Profiles in Alleged LDS Church of Satan Members: Ann and Paul Larsen Pt. 1
CS Network Connections
The Hamblin Victims’ Statements provided police and prosecutors a staggering number of named perpetrators to investigate, encompassing five single spaced pages by IRA’s own indexing. Those named by the Hamblin children comprised a who’s who of LDS artists, businessmen, and medical professionals, as well as families whose reach stretched into the upper echelons of the Utah political and legal establishments. Paul and Ann Larsen were named 24 times in the Victims’ Statements and accused of the following crimes:
Homicide
Child rape, sodomy of a child, and the production of child pornography
Sexual battery
Forcible sodomy of an adult
The identification of Paul and Ann Larsen is made certain by the details provided by the Hamblin children. Ann Larsen is an architect and the owner of Ann Larsen Residential Design, based out of Salt Lake City. Paul Larsen is a filmmaker and professor at the University of Utah who is also based out of Salt Lake City. He previously worked for the film program at BYU, where he taught screenwriting. The Hamblin children described Paul Larsen as both a filmmaker and the father of a son with Down’s Syndrome, which matches up with the biography of Paul Larsen on the University of Utah’s Department of Film and Media Arts website.
The Larsen’s roots stretch back to the British and Mormon pioneers who built Utah, and their network stretches to certain locations in California with ties to the CS. Their background and network are of critical importance to understanding their place within the LDS Church of Satan, and the credibility of the Hamblin children’s allegations.
Origins: Ann Fluckiger Larsen
Ann Fluckiger Larsen’s grandfather Arnold John Melchior Flockiger was born on May 5, 1905, and he married Belva Burton on September 16, 1925 in the Salt Lake Temple. By March 1926, Arnold fell ill with appendicitis, and died after surgery on March 17, 1926. His wife Belva was pregnant with their son Arnold Burton Fluckiger, and her husband’s early death forced her to move back into her parents’ home in Aston, Wyoming. Thomas Fielding Burton raised his grandson alongside 13 other children on the family’s dairy farm, until Belva Burton moved to Ogden, Utah, where Arnold went to high school and met Nadine Cordingley.1
His friend George Osmond played a pivotal role in Burton’s romance with Nadine, for it was George who received the money Arnold sent back from Washington, D.C. to purchase an engagement ring for Nadine. George Osmond was the father of the Osmond Brothers, who would go on to sell 77 million albums worldwide while launching Donny and Marie Osmond into stardom. Marie Osmond has previously alleged that she was sexually abused as a child, and she further claimed that she thought she was gay as a result of her abuse.2 3
In fact, according to Arnold’s obituary, George Osmond presented the engagement ring to Nadine. Arnold was working as an Army radio operator in D.C. at the time, after being drafted despite serving in the Merchant Marines at first. Nadine and Arnold were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple on June 22, 1948, and Arnold’s path led him to Weber State, BYU, and eventually Stanford University, where he obtained his Master’s in Architecture.
In Menlo Park, he partnered up with Charles Ray Rasmussen to open an architectural firm. The significance of Menlo Park and Stanford is simple enough: Jean Char Gong, the “sister by affection” of the de Jong sisters, met and married her husband Walter at Stanford.4 They settled in Atherton, California and eventually ended up in Palo Alto, where Walter Gong eventually passed away due to complications from diabetes. Fluckiger’s work to him back to Utah, where he frequently worked with Keith Garner, whose ties extended to Orrin Hatch as a principal shareholder of Amehcor, a corporation formed to develop the Park City Institute.5
Arnold and Nadine’s daughter Ann was born in 1949, and Nadine would die in 2015 while Arnold would pass in 2018. His obituary would recount his involvement in the restoration of a 100 year old schoolhouse in Spring City, the city where Joe and Lee Bennion allegedly oversaw much of the CS’s activities in Sanpete County.
Ann Flukiger, BYU Student
During the 1970s, Ann and Paul Larsen were part of an increasingly activist group of students at BYU, whose efforts culminated with the election of Student President Brian Walton. Walton, whose opposition to the Vietnam War and his open campaign to recruit black students to BYU put him on a collision course with then-President Ernest L. Wilkinson, described himself as “barely left of center.” Wilkinson had tried without success to disqualify Walton from the ballot as a write-in candidate, but Watson prevailed and won his 1970 election.
