Joseph Blatchford another reason to be discouraged." In 1977 Blatchford founded his private law practice, Summit Communications, in the field of international trade. Blatchford has represented "flower growers in Costa Rica, cement and toy balloon producers in Mexico, leather handbag exporters in Colombia, school ring binder makers in Singapore, and petrochemicals firms in Argentina." Blatchford is also the co-founder of Caribbean/Latin American Action, a business advocacy group. In 1978 Blatchford represented 13 defectors from Reverend Jim Jones' cult who were with Congressman Leo Ryan when he was killed at the airstrip near Jonestown in Guyana. In 1989 Blatchford was the principal lawyer
Abram Joseph Ryan Abram Joseph Ryan He was born Matthew Abraham Ryan in Hagerstown, Maryland on February 5, 1838, the fourth child of Irish immigrants Matthew Ryan and his wife, Mary Coughlin, both of Clogheen, County Tipperary, and their first to be born in the United States. The family had initially settled in Norfolk, Virginia, after their arrival in America sometime prior to 1835, but soon moved to Maryland, where the father obtained work as the overseer of a plantation, and named his newborn son after its owner. In 1840 the family relocated to Ralls County, Missouri, and then, in 1846, to St.