In the months after the robbery, Stephen couldnt shake the feeling he was being watched. Just under eight miles southeast of Short Creek is an area called Cane Beds, Arizona. The battle took place in the spiritual pre-existence that Mormons believe all souls come from. As for its anti-government views, allegations of fraud against government entities have long dogged the Kingstons. Desert Tech and its rifles have been featured on Fox News, Mythbusters, Daredevil and The Blacklist, among other TV shows. 3 bd 2 ba 1.6k sqft. At first, the two boys denied any involvement in the break-in at Youngs house. 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. "It's not really talked about; I don't think [people here] even research to see how related they are" before getting married or pregnant, she adds. One of them approached the front door while the other kept a lookout. Look around, Stephen says. By signing up, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy & to receive electronic communications from Vice Media Group, which may include marketing promotions, advertisements and sponsored content. It would be several more years before Stephen learned that Paul Kingston was his father, and that his mother was just one of his dads many wives. And another one of her sisters married one of my half-brothers, but we have the same blood and genetics because our moms are full sisters." Over 75 years, the Kingstons have amassed a fortune worth an estimated $300 million, but the operation skirts the edges of the law. The most common birth defects for children born of close cousins, anywhere, are: harelip, cleft palate, clubfoot, and certain forms of heart valve conditions. Scott remembered that Ortell had an answer for that question. I love the Order. The 43-year-old Kingston took the witness stand for the prosecution about 2:40 p.m. and is expected to answer questions through Thursday. The Order was founded by Elden Kingston, Stephens grand-uncle, at the height of the Great Depression. A scrappy white wooden fence runs the length of it along Canyon Street. 6.3M views 6 years ago Profiles by VICE S1 E23 Although the mainstream Mormon church abandoned polygamy over 100 years ago, many splinter groups across Utah still practice plural marriage. The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) is a polygamous sect straddling the Utah and Arizona state lines; the twin towns of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Arizona, are known collectively as Short Creek (pronounced "crick"). In 1999, Pauls younger brother David Ortell Kingston was convicted of taking his 16-year-old niece as wife number 15. These specialty firearms can cost anywhere from $2,500 to $8,000 each. But because they were the sons of the prophet, they got away with it., Stephen vehemently denies that he or his brothers had anything to do with the heist. Once free of the cult, Lu Ann, Allison and other ex-Order members have had to unlearn the hatred that was drilled into their heads. They were the type of kids you didnt mess with, says Robert Owen, a former member of the clan. Kingston is a member of the Order, the largest Mormon polygamist clan in the U.S. Everyone knows it's happening, few talk about it unprompted, it just sort of..is. There are times when it has gotten kind of gross, like when they marry an uncle to a niece. From a young age, Snow worked for Order companies to help feed his siblings, a responsibility some Kingston men are known to shirk. The lawyers words call to mind another heavenly curse, described in 2 Nephi, Chapter 5 of the Book of Mormon, where God caused a skin of blackness to come upon a group called the Lamanites, supposedly ancestors of Native Americans. Those twoand a fifth boyalso suffer from the condition that all of this family's sons were born with: x-linked hydrocephalus. Money, sex and power. When Paul turned 21, he married Richaun Dye. The knowledge that one's children are likely to be born with conditions like this one does not prevent FLDS couples from becoming pregnant; instead, they see it as a responsibility and blessing to have many children. This racist display was no one-off. 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. J.O. One ex-Order member, who asked to be referred to as Scott, instead of his real name for fear of retribution by clan members, said hatred of gays was big in the Kingston clan, with the word f----- in frequent use. Unable to visit his mother, Stephen would leave a $100 bill in her mailbox or, with his brothers, buy her new furniture. Some read simply, "Baby Keate," or "Baby Bateman," or "Baby Cooke," with holes where numeric date tiles might otherwise be placed. The familys dedication to the principle of polygamy already had been established by Kingstons father, who had three wives. From the outside it seemed like a typical suburban home, offering few clues of the secrets that were contained inside. Former Order members remain convinced the Knights stole the gold. Brother Elden died of penile cancer in 1948, despite the best efforts of some family members to burn away the cancer using acid. The deputy heard the Brown boys knew who stole the gold but suddenly, without explanation, they and everyone in the clan clammed up. You better