Mormonism and post humorus marriage

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) believe that, with the appropriate authority, marriages can be performed for “time and all eternity,” rather than just “until death do us part.” They believe that Jesus gave this authority to the Apostle Peter, for instance in Mathew 16:19 it says—“And I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Consequently, this practice is referred to as a sealing or an eternal marriage. Sealings can be performed posthumously, as well as for the living. Posthumous sealings can be performed for a living person and a deceased spouse (with a live church member standing as a proxy for the deceased) or, more commonly, between two deceased persons (with a living man and woman standing in as proxies). In either case, the couple must have been married while alive. Thus this practice is perhaps better described as a posthumous remarriage than a posthumous marriage. In current practice, men who are dead may be sealed by proxy to all of the women to whom they were legally married while alive. Recent changes in church policy also allow women to be sealed to multiple men, but only after both she and her husband(s) are dead. Sealings are also performed posthumously for deceased couples, even couples that divorced in life. This ordinance is similar to the church’s practice of baptism for the dead, although it is not nearly as controversial. The church’s doctrine is not entirely specific concerning who should be sealed to whom when there are multiple spouses. One possibility is that regardless of how many times a man or woman is sealed (eternally married) only one marriage will remain in the afterlife. Another possibility is that multiple sealings will be valid in the next life. The church does not have any teachings clarifying whether or not polygamous marriages can exist in the afterlife. It is believed that the proxy sealings, like the church’s proxy baptisms, are only offered to the deceased souls, and that deceased persons must accept the ordinance for it to take effect. A man can be sealed to more than one women while he is alive; a woman can only be sealed to multiple men after she and her husbands have died. The policy allowing women to be sealed to multiple men is relatively new and has not been explained by the church. A living man or a woman can also be sealed to a deceased spouse that they were legally married with using a proxy of the same sex as the deceased spouse. The LDS Church opposes same-sex marriages and does not perform them for either living or deceased couples.

Gerard John Schaefer

Gerard John Schaefer, Jr. was an American murderer and suspected serial killer from Florida. He was imprisoned in 1973 for murders he committed as a Martin County, Florida, Sheriff's deputy. While he was convicted of two murders, he was suspected of many others. Schaefer frequently appealed against his conviction, yet privately boasted — both verbally and in writing — of having murdered over 30 women and girls. Early life: Schaefer was the first of three children born to Catholic parents, Gerard and Doris Schaefer. He was born in Wisconsin and was raised in Atlanta, Georgia where he attended Marist Academy until 1960, when he and his family moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Schaefer did not get along well with his father, who he believed favored his sister. In his teens, Schaefer became obsessed with women's panties and also became a peeping tom, spying on a neighbor girl named Leigh Hainline. He would later admit to killing animals in his youth and cross dressing, although at other times he claimed the latter was solely to avoid the draft into the Vietnam War (which he did). After graduating from St. Thomas Aquinas High School in 1964, Schaefer went to college, during which time he got married. In 1969 he became a teacher, but was soon fired for "totally inappropriate behavior," according to the principal. After being turned down from the priesthood, Schaefer turned to law enforcement as a career, graduating as a patrolman at the end of 1971, at the age of 25. Arrest: On July 21, 1972, Schaefer, while on patrol, picked up two teenage girls who were hitchhiking. He abducted them, took them to some remote woods and tied them to trees where he threatened to kill them or sell them into prostitution. However, when he got a call on his police radio, Schaefer had to go, leaving the girls tied up. He vowed that he would return. The two girls, who were aged 18 and 17, escaped their bonds and went to the nearest police station, which was actually their kidnapper's own station. When Schaefer returned to the woods and found his victims gone, he called his station and claimed that he had done "something foolish", explaining that he had pretended to kidnap and threaten to kill two hitchhikers in order to scare them into avoiding such an irresponsible method of travel. Schaefer's boss did not believe him and he ordered Schaefer to the station where he stripped him of his badge and charged him with false imprisonment and assault. After posting bail, Schaefer was released. Two months later, on September 27, 1972, Schaefer abducted, tortured, and murdered Susan Place, aged 17, and Georgia Jessup, 16, and buried them on Hutchinson Island. In December that year, Schaefer appeared in court in relation to the abduction of the two girls who had escaped his clutches back in July. Due to a plea bargain, he was able to plead guilty to just one charge of aggravated assault, for which he received a sentence of one year. Murder conviction: In April 1973, over six months since they vanished, the decomposing, butchered remains of Susan Place and Georgia Jessup were found. The girls had been tied to a tree at some point and had vanished while hitch-hiking, and these similarities to Schaefer's treatment of the girls who had gotten away led police to obtain a search warrant for the home he and his wife (now divorced) shared with Schaefer's mother. In Schaefer's bedroom, police found lurid stories he had written that were full of descriptions of the torture, rape and murder of women, whom Schaefer routinely referred to as "whores" and "sluts". More damningly, the authorities found personal possessions such as jewelry, diaries — and in one case, teeth — from at least eight young women and girls who had gone missing in recent years. Some of the jewelry was from Leigh Hainline Bonadies, who had lived next door to Schaefer when they were teenagers; Hainline Bonadies had vanished in 1969 in Ft. Lauderdale after leaving a note for her husband saying she was making a trip to Miami, but would be back in time to play tennis with him (Schaefer was never charged in connection with her case; her skull, which was found to have multiple bullet holes, was discovered at a construction site in Palm Beach County in April 1978 and identified one month later in May). Also among the items was a purse identified as belonging to Susan Place. Place's mother later identified Schaefer as being the man she last saw with her daughter and Jessup. Schaefer was charged with the murders of Place and Jessup. In October 1973, he was found guilty and given two life sentences. Authorities soon stated that he was linked to around 30 missing women and girls. Place and Jessup may not even have been Schaefer's final victims; two 14-year-old girls named Mary Briscolina and Elsie Farmer vanished while hitchhiking on October 23, 1972: just a few weeks after Place and Jessup were killed. Their bodies were later recovered, and jewelry belonging to one of the girls was later found in Schaefer's home. He also raped and killed two girls and hung them from what is now known as the "Devil's Tree" in Port Saint Lucie. Imprisonment and death: Schaefer appealed his conviction, claiming at one point that he had been framed. All his appeals were rejected. Schaefer later began filing frivolous lawsuits, trying to sue one true crime writer, Patrick Kendrick, for describing him as "an overweight, doughy, middle aged man who preyed on victims who were psychologically and physiologically weaker than him," and separately trying to sue authors Colin Wilson and Michael Newton and former FBI agent Robert Ressler for describing him (Schaefer) as a serial killer. All of Schaefer's lawsuits were thrown out of court, except Kendrick's which Schaefer continued until his own murder in prison. He also wrote threatening letters to Kendrick, suggesting he had willing minions that would do his bidding and he "...would hate to see something happen to your family...". Kendrick went on to write fiction novels often describing brutal murders, which he relates to his experience with Schaefer. On December 3, 1995, Schaefer was found stabbed to death in his cell. He had been killed by fellow inmate Vincent Rivera. Rivera was convicted in 1999 of killing Schaefer and had 53 years and 10 months added to the life-plus-20 years sentence he was serving for double murder. Rivera did not confess to the crime, nor give a motive. Schaefer's sister claimed that his murder was some sort of cover-up related to his attempts to verify the confession to the killing of Adam Walsh that Ottis Toole had made (and subsequently retracted). Others suggested it was due to Schaefer owing some prisoners money or rumours that he was a 'snitch' who had been informing on other inmates. Sondra London (see below) claimed Rivera killed Schaefer in an argument over a cup of coffee. At the time of Schaefer's death, a Fort Lauderdale homicide detective had been proposing to file charges against Schaefer for three unsolved murders to ensure he never got out of prison. Alleged victims: -Nancy Leichner and Pamela Ann Nater, 20 (both vanished October 2, 1966) -Deborah Sue Lowe's family believes Schaefer was involved in her disappearance, Lowe was known to Schaefer. Deborah 13, vanished February 29, 1972 which was Leap Year. -Carmen Marie Hallock, 22 (vanished December 18, 1969) Killer Fiction: Sondra London, a true crime writer who had been Schaefer's girlfriend in high school, interviewed him at length following his conviction, and in 1990 published a compilation of his short stories and drawings entitled Killer Fiction. A second book, Beyond Killer Fiction, followed two years later. Schaefer's stories typically involved savage, graphic torture and murder of women, usually from the perspective of the killer, who was often a rogue police officer. A revised edition of Killer Fiction. released well after Schaefer's death, included stories and rambling articles from the first two books and a collection of letters to London, in which Schaefer confessed to killing 34 women and girls, and bragged that he had impressed fellow Death Row inmate Ted Bundy. London noted that at the time Schaefer was corresponding with her, he was publicly proclaiming his innocence and threatening to sue anyone who labeled him a serial killer. In one letter Schaefer wrote that he began murdering women in 1965, when he was 19. In another, he boasted of killing and cannibalizing two schoolgirls, nine-year-old Peggy Rahn and eight-year-old Wendy Stevenson, who vanished in December 1969. Publicly, Schaefer had denied any involvement. When London ended her association with Schaefer in 1991, after beginning a relationship with another Florida serial killer, Danny Rolling, Schaefer repeatedly threatened her life and attempted to sue her for "stealing" his work.

