textfiles/occult/ryan.txt

   1 11-15-88 12:43 aps xxx of dignity.

   Patricia  Ryan,  who  serves on the board of the national Cult
Awareness Network, maintains to this  day  that  her  Congressman
father,  who  was  slain  at the Port Kaituma airstrip outside of
Jonestown, should never have been allowed to  go  to  the  jungle
commune  by  the  State  Department,  which  had  evidence of the
dangerous and unstable situation there.

   "There's never been a Congressional investigation  about  it,"
said  Ryan, who works in Washington, D.C. "There's just no excuse
for the government's lack of action.  They should have  been  the
ones going in instead of my father, if they were doing their job.

   Killed   along   with   Ryan  by  temple  members  armed  with
semi-automatic rifles in the airstrip ambush were  San  Francisco
Examiner  photographer  Greg Robinson, NBC newsmen Don Harris and
Bob Brown and temple defector Patricia Parks.  Eleven others were
wounded,  including  Speier,  diplomat  Richard  Dwyer,  Examiner
reporter Tim Reiterman.

   The airstrip shootings were triggered by Jones after more than
a  dozen  followers asked to leave Jonestown with the Ryan party,
defections that threw the cult leader into despair.  One  of  the
"defectors"  was  Larry  Layton,  the only temple member to stand
trial  in  the  United  States   and   who   was   convicted   of
murder-conspiracy for his role in the airport shootings.

   Patricia  Ryan  said  she's  been  dismayed  to  see  how  the
government, many officials  of  whom  were  supportive  of  Jones
because  of  his  political  clout, quickly tried to sweep Guyana
under the rug.

   "There was never an  investigation  to  see  how  many  temple
members  were shot, how many drank the cyanide juice and how many
were injected.  They were allowed to die without anyone examining
what happened.  They were written off."

   Ryan said  the  lessons  of  Jonestown  should  be  remembered
because there are a growing number of cults today using deception
and   mind   control  to  attract  and  entrap  unsuspecting  and
vulnerable people.

   "There's no reason to talk about the past unless we can  learn
from it.    There are a lot of parallels to the Peoples Temple in
society today.   A  lot  of  groups  should  be  looked  at  more
critically by law enforcement agencies, particularly for abuse of
children.  There were 300 kids at Jonestown and people looked the
other way rather than attack freedom of religion.

   "People  must  distinguish  between  freedom  of  religion and
freedom from the law."

   Ryan and Steven Hassan, an expert  on  "exit  counselling"  or
helping  people  break away from cults, both warn that dangerous,
manipulative groups are on the increase instead of waning.  Among
organizations they accuse of being destructive cults,  the  three
main ones are the Unification Church of Rev.  Sun Myung Moon; The
Church of Scientology; and Rajneesh.

   Hassan,  who  has developed his own formula for helping people
escape cults, said the 10th anniversary  of  the  Peoples  Temple
deaths should help focus attention on the fact that mind control,
hypnotism  and  even  ritualistic killings are being practiced in
groups today.

   "Most cults operate in the context of  the  greater  society,"
said  Hassan.  "When  Jones moved to Guyana, he moved out of that
social context and  the  members  were  isolated  and  completely
helpless."

   The  main  cult characteristics _ control of behavior, control
of thoughts, control of emotions and  control  of  information  _
were  all  present  "in the extreme" at Jonestown, said Hassan, a
former  Unification   Church   "Moonie"   and   author   of   the
recently-published book, "Combatting Cult Mind Control."

   After  the  Jonestown  incident,  said  Hassan,  the world for
awhile focused on the impact of destructive  cults,  an  interest
which quickly dissipated.

   "Today,  thousands  of  exploitive  and manipulative cults are
burgeoning,  robbing  millions  of  people  of   their   personal
idetities,  their families, their life savings, even the capacity
to think for themselves."

   There are still  some,  however,  who  recall  joining  Jones'
church  for good purposes and who maintain that many of those who
died were simply followers of a philosophy they believed in.

   Kathy Tropp, a former Peoples Temple member  who  was  in  San
Francisco  when  the Jonestown tragedy occurred, said many people
who joined were good, God-loving people who saw the church  doing
good deeds.

   "Obviously Jones went mad, I don't take issue with that," said
Tropp, who had previously refused to give interviews. "But, there
was a lot of good work going on.  We were a large group of people
involved with  each  other.  We used kills that could benefit the
community.  It was idealistic and seemed very, very good.

   "If you get people together, there's a lot  of  energy  that's
good and positive and decent."

   Tropp said Jones. who was born in Lynn, Ind., and came west to
settle  in  Ukiah,  Calif.,  with 100 followers from Indianapolis
before moving to San Francisco, presented an approach to  solving
social  problems  that wasn't extreme. "It was a sane philosophy,
and very middle class.  I would defend it."

   Charles Garry, the San Francisco attorney for  Peoples  Temple
who  was  in  Jonestown  the night of the tragedy and who escaped
through the jungle, said he hasn't spoken to  any  former  temple
members  in several years and wouldn't attend any of the memorial
services.

   "I just want to put it behind me," he said.

   Jones' only natural son, Stephen Jones, lives in San Francisco
but refused to be interviewed for the anniversary.  However,  the
younger  Jones, who was in Georgetown, Guyana on the fatal night,
has said he hated his father and even plotted to kill him.

   Ironically, echoing the words of those who are warning against
the rise in cults, Jones himself had a saying elevated above  his
green  wooden  chair  in  Jonestown which read, "Those who do not
remember the past are condemned to repeat it."