Leo Ryan

About

Former California representative who is the first U.S. Member of Congress to be killed in the line of duty.

Before Fame

In 1970,while presiding as chairman of the Assembly committee that oversaw prison reform, he investigated the conditions of California prisons by being held as an inmate in Folsom Prison.

Trivia

He was assassinated in Guyana by members of the Peoples Temple shortly before the Jonestown Massacre, in which over 900 Temple members killed themselves, in 1978.

Family Life

He has five children. He was sent to investigate the People's Temple, led by cult leader Jim Jones, in Guyana. He was assassinated by cult members in 1978.

Associated With

He was posthumously awarded a Congressional Gold Medal by the United States Congress and signed by President Ronald Reagan.