Blood Cult
Utah鈥檚 polygamous Kingston clan mixes incest and white supremacy with old-fashioned capitalism
When it comes to racist Sunday school lessons, the polygamous Kingston clan could teach the Ku Klux Klan a thing or two.
During a recent interview with the Intelligence Report, Jessica Kingston, a former member of the secretive, Salt Lake City-based cult and a star of the A&E reality series 鈥淓scaping Polygamy,鈥 remembered, when she was 12, her Sunday school teacher coming into class with a bucket of water and a vial of black food coloring.
The teacher added a drop of dye to the water, and the children watched as the blackness slowly spread.
鈥淭he teacher was like, 鈥榊ou can never get that out, that is always there now,鈥欌 recalled Jessica, now 29. 鈥淪he talked about how you can鈥檛 associate with black people or anybody of a different race.鈥
Based on available evidence, including the accounts of numerous former Order members, the 人兽性交 has designated The Order as a hate group under the category of `general hate.'
This racist display was no one-off. Jessica said she and other children of the Kingston clan 鈥 a group also known as The Order, the Davis County Cooperative Society, and the Latter-Day Church of Christ 鈥 dropped the N-bomb all the time, as did their parents.
Black people supposedly suffered from multiple scriptural curses, from the mark of Cain and Noah鈥檚 curse on Ham in the Old Testament to the racist tenets of early Mormonism that have since been renounced or abandoned by the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the LDS or Mormon church.
Black blood was 鈥渢he worst thing you can have,鈥 Jessica said, particularly since the Kingstons consider themselves to be the whitest of the white, descended directly from Jesus Christ and King David, the Middle Eastern origins of both men notwithstanding.
Obsessed with the purity of their bloodline and empowered by a sense of entitlement on par with the divine right of kings, the Kingstons have made incest the cornerstone of a self-serving theology that loathes non whites, fosters homophobia and abhors government authority.
Additionally, ex-Order members tell of a reputed church prophecy of an 鈥淓nd of the World War,鈥 an apocalyptic vision that foresees a bloody race war with the Kingstons as the ultimate victors, chosen by their Heavenly Father to rule the world for a millennium.
But given that the Kingstons command an estimated 6,000 adherents, boast a business empire reportedly worth as much as $1 billion and have outlasted myriad bouts with law enforcement and the press, these dreams of world domination may be less delusional than they first seem.
All Along the Watchtower
The Order denies that it encourages racism and homophobia within its ranks.
In a letter to the Intelligence Report responding to allegations made by former members, Kent Johnson, a spokesman for the Davis County Cooperative Society, claimed that The Order鈥檚 鈥渇oundational principles鈥 include the Golden Rule, and that the church rejects any form of racism or bigotry.
鈥淸W]e directly condemn in action and in words, racist, homophobic or hateful actions against any group or individual,鈥 Johnson wrote.
Johnson maintained that The Order鈥檚 vast array of businesses 鈥 which includes a grocery store, pawn shops, a garbage disposal business, an insurance company, a politically-influential biofuels plant, and a high-end firearms manufacturer 鈥 employs individuals of various racial and ethnic minorities.
The letter asserts that one of the earliest members of the church was a Native American man and that the 鈥淐o-op,鈥 as it is sometimes called, has been the victim of prejudice and harassment by Utah鈥檚 鈥渕ajority religion鈥 (i.e., the LDS church) because of the former鈥檚 鈥減rogressive鈥 ideas.
Indeed, the group was founded during the Great Depression as a communal religious organization where members dedicated their earnings and possessions to building 鈥渢he Kingdom of God on Earth,鈥 as one church document attests.
Its ominous-sounding moniker, 鈥淭he Order,鈥 is a reference to the United Order, a quasi-utopian society proposed by LDS-founder Joseph Smith, and practiced in some Mormon communities under the leadership of early church president Brigham Young.
The Order can rightly claim discrimination by mainstream Mormonism, but this is due to its embrace of polygamy, which the LDS church officially abandoned in 1890 in order for Utah to become a state. The renunciation of polygamy is now church doctrine, and the Mormon church has a policy of excommunicating polygamists. Kingston forebears were among those who suffered this fate.
