All language subtitles for D.o.t.C.S01E04.The.Hit.List.1080p.DSNP.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-MADSKY_track4_[eng]

[♪ dramatic music]

[Scott]
With Ervil's death in 1981...

I think everyone assumes
this story is gonna end.

The guy who ordered
the blood atonements is gone,

so now the story's over.

But they were wrong.

[Celia]
After Ervil's death,

there were multiple people

who claimed that they
were the next one in charge.

The church splinters,

and it splinters
into three groups.

One group headed
by Daniel Jordan,

one group headed
by Mark Chynoweth,

and then the third group headed

by Ervil's oldest son,
Arturo LeBaron.

At the same time,
"The Book of the New Covenant"

is out there being circulated.

This is a dangerous book

to give to some of Ervil's
most zealous followers

because these are still men
and women

that are willing to kill
for their prophet.

If Ervil's insane writings
fell into the wrong hands,

it could start a deadly war
between his followers.

[Terry] You've put the lunatics
in charge of the asylum,

and it's gonna have
a bad result.

[♪ unsettling string music]

Ervil chose his oldest son,

Arturo, as his successor.

Arturo has been kind of
off the radar down in Mexico.

He has this ranch,
Rancho La Jolla.

It's this kind of
very ramshackle ranch.

And he kind of runs it
as a criminal enterprise.

[Lindsay] Arturo might call
himself a religious prophet,

but he functions
more like a mafia don.

And so he turns
the Church of the Lamb of God

to a sort of
mafia-esque shorthand

called the Kingdom of God,
or the KOG.

[♪ dramatic music]

Arthur built his group
with the younger generation

of Ervil's followers.

Most of them
were the boys that became

the grown sons of Ervil.

They had separated themselves
and isolated themselves.

We didn't have contact
with them at all.

They were young kids

that'd been brainwashed
all their life.

This mantle of priesthood BS

that had been passed down
to them

and all this responsibility
for leading

this family and the supposed
church organization

just fell on just children.

[Lindsay] Arturo and his group
start making their money

running a pretty adept
auto-theft ring.

One thing that the cult
was very good at always

was stealing cars.

And so they're stealing cars
in the United States...

running them across
the border to Mexico...

reselling them,
or chop-blocking them.

But also, there's reports
that Arturo is working

with some of the local narcos.

[Lindsay] Arturo creates this
culture of chaos and violence.

And he rules with an iron fist.

In December of 1983,

tensions are building
between Arturo

and one of his followers.

And this follower
wanted power for himself

and control
over the criminal operations.

Arturo is ultimately betrayed.

He's shot right in the back.

But the KOG
didn't die with Arthur.

It only got worse.

There were
these revelations,

and, of course,
they were bizarre.

And Dad was saying people
need to be blood atoned.

But it became clear
to all the adults

who had had a life
outside of the cult.

They could see
the deterioration

- of what he was saying.
- [Anna] Oh.

You're right.

Our siblings,
the teenage boys

who had been raised in it
whole-- their whole lives,

still were embracing it,

and it was on them
to continue to carry it out,

- because the older people--
- And they were

in that ranch in Mexico.
You're talking about the people

that were in the ranch
in Mexico?

[Anna] Is it possible that
"The Book of the New Covenant"

is the only writings of Ervil
they'd ever read?

- I mean, it's possible.
- That's actually possible.

They didn't have
any idea that

this was actual utter nonsense.

They had nothing
but brainwashing and abuse

and isolation
their whole entire lives.

- That's all they had, so...
- [Anna] Mm-hmm.

- [Celia] So they clung to it.
- Yeah.

- They clung to it because...
- [both] That's all they knew.

I think it's tremendously hard
for people who grow up

with a different mindset

to understand what it's like
to inherit a worldview

that is so rigid and violent.

These children were groomed
at a very, very young age

to be killers.

They have generations now
of violence and trauma

from Ervil LeBaron,

and you've introduced cartel

and money
and crime into the mix.

It's just a complete recipe
for poison and disaster.

[Scott] So who steps in
after Arturo's murder?

The next in line...

in "The Book of New Covenants"
is another son.

