Cult Insanity

by Irene Spencer

  These powerful messages renewed their spirits, buoying them with hope. Each felt compelled to continue on when they realized the burden of the kingdom was on their shoulders. Joel convinced them that the end was so near; their sacrifices would be justified if they would just hang tight and trust in their prophet.

  They felt a sense of relief when Joel announced to his congregation, “I’ve been given a promise by my grandfather, my father, and by Jesus Christ himself, that I will not fail.”

  Convinced that they had an infallible prophet who would take them into the presence of God, they surrendered their complaints. They would do whatever was necessary, go wherever their prophet led, so that they might be prepared to be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ.

  Ervil also felt validated preaching to the saints. He made sure they understood what was required of them. His long hours of speaking caused him to lose his voice at times. When he felt threatened, thinking he was coming down with pneumonia, again, he would retire to his throne—the bed.

  CHAPTER TEN

  An important event that gave a great boost to the new church and preceded its final organization was the arrival of the French missionaries.

  As a student at Pasadena City College, Bill Tucker received multiple awards and graduated early. He also learned French. He planned to attend UCLA to obtain a PhD but decided to postpone his education. Like all young Mormon men, he would do his duty to the LDS Church and fulfill a mission in France. He used his almost perfect French diligently to convert new members. He was soon recognized by the French mission president, Milton Christiansen, who appointed Bill to be his counselor, which was an honor. Bill’s fervor was contagious. He spurred his fellow companions on, and soon they transformed their mission field, becoming more successful than ever before.

  Bill, a devout seeker of truth, studied the scriptures painstakingly. They led him back to fundamentalist teachings. He became aware that the LDS had given up saving principles such as United Order (a sort of communal property arrangement made between the church and its members) and plural marriage. He began holding study meetings early in the mornings with other missionaries, where they discussed early Mormon principles. Three district presidents, Bruce Wakeham, Stephen Silver, and Dan Jordan, questioned the changes in the LDS Church and, as a result, found themselves being converted to original Mormonism.

  In 1958, David Shore, a friend of Bill Tucker who had completed his two-year mission in France, promised Bill that he would search among the fundamentalists for the One Mighty and Strong. He happened upon a pamphlet in a bookstore in Salt Lake City, titled Priesthood Expounded. It was written by the LeBarons and laid claim to Joel’s true priesthood authority. Shore mailed the pamphlet, along with other fundamentalist literature, to Bill in France. Using knowledge that the LDS Church considered forbidden, Bill continued influencing other missionaries. Word leaked out about Bill’s disobedience to the church’s rules. He was called in before President Milton Christiansen, who expressed surprise when Bill admitted that some missionaries were interested in little-known Mormon history.

  David O. McKay, the prophet of the Mormon Church, was notified immediately. It was determined that a few church officials, who were about to meet in London for a temple dedication, would make a thorough investigation and correct the situation.

  During the questioning, the leaders were already against Bill, believing he was the culprit. They thought he’d used “hypnotic powers” to deceive the others. They believed it was perhaps too late to save Bill Tucker—he had fallen from grace.

  The brethren urged the others being investigated to stay in the mission field and complete their two-year mission. They warned them that if they didn’t comply, they’d bring disgrace on the church and their entire families.

  When pressured to state whether they believed David O. McKay was a prophet of God, all the missionaries involved replied no, and nine missionaries were excommunicated.

  Marilyn Lamborn, a college graduate, and Fay Fulk had absorbed every truth Bill had revealed to them. Caught up in the excitement of their new knowledge, both women decided to accompany the other missionaries back to the United States. The now-excommunicated group boarded a Greek liner, the TSS New York, and sailed from Le Havre to New York. They were euphoric. Dedicated to their new ideals and anchored in their faith, they pursued their quest to find the One Mighty and Strong.

  Stephen Silver wrote in his journal, “As I finish this account, we have been to sea five days. I am determined to go to Mexico. All of our studies have led us there. God’s authority is still on this earth, for it was promised to remain. We shall find it.”

