All language subtitles for Daughters.of.the.Cult.S01E02.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH.Hi

[dramatic music]

♪♪ ♪♪

And I did what
I was told to do.

I walked into
Dr. Allred's office...

♪♪ ♪♪

And I emptied the gun.

[gunshots]

[patients screaming]

[unsettling string music]

♪♪ ♪♪

[gunshot]

[dramatic music]

- She just shot him.

Shot him, I think, four times.

- Rena was the only shooter.

It seems Ramona froze up.

♪♪ ♪♪

LINDSAY: The office
breaks out in chaos.

Rena just is walking
casually back out.

The man in the waiting room
tries to stop Ramona.

- He was still alive
at that point.

I mean, still gasping for--
for breath.

Then the women came back in.

Absolutely, positively sure
that he was dead.

♪♪ ♪♪

- She ran back into the office,
and shot him in the face.

♪♪ ♪♪

[gunshot]

- It's a really
cold-blooded murder.

- They were said to be
very cool, calm, and collected,

almost second nature,

almost like it was
normal to them.

♪♪ ♪♪

- God wanted me specifically,

me, to do a certain act.

TERRY:
As far as I'm concerned,

the mental aspect
to murder people

and make sure they're dead by
putting a bullet in their head,

it makes you, yeah, stone cold.

- The leader of a group of
thousands of polygamists

in Utah and
surrounding states

was killed in a hail
of gunfire.

REPORTER:
Some called 71-year-old

Rulon Allred a prophet.

He was a naturopathic
doctor, a healer,

and the leader of about
12,000 fundamentalist Mormon.

- Allred died of
multiple gunshot wounds

in front of horrified patients
in the waiting room.

[sirens wailing]

- We got the news that
Daddy's been shot.

- I immediately
jumped into my truck.

[police radio chatter]

I noticed my family,
extended family.

Most of them were in tears.

Yeah.

It was devastating.

♪♪ ♪♪

DAVID: With the murder
of Rulon Allred,

I was called to the scene.

At that time, they were
just taking Rulon's body

out of his office.

♪♪ ♪♪

- The police and others
were investigating it.

They did find
expended casings,

as well as expended bullets
that were in the wall.

DAVID: There didn't seem
to be much to go on.

There was no fingerprints
on the shells.

No way to identify
any possible shooter.

- The women who shot Daddy

were not immediately
recognized by anybody there.

They had wigs on,

and they were dressed
in rather bulky clothes.

- Ervil was good at
using all his resources.

And using women was--

I mean, you don't suspect a
woman is going to be a hitman.

- There was nothing stolen.

There didn't seem to be
anything involving drugs.

No reason to--

to be there other than
to execute Rulon Allred.

This is an unbelievable case.

♪♪ ♪♪

- I was 11 years old

when our father ordered
the hit on Rulon Allred.

♪♪ ♪♪

ANNA:
I was nine years old.

I did not have any idea who
Rulon Allred was growing up.

I had no idea that he
had been shot and killed.

Rena married Ervil
against her will.

CELIA:
Right.

- Ramona marries Dan
against her will.

And then both of them get
sent on this mission--

BOTH:
Against their will.

- And did they have a choice?

- No.
BOTH: No.

- Never in a million years
would I have ever guessed

that those gentle, loving girls

could have ever carried out
a hit on anyone.

- Not a single person
I've ever talked to says,

oh, I wanted to go and do this.

Nobody wanted to go
and do those things.

- They didn't want to do them.

It was not in their
nature to do them,

but the power of brainwashing
and mind control.

Brainwashing is super powerful
and super, super real.

I don't know if someone
who wasn't brainwashed

can quite understand the depths
of that mind control,

but that is what we grew up in.

Women were just beaten down,
and the men were too.

- Subjugated.

- Subjugated and
forced to comply.

They had to be submissive, or
they couldn't survive in this.

- Well, and you didn't
have any options.

