Ervil Morrell LeBaron (February 22, 1925 – August 15, 1981) was the leader of a

polygamous Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marriage, marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is ...

Mormon fundamentalist Mormon fundamentalism (also called fundamentalist Mormonism) is a belief in the validity of selected fundamental aspects of Mormonism as taught and practiced in the nineteenth century, particularly during the administrations of Joseph Smith, ...

group who ordered the killings of many of his opponents, using the religious doctrine of

blood atonement Blood atonement is a disputed doctrine in the history of Mormonism, under which the atonement of Jesus does not redeem an eternal sin. To atone for an eternal sin, the sinner should be killed in a way that allows his blood to be shed upon the gr ...

to justify the murders. He was sentenced to life in prison for orchestrating the murder of an opponent, and died there in 1981. He had at least 13 wives in a

plural marriage Polygamy (called plural marriage by Latter-day Saints in the 19th century or the Principle by modern fundamentalist practitioners of polygamy) was practiced by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) for more tha ...

, several of whom he married while they were still

underage In law, a minor is someone under a certain age, usually the age of majority, which demarcates an underage individual from legal adulthood. The age of majority depends upon jurisdiction and application, but it is commonly 18. ''Minor'' may also ...

, and several of whom were involved in the murders.

History

After

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

(LDS Church) officially abandoned the practice of

polygamy Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is married ...

in 1890, some polygamous Mormons, who were later excommunicated from the LDS Church, moved south to Mexico to continue the practice without the interference of U.S. law enforcement. Alma Dayer LeBaron, Sr. was one of these people, and in 1924 moved his family, which included his two wives and eight children, to northern

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. There, the family started a farm called "Colonia LeBaron" in Galeana, Chihuahua. When Alma died in 1951, he passed the leadership of the community on to his son

Joel LeBaron Joel Franklin LeBaron (June 9, 1923 – August 20, 1972) was a Mormon fundamentalist leader in northern Mexico. He was murdered by a member or members of a rival church which was headed by his brother Ervil LeBaron. Early life LeBaron was born ...

. Joel eventually incorporated the community as the Church of the Firstborn of the Fulness of Times in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

.Utah Attorney General's Office and Arizona Attorney General's Office
The Primer: A Guidebook for Law Enforcement and Human Services Agencies who offer Assistance to Fundamentalist Mormon Families
, updated Aug. 2009 Joel's younger brother, Ervil LeBaron, was his second in command during the early years of the church's existence.Anderson, pp.68-82. The group ultimately numbered around 30 families who lived in both Utah and a community called "Los Molinos" on the Baja California Peninsula.

Killings

In 1972, the brothers split over leadership of the Church of the Firstborn of the Fulness of Times, and Ervil started the Church of the First Born of the Lamb of God in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. That year, Ervil ordered the murder of Joel in

. Leadership of the Baja California church passed to the youngest LeBaron brother, Verlan, whom Ervil tried to have killed over the next decade. In 1974, Ervil was tried and convicted in Mexico for Joel's murder. His conviction was overturned on a technicality; some have alleged this was as a result of a bribe.Bradlee & Van Atta, pp.217-218. Ervil's followers subsequently raided Los Molinos in an effort to kill Verlan—Anderson, pp.115-128.Bradlee & Van Atta, pp.159-173. who was in

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

—but the town was destroyed and two men were killed. Ervil LeBaron's attention was also focused on rival polygamous leaders. In April 1975, he ordered the killing of Bob Simons, a polygamist who sought to minister to Native Americans.Bradlee & Van Atta, pp.181-191; 288-292. In 1977, LeBaron ordered the killing of

Rulon C. Allred Rulon Clark Allred (March 29, 1906 – May 10, 1977) was a homeopath and chiropractor in Salt Lake City and the leader of what is now the Apostolic United Brethren, a breakaway sect of polygamous Mormon fundamentalists in Utah, Colorado, and ...

, leader of the Apostolic United Brethren, another

sect.Bradlee & Van Atta, pp. 231-256. Ervil LeBaron's 13th wife,

Rena Chynoweth Rena Chynoweth is an American former Mormon fundamentalist who shot Rulon C. Allred dead in 1977. Acquitted of murder in a criminal trial, Chynoweth later admitted to killing Allred. Early life When she was three years old, Rena Chynoweth's pare ...

, carried out the murder with Ervil's stepdaughter, Ramona Marston. Although Chynoweth was tried and acquitted for Allred's murder, she confessed in her memoir, ''The Blood Covenant'' (1990).Rena Chynoweth, ''The Blood Covenant'' (1990). She also described her experiences in LeBaron's group, which she characterized as using

mind control Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. Brainwashin ...

and fear to control its followers. Ervil LeBaron also ordered the murders of members of his own family and those of his supporters. His 10th wife, Vonda White, was convicted and sentenced to

life in prison Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

for the murder of Dean Grover Vest, one of LeBaron's henchmen, who had attempted to leave the church.Anderson, pp.144-154.Bradley & Van Atta, pp. 192-202; 298-300. Vonda White is also said to have killed Noemi Zarate Chynoweth,Anderson, pp.128-130.Bradlee & Van Atta, p.201. Note, Noemi's name has been spelled variously "Noemi", "Naomi", and "Neomi". the plural wife of Ervil's father-in-law through his wife, Lorna Chynoweth. Noemi had been critical of Ervil LeBaron's practices and snubbed him at her wedding to Bud Chynoweth.Bradlee & Van Atta, pp.173-174. According to witnesses, Thelma Chynoweth (Bud Chynoweth's first wife who was Lorna's mother and Noemi's sister-wife) helped kill Noemi. Ervil LeBaron has also been linked to the death of his own 17-year-old daughter Rebecca, who was pregnant with her second child and hoped to leave the group; it is alleged that his stepson Eddie Marston and brother-in-law Duane Chynoweth strangled her in April 1977.Anderson, pp.158-165.Bradlee & Van Atta, pp.228-31; 256-60; 281-82; 287; 297-98. On June 1, 1979, Ervil LeBaron was apprehended by police in Mexico and

extradited Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisdi ...

to the United States, where he was convicted of having ordered Allred's death. In 1980, he was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Utah State Prison in

Draper, Utah Draper is a city in Salt Lake and Utah counties in the U.S. state of Utah, about south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front. As of the 2020 census, the population is 51,017, up from 7,143 in 1990. Draper is part of two metropolitan areas; ...