  Once they arrived in New York, Bill Tucker, Dan Jordan, Neil Poulson, and Bruce Wakeham left directly for Colonia LeBaron with a promise that they would contact the others when they were certain they had found the true priesthood and prophet who was to come forth and lead the righteous into the millennium.

  How well I remember seeing the four young missionaries waiting just beyond my wooden gate, shielding themselves from our barking dog. I was surprised to see Americans on the ranch, but I walked out to the gate, introduced myself, and invited them into our adobe house.

  When Charlotte, Lucy, and I learned the visitors were missionaries from France who had come to investigate Joel’s claims, we stood in awe over these four handsome, intelligent young men, driven to find the truth. We listened for two days as they related their stories of success in France as missionaries, their search for truth, and their powerful convictions. They soon had spiritual testimonies of the validity of Joel’s claims. My head spun with a giddiness that I’d never experienced before. Just the thought of intelligent, educated men joining our sputtering church seemed to be a miracle from God.

  Two days later, after the four missionaries left for the States, Marilyn Lamborn and Stephen Silver arrived in Mexico by bus. Lost in the middle of the night, they experienced another miracle when a Mr. Romney saw them hitchhiking and gave them a ride to the ranch.

  Not sure they were in the right place and because it was four o’clock in the morning, they settled under a large tree, waiting for someone to stir within the three small adobe dwellings.

  Charlotte arose about seven. It was her day to wash her clothes, so she went out to pump water to fill a large tin tub in which she would do her laundry.

  When Marilyn and Stephen saw her approaching, they shook themselves off, brushed their wrinkled clothing, and then introduced themselves. Stephen, a blond intellectual, looking the part with his horn-rimmed glasses, explained why they had come to Mexico.

  Marilyn, a tall blonde, very sure of herself, followed Charlotte into the house. Soon they learned that Charlotte was Verlan’s first wife, I was the second, and Lucy was the third. Our visitors seemed intrigued by our polygamous lifestyle, and it was obvious that I would soon be giving birth.

  We spent all day visiting, then Charlotte invited them to sleep in her house. Lucy and I retired to our nearby three-room house.

  During the night, I went into labor. My pains were too close to send to Spencerville for Aunt Sylvia, a midwife, so Lucy summoned a new convert, who had recently arrived from Short Creek, to deliver my baby.

  The next day when I failed to join them for breakfast, Marilyn and Stephen wondered where I was. They were shocked when Charlotte informed them that I had given birth in the night to a baby boy. Their biggest concern was that no doctor had attended me. They couldn’t understand in this day and age why a woman would not be under the supervision of a physician. But all went well and I decided to name my baby after Stephen, preferring the spelling “Steven.”

  The next day, when Ervil heard that the two French missionaries had arrived, and, learning that one was a female, he made a quick move. He spent the next afternoon with Marilyn, offering himself to her as a potential husband. He said Bill had shown him a picture of her a few days earlier. In that moment, God revealed to him that Marilyn was to be his wife. Marilyn was confused. She wondered if this was a tes
t from God. She wanted to do God’s will, but Ervil, though handsome, did not appeal to her.

  Still Ervil was relentless in his quest. During their conversation, Ervil flattered Marilyn, promising her heavenly rewards. He told her how urgently he needed such an intelligent English-speaking woman as herself. He explained that his two Mexican wives were not converted to his religion and expressed his dissatisfaction with both women. He promised that if Marilyn married him, she would become an elect lady in God’s eyes. Not letting her get a word in, he bragged about his intelligence and his gift of being an orator and “the most knowledgeable man in Mormondom.” However, nothing he said impressed Marilyn. She felt that she should marry Bill Tucker..

  WHEN THE FRENCH MISSIONARIES GATHERED for conference, the members all believed that their conversion had been accomplished by the mighty hand of God. Their presence greatly animated everyone.

  Just after Marilyn’s wedding on October 19, 1958, she and Bill headed for California, hoping to convert her sister, Carol, and brother-in-law, Earl Jensen. Ervil had appointed Bill to be mission president over the western states.

  Bill and Marilyn decided not to inform her parents of their marriage, or of their baptism into the Church of the Firstborn until later.

