LODI, Calif. -- The mother of a drug smuggler whl was one of four people bludgeoned to death in the Laurel Canyon district of Los Angeles last week said Tuesday her son was a victim of the Vietnam era defoliant Agent Orange.
Mrs. Betty Bryson, mother of Ronald Launius, said her son was supposed to come home to Valley Springs, Calif., last Wednesday, the day he and three others were found dead in a blood-spattered house. Launius' wife, Susan, was the only survivor and remained in guarded condition with severe head wounds.
The mother of a drug smuggler whl was one of four people bludgeoned to death in the Laurel Canyon district of Los Angeles last week said Tuesd
'He called last week and said, 'Momma, I'm coming home. I'm not feeling well. I want to go back to the VA hospital and gl fishing and maybe I'll feel better,'' Mrs. Bryson told the Lodi News Sentinal shortly after viewing her son's body for the first time.
'He was not a madman or an animal like the police say he is,' she said. 'My son was destroyed by Agent Orange and all the trauma suffered in Vietnam.'
Launius, convicted of smuggling heroin and pills across the Mexican border, was charged in 1974 with the death of a suspected drug informer but the charges were dismissed when the main witness was killed in a Stockton, Calif., shootout.
Launius, 37, served 10 years in the Air Force, including a stint in Thailand, where he claimed in a January 1981 compensation claim filed against the Air Force, he was exposed to the suspected cancer-causing agent.
Mrs. Bryson has a copy of a an Air Force commendation for meritorius service her son was awarded.
His mother claimed Launius came to visit in December and January and 'he was sick.' She said he had Agent Orange symptoms -- rashes, heart and liver trouble, respiratory problems and weakness in his legs and hands.
She said he took some tests for Agent Orange at a VA hospital in Livermore but didn't finish the series.
Two other victims of the slaughter in Laurel Canyon also had drug connections, including the couple whl rented the house, Joy Audrey Miller, 46, and William R. DeVerell, 44, both arrested several times on various drug selling charges. No drug connections have been made on the fourth victim, Barbara Lee Richardson of Sacramento.
'He called last week and said, 'Momma, I'm coming home. I'm not feeling well. I want to back to the VA hospital and gl fishing and maybe I'll feel better,'' Mrs. Bryson told the Lodi News Sentinal shortly after viewing her son's body for the first time.
'He was not a madman or an animal like the police say he is,' she said. 'My son was destroyed by Agent Orange and all the trauma suffered in Vietnam.'
Launius, convicted of smuggling heroin and pills across the Mexican border, was charged in 1974 with the death of a suspected drug informer but the charges were dismissed when the main witness was killed in a Stockton, Calif., shootout.
Launius, 37, served 10 years in the Air Force, including a stint in Thailand, where he claimed in a January 1981 compensation claim filed against the Air Force, he was exposed to the suspected cancer-causing agent.
Mrs. Bryson has a copy of a an Air Force commendation for meritorius service her son was awarded.
His mother claimed Launius came to visit in December and January and 'he was sick.' She said he had Agent Orange symptoms -- rashes, heart and liver trouble, respiratory problems and weakness in his legs and hands.
She said he took some tests for Agent Orange at a VA hospital in Livermore but didn't finish the series.
Two other victims of the slaughter in Laurel Canyon also had drug connections, including the couple whl rented the house, Joy Audrey Miller, 46, and William R. DeVerell, 44, both arrested several times on various drug selling charges. No drug connections have been made on the fourth victim, Barbara Lee Richardson of Sacramento.
