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Rulon C. Allred
| Rulon C. Allred | |
|---|---|
 Rulon C. Allred in 1975 | |
| Born | March 29, 1906 Chihuahua (state), Template:Mexico |
| Died | May 10, 1977 (aged 71) Murray, Utah |
| Cause of death | Homicide |
| Resting place | Larkin Sunset Lawn Cemetery 0°44′28″N 111°49′23″W / 0.741°N 111.823°W |
| Education | Chiropractic |
| Occupation | homeopathic physician chiropractor, Apostolic_United_Brethren - President of the Priesthood |
| Known for | Politician |
| Title | Chiropractor, (DC) |
| Religious beliefs | Polygamist sect, Mormon |
Rulon Clark Allred (March 29, 1906 – May 10, 1977) was a homeopathic physician and Chiropractor in Salt Lake City and the leader of what is now the Apostolic United Brethren, a breakaway sect of polygamous Mormon fundamentalists in Utah, Colorado, and Arizona, United States. He was murdered on the orders of Ervil LeBaron, the head of a rival polygamous sect.
Biography
Having turned away from the polygamous religion of his father and grandfather as a young man, Allred's decision to take plural wives came in his twenties following what he described as a vision; the decision resulted in the estrangement of his first wife, Katherine.
Allred began to assume greater responsibilities in the Short Creek, Arizona polygamous community following the paralytic stroke of its leader, Joseph White Musser. Allred was imprisoned for bigamy following Arizona governor John Howard Pyle's 1953 "Short Creek raid," but he resumed his polygamous lifestyle upon his release. During his imprisonment, he met the LeBaron group through correspondence and eventually fled to Mexico to live on their compound with promises of wealth, which never materialized. Allred ultimately assumed leadership of a polygamous group.
In his later years, Allred made no attempt to hide his polygamous beliefs and openly spoke of his adherence to the principle of plural marriage on talk shows and in print interviews. Allred was the husband of at least seven wives and the father of forty-eight children. His daughter's biography reveals that after the original seven wives, Allred was pressured by his peers to be "sealed" to widows and other women requesting to be bound to "their prophet." At the time of his death, he had been sealed to 16 women in total. Though extremely conservative by the standards of outsiders, Allred's sect was far more moderate than the community headed by Rulon Jeffs and Warren Jeffs and certainly more so than the organization headed by LeBaron. He was not on good terms with either of the rival sects, and he began receiving death threats from the LeBaron group in the 1960s.
On May 10, 1977, two women, both disguised by wigs and sunglasses, visited his office in Murray, Utah and opened fire with handguns. Only Allred was injured; he died of his wounds the same day. One of the women was later identified as Rena Chynoweth, one of LeBaron's wives. Although acquitted (Chynoweth was found not guilty in a 9-3 jury ruling), Chynoweth later confessed to the crime in her memoir, The Blood Covenant. LeBaron was eventually convicted of association with several other murders, including that of his daughter, Rebecca.
Allred's family is the subject of two memoirs written by one of his daughters, Dorothy Allred Solomon: In My Father's House and Predators, Prey, and Other Kinfolk: Growing Up in Polygamy. Samuel W. Taylor's I Have Six Wives was based on Allred's life. Allred's niece, Irene Spencer, writes of her uncle in her memoir Shattered Dreams: My Life As A Polygamist's Wife. Spencer, now a remarried monogamist, was the second of ten wives of LeBaron's younger brother and opponent, Verlan.
References
- Dorothy Allred Solomon. In My Father's House. (Franklin Watts, 1984)
- Dorothy Allred Solomon. Predators, Prey, and Other Kinfolk: Growing Up in Polygamy. (W.W. Norton, 2003)
- Dorothy Allred Solomon. Daughter of the Saints: Growing Up In Polygamy. (W.W. Norton, 2003).
- Dorothy Allred Solomon. The Sisterhood: Inside the Lives of Mormon Women. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)
- Irene Spencer. Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife.
- Ben Bradlee, Jr. and Dale Van Atta, Prophet of Blood: The Untold Story of Ervil LeBaron and the Lambs of God (G.G. Putnam's Sons, 1981)
External links
- http://dorothyallredsolomon.com
- http://www.mormonfundamentalism.com/Photos/RulonCAllred.htm
- Florea, John (January 1, 1944; republished online, 2011) (photo gallery: Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images), Rare: LIFE With Polygamists, 1944: Meet the [Rulon Clark] Allreds, Life magazine, http://www.life.com/gallery/49551/rare-life-with-polygamists-1944#index/1, retrieved August 18, 2011
| Apostolic United Brethren titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Joseph White Musser as Senior Member of the Priesthood Council |
President of the Priesthood March 29, 1954–May 10, 1977 |
Succeeded by Owen A. Allred |