Larsen and Fluckiger would later graduate from BYU and move to Washington, D.C., where Larsen became an agnostic. Disillusioned with the LDS and his upbringing, Larsen took up carpentry, eventually learning how to write screenplays. By Larsen’s own admission, his return to the LDS faith of his upbringing was necessitated by a personal crisis, which led him to return to the LDS “with a more expansive view of holiness.”
His film Spirituality for the Uninsured depicted Tibetan Buddhist mandalas, Native American sweat lodges, and art as pathways to the divine. The 2008 journey of 10 Tibetan monks to St. George, Utah to create a mandala was depicted in his film as an invocation for “higher deities to come here and help us achieve our purpose of helping other beings.” Moreover, Larsen’s film “Chasing a Good Day to Die” detailed his son’s struggles with depression, which led Larsen to American Indian peyote ceremonies.
The film depicted James Warren “Flaming Eagle” Mooney’s peyote ceremonies as a cure for alcoholism and mental illness. Paul Larsen talked about his own suicidal ideations, relating that he had sat in a room with a nearby gun contemplating suicide. According to Larsen, the image of a cave opened up to him, one that would end all pain and suffering if he would step into it. Larsen’s father was an alcoholic who had shot himself after a DUI arrest.6 Larsen and his sister cleaned the room afterwards.
Paul Larsen brought his son to the peyote ceremony run by Mooney via his Oklevueha Native American Church. Mooney was the self-described medicine man whose dubious Seminole ancestry had led to various criminal prosecutions, which were dismissed when the Utah Supreme Court found that Mooney could use peyote for religious purposes. Mooney was also named in the Hamblin Victims’ Statements as a ritual abuser who had raped the Hamblin children, and facilitated their father David Hamblin’s administration of peyote to the girls.
Larsen imbibed peyote at the ceremony, and described how peyote revealed when and how a person was living out of harmony with the world and themselves. At 16:10, Joe Bennion appears in the film, talking about his own experiences. For Larsen, a trip that had originally been intended to benefit his son was now a path to confront his own internal issues and problems.
Larsen’s claim in the film that his association with peyote ceremonies began as a result of his teenage son’s depression is belied by the fact that he appears in the Hamblin Victims’ Statements as a participant in such ceremonies. In Victim Statement #3, Kate Hamblin recounted a sacrificial ceremony occurring between 1993-1995 at Joe Bennion’s sweat lodge in Spring City where Paul Larsen pressed his erection against her naked body in the sweat lodge.
Joe Bennion’s sweat lodge and the Windwalker Guest Ranch were the sites of frequent peyote ceremonies involving James and Linda Mooney throughout the early to mid-1990s. Windwalker Guest Ranch is explicitly identified in the credits of Larsen’s film “Chasing a Good Day to Die” as one of the sites where Mooney held his ceremonies. It is located in Spring City. Katherine Hamblin also identified Paul Larsen as her rapist during a confession ceremony that took place in Spring City, and she alleged that Larsen and James Mooney vaginally raped her with one other unnamed perpetrator.7
Larsen was identified by Katie Hamblin as a member of the CS Disciplinary Council in Spring City, along with Joe Bennion and Stake President George W. Johansen. In his capacity as a council member, Larsen heard Katie Hamblin’s confessions and participated in her punishment, up to and including rape.
The Alleged Crimes of Ann and Paul Larsen
Paul Larsen is explicitly identified as one of the filmmakers David Lee Hamblin and Roselle Hamblin used to produce child pornography with their daughters, who were forced to perform as “The Three Graces.” In Victim Statement #2, Rachel Hamblin identifies Brian Capener and Paul Larsen as filmmakers who helped the Hamblins produce child pornography movies featuring their daughters.8 Paul Larsen is also identified as one of the individuals present during a screening of the Hamblin child pornography films on page 99 of Victim Statement #3.
The Hamblins would frequently trade their daughters for child prostitution and child pornography in exchange for services. Ann Larsen is identified as the architect of the Hamblin’s Spring City home who handled the addition that was built on the home.9 The Larsen's Spring City home was identified as the site of a CS Endowment ceremony where a lighting bolt struck a tree outside of the Larsen house, which the CS members regarded as a miracle. This event was corroborated by Rachel Hamblin's second victim statement.
