally, on November 17, Ryan, aide Jackie Speier, the United States embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Richard Dwyer, a Guyanese Ministry of Information officer, nine reporters and four representatives of the delegation boarded a small plane for the flight to an airfield a few miles outside of Jonestown.

At first, only the Temple legal counsel was allowed off the plane, but eventually the entire entourage (example: Gordon Lindsay, reporting for NBC) was allowed in. Initially, the welcome at Jonestown was warm, but after only a few hours Ryan and his entourage began receiving notes and whispered requests for evacuation from the facility. That night, the media and the delegation were returned to the airfield for accommodations following Jones's refusal to allow them to stay the night; the rest of the group remained.

The next morning, Ryan, Speier and Dwyer all continued their interviews, and in the morning met a woman who secretly expressed her wish to leave Jonestown with her family. Around 11:00 a.m. local time, the media and the delegation returned and took part in interviewing Peoples Temple members. The first two individuals to express desire to leave were Vernon Gosney and Monica Bagby, who handed a note to NBC correspondent Don Harris which stated, "Please help me get out of Jonestown." Around 3:00 p.m., the first group wishing to leave boarded a truck and was taken to the airstrip, with Ryan wishing to stay another night. Shortly thereafter, a failed knife attack on Congressman Ryan occurred while he was arbitrating a family dispute on leaving. Against Ryan's protests, Deputy Chief of Mission Dwyer ordered Ryan to leave, but he promised to return later to address the dispute.

The entire group left Jonestown and arrived at the airstrip by 4:45 p.m. local time. Their exit transport did not arrive for another twenty minutes. The smaller six-seat Cessna was just taxiing to the end of the runway when one of its occupants opened fire on those inside, wounding several. This was apparently the cue for several other Peoples Temples members who had escorted the group out to open fire on the larger craft, killing Congressman Ryan and four other journalists. and wounding another nine. The gunmen riddled Congressman Ryan's body with bullets before shooting him in the face at point blank range. The passengers on the smaller plane managed to subdue their shooter and took off under fire, the larger plane having been disabled and its passengers taking refuge in the jungle.

Following its takeoff, the Cessna radioed in a report of the attack, and the U.S. Ambassador, John R. Burke, went to the residence of Prime Minister Forbes Burnham. It was another day before the Guyanese army, ordered to arrest Jones and disarm Jonestown, could cut through the jungle and reach the settlement. They discovered the vast majority of its inhabitants dead.

Conviction of Larry Layton
Larry Layton, brother of author Deborah Layton, was convicted in 1986 of conspiracy in the murder of Leo Ryan. Survivors of the Port Kaituma murders reportedly complained to Congressman Ryan when Layton boarded the truck that: "He's not one of us." Layton was the only former Peoples Temple member to be tried in the United States for criminal acts relating to the murders at Jonestown. He was convicted on four different murder-related counts.

On March 3, 1987, Layton was sentenced to concurrent sentences of life in prison for "aiding and abetting the murder of Congressman Leo Ryan", "conspiracy to murder an internationally protected person, Richard Dwyer, Deputy Chief of Mission for the United States in the Republic of Guyana", as well as fifteen years in prison on other related counts. At that time, he would become eligible for parole in five years. On June 3, 1987, Layton's motion to set aside the conviction "on the ground that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel during his second trial" was denied by the United States District Court, of the Northern District of California.

After spending eighteen years in prison, Layton was released from custody in April 2002.

Burial
Leo Ryan's body was returned to the United States and interred at the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, California. The official Congressional Memorial Services for Ryan were compiled into a book: Leo J. Ryan - Memorial Services - Held In The House Of Representatives & Senate Of The U. S., Together With Remarks. Remembering the funeral of her brother held in the San Francisco area, Ryan's younger sister Shannon stated she was surprised both by the number of supporters that attended the funeral, and by the "outgrowth of real, honest sorrow".

For his efforts, Ryan was posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal by the United States Congress and signed by President Ronald Reagan. He was the first member of Congress to have been killed in the line of duty. At the time John Roberts, who was then an attorney in the White House counsel's office, wrote a memo to President Reagan stating that though the White House Counsel's office had no legal objections, he personally did not approve of the bill awarding Congressman Ryan the Congressional Gold Medal. However, in President Reagan's remarks upon signing the bill awarding Congressman Ryan the Congressional Gold Medal, he stated: "It was typical of Leo Ryan's concern for his constituents that he would investigate personally the rumors of mistreatment in Jonestown that reportedly affected so many from his district."  Ryan's daughters Erin and Patricia had helped to garner support for the Congressional Gold Medal, in time for the fifth anniversary of Ryan's death.

