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. . Convinced they are breeding a pure white master race, they blame the mother if a deformed baby is born then preach she was unrighteous or unclean. For instance, Quinn writes, '[O]ver 20 General Authorities were married to such lesser known wives.' . "Today, six sons and two daughters of John Ortell and LaDonna have married at least 20 half-sisters, nieces and first cousins, giving birth to a family tree that twists and tangles, and, at times, withers with children born of genetic deficiencies. Some Kingston followers might justify their financial conglomerate by comparing it to the wealthy Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 5, p. 22. _____, --How "God's Genes" Do Ugly Things: The Biological Attack on "Modern"-day Followers of Mormonism's Originally-"Revealed" Doctrine of Polygamy. "Last year, a 16-year-old daughter of John Daniel Kingston was forced to marry her uncle, David Ortell Kingston, criminal charges allege, . http://www.azcentral.com/health/news/articles/0209PolygamyBirthDefect09- http://www.childbrides.org/taxes_PNT_forbidden_fruit.html, http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy25.html. 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. Exhibiting LGBTQ+ tendencies can indicate impure blood, according to the lawsuit. "If female, they are married off to the few, powerful prominent males: incest is the fate of many teen-age girls. . . "Farm Roots of Incest: Marriages in the Kingston clan must be sanctioned by [the] current head of the church . Gallup Panel survey [conducted in August 2006] show[ed] that Americans are much more likely to believe most Mormons endorse practicing polygamy than to believe most Americans support it. [39], The organization continues to publicly denounce the practice of child marriage,[41][39] and maintains that marriages within the group are not coerced. [54], The Utah holdings of Davis County Cooperative members were once estimated at more than $200 million,[9] and were believed to include the following:[55], For the church formally established by Joseph Smith in 1830, see. . . . . . joined the Mormons in Zion, the new Promised Land, trading a life of mining for religious hope. Cases of fumarase deficiency have shown up in the FLDS communities in Colorado City and Hildale, and doctors believe that the incidence of the condition in these communities will increase in coming generations. "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. It gets pretty bleak when it gets that close.' 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. . I think most people are made aware of the problems caused by inbreeding (a nicer word than incest) when they are still young teenagers. . Family members attribute the defects to the advanced ages of the mother and father -- he was 64, she was 45. . "Fast-forward . lucky The children live in the twin polygamist communities of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah. . "All of these men have or had multiple wives and scores of children. . Three of their children suffer from serious inherited disorders. 'They are functioning way below their chronological age.'. . Upon Ortells death in 1987, leadership passed to his son Paul Elden Kingston. Derman was found guilty of masterminding the scheme in March 2020. . "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. 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. . . This nurse has a polygamous background, so does her husband. "Our ancestral destiny meant we might give birth to sons who would die at maturity or daughters who would carry the trait to the next generation of sons. and Privacy Policy. Bearing in mind I'm not American and have only a vague knowledge of Mormonism, a video came across my youtube from a former member of the Kingston clan/the order and wow is this terrifying. But it is unclear how such assets are exalting the poor or making the rich low. . 1,000 GOAL. 'I try in my own, quiet way and tell them to outbreed. . And her ex-husband's parents, Merlin and Carolyn Kingston, were uncle and niece. Much of what we have reviewed appears frivolous and unfounded, Gustafson said in an emailed statement. ". By the time Joseph Smith Jessop died in September 1953, he already had 112 grandchildren, the majority of them directly descended from him and Yeates. Sounds like I left a few out, he said after being reminded of how many children he had fathered in that family.[6]. Children are allowed to attend public school and many go on to college. . . The Prophet Josephs priorities of missionary work, temple ordinances, proxy work for the dead, and feeding the poor appear to have been lost somewhere. . "Parents who share a common ancestor are consanguineous. soon . The adoption of children among family members sometimes disguised sterility. He also married a woman descended from polygamy. Many from Africa do it too, at least we in N Europe have lately gotten serious problems with immigrant children of polygamists who have various defects. 