WEBVTT - 1: The One Mighty and Strong 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:15.800 Novel. A listener note this episode contains violence and content 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:20.439 that some listeners might find distressing, including references to child abuse. 0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:57.800 If you drive down Mexico's Highway to you pass through 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:02.400 a wide open desert, roll the windows down. You smell 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:07.480 the sage, the soil, see the pink wildflowers, the Sierra 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:14.559 Madre mountains looming in the distance. My name is Jesse Hyde, 0:01:14.600 --> 0:01:18.319 and I'm a journalist. The first time I drove down 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:20.760 the stretch of highway, I was working on a story 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:24.240 and editor had asked me to check out something about 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:26.559 a massacre thought to be carried out by a Mexican 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:30.560 drug cartel. They had opened fire on women and children 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:36.480 from a town near here. When I arrived in that town, 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:40.479 I expected to find it under siege. It's people living 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:44.840 in fear. But instead I found something more interesting than 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:48.600 that crime I had originally been sent to cover, and 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:55.080 something more complicated both for me and the town. And 0:01:55.160 --> 0:01:59.680 so now I've come back. Yeah, come and say hi 0:01:59.760 --> 0:02:03.480 to Jesse to try to understand more about this strange, 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:08.799 fascinating place. Welcome to Colonial Colonial Labaron. That's the name 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:15.519 of the town. It's August. When I arrived back here, 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:19.400 and they're holding something called the Friendship Fair. I can't 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:21.760 say it in Spanish, it sounds stupid when you say 0:02:21.760 --> 0:02:25.480 in English. There's a rodeo, a big dance, and the 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:31.799 demolition derby, which not gonna lie. I've been looking forward 0:02:31.840 --> 0:02:35.080 to for weeks since i first started planning this trip. 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:39.080 There's this huge crowd of cheering spectators sitting on haybells 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:43.000 around a deep dirt pit under all the choking dust. 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:54.400 Cars are smashing each other up. It's glorious. Did they 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:58.280 already start? The point of this friendship Fair isn't just fun. 0:02:59.040 --> 0:03:03.720 It's to build rust because this is cartel country, which 0:03:03.760 --> 0:03:08.440 means Narco's control almost every town around here, so building 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:12.840 goodwill with the neighbors can literally keep you alive. But 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:16.560 the Friendship Fair is also a big family reunion. People 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:19.120 who grew up here but have since left They return 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:24.680 come home and for a week or so they're reunited 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:34.280 with cousins and aunts, uncle's, moms and Dat's standing in 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:40.080 the middle of these crowds, everyone's saying hi, hugging, laughing, reconnecting. 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:46.360 You feel this energy, this happiness, but something more than that. 0:03:47.600 --> 0:03:53.400 It's a feeling of belonging. You know that feeling when 0:03:53.400 --> 0:04:00.680 you're safe, when you feel like your home. Yeah, have 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:04.720 you ever heard of the Little Baron's? Yeah, I figured 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:07.600 you guys are le Baron. Walk through the town and 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:10.440 you hear that name over and over. My name is 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:13.880 Marto LeBaron. My name is Josiah Liberton Leberon. Like, yes, 0:04:13.880 --> 0:04:15.600 I am le Baron. Is almost like a race, you 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:20.279 know what. I Almost everyone who lives in this town 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:24.120 is related in some way to its founding LeBaron family. 