The Baja Peninsula enters the narrative through Los Molinos, a polygamist settlement established by Joel LeBaron. Its importance is specific and stark: the settlement became the place where the conflict between Joel and his brother Ervil LeBaron culminated in Joel’s killing.

Los Molinos on the Peninsula

Joel established Los Molinos eight years before his death. By November 1969, he was the elder brother and nominal presiding prophet of the sect; that month, he expelled Ervil for insubordination. The account thus places the settlement within a religious community already divided by a struggle over authority.

The 1972 Killing

On August 20, 1972, Joel was shot in the throat and head at Los Molinos. The fatal attack was carried out by a member of the group loyal to Ervil. The peninsula’s role in the account is bound to this precise place and event: a settlement founded by Joel became the scene of his death amid the brothers’ rupture.

Narrative Significance

The Baja Peninsula is not developed as a general geographic setting; it is presented through the history of Los Molinos and the violence that reached it. The contrast is consequential: Joel had established the settlement, yet it was there that a follower of the brother he had expelled killed him. The place anchors the transition from a dispute over religious leadership to Ervil’s campaign of violence.