Under the Banner of Heaven – Jon Krakauer (2003)

Under the Banner of Heaven, written by Jon Krakauer and published in 2003, is a gripping work of investigative nonfiction that explores the intersection of religious extremism and violent crime within the context of American Mormon culture. Krakauer uses the horrific 1984 murders of Brenda Wright Lafferty and her infant daughter Erica by Ron and Dan Lafferty – two brothers who claimed to be acting under divine revelation – as a lens to examine the history and radical offshoots of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Through detailed reportage and historical excavation, the book challenges readers to grapple with the perilous edges of faith and the unsettling power of belief.

Plot Summary

In the early morning haze of July 24, 1984, Allen Lafferty returned to his small duplex in American Fork, Utah, expecting to find his wife, Brenda, and their baby daughter, Erica, waiting for him. Instead, the door was locked – an unusual precaution – and the television, oddly tuned to a baseball game neither he nor Brenda liked, echoed emptily through the house. The silence was too deep, too unnatural. Moments later, he found Brenda lying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor. In the nursery, fifteen-month-old Erica was slumped in her crib, lifeless. The phone cords had been ripped from the wall. Alone, shaken, and covered in the remnants of what once was a peaceful home, Allen ran next door to call for help.

The brutality of the murders stunned the quiet, predominantly Mormon community. As police and reporters swarmed the scene, whispers turned to certainty – Ron and Dan Lafferty, Allen’s older brothers, were responsible. Their descent into fanaticism had been swift and disturbing. Once respected members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they had begun rejecting church leadership, embracing a harsh, authoritarian strain of Mormon fundamentalism. Both men were consumed by a belief that God spoke to them directly, delivering revelations unbound by human law.

Ron, once a city councilman and a man of clean-cut appearance and civic involvement, had become a self-proclaimed prophet. His transformation began with the dissolution of his marriage, a rupture that coincided with his immersion in fringe religious ideas and antigovernment fervor. By the summer of 1984, Ron claimed to receive divine instructions through written revelations. One such message, he declared, was the will of God: certain individuals, including Brenda and baby Erica, were to be removed.

Dan, charismatic and intense, believed utterly in Ron’s visions. A man of strange serenity and violent certainty, he embraced the command without hesitation. Together, they turned their anger and spiritual delusions toward Brenda, whose defiance and independence had long grated against their beliefs. She opposed the family’s drift toward fundamentalism and had encouraged Allen to distance himself from his brothers’ radicalism. To them, she became a symbol of rebellion against divine order.

On the day of the murders, Ron, Dan, and two drifters who had fallen into their company, Richard Knapp and Chip Carnes, set out in a battered green Impala. As they approached Allen’s apartment, Ron and Dan went inside. Erica greeted Dan with a smile from her crib. Moments later, she was dead. In the kitchen, Brenda fought desperately. Her final moments were marked by terror and strength, but she could not overpower them.

The murders ignited a manhunt stretching across the Western United States. Days later, the police apprehended the brothers in Reno, Nevada, at a casino buffet. From jail, Ron and Dan continued to insist they had done nothing wrong. To them, the killings were not crimes but holy acts – the fulfillment of divine command. Dan, in particular, displayed no remorse. He described the events with unsettling calm, insisting he had simply been an instrument of God.

As their trials loomed, Ron attempted suicide in jail, hanging himself with a shirt from a towel rack. Though he stopped breathing for over ten minutes, paramedics revived him. Dan took this as a miracle – a sign from God. The court deemed Ron fit to stand trial after psychiatric evaluation. Dan, meanwhile, insisted on defending himself and used the courtroom as a pulpit, offering no apology but rather assurances that he would accept death as readily as he had dealt it. Still, the jury spared his life. Two jurors held out, swayed perhaps by his strange charisma. Ron, tried separately, was sentenced to death. He chose to be executed by firing squad.

The Lafferty case stood as an unflinching portrait of where religious extremism can lead. But Jon Krakauer did not confine his attention to these crimes alone. He delved deeper, uncovering the roots of the fundamentalist movement that shaped Ron and Dan’s worldview. Mormonism, born in 1830 through the revelations of Joseph Smith, had long grappled with its more radical branches. Central among these was the doctrine of plural marriage – polygamy – which Smith and later Brigham Young had fiercely defended. Though the mainstream LDS Church officially renounced polygamy in 1890, many believers viewed this as apostasy, a betrayal of divine command.

Thus emerged a fractured world of Mormon fundamentalists – insular communities scattered across the American West and parts of Canada and Mexico. These groups, like the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), clung tightly to the early doctrines, including polygamy, patriarchy, and prophetic revelation. In these enclaves, leaders like Rulon Jeffs wielded immense power, proclaiming themselves vessels of God’s word, assigning wives, banishing dissenters, and shaping every aspect of life under the guise of divine order.

Krakauer traced how these communities not only practiced but institutionalized control. In places like Colorado City, young girls were forced into marriages with older men, and those who resisted risked exile or worse. The line between faith and coercion, between religion and abuse, grew thin and bloody. And within this cauldron of prophecy and paranoia, men like Ron and Dan Lafferty were forged.

But the Lafferty brothers were not anomalies. They were the inevitable consequence of a belief system that sanctified obedience above conscience, that placed personal revelation above human law, and that glorified martyrdom over mercy. Their actions, while extreme, were rooted in doctrines that had once guided entire communities.

