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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Sociopaths don't deserve our sympathy, December 26, 2006
This review is from: The Blood Covenant (Hardcover)
If O.J. Simpson wrote a book and confessed that he killed his wife, and that he lied in court to beat the murder rap, how many stars would you give it?
Yes, I suppose the author did come off as "heartfelt, honest and sincere"... like Squeaky Fromme of the Charles Manson Family! She did NOT take responsibilty for her actions in shooting Rulon Allred. If she took responsibility, she would have confessed it in court instead of lying repeatedly under oath and claiming innocence. She did not express any real remorse about killing of a man she had never met before and who had done nothing to her or to Ervil. It does give an inside look into the cult, and you can see the mental gymnastics that she went through (and still does, apparently) to put herself and Ervil in a good light, even though she claims she didn't like some of the things he did and told her to do. She also defends her sister wife Vonda who murdered a friend in cold blood, saying that Vonda has "more than paid for her crime" after serving 10 years of a life sentence. She claims to fervently believe in the Ten Commandments, even as she and the family lie, shoplift, steal cars, murder and then commit perjury to beat the cases in court. It's all for God, you see. In the end she feels like a victim and that she does not deserve to be sued, jailed or hunted by the other fanatics. She does not see the karma of what she did. She seems almost smug that she deceived the jury with her lies, then she turns around and mocks the police and journalists for not having all the details just right.
For an interesting follow-up, google Rena Chynoweth!
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
KILLER---NO REMORSE, August 10, 2009
This review is from: The Blood Covenant (Hardcover)
Two years to the day before Dr. Rulon Allred died
....his daughter said he wrote in his journal--"MAY
10TH. 1975 ..I HAVE 2 YRS. TO PUT MY AFFAIRS
IN ORDER." May 10th 1977 he was killed by Rena
Chynoweth-LeBaron.
Rena Chynoweth LeBaron, (her brothers) Mark
& Duane Chynoweth, Eddie Marston & his sister
Ramona were all tried for murder and found not
guilty.
Years later Rena wrote this book and confessed
to the killing.
Please DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK. Do not put any
$$ in her pocket. NO REMORSE ! Do you know
this book was released on a MAY 10th. That is
cold.
Read.. Daughter of the Saints by Dorothy Allred
Solomon instead. Start on page 290. Also read..4
o'clock Murders by Scott Anderson.
This is an old book....Rena is 49yrs old now (09).
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Biased, but interesting, October 5, 2009
This review is from: The Blood Covenant (Hardcover)
This is an insider account of a member of the Ervil LeBaron Mormon fundamentalist cult, which was responsible for a string of murders in the 1970s. It is quite interesting because of Ms. Chynoweth's perspective as one of LeBaron's plural wives, but be aware of her bias and her need to put spin on her own criminal activities. Ms. Chynoweth killed Dr. Rulon Allred in his office in Murray, Utah. Other members of the cult, which included her mother, sister, and several brothers were responsible for many other murders as they followed the ravings of Ervil LeBaron. Ms. Chynoweth's brothers and her sister were eventually murdered themselves as the group turned on one another after LeBaron's death. This is the author's take on their beliefs and what led them to kill so many people.
Ms. Chynoweth paints herself and her family as victims of LeBaron's madness. However, other accounts, as well as court testimony by other cult members, show her in a much less innocent light. So, how does one decide who is telling the truth? I start with the knowledge that she and the various members of her family flagrantly lied on the witness stand during her murder trial as well as Ervil's trial. Not only did they lie about their own crimes, they also tried to pin their crimes on innocent people. She explains how she was found innocent because God was on her side. She does now admit she was the killer--now that she can't be tried again because of double jeopardy laws.
I found her very unsympathetic. When she whines about being alone and pregnant in jail before her trial, I couldn't help thinking that was much better than being dead on the floor with seven bullets in you, as she left her victim. Even if she was brainwashed, which I question, where is the remorse now? She paints herself as the victim with little or no sympathy for the victims and their families. However, when the tables are turned and her brothers are murdered she is grief stricken and outraged at the murders. Well, of course, you would feel sorrow at the death of your family, even if they were murderers, but why can't she make the connection between how she felt and how the families of her victims felt?
I can only hope that she has matured and taken more responsibility for her actions in the years since this book was written.
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