The Alleged Crimes of Joseph Wood Bennion and Lee Patricia Udall Bennion, Pt. VI
Pp. 112 through
This series deals with the alleged crimes of Joseph Wood Bennion and Lee Patricia Udall Bennion of Spring City. They are the owners of Horseshoe Mountain Pottery, where Joseph Wood Bennion allegedly burned the bodies of Church of Satan victims in his pottery kiln, and Mom’s Stuff, which is a homemade skincare line created by Lee Bennion. Lee Bennion is a painter who also sells her artwork at David Ericson Fine Art in Salt Lake City.
VS 3, pg. 118
The Gathering
Experience #94
Cemetery in Sanpete County
People involved: David and Rosie Hamblin, Joe and Lee Bennion, President Johansen, Paul and Ann Larsen, the Bignees, and others.
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.
Katherine Hamblin was between eight and eleven years of age during the abuse, which means that she would have been a child for the purposes of Utah’s sex crimes statutes. As such, Stake President Johansen allegedly committed Rape of a Child when he raped Katherine, and her sisters were raped as well. If Paul Larsen raped Rachel or Eliza, he would be guilty of Rape if the sisters were over the age of 14, and Rape of a Child if they were under the age of 14. Rachel Hamblin would have been 14 in 1995, while Eliza Hamblin would have been between 12 and 14 years old. The same would be true of Mr. Bigney, who I believe to be an artist with ties to Joseph Wood Bennion.
VS 3, pg. 119
David trying to connect to the “spirit world”
Experience #95
Summer 1999
Hamblin Provo Home
People involved: David Hamblin and Joe Bennion
I had an experience when David wanted to use me as, what he would call, an "oracle." I was Redacted years old at the time, living in the Provo house with him. When he was trying to have one of these "revelations" or connections to the "spirit world" that I described above, he came into my room and started to grab me to rape me. I ran away. He chased me into his office and pulled down his pants and started to vaginally rape me. He yelled at Joe to come in (he had been in the kitchen eating). He then told me to "stop blocking [him]." He often said this when he would pray over us to try to get us to let "spirits" enter us—and felt we weren't "letting" a spirit enter us. He then told me to accept a spirit into me from Satan. David became so frustrated and told me to tell the "spirits" that they can enter. David started biting my neck really hard so finally I said what he had taught me to say, which was: "You may enter." David started laughing and he continued to move his penis in and out of my vagina violently. He started to talk about the spirit world with regard to rituals and Satan's plan. He said things like "Who is there that wants to meet me?" and "Can you give me a name?" "What do they want? I can give them anything!" Joe was writing things down as David told him things. I became more afraid but as soon as he ejaculated he lay down on the ground with his hands on his head and didn't move. I was in so much pain but I tried to get up and he held me down and told me to stay there. I knew I was going to get an infection. He lay there for 20 minutes or so talking with Joe. My legs were asleep and my back was hurting so much. I cried from the pain and tried to cover my naked body. Finally, he let me go. Not many minutes later Joe came into my room and vaginally raped me.
Redacted participated in this "gathering" of spirits by owning a lot of pre-owned antiques. Just on our property in Spring City they had over 10 old buildings on it—which for the most part these buildings were from other properties and they had moved them onto our property and then fixed them up. They said that the buildings were a kind of "temple" for these spirits to dwell in. They liked to use anything that was used or antique. In fact, Redacted today still has almost all of these objects in her home, her garage, and in her 2 storage units. They even kept old pornography from the mid 1900's. Sometimes they would "seal" spirits to themselves or other group members. Again, they believe they are building a kingdom in the after-life and finding servants.
Another ceremony they would do is a kind of generational ceremony in which Redacted and anyone connected to Redacted lines would create "Lucifer's chain" or "the Two-Headed Serpent," which was a chain of one's family lines. For the purposes of this ceremony, it was ideal if there were at least 3 generations represented. To create this chain, the paterfamilias would be at the top of the "chain" with his arms out in a "V." This would be the "two heads" of the "two-headed snake." This was a common theme in this church. In fact, Joe Bennion had a two- headed snake carved out of wood making this shape above one of his doors in his house. He also has his "signature" on all of his pottery that is the same symbol. It is the same symbol as a single person "praying" but with the chain, the stem on the "Y" is extended. Usually Richard or Redacted would begin the ceremony by praising Lucifer and chanting and everyone would start to become a "chain." Someone would get on all fours or lying down on their side (depended on the location in the house) and suck or lick on the private parts of the person in front of them. This would continue until there was a long chain.
Katherine Hamblin would have between between 12 and 13 years of age during the abuse described in Experience 95. As such, David Hamblin and Joseph Wood Bennion committed Rape of a Child.
