The Mex Files

The story line sounds simple enough:  teenager is kidnapped; family demands return and refuses to pay ranson; teen is released unharmed; brother becomes “star” anti-crime crusader; somebody kills brother.  Dudley Althous – writing in the Houston Chronicle — presents what will probably form the basis of any “meaning” given to the murders in Colonia Le Barón, Galeana, Chihuahua:

A top member of a breakaway Mormon sect was dragged from his home by marauders and killed early Tuesday in a village founded and named for the American families that settled the remote community in the northern Mexican desert.

Benjamin LeBaron, 31, and Luis Widmar, 29, a brother-in-law who tried to help him, were grabbed by at least 15 commandos shortly after midnight in Colonia LeBaron, which is about 200 miles southeast of El Paso, witnesses said.

The bodies of the men, both naturalized U.S. citizens with five children each, were found nearby shortly afterward, each shot several times in the head, Brent LeBaron, a cousin of Benjamin who lives in the village, said by telephone.

Benjamin LeBaron had led successful protests earlier this year to free his kidnapped brother and demand police protection for their isolated rural community.

“We are fighting a cause that should be heard throughout the world,” said Brent LeBaron, who was helping build the slain men’s coffins Tuesday and prepare for their burials.

Mennonite and Mormon communities in Chihuahua have both complained that the have been targeted by kidnappers and thieves who assume their thriving agricultural communities have ready cash. But,  when Eric LeBaron was kidnapped, his family refused to pay the requested million dollar (U.S.) ranson, and his older brother Benjamin rallied Mormons and Mennonites to lobby the State Government for special assistance, which was forthcoming. And — quite unusual — federal soldiers were used to hunt down the alleged kidnappers, with 25 persons being arrested in a nearby community.  Benjamin was turned into something of a cause celebre, taken to address Federal police cadets and then… the killings.

It would seem straight-forward, but something bothered me.  I didn’t recognize  Le Barón from any of my reading on the Mormon colonies during the Mexican Revolution, though the family name seemed familiar.

The town, and the founding family — have a history in Mexico that doesn’t start until 1924, but which suggests this could be much, much more complex than just another good gun v. bad guy scenario.

The community was founded in 1924 by “apostate” Mormon Alma Dayer LeBaron, who supposedly fled Utah with a lynch mob and federal marshals on his trail.  Although technically against the law, polygamous communes were tolerated in Chihuahua (often under the protection of Pancho Villa) and one more wouldn’t have upset anyone.  Alma, and the LeBaron community were excommunicated by the “official” Mormon Church (the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints) in 1944, the community officially joining the Apostolic United Brethren — a break-away Mexican based Mormon church … the “mainstream polygamous” branch of Mormonism.

When Alma died in 1951, leadership in the community passed to his son, Joel.  Joel left the Apostolic United Brethern to found his own church, the “Church of the Firstborn of the Fulness of Times”.  At least some of the LeBarons, including second in command, Joel’s younger brother Ervil, later moved to Baja California.  Ervil moved to San Diego, California to start a second church.

And, then it gets very, very weird.  As Time Magazine reported 29 August 1977:

Ervil LeBaron, 52, polygamous (13 wives, at least 25 children) leader of the tiny Church of the Lamb of God, is the target of investigations by police departments from San Diego and Los Angeles to Salt Lake City and Denver. Even the Secret Service is interested in his whereabouts, since some of his followers sent a threatening letter to the then presidential candidate Jimmy Carter in September 1976. LeBaron’s alleged crime: inducing several of his 40-odd disciples, including a number of women, to murder between 13 and 20 people who failed to abide by what he decreed to be the “constitutional law of the Kingdom of God.”

In 1974, after murdering his brother Joel, Ervil and his followers burned down the Baja California community.  He later murdered the head of the Apostolic United Brethren before moving on to the United States, where he and his gang (mostly his wives and numerous children) were indicted for five murders in Houson.

Eventually caught in Mexico, Ervil and his son, William, were sentenced to life without parole in federal prison.  The F.B.I. is offering a $20,000 reward for the capture of another child, Jacqueline, who was last seen in Honduras in 2007. William has a jailhouse conversion to Christianity, and his on-line testimonial includes the family history.

Given the isolated geography of northern Chihuahua (meaning you’ll have some inbreeding) and the polygamous history of the Le Baron family, it’s impossible to work out the exact relationship of the various LeBarons and it would be unfair to assume all LeBarons are as crazy as Joel and Ervil.  Probably the only reporter in either Mexico or the United States who could keep it straight would be Brooke Adams of the Salt Lake City Tribune, whose “The Plural Life” follows, among others, “The LeBaron Group”.

One thing William LeBaron mentions in his testimonial is the family’s various businesses in Houston, Denver and elsewhere, which employ family members and — he implies — are meant to provide a rationale for U.S. citizenship for the family members.  I did find two different LeBarons on myspace.com, both claiming to live in the Chihuahua community, but residing in the United States.  One, a 19 year old man, was looking forward to returning home to find a girl.

Le Barón — the community — also made the news last year when the state of Texas investigated the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints for child abuse charges (which turned out to be unfounded) and several members of the sect considered moving to Mexico to escape persecution.  Alfredo Corchado, of the Dallas Morning News, found that only some of the community practiced polygamy (and modified the practice to fit the letter of the Mexican legal code) and seemed reluctant to admit troublesome outsiders.  “‘The last thing we need here are a bunch of outlaws,’ said Lillian Tucker, 40, a mother of 18 who practices polygamy…”

The note left on Benjamin LeBaron’s body read “You can see the LeBarons are not untouchable.” Was the kidnapping only about a wealthy odd community, or directed specifically at the LeBaron family.  Could this have been another turn in the LeBaron family’s bloody religious war? Why was the federal government involved, and so quick to use Benjamin LeBaron as a poster-child for anti-crime activity?  And were the alleged kidnappers the whole story?  If 25 were arrested, who were the six who attacked Benjamin LeBaron and Luis Widmer?  That’s an awful lot of people for an area where a village like Le Barón (pop. about 1500) is the biggest community in the region.

The question in Chihuahua is whether the “bunch of outlaws” were outsiders or not.