Polygamy is outlawed in Utah, both by the state鈥檚 constitution, and in statute, where it is a third-degree felony, with a possible punishment of five years in prison. But for their part, The Order and other fundamentalist sects believe the LDS church exists in a state of apostasy for abandoning what they see as a bedrock principle of their faith.
According to church lore, The Order came into existence when founder Charles 鈥淓lden鈥 Kingston saw Jesus in the mountains above the family鈥檚 settlement in Bountiful, Utah, inspiring him to create the DCCS in 1935.
The family鈥檚 dedication to 鈥渢he principle鈥 of polygamy already had been established by Kingston鈥檚 father, who had three wives. Elden continued the tradition. According to historian Brian Hales鈥 Modern Polygamy and Mormon Fundamentalism: The Generations After the Manifesto, Brother Elden, as he was also known, had five wives and 17 children.
Elden also instituted the church law of 鈥渙ne above the other,鈥 requiring members鈥 blind obedience to the church鈥檚 hierarchy of 鈥渘umbered men,鈥 with Elden being Brother Number One.
Brother Elden died of penile cancer in 1948, despite the best efforts of some family members to burn away the cancer using acid. Elden had predicted that he would be resurrected from the dead, so clan members kept his body on ice for three days, to no avail.
His brother, John 鈥淥rtell鈥 Kingston, took over the leadership of The Order 鈥 incorporated in the 1970s as the Latter Day Church of Christ. Ortell is credited with expanding The Order鈥檚 business empire and making the family immensely wealthy. His seven sons and two daughters by LaDonna Peterson, the second of his 13 wives, are reputed to be the inner circle that runs the cult.
A stern disciplinarian, who in later years looked and dressed like a mortician, Ortell made incest a tenet of the clan鈥檚 faith, informed by his work breeding Holstein cows on the Kingstons鈥 dairy farm.
A 1999 Salt Lake Tribune article mapped the Kingstons鈥 incestuous family tree, quoting one of Ortell鈥檚 65 kids, ex-Order member Connie Rugg as saying, 鈥淢y father experimented [with] inbreeding with his cattle and then he turned to his children.鈥
In order to maintain his family鈥檚 鈥渟uperior bloodlines,鈥 Ortell married and had children with two of his half-sisters and two nieces. He orchestrated all unions within the cult, which was maintained with classic mind control techniques, corporal punishment, fasting and bizarre dietary practices. Ortell died in 1987, but his progeny continued the polygamy, the inbreeding and the marriages to young female teens that he instituted.
Control of The Order then passed to Ortell鈥檚 well-educated son Paul Kingston, one of several lawyers in a cult whose members dress normally and try not to draw attention to themselves.
Known variously as 鈥淏rother Paul,鈥 鈥渢he leader,鈥 and 鈥渢he man on the watchtower鈥 by Order members, this unremarkable, balding middle-aged man reportedly has 27 wives and over 300 children. Three of his wives are his half-sisters. One is a first cousin. Two are nieces.
Similarly, his older brother John Daniel Kingston has had 14 wives, four of them his half-sisters. Another is a first cousin.
Like polygamy, incest is a third-degree felony in Utah, and as with polygamy, convictions are rare. Over the years, state law enforcement and the courts have sporadically addressed the incest in the Kingston ranks.
In 1999, Paul鈥檚 younger brother David Ortell Kingston was convicted of taking his 16-year-old niece as wife number 15. The incest came to light after the girl tried to escape the arranged 鈥渃elestial鈥 marriage 鈥 an illegal marriage, sans license.
Her disobedience incurred the wrath of her father Daniel, who took her to a family ranch near the Idaho border and savagely beat her. The girl, who as an adult would unsuccessfully sue the clan, then walked miles to the nearest gas station, where she called the police.
Daniel was arrested and eventually spent 28 weeks in a county jail for felony child abuse. David was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the incest, but served only four before being paroled.
In 2003, another clan member, Jeremy Kingston pleaded guilty to incest for taking 15-year-old Lu Ann Kingston as his fourth wife. Jeremy was nearly 10 years her senior at the time. Due to the Kingstons鈥 convoluted genealogy, Lu Ann was both his first cousin and his aunt. As part of a plea bargain, Jeremy spent just one year in prison.
