Week 1

Summary

Under the Banner of Heaven, by Jon Krakauer, begins with a very lengthy prologue explaining the story of the Lafferty brothers and what they did. If you don't already know the story, I'll explain. Basically, Ron and Dan Lafferty killed their brother's wife and his baby daughter in July of 1984. However, they pleaded to have been ordered by God to kill them. The Lafferty brothers are true followers of mormonism, and say that it's not a crime when God told them to do it. The brothers are now in jail on death row. The book so far has been informing me about the murders and all the details of their case. It's also giving a big spiel about mormons and their culture. That's all the book has been about so far up through my first week of reading.

          

Above are a couple pictures of Ron (left) and Dan (right) Lafferty.


Review

From what I have read of the book, I think it's really interesting. The "subtitle" of the the book on the cover says "A Story of Violent Faith". That seems to really be what its is. The writing is well done, and I didn't get confused when the author was explaining all the facts and details of the case and what happened at the crime scene. Into the Wild, by the same author, is one of my favorite books and the author is just amazing and he keeps you wanting to read. Even just reading about this mormon culture is really interesting. I can't wait to pick the book up again.


I found a few links about the Lafferty brothers murders. Here they are.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/595079489/1984-Lafferty-case-still-haunts.html?pg=all
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2003/07/20/murder-in-the-name-of-god.html