Mormonism and violence

Mormonism and Mormon adherents have been subjected to, as well as themselves used, significant violence throughout much of the religion's history. In the early history of the United States, violence was used as a form of control. Many people of different faiths used violence to harass and persecute different religious beliefs. The members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, especially in its early history, were both the victims of violence as well as the perpetrators in much the same way as other major religions. Mormons were persecuted violently and pushed from Ohio to Missouri to Illinois and then west to the Utah Territory. There were incidents of massacre, home burning, pillaging, and the murder of their founder, Joseph Smith. However, there were also notable incidents of Latter Day Saints who perpetrated violence, as in the case of the Mountain Meadows massacre. The effect of this violence has had an impact on the history of the Latter Day Saint movement and its doctrines. History of religious violence against Mormons: Early Mormon history is marked by many instances of violence, which has helped shape the church's views on violence. The first significant instance occurred in Missouri. Mormons tended to vote as a bloc there often unseating local political leadership. Differences culminated in hostilities and the eventual issuing of an executive order (often called the Extermination Order) by Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs declaring "the Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the State." Three days later, a militia unit attacked a Mormon settlement at Haun's Mill, resulting in the death of 18 Mormons and no militiamen. The Extermination Order was not formally rescinded until 1976. In Nauvoo, Illinois, conflict was often based on the tendency of Mormons to "dominate community, economic, and political life wherever they landed." The city of Nauvoo had become the largest in Illinois, the city council was predominantly Mormon, and the Nauvoo Legion (the Mormon militia) continued to grow. Other issues of contention included polygamy, freedom of speech, anti-slavery views during Smith’s presidential campaign, and the deification of man. After the destruction of the press of the Nauvoo Expositor, Joseph Smith was arrested and incarcerated in Carthage Jail where he was killed by a mob on June 27, 1844. The conflict in Illinois became so severe that most of the residents of Nauvoo fled across the Mississippi River in February 1846. After Mormons established a community hundreds of miles away in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, anti-Mormon activists in the Utah Territory convinced President Buchanan that the Mormons in the territory were rebelling against the United States under the direction of Brigham Young. In response, in 1857 Buchanan sent one-third of United States's standing army to Utah in what is known as the Utah War. During the Utah War, the Mountain Meadows massacre occurred. Mormon views on capital punishment- Capital punishment in Mormon scripture: Religious justification for capital punishment is not unique to Mormonism (Gardner 1979, p. 10). Retribution: Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, was a strong proponent of capital punishment, and favored execution methods that involved the shedding of blood as retribution for crimes of bloodshed. In 1843, he or his scribe commented that the common execution method in Christian nations was hanging, "instead of blood for blood according to the law of heaven." In a March 4, 1843 debate with church leader George A. Smith, who argued against capital punishment, Smith said that if he ever had the opportunity to enact a death penalty law, he "was opposed to hanging" the convict; rather, he would "shoot him, or cut off his head, spill his blood on the ground, and let the smoke thereof ascend up to God" (Roberts 1909, p. 296). In the church's April 6, 1843 general conference, Smith said he would "wring a thief's neck off if I can find him. if I cannot bring him to justice any other way." Sidney Rigdon, Smith's counselor in the First Presidency, also supported capital punishment involving the spilling of blood, stating, "There are men standing in your midst that you cant do anything with them but cut their throat & bury them". On the other hand, Smith was willing to tolerate the presence of men "as corrupt as the devil himself" in Nauvoo, Illinois, who "had been guilty of murder and robbery", in the chance that they might "come to the waters of baptism through repentance, and redeem a part of their allotted time" (Roberts 1932). Brigham Young, Smith's successor in the LDS Church, initially held views on capital punishment similar to those of Smith. On January 27, 1845, he spoke approvingly of Smith's toleration of "corrupt men" in Nauvoo who were guilty of murder and robbery, on the chance that they might repent and be baptized (Roberts 1932). On the other hand, on February 25, 1846, after the Saints had left Nauvoo, Young threatened adherents who had stolen wagon cover strings and rail timber with having their throats cut "when they get out of the settlements where his orders could be executed"(Roberts 1932, p. 597). Later that year, Young gave orders that "when a man is found to be a thief,...cut his throat & thro' [sic] him in the River". Young also stated that decapitation of repeated sinners "is the law of God & it shall be executed". There are no documented instances, however, of such a sentence being carried out on the Mormon Trail. In the Salt Lake Valley, Young acted as the executive authority while the Council of Fifty acted as a legislature. One of his main concerns in the early Mormon settlement was theft, and he swore that "a thief should not live in the Valley, for he would cut off their heads or be the means of haveing it done as the Lord lived." A Mormon listening to one of Young's sermons in 1849 recorded that he said "if any one was catched stealing to shoot them dead on the spot and they should not be hurt for it." In Utah Territory, there existed a law from 1851 to 1888 allowing persons convicted of murder to be executed by decapitation; during this time, no person was executed using this method (Gardner 1979, p. 13). Blood atonement: "Blood atonement" is the controversial concept that there are certain sins to which the atonement of Jesus does not apply, and that before a Mormon who has committed these sins can achieve the highest degree of salvation, he or she must personally atone for the sin by "having their blood spilt upon the ground, that the smoke thereof might ascend to heaven as an offering for their sins" (Young 1856a, p. 53). Blood atonement was to be voluntary by the sinner, or was contemplated as being mandatory in a theoretical theocracy planned for the Utah Territory, but was to be carried out with love and compassion for the sinner, not out of vengeance (Young 1857, p. 220). The concept was first taught in the mid-1850s by the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) during the Mormon Reformation, when Brigham Young governed the Utah Territory as a near-theocracy. Even though there was discussion about implementing the doctrine, there is no direct evidence that it was ever practiced by the Mormon leadership in their capacity as leaders of both church and state (Campbell 1988, ch. 11). There is inconclusive evidence, however, suggesting that the doctrine was enforced independently a few times by Mormon individuals (Stenhouse 1873, pp. 467–71). Scholars have also argued that the doctrine contributed to a culture of violence that, combined with paranoia from the church's long history of being persecuted, incited several extra-judicial killings by Mormons, including the Mountain Meadows massacre (Quinn 1997). LDS Church leaders taught the concept of blood atonement well into the 20th century within the context of government-sanctioned capital punishment, and it was responsible for laws in the state of Utah allowing for execution by firing squad (Salt Lake Tribune, 11 May 1994, p. D1). Although the LDS Church repudiated the teaching in 1978, it still has adherents within the LDS Church and within Mormon fundamentalism, a schismatic branch of the Latter Day Saint movement that seeks to follow early Mormon teachings to the letter. Despite repudiation by the LDS Church, the concept also survives in Mormon culture, particularly in regards to capital crimes. In 1994, when the defense in the trial of James Edward Wood alleged that a local church leader had "talked to [Wood] about shedding his own blood," the LDS Church's First Presidency submitted a document to the court that denied the church's acceptance and practice of such a doctrine, and included the 1978 repudiation. Penalties- Blood oaths: Historically, Mormon ritual provided an example in which capital punishment is contemplated, though not necessarily required, for violation of historical blood oaths in the Endowment ritual. The blood oaths in the ceremony related to protecting the ritual's secrecy. Participants made an oath that rather than ever revealing the secret gestures of the ceremony, they would rather have: "my throat ... be cut from ear to ear, and my tongue torn out by its roots"; "our breasts ... be torn open, our hearts and vitals torn out and given to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field"; "your body ... be cut asunder and all your bowels gush out" showing an entire refusal to accept the promises made in the washing and anointing ordinances (Buerger 2002, p. 141). These were changed to a reference to "different ways in which life may be taken" (Buerger 2002, p. 141). The entire "penalty" portion of the ceremony was removed by the LDS Church in 1990, and during its lifetime there is no documented instance in which a person has been killed for violating the oaths of secrecy. Law of vengeance: After the death of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young added an oath of vengeance to the Nauvoo endowment ritual. Participants in the ritual made an oath to pray that God would "avenge the blood of the prophets on this nation" (Buerger 2002, p. 134). "The prophets" were Joseph and Hyrum Smith, and "this nation" was the United States (Buerger 2002, p. 134). (This oath was removed from the ceremony during the 1920s(Buerger 2002, pp. 139–40).) In 1877, Young noted what he viewed as a similarity between Smith's death and the blood atonement doctrine, in that "whether we believe in blood atonement or not", Smith and other prophets "sealed their testimony with their blood". Alleged instances of theological violence- Mountain Meadows massacre: The widely publicized Mountain Meadows massacre of September 11, 1857 during the Utah War was a mass killing of Arkansan emigrants by a Mormon militia led by prominent Mormon leader John D. Lee, who was later executed for his role in the killings. After escalating rumors that some of the emigrants had participated in early Mormon persecution, the militia attacked the emigrants, forced them to surrender, and killed most of them in cold blood, although a few children did survive. The Mormons forcibly adopted these children, and the massacre was blamed on largely uninvolved Indians. Though widely connected with the blood atonement doctrine by the United States press and general public, there is no direct evidence that the massacre was related to "saving" the emigrants by the shedding of their blood (as they had not entered into Mormon covenants); rather, most commentators view it as an act of intended retribution. Young was accused with either directing the massacre, or with complicity after the fact. When Brigham Young was interviewed on the matter and asked if he believed in blood atonement, he replied, "I do, and I believe that Lee has not half atoned for his great crime." He said "we believe that execution should be done by the shedding of blood instead of by hanging," but only "according to the laws of the land" (Young 1877, p. 242). American troops who visited the site later constructed a cairn at the site, topped with a sign saying "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." When Brigham Young visited the site sometime afterward, according to a Mormon present, he remarked "Vengeance is mine, and I have taken a little" ; his party proceeded to destroy the cairn and memorial. Violence related to LGBT people: In its early days, the LDS Church was not a staunch critic of same-sex relationships. The state of Utah did not have a sodomy law until it was imposed on the state by the U.S. federal government. Nonetheless, church leaders have encouraged young male Latter-day Saints to defend themselves, physically if necessary, against sexual assault from other men. In October 1976, LDS Church apostle Boyd K. Packer gave a sermon entitled "To Young Men Only". The sermon was later published as a pamphlet and was widely circulated to LDS young men. Openly gay historian D. Michael Quinn criticized Packer's comments, saying they constituted an endorsement of gay bashing, and that the church itself endorses such behavior by continuing to publish Packer's speech. On July 5, 2015, the LDS Church issued an official statement in response to the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage and to clarify its official position of non-violence to the LGBT community: The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us to love and treat all people with kindness and civility—even when we disagree. We affirm that those who avail themselves of laws or court rulings authorizing same‐sex marriage should not be treated disrespectfully. Indeed, the Church has advocated for rights of same‐sex couples in matters of hospitalization and medical care, fair housing and employment, and probate, so long as these do not infringe on the integrity of the traditional family or the constitutional rights of churches.

