Sep 06, 2022 by joe schoenmann, Kristen DeSilva
Three years ago this November, nine women and children were murdered in northern Mexico.
It’s an area drug smugglers used to ferry illicit product into the United States. Members of a fundamentalist Mormon off-shoot had lived there for decades, they’d become successful farmers.
But even before members of the community were murdered in 2019, the history of that fundamentalist community had been tinged with controversy and struggles for power had led to dozens of murders. We’re not talking about 100 years ago. Some were as recent as the late 1980s.
Author Sally Denton, a descendant of polygamists, investigated the 2019 murders, leading her down a path that, at times, was familiar, but at others, pretty disturbing, and she found the need to explore Mormon history to help uncover what might have led to those murders.
The result is a fascinating and alarming book: The Colony: Faith and Blood in a Promised Land. Denton joined State of Nevada host Joe Schoenmann to discuss her book.
“It was so grisly,” Denton said.
The original reporting showed blond, blue-eyed, American-looking women and children, possible tourists. The story unfolded slowly, revealing them to be members of polygamist off-shoots LeBaron and La Mora, with roots in the area dating back to to 1890s.