Des News Article Re: "Under the Banner of Heaven" Mini Series

[webbles]

5 hours ago, Calm said:

Is this it?

https://archive.org/stream/The_Times_News_Idaho_Newspaper_1985_08_28/The_Times_News_Idaho_Newspaper_1985_08_28_djvu.txt

It came up when I searched “green and white book” and “Lafferty”

Added:  Too bad, only front page, I am guessing.

Is there a paid online version?

Yes, that is it.

They have actual scans of the papers.  The story spans multiple days and is on the first page and third page of each day.

https://archive.org/details/The_Times_News_Idaho_Newspaper_1985_08_25/

https://archive.org/details/The_Times_News_Idaho_Newspaper_1985_08_26/

https://archive.org/details/The_Times_News_Idaho_Newspaper_1985_08_27

https://archive.org/details/The_Times_News_Idaho_Newspaper_1985_08_28

https://archive.org/details/The_Times_News_Idaho_Newspaper_1985_08_29 (this one has letters, journal entries, and calls of Brenda)

It looks like the first few days didn't scan very well.  They don't look readable.

You can get a cleaner version from newspapers.com.  That's where I read it.

[webbles]

16 hours ago, webbles said:

I just double checked my notes and I missed where I had notes on the number of children.  Matilda had 2 daughters from a previous marriage.  See https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2022/05/22/screenwriter-families/ or page 89 in the book https://archive.org/details/underbannerofhea00krak/page/89/mode/1up?view=theater

I'm wondering if the 16 year old might actually be Ron's daughter?  I thought the oldest daughter of Matilda was 14 because that is the age of the daughter that was abused by Dan.  I'm not sure how old these stepdaughters are at the time of the murder.  I know the daughter was 14 at the age of abuse (see https://truecrimedaily.com/2016/05/26/prophets-polygamy-and-punishment-killers-daughter-speaks-out/) but I don't know what year that occurred.  Was it before Ron joined the brother meetings, before his excommunication, after his excommunication, etc?

I found a marriage announcement for Dan's oldest stepdaughter in 1984.  So, she could be 18 in 1984 and 16 in 1982.  That would mean that Dan abused his younger step daughter and not his older one (or at least, he didn't get caught).

One thing I've found is that Dan was definitely not a "Peter Priesthood" (the book made it seem like he was).  After his mission, he went to Iowa for school.  He didn't do very well there and dropped out.  He got a steady girlfriend (who I found twice in the newspapers visiting Dan's family, it is kind of amazing what articles the local towns had back then) and traveled the country with her.  His mom talked about how he would "preach in the bars" and she was proud of him but his siblings understood that too mean he was drinking at the bars.

[webbles]

1 hour ago, webbles said:

Yes, that is it.

They have actual scans of the papers.  The story spans multiple days and is on the first page and third page of each day.

https://archive.org/details/The_Times_News_Idaho_Newspaper_1985_08_25/

https://archive.org/details/The_Times_News_Idaho_Newspaper_1985_08_26/

https://archive.org/details/The_Times_News_Idaho_Newspaper_1985_08_27

https://archive.org/details/The_Times_News_Idaho_Newspaper_1985_08_28

https://archive.org/details/The_Times_News_Idaho_Newspaper_1985_08_29 (this one has letters, journal entries, and calls of Brenda)

It looks like the first few days didn't scan very well.  They don't look readable.

You can get a cleaner version from newspapers.com.  That's where I read it.

Here's a screenshot of the first page for the 25th.  It is unreadable on archive.org.

 

[webbles]

1 hour ago, webbles said:

Yes, that is it.

They have actual scans of the papers.  The story spans multiple days and is on the first page and third page of each day.

https://archive.org/details/The_Times_News_Idaho_Newspaper_1985_08_25/

https://archive.org/details/The_Times_News_Idaho_Newspaper_1985_08_26/

https://archive.org/details/The_Times_News_Idaho_Newspaper_1985_08_27

https://archive.org/details/The_Times_News_Idaho_Newspaper_1985_08_28

https://archive.org/details/The_Times_News_Idaho_Newspaper_1985_08_29 (this one has letters, journal entries, and calls of Brenda)

It looks like the first few days didn't scan very well.  They don't look readable.