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:28.160 But believe me when I say that's actually far from 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:33.560 the most extraordinary thing about this place. Because in this 0:04:33.600 --> 0:04:37.040 town a religion was born from the same roots as 0:04:37.120 --> 0:04:43.159 my own Mormon upbringing. But this religion quickly mutated, became 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:48.039 a murderous cult, then a deadly organized crime family as 0:04:48.120 --> 0:04:52.359 ruthless as any I've heard of, Yet for so many years, 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:57.400 their identities were hidden from view. How did this happen, 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:02.120 this descent into terror which spun out from colonial LeBaron 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:06.920 through Mexico and across the border into America. I had 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:10.880 to find out, and in doing so I met a 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:18.159 group of extraordinary people, former cult followers, cops, victims, journalists, prosecutors, 0:05:18.160 --> 0:05:24.960 and survivors, people who somehow lived through it all. This 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:29.200 podcast is their story. Thirteen episodes and a collection of 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:34.919 lives all linked together, a tale of resistance. Many of 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:39.159 the people speaking about it for the first time, how 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:43.480 they were pulled into this incredible saga, how they survived, 0:05:44.120 --> 0:05:50.159 and how it could still be playing out today. We 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:53.279 have survived something horrific in which you're both the victim 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:57.479 and the criminal. Narcotics trafficking, gun running, murder, We're talking 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:01.200 about murder, multiple homicide. Key to this, but nothing like this. 0:06:01.320 --> 0:06:04.640 Please is not enough on this. We are in a fight. 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:10.320 They were shooting cows by house. The gun was pointing 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:13.440 at me day, the kids and heights. They are killing 0:06:13.480 --> 0:06:16.359 people out there. These guys want to dominate the world. 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:22.200 The guy's handed us our guns and send us all away. 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:24.840 Need to go kill all these people the ways God's 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:29.240 can curse us forever. Where did you share chess? I 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:35.679 don't know. I so now finally coming to a point 0:06:35.680 --> 0:06:38.560 where we can speak about this so people know what 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:44.159 really happened in the cold. We can say the truth here. 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:57.599 It is from the teams at Novel and I Heart Radio. 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:08.320 You're listening to deliver us from Herbale and I'm Jesse Hyde. 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:17.280 This is Episode one, the One Mighty and Strong. The 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:20.800 myth of a promised land or a new world. It's 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:24.640 a fixation for the devoutly religious. But the settlement of 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:27.600 colonial le Baron hardly looked like an Eden. When the 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:31.320 LeBaron clan first arrived in the parched Mexican desert in 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:35.119 nineteen there were just a few sheds in the barren, 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:39.000 little dobie houses with little dobe rooms and plastic on 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:43.120 the windows. These homes were scattered across a vast expanse 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:48.160 of desert. Residents washed close by hand, had no electricity 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:51.720 kerosene lamps to light up the town. At night. You 0:07:51.840 --> 0:07:57.480 slept on the floors, floors with blankets. I'm sitting with 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:00.240 someone who has lived here from near the beginning. Yeah, 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:03.000 everybody knows who I am. I just want to tell 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:06.280 you that I'm Larie Stubbs, and I love my life 0:08:06.280 --> 0:08:10.520 here and I love experiences. I've been through, even the 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:14.640 difficult ones, because I did learn a lot. Larie Stubbs 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:16.920 is a sort of guardian of the town, or at 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:20.880 least its story. She knows it better than anyone. I 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:23.560 like Larive the minute I meet her. She's a kind 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:26.680 of regal looking woman with alert blue eyes and a 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:30.320 rollicking sense of humor just below the surface. But I 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:33.800 can tell she views me with a slight suspicion. It's 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:36.360 taken a lot of people vouching for me to get 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:40.000 her to agree to this meeting. She probably wouldn't meet 0:08:40.040 --> 0:08:42.680 with me at all if not for one thing. We're 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:48.160 both Mormon, well kind of. It's complicated. I grew up Mormon, 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:53.200 no longer practice or believe, and