Early in the morning on April 23, 1975, Ervil’s stepson, Eddie Marston, and Mark Chynoweth, drove south of Price, Utah, and turned off on a dirt side road that they marked with an old tire on a fencepost. Looking around, they chose a spot where they would kill Robert. The two then erected a pile of rocks as a landmark for the designated spot. Next they dug a grave on an inconspicuous hillside. They hid their vehicle a short way down the dirt road beyond where they’d piled the rocks. Then they sat down to wait.
In the meantime, Lloyd Sullivan had convinced Robert that the meeting with the Indian chiefs was set. But only he and Robert had been invited. Samantha waved good-bye to her husband as he and Lloyd drove away.
The two finally arrived after dark at the intersection marked by the old tire where Lloyd turned the car onto the isolated dirt road. Robert could hardly contain his anticipation, although briefly distracted by the strangeness of the deserted area. He couldn’t help commenting to Lloyd that if he didn’t trust Lloyd, he might wonder if he was being lured into a trap to be killed. But Robert’s belief in his own prophetic role was stronger than his doubt or fear.
At the pile of rocks, Lloyd stopped the car, leaving the bright headlights on. Both men got out of the car and Robert walked out into the light, assuming the rock pile was an Indian marker.
From their hiding place in the shadows, Eddie and Mark closed in with a shotgun and a .357 magnum. Eddie took aim and the still night air exploded with a shotgun blast.
Eddie, Mark, and Lloyd carried Robert’s body to the shallow grave. They removed his wallet, jacket, and wristwatch. Then they scrunched him into the hole, where they emptied a bag of lime over his body, as Ervil had suggested, believing the lime would quickly decompose him. The three took turns shoveling dirt into the grave and onto the gravel to hide the evidence. Eddie dug another small hole for Robert’s Timex, which later would be found by a metal detector. When they had finished their fiendish deed, they drove two hundred miles to Ogden and reported to Ervil, who lavished praise on them for the good job that they had done. Finally, they stripped Robert’s wallet of its valuables then burned it along with his jacket.
CHAPTER FORTY
Leonard Vest, one of the Arizona converts to Joel’s new church, came to the new ensign in Colonia LeBaron. He and his sons, Nathan and Dean, stayed at our home during the church’s two annual conferences. I lived in a four room adobe house with Charlotte and Lucy, and at the April conference they slept in their sleeping bags on our lawn. In the evenings, I enjoyed visiting with the Vests. It was comforting to me to have them as new members, which we deeply needed.
Long before Ervil’s crazy rampages, I sewed clothing for him. One morning, Dean found me at my Singer sewing machine making a shirt for Ervil. He got excited and admitted he could never find a shirt with sleeves or tail long enough for him. He was a big man, standing six foot eight, and weighing 260 pounds. His bushy brown beard seemed to elongate his face, yet it accentuated his big blue eyes.
Dean asked if I would be willing to make him a couple of shirts. If I would, he’d buy me material to make something for myself. He gave me money to buy four yards of a red-and-gray plaid that I used to make myself a pretty dress. I cut out two shirts, both gray, and finished them by lamplight after my four kids and my two sister wives had retired with their children. For fun, I tried on the huge shirt I’d made for Dean. It fit me like a dress. I remember how the tail of the shirt hit my knees. I had a good laugh.
Shortly after conference, Leonard and his son Nathan became disenchanted by the rigid rules they encountered. When they learned of the murders of Mauro Gutierrez and John Butchereit, who had been loyal disciples of Joel, they picked up and moved as far away as they could—to Alaska. But Dean stayed; he had been exposed to just enough religion to pique his curiosity. He had served two tours of duty in the U.S. Navy, including some time in Vietnam, so military action was his forte. He had a metal plate in his head where he had been wounded.
He had met Ervil at the inception of the church, and, later, when Ervil broke away from Joel’s Church of the Firstborn, the two met again. Dean fell for Ervil’s militarylike civil law practices for God’s new kingdom, and Ervil, seeing Dean’s potential, appointed him to be his military leader. Dean was soon privy to the secret activities of Ervil’s church, the Lambs of God. He helped to plan and make preparations, including teaching his soldiers how to make Molotov cocktails for the December 26, 1974, Los Molinos raid in Baja against those of us who remained loyal to Joel.