You don't have any way out.

So whatever you were
told inside the group,

you just had to do.

- Here's my question for Celia.
- Yes?

- What would have happened
had you been ordered

to go blood atone someone.

- I want to believe that I
would be like my sister Ramona

and not be able to do it.

Even though she was there, she
couldn't quite carry it out.

I want to believe that
that would have been me.

But I have no way of knowing.

And I'm so, so grateful
to this day

that that was not
put on my plate.

[ominous music]

ANNA:
I think they felt like

they were doing
the right thing

because we were God's
chosen people.

- You had to listen to the
Prophet, obey the Prophet,

work towards getting
to that celestial kingdom.

ANNA: Had it been me
being sent on this mission,

I wouldn't have had a choice.

I would have had to do it
or be blood atoned myself.

SCOTT:
The murder of Rulon Allred

was a very big story.

The mysterious aspects
of that murder,

it certainly grabbed
headline news.

- It was very big.

It was national news.

- Probably within a day,

if not sooner,
they had thought,

well, it must have something
to do with his lifestyle,

being a polygamist.

LINDSAY:
The common idea in Mormon Utah

was that two feminist women
were against polygamy

so bad that
they murdered Rulon Allred.

The question that
troubled investigators is,

did these women do this
on their own free will,

or did someone hire them
to kill Rulon Allred?

- The only person I had
heard of in recent times

that threatened my father's
life was Ervil LeBaron.

The only one that
made any sense to us

who killed Daddy that day

were Ervil
or one of his henchmen.

Prior to my father's death,
some of Ervil's followers

came to the Salt Lake area
specifically

to extort and threaten
my father.

GARY: There was a written note
stuck to a car.

My father was a very respected,
influential person

and had a huge following.

And Ervil wanted that.

There wasn't any doubt as to
who was behind the murder.

I was worried about my family.

Just because my dad
had been killed,

it wasn't reason enough
to let our guard down

or to think there was
no longer a threat.

LINDSAY:
Ervil wants to be

just as important
as Jesus Christ.

He is going to be the King of
the Kingdom of God on Earth

and organize all of the
churches in the world

under him.

SCOTT:
Ervil has this militia.

He has secret conclaves
where he's planning murders,

including the murder
of Rulon Allred.

And this was
an incredibly organized,

complicated hit.

LINDSAY: Ervil was motivated
to kill Rulon Allred

because he wanted some of his
followers and his power,

but he also had another motive.

And that was a devious plan
to murder his brother Verlan.

SCOTT: This is where
you really start seeing

the craziness of Ervil
come out.

The lure, the bait he's going
to use to get to Verlan.

I hate to use the word genius,

but there was an element
of diabolical genius.

- He had to come up
with another awful way

to get rid of my dad.

Rulon Allred had been
a dear friend of the family,

and my father loved that man
and respected him.

He would never
miss that funeral.

- So the plan was to attack
and kill Verlan at the funeral.

- Right.

SCOTT: This was
a double-feature murder.

Rulon Allred was act one.

Act two was going to be the
murder of Verlan LeBaron.

CELIA: We were living in
Denver in the greenhouse

when Rulon Allred was killed.

There were 20 children
and three moms.

ANNA: Each wife would have
a bedroom,

and then all the kids
would just grab a blanket

out of the corner at night
and then go pile up

in a little corner
in the living room.

We didn't know where our
dad was any of the time.

[dramatic music]

My mom would
come and go a lot.

- Whatever order she was given,
she had to obey it.

She could not question.

ANNA:
Dan Jordan was in charge

of the Denver faction
of my dad's cult.

CELIA: He was our father's
right-hand man.

He was second-in-command
in everything

related to whatever was
happening in the church.

♪♪ ♪♪

The way our clan
supported themselves

was with
the appliance repair business.

♪♪ ♪♪

- We even called it Michael's
Appliance because it was--

Michael is God, right?

