Rena Chynoweth

Rena Chynoweth is presented through two sharply different roles in Ervil LeBaron's story: she became his thirteenth wife in 1975, and two years later she pulled the trigger in the killing of Rulon Allred. She also supplied later recollections of Ervil's writing habits and his expectation of miraculous release from prison, making her account an important source on both his private routines and his final years.

Marriage and the killing of Rulon Allred

Chynoweth became Ervil LeBaron's thirteenth wife in 1975. In 1977, she pulled the trigger of the gun that killed Rulon Allred. The account establishes her direct role in the killing, but gives no further detail about her actions or motives; it therefore leaves the fact starkly stated rather than turning it into a fuller personal history.

Recollections of Ervil LeBaron

Chynoweth recalled Ervil's intense investment in writing scripture. He could write for a week or longer in marathon sessions, going days without shaving or bathing and spending as many as twenty hours a day at the work. Her recollection also notes that he sustained himself with repeated cups of coffee. The details convey the scale and persistence of his writing practice without establishing what she thought of the scriptures he produced.

Her testimony also describes Ervil's hopes while imprisoned. By 1981, as he recognized that release was unlikely, he began having revelations that a miracle would free him. Chynoweth recalled that he imagined God's wrath breaking down the prison walls, casting his confinement as a challenge to a chosen prophet. Her account connects the collapse of his prospects for release with an increasingly apocalyptic expectation.

Narrative role

Chynoweth's appearances are brief but consequential: the narrative identifies her as an actor in Allred's killing and as a source for details about Ervil that are not presented as direct observation by the narrator. Her testimony illuminates the same figure at different scales—from the sustained labor of scripture writing to the grand expectation of supernatural escape—while the account leaves her own background and perspective largely unstated.