Back in 1970, Dean’s wife, Emily, had joined him in San Diego, where they made their home. A keen judge of character, she saw through Ervil immediately. She not only detested Dean’s new prophet, she mistrusted him, and most of his cronies
When Joel was murdered in 1972, Emily had endured enough, and she separated from Dean. When she learned of the killings in the Los Molinos raid in 1974, she gave Dean her final ultimatum. It was either Ervil or she. Dean was so converted to Ervil that he hesitated, so she moved away to Seattle.
Missing Emily and enduring several altercations with the flunkies in Ervil’s group finally forced Dean to make a decision. He concluded that he’d had enough and decided to move on to better things.
However, he was concerned about the consequences of leaving the blood-atoning Lambs of God. Sure enough, unbeknownst to him, early in 1975, Ervil had already noted signs of his defection. In fact, Ervil was planning his execution.
Ervil confided in Don Sullivan, telling him that God had revealed that Dean Vest had to be blood atoned to save his soul. Ervil’s tenth wife, Vonda White, who had murdered Neomi Zarate, was now assigned to execute Dean, and Don furnished the Colt .38 for the job.
Not having spent time with Vonda for a while, Ervil drove to San Diego to deliver the pistol to her himself. He carefully instructed her how to carry out the deed.
On June 16, 1975, Dean intended to leave for Seattle to see Emily and their daughter who both had been in a minor auto accident. He went to the house in a suburb of San Diego, where Vonda White and Linda Johnson lived; he often spent time with them and their children. When he entered the house, Linda was away at her job and Vonda was feeding their children.
Dean shared the details of his wife’s accident with Vonda, then he informed her he was leaving for Seattle as soon as he could gather together a few of his belongings. Vonda asked him to check out her washing machine that was giving her trouble. He was glad to look at the washer problem for her and she expressed her appreciation; then she suggested that he clean his hands at the sink.
While Dean rinsed his soiled hands, Vonda finally mustered up enough courage to obey Ervil’s order. Trembling with anxiety, she aimed the .38 pistol into Dean’s back. Then she shot him, two times. He tumbled forward onto the kitchen sink.
She later confessed, “I was scared clear out of my wits, but . . . I knew it was a command of God” (The 4 O’Clock Murders, p. 150).
However, what followed might seem like the work of a cruel, calm executioner.
Dean had fallen on the kitchen floor, where she shot him again, delivering what Ervil liked to call the “coup de grâce,” in the head.
She had followed Ervil’s instructions to the letter to avoid the wrath of her husband and leader if she disobeyed.
When she was sure Dean was dead, she wiped off the gun and then placed it by Dean’s body. She went upstairs and cleaned herself up to remove any spots of blood from her clothes. Then she quietly called the police, stating that she and the children had heard what she thought were gunshots downstairs.
When the investigators came, it didn’t take them long to question the truth of Vonda’s story. First they noted small blood spots on her white sneakers, pants, and shirt. When asked about the bloodstains, Vonda claimed that earlier Dean had had a nosebleed, and while helping him, some blood must have dripped on her. When they talked to the children they learned that Vonda had come upstairs after they heard the sounds of shots.
Vonda stoically denied th
at she had killed Dean Vest. Nevertheless, she was held as a suspect for murder and questioned while laboratory tests were completed.
The lab technicians found the blood sample too small to confirm its source. Also, the investigators were unable to connect any traces of gunpowder to her. Because the evidence was insufficient they had to let her go, but she was asked to remain in town for a while.
However, Ervil sent Anna Mae to drive Vonda and her family to Colorado. There, Ervil praised her for a job well done and assured her of her reward in heaven, calling her an “elect lady.”
However, even if Ervil might have thought it to be so, I can’t understand how any “elect lady” would consider having her own son put to death. But Ervil and Vonda took literally the words of Deuteronomy:
If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him and bring him out unto the elders of his city and to the gate of his place; . . . and all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear (21:18–19, 21).
