Book Review/Summary "Church of Lies" by Flora Jessop

"Church of Lies" by Flora Jessop 

 Flora grew up in the FLDS church, which is still controlled by the infamous self-proclaimed prophet Warren

Jeffs. Today, she is a well-known anti-polygamous advocate. This heartbreaking, but ultimately triumphant, narrative begins in Flora's own words: "My name is Flora Jessop. I've been called apostate, vigilante, and crazy bitch, and maybe I am. But some people call me a hero, and I'd like to think they're right too. If I am a hero, maybe it's because every time I can play a part in saving a child or a woman from a life of servitude and degradation, I'm saving a little piece of me, too."

Flora, one of 28 children born to her father and his three wives, grew up in the bordering cities of Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah. Her childhood was anything but idyllic. Abuse ran rampant in her home. Her father, someone she should have been able to count on for protection and support turned out to be the worst perpetrator of all. At age 8, her father molested her. At age 12, he raped her. 

When Flora was 14 years-old, she managed to escape her abusive situation. Her freedom, however, was short-lived. Although the woman who took her in as part of the underground railroad was kind to her, she felt lonely and scared. The outside world was foreign to her. One day, she called her uncle to come take her home. Fred Jessop was her father's half-brother and the bishop of the FLDS. Instead of bringing Flora home, she spent the next two years a captive in his home. Flora describes living in a room no larger than a closet, being beaten and tortured by her Aunt Lydia, and made to be a domestic servant in their household. 

Eventually, she was given a choice: marry or be sent to a mental institution. Again, she chose freedom. Flora's husband-to-be was her first cousin, Phillip. He and Flora had enjoyed one another's company prior to their marriage. In fact, it was the "God Squad," a secretive group of men who patrolled the town, who had seen them talking together and reported it to her Uncle Fred. In twisted FLDS logic, this alone was a cause for marriage. Phillip and Flora were given a gun-shot wedding in Las Vegas by a Justice of the Peace. 

Ironically, this arranged marriage turned out to be a source of freedom for Flora. Although she was only 16 years-old at the time of her wedding vows, she was legally married. That meant legal emancipation. Flora chose to leave three weeks later and, with the help of her husband, she moved to Las Vegas. 

An out-of-the-blue call from a producer of the show 60 Minutes changed her life forever. Although Flora was initially startled, she eventually decided to give an interview. For her, it was "...the first of many media interviews I'd do and the beginning of my lifelong passion to tell the world the truth about polygamy and its abuses." Sadly, it wasn't all roses after that for Flora. She went through a drug bing to bury the guilt and shame of her past. She survived an attempted kidnapping by her Uncle Fred. Flora's life became something of a giant road trip, traveling from place to place, and from one bad relationship to the next. Flora also found stripping to be a lucrative career option. The one joy from this period of her life was the birth of her beautiful baby daughter, Shauna. 

The next chapter of Flora's life developed into something drastically different. During this time, she fell in love with Tim, the man of her dreams, and they and their children became a family. Flora also learned that she need not hate and/or fear God. Last, this new era ushered in Flora's declaration of an all-out war against the FLDS.

 In April of 2001, Flora's baby sister Ruby Jessop was forced into an unwanted arranged marriage to her step-brother, Haven Barlow. Ruby was only 14 years-old. Flora's unsuccessful attempt to protect Ruby meant that the family had to hider her away. Thus began more than a decade-long mission to rescue her sister. Flora's search for Ruby soon led to anti-polygamy activism. She became a member of the underground railroad, helping young girls to leave their abusive Mormon fundamentalist communities. 

She began an organization called "Help the Child Brides." Later, she was recruited to be the executive director of the "Child Protection Project." One of Flora's most interesting underground railroad experiences was with two 16 year-old girls-- friends and both named Fawn-- who were leaving the FLDS. KTVK 3TV's reporter Mike Watkiss came along for the ride, filming the rescue as it was happening. Later, Watkiss created a documentary from the footage, "Colorado City and the Underground Railroad." (see video below)

Flora's book highlights some of the heart-wrenching stories of those she tried to help. Their courage to leave seemed to be a mere first step in a long process to claim true freedom. Life on the "outside" would be filled with legal battles, all while trying to recoup from their pasts and trying to acclimate to their new lives. For the young runaway girls, simple things such as a haircut and new clothes were powerful experiences. So, too, were learning to make choices for themselves. 

