All I like to do is work on cars and hang out with friends and ride my ponies, he wrote one night on his MySpace page. At the lot's northwest corner, a metal gatethe kind you might find on a cattle ranchhangs open on its hinge. But by 2006, Dr. Theodore Tarby, of Arizona, had discovered at least 20 more children living with the condition in Short Creek, all within just blocks of each other. "It wasn't until I left the FLDS and moved away from the community that I realized I'd been to an unusually high number of funerals growing up in the Creek," says Alyssa Bistline over a crackling phone connection. For Stephen and the other kids on the ranch, the highlight of each week came on Sundays, when they traveled the hour and a half south to Salt Lake for church. Recordings of church testimony given by various Kingstons serve as further evidence of the cults bigoted teachings. 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. Back then, Paul Kingston stood around five feet ten and weighed close to 200 pounds. "I didn't touch her; I just used a turkey baster," she mimics, rolling her eyes. And they are growing. 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. These men are living freely in the Cane Beds area. Daniel was arrested and eventually spent 28 weeks in a county jail for felony child abuse. Women Who Escaped a Polygamist Mormon Cult Share Their Story, the corner of Canyon Street and Jessop Avenue, to express his support for the Bundy family in Oregon, an article published by the ABC news network, the fundamentalist church of jesus christ of latter day saints. Among the polygamous Kingstons, a number of children have been born with birth defects, among them one born with two vaginas and two uteruses but no Outwardly, she appeared to have no sex organs. Everyone knows it's happening, few talk about it unprompted, it just sort of..is. Jonathan Turner, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Riverside, hypothesized exactly that, in an article published by the ABC news network in 2008. See the Beths Deliver Refreshing 'Expert in a Dying Field' Mini-Set on 'CBS Mornings', Sex, Drugs, and the Biggest Cybercrime of All Time, I could boil down what theyre about in three words, says a member who broke with the Order. The last infant grave marked in this cemetery is dated 2010; Warren issued an edict from prison banning sex in 2011, so few infants have been born since then (the few babies born each year are the product of institutionalized rape by cult-appointed seed bearers). Paul would rather have the wealth and the money than the isolation and the conflict, he said. This is your fault, he thundered, glaring at them. Due to the Kingstons convoluted genealogy, Lu Ann was both his first cousin and his aunt. "Well, needless to say, we had a lot of, uh. According to former Order members, they worked long shifts sorting coal and operating heavy machinery in unsafe conditions. Kingston is a member of the Order, the largest Mormon polygamist clan in the U.S. To her horror, all that remained was a ring of dust, marking the place where a chest of gold coins had once stood. On weekends, he was sent out to work at the Orders coal mine with other teenagers. 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. He also had dozens of children a brood that would eventually grow to around 300 and he had a hard time telling them apart. Unable to visit his mother, Stephen would leave a $100 bill in her mailbox or, with his brothers, buy her new furniture. There lives Ross LeBaron Jr., a descendant of another polygamous sect (separate from the FLDS but quite similar in practice) called the Church of the Firstborn of the Fulness of Times. Something along the lines of, to build a superhuman, if you have four or five defects to get the one good one, its worth it, he recalled. materials or even attempted to focus team and society have a kingston clan member was charged with birth defects increase becomes apparent similarities than. According to experts and former Jeffs followers, the cause of the birth defect is clear: Intermarriage among close relatives is producing children who have two copies of a recessive gene for a debilitating condition called Fumarase Deficiency. "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.'" Carolyn. Kingston Polygamy Order Birth Defects Glutenous Kalvin asphalts lentissimo. Another of the cults teachings was that soy can make you gay, an anti-government conspiracy theory popular in some right-wing circles. You better check on your gold, Young told her. You could be such an asset to the Order., Trending Is it a requirement to gain the highest levels of heaven? ", "They took their lives," Ron says. According to many of the individuals interviewed for this story, these children are seen as special angels sent from God to the FLDS community. So what about polygamy? . Dawna's younger sister has a little boy with two clubfeet. "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.". They got married and contacted the . The FLDS believe they are practicing the one true religion as Prophet Joseph Smith intended it to be. . (Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Jessica Kingston was wed at age 16 in what she says was a marriage she felt pressured into by her parents and others in a polygamous sect. . 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. Look around, Stephen says. 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. He seemed like the most amazing guy, Stephen recalls. Unlike other girls in the Order, Richaun was refined she didnt wear hand-me-downs, and at clan dances, a long line of boys waited to dance with her. Which brings us back to the baby cemetery. Some would say that is because it takes generations for certain inbred recessive genetic traits to manifest. "They would hand them over and say, 'Would you mind please taking care of them, because we can't?' 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. When he noticed that the boys had stopped working, he became enraged. Sometimes his father read the Book of Mormon from the pulpit and talked about things regular Christians would recognize, like tithing or repentance. 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. When it comes to racist Sunday school lessons, the polygamous Kingston clan could teach the Ku Klux Klan a thing or two. 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. 