earn money to build homes for his wives. He came to Mexico to visit his wives every few weeks, but spent more time in Ensenada than he did with Spencer and Ester in Los Molinos. Spencer was often lonely or jealous. Spencer and Verlan's other wives had very little money, most of it provided by Charlotte, Spencer's sister and Verlan's first wife, who worked as a preschool teacher in San Diego while her children were raised by another wife, Lucy. Spencer was forced to become very creative to make ends meet. Over 28 years of marriage, Spencer bore Verlan 13 children, and adopted another child. A power struggle ensued between the sons of Alma Dayer LeBaron. A younger son, Ervil, founded his own church, the Church of the Lamb of God, in 1972 in San Diego, California, and later that year ordered the murder of his brother Joel, claiming justification based on the doctrine of blood atonement. Ervil's hit list would eventually reach the hundreds and include John F. Kennedy and the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Besides Joel, he would succeed in murdering his pregnant daughter Rebecca and Rulon C. Allred, the President of the Apostolic United Brethren, another key polygamist group. Rulon Allred was Irene's mother's brother, and one of the reasons Ervil had him killed was so he could kill Verlan at Rulon's funeral. After Joel's death, Verlan was tapped for leadership of the Church of the Firstborn, so Ervil added Irene's family to his hit list. To escape the death threats, Irene and her children were forced to move to Nicaragua, where they lived in huts without electricity or indoor plumbing, battled ticks and jungle insects, and were infected by intestinal worms. The living conditions in Nicaragua nearly broke Irene, but she finally left Verlan in 1978 when, despite the family's abject poverty, he married a 10th wife, Priscilla. After seeking spiritual advice outside of the polygamist community, she was convinced to return to Verlan in 1980. One year later, on August 16, 1981, Verlan died in an automobile accident. His brother Ervil, had died 2 days prior in the Utah State Penitentiary, where he was serving a life sentence for the murder of Rulon Allred. Later years After Verlan's death, Spencer left polygamy for good. She entered a monogamous marriage around 1988 to Hector Spencer, another former resident of