Allred murders, 1977 May 11

Item — video: 11

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Polygamist leader Rulon Allred is assassinated 05:53.

Louise Degn's note: Late afternoon May 10, 1977, the KSL assignment person heard on the police scanner about a murder in Murray City and asked me to go on it. She had no additional information. While driving there, John Hollenhorst, another reporter, called on the two-way to say the victim might be a polygamist, a member of the "Church of the Lamb of God." We arrived in time to get film of the body being wheeled to the ambulance. A group of very distraught people was standing outside the one-story, brick medical clinic where a Dr. Rulon Allred had been shot. In 1977 polygamists were left alone by the authorities, following the bad publicity of the "Short Creek" raids in the 1950s. They lived hidden among the larger society. I approached the group. "I understand he was a member of the Church of the Lamb of God." One man shot back, angrily yelling, "Them's the ones that did it!" That was the first indication to the general public of the feud among the polygamy groups. I talked more with them and returned the next day to interview a friend, William Baird, and Nephi Allred, Dr. Allred's son. The group's initial reaction was right. Ervil LeBaron, leader of the Church of the Lamb of God, eventually was convicted of this murder, as well as others, in his bloody fight for sole control of the polygamy groups.

Dates

1977 May 11

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