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I love the Order. Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. What were taught is to love our neighbor, that all people, all races no matter who they are deserve to be loved, he explained. I honestly didnt even know there was any gold until they accused me of taking it, he says. Because that one is going to be genius-level purity, and thats what The Order is looking for., Photo Credit: AP Images / Leah Hogsten, Pool (John Daniel Kingston); AP Images / Jeffrey D. Allred / Pool (Jeremy Kingston), SPLC is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization (EIN: 63-0598743). It was February in Salt Lake, cold and gray, and in the foothills above the city, a low fog hung over the mountains. Like other teenagers who leave fundamentalist Mormon communities, Stephen was not prepared to enter the world at large. Intelligence Report then read the names of women believed to be his wives four in all. Its a quiet, haunting place, with massive hayfields that stretch to the horizon. By 18, she. Two teenage boys had been spotted entering Rachel Youngs home. They were finally getting even. For fun he and other Order men would go to a park frequented by gay males, looking for victims. But I do have children with other women., Asked if two women named were in fact his first cousins, Young paused, finally replying, I guess Im curious as to what youre trying to get at here.. All of the gay people would definitely be the first to go, he said. I am in love with old cars and horses. The well-kept yellow house sat on the corner of a tidy cul-de-sac called South Bonner Circle surrounded by a black wrought-iron fence. Kollene's father, John Daniel Kingston has 14 wives, and she is the fifth of her mother Shirley Hansen's 12 children. She talked about how you cant associate with black people or anybody of a different race., Based on available evidence, including the accounts of numerous former Order members, the SPLC has designated The Order as a hate group under the category of `general hate.'. Its his father, the prophet, calling to coax his wayward son back into the fold. Seated on a couch, sipping lemonade in his home in a Salt Lake City suburb, he resembles Paul Kingston quite a bit. Or wed set traps and raise them as pets., In many ways it was an idyllic childhood, except for the fact that the ranch also doubled as a work camp for disobedient clan wives and rebellious kids. Inside 'The Order,' One Mormon Cult's Secret Empire On weekends, he was sent out to work at the Orders coal mine with other teenagers. Short and chubby, the Brown boys looked up to the Knight brothers. Some read simply, "Baby Keate," or "Baby Bateman," or "Baby Cooke," with holes where numeric date tiles might otherwise be placed. So far, however, despite Shurtleffs efforts, the insular and highly secretive nature of the Order has prevented him from finding sufficient evidence to bring a case strong enough to dismantle the clan. I wonder aloud. Snow also remembered being taught end-time prophecies, with a cleansing wherein the streets of Salt Lake City would run red with blood. If you find a grave up there that's not marked, that's the way Fred wanted it.". materials or even attempted to focus team and society have a kingston clan member was charged with birth defects increase becomes apparent similarities than. The two groups split when Dawna was growing up. The Knight brothers werent afraid to fight, or to stand up to authority. In 2011, Jeffs was sentenced to life in prison, plus 20 years. There is also some overlap with Sovereign citizens, he contends. Thats your Uncle Paul, she said. offspring will be affected by the disease or become carriers of the gene. Authorities call it an organized crime group. "You had a fairly diverse pool to start with, so only if that went on for a long time within this same population would you see real effects," he told ABC. Luke Brown now insists that he and his brother simply borrowed the silver, and planned to return it to their aunt later. A scrappy white wooden fence runs the length of it along Canyon Street. At clan gatherings, girls who were still in their teens danced with men old enough to be their uncles, whom they were sometimes forced to marry. girl, born to John Ortell and Isabell Johnson, was not the product of an incestuous marriage. Another of Ortells teachings: Adolf Hitler had the right idea about creating a master race, but didnt have the Lords help, so he failed. Dawna says that, when people refer to what's going on over in the Cane Beds, they say it's probably another turkey baster situation. A fifth child, they say, was fathered by their eldest brother Wayne LeBaron, (who was married to Dawna Black Bistline's cousin at the time of this child's allegedly incestuous conception). In the polygamist cult of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, cousins were encouraged to marry in order to preserve certain bloodlines. Those who did not make it into the UO were separated from their families, placed in patchwork homes of other UO "orphans," and told to repent. "Many of the parents did not want to have to deal with some of those children. In the kitchen, he opened a closet and popped a hatch in the floor that led down to a dark, musty basement. Do you think if I took $5 million in gold, Id be working out here?. His father stood on the stage and called out the names of the men who were to receive one of the clans highest honors. Former Order members remain convinced the Knights stole the gold. Paul was upset any of this had been reported at all, says a former member close to the boys. Andrea grew up in a small two-bedroom home in a Kingston-owned coal One of them approached the front door while the other kept a lookout. Look around, Stephen says. But the Kingstons have remained in Salt Lake, operating virtually undetected in a city of more than 1 million people. She explained that they weren't supposed to know who their dad was, only her . The family believed that discipline would rein in the boys and that hard labor would make the girls more supplicant to their husbands back in the city. Somehow LaDonnas curse was transferred to the Tuckers via Christy, Rons wife, because, Christys