The 鈥楥urse鈥 of Blackness
In secret videotapes of Order church meetings aired on Escaping Polygamy, Paul鈥檚 nephew Nick Young, speaking from a church lectern, identifies himself as a numbered man, number 72, to be precise.
The son of Paul鈥檚 sister Rachel 鈥 herself a daughter of Ortell and LaDonna Kingston 鈥 Young was the only current member of the Kingston clan, out of the many contacted for this story, who consented to a live, on-the-record interview.
Young is the owner of Desert Tech, a Utah gun manufacturer, which produces sniper rifles and so-called 鈥渂ullpup鈥 rifles, The latter, unlike conventional magazine-fed rifles, have shorter barrels, with the gun鈥檚 action located behind the trigger. These specialty firearms can cost anywhere from $2,500 to $8,000 each.
Desert Tech and its rifles have been featured on Fox News, Mythbusters, Daredevil and The Blacklist, among other TV shows. Young told Intelligence Report that his company has sold weapons, with the approval of the U.S. State Department, to governments in Europe and the Middle East, Saudi Arabia being one.
Young also claimed Desert Tech had sold guns to Picatinny Arsenal, the research division of the U.S. military.
鈥淲e haven鈥檛 gotten any big U.S. contracts,鈥 Young explained. 鈥淥bviously, we would love to.鈥
Spokesmen for both the U.S. State Department and for Picatinny Arsenal could neither verify nor deny Young鈥檚 claims.
The company was founded in 2007 with an investment from family members. Young denied that The Order was racist or taught any form of bigotry, and said he had people of all races working for him.
鈥淲hat we鈥檙e taught is to love our neighbor, that all people, all races no matter who they are 鈥 deserve to be loved,鈥 he explained.
Still, he conceded that some Order members may have prejudiced beliefs because 鈥渋n our organization people have freedom of choice.鈥
So what about polygamy? Is it a requirement to gain the highest levels of heaven?
鈥淵eah, I believe in it,鈥 he said. 鈥淎s far as how you end up in heaven, that鈥檚 up to God.鈥
Young declined to comment when asked if he practices polygamy. Intelligence Report then read the names of women believed to be his wives 鈥 four in all.
鈥淥kay, I have one legal wife,鈥 he said. 鈥淏ut I do have children with other women.鈥
Asked if two women named were in fact his first cousins, Young paused, finally replying, 鈥淚 guess I鈥檓 curious as to what you鈥檙e trying to get at here.鈥
Before the call ended, Young insisted that he 鈥渄idn鈥檛 admit to any kind of incest or anything.鈥 When Intelligence Report inquired if Young thought there was anything wrong with first cousins getting married, Young opined that such issues were between the individuals involved and God.
Nevertheless, former members of The Order say that incest and racism are inextricably linked in The Order鈥檚 teachings.
During an interview with this reporter, Lu Ann Kingston, whose defiance of the cult led to the conviction of her former 鈥渟piritual鈥 husband Jeremy, recalled that Order members saw intermarriage as a way to 鈥渒eep the bloodline pure.鈥
And by pure, they meant pure white.
All outsiders are considered to be beneath Order members, she explained. But The Order saves most of its bile for blacks and other non whites. Ethnic jokes and stereotypes were commonly repeated. Chinese people were called 鈥渟tupid,鈥 and Mexicans were 鈥渄irty,鈥 said Lu Ann, adding, 鈥渂ecause of their skin.鈥
Allison, a 17 year-old ex-Kingston member says not much has changed since Lu Ann鈥檚 day.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 even know the n-word was bad until I was like 15 or 16,鈥 she told Intelligence Report.
Once free of the cult, Lu Ann, Allison and other ex-Order members have had to unlearn the hatred that was drilled into their heads. The mere rumor of black blood could condemn someone in the eyes of Order members.
That鈥檚 what happened with Ron Tucker鈥檚 family. Tucker is another of Ortell鈥檚 many sons, though not from the favored wife, LaDonna.
Seated on a couch, sipping lemonade in his home in a Salt Lake City suburb, he resembles Paul Kingston quite a bit. The two were playmates when they were boys.
A loyal Order member for years, he lost his faith and ended up leaving the Order over a curse of sorts, leveled at his family by LaDonna. Supposedly, LaDonna had a dream wherein it was revealed that anyone who left The Order would be tainted by black blood.