We opened it so that we
could be doing God's work

and raising money
to do God's work.

CELIA:
Michael's Appliance was there

to send money to Ervil
for whatever Ervil needed.

Sometimes it was attorney fees.

Sometimes it was so he could
live his luxurious life

with his fancy cars.

ANNA: Young boys
generally were taught

to repair the appliances.

Then they came to the
cleaning department...

- Where the girls worked.

- And generally,
the girls worked

in the cleaning department.

As soon as you were old
enough to be put to work,

that's when you entered
the workforce.

CELIA: So 9 or 10, I was put
in the warehouse full-time.

12 hour days, six days a week.

- It was not
a regular storefront.

It was a sort of
a clandestine thing.

It wasn't like an aboveboard
legitimate business.

ANNA:
We would wash and scrub

dirty, nasty, old appliances.

- Appliances with
2 inches thick

of rat turds and
roach droppings.

- We would find
dead mice and rats.

- And live roaches.

- And live roaches
would come out of them.

And you had to just sit there
and do it.

♪♪ ♪♪

CELIA: I was taught
Dan was a patriarch.

You had to revere him
and honor him.

- If he came in a room,
and you weren't working,

I mean, you would hear
the riot act.

[distant shouting]

CELIA: He would come
with his round face

and his trembling jowls

and his black beady eyes
and his greasy comb-over.

He would come in shouting,

"You goddamn, lazy
motherfucking sons of bitches!"

- "You goddamn
son of a bitch, lazy."

- "Get off your lazy asses,
and get this work done!"

He was terrifying
to us children.

We were nothing but child
slave labor for Dan Jordan.

♪♪ ♪♪

I was beat down to a pulp.

And the thing is, though,

you weren't allowed
to complain about it.

My mother would tell us that
feeling sorry for yourself

is the first sign of insanity.

And insanity
was basically equivalent

to being possessed
by the devil.

You don't want to
get devil possessed,

so you don't complain about it.

You just suck it up
and do what you're told.

- It was a life characterized
by fear, chaos, and insecurity.

[engine revs]

♪♪ ♪♪

CELIA: We would get off
at 9:00 at night,

load up in the station wagon.

- Either go dumpster diving
or "gardening,"

or else we would
go to the Goodwill.

- And go gift-boxing.
- And go gift-boxing.

Gift-boxing is where we would
go to the Goodwill drop-offs.

HYRUM: Somebody would have
to get boosted up into

the little donation drop slot.

Many times that was
my sister, Anna.

And then she would shimmy
down there and push bags out.

CELIA: And we would take
this treasure trove

of donated goodies
and just see who--

what kid could fit into it.

- And you would
just hope and pray

that something would fit you.

The one time I got something,

they pulled out
this red jumpsuit.

- Oh, yeah,
I remember that one.

- And it looked like
the jumpsuit that--

- Olivia Newton-John.
- Olivia Newton-John was wearing

on the back
of that one album cover.

And I did get that one
that one time.

And I felt like
I was hot stuff.

- [laughs]

♪♪ ♪♪

I had fantasies about

what life would be like
if I were in a normal family.

What kind of clothes
would I wear?

What kind of friends
would I have?

But then I would
squelch those feelings.

I would tell myself
our life is better

because we are building
the Kingdom of God.

- We are celestial children.

- And where much is given,
much is expected.

[tense music]

♪♪ ♪♪

- We were watching the news
all the time

after Uncle Rulon was murdered,
hoping to see

who would be arrested,
and what would happen.

- Some Utah polygamists say
the murder of Rulon Allred

came as no surprise.

And if something isn't done,
they predict more bloodshed.

- My first suspicion was
that it was very possibly

the Ervil LeBaron group.

My life has been
threatened too.

It was threatened by
the Ervil LeBaron gang.

And they did quite a bit of
threatening different lives

in this--in these valleys.