Last, Flora recounts the arrest, trial, and conviction of Warren Jeffs as well as the raid on the YFZ ranch compound in Texas. For her, these have been victories. They have also served to help get her message out about the horrors and abuses going on within the FLDS and other Mormon polygamist communities. The tattered tapestry of Flora's past has helped to weave a safety net for others. She chooses to be grateful for the painful experiences of her past, for they have helped to shape her into who she is today: a survivor, an activist, and a heroine. 

Though her work is far from over, Flora works tirelessly on in her quest to bring freedom to an oppressed people-- those who live not in a foreign, far-away land, but men, women, and children right in the heart of America. ~ ~ ~ As a side-note, earlier this year in January, Flora's dreams of rescuing her sister Ruby finally came true. Ruby, now 26 years-old was able to leave the FLDS with her six children, ranging in ages from 2 to 10 years of age. She recently gave her first interview with Katie Couric concerning her ordeal. We wish Flora, Ruby, and her children all the best as they begin their new lives!   -- Review by PlygKoolAid 

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FLDS Respect and Honesty, and Me

How honest are the FLDS and the attorneys they hire to represent them? I have no doubts about the utter dishonesty of the FLDS and their leadership. Who is that, by the way? Is it Warren Jeffs, since he is still the "president" of the company, and it IS a company. Is he still leading the FLDS' business?

Will Warren decide if Willie Jessop will or won't be written a check for $30 million after a recent court judgement? Or will Lyle Jeffs or John Wayman? Does anyone know who is running this organized crime family at this point? Is it being run from a state prison in Texas? Is it run from the YFZ?

For those of you who have never interacted, on any real life level, with active members of the FLDS, let me share a story with you.

On February 6, 2009 I traveled to the Tom Green County Courthouse, in San Angelo, to attend a hearing regarding a 12 year-old girl child in Texas custody, who was the identified victim of sexual abuse. She was the girl remembered best as the tiny child in the arms of Warren Steed Jeffs, pictured as the recipient of a deep kiss by her new "husband."

As I was getting out of my truck that day, another truck pulled in beside me, and out came two women and a man. One of the women was dressed professionally, and the other was obviously a member of the FLDS, whom I had never met. I walked some distance behind them, and the man was walking close to the FLDS woman. The two were in discussion. The professional looking woman was lugging her purse and some bags.

As the group of three reached the steps of the courthouse, I watched the man and FLDS woman start up the steps ahead of the woman I now presumed to be his assistant, since she struggled with the bags all by herself, all the way up the courthouse steps.

When I got to the top of the steps still behind them, the security guard inside the courthouse asked me to place my bag in the bin in front of me for x-ray, which I did. Then he asked if I had a cell phone, which I said I did.Then he asked me if I was an attorney, and I replied quite clearly so the group of the three in front of me could hear, "No. I'm not an attorney. I'm an anti-polygamy activist."

You could have heard a pin drop in the lobby of the courthouse. The three had stopped speaking and were staring at me. The guard explained I had to turn over my cell phone and I would sign to get it back, if I left the courthouse. I turned it over and filled in the log. Then I walked to the end of the table to wait for my bag to come through the xray machine. And I waited. Finally I said to the guard, "Excuse me but where is my green bag?" He looked at me, suddenly seeming uncomfortable and said, "I don't know. You don't have it?"

The feeling of panic that swept over me was almost indescribable as I frantically started looking around the lobby, and finally my eyes came to rest on the back of the man with the two women. There he was, standing in front of the elevator, holding MY BAG!

"He's got it!" I yelled, and pointed. The guard looked over at him and the man looked at the elevator door which was opening, and back to me, then chuckled and started walking back towards us at the x-ray table. He extended the bag out to my reach and said it was an honest mistake and he was just trying to help his friend carry things.

