Members who have left in recent years say that changed after some of Paul Kingstons brothers were convicted of crimes related to child abuse, sex with a minor or incest. ), Related He and Carl are members of the Utah State Bar, despite signing state oaths agreeing to uphold the Utah Constitution, which specifically outlaws polygamy. That Stephens father sat atop a mafialike organization was a secret kept from him for most of his childhood. It wasnt like we thought about it a lot. 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. The DCCS reaffirms that each individual has their free agency to choose whom and when they will marry, the statement said. And they avoid the police, opting to handle any disputes in their own brutal manner. Former Order members remain convinced the Knights stole the gold. Girls are told they will need to pray to God so he might show them who their No. This didnt belong to you anyway., As big as the heist was, it attracted almost no attention in Salt Lake. Do you think if I took $5 million in gold, Id be working out here?. His most bizarre beliefs, though, concerned the occult. 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.. No recordings or photos were allowed during the ceremony. A short, blustery man with a hair-trigger temper, Daniel Kingston had reportedly once kidnapped two boys at gunpoint and led them out to the Great Salt Lake (the charges were later dropped). Managed by: This is your fault, he thundered, glaring at them. Two teenage boys had been spotted entering Rachel Youngs home. 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. For the marriages performed in Utah, Bill W. Stoddard signed as the officiant until his death in March. In the meantime, the police were closing in on the missing silver. He snapped the padlock on the first crate and began stuffing the silver ingots into duffel bags, lugging them back out to the waiting Honda. It was Mothers Day in 2000, and Stephen and two of his brothers were speeding up a dirt road for dinner at an aunts house. 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. At first, the two boys denied any involvement in the break-in at Youngs house. 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. [5][6][7][8] Members generally seek the blessing of parents and religious leaders before choosing to marry. She favors raising the legal marriage age to 18. 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. Its a quiet, haunting place, with massive hayfields that stretch to the horizon. Former sect members testified in favor of the measure, but its unclear whether the pressures faced by teens in the Kingston Group constitute forced marriage. He said the college has controls to ensure compliance with federal aid guidelines. Instead, he had walked away from the family three years earlier to make a life of his own. Current members dispute those characterizations. Rates of college attendance that meet or exceed the Utah average have been a point of pride in the Kingston Group, whose members have offered such statistics to counter the stereotype of children from polygamy, especially girls, being uneducated with no opportunity for self-improvement. Children born into the clan make up much of the labor force. When someone is interested in marriage, the process is something more like a job interview than a courtship. We figured it was ours anyway, says Stephen, explaining that the clan hadnt paid the boys for bagging coal. 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. The "9" represents his status as a "numbered man" in the Davis County Cooperative Society, also known as the Kingston Group. Jessica as well as Snow, DeRieux and Hansen all favor raising the legal marriage age in Utah and other states to 18. Johnson did not provide the raw data to support those statistics. Depending on ones view, members of the Kingston Group either take care to follow marriage laws, or work to circumvent them. A lawsuit alleges leaders of a Utah polygamous sect bilked federal student aid programs by instructing teenagers to omit their fathers and other sources of income when applying for benefits. A few days later, the groom-to-be picked up Jessica and took her to Murray Park. At a minimum, the statement said, two employees review every student file flagged for verification to ensure quality assurance in our processes.. The suit was filed against the groups leader Paul Eldon Kingston and 21 other members. For that, she would have to be legally married to him. 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. During his tenure, Kingston has followed his father's practice of plural, child, and intra-family marriage. The . 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. This story has been shared 116,307 times. He then pinned her on a bed, the documents say, and wouldnt let her call for help. They and Mafi also accuse a sect-affiliated tax preparer of falsifying tax returns for Kingston Group members to report lower incomes, partly to boost student financial aid. She didnt want to be in that house anymore; it reminded her of my brother. To test her devotion, Stephens father began calling her in the middle of the night and telling her to move the family to a new location. The suitor had asked her to dance a few times at The Orders youth social events. Kingston succeeded his father John Ortell Kingston as the Trustee-in-Trust of the DCCS upon his father's death in 1987. He directed some of his own children the plaintiffs estimate he has 27 wives and more than 300 offspring to seek more financial aid than they would have otherwise been entitled to, the suit cites one of his daughters as saying, and when the assistance exceeded what the student needed to attend college, the sect kept the proceeds. All of their children who survived the Great Famine emigrated. He told her he believed one did not need to practice polygamy to reach heaven. . The group also teaches its members that only those with so-called pure blood will survive the apocalypse, according to the lawsuit. Nor are youths from polygamous sects the only teens who marry in Utah. At 17, she agreed to marry a man in his early 20s. The couples wedding certificate says Stoddard officiated the ceremony April 26, 2008, in West Valley City. They had 4 children: John Hozlette Kingston and 3 other children. The plaintiffs estimate the eight combine to have 106 wives. The Knight brothers were driving new trucks, and so were their friends, says Levi Kingston. Over the next several years, Stephen bounced from the suburbs of Salt Lake to the clans ranch in Nevada. They sat there for a moment, warming their hands against the sputtering heater. Jessica Kingston didnt want to be a polygamist. He asked him if he was being obedient, then excused himself to talk to Stephens mother. 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. Jessica Kingston said within a year of getting married, her husband started looking for a plural wife. 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.. He finished a three-year term as Chair of the Department of Sociology in August 2007. The other seven are brothers or sons of Paul Kingston. The bride was 16. But he hopes that one day his family will be able to forgive him for leaving them behind. These days Stephen works on a cattle ranch near the Idaho border, just down the road from where he grew up. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. To go to Colorado, DeRieux said, she and her fianc drove to Price, where they jumped into a 15-passenger van carrying their parents, the other two sets of brides and grooms and their parents. This is nothing more than a continued attempt in a long history to keep DCCS members from accessing education and services every other U.S. citizen is legally entitled to. 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 two most recent of those marriages, according to wedding certificates, occurred in April. He thinks about his mom, and wonders if she misses him. 'I am the daughter of his fifth. [4], Plural marriage is practiced by some members of the DCCS, and members make their own choice in who they marry. In an analysis written in 2015, a University of Maryland sociologist found that nationwide 37 percent of people who marry before age 20 divorce in the first 10 years. (Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Frances was born on November 4 1892, in Indiana. 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. (Photo courtesy of Kollene Snow) Kollene Snow, 16, poses in her dress before her 2009 marriage in West Valley City. The teenagers sitting in the driveway on South Bonner Circle that afternoon in 2009 knew the operation well. Former members estimate Paul has 30 wives and more than 50 children. 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. Youd show up for a welfare call, or a domestic-abuse call, and it was just real run-down.. Members of a powerful polygamous group in Utah claim they were forced into underage marriages with their relatives to keep their blood pure, were raped by their husbands and had to perform child labor, according to a bombshell lawsuit. The groom was 21. They were the type of kids you didnt mess with, says Robert Owen, a former member of the clan. Luke and Scott often visited the home of one of their aunts, Rachel Young. Paul married Frances G Chez Kingston. 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