Investigations in Ritual Abuse: An Overview of the Hamblin

Case
Goel
Introduction
The public revelation of a criminal investigation into ritual abuse by then-
Utah County Attorney David Okerlund Leavitt at a press conference preceded the
arrest of former therapist David Lee Hamblin and his ex-wife Roselle Stevenson.
Leavitt’s press conference came after he was provided a 153 page victim statement
from an earlier investigation and prosecution of Hamblin, who was both a distant
relative and a close personal friend. The victim statement named Leavitt as a ritual
abuser, and combined with seven other victim’s statements written by Hamblin’s
daughters Rachel, Eliza, and Katherine Hamblin, it painted an extraordinary picture
of a group of adults who had committed nearly daily abuse against their own
children.

David Lee Hamblin was a central figure in that abuse; as a clinical

psychologist, he allegedly utilized his expertise as a therapist and a ritual abuser to
train parents and children within his group in ritual abuse, with an especial emphasis
on training children to comply with ritual abuse. This was done through the creation
of “parts” or specific personalities designed to fulfill a certain purpose within the
group’s scheme of abuse. Hamblin’s eldest daughter Rachel alleged that her father
had created a part named Tabitha, which cued her to comply with his demands to
perform sexually for her parents and for other adults within the group. The
utilization of parts was clearly designed to induce dissociation within the children of
the group, so that they would be responsive to the demands of adults in mental,
physical, and sexual contexts.

The children were to be compartmentalized into a distinct parts or

personalities, each serving a specific purpose or role within their obligations as group
members. The goal of the adults was to ensure that the children would grow up into
adults who would perpetuate the group into the future, ensuring its continued
activity and success within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Members
of the group, which referred to itself as the Group, or the Church of Satan, were
tasked with maintaining an outward and public persona as faithful Latter Day Saints,
in addition to a secret persona as members of the Church of Satan. The former
persona would provide cover for the latter, and the members would have the
credibility and reputational benefits of membership within the LDS to immunize
them from exposure for their activities within CS.

The members of the group were high functioning and high achieving
individuals of notoriety. They were artists, medical and psychiatric professionals,
academics, and successful businessmen. They held high callings in their wards and
stakes within the LDS, and were either related to or friends with individuals who held
even higher callings in the upper echelons of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints. They were bishops, stake presidents, high councilors, and held familial
relationships or personal friendships with Area Seventies, Quorum members, or even
First Presidency members.
 Despite the overall tendency within the group for high functioning or high
achieving lives, there were members who showed signs of abuse and its effects.
These members failed academically, took longer than normal to matriculate in their
undergraduate and graduate studies, and had extensive mental and physical health
issues. The children of David Lee Hamblin were chronically absent or tardy in their
school aged years, a fact which was documented in his divorce. The divorce
proceedings also yielded confirmation of the Hamblin sisters’ allegations that their
father had forced them to ingest peyote, a controlled substance, as well as
confirmation of their allegation that their father had moved a mentally ill adult
patient into the family home in Provo, where he forced Rachel Hamblin to
participate in the patient’s therapy at the expense of her own education.

Hamblin’s devolution from a respected therapist and member of the Church

of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was also chronicled in his divorce, as well as the
investigation by the Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing (DOPL)
which resulted in the loss of his license to practice psychology. His association with
known sexual predators was both professional in his treatment of convicted child
sexual abuser Sterling van Wagenen, and familial in the case of his in-law Timothy
Nathan Tuttle, who was convicted of sexually abusing his adopted daughter. The
court in Hamblin’s divorce found by clear and convincing evidence that he had
sexually abused his eldest two daughters Rachel and Eliza. Two of the adult female
patients that Hamblin had sexually abused testified at his custody hearing.

The court heard of Hamblin’s descent into a peyote-fueled exploration of

Native American religion, which he integrated with his peculiar combination of
psychology and the Mormon priesthood, subjecting his patients and his own children
to the blend of beliefs and practices. Hamblin was utilizing hypnotherapy, peyote,
and the mixture of his various belief systems into a method of convincing his adult
patients that they were ritually abused as children. Hamblin would follow those
efforts with a proposed therapeutic regimen that involved sexual contact with him,
under the guise of healing his patients from their alleged childhood ritual abuse. His
male patients would be subjected to sexual contact with Hamblin under the
rationale that the semen of a righteous man could drive out the semen of the
unrighteous ritual abusers, which Hamblin explained was causing the mental trauma
and sexual identity issues that plagued his male patients. This would in turn enable
Hamblin to cast out the parts that he claimed were causing mental illness and
homosexuality in his male patients.

Those patients described a pattern of abuse that involved manipulating them

into consent for the initial sexual contact, followed by increasingly more violent
sexual assaults in Hamblin’s home office in Provo. When the patient did not comply
with Hamblin’s desires, he would forcibly rape and sexually assault them. David Lee
Hamblin was not a pedophile, or an exclusively heterosexual or even bisexual man.
He was a situational offender, a man whose proclivities were contingent upon
situation and convenience. In his home, his sexual access to his own daughters was
unchallenged due to his status as the Paterfamilias, a man who owned his wife and
children and exercised total dominion over each member of his family. 1 2 His wisdom
in such matters was unchecked, and members of the Church of Satan would
routinely invoke “The Wisdom of Parents,” which decreed that parents knew what
was best for their children without question.3 4 5

This wisdom extended to total control of meaning itself, in semiotics and

semantics. The symbols utilized by the Church of Satan’s membership held a
common meaning with universal significance among Latter Day Saints. In the hands
of the CS, those symbols held a hidden meaning conveyed only to the members of
the group. The meaning of language held the same dual purpose: CS members used
the term Lord in mixed company, which to other faithful Latter Day Saints meant
Heavenly Father, but the CS members understood Lord as a reference to Lucifer or
Satan.6 In this way, CS members could communicate without attracting suspicion
even among the most orthodox of Saints.7

For CS members, the game around meaning was of great significance for their
attempt to maintain their cover. The quote from Alice in Wonderland comes to
mind: “Nothing would be what it is because everything would be what it isn’t. And
contrariwise, what it is, it wouldn’t be, and what is wouldn’t be, it would. You see?”
As with all ritual abuse groups, the CS depended on a common frame of reference
from which to draw hidden meanings and symbols; in their group, the common
frame of reference were the doctrines, ordinances, and culture of the Latter Day
Saints. Their children would be raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints, where they would learn the Primary Songs used to convey the earliest forms
of doctrinal lessons to young Saints.

