Utah County Jail

Utah County Jail became a pivotal setting in the relationship between Dan Lafferty and Ron Lafferty: while awaiting trial after the murders, the brothers shared a cell, and Ron tried to kill Dan. Their confinement also brought a second, religiously framed attempt, Ron’s own near-fatal suicide attempt, and an estrangement that lasted until they met again in court eleven years later.

Confinement After the Murders

Five months after the murders, in December 1984, Dan and Ron were held together in a cell at Utah County Jail while awaiting trial. Their shared confinement placed them in close proximity at a moment when their religious beliefs and behavior were becoming increasingly fraught. Dan later recalled that Ron approached him while he was trying to sleep, then asked whether he could kill someone as large as Dan. Dan took the question seriously and resolved to stay alert.

Violence and Revelations in the Cell

The following day, Ron attacked Dan, who later said he did not resist. The jailers responded by separating the brothers into adjoining cells. From behind the bars, Ron then passed Dan a written revelation that, he said, commanded Dan to let him kill him. Dan prayed, concluded that he should comply, and discussed with Ron how the killing might be carried out. He later described interpreting an ordinary bodily need as part of the plan, then preparing to submit to Ron’s attempt. Dan lost consciousness, but Ron stopped when he believed Dan’s breathing meant that God intended him to live.

The following days brought another revelation directing Dan to submit to a killing, but this time he decided not to comply. Dan recalled that Ron became increasingly tormented. On December 29, while Dan was away from the cell for questioning, Ron attempted suicide by hanging himself from a towel rack. He was found without a pulse or breathing; his recovery in the hospital was later described by Dan as apparently miraculous. The jail thus held not only the brothers’ violent confrontation but also the immediate aftermath of Ron’s attempt to take his own life.

Estrangement and Retrospective Meaning

The brothers did not speak again for eleven years. In August 1995, they encountered one another in a Provo courtroom during proceedings before Ron’s retrial and exchanged a friendly greeting. By then, Dan believed Ron regarded him as an enemy of his religious mission and might still want to kill him. Their cordial meeting therefore stood in sharp contrast to the events at the jail, where Dan had faced both a physical attack and a claimed divine command to submit to death.

Dan later reflected on Ron’s recovery and on the events that followed, saying that, many years afterward, he believed he understood at least part of why they had happened. The jail’s significance in the book lies in this collision of family intimacy, violence, and religious interpretation: confinement made the brothers’ beliefs consequential in immediate, personal ways, while the later recollection shows how Dan continued to give those experiences meaning.