The Manacled Mormon case, also known as the Mormon sex in chains case, was a case of reputed
sexual assault
Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...
and
kidnap
In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...
by an American woman, Joyce McKinney, of a young American
Mormon
Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...
missionary
A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...
, Kirk Anderson, in England in 1977. Because McKinney and her accomplice skipped bail and fled to the United States before the case could be tried and were not
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 ...
, they were never tried for these specific crimes. According to Anderson, he had been abducted by McKinney from the steps of a church meetinghouse, chained to a bed and
rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...
d by her.
After the case, McKinney absconded from the United Kingdom and was allowed to reside in the U.S. with a falsified passport. In 2008, it was learned that she made five clones of her pet pit bull in South Korea.
[ In 2016, McKinney sued film director ]Errol Morris
Errol Mark Morris (born February 5, 1948) is an American film director known for documentaries that interrogate the epistemology of its subjects. In 2003, his documentary film '' The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara ...
for making a documentary about her.[
]
Alleged crime
Kirk Anderson, a young Mormon
Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...
missionary, went missing
Missing or The Missing may refer to:
Film
* ''Missing'' (1918 film), an American silent drama directed by James Young
* ''Missing'' (1982 film), an American historical drama directed by Costa-Gavras
* ''Missing'' (2007 film) (''Vermist''), a Bel ...
on 14 September 1977, in Ewell
Ewell ( , ) is a suburban area with a village centre in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, approximately south of central London and northeast of Epsom.
In the 2011 Census, the settlement had a population of 34,872, a majority of wh ...
, Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
, England. He was allegedly abducted from the steps of a meetinghouse of 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)[ by Keith May, aged 24, who had posed as an investigator into Mormonism, using a fake handgun and ]chloroform
Chloroform, or trichloromethane, is an organic compound with chemical formula, formula Carbon, CHydrogen, HChlorine, Cl3 and a common organic solvent. It is a colorless, strong-smelling, dense liquid produced on a large scale as a precursor to ...
. Three days later, a freed Anderson made a report to the police that he had been driven to a cottage
A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a Cotter (farmer), cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager ...
in Devon
Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
and chained to a bed against his will, at which point Joyce Bernann McKinney (a Miss World USA 1973
Miss World USA 1973 was the 12th edition of the Miss World USA pageant. It was held in Binghamton, New York and was won by Marjorie Wallace of Indiana. She was crowned by outgoing titleholder, Lynda Jean Córdoba Carter of Arizona. Wallace went ...
participant; born 6 August 1949 as Joy McKinney)[ had attempted to seduce and then ]rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ag ...
d him.
Police set up a sting operation
In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person attempting to commit a crime. A typical sting will have an undercover law enforcement officer, detective, or co-operative member of the public play a role a ...
by having Anderson set up a 21 September rendezvous with McKinney and May, leading to the two suspects being arrested.
Judicial proceedings
On 19 September 1977, McKinney and May were arrested and charged with kidnap and assault. They vigorously denied the charges. While being taken to Epsom
Epsom is the principal town of the Borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Saxon landowner. The ...
for a court appearance, McKinney held a notice up at the window of the police vehicle saying, "Kirk left with me willingly!" At the committal hearing, she stated of Anderson: "I loved him so much that I would ski naked down Mount Everest
Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...
in the nude with a carnation up my nose if he asked me to." Press reports and McKinney's solicitor
A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...
referred to the size differential between McKinney, who weighed , and the Anderson, described as being tall. Under the Sexual Offences Act 1956
The Sexual Offences Act 1956 (4 & 5 Eliz.2 c.69) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that consolidated the English criminal law relating to sexual offences between 1957 and 2004. It was mostly repealed (from 1 May 2004) by the Sex ...
, then in force in the United Kingdom, no crime of rape was deemed to have been committed since the victim was male; however, indecent assault
Indecent assault is an offence of aggravated assault in some common law-based jurisdictions. It is characterised as a sex crime and has significant overlap with offences referred to as sexual assault.
