The couples wedding certificate says Stoddard officiated the ceremony April 26, 2008, in West Valley City. The pressure became so intense DeRieux stopped going to dances. She was definitely the pick of the litter, and thats why Paul got her, Ron recalls. Noticing Stephen, he put the barbells down and came over to the boy. 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. In the past, we have worked closely with DWS, DOE and financial aid counselors at local colleges and universities to ensure proper training and that all applications adhere to every guideline. In 2006 it was estimated that Paul Kingston had up to 40 wives (including two half-sisters of his), some of whom have up . If they are money-laundering or making money in support of polygamy and incest, then they probably meet the statute.. My 4-year-old comes to me and says she has to find out her No. Eventually, there was a meeting between Jessica Kingston, her parents and Paul Kingston. It was a wild place, says Scott Cosgrove, a former detective with the Box Elder County Sheriffs Office, who remembers the ranch as a broken-down spread, guarded by a feral pack of boys who patrolled the fence line from the back of a pickup armed with shotguns. She also felt a religious call to wed and saw herself as mature enough to undertake such a commitment. Instead, he had walked away from the family three years earlier to make a life of his own. I am in love with old cars and horses. [9], Records show he signed as a witness on 4 lawful teenage marriages over a 20 year period. According to written histories, John Ortell Kingston, father of the current leader, also encouraged his family members to marry other kin to improve their own bloodline. Current members dispute those characterizations. Kingston had told gaming regulators in California. Marriage preparation can accelerate at puberty. Older teenagers were crammed five and six to a room, sleeping on the floors of trailers. 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. Earlier in its history, the Kingston Group had plural wives under age 18. 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. Her top choice the one whom she felt God told her to marry was a man five years older than she and to whom she was related on both sides of her family tree. All I like to do is work on cars and hang out with friends and ride my ponies, he wrote one night on his MySpace page. Three weeks after Snow married a 21-year-old man in Davis County, Hansens 17-year-old daughter legally married a 24-year-old man in Salt Lake County. Former members estimate Paul has 30 wives and more than 50 children. Wed sleep on the chicken coop in the summer and shoot raccoons. DeRieux was photographed in Layton, Wednesday, July 11, 2018. A sheriffs deputy traced the license plate of the Honda to a run-down house in a working-class suburb south of the city. 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. 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.. Such lawsuits typically are sealed to give the government time to investigate the allegations. View Site 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. Another brother, Ben, showed him how to mend fences. You could be such an asset to the Order., Trending Many children begin working before 10 . To her horror, all that remained was a ring of dust, marking the place where a chest of gold coins had once stood. Knight was born in Salt Lake City, the sixth child of third-generation polygamists. Paul already had two wives, but he and Richaun were married in a secret ceremony at her parents house. 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. The couple have since divorced. 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. We want to hear it. Sometimes he parked his immaculately buffed burgundy Ford Thunderbird on the curb, but it was rare to see the man himself. It wasnt forced, said the woman, who asked not to be identified because of stigmas that often come with being associated with a polygamous sect. Jessica Kingston wore a white dress. Jessicas father relented during the meeting and gave his approval for his daughter to marry her No. You better check on your gold, Young told her. Stoddard was the president of the Latter Day Church of Christ, the Kingston Groups incorporated religious organization. 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. One is a first cousin. Jessica saw the list. Shanell DeRieux was married at 18 to a husband in the Kingston Group. Members of The Order are taught they need to be in a plural marriage to reach the highest heaven. took great pains to never show his wealth and taught his followers to do the same. By 18 she was pregnant with her first child and ended up having four children in four years. 