You can get a cleaner version from newspapers.com.  That's where I read it.

And here is the first page from the 26th

[Tacenda]

https://kutv.com/news/local/exclusive-father-of-brenda-lafferty-talks-about-her-life-after-the-death-of-her-killer

[webbles]

Here's somethings I found recently and not so recently:

Dan's wife's name is Dolina, not Matilda.  I have no idea why both the book and the tv show call her Matilda.  All news articles that I have found name her as Dolina (both before and after the trials).  The most recent news article that I found for her is after the book was published, so she hadn't changed her name.  Maybe Krakauer was trying to protect her, but it is odd that he didn't change Diana's name.  Another name that the book and tv show gets wrong is Barry Crowther.  He is the guy that introduced the Laffertys to the Prophet Onias.  In the book, he is named Bernard Brady.  The book even modifies the affidavit that Crowther filled out to use the wrong name.

Dan's political beliefs were not his own.  In the end of 1981, a national group was founded called "Patriot Network" by a man named Robert Clarkson.  He was a big anti-tax guy.  Here's a fun quote from wikipedia:

Quote

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Clarkson was involved with anti-government groups, and "sometimes dresses as 'The Great One, a sort of masked super-hero symbolizing resistance to the tax authorities."^[5] In 1989, Clarkson started an organization called the Carolina Patriots with two associates. They taught classes on how to evade Internal Revenue Service (IRS) demands. Numerous clients had legal problems after taking their advice.

The Patriot Network still exists and people still join it.  There was a local chapter of it in Utah County called "Patriots United For Freedom" or PUFF.  Dan was affiliated with it.  A few of the members attended Dan's felony trials.  His sheriff platform was heavily inspired by the Patriot Network.  A big thing for members of the Patriot Network to do was file lawsuits alleging constitutional issues.  So, Dan's trials (where he argued against the use of paper currency and demanded the return of the gold standard) are because of the Patriot Network.  He wasn't very good at it and some members of PUFF were not happy with him.  During his felony trials, the newspapers connected him to PUFF and the president of PUFF got a news article denying he was affiliated with them.

When Dan got arrested on the road, I believe the tv show has Dan and Dolina in the car together talking about polygamy.  This is when he gets arrested.  Dolina was definitely not in that car.  Dan had already found the Peacemaker a year before and was already implementing parts of it in their life.  I've found conflicting articles on who was in the car with Dan.  One article says that Mark was in the car and another say that he was alone.

The tv show has Watson Sr (Ammon in the tv show) at the parade where Dan is running for sheriff.  Watson Sr was on a mission in Louisiana at that time.  He had left the business to Dan and Mark.  This was not a snub of Ron.  Ron wasn't a chiropractor and so couldn't take the business even if Watson Sr had wanted him to.  Watson Sr was unhappy with Ron for not becoming a chiropractor, though, and Watson Sr was very pleased that Dan did become a chiropractor.  When Dan made that decision back in 1971, Watson Sr began to treat Dan with more respect than Ron.  He was kind of elevated to "first-born".

Dan was in jail on Christmas day in 1982 because of his felony.  Ron wanted to the entire family to protest at the judge's house but only the brothers agreed.  None of the sisters or wives agreed.  So, instead, the brothers stayed with Dan on Christmas day.

I read a synopsis of the tv show that has Watson Sr killing the family dog because the boys didn't do their chores.  Watson Sr did kill the dog, but he did it to punish his wife, not his kids.  Maybe he had an argument with Claudine about the boys not doing chores (I don't know the reason of the argument) but the beating of the dog was after the argument.

Watson Sr didn't want to go to the hospital.  He was a little against modern medicine.  It is probably where Dan got many of his ideas.  The decision to go the hospital right before his death was Claudine's and it was against the wishes of her husband.

