Survivior of Violent Polygamous Cult Shares Her Story

Jan. 19, 2009 - PRLog -- First time author Kim Taylor has surprised members of her small community, including some of her  family and friends, with the  release of  her tragic memoirs in a book that reads stranger than fiction. For the first time ever, the easy-going Oregon housewife  shares in detail  the fascinating events that took place in her young life.

In her story, titled Daughters of Zion: A Family’s Conversion to Polygamy  (212 pp, tpb,  $15.95), Taylor chronicles being uprooted from her family’s comfortable middle class home in Utah at the tender age of seven  to be raised in a polygamous cult in Mexico. Her life takes unbelievable twists and turns as  her older sisters become  plural wives, and young Kim herself is eventually courted by the polygamist fathers of her close friends. All semblance of a  peaceful life is shattered when violence erupts within the ranks of  the priesthood leaving one  sister a widow.  Kim fears for her own life as some of the people she cares most about become murderers in the name of religion.

Detailing the beginning of the gruesome legacy of Ervil LeBaron, now sometimes referred to as “The Mormon Manson,” Daughters of Zion will be of special interest to those who remember the shocking events that stunned the inhabitants of Houston, Texas on June 27, 1988. Soon known as “The Four o’Clock Murders,” this violent  tragedy captured the attention of the entire nation.

Mary Ann Cook,  author for Focus on the Family, praises Taylor’s first literary offering: “It was curiosity about polygamy that lead me to pick up this book,” she writes, “but it is the author’s craft at storytelling that made it impossible to put down. Kim’s riveting, honest portrayal of her courageous search for deliverance from what she eventually recognized as dangerous dogma cloaked as religious truths, is both intriguing and inspiring.”

The release of Taylor’s story, which leads the reader on a fascinating journey into the  world of cult mental conditioning, coincides with and is relevant to the thirtieth anniversary of the Jonestown  massacre in Guyana.

Daughters of Zion: A Family’s Conversion to Polygamy may be purchased from Amazon.com,  BarnesandNoble.com, and other bookstores.
                                                                 

ISBN  978-0-615-25701-3

Kim Taylor makes her home in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and a son, the youngest of five children. She recently took up the challenge of creating an interactive pro-monogamy blog and website that features articles written by former polygamists and others. Visitors are welcome at:www.justonewife.com