If they kill me, they kill me, he says. J.O. Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune. They had sped off in a Honda sedan. It was February in Salt Lake, cold and gray, and in the foothills above the city, a low fog hung over the mountains. Polygamist John Daniel Kingston, left, in attendance at a memorial for the 13 (and one still missing) victims of a Sept. 14, 2015, flash flood. 'I am the daughter of his fifth. When Rachel Young, a stern and humorless woman, got home, she discovered that several crates of silver in her basement had been pried open whoever had robbed the place had clearly been in a hurry and had left with only a small fraction of her silver. 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. According to former members of the Order, decades of inbreeding have resulted in rampant birth defects throughout the family. Their divorce was finalized in July 2012 a little more than three years after they married. The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time Besides, the mother said, the girl needed her husbands health insurance to treat her condition. Cousin Carl E. Kingston, an attorney, is said to have a mere two wives. She was definitely the pick of the litter, and thats why Paul got her, Ron recalls. I honestly didnt even know there was any gold until they accused me of taking it, he says. 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. The Order's top man, Paul Kingston, counts a half-dozen such relatives among his 20-plus wives, according to ex-members and Attorney General's investigator Ron Barton. Like other fundamentalists of that era, he believed the Mormon Church had lost its divine authority when it renounced polygamy in 1890, so he persuaded three other families to join him in establishing their own sect. He didnt have anyone to help him process what had just happened., Taking advantage of his status as a son of the prophet, Stephen began bending the rules even further. ", "United by fundamentalist Mormon beliefs, one polygamous group helps another by bringing truckloads of food", "Young Brides Stir New Outcry on Utah Polygamy", "Shurtleff: Child bride polygamous marriages appear to have stopped", "Polygamists are urged to make public statement", "No longer performing child-bride marriages? It empowered Stephen before that, no one had ever stood up to Daniel Kingston or any of them, says a former member. She's since left the marriage and wants the legal marriage age raised to 18. Two are nieces. As he grew older, Stephen turned out to be as rebellious as his own father had been as a boy. According to All Famous Birthdays, Paul Vallas has a staggering net worth of $5 million. Stephens father seemed to marry a new girl every year, each one younger and prettier than the last. They were the type of kids you didnt mess with, says Robert Owen, a former member of the clan. She was instructed, the complaint adds, to deposit the excess funds at a South Salt Lake office building, where the sects bank is located. We strongly encourage all members to strictly adhere to every legal guideline when operating their businesses including day cares and when applying for all need-based assistance, including financial aid for students. I felt for his pulse, but he was already gone., That night, Paul Kingston arrived at the ranch. A state court website says the judge must conclude that the marriage is voluntary and in the best interests of the minor.. He became particularly obsessed with a plant called comfrey, which he believed would protect his clan from the nuclear war that would usher in the apocalypse. In all likelihood, Stephen and his brothers had stolen the gold from Patty Kingston first and then the Brown boys, in an effort to emulate their cousins rebellious acts, had robbed their aunt weeks or even months later. When one of his favorite wives died, he missed her so much that he dug her up from her grave. The deputy heard the Brown boys knew who stole the gold but suddenly, without explanation, they and everyone in the clan clammed up. 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. deductible, Report a missed paper by emailingsubscribe@sltrib.comor calling801-237-2900, For e-edition questions or comments, contact customer support801-237-2900or emailsubscribe@sltrib.com. 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. 1 choice [of whom to marry] in The Order, Jessica Kingston said. The parents of the 16-year-olds also completed a form granting their permission. It was also around then that Stephen, at the age of 14, began to see the clan for what it really was. 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. She received no sex education or premarital counseling. No one has been criminally charged. The "9" represents his status as a "numbered man" in the Davis County Cooperative Society, also known as the Kingston Group. He finished a three-year term as Chair of the Department of Sociology in August 2007. Jessica Kingston said she has heard males talking to one another about a girl and say, If youre going to marry that girl, shes going to have to be a first wife because she wont live polygamy.. 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. It begins with the potential groom. I love the Order. Members are primarily born into the. (Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Salt Lake Community College Redwood Road campus is pictured Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019. 