Still more, rather cryptically, feature child-size palm and footprints. There are also graves lacking any dates whatsoever. If both parents carry the gene, the likelihood that their offspring will be affected by the disease or become carriers of the gene greatly increases, medical experts say. Johnson also acknowledged hearing family lore dating to the Depression era of Order families burying fetuses from late-term miscarriages on their respective properties.. . One of the survivors includes Amanda Rae Grant, who appeared on season two of A&E's "Escaping . . Dawna's younger sister has a little boy with two clubfeet. . "Like his father-in-law, John Y. Barlow became one of the towering patriarchs of the fundamentalist Mormon community and served as FLDS prophet from 1935 until his death in 1949. . But that's like spitting in the ocean.'. Their brains, he says, 'are strangely shaped' and are frequently missing large areas of brain matter that has been replaced by water. People are always trying to find people who are inferior and brand them as such.' Elden continued the tradition. . 'It's a bomb that's going to explode.'. 'Right away I asked the parents if there were any other children with the same problem.' "They were called the Second Warders and we were called the First Warders; we weren't supposed to hang out with kids from the Centennial group because they were wicked for having left," she says. A rare neurological disorder characterized by water on the brain, muscular stiffness, adducted thumbs and aphasia, x-linked hydrocephalus is expressed only in men and carried by women. . Practice sets 1,000-member Kingston clan apart from other Utah polygamous been born with birth defects, among them one born with two vaginas and two The polygamous town facing genetic disaster Apr 03, 2020 In a remote region of the US, a town is struggling with a chilling health crisis caused by a recessive gene. Two are nieces. If you find a grave up there that's not marked, that's the way Fred wanted it.". . Rome became the mistress of the world, and introduced this order of monogamy wherever her sway was acknowledged. As people age the chances of children inheriting mutant genes increases. "The rate at which Kingstons marry each other is 'frightening,' she says. ", ("Doctor: Birth defects increase in polygamy community," Associated Press, 9 February 2006, at: http://www.azcentral.com/health/news/articles/0209PolygamyBirthDefect09-) . '", (John Dougherty, "Forbidden Fruit: Inbreeding Among Polygamists Along the Arizona-Utah Border is Producing a Caste of Severely Retarded and Deformed Children," in "Phoenix New Times," 29 December 2005, at: http://www.childbrides.org/taxes_PNT_forbidden_fruit.html) "Have you ever heard of the term The Turkey Baster?" "It was . That sister, too, dealt with a lot of respiratory problems with her kids, "because of the relation," Dawna explains. Young declined to comment when asked if he practices polygamy. Another is a first cousin. Many members of the fundamentalist community don't even know it's occurring. . The first questions were about his background. Ron Rohbock, 64, who was kicked out of the FLDS in 2002 after serving on church security for decades at Warren and Rulon Jeffs' side, has a different answer. Desert Tech and its rifles have been featured on Fox News, Mythbusters, Daredevil and The Blacklist, among other TV shows. Current scientific knowledge indicates Grants lack of sons resulted from his own genetic defect, since only men carry the male Y chromosome to make a son. . "You had a fairly diverse pool to start with, so only if that went on for a long time within this same population would you see real effects," he told ABC. But [FLDS members] don't think of it as sexual predation. Most populations outbreed and so these lethal genes rarely match to cause any serious diseases. Brother Elden died of penile cancer in 1948, despite the best efforts of some family members to burn away the cancer using acid. "During this early period, polygamy was practiced secretly by the Mormon leadership, men who covertly preached and expanded polygamy while publicly deceiving the general Mormon population about the practice. . "Two years later, a pair of geneticists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Md., flew to Utah where they hoped to stage a seminar for Kingston family members about the dangers of incest and birth defects, and, presumably, gain permission to study the clan. . "'Those boys are the most moral, upstanding and wonderful people I know,' she said, clutching a grandchild to her thin hip. Still, he conceded that some Order members may have prejudiced beliefs because in our organization people have freedom of choice.. 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 "Escaping Polygamy," remembered, when she was 12, her Sunday school teacher coming into class with a . October 15, 2002: "There will be a viewing at father's house at 3p.m. The notoriety will just make them zoo specimens. "It's not really talked about; I don't think [people here] even research to see how related they are" before getting married or pregnant, she adds. Hospital harm., While part of The Order, Val Snow, a twenty-something gay man with a wry sense of humor, believed being gay was like spitting in the eye of God. Snow is the son of Daniel Kingston, whom he paints as a little man with a lot of power.. Such a system was commenced by the founders of the Roman empire. . He was kicking people out, too, who weren't obedient. By the time Joseph Smith Jessop died in September 1953, he already had 112 grandchildren, the majority of them directly descended from him and Yeates. "Dr. Tarby, who routinely treats fumarase deficiency children at a state-funded clinic in Flagstaff, says, 'They are funny-looking kids [with] biggish heads and coarse, thick features.' The grave side funeral services will be at the grave side in Babyland at 4p.m.". . . . . Which brings us back to the baby cemetery. Appointments & Access. One of her brothers married a woman whose grandmother is a sister to their father. . The quick answer for why this polygamous community has buried so many of its children is inbreeding, according to community members. Asserting that 'the attitude between Mormons and Mormon fundamentalist polygamists is that of kissing cousins with more similarities than differences.' "Nearly everyone in Colorado City, Arizona, and the adjacent town of Hildale, Utah, was a member of a fundamentalist Mormon sect that practices polygamy and had long encouraged multiple marriages between close relatives. The 1996 Utah Legislature approved first-cousin marriages, only after age 65, or age 55 if the couple cannot conceive children. "Gradually, I realized the practice of polygamy, especially in Mormondom, might be a prescription for genetic disease. "They've got this idea that their blood is pure and that they want to keep it pure.'