Those same songs and the principles conveyed by the songs would in turn be
the basis for teaching the mutually exclusive lessons of the CS to the children of CS
members. If this was confusing to the children, the confusion worked well within the
wider practices of the CS.8 The adults would play the “Scaring Game” or the
“Opposites Game” precisely because they wished to instill in children a dualistic

1
VS 1, pg. 41
2
VS 1, pg. 17
3
Ibid.
4
VS 2, pg. 17
5
VS 3, pg. 108
6
VS 2, pg. 17
7
VS 1, pg. 43: We became extremely skilled at hiding our life and talking in code about our family’s faith. The
titles "Christ," "Savior," "Redeemer," "Lord," "God," "Father," "Holy Ghost," etc. all meant Lucifer/Satan. If we had
to say anything to another CS member in public we often said the opposite of what we meant. If we had to refer
to the Church (CS), we would usually call it "The Group.”
8
VS 1, pg. 42: “"Opposite day!" Redacted and relatives would use this code phrase as a threat when they heard
us say anything in public that exposed our secret life and beliefs.”
epistemology from which the children could know the world as the CS knew it. 9 10 11

12

Victim Statement #1 in the Hamblin case, written by David Hamblin’s eldest

daughter Rachel Hamblin, detailed the use of LDS songs, materials, and references 3
to 10 times a week in abuse.13 The use of “As I Have Loved You” was coupled with
David Hamblin wearing a white sheet, dressed up as Jesus, while forcing his
daughters to lick his anus and suck his urine out of his penis. 14 Rachel Hamblin
detailed the use of other Primary songs with hand motions in the abuse her parents
inflicted on the children. She alleged that her mother started abusing her sisters as
infants, stimulating their genitals while singing “My Heavenly Father Loves Me,”
while also employing “Genealogy-I am doing it” as she talked about the superiority
of the family bloodlines, which Roselle Hamblin and her mother Carma Anderson
claimed were of a royal lineage.15 16

These common frames of reference were critical to the systematic abuse CS

members had developed over generations to produce children who would comply
with the abuse, while growing up to become adult perpetrators of the abuse on
future generations. Everything, including physical objects such as heirlooms, was
sublimated to reinforce the concepts of the CS in children. Rachel Hamblin wrote of
an inherited secretary desk that had originally belonged to her great grandmother
Rosabelle de Jong, who was said to be her guardian angel in the CS, with the use of
the desk a means of bringing Rachel closer to Rosabelle de Jong.17
9
VS 1, pg. 21: “Another "game" variety our elders loved was to play "opposites"- and they made countless
varieties of it. For example, once we learned the real names of objects, people, animals, genders, colors, etc.,
they would purposefully ask us a question and then tell us the opposite answer was correct. I remember the
feelings and saw Redacted experience this often and how upset and adamant they would be that they were
correct. If you gave the "wrong" answer (actually the right answer) you would be tortured and abused, often
violently and immediately.”
10
VS 2, pg. 23: “Also (in my experience), the elders will use "Opposite Game” variations in ceremonies with young
children. For example, they do something horrible to the child or make the child do something horrible and then
completely change their manner and comfort the child and tell them there is nothing to be afraid of, etc. Then
they repeat the act or do something else traumatizing.”
11
VS 2, pg. 92: “They called us in for "games,” they said. Redacted explained the "opposite game” and started
playing it with Redacted and Redacted. Redacted did not understand what was happening and became terrified.
Redacted and Brian took turns yelling at him for different things and then smiling and being kind. Redacted and
Susanne copied the men’s expressions, so Redacted had no one to comfort him. After doing this for a while, Brian
made Redacted lick his penis while Redacted lay on his hack with Brian’s legs and arms pinning him down.”
12
VS 2, pg. 108: “Part of the horror of the torture Redacted and I received was that we never really knew how
Redacted or other elders wanted us to react - and it usually was the opposite of whatever we did first.
Sometimes the more I cried, the more they mocked me and hurt me. Other times I would try to hide how much
pain or anguish I was in and they intensified the torture, saying it must not be "enough.""
13
VS 1, pg. 2
14
Ibid.
15
Ibid.
16
VS 2, pp. 1-2:” We were taught our families were of a royal birthright and among Lucifer’s elect and elite in the
pre-mortal world. Redacted and Redacted Anderson especially stressed this about their superior generational
lines. They would show us stapled pages of geneology that had been marked for CS ordinances and other
significations. They said they had their own system of red and black dots that they would put next to their names.
Our charge was to bring as many souls to Satan as we possibly could. This was done through the living and the
dead. Our Redacted Carma spoke often about her Redacted, Gerrit deJong, Jr., who had learned about many,
many languages and was, they said, “helping us” proselytize in "the spirit world” and bring more spirits to Satan.
Redacted also worshiped Oliver Cowdry as having been an elect member of the Church (CS) in his day. They also
spoke about some prophecy they hoped to see fulfilled about Joseph Smith’s decedents joining.”
17
Ibid.
 The systematic methodology of abuse within the CS enabled parents to
“reinforce doctrinal concepts in young children,” as Rachel Hamblin described in her
second victim’s statement:

“What Church (CS) members call "love," the rest of the world - or at
least the law - would call the opposite. "Love" was sexually satisfying
Redacted, for example, and "hate" was going against the Church (CS).
They would never even think of what they did to us as "abuse." They
said they could never be caught "abusing" us because they were
doing "the right thing" and what was “good” and "best" for us. To
them, they were glorifying their God (Lucifer) and "raising up
righteous seed" to him. Church members (CS) fully believe, at least we
were taught this, that killing a person outside of the group and
especially one (or the child of one) who has gone against the group
in any way is "righteous" and “furthering the Lord’s (Lucifer’s) work on
the earth." Murder is not murder in their minds. If anyone committed
"murder," it was us, they said. They said this was so because our
hearts were not fully loyal to Lucifer "yet." They also do not believe
they or Lucifer is “evil.” That is just a designation, we were taught, by
God and Jehovah to justify what they did to him.”18

The CS sought to invert the common frame of reference to indoctrinate their

children with an oppositional ideology to that of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter
Day Saints. The songs, lessons, and materials used by ordinary Saints to teach their
children about Heavenly Father and Christ were taken by the CS membership and
utilized to teach children within the group about Satan, and the doctrinal significance
of complying with the abuse of their parents. That abuse was characterized as love,
which children should submit to as the right course of action by their parents.

The narrative that emerges throughout the Hamblin Victims’ Statements,

police reports, and court records is one that confirms a systematic methodology
throughout the group for conditioning children to commit abuse as well as submit to
abuse. That methodology was under constant refinement due to the innovations of
men within the group such as David Lee Hamblin, who utilized his expertise as a
clinical psychologist to advance the methodology with respect to children:

In addition to seeing struggling children of CS members in "therapy,"

another side business Redacted ran was "training" parents to create
obedient, faithful (to Lucifer) children. I think they might have gotten
the idea from Gordon Bowen. Sometimes one or both parents would
come, sometimes they brought their child or children, sometimes
they purchased "training" videos Redacted made with us, and/or
sometimes Redacted would make us do live "demonstrations."

18
VS 2, pg. 1.
 Redacted knew about this "training” business and encouraged
relatives and friends to take the "courses" with their children.”19 20

David Lee Hamblin’s trainings were both an advancement of the CS’s existing
methodology and a reinforcement of CS practices, as the training of LDS artist and
alleged CS member Brian Kershisnik’s son Noah would indicate:

More experiences with Brian and Suzanne between the years 1990
and 1998—we went to their home/studio at least 1 other time,
however, they also both came to Redacted's events at "the house"
(the Spring City house) and at least twice to the Provo house for
"training" (see below). David and Rosie also did the same kind of
training in the Provo and Spring City houses. I remember two
different times in the Provo house: once when they taught Brian and
Suzanne other torture games, how to scare the kids and torture them
during the day, and the other time is when they gave Redacted his
other name"part" of him that would in their words, one day take over
and be the main portion of his spirit to "rule his body." 1 also
remember a time in Provo where they came to our house and they
did a sacrificial ceremony where they sacrificed a dog. They prayed
over it offering it to Lucifer and then forced Redacted to kill it. The
dog was a short-haired, whitish-grey, small dog. Redacted was
terrified as his dad forced him to cut its belly and throat with a knife.
He held his hand for most of it.”21

The consistency and complexity of the Hamblin Victims’ Statements belies

any attempt to characterize the statements as an obvious lie. Over hundreds of
pages in eight separate statements, written out while the sisters were segregated
from each other, the statements relay a narrative that consistently details the same
methodology throughout the abuse of each sister. The same events are relayed in
the various statements without inconsistencies or contradictions. It is entirely
possible to influence a memory on a small scale, to convince someone that they saw
a man with green eyes rather than brown eyes. It is entirely impossible to construct
an abuse narrative spanning hundreds of pages via hypnosis or implanted memories,
which is why false memory syndrome has never been recognized as a psychiatric
illness or condition.

False Memories: An Etiology

19
VS 2, pg. 88.
20
VS 2, pg. 92: “Redacted and Redacted had another side business where they offered courses/training for
parents on successfully raising children in the Church〔CS) and making them obedient. These were specific
techniques, they said, beyond what the Church taught. They said Redacted and I were walking advertisements
and we were threatened to always act as such - to make it clear to other adults that Redacted were very effective
in manipulating Redacted and so that Redacted (and we) would get a lot more clients and money.”
21
VS 3, pg. 62
 The concept of false memory syndrome was pioneered in the aftermath of
Jennifer and Gwen Freyd’s accusations against their parents Pam and Peter Freyd. 22
The Freyd sisters alleged that Peter Freyd had sexually abused them. Peter and Pam
Freyd vehemently disputed the allegations, and started the False Memory Syndrome
Foundation as a means to combat the allegations. The Freyds characterized their
daughter’s allegations as the product of hypnotically recovered memories, but
Jennifer Freyd denied undergoing hypnosis.

In the aftermath of Peter and Pam Freyd’s establishment of the False

Memory Syndrome Foundation, more details emerged about Peter Freyd. Freyd was
an admitted alcoholic who had been sexually abused by an older man during his
childhood. He was also a closeted gay man who had made advances towards his
student, who recalled Peter Freyd responding to rejection by going through the
kitchen drawers and pulling out knives. The Foundation suffered more bad publicity
when two board members, Ralph Underwager and Hollida Wakefield, were exposed
as the subjects of an interview with the Dutch magazine Paidika, which argued for
pedophilia to be normalized. Underwager argued that pedophilia was an
“acceptable expression of God’s will for love and unity among human beings.” 23

Underwager and Wakefield’s fellow board member James Randi would be

exposed for propositioning teenage boys on a recorded phone line.24 Randi was also
a member of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the
Paranormal (CSICOP), which was chaired by Paul Kurtz, a professor of philosophy at
the University of Buffalo. Kurtz also ran Prometheus Books, which published Randi’s
books as well as books on human sexuality edited by Vern Bullough, another CSICOP
board member who served as Dean of Natural and Social Science at the State
University of New York. Bullough was a board member of Paidika, the same
pedophile journal Underwager expressed his apparently pro-pedophilia remarks to
during an interview.

22
Katie Heaney, The Memory War, The Cut, January 6, 2021, availale at: https://www.thecut.com/article/false-
memory-syndrome-controversy.html
23
Paidika Interview: Hollida Wakefield and Ralph Underwager Pt. 1, available at:
http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/NudistHallofShame/Underwager2.html “Certainly it is responsible. What I
have been struck by as I have come to know more about and understand people who choose paedophilia is that
they let themselves be too much defined by other people. That is usually an essentially negative definition.
Paedophiles spend a lot of time and energy defending their choice. I don't think that a paedophile needs to do
that. Paedophiles can boldly and courageously affirm what they choose. They can say that what they want is to
find the best way to love. I am also a theologian and as a theologian, I believe it is God's will that there be
closeness and intimacy, unity of the flesh, between people. A paedophile can say: "This closeness is possible for
me within the choices that I've made." Paedophiles are too defensive. They go around saying, "You people out
there are saying that what I choose is bad, that it's no good. You're putting me in prison, you're doing all these
terrible things to me. I have to define my love as being in some way or other illicit." What I think is that
paedophiles can make the assertion that the pursuit of intimacy and love is what they choose. With boldness,
they can say, "I believe this is in fact part of God's will." They have the right to make these statements for
themselves as personal choices. Now whether or not they can persuade other people they are right is another
matter.”
24
Byrd v Randi (Civil Action No. MJG-89-636 in the United States District for the Court for the District of
Maryland.] Transcripts of the tape are also part of the court record in Geller v Randi, (Civil Action No 91-1014-SSH
in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The transcripts are contained in Exhibit 40 to
Exhibit U].
 Underwager later stated that “sexual contact between an adult and a child is
never acceptable nor can it ever be positive.” 25 He claimed that his remarks were
taken out of context to indicate that he approved of pedophilia, which he denied
even as he cited academic literature indicating that “some individuals perceive their
childhood sexual experiences with adults as positive,” while also citing a review
article by Kendall-Tackett, Williams, and Finkelhor that claimed “a substantial
proportion of abuse victims show no symptoms.”26 Underwager and Wakefield
argued that this single article could be used to show that the experience of
childhood abuse was neutral.27

The reality of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation was simple enough: it
was founded by a man who was attempting to deflect sexual abuse allegations
against him by his daughters. Neither Paul or Pam Freyd were psychologists, even
though media outlets frequently-and erroneously-referred to Pam Freyd as a
psychologist. The board members of the FMSF were drawn from academics and
activists whose sympathies for pedophilia were oft-documented as a result of their
own statements, affiliations, and writings. The board members and the Freyds
frequently expressed their conviction that child sexual abuse was not inherently
negative, and was often neutral or even positive.28

The False Memory Syndrome Foundation managed to overpower a

recognized diagnosis, psychogenic amnesia, or traumatic amnesia, which had fifty
years of academic research to substantiate it, which in turn led to recognition by the
American Psychiatric Foundation which false memory syndrome never achieved in
the thirty years its proponents argued for its validity.29 The condition has since been
renamed dissociative amnesia, and is classified under Dissociative Disorders in the
DSM-V.30 Put simply, while the APA recognizes traumatic amnesia that can result in
the inability to recall autobiographical information that goes well beyond ordinary
short term recollection issues, while rejecting the notion of false memory syndrome
altogether due to the failure of its proponents to establish an clinical, empirical basis
for the concept.

25
Underwager, R; Wakefield H (1994). "Misinterpretation of a Primary Prevention Effort". Issues in Child Abuse
Accusations. 6 (2): 96–107, available at: http://www.ipt-forensics.com/journal/volume6/j6_2_5.htm
26
Ibid, citing from Kendall-Tackett, Williams, & Finkelhor, Impact of Sexual Abuse on Children: A Review and
Synthesis of Recent Empirical Studies, Psychological Bulletin 113(1): 164-80, February 1993 available at:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/14772184_Impact_of_Sexual_Abuse_on_Children_A_Review_and_Sy
nthesis_of_Recent_Empirical_Studies
27
Ibid.
28
Ibid, Heaney: “Peter, in fact, professes to be nonchalant about what the older artist did to him when he was 11
years old. It was “technically abuse,” he tells me, but he isn’t angry or upset about it. “Studies have been done,”
he insists, that show “many, many people aren’t terribly bothered” by the sexual abuse they suffered as children.
He and Pam entertained the artist who molested him as a guest in their home, and Peter says he was “quite
open” about it with Jennifer and Gwen when they were children. “This was an extremely important person to
him,” Jennifer recalls. “Maybe his most important person.”
29
Mike Stanton, U-Turn on Memory Lane, Columbia Journalism Review, July/Aug 1997; 36, 2; ABI/INFORM Global
pg. 47, available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20201103022119/https://www.jimhopper.com/pdf/
stanton1997.pdf
30
Hosein and Treisman, Dissociative Amnesia, Johns Hopkins Psychiatry Guide, last updated May 2, 2017,
available at: https://www.hopkinsguides.com/hopkins/view/Johns_Hopkins_Psychiatry_Guide/787157/all/
Dissociative_Amnesia#ref1387739357597
 Those who attack the claims of ritual abuse survivors under the auspices of
false memory syndrome, or who attempt to generally disparage memories of
childhood sexual abuse as the product of recovered or false memories, do so from a
foundation of purely polemical, unscientific, and unproven theories advanced by the
likes of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation and other such organizations, many
of which have a documented membership of pedophile sympathizers and abuse
apologists who have routinely attempted to argue that childhood sexual abuse is not
always harmful or negative. In some instances, the individuals have attempted to
argue that childhood sexual contact with adults can be positive.

False Memories and David Lee Hamblin

A recurring theme in interviews with former patients and clients of David Lee
Hamblin is that he attempted to convince them that they had been sexually abused
as children. In many cases, Hamblin allegedly attempted to convince his adult
patients that they had been ritually abused by family members or family friends. The
wider investigation into ritual abuse within the state of Utah turned up other
instances of therapists, either clinical psychologists or licensed clinical social workers,
who were attempting to convince their patients that they had been ritually abused
as well despite the patient’s firm rejection of the idea. One such therapist attempted
to convince his female patients that they had suffered from childhood sexual abuse,
and that they had dissociative identity disorder.

Every single therapist who allegedly engaged in such activity employed

hypnotherapy. The therapists informed their patients after the hypnotherapy
session that they had divulged claims of abuse under hypnosis, and if the patient
rejected the claim, the therapist would leverage the patient’s desire to heal from
their accepted problem-usually a problem of sexual identity, orientation, or a marital
difficulty-by stating that a refusal to accept the claim of recovered sexual abuse
memories while under hypnosis would impede the patient’s progress towards their
goal of overcoming gender dysphoria, same sex attraction, or marital discord. In
certain instances, the therapist would leverage the vulnerability of the patient
further by engaging in sexual abuse as a therapeutic modality. The initial contact
involved manipulated consent, but if the patient physically resisted, the therapist
would inevitably prove willing to physically overpower the patient in order to forcibly
sexually assault them.

As a situational offender, David Lee Hamblin displayed no clear sexual

preference beyond an available victim. Very often, the victim was a child he held
authority over, such as his own daughters or a patient in his therapy practice.
Within the wider group of families that made up the CS, Hamblin could access child
victims, as well as adult victims who were severely mentally ill, such as Angela
Fenton, the thirty plus year old dissociative identity disorder patient who lived in
Hamblin’s home during treatment. Fenton’s alter CJ, a five year old boy, was her
dominant personality during much of her time with Hamblin. Fenton was from a
family in Alpine who allegedly belonged to the CS, whose abuse had caused Fenton
to mentally break down and develop an incapacitating form of DID. Hamblin had
been hired to reintegrate Fenton and turn her into a functioning adult member of
the group.

Another patient of David Lee Hamblin would realize during an interview that
their family lived directly adjacent to Angela Fenton’s family home in Alpine. Both
Fenton and the other patient had been recommended to Hamblin by their bishop,
Conrad Gottfredson. Gottfredson informed one patient that Hamblin had helped
him overcome his same sex attraction, as a means of commending Hamblin to the
patient on the matter of sexual identity issues. Hamblin’s treatment of gay men who
wanted to overcome their sexual attraction to men was extensive: he treated
advertising executive and alleged CS member Gordon Bowen, as well as Sundance
co-founder and convicted child sex offender Sterling Van Wagenen. Both Bowen
and Van Wagenen were tied to Robert Redford, who in turn was married to Van
Wagenen’s cousin, Lola Van Wagenen. Bowen briefly worked at Sundance before a
falling out with Redford.

Sterling Van Wagenen was the nephew of Hamblin’s uncle in law, Dean Van
Wagenen, who was married to his mother in law’s sister Belle Felice de Jong. The
familial and personal ties among Hamblin’s network were extensive, as were the
coincidental connections among ritual abuse victims. In many respects, the
investigation into Hamblin turned up one loop after another in the way of familial
and social connections, which were expected based on prior research projects. If
the ritual and sexual abuse memories were false, those connections would not be
present.

Memory alone is never enough to substantiate an allegation of sexual abuse.

In the criminal justice system, the standard to convict is beyond a reasonable doubt,
and it is the highest possible standard in our legal system. Accusers bear the burden
of proof, and so their memories must be corroborated with physical evidence and
circumstantial evidence. Physical evidence consists of evidence of an injury
consistent with sexual assault or abuse, obtained through medical and psychiatric
examinations. Examples might include impacted colons, vaginal tearing, and
extreme rectal or vaginal trauma. Physical scarring, bruising, and other injuries are
also corroborative of the abuse allegation.

Circumstantial evidence consists of corroborative testimony demonstrating a

pattern of abusive or inappropriate sexual behavior. Other forms of circumstantial
evidence include prior allegations against the alleged perpetrator, a familial history
of sexual abuse or sexual abuse allegations, and behavioral patterns such as an
addiction to sexual material or the possession of sexual material up to and including
material which depicts or captures sexual abuse. Each of these items must be
weighed carefully in context, together, to determine if they are indicative of an
overall pattern of behavior that could be indicative of a propensity for sexual abuse.

In the case of David Lee Hamblin, the following circumstantial and direct
evidence was immediately available to indicate a propensity for sexually abusive or
inappropriate behavior by Hamblin and his alleged accomplices:
  Hamblin’s brother in law Timothy Nathan Tuttle was convicted of sexually
abusing his adopted daughter.31 The court in Tuttle’s divorce barred him
from being alone with his daughters, and further barred him from housing
his male children in the same room with his female children during
visitation.32 It is unclear why the court felt the need to draw a line for
Tuttle’s male children and female children in addition to Tuttle.
 The court in Hamblin’s custody trial found by clear and convincing evidence
that he had sexually abused his daughters Rachel and Eliza for an extended
period of time, while not reaching any conclusion as to his daughters
Katherine and Miriam, who did not testify in the proceeding.
 The court in Hamblin’s custody trial found that he had administered peyote,
a controlled substance, to each of his daughters by his own admission. His
youngest daughter would have been around five years of age at the time
she was forced to ingest peyote.
 The court in Hamblin’s custody trial found that he had not respected the
laws of the state of Utah by encouraging or requiring his children to attend
school, which was corroborative of their claims that they were frequently
late or absent from school due to their parents sexually abusing them into
the morning hours or upon waking up in the morning.
 Sterling Van Wagenen, Hamblin’s in-law, pleaded guilty to aggravated abuse
of a child in April 2019. Van Wagenen had been David Lee Hamblin’s patient
during an earlier interview with the police related to a separate allegation of
child sexual abuse.33 34
 In Gordon Bowen’s divorce, his minor children alleged that he had forced
them to sleep naked in the bed with him. His minor daughter alleged that
he had put his finger in her rectum.35
 Both of the Bowen children demonstrated sexually inappropriate behavior
among their peer group, exposing their genitalia to other children and
urinating in areas around their home and yard.36 37
 Bowen’s stepsons both accused him of sexual abuse, including the
following:

31
State of Utah vs. Timothy Nathan Tuttle, Case No. 151402819, 4th District Court-Provo, April 19, 2016:
Disposition: Guilty.
32
Kristin M. Tuttle vs. Timothy Nathan Tuttle, Case No. 154402788, Decree of Divorce, Judge James R. Taylor,
January 15, 2016.
33
Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office, Case No. 93-91448, Initial Report, available at:
https://mormonleaks.io/wiki/documents/8/8c/1993-07-26-SALT_LAKE_COUNTY_SHERIFFS_OFFICE-93-91448.pdf
34
Detective Steve Jentzsch and Sterling Van Wagenen Interview Transcript, Case 93-91297, available at:
https://mormonleaks.io/wiki/documents/c/c6/1983-08-04-93-91297_DETECTIVE_STEVE_JENTZSCH-
STERLING_VAN_WAGENEN.pdf
35
Box 68, Folder 5, Documents 48-50, Collin Timothy, Eric Timothy, and Barbara Timothy Bowen as Guardian for
Caleb and Lily Bowen, minor children, vs. Gordon Bowen avalable at:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/gjq5dbp923o6l91ltsljv/Box-68-Fold-5-Doc-48.pdf?
rlkey=8j5xz1qh74bba39xg843ujwb7&dl=0
36
Affidavit of Heidi Ehlers, October 13, 2007 available at:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/tq7m4yygrdi093byqs30l/Box-69-Fold-6-Doc-6.pdf?
rlkey=hjrfm397wmbkh7tvknrz2p0fm&dl=0
37
Box 69, Folder 7, Document 3, pg 12, Letter dated May 9, 2008 referencing Caleb Bowen exposing himself to
Amanda Bywater during a sleepover with Lily Bowen.
  When one stepson was masturbating, he alleged that Bowen watched
him from the door, came into the room, and put his hand around the
boy’s penis.
 Bowen frequently demanded that his stepsons share a bed with him on
trips, a pattern of behavior corroborated by many of Bowen’s male
coworkers and associates. 38 39
 During business trips, Bowen would insist on his male coworkers sharing a
single bed with him, and during the night he would attempt to fondle their
genitalia.40
 Bowen would routinely make sexual advances to male coworkers and
associates, telling the boyfriend of his secretary that he had hoped the
boyfriend would return to his apartment and rape him.
 Bowen’s secretary Michelle Avantario detailed the presence of teenage
boys around the work cafeteria at his advertising agency, with those boys
waiting for Gordon Bowen to come down. When she queried one boy, the
boy told her that Bowen had offered to pay to fix his teeth if he would stay
at Bowen’s apartment.41
 The wife of one of Bowen’s associates, Annie Pratt, provided a statement
attesting to her and her mother witnessing “a young, sickly boy” in Bowen’s
Salt Lake home before a dinner party42. The boy told the wife and her
mother that he was staying with Bowen, but he was not in attendance at
the party.43
 Bowen’s associate Adrian Pulfer testified to Bowen sexually assaulting him
in a shared bed, and Pulfer’s friend provided corroborating testimony of the
aftermath of that incident the next morning, including the fact that Pulfer
had informed him of what had occurred.
 Bowen’s journals contained passages which blamed his homosexuality on
female spirits that needed to be exorcised, which was a service he sought
from David Lee Hamblin, Mel Fish, and Kisi Watkins.44 Bowen had denied

38
Box 68, Folder 2, Document 26, pg. 29, Lynn Dangel Written Statement, available at:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/z64sre18iuwsj1mh43ny3/Box-68-FOLD-2-Doc-26.pdf?
rlkey=zeev124l0tf1bkc65xseqt9uz&dl=0
39
James Alan Bogner Statement, Screenshot available at:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fqyvq546r23eqeik4om9u/Screen-Shot-2023-10-31-at-11.01.54-PM.png?
rlkey=s94i1vs6iee559it1mtkk2um0&dl=0
40
Box 70, Folder 5, Document 1, pg. 17, cf from Gordon Bowen’s first deposition, pp. 212-216, Collin Timothy and
Ken Kenitzer accused Bowen of sexually abusing them, available at:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/wthlgg40bwfazp3oeatd1/Box-70-Fold-5-Doc-1.pdf?
rlkey=dvaom91sm8gf6neinh36tgmw6&dl=0
41
Box 69, Folder 7, Document 3 pp. 13-14, available at:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/npd2whmeuf1k0a1h929zn/BOX-69-FOLD-7-Doc-3.pdf?
rlkey=w7vfekunj4v89q5d13ltdox4p&dl=0
42
Box 68, Fold 2, Doc 26, pg. 27, Annie Pratt Statement, January 9, 2003, available at:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/z64sre18iuwsj1mh43ny3/Box-68-FOLD-2-Doc-26.pdf?
rlkey=zeev124l0tf1bkc65xseqt9uz&dl=0
43
Box 69, Folder 7, Document 3, pg. 14, Annie Pratt Statement available at:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/npd2whmeuf1k0a1h929zn/BOX-69-FOLD-7-Doc-3.pdf?
rlkey=w7vfekunj4v89q5d13ltdox4p&dl=0
44
“Gordon’s Involvement with Evil Spirits screenshot of statements from journal and writings, available at:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/d3kyxz4agjg8a5dptd4qg/Screen-Shot-2023-11-04-at-6.28.14-PM.png?
rlkey=9wgf6fmzrb4zemg6bx4tvdvea&dl=0
 being a homosexual before his marriage to Barbara Timothy when
confronted by Timothy and her father Alma Boyce.
 Bowen also discussed his homosexuality with his stepson Collin Timothy,
and in that conversation he stated that Bowen had told him that his
homosexuality was due to “some sort of evil presence that inhabits his
body.” 45 Eric Timothy alleged that his stepfather had left a journal out, and
that the journal contained an entry describing evil female spirits which had
caused his homosexuality. 46
 Despite the fact that David Hamblin had been stripped of his license to
practice psychology by DOPL, in 2003 Gordon Bowen retained Hamblin and
a woman named Kisi Watkins, flying them to New York to assist in him over
three days in an effort to convince Eric and Collin Timothy that their mother
was insane, that their deceased father Steven Timothy was a sexual deviant,
and that they inherited their biological father’s sexual deviancy. Bowen
took their passports, plane tickets, and threatened to end their internships
in New York City if they did not comply with his demands and the ongoing
efforts of David Hamblin and Kisi Watkins. Bowen claimed that Eric and
Collin needed to have evil spirits exorcised from them by David Lee
Hamblin.47
 In Bowen’s journal, he wrote that his stepson Eric had felt sexual desire
towards him, and that Barbara’s sons with Steven Timothy were “sexually
wounded” due to Steve Timothy’s genetics.48 49
 In the same journal entry, Bowen writing as God stated the following: “You
were under oath to powers of darkness for sure but they did not steal your
agency.” Bowen wrote that he was the boys’ chance for redemption, sent
to heal the Timothy and Boyce lines, even though he “broke sacred
covenants” with regards to his estranged wife.50
 Bowen’s phone records confirmed that he had made thousands of phone
calls over a few months to gay male escort services.
 Bowen told his coworkers that his father Wesley Bowen had sat by and
watched as a family friend raped him in the pool during his childhood.
Bowen later stated in a deposition that the sexual assault did not rise to the
level of rape.51 52 53 54

45
Affidavits 2, 3, and 4, Eric and Collin Timothy, excerpts available at:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/etj8gfb9fkw50g7bbnt1b/Extracted2Bowen-Executive-Summary-Final-with-
Graphics-and-Source-Material-Attached-with-Omission.pdf?rlkey=dzqtzjm8vq76512e7daru27pc&dl=0
46
Ibid.
47
Ibid.
48
Ibid.
49
In an interview dated May 2, 2009, with Lynn Kenneth Packer and Dr. Juan Meijia present, Eric Timothy accused
his stepfather Gordon Bowen of placing his hand on his genitalia while they were sharing a bed. In the same
interview, Eric stated the following: “There’s times I don’t remember whole sections of weeks and months, those
sorts of things. I don’t know if it’s just that I don’t remember or something happened where I completely
repressed this.” Box 70, Folder 4, Document 3, pg. 14 available at:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/44ss34h49a1n7hv8a12yk/BOX-70-FOLD-4-Doc-3.pdf?
rlkey=9c72g2wdcxx82rapw37ymx2pv&dl=0
50
Id., Affidavits 2, 3, and 4, Eric and Collin Timothy.
51
Screenshot of Bowen’s Second Deposition referencing abuse allegation, available at:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/2tamobxt1diygunkv3wj0/Screen-Shot-2023-10-26-at-4.35.05-AM.png?
rlkey=jgq5fatk5nw4jo4zmnwkcyx0l&dl=0
  The records of Bowen’s divorce contained multiple letters and
communications from licensed therapists who characterized Gordon Bowen
as a sexual deviant, a predator, and a pedophile who should not be allowed
unsupervised access to his minor children.55 56 57 58 59
 Bowen’s coworkers and former employers alleged that he had missed a
critical client meeting at his agency due to the fact that he was chained up
and smeared with feces after a sexual encounter.60
 Bowen’s ex-girlfriend detailed finding homosexual pornography in his
apartment, which corroborated his stepson’s allegations that they had
repeatedly found his pornographic material in his apartments in New York
and Boston.
 Bowen’s journal contained passages detailing his belief that his sins were
foreordained by God so that he could learn the secret codes and
combinations, which is Latter Day Saint speak for Satanism.61
 His writings also included a screenplay describing a young blonde girl in the
presence of men performing penis exercises, with the girl said to be under
threat of execution for sexual wrongdoing. One of the men was said to
resemble Bowen’s own father Wes Bowen.62

52
Screenshot of Bowen’s Second Deposition referencing journal entry “Have I made the older boys sick? As my
father did me?” available at: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/6nxto1v5y9etztafs53hl/Screen-Shot-2023-10-26-
at-4.35.30-AM.png?rlkey=eycdsy9q2a7cr5a58m20e4gew&dl=0
53
James Alan Bogner Statement, available at: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/fqyvq546r23eqeik4om9u/Screen-
Shot-2023-10-31-at-11.01.54-PM.png?rlkey=s94i1vs6iee559it1mtkk2um0&dl=0
54
Box 70, Folder 5, Document 3, pg. 3, Affidavit of James Bogner pg. 2, availabe at:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/o7cc0tzsss8030cn0toqz/Box-70-Fold-5-Doc-3.pdf?
rlkey=0vui8e6q29e3l4lr8i5tox9ks&dl=0
55
Box 68, Folder 4, Document 37, pp. 6-10, Letter from Dr. Bruce A. Kahan to Kathleen McConkie, July 10, 2009
Re; Eric Timothy, available at: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/gpdczy5184j9zog8zc8ff/Box-68-Fold-4-Doc-
37.pdf?rlkey=dv2c4awpisav2338jeu7b9pg9&dl=0
56
Box 68, Folder 4, Document 36, pp. 6-7, Letter from Dr. C. Haydee Mas to Kathleen McConkie, October 13,
2008, regarding Caleb and Lily Bowen’s therapy, available at:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/t3f51d1965km9uzdhjc7k/Box-68-Fold-4-Doc-36.pdf?
rlkey=o7onmj63u22rkj7j1w5pbw9gz&dl=0
57
Box 68, Folder 4, Document 36, pp. 10-21, Letter from Dr. Juan A. Mejia to Dr. Monica Christy, regarding Bowen
MMPI-2 test and MCMI-III Tests for Bowen, January 30, 2009, available at:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/t3f51d1965km9uzdhjc7k/Box-68-Fold-4-Doc-36.pdf?
rlkey=o7onmj63u22rkj7j1w5pbw9gz&dl=0
58
Packer Box 68, Folder 1, Document 6, Affidavit of C. Haydee Mas, Ph.D, PC, Bowen vs. Bowen, Civil No.
034904059, Judge LA Dever, Third Judicial District Court for Salt Lake County, State of Utah, available at:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/kkfv5xgvauakzofql7tr3/Packer-box-68-Doc-6.pdf?
rlkey=kkw38tccca0vzfb68gk6eu67q&dl=0
59
Affidavit 9, paragraph 42, Affidavit of Thom Harrison: “…Gordon’s probable Dissociative Identity Disorder
crfeates Gordon’s report of hearing inner conversations and the voices of other personalities, which often
comment on or address his family conflicts. These voices can be experienced as hallucinations. In Gordon’s
journals, he often becomes the voice of God, and this voice tells him to destroy Barbara and take no captives.”
available at: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/etj8gfb9fkw50g7bbnt1b/Extracted2Bowen-Executive-Summary-
Final-with-Graphics-and-Source-Material-Attached-with-Omission.pdf?rlkey=dzqtzjm8vq76512e7daru27pc&dl=0
60
Box 68, Folder 2, Document 26, pg. 26, Tom Pratt November 8, 2002 Statement, available at:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/z64sre18iuwsj1mh43ny3/Box-68-FOLD-2-Doc-26.pdf?
rlkey=zeev124l0tf1bkc65xseqt9uz&dl=0
61
Extracted Source Material from the Executive Summary on Gordon Bowen, available at:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/etj8gfb9fkw50g7bbnt1b/Extracted2Bowen-Executive-Summary-Final-with-
Graphics-and-Source-Material-Attached-with-Omission.pdf?rlkey=dzqtzjm8vq76512e7daru27pc&dl=0
62
Lynn Kenneth Packer, OUR Op ED No. 23: Satanic Ritual Abuse Allegations, YouTube video available at:
https://youtu.be/FdHBP9DHXbk?si=jQ71GMUztgXm-iOS&t=1109
 In an interview with a survivor who confronted Hamblin, the survivor alleged
that one of the men in Hamblin’s office during the confrontation was none other
than Gordon Bowen, who was introduced as Hamblin’s bishop at the time. The
other man present was Hamblin’s alleged CS accomplice Joe Bennion of Spring City.

 Bennion had conducted sweat lodges throughout the Nineties, some of

which were attended by teenage girls under the age of 18.
 Multiple witnesses corroborate that the lodges involved disrobing and a
sexual component, as well as the interweaving of Latter Day Saint and
Native American religion, with the consumption of peyote.
 This would place Bennion in the same pattern as Hamblin: administering
peyote to minor children in a ritualistic setting.
 It would also place the adults in those sweat lodges in proximity to female
children who were unclothed in a ritualistic setting.

In simple terms, the allegations made by the Hamblin sisters in the years
between 2012 and 2014 were not sufficient by themselves to prove anything.
However, with the recorded apology of David Lee Hamblin to his daughter for raping
her, those allegations took on added credibility. The facts outlined in the preceding
paragraphs further demonstrated the credibility of the allegations with respect to
certain individuals named in the victims’ statements. There was a familial history of
sexual abuse and impropriety towards minor children within the Hamblin family
network. There was a history of sexual abuse and impropriety towards minor
children within Hamblin’s social network. The added documentation with respect
towards sexually inappropriate and illegal conduct towards adults only serves to
bolster the credibility of the Hamblin sisters further.

There was little to indicate that the Hamblin sisters were the victims of false
memory syndrome, a scientifically invalid concept introduced into popular culture by
alleged child sexual abusers, apologists and advocates for the normalization of
pedophilia. There was and is ample evidence to suggest that the Hamblin sisters
were likely testifying to behavior that actually occurred. This evidence will be
presented throughout this report with respect to named members of the Church of
Satan in the Hamblin Victims’ Statements, as well as other individuals within the
networks of the alleged members of the Church of Satan.

The LDS Church of Satan: Possible Origins

The Hamblin sisters recount their parents’ and grandparents’ claims that
Oliver Cowdery was a member of the Church of Satan in the earliest days of the
Church.63 Cowdery was the first baptized Latter Day Saint, and one of Three
Witnesses to the golden plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated, and
he held various callings within the early church.64 Among those were Second Elder,
Assistant President of the Church, and assistant counselor to the First Presidency. 65
In 1838, after the failure of Kirtland Safety Society Bank had decimated Cowdery
financially, Cowdery began pursuing his business interests apart from the Church,
despite the fact that he held a full time calling as an officer of the Church. He also
began accusing Joseph Smith of having an affair with a teenage maid named Fanny
Alger.66

Cowdery insinuated Smith’s guilt with regards to adultery, claiming that

Joseph had told him he had confessed adultery to his wife Emma.67 When asked
point blank by David W. Patten in the presence of Thomas B. Marsh if Smith had
confessed to adultery to his wife, Cowdery intimated that he had, only to
acknowledge that Smith had never told him of any such confession when Smith
questioned him directly, nor had Smith confessed adultery to Cowdery.68 This version
of events was corroborated by George W. Harris, in addition to Thomas B. Marsh and
David W. Patten. Additional testimony was heard by the Court as to Cowdery’s
participation in a counterfeiting business whereby fake currency was printed. 69

The end result of the April 12, 1838 High Council court convened against
Cowdery was excommunication.70 In his letter to the Council, which was read by
Edward Partridge, Cowdery addressed the fourth and fifth charges out of nine total
charges against him, but he did not address the charge that he had sought to destroy
the character of Joseph Smith, Jr.”falsely insinuating that he was guilty of adultery.” 71
72 73 74

Cowdery professed to oppose polygamy, but he rejoined a polygamous

Church under Brigham Young on November 12, 1848.75 Cowdery’s descent had
begun much earlier than the 1838 High Council, and this is evident due to two
sources: a December 18, 1833 blessing Smith bestowed upon Cowdery; and an 1848
63
Victim Statement #2, pg. 2, available at:
64
Oliver Cowdery, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, available at:
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/oliver-cowdery?lang=eng
65
Journal, March–September 1838, p. 20, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed March 8, 2024,
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/journal-march-september-1838/6
66
Minute Book 2, p. 123, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed March 8, 2024,
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minute-book-2/126#josephsmithpapers
67
Ibid.
68
Minute Book 2, p. 124, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed March 8, 2024,
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minute-book-2/127
69
Minute Book 2, p. 125, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed March 8, 2024,
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minute-book-2/128
70
Minute Book 2, p. 126, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed March 8, 2024,
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minute-book-2/129
71
Minute Book 2, p. 119, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed March 8, 2024,
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minute-book-2/122
72
Minute Book 2, p. 120, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed March 8, 2024,
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minute-book-2/123
73
Minute Book 2, p. 121, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed March 8, 2024,
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minute-book-2/124
74
Minute Book 2, p. 122, The Joseph Smith Papers, accessed March 8, 2024,
https://www.josephsmithpapers.org/paper-summary/minute-book-2/125
75
Bushman, Richard Lyman (2005). Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.
journal entry by William McClellin regarding the July 8, 1834 General Conference
meeting at the home of Lyman Wight.

The December 1833 blessing was unspecific as to Cowdery’s exact

transgression, but it did allude to some inner conflict that Smith perceived in
Cowdery:

“Blessed of the Lord is bro[ther] Oliver nevertheless there are are

two evils in him that he must needs forsake or he cannot altogeth[er]
escape the buffettings of the advers[ar]y.”76

The 1848 McClellin writing attributed a direct statement to Joseph Smith,

who stated that Oliver Cowdery would not be his successor “in consequence of
transgression.”77 Cowdery’s October 1830 mission to the Lamanites while in the
company of Peter Whitmer, Ziba Peterson, and Parley P. Pratt followed his betrothal
to Elizabeh Ann Whitmer, but his behavior on that mission led to a a May 26, 1832
High Council examining his behavior. The High Council did not specify what Cowdery
did, but it did note that Cowdery had “made his confession to the individuals injured
& received their forgiveness.”78

Ezra Booth, a former member of the Church, accused Cowdery of violating his
engagement to Elizabeth Whitmer by telling Peterson he desired to marry her.

“While descending the Missouri river . . . two of my company,

divulged a secret respecting Oliver, which placed his conduct on
a parallel with Ziba [Peterson’s who had transgressed]. . . . These
two persons stated, that had they known previous to their journey
to Missouri, what they then knew, they never should have
accompanied Oliver thither. . . .”

