51 pages • 1 hour read
Jon KrakauerUnder the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2003A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 13-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2
Chapter 13 Summary: “The Lafferty Boys”
Dan Lafferty became increasingly involved in religious fundamentalism after reading The Peace Maker. He told his wife Matilda that he intended to take her oldest daughter, his stepdaughter, as his second wife. At the last minute, however, Dan changed his mind and instead wed a Romanian immigrant named Ann Randak. Dan learned other principles laid forth by Smith but ignored by the modern LDS Church, including blood atonement. Dan also learned that Smith believed that God’s laws took precedence over state and federal laws. He became adamant that certain laws and regulations were in contradiction with the word of God, including licenses and taxes.
When Dan returned home after finishing chiropractic school, he took over his father’s chiropractic business while his father and mother left the country on a mission trip. He and his brother Mark managed the business and had long talks about religion. Their four younger brothers often joined them in these discussions about the religious infringement of the government and the sacred importance of plural marriage. Absent from these meetings was Dan’s older brother Ron.
Dan believed in a literal interpretation of Smith’s teachings, and he encouraged his brothers to follow in his footsteps. He refused to pay income or sales tax, and he returned his Social Security card, marriage license, and driver’s license to the state. He also ignored speed limits. Dan decided to run for sheriff to better position himself to fight what he believed were unconstitutional limitations on his freedom, and he published many of his ideas in a local paper. When one officer arrested Dan after evading him during a traffic stop, Dan raised a scene in court. He continued to bring up constitutional issues, despite the judge’s dismissal of his claims, and he insisted that the jury made up of women was unfair. Dan served time in jail, and his father angrily rushed home to keep his house from being lost due to unpaid property taxes. When he returned from jail, Dan increased the number of meetings with his brothers to discuss fundamentalist views. As they attempted to impose sacred principles on their wives, Ron’s wife Diana listened to the wives’ complaints about their husbands’ extremism.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Brenda”
After listening to the worries of her sisters-in-law, Diana encouraged Ron to deal with his younger brothers’ fundamentalist leanings. Ron was an important figurehead in the family. A former Highland city council member, successful businessperson, and prominent figure in the LDS church, Ron collected admirers wherever he went. He mediated family arguments and was a close confidant of his mother. However, Watson Lafferty Sr.’s violent parenting style had left a mark on Ron. He struggled with authority and felt emotionally damaged by his childhood. Despite this, he was well-adjusted and popular and had a strong relationship with his wife Diana.
When Diana asked Ron to intervene with his brothers, Ron was in serious financial trouble. Struggling to make loan payments and worried that he and his family might lose everything, Ron was particularly fragile when he met with Dan and his brothers in their father’s chiropractic office. For hours, Dan and Ron discussed the fundamentalist principles the younger brothers had been espousing. By the end of their meeting, Dan had convinced Ron that they were living according to the true teachings of Smith. Like his brothers, Ron began imposing rules upon his wife. Diana described him as a changed man and confided in Allen’s wife Brenda of her concerns.
Allen was the youngest brother. He met Brenda at Brigham Young University where Brenda was studying communications and hoped to become a news anchor. A devout Mormon, Brenda was level-headed, conscientious, confident, and intelligent. She was not impressed by Allen’s new religious zeal and fought back whenever she could. When Allen refused to pay income taxes, Brenda arranged and paid them in private. But Brenda did not win every battle. Allen did not want Brenda to work, and she had to put her career as a news anchor on hold. She gave birth to their daughter, Erica, and was devastated when Allen refused medical treatment for his daughter. Watson Lafferty Sr., too, became increasingly ill from untreated diabetes, but the Lafferty brothers resisted modern medicine, leading to the patriarch’s death.
Brenda fought back against Dan and Ron and the other Lafferty brothers. She had an astounding knowledge of scripture and held her own in their debates about fundamentalist principles. The brothers resented Brenda for creating a rift in the family between them and Allen, and they hated her for standing up to them when she should have been a subservient wife. At Brenda’s urging, Diana left Ron with their six children and divorced him. Ron traveled to another polygamist settlement to avoid holidays at home without his family. When he returned, Dan introduced him to the Prophet Onias. Brenda refused to allow Allen to meet with Prophet Onias and his brothers, and she kept a careful eye on Allen’s whereabouts to be sure he was not influenced by his brothers.
Chapter 15 Summary: “The One Mighty and Strong”
At first, Onias felt that the Lafferty brothers were sent by God to assist him in his mission. The School of the Prophets talked excitedly together, and Onias encouraged them to seek out personal revelations from God. Onias felt that the modern LDS church was being led by wicked individuals who sought to destroy the fundamental principles of Smith. Onias believed in the sanctity of plural marriage, and he strongly disagreed with the decision of the LDS church to allow African Americans to join the priesthood. Onias received a revelation from God, telling him that the Lafferty brothers were God’s “chosen seed” and that Ron Lafferty was to be their bishop (160).
Ron’s demeanor began to change. After Diana left him, Ron quit his job and was experiencing financial ruin and living out of his car. He believed that Brenda Lafferty, along with two LDS members who had assisted his wife Dianna when she left him—Chloe Low and Richard Stowe—were to blame for the downturn in his life. After encouragement from Onias, Ron received revelations from God. The first addressed Diana, stating that God was angry with her for rebelling against Ron. The second emphasized that Ron—along with many others—was the “one mighty and strong.” Psychologists believe that Ron’s inflated sense of self through his religious zeal was a reaction to his emotional trauma.
