There, stacked on the concrete floor, were crates filled with bars of silver. I honestly didnt even know there was any gold until they accused me of taking it, he says. Paul E. Kingston, considered the top man, signed as a witness for four of the marriages that The Tribune found outside Utah. 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. Donate to the newsroom now. Youd show up for a welfare call, or a domestic-abuse call, and it was just real run-down.. DeRieuxs marriage effectively ended in June 2010. But Jessicas No. Consumed with guilt over his brothers death, Stephen lashed out. The accusers also claim that the group arranged child marriages so that girls would become pregnant and beholden to their husbands and the religious sect. It was all just innocent teenage stuff, recalls Ron, who has since left the clan. Michaels and Mary Nelson describe similar experiences with their financial aid applications and awards. While some despised Ben for his apostasy and refused to speak with him, Stephen had remained in touch with his brother. Carl Kingston is believed to have fathered 20 children from two wives and another child from a third wife who has left him. No recordings or photos were allowed during the ceremony. He said the college has controls to ensure compliance with federal aid guidelines. In the meantime, the police were closing in on the missing silver. But 16- and 17-year-olds in Utah need only the consent of a parent to wed. Idaho, Colorado and Nevada, where the The Tribune also found Kingston Group marriages, have similar age and parental-consent requirements. 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. Still stunned at the sudden loss of their brother, Stephen and his siblings were numb with grief. She said her father didnt think the suitor was a good student. But age alone wont determine her answer. I felt for his pulse, but he was already gone., That night, Paul Kingston arrived at the ranch. Nevertheless, waves of audits of State taxes, Federal taxes, corporate taxes, DWS, SNAP, WIC and regulatory compliance in day cares among other things, have been levied against individuals and corporations with known or suspected ties to the DCCS. Some former sect members, including two stars of the television show Escaping Polygamy," say girls are pressured to marry at the age most kids are learning to drive and reading Wuthering Heights.. J.O. 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. Investigators have said 52-year-old Maggie Murdaugh was shot four or five times with a rifle, while 22-year-old Paul Murdaugh was killed by two shotgun blasts near kennels on the family's . If you were more obedient, this wouldnt have happened., After that, everything changed, Stephen says. Stoddard was the president of the Latter Day Church of Christ, the Kingston Groups incorporated religious organization. Paul Elden Kingston has been the leader of the Mormon fundamentalist Latter Day Church of Christ and the Davis County Cooperative Society in the United States of America since 1987. Back then, Paul Kingston stood around five feet ten and weighed close to 200 pounds. Each time turning up no significant violations or nothing at all. sltrib.com 1996-2023 The Salt Lake Tribune. Paul, a grandson of the group's founder, has 27 wives and more than 300 children, Mary said. 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. Thanks, it read. Theyll do what they need to do to defend whats theirs.. What he told me was, Hansen said, Get her married so we dont have to take care of her anymore.. Paul Elden Kingston is an accountant and attorney who has served as the Trustee-in-Trust of the Davis County Cooperative Society (DCCS), a Mormon fundamentalist denomination, [2] since 1987. 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. Later the Order reportedly bought slot machines from mob-controlled companies. Children born into the clan make up much of the labor force. He told the children they would all be applying for financial aid, enrolling at SLCC and majoring in business administration, the lawsuit cites Mafi as saying. The plaintiffs also contend these eight defendants have significant wealth acquired through the money and labor followers contribute to the Kingston Group and the rent the defendants charge their wives. DeRieux says she was still high school age when her father told her she needed to pray about whom to marry, get married and build The Order. Her father also started calling her mother and prodded her to pressure DeRieux to get married. 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. But lots of people in the sect are already descended from that family, Hansen said; thats why there are so many cousin marriages in the Kingston Group. The incident took place in Sullivan County around 8:15 p.m., Monday, Feb. 27 in the hamlet of Loch Sheldrake. For, nearly 75 years after they were born, Peter and Paul Kingston are as inseparable now as they were inside their mother's womb. 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. The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax In its place, someone had left a note. She said marrying at 16 mitigated the pressures U.S. society places on her to have statuesque looks and be immodest. It passed a bill adding forced marriage into the states definition of sexual abuse. You could be such an asset to the Order., Trending A husband and wife died while on a fishing trip after falling through thin ice in the region. Cousin Carl E. Kingston, an attorney, is said to have a mere two wives. Shortly after that meeting, the complaint continues, Mrs. Marriage preparation can accelerate at puberty. took great pains to never show his wealth and taught his followers to do the same. For the marriages performed in Utah, Bill W. Stoddard signed as the officiant until his death in March. Their grooms were 22. Because of the clans distrust of banks, the Order had cash hidden all over the place, a poorly kept secret within the family. Boys are taught they will need to receive revelation from God on whom to marry. 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. Photo Credit: Sullivan County Sheriff's Office. Fishing it out of his jeans, hell recognize the number. (Photo courtesy of Kollene Snow) Kollene Snow, 16, poses in her dress before her 2009 marriage in West Valley City. The father preferred another who had inquired about marrying Jessica. 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.. Jessicas father relented during the meeting and gave his approval for his daughter to marry her No. Instead, she volunteered for extra shifts at the Kingston Group-run coal mine near Huntington, where she worked as a dispatcher. The now-20-year-old said she and her husband have started a family of their own. 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. (Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Salt Lake Community College Redwood Road campus is pictured Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019. Rates of college attendance that meet or exceed the Utah average have been a point of pride in the Kingston Group, whose members have offered such statistics to counter the stereotype of children from polygamy, especially girls, being uneducated with no opportunity for self-improvement. Stephen didnt know what the law said he only knew that the people he loved were being abused and exploited by his own father. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. He picked fights at school, shot a teacher in the face with a water gun and refused to do homework or answer questions. Girls who reach their mid- and late teens can start to feel the pressure to wed. Jessica Kingston said when word gets out that a boy or young man has asked a girls father for permission to marry her, friends and family are walking up to that girl asking, Did you pray about him?. John Gustafson, a representative of the Davis County Cooperative Society, an affiliate of the Kingston Group, disputed the lawsuits claims. Directories Newly added. The groups, whose members believe polygamy brings exaltation in heaven, are offshoots of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Paul Elden Kingston is an accountant and attorney who has served as the Trustee-in-Trust of the Davis County Cooperative Society (DCCS), a Mormon fundamentalist denomination,[2] since 1987. Their father rarely came by, and because the nearest town was 18 miles away, the kids forged a fierce bond among themselves. 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. The couples divorce became final in 2011. In summer, the kids swam in the reservoir as their mother, Richaun, watched, the boys doing back flips off the rope swing into the water; at night, as the sun set behind the mountains, they all sat together to watch the clans buffalo herd grazing in the pastures. Her own father David Kingston has 18 wives and around 200 kids. Paul F Kingston. [4] Plural marriages for individuals under 18 in the group are not allowed. (Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Jessica Kingston claims she was groomed into choosing marriage at age 16 by her parents and the polygamous sect. She said the lawsuit is well plead and noted there have been previous successful qui tam cases in student aid programs. I think it scared them.. The boys also bought cigarettes wholesale through a small clan-owned market run by their older brother and sold them at school. 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. By the time he was 30, he would have more than 10. She says marriages can be used in The Order to gain or maintain favor among the parents of the brides and grooms. A Tale of Two Chads: More Drama From Nineties Band Live. The DCCS reaffirms that each individual has their free agency to choose whom and when they will marry, the statement said. I could tell she loved him, and it seemed like he loved her too. Within a year, Paul Kingston would take a fourth wife. The ones that misbehave, they try to push them to marry as soon as they can, Hansen said. (Like most kids in the clan, Stephen wasnt told who his father was until he was old enough to be trusted to lie to protect the Order.) Thats your Uncle Paul, she said. By our latest survey, his statement said, the majority of DCCS college students were not using government-funded financial aid, including many who would qualify if they had applied. To hide the scope of his organization, J.O. Most of the time, said Shanell DeRieux, a former Kingston Group member now seen on Escaping Polygamy, the girls only choice is to have babies because thats how we build The Order by population.. I am in love with old cars and horses. He seemed like the most amazing guy, Stephen recalls. (Paul W. Kingston, (Ph.D. Columbia University, 1980) is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Virginia. 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. The plaintiffs filed what is called a qui tam lawsuit in which whistleblowers assist in pursuing individuals who commit fraud against the government. It was all fun, Stephen recalls. 1 choice for marriage is. [9], He is believed to have practiced polygamy in the past, potentially accruing as many as 40 wives and fathering up to 300 Children. Another group of kids called the Lost Boys, who were kicked out of the polygamist cult the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, ended up on the streets of Las Vegas and Phoenix, some turning tricks for drugs like meth and heroin. Shanell DeRieux was married at 18 to a husband in the Kingston Group. His followers erected a crude stone cross nearby in his honor, covered with inscriptions of the letter K (for Kingdom or Kingston). His father stood on the stage and called out the names of the men who were to receive one of the clans highest honors. The doorknob to her room was removed. His face was crushed, Stephen says now, matter-of-factly, his eyes going blank for a moment. Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. Much of what we have reviewed appears frivolous and unfounded, Gustafson said in an emailed statement. They had sped off in a Honda sedan. When he had finished, he walked toward Stephen, who was sitting on the tractor. Money, sex and power. Like other teenagers who leave fundamentalist Mormon communities, Stephen was not prepared to enter the world at large. The families of 19-year-old Stephen Smith who was rumored to be . Whether she gives her blessing, she said, will depend on the answers to those questions. 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. Viewers Can Watch Prince Harry Talk to a Trauma Expert for $33.09 He told her he believed one did not need to practice polygamy to reach heaven. Only the inner circle knew the hoard even existed, says Christian Kingston, a former Order member. Order girls are taught from birth that their primary purposes in life are to be obedient, a submissive wife, and to bear as many children as possible, the suit states. These days Stephen works on a cattle ranch near the Idaho border, just down the road from where he grew up. A nationwide debate is underway about teens, especially girls, marrying. Their legal team includes a Boston law firm with expertise in qui tam lawsuits. The memorial was held in Maxwell Park in Hildale, Saturday, Sept. 26, 2015. Birthdate: 1791. Mafi followed Paul Kingstons instructions, the lawsuit states, and never again saw those funds.. Two teenage boys had been spotted entering Rachel Youngs home. Paul J. Kingston Sr., 93, of North Huntingdon, died Saturday, Oct. 2, 2021. It empowered Stephen before that, no one had ever stood up to Daniel Kingston or any of them, says a former member. Boys are taught that the prophet demands absolute loyalty and that they should be prepared to defend the clan. According to former members of the Order, decades of inbreeding have resulted in rampant birth defects throughout the family. Her husband knew she didnt want him to have a plural spouse, she said, but his father told him he needed to have one. It was a total spur of the moment thing, Brown says. One day, for laughs, he and his half brother Ron Tucker stole some napalm from an Order army-supply store, drew lines of it in the street and lit it on fire as cars drove by. Its his father, the prophet, calling to coax his wayward son back into the fold. She also is a star of "Escaping Polygamy." Its unclear how much if any investigating has happened in the almost seven months since the lawsuit was filed. Colbert Reimagines Disney Park as 'De-Wokeified' DeSantis World, Sex, Drugs, and the Biggest Cybercrime of All Time, I could boil down what theyre about in three words, says a member who broke with the Order. 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