It was Mothers Day in 2000, and Stephen and two of his brothers were speeding up a dirt road for dinner at an aunts house. The clan, known privately as the Order, runs what prosecutors believe is one of the largest organized-crime operations in Utah, overseeing its far-flung empire from a string of secret locations and backrooms. The battle took place in the spiritual pre-existence that Mormons believe all souls come from. Hospital harm., While part of The Order, Val Snow, a twenty-something gay man with a wry sense of humor, believed being gay was like spitting in the eye of God. Snow is the son of Daniel Kingston, whom he paints as a little man with a lot of power.. They threw away their possessions, donned matching blue overalls, and pitched canvas tents on a patch of land north of Salt Lake that would come to be known as the Home Place.. Children born into the clan make up much of the labor force. Dawna's younger sister has a little boy with two clubfeet. We were taught to be polite, but to never make friends with outsiders. The clan avoids hospitals, believing government-backed doctors might inject them with a mysterious disease or demand birth records exposing the Orders lifestyle. Short and chubby, the Brown boys looked up to the Knight brothers. Advance Copy and Printing: Since 2017-$62,450. By the time he was 30, he would have more than 10. Towards Net Zero. This racist display was no one-off. took great pains to never show his wealth and taught his followers to do the same. According to former members of the Order, decades of inbreeding have resulted in rampant birth defects throughout the family. "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.'" The letter asserts that one of the earliest members of the church was a Native American man and that the Co-op, as it is sometimes called, has been the victim of prejudice and harassment by Utahs majority religion (i.e., the LDS church) because of the formers progressive ideas. The son of Pauls sister Rachel herself a daughter of Ortell and LaDonna Kingston Young was the only current member of the Kingston clan, out of the many contacted for this story, who consented to a live, on-the-record interview. "They would hand them over and say, 'Would you mind please taking care of them, because we can't?' We figured it was ours anyway, says Stephen, explaining that the clan hadnt paid the boys for bagging coal. Matt Browning seems less sure. He also had dozens of children a brood that would eventually grow to around 300 and he had a hard time telling them apart. He trained the women how to rip off the government, a scheme the Order called Bleeding the Beast. The two were playmates when they were boys. No evidence directly linked him to the missing gold or silver, but his father was convinced he had played a part in the thefts. He went days at a time without eating, convinced it helped provoke visions, and believed that by the laying on of hands he could heal his followers from sickness and disease. One of the Orders leaders did jail time for severely beating his own daughter after she fled an arranged marriage to his brother. She explained that they weren't supposed to know who their dad was, only her . But the Kingstons have remained in Salt Lake, operating virtually undetected in a city of more than 1 million people. YouTube Luke Brown now insists that he and his brother simply borrowed the silver, and planned to return it to their aunt later. Others say they buried it out in the desert and are slowly cashing it out. Black blood was the worst thing you can have, Jessica said, particularly since the Kingstons consider themselves to be the whitest of the white, descended directly from Jesus Christ and King David, the Middle Eastern origins of both men notwithstanding. . The deputy heard the Brown boys knew who stole the gold but suddenly, without explanation, they and everyone in the clan clammed up. The clan kids from there would come to school not properly dressed for the cold, and they were always getting in fights. Kollene's father, John Daniel Kingston has 14 wives, and she is the fifth of her mother Shirley Hansen's 12 children. Additionally, ex-Order members tell of a reputed church prophecy of an End of the World War, an apocalyptic vision that foresees a bloody race war with the Kingstons as the ultimate victors, chosen by their Heavenly Father to rule the world for a millennium. One of them, Stephen Knight, made for the most unlikely of suspects. (Like most kids in the clan, Stephen wasnt told who his father was until he was old enough to be trusted to lie to protect the Order.) Some people say they funneled the money through Mexico. Later the Order reportedly bought slot machines from mob-controlled companies. These days Stephen works on a cattle ranch near the Idaho border, just down the road from where he grew up. Then their father said something they never expected. Paul Kingston wore secondhand suits that hung off his slender shoulders, and he spoke in a flat, emotionless monotone. All Rights reserved. The most common birth defects for children born of close cousins, anywhere, are: harelip, cleft palate, clubfoot, and certain forms of heart valve conditions. When Rachel Young, a stern and humorless woman, got home, she discovered that several crates of silver in her basement had been pried open whoever had robbed the place had clearly been in a hurry and had left with only a small fraction of her silver. He mandated that children should drink tea brewed from the herb every morning, and that Order members should feed it to their cows. "It's doesn't stop anybody," Dawna says. It didnt take long for them to break down and confess that they had robbed their aunt. After the wedding, Richaun chose the name Knight randomly a practice designed to prevent prosecutors from proving that men in the Order have multiple wives. Well, my sister had a little baby with a cleft lip; it was her first child and it had a cleft lip and cleft palate, because they were both Jessops, and Jessops are carriers of that gene. This article appears in the June 23, 2011 issue of Rolling Stone. 