Warren Jeffs—Winston Blackmore

Warren Jeffs’s effort to remove Winston Blackmore from leadership in Bountiful, British Columbia, made their conflict a test of who could command the loyalty of the church’s Canadian community. Jeffs held the authority of the new prophet and acted to install a replacement; Blackmore retained substantial local support. The confrontation therefore exposed a fault line between central succession and the allegiance of a branch whose members did not all accept the new leader’s decisions.

Succession and authority

The dispute followed the death of Rulon Jeffs, whose son Warren moved swiftly to take the reins of the church. Because Rulon had been seriously ill for several years, Warren had already been running its affairs and had functioned as prophet in all but name. His succession was therefore not an abrupt transfer of practical control, but his formal elevation did not bring him the affection that Colorado City and Bountiful had shown earlier prophets.

The book places this transition within a religious tradition that treats prophetic office as the source of continuing revelation and ecclesiastical direction. Its account of the church’s leaders describes priesthood authority as passing through a succession of prophets, while also showing that claims to succession have repeatedly been contested. Warren’s position as Rulon’s successor gave him authority to appoint leaders, but the Bountiful response demonstrates that formal succession did not automatically secure unanimous recognition.

The removal in Bountiful

Warren had long resented and distrusted Blackmore. After taking power, he stripped Blackmore of his leadership position and threatened to banish him from the religion altogether. The action reached beyond a disagreement between two leaders: it challenged Blackmore’s standing among the Canadian fundamentalists who had followed him.

Warren installed Jimmy Oler as the new bishop of the Canadian branch. Oler was Debbie Palmer’s half brother; Palmer had previously escaped Bountiful after setting fire to her house. The appointment gave Warren a compliant replacement through whom to assert his authority in the branch, but it did not resolve the contest over whom its members would follow.

Loyalties and the prospect of a split

At least half of the Bountiful community remained loyal to Blackmore after his removal. The account presents a further division as a possibility, not an accomplished event: if Blackmore established an independent sect, many Canadian fundamentalists might sever their ties with Warren’s church and follow him. The threatened banishment and the competing loyalties thus left the branch’s future unsettled.

This confrontation echoed earlier succession disputes within Mormon Fundamentalism. When LeRoy Johnson died, Rulon Jeffs assumed leadership, but supporters of Marion Hammon rejected his claim; nearly a third of the community left and formed the Second Ward. Earlier still, Joseph Musser’s appointment of Rulon Allred over those who favored LeRoy Johnson split the movement into rival groups. In that history, Warren’s action against Blackmore was another instance in which a leader’s claim to authority could provoke followers to withdraw rather than submit.

Significance of the relationship

The conflict shows the difference between possessing the office and securing the obedience associated with it. Warren could remove Blackmore and appoint a replacement, yet Blackmore’s continuing local support meant that institutional authority did not settle the question of allegiance. Their relationship stands within the book’s broader account of a movement repeatedly reshaped by prophetic succession, rival claims, and the possibility that a disputed transfer of power will produce another schism.