- As people start to suspect

that this might be
an Ervil LeBaron hit,

police have almost
nothing to go on.

REPORTER: And there's all
kinds of rumor

that there are
polygamist groups

warring with one another.

And this might have
been an execution.

Is that possible?

- I would prefer
not to comment on that--

in that area at this time.

- But finally, they catch
their first break in the case.

SCOTT: These two men
rummaging through a dumpster

looking for recyclable cans...

Find a grocery bag.

In the grocery bag,
they find the gun case

for a .38 Smith and Wesson.

This doesn't happen
in real life.

This happens in movies
where somebody finds, like,

a bag with all the evidence
in it and calls the police.

- The serial number
in the gun box

traced back to a gun dealer
in Denver, Colorado.

- They discover a week earlier
a woman bought the gun.

That woman's name
is Nancy Chynoweth.

♪♪ ♪♪

Once the police have
Nancy Chynoweth's name,

who was married to Victor,

Victor Chynoweth has
a younger sister, Rena,

who is Ervil's 13th wife.

DAVID: That was the first time
that we'd actually

made a connection
between the killing

and Ervil LeBaron.

LINDSAY: Police look into
Ervil LeBaron's past

and learn about Joel's murder
and the Los Molinos raid.

♪♪ ♪♪

And they immediately suspect
that he must be the mastermind

behind Rulon Allred's murder.

Now there are
a lot of agencies

looking for Ervil LeBaron.

They knew he was a threat.

He was at this time acting
like a domestic terrorist.

The FBI puts him on the top
of the 10 Most Wanted List.

♪♪ ♪♪

- Panic and terror
spread throughout Utah

and then nationally.

Of course,
you have to remember

this is a decade after
the Manson Family Murders.

Ervil LeBaron started being
tagged "The Mormon Manson."

ANNA: It was shocking.
It was horrifying.

It made national
news headlines.

News media covered it
everywhere.

CELIA: It's understandable
because he was a cult leader,

and he never dirtied his hands,
never bloodied his hands.

But he was able to compel them

to go carry out
that kind of handiwork.

- Phase one of this grand plan
to get Verlan is completed.

Rulon has now been murdered.

And now we move on to phase
two, which is the funeral.

♪♪ ♪♪

- Ervil is counting
on Verlan to show up

at Rulon Allred's funeral.

- He had so many people
who loved and respected him

that the funeral
was going to be huge.

- We knew there was real
violence that could come.

- People are
extremely concerned

about their personal safety.

- And just as he had planned,
Verlan shows up to the funeral.

DONNA:
All of us felt that

my dad, Verlan,
wasn't safe anymore.

None of us were safe.

♪♪ ♪♪

JERRY:
We arrived at the funeral.

I recognized right away that
there were several police cars,

and there were
several positioned officers.

TERRY:
Police weren't stupid.

There was too much going on.

And they had
extensive police presence

at the funeral.

They didn't put anything
past Ervil LeBaron.

This is ripe for disaster.

LINDSAY: Just a few feet away
are three of Ervil's men

with a car full of
fully automatic rifles

and this plan to go create
chaos and death.

♪♪ ♪♪

And the clock is ticking now.

♪♪ ♪♪

- They start thinking because
of the amount of police around,

they're probably
going to get killed

before they can kill Verlan.

It's going to be a bloodbath.

They realize
they can't pull it off.

And they abandoned the mission.

♪♪ ♪♪

They had been given
a divine mission to carry out,

and they had failed to do so.

They had to have been
pretty worried

of what was going
to come their way.

LINDSAY:
The stakes don't get higher.

Ervil's going to kill them
for not following through.

♪♪ ♪♪

GARY: We have
a very memorable picture

of us sons walking out
with the casket,

and how easy a target
that could have been.

♪♪ ♪♪

- The big question on
everyone's mind at this point

is where's Ervil?

♪♪ ♪♪

- Ervil had been
on the run for years.