check on your gold, Young told her. Tucker is another of Ortells many sons, though not from the favored wife, LaDonna. Ethnic jokes and stereotypes were commonly repeated. I dont really have too many friends, but the ones I do, I wouldnt trade for anything., Among Stephens friends were two of his cousins, Luke and Scott Brown. "Finally exposed in the news, the facts of life inside [the Mormon offshoot Kingston clan's] religious/cult compound are stunning Mormons, Utahans, the nation, and the world. Jonathan Turner, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Riverside, hypothesized exactly that, in an article published by the ABC news network in 2008. He seemed like the most amazing guy, Stephen recalls. If you ever do that again, he said, Ill blow your head off., It was an astonishing moment in the history of the clan. And it would be several years after that before he stole from his father for the first time. Indeed, the group was founded during the Great Depression as a communal religious organization where members dedicated their earnings and possessions to building the Kingdom of God on Earth, as one church document attests. Or Aunt Martha did, or somebody did. In the kitchen, he opened a closet and popped a hatch in the floor that led down to a dark, musty basement. They're given the utmost attention and care because the FLDS faithful believe everything in this life is a test before entering the celestial kingdom, and caring well for all of Heavenly Father's children is part of that test. If every generation includes three wives and 30 children, a man can - theoretically - flood a community with over 24 million of his descendants in. Terrified, he went out and bought a stash of guns to arm himself, just in case his family tried to gun him down. When one of his favorite wives died, he missed her so much that he dug her up from her grave. 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. They both have the same high cheekbones, the same pale skin, the same wide-set eyes. Children born into the clan make up much of the labor force. The Kingston clan is an endogamous (preaching unity between members of the same family) and polygamous sect formed by a split in the Mormon church - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The grift was exposed decades later, in the 1980s, when the clan paid a $350,000 settlement for swindling the government through welfare fraud. Some outside the church have referred to the group as "the Kingston Clan" or the "Kingston Cult," although leaders believe that these terms are "inaccurate and derogatory." . We figured it was ours anyway, says Stephen, explaining that the clan hadnt paid the boys for bagging coal. His most bizarre beliefs, though, concerned the occult. They maintain a secretive but powerful presence in Utah's Salt Lake Valley, and their estimated 7,500. The two boys pulled into the driveway and shifted the green Honda into park. There, stacked on the concrete floor, were crates filled with bars of silver. According to people who have left the Order, the cult exploits its 2,000 members as virtual slave labor and hides profits from tax collectors. Kollene's father, John Daniel Kingston has 14 wives, and she is the fifth of her mother Shirley Hansen's 12 children. Former clan prophet John Ortell Kingston, who died in 1987, paid the Medicaid bills for a child born with severe birth defects after Utah investigators linked the wealthy father of more than 65 children to the baby. SALT LAKE CITY A local non-profit with ties to the polygamous Kingston group is facing multiple questions and accusations regarding its taxes. The Brown boys, charged with felony counts of burglary, wrote a letter to their aunt apologizing for stealing the silver in her house. He also preached a bizarre extrapolation of the Book of Mormon called the White Horse Prophecy, a dreaded prediction of a cataclysmic time when the black race will rise up and attempt to destroy the white man, only to be thwarted by Native Americans riding to the rescue. (KUTV) Weeks after a Kingston polygamist clan member was charged in the death of her child, former members of that group are speaking out about what they say is a much bigger problem. They belonged to the Order and had toiled in the cult for years. 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. Those affected by the genetic disorder suffer grand mal seizures and often have facial feature deformities and severe mental retardation, with IQs as low as 25. The 100 Greatest TV Shows of All Time Browning sees similarities between The Order and the religion-minded racists of the World Church of the Creator and the Christian Identity movement. These conditions are disproportionately common, relative to the size of the general population, in Short Creek. "It's doesn't stop anybody," Dawna says. Matt Browning seems less sure. Paul Kingston wore secondhand suits that hung off his slender shoulders, and he spoke in a flat, emotionless monotone. When people hear organized crime, they think of mobsters. Ron Rohbock, 64, who was kicked out of the FLDS in 2002 after serving on church security for decades at Warren and Rulon Jeffs' side, has a different answer. Older teenagers were crammed five and six to a room, sleeping on the floors of trailers. 