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Leo Ryan

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Leo Ryan

Leo Joseph Ryan Jr. (May 5, 1925 – November 18, 1978) was an American politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented California's 11th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1973 until his assassination in the Jonestown massacre in 1978. Before that, he served in the California State Assembly, representing the state's 27th district. After the 1965 Watts riots, Ryan took a job as a substitute school teacher to investigate and document conditions in the Los Angeles area. In 1970, he launched an investigation into California prisons. While presiding as chairman of the Assembly committee that oversaw prison reform, he used a pseudonym to enter Folsom State Prison as an inmate. During his time in Congress, Ryan traveled to Newfoundland to investigate the practice of seal hunting. He was also known for his vocal criticism of the lack of congressional oversight of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and co-authored the Hughes–Ryan Amendment, passed in 1974, which requires the president of the United States to report covert CIA activity to Congress. In 1978, Ryan traveled to Guyana to investigate claims that people were being held against their will at the Peoples Temple Jonestown settlement. He was shot and killed at an airstrip on November 18, as he and his party were attempting to leave. Shortly after the airstrip shootings, 909 members of the Jonestown settlement died in a mass murder–suicide by drinking cyanide-laced Flavor Aid. Ryan was the second sitting member of the U.S. House of Representatives to be assassinated in office, after James M. Hinds in 1868. Ryan was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1983.

Infobox

Preceded by
Glenn E. Coolidge
Succeeded by
Lou Papan
Born
Leo Joseph Ryan Jr.(1925-05-05)May 5, 1925Lincoln, Nebraska, U.S.
Died
November 18, 1978(1978-11-18) (aged 53)Port Kaituma, Guyana
Manner of death
Assassination (gunshot wounds)
Resting place
Golden Gate National Cemetery
Political party
Democratic
Spouses
mw- Margaret Ryan (m. 1948; div. 1971) Florence Mehaffy (m. 1976; div. 1977)
Children
5
Education
Creighton University (BA, MS)
Awards
Congressional Gold Medal (posthumous)
Allegiance
United States
Branch
United States Navy
Service years
1943–1946
Conflict
World War II
Party
Democratic

Tables

· External links
Preceded byGlenn E. Coolidge
Preceded byGlenn E. Coolidge
California Assembly
Preceded byGlenn E. Coolidge
California Assembly
Member of the California Assemblyfrom the 27th district 1963–1973
California Assembly
Succeeded byLou Papan
California Assembly
Preceded byGlenn E. Coolidge
Member of the California Assemblyfrom the 27th district 1963–1973
Succeeded byLou Papan
House of Representatives
Preceded byPete McCloskey
Member of the U.S. House of Representativesfrom California's 11th congressional district 1973–1978
Succeeded byWilliam Royer

