This is your fault, he thundered, glaring at them. He is not ready to forgive his father. As a favored son of the prophet, Paul had the freedom to disregard the strict discipline his father imposed on other members of the Order. Dating or romance among young people before marriage is forbidden in the Kingston Group, but the sect does hold dances. They had sped off in a Honda sedan. One day, for laughs, he and his half brother Ron Tucker stole some napalm from an Order army-supply store, drew lines of it in the street and lit it on fire as cars drove by. His most bizarre beliefs, though, concerned the occult. These days Stephen works on a cattle ranch near the Idaho border, just down the road from where he grew up. We want to hear it. While all that is happening, the potential bride is supposed to have been praying about whom to marry. Paul Vallas' Net Worth In 2023 Explored. By the time he was 30, he would have more than 10. 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. The pressure became so intense DeRieux stopped going to dances. Alex's wife and son, Maggie and Paul, were shot to death at their home in 2021, and Alex is currently on trial for their murders.. The deputy opened the trunk of the Honda, where he found two duffel bags stuffed with silver. He told the children they would all be applying for financial aid, enrolling at SLCC and majoring in business administration, the lawsuit cites Mafi as saying. The land had once been home to the Washakie Indians, and as children, Stephen and his 15 full brothers and sisters played among the wind-swept ruins of a Native American cemetery. The groups, whose members believe polygamy brings exaltation in heaven, are offshoots of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Paul Kingston, the top man within the Davis County Cooperative Society, also known as the Kingston Group or The Order, is accused of overseeing what the lawsuit calls a scheme. Jessica said, strictly speaking, she and the other teen brides she knows chose to get married, but added: Its not much of a choice when theyre groomed to do that.. To her horror, all that remained was a ring of dust, marking the place where a chest of gold coins had once stood. Her husband knew she didnt want him to have a plural spouse, she said, but his father told him he needed to have one. He later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. I am in love with old cars and horses. And they avoid the police, opting to handle any disputes in their own brutal manner. She's since left the marriage and wants the legal marriage age raised to 18. 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. Four of those appear to be couples from polygamous groups. The groom was 21. In the months after the robbery, Stephen couldnt shake the feeling he was being watched. They both have the same high cheekbones, the same pale skin, the same wide-set eyes. The relations are distant enough they wouldnt encounter any of Utahs prohibitions on marriage between siblings, first cousins or aunts/nephews and uncles/nieces. The other seven are brothers or sons of Paul Kingston. It includes a provision they obtain financial aid. It is a common and intentional practice in the Order to require girls and women to submit sexually to their husbands even if the sexual submission is against their will because having children results in workers for the benefit of the Order, the lawsuit states. He had arranged for a banner to be placed over a bridge there. He also had dozens of children a brood that would eventually grow to around 300 and he had a hard time telling them apart. She wasnt allowed to leave the house until she decided whom to marry. We really know what your game is.. A body of research suggests the teenage brain is not developed enough to make the kind of long-term decision needed for marriage. Those two unions happened in Colorado, where its legal to marry your cousin. He charged across the field and started brutally beating Stephens cousin. 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. He and Carl are members of the Utah State Bar, despite signing state oaths agreeing to uphold the Utah Constitution, which specifically outlaws polygamy. Carolyn Yvonne Kingston was born in 1938 in Elmo, Utah, to Charles Elden Kingston, and his first wife Ethel Gustafson, so she was the daughter of the first prophet of the Kingston Clan. What he told me was, Hansen said, Get her married so we dont have to take care of her anymore.. One day, not long after the gold disappeared, Knight got an anonymous phone call. Depending on ones view, members of the Kingston Group either take care to follow marriage laws, or work to circumvent them. He told her he believed one did not need to practice polygamy to reach heaven. 