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. They predict the scale of the problem will increase dramatically in the future. 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. The polygamous town facing genetic disaster - BBC Future She is guiding me all around town, following my route, turn by turn, on Google maps. 17226 Horsetooth Canyon Dr, Houston, TX 77095. In the kitchen, he opened a closet and popped a hatch in the floor that led down to a dark, musty basement. offspring will be affected by the disease or become carriers of the gene. That's still gross." Kingston Polygamy Order Birth Defects Glutenous Kalvin asphalts lentissimo. I strongly believe they are an organized-crime family, Shurtleff says. During an interview with this reporter, Lu Ann Kingston, whose defiance of the cult led to the conviction of her former spiritual husband Jeremy, recalled that Order members saw intermarriage as a way to keep the bloodline pure., All outsiders are considered to be beneath Order members, she explained. 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. I didnt even know the n-word was bad until I was like 15 or 16, she told Intelligence Report. When Elden died in 1948, leadership of the Order fell to Stephens grandfather, J.O., a short, miserly man with bony shoulders and thinning hair. "It's like any inbred disorder," Tarby says. If you find a grave up there that's not marked, that's the way Fred wanted it.". The baby cemetery is a mess of overgrown weeds and dry, cracked dirt, home to hundreds of infant and toddler-size graves, not all of them marked. On the surface, the operation is legit: From Salt Lake, the Order controls some 100 businesses spread out over the Western states, from a casino in California to a cattle ranch in Nevada to a factory that makes lifelike dolls in Utah. As Kingston wife charged in child's death, former clan members - KUTV I Escaped a Polygamist Cult | Marie Claire 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. She was definitely the pick of the litter, and thats why Paul got her, Ron recalls. At Washakie, he forced clan children to decapitate cows with chain saws to toughen them up, and sometimes beat the children for some infraction of the Orders rules like forgetting to face the Home Place three times a day and pray. The lot is unmarked and unremarkable. Incest is endemic in the clan, with uncles marrying much younger female relatives; in 2003, police showed up at an Order barbecue and arrested a clan member for marrying his underage cousin. Nevertheless, former members of The Order say that incest and racism are inextricably linked in The Orders teachings. Mary Nelson, 23, tells "Whistleblower" host Alex Ferrer about how she escaped the Kingston clan, also known as The Order, with the help of her boyfriend Bryan. In a portion of Warren Jeffs' Priesthood Record a mostly dry document that details his every move and meeting one entry, a written transcription of an announcement made by Warren at lunch with his late father's family, stands out as particularly creepy. Ron Rohbock, 64, who was kicked out of the FLDS in 2002 after serving on church security for decades at Warren and Rulon Jeffs' side, has a different answer. Those affected by the genetic disorder suffer grand mal seizures and often have facial feature deformities and severe mental retardation, with IQs as low as 25. Similarly, his older brother John Daniel Kingston has had 14 wives, four of them his half-sisters. The polygamous town facing genetic disaster - BBC Future. But he hopes that one day his family will be able to forgive him for leaving them behind. A simple urine test will reveal whether there is an excess of fumaric acid in the urine, if the other, more external symptoms aren't obvious enough. Escaping polygamy and the Kingston clan: Whistleblower Mary Nelson on The Genetic Catastrophe That Has Sprung from Polygamy Read more: Women Who Escaped a Polygamist Mormon Cult Share Their Story. Terrified, he went out and bought a stash of guns to arm himself, just in case his family tried to gun him down. "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. But because they were the sons of the prophet, they got away with it., Stephen vehemently denies that he or his brothers had anything to do with the heist. He was. The Brown boys, charged with felony counts of burglary, wrote a letter to their aunt apologizing for stealing the silver in her house. This is your fault, he thundered, glaring at them. Sometimes his father read the Book of Mormon from the pulpit and talked about things regular Christians would recognize, like tithing or repentance. Come and get me, Stephen said. Family Tree. The two boys pulled into the driveway and shifted the green Honda into park. And then there are the more livable genetic conditions. Blacks were the less valiant people in heaven who sat on the sidelines while others took sides, according to The Order. Like polygamy, incest is a third-degree felony in Utah, and as with polygamy, convictions are rare. Dawna asks me. Its his father, the prophet, calling to coax his wayward son back into the fold. Many of the souls interred here lived not longer than a day, some just two days, two weeks, or two years. When Paul turned 21, he married Richaun Dye. Nothing has come of the raids yet, and the IRS refused comment on the matter when contacted by this publication. That Stephens father sat atop a mafialike organization was a secret kept from him for most of his childhood. Its who I am., To keep the police from prying into the matter any further, the clan also hired a private investigator to track down the missing gold. Then one night, a clan member called and told him that the Order planned to kill him. The teacher was like, You can never get that out, that is always there now, recalled Jessica, now 29. Two are nieces. 