"'My father manipulated and controlled people,' Rugg says. "Some of the kids can walk, but others have a difficult time even sitting. . . Over the past decades, the Kingston Group has maintained extreme secrecy while developing an extensive cooperative system, with wealth in at least 50 corporations in Utah and scattered across the West. I promised myself to find out the truth when I grew up. . The Co-op members practiced plural marriage and abided by a rigid hierarchy of leadership and deference. "For Colorado City and Hildale to avoid more fumarase, polygamist leaders must use their authority to make sure that those potentially carrying the fumarase gene are not allowed to marry, says geneticist Aleck. "The same right of marriage approval was wielded by John Ortell Kingston, who began the incestuous lineage. During the 1920s, hundreds of dissenters from the LDS Church gathered into specific groups across the Wasatch Front. ", ("Mormon Polygamy: Frequently Asked Questions," at: http://www.i4m.com/think/polygamy/polygamy_summary.htm). . [12] In 1977, Elden's brother Ortell Kingston began to file for legal recognition of the church later organized as The Latter Day Church of Christ. . ", "C250 - Senate Judiciary, Law Enforcement, and Criminal Justice Committee", "DCCS Self-Sustaining Policy, Contributions to the Community", "The Polygamist Accused of Scamming the U.S. Out of $500 Million", "Former WRE CEO testifies about money paid to DCCS Entities", "Jury Finds Los Angeles Businessman Guilty in $1 Billion Biodiesel Tax Fraud Scheme", "Polygamists Admit $512 Million Fraud for U.S. Fuel-Tax Credits", "CEO And CFO Of Utah Biodiesel Company And California Businessman Charged In $500 Million Fuel Tax Credit Scheme", "WRE Defendants arrested and awaiting trial", "Trial postponed for last defendant in fraud case involving members of the Kingston polygamous family", "Complaint and Jury Demand, Grant, et al. "Of even greater concern was the fact that the recessive gene that triggers the disease was rapidly spreading to thousands of individuals living in the community because of decades of inbreeding. . "It is Moore-Emmett's belief that the LDS Church who started polygamy in this country should take responsibility and provide financial aid and other resources for those polygamous families who have been abused. [8], In the late 1990s, three members of the LDCJC faced scrutiny for entering into incestuous relationships. "It is possible that positive genetic traits could be passed along through human inbreeding. Let's now examine how this supposedly "divinely-inspired" Mormon program of heavenly eugenics has actually worked in practice. . . This is a rare disorder and medical descriptions of trisome infants are too dreadful to describe here. 'Most of what you print is lies, lies, lies.' Readily accepted as a problem among mothers past the age of 35, it is rarely discussed as a problem when fathers are over 35, let alone 80. Naming a father could expose the truth, unveil secrets of paternity and subject the clan to further scrutiny from those who don't approve of incest. "Isaac Wyler, also a former follower of the church led by fugitive Warren Jeffs, told KSL that he was related by marriage to some of the victims. One of their daughters married another of the community's founding patriarchs and religious leaders, John Yeates Barlow. At least six of Merlin's incestuously conceived children in turn married half-siblings, couplings that subsequently produced children with various deformities, says Rowenna Erickson, an ex-member who left her polygamous husband. Yet, this practice may hide the actual genetic kinship and can further exacerbate genetic problems. . John Gustafson, a representative of the Davis County Cooperative Society, an affiliate of the Kingston Group, disputed the lawsuits claims. . "FLDS marriages, Wyler and other community experts say, are an extension of a breeding program that began with Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith in the 1830s. The three marriages between second cousins have produced at least eight children afflicted with fumarase deficiency, according to a report in the May 2000 'Annals of Neurology' (based on the study conducted by the group led by Tarby and Aleck), interviews with doctors treating the disease and anecdotal evidence gathered from the community. Jacob Kingston told prosecutors the company was capable of producing some amounts of biodiesel, but in no year did it ever produce more than 8.5 million gallons. In the revelation, the Lord commands him to take virgins 'an hundredfold in this world' for the purpose to 'multiply and replenish the Earth' so 'they may bear the souls of men.' . [40] In 2009, the then-Attorney General of Utah, Mark Shurtleff, claimed that child marriages within polygamous societies in Utah, such as the Latter Day Church of Christ, had "effectively stopped". . . It is these discredited ideas that foster this genetic legacy. From the article, "Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints Genealogy and Polygamy Problems": "The gene pool is . . Daughters of men in the Co-op would be married off at young ages. . 'Escaping Polygamy' Star: My Dad Hid My Mom's Cancer Medicine - Us Weekly Not enough of the fumarase enzyme can lead to severe mental retardation and physical deformities. . J. Ortell Kingston aggressively pursued a financially-expansive agenda for the Davis County Cooperative Society Inc.