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. If someone is mature enough, they should be able to do whatever they want.. His father stood on the stage and called out the names of the men who were to receive one of the clans highest honors. Over 75 years, the Kingstons have amassed a fortune worth an estimated $300 million, but the operation skirts the edges of the law. Sometimes he parked his immaculately buffed burgundy Ford Thunderbird on the curb, but it was rare to see the man himself. She is the fifth of her mothers 12 children. If the father believes his son received true direction from God, the son is sent to Paul Kingston or one of the people he designates to consider marriages. Colorado does not require an officiant or a ceremony to marry. Theyre trying to paint a picture, Markey said, give the judge and, frankly, the defendants, when they see the complaint, give them the context, which is to the effect, We know what's up. Older teenagers were crammed five and six to a room, sleeping on the floors of trailers. The lawsuit from Michaels and the Nelsons asserts the defendants are liable for up to $27 million in damages and another $20 million in penalties. If you were more obedient, this wouldnt have happened., After that, everything changed, Stephen says. The lawsuit says Mafi received an aid package that exceeded her tuition. His life was in danger, the voice on the other end warned. The suitor had asked her to dance a few times at The Orders youth social events. (Photo courtesy Shanell DeRieux) Shanell DeRieux, then called Shanell Snow, center, stands with her mother, Shirley Hansen, right, and her father, John Daniel Kingston, in this photo from her legal wedding day, July 3, 2008, in Grand Junction, Colo. Also pictured are DeRiux's now-ex-husband and ex-mother-in-law. From the outside it seemed like a typical suburban home, offering few clues of the secrets that were contained inside. The couples wedding certificate says Stoddard officiated the ceremony April 26, 2008, in West Valley City. presided, while Richauns father officiated the wedding, promising the bride that if she obeyed her husband, she would be guaranteed a spot in the Celestial Kingdom, the highest level of heaven. For Stephen and the other kids on the ranch, the highlight of each week came on Sundays, when they traveled the hour and a half south to Salt Lake for church. Romero has said her concern is for all girls, not just those in polygamous sects. It empowered Stephen before that, no one had ever stood up to Daniel Kingston or any of them, says a former member. She and her husband had moved to Billings, Mont., to work for a coal mine. Within the clan, the pieces started to add up. But mostly he talked about the history of the Order and his ancestors, the men who had started the clan. Three others, including Grant, said they had to flee to escape such a fate. Terrified, he went out and bought a stash of guns to arm himself, just in case his family tried to gun him down. Jessicas dad told her the wife can get only as high as her husband rises. 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. 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. She favors raising the legal marriage age to 18. Mysterious cars followed his girlfriend, and he once came home to find that someone had rifled through his drawers. When he noticed that the boys had stopped working, he became enraged. 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. Frances was born on November 4 1892, in Indiana. She, in turn, wrote a letter to the judge on their behalf, and the case was settled without a trial. The memorial was held in Maxwell Park in Hildale, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015. 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. There shouldnt really be a reason for an age limit, she said. The teenagers sitting in the driveway on South Bonner Circle that afternoon in 2009 knew the operation well. All of their children who survived the Great Famine emigrated. Snow said the classes also taught the girls to be submissive to their husbands and to keep a good house for them. By the time the teenagers sped away, they had made off with more than $80,000 in silver. 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. Many of these men are also given stewardship of the Orders business holdings sent out to run the clans coal mine or ranches, or to oversee one of its many storefronts. 1 choice. They steer clear of banks, fearing theyll steal their money. Johnson said the Davis County Cooperative Society takes no position on the issue. Only the inner circle knew the hoard even existed, says Christian Kingston, a former Order member. J.O. Their grooms averaged 20 years and 18 days. In the meantime, the police were closing in on the missing silver. Two of Hansen's daughters legally married when they were under the age of 18 to young men in the Kingston Group. If you messed with one of them, you were messing with them all., When Stephen was nine, an accident at Washakie set in motion a chain of events that would eventually prompt him to leave the cult. He bragged that he had worn the same black shirt every day for a year. Do you think if I took $5 million in gold, Id be working out here?. The jury in Alex Murdaugh's high-profile murder trial will visit the scene where his wife Maggie and son Paul were brutally murdered, before they decide the disgraced legal scion's fate.. Paul lived in 1935, at address, Washington. Each time turning up no significant violations or nothing at all. The group sought to maintain Pure Kingston Blood by arranging marriages between cousins and other close relatives, and shunning relationships that werent between white people, the lawsuit alleges. The group has drawn legal attention before. According to former members of the Order, decades of inbreeding have resulted in rampant birth defects throughout the family. I knew I wasn't supposed to marry him, she said, but I almost did to get everyone to shut up and leave me alone about marriage.. They did it, says Christian Kingston. All Rights reserved. [9], He is believed to have practiced polygamy in the past, potentially accruing as many as 40 wives and fathering up to 300 Children. A husband and wife died while on a fishing trip after falling through thin ice in the region. If that father says yes, the groom talks to the girl. All the families belong to the Davis County Cooperative Society. By the time he was 30, he would have more than 10. Stephens father seemed to marry a new girl every year, each one younger and prettier than the last. Its unclear how much if any investigating has happened in the almost seven months since the lawsuit was filed. On February 26th, 2009, the Salt Lake County Sheriffs Office got a call of suspicious activity in the foothills above the city. 