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. Colbert Reimagines Disney Park as 'De-Wokeified' DeSantis World, 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. 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. (Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Jessica Kingston claims she was groomed into choosing marriage at age 16 by her parents and the polygamous sect. Boys are taught they will need to receive revelation from God on whom to marry. Brothers John Daniel Kingston, the father of the girl now in state custody, is said to have 20 wives; the mother of the "M.N." is half sister. He became obsessed with homeopathic treatments and herbal remedies, teaching followers that through proper diet they could live to the age of a tree. When lightning struck a tree at the Home Place, he taught his followers that the tree had divine powers and was a gateway to heaven. To go to Colorado, DeRieux said, she and her fianc drove to Price, where they jumped into a 15-passenger van carrying their parents, the other two sets of brides and grooms and their parents. But he hopes that one day his family will be able to forgive him for leaving them behind. Members who have left in recent years say that changed after some of Paul Kingston's brothers were convicted of. (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. Earlier in its history, the Kingston Group had plural wives under age 18. Three of his wives are his half-sisters. This article appears in the June 23, 2011 issue of Rolling Stone. Its a quiet, haunting place, with massive hayfields that stretch to the horizon. In the months after the robbery, Stephen couldnt shake the feeling he was being watched. While his dad was running the order from Salt Lake City, Stephen grew up on a cattle ranch called Washakie, near the Idaho border. 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. Jessicas dad told her the wife can get only as high as her husband rises. He and Carl are members of the Utah State Bar, despite signing state oaths agreeing to uphold the Utah Constitution, which specifically outlaws polygamy. The groom wore a suit. We really know what your game is.. The Mormon Church officially banned polygamy in 1890, and some of the defiant bands of fundamentalists who refuse to give up the practice have been pushed out of the city and into the desert, where they eke out an existence in rusted-out trailers and sprawling compounds. was just as frugal as his brother he lived in a dilapidated shack with planks missing from the porch but he had a better head for business. If they are money-laundering or making money in support of polygamy and incest, then they probably meet the statute.. She said the marriage disintegrated when her husband married spiritually one of her half-sisters, who was 22 at the time. He would talk to them about marriage and thinking of whom to marry, Hansen said. 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. They belonged to the Order and had toiled in the cult for years. She also is a star of "Escaping Polygamy." 03/01/2023 9:00 a.m. Police divers cut a path through the ice to reach the victims. Later that afternoon, in another house across town belonging to the Order, a woman named Patty Kingston opened her closet to discover that a chest of gold coins worth as much as $5 million had vanished. She favors raising the legal marriage age to 18. Short and chubby, the Brown boys looked up to the Knight brothers. When people hear organized crime, they think of mobsters. Former and current members of the Kingston Group say that kids are taught from a young age they one day will need to pray about whom to marry. Jessica said her husband was on a group text that went around listing girls or women who had not yet married with jokes about how old the females were getting. Paul J. Kingston Sr., 93, of North Huntingdon, died Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021. It wasnt like we thought about it a lot. The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax He is not ready to forgive his father. By our latest survey, his statement said, the majority of DCCS college students were not using government-funded financial aid, including many who would qualify if they had applied. 1 choice. Like Stephen, the boys were considered troublemakers by the Order and like Stephen, they knew a lot about how the clan handled its money. The marriages, former followers say, can be used as a tool to keep girls in the Kingston Group, known among younger members as The Order. For their part, the brides sometimes see legal marriages as a way to avoid becoming polygamists later (and consequently being matched with a husband perhaps twice their age) or a means to escape their parents crowded households. For more than a decade, the group has publicly spoken out against child-bride marriages and the DCCS has a policy encouraging its members to marry within the legal age of consent. Father of Avisa Kingston; Susannah Mary Allison; Samuel Kingston and Paul Kingston. They were the type of kids you didnt mess with, says Robert Owen, a former member of the clan. It empowered Stephen before that, no one had ever stood up to Daniel Kingston or any of them, says a former member. Jessica Kingston wore a white dress. Mysterious cars followed his girlfriend, and he once came home to find that someone had rifled through his drawers. (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.) [10][11]. 