1. Charles R Garry was an American civil rights attorney who represented a number of high-profile clients in political cases during the 1960s and 1970s, including Huey P Newton during his 1968 capital murder trial and the Peoples Temple during the 1978 Jonestown tragedy.
Charles Garry 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.
An avowed Marxist lawyer, Charles Garry earned a reputation of fighting for underdogs.
In 1948, Charles Garry was brought before the House Un-American Activities Committee.
Charles Garry was famous for flair and courtroom dramatics, and one policeman, under intense questioning, jumped from the witness stand and pulled his gun on Charles Garry.
In 1977, amidst media scrutiny and potential litigation, Charles Garry began representing the controversial Peoples Temple, led by Jim Jones, in a number of suits, including several by and against Timothy Stoen.
Charles Garry believed that the Temple had managed to establish in Jonestown what Charles Garry himself referred to as "paradise".
Charles Garry believed that the Temple picked up where the movement of the 1960s left off, and that Jonestown was like "socialized society".
Charles Garry served as president of California Attorneys for Criminal Justice in 1979.
Charles Garry died of a stroke in August 1991, at the age of 82 in Berkeley, California.