Anchor Books</br></br>Product Description</br></br>This extraordinary work of investigative journalism takes readers inside Americas isolated Mormon Fundamentalist communities where some 40000 people still practice polygamy. Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City the renegade leaders of these Taliban-like theocracies are zealots who answer only to God.<br><br> At the core of Krakauers book are brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty who insist they received a commandment from God to kill a blameless woman and her baby girl. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this appalling double murder Krakauer constructs a multi-layered bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion polygamy savage violence and unyielding faith. Along the way he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of Americas fastest growing religion and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.</br></br>Amazon.com Review</br></br>In 1984 Ron and Dan Lafferty murdered the wife and infant daughter of their younger brother Allen. The crimes were noteworthy not merely for their brutality but for the brothers' claim that they were acting on direct orders from God. In <I>Under the Banner of Heaven</I>?? Jon Krakauer tells the story of the killers and their crime but also explores the shadowy world of Mormon fundamentalism from which the two emerged. The Mormon Church was founded?? in part?? on the idea that true believers could speak directly with God. But while the mainstream church attempted to be more palatable to the general public by rejecting the controversial tenet of polygamy?? fundamentalist splinter groups saw this as apostasy and took to the hills to live what they believed to be a righteous life. When their beliefs are cha