Somehow LaDonna鈥檚 curse was transferred to the Tuckers via Christy, Ron鈥檚 wife, because, Christy鈥檚 mom left The Order and married an Irishman, before leaving him and returning to the fold.
鈥淚 could see that the leaders of The Order really did believe we had black ancestors,鈥 Ron explained, with Christy next to him, and his adult daughters Emily and Julie nearby.
Boys began to show interest in Julie as she matured, but Paul, as the clan鈥檚 leader, warned them away, because of Julie鈥檚 black blood.
Up to this point, Julie had treated the rumor like a joke. Her younger sister Emily thought it was a joke, too, until one day another Order kid told her, 鈥淲e can鈥檛 play with you because the Tuckers are n------.鈥
Julie left the cult at age 19. Her parents and siblings eventually left as well.
Ron says the cult鈥檚 justification for its racism goes back to early Mormon teachings about a war in heaven between the forces of Satan and those of Jesus. The battle took place in the spiritual pre-existence that Mormons believe all souls come from. Blacks were 鈥渢he less valiant people in heaven鈥 who sat on the sidelines while others took sides, according to The Order.
Their punishment? Dark skin, of course.
Another of Ortell鈥檚 teachings: Adolf Hitler had the right idea about creating a master race, but didn鈥檛 have the Lord鈥檚 help, so he failed.
Tucker recounted the clan鈥檚 version of the apocalypse, the 鈥淓nd of the World War,鈥 a riff on a prophecy some ascribe to Joseph Smith, called The White Horse Prophecy. In it, black people come close to killing off the white race until they are countered by Native Americans, symbolized by a Red Horse, which gallops to the White Horse鈥檚 rescue.
鈥淭hat will open up for The Order to rise up and take over the world,鈥 Ron said.
The Tuckers think this is all hogwash now, though they were programmed to believe it at the time.
Recordings of church testimony given by various Kingstons serve as further evidence of the cult鈥檚 bigoted teachings.
In one, Ortell warns that there is a movement afoot that wants to 鈥渉omogenize the people鈥 and 鈥渕ake one race,鈥 by mixing all the races up.
In another, Order attorney Carl Kingston warns listeners about marrying up with 鈥淗am鈥檚 kids,鈥 a reference to the aforementioned Biblical curse. 鈥淚f you have as much as one drop of that blood in your veins,鈥 says Carl, 鈥測ou鈥檙e cursed from holding the priesthood.鈥
The lawyer鈥檚 words call to mind another heavenly curse, described in 2 Nephi, Chapter 5 of the Book of Mormon, where God caused a 鈥渟kin of blackness鈥 to come upon a group called the Lamanites, supposedly ancestors of Native Americans.
Modern interpretations of this passage vary, but The Order apparently takes quite literally this idea of 鈥渂lackness鈥 being a sign of iniquity.
Soy Makes You Gay
LGBT people fare little better in the Kingston clan.
One ex-Order member, who asked to be referred to as 鈥淪cott,鈥 instead of his real name for fear of retribution by clan members, said hatred of gays was big in the Kingston clan, with the word 鈥渇-----鈥 in frequent use.
For fun he and other Order men would go to a park frequented by gay males, looking for victims.
鈥淲e would cause harm,鈥 he confessed. 鈥淏ad harm. Hospital harm.鈥
While part of The Order, Val Snow, a twenty-something gay man with a wry sense of humor, believed being gay was like 鈥渟pitting in the eye of God.鈥 Snow is the son of Daniel Kingston, whom he paints as 鈥渁 little man with a lot of power.鈥
From a young age, Snow worked for Order companies to help feed his siblings, a responsibility some Kingston men are known to shirk.
Snow began dating men when he was 22. When this got around to his dad, his father packed up Snow鈥檚 belongings and left them in the room of a hotel owned by The Order. Daniel鈥檚 ultimatum: Stay in The Order, date no one, and have no contact with family. Or leave.
Snow left.
He says The Order regards homosexuality as a choice. If gay men stay in the closet, they are allowed to remain in the cult as 鈥渨orker bees.鈥
Snow also remembered being taught end-time prophecies, with a 鈥渃leansing鈥 wherein the streets of Salt Lake City would run red with blood.