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. Lost Index. Home births and the frequency of miscarriages and still-borns among the Kingstons have led to macabre legends of dead infants buried in Kingston back yards. "I'm like, Really? More troubling, during a contentious 2004 custody case that ensued when Jessica and her sister Andrea fled Daniel Kingstons household, a judge in the case reportedly was the subject of a death threat, allegedly from Kingston clan members. They steer clear of banks, fearing theyll steal their money. 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. 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. From a young age, Snow worked for Order companies to help feed his siblings, a responsibility some Kingston men are known to shirk. As he grew older, Stephen turned out to be as rebellious as his own father had been as a boy. After the boys were taken into custody, one of their first calls was to Stephen. They sat there for a moment, warming their hands against the sputtering heater. A sheriffs deputy traced the license plate of the Honda to a run-down house in a working-class suburb south of the city. John Daniel Kingston seen here in 1999, pleading no contest to beating his 16-year-old daughter after she attempted to flee an arranged marriage with her uncle David, Kingstons brother. 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. Modern interpretations of this passage vary, but The Order apparently takes quite literally this idea of blackness being a sign of iniquity. If you ever do that again, he said, Ill blow your head off., It was an astonishing moment in the history of the clan. The Kingstons operate in a self-contained universe, completely cut off from the outside world. By 18, she. As for its anti-government views, allegations of fraud against government entities have long dogged the Kingstons. But in a 2News . 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. There was a guy out here who was married to a couple of young girls, and he was going to get in trouble. He says The Order regards homosexuality as a choice. The issue is available now on newsstands and in the digital archive. Nevertheless, former members of The Order say that incest and racism are inextricably linked in The Orders teachings. If every generation includes three wives and 30 children, a man can - theoretically - flood a community with over 24 million of his descendants in. In a letter to the Intelligence Report responding to allegations made by former members, Kent Johnson, a spokesman for the Davis County Cooperative Society, claimed that The Orders foundational principles include the Golden Rule, and that the church rejects any form of racism or bigotry. 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. "Fred was in charge of the cemeteries, the gravediggers, all of that. One of her brothers married a woman whose grandmother is a sister to their father. I dont really have too many friends, but the ones I do, I wouldnt trade for anything., Among Stephens friends were two of his cousins, Luke and Scott Brown. Just under eight miles southeast of Short Creek is an area called Cane Beds, Arizona. Intelligence Report then read the names of women believed to be his wives four in all. Ethnic jokes and stereotypes were commonly repeated. 6.3M views 6 years ago Profiles by VICE S1 E23 Although the mainstream Mormon church abandoned polygamy over 100 years ago, many splinter groups across Utah still practice plural marriage. There were so many young children who were born with abnormalitiesharelips, club feet, heart valvesthat were they were going to die within a year. Ron says the cults justification for its racism goes back to early Mormon teachings about a war in heaven between the forces of Satan and those of Jesus. It's not really talked about; I don't think [people here] even research to see how related they are. 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. Former Order members tell of babies being born nearly every week in the church. Dont the infant deaths and tales of horrific deformities belie Ortells homespun eugenics? Kollene's father, John Daniel Kingston has 14 wives, and she is the fifth of her mother Shirley Hansen's 12 children. Youd show up for a welfare call, or a domestic-abuse call, and it was just real run-down.. His face was crushed, Stephen says now, matter-of-factly, his eyes going blank for a moment. 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As lore has it, Elden was the one mighty and strong predicted by Scripture, who holding the scepter of power in his hand would set in order the House of God. With thick white hair, a lantern jaw and a commanding presence, he had no problem attracting followers. 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. 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. Elden continued the tradition. 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.. On the show's pilot, the trio bring a burly security guard along as they help a woman sneak into her own home to grab belongings for herself and her two young daughters. Like Stephen, the boys were considered troublemakers by the Order and like Stephen, they knew a lot about how the clan handled its money. Because of the clans distrust of banks, the Order had cash hidden all over the place, a poorly kept secret within the family. 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. But The Order saves most of its bile for blacks and other non whites. The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time Those twoand a fifth boyalso suffer from the condition that all of this family's sons were born with: x-linked hydrocephalus. If you have as much as one drop of that blood in your veins, says Carl, youre cursed from holding the priesthood.. and cousins. They also knew that much of the clans wealth was stashed inside the unassuming suburban house on the corner. 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. 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. Others say they buried it out in the desert and are slowly cashing it out. I honestly didnt even know there was any gold until they accused me of taking it, he says. "It's doesn't stop anybody," Dawna says. deficiency. According to church lore, The Order came into existence when founder Charles Elden Kingston saw Jesus in the mountains above the familys settlement in Bountiful, Utah, inspiring him to create the DCCS in 1935.