so, i have a kinda weird question that i am curious to what other people would think:
i have been reading a book about a Mormon family and it is called "Under the banner of heaven" (in case anyone is interested in it). it is a factual account of a murder that took place in Utah - of a woman and child by a Mormon man and his brother.
it is difficult to summarise in a short post but as best i can --- a Mormon man who had worked hard all his life and been a good man, lost his business and everything collapsed around him. he somewhat started to lose his sanity under the pressure and, in desperation for the children's lives, his wife fled from him with the children - she escaped with the help of her sister-in-law and left with the children to Florida.
at the same time, the man came under the sway of a very extreme mormon preacher as did four of his brothers. after his wife had escaped - the man began to receive "messages" from God telling him he had to kill the sister-in-law and her child as they were the devil. i think he knew that these were not messages from God but his own anger and mental instability at his broken situation... so when he went with his brother to go and kill the woman - he could not do it.
however, the younger brother who had no reason (not the husband - this girl was also his sister-in-law, the wife of another brother) to feel anger toward this girl and had no reason to wish to kill her at all... he took the knife and went into the house and murdered the girl and her baby - because he DID believe that the messages his brother was receiving was the word of God.
when they were arrested the elder brother realised that the younger one would incriminate him - because he insisted on telling the whole truth... and so he said he had received another message from God that he must kill him. the two men were in adjoining cells in the police station and when the younger brother heard the message - he went to the bars so that the elder brother could strangle and kill him. however, the elder brother could not get sufficient pressure to kill the younger one because of the bars interfering and the younger brother simply fell to the floor in a faint - then the police returned and separated the two brothers.
throughout the whole trial the younger brother has never denied that he murdered both mother and child - and never disputed his sentence and i think his sincerity was obvious as although, technically, he was the murderer he has been given a life sentence to spend in prison.
the elder brother tried to deny and tried all sorts of tactics to try to avoid imprisonment and he was given the death penalty which (if i remember right) i think he is appealing still? perhaps it has been carried out (i am not sure).
i am interested in what others think? i know many "madmen" hear voices telling them to kill people and sometimes they carry this out - other times they fight the voice.
is the younger brother a devout and obedient servant who was simply doing the will of God as a truly religious man? he has never shown any remorse for the murders and is apparently a model prisoner - he still believes absolutely that he simply did the will of God. what do others think?
oftentimes killers hear voices that they WANT to hear. i am sure that is the case for the elder brother - this younger brother did not hear voices, however he believed that the messages were, without doubt, the will of God expressed through his elder brother.
was this just a jinn tricking the older brother? if the younger brother did these actions (which benefit him not at all) as the will of God, then what does that mean exactly... does anyone have any thoughts on this at all?
if you want to read or find out more about it through google etc. - their names were Ron and Dan Lafferty.
