by Ray Black
A CHANGE IN IDEAS
By the summer of 1982, Dan and Ron’s four brothers had started to impose their new found ideas onto their families, but their wives were not happy about the situation that was growing and began talking about their fears to Ron’s wife Dianna. Dianna was the lucky one, as she was married to the only Lafferty brother who had not been converted into the throws of polygamy and she felt that it was up to her and Ron to help the other couples out of this horrid situation.
Dianna discussed her sister-in-law’s fears about the personality changes in their husbands with Ron and convinced him that he should go to one of the meetings at the Chiropractic clinic and rationally talk his five younger siblings back to the mainstream Mormon religion.
Ron Lafferty arrived at his first ever gathering held by his brothers, and they welcomed him warmly. All five of Ron’s brothers held a great deal of respect and admiration for their elder brother and were happy that he had taken the time to take part in something that had become so important to them.
Ron immediately started reading an extract from an essay that had been written by the LDS church discussing the evils of fundamentalism and how it should be avoided at all costs. The brothers listened politely until Ron came to a halt and then Dan answered. And so the evening went on, Ron would quote from the Mormon scripture denouncing fundamentalism and Dan would respond with well researched knowledge on why such acts were needed in order to be as virtuous and as close to God as possible.
For the first couple of hours Ron stood his ground and refused to believe what Dan and his other four brothers were doing was in any way right. He tried to plead with Mark, Watson, Tim and Allen, telling them that Dan was brain washing them with ideas that would ruin them forever, but every word that came out of Ron’s mouth was countered with an even better example backing such acts from Dan.
In the book Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer, Dan Lafferty is quoted as saying:
Ron wasn’t at that meeting too awfully long, before he stopped trying to convince us that we were wrong. ‘What you guys are doing is right,’ Ron admitted. ‘It’s everyone else that is wrong. ‘Suddenly, Ron Lafferty’s views had changed dramatically. Dan had managed to brain wash his brother just as he had done to the other four.
From the moment that Ron returned home he decided it was time to bring his new found ideology into action, and this meant that his loving wife Dianna would also have to make the necessary changes to her life as well.
Ron Lafferty had been under financial pressure and he was relieved now that he had learnt from his brother’s teachings that material goals no longer mattered as a Fundamentalist missionary.
Dianna was shocked with the swift and dramatic change in her husband’s personality. She had sent him out to convert his brothers back to the LDS church and he had returned, in a matter of hours, as a Mormon fundamentalist. Over the weeks that followed Diana tried her hardest to talk sense into her ever changing husband, but it was impossible. He was a convert of the highest measure. Whereas before Dianna and Ron had had an extremely equal and caring relationship, one that many people around them were in envy of, he was now a strict alpha male who believed that a woman’s job was to abide by the demanding rules set out for her in The Peace Maker. In Under the Banner of Heaven, Penelope Weiss, a friend of Dianna’s, remarks:
He expected her to be his slave. And it was such a complete reversal from the way he’d been. Before Dan brainwashed him, Ron had treated Dianna like a queen. He was just one of the nicest men I’ve ever known. But when this happened, he became one of the meanest men I’ve ever known.
Dianna soon gave up trying to talk her husband round and surrendered to doing as he said to keep her life as pain free as possible.
A SPANNER IN THE WORKS
Dianna Lafferty had been conditioned into being a Mormon fundamentalist wife and she was not gong to complain when her husband decided it was time to take other wives. Dan, Mark, Watson and Tim had also managed to subdue their wives from their initial anger and were now living by the rules set out in The Peace Maker.
Allen’s wife, Brenda, was a different matter, she had been angry from the moment Allen had discussed his new found views with her.
Brenda Wright Lafferty was a young, ambitious and extremely intelligent woman. She had started dating Allen after meeting him at an LDS student congregation and by April 1982 at just 21 she had married him. It was only a few months into their marriage that things had started to change. Allen did not like the thought of Brenda being a career woman, she had a degree in Broadcasting which she wished to pursue, but Allen wanted her to be a house wife, to cater for his every need. She knew she had made a mistake in marrying Allen but she was pregnant with her first child so believed she had to stay.
After giving birth to a baby girl, named Erica, Brenda was convinced that she would be able to bring Allen round and back to the person he once was, she truly believed that she could do this and she was determined to see the bad days through.
Even though Brenda believed that she could talk sense into Allen, she believed that her brother-in-law, Ron Lafferty, was so deeply involved in fundamentalism that he was never going to be converted back to his old faith. Brenda believed that because Ron had tried to hold back from Dan’s teachings, the moment that he succumbed to them he did so 100 per cent.
Dianna Lafferty was good friends with Brenda and went to her to talk about her new found anguishes as Ron’s wife. Brenda told Dianna that she felt that unlike Allen, Ron was never going to change and urged her to escape whilst she still could and file for divorce. It was the hardest thing Dianna was ever to do but after much deliberation she took her sister-in-law’s advice, packed her bags and moved herself and her six children to Florida.
