51 pages • 1 hour read
Jon KrakauerA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Content warning: This book contains multiple accounts of sexual abuse and murder, which are discussed in this section.
Rulon Jeffs, believed by many to be the “one mighty and strong,” died on September 8, 2002. His death caused a considerable rift in the FLDS church, not an uncommon part of Mormon history. Jeffs was followed by his son, Warren Jeffs, who many felt did not best fit the role of prophet. A footnote in this edition refers to Warren Jeffs’ involvement in the marriage and impregnation of at least two underage girls. Krakauer details that Jeffs has been in hiding since Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff announced he was coming for Jeffs in August of 2003.
Often the histories of these fringe groups were bloody and complicated. In the mid-1930s, a fundamentalist church was established by polygamist John Y. Barlow. When Barlow appointed Rulon Allred as his heir, the group split into two, with LeRoy Johnson (Rulon’s predecessor) at one helm and Allred at the other. Short Creek became his home. Allred was brutally murdered by another fundamentalist sect called the LeBaron clan, a Mormon offshoot with roots in Mexico. Some of these fundamentalist sects produced individuals who found their way to Prophet Onias and the School of the Prophets. After Brenda and Erica Lafferty were murdered, police officers turned to these fundamentalists as potential suspects. Kenyon Blackmore was one of these suspects, a man who believed he was “the last prophet before the return of Jesus Christ” and a friend of Bernard Brady who first introduced the Lafferty brothers to Prophet Onias (277). Blackmore took his twelve-year-old daughter named Evangeline as a spiritual wife in 1996. When Evangeline failed to produce a child, Blackmore abandoned her in Guatemala.
When Dan, Ron, Carnes, and Knapp arrived at the Low home, they found it deserted. The family had left for a holiday at Bear Lake. The four men ransacked the home in search of money and artillery. Two boys riding bikes in the neighborhood saw Carnes wearing a ski mask and holding a rifle. The boys attempted to knock on the door of the Low household, but no one answered. Knapp then took the wheel to complete the final act of the revelation and murder Richard Stowe. Knapp missed his turn, and the motivation among the men to complete the mission waned.
The four men then headed toward Reno, Nevada. Dan detailed to Carnes and Knapp exactly what happened in Brenda Lafferty’s home. Knapp’s memory of this tale aligns with the retelling in Chapter 16, but Carnes recalls that Ron said that he was the one who killed Brenda, not Dan. When the men reached Nevada, Carnes and Knapp decided it was time to abandon the two Lafferty brothers. While Dan and Ron slept, Carnes and Knapp stole their car and drove away. They threw the murder weapon—a boning knife—out the window. Spotting the car parked outside Carnes’s home, the police arrested the two men, who led law enforcement to Reno.
After hitchhiking to Reno, Ron and Dan found and returned a wallet to a man they saw vomiting outside the casino. The man let them sleep on his floor and took them water-skiing. The Lafferty brothers enjoyed a relaxing holiday. Over the next two weeks, the men stayed in Reno, sleeping on a bus and subsisting on casino food. The men decided to visit an acquaintance named Debbie at the Circus Circus casino. Dan told Ron that he had written about Debbie in his journal, which he was certain the police had taken possession of by this point. Dan and Ron both knew that by seeking out Debbie they were putting themselves in the hands of law enforcement.
After Ron’s conviction and death sentence, Ron continued to challenge the jury’s determination, dragging Brenda’s family through a never-ending court process. In one of his appeals, the Tenth Circuit agreed that the state of Utah needed to determine whether Ron was sane and could be made to understand the implications and consequences of his crimes. Experts found the Tenth Circuit’s ruling disturbing as it created a foundation upon which American courts could conclude that religious fervor was an example of mental illness. Ron was found incompetent due to mental illness and was transferred to a mental hospital from death row. After over a year of psychotherapy, Ron was judged capable of standing trial.
Ron’s defense called several witnesses to provide evidence that Ron was mentally unwell. Ron only helped this determination by insisting that Moroni was an evil spirit attempting to sodomize him. However, the prosecution made clear that the things Ron believed were components of the LDS doctrine he had been taught as a child. They were part of a religious belief system, not the figment of a mentally ill person’s imagination. According to one witness, Ron’s behavior was not a result of psychosis so much as narcissistic personality disorder (NPD), characterized by a lack of empathy and a grandiose sense of self. Krakauer suggests that NPD could be used to describe most religious figures in history, including Joseph Smith. Ron was found guilty and sentenced to death by firing squad.
After their arrests, Dan and Ron’s relationship deteriorated, and Dan believed that Ron was “an agent of Satan” who sought to end Dan’s life (313). Dan’s belief was based upon the fact that Ron had assaulted him while the two were in a cell together. After the assault, Ron and Dan were separated into two cells directly next to one another. Ron then shared with Dan that he had a revelation from God stating that Dan should let Ron kill him. Dan prayed and asked whether Ron’s revelation was real. Dan believed that Ron’s revelation came from God. He cleared his bowels and allowed Ron to strangle him with a towel through the bars of the two cells. However, at the last second, Ron believed God was telling him to release Dan, and Dan lived.