SCOTT: Law enforcement always
had a really hard time

keeping tabs on Ervil,

finding out where he was.

I think it's very much part of
that nature of Ervil's cult.

These are people
who see themselves

as kind of outcasts anyway,

living on the fringe
of things,

living in secrecy.

You never trust authority.

You never trust, you know,
mainstream law enforcement.

♪♪ ♪♪

ANNA:
Our father had factions

all over the Southwest
United States and in Mexico.

We had people in California,

Denver, Dallas, Houston.

- Ervil is smart.
He knows what he's doing.

He works in the shadows,

sort of bouncing around
all over the area,

playing this game of cat and
mouse with law enforcement.

♪♪ ♪♪

SCOTT: As law enforcement
try to find Ervil,

they're discovering
other cases,

other disappearances,
other murders

that seem to be linked
to the cult,

including Ervil's
own daughter, Rebecca.

- Rebecca was our half-sister.

She was one of our father's
daughters by his first wife.

She was a little bit
older than me.

And sometimes she babysat us.

She lived with us in Dallas.

She was about 17 years old.

And I know she was
expecting her second child.

As always happened in our lives,
she was gone again.

Poof.
We didn't hear from her again.

♪♪ ♪♪

LINDSAY:
Rebecca had been struggling

with some mental illness.

She had been a plural wife,
had problems with it.

She'd been a liability
to the group.

Apparently,
several of Ervil's followers

took her out
into the mountains,

strangled her.

No one was ever
convicted for her murder.

In fact, very few people
investigated it.

And the theory is that she
was buried in a shallow grave

but has never been found.

- In my mind,
it was like she got hurt,

or she got lost
and then found--

- You--you weren't
imagining the worst?

- I could not have imagined
what happened to Rebecca,

but I knew it was
something terrible

and that I didn't want to know.

- The idea that a man
could murder his own child,

his--his pregnant daughter,

you really get a sense
of just how--

how homicidal,
how crazy Ervil's becoming.

♪♪ ♪♪

- I was best friends
with Rebecca.

And they told me
that she had gone crazy

because she was running around
the neighborhood naked.

She truly was mentally ill, OK?

And they were afraid
that she would tell.

[tearfully]
And then I found out years later

that they had killed her and--

and taken her
and put her in a car.

CELIA: No.
FAYE: It was years afterwards.

And oh, my gosh.

It was--

it was really heart-wrenching.
[sniffles]

♪♪ ♪♪

[crying]

- So many of the
women in our group

were taught to stay quiet.

You weren't allowed
to complain.

You weren't allowed
to question.

You weren't allowed to, um,

think your own thoughts
about anything.

It was normalized
to just do what you're told

and not ask any questions.

And so that's what we did,

which it seems really odd

for people who didn't
experience that.

Like,
"Do you have feelings about it?"

No, you weren't allowed
to have feelings about it.

And the murder of Rebecca
was absolutely

what kept other women in line,
doing what they're told,

not being a problem, because
problems were taken care of.

- The threat was very real.

- People that didn't do what
they were told were killed.

♪♪ ♪♪

- At this point,
Ervil LeBaron's body count

has risen to five people.

The madness was hastening.

LINDSAY: The revelation
of these murders

puts tremendous pressure
on law enforcement

to find more leads.

DAVID:
There were lots of motels

within three or four miles
of Rulon's office.

The investigators had to
go check the registrations

on the dates of the homicide.

They found a license number
to a vehicle.

It was registered to
Rena's father, Bud Chynoweth.

The registration was submitted
for handwriting analysis.

The handwriting expert
said that that was,

in fact, Rena's handwriting.

But she was on the run
and disappeared.

LINDSAY: Even though police
have evidence against Rena

for the hit on Rulon Allred,

they really don't have
any way to find her.

And they still have no idea
that Ramona is involved.

- We all lived with Rena.

And remember,
we didn't call her Rena, though.

We called her--
- Patty.