So this is a copy of
"The Book of the New Covenant."

"If you will acknowledge
William Heber LeBaron

"as your successor,
if you do not do this,

"Heber will kill you
by my spirit,

"for he is more of a prophet,
seer, and revelator

right now than you ever
have been or ever will be."

In that passage, he was
appointing my brother, Heber,

as the prophet.

[Celia]
Heber is our full brother.

Two and a half years
older than me,

but never once picked on me
or hit me.

Heber had always been
the sweetest kid.

When we were in the colony,
he was the best-behaved child.

When he was ten years old,

he was moved away
from my mother

and taken to Denver

to become a worker
of Michael's Appliance

under Dan Jordan.

There was a lot of torment.

[Anna] And then at some point,
like most of my siblings,

Heber was one of the ones
that got shuffled around.

And Ervil sent his sons
out away from Denver,

and they eventually
ended up in Mexico.

We had no idea
what was going on in Mexico.

We had lost contact

with everyone
that was down there,

including our brother Heber
and our other siblings

that were part of the KOG.

That environment
was not a healthy environment

to raise children in.

And what happened there
really changed Heber.

I don't think he felt,
like, very spiritual.

He was, uh, partying a lot.

He had more in common
with the drug-cartel people

that he was doing
business with.

And so, when he's in his 20s
and Arturo dies,

Heber's now placed
with this mantle of prophet.

You give the mantle of prophet

to a supposed
drug-fueled partier.

What could go wrong?

When our father died,
I was 13 years old,

and we were living
in Houston at the time.

We lived in our own house
with our mom, Anna Mae,

and all of our brothers
and sisters.

Mark was in charge
in Houston.

He was married
to our sister Lillian.

Mark never claimed
to have a priesthood

and continued
to somewhat be a believer

but started gradually
to edge his way out.

[Scott] People forget
Mark Chynoweth supposedly

is really one of the principal
triggermen for the cult.

He's been linked
to several murders.

Even though Mark
has a complicated past

and he's allegedly connected
to all of these murders,

he's really trying hard
to put it behind him.

[♪ dramatic music]

[Celia]
He was a benevolent leader.

Mark wanted us
to have full, wonderful lives.

As much as was possible

- under those circumstances...
- Right.

- Because we were still...
- [both] In a cult.

[Lindsay]
Even though things

are going pretty well
in Houston,

Mark and his crew know that

"The Book of the New Covenant"

is out there
still making its rounds.

This threat of the hit list
is still out there

looming over all of them.

At this point, I don't know

that I've ever heard
about this hit list.

I had heard some talk
in whispers.

Mark and Lillian would
sometimes whisper about things.

There was something out there
that felt ominous.

With all the rumblings
and the rumors

and the secret meetings,

it just felt like something
was gonna ruin the life

that we had with Mark.

We were so happy in Houston.

Things had been shifting
and changing

for the better for so long.

And then one day,
I come home,

and there's Dan Jordan
at our house

talking to my mom.

That was the last thing
I wanted to see.

I knew things
were not going well.

[Celia]
Dan lived in Denver,

and he claimed
he was the next prophet,

which made sense to my mother

because he had always been
the second in command.

[Anna]
Dan was telling my mother

that Mark was leading
Ervil's children

on a path to hell.

This was the last thing
my mom wanted.

And it's definitely
not what Mark was doing.

- He was kind.
- Mm-hmm.

He was way more celestial

than Dan Jordan
ever dreamed of being.

[Anna]
And my mother did not have

any kind of mental capacity
to stand up to Dan

or to stand up
for her children.

And eventually she began
to be swayed by Dan.

[Celia]
You have to understand, too,

Dan Jordan's backbone
of employees was gone.

We were all in Houston.

Michael's Appliance
had collapsed

because they had
no slave labor.

He wanted that support

so that his family
could live in the lap of luxury.

[Anna]
After Dan talked to my mom,

I tried to talk to her,
and I pleaded with her,

but I could tell
she was under Dan's spell.

In my mom's eyes, he had
an enormous amount of control

based on his position
as the prophet.

I knew my mom was planning
to take us back to Denver,

and there was no talking her
out of it.