'I've seen some children that can talk and communicate a little,' Wyler said. Why do we believe in and practice polygamy? "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. . He believed he had superior bloodlines.' But in a 2News . 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. Five of the women suing alleged they were coerced into marriage as minors and raped by their husbands. [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. . . "Some are very debilitated and some aren't," he says. Interview with the owner of Desert Tech: The son of Paul's sister Rachel herself a daughter of Ortell and LaDonna Kingston [Nick] 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. . . Let's now examine how this supposedly "divinely-inspired" Mormon program of heavenly eugenics has actually worked in practice. "Some genes linked to conditions like microcephaly and dwarfism are 'autosomal recessive,' and are found among the 22-linked pairs of chromosomes that do not include the X and Y sex chromosomes, says Lynn Jorde of the University of Utah's Eccles Human Genetics Institute, a leading genetics research center. A recently created critical website can be viewed atwww.kingstonclan.com. We cannot afford to neglect the possibility our ancestors practiced a form of marriage that was unhealthy and debilitating to our children, to us, and to society. 'As soon as I saw her, I knew she had the same thing as her brother,' Tarby says. . . . [22][23] Currently the group claims that although different skillsets bring different financial outcomes, there is no homelessness within the DCCS, and internal programs exist for those experiencing financial poverty.[2]. [17] That same year, Ardous Kingston Gustafson, a mother of four and founding Co-op member, was jailed on Christmas Eve when she could not produce membership lists that were to be used to target plural families for further arrest and harassment. At the time this inbreeding took place these prophets preached and practiced modern eugenic science, the science of controlling the traits of future populations through selective breeding for idealized traits like blond hair, blue eyes and tall stature. 'In the meantime, the taxpayers have to pay the bills. [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." Jacob Kingston pleaded guilty to 41 charges, including conspiracy to commit mail fraud, aiding/assistance in filing a false claim, money laundering and obstruction. For 5 episodes that aired on Viewpoint on Mormonism between 9/14-18, 2020, click these: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Interview with Doris Hanson Part 1 Part 2 By Eric Johnson Summary. Utah Attorney General's Office and Arizona Attorney General's Office. shocking stuff AFAIK it's quite contrary, for example MENA / Pakistan people very often marry 1st cousins. 'Warren Jeffs is also trying to breed a perfect race.'. "An unknown number--but believed to be in the thousands--of Barlow/Jessop descendants carry the recessive gene that causes fumarase deficiency. "The rate at which Kingstons marry each other is 'frightening,' she says. "Some of the kids can walk, but others have a difficult time even sitting. . [T]he 'Salt Lake Tribune' . "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. Reportedly, Paul and his brother each have dozens of wives and hundreds of children. . ", (Aimee Larsen Stoddard, "Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints Genealogy and Polygamy Problems," 7 October 2010, under "Birth Defects in Mormon Fundamentalist Cult," posted by "halley, 20 February 2011, at: http://www.renewamerica.com/bb/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=13723) ", (Joseph Carroll, "One in Four Americans Think Most Mormons Endorse Polygamy; Only 2% Think Most Americans Support Polygamy," by Gallup News Service, Princeton, New Jersey, 7 September 2006, at: http://www.gallup.com/poll/24388/one-four-americans-think-most-mormons-e). . First, the truth and the priesthood keys are dispensed from heaven to a prophet on earth. While building his polygamous empire, John Ortell raised pigeons and Holsteins, prized black-and-white milk cows. Consanguinity is a reason why families bear children of only one sex--all sons or all daughters. We recall that Joseph Smith made no effort to implement the law of consecration while in Nauvoo (see D&C 105:34). 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. D. Michael Quinn, former Brigham Young University professor, states, 'The Mormon practice of polygamy enabled men to marry daughters, nieces, cousins, granddaughters and former wives of other General Authorities.'. People most at risk likely lived and married within the same small communities their ancestors founded. Although the official stance of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is against polygamy, several of the women's stories reveal that LDS leaders dismiss the deviant sects and blame the women who come to them for help. '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. . [15][16] The Grand Jury was described as "The polygamist hunting Davis County Grand Jury" by the Ogden Standard-Examiner in 1959. Charles Zitting (one of Lorin C. Woolleys High Priest Apostles) introduced Kingston to plural marriage, causing Kingston to be cut off from the Church in 1929. The group has drawn legal attention before. 