Situated at the base of a rugged mountain range, the Orders spread sat in a pristine valley of glistening hayfields and open pasture. His father stood on the stage and called out the names of the men who were to receive one of the clans highest honors. (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. They are paid not in cash but in scrip, an arcane form of credit used by the Mormon pioneers that can only be redeemed at company stores. Its who I am., To keep the police from prying into the matter any further, the clan also hired a private investigator to track down the missing gold. Then one of them exhaled slowly, his breath shuddering in the cold air. 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. Stephen calmly waited until his uncle got close, and then he reached behind the seat and pulled out a shotgun, leveling it at his uncle. 1 choice [of whom to marry] in The Order, Jessica Kingston said. Over the last four years, these audits have occurred for DCCS members at a rate 9.5 times higher than the average population. Yet its teen marriages in the Kingston Group that spurred the Utah Legislature to act this year. Duringa 2020 trialfor a California businessman accused of carrying out a nearly $500 million biodiesel fraud scheme with a member of the Kingston Group, attorneys for the businessman called the Kingstons an incestuous polygamous group that is always scheming to defraud the US government in what the group calls bleeding the beast., A spokesman for the group, Kent Johnson, called those allegations categorically false.. The couple have since divorced. Hansen, 50, in a recent interview, said she told her daughter that wanting to leave home was the wrong reason to get married. If the case succeeds, the whistleblowers can collect perhaps millions of dollars from the damages or fines paid by the defendants. Over the next several years, Stephen bounced from the suburbs of Salt Lake to the clans ranch in Nevada. On this much, though, mother and daughter agree: Snows father was the primary driver. The other seven are brothers or sons of Paul Kingston. One baby deemed to have too many deformities was allegedly put in a shoe box and left to die. (Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Salt Lake Community College Redwood Road campus is pictured Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019. Four of those appear to be couples from polygamous groups. Her parents placed her in what she called a repentance home, where she wasnt allowed to communicate with anyone without supervision. She and her husband had four children with whom they share custody. She received no sex education or premarital counseling. (Courtesy photo) Paul E. Kingston, seen here in this undated photo. When he had finished, he walked toward Stephen, who was sitting on the tractor. Comparable graduation rates have been attained by our bachelors and advanced degree students when compared to the state of Utah and the U.S., despite an uphill battle of active discrimination against our students. 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. The DCCS is a financial cooperative established by his uncle Elden Kingston in 1935. The Order was founded by Elden Kingston, Stephens grand-uncle, at the height of the Great Depression. To get out of this s----y situation, I have to get into another s----y situation, said Kollene Snow, who married at 16 and is DeRieuxs full sister. He is not ready to forgive his father. Former and current members of the Kingston Group say that kids are taught from a young age they one day will need to pray about whom to marry. 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.. No record of the case is available at the court clerks office. Jessica as well as Snow, DeRieux and Hansen all favor raising the legal marriage age in Utah and other states to 18. Kingston clan into a multimillion-dollar business empire while allowing many of his purported 13 wives and dozens of children to survive on government assistance. Boys are taught they will need to receive revelation from God on whom to marry. The grift was exposed decades later, in the 1980s, when the clan paid a $350,000 settlement for swindling the government through welfare fraud. "A review of wedding certificates shows how the teen marriages are sanctioned at the highest levels of the Kingston Group. One is a first cousin. 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. One afternoon, as Stephen and his cousin were taking a break from fixing a tractor that had broken down in a hayfield, Daniel Kingston pulled up. The two most recent of those marriages, according to wedding certificates, occurred in April. Jessica is hardly the only girl to make such a choice. Eventually, there was a meeting between Jessica Kingston, her parents and Paul Kingston. Thanks for contacting us. Former members estimate Paul has 30 wives and more than 50 children. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. All rights reserved. He charged across the field and started brutally beating Stephens cousin. Jessica Kingston said a girls devotion and attitude are often measured by her view of polygamy. We want to hear it. 12 Paul J. WILFONG was born on 4-13-1912 in Marlinton. Come and get me, Stephen said. Paul Kingston, they said, has 17 wives and nearly 50 children. The suit says sect members might have obtained tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars through false applications. Its unclear how much if any investigating has happened in the almost seven months since the lawsuit was filed. Her own father David Kingston has 18 wives and around 200 kids. It was February in Salt Lake, cold and gray, and in the foothills above the city, a low fog hung over the mountains. Create Biography Earlier in its history, the Kingston Group had plural wives under age 18. was just as frugal as his brother he lived in a dilapidated shack with planks missing from the porch but he had a better head for business. Everyone in the Order knew that she controlled the purse strings for the operation but few were aware that she was sitting on a hidden stash of silver. If that child comes to her at age 16 wanting to marry, she said, she will have questions. No one would accept the guilty by association view in any other culture that has been adopted by the public for ours. If God gives him direction on whom to marry, he goes to his dad. Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune. Kent Johnson, a spokesman for the Davis County Cooperative Society (DCCS), which also is named as a defendant, said members are strongly encouraged to strictly adhere to every legal guideline when applying for financial aid. 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. They were finally getting even. Paul Kingston and his wife, Mary Kelly, were natives of Moinies (Meenies) townland, Drimoleague, Co. Cork, Ireland. Chuck Lepper, vice president for student affairs and enrollment management, said that no review is planned at this time. Older teenagers were crammed five and six to a room, sleeping on the floors of trailers. In a search of public records created since the start of 1997, The Salt Lake Tribune found 65 marriages among members of the Kingston Group in which the bride was 15, 16 or 17. She also is a star of "Escaping Polygamy." One of the Orders leaders did jail time for severely beating his own daughter after she fled an arranged marriage to his brother. 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. 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.. Mysterious cars followed his girlfriend, and he once came home to find that someone had rifled through his drawers. 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. He told her he believed one did not need to practice polygamy to reach heaven. As he talked to the woman who lived there, Luke Brown came out of the house, and his brother Scott soon joined him. From Hansens perspective, the entire Kingston Group marriage process is like being told you can have anything to eat as long as it comes from a certain table. When a girl doesnt want to be a polygamist, that information is shared among boys and men in the sect. We strongly encourage all members to strictly adhere to every legal guideline when operating their businesses including day cares and when applying for all need-based assistance, including financial aid for students. I strongly believe they are an organized-crime family, Shurtleff says. To her horror, all that remained was a ring of dust, marking the place where a chest of gold coins had once stood. Much of what we have reviewed appears frivolous and unfounded, Gustafson said in an emailed statement. If that father says yes, the groom talks to the girl. He has held several high-level positions in government and education and worked as a consultant, so he likely has earned a significant income over the years. The relations are distant enough they wouldnt encounter any of Utahs prohibitions on marriage between siblings, first cousins or aunts/nephews and uncles/nieces. By 18 she was pregnant with her first child and ended up having four children in four years. A body of research suggests the teenage brain is not developed enough to make the kind of long-term decision needed for marriage. Youd show up for a welfare call, or a domestic-abuse call, and it was just real run-down.. The Kingston Group is not affiliated withthe Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) based on the Utah-Arizona line that is run by imprisoned leader Warren Jeffs, who is serving a life sentence in Texas for sexually assaulting girls he considered brides. 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. Those two unions happened in Colorado, where its legal to marry your cousin. 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. After the chest of gold was stolen, suspicion among the clans leadership immediately fell on a group of rebellious teenagers who had left the cult a few years before. If you would like the full family tree and I feel your request is legitimate I will email it to you. 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. 1:03. She's since left the marriage and wants the legal marriage age raised to 18. September 1, 2018. Brother Ron Tucker, he would intone, come and get your number. According to the Orders interpretation of the Book of Revelations, only 144,000 numbered men will be allowed to rule in heaven under God. There are thousands of members in the group. Snow and her mother, Shirley Hansen, have differing stories on what the moms role was in her daughters marriage. 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. Each daughter married one of their cousins, who also are pictured with their parents. Then one night, a clan member called and told him that the Order planned to kill him. Do you think if I took $5 million in gold, Id be working out here?. For this article we will focus on forced child labor in the context of modern day slavery that takes place in the Kingston polygamous group. Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune Boys as young as 14 labored in the workshop. But women who are disobedient and fail to bear children including because they miscarry face ostracism, the lawsuit claims. While much of the focus of any polygamous group is on plural marriages that happen outside the law, records and interviews with current and former first wives in the Kington Group lend insight into how legal marriages are facilitated. She's since left the marriage and wants the legal marriage age raised to 18. The group also teaches its members that only those with so-called pure blood will survive the apocalypse, according to the lawsuit. This article related to the Latter Day Saint movement is a stub. The Knight brothers were driving new trucks, and so were their friends, says Levi Kingston. He then pinned her on a bed, the documents say, and wouldnt let her call for help. But the more the deputy pressed, the more their stories didnt add up. 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. He also had dozens of children a brood that would eventually grow to around 300 and he had a hard time telling them apart. 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. As time passed, his dogma became even stranger. Romero has said her concern is for all girls, not just those in polygamous sects. By the time he was 30, he would have more than 10. The DCCS is a financial cooperative established by his uncle Elden Kingston in 1935. The now-20-year-old said she and her husband have started a family of their own. 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. John Daniel Kingston, who according to court testimony once had 14 wives, was on hand in 2011, when his sons held an open house at the Washakie production plant in Plymouth near Interstate 15 and . Incest is endemic in the clan, with uncles marrying much younger female relatives; in 2003, police showed up at an Order barbecue and arrested a clan member for marrying his underage cousin. Paul lived in 1935, at address, Washington. Family photo: Kollene's father, John Daniel Kingston has 14 wives, and she is the fifth of her mother Shirley Hansen's 12 children +9 View gallery Controlling: They got married in March 2009,. The lone man suing said three Order men raped him when he was 16 or 17 and that when he left the group and announced he was gay, was tracked down and severely beaten by a group of boys acting at the direction of the Order, the lawsuit alleges. Within a year, Paul Kingston would take a fourth wife. The third plaintiff is Michelle Michaels, who the complaint says left the sect in 2017 rather than become a spiritual wife to a cousin who has nine wives. The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time Matt Gaetz Called Out for Citing Chinese Propaganda in Hearing Her husband knew she didnt want him to have a plural spouse, she said, but his father told him he needed to have one. I am in love with old cars and horses. Jessicas father relented during the meeting and gave his approval for his daughter to marry her No. This story has been shared 116,307 times. He asked him if he was being obedient, then excused himself to talk to Stephens mother. 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. Polygamy is a legacy of the early teachings of the mainstream church, which abandoned the practice in 1890 and now strictly prohibits it. The teenagers sitting in the driveway on South Bonner Circle that afternoon in 2009 knew the operation well. The group has drawn legal attention before. Thats your Uncle Paul, she said. Known variously as "Brother Paul," "the leader," and "the man on the watchtower" by Order members, this unremarkable, balding middle-aged man reportedly has 27 wives and over 300 children. I honestly didnt even know there was any gold until they accused me of taking it, he says. DeRieux was photographed in Layton, Wednesday, July 11, 2018. They had eight children whose baptisms are recorded in the same church. All the families belong to the Davis County Cooperative Society. The boys also bought cigarettes wholesale through a small clan-owned market run by their older brother and sold them at school. She was 68. Luke and Scott often visited the home of one of their aunts, Rachel Young. Another brother, Ben, showed him how to mend fences. The pressure became so intense DeRieux stopped going to dances. Tennessee Ex-Cop Sues After Becoming Porn Meme, Claims She Was 'Groomed' for Sex With Coworkers It was a total spur of the moment thing, Brown says. The issue is available now on newsstands and in the digital archive. In his opening statement and in his cross examination of Kingston, the attorney also spent much time dwelling on the practice of polygamy in the Kingston family sect, saying that sect leader Paul . ), Related For the marriages performed in Utah, Bill W. Stoddard signed as the officiant until his death in March. The woman who married in 2014 at age 16 and asked not to be identified is still with her husband. The Brown boys, charged with felony counts of burglary, wrote a letter to their aunt apologizing for stealing the silver in her house. I could tell she loved him, and it seemed like he loved her too. Within a year, Paul Kingston would take a fourth wife. It didnt take long for them to break down and confess that they had robbed their aunt. Trump Melts Down Over Murdoch Admitting Fox Lied About Election Fraud The groups, whose members believe polygamy brings exaltation in heaven, are offshoots of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Paul Eldon Kingston, the leader of Utah's polygamous Kingston Group, also known is the order, is named as a defendant in a bombshell lawsuit alleging sex trafficking. Come back, his dad will say. We dont expect any of the claims to prevail in a court of law.. The Order stays as far away as possible from police, and this was like inviting them in your front door., With its vast wealth suddenly exposed to public view, the clan moved quickly to hush up the scandal. 