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. During his tenure, Kingston has followed his father's practice of plural, child, and intra-family marriage. No evidence directly linked him to the missing gold or silver, but his father was convinced he had played a part in the thefts. But the Kingstons have remained in Salt Lake, operating virtually undetected in a city of more than 1 million people. He even had charts showing who were the higher families in the sect so his daughters knew where to look for a mate. Mrs. They teach the girls its their choice, Hansen said, but [say], Heres the selection.. Paul Kingston, they said, has 17 wives and nearly 50 children. They had sped off in a Honda sedan. Sometimes his father read the Book of Mormon from the pulpit and talked about things regular Christians would recognize, like tithing or repentance. Former members of the sect say there may be dozens or even hundreds more marriage certificates at county clerk offices across the West. (Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Salt Lake Community College Redwood Road campus is pictured Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019. 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.. Each time turning up no significant violations or nothing at all. A lawsuit alleges leaders of a Utah polygamous sect bilked federal student aid programs by instructing teenagers to omit their fathers and other sources of income when applying for benefits. On weekends, he was sent out to work at the Orders coal mine with other teenagers. . A review of wedding certificates shows how the teen marriages are sanctioned at the highest levels of the Kingston Group. 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. If someone is mature enough, they should be able to do whatever they want.. He charged across the field and started brutally beating Stephens cousin. But Jessicas No. Did the Utah Legislature do enough to save the Great Salt Lake? Come back, his dad will say. It was a total spur of the moment thing, Brown says. Yet its teen marriages in the Kingston Group that spurred the Utah Legislature to act this year. (Photo courtesy of Kollene Snow) Kollene Snow, 16, poses in her dress before her 2009 marriage in West Valley City. He died on 6-4-1998 at the Beckley Veterans Administration. Five of the women suing alleged they were coerced into marriage as minors and raped by their husbands. We will continue to do so. Paul Vallas' Net Worth In 2023 Explored. Jacob's dad, John Kingston, husband of at least 14 wives and father to some 120 children, was imprisoned in 1998 after pleading no contest to charges that he beat his 16-year-old daughter . He trained the women how to rip off the government, a scheme the Order called Bleeding the Beast. Besides, the mother said, the girl needed her husbands health insurance to treat her condition. Terrified, he went out and bought a stash of guns to arm himself, just in case his family tried to gun him down. Their grooms were 22. They were finally getting even. Come and get me, Stephen said. At first, the two boys denied any involvement in the break-in at Youngs house. But age alone wont determine her answer. Not desiring to be a plural wife doesnt necessarily mean she hoped to leave the Davis County Cooperative Society, also known as the Kingston Group. Mafi followed Paul Kingstons instructions, the lawsuit states, and never again saw those funds.. At age 15, Snow wanted out of the Kingston Group. That includes the fraud within Washakie Renewable Energy as well as what the plaintiffs allege was a separate scheme by sect members to bilk a U.S. Department of Agriculture program to provide free lunches to child and adult day cares. Donate to the newsroom now. 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. Church leader Paul Kingston conducted the service and his brothers John Daniel and David were speakers. Three weeks after Snow married a 21-year-old man in Davis County, Hansens 17-year-old daughter legally married a 24-year-old man in Salt Lake County. Their father rarely came by, and because the nearest town was 18 miles away, the kids forged a fierce bond among themselves. It begins with the potential groom. Mary Nelson grew up in the sect and names her father, David Kingston, as a defendant. They believe were Gods chosen people, Snow said of the Kingston Group followers, so you should start having kids as soon as possible.. She is the fifth of her mothers 12 children. Instead, she volunteered for extra shifts at the Kingston Group-run coal mine near Huntington, where she worked as a dispatcher. She and her husband had four children with whom they share custody. Then, moving quickly, the boy at the door let himself in and got to work. Stephen hangs up and drives home in silence. Lawful marriage and the way it binds people together legally and financially, Hansen said, is seen as a way to keep the more rebellious girls in the Kingston Group. Marriage preparation can accelerate at puberty. Andrea Johnson was buried on June 13, 1992, at the Bountiful Memorial Park. So when her husband pushed for that daughter to marry, too, Hansen thought she was mature enough. Three others, including Grant, said they had to flee to escape such a fate. The Order stays as far away as possible from police, and this was like inviting them in your front door., With its vast wealth suddenly exposed to public view, the clan moved quickly to hush up the scandal. 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. One baby deemed to have too many deformities was allegedly put in a shoe box and left to die. 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. The ones that misbehave, they try to push them to marry as soon as they can, Hansen said. The grift was exposed decades later, in the 1980s, when the clan paid a $350,000 settlement for swindling the government through welfare fraud. 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. Its unclear how much if any investigating has happened in the almost seven months since the lawsuit was filed. Girls who agree to become plural wives tend to be more devout and usually live in homes without their husband, thus receiving less scrutiny. Girls are told they will need to pray to God so he might show them who their No. That Stephens father sat atop a mafialike organization was a secret kept from him for most of his childhood. While much of the focus of any polygamous group is on plural marriages that happen outside the law, records and interviews with current and former first wives in the Kington Group lend insight into how legal marriages are facilitated. She grew up in Woods Cross and hated The Order all her life, she said in a recent interview. The lawsuit does not allege any wrongdoing by SLCC. To hide the scope of his organization, J.O. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Another brother, Ben, showed him how to mend fences. The lawsuit was filed May 24 in Salt Lake Citys federal court by Mary and Bryan Nelson. The ones they dont think they have to worry about, they dont push them as hard.. It felt like it was us against the world. His older brother Richard, a burly diesel mechanic, taught him how to fix cars. Jessica has begun working with Hope After Polygamy, a charity started by the cast of Escaping Polygamy and other former Kingston Group members to assist people leaving polygamous sects. When Paul turned 21, he married Richaun Dye. The Brown boys, charged with felony counts of burglary, wrote a letter to their aunt apologizing for stealing the silver in her house. For this article we will focus on forced child labor in the context of modern day slavery that takes place in the Kingston polygamous group. He told her he believed one did not need to practice polygamy to reach heaven. Our goal of an educated, well-informed population goes against the popular narrative for our culture and there is a concerted effort to keep this false narrative alive. Paul Elden Kingston is an accountant and attorney who has served as the Trustee-in-Trust of the Davis County Cooperative Society (DCCS), a Mormon fundamentalist denomination,[2] since 1987. That usually means marrying a Kingston descendant. By the time the teenagers sped away, they had made off with more than $80,000 in silver. It was all just innocent teenage stuff, recalls Ron, who has since left the clan. Nevertheless, waves of audits of State taxes, Federal taxes, corporate taxes, DWS, SNAP, WIC and regulatory compliance in day cares among other things, have been levied against individuals and corporations with known or suspected ties to the DCCS. The statement also said that of the Kingston Group individuals who married under age 18 in the past 20 years, 95.1 percent remain married, 94.2 percent have earned a high school degree, and a third, most of them women, have graduated from a public college or university. They did so July 3, 2008, in Grand Junction, Colo, where records show two other couples from the Kingston Group married that day. To her horror, all that remained was a ring of dust, marking the place where a chest of gold coins had once stood. Thanks for your understanding. He then pinned her on a bed, the documents say, and wouldnt let her call for help. Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. We've received your submission. Paul Elden Kingston has been the leader of the Mormon fundamentalist Latter Day Church of Christ and the Davis County Cooperative Society in the United States of America since 1987. He was born Jan. 7, 1928, in San Diego, Calif., a son of the late Paul and Evelyn . His face was crushed, Stephen says now, matter-of-factly, his eyes going blank for a moment. 'I am the daughter of his fifth. He seemed like the most amazing guy, Stephen recalls. To deaden his feelings of isolation, he started smoking a lot of pot and sitting around the house all day listening to country music. Members who have left in recent years say that changed after some of Paul Kingstons brothers were convicted of crimes related to child abuse, sex with a minor or incest. They had 4 children: John Hozlette Kingston and 3 other children. Trump Melts Down Over Murdoch Admitting Fox Lied About Election Fraud Her top choice the one whom she felt God told her to marry was a man five years older than she and to whom she was related on both sides of her family tree. Johnson did not provide the raw data to support those statistics. I dont think theyre organized crime in that regard, but the racketeering statute defines it as any conspiracy or pattern of illegal activity done in concert with others. By 18 she was pregnant with her first child and ended up having four children in four years. A statement from the only higher education institution mentioned in the lawsuit, Salt Lake Community College, said it has not received any subpoenas or inquiries. These days Stephen works on a cattle ranch near the Idaho border, just down the road from where he grew up. Inseparable: Twins Peter (left) and Paul have lived. The family gathered in the living room. She was instructed, the complaint adds, to deposit the excess funds at a South Salt Lake office building, where the sects bank is located. Those in the Order, Kingston preached, are responsible for building a master race, which is why all marriages are arranged within the original four families that started the cult. The plaintiffs estimate the eight combine to have 106 wives and 911 children. In 2006, it was estimated that Paul Kingston had up to 27 wives (including three half-sisters of his), [5] some . [4] Plural marriages for individuals under 18 in the group are not allowed. His arms are sunburned and his hands calloused from long days moving the irrigation pipes that water the fields. Paul Kingston told her congratulations. If I had done it, the Order probably would have killed me. Messages sent to Paul and David Kingston as well as representatives of the Latter Day Church of Christ, the Kingston Groups religious organization, and other named defendants in the lawsuit were not returned. There shouldnt really be a reason for an age limit, she said. It includes a provision they obtain financial aid. But the constant fear has subsided. The parents of the 16-year-olds also completed a form granting their permission. 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