mom left The Order and married an Irishman, before leaving him and returning to the fold. Blood Cult | Southern Poverty Law Center Wed sleep on the chicken coop in the summer and shoot raccoons. Terrified, he went out and bought a stash of guns to arm himself, just in case his family tried to gun him down. The Order denies that it encourages racism and homophobia within its ranks. The land had once been home to the Washakie Indians, and as children, Stephen and his 15 full brothers and sisters played among the wind-swept ruins of a Native American cemetery. Through his brother LyleBishop of the FLDS and mouthpiece for his imprisoned brotherJeffs enacted a Judgment wherein FLDS members were asked a series of bizarre personal questions; their answers were judged, and the most righteous were welcomed into the United Order of FLDS elite. According to former members of the Order, decades of inbreeding have resulted in rampant birth defects throughout the family. The renunciation of polygamy is now church doctrine, and the Mormon church has a policy of excommunicating polygamists. "Fred was in charge of the cemeteries, the gravediggers, all of that. (KUTV) Weeks after a Kingston polygamist clan member was charged in the death of her child, former members of that group are speaking out about what they say is a much bigger problem. Still stunned at the sudden loss of their brother, Stephen and his siblings were numb with grief. [W]e directly condemn in action and in words, racist, homophobic or hateful actions against any group or individual, Johnson wrote. Some children are born blind, others with missing fingernails or undersize heads. If you were more obedient, this wouldnt have happened., After that, everything changed, Stephen says. 3 bd 2 ba 1.6k sqft. Daniel was arrested and eventually spent 28 weeks in a county jail for felony child abuse. Ortell is credited with expanding The Orders business empire and making the family immensely wealthy. "And my oldest daughter, she's 18 and she's dated a couple of my cousins, which makes them her second cousins, and we're like, Eww, that's gross.". It's not really talked about; I don't think [people here] even research to see how related they are. Family members attribute the defects to the advanced Young denied that The Order was racist or taught any form of bigotry, and said he had people of all races working for him. It would be several more years before Stephen learned that Paul Kingston was his father, and that his mother was just one of his dads many wives. Structural birth defects are related to a problem with the structure of body parts. But for their part, The Order and other fundamentalist sects believe the LDS church exists in a state of apostasy for abandoning what they see as a bedrock principle of their faith. He is not ready to forgive his father. A sheriffs deputy traced the license plate of the Honda to a run-down house in a working-class suburb south of the city. Family Tree. He was. Youd show up for a welfare call, or a domestic-abuse call, and it was just real run-down.. She is guiding me all around town, following my route, turn by turn, on Google maps. The teenagers sitting in the driveway on South Bonner Circle that afternoon in 2009 knew the operation well. "There was a guy out here who was married to a couple of young girls, and he was going to get in trouble because he was having children with these young girls, so he said, 'Well, I never had sex with themI used a turkey baster.'" To cope with the disorientation and loneliness of leaving one world for another, many turn to drugs. It's also still rape with a foreign object, I remind us both unnecessarily. Tom Sizemore, Heat and Saving Private Ryan Actor, Dead at 61 As far as how you end up in heaven, thats up to God.. I dont think theyre organized crime in that regard, but the racketeering statute defines it as any conspiracy or pattern of illegal activity done in concert with others. What is BBC Future? John Daniel Kingston served 28 weeks after pleading no contest to child abuse following a 1998 episode in which he belt-whipped a girl. The clan avoids hospitals, believing government-backed doctors might inject them with a mysterious disease or demand birth records exposing the Order's lifestyle. Pentecostal These conditions are disproportionately common, relative to the size of the general population, in Short Creek. I pass the dairy, the zoo, the park, the former birthing clinic, the condemned high school built on a foundation of adobe bricks, and so on. Advance Copy and Printing: Since 2017-$62,450. The deputy opened the trunk of the Honda, where he found two duffel bags stuffed with silver. Come back, his dad will say. presided, while Richauns father officiated the wedding, promising the bride that if she obeyed her husband, she would be guaranteed a spot in the Celestial Kingdom, the highest level of heaven. But we paid it all back.. They steer clear of banks, fearing theyll steal their money. It wasnt like we thought about it a lot. But given that the Kingstons command an estimated 6,000 adherents, boast a business empire reportedly worth as much as $1 billion and have outlasted myriad bouts with law enforcement and the press, these dreams of world domination may be less delusional than they first seem. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) is a polygamous sect straddling the Utah and Arizona state lines; the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, are known collectively as Short Creek (pronounced "crick"). He thinks about his mom, and wonders if she misses him. Escaping polygamy and the Kingston clan: Whistleblower Mary Nelson on There are also graves lacking any dates whatsoever. The Kingstons are a Mormon splinter group, founded in the 1930s by Mary's great-uncle Elden. Similarly, his older brother John Daniel Kingston has had 14 wives, four of them his half-sisters. Theyd keep it in basements, in filing cabinets, in a big safe in one of Pauls offices, says Levi Kingston, a former clan member. Rather than submit to DNA tests, which could have revealed the incest in his brood, he coughed up a more than $200,000 settlement. His seven sons and two daughters by LaDonna Peterson, the second of his 13 wives, are