Leo Ryan Quotes

Leo Joseph Ryan Jr. was an American teacher and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the U.S. Representative from California's 11th congressional district from 1973 until his assassination as part of the Jonestown massacre in 1978.

After the Watts Riots of 1965, Assemblyman Ryan took a job as a substitute school teacher to investigate and document conditions in the area. In 1970, he decided to investigate the conditions of California prisons. While presiding as chairman of the Assembly committee that oversaw prison reform, he used a pseudonym to enter Folsom Prison as an inmate. During his time in Congress, Ryan traveled to Newfoundland to investigate the practice of seal hunting. He was also famous for vocal criticism of the lack of Congressional oversight of the Central Intelligence Agency , and authored the Hughes–Ryan Amendment, passed in 1974.

Ryan was shot and killed at an airstrip in Guyana in November 1978 while his party was attempting to escape a dangerous situation. He had traveled to Guyana to investigate claims that people were being held against their will at the Peoples Temple Jonestown settlement. Ryan was killed the same day of the mass suicide, which occurred just 11 days after he was re-elected for a fourth term. He was the second sitting member of the U.S. House of Representatives to have been assassinated in office, the first being James M. Hinds in 1868. He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal posthumously in 1983.

✵ 5. May 1925 – 18. November 1978
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