This was the first time
in 13 years of my life

that I felt like I had
the freedom to make a choice

and make it happen,
and so I did.

There was a little phone
in the hallway,

and my hands are swe--

My hands are sweating now
just talking about it.

[breathes deeply]

I took the phone,
and I quietly called Lillian.

And I said, "Lillian, I don't
want to go back to Denver."

The last thing I heard her
say was, "Start walking."

I felt like I had one chance--
one chance to get out of there.

So I started walking.

I am absolutely certain

that somebody
is going to come and find me.

It was very frightening,

because I knew if somebody
saw me, that was the end.

I finally am getting closer
to Lillian's house,

and I...

[sighs, sniffles]

I see her car.

[crying]
And I was so relieved.

She was like, "Quick, get in."

[normal voice] I had to go
immediately into hiding,

and I was terrified.

Lillian takes me to a motel,

pays for my room in cash.

She's like, "Here's some money

so that you can buy snacks
from the snack machine outside.

Do not open the door
unless you hear my voice.

You stay right here."

I'm on pins and needles.

I'm looking around
trying to make sure

that my mom isn't after us.

If they came looking for me
and found me,

I would miss
my one chance to escape.

My mother came and said,
"We're leaving back to Denver.

Get a garbage bag,
put your belongings in it..."

- Oh...
- "...and get in the car."

And I'm like,
"Well, where's Anna?

Why isn't Anna with us?"

My mother
was searching for her.

She didn't wanna leave without
her 13-year-old daughter.

After we had searched for her
in all the places

that we could think of,
we left.

I was very upset,

but I was fully convinced that
we were God's chosen people,

and even losing my sister
could not shake my faith.

I didn't see Anna
for three years.

[Anna]
When Lillian came,

she said, "So your mom
and all the other kids

have, uh, gone back to Denver,

and, uh, the coast is clear."

And she goes,
"We can go to my house now."

And it was such a relief to me.

This is where I ran away
from home.

That was the door
I walked out of.

And what I didn't know
at the time

was that I was leaving a cult.

I didn't know I was in a cult,

and I didn't know
that me running away from home

to go live
with Mark and Lillian

was my escape from a cult.

That was the pivotal
turning point of my life.

I didn't feel like
I was being rebellious.

It never occurred to me
that I was gonna be isolated

from my mom and my siblings.

All I knew was that
I was not going back to Denver.

I can't believe
I just started walking.

Like, walked
out of the house and--

- Taking nothing with you...
- Taking nothing with me.

Just whatever
you were wearing.

This was your one chance,
and you're out the door.

- [Anna] Yeah.
- [Celia] Look at how busy

this road is,
and you walked it by yourself.

I was afraid that somebody
was gonna see me

- and drag me back.
- [Celia] Right.

[Anna] And my story
would have been a lot different.

This really was my only chance
to get away.

Yeah.

I wish you had come
with me that day.

Come with me this time.

[Celia] When mom said, "Okay,
well, we have to go back,

- so we'll leave without her."
- [Anna] Ay-yi-yi.

[Celia]
Any religion that expects you

to abandon your children,
please question your God.

[Anna]
Yeah.

[Celia] I wish
I had gotten out sooner.

This was the first
of many, many more steps

before I could finally feel
like I was free.

[Lindsay]
Meanwhile, in Mexico,

Heber LeBaron
is settling into his role

as the new leader
and prophet of the KOG.

Where Heber
didn't understand God,

he did understand
the language of violence,

and his leadership
really ushers in this new era

of violence for the KOG.

And one of his first roles
as this new leader

was to avenge Arturo's death.

He starts arming everybody,

running drills,
training a militia.

Training not just teenagers,
like his father,

but children as young as six

to use automatic weapons.

They take revenge on--

first, on people
within the ranch

who they suspect helped
set Arturo up for murder.

So, again, the body count
goes up even just on the ranch.

Several people are murdered,
disappeared.

Their bodies never found.

[Lindsay] Once Heber gets
a taste of blood and power,

all of Heber's worst instincts
rise to the surface,

and the KOG spirals
into complete lawlessness.

So the women now
allegedly become trafficked.

