Profiles in Alleged CS Members: Alex Bigney

Another artist, allegedly within the Church of Satan

On page 76 of her victims statement, Eliza Hamblin notes the following:

Huge group was gathered for some Native American ceremonies involving peyote. Some of the people there included Marc Davis, the Bennions, Lynn Whitesides, James and Linda Mooney, the Bigne/s, Angela Fenton, and many others.

One evening most of the group were at the Bennion's house and were taking turns going into Joe's sweat lodge, the house, the teepee and the tents that were set up in the yard. They were taking peyote in the sweat lodge and when they came out they would plunge into the tub of cold water that was next to it. There were people having sex in the tents and teepee and food in the house. I was taken into the sweat lodge early on and given peyote by David and James Mooney and then Rosie took me and put me in one of the tents alone. Men and women came in and out of the tent during the night to rape me, sometimes in groups of 2 or 3. Rosie came in every hour or so to check on me and at one point took me into the Bennions house to go to the bathroom. I know I was raped that night by James and Linda Mooney, and by Alex Bigney (the father).

This occurred between 1994 and 1996 in Spring City, Utah. Katherine Hamblin alleged in her victim statement that she saw someone having sex with “the Bignee’s dad,” and this is likely Alex Bigney. This occurred in a cemetery in Sanpete County during the warmer months of 1995-1997, and it was a frequent practice of the Church of Satan to perform Gathering ceremonies in cemeteries around the county. During those ceremonies, members attempted to find spirits that could then occupy them, and they would engage in sexual acts.

One of my experiences of Redacted trying to participate in "the gathering" was late at night in an old cemetery in Sanpete county. I can't remember which one it was but there was a fence around it, and Redacted parked out in front of it and left Redacted in the car seat asleep and told the rest of us to come with them. As I walked through the cemetery in the dark I felt like there were people around me. Soon I saw that there were several people standing and praying with their arms in the air. They all had robes on. When the last couple people came, all of us went and stood in a circle far away from the street inside the cemetery. We were under a big tree. One of the men described what we would do and then everyone prayed in a "prayer circle" which they often do in ceremonies. They chanted in low voices and then one man spoke and asked Satan for the blessing to "find more spirits." After that everyone swept the cemetery— people were mostly walking in a line, side by side, dodging headstones, etc. I saw two people stop and have sex there on the ground. Redacted was holding my hand and made me go with him, and as he often did he started chanting "No bears are out tonight" to me and laughed. I got really scared. They made us come back to the circle after a while and they called out a name and Paul Larsen went to the middle of the circle. Everyone did a prayer circle again and he had his arms up in a "V" shape and they all prayed. Then Paul grabbed Redacted and raped her. While we were there that same night I was raped by President Johansen and I saw Redacted have sex with the Bignee's dad.

The allegations against Alex Bigney are significant, but limited to a mere two or three year window. This is likely due to the fact that the Bigney family resided in Woodland Hills, Payson, and Salem, Utah, each locations with their own CS councils and groups. Alexander Bigney first moved to Utah in 1970, enrolling at BYU, and then departing for a mission to Italy in 1971. He would return to Italy after his mission in 1974 and 1975, and in 1976 he would return permanently to Utah.

His father Alexander Woodman Bigney had sold his company, New England Metal Spinning, and moved to Missouri in 1974. From there, Bigney moved to Utah and served as an instructor at the Utah Technical College, eventually establishing DMW Products of Orem. He and his wife Rose would serve an LDS mission to Kiev, Ukraine, and he would retire in Woodland Hills, where he lived until his death on June 28, 2012. After his death, his property at 595 S Woodland Hills Dr would be sold to Trent and Ester Leavitt.

Alexander Woodman Bigley, otherwise known as Bud, would impart a love of music his grandsons Alex, Sam, and Simeon, who would form Kirkmount, which performed Scottish music. Alexander William and Marilyn Bigney homeschooled their sons, who went on to achieve notoriety culminating in a performance on CBS This Morning with Charles Osgood.

The significance of this fact cannot be overstated.

CS members emphasized the harp as a musical instrument, believing it to be the instrument the descendants of Cain played. Redacted Richard and Redacted Carma told me that Redacted had chosen my instrument well because it says in LDS scripture that Cain’s descendants had been skilled on the harp. After a few years, Redacted made business cards for me that said, "Praise the Lord upon the harp." She would laugh and show the cards to CS friends and treat it as a big inside joke, saying "Lord" stood for "our Lord Lucifer." One of my duties became playing for ceremonies and Redacted meetings (harp, piano). I was encouraged to learn melancholy songs, rhythmic songs, certain LDS hymns they used frequently (such as "Nearer My God to Thee," "I Need Thee Every Hour," "Abide With Me, Tis Eventide," "Choose the Right," and more), other hymns ("Amazing Grace"), dark Medieval and Renaissance songs, the theme from Carmen, "Marguerite at the Spinning Wheel" (a longer classical piece about a distraught girl who slowly goes crazy and dies at the end), and many similar pieces.

