webbles Posted June 16, 2022 Author Posted June 16, 2022 2 minutes ago, Calm said: That’s right…I was thinking the scans were just front pages for some reason. I haven’t even tried to read them. Maybe tomorrow or Friday, got my second doctor’s appt this week which means I am not going to be moving much on Friday (me in a car is not a good thing, .I have no clue why since it is basically just a recliner on wheels, the only thing that makes sense is my body hallucinates it is in a bumper car and responses accordingly), so might as well do something useful. I found a better version of them in the Deseret News just now. It also has more stuff. The Idaho paper purchased the story from Deseret News and trimmed it a bit for their publication. It can be found in the July 21-25 editions of the Deseret News. Google News has them online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Aul-kAQHnToC&dat=19850721&printsec=frontpage&hl=en https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Aul-kAQHnToC&dat=19850722&printsec=frontpage&hl=en https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Aul-kAQHnToC&dat=19850723&printsec=frontpage&hl=en https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Aul-kAQHnToC&dat=19850724&printsec=frontpage&hl=en https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Aul-kAQHnToC&dat=19850725&printsec=frontpage&hl=en
Calm Posted June 16, 2022 Posted June 16, 2022 (edited) Are you using the newspaper.com free trial by chance? I am wondering if the Ancestry.com registration gives a discount? Because members can get that one free through family search. Edited June 16, 2022 by Calm
Calm Posted June 16, 2022 Posted June 16, 2022 4 minutes ago, webbles said: I found a better version of them in the Deseret News just now. It also has more stuff. The Idaho paper purchased the story from Deseret News and trimmed it a bit for their publication. It can be found in the July 21-25 editions of the Deseret News. Google News has them online: https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Aul-kAQHnToC&dat=19850721&printsec=frontpage&hl=en https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Aul-kAQHnToC&dat=19850722&printsec=frontpage&hl=en https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Aul-kAQHnToC&dat=19850723&printsec=frontpage&hl=en https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Aul-kAQHnToC&dat=19850724&printsec=frontpage&hl=en https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Aul-kAQHnToC&dat=19850725&printsec=frontpage&hl=en Sweet! I so didn’t want to sign up for that.
webbles Posted June 16, 2022 Author Posted June 16, 2022 24 minutes ago, Calm said: Sweet! I so didn’t want to sign up for that. The first two articles are mostly about the Laffertys early life. It has a lot of details about the family situation and is more detailed than the version in the Idaho paper. The third is about the Dan's jail time, their excommunication, interaction with the School of the Prophets, etc. The fourth is the few days before and the day of the murder. The fifth is about Brenda and her own thoughts.
Calm Posted June 16, 2022 Posted June 16, 2022 (edited) Just read the first article. https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Aul-kAQHnToC&dat=19850721&printsec=frontpage&hl=en&safe=active That writer did not like Claudine…at all. Claudine is not to be pitied as a victim of domestic abuse because she stood by and said and did nothing when her sons were abusing their wives and children. [Claudine was there when Ron and Dan sawed off the shotgun and got ready to go kill Brenda I believe and didn’t call to warn her, so got to say I am not terribly sympathetic, but it could have been battered woman syndrome, but he sure doesn’t present her as beaten down.] He paints Watson as abusive at least in part out of sexual frustration because she is disgusted by sex and rebuffs him….and ridicules him over petty things to the kids for good measure. Where do you get a patriarch out of that? He makes her sound like the one who screwed them all up with her obsessive love and grandiose ideas of them as a premortal royal family, having special missions, etc. She seems the real head of the family in the sense of the family looking to her and she partnered with Ron. Ron was the one giving the family prayers, advice, etc. Watson, Sr. was obeyed out of fear of his violence, but it sounds more off and on, almost as if he was on the periphery issuing crazy commands just to get some attention, naturally a loner who doesn’t know how to be part of a family, his mom dying when he was 12. The article has him passing on his antigovernment ideas. It says he sometimes didn’t pay his income taxes. But it was Claudine who provided the nest that tied them all tight together, maybe