They become prostituted
and molested and raped.

[Scott] All the familial lines
completely blur.

You have brothers sleeping
with their half-sisters,

murdering their half-sisters.

Almost any kind
of really deviant sexual

or violent thing
you can think of.

It really is like
Mad Max in Mexico

meets Lord of the Flies.

[Scott] You've kind of reached
a point now with Heber

where you've really
kind of groomed

potentially a psychopath...

a guy without
any moral compass.

Just kind of a killer.

[♪ dramatic music]

[Anna]
So I'm about 15 years old.

I'm living
with Mark and Lillian.

Of course this was
a very emotional time

for both Lillian and Mark.

They were definitely
edging away

to the fringes
of my dad's religion,

but they couldn't announce that

because doing that would put
a target on their back.

They had five kids.
They were all much younger.

They were
in elementary school.

So I was one of the ones
that helped take care of them,

including Emily and Lisa.

I'm Lisa Chynoweth Davis.

And I'm Emily
Chynoweth-Davis.

[laughing] And we are sisters,
not sister wives.

[both laugh]

I knew that my parents had
run away from this bad thing.

They were so desperate
to start a new life,

not just for the kids they
were raising but for everyone.

They were chasing
the American Dream.

Anna lived with us

for at least five years.

[Lisa] She was like
an older sister to us--

- just, like, sweet and fun.
- [Emily] Yeah, and smart.

- Anna was smart.
- Yeah.

She was really brave,

and she escaped the cult.

They were precious to me.

I loved taking care of them,

and I loved being a little
mama's helper to their mom

so that, you know,
she could do the things

that she needed to do.

[Emily] Anna was somebody that

my parents loved very much.

They wanted to see her

have a wonderful, you know,

chance at life after
she had run away from the cult.

I mean, the way
that Mark and Lillian lived

was so different than
what I experienced growing up.

Watching them
as a monogamous married couple

raising their children

and me getting to just feel
like I was part of it.

So it just felt
like home to me.

While I was living
with Mark and Lillian,

I was putting away some clothes
in Lillian's room,

and I found a book.

The book was called
the Prophet of Blood,

I think, The Untold Story
of the Ervil LeBaron Family.

I was like...

what is this?

I knew that the book
was not intended for my eyes.

I'm upstairs in my room
with the door locked,

reading this book
as fast as I could

because I didn't
wanna get caught.

My blood ran cold.

I found out all the trials
and my father going to prison

and all these people
that had gone to jail--

people that I loved,
people that I cared about

that left
and then never came back.

Some just disappeared
into the woodwork.

Some of them had been killed
and blood atoned.

I cannot believe

that my dad
had ordered these murders.

It was unimaginable.

Everything
about how we were raised

and the things
that we endured

and all the moving,
all the running,

all the raids, all of it--

all of a sudden,
my eyes are opened,

and I realize the truth.

This is when I found out

that I was born and raised
in a cult.

Everything
that we had been told

about, we were being persecuted

because we were
God's chosen people,

all of that was utter bullshit.

I'm about 15 years old
trying to take all of this in.

It was a very traumatizing
moment for me.

It's not like I can go
to Mark and Lillian

and say,
"Help me understand this."

Just like I did
my whole rest of my life,

you compartmentalize it,
you put it aside,

and then you just
keep on going.

Even after reading the book,

it would have never occurred
to me to leave Mark and Lillian.

That was in the past for me.

And I believe it was
in the past for them, too.

They were good people.

Like, they are the heroes
of my story.

Why would I leave that?

For many
of Ervil's offspring,

the realization that
they had grown up in a cult

would not come easy,

and, sadly, for some,
it would not come at all.

Much like his father Ervil,

Heber starts killing anyone
who has an inkling of dissent

or has any thoughts
about leaving the group.

Nobody is safe around Heber,

including
his most devout followers.

Heber would kill
family members,

family members
who were maybe wandering

too far off the reservation,
need to be taken care of.

Heber LeBaron supposedly
kills his own brother Andrew.

Andrew's disappearance
becomes a problem for Heber

because Andrew
was the KOG's best mechanic.

