. [23] The group claims no preference for any particular family or surname stating members join every year "from a variety of different backgrounds and surnames. One of the most controversial splinter groups of Mormonism, the Latter Day Church of Christ, has been led by members of the Kingston family since it was founded in 1935. . David Kingston was released from prison in 2003. Much of what we have reviewed appears frivolous and unfounded, Gustafson said in an emailed statement. . The suit was filed against the groups leader Paul Eldon Kingston and 21 other members. . Even the few highly educated people there . . The Kingstons claim that Elden received a new dispensation is problematic in another way. The organized Ku Klux Klan movement saw a boost in its membership in 2017. One recent morning [John Ortell's niece and third wife, Mary Gustafson] defended her complicity in arranging her daughters' marriages to their half-brothers, sons of John Ortell and LaDonna. . Elden passed away from cancer in 1948 and was succeeded by his brother John Ortell Kingston (commonly known as Ortell). Now, this might well be the case, with the . . The two Kingston brothers and their business partner, Lev Dermen, are in jail awaiting trial, scheduled to start in July and last six weeks. . . [T]he 'Salt Lake Tribune' . [Mormon] [h]istorian B. H. Roberts, notes an eugenic attitude regarding polygamy: "'It was in the name of a divinely-ordered species of eugenics that Latter-day Saints accepted the revelation which included a plurality of wives. Current scientific knowledge indicates Grants lack of sons resulted from his own genetic defect, since only men carry the male Y chromosome to make a son. Faced with the forced marriage to an uncle, Rugg left the Kingstons. One of their daughters married another of the community's founding patriarchs and religious leaders, John Yeates Barlow. . "Like his father-in-law, John Y. Barlow became one of the towering patriarchs of the fundamentalist Mormon community and served as FLDS prophet from 1935 until his death in 1949. . Early polygamy was rife with incestuous and eugenic ideas and practices as well. The early Mormon Church practiced polygamy until 1890, when leaders abandoned the practice as a condition for Utah to gain statehood. Polygamy today is comprised of early Mormon polygamy descendants and these families are now interrelated by a factor impossible in monogamy. "Last year, a 16-year-old daughter of John Daniel Kingston was forced to marry her uncle, David Ortell Kingston, criminal charges allege, . . . They offer no support, no exit route and no programs for the people trapped inside polygamy endeavoring to escape these closed polygamous communities or compounds. Men rise in prominence by being obedient and pure of blood and by having large families that can produce a lot of money and workers for the group, the suit continues. . "Goodman soon made a startling discovery: Tarby's young patient was afflicted with an extremely rare disease called fumarase deficiency. "When ancestors are revered as prophets and kings, it is difficult to admit or examine the possibility of this legacy. Surely, there were too many deaths. ", 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). Kingston was able to name only nine of his thirteen children by a second woman, Rachael Ann Kingston. . There is no doubt about that at all. This story has been shared 112,868 times. "Tarby and a team of doctors from Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix and the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson began researching the disease and soon discovered that fumarase deficiency was occurring in at least two other families living in the same isolated community that practiced an unusual custom. Click to reveal "John and Charles' brother, Merlin Barnum Kingston, married and had children with four nieces and a half-sister, say ex-members, including one of his own daughters. Isaac Wyler, a former FLDS member who was excommunicated from the church . (Patricia was one of Kingston's 14 wives, and the clip does not reveal whether she is still alive.) . Blood tests showed the infant and 25 other children from numerous women were fathered by the same man, leading to one of the largest welfare fraud-settlements in Utah history. . . "For more than 70 years, all marriages in the isolated towns have been arranged by the leader of the FLDS, a breakaway sect of the Salt Lake City-based Mormon Church. . Upon Ortells death in 1987, leadership passed to his son Paul Elden Kingston. The children live in the twin polygamist communities of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah. "They've got this idea that their blood is pure and that they want to keep it pure.'. All are retarded, the neurologist told Salt Lake City television station KSL-TV. "Including Utah, 37 states outlaw first-cousin marriage. It didn't find any. I hate to talk like this about my own genealogy,' Wyler says, 'but, literally, they are keeping all the breeding stock--the women, the [strictly faithful] men--and weeding out the disobedient men. That means the number of cases likely will grow. One nurse confided, 'We see too many trisome l3 and l8 babies.' The trial of the man, David Ortell Kingston . Wyler says he once saw a fumarase deficiency child suffer a seizure while she was sitting with her mother and two other children also suffering from the disorder. Tarby recounts a conversation he had with a member of the Barlow clan in which he tried to explain why so much fumarase deficiency was occurring among Mormon polygamists. 