I took it back, standing there clutching it, and just flabbergasted at the audacity. I had, moments before, watched him completely ignore his assistant's struggles all the way up a flight of steep courthouse steps, and sheer seconds after finding out who I was, he was in possession of my bag heading for an elevator. And I was supposed to believe it was an honest mistake, because he possessed some sort of chivalrous, gentlemanly or mannerly nature? Not by my observation, he didn't.

Upon entering the court room where the hearing was to be held, I discovered the man, who had almost absconded with my bag, and the two women with him, had taken the seats at the table reserved for defendants.  I then sat right behind them on the first row. As the court room began to fill, the man decided to stand up and start introducing himself to people, "Hello, my name is Brett Pritchard, and I represent Barbara Jessop, and you are?"

The room was becoming ever more crowded and Willie Jessop came in with an FLDS woman and they sat right behind me. Then Merril Jessop came in, and came and sat right next to me. I was behind Barbara, next to Merril and backed by Willie. Mr. Pritchard eventually looked over at me and asked me who I was, and I repeated that I was an anti-polygamy activist. He sat down in his seat, threw me a backwards glance and smiled, then jokingly asked me if I were going to jump up with a sign soon and start protesting in the courtroom. I leaned back, crossed my arms, smiled and said, "Oh, no sir. That's not my style. That's not my style at all."

That was the hearing where I watched Texas give that child to a polygamist relative. That was the hearing where I sat behind a woman who had knowingly and willingly handed her baby over to be raped by a pedophile, because she believes he is a "prophet." Did I think about reaching out and yanking her head backwards by that long braid? Heck yes! But I didn't do it.

I think the real question here, considering the record of the FLDS and those who work for them should be, 'What will they not do?'

I will leave it to the FLDS to decide what my style is, but no one, not the FLDS and not the state of Texas can say that I have not acted in a respectful manner, especially considering what I have so far got back for my efforts.

Written by: K. Dee Ignatin -  K. Dee is the Executive Director at Americans Against Abuses of Polygamy, a non profit organization.


We have other great articles she has written in the blog!

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Warren Jeffs’ Batty New Writings from Jail

Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs, who seems determined to single-handedly keep the beleaguered U.S. Postal Service alive, has sent out his third mass mailing of “revelations” from God this year. The latest set of writings tend toward the apocalyptic, predicting that “consuming fire,” earthquakes, and illness will soon sweep the world.

“I shall cause the waters to boil, volcanoes, earthquakes, storms, the desolating sickness of an overflowing scourge, also pestilences of disease, and other destructive powers shall soon be felt by all peoples, nations, tongues, kindreds, and governing powers,” Jeffs wrote, quoting God, in his October 31 “Revelation of the Lord.”

The revelations are written in the same archaic and incoherent style that Texas Monthly’s Katy Vine noted Jeffs favored at his trial. “Let the nation humble themselves who are thus of a persecuting zeal against my holy Celestial Law of Celestial Marriage of Plural revealing,” Jeffs wrote.

As in previous writings, Jeffs took time to muse on world affairs, instructing Turkey to stand with Israel against Iran.

Jeffs, who stood trial in San Angelo, made sure the Tom Green County Commissioners received the packets. “We’ll just have to wait and see,” Commissioner Ralph Hoelscher told San Angelo Standard-Times’ Matt Waller of Jeffs’ revelations. 

Jeffs, serving a life sentence in Palestine’s Powledge Unit for child sexual assault of his underage brides, has turned his prison cell into a makeshift office where he is churning out religious texts at a record clip. In mid-November, FLDS faithful sent out thousands of copies of a different set of Jeffs’ rambling revelations, some of which wound up in the mailboxes of Texas judges, according to Harvey Rice of the Houston Chronicle.

“I looked at this and thought, either they sent this to every judge or I got some bad stuff coming my way,” Galveston County District Judge Susan Criss, who received the 247-page packet, told Rice. The Galveston County Sheriff's Office took the writings and considered conferring with a terrorism-focused FBI Task on the contents, Rice reported.

