I’m reading Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven.
The core facts: a Mormon man [Dan Lafferty] converted to radical polygamist female-subservientist fundamentalist Mormonism and converted his five brothers. The oldest brother [Ron Lafferty] was divorced by his wife as a result. The wife [Brenda] of the youngest [Allen] resisted all of them. Ron and Dan killed her and the pair’s baby daughter.
Some particulars:
Although standing up to Allen meant standing up to the entire Lafferty clan, Brenda did not shy away from such confrontations…[S]he possessed an impressive command of LDS scripture that allowed her to more than hold her own when debating fundamentalist doctrine with Ron and Dan. They came to despise her for defying them and for her influence over Allen, whom they considered “pussy-whipped.”
When Ron’s father was dying of diabetes, Ron had called a family meeting…Allen brought Brenda to the meeting, which made Ron furious. He called her a bitch and worse, and berated her with such unrestrained spleen that Brenda finally left in tears. But she did not remain intimidated very long. [p 153]
“A bitch and worse” – well we know what that means.
Ron “received revelations” which he wrote down on a yellow legal pad. One went:
Thus saith the Lord unto My servants the Prophets. It is My will and commandment that ye remove the following individuals in order that My work might go forward. For they have become obstacles in My path and I will not allow My work to be stopped. First thy brother’s wife Brenda and her baby… [p 163]
Dan took it upon himself to inform his youngest brother, Allen, with whom he had always been especially close, that God had commanded the ritual murder of Brenda and their baby girl, Erica, and that Ron and Dan intended to see that the commandment was carried out.
Allen expressed shock, then asked, “Why? Particularly why Erica, being an innocent child? Why would she be involved?”
At which point Ron angrily cut in, “Because she would grow up to be a bitch, just like her mother!” [p 169]
What’s that we keep being told about sexist epithets not being misogynist?
One more. From an accomplice’s testimony at the trial:
According to Carnes, Ron said that
as soon as he went into the house, he punched [Brenda] as hard as he could, and she fell down again on the floor. And he said that he was calling her a bitch, and, you know, telling her what he thought about her. [p 280]
And he kept beating her, and he choked her with an electrical cord, and then he cut her throat.
What’s that we keep being told about sexist epithets not being misogynist?