About that Mormon family killed in Mexico. I knew my gut was right

[Roland99]

Last edited Wed Nov 6, 2019, 10:41 PM - Edit history (1)

EDIT: this is in NO way an attempt to excuse their heinous murder. Rather, an explanation of why they were in that area


Mexican slaughter victims were from NXIVM recruiting ground
https://m.chron.com/news/article/Victims-of-Mexican-slaughter-were-from-NXIVM-14814764.php

The nine U.S. citizens slaughtered in an ambush Monday were from a Mormon community in northern Mexico where NXIVM recruited teenagers for a "girls school" to live in the Capital Region under the care of a high-ranking "slave" for Keith Raniere.

The Mormon community’s ties to the disgraced NXIVM leader's cult-like organization were revealed in May during the testimony of NXIVM defector Mark Vicente, a filmmaker based in Los Angeles who once lived in Knox Woods, the same Halfmoon townhouse complex as Raniere.

The nine women and children killed -- including eight-month-old twins -- were traveling in a mountainous area where the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel has been waging a turf war. The victims were related to the extended LeBaron family community in the state of Chihuahua.

...

Raniere secretly operated a"master/slave" group known as DOS or “Dominus Obsequious Sororium," which translates from Latin as "Lord/Master of the Obedient Female Companions." Under the orders of Raniere, the "Grand Master," women in DOS were starved on 500-calorie-a-day diets and forced to provide "collateral" in the form of sexually explicit photos or false information about themselves and their family to ensure their loyalty. They also were required to have Raniere's initials branded onto their pelvic areas by a person using a cauterizing pen.

MUCH more at the link!

[NRaleighLiberal]

1. The podcast about this was well done...and shocking

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/uncover/uncover-season-1-escaping-nxivm-1.4675949

[Beakybird]

2. They went to the wrong library shelf and read, "The Book of Moron."

[madaboutharry]

3. They were referred to as members of "A break away Mormon community."

That was disturbing to hear. These women and children were victims of a cult.

[maxsolomon]

48. FLDS "broke away" when the LDS banned Polygamy.

Quite a long time ago.

[Baitball Blogger]

4. I don't understand.

They were ambushed and slaughtered. If they were potential sex slaves, wouldn't the better idea have been to kidnap them?

[Roland99]

7. Still could have been mistaken identity by a cartel or...

Someone seeking revenge?

[bluedigger]

45. I think it was a message to any others who may have wanted to leave the cult.

Blaming it on drug traffickers is very convenient for Mexican authorities.

[marked50]

5. You know -the fact is these people didn't need to die they way they did

[GulfCoast66]

6. You really should have set this OP up differently.

Reading it causally makes it look like an excuse for the sad killing of these folks.

I do not think that is your intent, so I suggest an edit to make that clear.

But I do get your point...these people are members of a crazy religious cult. And that can breed resentment in people especially when kids are involved. But it is no excuse to kill women and children. Or men for that matter.

But we still do not know if that played into the killing at all.

[Roland99]

8. Point taken. Disclaimer added

[Texasgal]

9. So?

Nobody deserved to die the way they all did. What is your point?

[Roland99]

11. That they weren't some lily white, innocent family

Sorry for calling out these vermin

[Texasgal]

12. Do you think these children

who had no choice somehow deserved this?

I'm not accusing you of such, but I am asking you to clarify.

[Roland99]

13. Yeah. I'm blaming the kids

Dear gawd

[Texasgal]

16. Sorry... but I find your post

to be ridiculous and rude.

No one deserves to die like this. Period.

[Roland99]

19. That's your opinion. I, otoh, find these people repulsive

Sex trafficking kids?

Keep defending them if you want but I prefer calling out criminals whenever possible

[Texasgal]

22. Oh, yes.. I agree with

sex trafficking of children.

[Act_of_Reparation]

39. Spare us the sanctimony, please.

If you want to get misty because some imperialist goons got smoked on their way back from the slave market, that's your business. But you've got no ground wagging your finger at me.

[malaise]

24. +1,000 n/t

[Dorian Gray]

27. What NXIUM did was repulsive

however, there were 9 people who died in this attack. Any women and children, if involved with NXIUM, were victims of the cult.

If the murders were related to revenge, then these people were double victimized by NXIUM.

It's awful. Nobody deserves to die. And the people who created NXIUM have rightfully been tried.