The Utah Attorney General’s Office seemed less concerned. “The threats according to Warren Jeffs seem to be coming from God . . . and there is nothing I can do about that,” a spokesman for the Utah Attorney General told Rice when asked whether his office would investigate.

Back in February, Jeffs sent a threatening letter to Obama, promising that the lord would send “great destruction” to Illinois if Jeffs were not freed, the San Angelo Standard-Times reported.

Curious if Jeffs marked your corner of the world for destruction? Back in November, the Salt Lake Tribune’s polygamy reporter Lindsay Whitehurst plotted out “the areas slated for God's wrath” on a handy (and hilarious) Google map.

Those interested in purchasing their own (keepsake?) copy can do so on FLDS.org, where Jeffs writings are listed by ISBN number. Christmas is just around the corner. 

Latest revelations from Warren Jeffs

(Source: http://www.tmdailypost.com/article/religion/warren-jeffs-batty-new-writings-jail    Written by: Sonia Smith Dec 8,  2011)

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The Kingston Group - Now this group, you could say, "goes weird"!

Kody Brown is a Fundamentalist Mormon.We here at SWB have delved into learning about the Fundamentalist Mormons. We've looked at the F.L.D.S. - The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; and the A.U.B. - The Apostolic United Brethren; and had a few posts about Blackmore Group and Centennial. This article starts us into the "crazy and sick" world of the Kingston Group. All of these groups believe in the same basic tenets- // Mormon fundamentalism (also called fundamentalist Mormonism) is a belief in the validity of selected fundamental aspects of Mormonism as taught and practiced in the nineteenth century, particularly during the administration of Brigham Young, an early president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Mormon fundamentalists seek to uphold tenets and practices no longer held by mainstream Mormons (members of the LDS Church). The principle most often associated with Mormon fundamentalism is plural marriage, a form of polygyny first taught by Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. A second and closely associated principle is that of the United Order, a form of egalitarian communalism.(Source: Wikipedia)