- Patty.
- Patty.

- Patty.
Wow.

I did not remember that.
- Yes.

- And so she was using
a different name.

Did we know that that
was a different name?

Did we already know her
by Rena?

- Yes.
Oh, no, I knew her by Rena.

- I never knew Rena.
- Absolutely.

I know you wouldn't have.
HYRUM: No.

CELIA:
And you may not remember.

- I might not--

- But I always knew her
as Rena my whole life.

So we were told
to call her Patty.

And we're like, OK.

We had no idea why we were
having to call her Patty.

- Did you have any idea?

- No.
ANNA: Did you have any idea?

None?
- I had no recollection.

- I didn't have any idea.

- Rena and Ramona
were in Mexico

because they were
being accused--

- They were being--
they were wanted.

- They were wanted for
killing Allred, right?

- They were on the run from
the law living down in Mexico

and hiding out.

And all three of us
lived with both of them.

HYRUM:
Yes.

- And not one of us had a clue.

- Not a clue.
- Why they were even there?

- Ervil and his followers
knew how to stay

one step ahead of the cops--

changing cars, moving motels,

moving houses, changing names.

And they were
really good at it.

- A lot of our lives we spent
running from the law.

We didn't understand it
at the time.

We didn't know
what was going on.

But we moved
house to house to house

in order to stay ahead
of the law.

One day while we were
living in Denver,

I got to go and spend the
night with Faye and Ramona

at their house.

They're showing me the house.

And we go into this bedroom
that had a built-in bookcase

in the wall.

And then Faye says,
look at this.

And then she
unlatches something,

and then the bookcase moves

into this interior
hidden room.

This was the coolest room
I'd ever seen in my whole life.

But that was the hiding place
for whoever

happened to be in the house
that was wanted by the law.

[dramatic music]

LINDSAY:
It's been months since

the death of Rulon Allred,

and police are no closer
to solving the crime.

But then one of Ervil's wives
comes forward...

His first wife, Delfina,

with her 15-year-old son,
Isaac.

- Isaac was a very handsome,
sweet boy, just a good kid.

But after his sister Rebecca
was killed,

he and his mother kept asking,

"Where's Rebecca?
Where's Rebecca?"

- Isaac and his mother
have a terrible feeling

that something bad has
happened to Rebecca.

And if Ervil was capable
of murdering his own child,

he was capable
of killing anyone,

including his wife and son.

Isaac was threatened
many times by Ervil.

His own father had
abused him mentally,

physically for years.

Imagine being 15 years old

and worrying that your dad
was going to kill you.

- If you started
questioning and doubting

and even whispered to somebody
else that you wanted out,

and that got back to Ervil,
then you would be blood atoned.

It was like in the mafia.

- Even though they're
going to risk death,

Isaac and his mother decide
they're going to come forward

and out Ervil
and his misdeeds.

So they go to the police.

Isaac names
Rulon Allred's killers--

the trigger woman,
Rena Chynoweth,

and her alleged accomplice,
Ramona Marston.

Isaac also gives up the names

of two men allegedly involved in
the raid against Los Molinos--

Eddie Marston,

and Rena's brother,
Mark Chynoweth.

CELIA: Mark Chynoweth joined
our father's cult

when Mark was a boy.

He was very musically talented.

He was great on the piano.

He was a loyal follower
of Ervil

and helped support the cause.

- Isaac had been in on a bunch
of these crazy meetings

with Mark and Ervil,

where they were talking about
killing people.

And so he was able to stand
against his own father,

which was courageous of him.

DAVID:
He was kind of the connection

that really led to tying
everything together.

There were warrants issued
in five different states

to search homes, businesses,

looking for
all of these people.

It was a massive manhunt.

♪♪ ♪♪

- In the fall of 1977,
we were sound asleep.

It's about 5:00
in the morning.

And there's pounding
on the door.

And then suddenly men burst
into the house with guns.

