Cult Insanity
Page 1
Copyright
Author’s note: Some individuals’ names have been changed to protect their identity.
Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are taken from the official scriptures of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The quotations from Brigham Young and others regarding blood atonement were retrieved from http://www.realmormonhistory.com/blood_atonement1.htm and http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/changech20.htm.
Copyright © 2009 by Irene Spencer
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Center Street
Hachette Book Group
237 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10017
Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com
www.twitter.com/centerstreet
Center Street is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
The Center Street name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.
First eBook Edition: August 2009
ISBN: 978-1-599-95213-0
Contents
COPYRIGHT
PREFACE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
CHAPTER FORTY
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
EPILOGUE
WORKS CITED
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I honor my son Steven R. LeBaron for the courage he displayed in the Los Molinos raid.
To my children, Donna, Andre, Steven, Brent, Kaylen, Barbara, Margaret, Connie, LaSalle, Verlana, Seth, and Lothair, who are my best friends, and make me proud.
Rich Hall Photography, February 2009
My heart goes out to all of my family and those unfortunate souls who were blood atoned. Their shed blood will continue to seep through the pages of history.
PREFACE
Cult Insanity refers to all religious extremist, authoritarian dogmas, practices, and crimes that control, exploit, and disempower individuals, robbing them of their god-given agency, freedom, and potential. These mind-control tactics are instituted and played out within diverse religions and religious cultures. I have personally witnessed these things in Mormon fundamentalism. The shocking degree of mind control and disrespect for human dignity is real, as are its destructive effects upon the human spirit.
Dehumanizing behaviors typical in cults are defended in the name of “religion” or “religious freedom.” Yet they indicate mental illness—the real issue at the core of cult dynamics. We should question abusive behaviors, because they invariably indicate a warped personality. The destructive nature of religious fundamentalism arises from pathology and mental illness acted out upon others while asserted as “divine revelation” or “divine authority.”
Countless reports about the LeBaron fundamentalist cult have appeared in print since the Church of the Firstborn was founded in 1955. In my files, hundreds of news articles, spanning decades, detail such stories.
One excellent book about the LeBaron story is Prophet of Blood: The Untold Story of Ervil LeBaron and the Lambs of God, by Dale VanAtta and Ben Bradlee, who interviewed me about my experiences and quoted me in sixteen places. I was a primary source along with dozens of others who lived the story.
Another good, more recent book is The 4 O’Clock Murders: The True Story of a Mormon Family’s Vengeance by Scott Anderson, which used some material from Prophet of Blood reflective of some of my experiences.
Journalistic works such as these two books contain a wealth of research, details, and interviews that go far beyond or may differ from information in my experience. They present a detached, objective, third-person perspective combining numerous points of view.
However, my work is a personal memoir that reflects a first-person, firsthand experience inside the LeBaron group. My perspective is based on my life among the LeBarons from 1953 to 1986 and with the Church of the Firstborn since its inception in 1955. My story is my account rather than a scholarly work. I can’t speak for others or their perspectives. This is just how I saw things.
Descriptions of events, persons, and information in this book are taken predominantly from my life experiences within the LeBaron communities as well as within other fundamentalist Mormon cultures, including the Allred and Short Creek communities. I have had the benefit of many conversations with my Aunt Rhea Kunz, my late husband Verlan M. LeBaron and our family members, and friends Marilyn Lamborn, Fay Falk, as well as members of the Church of the Firstborn, all of whom I lived with or knew intimately for three decades.
Secondary sources I consulted include Verlan’s book, The LeBaron Story, and a few details from Prophet of Blood: The Untold Story of Ervil LeBaron and the Lambs of God by Ben Bradlee and Dale VanAtta, as well as The 4 O’Clock Murders: The True Story of a Mormon Family’s Vengeance by Scott Anderson.
However, ultimately, I am responsible for the material in this book.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My heartfelt thanks to:
God—for His faithful protection for delivering us from Ervil.
Hector Spencer—my husband, for sharing his love with my children and me for the past twenty-one years. Thank you for your constant dedication, encouragement, and the countless hours of research and proofreading. Your extraordinary patience has made this all possible!
Donna Goldberg—my beautiful daughter, who has been my pillar of strength. Your sacrifices, devotion, love, and passion have propelled me into fulfilling my purpose in life. I’m so thankful you were the first of my children to break the generational cycle of Mormon fundamentalism. It’s a joy to see my posterity following in your footsteps.
Thomas J. Winters—the best literary agent an author could possibly hope for.
Debby Boyd—the best executive assistant ever! Thanks for believing in me and being my number-one cheerleader!