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. And it would be several years after that before he stole from his father for the first time. A copy of the lawsuit also is available there, though no other filings in the case are. Log In Once logged in, you can add biography in the database. Then one of them exhaled slowly, his breath shuddering in the cold air. One of them approached the front door while the other kept a lookout. Unable to visit his mother, Stephen would leave a $100 bill in her mailbox or, with his brothers, buy her new furniture. Their father rarely came by, and because the nearest town was 18 miles away, the kids forged a fierce bond among themselves. The Brown boys, charged with felony counts of burglary, wrote a letter to their aunt apologizing for stealing the silver in her house. During his tenure, Kingston has followed his father's practice of plural, child, and intra-family marriage. Jessica was given the list of suitors. (Paul W. Kingston, (Ph.D. Columbia University, 1980) is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Virginia. But he hopes that one day his family will be able to forgive him for leaving them behind. Like other teenagers who leave fundamentalist Mormon communities, Stephen was not prepared to enter the world at large. "A review of wedding certificates shows how the teen marriages are sanctioned at the highest levels of the Kingston Group. [4] Plural marriages for individuals under 18 in the group are not allowed. On weekends, he was sent out to work at the Orders coal mine with other teenagers. Others say they buried it out in the desert and are slowly cashing it out. Her own father David Kingston has 18 wives and around 200 kids. Home. At clan gatherings, girls who were still in their teens danced with men old enough to be their uncles, whom they were sometimes forced to marry. They believe were Gods chosen people, Snow said of the Kingston Group followers, so you should start having kids as soon as possible.. had some 80 children by 13 wives, but his favorite was Paul, an excellent student who made friends easily. Paul J. Kingston Sr., 93, of North Huntingdon, died Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021. Situated at the base of a rugged mountain range, the Orders spread sat in a pristine valley of glistening hayfields and open pasture. 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. Besides, the mother said, the girl needed her husbands health insurance to treat her condition. Women and girls, after theyre married, submit to their husbands and men answer to higher-ranked men, the suit alleges. Members who have left in recent years say that changed after some of Paul Kingston's brothers were convicted of. Now, former members say, girls who will be plural wives meaning they have only a spiritual marriage to their husband are left alone until they are 18 so laws about sex with a minor wont apply. Inseparable: Twins Peter (left) and Paul have lived. Mafi recalls Paul Kingston telling the children who attended that meeting that The Order was going to be trying out something new, the lawsuit says. She said marrying at 16 mitigated the pressures U.S. society places on her to have statuesque looks and be immodest. 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. The groom wore a suit. He thinks about his mom, and wonders if she misses him. While some despised Ben for his apostasy and refused to speak with him, Stephen had remained in touch with his brother. A lawyer and an accountant by trade, Stephens father hardly looked like the sort of man who could command the unquestioned loyalty of thousands of followers. Michaels and Mary Nelson describe similar experiences with their financial aid applications and awards. But Jessica knew the longer she waited to wed, the more likely she would have to become a polygamist and the more likely her husband would be far older than she was. Its hard to leave when thats all youve known, says one former member, who was forced to marry her cousin when she was 15. Jessica is hardly the only girl to make such a choice. 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 deputy heard the Brown boys knew who stole the gold but suddenly, without explanation, they and everyone in the clan clammed up. 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. Once the couples signed the certificates and turned them back in to the Mesa County clerk, they were legally married. 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. So it means being a first [wife]. At 17, she agreed to marry a man in his early 20s. Thats when Nicole Mafi, one of Paul Kingstons daughters, says in the lawsuit she was called into a meeting of recent high school graduates to discuss going to college. You had to be, like, a son of the prophet to know where it was.. Managed by: She was instructed, the complaint adds, to deposit the excess funds at a South Salt Lake office building, where the sects bank is located. They had eight children whose baptisms are recorded in the same church. 