. The knowledge that one's children are likely to be born with conditions like this one does not prevent FLDS couples from becoming pregnant; instead, they see it as a responsibility and blessing to have many children. "For more than 70 years, all marriages in the isolated towns have been arranged by the leader of the FLDS, a breakaway sect of the Salt Lake City-based Mormon Church. [i]n a secret church ceremony. ". ", ("Understanding Polygamy," from "Humanists of Utah," at: http://www.humanistsofutah.org/2005/UnderstandingPolygamy_July-05.html). According to church lore, The Order came into existence when founder Charles Elden Kingston saw Jesus in the mountains above the familys settlement in Bountiful, Utah, inspiring him to create the DCCS in 1935. Polygamy is outlawed in Utah, both by the states constitution, and in statute, where it is a third-degree felony, with a possible punishment of five years in prison. For fun he and other Order men would go to a park frequented by gay males, looking for victims. From the previously-cited article, "Understanding Polygamy": "The polygamous Kingston family professes that their genealogy line traces back to Jesus Christ, and so they possess holy blood. According to many of the individuals interviewed for this story, these children are seen as special angels sent from God to the FLDS community. "Dr. Vinodh Narayanan, a pediatric neurologist at St. Joseph's Hospital, says he is seeking funding to develop a test that would allow public health officials to collect voluntary blood samples from as many FLDS members as possible. ", (Bruce, R. McConkie,'Mormon Doctrine,' 2nd ed., under "Plural Marriage" (Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, Inc., 1966], p. 578) When a group inbreeds, as polygamists have, more and more lethal gene matches occur. 'Most of what you print is lies, lies, lies.' "There is no cure for the disease, which impedes the body's ability to process food at the cellular level. "Another problem in polygamy is a mans breeding years are expanded sometimes into his 80s by the taking of new wives. Lesser known children hidden in families sympathetic to polygamists might remain ignorant of their genetic kinship. . . . Men make all decisions affecting her health. To date Mormons have only paid lip service to stopping polygamy. _____, --Petri Dishes of the Genetically-Destructive Effects of Mormon-Driven Polygamy: "Modern"-day Utah and Cross-Border Towns. Tucker recounted the clans version of the apocalypse, the End of the World War, a riff on a prophecy some ascribe to Joseph Smith, called The White Horse Prophecy. He believed he had superior bloodlines.' As part of a plea bargain, Jeremy spent just one year in prison. Not one defect, but many. "Several Kingston offspring of incestuous couplings also have been born without fingernails, a disease that could be linked to a number of genetically caused abnormalities, although an exact diagnosis is impossible without closer study of medical records. "Wyler said it's all part of the community's religious system. "15 years ago, a strange-looking child suffering from severe physical maladies and acute retardation was brought into the office of [pedatric neurologist] Dr. Theodore Tarby. Half and full siblings are marrying in religious ceremonies. . "The few dissenters in the community say the serious genetic problems that are beginning to surface are an indication that the closed FLDS society could eventually collapse. She says her parents, Merlin Barnum Kingston (John Ortell's brother) and Joyce Fransden, were uncle and niece. . . ", (Linda Walker, "Fatal Inheritance: Mormon Eugenics," under "Science as Culture," originally written in the fall of 1991, updated in the summer of 1999, citations included, at: http://human-nature.com/science-as-culture/walker.html) . "The only long-term solution to the health crisis is for Barlows and Jessops to have children with spouses from outside the polygamist community. . . Consequently, genetic diseases and mutations have inevitably sprouted in many polygamous groups having this belief. and is expected to answer questions . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmhjgaB2Hi8. Due to the Kingstons convoluted genealogy, Lu Ann was both his first cousin and his aunt. Barlow/Jessop descendants carry the recessive gene that causes fumarase. 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. and last updated 1:46 PM, Feb 24, 2021. . 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 parks green expanse. Three of his wives are his half-sisters. He did not consider this lack of sons might be his genetic inheritance, not his multiple wives. "The disease is not widely known about even in Colorado City, a place where even normally public events such as marriages are conducted in secret. "It is possible that positive genetic traits could be passed along through human inbreeding. This seemed to apply in my own kindred because those of us who left Mormonism and married outsiders are less riddled with the deleterious genetic legacy than relatives who married within the ancestral Mormon gene pool. . . and cousins. Many of the souls interred here lived not longer than a day, some just two days, two weeks, or two years. Some feature more expensive-looking gravestones, and include, beyond names and dates, terms of endearment such as: "Sweet baby girl," "Our son," and "Heaven's very special child." Kingston clan birth defects. In 1999, Pauls younger brother David Ortell Kingston was convicted of taking his 16-year-old niece as wife number 15. I began to think polygamy might be a genetically unsound marriage practice. If you have as much as one drop of that blood in your veins, says Carl, youre cursed from holding the priesthood.. "Fumarase deficiency began to manifest in the community when three sets of Joseph Smith Jessop and Martha Moore Yeates' great-grandchildren married each other. ", ("Mormon Polygamy: Frequently Asked Questions," at: http://www.i4m.com/think/polygamy/polygamy_summary.htm). soon . Polygamy today is comprised of early Mormon polygamy descendants and these families are now interrelated by a factor impossible in monogamy. "The leaders must also understand the ethical considerations of continuing behavior, he says, that is bringing children into the world who suffer tragic deformities. . "'One lady I know, she just cannot physically pick [her son] up anymore to get him into the bathtub,' Wyler says. . . Through his brother LyleBishop of the FLDS and mouthpiece for his imprisoned brotherJeffs enacted a Judgment wherein FLDS members were asked a series of bizarre personal questions; their answers were judged, and the most righteous were welcomed into the United Order of FLDS elite. D. 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