All of a sudden, their
auto-theft ring is crippled,

and with it goes
their main source of income.

They're not making money.

They're running out of places
to steal from.

His networks are closing in.

The KOG is starting to lose
complete faith in Heber,

and they demand
that if he doesn't step down,

they're going to make him.

And in his place,

another teenager
steps in to fill the void--

Heber's half-brother Aaron.

He was basically left
in charge.

[Anna]
He was 19.

[Celia]
He was, like, a teenager.

He was, like, 19 maybe.

17, 18-- I don't even know.

- He was just a kid. Right.
- With a third-grade education.

Aaron's worked in a
very different way from Heber.

Aaron is very serious,
very quiet.

Aaron,
I think most people, uh, liked.

He's more intellectual
than Heber

and not as rough on the edges.

I think he's smoother,

and I think Aaron
was also more attuned

to the religious aspect
of the Lamb of God teachings.

[Lindsay]
Aaron is very devout.

He forces the kids
to pray often and repetitively.

He was taking the cult
back to its religious roots,

to the church
that Ervil had created.

[Lindsay]
So this new teenage prophet

takes the mad ramblings
of his father, Ervil,

and makes it the centerpiece
of the KOG's mission,

focusing on the deadly
hit list hidden within.

This hit list
that has the people

who betrayed Ervil LeBaron,

betrayed the church,

that Ervil had marked
for blood atonement.

[Terry]
I think that Aaron believed

that he needed to carry out
the book

'cause that's what Daddy wrote.

You got to kill all the sons
and daughters of perdition.

And if you really want to bring
on the Kingdom of God,

if you really believe that,
this is what you have to do.

[Lindsay] For the first time
since Ervil's death,

a true successor
finally emerges

to carry the mantle of prophet.

Aaron is smart like Ervil.

He knows how to use scripture
to get his siblings

to do his bidding.

Aaron hatches
an incredible plan

to hunt down the apostates,

and it's even more evil
and ruthless

than anything that Ervil
would have orchestrated.

With Aaron as the new prophet

and Heber
as his right-hand man,

they set their sights
outside of the KOG,

marking
their number-one target,

Ervil's second-in-command,
Dan Jordan.

Things had always been hard
in Denver and abusive.

When we got back this time,
things were even worse.

I am 16.

Unlike Anna, I have
no rebellious bone in my body.

I am very committed
to following God's plan,

which was to follow Dan.

[Faye]
We just figured

that Dan basically
was supposed to run things now

because we totally believed

that he was God's prophet
here on Earth.

Dan Jordan basically used us
and abused us

for our slave labor.

Living under his rule
was terrible.

I didn't really have
any father figures, so...

I also wanted his approval,

very, very strongly wanted
his approval.

[Celia] Dan Jordan
did not have enough money.

He did not have enough workers.

He did not have
enough followers.

So he started
a mission field in Utah

in order to convert
Latter-day Saints

to his fundamentalist beliefs.

And he would elect

different teenagers
to go serve.

When Dan approached me
and said,

"I think it's time for you
to go in the mission field,"

the big drawback was,

I wouldn't be able to finish
going to school.

But I had the commitment
that when I finished my mission,

I would be able
to go to my senior year,

which is all I was missing.

I was in the mission field.

I went door-to-door
with my companion,

preaching what we considered
was the true Gospel.

Not everybody allowed us in,
but when we did get allowed in,

we put our whole heart

into teaching our bullshit
religion to them. [chuckles]

At one point,
we're not getting the converts

that Dan thinks
that we should.

So Dan brought my mom
and one of his wives

to the mission field.

We spent some time
sitting around a table,

talked about how
we're going about speaking,

what success we had
during that day.

And at one point, he made

some kind
of a little off-color joke.

He said something like,
uh, "Don't make love

on a squeaky bed"
or something like that.

So I just
kind of rolled my eyes

and said, "Oh, very funny,"

as though I really understood
what that meant.

That night,
after the meeting broke up,

I was awakened
by one of Dan's wives.

And she said to me, "Roll over."

I did as I was told.

My mother had Dan's belt
in her hand...

and she began beating me.

My mother whipped me
20 lashes.

