Introducing: Deliver Us From Ervil

In the 1940s, a group of Mormon dreamers started a town in the Mexican desert. But what began as a utopian vision quickly turned sour when the founding family’s son, Ervil LeBaron, struggled for control of the community and unleashed a multi-generational crimewave – the ripples of which are still being felt today. From bank robbery to drug smuggling, auto theft rings to multiple murders, a deadly cult evolved into a sophisticated organized crime family. In Deliver Us From Ervil, journalist Jesse Hyde tells the story of Ervil LeBaron and the unlikely ensemble of reporters, cops, survivors and family insiders trying to halt his bloody legacy. Deliver Us From Ervil is produced by Novel for iHeartRadio. Listen to Deliver Us From Ervil on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-deliver-us-from-ervil-96084334/

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, this is David Weinberg. If you've enjoyed The Superhero Complex,
you should check out another podcast from the team's at
Novel and I Heart Radio, deliver Us from Irville. It's
hosted by journalists Jesse Hyde, and it tells the story
of a group of Mormon dreamers who founded a town
in the Mexican desert in the nineteen forties. They wanted

(00:25):
to build the closest thing to paradise you could find
on Earth, But when the founding family's son, Irville LeBaron,
tried to wrestle control of the community, their utopia turned
into a murderous cult. Irville and his followers evolved this
cult into a sophisticated crime family, a wild kind of mafia,

(00:48):
operating unseen for decades, robbing banks, stealing cars, and smuggling
drugs with a Mexican cartel. As time passed, they enacted
a series of ever more elaborate fascinations following a blueprint
laid out by Irville LeBaron's Opus, the Book of the
New Covenants. In the show, Jesse, the host, speaks to

(01:11):
the reporters and cops who tried to hunt them down
and bring them to justice. Survivors of their attacks, as
well as insiders who grew up within this crime family.
Many of the interviewees have never spoken about this publicly before,
and the show includes previously unheard archive recordings from the
heart of the cult. Coming up next is the first episode.

(01:33):
If you want to hear more, search deliver Us from
Irville on the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts.