The FX series (premiered on Disney+) mixes reality and fiction, although its most violent and disturbing parts are 100% real.
Beware: Spoilers for Disney+’s ‘Heavenly Mandate’ Series Below
On a July afternoon in 1984, in the sleepy town of American Fork, Utah, two brothers, Ron and Dan Lafferty, pulled up to their younger brother’s duplex in a beat-up green pickup truck. Inside the car they had a shotgun, two rifles and two knives. Three months earlier, Ron had written a message on a yellow legal pad, rationalizing what was about to happen at the duplex. “Thus says the Lord to my servants the prophets,” he began. “It is my will and command that you eliminate the following people so that my work can continue. For they have truly become obstacles in my way and I will not allow my work to stop. First, your brother’s wife, Brenda, and your baby”.
Inside the duplex, the two brothers encountered their divine obstacles, 24-year-old Brenda Lafferty and her 15-month-old daughter, Erica. They only used the knives.
During the interviews that would make up what we now know as the book ‘Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith’, Jon Krakauer spoke with one of the imprisoned brothers years after the event. The one holding the knife that slashed Brenda’s throats and the baby explained Ron’s holy revelation. “You don’t want to offend Him by refusing to do His Work.” She spoke without remorse.
Published in 2003, ‘By Mandate from Heaven’ was an explosive book, which drew predictable criticism and rebuke from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS)which labeled it “non-story” and called Krakauer “a storyteller who cuts corners to make the story sound good.”
While Lafferty’s religious convictions were not affiliated with the Mormon Church (both were excommunicated by the LDS Church; Ron later formed a breakaway sect called the School of the Prophets), both actions are, however, entangled in the history of the LDS Church.
For Dustin Lance Black, who had already come out as gay and left the LDS Church after the book was published, reading the book was a formative experience, a window into a faith he grew up with but hadn’t delved into. Years later, Black is now the creator of FX’s adaptation of the book, also titled Heaven’s Command, starring Andrew Garfield.
In a recent interview with The New York TimesBlack explained what he hoped to achieve with the adaptation:
“The public relations department of the Mormon Church has your answer. But there are a lot of Mormons out there who, I’d be willing to bet, read Jon’s book and got that lightning bolt in their heart that, ‘I’m going to heed these doubts I feel for the rest of my life.’ a moment. “That pain is uncomfortable, but it’s a growing pain… For me, the series tries to do the same”
As to what the PR department had to say about the original story’s approach…
“The story of Ron and Dan Lafferty is a story that must be told, but told in a way that repeatedly emphasizes the vital distinctions between core LDS believers and those who have gone beyond, been led away from the faith and violated the standards of both church and state”
How did things really unfold before and after publication?
‘By Heaven’s Command’: The True Story of the Lafferty Brothers
The Lafferty siblings grew up in a family of six boys and two girls in Payson, Arizona. His father was strict and stormy and once killed the family dog with a baseball bat. The brothers grew up in the Mormon Church, but seemed to take extreme positions from the start. Dan refused to pay taxes or follow traffic laws. The six brothers soon began ranting against the LDS Church and the federal government, with Ron and Dan believing themselves to be prophets..
Dan was excommunicated in 1982 after attempting to have sex with his 14-year-old stepdaughter, thus taking her as a second wife. Ron also started having problems in his family. His wife left him after refusing to practice polygamy. He was also excommunicated from the Church. One of the people Ron blamed for his wife’s departure was Brenda Lafferty, the wife of his brother Allen.. Later, Brenda also prevented Allen from joining Ron and Dan’s new religious group, “School of the Prophets”.
Blaming Brenda for both his own divorce and the growing rift between his siblings, Ron decided to cut her out of the way. In early 1984 he wrote a revelation stating that God had decreed Brenda’s murder.. In July, the brothers carried out the plan, also targeting Chloe Low, an LDS member and ally of Ron’s wife after the divorce, and Richard Stowe, and an LDS member who presided over Ron’s excommunication.
Although Dan was the actual perpetrator of the murders, Ron would later receive a harsher sentence for orchestrating them.. The brothers started with Brenda, breaking into her house, strangling her with the vacuum cord, and then slitting her throat. Afterward, Dan entered the bedroom of Brenda and Allen’s daughter, Erica, and slit her throat as well. She was 15 months old.
The brothers left the crime scene and hitchhiked to the home of their next target, the Lows. Luckily they weren’t home. They got lost en route to the Stowes and decided to head for Nevada. Shortly after the brothers were arrested in Reno, Nevada, by the FBI.
After his arrest, Ron Lafferty tried to hang himself in jail. He also tried to kill Dan. After these attempts, the brothers were tried separately and both were convicted in 1985. Ron was sentenced to death. Dan was sentenced to life in prison.
The book was condemned by the Mormon Church
The murders committed by the Laffertys make up only half of Krakauer’s book; the other half tells the story of the LDS Church and the Mormon religion. The juxtaposition of the brothers’ murder with the history of the faith was especially contentious to Church leaders, who immediately criticized Krakauer’s work.
In a lengthy rejection document To some of the historical claims made in the book, the LDS church concluded: “although the book may attract gullible people who approach a hook as if they were trout, serious readers who want to understand the Latter-day Saints and their history need not waste their time with that.”
Where are Ron and Dan Lafferty now?
After his conviction was overturned, Ron was sentenced again in 1996 and once again sentenced to death.. She spent 34 years on death row before dying of natural causes in November 2019. He was 78 years old. His sanity was repeatedly called into question over the course of the trials and appeals.
Dan Lafferty continues to serve his life sentence in Utah State Prison.
And what happened to Jeb Pyre? It is real?
While Black’s series depicts the Lafferty murders in real life, the character through whom we know the events, detective Jeb Pyre, is entirely a creation of Black. “The character I play, Jeb Pyre, is an invention,” Garfield said. Pyre exists to “help frame this tragic true crime story.”
Garfield also explained Pyre’s thematic purpose. “I think it’s ultimately about finding the truth in the face of potential loss of family, social structure, life.”.
Source: Fotogramas
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