References

  1. Other members of the House of Representatives have been killed while in office, although not as assassination attempts;
  2. Slate.com
    http://www.slate.com/blogs/crime/2013/11/18/leo_ryan_jonestown_the_forgotten_non_kool_aid_drinking_victims_of_the_jonestown.html
  3. history.house.gov
    https://history.house.gov/Institution/Gold-Medal/Gold-Medal-Recipients/
  4. United States Congress
    http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=R000558
  5. Campion Jesuit High School
    http://www.campion-knights.org/
  6. Campion Jesuit High School
    http://www.campionforever.org/
  7. Campion Jesuit High School
    https://web.archive.org/web/20060215201631/http://campion-knights.org/notables.html
  8. Famous Assassinations in World History: An Encyclopedia [2 volumes]
    https://books.google.com/books?id=F4-dAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA491
  9. San Francisco Chronicle
    https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/A-Trip-Into-The-Heart-Of-Darkness-Always-larger-2978386.php
  10. JoinCalifornia.com
    http://www.joincalifornia.com/candidate/603
  11. The Politics of Punishment: A Critical Analysis of Prisons in America
    https://archive.org/details/politicspunishme00wrig
  12. San Francisco Chronicle
  13. Political Campaign Craftsmanship: A Professional's Guide to Campaigning for Public Office
  14. Teacher Education Policy: narratives, stories, and cases
    https://archive.org/details/teachereducation0000unse_v8a4/page/49
  15. Animal Rights, Human Rights: Ecology, Economy and Ideology in the Canadian Arctic
  16. Warriors of the Rainbow: A Chronicle of the Greenpeace Movement
  17. Challenging the Secret Government: The Post-Watergate Investigations of the CIA and FBI
  18. SAIS Review
  19. The Politics of National Security: Congress and U.S. Defense Policy
  20. Secret and Sanctioned: covert operations and the American presidency
  21. Executive Privilege: The Dilemma of Secrecy and Democratic Accountability
    https://archive.org/details/executiveprivile0000roze/page/52
  22. Every Secret Thing
  23. Reiterman & Jacobs 1982, pp. 299–300, 457
  24. Gone from the Promised Land: Jonestown in American Cultural History
  25. Reiterman & Jacobs 1982, p. 458
  26. Stepping Over: personal encounters with young extremists
    https://archive.org/details/steppingoverpers00mcco/page/67
  27. Cults and New Religious Movements: A Reader
    https://archive.org/details/cultsnewreligiou0000unse/page/186
  28. Rebecca Moore, American as Cherry Pie, 2000, Jonestown Institute, San Diego State University
    http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=16581
  29. Salvation and Suicide: Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple, and Jonestown
  30. Standing Firm: A Vice-Presidential Memoir
  31. San Francisco Chronicle
  32. Congressional Foreign Affairs Committee report on Ryan's assassination
  33. Reiterman & Jacobs 1982, p. 481
  34. Reiterman & Jacobs 1982, p. 482
  35. Reiterman & Jacobs 1982, pp. 482–84
  36. Reiterman & Jacobs 1982, p. 484
  37. Crime: Computer Viruses to Twin Towers
  38. Cults in Our Midst: The Hidden Menace in Our Everyday Lives
  39. Deadly Cults: The Crimes of True Believers
    https://archive.org/details/deadlycultscrime00snow/page/36
  40. The Washington Post
  41. Reiterman & Jacobs 1982, p. 520
  42. The Nation
  43. Boston Globe
  44. Sacramento Bee
  45. Legal Responses to International Terrorism: U.S. procedural aspects
  46. United States of America v. Laurence John Layton
  47. "The Campaign to Release Larry Layton from Federal Prison – Alternative Considerations of Jonestown & Peoples Temple"
    https://jonestown.sdsu.edu/?page_id=32946
  48. Leo J. Ryan – Memorial Services – Held In The House Of Representatives & Senate Of The U.S., Together With Remarks
  49. Asbury Park Press
  50. "Statement on Signing the Bill Authorizing a Congressional Gold Medal Honoring the Late Representative Leo J. Ryan"
    http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=40789
  51. The Washington Post
  52. The Miami Herald
  53. The Washington Post, November 30, 1984, v107 pC4 col 5 (10 col in), "Leo Ryan honored. (with Medal of Honor)" Jacqueline
  54. SFGATE
    https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Voters-send-Jackie-Speier-to-Washington-3288063.php
  55. The Washington Post
  56. The Washington Post
  57. The Chronicle-Telegram, Elyria, Ohio
  58. Oakland Tribune
  59. A Guide to Deep Thinking in a Shallow Age
  60. San Francisco Chronicle
    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2003/11/18/ryan18.DTL
  61. San Jose Mercury News
  62. "H.R. 6982: To designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 210 South ..."
    https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-6982
  63. "President Bush Signs H.R. 3511, H.R. 4010, H.R. 4131, H.R. 6558, H.R. 6681, H.R. 6834, H.R. 6847, H.R. 6902, and H.R. 6982 Into Law"
    https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2008/10/20081021-7.html
  64. "Leo J. Ryan Post Office Dedication"
    http://www.house.gov/htbin/blog_inc?BLOG,ca12_speier,blog,999,All,Item%20not%20found,ID=081117_2533,TEMPLATE=postingdetail.shtml
  65. Guyana: Crime of the Century
  66. Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones
  67. Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
  68. Decoding the Past: Cults: Dangerous Devotion: Scholars and survivors discuss the mystery of cults
  69. Jonestown Paradise Lost: Congressman Leo Ryan's fatal journey into "Jonestown," a community carved out of the jungles of Guyana by followers of pastor Jim Jones
  70. Witness to Jonestown
  71. National Geographic Australia
    https://web.archive.org/web/20130306054611/http://natgeotv.com.au/tv/seconds-from-disaster/episodes.aspx?series=6
  72. people.com
    https://people.com/crime/jonestown-massacre-audio-recordings-murder-made-famous/
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