"The Farm" appears to be located at 36 S 400 W in Orem Utah.  At the time of Ron and Diana's divorce, he was living there.  That address is just next to the Mountain View High School in Orem.  The school was built around 1980 so it would have been there at the time.

I read a synopsis of the tv show that says that Dan and Robin (Mark in real life) had financial troubles and that is what triggered them into being tax protestors.  That is completely backwards.  They had a very successful business until they became more focused on tax protesting and running for sheriff.  The first known instance of them being a tax protestor is in 1981 when Dan attempted to refuse to pay business taxes.  He did pay it in the end.

I've read articles talking about how the Laffertys weren't prominent Mormons.  I think that is a mixture of fact and fiction.  At the time when Brenda met Allen (1981 at least), Watson Sr had been a successful chiropractor in Provo for decades.  He also would travel to nearby towns (such as Manti) and advertise himself there and work there for a few days a month.  His name and advertising shows up in the local newspapers a lot during the 1970s.  Ron had been on the Highland town council from 1977-1980.  He was also a bishopric councilor from 1978-1980.  So, the name "Lafferty" was probably known to a sizeable group of people in Utah County.  I don't think "prominent" is the correct word for them but they were not unknowns.  Outside of Utah County, though, they would be nobodies.  Her parents in Idaho would have never heard of them.  By the time of the murder, Dan was a little more famous.  Dan ran for Utah County sherrif and had the felony charges.  He shows up in the Salt Lake Tribune and even a few papers outside of Utah (I've found ones from Kansas and Nebraska).

[Calm]

53 minutes ago, webbles said:

I don't think "prominent" is the correct word for them but they were not unknowns.  Outside of Utah County, though, they would be nobodies. 

Well known local Utahns seems a better descriptor than prominent Mormons, which would be familiar in some fashion throughout the Church.

[Tacenda]

Good take by someone in the know:

https://juvenileinstructor.org/i-was-raised-flds-banner-isnt-my-story-but-it-changed-my-communitys-lives/?fbclid=IwAR2VnXrLtJNE1l0UlunFWL6OMzOGSQVC7CRxwtDbRPXQNYvzZPkYo6THfok

[Tacenda]

Thought this should be interesting. And some facts we may not have known.

 

 

[Calm]

There is a second video too…wouldn’t mind you getting to it first, Tacenda.   

[Calm]

Here is the second one, I really enjoyed them both.  If you are doing true crime, this is what I want.

https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/under-the-banner-of-heaven-fact-vs-fiction/under-the-banner-of-heaven-les-langford

[Tacenda]

1 hour ago, Calm said:

Here is the second one, I really enjoyed them both.  If you are doing true crime, this is what I want.

https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/under-the-banner-of-heaven-fact-vs-fiction/under-the-banner-of-heaven-les-langford

Thank you, listening now.

[Calm]

 

FYI, in addition to the two FAIR exclusive (last I checked) interviews with two LEOs directly involved—Les Langford, the UHP officer who was involved in the traffic stops of Dan Lafferty that led to his first trial and Randy Johnson, the American Fork police chief who was responsible for the investigation of the murders and who is very different than how he was portrayed, Craig’s given a presentation on the series at the latest conference.

 

https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/blog/2022/08/09/fair-conference-podcast-81-craig-foster-what-under-the-banner-of-heaven-gets-wrong

 

Edited August 10, 2022 by Calm

[jkwilliams]

1 hour ago, Calm said:

 

FYI, in addition to the two FAIR exclusive (last I checked) interviews with two LEOs directly involved—Les Langford, the UHP officer who was involved in the traffic stops of Dan Lafferty that led to his first trial and Randy Johnson, the American Fork police chief who was responsible for the investigation of the murders and who is very different than how he was portrayed, Craig’s given a presentation on the series at the latest conference.

 

https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/blog/2022/08/09/fair-conference-podcast-81-craig-foster-what-under-the-banner-of-heaven-gets-wrong

 

I never finished the series. Just dreadful. 