REVELATIONS FROM GOD
From the moment that Dianna left Ron his world fell apart, he was excommunicated from his LDS church and was shunned by many people who had once loved and respected him. Ron became an angry man, he felt cheated and lonely, he lost his job and was left with nothing apart from his family and his religion. He poured himself into this and soon started to have visions from God.
Dan Lafferty was so proud of his brother and they would have long discussions regarding the prophecies that Ron had received.
One of Ron’s prophecies in particular was important to Dan as God had described Dan being akin to Nephi. According to the Mormon faith, Nephi was a great prophet and son of Lehi in The First Book of Mormon.
Dan was extremely proud that he had been spoken about by God in this way and was suddenly in awe of Ron.
The Lafferty brothers started to make their discussions open to others with similar views and it was during one of the seminars that they met Robert Crossfield. Robert was a Canadian who claimed to be a prophet. He told the Laffertys that he had received a message from God ordering him to teach the six brothers how to receive revelations and how to ‘organize themselves into the School of Prophets’.
All the brothers, except Allen, started to have revelations but it was Ron’s revelations that were the most intense and bloodthirsty. God spoke to him about removing certain people from the Earth that were getting in the way of the cause and it was one prophecy in particular that would change the family’s life forever. Ron had a revelation of removal that stated:
Thus saith the Lord unto my servants the prophets. It is my will and commandment that ye remove the following individuals in order that my work might go forward. For they have truly become obstacles in my path and I will not allow my work to be stopped. First thy brother's wife Brenda and her baby, then Chloe Low, and then Richard Stowe. And it is my will that they be removed in rapid succession and that an example be made of them in order that others might see the fate of those who fight against the true saints of God. And it is my will that this matter be taken care of as soon as possible and I will prepare a way for my instrument to be delivered and instruction be given unto my servant Todd. And it is my will that he show great care in his dutie
s for I have raised him up and prepared him for this important work and is he not like unto my servant Porter Rockwell. And great blessings await him if he will do my will, for I am the Lord thy God and have control over all things. Be still and know that I am with thee. Even so Amen.
When Ron discussed this revelation at The School of Prophets it was only Dan and Watson who were in agreement to carry out the order. The School disbanded due to the disagreement but Dan and Ron continued believing in what they had to do.
ROAD TO MURDER
In the spring of 1984, Ron and Dan embarked on a road trip up through America’s mid west and into Canada, they broke up their journey by dropping in on various fundamentalist communities that they knew about. They took it in turns to drive and spent the days having intense discussions about the removal revelations that Ron had had. Although Dan was proud of how far his brother had come, he also noticed he had turned into a violent and savage man.
At times Dan wondered if he should break ties with his brother, and if things had gone too far, but each time he had these thoughts something inside him told him to stick with Ron.
Ron would deliberate over the meaning of the removal revelation and commented that the four people mentioned in it had all been part of the reason that his wife and left him. Brenda being the main protagonist. His eyes would blank over when he spoke to his brother about slaughters that were soon to take place.
On July 24, 1984, Ron and Dan met up with two polygamist friends called Chip Carnes and Richard Knapp. They had planned to go to Salt Lake City – the home of the Mormons – for the day. Before leaving, Ron told the other three that he thought that they should first go to Mark Lafferty’s house to pick up a hunting rifle.
Upon arriving at Mark’s house Ron immediately asked for the gun. Mark gave it to him but wished to know what he was going to hunt as Ron had given up the sport years previously. Ron replied, ‘Any fucking thing that gets in my way’.
The four men then headed to Allen’s apartment, which was in American Fork, a sleepy suburb on the freeway between Provo and Salt Lake City. Ron had said they were going there in search for another rifle. Carnes and Knapp, who were both in the back could hear the brothers discussing whether the removal revelation was to be acted upon that day. Ron really seemed like he was on a mission.
When no one answered the door at Allen’s house they got back in the car and headed for Salt Lake City.
They had not got very far when Dan felt a great urge to turn back and try Allen Lafferty’s house once more. Dan knocked on the door and Brenda answered. He asked her if Allen was in and she said that he was at work. He then asked if he could step inside to use her telephone. Brenda started to sense that something was up and said that he could not enter the house.
A rage had taken over Dan by this point and he was not taking no for an answer. He pushed Brenda out of the way and let himself in. The sound of Brenda and Dan fighting could be heard from the car and it was this point that Ron made his way into the house.
The two friends were left in the car and could now hear Ron yelling expletives at Brenda at which she was yelling: ‘Please don’t hurt my baby! Don’t hurt my baby!’ A deathly silence then came over the duplex and the Lafferty brothers emerged in blood-soaked clothes.
Brenda Lafferty had received a severe beating. An incision had been made to her throat which had sliced through her trachea, both jugular veins, both cartoid arteries and her spinal column. She had then been strangled by the cord of a vaccum cleaner. She had been brutally murdered.
Fifteen month old Erica Lafferty had also had her throat cut from ear to ear – the only thing left holding her head onto her shoulders was the bone. Brenda and Erica Lafferty were to be found dead and lying in pools of their own blood by Allen Lafferty when he returned home from work later that day.