Larive practices a kind 0:08:53.200 --> 0:08:57.080 of pure primitive version of Mormonism. But we have enough 0:08:57.120 --> 0:08:59.920 of a shared background that, despite being a couple gen 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:04.040 narrations apart, there is a sort of common language between us, 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:10.360 a common experience, and I hope some sort of trust. Anyway, 0:09:10.440 --> 0:09:13.520 when Loiev arrived, she was fifteen, and as harsh as 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:16.520 life back then sounds to me, Larive didn't seem to 0:09:16.520 --> 0:09:19.720 mind the work and the scrubbing clothes and all the 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:23.160 hardships that people talk way too much about. It wasn't 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:27.480 that hard. You grew up with me a good attitude, work, 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:31.559 good spirit. We never were lazy, and we weren't complainers, 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:35.959 so that I suffered be that I would lie to 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:39.240 say I did. It was fun for you. For us, 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:43.480 it was like totally accepted. And then as years passed, 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:47.640 the town started to resemble well, an actual town. The 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:52.600 adobe huts now alongside neat houses. My dad found a 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:56.480 four room house and fixed enough that we could stand 0:09:56.520 --> 0:09:58.520 up and eat in the kitchen because we didn't fit 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:02.360 sitting down, we're too many. And little by little they 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:05.679 put electricity in the town, and little by little the 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:08.720 roads got graveled and no, no more mud. And that's 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:11.720 just how that town started and how it is now. 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:16.680 This was the beginning of Colonial LeBaron as it exists today. 0:10:18.280 --> 0:10:21.040 Big barns on the edge of town, a church at 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:24.560 its center, and homes that become more grand up in 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:27.880 the hills that surround the town. And I'll tell you 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:31.840 one thing about our people. Everybody in our people know 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:35.920 how to build their top of the line builders and 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:41.120 everybody's workers. Around this time in Colonial le Baron, I'm 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:44.440 talking about the late fifties. Here, the settlement was run 0:10:44.440 --> 0:10:48.959 by a man named Joel LeBaron. The mantle of leadership 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:52.320 had been passed down from his father. Joel had a 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:54.960 lot of brothers and some of them were regarded as 0:10:55.000 --> 0:11:00.000 a bit well out there. To give you an example, 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:05.400 bowl one brother started building spaceships to take people to Jesus. 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:10.920 Another called himself the elephant Strangler or the bull catcher, 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:15.240 or the Lion of Judah. He'd even roar like a lion. 0:11:17.640 --> 0:11:22.000 The Lebarons were Mormon fundamentalists, which basically means they accept 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:24.760 a lot of the teachings of the regular Mormon faith, 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:29.480 things like Joseph Smith being the prophet who saw God 0:11:29.520 --> 0:11:33.280 in Jesus in the Spring of eighteen. But they had 0:11:33.280 --> 0:11:37.800 their own ideas too. For instance, Joel, this guy now 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:41.520 in charge of colonial LeBaron, he had declared himself to 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:46.360 be something called the One Mighty and Strong. This mighty 0:11:46.440 --> 0:11:49.840 and Strong is a figure predicted in an obscure early 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:53.720 Mormon prophecy, essentially a man who would rise up after 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.839 the church had lost its way and set it in order. 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:01.280 Joel claimed that he was this person angels had appeared 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:04.480 to him, and that might sound strange, but angels talking 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:07.400 to Mormons is a pretty mainstream idea in the faith, 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:11.800 at least it was in the beginning. It was introduced 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:15.280 by Joseph Smith, and what he taught is that God 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:22.959 could talk to anyone. This idea was powerful, radical, revolutionary, 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:28.400 and dangerous, because if God could talk to anyone, who 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:34.199 knows what he might say. According to the Lebarons, one 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:37.000 of the first things God said to them was that 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:39.640 they should build the next Kingdom of God on earth, 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:44.080 and eventually all God's chosen people would flock to it. 