[25] in the hopes of improving the financial condition of his followers. Elden theorized that living the law of consecration was still required, and he set forth to establish his own united order organization. People most at risk likely lived and married within the same small communities their ancestors founded. . Five of the women suing alleged they were coerced into marriage as minors and raped by their husbands. "Roughly one in four Americans say 'most Mormons' support the practice of polygamy . Derman was found guilty of masterminding the scheme in March 2020. But rather than amassing a fortune for the sake of accumulating wealth or to simply sustain a few selected leaders, donations flow into the Church coffers and out again to provide financial support for the accomplishment of the Churchs responsibilities regarding missionary work, temple work, and providing for physical welfare needs. Police raid Utah properties of well-known polygamist Kingston Clan [10], According to his autobiography, Charles W. Kingston became disenchanted with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) in 1926 because it abandoned plural marriage. Among the participants was Charles W. Kingston. One outspoken Mormon matriarch who attended the same Sunday meeting for 50 years commented about the health of the polygamous descendants versus the monogamous descendants, 'You see it in the obituaries. Unfortunately, it's still the innocent who suffer due to Joseph Smith's lies. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use [21] Over the past 25 years, many members have become college-educated and live in middle-to-upper-middle-class homes throughout their communities. 'If you stop the sexual predation, you stop the genetic problem as well. The Cooperative itself was established in 1935. Lawsuit accuses polygamous Kingston Group of child marriage, rape "Gradually, I realized the practice of polygamy, especially in Mormondom, might be a prescription for genetic disease. What members of Utah polygamous clan did with $512M in falsely obtained The Kingston Clan, also known as The Order is a Mormon based group that is far more like an organized crime family and cult than religious organization. The children who can't walk, the medical experts say, have most likely suffered strokes during severe seizures. "The widespread presence of the fumarase deficiency gene in the bloodlines of the founding families of Colorado City is going to make reaching any such goal extremely difficult. . Two weeks after is excommunication, Kingston had a dream wherein he believed he was visited by Jesus Christ and God the Father. Or was it true no one knew the answers, because they could not be known, because no one wanted to know? Only the FLDS prophet can arrange and perform polygamous marriages, and those marriages are taking place in a community in which almost everybody is related. Where Are Escaping Polygamy Cast Members Now? - The Cinemaholic "Warren Jeffs, like Joseph Smith before him, has emphasized the importance of obedience among members of the church. "He sent her to live in a coal yard with other polygamous wives and their many children in South Salt Lake, visiting her rarely and usually only to have sex, she testified. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. [13][verification needed], The Latter Day Church of Christ is based in Salt Lake City, Utah, with a presence in Bountiful, Utah. . restricted in some polygamous sects, including FLDS groups in Colorado City, Arizona; Hildale, Utah; and West Texas, that force some of the young males to leave the communities . "Ex-members' claims of incest are bolstered by court records claiming John Ortell 'failed either to support or acknowledge' three children by his niece, (Susan) Mary Gustafson. [11] Some members had begun the practice of plural marriage years before the establishment of the cooperative. 'All of a sudden [with] this one little baby, everything tightened up and she arched her back so hard her head was almost touching her toes,' Wyler says. 'As soon as I saw her, I knew she had the same thing as her brother,' Tarby says. "Until the test is available, Tarby says, the best prevention measure remains refraining from crossing Barlows, Jessops and their relations--who make up half the population of the polygamist enclave. Polygamy would have afforded the opportunity of producing from that consecrated fatherhood and motherhood the improved type of man the world needs to reveal the highest possibilities of the race, that the day of the super man might come, and with him come also the redemption and betterment of the race.'. Her subject at the convention was mormon child sexual abuse. The suit was filed against the groups leader Paul Eldon Kingston and 21 other members. ", -Apostle Heber C. Kimball, "Journal of Discourses," vol. During a recent interview with the Intelligence Report, Jessica Kingston, a former member of the secretive, Salt Lake City-based cult and a star of the A&E reality series "Escaping Polygamy," remembered, when she was 12, her Sunday school teacher coming into class with a bucket of water and a vial of black food coloring. ", And despite the LDS Church's highly suspect claim of having genuinely abandoned the doctrine and practice of polygamy in 1890 (see D. Michael Quinn's historically-devastating essay that got him excommunicated for telling the truth, "LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890-1904," at: http://www.lds-mormon.com/quinn_polygamy.shtml), many Mormons, in fact, still believe that the practice of multi-wifing will someday be reinstituted "[b]ecause the doctrine is still part of official Mormon scripture (see 'Doctrine and Covenants,' Section 132). While they affirm that they now carry the torch first lit by Joseph Smith, their agenda focuses only on plural marriage and their own brand of united order. Articles of Incorporation of the Davis County Cooperative Society, 7 February 1941. Never miss a story. [32] He was arrested and pleaded "no contest" to the charge of child abuse and served seven months in jail. . Jacob Kingston pleaded guilty to 41 charges, including conspiracy to commit mail fraud, aiding/assistance in filing a false claim, money laundering and obstruction. As bad as this past is, the mounting evidence is far worse. 