In the midst of WWII, tucked away in northern Mexico, a small community of ex-communicated Mormons from the United States eked out a hard existence. Due to their polygamist activities they were cut off from mainstream Mormonism and they lived solitary, difficult lives far away from external scrutiny.

It was here that Ervil Lebaron grew up: isolated, ill-educated and exposed to unusual religious and moral practises. In his mid-twenties, driven by the desire for power and possessing a charismatic style of authority, Lebaron embarked on a crusade to rule the World, and to gain himself a seat at God’s table.

In 1971, Lebaron founded the The Church of the Lamb of God, proclaimed himself God’s True Prophet, and adhering to a doctrine of active polygamy, sated his desire for young girls by marrying no less than 19 women, most of whom were barely teenagers. For nearly ten years, Lebaron’s followers brought devastation to the lives of countless people throughout America and northern Mexico through incest, abuse, slavery, sexual assault, violent intimidation and murder.

In 1977, Rulon Allred, another self-proclaimed Mormon prophet living in Salt Lake City, was the victim of Lebaron’s speciality: Blood Atonement. Lebaron ordered his wife, Rena, and another young woman to murder Rulon in his medical clinic with the coup de grâce being a .38 bullet behind Allred’s ear.

The ensuing publicity led to Lebaron’s arrest, however his bloody legacy continues to this day because while imprisoned he wrote his own ‘Bible’ in which he commanded murder and mayhem upon those whom he felt had betrayed his Prophethood.

Even after his death in 1981, the most devoted of his 52 children continued carrying out murders in the name of their father.