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:49.480 When they arrived, they would see the town of the Labarons, 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:53.840 dreams brought to life through their hard work. They'd see 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:57.320 neatly hode rows of chili and beans, the herds of 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:01.680 cattle and sheep, deep orderly canals of water flowing to 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:07.400 verdant pasture, kids cleaning wheat, picking watermelon, a communal kitchen, 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:11.440 and then at night, townspeople gathering under the moonlight to 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:14.840 sing old Mormon hymns before kneeling in a circle to 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:20.920 pray and thank God for all their blessings. A communal society, 0:13:21.200 --> 0:13:25.800 everyone engaged together in a grand, righteous project, the way 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:32.240 God intended, all led by the One Mighty and Strong Joel. 0:13:35.280 --> 0:13:38.040 Joel had a younger brother named Herbol and his kids. 0:13:38.080 --> 0:13:42.000 Growing up in Mexico. They had done everything together. Tied 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:46.200 tin cans, two dogs, tails, snuck into crowds to ride cows, 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:50.400 hunted deer and wild pigs in the mountains, and during 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:54.000 flooding season they would ride waves down the river. They 0:13:54.040 --> 0:14:00.160 were wild, unruly boys, but best friends, and as they 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:04.480 grew up, in some ways they became opposites because where 0:14:04.559 --> 0:14:08.160 Joel was quiet and hung back, Hervill could be loud 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:12.480 and brash. Physically, they were both tall. Joel was about 0:14:12.520 --> 0:14:15.880 six ft two and really broad shouldered, and in this 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:18.880 remote part of Mexico, he couldn't find clothes that fit, 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:22.800 so Joel's pants were always six inches too short, his 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:26.920 sleeves ended a little below his elbow. Hervil was even taller, 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:30.000 six ft four, and in pictures I've seen of him 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:33.440 during this period he looked well. Some might describe it 0:14:33.520 --> 0:14:38.840 as old Hollywood handsome, I think James Cagney or Gary Cooper, 0:14:39.600 --> 0:14:44.000 with that classic square jawline, Roman nos and piercing blue eyes. 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:49.400 But where Joel and Hervil's differences were most pronounced was 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:53.280 in their approach to religion. Because after Joel inherited the 0:14:53.320 --> 0:14:56.600 title the One Mighty and Strong from their father, it 0:14:56.680 --> 0:15:02.160 turned out his approach to faith was well, surprisingly chill 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:05.440 for a fundamentalist. They didn't even make him go to church. 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:07.760 If they didn't want to go, you leave him alone. 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:11.320 They're doing the best they can. They live under difficult circumstances, 0:15:11.880 --> 0:15:14.120 and he was that way with all of us. Joel 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:16.520 didn't say a lot, and so some people in the 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:20.200 surrounding towns they thought he was slow, But that was 0:15:20.280 --> 0:15:22.880 just his way. He was the type of guy who 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:27.320 listened more than he talked. Joel was just tender and 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:30.680 kind and polite, and you could listen to him or 0:15:30.680 --> 0:15:34.280 not listen to him. He didn't push people around, and 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:38.520 he wasn't narrow minded, and he wasn't fanatic, and he 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:41.840 didn't butt into your business. All I can tell you 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:46.920 is a humble top of the line. Later, Hervil's approached 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:51.040 to religion, well, it was a bit fanatical and a 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:55.080 little bit um. Talked too long always, and talked too much, 0:15:56.040 --> 0:16:01.840 and of course we had our little opinions. But let 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:04.200 me tell you something, because I'm a real good witness 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:07.320 of it. He wanted to tell Joel what to do, 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:11.280 because he wanted Joel to do everything more perfect and 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:15.040 more professional and more all these things. And Joel wasn't 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:24.760 like that. Joel had no pretenses initially. Despite those differences, 0:16:25.040 --> 0:16:27.840 these two brothers, Joel and Herbal, they ran the town 0:16:27.880 --> 0:16:32.880 together almost a partnership, Joel in charge but relying on 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:38.000 Hervil's assistance to build utopia, after all, a communal society 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:41.480 where everyone works for the common good that takes a 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:45.760 lot of organizing, but a small price to pay to 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:50.600 create God's Kingdom, or, as the Labeyons called it, Zion. 