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. Kingston clan into a multimillion-dollar business empire while allowing many of his purported 13 wives and dozens of children to survive on government assistance. LDS Church wants to light up a temple in a place that prides itself on dark skies, For husband-and-wife team, this new restaurant is the culmination of a decadeslong dream, offered such statistics to counter the stereotype, Nicole Mafi, one of Paul Kingstons daughters. After the lawsuit was filed, attorneys representing the U.S. government asked a judge to seal the case, according to entries that can still be found on a webpage maintained by DocketBird.com, a commercial site that collects and sells court records. [5][6][7][8] Members generally seek the blessing of parents and religious leaders before choosing to marry. 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. 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. (Paul Kingston and other leaders of the family ignored repeated requests for comment for this story. The clan kids from there would come to school not properly dressed for the cold, and they were always getting in fights. Theyll do what they need to do to defend whats theirs.. Mafi had another meeting with Paul Kingston during which he made sure that she had completed her [applications] and told her that she could only attend college if her grades were sufficient to qualify for financial aid.. Businesses and individuals have the autonomy to choose and operate as they see fit as evidenced by a huge diversity of industry and management styles among members. Fishing it out of his jeans, hell recognize the number. Exhibiting LGBTQ+ tendencies can indicate impure blood, according to the lawsuit. It alleges sex trafficking, sexual battery and child abuse, and seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages. Paul Elden Kingston (1959- ): Known as the "Watchman on the Wall" who claims to hear from God regularly, Paul is the son of John Ortell. Paul Kingston is one of eight men named as defendants in the lawsuit. Like other teenagers who leave fundamentalist Mormon communities, Stephen was not prepared to enter the world at large. When people hear organized crime, they think of mobsters. Jessica as well as Snow, DeRieux and Hansen all favor raising the legal marriage age in Utah and other states to 18. He slept with a different one each night, in accordance with their ovulation cycles, and sometimes disappeared during lunch to have sex with a favorite. Kent Johnson, a spokesman for the Davis County Cooperative Society (DCCS), which also is named as a defendant, said members are strongly encouraged to strictly adhere to every legal guideline when applying for financial aid. The suit says sect members might have obtained tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars through false applications. I was scared to death when I left. From a clan ranch in Nevada, Stephen called his brother Ben, who had left the Order a few years before. By our latest survey, the majority of DCCS college students were not using government funded financial aid, including many who would qualify if they had applied. They did it, says Christian Kingston. They had eight children whose baptisms are recorded in the same church. The DCCS is a financial cooperative established by his uncle Elden Kingston in 1935. Her father, John Daniel Kingston, has 14 wives. He and Carl are members of the Utah State Bar, despite signing state oaths agreeing to uphold the Utah Constitution, which specifically outlaws polygamy. John Daniel Kingston, who according to court testimony once had 14 wives, was on hand in 2011, when his sons held an open house at the Washakie production plant in Plymouth near Interstate 15 and . She and her husband had four children with whom they share custody. This article appears in the June 23, 2011 issue of Rolling Stone. Chuck Lepper, vice president for student affairs and enrollment management, said that no review is planned at this time. Finding one wasnt difficult. (Paul W. Kingston, (Ph.D. Columbia University, 1980) is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Virginia. Romero has said her concern is for all girls, not just those in polygamous sects. She said marrying at 16 mitigated the pressures U.S. society places on her to have statuesque looks and be immodest. In qui tam cases, the federal government can either join the plaintiffs in recouping losses and pursuing damages and fines, or let the plaintiffs prosecute the lawsuit on their own. Hopefully, the politician is leading a comfortable . Incest is endemic in the clan, with uncles marrying much younger female relatives; in 2003, police showed up at an Order barbecue and arrested a clan member for marrying his underage cousin. Thanks, it read. Among those Kingston Group brides who marry as minors and for whom The Tribune was able to find birthdates, the average age was 16 years, 7 months and 12 days. 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. 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. Then their father said something they never expected. By 18, she was pregnant with her first child and ended up having four children in four years. For now, Utah law says a 15-year-old may marry with the consent of a parent or guardian and the permission of a juvenile court judge. After the wedding, Richaun chose the name Knight randomly a practice designed to prevent prosecutors from proving that men in the Order have multiple wives. 