  Carol was skeptical when the two arrived at their home in Sacramento. She’d heard from her parents in Utah that the LDS leaders had branded Bill as the “devil’s agent.” Both Carol and her husband, Earl, blamed Bill for Marilyn’s excommunication from the Mormon Church that they so wholly revered. Her severance from what they believed to be the one and only true church upon the face of the earth caused Marilyn’s family great sorrow. To them, her excommunication was worse than a death.

  Before Marilyn had returned home from France, a couple of their church members had warned the Lamborns to not allow their daughter back into their home. They feared Satan had control over her. Her parents refused the advice. After all, she was their flesh and blood and they loved her.

  Carol, an upper-class Mormon, had heard what a devil Bill was. When he and Marilyn arrived, she scoped Bill out. He was dressed in a pin-striped suit with a dingy white shirt. She was surprised at how short he was, but she thought he had a splendid smile and “eyes that gleamed.” She asked herself, “Is this the kind of smile Satan would have?”

  Earl and Bill separated themselves from the two sisters, retiring to a quiet office where they discussed religion and examined the scriptures for several days.

  Bill won Earl’s respect. In the days that followed, Carol could see the change coming over Earl. He was definitely leaning toward the LeBarons’ priesthood claims. Realizing that it was a spiritual life-or-death situation, Earl could not take a chance on being deceived. His future salvation depended on it. Therefore, Earl invited Bill and a couple of companions to join him and other Mormon scholars to discuss the topic of priesthood.

  Earl felt that the Mormon scholars remained silent because they were unable to refute Joel’s doctrine. Earl, who had once held so much respect for his LDS Mormon leaders, felt let down by them. The debate, according to Earl, turned out to be an embarrassment for the LDS.

  Unable to rest until he found the truth, Earl went to Salt Lake City. There he met with several members of the Quorum of the Twelve. Disappointed, he became convinced that they did not have the answers that he was seeking.

  He drove back to Chihuahua, Mexico, to meet with the new prophet. There he entered the waters of baptism, being baptized by Joel LeBaron, the prophet himself. In Sunday meeting, the few of us who heard Earl’s heart-wrenching conversion were jubilant.

  We had to smile when Earl admitted how he had previously thought that Bill was an agent of the devil and how he had been determined to confront Bill and intellectually destroy him and his satanic doctrine. His conversion reassured us that God was gathering up his elect, especially when someone of Earl’s caliber was converted. When Earl informed us of his involvement in the FBI and the CIA, we knew for sure that God had given us one of his brightest minds.

  Upon his return home, Earl was very patient with Carol, informing her that he was not pushing her to join the new church. He wanted her to follow her own conscience, but he was moving to the new Zion.

  Carol must have felt tormented, vacillating between the two faiths. She thought that if she abandoned the Mormon Church, it would probably kill her aging parents. Nevertheless, she received her own testimony of the truthfulness of Joel’s work, even accepting the law of plural marriage. Later, she became instrumental in helping to court Earl’s additional wives.

  In the spring of 1959, Carol decided to attend the semiannual conference in Colonia LeBaron. I’ll never forget how stately she looked with her bleached blonde hair twisted and coifed and piled upon her head. I smiled when I saw what looked like a chopstick pushed through it. Her silk dress looked divine. I knew that her expensive high heels would soon be ruined from walking on the gravel roads. To me she looked like a fairy-tale princess. Most of us were dressed in secondhand, ill-fitting clothing, as were our Mexican members. Carol looked out of place among the impoverished crowd. Her stoic face and teary eyes gave evidence of the disappointment and humiliation she tried to conceal. I could tell she thought this was all beneath her. The only hope she had of surviving among the impoverished LeBarons was the knowledge that she’d have her family and sister, Marilyn, to comfort her.

  As always, immediately after the first session of conference, Ervil stepped down from his place behind the podium. He cut through the small crowd. He then invited Carol to follow him outside. He wanted to teach her the beauties and the benefits of the new church. His long-winded sermon was tiresome, but as he exhibited his knowledge and enthusiasm, it only reinforced her already existing conversion.