 When Incest Becomes a Religious Tenet

Practice sets 1,000-member Kingston clan apart from other Utah polygamous groups

Written by  Greg Burton 

The Salt Lake Tribune, April 25, 1999

On a dilapidated dairy farm at the end of Redwood Road in Woods Cross, the late John Ortell Kingston, would-be Utah dairy king and self-anointed leader of one of the largest polygamous clans in America, fancied himself a geneticist.
In breeding stock, he looked for high milk production. At home, the desired traits were his own. "My father experimented inbreeding with his cattle and then he turned to his children," says Connie Rugg, one of John Ortell's estimated 65 children and one of a handful of Kingston relatives who have fled the clan. Faced with the forced marriage to an uncle, Rugg left the Kingstons.
"All my life, my family told me I had to marry a Kingston," says Rugg. "I could choose, but it had to be a brother, uncle or cousin."
While the clan shares many of the beliefs of other polygamous groups in Utah, incest, for many of the Kingston leaders, is their indelible difference.
Incest draws members inward. Fear of exposure fosters a culture of distrust, some of which is directed at members who work in Kingston-owned businesses, live in Kingston-owned homes and worship in Kingston churches.
Many Kingstons -- even those who share preferred lineage from John Ortell and LaDonna Peterson, the second of his 13 wives -- live in run-down shacks at a coal yard, above warehouses near the dairy farm and in ramshackle apartment buildings and trailers.
If female, they are married off to the few, powerful prominent males: incest is the fate of many teen-age girls. If male, some of these same "worker bees" marry only once.
"My father manipulated and controlled people," Rugg says. "He wanted to control his children and grandchildren through genetics. He believed he had superior bloodlines."
Kingston clan leaders declined requests, including letters by registered mail, to comment on this story.
The church sprang from the ideas of John Ortell Kingston's father and was founded by his brother, Charles Elden Kingston, in 1935. John Ortell Kingston was the first Kingston to experiment with incest, marrying and bearing children with two half-sisters and two nieces, according to numerous ex-members of the clan.
Ex-members' claims of incest are bolstered by court records claiming John Ortell "failed either to support or acknowledge" three children by his niece, (Susan) Mary Gustafson. In an effort to recoup $15,679 in welfare, the Utah Department of Social Services filed an order declaring John Ortell the father of three of Gustafson's children.
John and Charles' brother, Merlin Barnum Kingston, married and had children with four nieces and a half-sister, say ex-members, including one of his own daughters. At least six of Merlin's incestuously conceived children in turn married half-siblings, couplings that subsequently produced children with various deformities, says Rowenna Erickson, an ex-member who left her polygamous husband.
"It makes you sick; it turns your stomach," she says. "And yet nobody wants to do anything about it. Nobody, from the police to [Utah] Gov. [Mike] Leavitt, cares that these children are abused from conception to marriage." Today, six sons and two daughters of John Ortell and LaDonna have married at least 20 half-sisters, nieces and first cousins, giving birth to a family tree that twists and tangles, and, at times, withers with children born of genetic deficiencies.
A seventh son, Hyrum Dalton Kingston, is a polygamist but has not married incestuously, according to ex-members.
Although it is a felony under Utah law for close relatives to have sex, only one Kingston -- John and LaDonna's fifth son, David Ortell -- has been criminally charged with incest.
Last year, a 16-year-old daughter of John Daniel Kingston was forced to marry her uncle, David Ortell Kingston, criminal charges allege. In a secret church ceremony conducted on the 15th day of the month, the girl became her uncle's 15th wife. He later gave the girl a ring with 15 diamonds, she testified.
He sent her to live in a coal yard with other polygamous wives and their many children in South Salt Lake, visiting her rarely and usually only to have sex, she testified.
In May, the girl said she was belt-whipped by her father inside a Kingston-owned barn in Box Elder County for fleeing the marriage, and was abandoned in the home of another of John Daniel's wives. The girl's father and mother, Susan Nelson (one of John Daniel's many wives) are half-sister and brother. They purportedly have 10 children, the girl told police.
Her subsequent recounting of the ordeal is the centerpiece of a pending trial on sex abuse and incest against her uncle, David. Her father pleaded no contest April 21 to third-degree felony child abuse and faces zero to five years in prison at his June sentencing.
Salt Lake County prosecutors' initial charge of incest against David Ortell Kingston was kindled by the victim's story of manipulation and molestation.
The clan's other numerous incestuous couplings among consenting adults, though, present a troubling scenario for law enforcement: these are crimes of a sexual nature committed in private in a closed society.
Farm Roots of Incest: Marriages in the Kingston clan must be sanctioned by Paul Kingston, current head of the church, although ex-members say Paul's brothers, Daniel, David and Jesse, exert influence over who marries whom.
The same right of marriage approval was wielded by John Ortell Kingston, who began the incestuous lineage. While building his polygamous empire, John Ortell raised pigeons and Holsteins, prized black-and-white milk cows.
