Alex Joseph

Alex Joseph appears as a prominent polygamist and a potential ally whom Ron Lafferty and Dan Lafferty sought out while trying to build support for their plans. His importance in the episode lies both in the community he led and in his brief encounter with Ron, when he tried to steer him away from violence.

Identity and Community

Joseph was one of the best-known polygamists in the United States and lived in Big Water, Utah, a faded desert settlement near the southwestern end of Lake Powell. He and six or seven of his wives raised their many children there. The compound was identified with the Confederated States of the Exiled Nation of Israel, the group the Laffertys planned to visit during their western road trip.

A Stop on the Laffertys’ Journey

Ron Lafferty and Dan Lafferty were seeking backing for a proposed City of Refuge, and their route took them to prominent polygamists across the West. They arranged to meet at Joseph’s Utah compound after visiting John W. Bryant’s commune in Oregon. The stop brought the brothers’ religious ambitions into contact with an established polygamist community rather than leaving them solely among their own followers.

Dan arrived first with his new wife, Laurene Grant. After roughly a week of marriage, the two were already in conflict: Grant asked for a writ of divorcement, which Dan granted, and he left for Utah County before Ron arrived. Ron reached Big Water with Ricky Knapp, Chip Carnes, and Grant’s two older sons. The group stayed only overnight, making Joseph’s compound a brief but consequential meeting point in the journey.

The Removal Revelation

During that overnight visit, Ron shared his removal revelation with Joseph. Chip Carnes, who said he was eavesdropping on their conversation, recalled that they discussed Ron returning to Utah, collecting his guns, and going on a shooting spree. Carnes also reported that Joseph tried to talk Ron out of it. The account establishes Joseph not as a participant in Ron’s plan but as someone who heard of it and opposed it; it does not say whether his effort changed Ron’s intentions.

Narrative Role

Joseph’s encounter with Ron marks a moment when the Laffertys’ search for allies intersects with a warning sign of the violence to come. The brothers had approached established religious leaders to enlist support for their City of Refuge, but at Joseph’s compound the conversation turned to guns and a proposed spree. Joseph’s attempted intervention provides a clear contrast: the same meeting that exposes the danger in Ron’s intentions also records an effort to restrain them.