[AkFemDem]

32. Yes actually they were a lily white innocent family....

They were all quite white... to your second point, everyone killed was a woman or a child. IF your link is to be believed then that means the women were victims, and obviously the children were innocents.

If cartel members had shot up a car load of MEN who run this faction- 🤷🏻‍♀️ Maybe your comment would be appropriate. But they didn’t, so it’s not. It’s just cold and callous.

[sop]

43. I think the point is Trump is trying to use this tragedy to his political advantage

Listening to Trump one might believe the victims were members of the typical all-American white family from suburbia, innocently visiting just across the border, murdered by a pack of vicious brown-skinned animals. You know, just like the sort of bloodthirsty Mexican immigrants daily invading our sacred homeland, coming soon to a neighborhood just like yours, unless we can build The Wall.

Unfortunately, Trump can't play up the "devout christians murdered by violent Godless foreign scum" angle. These folks were reportedly part of a polygamous Mormon fringe cult, living deep inside Mexico, engaged in who knows what. And they weren't randomly caught up in the crossfire of some Mexican drug cartel shootout, apparently they were targeted as payback for something their group did.

Of course, none of this is meant to justify their deaths, or lessen the tragedy of children being slaughtered. It's just that Trump and his band of racist haters will predictably exploit this incident to stoke even more fear and hatred.

[Kittycow]

10. I vaguely heard about this so I decided to catch up.

The only motive I can come up with if I try really hard (since it's a senseless massacre) is it's a warning for the cult to get out?

It seems if they had to kill somebody so bad, why didn't they kill the leaders of the schools that were taking in the local girls? Maybe a leader was in the group?

Or maybe they just felt like killing a bunch of people that day. With their depravity, it wouldn't surprise me.

[PufPuf23]

14. LA Times article about the Mormon community in Mexico

This Mormon break away group has a violent and dicey history. Mitt Romney's grandfather and great grandfather were part of this group and Mitt's father was born in Mexico as part of this group.

Massacre of U.S. citizens puts spotlight on Mormon community with deep roots in Mexico

The roadside killings of nine U.S. citizens in northern Mexico has brought renewed attention to the scattered communities of Mormons who settled in the country more than a century ago to escape persecution. The three women and 14 children whom assailants ambushed Monday as they drove toward Arizona from the town of Bavispe in Sonora state included descendants of a fundamentalist Mormon community that has lived in the country for decades.

Early Wednesday, criminal investigators in northern Mexico said a suspect had been arrested and was under investigation for possible connections with the deaths. A Mexican official had earlier said the killers might have mistaken the family for members of a rival drug cartel. Some of the victims shared the last name LeBaron. They were related to a prominent fundamentalist Mormon family by the same name, said Daniel LeBaron, a cousin of one of the victims, Rhonita Maria Miller. Daniel LeBaron lives in Colonia LeBaron in Chihuahua state, a community established by fundamentalist Mormons in 1944 that has close ties to the LeBarons of Bavispe.

The LeBarons are among “a handful of major groups of fundamentalists,” said Patrick Mason, a historian of Mormonism at Utah State University. But, he added: “The LeBaron name in recent decades has been most often linked to violence. Unfortunately, this incident only adds to that association.”

The family is perhaps best known for a series of killings perpetrated in the 1970s and 1980s, in both Mexico and the United States, by Ervil LeBaron — once called the “Mormon Manson” — and a group of his followers.

Lots more at: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-11-06/mormons-mexico-lebaron-fundamentalist-history

[dalton99a]

18. +1

In 1972, two followers of Ervil LeBaron allegedly shot his brother, Joel, to death after the brothers argued over leadership of their religious faction. Ervil was convicted of the crime, but the conviction was later overturned. He later was tried and convicted in the 1977 murder of rival polygamist leader Dr. Rulon Allred. In 1993, his story was turned into a TV drama, “Prophet of Evil: The Ervil LeBaron Story.”

In 1993, a federal jury in Texas convicted three members of an offshoot of the community of LeBarons in the deaths of three former members and an 8-year-old child. One expert estimated that members of the group had killed as many as 30 people over the years.

[Cha]

26. "religion"..

Nice reputation they got there.

[Cha]

25. Wth! Aren't they suppose to be missionaires

for their religion.. not killing people?

[superpatriotman]

15. The official story stinks to high heaven

I am leaning toward a failed escape from a cult

[GopherGal]

17. Haven't heard much more since the arrest

...if they've expanded upon the official story since then.