VS 3, pg. 121
Initiatory
Experience #98
School year 1998-1999
Hamblin Provo Home
People involved: David and Rosie, Carma and Richard, Conrad Gottfordson, Linda and James Mooney, Joe and Lee Bennion and a few people I didn't recognize.
Initiatories were usually done with a whole group of people. The women would do the initiatory, and the men in the room would sit and watch. I remember Redacted calling this ceremony "foreplay." Rosie and Carma often said this was their favorite ceremony. One of my experiences doing an initiatory was when I was Redacted years old living in the Provo house with Redacted. Redacted arrived at the home on the afternoon of a Wednesday. Rosie came on Wednesdays around half the time that I lived in the Provo house. She would come up for ceremonies, meeting up with her boyfriends and her own clients, and Redacted lessons. These lessons included the normal harp and dance lessons, as well as "art lessons" from Redacted Nola and lessons from Redacted, and she also would take time to teach us how to be "sexy and desirable" to the people in their group. One of Rosie's main roles that she and David said she has was to shape and mold us into the "sex goddesses" (as David referred to Redacted) she and David wanted us to be. Richard and Carma took it upon themselves to do the same thing. Carma especially loved to push her way into helping Rosie "train" Redacted and me, and to be an authority on sexual things. When I saw Rosie in the late afternoon she told me to take a shower and get ready for the ceremony that evening. She gave me my white dress and told me not to wear any underwear underneath it. She left and later came back with Redacted. They greeted me and Richard again tried to kiss me on the mouth. He oftentimes did this and I always tried to turn my head so he couldn't. He smacked me when I turned my head and kissed me again—this time holding my head so that I couldn't move. Everyone else came (David, Conrad Gottfordson, Linda and James Mooney, Joe and Lee Bennion and a few people I didn't recognize). Carma and Richard were quite haughty to James Mooney and the Bennions, but Carma kept raving about Linda Mooney's beautiful eyes, skin, and body. Redacted and Redacted didn't often said this group was doing things outside of the traditional steps that Richard and the group they belonged to did. They participated at times I think because Richard and Carma also benefited from the money that they got for making the porn movies or "art films" as they called them. Richard had in fact purchased the Daphne (harp) for us to use in those videos, as well as other musical instruments and many of the lessons—so he had an investment. When the ceremony began the males went first and did their initiatory. They all removed their clothing and didn't put it back on until late into the night when they went home. They take took turns doing the ceremony. They were doing ceremonies for "spirits" that David received "revelation" for in his therapy sessions with "CJ" (Angela Fenton). The women started their ceremony and the men made dirty jokes and did cat calls. The women all took off their clothes, and then they undressed me. There was some important woman that had died that I was representing—Redacted said that she (her spirit) had been present at other ceremonies and wanted to have her work done. First Carma put her hand cupping my vagina and while she did that she lectured me on the importance of the ceremony. Richard told her not to elaborate. Then Lee blessed my spirit to be strong, and learn how to submit to Satan, my husband, and any other force that was of higher ranking than me. She also cupped my vagina. She put oil on my forehead, neck, heart, stomach, bowels, and vagina. When she got to my vagina she kept rubbing and started moaning and rolling her eyes back. David let out a cat-call and Rosie and the other women laughed, she lay down on the ground with her head under me/in-between my legs. She told me to kneel and licked my vagina. Rosie then came over and I could stand up again. She made me drink blood that she said had been blessed to preserve my body to be young. She said it would give me strength and beauty and that when I die I would not decay when I die if I kept my covenants to Lucifer, but instead I would grow younger until I was in my prime. She rubbed the blood on my body with her fingers and then made me drink the rest. Linda put an LDS garment on me that had also been "blessed" by them. The ceremony was over and it quickly turned into an orgy of the women doing weird things to each other. The men kept cat-calling and began touching themselves and others near them. Then they all came over and began to grab dilferent women. David grabbed Linda, and James Mooney grabbed me and started licking the blood off my body, spent a long time licking my vagina, and then he vaginally raped me. He pulled his penis out before he ejaculated and yelled at me to "suck up [his] semen."
Katherine Hamblin was between 11 and 13 years of age during Experience 98. James Mooney committed Sodomy on a Child and Rape of a Child, and Lee Bennion also committed Sodomy on a Child. Katherine Hamblin estimated that she attended 50 plus Initiatory CS ceremonies.
Conclusion
This is a shorter than normal article owing to other obligations, but tomorrow will bring a longer form post in this series. Thanks for the support and thanks for prayers with regards to the hearing today in Manti.