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. They would trek into state welfare offices, their kids in tow, claiming that they had no idea who the father of their children was, or that he was a truck driver who had left them destitute. Mormons, however, take care to denounce the FLDS "polygs" as having absolutely no relation to their Latter Day Saints. They got married and contacted the . There was also testimony, during one hearing, that someone in the Kingston clan wanted to blow up the courthouse. But the Kingstons have remained in Salt Lake, operating virtually undetected in a city of more than 1 million people. Dont the infant deaths and tales of horrific deformities belie Ortells homespun eugenics? Young declined to comment when asked if he practices polygamy. Dawna Black Bistline (Alyssa Bistline's father's brother's wife) has seen firsthand how the children of cousins suffer. It didnt take long for them to break down and confess that they had robbed their aunt. Noticing Stephen, he put the barbells down and came over to the boy. For fun he and other Order men would go to a park frequented by gay males, looking for victims. Years of inbreeding have resulted in children born with serious birth defects. 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. In it, black people come close to killing off the white race until they are countered by Native Americans, symbolized by a Red Horse, which gallops to the White Horses rescue. Nearby homes. "My father and her grandmother were full brother and sister," she explains, recognizing the bloom of confusion on my face. The first questions were about his background. Instead, he had walked away from the family three years earlier to make a life of his own. The two were playmates when they were boys. eu . 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. This didnt belong to you anyway., As big as the heist was, it attracted almost no attention in Salt Lake. Boys are taught that the prophet demands absolute loyalty and that they should be prepared to defend the clan. She is guiding me all around town, following my route, turn by turn, on Google maps. KUTV A large police presence swarmed a well-known polygamous family's property in South Salt Lake Wednesday.A Department of Justice Spokesman Peter Carr confirmed to KUTV that it is involved in . "I'm like, Really? Thats your Uncle Paul, she said. 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. Stephen hangs up and drives home in silence. The son of the clans prophet, Knight, then 18, had once seemed destined for a leadership role within the Order. We're sitting in Ron's large kitchen, eating a meal of homemade tomato sauce and sweet Italian sausage that his wife Geria retired marriage and family therapist originally from Hurleyville, NY, who he met six years ago on Zoosk!has prepared in a slowcooker. Similarly, his older brother John Daniel Kingston has had 14 wives, four of them his half-sisters. But by 2006, Dr. Theodore Tarby, of Arizona, had discovered at least 20 more children living with the condition in Short Creek, all within just blocks of each other. Among the polygamous Kingstons, a number of children have been born with birth defects, among them one born with two vaginas and two uteruses but no Outwardly, she appeared to have no sex organs. Dawna's eldest son is now dating a Centennial woman whom he recently found out is a distant cousin. Their neighbors had no idea that the family were prominent members of the Kingston clan, the most powerful polygamist cult in America and one of the most dangerous. The Mormon Church officially banned polygamy in 1890, and some of the defiant bands of fundamentalists who refuse to give up the practice have been pushed out of the city and into the desert, where they eke out an existence in rusted-out trailers and sprawling compounds. NBA 'Investigating,' Team Suspends Ja Morant After Allegedly Flashing Gun on Social Media "And my oldest daughter, she's 18 and she's dated a couple of my cousins, which makes them her second cousins, and we're like, Eww, that's gross.". Its ominous-sounding moniker, The Order, is a reference to the United Order, a quasi-utopian society proposed by LDS-founder Joseph Smith, and practiced in some Mormon communities under the leadership of early church president Brigham Young. If the Order doesnt have it, the clan teaches, we dont need it., Editors picks I didnt even know the n-word was bad until I was like 15 or 16, she told Intelligence Report. If gay men stay in the closet, they are allowed to remain in the cult as worker bees.. Then one of them exhaled slowly, his breath shuddering in the cold air. materials or even attempted to focus team and society have a kingston clan member was charged with birth defects increase becomes apparent similarities than. Then one night, a clan member called and told him that the Order planned to kill him. In the polygamist cult of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, cousins were encouraged to marry in order to preserve certain bloodlines. Young told Intelligence Report that his company has sold weapons, with the approval of the U.S. State Department, to governments in Europe and the Middle East, Saudi Arabia being one.