Joel LeBaron—Ervil LeBaron

Joel LeBaron—Ervil LeBaron describes a brotherhood transformed into a struggle over who could speak for God. Both men claimed the prophetic title of the one mighty and strong, but Joel was the elder brother and nominal presiding prophet. Their shared charisma did not hold them together: it gave each a claim to authority that the other could not easily accommodate.

Shared Claims to Prophetic Authority

The conflict unfolded within a religious tradition that placed divine revelation at the center of authority. Joseph Smith initially encouraged Mormons to seek personal impressions from God, but soon restricted the receipt of church commandments and revelations to himself. That limit could not erase the appeal of direct revelation: some followers continued to trust what they understood as God’s words, and competing revelations helped produce new sects. The LeBarons’ rivalry belongs to this larger pattern of prophetic authority repeatedly asserted and contested.

Both Joel and Ervil were described as exceptionally charismatic, and both claimed to be the one mighty and strong. The narrative presents this not simply as a disagreement between brothers, but as a contest between rival prophetic legitimacy. Joel held the formal position of presiding prophet; Ervil’s competing claim gave their conflict a religious language and a much higher stake than ordinary organizational dissent.

Expulsion and Rupture

The decisive break began in November 1969, when Joel expelled Ervil for insubordination. The expulsion converted an internal dispute into an open separation between the brothers. Ervil then received a revelation that cast Joel as an obstruction to God’s work and declared that he needed to be removed. In the account, revelation thus becomes the means by which Ervil recast his brother’s authority as an enemy of the divine purpose.

Joel was not portrayed as a leader whose character readily explained that accusation. He was described as notably benevolent, and his followers regarded him as saintlike. The contrast between that reputation and Ervil’s revelation sharpens the rupture: the narrative shows how a claim of divine instruction could override the human standing Joel had among his followers.

Joel’s Death and Its Consequences

On August 20, 1972, in Los Molinos, the settlement Joel had established on the Baja Peninsula, a member loyal to Ervil killed him. The book identifies the attacker as a follower of Ervil, linking the killing directly to the factional conflict that followed Joel’s expulsion of his brother. Joel’s death ended the immediate contest between the brothers through violence rather than any resolution of their competing claims.

The rupture also marked the beginning of a wider campaign. After ordering Joel’s death, Ervil initiated a series of killings that left at least five more people dead through 1975 and wounded more than fifteen. The account therefore treats the brothers’ conflict as both a personal and a movement-wide fracture: a struggle over prophetic succession escalated into violence against others.

Significance of the Relationship

Their relationship illustrates the instability that arises when religious authority rests on revelation yet competing people claim access to it. Joel’s formal leadership did not prevent Ervil from presenting a rival divine mandate, and expulsion did not settle the contest. Instead, Ervil’s revelation transformed the disagreement into justification for removing his brother, and a follower carried out the killing.

The episode also echoes the broader history of schism described in the book: a faith that encouraged direct communication with God could not fully contain the authority claims that such communication made possible. In the LeBarons’ case, shared prophetic ambition became a source of division, and the division ended with Joel dead and Ervil’s violence extending beyond the family.