"I know people who bought livestock from them because they had quality animals," says a federal investigator. "Usually the women did the milking. When an inspector would show up they'd disappear and pretty soon two men would show up."
Today, the Kingston dairy is a shamble of littered fields, slouching homes and a gray-brown barn where a few cows still roam.
It was here, on the flat hay fields that stretch from the edge of Woods Cross to the crusty shores of the Great Salt Lake, that John Ortell Kingston studied the genetics of in-line breeding. "It would have been unusual if he wasn't using artificial insemination in his herd, and by virtue of that, was probably using semen from some bulls that had been inbred," says Dennis Green, a professor of beef cattle genetics at Colorado State University.
"My guess is this man had used some of these inbreeding practices in his herd so he was probably in the camp that believed superior genetics could be propagated in a particular line," Green says. "The downside is that if you don't start with good genetics, and if there is baggage in the genes of the individual, inbreeding will uncover that baggage. When you pair up those undesirable genes, something strange will pop out."
Among the polygamous Kingstons, a number of children have been born with birth defects, among them one born with two vaginas and two uteruses but no vaginal or bowel opening. Outwardly, she appeared to have no sex organs. The girl, born to John Ortell and Isabell Johnson, was not the product of an incestuous marriage. Family members attribute the defects to the advanced ages of the mother and father -- he was 64, she was 45.
"My mother should not have produced another baby," says Rugg, also Isabell and John Ortell's daughter and the baby's full sister. "Her body tried to miscarry many, many times."
The baby, delivered at Johnson's home in 1983, was taken to Primary Children's Medical Center. Blood tests showed the infant and 25 other children from numerous women were fathered by the same man, leading to one of the largest welfare fraud-settlements in Utah history.
John Ortell Kingston paid the $200,000 settlement, but denied paternity. The settlement was reached after prosecutors obtained a judge's order to sample John Ortell's DNA to compare with the 26 children's.
Now 16, Rugg's sister was married to and subsequently left one of her half-brother's sons.
Another of Rugg's full sisters, Andrea Johnson, died in 1992 of complications of pre-eclampsia, a condition of pregnancy that was not treated until after the young girl, swollen with toxic fluid, was rushed to the emergency unit at University Hospital. The baby survived, but has cerebral palsy.
On Johnson's death certificate, attending physician James B. Burns wrote 15-year-old Andrea must have exhibited signs of hypertension "at least two weeks" before her death.
Rugg says the group feared taking Andrea to the hospital because members did not want to explain the child's troubling paternity.
Andrea's son, now 7, lives with his father, Jason Kingston -- Andrea's half-brother -- and Rosalind, his niece.
Genetics of Incest: Pre-eclampsia is a condition that can be traced genetically from one generation to the next and is prevalent among some Kingstons, Rugg says.
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. Since most Kingston children are born in homes under the scrutiny of trusted and secretive family midwives or clan leaders, documentation of medical abnormalities is rare, but not unprecedented.
In 1996, the now 31-year-old Kingston mother of two slow-growing children sought explanations at Primary Children's Medical Center. Initially, she tried to conceal her marital relationship.
"I didn't dare talk about it," she says. Eventually, she admitted she had married her half-brother and given birth to three children.
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.
Two minor members of the clan attended the NIH seminar, conducted in a Woods Cross hotel room -- not far from the Kingston dairy. Disappointed more family members did not attend, the scientists left.
"I tried to get people to come, but nobody would listen," says the mother, who left the group and her marriage after her sons were diagnosed with dwarfism. She says her parents, Merlin Barnum Kingston (John Ortell's brother) and Joyce Fransden, were uncle and niece. And her ex-husband's parents, Merlin and Carolyn Kingston, were uncle and niece.
"I knew I would have to marry my [half-] brother ever since I was 12," says the woman. The couple had lived together since the age of 7, when the mother of the woman's half-brother died.
The rate at which Kingstons marry each other is "frightening," she says. "It's a bomb that's going to explode."
Her half-brother is still married to another half-sister (whose parents also were half-sister and brother) and are still members of the Kingston's order.
Other possible genetic traits include: microcephaly, a malformation of the skull in which the infant has a small head (ex-members say two children with microcephaly have died and eight others are institutionalized); blindness; spina bifida; Down syndrome; kidney disease and abnormal leg and arm joints.
While none of these can positively be linked to incest without DNA testing, geneticists say most of the conditions are exacerbated by incest.
Some genes linked to conditions like microcephaly and dwarfism are "autosomal recessive," and are found among the 22-linked pairs of chromosomes that do not include the X and Y sex chromosomes, says Lynn Jorde of the University of Utah's Eccles Human Genetics Institute, a leading genetics research center.