Once back in the car, Dan, Ron, Chip and Richard made their way to the Chloe Low’s house. Chloe had been a good friend of Dianna’s and had also coaxed her into leaving Ron. They rang the door but no one was in. After breaking in and stealing a handful of Chloe’s belongings, the brothers returned to the car and spoke about heading to Richard Stowe’s house – Stowe was the bishop who had excommunicated Ron soon after Dianna had left him.
Luckily for Stowe, the brothers took a wrong turn, which was enough for them to give up with completing the removal revelation. Instead they headed toward Wendover where they rented a holiday flat for the night. The Lafferty brothers cleaned themselves up and put their blood stained clothes into the boot of the car, the four men then put their heads down for the night.
Chip Carnes and Richard Knapp snuck out of the apartment in the middle of the night and made their getaway in the car, disposing of the knives and clothes on the way. They were arrested at Chip’s brother’s house on July 30, 1984.
The next day Dan and Ron realized that they were now on the run and they headed towards Reno. They had a female friend there who worked in a casino called Circus Circus, and had let them sleep on her floor a few months previously. Dan told Ron that they were sure to be met with arrest if they went to her as he had written about her in his diaries, which were now more than likely in the hands of the police.
Ron did not say anything so they kept walking into the Casino and whilst queueing in the restaurant for a coffee they were surrounded by FBI agents. On August 17, 1984 Ronald Watson Lafferty and Daniel Lafferty were arrested for the aggravated murders of Brenda and Erica Lafferty.
BROTHERS ON TRIAL
In 1985 the two brothers stood trial. Ron’s lawyer tried to plead insanity in the hope of getting him convicted of manslaughter instead of first degree murder. Ron was found guilty on two charges of first degree murder and was sentenced to death. Dan Lafferty, was charged on two counts of first degree murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Dan, to this day, states that he was responsible for both murders, but Ron was sentenced to death for killing Brenda and for being the mastermind behind the plot.
If Ron Lafferty had not gone to his brothers’ meeting to try and talk them out of fundamentalism maybe a lot of people’s lives could have turned out different. Or was it Ron’s fate to end up as he did?
The nightmare of that day in July 1984 has not been an easy one to try and get over as re-trials have occurred as recently as 2003. Ron’s defence have made a number of attempts to remove him from death row but each time they have been quashed. He refuses to talk to anyone about the events that happened that year.
Dan Lafferty on the other hand has given many interviews describing the events leading up to and on that frightful day. He still believes that he and his brother were led by God to commit the murders and believes that he will not die in prison. Instead the prison walls will crumble around him and he will emerge as the biblical prophet Elijah, announcing the second coming of Christ. In an interview he gave to the Deseret News in 2002, Dan Lafferty said:
I don’t feel comfortable saying I know I’m Elijah, but I’d be pretty surprised if I’m not. You could say I’m patiently awaiting to see if I’m him. I could be wrong, maybe it’s all just a comfortable illusion.
The Ku Klux Klan
The White Rights Movement
“Are you now, or have you ever been a member of the Radical Republican Party?” “Did you belong to the Federal Army during the late war, and fight against the South during the existence of the same?” “Are you opposed to negro equality, both social and political?” “Are you in favour of a white man’s government in this country?”
These were the questions drawn up by the KuKlux Klan in 1868 to recruit people to its organisation.
When the black population of America emerged victorious from their struggle for liberation from slavery after the American Civil War, they met with a new enemy – a secret, terrorist, white-supremacist organization known as the Ku Klux Klan, who believed in the innate inferiority of the black man and therefore felt that they neither deserved, nor were welcome to, the same rights and privileges as the white man. The fre
edom of these slaves signified a humiliating economic and social defeat, adding salt to the wounds left by the military defeat they had already suffered. Resentment and loathing bubbled over and a campaign of terror and violence was unleashed on the southern states of America.
THE END OF THE CIVIL WAR
On March 3, 1865, the Freeman’s Bureau was set up by Congress. This had as its objective the protection of freed slaves, and sought to weaken the traditional white power structure of the rebel states. They found new work for the former slaves, and provided them with better health and educational opportunities. In total, they spent 17 million dollars on improved welfare, schools and hospitals. President Andrew Johnson however, who claimed that these black slaves should be in ‘subordination’ and declared that he would live and die with these beliefs, sought to crush the capabilities of the Freeman’s Bureau. He rejected Congress’s pursuit of more powers for them, and also opposed the Civil Rights Bill which they proposed. This bill would have increased protection of the black people, and prevented unfair restrictions of their rights.
One year later however, in 1866, the number of Radical Republicans, who fought not only for the abolition of slavery but also supported complete equality for freed slaves, in Congress increased. This led to the passing of the Reconstruction Act which separated the south into districts, and allowed the freed black slaves to vote in the elections for leadership of them.
Against the backdrop of devastated towns and cities, ruined plantations and farms, and a destitute population now controlled by an occupation army, the perceived rise of the slaves was the breaking point for the white Southerners. The stage was set for the explosive arrival of the Ku Klux Klan.