Some still living in fear of polygamist's hit list

Brenda Jensen used to sleep with a gun under her pillow.

The Mesquite, Nev., woman says her family was on polygamist leader Ervil LeBaron's infamous "hit list." Her father even received a letter saying he would be killed.

"There was a letter that informed him he sinned beyond redemption and the only way he could be saved is by blood atonement," she recalls.

More than 25 years after LeBaron's death at the Utah State Prison, some people still live in fear of the list that reportedly ordered blood atonement for those who left his church or crossed him.

The FBI refuses to comment on whether LeBaron's hit list remains active.

"Naturally, whenever you know that there's a hit list that's been compiled for someone and you have followers, you would be concerned," FBI special agent Patricia Villafranca said. "The FBI is concerned."

Federal agents are still searching for the last link to those bloody years. The FBI's Houston office is offering a $20,000 reward for information that leads to the capture of one of its most wanted fugitives — Ervil's daughter, Jacqueline Tarsa LeBaron.

Legacy

Authorities said that, as the leader of the Church of the Lamb of God, Ervil LeBaron wrote a "bible" for his followers that preached anyone caught breaking his commandments was sentenced to death.

LeBaron, who had 13 wives and 54 children, sought to unite all of Utah's polygamous sects under one umbrella. Anyone who resisted his plans was met with violence.

In 1977, police said, LeBaron ordered the assassination of a rival polygamist leader, Rulon C. Allred . LeBaron eventually was captured, convicted and sentenced to prison, where he died in his cell of a heart attack in 1981.

In the years after his death, there were a series of slayings and suspicious deaths involving about 30 former church members — including four slayings that Jacqueline Tarsa LeBaron is accused of helping plot.

On June 27, 1988, at approximately 4 p.m., four slayings were carried out simultaneously in Houston and Irving, Texas. All of the victims were killed by shotgun blasts to the head, including an 8-year-old girl who witnessed her father's slaying.

In 1992, six members of the LeBaron family were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of murder, conspiracy to obstruct religious beliefs and racketeering. Five were convicted, but Jacqueline was not.

In the years since the slayings, William Heber LeBaron gave authorities information on his sister, which led to her placement on the FBI's Most Wanted list. In a testimonial posted on a Web site for "former Mormons," LeBaron said he has renounced his fanatical beliefs.