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. "In this isolated religious society north of the Grand Canyon, few secrets have been more closely guarded than the presence of fumarase deficiency. Tarby. "'You don't want to jump to the conclusion and say all of these are the result of inbreeding,' he says. The records of the marriages sealed at the Nauvoo Temple before the general exodus to Utah in the 1840s, may be the most important ones of all; yet, these are . "The leaders must also understand the ethical considerations of continuing behavior, he says, that is bringing children into the world who suffer tragic deformities. In recent years, former members have lobbied for law enforcement to take action against the sect. "The fact that fumarase deficiency had shown up in one child was startling enough--there had only been a handful of cases reported worldwide. In response to questions from the newspaper, Kent Johnson, a spokesman for the Davis County Cooperative. This is why the state and federal government enacted legislation against polygamy. The accusers also claim that the group arranged child marriages so that girls would become pregnant and beholden to their husbands and the religious sect. "During this early period, polygamy was practiced secretly by the Mormon leadership, men who covertly preached and expanded polygamy while publicly deceiving the general Mormon population about the practice. . "There is no cure for the disease, which impedes the body's ability to process food at the cellular level. . and councilmen.' . "I never knew if I carried this deadly disease or if any preventative measures would halt its insidious march. . ozpoof . LuAnn Kingston, a former member of the clan who in 1995 at age fifteen was forced to marry her first cousin, shared: The joke used to be that if you werent married by 17, you were an old maid.[5], Within the Kingston Group, the primary polygamists are the immediate Kingston family and heirs. We dont expect any of the claims to prevail in a court of law.. "By the late 1990s, Tarby and his team had discovered fumarase deficiency was occurring in the greatest concentration in the world among the fundamentalist Mormon polygamists of northern Arizona and southern Utah. She says her parents, Merlin Barnum Kingston (John Ortell's brother) and Joyce Fransden, were uncle and niece. . But now that it was appearing in two children in the same family was an indication it was being spread by a gene that was getting passed to the children by their parents. [T]he one-wife system not only degenerates the human family, both physically and intellectually, but it is entirely incompatible with philosophical notions of immortality; it is a lure to temptation, and has always proved a curse to a people. 3, p. 291, "I have noticed that a man who has but one wife, and is inclined to that doctrine, soon begins to wither and dry up, while a man who goes into plurality [of wives] looks fresh, young, and sprightly. [21][26], The Latter Day Church of Christ is based on a belief in Jesus Christ and the restoration of his gospel in these latter days. When you pair up those undesirable genes, something strange will pop out.'. "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. mating in a way that increases genetic diseases, that the public ends up supporting, it becomes a matter of public interest.'. . . Several people also wonder if parts of 'Escaping Polygamy' is dramatized. . (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.Carolyn . One of the guilty pleas states they cycled fraud proceeds through a number of international partners and then back to Washakie's bank accounts, falsely claiming them as loans or profits. 15, p. 227, -Kimball, "Journal of Discourses," vol. v. Kingston, et al., Third Judicial District Court of Salt Lake County, UT (2022)", "Fallout from Washakie fraud could cost polygamous Kingston Group members their businesses and homes", https://www.sltrib.com/news/2019/07/29/fallout-washakie-fraud/, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Latter_Day_Church_of_Christ&oldid=1137075084, Jason Kingston allegedly had a relationship with his half-sister Andrea Johnson, who became pregnant in 1992. First, the truth and the priesthood keys are dispensed from heaven to a prophet on earth. joined the Mormons in Zion, the new Promised Land, trading a life of mining for religious hope. Kingston Clan. But it is unclear how such assets are exalting the poor or making the rich low. ", -Apostle Heber C. Kimball, as quoted Stanley P. Hirshon, "The Lion of the Lord: A Biography of Brigham Young" [New York, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1969], pp. Why is this? Half and full siblings are marrying in religious ceremonies. . The Kingston Clan is a polygamous group with an estimated 10,500 members. "Gradually, I realized the practice of polygamy, especially in Mormondom, might be a prescription for genetic disease. Connie Rugg [is] one of John Ortell's estimated 65 children and one of a handful of Kingston relatives who have fled the clan. Most populations outbreed and so these lethal genes rarely match to cause any serious diseases. "15 years ago, a strange-looking child suffering from severe physical maladies and acute retardation was brought into the office of [pedatric neurologist] Dr. Theodore Tarby. 