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.. Three of Kingston's 14 wives also are in the photo. She says marriages can be used in The Order to gain or maintain favor among the parents of the brides and grooms. Fortunately, our population has already attained a higher graduation rate for high school and associates degrees for men and women in the DCCS. If Paul Kingston or the designee signs off, the groom next goes to the girls father. Some former sect members, including two stars of the television show Escaping Polygamy," say girls are pressured to marry at the age most kids are learning to drive and reading Wuthering Heights.. Kiki Kannibal: The Girl Who Played With Fire. The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time While the Order preached strict abstinence to its children, forbidding even incidental contact between the sexes, there seemed to be no rules after marriage especially for the clans leaders. To cope with the disorientation and loneliness of leaving one world for another, many turn to drugs. A week later, the two were profiled on the CBS program Whistleblower for their work in exposing fraud at Washakie Renewable Energy, the biofuel company operated by two of Mary Nelsons first cousins. Markey said the plaintiffs are making the case to a judge that the Kingston Group is a cult and criminal enterprise rather than a religion. Johnson did not provide the raw data to support those statistics. Their divorce was finalized in July 2012 a little more than three years after they married. Were fucked, they told their cousin. J.O. The education figures he cited would be a few percentage points higher than the average for Utah as a whole, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. They also knew that much of the clans wealth was stashed inside the unassuming suburban house on the corner. The suit says sect members might have obtained tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars through false applications. 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. He would talk to them about marriage and thinking of whom to marry, Hansen said. At first, the two boys denied any involvement in the break-in at Youngs house. Paul already had two wives, but he and Richaun were married in a secret ceremony at her parents house. If I had done it, the Order probably would have killed me. Intermarriage of close. But we paid it all back.. Hopefully, the politician is leading a comfortable . The doorknob to her room was removed. They seemed happy, Ron says. Finding one wasnt difficult. Paul Kingston is one of eight men named as defendants in the lawsuit. The family believed that discipline would rein in the boys and that hard labor would make the girls more supplicant to their husbands back in the city. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Such lawsuits typically are sealed to give the government time to investigate the allegations. As he grew older, Stephen turned out to be as rebellious as his own father had been. 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. He seemed like the most amazing guy, Stephen recalls. DeRieuxs marriage effectively ended in June 2010. Kingston's death came 3 weeks after his legal wife, Luana Joan Kingston, died of breast cancer, according to her obituary. The plaintiffs estimate the eight combine to have 106 wives. Members of The Order are taught they need to be in a plural marriage to reach the highest heaven. When they arrived in Grand Junction, all three couples filled out the papers for a marriage license. He then pinned her on a bed, the documents say, and wouldnt let her call for help. She then met with two women who helped her complete financial aid forms. All rights reserved. My 4-year-old comes to me and says she has to find out her No. When Elden died in 1948, leadership of the Order fell to Stephens grandfather, J.O., a short, miserly man with bony shoulders and thinning hair. They belonged to the Order and had toiled in the cult for years. DeRieux remarried at age 21 to a man who isnt from the Kingston Group. Those cousins and two others have since pleaded guilty to crimes that include fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and witness tampering in a plot to pocket federal energy tax credits. She and her husband had four children with whom they share custody. 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 . [4], Plural marriage is practiced by some members of the DCCS, and members make their own choice in who they marry. Snow contends her mother was one of the people who told her she needed to think about whom she was going to wed. Photo by Nate Carlisle, The Salt Lake Tribune | Shirley Hansen, seen here July 21, 2018, stands along 2100 South near State Street in Salt Lake City. His arms are sunburned and his hands calloused from long days moving the irrigation pipes that water the fields. She's since left the marriage and wants the legal marriage age raised to 18. According to Montana court documents, the couple had an argument at their apartment and DeRieuxs then-husband threw her down a flight of stairs. 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..