Winston Blackmore

Winston Blackmore was a leader of the polygamist community in Bountiful, British Columbia, until Warren Jeffs removed him from that position. As Warren moved to consolidate authority after the death of his father, Rulon Jeffs, Blackmore retained the allegiance of at least half the Bountiful community. His removal therefore threatened more than a change in local leadership: it reopened the possibility of another breakaway sect in a religious movement repeatedly divided by disputes over who held the right to lead.

Identity and Position

Blackmore was the erstwhile leader of the Bountiful community and a first cousin of Kenyon Blackmore. The account places him within a network of Canadian fundamentalist families, but its central detail about his own public role is his leadership of the community and the loyalty he continued to command there.

Removal and the Threat of Division

After Rulon Jeffs died, Warren Jeffs moved quickly to take control of the church. In Bountiful, he stripped Winston Blackmore of his leadership position and threatened to banish him from the religion. Warren installed Jimmy Oler, Debbie Palmer’s half brother, as bishop of the Canadian branch. The appointment did not settle the conflict: at least half of Bountiful’s residents remained loyal to Blackmore. The account presents an independent sect under Blackmore as a likely possibility if he chose to establish one, with many Canadian fundamentalists potentially severing their ties to Warren’s church in Colorado City to follow him.

Succession Disputes in Context

Blackmore’s threatened breakaway fits a recurring pattern in the movement’s history. When Rulon Jeffs succeeded LeRoy Johnson in 1986, supporters of Bishop Marion Hammon contested his claim to leadership. Nearly a third of the community left and formed the Second Ward; the rival congregations continued to denounce each other as apostate. Earlier, the death of John Y. Barlow and the debilitation of his successor, Joseph Musser, produced another contest over succession. Musser’s appointment of Rulon Allred as his second elder, despite objections from those who believed LeRoy Johnson should succeed him, helped split the movement into rival groups in 1954.

Narrative Significance

Blackmore’s episode shows how a change at the top could unsettle a community even after a successor had taken formal control. Warren’s removal of him and appointment of a new bishop created a practical choice for Bountiful residents: remain under the new leadership or follow Blackmore into a possible independent group. The unresolved prospect of that division extends the book’s account of Mormon fundamentalism as a movement in which claims to prophetic authority repeatedly produce competing loyalties and sectarian splits.