It was painful,

but I was crying
more out of humiliation.

And the other wife
said to me,

"You are receiving this beating

because you were disrespectful
to the prophet."

Then my mom
handed her the belt,

and then Dan's wife proceeded
to beat me with 19 lashes,

and they were
very, very painful

and left me blistered

and sore and bruised.

The next day,
they took me aside

and told me that I might
not be celestial material.

And that, to me,

was, like, the worst thing.

I was so, so devastated.

And that was everything
I had worked for.

And they informed me

that I was going
to work full-time,

that I was not gonna go
to school.

I was emotionally
in devastation.

If they were saying
that I wasn't celestial,

then I at least wanted
to have my education.

I'll work double.

I'll work as late
as they want me to.

[voice breaking]
Just let me go back to school

and finish my senior year.

But my mom had no power.

[normal voice]
One day my mom took me aside,

and very, very quietly

she said...

"I guess you better go."

And that was it for me.

I was still a true believer,

and so I knew
I was choosing hell,

and I preferred that

to the hell
that I was living in.

I have a sister that
had gotten out of the cult

several years before me,

and when I called her
and said I wanted out,

she was ready
and waiting to help me,

and she bought me
a plane ticket.

Before I left,
I had to say goodbye to my mom

and to Adine and Hyrum.

I wrote all three
of them letters

and left them a little gift

because I wanted them
to remember me.

The letters said,

"I know you're not going
to be able to talk to me.

I want you to know
that I'm not mad about that,

but just always know
that I love you dearly."

[crying] I wasn't sure
if I would ever see them again.

I came home,
and at the top of the stairs

was just, like, some notes.

[inhales deeply]

And she was gone.

Celia left me a T-shirt.

That shirt was all I had
to really remember her by.

[breathes deeply]

[Celia]
I landed in Houston

and walked down the runway,

and there was my sister
and her husband.

And I knew in that moment
that I was safe.

I moved in with my sister,

- and I got reunited with Anna.
- [laughs]

[Celia] It had been three years
since we had seen each other,

so we were
kind of strangers...

- A little bit, yeah.
- ...to each other.

And we had to get reacquainted.

I'd been living with Mark
and Lillian for several years.

[Celia]
She was a teenager,

and I was, like,
close to 20 now.

And she was
a little bit worldly...

[both laugh]

- I had a boyfriend.
- ...in my mind.

[Anna] I was halfway
through my senior year

in this little tiny school
where I was the only senior.

I was going
to graduate by myself,

and along comes Celia,

- and they let her enroll, and...
- And we graduated together.

We got to graduate together.

[Lisa] Yes.

[Anna] We have pictures with
Lillian behind a little cake

that someone made
to celebrate that graduation.

[♪ soft music]

She's two and a half years
younger than me,

but I finally did it.

I finally got
a real high-school education.

May of 1987, and we have
the entire senior class

of two of Spring Branch Church
of God Academy.

[♪ dramatic music]

[Faye] I was still married
to Dan Jordan.

We lived in Colorado
at our house

out in the country.

I had heard
that Ervil had a hit list

of people that wouldn't do,
um, what Ervil said.

But we weren't really worried

'cause we thought
God would protect us.

[Scott] So what ends up
happening is Dan Jordan

gets a knock
on his door, uh, one night,

and he opens the door,
and there's seven kids

from Rancho La Jolla,
led by Aaron LeBaron.

What they basically say is,
"Dan, we need your help.

Our brother
Heber's gone power mad.

He's abusive.
It's violent."

They said,
"Hey, we don't believe

in what we were doing anymore.

We don't believe
that's the true church.

We believe you are."

They say to Jordan,
"If you'll take us in,

we'll work for free
in your repair shop."

So now Dan
is faced with this choice.

Does he trust
these seven teenagers

standing on his porch?

But his business
isn't doing so well.

And you know what? He could use
some LeBaron laborers again.

This is probably, in my mind,

motivated more by greed
than altruism.

[Scott]
And so he takes them in,

and he puts them to work
in his repair shop.

But now he starts carrying
a 9-millimeter pistol

on him at all times because
he-he doesn't trust these kids.