'They think it is a test from God,' says Wyler, who was born and raised in the FLDS before he was booted out. . "If you look in the literature, you won't find another dozen cases in the world that have been reported," says Tarby. Thanks for signing up! "Genealogists and especially epidemiologists must be scrupulous in identifying all the wives and children of any polygamist man. . [in order] to reduce competition for wives. . "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. It is true that the LDS Church has collected tithes and offerings in the millions of dollars over the past decades. These defects could be life threatening like nephritis and spinal bifida, or merely debilitating like asthma. . . "When [my cousin] died, my childish vow surfaced and I began to look into my family history for some answers. The man's response was, "Up here, we are all related," Tarby says. "Tarby says he quickly realized he was dealing with a very unusual condition that he could not diagnose. After all, polygamy is illegal in the US. . It is these discredited ideas that foster this genetic legacy. Brigham Young, the second Mormon leader, preached, 'The time is coming when the Lord is going to raise a holy nation . 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. Nearly all the Mormon founding families were relatives, so the first polygamists enjoyed relations to different degrees when the divine experiment began. . . Kingston was able to name only nine of his thirteen children by a second woman, Rachael Ann Kingston. "The few dissenters in the community say the serious genetic problems that are beginning to surface are an indication that the closed FLDS society could eventually collapse. If such a test were developed, a community-wide screening program could be instituted that would identify those carrying the fumarase gene. Cloudflare Ray ID: 7a302ff8194befb0 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. Connie Rugg [is] one of John Ortell's estimated 65 children and one of a handful of Kingston relatives who have fled the clan. A young child is also one of the accusers in the suit with allegations the child was raped by his or her father, who allegedly raped the mother. And, "We cannot and will not condone or support anyone found to be engaged in any fraudulent behaviors. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. These babies usually do not leave the hospital and die as infants. [O]ver the first 50 years of Mormonism, a highly inbred hierarchy became even more inbred through their illegal marriage and childbirth practices. . "Fumarase deficiency is caused by a lack of the fumarase enzyme, an essential component in a biological process called the Krebs cycle, which converts food into energy within each cell. "Religious leaders control all marriages in the community, and many of these relatives have married or likely will marry in the future. In their own words, as quoted in a sister article that asks the question, "Is Monogamy the Ruin of Civilization?" The two Kingston brothers and their business partner, Lev Dermen, are in jail awaiting trial, scheduled to start in July and last six weeks. "For the first time, the faith-promoting stories about my great-grandfathers heroism for defying the federal government when they outlawed polygamy interested me. Rome became the mistress of the world, and introduced this order of monogamy wherever her sway was acknowledged. "'I had never seen a patient with it,' Tarby says. . Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. [4] Andrea Moore-Emmett, Gods Brothel (San Francisco: Pince-Nez, 2004), 88. . Eldens solo experience of receiving the priesthood keys and authority is truly singular and contrasts the pattern previously given by the Lord for important priesthood conferrals that require more than one witness. And the Genealogy Department advises genealogists to follow only their direct line; in this instance meaning only the wife who is their mother, not other wives of their father. 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. "'All my life, my family told me I had to marry a Kingston,' says Rugg. 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. These disturbing accounts offer a look inside the lives of some early Mormon descendants. . . 'He wanted to control his children and grandchildren through genetics. The 1996 Utah Legislature approved first-cousin marriages, only after age 65, or age 55 if the couple cannot conceive children. Through diligent money management and hard work, the Davis County Cooperative Society became very financially successful. "State investigators found no wrongdoing among members of the Davis County Cooperative Society, also known as the Kingston Group. . Early polygamy was rife with incestuous and eugenic ideas and practices as well. 