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. Situated at the base of a rugged mountain range, the Orders spread sat in a pristine valley of glistening hayfields and open pasture. She favors raising the legal marriage age to 18. DeRieux remarried at age 21 to a man who isnt from the Kingston Group. Hansen, 50, in a recent interview, said she told her daughter that wanting to leave home was the wrong reason to get married. ", "Girls in polygamous Kingston Group continue to marry as young as 15, records show, sometimes leaving Utah to marry cousins", "Inside 'The Order,' One Mormon Cult's Secret Empire", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Paul_Elden_Kingston&oldid=1136713473, This page was last edited on 31 January 2023, at 19:29. Johnson said neither he nor any other representatives of the cooperative society were aware of the lawsuit until contacted by The Salt Lake Tribune recently for comment. A recent estimate is that he has 34 wives and more than 500 children, as several of his wives have had as many as 16 children each! A body of research suggests the teenage brain is not developed enough to make the kind of long-term decision needed for marriage. Paul Elden Kingston: Paul Kingston is the leader of the Latter Day Church of Christ, also known as the Kingston Clan or The Order in Utah. The clan is lead today by Charles E. Kingston's son, Paul E. Kingston, who is said to have more than 30 wives. 1:03. The "9" represents his status as a "numbered man" in the Davis County Cooperative Society, also known as the Kingston Group. (Courtesy photo) Paul E. Kingston, seen here in this undated photo. To cope with the disorientation and loneliness of leaving one world for another, many turn to drugs. Home. She also is a star of "Escaping Polygamy." Johnson said the Davis County Cooperative Society takes no position on the issue. [10][11]. 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. 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. 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. The lawsuit includes a copy of whats alleged to be an agreement children had to sign before going to college. Four of those appear to be couples from polygamous groups. This didnt belong to you anyway., As big as the heist was, it attracted almost no attention in Salt Lake. Jacob's dad, John Kingston, husband of at least 14 wives and father to some 120 children, was imprisoned in 1998 after pleading no contest to charges that he beat his 16-year-old daughter . 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. Children born into the clan make up much of the labor force. Like other teenagers who leave fundamentalist Mormon communities, Stephen was not prepared to enter the world at large. The DCCS reaffirms that each individual has their free agency to choose whom and when they will marry, the statement said. They both have the same high cheekbones, the same pale skin, the same wide-set eyes. We were off on our own out there and really close, Stephen says. The Knight brothers were driving new trucks, and so were their friends, says Levi Kingston. DeRieuxs marriage effectively ended in June 2010. Each time turning up no significant violations or nothing at all. The lawsuit describes crimes and issues within the Kingston Group that have no direct relationship to the student aid applications. She was 68. He then severed her index finger, cleaned off the three bones, and carried them with him the rest of his life, believing that the totem kept her spirit with him. Cousin Carl E. Kingston, an attorney, is said to have a mere two wives. 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 . DeRieux says the other two girls were her half-sisters, both age 16. ), Related Kingston succeeded his father John Ortell Kingston as the leader of the Kingston Clan on his father's death in 1987. Contact. Jessica as well as Snow, DeRieux and Hansen all favor raising the legal marriage age in Utah and other states to 18. Carl Kingston is believed to have fathered 20 children from two wives and another child from a third wife who has left him. Once the couples signed the certificates and turned them back in to the Mesa County clerk, they were legally married. 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. (Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Bryan and Mary Nelson of South Jordan were informants for the federal government as they build a criminal case against Washakie Renewable Energy and their owners, Jacob and Isaiah Kingston. To deaden his feelings of isolation, he started smoking a lot of pot and sitting around the house all day listening to country music. One of them approached the front door while the other kept a lookout. A husband and wife died while on a fishing trip after falling through thin ice in the region. 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. Im done with this shit.. All Rights reserved. Inseparable: Twins Peter (left) and Paul have lived. After the boys were taken into custody, one of their first calls was to Stephen. When youre three years old, they start training you what to say if people talk to you, recalls Jeremy Tucker, a 32-year-old former member of the cult, who now works in construction. Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune. Kingston taught his followers that they are the literal descendants of Jesus and one of his wives, who had come down to Earth to found a race of chosen people. It was just the best choice, some say, among their bad options. 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. She and her husband had four children with whom they share custody. 