Word: lebaron
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Within 30 months of the raid, at least ten other opponents of Ervil's new church had either disappeared or were found dead. Among those missing are an Ensenada woman who sided with Joel LeBaron's sect rather than Ervil's, and Utah Polygamist Robert Hunt Simons, whose disappearance came after his wife and a daughter refused to move in with LeBaron. Shot and killed in National City, Calif., was 7-ft. Dean Grover Vest, a follower of Ervil LeBaron's who had begun saying he could do without...
...latest of the suspected LeBaron victims was Rulon C. Allred, leader of 2,000 polygamists in Utah, Montana and Mexico. On May 10, two young people, who appeared to be women, rushed into Allred's suburban Salt Lake City office and shot him six times. Allred's transgression: he had failed to submit to the disciplines of LeBaron's church...
...LeBaron, an imposing (6ft. 4-in.), darkly handsome man, seems almost totally obsessed by his religion. Rather than accept his brother Joel's view of a charitable, merciful Christ, Ervil bases his belief on a preference for the wrathful God of the Old Testament. Says Polygamist Harold Blackmore of Utah: "He's always preaching this blood and thunder stuff-you know, if people don't live the civil law [of Ervil's God], cut their heads off. He is very pugnacious, but is also a smooth-tongued type." Residents of the Mexican villages where LeBaron...
...murder, Ervil was found guilty in Ensenada of being the "intellectual author" of the crime and was sentenced to twelve years in prison. Ervil spent twelve months in jail before a Mexican appeals court overturned the conviction. The lubricant for the reversal, according to one of Joel LeBaron's followers, was a bribe to local officials. Ervil later spent ten months in Mexican prisons while waiting to go on trial for the Los Molinos raid. But he was eventually released-once more after the intervention of some influential Mexican officials...
...have law enforcement agencies been so slow in arresting Ervil? One stumbling block is that authorities have little solid evidence directly linking LeBaron to the murder conspiracies. Furthermore, since many potential witnesses are polygamists, they do not want to come forward and testify in public. Perhaps the greatest hindrance is outright terror. Says one suburban Salt Lake City investigator: "So many people are afraid of Ervil...