8: The Reign of Arthur

The Fighty Pucks is the story of the most violent hockey team on the planet. A team of lovable bad boys, misfits and bruisers, led by a teenage boy - AJ Galante. Together with his father, a powerful business man with a dark past, AJ ran the team as they went rampaging on a path to glory. But all the while, the team was being secretly watched by their toughest opponent of all - the FBI. The Fighty Pucks is produced by Novel for iHeartRadio. For more from Novel visit novel.audioSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Over a decade after she first escaped the clutches of law enforcement, the final suspect in the 4 O’Clock Murders is finally caught. She was living in hiding, for years, in Honduras. She’s charged, convicted and sentenced, but has her imprisonment finally brought the bloody legacy of Ervil LeBaron to an end? Jesse Hyde explores whether the threat of Ervil LeBaron is really over and whether those that spent so long pursuing the cult believe this multigenerational cycle of crime and abuse is finally at an end. Jesse travels back to Colonia LeBaron, where this whole story began, to find some surprising connections being made. Deliver Us From Ervil is produced by Novel for iHeartRadio. For more from Novel visit novel.audioSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the aftermath of the 4 O’Clock Murders, the Kingdom of God is facing a crisis. For Gabriela and her siblings, the early 90s marked a turning point for the cult. Meanwhile, investigators from across the country have formed a team named after the youngest victim: the Jenny Task Force. Their progress is slow, until a chance auto theft arrest in Phoenix, Arizona seems to snare several of the cops’ main suspects: some of Ervil LeBaron’s eldest children, using fake aliases. But there’s one influential cult leader who is still on the run.  Deliver Us From Ervil is produced by Novel for iHeartRadio. For more from Novel visit novel.audioSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s 1988. One summer’s day, in a sleepy suburb of Houston, a team of experienced police officers are called to the scene of the first in a series of horrific crimes. Several murders have been carried out in different parts of Texas at exactly the same time: 4 o’clock. There’s another link too, all the victims were former associates of Ervil LeBaron. The brutally executed assassinations send shockwaves through the public, and bring together investigators and prosecutors from across the country, all united in their goal of bringing the multi-generational crimewave sparked by Ervil LeBaron’s legacy to a grinding halt. But first, they’ll need to work out who, exactly, was responsible. Deliver Us From Ervil is produced by Novel for iHeartRadio.For more from Novel visit novel.audioSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For years, Dan Jordan was Ervil LeBaron’s right-hand man. But by the time Ervil was imprisoned, the relationship between the two men had soured and Dan Jordan was marked for death in the Book of the New Covenant. In the autumn of 1987, Utah law enforcement are called to investigate a mysterious hunting incident involving Dan Jordan, and a campground full of Ervil LeBaron’s children. But will they be able to put the pieces together? Deliver Us From Ervil is produced by Novel for iHeartRadio.For more from Novel visit novel.audioSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the aftermath of Arthur’s death, Ervil’s son Heber LeBaron takes over the mantle of the “One Mighty and Strong”. 19-years-old, and raised in an extremist and violent faith, Heber’s leadership evolves the Kingdom of God into a kind of organised crime family: drug smuggling, auto-theft and of course, violent retribution against their father’s enemies. Deliver Us From Ervil is produced by Novel for iHeartRadio. For more from Novel visit novel.audioSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ervil LeBaron spent two years in a Utah State Prison before his death in 1981. It left him with plenty of time to write a 500-page-long manifesto on his enemies. The Book of the New Covenant would go on to become a sacred text to Ervil’s many children, who had been raised in poverty, neglect and violence. Jesse Hyde sits down with one of Ervil’s daughters, Gabriela, to get an unprecedented look inside the lives of Ervil’s indoctrinated children who, after his death, would be led by Ervil’s eldest son Arthur. To them, the Book of the New Covenant was more than just scripture: it was a hit list.  Deliver Us From Ervil is produced by Novel for iHeartRadio. For more from Novel visit novel.audio See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cops and prosecutors try for another conviction against the cult of Ervil LeBaron. Difficulties arise when their key witness suddenly dies but events finally swing round in their favor when Ervil is arrested and, finally, locked behind bars. Jesse Hyde hears how in 1979 the spell seemed finally to have been broken. But if the law thought Ervil’s reign was over they were about to be disappointed. Deliver Us From Ervil  is produced by Novel for iHeartRadio. For more from Novel visit novel.audio See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Police try to gain information from new insiders in Ervil’s cult. As more members of the cult break away to talk to the police the cops swoop in to make arrests. By 1978 Ervil remains on the run but prosectors now have enough evidence for a murder trial on his most high profile killings. As the trial leads to an unexpected conclusion, Ervil’s reputation causes further woes for the cops.  Deliver Us From Ervil is produced by Novel for iHeartRadio. For more from Novel visit novel.audioSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We hear the astonishing confessions of one of Ervil LeBaron’s most influential cult members, who was groomed from childhood as both his wife and assassin. Over the course of an interrogation that lasts days, we listen in as the inner workings of this cult and organised crime family are revealed, murder-by-murder. As her interrogator continues to push, a strangely intimate picture of cult life emerges and builds to a startling conclusion.  Deliver Us From Ervil is produced by Novel for iHeartRadio. For more from Novel visit novel.audioSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.