'If you cross a Barlow and Jessop, you stand a high risk of getting this condition,' Tarby says. "Tarby says he explained to [a] gathering at [a] Town Hall in Colorado City that the only way to stop fumarase deficiency in the community is to abort fetuses that test positive for the disease and for the community to stop intermarriages between Barlows and Jessops, Barlows and Barlows and Jessops and Jessops. The Kingston Clan is where Jessica, Andrea, and Shanell escaped over a decade ago. . [1], The Church . Unfortunately, it's still the innocent who suffer due to Joseph Smith's lies. . "Joseph Smith Jessop and his first wife, Martha Moore Yeates, had 14 children. . "Victims suffer a range of symptoms, including severe epileptic seizures, inability to walk or even sit upright, severe speech impediments, failure to grow at a normal rate, and tragic physical deformities. . Performance & security by Cloudflare. Among the participants was Charles W. Kingston. . . The lone man suing said three Order men raped him when he was 16 or 17 and that when he left the group and announced he was gay, was tracked down and severely beaten by a group of boys acting at the direction of the Order, the lawsuit alleges. "[52][46][53] In a recent lawsuit, ex-members allege that the WRE case was an example of the concept of "bleeding the beast." . Through diligent money management and hard work, the Davis County Cooperative Society became very financially successful. That apparently was John Ortell Kingston's intent, although most studies of first-cousin mating show their offspring test lower on IQ exams, Jorde says. "In polygamy . Let's revisit the boastful words of Mormon Church Prophet John Taylor and Mormon Church Apostle Heber C. Kimball, both quoted earlier: -Taylor, "Millennial Star," vol. Elden theorized that living the law of consecration was still required, and he set forth to establish his own united order organization. "Intermarriage among close relatives is producing children who have two copies of a recessive gene for a debilitating condition called fumarase deficiency. . 'Right now, we are just looking at the tip of the iceberg.'. The adoption of children among family members sometimes disguised sterility. As bad as this past is, the mounting evidence is far worse. Satan will try to stop the power of the Lord and that power is where the Lord has given his covenant of consecration and that is: to the Davis County Co-op of Bountiful, Utah. He prepared urine samples and sent them to the University of Colorado Science Center's Dr. Steve Goodman, a professor of pediatrics who runs a laboratory that detects rare genetic diseases. "Dr. Vinodh Narayanan, a pediatric neurologist at St. Joseph's Hospital, says he is seeking funding to develop a test that would allow public health officials to collect voluntary blood samples from as many FLDS members as possible. 'Remember how Hitler was trying to breed a perfect race?' Certainly if MORmON Jesus had done this, we would hear all about it from the LDS as *proof* that God was doing his modern work via MORmONISM, but alas there is no such manifestation ! "Recently, another cousin fathered a child born with spinal bifida, inherited paralysis, an anomaly related to nephritis. 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. ", (Bruce, R. McConkie,'Mormon Doctrine,' 2nd ed., under "Plural Marriage" (Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, Inc., 1966], p. 578) . I am convinced they do. lost the priesthood which had come down to them from the Prophet Joseph Smith. "[44] Members claim they have been broadly and unfairly targeted by authorities for the negative actions of a small few. . [6] Brooke Adams, Salt Lake Tribune, May 22, 2004. That's the big problem.' "Wyler said it's all part of the community's religious system. . The baby survived, but has cerebral palsy. . 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. In fact, the leaders of the Co-op just seem to be getting richer and the poor get essentially ignored. It is these discredited ideas that foster this genetic legacy. Literally, if they're 8 years old, it's like taking care of a baby.' Doctrinally, members of the LDCJC try to adhere to the teachings of the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price. . "Tarby says members of the community made it clear that neither choice was acceptable. . Modern Polygamy and Mormon Fundamentalism, 2023 Modern Polygamy and Mormon Fundamentalism, Joseph Smith Restores the Practice of Plural Marriage, Plural Marriage Commanded, Permitted, and Not Permitted, 1920sPolygamists Coalesce into an Organization, Lorin C. Woolley and His Council of