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dkshfkijMormon Fundamentalism and Violence: A Historical Analysis
by Garn LeBaron Jr.
copyright © Garn LeBaron Jr., 1995, all rights reserved
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And it shall come to pass that I, the Lord God, will send one mighty and strong, holding the scepter of power in his hand, clothed with light for a covering, whose mouth shall utter words, eternal words; while his bowels shall be a fountain of truth, to set in order the house of God.(1)
In August 1972, followers of Ervil Morel LeBaron murdered his brother, Joel LeBaron as part of a power struggle for control of their particular polygamist church group. Ervil LeBaron quickly became the leader of the Church of the Lamb of God and proceeded to direct his followers in the murders of more than thirty people, all of them members of various polygamist groups. These murders included the execution style killing of prominent Salt Lake City polygamist leader Rulon Allred, as well as several members who tried to leave the LeBaron sect. (2)
Before LeBaron died in the Utah State Penitentiary in 1981, he authored a book entitled "The Book of New Covenants," which detailed a list of former followers who were to die in the name of God. Throughout the 1980's, children of LeBaron murdered several former church members in Dallas, Houston, Utah, and Mexico.(3)
In July 1978, the former David Longo, who had himself re-christened Immanuel David, drove a truck up a canyon east of Salt Lake City and proceeded to commit suicide by asphyxiating himself on the exhaust of the vehicle. Three days later, his wife ordered or pushed each of their seven children off the 11th floor balcony of a prominent Salt Lake City hotel to their deaths on the pavement below. She finally jumped herself, thus ending the grisly multiple homicide/suicide scene.(4)
In 1979, a long running battle between John Singer and Summit County, over whether Singer should be allowed to...
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