[Amulek]

2 hours ago, Calm said:

Craig’s given a presentation on the series at the latest conference.

https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/blog/2022/08/09/fair-conference-podcast-81-craig-foster-what-under-the-banner-of-heaven-gets-wrong

I'll need to check out the LEO interviews - I haven't seen those before - but most of the stuff in Craig's presentation wasn't really covering new ground (for those of us who followed the story / reviews back when it was originally released). Still, it's a pretty good summary, hitting the highlights on several of the main areas of criticism. I particularly liked his concluding remark:

"Ultimately, of the numerous things Hulu’s Under the Banner of Heaven got wrong, perhaps the most bitterly painful and inexcusable was taking a real woman who loved life, her faith, her family, and who died in part because she refused to be a pawn in the Lafferty brothers’ warped agenda, and then making her a pawn in another’s warped portrayal with an agenda."

I would have probably replaced "another's" with "another man's" but it's still an excellent conclusion as written.

 

[Calm]

1 hour ago, jkwilliams said:

I never finished the series. Just dreadful. 

I feel bad about it because I wanted to help write up a critique and I am usually great at detail oriented stuff, but that they were doing this to the image of real people, that there would now be more people out there believing in the make believe victims, make believe police, etc, than those who knew and remembered and celebrated the real victims and families so tragically impacted…it just made me too anxious watching it.  I been in a bit of a weird emotional state for the past 6 months or so due to several changes in my life that I am hoping will make life much nicer over all, but nothing has been resolved yet, so I am always feeling on edge, like I am about to get jumped or something.  So any anxiety triggering stuff is so amplified, it is laughable at times.  I got through half of the second episode.  
 

Apparently it is going global now, so I may end up watching it this fall when things have settled down some hopefully.  It might be kind of fun to watch as a group and just poke fun at how bad it got, but I don’t think I know anyone close by who would be willing to endure it with me, lol.

[jkwilliams]

13 minutes ago, Calm said:

I feel bad about it because I wanted to help write up a critique and I am usually great at detail oriented stuff, but that they were doing this to the image of real people, that there would now be more people out there believing in the make believe victims, make believe police, etc, than those who knew and remembered and celebrated the real victims and families so tragically impacted…it just made me too anxious watching it.  I been in a bit of a weird emotional state for the past 6 months or so due to several changes in my life that I am hoping will make life much nicer over all, but nothing has been resolved yet, so I am always feeling on edge, like I am about to get jumped or something.  So any anxiety triggering stuff is so amplified, it is laughable at times.  I got through half of the second episode.  
 

Apparently it is going global now, so I may end up watching it this fall when things have settled down some hopefully.  It might be kind of fun to watch as a group and just poke fun at how bad it got, but I don’t think I know anyone close by who would be willing to endure it with me, lol.

It was really a missed opportunity. There's so much that could have been explored in a series about the murders, but it was horribly botched in service of a weird narrative. 

[Bernard Gui]

20 minutes ago, Calm said:

I feel bad about it because I wanted to help write up a critique and I am usually great at detail oriented stuff, but that they were doing this to the image of real people, that there would now be more people out there believing in the make believe victims, make believe police, etc, than those who knew and remembered and celebrated the real victims and families so tragically impacted…it just made me too anxious watching it.  I been in a bit of a weird emotional state for the past 6 months or so due to several changes in my life that I am hoping will make life much nicer over all, but nothing has been resolved yet, so I am always feeling on edge, like I am about to get jumped or something.  So any anxiety triggering stuff is so amplified, it is laughable at times.  I got through half of the second episode.  

“You know when you're sitting on a chair and you lean back so you're just on two legs and you lean too far so you almost fall over but at the last second you catch yourself? I feel like that all the time...”
― Steven Wright

[Kenngo1969]

On 8/10/2022 at 7:54 AM, Bernard Gui said:

“You know when you're sitting on a chair and you lean back so you're just on two legs and you lean too far so you almost fall over but at the last second you catch yourself? I feel like that all the time...”
― Steven Wright

  Love Steven Wright.