Seven Friends, Independent Polygamists and Fundamentalists. "Medical experts say the incidence of the disorder will increase because the FLDS community is refusing to accept recommendations to reduce the likelihood of producing babies with fumarase deficiency. "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. And in 1999, David Ortell Kingston Jeremy Kingston's uncle was sentenced to the Utah State Prison for up to 10 years for committing incest with the 16-year-old niece who became his 15th wife. . _____. The notoriety will just make them zoo specimens. . "Experts say the number of children afflicted in the FLDS community is expected to steadily increase as a result of decades of inbreeding between two of the polygamous sect's founding families--the Barlows and the Jessops. . The Bear Clan's Kevin Walker told Global News on Wednesday that while the organization is still actively hitting Winnipeg streets, the way they operate has changed due to COVID-19. [13][verification needed], The Latter Day Church of Christ is based in Salt Lake City, Utah, with a presence in Bountiful, Utah. "'This problem is going to get worse and worse and worse,' predicts . . . "The rate at which Kingstons marry each other is 'frightening,' she says. . 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. Reportedly, Paul and his brother each have dozens of wives and hundreds of children. . The Cooperative itself was established in 1935. The accusers describe a patriarchal doctrine known as The Law of One Above Another, which they claim designates everyone a rank in the groups hierarchy. . "What was going on in my Utah pioneer family? So many young people.'. . . . "For us parents the future health and happiness of ourselves, our children and grandchildren are at stake. 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. . "'It makes you sick; it turns your stomach,' she says. [11] On February 7, 1941, the community founded by Elden Kingston officially declared themselves the Davis County Cooperative Society Inc. soon . Initially, she tried to conceal her marital relationship. "If female, they are married off to the few, powerful prominent males: incest is the fate of many teen-age girls. . The FLDS already has moved several hundred men, women and children to the compound, many of whom very likely carry the fumarase deficiency gene. Kingston began preaching polygamy amongst fellow members of the LDS Church and distributing pamphlets and the book he had co-written, Laman Manasseh Victorious: A Message of Salvation and Redemption to His People Israel, First to Ephraim and Manasseh. "An unknown number--but believed to be in the thousands--of Barlow/Jessop descendants carry the recessive gene that causes fumarase deficiency. A small portion of the funds (less than 6%) were also used to purchase legitimate goods and services from businesses who provided them in "good faith". . "It is possible that positive genetic traits could be passed along through human inbreeding. Mormons who believe that polygamy is a heaven-sent doctrine that will eventually be re-implemented on Earth by God (current Church claims of non-use notwithstanding), have a friend in go-to LDS Apostle, Bruce R. McConkie, who confidently declared: "Obviously, the holy practice [of polygamy] will commence again after the Second Coming of the Son of Man and the ushering in of the millennium. The complaint against the Kingston Group also known as the Order was filed in Salt Lake City last week by 10 people, including Amanda Rae Grant, who starred in the A&E docu-series Escaping Polygamy.. These wives sometimes became known, sometimes not. Thanks for contacting us. 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. the tight-lipped adult answer, 'We dont know,' seemed woefully inadequate. I promised myself to find out the truth when I grew up. when doctors pronounced us a special and important family. These defects could be life threatening like nephritis and spinal bifida, or merely debilitating like asthma. While Charles W. Kingston was the first to oppose the Church, the primary mover in the Kingston Group was his son Elden. But that's like spitting in the ocean.'. Therefore, to keep the bloodline 'pure,' the Kingstons intermarry--half-brothers and sisters, uncles and nieces, aunts and nephews, and so forth. "While discussing health problems at a family gathering with some of my cousins wives, we discovered astonishingly that three out of four of us, all polygamy descendants, had borne a son with a clubfoot. Kimball. and Privacy Policy. "'It would have been unusual if he wasn't using artificial insemination in his herd, and by virtue of that, was probably using semen from some bulls that had been inbred,' says Dennis Green, a professor of beef cattle genetics at Colorado State University. His father wrote: Brother Elden received a new covenant up on the top of the highest mountain that is east of Bountiful, Utah. [28][29], During the first years of the Davis County Cooperative Society, Elden Kingston and his followers wore unique blue denim outer garments that led to people referring to them as "blue-coats." The Kingstons are a Mormon splinter group, founded in the 1930s by Mary's great-uncle Elden. If these couples are . 