England and Wales
Indecent assault was a broad ...
of a man did apply.[
McKinney and May skipped bail and absconded from the UK on 12 April 1978. Their trial for ]kidnap
In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically but not necessarily conducted by means of force or fear: the p ...
had been due to begin on 2 May. In June a judge at London's Central Criminal Court sentenced McKinney and May ''in absentia
is Latin for absence. , a legal term, is Latin for "in the absence" or "while absent".
may also refer to:
* Award in absentia
* Declared death in absentia, or simply, death in absentia, legally declared death without a body
* Election in absen ...
'' to a year in prison for skipping bail (if their bail money, £1,000 each, was not paid to the court in forfeit). No extradition
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 jurisdict ...
proceedings were instituted by the British government.
On 18 July 1979, May and McKinney were both arrested in the US 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 ...
on charges of making false statements in order to obtain passports.[ They both received ]suspended sentence
A suspended sentence is a sentence on conviction for a criminal offence, the serving of which the court orders to be deferred in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation. If the defendant does not break the law during that ...
s.[
]
Coverage in the media
The coverage in British newspapers in the final months of 1977 was extensive.[ Some newspapers sought to obtain "scoops" on the story, and to undermine each other as they managed to obtain and publish exclusive information. For example, the '']Daily Mirror
The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...
'' researched McKinney's past and reported over several days that she had been a nude model. The ''Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
'' attempted to devalue the ''Mirror''s reports by advertising itself as "The paper ''without'' Joyce McKinney".[
]Brian Whitaker
Brian Whitaker (sometimes credited as Brian Whittaker; born 13 June 1947) is a British journalist and writer.
He studied Arabic studies at the University of Westminster and Latin (BA Hons) at the University of Birmingham. A former joint invest ...
has observed that the case provided "light relief" for the newspaper-reading public, from more serious stories about politicians.[ Roger Wilkes states that the coverage of the case "cheered Britain up no end".][
A ]Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland.
The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...
working party on obscenity
An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ''obscēnus'', ''obscaenus'', "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Such loaded language can be use ...
in 1979 observed the "gusto" with which newspapers covered and followed the case observing the coverage was accompanied by "the kind of illustration which a decade ago would have been under plain sealed cover".[
The coverage was extensive in part because the case was considered so anomalous, involving as it did the issue of rape of a man by a woman. Backhouse and Cohen reported in 1978 that many men, privately, expressed their disbelief of such a possibility.][
The case was documented in ''Joyce McKinney and the Manacled Mormon'',] a book by Anthony Delano in 1978, who based his work on assembled ''Daily Mirror'' coverage.
Later developments
In 1984 McKinney was again the subject of police action for allegedly stalking Anderson, though he was now married with children. At the time of her apprehension, McKinney was found living in her vehicle near Salt Lake International Airport
Salt Lake City International Airport is a civil-military airport located about west of Downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, in the United States. The airport is the closest commercial airport for more than 2.5 million people and is within a 30-minu ...
, where Anderson worked. A search of the vehicle uncovered road maps, rope, handcuffs, and notebooks keeping detailed records of Anderson's routines. McKinney insisted that she had driven to the airport to book a flight, though it was later revealed that she had driven several thousand miles from her home in North Carolina.[
In 2008, a story about a woman named "Bernann McKinney" appeared in the media after the woman had her pet dog ]cloned
Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical or virtually identical DNA, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction. In the field of biotechnology, c ...
in South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
. Journalists tied the two incidents together in articles identifying facial similarity between "Bernann McKinney" and Joyce Bernann McKinney.[ After initial denials][ the '']International Herald Tribune
The ''International Herald Tribune'' (''IHT'') was a daily English-language newspaper published in Paris, France for international English-speaking readers. It had the aim of becoming "the world's first global newspaper" and could fairly be said ...
'' and other publications carried an admission by McKinney that she was the person named in the 1977 case.
The revival of interest in the story led the documentary filmmaker Errol Morris
Errol Mark Morris (born February 5, 1948) is an American film director known for documentaries that interrogate the epistemology of its subjects. In 2003, his documentary film '' The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara ...
to produce a 2010 film, ''Tabloid'', based on the media sensation surrounding the story. The film gives extra details, from press reports of the day and from participants in the story, to the use of a (possibly fake) gun during Anderson's abduction, and Anderson being tied up during his alleged rape by McKinney. The film also gave further details regarding McKinney's work as a call girl
A call girl or female escort is a sex worker who (unlike a street walker) does not display her profession to the general public, nor does she usually work in an institution like a brothel, although she may be employed by an escort agency.< ...