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:55.520 I believe Zion is a place where people can have 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:59.040 their respect and live in peace and have their rights. 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:02.640 And I do know that it's referred to as a 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:05.520 church subject, but I believe that it's a lot more 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:09.040 than that. Anybody can be in that society that's willing 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:13.120 to be respectful and honorable. And as a journalist who 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:16.760 often writes about religion, this term Zion comes up a lot. 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:19.919 It's not just the utopia the la Barons were building 0:17:19.920 --> 0:17:23.080 out here in the Mexican desert. It is something at 0:17:23.080 --> 0:17:26.360 the center of a lot of faiths, the promise of 0:17:26.359 --> 0:17:30.040 this big coming together of people to live in peace. 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:35.920 As a Mormon, the idea was part of my upbringing, 0:17:36.680 --> 0:17:39.840 and even though I'm no longer practicing that faith, I 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:44.520 can still understand on a really visceral level, just how 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:47.639 exciting it would be to think that Zion isn't some 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:52.520 far off hope, but it's here now. The Gathering is 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:56.479 about to happen. Listening to Larive and others in colonial 0:17:56.520 --> 0:18:00.159 LeBaron speak about this early period of the town, you 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:04.679 can still sense it just how exciting this all was. Plus, 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:08.440 new people were now arriving in the desert, the town growing, 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:13.920 this big coming together. Joel literally called it the Gathering. 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:17.240 He had bought a printing press and a big barrel 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:19.639 of ink, and he and hervill were using it to 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:23.600 publish pamphlets to get the word out. They often made 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:27.240 trips to the States to spread this message. The Gathering 0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:31.840 was happening, something once prophesied now actually coming true in 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:38.920 the Chihuahua desert. There was one crucial reason for this 0:18:39.000 --> 0:18:43.920 feeling of anticipation, the arrival of a very specific group 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:48.200 of outsiders into the town. They came just before dawn 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:53.000 on a chilly morning in October. A villager who had 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:56.960 gone outside to light a fire under hawashtub noticed them 0:18:57.119 --> 0:19:00.320 two strangers standing by the tub warming Themsel was by 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:04.080 the fire, and over the coming days many more arrived. 0:19:04.720 --> 0:19:08.679 The French missionary showed up, so we knew him. Like 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:14.240 when they got here, they're all excited, talking, visiting Joel, 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:19.439 visiting everybody. They were so excited, you don't even know. 0:19:21.840 --> 0:19:24.800 The French Missionaries was the name given to this group 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:29.280 of outsiders, but they weren't French at all. They were Americans, 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:34.480 mostly from California and Utah. They had heard about Colonial 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:37.439 le Baron while serving as Mormon missionaries in France a 0:19:37.560 --> 0:19:42.760 year earlier, and they too had become convinced Colonial Abaron 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:47.320 was the next kingdom of God on Earth. This was 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:51.679 a pivotal moment in the history of the town. The 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:55.119 first group of disciples of this scion who weren't in 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:59.879 some way related to the Labarons or local converts. In 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:04.040 in fact, they had no prior connection to fundamentalism whatsoever. 