Rolf Zettersten—of Hachette Book Group, and the staff, for investing in my dreams. Your faith has empowered me.
Michelle Rapkin—for her enthusiasm, validation, and editing skills.
Maxine Hanks—who validated my voice as a writer. I’ll be forever grateful for your encouragement. You are not only a mentor, but my friend.
Rebecca Kimbel—who had the courage to take a
new path after generations of polygamy. She is not only my sister, but my friend, mentor, and advocate. Thanks for your unconditional love and wisdom.
Brandy Goldberg Biglow—my granddaughter and personal assistant, who does it all! I can’t imagine living without your talent and multitasking skills. I appreciate your confidence in me as an author and speaker. Thanks for making me look good with your bubbly spirit and striking beauty!
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
—BLAISE PASCAL
CHAPTER ONE
Ervil LeBaron, often referred to as “the Mormon Manson” who ordered the deaths of at least twenty-eight family members, friends, and church members—and who had threatened to kill my husband and me—was my brother-in-law. I was married to his brother Verlan LeBaron for twenty-eight years.
I married Verlan without my parents’ permission or knowledge. They had warned me against getting involved with the LeBarons, saying there was “insanity” in that family. As a teenager raised in fundamentalism, however, I was sure God had told me I was to be Verlan’s wife. So I ran away and became the second of ten women who shared Verlan and called him “husband.” During those years, which I have recounted in Shattered Dreams, I mothered fourteen of his fifty-eight children and lived in terrible poverty, raising or scrounging for our own food, wearing clothes the thrift stores couldn’t sell, and doing most of it without electricity or indoor plumbing. Everywhere I go, people ask me how I could have willingly involved myself in a lifestyle that was so difficult, unfulfilling, and abusive. To answer that question, I need to give a bit of a history lesson. And mind you, I heard this lesson repeated over and over from the time I was very young, so I never questioned its validity or worth. I was a fifth-generation plural wife, so I had no real reason to believe the practice was anything other than God’s plan for my life.
There are an estimated fifty to one hundred thousand practicing polygamists today throughout the western United States, Canada, and Mexico. Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, practiced polygamy in the 1830s and 1840s, marrying at least thirty-three wives (some historians say he had more). He officially introduced polygamy in 1843 with a revelation from God, which later became section 132 of the Doctrine and Covenants, a Mormon scripture.
Many of his followers were appalled, including Brigham Young, who stated that upon hearing of the new doctrine, he “desired the grave.”
Believing, however, that Joseph Smith had truly heard from the Lord concerning this principle, Young pushed his inhibitions aside and eventually married at least twenty-seven women. (Some historians claim it was a greater number.)
Brigham Young taught that plural marriage was the better mode of marriage for all concerned. Theoretically it enabled every woman to marry the man of her choice. There’d be no spinsters. There would be no “houses of ill repute.” Every woman could have a respectable husband who would honor her.
In 1875, the U.S. government ramped up its efforts to abolish polygamy. The Latter-day Saints (LDS) Mormon Church properties were confiscated and many leading polygamists were fined and imprisoned.
Wanting their territory of Utah to gain U.S. statehood, the Mormons knew they’d have to abandon polygamy. Therefore, in 1890, the president of the LDS Church, Wilford Woodruff, signed and issued a “manifesto,” which supposedly put an end to the “Principle.” The government returned the confiscated properties to the church but denied statehood to Utah because polygamous marriages were still being performed by Mormons. As early as 1885, a safe haven of eight colonies had been established in Chihuahua and Sonora, Mexico, where the polygamists continued to carry on their religion, and after the 1890 manifesto, a few of the LDS officials secretly sealed many men to plural wives. As proof of this, in 1903, the LDS stake president in Mexico, Anthony W. Ivins, performed my grandparents Byron Harvey Allred and Mary Evelyn Clark’s plural marriage, which was considered legal by the church. A second manifesto had to be issued by the sixth president, Joseph F. Smith, in 1904 to actually stop these marriages in the church. From that time forward, any member who entered into a union with more than one woman would be immediately excommunicated.
So, after that second manifesto of 1904, even two of the LDS’s governing twelve apostles, Mathias Cowley and John W. Taylor, were punished because of polygamy. Most Mormons received the manifesto as the “word of the Lord,” but a small minority rebelled. They still believed plural marriage was their ticket to heaven. They didn’t think God would change the rules just so Utah could become a state! If they did not continue the practice, they feared damnation. So, polygamy went underground, and the polygamists began referring to themselves as “fundamentalists.”
A few devout men determinedly kept plural marriage alive, regardless of the consequences—excommunication from the LDS Church and the possibility of being imprisoned.