Rachel Hamblin identified Paul Larsen was one of the men who was present during her CS Fertility ceremony, and she accused him and the other men in attendance of raping her vaginally and ejaculating on her. The ceremony occurred after her first menstrual cycle. At age 13-14, Rachel alleged that an Endowment ceremony was held in the Hamblin Spring City House, and Paul and Ann Larsen were in attendance. Paul Larsen played Cain and performed oral sex on Rachel, and also digitally penetrated her vagina. His wife Ann orally sodomized Rachel along with Rebecca Allen, Suki Christensen, Lee Bennion, Carma de Jong Anderson. Ann Larsen held her down while she was raped afterwards.10
Ann and Paul Larsen were present during other ceremonies as well, including a Triumph/Resurrection Ceremony in Spring City where Rachel Hamblin was raped by Dave Sheets and Randall Lake, and then forced to perform oral sex on Deborah Sheets and Paul Schulte.11 Larsen and Joe Bennion placed their hands on the head of Rachel Hamblin's rapist while he raped her at the Spring City cemetery during a CS Gathering ceremony, and later that night James Mooney sodomized Rachel Hamblin.12 The Gathering Ceremony is corroborated by Katherine Hamblin's Victim Statement on pages 118-119, which details Paul Larsen's rape of a victim whose name was redacted.
During a game of No Bears Out Tonight at Spring City, Paul Larsen allegedly grabbed Rachel Hamblin and took her to the tack shed on Joe Bennion’s property, where he anally raped her.13. Larsen also allegedly filmed in the Hamblin's Spring City home while naked, and afterwards he sexually assaulted three of the Hamblin daughters. This occurred between 1994 and 1996 according to Katherine Hamblin.14
The Larsens were also present for a CS ceremony in 1994-1995 at the Hamblin’s Spring City home, where Brian Kershisnik was celebrated. During that celebration, Kershisnik allegedly raped Rachel Hamblin. 15
The multitude of rapes and sexual assaults were accompanied by at least one murder, as Paul and Ann Larsen were participants in the rape and murder of a blonde male hitchhiker in Southern Utah/Northern Arizona.16 After the murder, Paul Larsen allegedly raped Katherine Hamblin.
The allegations against the Larsens encompass multiple felonies, and detail how their children were sometimes present during CS ceremonies. The Larsen children are explicitly identified by Rachel Hamblin as being present during the No Bears Are Out Tonight game played in Spring City, where Paul Larsen anally raped Rachel Hamlin in Joe Bennion’s tack shed.17 Despite this, there is no evidence in the record that the Provo police ever interviewed the Larsen or Schroder children, who are both identified as potential minor victims of CS abuse. Given the abuse outlined by the Hamblin children, it is not surprising that Paul Larsen's son would suffer from depression.
The allegations against Paul and Ann Larsen are not isolated, but instead exist in the context of an extended familial network.
Next: The Familial Network of Paul and Ann Larsen
Although his obituary makes no mention of his stepfather, a June 19, 1955 article in the The Ogden Standard-Examiner names Fluckiger as the son of Mrs. Merrill Heimendinger, and a recent graduate of Stanford University with an M.A. in Architecture.
Osmond’s son Michael Blosil committed suicide in Los Angeles in 2010.
Marie Osmond and her second husband Brian Blosil had two biological children and adopted five other children. They were divorced in 2007, and Osmond remarried her first husband Stephen Craig, who she had previously divorced in 1985.
In fact, when Jean Char told her host family that she missed her church, they found a ward in Burlingame for her to attend. Burlingame is right up Highway 82 from San Mateo, where the Larsen family grew up. Menlo Park and Atherton and Palo Alto are right down 82 from San Mateo, which points to an existing CS presence, given that Jean Char Gong would meet Nola de Jong and Clyde Sullivan during her time in Burlingame. The Burlingame ward was meeting in a local Masonic temple before its meetinghouse was built.
Becky Cantwell, Park City Institute Biggest Project Planned Locally, The Park Record, January 15, 1976 pg. 3.
Dexel H. Larsen died November 15, 1983 in San Mateo, California, and although his obituary lists him as a member of the LDS, his services were at the Deseret Mortuary. He was born in Spring City, and married Dorothy Poulson in Mount Pleasant, Utah. Salt Lake Tribune, May 5, 1940 pg. 58; and November 19, 1983, B5.
VS 3, pg. 7.
VS 2, pg. 73 and 74.
VS 3, pg. 88.
VS 2, pp. 41-42
VS 2, pp. 49-50.
VS 2, pp. 57-59.
VS 2, pp. 118-119.
VS 3.
VS 2, pg. 82.
VS 2, pp. 132-133; VS 3, pg. 145.
VS 2, pg. 119.
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Did you notice Mr Larson's hat? Mom's Stuff. Bam, there's another connection