Charles R. Garry (March 17, 1909 – August 16, 1991) was an Armenian-American civil rights attorney who represented a number of high-profile clients in political cases during the 1960s and 1970s, including

Huey P. Newton Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989) was an African-American revolutionary, notable as founder of the Black Panther Party. Newton crafted the Party's ten-point manifesto with Bobby Seale in 1966. Under Newton's leadership ...

during his 1968

capital murder Capital murder was a statutory offence of aggravated murder in Great Britain, and Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland, which was later adopted as a legal provision to define certain forms of aggravated murder in the United States. In so ...

trial and the Peoples Temple during the 1978

Jonestown The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, better known by its informal name "Jonestown", was a remote settlement in Guyana established by the Peoples Temple, a U.S.–based cult under the leadership of Jim Jones. Jonestown became internationall ...

tragedy.

Early life

Born in

Bridgewater, Massachusetts Bridgewater is a town located in Plymouth County, in the state of Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the town's population was 28,633. Bridgewater is located approximately south of Boston and approximately 35 miles east ...

, to

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian Diaspora, Armenian communities across the ...

immigrant parents who had escaped the Hamidian massacres in the Ottoman Empire, Garry grew up in a farm town in California's Central Valley. The family name was originally Garabedian.Reiterman, Tim, and John Jacobs. '' Raven: The Untold Story of Rev. Jim Jones and His People''. Dutton, 1982. . p. 373. He worked his way through law school at night at a cleaning shop and was a Great Depression-era socialist who began his legal career defending militant trade unions.Waggoner, Diana (December 11, 1978)
"Attorney Charles Garry Is Still a Believer—If Not in Jim Jones, Then in His 'Utopia'"
''

People A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of propert ...

'', Vol. 10, No. 24. Like many in his generation, Garry earned his law degree without attending college, and suffered difficulty with spelling and syntax. An avowed Marxist lawyer, Garry earned a reputation of fighting for underdogs. He insisted on a full truthful disclosure from those he represented, and had a sign on his desk that read "the only clients of mine who go to

San Quentin San Quentin State Prison (SQ) is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County. Opened in July 1852, San Quentin is th ...

are the ones who lie to me." In 1948, Garry was brought before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Garry declared that he was both a Christian and a Communist and, in response to queries regarding the denial of God by Communists, Garry responded by saying, "Mr. Chairman, what the Communists do for their God is their own business. What I do for my God is my own, and none of yours!"Turpin, Andy
"Fade to Black Lion: The Peoples Advocate: The Life and Times of Charles R. Garry"
''

Armenian Weekly ''Armenian Weekly'' (originally ''Hairenik Weekly'') is an English Armenian publication published by Hairenik Association, Inc. in Watertown, Massachusetts in the United States. It is the sister publication to the Armenian language weekly ''Ha ...

'', Volume 73, No. 33, August 18, 2007 In the 1950s, Garry represented other alleged Communists before the HUAC and refused to answer questions himself stating, "I told them to kiss my ass."

Black Panthers and Oakland Seven

Ink Drawing and watercolor painting of scenes depicting Charles R

In 1968, he was retained by the

Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Califo ...

as their chief counsel, and to defend

in the 1967 slaying of Oakland police officer John Frey. Newton was convicted on the lesser charge of manslaughter."The Panthers' Honky Lawyer"
'' Time''. January 12, 1970. Subsequently, he defended Black Panther Chairman

Bobby Seale Robert George Seale (born October 22, 1936) is an American political activist and author. Seale is widely known for co-founding the Black Panther Party with fellow activist Huey P. Newton. Founded as the "Black Panther Party for Self-Defense", ...

. Garry was famous for flair and courtroom dramatics, and one policeman, under intense questioning, jumped from the witness stand and pulled his gun on Garry. In 1969, he defended the "Oakland Seven", a group of San Francisco Bay Area anti-Vietnam War activists who were involved in the planning of the 1967 Stop the Draft Week. After the turbulent era of the 1960s came to an end and with the demise of the anti-war and Black Power movements, Garry took on a new set of clients.