Mormonism and women

The status of women in Mormonism has been a source of public debate since before the death of Joseph Smith in 1844. Various denominations within the Latter Day Saint movement have taken different paths on the subject of women and their role in the church and in society. Views range from the full equal status and ordination of women to the priesthood, as practiced by the Community of Christ, to the Catholic-like patriarchal system practiced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), to the ultra-patriarchal plural marriage system practiced by the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS Church) and other Mormon fundamentalist groups. Early Mormonism: For its time, early Mormonism had a relatively liberating stance toward women. Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, lived in and abided by a male-centered world; most of the early founding events of Mormonism involved only men.[citation needed] However, a number of women had significant supporting roles; for example, Smith's wife, Emma Hale Smith, served as a scribe during translation of the Book of Mormon and was the subject of one of the church's early revelations, which included direction to compile the church's first hymnal. Emma Smith also served as head of the Relief Society, originally a self-governing women's organization within the church, which is one of the oldest and largest women's organizations in the world. Mormonism rejected the Augustinian doctrine of original sin, which held that humanity inherits the sin of Adam and Eve in which they ate the forbidden fruit. This sin was historically blamed on Eve, and was thought to be the source of women's submissive and dependent state. The movement's second Article of Faith states, "We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam’s transgression." Other issues included the beginning of plural marriage, the gifts of the spirit as exercised by women, performing ordinances in the temple, and blessings of women by women. For example, while en route to the Salt Lake Valley, the diary of a midwife named Patty Bartlett Sessions describes women giving each other blessings: We had a feast in the afternoon at sister Millers .... there we blessed and got blessed & I blesed sister Christeen by laying my hands upon her head and the Lord spoke through me to her great and marvelous things. Current LDS Church policy allows the act of giving blessings "by laying on of hands" to be performed by priesthood holders only, and only men may receive the priesthood. Women also participated in the Anointed Quorum in the early church. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: The status of women in the LDS Church has been a source of public debate beginning in the 19th century, when the church found itself at odds with the United States federal government over its practice of polygamy. Despite the legal and cultural issues related to the Mormon practice of polygamy, 19th-century women played a significant public leadership role in Latter-day Saint culture, politics, and doctrine. Some view the role of women in the 19th-century church as the zenith of women's institutional and leadership participation in the church hierarchy. The LDS Church-dominated Utah Territorial Legislature granted women the franchise in 1870, but it was removed by the federal government's 1887 enactment of the Edmunds–Tucker Act. Ecclesiastically, the LDS Church is firmly committed to traditional gender roles. Women have a certain degree of authority in some areas, including a number of leadership positions, which include authority over children and other women, although these women leaders receive supervision and guidance by priesthood-holding leaders. Women are "endowed" with priesthood power, but are not ordained to priesthood office. Though not considered clergy, women play a significant part in the operation of local congregations. Women teach classes to adults, teenagers, and children. Women also organize social, educational, and humanitarian activities. Women may also serve as missionaries, and a select few may perform certain ordinances such as washing and anointing on behalf of women in church temples. Within and outside the church mainstream, there is a minority of LDS women who raise concerns regarding church policy and doctrine. However, any members who are viewed as publicly oppositional toward the church's current structure are subject to ecclesiastical discipline, including excommunication for apostasy. Barlow, Rich (June 17, 2006), "A Feminist Look at the Mormon Faith", Boston Globe 19th-century Utah Territory: In common with a number of other frontier areas, women took a more prominent role in Utah Territory than they would have in the eastern United States. Brigham Young taught: As I have often told my sisters in the Female Relief Societies, we have sisters here who, if they had the privilege of studying, would make just as good mathematicians or accountants as any man; and we think they ought to have the privilege to study these branches of knowledge that they may develop the powers with which they are endowed. We believe that women are useful not only to sweep houses, wash dishes, make beds, and raise babies, but that they should stand behind the counter, study law or physic medicine, or become good book-keepers and be able to do the business in any counting house, and this to enlarge their sphere of usefulness for the benefit of society at large. Along with the promotion of women's rights in the secular sphere, women in Utah, like renowned poet Eliza R. Snow, spoke of women's equality in sacred matters. This included the development of a Heavenly Mother theology. Snow in particular spoke of equal status: Is it necessary for sisters to be set apart to officiate in the sacred ordinances of washing, anointing, and laying on of hands in administering to the sick? It certainly is not. Any and all sisters who honor their holy endowments, not only have right, but should feel it a duty, whenever called upon to administer to our sisters in these ordinances, which God has graciously committed to His daughters as well as to His sons; and we testify that when administered and received in faith and humility they are accompanied with almighty power. Snow also spoke of the need for women to stick together. She advised that women confide personal issues to the Relief Society president and her counselors, rather than the bishops. In the secular sphere, Utah Territory was at the forefront of women's suffrage; in 1870, it became one of the first states or territories in the Union to grant women the vote, though the federal government removed the franchise from women in 1887 via the Edmunds–Tucker Act. Education and scholarship was also a primary concern for Mormon women. The Relief Society was also a forum for women. Religious missions, like Bathsheba W. Smith's mission to southern Utah to preach "woman's rights", were launched. The Woman's Exponent magazine, the official publication of the Relief Society, published a 1920 editorial in favor of "equal rights before the law, equal pay for equal work, and equal political rights", stating that a women's place is not just "in the nursery" but "in the library, the laboratory, the observatory." In 1875, Relief Society president Emmeline B. Wells said: Let woman speak for herself; she has the right of freedom of speech. Women are too slow in moving forward, afraid of criticism, of being called unwomanly, of being thought masculine. What of it? If men are so much superior to women, the nearer we come up to the manly standard the higher we elevate ourselves. Late-19th-century Utah also had the most liberal divorce laws in the United States at the time. The laws were advantageous to women: any woman who insisted on a divorce got one. One of Brigham Young's wives divorced him and launched a lucrative career as a public speaker. The divorce rate in late 19th-century Utah came close to 30 percent. This divorce rate was inflated by people from other states seeking an easy divorce in Utah. 20th and 21st century: In 1977, First Presidency member N. Eldon Tanner told the a meeting of church leaders that presidency of the Relief Society should be considered a partner with the Melchizedek priesthood. Other developments during the presidency of Spencer W. Kimball included having young women class advancements recognized in sacrament meeting and, in 1978, the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles issued a policy which approved of women praying in sacrament meeting. In 1980, the general presidents of the Relief Society, Young Women, and Primary were invited to sit on the stand with the male general authorities during general conference. In 1984, a woman spoke in general conference for the first time since 1930. Since then, women have spoken in every general conference. In 1978, a conference session specifically for women was added, initially two weeks before the October general conference, which was later changed to one week beforehand. In the April 2013 general conference, women gave prayers for the first time. Brigham Young University (BYU), the LDS Church's flagship educational institution, has made several changes in its policy towards women. In 1975, the four-year, full tuition and boarding expenses presidential scholarship was changed from only being available to men to being available to an equal number of men and women. BYU established a Women's Research Institute in 1978. Among its directors over its 21 years of existence was Marie Cornwall. At the end of 2009, BYU restructured its Women's Studies Programs, freeing more money for research on women's issues by ending an institute staff, placing the Women's Studies Minor in the Sociology Department and thus putting all the money that previously was split between research and staff directly into research expenditures. In 2013, the church adjusted the leadership council in its missions to include a greater role for the wife of the mission president and by creating a new role, called "sister training leader". The new Mission Leadership Council expands the use of councils to govern the church at every level. Also in 2013, the organization Ordain Women was established by LDS women who supported the extension of priesthood ordinations to women. On November 1, 2013, the church announced that beginning in 2014, a general women's meeting, conducted by the Relief Society, Young Women, and Primary organizations, will be held in connection with its bi-annual general conferences. In 2015, the church appointed women to its executive councils for the first time. The church appointed Linda K. Burton, president of the Relief Society, Rosemary Wixom, president of the Primary, and Bonnie L. Oscarson, president of the Young Women’s organization, to three high-level church councils (one woman to each). In 2015 an essay was published in The Gospel Topics section of the church's website, which surveyed 171 years of statements about a Mother in Heaven. Another published essay stated that while neither Joseph Smith nor any other church leader ordained women to the priesthood, women do exercise priesthood authority without ordination. Fundamentalist groups: Mormon fundamentalists are groups or individuals who have broken from the dominant form of Mormonism practiced by the LDS Church. Since the mid-19th century, numerous fundamentalist sects have been established, many of which are located in small, cohesive, and isolated communities in areas of the Western United States, western Canada, and Mexico. Mormon fundamentalists advocate a return to Mormon doctrines and practices which, they believe, were wrongly abandoned, such as plural marriage, the law of consecration, the Adam–God doctrine, the Patriarchal Priesthood, elements of the Mormon endowment ritual, and often the exclusion of blacks from the priesthood. Plural marriage is generally considered the most central and significant doctrine separating fundamentalists from mainstream Mormonism. In Mormon fundamentalist groups, women are typically expected or encouraged to adhere to a strongly patriarchal perspective on women's roles and activities and, in many cases, participate in plural marriage.