“If a pure and pleasant fountain can send forth corrupt and bitter
streams, then may the heart of that man [Oliver Cowdery] be pure,
who enters into a matrimonial contract with the young lady, and
obtains the consent of her parents; but as soon as his back is turned
upon her, he violates his engagements, and prostitutes his honor by
becoming the gallant of another, and resolved in his heart, and
expresses resolutions to marry her.”79

Whatever sins Cowdery had committed in 1830 were significant enough to

warrant a warning by Smith in his December 1833 blessing, and the loss of his
position as a possible successor to Joseph Smith which led to Smith publicly stating
that Cowdery’s transgression had resulted in his lack of fitness to succeed Smith in
76
The Joseph Smith Papers Journals, Vol. 1, 1832–1839 (Salt Lake City: Church Historian’s Press, 1008), 21, 23
77
William E. McLellin, “Writings,” The Ensign of Liberty of the Church of Christ 1 (December 1847): 43.
78
Donald Q. Cannon and Lyndon W. Cook, eds., Far West Record: Minutes of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-
day Saints 1830–1841 (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1983), 49; emphasis added.
79
Ezra Booth, as cited in E. D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville, OH: E. D. Howe, 1834), 208, 218.
1834. We do not know what the two evils in Oliver Cowdery were because Joseph
Smith did not specify in his blessing or his public remarks. At most, we know that
something occurred during Cowdery’s 1830 mission with Whitmer, Peterson, and
Pratt.

Over time, the tension between Smith and Cowdery was clearly exacerbated
by the failure of the Kirtland bank, and Cowdery’s resulting financial losses.
Cowdery had consecrated his wealth within Zion, and as alleged Church of Satan
member and Latter Day Saint historian Richard Lloyd Anderson noted, Cowdery was
“personally liable for what was really a debt of the Church incurred for the purpose
of the Church.”80 The construction debts of the Kirtland Chapel were significant, and
Cowdery bore the burden of what was left over in personal liability.

Cowdery’s membership is generally portrayed as a seamless progression that

came to a sudden and unexpected end; the reality is that Cowdery’s involvement in
the Church was marred by tumult and conflict from 1830 onward. Joseph Smith had
remarked on “two evils” within Cowdery that would need to be forsaken lest
Cowdery succumb to the Adversary. Smith had also ruled out Cowdery as a
successor in 1834 due to an unspecified transgression. Over time, Oliver Cowdery
had descended from one of the original Three Witnesses to the Book of Mormon to
an accuser of Joseph Smith, but Cowdery did not include his allegations of adultery
against Smith in his letter to the 1838 High Council in Far West. Those allegations
were conspicuously absent from Cowdery’s letter, which did not bother to address
the charge against him for slandering Joseph Smith.

In the context of the Hamblin sisters’ claims, Oliver Cowdery’s history within
the Church speaks to an unseen reality. Joseph Smith did not specify exactly what
Cowdery had done, and neither did the High Council of 1833. Richard Lloyd
Anderson, the LDS historian who was the maternal grandfather of the Hamblin
sisters, claimed he had uncovered documentation that Cowdery was personally
liable for the remaining debts associated with the Kirtland Chapel’s construction.

The official Church narrative is that Joseph Smith had received revelation on
polygamy as early as 1831.81 In 1869, Orson Pratt claimed that in 1832 Smith had
told others in the Church that polygamy was a true principle, but that it was not yet
the time to practice polygamy.82 An 1886 article in the Deseret News contained
Joseph Fielding Smith’s claim that Smith had received a revelation on plural marriage
in 1831, but was “forbidden to make it public, or to teach it as doctrine of the Gospel
at that time.”83 On July 11, 1883, at a Stake Conference in Centerville, Utah, Joseph
B. Noble claimed Joseph Smith had told him that polygamy had been revealed while
Smith was working on his translation of the Bible.84
80
Church News Archives, Leaviing the Church-a matter of attitude, 25 Nov 2006, available at:
https://www.thechurchnews.com/2006/11/25/23233998/leaving-the-church-151-a-matter-of-attitude/
81
Orson Pratt, October 7, 1869, Journal of Discourses, 13: 193.
82
Ibid.
83
Deseret News, May 20, 1886; quoted in Andrew Jenson, “Plural Marriage,” Historical Record 6 (July 1887): 219.
84
Joseph B. Noble speaking at a quarterly Stake Conference held at Centerville, Davis Co, Utah, June 11, 1883.
Quoted in Andrew Jenson, “Plural Marriage,” Historical Record 6 (July 1887): 232–33. See Brigham H. Roberts’s
introduction to volume five of the history of Joseph Smith, History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
 W.W. Phelps claimed that Smith had received a revelation in 1831, during a
mission to Jackson County, Missouri, during which missionaries were instructed to
marry Native Americans.85 Phelps wrote about the revelation in 1861, stating that
three years after the revelation, he had asked Smith how the missionaries could take
wives from the Native Americans as married men, to which Smith allegedly
responded by claiming that such decisions were made by revelation.86

The problem with these claims is obvious: not a single record exists from the
1830s to substantiate the allegations made by Orson Pratt, Joseph Fielding Smith,
Joseph B. Noble, and W.W. Phelps. In fact, even though the revelation recorded by
William Clayton in 1843 was publicized by the Church in 1852, Pratt, Noble, Smith,
and Phelps did not report their claims until 1861, 1869, 1883, and 1886.

The fact that the Book of Mormon plainly condemned polygamy as

whoredom in Jacob 2 and 3 only served to render the claims of Pratt, Smith, Noble,
and Phelps even more absurd.87 Noble claimed that Smith had received revelation
on polygamy while working on his translation of the Bible. In 1831, Smith was
undertaking his translation of Genesis.88 In Genesis, God created one wife for Adam,
and in Genesis 2:24, that wife was to be joined to her husband, becoming one flesh.
When Christ was asked about divorce by the Pharisees in Matthew 19 and Mark 10,
He cited Genesis 2.

At no point does God condone polygamy in the Old Testament; in fact, in

Deuteronomy 17:17, the kings of Israel are explicitly commanded not to multiply
wives lest their hearts be turned away from God, which is exactly what happened to
Solomon and other kings in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, church
leaders are to be the husband of one wife, as commanded by 1 Timothy 3 and Titus
1. Throughout the Pauline epistles, the recommended model of marriage is one
man and one woman. Doctrine and Covenants 42:22 explicitly states “Thou shalt
love they wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave unto her and none else.”

Saints, ed. B. H. Roberts, 2nd ed. rev., 7 vols. (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1960), 5:xxix; see also Hubert
Howe Bancroft, History of Utah (San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft Co., 1889), 161–62.
85
W.W. Phelps to Brigham Young, August 12, 1861, Young Collection, CHL, copy of holograph in possession of the
author. See Michael Marquardt, The Joseph Smith Revelations: Text and Commentary (Salt Lake City: Signature
Books, 1999), 374.
86
Ibid.
87
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/bofm/jacob/2?lang=eng&id=23,28,33#p22
88
Joseph Smith’s Polygamy, cf. W.W. Phelps to Brigham Young, August 12, 1861, Young Collection, CHL, copy of
holograph in possession of the author. See Michael Marquardt, The Joseph Smith Revelations: Text and
Commentary (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1999), 374, available at:
https://josephsmithspolygamy.org/history/polygamy-early-1830s/#link_ajs-fn-id_4-62