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. Some children are born blind, others with missing fingernails or undersize heads. 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. You better check on your gold, Young told her. (Paul Kingston and other leaders of the family ignored repeated requests for comment for this story. The father preferred another who had inquired about marrying Jessica. Theyd keep it in basements, in filing cabinets, in a big safe in one of Pauls offices, says Levi Kingston, a former clan member. 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. Prior to 2017, Kingston was Professor of Sociology, and by courtesy, Professor in the Curry School of Education. Whether she gives her blessing, she said, will depend on the answers to those questions. If you ever do that again, he said, Ill blow your head off., It was an astonishing moment in the history of the clan. Paul J. Kingston Sr., 93, of North Huntingdon, died Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021. All rights reserved. [5][6][7][8] Members generally seek the blessing of parents and religious leaders before choosing to marry. Like Stephen, the boys were considered troublemakers by the Order and like Stephen, they knew a lot about how the clan handled its money. They believe were Gods chosen people, Snow said of the Kingston Group followers, so you should start having kids as soon as possible.. Carl Kingston is believed to have fathered 20 children from two wives and another child from a third wife who has left him. When Stephen was a boy, the clan would gather for the New Year in a warehouse in the city for its annual ritual: the numbering of the men. 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. On weekends, he was sent out to work at the Orders coal mine with other teenagers. 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. Jessica said her husband was on a group text that went around listing girls or women who had not yet married with jokes about how old the females were getting. Earlier in its history, the Kingston Group had plural wives under age 18. His most bizarre beliefs, though, concerned the occult. Once the couples signed the certificates and turned them back in to the Mesa County clerk, they were legally married. 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. Women, meanwhile, allegedly gain status by being pure of blood and obedient, becoming the first wives of higher-ranking numbered men, and bearing many children. If I had done it, the Order probably would have killed me. 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. Paul Elden Kingston (1959- ): Known as the "Watchman on the Wall" who claims to hear from God regularly, Paul is the son of John Ortell. This is your fault, he thundered, glaring at them. Inseparable: Twins Peter (left) and Paul have lived. ", "United by fundamentalist Mormon beliefs, one polygamous group helps another by bringing truckloads of food", "Young Brides Stir New Outcry on Utah Polygamy", "Shurtleff: Child bride polygamous marriages appear to have stopped", "Polygamists are urged to make public statement", "No longer performing child-bride marriages? This is an indication that an experienced qui tam firm looked at the facts, Markey said, and realized it was a case that was worth pursuing.. He would talk to them about marriage and thinking of whom to marry, Hansen said. Hanging up the phone, she rushed to her closet. Children born into the clan make up much of the labor force. Did the Utah Legislature do enough to save the Great Salt Lake? To cope with the disorientation and loneliness of leaving one world for another, many turn to drugs. Three of Kingston's 14 wives also are in the photo. COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) Jurors in Alex Murdaugh's murder trial will get to see for themselves the rural hunting estate where his wife and son were killed, following in the footsteps of . Jessica Kingston said within a year of getting married, her husband started looking for a plural wife. Paul was upset any of this had been reported at all, says a former member close to the boys. The . Marriage preparation can accelerate at puberty. Consumed with guilt over his brothers death, Stephen lashed out. From the outside it seemed like a typical suburban home, offering few clues of the secrets that were contained inside. They should refrain from this decision until they can be well informed to make a mature and thoughtful decision before entering into marriage.. They both have the same high cheekbones, the same pale skin, the same wide-set eyes. In qui tam cases, the federal government can either join the plaintiffs in recouping losses and pursuing damages and fines, or let the plaintiffs prosecute the lawsuit on their own. 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 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.