Two former members of a polygamous religious cult where incest was commonplace have opened up on the strange sect’s secrets.
Joe Robinson guested on Amanda Rae Grant’s podcast to talk about growing up as part of the Mormon cult, The Kingston Group, also known as The Order.
Joe told Amanda that everyone in his family took a routine blood test to determine which of them would be allowed to marry each other. All of them were directly descended from group founder Daniel, who had some 157 children with his 14 wives.
Joe said his dad assured them that there was nothing “weird” about the practice. “My dad would hear rumours that we think it’s weird, but then he set up a meeting and say ‘This is always going to happen, you guys need to stop making fun of it’,” he explained.
The blood tests were quite openly designed to avoid the worst consequences of interbreeding. “If certain people get married they saw different traits so they would try to avoid it,” Joe explained.
