West
Survivors of polygamist cult reveal inner sanctum of murder, sweatshops, car theft rings
Survivors who endured decades of abuse and violence detailed their experience in a fundamentalist Mormon cult, headed by a polygamist nicknamed “The Mormon Manson,” that is credited with dozens of assassinations.
The Church of the First Born Lamb of God, headed in Chihuahua, Mexico and lead by self-styled prophet Ervil LeBaron, is dissected in full bloody detail in the Hulu documentary series “Daughters of the Cult.”
“It blows my mind. I sit and think, ‘This is impossible,’” Celia LeBaron, one of the cult leader’s daughters, said in the new documentary. “If I hadn’t lived through it, I don’t know if I could believe it. Our family was killing people because of our father.”
Another of LeBaron’s children interviewed in the series, Hyrum, told producers that he was unsure exactly how many siblings he had from his father’s side – collectively, they estimated approximately 50.
GYPSY ROSE SAID SHE DIDN’T WANT ABUSIVE MOTHER DEAD DESPITE HELPING KILL HER
“It blows my mind,” Celia LeBaron, one of the cult leader’s daughters, said in the new docuseries. “I sit and think, ‘This is impossible.’ If I hadn’t lived through it, I don’t know if I could believe it. Our family was killing people because of our father.” (ABC News Studios)
CLICK HERE FOR MORE TRUE CRIME FROM FOX NEWS
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon church and headquartered in Utah, abandoned polygamy in 1890.
In response, Alma Dayer LeBaron moved south of the border with his wives and children in 1924, NBC News reported. Ervil and his older brother broke free from their father’s community, attempting to join the Latter-day Saints.
But after they were excommunicated for practicing polygamy, the family started the Church of the First Born in response.
LeBaron, who would have 13 wives and at least 50 children, broke off to start his own church in the ’60s. Soon, he began targeting rival cult leaders, convincing his flock to do his bidding in exchange for admittance into heaven.
“We were taught to live in awe of him as God’s prophet, as the one true prophet on Earth,” Anna LeBaron, Ervil’s daughter, told BBC.
KENNEDY COUSIN MICHAEL SKAKEL SAYS COPS WITHHELD EVIDENCE IN 1975 MARTHA MOXLEY MURDER PROBE
Ervil LeBaron died of an apparent suicide in jail at 56 in 1981 – but his followers were implicated in more killings after his death. (Associated Press)
Blood atonement – an old Mormon doctrine that allowed sinners to be killed to cleanse them of evil – was used as reasoning for the killings, BBC reported. Leaders of the church refer to the practice as a “theoretical principle” that they do not implement in practice, according to the Deseret News.
LeBaron murdered his own brother for control of the group in 1972, according to the documentary – before he was sentenced to life in prison in 1980 in the death of rival sect leader Rulon Allred, he urged his followers to carry out numerous killings on his behalf.
Although LeBaron was arrested in Mexico for his brother’s killing two years later, his conviction was overturned as the result of a technicality – or, according to some interviewed in the five-part docuseries, a bribe.
His followers raided Los Molinos, an offshoot sect started by LeBaron’s younger brother, to kill the opposing cult leader – although they destroyed the town and killed two men, Verlan LeBaron was unscathed.
BRYAN KOHBERGER JUDGE OFFICIALLY DENIES FIRST REQUEST FOR TV CAMERAS IN COURT
Rulon Allred, a leader of competing Mormon sect the Apostolic United Bretheren, was killed by two of LeBaron’s followers in 1977. The two women broke into his Utah medical practice disguised in red wigs and shot him dead in an examination room. (Associated Press)
The cult would kill at least 25 people in Mexico, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Allred, a homeopath and chiropractor in Salt Lake City who had 48 wives, headed the Apostolic United Bretheren sect – on May 10, 1977, two women in disguises and red wigs broke into his practice and shot him dead on LeBaron’s orders, per reporting by Oxygen.com.
Police investigating the murder began to suspect that Allred’s religion was the motivation for his killing after pamphlets from the Church of the First Born Lamb of God telling readers to “repent or be destroyed” were distributed among Allred’s followers, Oxygen reported.
Two red wigs and a box containing a gun were found near the scene – investigators were able to trace that gun back to his youngest wife, Rena Chynoweth.
When LeBaron was arrested, his web of criminal activity – that spanned from the murders to sweatshops and car theft rings – began to unravel.
But even after his death at 56 years old of an apparent suicide 1981, his followers continued to kill in his name.
A group of LeBaron’s surviving children can be seen embracing in a still from the five-part docuseries. Although they are uncertain exactly how many siblings they have, LeBaron’s children estimated that there are about 50 to 55. (ABC News Studios)
Based on a screed written by the late LeBaron during his incarceration, his followers compiled a hit list of about 50 people, Oxygen reported.
Several members of the cult were arrested in the ‘80s and ’90s, according to VICE, and one was arrested in 2011 in connection to four Texas killings.
Nine members of LeBaron’s family in a convoy en route to a wedding were shot dead in 2019 by Mexican hitmen, VICE reported. The family had allegedly been speaking out against drug traffickers and advocating for looser gun controls to protect themselves against them.
Read the full article from Here
The David Woods abuse case and Iowa’s child welfare crisis
David Woods is serving 100-year prison sentence in connection with a case in which he adopted, then abused, boys from the Iowa foster care system.
New Mexico State Treasurer Laura Montoya reintroduced baby bonds to legislative teams at a recent conference.
During this conference, Montoya and her team explained what baby bonds would do, what they would mean for New Mexicans and asked for their thoughts and what she could change to help get it passed in the New Mexico Legislature.