Marco Davis, another alleged CS member, performs with his daughters Rebecca, Kathryn, and Elizabeth in a Celtic and American folk music group, Fiddlesticks. In 2006, Fiddlesticks would work with Lisa Arrington, the ex-wife of alleged Church of Satan member James Arrington, on an album entitled Farewell to Nauvoo.

The Church of Satan’s members have a pattern of performing in musical groups dedicated to Celtic, folk, and even Shakespearean music, as Roselle Stevenson’s performances with Ars Pro Audio, a musical troupe that performed 16th century music in the late Sixties. Hugh Nibley’s son Michael Nibley joined the group when two of the original members were unable to perform at the annual Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, which took place on August 28-30, 1969.

For the Bigney family, the connection to folk music extended beyond music. Alexander Woodman Bigney’s son Hugh won the adult world championship in Highland Dancing at 18 years of age in 1973. At the time, his father was the bishop of the Lynnfield Ward in the Boston Stake.

The Bigney family was LDS through and through, with a staunch emphasis on the arts. How Alexander William Bigney came to be affiliated with the Church of Satan is uncertain. However, an analysis of his geographical location over the years provides some insight.

On February 20, 1980, the Daily Herald ran a birth announcement for Alexander and Marilyn Bigney of 157 S. 800 E. Orem, Utah. Orem is the town where Spring City’s alleged Punisher Joe Bennion would finish high school, alongside the the daughters of Heber C. Wolsey, the alleged ritual abuser who presided over a familial satanic group spanning multiple rural areas in Southern Utah County. Previously, Bennion had attended high school in Provo, only to move to Orem and graduate.

Orem was also the city where Clarke Christensen, the former police and fire chief of Spring City, had served for three decades as a police officer. Christensen’s brother Craig married Susan “Suki” Hamblin, the sister of David Lee Hamblin. As Chief of Police for a town of fewer than 1,000 people, Christensen drew pay and benefits of $85,180.55 in 2019.

Many of the patterns that define the CS families are present within the Bigney family. Hugh Bigney appears in the May 15, 1998 edition of Seattle Gay News as one of the individuals behind a dance program. Bigney, Laura Curry, and Jerry Kraus’s work is featured in Program A of the Against the Grain/Festival of Men Dancing. Bigney worked as a principal dancer at the Pacific Northwest Ballet in the Nineties, and was unusual in that he was an openly gay man working as a principal dancer.¹ ² As of 2022, Bigney was working as a personal trainer in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Hugh Bigney also performed in pornographic movies under the name Paul Barbaro.

Nicholas Daniel Bigney, the other son of Alexander Woodman Bigney, followed his father into business. His sons Adrei and Alexei had an incident in June 2019, whereby Alexei Bigney fell asleep on his brother Andrei’s couch. When Alexei woke up, his brother was pointing a gun at him. A domestic violence information was filed under DAO #19012701, but it appears that the matter was later dismissed. Andrei later had a temporary civil stalking injunction filed against him by Hailey Sloat, who successfully obtained a three year injunction barring Bigney from contacting her, or approaching her residence, her place of employment, and Salt Lake Community College.

Bigney had a prior arrest for misdemeanor lewdness in February 2000, which he pleaded guilty to on March 28, 2000. In 2001, Samuel Bigney, his cousin, had a misdemeanor possession of marijuana case that was resolved via dismissal in February 2005.

In short, the Bigney family was anything but a typical Latter Day Saint family. They were, however, a family with many of the same patterns as CS families named by the Hamblin sisters. Substance abuse, violence, mental instability, and bisexuality are all present within the Bigney family tree. If Eliza Hamblin is telling the truth, Alex Bigney would be guilty of rape of a child under the Utah Criminal Code. In a separate incident described by Eliza’s sister Katherine Hamblin, the age of Alex Bigney’s victim is unclear.

Conclusion

The accusations against Alex Bigney, while not yet proven, tend to be more credible in light of the patterns and history within his family. Investigations in Ritual Abuse will continue examining the Bigney family. If you have information pertaining to the Bigney family, you can reach IRA @Goel1830 on Telegram.

1. Hugh Bigney appears multiple times in the Seattle Gay News, including the February 5, 1988 issue

https://washingtondigitalnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=SGN19880205.1.29&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------

2. In 2012, Bigney’s domestic partnership with Michael L Russell was dissolved in Case 12-3-05775-7 SEA.