Polygamy perils
 
Letters to the Editor
Mohave Daily News
 
Editor:

I am totally surprised that Rachel Young of the Davis County Cooperative believes that Warren Jeffs is hurting the image of polygamists. How much more damage could be done than that done by her own group, the Davis County Cooperative/ Latter Day Church/Kingston Clan?

There have been multiple cases of reported incest in the Kingston group, two men have gone to prison for incest with underaged girls. Another case not ending up in court involved the negligent homicide of a 15-year-old girl in giving birth to her brother's baby, he went on to marry a niece after his sister/wife died.

One leader has spoken out in defense of incest to both Newsweek and the Salt Lake City Tribune, stating that it is their religious freedom to commit incest. This group is looked upon as worse than Jeffs'. John Daniel Kingston went to jail for beating a 16-year-old daughter (Mary Ann) unconscious and leaving her in a deserted barn in the Rocky Mountains because she tried to escape sexual relations as the 15th wife to her uncle, his brother.

She had already been raped by another uncle at 9 years of age. I don't think Warren Jeffs can match that one. The Kingstons control a $150 million to $15 billion empire, yet their many children and wives live in extreme poverty and work for the Kingston organization for little pay as the men practice non-support of children and don't even give them their name.

One Kingston man had to be forced by the courts to provide just 10 of his 100 or so children with his last name. The Kingstons have had more than 300 civil and criminal investigations or charges against them including welfare fraud, non-support of children, safety violations, illegal gaming violations, tax violations, union/labor violations, homicide of a child, neglect of children, physical abuse of children, incest, sexual abuse, insurance fraud and illegal threats and intimidation to name a few.

Recently a judge was reportedly threatened with a bombing by the Kingstons. Does Rachel Young really believe that Warren Jeffs has done more harm to the image of polygamists than her own group? This is the kind of lies that the powerful pro-polygamy lobby propagate to the uninformed media.

Lorna Craig
Perry Point, MD
 
MohaveDailyNews.com
Originally published Monday, December 11, 2006
 
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