'It's a bomb that's going to explode.'. Young is the owner of Desert Tech, a Utah gun manufacturer. From an "Associated Press" news report, "Doctor: Birth Defects Increase in Polygamy Community": "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. Assets are generally estimated to be in the range of $200 million, although one Colorado competitor gave an even more stratospheric guess, pegging the clan's wealth at $11 billion. . . He also married a woman descended from polygamy. [31][32][33] During this time, some non-members and ex-members began claiming the practice stemmed from theories of genetic purification held by past leaders. "Community historian Ben Bistline said most of the community's 8,000 residents are in two major families descended from a handful of founders who settled there in the 1930s. . . Arrow Real Estate and Property Compliance, Fountain of Youth Health and Athletic Club. . Had these defects clumped in my own family as it seemingly appeared to me? By 1935, his followers began to move to Bountiful, Utah, intending to live under a United Order communal program as defined by Joseph Smith in the Doctrine and Covenants. refuse to accept advice from any outsider, including doctors such as Tarby, who has treated their children for years. "In 1996, the now 31-year-old Kingston mother of two slow-growing children sought explanations at Primary Children's Medical Center. Women, meanwhile, allegedly gain status by being pure of blood and obedient, becoming the first wives of higher-ranking numbered men, and bearing many children. The word dispensation refers to two processes. 'They are functioning way below their chronological age.'. . It is true that the LDS Church has collected tithes and offerings in the millions of dollars over the past decades. My aunt and uncle outlived two of their five children and two more may have nephritis. Connie Rugg, one of Ortells plural wives remembered: [Ortell Kingston] experimented inbreeding with his cattle and then he turned to his children.[4] Ortell desired to perfect his own bloodline and implemented practices that encouraged marriages of close relatives. Shuvrajit Das Biswas. Utah Attorney General's Office and Arizona Attorney General's Office. . 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. Not only were there possibly too few fathers making it easier for defects to clump in the large interrelated kindred but succeeding generations of children from these isolated rural Mormon towns married within a few kindred as well. . "If both parents are descendants of polygamy, the children may be at even greater risk. Sally Kingston, a wife of one of the brothers, and. 'In the meantime, the taxpayers have to pay the bills. "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. [50][51], Davis County Cooperative leadership and members swiftly condemned the fraudulent behavior stating that "[Jacob] broke from tradition in many ways" and stressing "to members and non-members alike that this behavior is not in line with our beliefs or principles." "Religious leaders control all marriages in the community, and many of these relatives have married or likely will marry in the future. . This is inadequate information for purposes of establishing the true incidence of consanguinity within a family or community. It may be that the Co-op is trying to help the poor in some anonymous way, but I have seen no evidence of it. These babies usually do not leave the hospital and die as infants. Have you also noticed all the genetic and other debilitating defects, deformities and diseases that comes along with your poisoned patriarchal plurality-of-wives club? This resulted in his excommunication from the LDS Church in 1929. requote from Steve's excellent post ! . "When [my cousin] died, my childish vow surfaced and I began to look into my family history for some answers. Since polygamy remained a hidden and illegal practice, disguised family records occurred. Brigham Young waited until 1868, twenty-one years after arriving in Utah, to actively promote it, and John Taylor ceased emphasizing it shortly after becoming President of the Church. For a more detailed view the the Kingston's historysee Modern Polygamy and Mormon Fundamentalism: The Generations After the Manifesto (Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books, 2006). A seventh son, Hyrum Dalton Kingston, is a polygamist but has not married incestuously, according to ex-members. The groups, whose members believe polygamy brings exaltation in heaven, are offshoots of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. . [I]t appears that Joseph Smith Jessop and his first wife also passed on the rare genetic disorder fumarase deficiency. Let's now examine how this supposedly "divinely-inspired" Mormon program of heavenly eugenics has actually worked in practice. [Andrea] Moore-Emmett [author of 'God's Brothel: The Extortion of Sex for Salvation in Contemporary Mormon and Christian Fundamentalist Polygamy and the Stories of 18 Women Who Escaped'] contends that [in polygamy] incest, statutory rape, torture, physical abuse, forced marriages, and trafficking of girls is rampant.