CONGRESSMAN LEO RYAN
Leo Ryan (May 5, 1925 – November 18, 1978) 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 in 1978. 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 (CIA), and authored the Hughes–Ryan Amendment, passed in 1974. Ryan was shot to death in Guyana by members of the Peoples Temple in November 1978, just hours prior to the Jonestown mass suicide and 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. (More from Wikipedia)
The name of the fairly prominent neo-psychedelic outfit called the Brian Jonestown Massacre is a portmanteau of Brian Jones, a founding member of the Rolling Stones with Jonestown Massacre, the notorious mass suicide of the flock of Rev. Jim Jones in their compound in Guyana after assassinating Congressman Leo Ryan – the phrase “drinking the Kool-Aid” arose from what happened there.
(June 2014)