[Hyrum] I was probably
16 years old at the time.

I knew them.
I knew they were my siblings,

but I didn't have a really
good relationship with them.

Aaron--
he just seemed weird to me.

His mannerisms were odd.

I do remember him
talking one time

about training
they had received growing up

about how to kill people.

[sighs]

When you were sent
to do an assassination,

you had to present an outward
appearance of kindness

and smile
so they were off guard.

And then you would
walk up to them

and shoot them
in the chest twice.

And then you shoot them
in the head once

to make sure they were dead.

[Lindsay]
It's now fall of 1987,

and Dan Jordan
prepares his family

for the great deer hunt.

[Faye] The only time he really
spent with the children

was when he'd take them camping

and he would take them
hunting-- deer hunting.

[Hyrum] Hunting was also
a pretty regular thing we did.

We needed to be good at hunting
for several reasons.

One of them--
when the end times came

and we had to run
to the mountains,

we'd have to survive
off the land for a while,

so you had to know how to hunt.

And you also had to be
psychologically tough enough

to be able to kill something,

so that if you ever had
to kill someone,

you would already be
kind of inured to that.

Dan Jordan--
he still doesn't quite know

what to do
with these KOG members.

Does he take them camping
as part of the family?

Does he leave them home?

He sort of settles
on a compromise.

He's gonna bring
some of the kids,

including Aaron LeBaron.

I stayed in Colorado
to take care of all the babies,

and he took
all the older kids with him.

[Hyrum] We got
to the main camping area.

Dan and the women
and younger children

set up camp.

We built a fire, and we were
there for a few hours

just having
a pretty grand old time.

[Lindsay] There are a few people
out in the woods.

They're hunting.

And Dan Jordan
is back at camp,

and nature calls.

Dan Jordan was known

for always carrying a gun
at his side,

but for some reason,
he lets his guard down

and leaves his gun
back at camp.

So he walks away
to go to the bathroom.

He goes and starts
to do his business.

And the sound of gunshots
echo through the canyon.

[gunshots]

It was a little bit
before dusk.

We heard one of Dan's
other sons yelling to us,

trying to get our attention.

And he was moving
in our direction,

and he seemed,
like, distressed.

He walks right into the camp
out of the woods.

He just went down to a knee
and said, "Dad's dead."

And it was just, like, a shock.

"Like, what-- what do you mean?"

He's like, "Dad's dead.
We got to go."

[siren wailing faintly]

[Lindsay]
So the police show up,

and, of course,
the group circles the wagons.

I was a prosecutor

both at the Utah
Attorney General's Office

and in
the U.S. Attorney's Office

specializing in murders
and violent crime.

The law enforcement,
the response--

they realized fairly quickly

that a group of these people

aren't Jordans
but are LeBarons.

I mean,
they're dangerous people.

They had proven to be dangerous
in the past.

All the LeBaron kids
are questioned, including Aaron,

and the police are suspicious
of Aaron right away,

but they couldn't find
any evidence

that he or any of his siblings
had killed Dan.

I mean, Aaron and all the kids
were accounted for

at the time of the homicide.

I mean, somebody was with them,
so they had alibis.

At that time, they didn't know
for sure who shot him.

I'm sure they had suspicions.

[David] No eyewitnesses
to the murder

other than the person
who did the shooting

and Dan Jordan, who's dead.

[Lindsay] After the police
interrogate the group,

they leave
with nobody in custody

but a lot of questions
and suspicions.

[Faye] I received a call in,
like, the middle of the night,

and they told me
that Dan had been murdered.

I was...

petrified. I'm like,
if-if they could get to him--

and he was the prophet,
mind you--

I wouldn't doubt it at all

if they would come
and try and kill everybody.

It just felt... unreal.

But...

[sighs]
There's a sense of relief.

Like, this is over.

He did things
to myself and my family

and my siblings that...

are unconscionable.

I had just finished a long shift
working in the shop,

and I get word
that Mark wants to talk to us.

And then Mark proceeds
to tell us

that Dan Jordan
had been shot and killed.

I knew that
this was the work of our family.

I remember the adults
gathering together...

- [Emily] Yeah.
- ...and talking.