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:07.960 And of of course, educated in college students, we were the 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:11.520 young punks, you see. And it was a big deal. 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:16.119 One French missionary named Dan Jordan's would go on to 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:21.840 become a particularly big deal in Colonial le Baron. In fact, 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:25.560 his actions would change the lives of the people here forever. 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:48.080 That's coming up after the break. There's a certain time 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:51.000 in the Chihuahua desert, when the pale light of day 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:59.240 suddenly becomes something else. Shadows slowly appear. They're just hints 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:03.440 at first, clinging to the edges of buildings, but before 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:08.720 you've really noticed them, they've grown into these long, arching fingers, 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:13.440 all pointing in one direction, toward the dark night that's 0:21:13.480 --> 0:21:19.840 about to arrive. Around this time, the warm desert air 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:25.240 carries this feeling, almost like a chill that's coming in 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:28.560 the desert where I grew up. Sometimes I would dread 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:31.200 the night because it seemed to take me away from 0:21:31.200 --> 0:21:35.760 the safety and security around me. When I closed my 0:21:35.840 --> 0:21:38.920 eyes and try to go back to colonial LeBaron at 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:42.360 this point in its history, the nineteen fifties giving way 0:21:42.400 --> 0:21:46.479 to the nineteen sixties. Joel in charge, hervil at his side. 0:21:47.320 --> 0:21:49.639 That's the time of day I picture it to be 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:53.960 for these people, these dreamers who had traveled here in 0:21:54.040 --> 0:21:58.440 the white light of hope with ideals of love and salvation. 0:21:59.560 --> 0:22:03.040 But um had started to notice those first lingering signs 0:22:03.040 --> 0:22:10.080 of darkness that would cast shadows across the land. Around 0:22:10.080 --> 0:22:13.359 the same time as Larie's family arrived in the Mexican desert, 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:17.320 a teenage girl named Stephanie Spencer moved with her family 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:21.240 to Colonial LeBaron. Joel and Herbyl were Stephanie's uncles on 0:22:21.320 --> 0:22:25.040 her mom's side. I remember my uncle Joel preaching to 0:22:25.160 --> 0:22:27.639 my mother and my mother lying there on the couch 0:22:27.680 --> 0:22:29.720 while she was pregnant with her feet up, trying to 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:33.040 keep from having a miscarriage. In the end, they joined 0:22:33.119 --> 0:22:37.120 Joel's cult, and I was eleven years old when I 0:22:37.160 --> 0:22:41.520 got baptized into it cult. That's how Stephanie Spencer came 0:22:41.560 --> 0:22:44.800 to understand Joel and Ervil's church when her family joined 0:22:44.800 --> 0:22:48.399 in the fifties. Right from the start, Stephanie could see 0:22:48.800 --> 0:22:51.920 life in Colonial LeBaron was going to be tough. This 0:22:52.080 --> 0:22:56.560 bright kid who loved books and school suddenly transported to 0:22:56.640 --> 0:23:00.800 this desert town. My parents had sprained that we were 0:23:00.840 --> 0:23:04.000 going to zi In. I was all prepared to see 0:23:04.000 --> 0:23:08.240 a beautiful, wonderful place, and it was like falling into 0:23:08.280 --> 0:23:13.719 an abyss. It was really hot, windy. The wind was 0:23:13.760 --> 0:23:16.760 often blowing, but it cools off at night. We didn't 0:23:16.800 --> 0:23:19.720 have any air condition. We didn't have much of anything. 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:23.520 The mud hut maybe had one or two windows, and 0:23:23.720 --> 0:23:28.920 they were covered with wax paper. They couldn't afford glass 0:23:29.040 --> 0:23:31.600 for window planes. I mean, these people were extremely poor. 0:23:32.200 --> 0:23:36.280 All the water was gotten from wells they dug, and 0:23:36.440 --> 0:23:40.240 I spent my years they're drawing up pills of water 0:23:40.320 --> 0:23:43.240 and hauling them to the house for everything from bathing 0:23:43.320 --> 0:23:48.280 and washing clothes to cooking. The cognitive dissonance stayed in 0:23:48.359 --> 0:23:51.080 my mind. It kept telling me, Oh, this is heaven, 0:23:51.560 --> 0:23:54.840 but in my heart I felt it was hell on. 0:23:56.160 --> 0:23:59.800 Stephanie did her best to settle into town life, despite 0:23:59.800 --> 0:24:03.280 their being hardly any other kids her age, and as 0:24:03.320 --> 0:24:07.480 other families arrived, fellow Mormons from Utah and Arizona and Idaho. 0:24:07.720 --> 0:24:12.440 That excitement you heard Larivee Stubbs describe the anticipation spreading 0:24:12.440 --> 0:24:17.040 across the town, Well, Stephanie noticed it, too, noticed the 0:24:17.080 --> 0:24:21.560 community's feeling that something momentous was happening here in colonial LeBaron. 0:24:22.359 --> 0:24:26.120 She was interested in one new arrival, in particular, this 0:24:26.240 --> 0:24:29.200 tall and dashing guy by the name of Bill Tucker. 