Fine line between dumb and courageous. Roman is clearly willing to settle with Bill at this point why spit in his face? It was one thing when Bill was trying to get Roman’s nose out of his business it’s quite another now that Bill has some leverage on Roman through the council only to piss away any chance at peace. Bill’s stupidity is just designed to keep the compound story lines coming which seems to me to be lazy writing. It makes no sense for Bill who has so much to lose and nothing to gain out of the compound to keep aggravating Roman.
I can only hope that this actually ends up with Bill and Roman getting into the business together which would be interesting. Seeing Bill have a crisis of conscience working with Roman and the council as their little lapdog with Albie throwing his wrench in at bad times.
Bill doesn’t think ahead. That’s his constant failure. He didn’t realize how putting Joey on the council would put him in Roman’s hands. He didn’t realize that putting his face on the billboards would make him a target. He just doesn’t think. He’s kind of thick, really. And the funny thing is that he thinks he’s smart! That’s why Roman can play him like a fiddle - because Bill thinks he’s smart and Roman actually is.
I could not agree with that more. Look out, that chick is trouble with a capital T.
Yes. Very, very interesting. PBS also did a 2-part 4-hour history of The Mormons, and there was a considerable segment on plural marriage. It was quite informative to compare and contrast those who live in a “compound” type of situation and those who just integrate themselves into suburban society.
It’s interesting that when polygamy was legal in Utah, it was different on this score. In some areas of the law, particularly involving real estate, women actually had more power then men.
I don’t know if it still the case (I think it changed back in the early 1900s) but it used to be* that if a woman owned property before being married, that she could sell that property after being married without her husband’s consent or signature. But if a man owned property before marriage, after getting married his wife automatically had a legal interest in it, and he could not sell it without his wife’s permission. This was apparently specifically intended to protect women who were part of plural marriages from losing their property, and to insure they didn’t become indigent should the marriage dissolve.
*I have no cite for this, but this information came from my father, who was very involved in real estate development and sales after the end of WWII. He had (what seemed to me to be) an encyclopedic knowledge of real estate rules and law.
I was positive it was legal, not just tolerated, but as soon as you asked I’m not 100% sure anymore.
I’ll look around a bit and try to make sure, but I’m fairly certain that one of the things Utah had to do to become a state was to outlaw polygamy, making me think it must have been legal before it could be made illegal.
It’s complicated. I guess it was technically legal in the Utah territory before Lincoln signed the anti-bigamy act in 1862. Utah was not admitted into the Union until after the Church renounced plural marriage in 1890.
Going by both my memory and what I find with a bit of searching, it was practiced pretty much from the beginning (the 1830s and 40s) by the leaders of the church, then made church policy for all members in the 1850s after coming to Utah. It was outlawed by the feds in 1862, but remained in practice in Utah until about 1890s*. I have no idea what paperwork was done for the marriages at that time, or if any was done outside of what the LDS church did, or if that was any different from what was done for single marriages.
So rather than saying “when polygamy was legal in Utah” I should have said something like “as a result of it being practiced openly by the mainstream community in Utah”.
*In sanctioned practice, I mean. It remains in practice to this day by a small percentage of the population, but is both against LDS church law (you can be excommunicated for it) and of course, against state law.
Isn’t Bill not legally married to Margene or Nikki though? As far as I know, he’s only legally married to Barb, he has no legal ties to either Margene or Nikki. Given that, what’s the worst that could happen should they be found out? The social ramifications would be disasterous, sure, but would there be any real legal consequences?
As I noted in an early thread on this show, Utah actually has some laws against living a “polygamist lifestyle”, although they are seldom enforced. You technically can’t cohabitate or have sex with someone who is not your spouse if you are already married. If you’re not legally married to anyone, though, those laws do not apply.
Exactly. Polygamist aren’t usually prosecuted unless there’s underage sex or fraud involved. But Utah has a rather broad defination of bigamy and still has adultery statues on the book. However I doubt they’d go after any of Bill’s wives, despite Nikki’s fears. Nikki and Margene would be forced to tesitfy against him in court.
She made a comment about him being “daddy’s little girl” and “playing make believe with his wives”.