Christ Church (Moscow, Idaho)

Christ Church is a Reformed and evangelical church in Moscow, Idaho, pastored by Douglas Wilson, and a member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches. The congregation is known for a conservative religious ideology and a number of institutional projects, including a publishing operation (Canon Press), a magazine (Credenda/Agenda), a three-year ministerial training program (Greyfriars Hall), a private accredited college (New Saint Andrews), and a campus ministry (Collegiate Reformed Fellowship). Beliefs: Christ Church is a traditional Calvinist church, holding to conservative Reformed theology. It is known for its promotion of Christian education and biblical courtship, and for its opposition to liberalism and feminism as being contrary to the Christian faith. Christ Church also holds to biblical inerrancy and adheres to the Westminster Standards, the Three Forms of Unity, and the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds. It is a charter member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches. Work- New Saint Andrews College: New Saint Andrews College takes a “classical Christian liberal arts” approach to higher education patterned after the Harvard curriculum of 1643 consisting of small group recitations and oral exams. The College limits enrollment to no more than 200 students. Studies include "the languages, history, philosophy, and culture of classical antiquity and Western tradition in the light of Scripture". The ISI Guide to All-American Colleges describes New Saint Andrews College as “intellectually rigorous and firmly grounded in the Christian tradition." It also offers graduate programs in Trinitarian theology and classical Christian education. Greyfriars' Hall: Greyfriars' Hall is a three-year ministerial training program. The philosophy of Greyfriars is that pastoral training should be conducted not as professional graduate education under the direction of professors in an academic institution, but as practical learning under the direction of the elders of the local church. Although the curriculum features rigorous study, including biblical Hebrew and Greek and an extensive reading list that spans numerous genres, Greyfriars' emphasis is on biblical worldview. A code of conduct requires students to maintain personal, doctrinal and academic integrity. Bakwé Mission: The Bakwé Mission is the church's foreign mission ministry to the Bakwé people of southwest Côte d'Ivoire. It mainly consists of translating the Scriptures for the Bakwé Church as well as training teachers to teach the Bakwé reading and writing. Mission churches: Christ Church has helped a number of new congregations over the years and currently has four mission churches. Christ Church Missoula, Missoula, Montana; Emmanuel Chapel, Helena, Montana; Trinity Covenant Church, Santa Cruz, California; Christ Covenant Church, Yangon, Myanmar.

Murder of Karyn Hearn Slover

The murder of Karyn Hearn Slover occurred on September 27, 1996 in Decatur, Illinois, when Karyn disappeared shortly after leaving her job as an advertising sales representative at the Decatur Herald & Review. Karyn was a 23-year-old mother whose dismembered body was discovered wrapped in plastic bags sealed with duct tape in Lake Shelbyville. Karyn's ex-mother- and father-in-law Jeannette Slover and Michael Slover, Sr and ex-husband, Michael Slover, Jr were charged and convicted in 2002 for the crime of first degree murder. The case is notable for being one of the first instances of animal DNA testing as evidence in a murder trial. Disappearance and search: On September 27, 1996 Karyn left work at 5 p.m. with the intent to pick up her son Kolten and then shop for a dress at the Hickory Point Mall in Forsyth, Illinois. Later that night a black Pontiac Bonneville was discovered in central Illinois on westbound I-72 with its engine still running, its headlights on, and the driver's side door open. The car was reported to be registered to David Swann, Karyn's boyfriend, but contained some of Karyn's personal effects including her purse and driver's license. Swann reported her as a missing persons and a search campaign was conducted. At this time it was theorized that Karyn could have been the victim of a car-jacking, as investigators did not view her as likely to have voluntarily left the area due to her recently signing with a modeling agency for a job. On October 1, 1996 the remains of an unidentified female body were discovered in Lake Shelbyville, wrapped in plastic bags that were weighed down with concrete blocks. The remains were confirmed to be those of Karyn through her dental records and physical evidence such as a blood droplet and fingerprint were recovered from a bridge that overlooked the lake. Murder investigation: A task force was formed to proceed with what was now a murder case and several leads were investigated, such as an ex-boyfriend of Karyn's as well as her ex-husband Michael. An autopsy of Karyn's body showed that Karyn had been shot six times, once in the back of the head and an additional five times in the forehead, before being dismembered and the body parts placed in the plastic bags. Police found several strands of dog hair on the duct tape and remnants of cinders and tall grass. Swann was suspected of the crime as his alibi initially did not cover him for a forty-minute period. Investigators were also suspicious of several actions that Swann had performed during the initial search for Karyn and because he owned a handgun matching the type that had shot Karyn. Swann participated with police during a search warrant and was eventually cleared of suspicion after footage from an ATM surveillance video cleared him for the missing 40 minutes of his alibi. Alibis for other suspects such as Michael Jr and Karyn's ex-boyfriend also ruled them out as suspects. A break in the case came in 1998, when police noticed that broken concrete at Miracle Motors, a business owned by Karyn's ex-father-in-law Michael Slover Sr, were similar to concrete blocks used to weigh down Karyn's body. A forensic geologist was brought in to see if anything on the Slovers' business matched evidence found at the scene of the crime. The geologist found that not only was the concrete consistent with that found at Miracle Motors, but that evidence found in the abandoned car was also likely from Slover's business. The task force sifted through dirt at Miracle Motors and eventually discovered a metal rivet and a plastic button that fit a pair of Paris Club jeans and a white shirt that Karyn had been wearing the day of her murder. Police also reported finding bones at the scene, but these were not introduced to trial and were believed to have been animal meat bones that came from food fed to two dogs that Slover used to secure the property. Police then began to suspect that Michael Slover Sr and his wife Jeannette had performed the murder over custody issues, as Karyn had expressed interest in moving away to pursue her modelling career and take her son Kolten with her. Before arresting the Slovers the investigators had a veterinary geneticist perform a DNA analysis on the animal hairs found on the duct tape, which was matched to hairs retrieved from an animal brush that had been used on the dogs Slover kept on his business property. The police used this evidence to arrest the Slovers, which would be later thrown out during an appeals process by the Slovers. The Slovers, which included their son Michael Slover Jr, were all arrested with the charge of first degree murder, although Michael Sr and Michael Jr were both given the additional charge of attempting to conceal a crime. Michael, Jr. had been at work, which was confirmed, but he repeatedly called his parents that day, which made him a suspect in concealing the crime. Trial: On May 18, 2002, the Slovers were all found guilty of first degree murder and were later sentenced to 60 years in prison, with both Michael Jr and his father receiving an extra five years for the charge of concealing a crime. Custody battle: The following year in August 2003, There were concerns were raised over the custody of Karyn's son Kolten, who had been adopted by Mary Slover, Karyn's ex-sister-in-law. Authorities argued that Mary had been aware of the murder and could have potentially helped in concealing the crime. A judge later ruled that Mary was unfit as an adoptive parent and that she should not retain custody. Mary contested the ruling, which she claimed influenced a case worker to change her report, which initially contained a recommendation that Kolten be returned to Mary. Despite this, Mary officially lost custody of Kolten in October 2003. Appeal: The Slovers appealed their murder sentences, stating that media coverage preceding the trial had tainted the potential jury pool and prevented them from receiving a fair trial. Concerns were also raised about other elements such as the animal DNA testing, as well as evidence that the murder could have been committed by one of several alternative suspects. A judge ruled against opening a second trial for the Slovers, stating that he found no evidence of misconduct or prejudice. Innocence Project: The Illinois branch of the Innocence Project expressed interest in the Slovers and conducted an investigation into the case. The group circulated a petition to have the Slovers' case re-examined as well as examining evidence to find potential proof that the Slovers did not commit Karyn's murder. The group requested that the fingerprint found at the Lake Shelbyville bridge be tested as evidence, but the move was rejected in 2010 by Assistant Circuit Court Judge Timothy Steadman, who stated: "Because the latent print is not suitable for the requested testing, there is no potential to produce new evidence materially relevant to the defendants' assertion of actual innocence". Media: The murder and the subsequent investigation have been the focus of several episodes of investigative true crime shows. The case was examined in a 2006 episode of the truTV television series Forensic Files, the 2005 premiere episode of the Discovery Channel series Guilty or Innocent?, and a 2010 episode of the Investigation Discovery show Cold Blood.

James Randall (murderer)

James Michael Randall (born August 28, 1954) is an American criminal whose convictions include multiple rapes, a kidnapping, and the murder of two women in the Tampa Bay Area in Florida in the 1990s. Randall is currently an inmate in the Jackson Correctional Institute serving out two life sentences. Randall has been variously described as a "serial killer", despite only having two convictions for murder, and as a "notorious criminal". 1980s prosecutions: Randall was a chief suspect in the 1984 death of Boston resident Holly Jean Cote, whose death by strangulation was never solved. Cote was a friend of Randall's then-wife, Linda Randall. Cote was last seen alive in the Gardner area of Massachusetts on March 4, 1984. Her body was found in early May in a marsh near Birch Hill Dam at Royalston. His suspected involvement in Cote's death is based on statements Randall made to his then-wife and to mental health workers during interactions he had with psychiatric services in late 1984, and on the fact that Cote's body was recovered in a fishing area Randall was known to frequent. Randall was never charged with an offence relating to Cote's death but evidence relating to the investigation was raised in the subsequent Evans/Pugh murder trial. In the late 1980s a Massachusetts court convicted James Randall of an incident of sexual battery of Linda Randall, which occurred on 18 July 1986. Later the same year James was convicted of two counts of sexual battery and one count of kidnapping, also relating to Linda Randall. He was sentenced to five to seven years imprisonment for these offences and spent time in a Massachusetts prison until his release in 1992. After his release Randall moved to Florida and got a job as a window installer. Murders of Wendy Evans and Cynthia Pugh: On October 20, 1995, Wendy Evans, a Florida prostitute, was killed by strangulation; her naked body was found on Myrtle Lane in Oldsmar by a pizza delivery driver later the same day. On January 18, 1996, Cynthia Pugh, another Florida prostitute, was also killed by strangulation, her body being discovered on January 19, 1996. Police identified James Randall as a person of interest in relation to both deaths after finding tire marks that matched Randall's Dodge D-50 pick-up truck. Police went to speak to Randall on June 27 1996 at his residence. Following that conversation police observed Randall leaving his premises in his truck and attempted to stop him to ask further questions, but Randall instead accelerated away from police and a high-speed chase between Randall and police followed. Following the conclusion of the chase Randall continued to flee on foot and was not eventually found and detained until four days later (July 1, 1996). Police investigations revealed that Randall had a history of engaging in consensual erotic asphyxiation with his sexual partners, along with allegations of non-consensual violent attacks on his then-girlfriend Terry-Jo Howard involving in part attempts to choke her. In April 1997 Randall was convicted by a Florida jury of first-degree murder in the strangulation deaths of both women. Sentencing judge Susan Schaeffer found three aggravating factors in the offence, being (1) that Randall had a previous conviction for a felony, (2) that the previous conviction was for a violent felony, and (3) that the murders were especially heinous, callous or cruel. Taking these factors into account, the court sentenced Randall to two death sentences in relation to the murders. He was also sentenced to a concurrent sentence of five years on a charge of evading police. Randall appealed the murder convictions; his appeal was heard by the Supreme Court of Florida in 2000. The court upheld the appeals and found that Randall had most likely choked Evans and Pugh for pleasure, not to kill them. Accordingly, the conviction for first-degree murder was replaced with a conviction for second-degree murder in relation to both deaths, and his death sentences were changed to sentences of life imprisonment. Randall is held in Liberty Correctional Institution, Bristol, Florida. The murder of Evans and Pugh was featured on two television shows: Forensic Files, in an episode titled Treads and Threads, New Detectives Left at the Scene and Body of Evidence. Other deaths: Randall has been the target of allegations that he was involved in other deaths in Massachusetts and Florida. The initial investigations that linked Randall to the deaths of Evans and Pugh involved inquiry into a series of deaths involving female victims, many of them prostitutes, who were killed by strangulation and whose bodies were found naked. The St Petersburg Times reports that when the imprisoned Randall was informed by detectives he would be charged with the murders of Cynthia Pugh and Wendy Evans, he replied, "Is that all?" Although investigations are continuing, no charges have been laid against Randall relating to other deaths.

