He also presided over the federal criminal prosecution of Larry Layton, a former member of the People's Temple cult, who was convicted of aiding and abetting in the murder of United States Representative Leo J. Ryan at a jungle airstrip in Guyana in November 1978. Hours after Mr. Ryan and four others were shot to death at an airstrip near Jonestown, which was the headquarters of the cult, the cult's leader, the Jim Jones, and 912 of his followers died by poison and gunfire in mass killings and suicides. Peckham sentenced Layton to life in prison, as well as to three concurrent terms of 15 years each in related charges.