0:24:30.200 --> 0:24:32.359 He had grown up in Los Angeles and had gone 0:24:32.359 --> 0:24:35.919 to college. He was one of the French missionaries that 0:24:35.960 --> 0:24:41.440 had arrived in October of how a certain cosmopolitan sophistication, 0:24:42.320 --> 0:24:45.440 kind of the opposite of everything Stephanie saw around her. 0:24:46.560 --> 0:24:50.040 And then one day he invited Stephanie out on a date, 0:24:50.720 --> 0:24:54.800 a picnic. I was sixteen, I was love sick. I 0:24:54.880 --> 0:24:59.000 was in my lovely yellow heels and Sunday best clothes. 0:24:59.119 --> 0:25:01.280 Was just what your will on a picnic, And back 0:25:01.280 --> 0:25:05.159 in those days, this was a chance for Stephanie to escape, 0:25:05.960 --> 0:25:09.720 even if it was just for one afternoon. But despite 0:25:09.760 --> 0:25:13.719 her obvious excitement, Stephanie's parents at the very last minute 0:25:13.960 --> 0:25:17.000 forbid her from going, just as this guy, Bill Tucker, 0:25:17.080 --> 0:25:21.000 had arrived in his Cadillac to pick her up. Devastated, 0:25:21.320 --> 0:25:25.080 Stephanie fled the house. I couldn't stand to live there anymore. 0:25:25.160 --> 0:25:27.520 But there was no way to run away. There was 0:25:27.560 --> 0:25:30.439 absolutely no way. There was no transportation, was just a 0:25:30.480 --> 0:25:34.400 little tiny town in this Mesquite desert. She hit out 0:25:34.480 --> 0:25:37.359 in an old, broken down station wagon in their backyard, 0:25:37.840 --> 0:25:42.120 tucked herself under the steering well, sat there for nine hours. 0:25:44.520 --> 0:25:49.199 The whole settlement turned out to look for her. At dusk, 0:25:49.520 --> 0:25:52.080 Stephanie's dad came in the backyard to milk the cow, 0:25:52.800 --> 0:25:55.720 and for some reason he looked inside the car and 0:25:55.760 --> 0:26:00.199 saw Stephanie hiding there. He just opened that card or 0:26:00.280 --> 0:26:02.560 he drugged me out of there. He grabbed me by 0:26:02.600 --> 0:26:05.000 the hair of the head. He started kicking me. He 0:26:05.119 --> 0:26:07.239 picked up a two by four and he beat me 0:26:07.440 --> 0:26:10.960 until he'd have enough, And he said to me that 0:26:11.040 --> 0:26:14.640 ought to fix you, you in your pretty face. I'm 0:26:14.760 --> 0:26:16.840 sick and tired of all these men that keep coming 0:26:16.880 --> 0:26:18.800 to me and asking for your hand in marriage, all 0:26:18.920 --> 0:26:22.000 because you just smile at them all the time, your 0:26:22.119 --> 0:26:25.639 damned smile. You're making me lose all my friends because 0:26:25.720 --> 0:26:27.879 I have to tell them that they can't court you. 0:26:28.840 --> 0:26:32.040 What happened to Stephanie that day was the first glimpse 0:26:32.119 --> 0:26:36.320 at a dark undercurrent of violence in the Labyrian community, 0:26:36.840 --> 0:26:40.840 and she was seeing some other signs too, perhaps before 0:26:40.840 --> 0:26:45.160 anyone else. Around the same time Stephanie's father beat her, 0:26:45.359 --> 0:26:48.360 she headed out of her house on another escape, this 0:26:48.480 --> 0:26:51.639 time not a physical departure, but a mental one. I 0:26:51.680 --> 0:26:54.560 wanted to read so badly, because we weren't supposed to 0:26:54.600 --> 0:26:58.439 be reading anything at all, especially the women, unless it 0:26:58.520 --> 0:27:01.680 was the scriptures. And all I ever found was such 0:27:01.800 --> 0:27:06.840 violence in the scriptures. So self confessed bookworm, Stephanie searched 0:27:06.840 --> 0:27:10.520 her neighbor's houses for new reading material. She wasn't going 0:27:10.560 --> 0:27:14.640 to be picky anything to put her mind anywhere but here, 0:27:15.560 --> 0:27:18.240 and she started her search with a small dwelling on 0:27:18.320 --> 0:27:23.240 the edge of her family's plot. It belonged to Herville LeBaron. 0:27:28.680 --> 0:27:32.600 I found a chance to go into Arvill's little met 0:27:32.640 --> 0:27:35.840 adobe with a door on it and one little window 0:27:36.160 --> 0:27:40.880 covered by wax paper, and I wanted to look through 0:27:40.920 --> 0:27:44.159 his books. There was no lock on the door. Actually, 0:27:44.160 --> 0:27:46.800 nobody had locks on their doors when they lived down there. 0:27:47.200 --> 0:27:50.240 That's not trusting they were. And I had a slight 0:27:50.359 --> 0:27:54.200 guilt feeling that, oh God, what if he comes by? 0:27:54.400 --> 0:27:57.800 But I knew he almost never did. I didn't stand 0:27:57.800 --> 0:28:01.919 there too long, and I kept any on any noises 0:28:03.240 --> 0:28:07.120 creeping around In the half light, Stephanie started to get 0:28:07.119 --> 0:28:11.720 her bearings. He had a little caught literally made out 0:28:11.760 --> 0:28:14.959 of wood, with maybe a cow hide or something on it, 0:28:15.119 --> 0:28:18.000 and that's where he would lie with a cow hide 0:28:18.040 --> 0:28:21.560 pillow he had made to raise his head upwards lean 0:28:21.640 --> 0:28:25.800 his back against their Next Hervil's bed was a collection 0:28:25.800 --> 0:28:30.280 of books. Stephanie might have expected the small library to 0:28:30.320 --> 0:28:35.480 contain religious tracts, but the books were on something entirely different. 0:28:36.720 --> 0:28:40.320 I came across the pocket size book of the Mafia. 0:28:40.720 --> 0:28:43.720 There were different sections in it, and the one section 0:28:43.880 --> 0:28:46.960 I remember best because it really caught my eye, was 0:28:47.000 --> 0:28:50.400 the section for how to get rid of people and 0:28:50.480 --> 0:28:53.160 make it look like it was an accident, how to 0:28:53.440 --> 0:28:56.920 kill so that nobody could ever pin the murder on you. 0:28:57.400 --> 0:29:01.160 He had that underline in his really penciling, and I 0:29:01.200 --> 0:29:03.600 know it was his underlying because his pencil was there 0:29:03.880 --> 0:29:07.400 and he had underlined it well and good this area. 0:29:08.520 --> 0:29:11.320