Baby Richard case

The Baby Richard case was a highly publicized custody battle that took place over Danny Kirchner, a young child whose adoption was revoked when his biological father, Otakar Kirchner, won custody in a case that was decided in 1995 by the Illinois Supreme Court. The child became known as "Baby Richard" in widespread media coverage. Background: The child was brought to his adoptive home four days after his March 16, 1991 birth by Jay and Kim Warburton of Schaumburg, Illinois, who pursued a private adoption with the consent of the child's biological mother, Daniela Janikova, who had been living with the father, Otakar Kirchner, until a few weeks before the birth of the child when she moved out following an argument. Court records show that Janikova subsequently told Kirchner that the baby had died. Despite being told of the death, Kirchner searched for confirmation with local hospitals and by searching public records. Two months after Richard was born, a friend of the biological mother told Kirchner the truth, and he intervened in the adoption proceedings to gain custody of his son. Events of the custody battle: The Warburtons fought to keep the child. The Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois upheld Kirchner's paternity of the child and his right to intervene in December 1991, but a subsequent ruling declared him an unfit parent and permitted the adoption to proceed, because the request to block the adoption occurred more than the 30 days after the child's birth required under Illinois state Adoption Law, Article I. Otakar filed an appeal with the Illinois Appellate Court. The Circuit Court ruling was upheld. An appeal was filed with the Illinois Supreme Court who agreed to hear the case. Three years after the birth of the child, in June 1994, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the Circuit Court of Cook County and the Illinois Appellate Court had wrongly terminated Kirchner's parental rights, and the adoption was improper. Under Illinois law, courts can only consider a child's best interests if a biological parent is determined to be unfit. Justice James Heiple issued the order requiring that the child be removed from his home and turned over to Kirchner, whom he had never met. The Warburtons filed petitions with the United States Supreme Court seeking to stay and overturn the enforcement of the Illinois Supreme Court decision; however, these petitions were denied. Following the Supreme Court ruling: In January 1995, Kirchner, seeking enforcement of the Illinois Supreme Court's ruling, filed a Petition for Habeas Corpus. The petition was granted. On April 30, 1995, Danny Warburton / Kirchner was transferred from the Warburtons to the care of his father as television and print reporters documented the event. The child never saw or spoke with his adoptive parents again. In one of his many columns on the case, nationally syndicated Chicago Tribune columnist and author Bob Greene quoted a priest present at the transfer who said Otakar Kirchner had told the child on that day that he would be allowed to see his adoptive parents and brother whenever he wished. Greene wrote that Kirchner later said that the child had no desire to see his adoptive parents, and that the Warburtons had not requested to see Baby Richard. Media attention: Karen Moriarty, a therapist for the biological parents, told the Chicago Sun-Times in 2003 that Danny has adjusted well to life after the custody battle. She documented the case in the book Baby Richard -- A Four-Year-Old Comes Home. Moriarty decried the media's treatment of the Kirchners, claiming that Bob Greene never spoke to Kirchner or Janikova in spite of writing so frequently on the case. Following the transfer, Otakar filed a lawsuit against Greene and the Chicago Tribune claiming defamation. The case against Greene and the Chicago Tribune was dismissed by an Illinois Court on February 6, 1998.

Baby Jessica case

The "Baby Jessica" case, was a well-publicized custody battle in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the early 1990s between Jan and Roberta DeBoer, the couple who attempted to adopt the child, and her biological parents, Dan Schmidt and Cara Clausen. In August, 1993, the supreme courts of Iowa and Michigan ordered her returned to Schmidt, who named her Anna Jacqueline Schmidt. The case was widely publicized as the "Baby Jessica" case after the name given her by the DeBoers. The case name is In re Clausen 442 Mich. 648 (1993). Overview: Anna was born in 1991 to Cara Clausen, who placed her for adoption with Jan and Roberta DeBoer without telling Schmidt that he was the father. She also put a different man's name on the birth certificate, further obscuring paternity. The adoption process was handled by the DeBoer's attorney, whom Clausen erroneously thought was also her attorney. Five days after the birth, Clausen changed her mind, informed Schmidt of his paternity, and told the DeBoers that she wanted to cancel the adoption. Clausen had already relinquished her parental rights so there was nothing that she could do. But Schmidt had not relinquished his parental rights so he could and did stop the adoption proceedings. The DeBoers, however, refused to accept that the adoption would not be completed, and returned home to Ann Arbor. Clausen and Schmidt later married, and Schmidt went to court to get Anna returned to them. The DeBoers, who had named the baby "Jessica", battled to keep the child for 2½ years, but ultimately lost. Because the adoption process had never been completed, the Michigan court had no choice but to give full faith and credit to the sister state judgment from Iowa and order "Jessica/Anna" to be returned to her biological parents. Roberta "Robby" DeBoer later wrote a book called Losing Jessica about the case and the DeBoers established a child advocacy group called Hear My Voice that advocates for children involved in difficult custody cases, with a pro-adoptive parent angle. A TV movie dramatizing the events, Whose Child Is This? The War for Baby Jessica was produced, but was criticized for being biased in favor of the DeBoers. In the film, the DeBoers, who were better educated than the Schmidts and had a better financial position, were portrayed as an affluent, ideal family for the child, while the Schmidts were portrayed as low-class, unsuitable parents living in squalid conditions. Anna said in 2003 that she has no memory of the DeBoers and was doing well with her biological family.