And sort of you knew
someone had been killed.

I had this ominous feeling.

There was
this overarching sense

of, like, people are scared.

Mark also, um, told us
that there was a hit list

and that
he and his brother Duane

and my brother Ed were on it.

When Jordan's murdered,

the fear factor
just went through the roof.

Ervil's been dead
for six years,

and now all of a sudden,

it seems that somebody
is working through the list

of the people he wanted,
uh, to be-- to be killed.

All the adults
that had not, uh, followed

my dad's orders
had to be taken out.

This was a real threat.

We knew that if they were
going in order of this list,

then our dad would be next.

It's almost
as if Ervil's voice

is coming
from beyond the grave

to threaten Mark Chynoweth.

Mark tells us that
we aren't going to run and hide.

We're all going
to start carrying weapons.

When somebody would come to
the store to buy an appliance,

we had to be ever vigilant.

I just graduated
from high school,

just thinking my life
is just getting started,

and the family-of-origin
horror story

that I was born into

is just pulling me
right back into it.

[♪ dramatic music]

[male reporter]
Two days after the killing,

Aaron was conspicuously
present at Jordan's funeral.

He was intent
on taking on Ervil's mantle.

[Lindsay]
Right after Dan's funeral,

they all go
back to the Jordan home,

and Aaron starts waving
his gun around

and declaring himself to be
the one mighty and strong.

The police responded,
took Aaron into custody.

[male reporter] He was arrested
on the minor charge

of disturbing the peace.

But even on that charge,
he managed to get off

because the Jordan wives
withdrew their complaints.

They feared
further LeBaron vengeance.

Aaron promptly vanished,

uh, you know, as so many of his
predecessors had in the past.

[David]
The whole trail went cold,

but we didn't stop
investigating.

I don't think
there was one person

involved in the investigation

that didn't think that there
were going to be more murders.

[Lindsay]
Even though Mark

has this
very complicated past,

he tries to ignore it.

He tries to just live his life
boldly and unafraid,

and that was probably
a mistake.

[Lisa] It was my parents'
solid intentional aim

to raise us in a way
that we were not fearful,

that this did not interfere
with our lives.

[Emily] Our parents did have
the intent to protect us

from the traumas
that they had grown up with,

so I think there was this sort
of a beautiful denial of...

that's just not
gonna be our focus.

That fear
of anything happening

began to dissipate
after a few months,

and then the longer it went
where nothing happened,

you know, you kind of get back
into a sense of normalcy,

if that's even possible.

Certainly,
I think at that point,

the Chynoweths and Eddie Marston
were on notice,

but I don't think anybody

really suspected
what was about to happen.

June 27th-- I was supposed to be
at the shop that day with Mark.

I had been sick
for quite some time.

Lillian found me
on the couch drowsy,

and she says to me,

"Why don't you
just stay home today?"

I was shocked and relieved

that she was giving me
the day off.

I did not have to go
to work sick,

but I was gonna have
to stay home

and take care of the kids.

[Scott] The two Chynoweth
brothers, Mark and Duane,

have appliance repair shops

in two different parts
of West Houston.

Eddie Marston is doing
the same thing up in Irving,

which is a suburb of Dallas.

Both Duane and Eddie
had received calls

about used appliances
being for sale.

Both are told to meet
their clients at 4:00 p.m.

at different locations.

Eddie gets in his car
to meet his client.

Duane gets in his car,
with his younger daughter,

Jenny, tagging
along for the ride.

Duane and Jenny
pull their truck to the house.

It looks abandoned.
No one's home.

But then a Chevy Silverado
pulls into the driveway,

blocking them in.

At almost
the exact same moment,

Eddie Marston
pulls into this address

he's been given in Irving.

[Lindsay]
And he's approached by a man

in a blue suit
with a beard.

[Scott]
At the same time,

a man wearing a blue suit
with a beard

walks into the office
of Mark Chynoweth's shop.

At 4:00 p.m.,
in three different locations,

the men approach
Eddie, Duane, and Mark.

It's the start of the most
ruthless assassination plot

the LeBaron group
has ever pulled.

[gunshots]

[clock ticking]