Gil Birmingham as Bill Taba | Under the Banner of Heaven (2024)

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How much of Under the Banner of Heaven is factual? ›

In fact, the case is still considered one of the most notorious and gruesome in the state's history. And while the case is it's based on is real, the show does have some fictionalized elements. Detectives Jeb Pyre and Bill Taba are characters that were created purely for the show, Newsweek reports.

Gil Birmingham portrays "Bill Taba," a seasoned detective who spent years on the police force in Las Vegas before moving to the Salt Lake Valley. Murder investigations are nothing new to Taba. Navigating the rules and systems of the LDS Church prove to be a far greater challenge.

Though the detectives are fictional, the case is very real. After uncovering a number of secrets of the Lafferty family, the detectives race to capture Dan (Wyatt Russell) and Ron Lafferty (Sam Worthington) and they do so in the show's finale, but that is where the drama ends — the real case was far from over.

Pyre and Taba locate Ron and Dan in the Circus Circus Casino in Reno, Nevada. The brothers are arrested just as Ron attempts to murder Dan in a bid to become the true "One." Pyre returns home and reconciles with his wife, no longer a believing man but seeing his family as his faith like Allen before him.

In the end, Dan changed his mind about taking Matilda's daughter as his wife and instead married a woman named Ann Randak who he'd met when borrowing a horse from the ranch she worked at.

Pyre is an invented character who does not exist in real life as one of the detectives who investigated the murders. The detective who investigated the double homicide was primarily Terry Fox, who was the American Fork police chief.

Brenda, who didn't agree with Ron and Dan's fundamentalist views, strongly advised Dianna to seek divorce from Ron. Unable to find any other way out, Dianna officially filed for divorce, which was finalized in 1983. Following their split, Dianna moved back to Florida, taking their six kids with her.

In the end, after listening to Allen's own words, Jeb appears to have decided that he will, in fact, remain a man of faith, just not to the Mormon church depicted in Under the Banner of Heaven.

The Aftermath Of Brenda Lafferty's Murder

Dan was sentenced to two life terms in prison; Ron was sentenced to death (but died in 2019 before his execution). Though Ron never spoke to the press, Dan did. He expressed no regrets for killing Brenda and Erica.

“Dustin Lance Black Is Ready for Backlash, 'Death Threats' From the Mormon Church Thanks to Under the Banner of Heaven,” read another. As promised, the show has managed to offend or at least alienate most of the Latter-day Saints who have given it a chance, including the most sophisticated viewers.

Who killed Brenda Lafferty in Under the Banner of Heaven? ›

But, at the 2001 trial, Chip Carnes, who was riding in the getaway car, testified that Ron said that he had killed Brenda, and that Ron had thanked his brother for "doing the baby". After the murders, the police found the written "revelation" concerning Brenda and Erica.

As one of his young sons cowers in fear behind a piece of furniture, Ron leaves him with a watch, broken so it is stopped at the hour of Joseph Smith's death — a potent image signifying Ron's path to claiming his “rightful place.” After sufficiently terrorizing his wife and kids, Ron goes home to his mom.

Nov. 11, 2019: Ron Lafferty dies of natural causes after spending 34 years on death row, one of the longest-serving condemned inmates in the country. 2022: Dan Lafferty remains in the Utah State Prison, serving a life sentence.

Though he never decisively breaks with the church, by the end of the series it is clear he has grown disillusioned with the beliefs that once anchored his life.

It was Allen's brothers, Ron and Dan, who carried out the killings. Seth Numrich as Robin Lafferty, and Andrew Garfield as Jeb Pyre.

Brenda, 24 years old, and her 15-month-old daughter Erica were brutally murdered in their home in American Fork, Utah, in 1984, in an incident which has since been detailed by Jon Krakauer in his 2003 book Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith.

In the end, after listening to Allen's own words, Jeb appears to have decided that he will, in fact, remain a man of faith, just not to the Mormon church depicted in Under the Banner of Heaven.

Nov. 11, 2019: Ron Lafferty dies of natural causes after spending 34 years on death row, one of the longest-serving condemned inmates in the country. 2022: Dan Lafferty remains in the Utah State Prison, serving a life sentence.