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. Then one of them exhaled slowly, his breath shuddering in the cold air. On this much, though, mother and daughter agree: Snows father was the primary driver. Consumed with guilt over his brothers death, Stephen lashed out. They should refrain from this decision until they can be well informed to make a mature and thoughtful decision before entering into marriage.. It alleges sex trafficking, sexual battery and child abuse, and seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages. For, nearly 75 years after they were born, Peter and Paul Kingston are as inseparable now as they were inside their mother's womb. The clan kids from there would come to school not properly dressed for the cold, and they were always getting in fights. She then met with two women who helped her complete financial aid forms. She says marriages can be used in The Order to gain or maintain favor among the parents of the brides and grooms. A passerby might catch a glimpse of children in the windows, but for the most part, the Young family kept to themselves. Like other fundamentalists of that era, he believed the Mormon Church had lost its divine authority when it renounced polygamy in 1890, so he persuaded three other families to join him in establishing their own sect. Murdaugh is accused of fatally shooting his son, Paul, 22, with a shotgun and his wife, Maggie, 52, with a rifle near the dog kennels at the family's hunting estate known as Moselle. Trump Melts Down Over Murdoch Admitting Fox Lied About Election Fraud He then pinned her on a bed, the documents say, and wouldnt let her call for help. 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. Or wed set traps and raise them as pets., In many ways it was an idyllic childhood, except for the fact that the ranch also doubled as a work camp for disobedient clan wives and rebellious kids. At Washakie, he forced clan children to decapitate cows with chain saws to toughen them up, and sometimes beat the children for some infraction of the Orders rules like forgetting to face the Home Place three times a day and pray. Regardless, all those applying should do so legally. Jessica has begun working with Hope After Polygamy, a charity started by the cast of Escaping Polygamy and other former Kingston Group members to assist people leaving polygamous sects. Jessica Kingston said within a year of getting married, her husband started looking for a plural wife. Its unclear how much if any investigating has happened in the almost seven months since the lawsuit was filed. Suddenly, Stephens brother David lost control of the truck and it rolled over, killing David instantly. 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. The groups, whose members believe polygamy brings exaltation in heaven, are offshoots of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. The complaint against the Kingston Group also known as the Order was filed in Salt Lake City last week by 10 people, including Amanda Rae Grant, who starred in the A&E docu-series Escaping Polygamy.. 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. As he grew older, Stephen turned out to be as rebellious as his own father had been. A copy of the lawsuit also is available there, though no other filings in the case are. 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. Unable to visit his mother, Stephen would leave a $100 bill in her mailbox or, with his brothers, buy her new furniture. They had sped off in a Honda sedan. Snow said the classes also taught the girls to be submissive to their husbands and to keep a good house for them. Log In Once logged in, you can add biography in the database. Jessica Kingston didnt want to be a polygamist. Two are nieces. All rights reserved. He became obsessed with homeopathic treatments and herbal remedies, teaching followers that through proper diet they could live to the age of a tree. When lightning struck a tree at the Home Place, he taught his followers that the tree had divine powers and was a gateway to heaven. John Gustafson, a representative of the Davis County Cooperative Society, an affiliate of the Kingston Group, disputed the lawsuits claims. I felt for his pulse, but he was already gone., That night, Paul Kingston arrived at the ranch. It includes a provision they obtain financial aid. 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. Come and get me, Stephen said. Youd show up for a welfare call, or a domestic-abuse call, and it was just real run-down.. The bride was 16. Her husband, John Daniel Kingston, told his children to marry up, she said, meaning marry into a well-regarded family in the Kingston Group. Johnson did not provide the raw data to support those statistics. Each daughter married one of their cousins, who also are pictured with their parents. Did the Utah Legislature do enough to save the Great Salt Lake? A nationwide debate is underway about teens, especially girls, marrying. deductible, Report a missed paper by emailingsubscribe@sltrib.comor calling801-237-2900, For e-edition questions or comments, contact customer support801-237-2900or emailsubscribe@sltrib.com. The issue is available now on newsstands and in the digital archive. 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