Death of Joan Robinson Hill

The death of Joan Robinson Hill at 38 years old led to her husband, John Hill, becoming the first person to be indicted by the State of Texas on the charge of murder by omission. The case precipitated a series of events that included the 1972 murder of John Hill and, two years later, the fatal police shooting of the man accused of that murder. She died following a short illness on March 19, 1969. Autopsy examinations failed to determine a cause of death beyond an infection from an unknown source. Her father, Ash Robinson, subsequently accused Hill of poisoning his daughter, and petitioned the district attorney to prosecute her husband for murder. Hill's murder trial was held in February 1971 but ended in a mistrial. As a second trial was approaching, Hill was gunned down by an intruder at his home. A suspect, Bobby Wayne Vandiver, was arrested and indicted for the murder, but was killed in a shootout with police before his trial. Two other suspects, Marcia McKittrick and Lilla Paulus, were convicted as accomplices to Hill's murder and served time in prison. The case was the subject of Thomas Thompson's 1976 book Blood and Money and the 1981 made-for-television film Murder in Texas. Background: On September 28, 1957, Joan Robinson married Dr. John Hill, described by the Houston Chronicle as "one of the city's leading plastic surgeons". The couple had a son, Robert Ashton "Boot" Hill, born on June 14, 1960. John and Joan Hill became a regular part of Houston's social scene, but largely led separate lives. Joan focused on her equestrian career while John devoted his spare time to performing and listening to music. By 1968, the Hills had begun to have significant conflicts in their marriage. After beginning an extramarital affair with a woman named Ann Kurth in the fall of 1968, Hill left his wife and began divorce proceedings against her, but withdrew the petition when the couple reconciled shortly before Christmas of that year. John continued to see Kurth after returning to live with his wife. Robinson Hill died on March 19, 1969, at Sharpstown General Hospital after contracting an illness that was initially thought to be influenza. Her symptoms included fever, vomiting, nausea, and diarrhea. She was first treated at home by her husband, but admitted to hospital when her condition worsened. Death, investigation, and trials- Death: Robinson Hill died on March 19, 1969, at Sharpstown General Hospital shortly after contracting an illness that was initially thought to be influenza. Upon being told that his wife was dead, John Hill's cries filled the small hospital. Patients on the second floor of the building came to the doors of their rooms in an effort to learn what had happened. Hill managed to ask someone to call a friend and his wife, who lived nearby. Jim Oates was a doctor and a fellow musician; his wife, Dottie, was a nurse. The couple had just seen the Hills five days earlier at Houston's annual wild game dinner. Dottie Oates did not at first recognize Joan Robinson Hill, due to her edema and discoloration from ruptured superficial blood vessels. First autopsy: Texas state law at the time required an autopsy by the county coroner for anyone who died in a hospital within twenty-four hours of admission. The law stated that the autopsy must be performed and a cause of death determined before any embalming or burial could take place, and provided criminal penalties for its breach. Drs. Bertinot and Lanza, who had attended Robinson Hill, were summoned back to the hospital when she died. Dr. Bertinot spoke to John Hill about the legal need for an autopsy and called the hospital's pathologist to start the process. Hill asked Jim Oates to call a local funeral home to claim Robinson Hill's body. Less than four hours after her death, the funeral home removed Robinson Hill's body from the hospital. Within an hour after moving the body from Sharpstown General, the funeral home began the process of embalming Robinson Hill's body. The hospital's pathologist, Dr. Arthur Morse, arrived at the funeral home at 10 a.m. to carry out the autopsy, only to find that the body had already been embalmed. Dr. Morse did not have the ability to take blood samples, since Robinson Hill's blood had been replaced by the embalming fluid. Morse concluded his autopsy at 11:30 a.m. without finding any signs of what caused Robinson Hill's death aside from a maroon coloration of her pancreas and offered an opinion that she may have died from pancreatitis. Second autopsy: On Thursday, March 20, 1969, Diane Settegast and Eunice Woolen, who stayed with the Hills as house guests a week before Joan's death, returned to Houston to attend Robinson Hill's funeral, and Settegast called on Hill to pay her respects. On arriving at the house she found him upstairs in the music room with his son and some friends, watching a Laurel and Hardy film and laughing. Surprised that he did not appear to be grieving, she began to leave in disgust, but was stopped by Hill before she reached the front door. During the ensuing conversation, she expressed disbelief at the speed of her friend's death, and asked Hill why he had not been able to help her. Hill replied that he wanted to take his wife to hospital but she refused to go, saying "You know what she was like about hospitals". Settegast became suspicious as she did not recognize Hill's observation of her friend, and voiced her concerns to Ash Robinson. Since receiving Dr. Morse's opinion that his daughter had died from pancreatitis, Robinson had been consulting doctors on the matter, who had advised him that this was an unlikely cause of death. On the morning of Friday, March 21, the day of Joan Robinson Hill's funeral, Ash Robinson visited the office of Assistant District Attorney I. D. McMaster, where he accused John Hill of killing his wife, telling McMaster of the circumstances surrounding her death and autopsy. After listening to Robinson's story, McMaster said that he would look into it, then telephoned Harris County Medical Examiner Joseph Jachimczyk, telling him to go to the funeral home, examine the body before the funeral, and stop the service if necessary. Jachimczyk then telephoned two people–the administrator of Sharpstown Hospital, and Morse. On hearing of the circumstances in which Morse had performed his autopsy, he ordered the pathologist to hand over blood and urine specimens taken from Robinson Hill, and his preliminary report. Jachimczyk felt there was enough material for him to perform his own autopsy. He then drove to the funeral home to view the body, doing so as mourners began to arrive for the service, but saw no need to halt proceedings. While awaiting the medical examiner's results, Ash Robinson continued to gather evidence against his son-in-law, assembling a team of respected doctors at his home to discuss the case. These included his general practitioner, Ed Gouldin, and Grady Hallman. Robinson also took statements from people connected with his daughter, including Settegast, Woolen, and the Hill's household employees Archie and Effie Green. Jachimczyk delivered his report on the second autopsy at the end of March, ruling out any poisoning, and concluding, "it is my opinion based upon a reasonable probability that the cause of death is due to acute focal hepatitis, probably viral in origin." On reading the report, McMaster felt there was no case, but Robinson refused to believe that no crime had been committed. He hired lawyer Frank Briscoe, a former Harris County District Attorney who had recently left office. As part of his investigation, Briscoe spoke to Morse. He asked the pathologist whether it would be possible to inject someone with hepatitis. Morse felt this an unlikely scenario, but offered the lawyer an alternative opinion on how Robinson Hill may have contracted the virus. He said that he had been told that in the days prior to her death Robinson Hill had eaten both shellfish and snails, and Morse felt one of these may have caused her to contract hepatitis. Robinson then petitioned his son-in-law to give permission for Joan's body to be exhumed for another autopsy, but Hill refused. Third autopsy: Ash Robinson sought to hire "the best pathologist in the United States" to conduct another autopsy on his daughter. Robinson's search led him to Dr. Milton Helpern, who was the chief medical examiner for New York City at the time. Helpern agreed to come to Houston to examine Robinson Hill's body five months after her death. An autopsy was also requested by a Harris County grand jury investigating the death of Robinson Hill. That autopsy was performed by a team of ten doctors led by Dr. Robert Bucklin, who was then the medical examiner for Galveston County, and including Dr. Helpern, was deputized as an acting Harris County medical examiner. As soon as the casket was opened, Helpern found pieces of dried mud in it, indicating that the casket had been opened after Robinson Hill was originally buried. When questioned, the funeral home informed the medical team present at the autopsy that John Hill had obtained an order to disinter his wife three days after her funeral. Hill claimed he wanted to retrieve a piece of jewelry that had been buried with her. While making the wake and funeral arrangements, Hill insisted that his wife be buried with no jewelry at all—not even her wedding ring. Helpern found nothing amiss related to the disinterment, but noted that Robinson Hill's stomach and its contents were never removed and examined at the original autopsy. The pathologist's disapproval became disbelief when he discovered that Robinson Hill's brain and heart were missing. Dr. Morse then made an embarrassed admission to not returning the organs prior to burial. Morse offered that he did, however, know the whereabouts of Robinson Hill's brain—it was in the trunk of his car. The Texas pathologist retrieved the brain for Dr. Helpern's examination. Helpern thought there might be traces of meningitis, but declined to state whether he thought this was a cause of Robinson Hill's death. He examined the body of Joan Robinson Hill for seven and a half hours; Helpern then went back to New York with his tissue samples, saying he would issue a report on his findings at a later date. The series of autopsies indicated that Robinson Hill had suffered a "massive infection" from an undetermined source, but because the body had been embalmed before an initial examination was conducted, an exact cause of death could not be identified. The hospital and the Harris County medical examiner initially listed Robinson Hill's cause of death as hepatitis, but there were no signs of the disease (such as jaundice) noted; medical test results were also not indicative of hepatitis. Dr. Bucklin listed Robinson Hill's cause of death as meningitis and septicemia. Following the autopsy, Joseph Jachimczyk issued a fresh report in which he observed "It is now my opinion that Joan Robinson Hill came to her death as a result of a fulminating infectious process, the specific nature of which is no longer determinable." He went on to recommend that the matter be investigated by a grand jury. Dr. Milton Helpern did not issue his report until April 1970, more than a year after the death of Robinson Hill. Helpern's report noted that John Hill's treatment of his wife at home and the delay in seeking specialized medical attention at a hospital were factors in the death of Robinson Hill. The will: When John Hill filed his wife's last will and testament shortly after her death, Ash Robinson quickly produced another will, which he said had been written at the time Joan was separated from Hill. The will made Robinson her executor, left everything to him, and asked that Robinson and his wife have custody of the Hills' son, Robert. It was signed by two of Robinson's friends, one a former employee. Hill believed the will to be a forgery and hired three handwriting experts to attest to that fact. Thompson observes that Robinson Hill's signature was different to that in a previous will, and that the will had been "clumsily typed, replete with spelling mistakes and language more likely to be used by someone imitating legal terminology". Hill asked the District Attorney's office to investigate, but Cecil Haden, who was serving on the grand jury at the time, suggested the matter be dealt with once the issue of Robinson Hill's death had been addressed. Robert Hill contested the will in 1978, claiming that it was a forgery, but a probate jury found in favor of Robinson. Prosecution and murder of John Hill: After Robinson Hill's death, Hill married Ann Kurth in June 1969, but divorced Kurth less than a year later, shortly before he was indicted for the murder of Robinson Hill. He divorced Kurth in spite of the advice of his defense attorney, who told him that if they remained married, Kurth could not testify against him. Following Hill's marriage to Kurth, Ash Robinson accused his former son-in-law of poisoning his daughter, and hired a team of private detectives to keep him under surveillance. He also petitioned the District Attorney to launch a murder investigation. Frank Briscoe subsequently discussed the case with McMaster, who had worked as his junior during his time as a District Attorney. Neither man was convinced that Hill had murdered his wife, but they felt that there was enough evidence to put the matter before a grand jury. The grand jury began hearing evidence in the summer of 1969, and rumors began to circulate among the Houston medical fraternity that Hill had played a role in Robinson Hill's death. In response to the gossip, Hill contacted Clyde Wilson, a private investigator who had worked for Robinson. Wilson suggested that if Hill wished to clear his name, he should take a polygraph test. Hill decided instead to give a statement under the administration of sodium pentothal (alternatively known as truth serum) at which his own lawyer and McMaster would be present. The drug was administered at Sharpstown Hospital by anesthesiologist Dr. Richard Smith, who had occasionally assisted Hill during surgery, but who both sides felt would be a neutral party. Although Hill was deemed to have passed the examination, McMaster was suspicious that the drug had not worked properly because he felt that Hill's answers seemed too composed. The first grand jury to examine the case retired without indicting Hill. Robinson then urged Briscoe to pressure the District Attorney to order an exhumation, then fired the lawyer when he refused, after which he retained the services of the law firm Vinson and Elkins. District Attorney Carol Vance then put the case before a second grand jury to see if they would order an exhumation. When they did, Hill hired his own lawyer, Don Fullenweider, who asked his partner, respected defense attorney Richard Haynes, to represent the doctor. In February 1970, the case was heard by a third grand jury, on which sat Cecil Haden, a prominent Houston businessman and close friend and associate of Ash Robinson. This panel heard testimony from Ann Kurth, less than one day after she was divorced from Hill on March 12. She told them that Hill had confessed to killing his wife and had also tried to kill Kurth on three occasions, and that the physician had medicated himself with an antidote to the sodium pentothal prior to the test, a claim Richard Smith dismissed as implausible. Helpern was preparing his autopsy report as the jury neared the end of its 90-day term, but would not complete it in time for his findings to be heard. Haden suggested that Helpern present his conclusions in person. District Judge Wendell Odom agreed, and Helpern presented his findings in April 1970. In response to Helpern's presentation, Haynes suggested that Hill testify before the grand jury, but the evidence Hill gave contradicted that given by others involved in the case, and his cool and aloof manner began to convince McMaster and his fellow Assistant District Attorney, Ernie Ernst, that Hill had murdered his wife. In spite of this, they determined that there was not enough evidence to indict him. However, following some research, Ernst suggested that they could try him for failing to provide an adequate level of care, which had resulted in her death. The jury voted 10–2 to indict Hill for murder by omission, deciding that he had "willfully, intentionally and culpably" contributed to his wife's death because he had not given her sufficient medical help. The state of Texas had not previously indicted anyone on a charge of murder by omission. Hill's murder trial began on February 15, 1971, before Judge Frederick Hooey. The case was prosecuted by McMaster and Ernst, while Hill was defended by Richard Haynes. Robinson Hill's friend and neighbor Vann Maxwell was the first witness to give evidence, and testified that Robinson Hill had said shortly before her death that she had given up on her marriage. Kurth testified against Hill, claiming that he had tried to kill her on June 30, 1969, by crashing their car into a bridge, and by injecting her with a hypodermic syringe. She also told the court that he had confessed to killing Robinson Hill. Kurth claimed to have seen three petri dishes in the bathroom of John Hill's apartment during the time Joan Robinson Hill became