  The new converts, along with several other missionaries, left their lovely homes behind in the States. Earl built Carol an impressive, two-story home with a full basement. Joel tried to persuade him to build a smaller adobe home with a tin roof, similar to those of the other settlers. Joel wanted equality among the saints. He felt it was unwise to build such a sprawling new home, stuccoed white, with red clay tiles on the roof.

  I heard bickering among the disappointed members as they referred to the grand palace that was under construction. A couple of the poorest Mexican members were upset by such an action. However, the construction of the new home did provide some of the impoverished peasants with plenty of work, which silenced their complaints, even though Alma, Ervil, and Joel had preached many a sermon on equality. We were told that we Americans had come to Mexico to be “nursing fathers and mothers to the Lamanites [Mexicans].” Joel’s vision was for us to assimilate ourselves among them, living closer to their economic level.

  While the Jensen home was being built, Earl joined Ervil, Dan Jordan, and Bill Tucker on a mission to the States. The four men complied with the scriptures and traveled with “neither purse, nor scrip” (Luke 10:4), but Earl soon returned to finish building his home.

  Even I was jealous when Earl had the first flushing toilet in the colony. I also resented that he had the only generator. I’d been led to believe that we were all going to live the “United Order” where one saint would not possess that which was above another.

  I shared a Maytag wringer washer with my other two sister wives, Charlotte and Lucy. The gas motor failed on many occasions. While we waited for Verlan to bring a needed part back from the U.S., we pulled out the washboard and scrubbed our clothing until our fingers were red and raw.

  Alma grew vegetables in a community garden with the help of his three older boys. Also, he summoned about a dozen youngsters or so, male and female, mostly Mexicans, to weed, water, and hoe the garden. Once or twice a week, he’d deliver vegetables throughout the colony.

  Seeing the need for a store in the colony, Earl built a fifteen-by-thirty-foot adobe room and appointed Maudie (Lucinda’s daughter), who was his first plural wife, to run the small business. It was a boon to the colony. Most women, like us, Verlan’s t
hree wives, had no vehicle, so the new store was more than convenient. We no longer had to catch a bus and travel the forty miles to Casas Grandes. (People had preferred to go there instead of the twelve miles south to Buenaventura because Casas offered cheaper prices and a great variety of products.)

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Fay Falk returned from France to her mother’s home in North Carolina. She worked for a few weeks, awaiting word from Bill Tucker about Mexico. When he never wrote, she became impatient and hitchhiked by herself to El Paso, Texas. She arrived by bus at the LeBaron colony with a small suitcase and forty dollars.

  I bonded with Fay the moment I saw her. Tall, brunette, and vibrant, she had a voice that rang with excitement when she spoke. She pitched in, cooking, cleaning, and changing babies. I loved her bubbly personality. She was so positive and full of life.

  When I inquired why she had traveled so lightly to Zion, she laughed, a little embarrassed. “I didn’t bring much because I thought I would come to Zion and have to make a new wardrobe. I had envisioned you all in eighteen hundred–style dresses.” She and I were wearing jeans, and we both cracked up laughing at the absurdity of her imaginings.

  Doggedly, Ervil whisked Fay away out of my presence one afternoon so he could attempt to brainwash her. He was forthright in his convictions. “I’ve had a revelation from God that you are to be my wife.” His pronouncement didn’t faze her at all.

  “Sorry,” she replied. “It’s been revealed to me that I should marry Bill Tucker.”

  Fay had qualms about her situation because before she arrived Bill had already married Marilyn. Fay felt bad because Bill had never written to her as he had promised. Bill had never officially asked her to marry him, although she hoped he would. She wondered where she stood with him.

  A short while later, Marilyn and Bill arrived in Zion. And not long after, Fay went to the springs and was baptized. Then she was sealed to Bill for all eternity, becoming his second wife. Her excitement was short lived. She felt totally rejected when Bill informed her the following morning that he and Marilyn had to leave for the States. After one blissful night, her dreams were dashed—no honeymoon and no time to make plans for the future. She was completely crushed when Bill left her with me. As a second wife, I understood her dilemma. We both felt like intruders in our husband’s lives.