There ensued a bloody battle as the factions vied for power, each claiming to be led by LeBaron’s true successor.
When the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints renounced polygamy, Johnson and his family, like many Mormon fundamentalists, continued the practice.
In 1924, Johnson's grandson, Alma Dayer LeBaron, Sr. moved his family to Mexico, where the government showed no interest in prosecuting polygamists, settling near Colonia Juárez, Chihuahua.
[2] Proclaiming that he was the true successor to his father, Ervil began the Church of the Lamb of God and named himself as president.
Some of Joel's followers, including Daniel Ben Jordan and the Chynoweth and Rios families, switched their allegiance to Ervil.
[2] During his imprisonment, Ervil continued to release pamphlets and books insisting that he was the Mormon One Mighty and Strong and that, as God's representative on earth, he could decide who should die for their sins.
[1][3] On December 26, 1974, in an effort to flush him out,[1] Ervil's underage thirteenth wife Rena Chynoweth and her brothers Mark and Duane[a] raided Los Molinos.
Ervil wrote letters to and visited many polygamist leaders, threatening their lives if they did not switch their allegiance to his church and tithe accordingly.
[1] When Rebecca's mother, Ervil's first wife Delfina, discovered that her daughter had been murdered on the orders of her husband, she strongly objected.
He convinced Rena Chynoweth, now aged 18, and his stepdaughter Ramona Marston, Jordan's wife, to kill Rulon C. Allred, the leader of the Apostolic United Brethren, one of the largest polygamist sects.
[3] Three of Ervil's other followers, including Ramon's brother Ed, attended Allred's funeral with orders to kill Verlan and anyone else who got in their way.
Under Arturo, the Church of the Lamb of God openly embraced the criminal enterprises that they had previously dabbled in, specifically auto theft.
[1] As a result, Ervil's wife Lorna Chynoweth became disillusioned and decided to leave the church; on Arturo's orders, she was killed by her son Andrew.
After Arturo's death, leadership of the Church of the Lamb of God fell to the next son on Ervil's list, 20-year-old Heber LeBaron.
Heber revived the policy of blood atonement, and over the next few years followers took revenge on those they blamed for Arturo's death.
[1] Although Heber did not spend a great deal of time proselytizing to his followers, he fully embraced polygamy and used it to tighten his influence over the church.
A week later, Aaron was arrested after pulling a gun on Jordan's wives and children and telling them he had been given a revelation giving him authority over the family.
Heber, accompanied by his half-sister and wife Patricia, shot Mark Chynoweth at his appliance repair shop in northern Houston.
Another brother, Richard, killed Duane Chynoweth and his eight-year-old daughter Jennifer after luring them to an empty house on Rena Street in Houston.