Utah polygamist Tom Green, who was convicted of bigamy, had five wives—Linda, Lee Ann, Shirley, Hannah, and Cari—by 2000. By the time of his death in 2021, he was survived by three wives and 34 children. Before his conviction, Green had appeared on national television talk shows, including Jerry Springer and Dateline NBC, to promote and justify his lifestyle. He ultimately served nearly five years in prison before receiving parole in 2007.
One Man, Six Wives, and 29 Children is a 1999 documentary that chronicles the story of polygamist Tom Green and his multiple wives.
Who were polygamist Tom Green’s five wives?
According to The Salt Lake Tribune, Tom Green married first in 1970 and supposedly had 10 wives. Other sources mention his confirmed wives as Linda Kunz, Lee Ann Beagley, Shirley Beagley, Hannah Bjorkman, and Cari Green. Linda Kunz was his legal wife, while the others were his plural or spiritual wives. Green died in 2021 of COVID-19 at the age of 72.
In the summer of 2001, a jury convicted Green on four counts of bigamy and one count of failure to pay child support. Following his conviction, he received a five-year prison sentence. Then, in June 2002, he was facing trial on one count of rape of a child for marrying Linda Kunz, who was his stepdaughter at the time. Kunz later became his legal wife and gave birth to their first child in 1986 when she was only 13 and he was 38.
Polygamist Tom Green had a bench trial on the rape count, and then-4th District Judge Donald Eyre found him guilty. Judge Eyre then sentenced him to life in prison. Green got parole in the summer of 2007 after convincing the parole board that he would not take any more wives. He also agreed that his existing wives would live in adjoining units of a quadplex in Springville, which would prevent them from violating Utah’s bigamy law.
During the time of Green’s release from prison in 2007, the polygamist had around 30 children. Later, in 2019, Utah’s Board of Pardons and Parole terminated his parole, and he remained on the state’s sex offender registry until his demise in 2021. According to the registry, he lived in South Jordan.
The New York Times stated that Tom Green appeared on TV with his wives before his conviction. He appeared on national television shows alongside his wives to defend his lifestyle, claiming it was a constitutional right. The Guardian further reported that Green claimed he only followed the Mormon church’s original tenets.
During one such TV show appearance, David O. Leavitt, a county prosecutor in Utah, came across Green. Leavitt, a Mormon, later filed bigamy charges against the polygamist, which then proved to be his undoing. The prosecutor’s court report stated that Green had been marrying without state sanction and was thus eluding prosecution. It mentioned, “Green has intentionally made very complex his legal relationships to his wives,” adding that his “scheme is a very public challenge to our marriage laws.”
Meanwhile, Tom Green had long maintained that he only followed his religious beliefs. He also alleged that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints isolated him for embarrassing the church. Green claimed he was not a part of a polygamous group but called his beliefs “original Mormonism.”
Reportedly, polygamist Tom Green grew up in a Holladay household of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Utah-based faith, which previously exercised polygamy, stopped following the practice in 1890. Subsequently, they also started ousting members who continued to have multiple wives.
However, Green shared a close bond with polygamous religious leader Ross Wesley LeBaron, whom he called “my adoptive father.” The polygamist married his first plural wife in 1984. At the time, he was married to his then-legal wife, Lynda Penman. The duo shared three children, but his practice of polygamy prompted Penman to file for divorce.
Tom Green is now survived by three wives, 34 children, and 54 grandchildren.
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