'He wanted to control his children and grandchildren through genetics. "Nearly everyone in Colorado City, Arizona, and the adjacent town of Hildale, Utah, was a member of a fundamentalist Mormon sect that practices polygamy and had long encouraged multiple marriages between close relatives. , says he has firsthand knowledge of multiple fumarase deficiency children in each of the three families. _____. This means it may be genetically unwise for children of the early leaders to marry other children of early leaders, even now; yet, this tendency still exists in Mormonism. The baby survived, but has cerebral palsy. [7], Plural marriage is practiced by some members of the LDCJC and members make their own choice in who they marry. It didn't find any. She says her parents, Merlin Barnum Kingston (John Ortell's brother) and Joyce Fransden, were uncle and niece. [4] Andrea Moore-Emmett, Gods Brothel (San Francisco: Pince-Nez, 2004), 88. ". Gluttony - The Kingston Clan Part Two - Apple Podcasts The Kingstons are members of the Davis County Cooperative Society or the Kingston Order, which practices polygamy. 'And is that religion popular in heaven?' 13, p. 195, "We breathe the free air, we have the best looking men and handsomest women, and if they (non-Mormons) envy us our position, well they may, for they are a poor, narrow-minded, pinch-backed race of men, who chain themselves down to the law of monogamy, and live all their days under the dominion of one wife. . present a troubling scenario for law enforcement: these are crimes of a sexual nature committed in private in a closed society. However, the law of consecration has a purpose beyond self-sacrifice. "With no other options available, more FLDS families will be faced with the difficult burden of caring for children suffering with fumarase deficiency. Early polygamy was rife with incestuous and eugenic ideas and practices as well. shocking stuff AFAIK it's quite contrary, for example MENA / Pakistan people very often marry 1st cousins. "If you look in the literature, you won't find another dozen cases in the world that have been reported," says Tarby. When a group inbreeds, as polygamists have, more and more lethal gene matches occur. a royal priesthood upon the Earth, and he has introduced a plurality of wives for that express purpose.'. . . . Carolyn regularly worked at and tended . Faced with the forced marriage to an uncle, Rugg left the Kingstons. [37], The Kingston family and other members of the LDCC have faced two lawsuits, one in 2006[38] and another in 2022[39] accusing members and the organization as a whole of sexual abuses, including pedophilia and underaged marriages, within their membership. . . The trial of the man, David Ortell Kingston . "'You don't want to jump to the conclusion and say all of these are the result of inbreeding,' he says. "Then, as generations of polygamous Kingston children have been taught, they demurred to questions about their father. As a symbol of their renunciation of worldly goods, the outer clothing contained no pockets in which possessions could be carried, although later an inside pocket was provided for the sanitary measure of carrying a handkerchief. [10], Over the decades, the Cooperative has maintained extreme secrecy while developing an extensive system with assets once estimated at over $150 million. Who Murdered Polygamist Wife and Mother Carolyn Yvonne Kingston? states that '[t]he [Utah] state legislature is consistently 90% Mormon . . 'I don't know how many who die within the first two or three years that we don't even ever know about. 'Escaping Polygamy' is a docuseries on Lifetime which follows the work of three sisters, who were able to break free from the polygamous Kingston Clan, known as the Order. Jeffs is following a long-established practice -- started by Smith 170 years ago -- of excommunicating those who do not strictly adhere to church leaders' commands. Exhibiting LGBTQ+ tendencies can indicate impure blood, according to the lawsuit. From the article, "Mormon Polygamy: Frequently Asked Questions": "[Mormon] Church founder, Joseph Smith, said he received a revelation from God, which is still canonized Mormon scripture as Doctrine and Covenants Section 132. . Since the natural male-to-female ratio is roughly 50-50, the ratio must be manipulated so that there are more females than males for polygamy to work. Like any fundamentalist Mormon sect, the Kingston Clan is very hierarchal. Sally Kingston, a wife of one of the brothers, and. IF polygamy really is justified in increased breeding, and since MORmON Jesus did institute such a plan according to MORmON history at one time, then how come MORmON god does not follow through and have a lot more females born in such marriages as would be required mathematically to make His