ill. She said they had "something red in them" and when she asked Hill about it, he told her he was conducting an experiment. Kurth testified that Hill was annoyed at her discovery and the next day, when she found some pastries in the apartment's refrigerator, he became annoyed again, telling her not to eat them. Kurth said that on the night of their auto accident, Hill went into detail about how he had killed Joan Robinson Hill. She claimed that the petri dishes contained cultures grown from all forms of human waste, and that Hill had initially injected the cultures into pastries he served to his wife. When Robinson Hill fell only mildly ill from their ingestion, she asked her husband for something to cure the illness. Kurth's testimony continued by saying that Hill then added the cultures to an injectable drug which he administered to Robinson Hill. As a result of Kurth's testimony, Haynes called for a mistrial, a request to which Hooey agreed after some deliberation. In June 1971, John Hill was married for a third time, to Connie Loesby. Hill's second trial was scheduled to begin in July 1971, but at the request of the defense, it was delayed multiple times, to November 1972. Murder of John Hill: On September 24, 1972, a few weeks before the second trial was to start, Hill was shot dead by a masked gunman during a robbery at his mansion as Hill and his wife returned home from a medical conference in Las Vegas. The masked intruder forced his way into the Hills' home about a half hour before John and Connie Hill were due to arrive home. The man bound Hill's mother and son and taped their mouths with adhesive tape. When the Hills arrived, Connie rang the home's doorbell and was greeted by someone in a green mask she initially thought to be her stepson playing a joke. The intruder grabbed Connie Hill, saying "This is a robbery." She was able to struggle away from him and run down the street. As she ran and called out for help, she heard shots fired. A neighbor heard her cries for help, let her in, and let her call the police. When the police and an ambulance arrived at the Hill home, they found John Hill in the foyer, face down. Standing over him was his 12-year-old son; feet and arms bound, he had managed to hop from a back room of the house. The adhesive tape had come loose from his mouth and he cried, "They've killed my daddy." The ambulance attendant searched for vital signs but found none. When the body was turned over, Hill's eyes, nose and mouth were found to have been sealed shut with adhesive tape by his killer. The police noted this type of killing was prevalent in the local underworld. John Hill was beaten and shot three times: in the chest, shoulder and right arm. Connie and Robert Hill believed that Robinson Hill's father, Ash Robinson, had ordered Hill's execution, and launched a $7.6-million lawsuit against him for wrongful death. Robinson denied responsibility for the shooting, but maintained that Hill was to blame for the death of his daughter. In 1977, following a seven-week hearing, a civil jury cleared Robinson of any involvement in the death of his son-in-law. During the wrongful death suit against Ash Robinson, Thomas Thompson, the author of Blood and Money, offered an opinion that Hill probably did not have enough medical knowledge to kill his wife without leaving any evidence. Thompson, who had observed many doctors while writing books, described plastic surgeons and orthopedists as being the "carpenters" of the medical world. He characterized internists and researchers as being the real thinkers of medicine, and said that Hill's interest in research applied only to the music world. Arrest and trial of Bobby Vandiver and Marcia McKittrick: Houston detectives Jerry Carpenter and Joe Gamino were called to River Oaks after a boy discovered Hill's abandoned briefcase, which had been stolen during the robbery. While searching the scene, Carpenter found a gun beneath a bush. A ballistics expert was able to determine that the bullets fired at Hill had been handmade, and as a result of this Houston police were able to trace the weapon to a doctor. When questioned as to how the weapon had found its way to River Oaks, the doctor said it had been stolen by a woman whom he described as "a whore". He went on to explain that he had entertained two prostitutes, who stole some money and one of his cars while he was sleeping. He had taken the gun and planned to go looking for the women, but as he was about to leave, he was called by another prostitute who called herself Dusty, who asked if he wanted company. While she was with him, he said, she took the gun. He then said he believed Dusty's real name was Marcia McKittrick. Carpenter, a former vice squad officer, used his old contacts to trace McKittrick, and discovered she was involved with Bobby Wayne Vandiver, an habitual criminal who had established himself as a pimp following his most recent release from prison. Vandiver was arrested in April 1973, but refused to cooperate with police until he was positively identified as the perpetrator by Hill's mother. When he confessed to the murder, he told police he had done it for financial gain. During his confession, Vandiver implicated McKittrick and Lilla Paulus, a former prostitute from Houston, as having been accessories to Hill's murder. He claimed that the shooting was a contract killing that he had been asked to carry out for $5,000. He told detectives "Paulus told me the contract was on a doctor who had killed his wife. And that it was the wife's father who was wanting him dead." During several days of police interrogation, Vandiver told Detectives Carpenter and Gamino that Lilla Paulus had first mentioned the contract in the summer of 1972, but that he had never intended to go through with it. He said that after he agreed to kill Hill, McKittrick telephoned Hill's office to arrange an appointment with the surgeon, but was told he was in Las Vegas. They subsequently traveled to Las Vegas to carry out the killing there, but could not find Hill, so they returned to Houston. After Vandiver killed the doctor at his home, he fled with McKittrick to Los Angeles, where they shared an apartment for several months, but they frequently quarreled, and returned separately to Texas in 1973. On April 25, 1973, a grand jury voted to indict Vandiver and McKittrick for first degree murder, and indict Paulus as an accomplice to murder. Vandiver's trial was set for September 1973. In the meantime, District Attorney Bob Bennett arranged for him to live at a motel with his wife, Vicki. She was found a job as a waitress, but he was required to stay in his room unless accompanied by someone from the District Attorney's office. Vicki was in the process of seeking custody of her children from a previous marriage, and in June 1973, Vandiver asked Bennett if he could travel with her to Dallas while the case was heard. Bennett granted the request on the condition that Vandiver check in with him on a regular basis. Vandiver showed up as promised in September, only to learn that the trial had been postponed, and Bennett reluctantly allowed him to return to Dallas. The trial was eventually rescheduled for April 1974, but Vandiver failed to appear. He went on the run and moved to Longview, Texas, adopting the alias J. C. Sheridan and trying to maintain a low profile. However, Longview police officer John Raymer grew suspicious of the newcomer to his town. After discovering the man's first name was actually Bobby, Raymer confronted Vandiver at a cafe one evening in May; Vandiver pulled a gun, and Raymer shot him dead. McKittrick remained at large for several months, but was finally arrested in Dallas on September 21, 1973, after attempting to cash a forged payroll check at a drive-in bank. Under questioning, she corroborated Vandiver's story, and also told Carpenter and Gamino that she had met Ash Robinson while she was staying with Lilla Paulus in 1972. McKittrick claimed that Robinson had said he would do anything to get custody of his grandson, but that the only way that would happen was if Hill was dead. She said that Robinson and Paulus had met frequently at Ben Taub Hospital, where money was handed over, and that Robinson had also visited Paulus at her home, where he gave her plans of Hill's home and $7,000 on the day of the shooting. McKittrick was scheduled to be tried in 1974, alongside Paulus. However, Paulus's lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, argued for Vandiver's evidence to be dismissed under the Sixth Amendment, which gives a defendant the right to confront their accuser; the request was granted. DeGuerin also asked for McKittrick's evidence against Paulus to be ruled as inadmissible. But although this request was also granted, presiding Judge Price ruled that McKittrick's evidence could be used in the state's case against her. McKittrick's attorney, John Caperton, then sought consensus for her to enter a not guilty plea, but accept a guilty verdict, something to which Bennett agreed. McKittrick was convicted of being Vandiver's getaway driver and given a ten-year jail sentence. She was paroled after serving five years. Trial and conviction of Lilla Paulus: As McKittrick was led from the court, Bennett asked her to give evidence against Paulus, but she was initially reluctant to do so. She continued to resist until the case against Paulus was heard in February 1975. At the trial, McKittrick testified that Robinson had paid Paulus $25,000 to find someone to eliminate Hill, and that in turn, Paulus had paid Vandiver $5,000 to carry out the murder. McKittrick and Robinson both passed polygraph tests. The results indicated that McKittrick was being truthful when she stated that Robinson had caused John Hill's death and that Robinson was telling the truth when he said he had nothing to do with Hill's murder. Bennett also produced evidence that Ash Robinson had taken out a private telephone number, which had been found written on a scrap of paper in Paulus's handbag. DeGuerin then sought to portray McKittrick as a liar by calling Paulus to the witness stand, a strategy that was almost successful until Paulus deviated from the agreed testimony. She had sought to portray herself as a respectable widow who had taken pity on McKittrick. However, after telling the court that she did not know Vandiver, but had taken McKittrick into her home after a friend of her late husband had introduced them in the spring of 1972, Paulus offered comment on the difference between the two women's lifestyles. She told the court "I liked McKittrick even though you could gather from her conversation that her life was just a little bit different from mine". Paulus claimed to know nothing of McKittrick's past, but Bennett thought her comparison of the two women's lifestyles was unusual if she was telling the truth. He knew that several years earlier she had been arrested on vagrancy and prostitution charges, and he sought a way to impeach her testimony. An officer who had arrested her, Lieutenant Allbright, then testified, casting doubt on her credibility, after which Bennett eventually persuaded Paulus's daughter, Mary Jo Wood, to give evidence against her. The relationship between mother and daughter had soured some years previously, after Paulus had disapproved of a man Wood was dating, attempted to have them both killed, then had her daughter confined to a mental hospital. Wood had escaped from the institution and fled with the man to another state, where the couple married, and she was afraid to return to Texas. She agreed to testify only after Bennett assured her that the District Attorney's office would ensure her protection while she was in Houston. Bennett introduced Mary Jo Wood as a surprise witness. She went on to testify that when Wood was a young girl, Paulus had owned several properties on Galveston's Post Office Street, a notorious red-light district, that were operated as brothels. She also said that Paulus had accepted payment from a man who wished to perform a sexual act with Wood. Wood testified that she and her mother met Joan Robinson Hill through Diane Settegast around 1963. While at Robinson Hill's home, the women also met Ash Robinson. Wood said that she and her mother occasionally sat in the Robinson box at horse shows. When Wood visited her mother in December 1970, she claimed she was told by Paulus of a call from Settegast, saying that Robinson wanted to hire someone to kill John Hill. Diane Settegast testified that she had known the Robinson family since 1952 and had met Paulus in 1957 or 1958. She denied telling Paulus that Ash Robinson wanted someone to kill his former son-in-law. Settegast, who had stayed at Paulus's home during the first murder trial for Hill, said she did have three telephone numbers for Ash Robinson; she believed she received the third number after the murder of John Hill and may have given the number in question to Paulus. She continued by saying that she had seen Paulus in the company of Ash Robinson only once; it was at Chatsworth Farm during the 1968 holiday season. Paulus was convicted and given a 35-year sentence. Robinson claimed that Paulus had loved his daughter and that her actions were born out of a sense of justice for avenging Robinson Hill's death. He continued to maintain his own innocence. Paulus subsequently appealed, and in October 1981, the Texas Court of Appeals reversed the conviction, ruling that there was not enough evidence to prove Paulus's guilt, and that McKittrick's evidence was unreliable. This decision was then overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in May 1982, reinstating the conviction and the original sentence. Paulus died of breast cancer at the Gatesville prison on May 16, 1986. Aftermath: In 1979, Ash and Rhea Robinson relocated from Houston to Pensacola, Florida, to distance themselves from the ongoing interest in the death of their daughter. By 1981, Robert Hill had reconciled with his grandparents and was also living in Pensacola. Ash Robinson died in Florida in February 1985, aged 87. His wife Rhea died, aged 86, just over two years later in June 1987. Following the death of her husband, Connie Hill petitioned the court for custody of her 12-year-old stepson, Robert. She was joined in filing the petition by John Hill's mother and sister. Connie and Robert Hill lived in the Kirby Drive home for several years. Robert Hill decided to sell the house in 1981. At the time, he was living in Florida, while Connie was preparing to remarry. Ann Kurth and her three sons went into seclusion outside of Austin, Texas, where she died of an aneurism in January 1990, aged 59. In November 1980, CBS-TV reported that medical evidence had been reexamined, and that Hill's defense lawyer, Richard Haynes was of the opinion that Joan Robinson Hill may have died as a result of toxic shock syndrome, a condition associated with the use of tampons. But while Houston Medical Examiner Joseph Jachimscyk agreed that some of Robinson Hill's symptoms were indicative of toxic shock syndrome, he said that others were not, so would not change his original conclusion. Cultural impact: The events surrounding the death of Joan Robinson Hill have been the subject of several books, as well as a 1981 television film. Journalist and author Thomas Thompson's 1976 book Blood and Money provides a detailed account of the case. He became interested in the story while shadowing doctors in Houston as research for a previous book, Hearts, about the world of cardiac surgery. Ann Kurth filed a $3-million lawsuit against Thompson over his description of her as a "provocatively dressed, heavily made-up woman", but her action was dismissed by a jury in Austin in March 1981, which decided that although derogatory, his description of her was accurate. The legal case was one of three Thompson faced over his book. Kurth published her own account of the case entitled Prescription Murder in which she repeated her claim that Hill had tried to kill her, and alleged that he may have poisoned his first wife with bacteria-laced pastries. She also suggested that Hill had not been killed in 1972, and had instead moved to Mexico after faking his death. Retired Harris County District Attorney Carol Vance also discussed the case in his memoirs, Boomtown DA. In 1981, the Robinson Hill case was the subject of Murder in Texas, a television film featuring Farrah Fawcett as Robinson Hill. It concurs with Kurth's theory that Hill may have faked his death, suggesting that he arranged for someone else to be killed in his place. The journalist Jerry Buck noted in an article preceding the film's debut on NBC that the face of the shooting victim had been battered and that there were anomalies in the autopsy report, notably that Hill had a different eye color from that recorded for the dead person. Buck also wrote that Hill was in financial difficulties with the Internal Revenue Service in 1972 and facing a murder case against him. Sightings of Hill had also been reported in Mexico and New York. The death of Robinson Hill was also the subject of a true crime television documentary-drama as part of the series Behind Mansion Walls from the Investigation Discovery television network. "The Thoroughbred Heiress" first aired in June 2011.