, earning funds for her team's international adventure by offering bondage and S&M services around the time she became obsessed with Anderson.
In January 2016, McKinney filed suit against Morris, claiming that she had been misrepresented in the film and that Morris and others related to the documentary's production had broken into her home, stolen personal items related to the case, and threatened the life of her service dog
In general, an assistance dog, known as a service dog in the United States, is a dog trained to aid or assist an individual with a disability. Many are trained by an assistance dog organization, or by their handler, often with the help of a profe ...
if McKinney did not sign release papers allowing them to use her footage for the film. Legal representatives for Morris stated that "evidence will show that cKinneywillingly – in fact, eagerly – participated in the lengthy interview that is featured in the film."[ Morris stated in an interview later that year that the charges had been dismissed as "frivolous".
Anderson was a ]real estate agent
A real estate agent or real estate broker is a person who represents sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and agen ...
and shied away from publicity. Keith May, McKinney's co-conspirator from the 1977 case, died in 2004. At one point, McKinney lived in Newland, in the western North Carolina
North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...
mountains.[ More recently, she has lived as a ]homeless
Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are:
* living on the streets, also kn ...
person in the San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, California. Located to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it contains a large portion of the City of Los Angeles, as well as unincorporated ar ...
region of Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
.
Vehicular manslaughter charge
In July 2019, the Los Angeles Police Department's Valley Traffic Division (VTD) named McKinney as the person involved in a fatal hit and run
In traffic laws, a hit and run or a hit-and-run is the act of causing a traffic collision and not stopping afterwards. It is considered a supplemental crime in most jurisdictions.
Additional obligation
In many jurisdictions, there may be an ...
that took the life of 91-year-old Gennady Bolotsky. The incident took place in the North Hollywood neighborhood of Valley Village
Valley Village is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, located within the San Fernando Valley.
History
Founding
According to Elke Garman, co-president of the Valley Village Homeowners Association in 1991, the history of Valley Village wen ...
on Monday, 16 June 2019, at around 5:40 a.m. Bolotsky was walking his dog at a crosswalk on Magnolia Boulevard and Wilkinson Avenue when he was struck by a white 2006 GMC pick-up truck. The incident was captured by surveillance video from a nearby business. Stills from this video were released by police, and locals identified the vehicle as belonging to a then-unidentified homeless woman who had been the subject of frequent police reports.[ On 21 June 2019, investigators followed a lead that the suspected vehicle was parked in the city of Burbank near the Burbank Airport. Investigators located McKinney, who appeared to be living in the vehicle along with her three dogs.
During the investigation, detectives learned that McKinney had outstanding warrants for battery and public nuisance from an unrelated investigation. McKinney was taken into custody for her preexisting warrants and booked into Valley Jail Division in Van Nuys. McKinney's vehicle was impounded by VTD investigators and processed for evidence related to the fatal collision. On 1 July 2019, the VTD presented their case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney and charged McKinney with assault with a deadly weapon other than a firearm, hit and run with injury and vehicular manslaughter. A sentencing enhancement was proposed due to injury to a person over 70 years of age. McKinney remained in custody on the previous warrants, under a combined bail of $137,500. If convicted, she faces up to a maximum of 11 years in state prison. McKinney was ordered to a psychiatric evaluation and, on 11 July 2019, she was sent to the Los Angeles Court division for mentally incompetent defendants. McKinney was taken to the Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk. In February 2020, a judge in Van Nuys ruled once again she was not competent. Her next hearing was scheduled for August 2020.]
References
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{{refend
1970s in Devon
1970s in Surrey
1977 crimes in the United Kingdom
1977 in Christianity
1977 in England
20th-century Mormon missionaries
20th-century Mormonism
Crime in Devon
Crime in Surrey
Epsom and Ewell
History of women in the United Kingdom
Kidnappings in England
Mormon missionaries in England
Rape in England
Rape of males
Scandals in England
Sex scandals in the United Kingdom
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in England
Violence against men in the United Kingdom