- There's 20 kids on the floor,
all of us in blankets.

They're saying don't move.

You stay right where you are.
Don't move!

And we do not understand
one bit of what's happening.

♪♪ ♪♪

We were absolutely terrified.

♪♪ ♪♪

They were really searching
the house very quickly.

- Very quickly, yeah.

- Going from
room to room to room

in order to find the adults
that they were looking for.

But we knew if we got
taken to be interrogated,

that we had to answer
every question...

BOTH:
I don't know.

DAVID: As a result
of the police raids,

we end up with four people
from the LeBaron clan.

And we had Ramona,

who never ended up
being convicted.

We had Eddie Marston
and Mark Chynoweth.

Unfortunately,
we didn't have Rena,

and we didn't have Ervil.

And that's who we needed.

- After the raid,
you didn't talk about it.

You had to just stuff it down.

- It was just so many things
we didn't understand.

The only explanation
we ever got

was that we were
God's chosen people.

- Right.

- God's chosen people
are persecuted.

And that was it.
That's all we were ever told.

[dramatic music]

♪♪ ♪♪

ANNA: A few months
after the raid happened,

we were awakened up
in the middle of the night.

We were told,
"[whispers] Go get in the car.

- "Just go get in the car."

And then we were given
like a little grocery bag

to put a few outfits in.

- Adults told you
to get in the car,

you didn't know if you were
going to the grocery store,

or if you were going for good.

And you just got in
the car and left.

ANNA: We had no idea
where we were going.

Nobody told us anything ever.

- I was a very just,
like, scared child.

Like, I was scared.
I was terrified all the time.

- We learned later that Ervil
had some kind of a dream

or a revelation
that he interpreted

as meaning Anna Mae's children
were in danger

and that she needed to
get them out of Denver.

And then we arrived, I don't
know how many days later,

in Mexico
where it was blistering hot.

- My brother, Hyrum, and I
were sent to go live with

Andres Zarate
and his wife in Mexico.

They were followers
of my father's religion.

They were strangers
to me and to Hyrum.

And I am put to work.

- Well, you had
to earn your keep.

- I had to earn my keep.

- The people that
we had to live with

mostly seemed to feel like
we were a burden.

- And there was this one day
I was left with Andres alone.

He sits me down on the bed,
and he's like touching me.

Rubbing my leg.

And saying, Anna,

let's talk about love.

- She's nine years old.

- I'm nine years old,
barely nine.

Little skinny thing.

And he is already
starting to groom me

to one day become his wife.

There was a room
that had a window,

and you could see some
mountains off in the distance.

And I used to look out
that window and just think--

- Oh.
- If I could just--

- I'm sorry.

- Somehow get over
those mountains,

that's where my mom is.

And I could be with her.

One day, they told me that
my dad was gonna come.

♪♪ ♪♪

Everything was abuzz
about Ervil coming.

And this was
the first time

that I would get
to meet my father.

In preparation for his visit,
one of the weird things that

we had to do was we had to
cover the windows with sheets

so that he couldn't
be seen by outsiders.

At the time,
I did not know that

we were covering the windows
because my dad

was on the run from the law.

♪♪ ♪♪

My father was in his
mid to late-40s

when I met him
for the first time.

He was such a large figure,
not just physically,

but in my mind, so it
was exciting to meet him.

I would sneak and go watch him
through the door

sitting at his desk with these
large yellow legal pads

with his pen
and write for hours.

And it was just so,

ah, wow.

One day, he says,

"Um, do you know how
to make coffee?"

I had never done it, though,
and I said, "Yes, I do."

He said, "Will you go make me
a cup of coffee?"

It felt like an honor
that he asked me

to go make him coffee.

And I was so excited that
I got to do something

for the Prophet Ervil LeBaron.

I was so proud of myself.

And I thought,
my dad knew my name.

And that's what
I treasured the most.