Baby bonds are a way for parents to set children up for success later down the line, Montoya said. New Mexico would allocate around $7,000 to each newborn child as part of the bond proposal. The bond would grow over time, and the child would have access to it at age 18. Bonds could be used for a down payment for a car or to pay for parts of school that are not covered by the lottery or opportunity scholarships, buying or renovating a home, or starting a business all withing the state of New Mexico.
Montoya said the funds would not be used for random expenses.
“Now you might be saying, ‘when I was 18 and I would never give myself that money.’ You’re not getting the money directly. So, what happens is it all gets put into a pool of cash that is invested by the State Investment Council. They manage the money and then when you need it, let’s say you’re a student and NMSU gives us an invoice, you say ‘yes, I went to school and NMSU needs to be paid out,’” Montoya said. “Then it goes to the appropriate (agency), whether it’s EFA (Education Freedom Account) or whoever the Legislature designates, will then sign off the check and send it directly to NMSU. So, it’s their money but it isn’t their money.”
Montoya hypothesized on how a bond would benefit a young New Mexican.
“So, you consider an 18-year-old from a working-class family living in Rio Arriba (County), who dreams of attending a four-year college and eventually becoming a nurse. However, achieving this dream would have been difficult given her family’s working-class income. Having a Baby Bond has already made a difference. Research indicates that even small dollar savings accounts with money designated for school results in low-and middle-income children being more likely to enroll in college,” Montoya said.
Montoya said that statistics from the Treasurer’s Office, other state government agencies and pulled from public records to show what a baby bond could do for someone in a low income bracket.
“So, in Rio Arriba only 6% of adults have a degree beyond a bachelor’s degree. Only 7.5% of renters in Rio Arriba are able to afford median home price and baby bonds can contribute to significant decreases in student loan debt especially for women and people of color. You’ll see that same $7,000 she used $13,000 of it for nursing school when she was 18. Then, she still made another $23,000 and she used 30,000 for a home down payment. By the end of it she still had $150,000,” Montoya said.
The children who receive baby bonds would gain access to them only by taking a financial literacy course — or as Montoya calls it financial fitness course. This could be offered through state banks, but she said maybe later down the line it will be offered in kindergarten through grade 12.
“Financial fitness for me is something that I’m very passionate about because I grew up super humble and we didn’t have anyone to teach us what that looked like in having a savings account and investing and so many New Mexicans don’t. So, the one place we can learn this is in our schools, and we need to partner because a lot of our schools don’t have some of that expertise,” she said. “We need to partner with our banks; we need to partner with others that are doing the work already. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel. We just need to bring more people in to partner.”
Department Head and Professor at NMSU Harikuman Sankaran questioned whether the bonds could be used by students already relying on the New Mexico Legislative Lottery Scholarship and New Mexico Opportunity Scholarship. Deputy State Treasurer Ricky Serna said students had the option to access the funds regardless of scholarship awards.
“If I’m a student that says, ‘I live in Albuquerque and I’m going to UNM, I already don’t have to pay tuition and I have a scholarship and now I don’t have to pay for books and fees. Do I have to now wait until I buy a home to access my baby bond?’ Maybe it’s ‘No, I can tell UNM I have enough to put me to work in the school of arts and sciences or put me to work somewhere because I want to use some of my money now, right?’ I think that’s the idea,” Serna said.
Montoya said that this concern would be addressed later to not overcomplicate the bond proposal.
“But that’s something the Legislature can do in the future, too. I mean we have 18 years, so I don’t want to complicate it at this moment. I just want to keep it as simple as possible, but I understand (the concern) of what you’re saying on the long-term investment to have them buy in,” Montoya said.
Montoya said Baby Bonds have the potential to address some of the state’s largest issues – poverty, educational attainment and housing. As the bond recipient gets older it too can ease the burden of housing, retirement and reliance on public assistance.
Children born in New Mexico could access the investment between the ages 18 and 35 to build wealth.
Montoya asked the public to comment on the use of Baby Bonds, an issue the state Legislature will consider in the 2027 Legislative session.
Leighanne Muñoz is the business and development reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News and is a fellow with the New Mexico Local News Fellowships and Internships Program, which places emerging journalists in newsrooms across New Mexico. Learn more at www.newmexicolocalnewsfellowships.org. Email her at lmunoz@gannett.com.
The Oregon Lottery offers several draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at July 2, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Pick 4 numbers from July 2 drawing
1PM: 3-2-1-6
4PM: 7-1-7-6
7PM: 6-2-0-4
10PM: 5-3-8-0
Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
When are the Oregon Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 7:59 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 7:59 p.m. on Tuesday and Friday.
- Pick 4: 1 p.m., 4 p.m., 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. daily.
- Win for Life: 7:30 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Megabucks: 7:29 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by an Oregon editor. You can send feedback using this form.
-
New Mexico1 minute ago$7K baby bond for each New Mexico child? What the state treasurer is proposing
-
North Carolina6 minutes agoWarsaw man extradited back to Duplin County in last year’s lottery ticket probe
-
North Dakota13 minutes agoNorth Dakota’s Vantis BVLOS system now open to UAS operators at no cost – Unmanned airspace
-
Ohio16 minutes agoLicking County real estate transfers for June 15-19, 2026, hit $697K
-
Oklahoma21 minutes agoCan Missouri football get revenge on Oklahoma? How Sooners shape up
-
Oregon28 minutes ago
Oregon Lottery Pick 4 results for July 2
-
Pennsylvania31 minutes ago‘Large and growing’ parasitic infection reported in 17 states, including Pa. and NJ
-
Rhode Island36 minutes ago‘The most patriotic town in the US’: Bristol goes big on the Fourth every year – The Boston Globe