World Government (Mormonism)

Early 19th century Mormon theology, under the direction of founder Joseph Smith, and other prominent Mormon leaders such as Brigham Young, taught a World Government - would guide and direct the Kingdom of God, a.k.a. Zion upon the earth - during the end times.On March 11th, 1844, Smith organized a Council of Fifty, who were to work under the direction of the Priesthood authority of the church (which authority was restored to the earth on April 3, 1836), along with a Council of Friends. This three member body was destined to rule - as the "Political Kingdom of God", a.k.a. 'World Government' - just prior to the return of Jesus Christ near the beginning of the Millennium. The political and spiritual kingdoms were to be distinct entities, with “a constitutional separation of powers between Zion and the political government.” The Council of Fifty was organized: "for the maintenance, promulgation and protection of civil and religious liberty." The council was intended to act in a legislative capacity as a theodemocracy. The Councils decisions could be vetoed by the Priesthood authority. The third leg of this government, the 'Council of Friends, would act as advisors to both the 'Council of Fifty', and the 'Priesthood body' of the church. All three bodies were to be composed of righteous men. The priesthood authority would yield veto power over the Council of Fifty. With ultimate power held by a single anointed individual. In the Doctrine and Covenants Chapter 132, Section 7, it states in part: "...I have appointed unto my servant Joseph to hold this power in the last days, and there is never but one on the earth at a time on whom this power and the keys of this priesthood are conferred." Smith was also ordained king on 11 April 1844, and was set to preside over the political kingdom of God and take charge of its directing body, the Council of Fifty. Smith was killed just over two months later (June 27th, 1844). While the current instantiation LDS (Mormon) leadership has downplayed the dogma, many current Mormon Fundamentalist groups, still actively support the doctrine and promulgate the belief. Smith's concept was that a city - a New Jerusalem (Zion) - would be the local of the Kingdom of God on the earth. The founding of this millennial Zion was so important for early Church members, that thousands of converts from several different countries sacrificed their homes, careers, families, native lands, comfort, health, and even their lives to aid in the realization Joseph Smith’s vision. It was taught that this Kingdom would eventually rule over all the people of the earth, and would allow each individual to live under true freedom and liberty.

Curelom and cumom

The curelom and the cumom are "useful" animals mentioned in the Book of Mormon. According to adherents of the Latter Day Saint movement, these animals are thought to have existed in North and/or South America. To non-adherents, these animals are creatures of the Book of Mormon. The exact intended identity of these animals is not known. Joseph Smith, who translated the Book of Mormon, is not known to have elaborated on the subject of these animals. However, the animals have been a subject for discussion and speculation by Mormon thinkers and apologists. Reference in the Book of Mormon: The curelom and cumom are mentioned only once in the Book of Mormon. The reference occurs in the Book of Ether, which is purported to be a history of a nation of early Americans called the Jaredites who are said to have left the Tower of Babel and traveled by barge to the Western Hemisphere. There, according to the book, they made use of a number of animals, though whether they brought them over on their barges is unclear. The narrative reads as follows: And also all manner of cattle, ... and also many other kinds of animals which were useful for the food of man. And they also had horses, and asses, and there were elephants and cureloms and cumoms; all of which were useful unto man, and more especially the elephants and cureloms and cumoms. Apologetic interpretation: According to Latter-day Saint belief, Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon from an ancient language. In this line of thinking, the words curelom and cumom were transliterated instead of translated, meaning that while the ancient word is roughly transmitted, the actual animal intended is ambiguous. The context may imply beasts of burden. Some Mormons have speculated about what the terms refer to, including: Mastodons, mammoths, or gomphotheres. Early Mormon apostle Orson Pratt might have identified cureloms as mammoths, though the context is unclear as to whether he is talking about Cureloms and Mammoths or Cureloms as Mammoths. If he means cureloms and mammoths separately, then he is not specifically saying that mammoths existed on the American continent at that time, seeing as all the animals are meant as hypothetical examples of what the Jaredites might have brought in their barges. "Now to prepare them against these contingencies, and that they might, have fresh air for the benefit of the elephants, cureloms or mammoths and many other animals, that perhaps were in them, as well as the human beings they contained, the Lord told them how to construct them in order to receive air, that when they were on the top of the water, whichever side up their vessels happened to be, it mattered not; they were so constructed that they could ride safely, though bottom upwards and they could open their air holes that happened to be uppermost" (Orson Pratt, JoD 12:340). An as yet undiscovered, probably extinct species. Some other North/South American animal species with which Smith was unfamiliar with including possible beasts of burden such as the llama, tapir, guanaco, or other possibly useful creatures like the alpaca, vicuña, jaguar, or monkey. Critical view of the mammoth theory: Mainstream paleontologists believe that mastodons and mammoths became extinct by 4000 BCE. This suggests that a beast of burden in the Book of Mormon time period most likely would not have been a mammoth, although many Latter-day Saints still persist in displaying Cureloms as mammoths in literature and media. Cureloms and Cumoms in Mormon literature: The curelom and cumom have appeared in Mormon literature. For example, Chris Heimerdinger, a popular LDS novelist, chose to make cureloms mammoths in his time-traveling adventure Tennis Shoes and the Feathered Serpent. Similarly, Thom Duncan published an independent novel where an Indiana Jones-type character escapes from a curelom, described as a mammoth. In another book, titled 'Book of Mormon ABCs', on the third page it says, "C" is for Curelom, and it has a picture of a mammoth. In his novel The Memory of Earth, Orson Scott Card lists various pack animals: "horses, donkeys, mules and kurelomi". That particular spelling and similar alternative spellings of cureloms can be found in some non-English translations of the Book of Mormon, e.g. Slovenian.