♪♪ ♪♪

SCOTT: Law enforcement
is really focusing on Ervil.

They know he's probably
spending most of his time

down in Mexico.

It's a clever dodge
because it's very difficult

for American law enforcement

to get any sort of license
to operate inside Mexico.

Even though he's hiding,

he manically writes
all the time.

- He has delusions of grandeur.

He thinks he's still revelating
and talking to God.

He's writing letters.
He's writing threats.

He's writing doctrine.

He's writing
revelations and rules.

CELIA: Ervil was sending out
letters very publicly

to all the news stations and
sending them to President Carter

and Vice President Mondale.

He sends a letter
to Jimmy Carter,

the sitting president,

demanding that Jimmy Carter
tithe to Ervil LeBaron,

God's Prophet here on Earth.

A tithe is 10% of your income.

SCOTT: Ervil is taunting them
with his scripture,

just this onslaught of energy
and--and you know--

and craziness and verbiage.

- I think that there was
a sort of naked hubris

that Ervil would make it
out of this scrape

because it was God's will.

He thought he was so
untouchable in his mind.

- The Mexican government's
never shown a huge interest

in going after Ervil
or his followers,

but that's starting to change.

The Americans
telling the Mexicans,

this guy is really bad news.

He's murdered people in Mexico.
We know that for a fact.

He's linked to murders
up here in the States.

We really want
to get this guy.

♪♪ ♪♪

ANNA: We had been living in
Mexico for about six months

in that little apartment.

One night we go to bed.

- Rena was there.

Dan Jordan was there.

We shared the same living space
with him for a little while.

ANNA:
Hyrum and I were asleep.

You know, me and him are
just little small children.

I'm nine,
and he's young--he's six.

And he hears the
pounding on the door.

- Bang, bang, bang.

It was loud.

So I just got up and kind of,
in my groggy state,

toddled over to the front door
and opened the front door.

And they just pushed
their way past me.

ANNA:
Suddenly, there's, you know,

five or six men with guns coming
through the door very quickly.

We're scared and frightened

and terrorized
out of our minds.

- All the children were
herded into a back room.

♪♪ ♪♪

Eventually, they gathered up
all the adults,

and it was pure chaos.

HYRUM:
I saw them interrogating Rena.

They had a light on her
asking her questions.

I remember they were mad
and like animated and, ah,

and then at one point,
he backhanded her.

I mean, like, hard,
to where she actually

fell back and obviously in pain.

ANNA: That was
so frightening as a child.

And then them telling us,
you know, stay where you are.

Don't move.

They went through that house
with a fine tooth comb.

They turned everything over,
opened everything.

And we knew what they
were looking for.

They are looking for Ervil.

♪♪ ♪♪

- My father, Ervil,
actually was

not in that house at the time,
but Dan Jordan was there.

- At the same time,
there was another place nearby

that was also being raided.

♪♪ ♪♪

- By incredible fluke,
they also find Ervil LeBaron.

- He looks real rough.
He was disheveled.

He was gross.

SCOTT: Ervil admits that
he's Ervil LeBaron.

This is where things
get really bizarre.

The Mexicans
don't believe him.

The Federales think,
like, who would follow

this old guy who is claiming
to be Ervil LeBaron?

He's got to be protecting
the real Ervil LeBaron.

ANNA: They just think he's
just some low-level nobody,

when, in fact, they do
have Ervil in their hands.

They go to Dan and question him,
are you Ervil LeBaron?

And Dan Jordan says, "Yes."

LINDSAY: It's sort of
this buck-wild twist.

Dan Jordan convinced them
to arrest him,

not for his own sins,
his own crimes, but for Ervil's.

Dan Jordan took one
for the Prophet.

- So they arrested Dan Jordan
as Ervil LeBaron,

and let the real
Ervil LeBaron walk.

♪♪ ♪♪

ANNA:
They had him in their custody.

And he slips away.

♪♪ ♪♪