The original details of the story are just enough to show there's huge gaps in the story, especially given the nature of the event (13 women and children dual citizens kinda near the border) lending itself so easily to politicization.

The need for safety is so severe that they're traveling by daylight in a caravan of SUVs, but not so severe that any adult men are included in the traveling party of 3 women and ~10 children.

And 3 SUVs full of "mistaken identity" is a bit much. Add the info painting some of the LaBarons as activists against the cartels, which furthers their role as sympathetic victims but calls into doubt the "mistaken identity" aspect.

[LeftInTX]

51. They guy arrested the other day?

It was mistaken ID and he was let go

[Squinch]

29. Yes. This family is involved in TWO cults. And LeBarons have massacred EACH OTHER before.

The LeBarons in the past have been an astonishingly violent fundamentalist sect, and there are many instances of them murdering each other because of power struggles within the cult.

The right wing press jumped on this as a story of innocent Americans being slaughtered by lawless Mexicans and we need the wall and bla bla bla. The main stream media picked up that same story like lemmings.

There are other likely possibilities of what happened to those poor women and children.

And before anyone responds with, "they didn't deserve to die that way," OF COURSE they didn't. This is not saying they did. It is only to say there is a lot more here than is being reported.

[Roland99]

20. WHOA!! Never expected THIS link, tho

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Amy MacPherson
@MsAmyMacPherson
· Oct 31, 2019
Replying to @MsAmyMacPherson
16/28 #CDNpoli #CDNmedia #Elxn43 #ForeignInterference

NXIVM existed primarily as a kompromat organization to keep politicians in the US, Canada & Mexico in line. I contend that Frank Parlato blew the whistle about the sex cult part of this group, only as a means of distraction

Amy MacPherson
@MsAmyMacPherson
17/28 #CDNpoli #CDNmedia #Elxn43 #ForeignInterference

Frank is the best friend of Roger Stone, who you all know as an operative in the Trump-Russia probe

Frank's also been indicted by a grand jury on 19 charges that involve money laundering, as a reason to misrepresent NXIVM

[Duppers]

23. WHOA is right.

This has my brain spinning in many directions.

[Arazi]

28. Astonishing and damn serious. I hope the RCMP and FBI are on it

And that Amy MacPherson has some protection

[berni_mccoy]

30. Wow

[underpants]

31. 👀 This thread is emblematic of why I love DU. WOW.

The back stories on things ranging from Susan Smith to Stella Liebeck (coffee lady) to Mary Kay Letourneau just amaze me. I think I learned or was directed towards finding out all about those from DU.

Bookmarking. My first thought was - what the hell are they doing there? And now I have a hint of a clue.

Thanks Roland.

[samnsara]

36. i would have rather they had been arrested than slaughtered...

...those poor kids. But at least the one that saved his brothers and sisters had enough proper socialization to know what to do in an emergency. At least that!

[FM123]

37. Whaaaaat???

NXIVM existed primarily as a kompromat organization to keep politicians in the US, Canada & Mexico in line.

[cwydro]

38. I've not seen this link between the victims and NXIVM on any legitimate news sites.

[Roland99]

40. Oh?

https://www.google.com/search?q=mormon+family+nxivm&rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS847US847&oq=mormon+family+nxivm&aqs=chrome..69i57.7329j0j4&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

[cwydro]

46. Thanks!

I just got back from my morning walk with the beasties and saw this.

Yikes! How could people involve children in such a sordid mess?

I still don’t understand the slaughter. Why?

[Roland99]

49. There are two tales here

I still feel the killings were mistaken identity.

The other tale is why they were there in the first place. We appear to know now

[cwydro]

50. Beyond sickening.

And comprehension.

[Raftergirl]

44. It was reported

in my local paper (Albany Times Union.) The Albany area is where NXIVM was headquartered. The Times Union has been reporting on them for years - way before it became a national story.

There were underage girls from Mexico sent to Clifton Park by their parents. It came up in Raniere‘s trial.

Raniere was in Mexico when he was arrested.

[obamanut2012]

41. If Lori Loughlin is involved in this somehow

It wouldn't be anymore insane.

[SweetieD]

42. Honestly it is probably some drug retaliation killing for a cartel. They are likely

Involved in the drug trade. This type of killing is not unusual in that area.

[cwydro]

47. Some kind of true monsters to kill children.

Sickening.