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. He lived on month day 1940, at address, Washington. The woman who married in 2014 at age 16 and asked not to be identified is still with her husband. He said the college has controls to ensure compliance with federal aid guidelines. Paul Kingston succeeded his father John Ortell Kingston as the leader of the Kingston Clan on his father's death in 1987. He even had charts showing who were the higher families in the sect so his daughters knew where to look for a mate. Former Order members remain convinced the Knights stole the gold. Hansen, 50, in a recent interview, said she told her daughter that wanting to leave home was the wrong reason to get married. A copy of the lawsuit also is available there, though no other filings in the case are. Its hard to leave when thats all youve known, says one former member, who was forced to marry her cousin when she was 15. We really know what your game is.. Investigators have said 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh was shot four or five times with a rifle, while 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh was killed by two shotgun blasts near kennels on the family's . The group has drawn legal attention before. They believe were Gods chosen people, Snow said of the Kingston Group followers, so you should start having kids as soon as possible.. They should refrain from this decision until they can be well informed to make a mature and thoughtful decision before entering into marriage.. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. It was just the best choice, some say, among their bad options. In 2006 it was estimated that Paul Kingston had up to 40 wives (including two half-sisters of his), some of whom have up . The third plaintiff is Michelle Michaels, who the complaint says left the sect in 2017 rather than become a spiritual wife to a cousin who has nine wives. Contact. This is an indication that an experienced qui tam firm looked at the facts, Markey said, and realized it was a case that was worth pursuing.. Its his father, the prophet, calling to coax his wayward son back into the fold. We've received your submission. (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. [10][11]. deductible, Report a missed paper by emailingsubscribe@sltrib.comor calling801-237-2900, For e-edition questions or comments, contact customer support801-237-2900or emailsubscribe@sltrib.com. Mafis mother is Paul Kingstons fifth wife, yet when filling out the aid forms, the woman advising her told Mafi not to submit anything about her father, according to the lawsuit. It was all on me, and, for the most part, thats the case where it is the girls decision whether she wants to get married at that age., She said she knows of a few cases in which the girl was pressured by family or faith leaders to marry, but I can count them all on one hand.. Thanks for your understanding. Shortly after 10 p.m. on June 7, 2021, Alex Murdaugh called 911 from his property in Islandton, South Carolina, to report that he had found his 22-year-old son Paul and his wife Maggie, 55, murdered. Many consider Kingston the top man in the group. A recent estimate is that he has 34 wives and more than 500 children, as several of his wives have had as many as 16 children each! Girls are told they will need to pray to God so he might show them who their No. 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. If you were more obedient, this wouldnt have happened., After that, everything changed, Stephen says. Kingston taught his followers that they are the literal descendants of Jesus and one of his wives, who had come down to Earth to found a race of chosen people. With the Orders leaders taking so many wives for themselves, the clans younger men were often unable to find anyone to marry. The Tribune also found three marriages in Missouri, where, until a new law raising the marriage age takes effect Aug. 28, 15-year-olds can marry with a parents permission. The groom was 21. Thats your Uncle Paul, she said. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. Earlier in its history, the Kingston Group had plural wives under age 18. One woman who was married in 2014 at age 16 said she did so for the same reason most people do: She fell in love. He later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. 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.. They were finally getting even. In the meantime, the police were closing in on the missing silver. Then, moving quickly, the boy at the door let himself in and got to work. When Paul turned 21, he married Richaun Dye. And it would be several years after that before he stole from his father for the first time. He told her he believed one did not need to practice polygamy to reach heaven. 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.. Girls, many of them teen brides, answer phones at the Orders law office, bag groceries at its supermarket or tend to the clans many children. 1:03. . 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. Paul lived in 1935, at address, Washington. The DCCS is a financial cooperative established by his uncle Elden Kingston in 1935. Instead, she volunteered for extra shifts at the Kingston Group-run coal mine near Huntington, where she worked as a dispatcher. Did the Utah Legislature do enough to save the Great Salt Lake? [4], Plural marriage is practiced by some members of the DCCS, and members make their own choice in who they marry. A sheriffs deputy traced the license plate of the Honda to a run-down house in a working-class suburb south of the city. (Courtesy photo) Paul E. Kingston, seen here in this undated photo. 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. Now, two years later, Stephen still sleeps with a gun near his bed. In Salt Lake County, for example, there were 45 marriages in which the bride or groom was 17 or younger, according to data from the county clerks office from Feb. 1, 2016, to April 10, 2018. Every now and then, as hes driving around the ranch, his phone will ring. A review of wedding certificates shows how the teen marriages are sanctioned at the highest levels of the Kingston Group. 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. (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) He no longer believed in the Order, but he knew that leaving would mean being shunned by his own family, and because he had been forbidden from making friends outside the clan, there would be few people in the world he could turn to. 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