kept them infantile and the article implies this led to the tragedy. As far as Mormon Kennedys, there were no roots in Utah on Watson’s side and Claudine was a Jones, there is nothing to suggest she had a significant background. Watson was from Canada, they were both poor it sounds like, Watson did odd jobs wandering around, including being a boxer; got training in the army as a barber and then later became a chiropractor. Claudine cut hair in the basement. Looks like Watson started to make decent money as a chiropractor as the article has them moving into a large home after the change…but definitely not the vibe of wealth, education, or power. Not even that committed in the Church for a Utah small town since they would skip attending if they thought the speaker boring, the kids at least drank beer in the home whenever they wanted to. They got beaten for not going along with Dad’s crazy ideas, not church stuff. AAnd it has Watson getting sent home from his mission by church leadership, not on his own, to pay his taxes. Intentionally or not, that article was putting distance between the family and the Church. Edited June 16, 2022 by Calm
webbles Posted June 16, 2022 Author Posted June 16, 2022 3 minutes ago, Calm said: AAnd it has Watson getting sent home from his mission by church leadership, not on his own, to pay his taxes. I think what happened here was at the end of 1982, Dan wouldn't pay the taxes. Since the taxes were in Watson Sr's name, the government authority probably contacted him to pay. His mission president probably told him to go home and get it in order. He did come home, got the taxes paid (though another news article said it was anonymous so not sure), and then went back on his mission. But a few months later (or maybe just one month), he and Claudine came home for good. This would have been because of Diana's letter and the news that Dan is going to jail.
Calm Posted June 16, 2022 Posted June 16, 2022 (edited) The second article is continuing the almost incestuous relationship between Claudine and her sons at least from her side of it…that is what I am getting from her ‘keeping her sons close but her husband at a distance’ and the previous treating Ron more like a husband/father than her husband. But it is a Utahn paper from the 80’s, it ain’t going to come right out and say it. Claudine is delusional or an airhead, believing whatever she is told, seeing her sons as perfect. There is an almost grudging respect for Watson, Sr, but just disdain for Claudine. Dan is portrayed as off the wall from the beginning, irresponsible and immoral when single, autocratic and abusive when married. Later, he foresees himself as a martyr. Ron is uptight, but loving, but goes downhill rapidly when his business is failing. Aligns himself with Mommy and the Boys. This article has Watson, Sr. being the one choosing the prayer giver and switching it from Ron to Dan as Ron’s business goes down the toilet while Dan’s star rises. It’s his “right and duty”to take over the No. 1 Son spot. Ron is “crushed”. I am getting the same vibe from this article as I did the series. Hmmm…. I really want to know how Dan got 2 years of unsupervised probation out of 1-15 years after his bizarre and dangerous behaviour. And then there was his fasting till he died to get out of prison stunt…his brothers would just raise him from the dead. I believe he ended up spending only 75 days in jail for what was attempted murder of a police officer. Bet that judge who suspended the sentence felt sick at heart when he heard of the murders. Edited June 16, 2022 by Calm
Calm Posted June 16, 2022 Posted June 16, 2022 (edited) 40 minutes ago, webbles said: I think what happened here was at the end of 1982, Dan wouldn't pay the taxes. Since the taxes were in Watson Sr's name, the government authority probably contacted him to pay. His mission president probably told him to go home and get it in order. He did come home, got the taxes paid (though another news article said it was anonymous so not sure), and then went back on his mission. But a few months later (or maybe just one month), he and Claudine came home for good. This would have been because of Diana's letter and the news that Dan is going to jail. My guess is that was the situation too, but I found the phrasing interesting. Like I mentioned, that first article felt like it was trying to put distance between the Church and the Laffertys. The second article started out with Claudine, but then shifted eventually to nasty Dan at center stage with Ron slipping into the unfortunate, sorry, and sulky sidekick slot and ended with all sorts of crazy, making out Dan as buffoon. Burned out. Going to go play mindless games. Edited June 16, 2022 by Calm
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