Before his metamorphosis
into mad Mormon street prophet Immanuel David Isaiah, collector of
plural wives, David Brian Mitchell, to all appearances, led a fairly
straight-laced LDS life. Closer examination reveals the cracks that led
to one of the nation's most notorious abductions. It is a story
that is pure Utah to its core.
Mitchell was born Oct. 18, 1953 in Salt Lake City. Like all six of the
Mitchell children, he was delivered in the parents' small home just south
of Parley's canyon.
Strange Folks
Neighbors remember the Mitchells as a frugal, little
weird, but devout Mormon family. They were a vegetarian bunch, being
served only meals of whole-wheat bread and steamed vegetables. No Happy
Meals for these guys.
It seems father Shirl had some strange ideas
about child rearing. He has claimed his son was a "maladjusted
misfit," but his own
child rearing practices probably had much to do with his son's peccadilloes.
Shirl introduced 8-year-old Mitchell to the world of
sex by the showing the lad explicit pictures from a medical
journal. Dad also employed his particular brand of education on
12 year-old Mitchell by dropping him off in Rose Park and making him
find his own way home. Now that is parenting.
Like his son, dad was also an author. Shirl penned "a
rambling 900-page manifesto" detailing
his own philosophy and religious beliefs. So, I leave it to you
to decide how much of dear-old Dad's loving care contributed to Mitchell's
latter bizarre behavior.
Just a Normal Guy?
Despite his rather unconventional upbringing, Mitchell
did participate in normal kid activities. He was a cub scouts and played
little league. However, at 16 some of the bizarre quirks that would manifest
in his later life appeared. He spent time in juvey hall for exposing
himself. Yikes.
Finding him difficult to manage, his parents packed Mitchell
off to live with granny. He started using drugs and dropped out of
high school. A typical Utah upbringing.
At 19, he left the state and married his first wife, Karen
Minor. They had
two children, Travis and Angela. Things started to
go sour with the marriage. In an ugly divorce, Mitchell got custody of
his kids by claiming Karen was a degenerate drug user. When the remarried
Karen sued for custody of the children, Mitchell fled to Utah to avoid
turning over the tykes.
In 1980 Mitchell cleaned up his life. He rededicated
himself to the LDS Church and even worked as a janitor at the Beehive
House in Temple Square.
In 1981 he married Debbie, who he had met at
a W.
Cleon Skousen lecture. She
had three children from a previous marriage, and they soon produced two
more. So, along with Travis and Angela, that made seven children living
under the Mitchell roof. The strain proved too much for the couple.
Angela and Travis were placed in foster homes. Angela claims that his
wife pressured Mitchell into this move. Debbie denies this.
Somewhere in their marriage, Debbie claims the outwardly
normal Mitchell began weirding out. According to her allegations, Mitchell
became abusive. He controlled what she ate and forbid
her to wear bright colors. She says he also put dead mice in her stove
to frighten her and once brought home several books on Satan. He claimed
he was trying to get to know his enemy.
Mitchell, of course, told a different story. According to divorce papers,
he claimed Debbie was cruel to Travis and Angela, flew into violent rages
and tried to discredit him in the eyes of his children.
The Weirdness Begins
About ten months after they separated, Debbie came forth
with allegations that Mitchell had sexually abused their 3-year-old son.
She became concerned when her son began acting sexually towards his sister.
When questioned, he said he learned this behavior from dad. She reported
the disturbing revelation to a case worker. The DFS worker could find
no direct evidence of abuse, but said because the child was preoccupied
with sex to an abnormal degree for one so young. She advised Mitchell
be allowed visitation only when Debbie was present.
Not too long after that, one of Debbie's daughters claimed
Mitchell sexually abused her for nearly four years, starting
when the girl was eight. Debbie says she reported this abuse to church
authorities in 1985. She says LDS officials doubted the daughter's story
and advised Debbie against filing charges. The church says nothing
about this and claims it is against policy to discuss sexual abuse
matters about members seeking counseling.
Mitchell Finds A Soul Mate
On Nov. 29, 1985, the day his divorce was final with
Debbie, Mitchell married Wanda Barzee. It was
a match made in the Celestial Kingdom.
So began one of the strangest
chapters of weird Utah history. He was 32, she was 40. Mitchell worked
as die cutter for O.C.
Tanner and
was a member in good standing with the LDS church. To the casual observer
Mitchell appeared the perfect Mormon, but many did not find him quite
right.
Barzee began complaining her husband's behavior became
increasingly strange. He would fly into rages. Her children claimed he
had killed a pet rabbit and served it to them for dinner. Despite his
quirks Barzee was entranced with her hubby and stuck
with her man.
He worked at the LDS temple, portraying Satan in temple
rituals. The fervor with which he threw himself into his role dismayed
church officials. Mitchell claims the elders, while praising the
vigor he threw into his role, asked him to tone it down a tad.
A Prophet Is Born
His religious beliefs began to fly more and more out
of whack. In the 1990s he stopped going to church. Even more alarming,
he quit forking over church tithing.
Mitchell renounced mainstream Mormonism and began viewing himself
as a prophet of God.
Around 1995, he donned a robe, changed his name to
Immanuel David Isaiah, and began preaching the gospel to
street folk. He
sold his belongs, including car and piano, for $2000 and traveled
the country with Barzee proselytizing to the homeless. The latter-day
prophet supported himself by panhandling.
Some time in the late 1990s the couple returned to Salt
Lake City. They became fixtures in downtown SLC, where they could
be seen panhandling quarters.
"Boy, I Could Sure Use Another Wife"
In November 2001, Lois Smart hired Mitchell
to help with some roofing at her Federal Heights home. Seven months later
the church excommunicated Mitchell. That same week Elizabeth
Smart was abducted. Thus began the
nine-month saga that captivated the nation. Mitchell and his two "wives" attended
parties, hung out at park drum circles, and scarfed salads in Midvale
in public while the whole nation searched for his newest "convert." Somewhere
in all this madness he found time to write and print his 17-page gospel, "The
Book of David."
March 12, 2003 the party ended with arrest of Mitchell
and Barzee, and the return of the brainwashed Smart to her worried family.
Thus the world would learn of David Brian Mitchell's strange odyssey,
an epic that could only be concocted in the strange environs of Utah.
The courts are still undecided about the sanity of Mitchell
and his paramour. Protracted court cases will decided whether Mitchell
and Barzee are competent to stand trial for their crimes. We await with
baited breath.