鈥淎ll of the gay people would definitely be the first to go,鈥 he said.
Another of the cult鈥檚 teachings was that soy can make you gay, an anti-government conspiracy theory popular in some right-wing circles.
鈥淚 guess I just had too much soy,鈥 Snow smiled.
Ex-order members interviewed by the Intelligence Report generally agreed with the characterization of the Kingston clan as a 鈥渉ate group.鈥
Ron Tucker went so far as to call his former brethren 鈥渨hite supremacists,鈥 and 鈥渢en times more racist鈥 than your run-of-the-mill skinhead.
As for its anti-government views, allegations of fraud against government entities have long dogged the Kingstons.
In the 1980s, the state of Utah sued John Ortell Kingston over welfare fraud related to his many wives. Rather than submit to DNA tests, which could have revealed the incest in his brood, he coughed up a more than $200,000 settlement.
More recently, the Kingston-owned Washakie Renewable Energy (WRE) agreed to pay a $3 million fine after it was sued by the federal government for raking in tax credits for biofuels it never produced.
WRE鈥檚 influence earned special scrutiny in February 2016 after the IRS, the EPA and other government agencies raided owner Jacob Kingston鈥檚 house as well as The Order鈥檚 bank and other locations, carting away banker鈥檚 box after banker鈥檚 box of records. Nothing has come of the raids yet, and the IRS refused comment on the matter when contacted by this publication.
But The Order鈥檚 critics say that cult members see nothing wrong with bilking the government, a time-honored tradition among FLDS sects, gleefully referred to as 鈥渂leeding the beast.鈥
More troubling, during a contentious 2004 custody case that ensued when Jessica and her sister Andrea fled Daniel Kingston鈥檚 household, a judge in the case reportedly was the subject of a death threat, allegedly from Kingston clan members. There was also testimony, during one hearing, that someone in the Kingston clan wanted to blow up the courthouse.
Given such incidents, could Order members be a threat to law enforcement?
Ron Kingston says The Order鈥檚 leadership has too much to lose for something like that to happen.
鈥淧aul would rather have the wealth and the money than the isolation and the conflict,鈥 he said.
Matt Browning seems less sure. A retired Arizona law enforcement officer, Browning is the president and founder of the Skinhead Intelligence Network and is in charge of security for the A&E show, where his wife Tawni works as the casting producer.
Browning sees similarities between The Order and the religion-minded racists of the World Church of the Creator and the Christian Identity movement. There is also some overlap with Sovereign citizens, he contends.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e basically the Utah Mafioso of the white power world,鈥 Browning told Intelligence Report.
And they are growing. Former Order members tell of babies being born nearly every week in the church. And during a recent picnic to honor the birthday of patriarch John Ortell Kingston, Order families descended on a Salt Lake Valley park, where hundreds of children of all ages blanketed the park鈥檚 green expanse.
Accounts of clan babies being born with congenital defects and other problems abound, including dwarfism, albinism and children born minus fingernails or without genitals.
Home births and the frequency of miscarriages and still-borns among the Kingstons have led to macabre legends of dead infants buried in Kingston back yards.
There are also accounts of dead babies being buried at the 鈥淗oly Spot,鈥 a tree-shrouded patch of land across the street from a grade school in Bountiful, just north of Salt Lake City.
Asked about these legends, Kingston spokesman Kent Johnson, explained via email that 鈥渙n occasion鈥 Order families have asked to 鈥渟pread the ashes鈥 of a child lost before or after birth at the Holy Spot.
Johnson also acknowledged hearing family lore 鈥 dating to the Depression era 鈥 of Order families burying fetuses from late-term miscarriages 鈥渙n their respective properties.鈥
Don鈥檛 the infant deaths and tales of horrific deformities belie Ortell鈥檚 homespun eugenics?
Scott remembered that Ortell had an answer for that question.
鈥淪omething along the lines of, to build a superhuman, if you have four or five defects to get the one good one, it鈥檚 worth it,鈥 he recalled.
鈥淏ecause that one is going to be genius-level purity, and that鈥檚 what The Order is looking for.鈥
Photo Credit: AP Images / Leah Hogsten, Pool (John Daniel Kingston); AP Images / Jeffrey D. Allred / Pool (Jeremy Kingston)
