Carolyn Moore Layton

Carolyn Louise Moore Layton (née Moore; July 13, 1945 – November 18, 1978) was a leadership figure within Peoples Temple, including for financial issues, and a long-term partner of Temple leader Jim Jones.

Along with other inner circle members, she assisted in the planning of the mass murder that took place in Jonestown, Guyana on November 18, 1978 and died that day. Her son with Jones, Jim Jon "Kimo" Prokes, also died then.

Early life

Carolyn Louise Moore was born in Sacramento on July 13, 1945. Her mother, Barbara Ann Covington (1922–2004) was a homemaker and long-term supporter of the peace movement. In 1946, the family moved to Youngstown, Ohio, where John was pastor of Himrod Avenue Baptist Church.

On Christmas Eve of 1947, Barbara was hospitalised due to complications of an ectopic pregnancy. Carolyn was sent to live with her grandparents back in California while her mother recovered. The six-month separation allegedly took a toll on Carolyn; when left alone in her crib, she would cry inconsolably. It was several weeks before her separation-anxiety seemed to be under control. She was concerned with social justice and identified as a Communist. In 1963, she graduated high school in Chico. She worked for the summer as an elevator operator in San Francisco. The following fall, she began her education at UC Davis. The engagement was dissolved, however.

Carolyn returned to Davis, where she shared a house with seven girlfriends. One of these friends introduced Carolyn to Larry Layton, a fellow student and conscientious objector to the Vietnam War.

Over the years, Layton continued to write letters to her family, extolling Jones' virtues and defending the relationship. She also claimed that Jones was the reincarnation of Vladimir Lenin and she of Lenin's mistress, Inessa Armand. Her intimate relationship with Jones was concealed from the Temple's wider membership. But Jones encouraged his children to view Layton as a stepmother of sorts, taking her with them on family outings where the group often enjoyed luxuries that were forbidden to the Temple's rank-and-file. A 1974 affidavit by Marceline Jones requested that all her mothering responsibilities be taken on by Layton in the event of her death.

In 1972, Carolyn's youngest sister, Annie, visited the Temple and was convinced to stay.

In mid-1977, the publication of a critical article in New West magazine prompted Jones to permanently relocate to what became known as the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project in Guyana. Over the following two months, more than one thousand of his followers joined him there, including Carolyn and their son.

Jonestown

Layton and Jones began to live together more openly in Jonestown, sharing a cabin. Her sister Annie and another lover and aide of Jones', Maria Katsaris, also shared their quarters. Also living there were Layton's son Kimo and John Victor Stoen. Jones claimed to have fathered Stoen with Grace, a former Temple member.

Layton divided her time between Jonestown and the Temple's headquarters in Georgetown, Guyana, where she often worked as a shortwave radio operator. She also taught in Jonestown's high school, which the community founded.. Together with Harriet Tropp and Johnny Brown Jones, Layton was one of Jonestown's "Administrative Triumvirate". They supervised the activities of eight department heads.

Along with members of Jonestown's medical staff, Layton was aware of Jones' abuse of pharmaceuticals. In 1978, she was observed shooting him up with a substance he claimed was Vitamin B-12.

Layton is believed to have been the author of a memo entitled 'An Analysis of Future Prospects', estimated to have been written in the weeks preceding November 18, 1978. The memo discusses several options for the people of Jonestown in the face of mounting pressures on the community, including (but not limited to) a "final stand" involving the deaths of the entire population.

Pathologists determined that Layton died of cyanide poisoning in Jones' cabin on November 18. Her body was one of only seven of the 909 fatalities in Jonestown to be autopsied.

In media The A&E documentary, Jonestown: The Women Behind the Massacre (2018), focused on four women who were close to Jim Jones, including Carolyn Moore Layton.

Australian author Laura Elizabeth Woollett's novel Beautiful Revolutionary is based largely on the life of Layton. Woollett fictionalises the protagonist as 'Evelyn Lynden'.

Episode 14 of Criminal Broads, a podcast about women on the wrong side of the law, closely covers Layton's story.