How Mormon Scripture Influenced Ervil LeBaron's Murder Spree

Ervil was captured by Mexican police on June 1st, 1979. Shortly after the arrest LeBaron was handed over to the FBI for extradition to Utah where Rulon Allred had been murdered. Authorities couldn’t pin all the crimes that had occurred in the US on Ervil, but in the Allred case a few members of Lamb of God including one of LeBaron’s own sons agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

While awaiting trial Ervil began writing down his prophecies for what would become something like an addendum to The Book of Mormon. It would be called ‘The New Covenants’ and it would end up finding its way into the hands of the cult leader’s followers. Before that would happen, Ervil LeBaron would meet his jury. Trial commenced in May of 1980 and Ervil wasn’t so lucky with the law on his second trip through the justice system. LeBaron was found guilty of orchestrating the homicide of Rulon Allred and sentenced to life in prison. There would be no appeal. Newspapers called Ervil “The Mormon Manson.”

With Ervil behind bars law enforcement focused on finding the cult members who were responsible for carrying out the many hits. A few arrests followed, including that of Ervil’s 10th wife Vonda White, who was convicted on murder charges in Mexico. The law had caught up with The Lamb of God and numbers in the church dwindled down to all but the most devoted of followers. In prison, Ervil continued to work on his manuscript, but his prophesizing didn’t last very long. Ervil LeBaron died of a heart attack on Aug. 16th, 1981, just over a year after his conviction. The cycle of violence he set in motion, however, didn’t die with Ervil. Scores would be settled from beyond the grave. The twist in this story comes when ‘The New Covenants’ made it’s way back to Ervil’s family where a wife paid some $3,000 to have the messy text restored. Once there was a version of the tome that could be shared, Ervil’s writing made its way into the hands of his remaining devotees. With his intended audience reached, Ervil’s plague of death would roll on to a new chapter. To say Ervil was a petty man would be a hell of an understatement. The guy couldn’t let a slight go without an execution. In prison Ervil had time to consider his latest enemies, and he put their names to paper. ‘The New Covenants’ was not just ramblings about faith to be studied in the leader’s absence, it was also something of a hit list. When the text was deciphered the brainwashed members of Lamb of God found the names Ervil wanted taken care of, and the bodies started piling up again.    The first casualty was Ervil’s own son Isaac in June 1983. Isaac had testified against Ervil at trial, so it raised some eyebrows when he died of a highly suspicious suicide in Texas. Later that year, Ervil’s eldest son Arturo who was killed in a hail of bullets in Mexico. In May of ‘84, Ervil’s wife Yolanda Rios was strangled to death and buried in Dallas. Not long after that the late cult leader’s loyal son Heber Lebaron shot and killed a man named Gamaliel Rios who was referenced in ‘The New Covenants.’ Leo Evoniuk was another one of Ervil’s targets. All investigators found of him were dentures and a puddle of blood. When the dust finally settled the number of people whose lives ended after crossing Ervil LeBaron was tallied at 25. If you were to include suspicious suicides and people who vanished mysteriously in Mexico the number of victims is closer to 30, and may be even higher. Some of these cases were solved and arrests were made. Other cases remain open. There’s still a small contingent of true believers out there who believe Ervil was a living saint, though it’s hard to know how many are out there. The last turn in this story is that six of Ervil’s sons escaped foster care out west in what was believed to be a coordinated effort. The boys were never seen or heard from again. The common belief is that these LeBaron’s made their way down to Mexico to join back up with the cult. The hope is that the cycle is broken, and we’ve seen the last of blood atonement, but with another generation of true believers on the loose there’s reason for concern.

Ervil LeBaron was an evil man who used religion to justify a massive killing spree, but he wasn’t born evil. If you observe the lives of wide scale killers like Ervil a pattern emerges from youth. Psychopaths are born out of trauma and often come from homes where there’s abuse by the people who raise them. In Ervil’s case it seems the abuse was spiritual in nature. His father isolated him in a prison of old LDS fantasy and placed him in a universe where any healthy worldviews would be out of reach; all for the sake of preserving a lifestyle that was against the rules of civil society. It may seem like a digression but it’s true that most child molesters were molested as children, and there’s something to a cult leader being raised by a cult leader that fits a pattern too. Alma LeBaron should shoulder some of the blame for how Ervil turned out. In a case like this there’s blame to be cast in other directions as well.

The history of Mormonism has some unsavory bits of dogma in it that have produced many cults and led to horror stories like The Church of the Lamb of God. Polygamy is a cult creator in some ways, but blood atonement is the most problematic teaching of the lot for obvious reasons. Another set of LDS murders that included an infant among its victims was chronicled in John Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven and you can probably guess what was used to justify those killings. Maybe Ervil was such a psychopath he would’ve found a way to kill without blood atonement. However, being able to convince his followers to carry out all these executions with a justification from scripture is at the root of the tremendous scale of his crimes. And this came from one man. Brigham Young is still seen as something a prophet in the LDS despite the death toll his spiritual theory has caused. Some of the responsibility here must belong to Young despite his death long before Ervil LeBaron’s arrival on earth. Mormonism isn’t the only religion with this kind of caveat that creates havoc on earth either. The world would be a different place if you removed jehad from Islam, for example. Toxic doctrine is a serious problem and Ervil Lebaron’s story is a good example of just how bad the results of it can get.

Ervil was the catalyst for at least 30 deaths, and he didn’t get started until he was past middle age. On its face, what he did makes for a fascinating true crime drama, but there’s more to the story when it’s cracked open and the question of why he committed all his crimes comes into focus. The way he was raised played a significant role. Having a cult leader playing the role of his father didn’t help any either. And being isolated in the loop of toxic dogma may be the biggest factor. It can’t be underestimated what bad faith can do to someone. For the living children of Ervil LeBaron and for the sake of humanity as a whole, may the cycle cease before more blood is spilled to please the lord.