Like many youngsters with raging hormones, searching for his identity and not sure where to look, Vonda’s son Craig tended to be forgetful, and this disobedience was looked upon as “open rebellion.”
Vonda threatened that if Craig didn’t “straighten out,” she would have to deal with him in accordance with Deuteronomy.
When Craig realized he could be killed, he immediately fell into line!
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Ervil had bragged to his followers that he would use his daughters as “blessings” for those who did his bidding. And in several cases he kept his word. Without even considering the implications or effects upon the girls, he bartered them off as property in trade for favors to men who were older, unappealing, and married to women with several children. Ervil didn’t care that this traumatized each daughter and her mother; he simply gave away the daughters of his wives Delfina, Anna Mae, Mary Lou, and Rosemary to men who served his purposes. He gave five of his daughters to Dan Jordan alone: one girl, Sara Jane, ran away to Chihuahua City after a short time with Dan, trying to leave the insanity behind, yet the lasting effects of the nightmare marriage caused her continuing emotional breakdowns for the rest of her life from which she never completely recovered.
The most tragic case of all was my beautiful fifteen-year-old niece Rebecca (Ervil and Delfina’s daughter). She was tall and slender, with long brown hair the color of caramel. She had beautiful large and expressive eyes that everyone noticed; she walked with a stately grace and was happy by nature. She had a wonderful sense of humor, and her laughter could be heard whenever a funny situation unexpectedly arose from the humorless life she lived. She made the best of many bad situations, as she was used by wife after wife to babysit their children.
When barely sixteen, Rebecca was “given” against her will to Victor Chynoweth as a reward for his financial backing. Ervil’s older daughter Alicia kept in contact with her sister Rebecca, especially when she learned of her unhappy marriage to Victor. On one visit, Alicia immediately saw the whole picture in the sadness and despair written on Rebecca’s face. Alicia encouraged her disenchanted sister to attend beauty school, to carve out some kind of future for herself. She wanted Rebecca to become independent and self-confident.
Rebecca seized upon the idea and enrolled in beauty school; however, Victor pulled the rug out from under her. He would not allow his plural wife to be “a law unto herself.” He had seen the brewing tensions between Rebecca and his first wife, Nancy, and feared that if Rebecca gained her independence, he would lose her permanently.
But living in plural marriage was not working out for Rebecca, who was always second or third in decisions about her own life. As the second wife, she was put in a situation where she was a thorn in Nancy’s side—who as Victor’s first wife, was the favorite and dominant wife. Nancy bossed Rebecca around as if she were a child. Their conflict became more intense when Rebecca gave birth to her first child. While in the hospital, Rebecca determined that Nancy would not have any control over her there. So she named the baby Victor Jr. and made sure it was recorded on the birth certificate—to show that she had a right to exercise authority over her own life and her child, that Victor and Nancy could not enforce their will on her, especially when giving birth and becoming a mother herself. Nancy was enraged because she had planned on having a Victor Jr. someday.
When Rebecca returned from the hospital to Victor and Nancy’s home, they gave her the silent treatment. Victor turned cold toward her for “provoking” Nancy, whom Rebecca felt was cruel. The conflict naturally escalated, because Rebecca wouldn’t accept Nancy’s authority over her. For punishment, Victor would not allow Rebecca to leave the house or contact her family for weeks.
After months of being controlled by them, the now seventeen-year-old Rebecca finally rebelled, refusing to take further orders from Victor or Nancy. Pregnant once again, she wanted to leave Colorado and take her young son to Mexico to live with her older sister, Sylvia Esther, in Colonia LeBaron. The emotional stresses were wearing her down, causing her to feel frustrated and irritable much of the time. She sought comfort in food and began to gain weight as well. At the same time, she continued to try to defend herself, which they viewed as “mental.”
Worried that Rebecca would flee, Victor seized her little boy and placed him in Nancy’s care. Rebecca threatened to report Victor and her father to the authorities if Victor didn’t return her son (The4 O’Clock Murders, p. 161). She demanded to see her father, who was in Dallas, but instead Victor called him. When he told Ervil that Rebecca was threatening to go to the law, Victor and Ervil determined that she was nothing but trouble. Ervil told Victor that he needed to “get her under control” because Ervil didn’t want disgruntled Rebecca running to the law about her stolen son and spilling any details about their murder plots. Ervil feared his daughter knew too much.