reputed to be the inner circle that runs the cult. Matt Browning seems less sure. Who Murdered Polygamist Wife and Mother Carolyn Yvonne Kingston? It was all just innocent teenage stuff, recalls Ron, who has since left the clan. Still, he conceded that some Order members may have prejudiced beliefs because in our organization people have freedom of choice.. They seemed happy, Ron says. There were so many young children who were born with abnormalitiesharelips, club feet, heart valvesthat were they were going to die within a year. When youre three years old, they start training you what to say if people talk to you, recalls Jeremy Tucker, a 32-year-old former member of the cult, who now works in construction. The grift was exposed decades later, in the 1980s, when the clan paid a $350,000 settlement for swindling the government through welfare fraud. Ex-order members interviewed by the Intelligence Report generally agreed with the characterization of the Kingston clan as a hate group.. He says The Order regards homosexuality as a choice. The knowledge that one's children are likely to be born with conditions like this one does not prevent FLDS couples from becoming pregnant; instead, they see it as a responsibility and blessing to have many children. Carolyn. We're sitting in Ron's large kitchen, eating a meal of homemade tomato sauce and sweet Italian sausage that his wife Geria retired marriage and family therapist originally from Hurleyville, NY, who he met six years ago on Zoosk!has prepared in a slowcooker. KUTV When several businesses inside the Kingston polygamist empire, including Washakie Renewable Energy, was raided by federal agents Wednesday, officials where tight lipped. Every now and then, as hes driving around the ranch, his phone will ring. Or Aunt Martha did, or somebody did. Allison, a 17 year-old ex-Kingston member says not much has changed since Lu Anns day. The two boys pulled into the driveway and shifted the green Honda into park. I tell her I'm not sure, given the context. Her parents and siblings eventually left as well. When Stephen was a boy, the clan would gather for the New Year in a warehouse in the city for its annual ritual: the numbering of the men. He trained the women how to rip off the government, a scheme the Order called Bleeding the Beast. We figured it was ours anyway, says Stephen, explaining that the clan hadnt paid the boys for bagging coal. Mysterious cars followed his girlfriend, and he once came home to find that someone had rifled through his drawers. He no longer believed in the Order, but he knew that leaving would mean being shunned by his own family, and because he had been forbidden from making friends outside the clan, there would be few people in the world he could turn to. NBA 'Investigating,' Team Suspends Ja Morant After Allegedly Flashing Gun on Social Media "They were called the Second Warders and we were called the First Warders; we weren't supposed to hang out with kids from the Centennial group because they were wicked for having left," she says. The clan kids from there would come to school not properly dressed for the cold, and they were always getting in fights. Stephen moved in with his brother. The lawyers words call to mind another heavenly curse, described in 2 Nephi, Chapter 5 of the Book of Mormon, where God caused a skin of blackness to come upon a group called the Lamanites, supposedly ancestors of Native Americans. I could tell she loved him, and it seemed like he loved her too. Within a year, Paul Kingston would take a fourth wife. There was a guy out here who was married to a couple of young girls, and he was going to get in trouble. J.O. Boys are taught that the prophet demands absolute loyalty and that they should be prepared to defend the clan. According to historian Brian Hales Modern Polygamy and Mormon Fundamentalism: The Generations After the Manifesto, Brother Elden, as he was also known, had five wives and 17 children. As he talked to the woman who lived there, Luke Brown came out of the house, and his brother Scott soon joined him. They sat there for a moment, warming their hands against the sputtering heater. The Order was founded by Elden Kingston, Stephens grand-uncle, at the height of the Great Depression. The Genetic Catastrophe That Has Sprung from Polygamy "A rare, severe birth defect is on the rise in an inbred polygamous community on the Arizona-Utah border, according to a doctor who has treated many of the children. Young declined to comment when asked if he practices polygamy. Boys as young as 14 labored in the workshop. We were off on our own out there and really close, Stephen says. A passerby might catch a glimpse of children in the windows, but for the most part, the Young family kept to themselves. The most common birth defects for children born of close cousins, anywhere, are: harelip, cleft palate, clubfoot, and certain forms of heart valve conditions. Another group of kids called the Lost Boys, who were kicked out of the polygamist cult the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, ended up on the streets of Las Vegas and Phoenix, some turning tricks for drugs like meth and heroin. One man, who asks to remain nameless to protect his and his family's privacy, describes a lifetime of round-the-clock care and too-frequent hospital visits for his five sons. This racist display was no one-off. Elden also instituted the church law of one above the other, requiring members blind obedience to the churchs hierarchy of numbered men, with Elden being Brother Number One. We want to hear it. He picked fights at school, shot a teacher in the face with a water gun and refused to do homework or answer questions. Almost everyone here is some variation of cousin, and, until Warren was locked up and decided to put a hold on all marriages, most men and women were paired together in order to preserve certain esteemed bloodlines. There are baby graves year that date back as earlier as the 1950s, potentially even earlier: many are unmarked. On February 26th, 2009, the Salt Lake County Sheriffs Office got a call of suspicious activity in the foothills above the city. LGBT people fare little better in the Kingston clan. In its place, someone had left a note. Future Planet.