Lawyer tells of plot to kill U.S. top men

Press, 30 November 1978, Page 8

Lawyer tells of plot to kill U.S. top men

International'

NZPA-Reuter Memphis, Tennessee The American authorlawyer, Mr Mark Lane, has claimed there ' is a master plan to murder senior United States Government officials, defectors from the People’s Temple religious cult, and columnists who have written critically of the sect. Mr Lane told the A.B.C. Television network that he had learned of the plan from a woman identified only as the second-in-com-mand to the late sect leader, the Rev. Jini Jones. . He said the plan was

financed with SUS3M in cash and SUSBM being held in Swiss bank accounts. He said he knew the account numbers. Mr Lane said Federal Bureau of Investigation and secret service agents knew about the plan, adding that the Secret Service was concerned that it might be put into effect next month during the Democratic Party’s miniconvention in Memphis. President Carter, VicePresident Mondale, and other Administration officials are expected to participate in the convention.

Mr Lane also told the police he believed he might be in danger because of his connection with the People’s Temple sect in Jonestown, Guyana. Mr Lane, who was the Rev. Jones’s attorney and who fled Jonestown as more than 900 of Jones’s followers prepared to drink cyanide-laced fruit drink, said he had found four packages of artificial fruit juice in a plastic bag at his doorstep early on Saturday morning. However, he had not reported the incident to the police until Monday night.