Polygamy in Arizona, Texas, Canada

[Katholikos]

Channel 15 (the local ABC affiliate) is showing a “teaser” for a news report they will broadcast on the Tuesday night news next week. It’s an investigative report on polygamy (actually, polygyny – one husband, many wives) in Arizona, Texas, and Canada.

They report incest and “marriage” among close relatives, resulting in multiple birth defects and many early deaths of babies born in such situations. Old men are marrying girls who are 14, 15, or even younger. Polygynist families are generally supported by taxpayer subsidies in one form or another.

Anybody know how polygyny has spread from Utah and Arizona – where it has been practiced for many years – to Texas and Canada? Any insights into why it is tolerated, since it’s illegal? Or what can and should be done about it? Anyone defending it?

Polygyny is attributed to “Mormon Fundamentalists,” but it is fundamental Mormonism . Joseph Smith had many wives – including the wives of other men. The LDS church put plural marriage “on hold” so Utah could become a state, but it’s still Mormon doctrine.

xmission.com/~plporter/lds/jswives/jswives.htm.

JMJ Jay

 

[boppysbud]

Actually there is a group of fundamentalist polygamy practicing mormons not 150 miles from where I live in Texas.

They snuck in by buying a lot of rural land under the guise of a “rural hunting retreat” purchased under a shadow corporation, by the time anyone found out who they really were there had already been a lot of construction at the “compound”.

There is a large article about it in the latest issue of Texas Monthly for those interested.

 

[Katholikos]

boppysbud:

Actually there is a group of fundamentalist polygamy practicing mormons not 150 miles from where I live in Texas.

They snuck in by buying a lot of rural land under the guise of a “rural hunting retreat” purchased under a shadow corporation, by the time anyone found out who they really were there had already been a lot of construction at the “compound”.

There is a large article about it in the latest issue of Texas Monthly for those interested.

Does Texas law enforcement roll over and play dead like the law in Arizona has for my entire lifetime? Mormons are very powerful politically here.

In the meantime, the lives of young girls are being ruined.

 

[Ella]

childpro.org/

 

[Fitz]

Oprah did a show on this a couple times and there is also a town in Colorado that is guilty of this. They trade their young girls from the Colorado town to the Canadian one to get new blood so their offspring will have more genetic variety. Some women have escaped and they are trying to get the law to help them prosecute these people.

I just checked the above link and it is the same group I saw on Oprah. It is Colorado City.

 

[SP38]

Katholikos:

Channel 15 (the local ABC affiliate) is showing a “teaser” for a news report they will broadcast on the Tuesday night news next week. It’s an investigative report on polygamy (actually, polygyny – one husband, many wives) in Arizona, Texas, and Canada.

They report incest and “marriage” among close relatives, resulting in multiple birth defects and many early deaths of babies born in such situations. Old men are marrying girls who are 14, 15, or even younger. Polygynist families are generally supported by taxpayer subsidies in one form or another.

Anybody know how polygyny has spread from Utah and Arizona – where it has been practiced for many years – to Texas and Canada? Any insights into why it is tolerated, since it’s illegal? Or what can and should be done about it? Anyone defending it?

Polygyny is attributed to “Mormon Fundamentalists,” but it is fundamental Mormonism . Joseph Smith had many wives – including the wives of other men. The LDS church put plural marriage “on hold” so Utah could become a state, but it’s still Mormon doctrine.

xmission.com/~plporter/lds/jswives/jswives.htm.

JMJ Jay

I am especially annoyed that they are on the welfare system… actually taking advantage of law abiding citizens… and they continue to do it.
They probably get their “permission” from Old Testement characters who had wives and concubines. Solomon comes to mind.

 

[Katholikos]

Fitz:

Oprah did a show on this a couple times and there is also a town in Colorado that is guilty of this. They trade their young girls from the Colorado town to the Canadian one to get new blood so their offspring will have more genetic variety. Some women have escaped and they are trying to get the law to help them prosecute these people.

I just checked the above link and it is the same group I saw on Oprah. It is Colorado City.

This town has a confusing name. Colorado City is in
Arizona, north of the Grand Canyon, in the “Arizona Strip,” on the border with Utah. The Colorado River is nearby.

Why is the law so tolerant of this practice? Arizona does nothing about it, though some women who have managed to get away are pressuring the Attorney General. So far no action. One of our governors was voted out of office for trying to do something about it years ago.

Grrrrrrrr.

 

[boppysbud]

Katholikos, I am not an expert on Texas land laws. But I know that Eldorado is located in a large geographic county with a small population. I know that the mormons came in under a shadow corporation supposedly to buy this ranch as a hunting retreat for a company located in Az. By the time the county officials found out who these people really were it was a fait accomplis, and too late to get out of since the land had been legally purchased. The first thing they did was to install a heavy lock and chain on the gate, entering construction vehicles speak to no one, no one is allowed on the property, and the handfull of photos of the heavy construction there have been taken from airplanes. It is not recommended for outsiders to try and access the property.

 

[boppysbud]

BTW the individual mormon “prophet” these people are linked with is named “Allred” there have been a number of mysterious deaths linked with him and his mormon cult, in Texas, Az, UT, and I beleive in Mexico as well.

 

[Sola]

Katholikos:

Channel 15 (the local ABC affiliate) is showing a “teaser” for a news report they will broadcast on the Tuesday night news next week. It’s an investigative report on polygamy (actually, polygyny – one husband, many wives) in Arizona, Texas, and Canada.

They report incest and “marriage” among close relatives, resulting in multiple birth defects and many early deaths of babies born in such situations. Old men are marrying girls who are 14, 15, or even younger. Polygynist families are generally supported by taxpayer subsidies in one form or another.

Anybody know how polygyny has spread from Utah and Arizona – where it has been practiced for many years – to Texas and Canada? Any insights into why it is tolerated, since it’s illegal? Or what can and should be done about it? Anyone defending it?

Polygyny is attributed to “Mormon Fundamentalists,” but it is fundamental Mormonism . Joseph Smith had many wives – including the wives of other men. The LDS church put plural marriage “on hold” so Utah could become a state, but it’s still Mormon doctrine.

xmission.com/~plporter/lds/jswives/jswives.htm.

JMJ Jay

A good read is a book called Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer. On one hand, it’s about a double-murder that took place in a suburb of Utah by a couple of Mormon fundamentalists.

On the other hand, it’s about this history of Mormonism and it’s polygamous development. It talks about how communities arose over the borders in Canada and Mexico and along the Utah/Arizona border.

Good book. Strange people.

And it’s tragic, absolutely tragic, about these young girls and women who are sexually abused, raped, victims of incest. Really sad and outrageous that law enforcement turns a blind eye.

 

[asquared]

not limited to western states, a fundamentalist offshoot sect of Mormons in NE Ohio made the news because of this practice a few years ago. Mormons have a strong history there in Kirtland (Lake County) and Hiram (Portage county)