Ron’s newfound confidence created conflicted with Onias. Ron ridiculed Onias, and his brothers supported him. When Ron brought forth a new revelation, one which called for blood atonement for Brenda and others, Onias and a few of the other members of the School of the Prophets vehemently disagreed that the revelation was from God. Bernard Brady, another member of the group, wrote an affidavit, explaining what Ron, Dan, and Watson Jr. intended to do. Dan and Watson supported Ron, and Dan shared with Allen that God had called for Brenda and Erica to be ritualistically killed. Allen disagreed that the revelation was from God, but he did not share what his brother had told him with his wife.
Chapter 16 Summary: “Removal”
Brenda’s sister and mother both recall Brenda talking of marital troubles and possibly leaving Allen. Neither realized that Brenda was enduring verbal and physical abuse from her husband. Meanwhile, Ron and Dan were traveling the country, visiting polygamist communities to convince them to join their efforts in building a city at the base of the Dream Mine. On this journey, Dan and Ron met Ricky Knapp and Chip Carnes. Dan remembers Ron’s intensity of feeling on the trip as he discussed the removal revelation and a potential murder date. The two traveled for months, and Dan prayed to discover whether he should continue this path with Ron. He felt God was telling him to stay.
When the brothers returned home with Knapp and Carnes, they discussed the murders that would take place the following day, July 24, at Claudine Lafferty’s home. On July 24, Dan woke up and believed God was telling him to saw off the barrel of a shotgun, despite Ron’s insistence that the murders be committed with a knife. Knapp and Carnes begrudgingly joined the brothers on their quest. Dan drove the car and stopped by his brother Mark’s house to pick up a gun. Ron told Mark that they were going hunting. The men realized they had the wrong type of ammunition for the gun. When they returned to Mark’s to get a .243 caliber, Mark told them that the firearm was at Allen’s house.
Ron went to the door of Brenda and Allen’s home alone and knocked. When no one answered, Ron returned to the car, and Dan was relieved, believing that this had simply been a test from God. As Dan drove away, he felt compelled to return by a strange feeling, so he turned the car around. He realized that Ron was not the one God had called to commit the murders; he was. When Dan knocked on the door, Brenda answered. He asked to come in to use the phone, but Brenda refused to allow him to enter the home. He pushed past her. Carnes testified that he heard a body hit the floor and a vase break. Ron went inside to help. Dan describes that Ron asked Dan what he was doing, and Dan prayed for God to reveal his next action, determining that he should kill Brenda with a knife.
Ron beat Brenda and told her to sit in a corner. He then told Dan he wanted to leave. Dan tied a cord from a vacuum cleaner around Brenda’s neck to keep her unconscious so he could kill her daughter Erika first. Dan then walked to Erika’s nursery and sliced the baby’s neck, nearly decapitating her. Dan cleaned the blade and similarly killed Brenda. When they left, Carnes and Knapp were distressed, and Ron seemed weak and disturbed. Dan, however, felt confident that he had followed God’s will. Then the car proceeded to Chloe Low’s home to fulfill the next part of the prophecy.
Chapters 13-16 Analysis
This section reviews the occurrences prior to the murders of Brenda and Erika Lafferty and shows how the Lafferty brothers devolved into religious extremism. Dan’s radicalism began with his conflict with governmental institutions, a major theme in the book. By refusing to pay taxes on his father’s practice and home, Dan placed his religious belief above all else, including his family, safety, and well-being. For Dan, a literal interpretation of religious texts meant that he and those he loved must submit to a patriarchal religious law. Just as Joseph Smith made a failed and delusional attempt to run for president, Dan ran for sheriff, further solidifying his connection with the legacy of Smith and inflating his sense of self by allying himself with the Prophet.
Brenda was the antithesis of what Dan believed a woman should be as outlined by Smith. She was confident, strong-willed, and educated. For Dan and his brothers, Brenda was a threat to their united fundamentalism. Because the Lafferty brothers committed themselves to a patriarchal set of codes, Brenda’s influence over their wives was in opposition to their belief system. For Dan and, ultimately, Ron, Brenda’s actions were in direct opposition to God’s will. Prophet Onias fanned the flames by inflating their sense of self-worth and narcissism, convincing the brothers that they were divinely selected to fulfill God’s plan. Onias believed that allowing African Americans into the Mormon priesthood was an evil act that defied Joseph Smith’s original revelations from God.
In Chapter 23, Krakauer suggests that Ron Lafferty may have had narcissistic personality disorder, a condition that he argues may also be attributed to Joseph Smith and other historical religious leaders. Onias fueled Ron’s disorder by affirming his uniqueness and divine ordination. Ron believed that anything he said should be taken as the word of God, and he viewed anyone who defied him, including Brenda Lafferty, as a threat to his holy position. While Ron’s actions inside Brenda Lafferty’s home further revealed his narcissistic personality disorder, Dan’s actions exemplified the theme of Violence and Power in Patriarchal Expressions of Religion. Dan saw his brother’s directives as coming from God and felt compelled, much in the same way that Porter Rockwell was compelled to act for Joseph Smith, to carry out those revelations.
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