"You don't want to jump to the conclusion and say all of these are the result of inbreeding," he says. "But just on general principles, the offspring of uncle-niece, or half-siblings have an elevated level of genetic disease. There is no doubt about that at all. So when you see all of these diseases occurring in the children, it's possible some are the result of inbreeding."
Of all the arguments against incest, says Jorde, the likelihood that genetic abnormalities will be passed to succeeding generations is the most persuasive. "We do know there are biological hazards. A fourth to half of father-daughter and brother-sister offspring have mental or physical deficiencies. It gets pretty bleak when it gets that close."
Global Incest: Worldwide, mating among first cousins is somewhat common and sometimes encouraged. First-cousin mating doubles the chances that genetic abnormalities will be passed along. Roughly 3 to 4 percent of children from couples who aren't relatives are born with genetic defects. The rate of genetic birth defects for first cousins is 6 to 8 percent.
Stillbirths and infant deaths also are much more likely when blood relatives mate. A Norwegian study published in the April issue of the American Journal of Public Health found the risk of stillbirths and infant deaths was at least 70 percent greater when parents were first cousins rather than unrelated.
Yet in many countries, the study noted, more than one-fourth of parents are related by blood. Those countries include Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait.
Including Utah, 37 states outlaw first-cousin marriage. The 1996 Utah Legislature approved first-cousin marriages, only after age 65, or age 55 if the couple cannot conceive children.
It is possible that positive genetic traits could be passed along through human inbreeding. That apparently was John Ortell Kingston's intent, although most studies of first-cousin mating show their offspring test lower on IQ exams, Jorde says.
There is too little empirical data of uncle-niece, half-brother/half-sister mating to draw firm conclusions about the IQ, survival rates, birth defects or longevity of their offspring, he says.
"So often when you have an uncle-niece, or half-brother-sister, you have a situation where abuse is going on," Jorde says. "And when you talk about the public interest, you have to consider who pays for the consequences. If these couples are . . . mating in a way that increases genetic diseases, that the public ends up supporting, it becomes a matter of public interest."
The Kingstons are among a small number of family groups in the world who marry closer than first cousins on a regular basis.
"Incest as a policy or routine practice is rare," says Melvin Williams, a professor of anthropology at the University of Michigan and a leading expert in the study of kinship systems.
Many cultures, he says, marry outside the family in order to attract the wealth of a neighboring family or to promote alliances among warring factions.
While not discounting the prevalence of genetic anomalies, Williams says modern society's aversion to incest is, to a large extent, arbitrary and prudish. A brother's aversion to courting his sister has more to do with romance than social stigma.
"It's hard to fantasize about someone if you grew up watching them go to the bathroom," Williams says. "Living with them makes them unattractive as living partners. Humans also have decided not to [commit incest] in order to distinguish themselves from other animals. Humans put a grave prohibition on incest." Social ostracism, he adds, is not necessarily a good thing.
Of the Kingstons, Williams says: "There is not much you can do about them. The notoriety will just make them zoo specimens. People are always trying to find people who are inferior and brand them as such."
Still, if children are caught up in an abusive or incestuous situation, Williams would encourage policing. "Children should not be victims of such programs."
A Secretive Refrain: On Bountiful's bench, in a wooded and fenced complex that overlooks the Great Salt Lake, Mary Gustafson, John Ortell's niece and third wife, lives with some of her children, one who is legally blind, and grandchildren.
One recent morning she defended her complicity in arranging her daughters' marriages to their half-brothers, sons of John Ortell and LaDonna.
"Those boys are the most moral, upstanding and wonderful people I know," she said, clutching a grandchild to her thin hip. "Most of what you print is lies, lies, lies."
From the porch of Gustafson's home, there is a view of fields where cattle and ponies graze, and the remnants of the Kingston dairy.
John Ortell, who died in 1987, never met the grandchild Gustafson was holding. Or two more that scampered around her feet as she talked, pleasantly but guardedly, about the Kingston clan.
When asked, a little boy and girl at the home acknowledged who their mother is.
Then, as generations of polygamous Kingston children have been taught, they demurred to questions about their father. Naming a father could expose the truth, unveil secrets of paternity and subject the clan to further scrutiny from those who don't approve of incest.
"We don't have a dad," the little boy said. Then he scooted away, smiling, aboard a plastic toy car, his feet smacking the sidewalk.

(Source: http://www.rickross.com/reference/polygamy/polygamy25.html, picture: http://steelturman.typepad.com/thesteeldeal/2006/10/freaks.html)

***Thanks to a  commenter who sent this to me!

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