Afterward, Dan could hear Ron pacing in his cell, speaking of his regret at what had happened and his determination to be successful in the future. Ron told Dan that he had received another revelation with the same message, but this time Dan did not believe the revelation came from God. Shortly after, Ron attempted suicide and was saved by paramedics. While many believed that Ron’s public displays of religious fervor were an attempt to secure a mental illness verdict, most felt assured that Dan was sincere in his belief system. His religion changed after incarceration, becoming an amalgamation of Mormonism and other faiths. Dan referred to prison as the “monastery” and claims that he is Elijah and that it is his role to announce the Second Coming of Christ (316). Dan believed that Ron knew he was Elijah and that was why he wanted to kill him, acting under the influence of Satan. Dan also believed that the rapture was imminent and that his place in eternity was secured by the fact that all his actions—including killing Brenda and Erika—were guided by God.
In this chapter, Krakauer examines the Lafferty family and the LDS from a modern perspective. Like Dan, most Mormons believe the world is coming to an end. Photos of the September 11 attacks are hung on the walls of the school in Bountiful so children can remember that they are living in the end days. The LDS church continues to urge its followers to stockpile food and supplies. LDS missionaries travel all over the world, and the religion gains new members at astonishing rates. As LDS officials continue to move the religion into the modern age, those abandoned and outdated principles attract more and more apostates to fundamentalist sects.
Prophet Onias continues to gain new followers, including Pamela Coronado and her husband, who joined him in 1984. Both Pamela and her husband were affected by the murders of Brenda and Erika as they knew the Lafferty family and were associated with the same fundamentalist faith. However, they stayed the course. Pamela insists that focusing on plural marriage misses the point of their fundamentalist faith which is to closely follow the doctrine outlined by Joseph Smith.
DeLoy Bateman stood upon the top of Canaan Mountain, still wearing the clothing of his rejected fundamentalist faith. Although DeLoy is an atheist and no longer practices plural marriage, he claimed that some parts of the religion still had a stronghold on him. For instance, he found it difficult to abandon the long underwear he was required to wear when part of the FLDS church.
Still, he looks back on his faith pragmatically, understanding that it was what he needed at the time. DeLoy believed that there was a lot of good that came from the FLDS faith, despite the multiple sexual abuse allegations that DeLoy knows to be true. He worried about his children who had decided to stay with the FLDS, and he worked hard to ensure that those children that remained with him were able to think for themselves and apply a critical eye to the world around him. After the world was supposed to end according to FLDS doctrine on January 1, 2000, DeLoy took his family to Vegas to celebrate the new year and to confront the fact that the FLDS teaching was wrong.
DeLoy attributed his departure from the religion to his time in college where he fell in love with learning and asking questions, a practice he hoped to instill in his children. When he came back to Colorado City to teach, the things he had learned contradicted with the FLDS church was claiming. Once time separated him from his religious system, DeLoy was astounded at the things he had once believed to be true. DeLoy had felt assured that Black people were evil and less than human when he belonged to the FLDS faith. Now that he had left, he recognized how baseless and wrong this belief was. DeLoy explained that the reason individuals accept these religions is that they bring comfort and provide answers. He claimed that those who followed the FLDS faith were probably happier than most other people in the world. To DeLoy, however, happiness was never the point. It was about “being free to think for yourself” (334).
Throughout the book, DeLoy Bateman has acted as a guide for Krakauer to the world of Mormon fundamentalism. Excommunicated by his family, DeLoy remained close to his fundamentalist community, living next door to his brother who was no longer allowed to speak to DeLoy. DeLoy acts as a grounded character who understands the implications of Mormon fundamentalism and its dangers. These final chapters reveal what happens after the dust of extremism settles. Mormon fundamentalists are led to believe that the end times are upon them, and the pictures of the September 11 attacks serve as an ironical reminder of what happens when religious extremism is left to grow unfettered.
The question of Ron’s mental stability gets at the heart of Krakauer’s thesis. Krakauer asserts that most religious figures have narcissistic personality disorder and that religion itself is irrational. To question Ron’s stability based upon the fact that he believed in good and evil, devils and demons, and in his own ability to hear and speak directly with God is to call into question the mental stability of all religious believers. Krakauer asserts that fanaticism exists at all levels and in all aspects of human life and that religion is uniquely qualified to attract and retain those with a propensity toward extremism.
A major piece of irony in the book is the arrest of Dan and Ron Lafferty. Dan recognized that by seeking out Debbie they were likely putting themselves in the hands of law enforcement and, therefore, the government. The early onset of Dan’s extremism manifested through a refusal to follow governmental laws. After the murder of Brenda and Erika Lafferty, Dan almost willingly allowed himself to submit to governmental authority. Even while incarcerated, Dan called prison the “monastery” (315). The murders of Brenda and Erika Lafferty represent the high cost of religious extremism.
By Jon Krakauer