Years passed. Dan, imprisoned in maximum security, spoke of his cell as his monastery. His beard grew long and his days grew quiet. He served food to fellow inmates, read scripture, and spoke fondly of his cellmate – Mark Hofmann, a once-celebrated forger and murderer whose fake Mormon documents had shaken the very foundation of the LDS Church.

Ron, sentenced to die, sat on death row, still proclaiming his revelations. Appeals stretched on. The state, cautious and deliberate, had yet to carry out the sentence. Outside the prison walls, the world moved forward, but the shadow of the Lafferty murders lingered.

In the end, Brenda and Erica remained the true martyrs – not for any divine cause, but as victims of a theology twisted into violence. Their deaths exposed the terrifying potency of unrestrained faith and the quiet, persistent danger of fanaticism cloaked in righteousness.

Main Characters

• Ron Lafferty
  The eldest of the Lafferty brothers, Ron transforms from a devout Mormon into a self-proclaimed prophet driven by delusions of divine purpose. After becoming disillusioned with the mainstream LDS Church and descending into fundamentalist ideology, he claims to receive a revelation instructing him to kill his sister-in-law and her baby. Ron’s journey into madness is both terrifying and tragic, shaped by personal loss, growing paranoia, and messianic self-regard.

• Dan Lafferty
  Ron’s younger brother and co-conspirator in the murders, Dan is a chilling figure of unwavering conviction. While Ron articulates the revelation, Dan becomes the executor, committing the acts with calm detachment. He believes his actions fulfill God’s will, and his complete lack of remorse underscores the book’s exploration of fanatical certainty. Dan’s spiritual arrogance and rejection of earthly authority make him one of the most disturbing figures in the narrative.

• Brenda Wright Lafferty
  Brenda is the intelligent, independent wife of Allen Lafferty and a recent newcomer to the Lafferty family. Her resistance to the family’s growing extremism and her assertiveness in protecting her daughter from patriarchal control made her a target in the eyes of Ron and Dan. Brenda represents modern Mormon womanhood – educated, outspoken, and faithful – whose strength stands in contrast to the destructive zealotry of her in-laws.

• Allen Lafferty
  The youngest Lafferty brother and husband of Brenda, Allen plays a complex role in the narrative. While not directly involved in the murders, his passivity and emotional conflict cast a shadow over his character. Torn between familial loyalty and moral truth, Allen becomes a tragic figure whose life is shattered by the events that unfold.

• Joseph Smith
  The founder of Mormonism, Joseph Smith appears not as a contemporary figure but as a theological anchor. Krakauer draws heavily on Smith’s teachings, particularly his revelations on polygamy and prophecy, to show how these doctrines laid the groundwork for fundamentalist interpretations that persist in fringe sects.

• Brigham Young
  Smith’s successor and the architect of Mormon expansion in the West, Brigham Young institutionalized plural marriage and built the foundation of the modern LDS Church. Krakauer uses Young’s legacy to highlight the tension between religious idealism and authoritarian control, which continues to echo in fundamentalist communities.

Theme

• Religious Zealotry and Justified Violence
  Krakauer probes the disturbing relationship between extreme religious conviction and the capacity for violence. Through the Lafferty case and historical parallels, he reveals how faith, when unmoored from institutional checks, can become a dangerous engine for cruelty, particularly when believers claim exclusive access to divine truth.

• The Fragility of Faith and Authority
  The narrative contrasts mainstream Mormonism with its radical offshoots, examining how religious institutions evolve, splinter, and defend orthodoxy. The book illustrates the fragility of ecclesiastical authority and the tensions that arise when individuals claim prophetic insight independent of institutional sanction.

• Patriarchy, Polygamy, and the Subjugation of Women
  Polygamy, both historical and contemporary, serves as a symbol of male dominance cloaked in divine justification. Krakauer reveals how polygamist doctrine reinforces the subjugation of women, stripping them of agency and identity under the guise of religious duty.

• American Religious Identity and the Limits of Tolerance
  Krakauer situates Mormonism within the larger American narrative of religious innovation and dissent. The book explores the uneasy balance between religious freedom and social order, raising uncomfortable questions about how far a society should tolerate radical belief in the name of liberty.

• Certainty vs. Doubt
  The Lafferty brothers embody the peril of moral absolutism – their lack of doubt allows them to rationalize the unthinkable. Krakauer contrasts this with voices of uncertainty and moderation, suggesting that doubt may be essential to both personal and social sanity.

Writing Style and Tone

Jon Krakauer’s writing style is marked by clarity, precision, and a meticulous attention to both narrative and factual detail. He employs a nonlinear structure that interweaves the story of the Lafferty murders with a sweeping historical account of Mormonism, creating a layered, multidimensional narrative. Krakauer’s use of primary sources – including court documents, interviews, and religious texts – lends authority to his work, while his storytelling keeps the pace taut and compelling. He demonstrates an ability to present complex theological ideas without alienating readers unfamiliar with the subject matter.

The tone of the book is investigative and sober, with undercurrents of unease and moral questioning. Krakauer maintains a journalist’s objectivity while allowing space for reflection and subtle critique. His portrayal of the Laffertys is devoid of sensationalism; instead, he invites readers to confront the uncomfortable reality that violence can be a natural outgrowth of fervent belief. His tone also conveys a deep curiosity – not only about what happened, but why it happened, and what it reveals about the broader human condition. This balance of empathy and scrutiny makes the book as intellectually engaging as it is emotionally harrowing.