, where he died on August 16, 1981 from an apparent suicide. Ervil's brother Verlan (whom Ervil had tried to murder) died in an auto accident in Mexico City two days after Ervil's body was discovered in his cell. In an October 2012 interview with ''Vice Magazine'', Verlan LeBaron's grandson Brent LeBaron stated that at least some in the LeBaron family believe that this may not have been a coincidence.

Aftermath

While in prison, LeBaron wrote a 400-page "bible" known as ''The Book of the New Covenants'', which included a commandment to kill disobedient church members who were included in a hit list written by LeBaron. Some 20 copies were printed and distributed. Three of the murders were carried out simultaneously on June 27, 1988, at 4:00 pm. Duane Chynoweth, one of LeBaron's former followers, was shot and killed with his 8-year-old daughter, Jennifer, while running errands. Eddie Marston, one of LeBaron's stepsons and former thugs, was killed in the same manner, and Mark Chynoweth, a father of six, was shot multiple times in his office in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

, Texas. Of the seven killers involved in the "4 O’Clock Murders," five were found guilty of murder. One, Cynthia LeBaron, testified against her siblings and was granted immunity. The final suspect, Jacqueline LeBaron, was captured by the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

in May 2010. On June 16, 2011, Jacqueline Tarsa LeBaron pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct religious beliefs and faced a 5-year maximum sentence in a future sentencing hearing. She released from federal custody on several months earlier than her original sentence was calculated. Although her plea agreement is public information, many docket entries are sealed. Since release, one 2014 report from a U.S. Probation Officer about her supervised release states that Jacqueline Tarsa LeBaron had not made any payment toward the $134,000 restitution imposed by the Court; simultaneously, the officer's report states that she "has severe mental health issues" including

mania Mania, also known as manic syndrome, is a mental and behavioral disorder defined as a state of abnormally elevated arousal, affect, and energy level, or "a state of heightened overall activation with enhanced affective expression together wit ...

requiring

psychotropic medication A psychoactive drug, psychopharmaceutical, psychoactive agent or psychotropic drug is a chemical substance, that changes functions of the nervous system, and results in alterations in perception, mood, consciousness, cognition or behavior. T ...

and which have led her to seek Social Security Disability Insurance. It has been estimated that more than 25 people were killed as a result of LeBaron's prison-cell orders. Many of his family members and other ex-members of the group still remain in hiding for fear of retribution from LeBaron's remaining followers. However, when LeBaron's daughter Anna LeBaron, who escaped from the cult aged 13, published an account of her life and the cult in 2017, when she was 48, she said that the blood-letting was over and family members were no longer in danger.Anna LeBaron: How I escaped my father's murderous polygamous cult
BBC News 'Magazine', by Brian Wheeler, 17 February 2017

Wives and children

Ervil LeBaron married 13 women and fathered more than 50 children. He also raised several stepchildren. ^* stepchild ⁺ Chynoweth sibling ⁺⁺ Rios sibling ^!cult leader ⁱ Incest

Depictions

; Films * , directed by

Jud Taylor Judson Taylor (February 25, 1932August 6, 2008) was an American actor, television director, and television producer. Early years Born in New York City, Taylor graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. Career Taylor is perhaps best ...

; Television * * ;Nonfiction * * * * * * * *

Notes

References

* * Bradlee, Jr., Ben, and

Dale Van Atta Dale Van Atta (born 1951) is a speaker, novelist, and journalist. He was a personal friend of and co-author with fellow journalist Jack Anderson and borrowed money to help him when he was in financial trouble. In 2008 his book ''With Honor'' ...

(1981) ''Prophet of Blood: The Untold Story of Ervil Lebaron and the Lambs of God''. Putnam, * Krakauer, Jon (2003) '' Under the Banner of Heaven : A Story of Violent Faith'', pp. 266–277. * * * * Spencer, Irene (2009) ''Cult Insanity: A Memoir of Polygamy, Prophets, and Blood Atonement''.
"A Deadly 'Messenger of God'"
''Time'', Aug. 29, 1977. * Utah Attorney General's Office and Arizona Attorney General's Office
The Primer: A Guidebook for Law Enforcement and Human Services Agencies Who Offer Assistance to Fundamentalist Mormon Families
updated Aug. 2009.

External links

* *, featuring a section on Ervil LeBaron. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lebaron, Ervil American Latter Day Saint leaders Mexican Latter Day Saints Mormon fundamentalist leaders 1925 births 1981 deaths 20th-century criminals American people convicted of murder American people who died in prison custody American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Cult leaders Members of the clergy convicted of murder People from the Mormon colonies in Mexico People convicted of murder by Utah Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Utah Prisoners who died in Utah detention Religiously motivated violence in Mexico Mormonism and violence

Ervil ''Vicia ervilia'', commonly known as ervil or bitter vetch, is an ancient grain legume crop of the Mediterranean region. Besides the English names, other common names include: (Persian), (Arabic), (Spanish), (Greek), and (Turkish). Accordi ...

American members of the clergy convicted of crimes Child marriage in the United States