In 1929, Lorin Wooley gathered quite a number of polygamists together. He then set up a “Council of Friends,” which designated him as the presiding member. The seven men on the council were Lorin Wooley, J. Leslie Broadbent, John Y. Barlow, Joseph W. Musser, Charles Zitting, LeGrand Wooley, and the young Louis Kelsch.
As a child, I knew this story almost by heart. We had to understand the importance of this council. These men were given the commission to keep plural marriage alive, to help us all live in obedience to God’s command. We memorized their names so we would know who we could contact later when we desired to enter into plural marriage.
Upon Lorin Wooley’s death, J. Leslie Broadbent presided over the small group until he died shortly after his appointment. John Y. Barlow then took his place and promptly filled the two deceased members’ positions by choosing LeRoy Johnson and Marion Hammon.
When I was a child, Louis Kelsch was our neighbor. We were taught to honor and revere him because of his important calling. We all loved him and even called him Uncle Lou. He had seven faithful wives and dozens of children who became my playmates. Four of his sons grew up and married four of my sisters. Uncle Lou was my father’s best friend. Within our community, Uncle Lou was hailed as a prime example, a dedicated stalwart man who would lay down his life for his religion.
Also, Charles Zitting, a practicing polygamist with five wives, was a close neighbor. Children from the Zitting and the Kelsch families attended public school with us.
John Barlow died in 1951 and was succeeded by the elderly Joseph Musser. I’d met him on several occasions with my father. He was exalted as a “true champion of the gospel” and published the cherished Truth magazine, which polygamists looked forward to reading every month. The heads of all polygamist households faithfully read and expounded its teachings to their children.
My sisters and I read his magazine, savoring every word. Musser wrote eloquently about the sacrifices the polygamists had endured throughout the years. His writings buoyed us with resolve to carry on the sacred principle.
When Musser suffered a stroke and remained ill from its effects, certain members of the Council of Friends questioned his ability to lead.
My uncle Rulon Allred (my mother’s brother) was a naturopathic doctor who treated the sickly leader for months. Out of the blue, Musser called and appointed Uncle Rulon to the council. Bickering began among the members, and some accused Musser of being partial toward Uncle Rulon because of his extended care to their failing leader.
The council was further shocked when Musser surprised them by choosing Margarito Bautista, a Lamanite (a Book of Mormon Native American) from Ozumba, Mexico, to be an apostle. Educated in Mexico, Bautista had attended school in the Mormon colonies. He joined the LDS Church, where he received a calling to work in the temple in Salt Lake City. After intensive study, he recognized the changes that were taking place. His dissatisfaction came mostly from seeing the mutilation of the sacred garments. He knew they had been given by divine revelation from God. The pattern, cut, length, marks, strings, and collar all held symbolic meaning, and only those Mormons in good s
tanding could receive them. He witnessed several other changes and decided to separate himself from the LDS Church. At age fifty, he returned to Ozumba, where, in a short period of time, he married several women; some of them were only fourteen or fifteen years old.
When the other members of the council refused to accept Allred or Bautista, Musser flexed his power by dissolving the council. He then formed another one, designating my uncle Rulon as his successor.
I remember the arguments and confusion among my relatives and friends, expressing their sorrow that Musser’s actions had split the fundamentalists apart.
At his death in 1954, Musser had about a thousand polygamists who upheld his appointment of Uncle Rulon, whose group later became known as the United Apostolic Brethren.
Those who refused to accept Uncle Rulon’s position as presiding elder clung to the men in the previous council, whose followers constitute the members in Short Creek, Arizona, today, now known as Colorado City.
They had filled Musser’s place with Charles Zitting, but Zitting died a month later.
Hungering for power, LeRoy Johnson decided he would lead the group. He won them over after claiming that Christ had personally visited him. Those in the Short Creek group began to worship “Uncle Roy.” One believing couple actually had a daughter who from birth was promised to him in marriage. At town celebrations and parties, the weak and shaky octogenarian leader was driven through the town. Throngs of devout members sought a special place on the periphery to wave to him as though he were the pope.
The adulation for the feeble leader heightened as each year passed. Every home displayed an eight-by-ten photo of their beloved prophet as though he were Christ. A plaque was hung in every home that read the kingdom of god or nothing, indicating they were willing to die for what they believed.
In the early 1950s, there were an estimated thirty thousand polygamists in the U.S. About fifteen thousand followed either my uncle Rulon or LeRoy Johnson. The remaining numbers became independents. My father, Morris Q. Kunz, was one of hundreds of independents strung throughout the western United States and Canada.