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. and several polygamist men serve in local government positions, including as mayors . "The Mormons, well-known for genealogical record keeping, maintain birth, marriage and death information at church libraries and now on the Internet. . "Recovery from Mormonism - www.exmormon.org", http://www.lds-mormon.com/quinn_polygamy.shtml, http://www.i4m.com/think/polygamy/polygamy_summary.htm. If somehow a new dispensation came through Elden Kingston in 1935, it was stillborn, because it was never dispensed to Gods children. And Jeffs so far has shown no indication that he is concerned about the increasing prevalence of fumarase deficiency children in the community, former FLDS member Isaac Wyler says. 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 ! ", 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). The children who can't walk, the medical experts say, have most likely suffered strokes during severe seizures. . If these couples are . She's worked for lawyers who brought these cases to light and needed help with mormon terminology and ward politics workings. ". One brother, John Daniel Kingston, was taken to court for neglecting this children. "52 years later, more than half of the 8,000 people . "There is no cure for the disease, which impedes the body's ability to process food at the cellular level. David Kingston is alleged to have married his 16-year-old niece Mary Ann Nelson, who attempted to run away but was apprehended and beaten by her father, John Daniel Kingston. . The action you just performed triggered the security solution. An MRI of the brain of one fumarase deficiency child showed that more than half the brain was missing. "Warren Jeffs, like Joseph Smith before him, has emphasized the importance of obedience among members of the church. . This is a rare disorder and medical descriptions of trisome infants are too dreadful to describe here. Re: Polygamy's Patriarchy-Poisoned Bloodline: The Genetic Catastrophe That Has Sprung from Joseph Smith's "Divine" Breeding Program of Mormon Mutation . 'Most of what you print is lies, lies, lies.' ", (Bruce, R. McConkie,'Mormon Doctrine,' 2nd ed., under "Plural Marriage" (Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, Inc., 1966], p. 578) . 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. . "'They are in terrible shape,' says Dr. Kirk A. Aleck, director of the Pediatric Neurogenetics Center at St. Joseph's Hospital. the tight-lipped adult answer, 'We dont know,' seemed woefully inadequate. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. He estimates the test would . "Frequent and powerful seizures are among the most disturbing characteristics of the disease. Tarby. 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. KUTV A large police presence swarmed a well-known polygamous family's property in South Salt Lake Wednesday.A Department of Justice Spokesman Peter Carr confirmed to KUTV that it is involved in . . . . When you pair up those undesirable genes, something strange will pop out.'. A member of a polygamist clan today was convicted of incest with his 16-year-old niece, who testified that she had been forced to become his 15th wife. 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. That means the number of cases likely will grow. All went bareheaded and barefoot. 'Right away I asked the parents if there were any other children with the same problem.' . It didn't find any. Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints elders, who control the community, have labored to keep the public from finding out why the disorder is manifesting. The Kingston Group is not affiliated withthe Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) based on the Utah-Arizona line that is run by imprisoned leader Warren Jeffs, who is serving a life sentence in Texas for sexually assaulting girls he considered brides. . Young is the owner of Desert Tech, a Utah gun manufacturer. . This is a humane coping strategy devised to deal with a dilemma that devastated a woman taught from birth her only value was in the number of children she bore for the Kingdom of God. present a troubling scenario for law enforcement: these are crimes of a sexual nature committed in private in a closed society. "The disease is not widely known about even in Colorado City, a place where even normally public events such as marriages are conducted in secret. a royal priesthood upon the Earth, and he has introduced a plurality of wives for that express purpose.'. [43] Responding to child marriage allegations in September 2022, the organization told The Guardian that "current policy prohibits plural marriage for members under 18" and "once an individual has made a decision on who to marry, members are encouraged to seek the blessing of their parents, family and/or church leaders, but to say that one individual chooses or heavily influences who will marry who is entirely inaccurate". 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. . 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". I promised myself to find out the truth when I grew up. "Dr. Tarby, who routinely treats fumarase deficiency children at a state-funded clinic in Flagstaff, says, 'They are funny-looking kids [with] biggish heads and coarse, thick features.' . ', "The ultimate goal of the breeding program, Wyler says, is to create the perfect race.