3 bd 2 ba 1.6k sqft. The Knight brothers were driving new trucks, and so were their friends, says Levi Kingston. Kingston taught his followers that they are the literal descendants of Jesus and one of his wives, who had come down to Earth to found a race of chosen people. Desert Tech and its rifles have been featured on Fox News, Mythbusters, Daredevil and The Blacklist, among other TV shows. 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. Were fucked, they told their cousin. Their neighbors had no idea that the family were prominent members of the Kingston clan, the most powerful polygamist cult in America and one of the most dangerous. Health Gap. But The Order saves most of its bile for blacks and other non whites. The boys were sentenced to two years of probation and taken back into the Order. "There were so many young children who were born with abnormalitiesharelips, club feet, heart valvesthat were they were going to die within a year," says Ron. Scott remembered that Ortell had an answer for that question. 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. Accounts of clan babies being born with congenital defects and other problems abound, including dwarfism, albinism and children born minus fingernails or without genitals. It is bordered to the north by a well-maintained lot where there sits a stately red brick home with UEP (United Effort Plan, the church trust which is now controlled by the state of Utah in the aftermath of Jeffs' conviction) spelled out in white brick on its south-facing side. A short, blustery man with a hair-trigger temper, Daniel Kingston had reportedly once kidnapped two boys at gunpoint and led them out to the Great Salt Lake (the charges were later dropped). You better check on your gold, Young told her. In 2006, Warren Jeffs, then the president and prophet of the FLDS, was arrested and charged with accomplice rape, for just two of the underage marriages he had arranged. Wed sleep on the chicken coop in the summer and shoot raccoons. The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time Over the years, the Order has armed itself to ward off rivals, and once stalked and intimidated a judge who was meddling in the clans affairs. 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. Brother Ron Tucker, he would intone, come and get your number. According to the Orders interpretation of the Book of Revelations, only 144,000 numbered men will be allowed to rule in heaven under God. Dont the infant deaths and tales of horrific deformities belie Ortells homespun eugenics? Blood Cult | Southern Poverty Law Center The fact that most of the people in the Kingston clan were born into the lifestyle is very key to group think because this is all they know, and some may never question the beliefs even when they age because it has been their whole world all their life. Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. But in a 2News . His life was in danger, the voice on the other end warned. As the first of Paul Kingstons many wives, Patty enjoyed a privileged role in the Order including access to vast wealth. Daniels ultimatum: Stay in The Order, date no one, and have no contact with family. To cope with the disorientation and loneliness of leaving one world for another, many turn to drugs. Fishing it out of his jeans, hell recognize the number. Mark Shurtleff, the Utah attorney general, has spent years investigating the clan, gathering birth certificates and genealogical data, and has come to believe that the cult is guilty of a long list of crimes, including child labor, tax evasion, welfare fraud, polygamy and the sanctioning of underage marriages to blood relatives. Polygamy is outlawed in Utah, both by the states constitution, and in statute, where it is a third-degree felony, with a possible punishment of five years in prison. The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time To deaden his feelings of isolation, he started smoking a lot of pot and sitting around the house all day listening to country music. They both have the same high cheekbones, the same pale skin, the same wide-set eyes. Sisters married the same man in polygamous celestial weddings; brothers from one family married sisters from another (meaning their kids are double cousins). In it, black people come close to killing off the white race until they are countered by Native Americans, symbolized by a Red Horse, which gallops to the White Horses rescue. Ortell is credited with expanding The Orders business empire and making the family immensely wealthy. Its ominous-sounding moniker, The Order, is a reference to the United Order, a quasi-utopian society proposed by LDS-founder Joseph Smith, and practiced in some Mormon communities under the leadership of early church president Brigham Young. They seemed happy, Ron says. Young denied that The Order was racist or taught any form of bigotry, and said he had people of all races working for him. Everyone knows it., After the gold disappeared, the Knight brothers suddenly seemed to have a lot of money especially for young men on their own in the world for the first time. eu . They would trek into state welfare offices, their kids in tow, claiming that they had no idea who the father of their children was, or that he was a truck driver who had left them destitute. The FLDS started out as a few fringe families in the late 1890s; as more seeking to follow the principal of plural marriage moved to the polygamous towns in the early-to-mid 20th century, the gene pool grew, but by the 90s, under the stricter control of prophet Rulon Jeffs (Warren's father), they were tightening up and selectively marrying and breeding in a sort of misfired eugenics experiment that ultimately yielded its own genetic disorder: fumarase deficiency (FD), otherwise known as Polygamist Down's. "It's not really talked about; I don't think [people here] even research to see how related they are" before getting married or pregnant, she adds.