Peoples Temple

In 1977, amidst media scrutiny and potential litigation, Garry began representing the controversial Peoples Temple, led by

Jim Jones James Warren Jones (May 13, 1931 – November 18, 1978) was an American preacher, political activist and mass murderer. He led the Peoples Temple, a new religious movement, between 1955 and 1978. In what he called "revolutionary suicide", ...

, in a number of suits, including several by and against Timothy Stoen.Moore, Rebecca. ''A Sympathetic History of Jonestown''. Lewiston: E. Mellen Press. . p. 259 & 268. Garry's political philosophy meshed at least to some degree with that of the Temple, a socialist organization, and many felt that Garry's representation added credibility to the Temple as a political organization. Garry believed that the Temple had managed to establish in

what Garry himself referred to as "paradise".Yedalian, Hrag
''Documentary on Temple Attorney Charles Garry Completed''
The Jonestown Report, Volume 8, November 2006 Garry believed that the Temple picked up where the movement of the 1960s left off, and that Jonestown was like "socialized society". After listening to Temple members discuss the history of the case, Garry initially announced on September 8, 1977, that " 've come to the conclusion that there is a conspiracy by government agencies to destroy Peoples Temple as a viable community organization." After further experience with the Temple, including reviewing the results of several

Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act 1982, the Australian act * ...

requests, Garry eventually changed his conclusion to the belief that there was little government interest, let alone a conspiracy. Throughout his representation, Garry argued with members of the Temple.Reiterman, Tim, and John Jacobs. '' Raven: The Untold Story of Rev. Jim Jones and His People''. Dutton, 1982. . p. 374-5. Garry had a tumultuous relationship with another Temple attorney, Mark Lane, because Garry felt that Lane repeatedly interfered in Garry's areas of representation and made too high profile the Temple's claims of a conspiracy against it.Reiterman, Tim, and John Jacobs. '' Raven: The Untold Story of Rev. Jim Jones and His People''. Dutton, 1982. . p. 460-1. Garry and Lane accompanied Congressman

Leo Ryan Leo Joseph Ryan Jr. (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 assassinati ...

and his delegation on their investigation of Jonestown in November 1978.Reiterman, Tim, and John Jacobs. '' Raven: The Untold Story of Rev. Jim Jones and His People''. Dutton, 1982. . p. 489. On November 18, 1978, Garry and Lane escaped potential harm at Jonestown by talking their way past Temple security at a house to which they were sent that was located some distance from Jonestown's pavilion.Reiterman, Tim, and John Jacobs. '' Raven: The Untold Story of Rev. Jim Jones and His People''. Dutton, 1982. . p. 541-2. That day, 918 people died in Jonestown and Georgetown, which comprised the greatest single loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the incidents of

September 11, 2001 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

.Knapp, Don
"Jonestown massacre + 20: Questions linger."
CNN. November 18, 1998. Accessed on April 9, 2007. In addition, five people were murdered by Temple members at a nearby airstrip, including Congressman Ryan, who became the only congressman murdered in the line of duty in United States history.

Later life

Garry continued to practice law after the Jonestown incident, his clientele changed and his chance for further national acclaim had passed. His post-Jonestown press conferences of November/December 1978 served as his final public acts. Garry served as president of California Attorneys for Criminal Justice in 1979. Garry died of a stroke in August 1991, at the age of 82 in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emery ...

Notes

External links

''The People's Advocate: The Life & Times of Charles R. Garry''
a 2007 documentary by filmmaker Hrag Yedalian.
''Charles Garry: Streetfighter in the Courtroom''
Documentary on Charles Garry's life (YouTube video) {{DEFAULTSORT:Garry, Charles 1909 births 1991 deaths American civil rights lawyers American people of Armenian descent California lawyers Christian communists Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War People from Bridgewater, Massachusetts Peoples Temple 20th-century American lawyers Ethnic Armenian lawyers San Francisco Law School alumni