After his death, Ryan's daughter Shannon Jo changed her name to Jasmine and joined a cult,  while her sister Patricia became president of the (OLD) Cult Awareness Network. Ryan's daughter Erin worked for the CIA before eventually becoming an aide to her father's former aide Jackie Speier, who had in 1998 been elected to the state Senate.

Anniversary
On the 25th anniversary of his death, a special memorial tribute was held in his honor in Foster City, California. Ryan's family and friends, including Jackie Speier and Ryan's daughters, were in attendance. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that "Over and over today, people described a great man who continually exceeded his constituents' expectations." Near the end of the memorial service, parents of those who had died in Jonestown stood to honor and thank Congressman Ryan for giving his life while trying to save their children's. After the service ended, mounted police escorted the family and friends into Foster City's Leo J. Ryan Memorial Park. A wreath was laid next to a commemorative rock that honored Ryan. The same year, Ryan's daughter Erin attended a memorial for those who died at Jonestown, at the Oakland, California Evergreen Cemetery.

On the anniversary of Congressman Ryan's death, Jackie Speier traditionally visits his grave at the Golden Gate National Cemetery with his daughter and her friend, Patricia Ryan.

Leo J. Ryan award
The Leo J. Ryan Education Foundation established the Leo J. Ryan award in honor of the congressman. The Foundation was originally titled "Cult Info", and changed its name in honor of the congressman in 1999. It is based in Bridgeport, Connecticut. The first award was given in 1981.

Notable recipients include Ronald Enroth, Ph.D., John Gordon Clark, M.D., Gabe Cazares, Robert Lifton, M.D., Louis Jolyon West, M.D., journalist Richard Behar, Congressman Ryan's daughter Patricia Ryan, Michael Langone, Ph.D., Flo Conway & Jim Siegelman, and Bob Minton.

Portrayed in film
Congressman Leo Ryan has been portrayed in films about the Jonestown mass murder/suicide, including by actor Gene Barry in the 1979 film Guyana: Crime of the Century, and by Ned Beatty in the 1980 film, Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones.

His assassination was also discussed in the 2006, Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple, and on The History Channel documentaries: Cults: Dangerous Devotion, and Jonestown Paradise Lost.

Electoral history
Source


 * 1978 Race for U.S. House of Representatives (CD 11)
 * Leo J. Ryan (D), 60.5%
 * Dave Welch (R), 35.6%
 * Nicholas W. Kudrovzeff (American Independent) 3.9%


 * 1976 Race for U.S. House of Representatives (CD 11)
 * Leo J. Ryan (D), 61.1%
 * Bob Jones (R), 35.4%
 * Nicholas W. Kudrovzeff (American Independent) 3.5%


 * 1974 Race for U.S. House of Representatives (CD 11)
 * Leo J. Ryan (D), 75.8%
 * Brainard G. "Bee" Merdinger (R), 21.3%
 * Nicholas W. Kudrovzeff (American Independent) 2.9%


 * 1972 Race for U.S. House of Representatives (CD 11)
 * Leo J. Ryan (D), 60.4%
 * Charles E. Chase (R), 37%
 * Nicholas W. Kudrovzeff (American Independent) 2.6%


 * 1970 Race for California State Assembly (AD 27)
 * Leo J. Ryan (D), 73.2%
 * John R. Sherman (R), 23.1%
 * John Lynch (American Independent) 3.8%


 * 1968 Race for California State Assembly (AD 27)
 * Leo J. Ryan (D), 99.8%
 * Will Slocum (I), 0.2%


 * 1966 Race for California State Assembly (AD 27)
 * Leo J. Ryan (D), 56.9%
 * Robert N. Miller (R), 43.1%


 * 1964 Race for California State Assembly (AD 27)
 * Leo J. Ryan (D), 69%
 * Andrew C. Byrd (R), 31%


 * 1962 Race for California State Assembly (AD 27)
 * Leo J. Ryan (D), 63.5%
 * Andrew C. Byrd (R), 36.5%


 * 1958 Race for California State Assembly (AD 25)
 * Louis Francis (R), 50.6%
 * Leo J. Ryan (D), 49.4%

Published works

 * Books
 * USA/From Where We Stand: Readings in Contemporary American Problems, Paperback book, Fearon Publishers, (1970)
 * Understanding California Government and Politics, 152 pages, Fearon Publishers, (1966)
 * House of Representatives material
 * NATO, pressures from the southern tier: Report of a study mission to Europe, August 5-27, 1975, pursuant to H. Res. 315, 22 pages, Published by United States Government Print Office, (1975)
 * Vietnam and Korea: Human rights and U.S. assistance : a study mission report of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives, 15 pages, Published by United States Government Print Office, (1975)
 * The United States oil shortage and the Arab-Israeli conflict;: Report of a study mission to the Middle East from October 22 to November 3, 1973, 76 pages, Published by United States Government Print Office, (1973)