So, Victor separated her from her son by sending her to Dallas alone. Once Rebecca arrived in Dallas, however, Ervil realized he had made a mistake. Still fuming over her disobedience, Ervil took matters into his own hands. He knew he had to comply with God’s commands in dealing with rebellion, even if it came to destroying his own flesh and blood. So, Ervil wasted no time in issuing his orders. Rebecca must be eliminated.
He designated his stepson Eddie (Anna Mae’s son) along with his wife Lorna’s brother Duane Chynoweth to carry out the despicable deed. Duane was Victor’s youngest brother.
By phone from Sullivan’s office, Ervil ordered Eddie and Duane to “take care of her.” Victor bought a tent to be used as cover for digging Rebecca’s grave, which Duane and Eddie “practiced setting up in the warehouse” (Prophet of Blood, p. 231).
However, Rebecca was told she would soon be “free.” She was jubilant that her father had finally changed his mind, allowing her to pick up her infant in Colorado and go to Mexico. She could hardly wait to reunite with her son, then put as much distance as possible between herself and Nancy and Victor.
Yet Eddie and Duane had definite orders from Ervil to see that Rebecca never made it to the airport. As Ervil later told Don Sullivan matter-of-factly, “She couldn’t get along and the Lord ordered to send her a one-way ticket” (Prophet of Blood, p. 230).
It was a lovely spring day in April 1977 when the men picked up a happy and pregnant Rebecca in Ervil’s brand new Ford LTD. They drove her to the outskirts of Dallas, then turned off the streets into a remote area. I have often wondered what Rebecca thought when the car didn’t proceed to the airport, taking her instead to a dead end.
Eddie retrieved the rope he had conveniently hidden beneath the car seat. He and Duane then jumped in the backseat beside the surprised young mother. Duane restrained her and Eddie forced the noose over Rebecca’s head. She thrashed around, putting up t
he fight of her life. Eddie spent his strength tightening the rope until his hands and wrists ached from the exertion. Seeing that Eddie needed help, Duane joined in. The assassins pulled the rope taut from both ends until Rebecca quit resisting, went limp, and stopped breathing altogether.
They lifted her lifeless body from the backseat and carelessly threw it into the trunk. Then they drove back to report to Ervil.
Later, Ervil drove the LTD to the appliance shop, where Lloyd Sullivan noticed that the back of the car seemed to be lower than usual.
When Sullivan questioned him, Ervil sarcastically asked, “Do you think Rebecca is in the trunk?” Sullivan was stunned by the question. “Open it and see for yourself,” Ervil challenged.
Sullivan caught the keys that Ervil threw at him and opened the trunk. He cringed when he saw Rebecca’s dead body streaked with blood that had oozed from her nose and mouth. Sickened by the scene, he whispered, “How could you have done this? She’s your own daughter!”
Even as he asked, Sullivan knew the question was needless. Ervil had taught all of his followers the words of Matthew 10:37: “He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”
Ervil ordered Duane and Eddie to dispose of the body. Just before they drove away, Ervil cautioned them, “If anyone asks—Rebecca ran off . . . Delfina’s gonna come back and wonder where Rebecca’s at, so if she wants to know, she ran off to Mexico with a lover” (Prophet of Blood, p. 229).
They took a pick, a shovel, and the tent and headed for Oklahoma with Rebecca’s corpse, only stopping along the way for large bags of ice to keep her body cold and limit the odor and decay. Once they found a hidden spot, they set up the tent Victor purchased, which had the floor cut out of it. They couldn’t risk hikers catching them in the act, so they wanted to appear to be camping. They took turns digging Rebecca’s grave inside the tent, which took them several hours into the evening. Waiting until they were sure that no one was in sight, the two walked down the small hillside, pulled Rebecca’s body out of the car, and lugged it back up to the freshly dug hole. They covered her body with dirt, making sure it was buried deep enough. Then they covered the site with debris.
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