El Rancho Negro, Chihuahua: Meth, Death, and Porn Cult

Translated by Yaqui from Proceso

Cult Leader Orson William Black Jr.

Extra Material from Various Sources

Nov 25, 2017 Cuauhtemoc, Chih.

In the quiet Mennonite plains of the outskirts of this city, a US citizen, Orson William Black Jr, former member of a polygamous sect founded in the nineteenth century, decided to found his own sect with another twenty plus of his countrymen and women. Until the day of his arrest, on Saturday Nov 4, no one imagined what was allegedly happening within his commune: rituals that included pedophilia and a secret link with narcos and organized crime. Besides being on the lam for 15 years from US Authorities for sexual abuse of minors; it is now suspected that he was engaged in cooking meth, animal and human trafficking, and transmitting child pornography over the internet.

Black, 56, is a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a sect that began after the mainstream Mormon church disavowed polygamy.The sect advocates plural marriage, and its members commonly have legal marriages with their first wife and "spiritual marriages" with other wives.

The group is mainly based in the twin towns of Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah. Its leader, Warren Jeffs, is serving a life sentence in Texas after being convicted of sexually assaulting girls he considered brides.

Black's Arrest and the raid on his compound included 100 US FBI agents and the DEA

Despite the fact that since the arrest, the state government of Chihuahua has denied the collusion of Orson William Black Jr. with the organized crime that operates in the Cuauhtémoc area, US federal agents and relatives of some members of Black's sect assure this weekly that Orson actively collaborated with drug trafficking and that, in fact, that was the reason why they murdered two of his sons and a stepson.


Investigations of those killings led to the arrest of the cult leader.

Orson William Black Jr. was part of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose ex-leader Warren Jeffs was sentenced to life imprisonment for sexual abuse of two of his followers who were minors.

Similarly, after being accused in his country of committing sexual abuse against two teenagers, Orson decided to cross the border with Mexico and hide in Chihuahua, where he has been for more than 15 years. But the murder of his children, on September 10 at his ranch El Negro, attracted the attention of the authorities. Black's three sons; Michael B 15 years old, Robert B 19 yrs, and stepson Jesse 23,were killed execution style outside of one of the trailer homes.

In an operation that had the support of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US DEA and the US consulate, agents of the General Prosecutor's Office of the State of Chihuahua detained Black on Saturday, Nov 4 and he  was deported four days later. In fact, over 100 FBI agents were involved in the raid on Rancho Negro's heavily fortified compound.

Pennie Petersen, an American resident of Arizona and the sister of two of Black's wives, was the first to hear about the murders of the three teenagers. Two of them were her nephews: "They called me from the office of the Alguaciles Corps to tell me that there was bad news: two of my nephews had been murdered in Mexico," she says.

The Trailer Outside of which Orson Black Jr's Sons were found riddled with bullets

Pennie Peterson uses her married name. She is the sister of Roberta and Beth Stubbs, the fourth and fifth wives of the cult leader. Black married Roberta in 1998, when she was just 15 years old, and Beth in 2002, when she was 17.

"Orson almost killed my sister Roberta. Before he married her, he got her pregnant at 12, and I decided I had to do something. I reported it to the authorities, "says Pennie. Black denied ever touching either of them and the sisters claim that they inseminated themselves with Black's semen. The Stubbs sisters refused to testify and fled with Black to Mexico.

Orson had a son with each of them: Michael and Robert. Both, along with his stepson Jesse Barlow, nephew of Dan Barlow, former mayor of Colorado City, Arizona. The young men were killed by more than 100 bullets, according to the report of the Chihuahua District Attorney's Office.

When an officer of the Arizona Sheriff's Department notified Pennie of the death of her two nephews, he provided another piece of information: "Orson had links with the mafia, he was cooking methamphetamines for the Sinaloa Cartel" in Cuauhtémoc.

"I was not surprised by the data, to be honest. Orson was cooking methamphetamine since he lived in Arizona. He dedicated himself to that. He was a chemist. He ended up entangled with the mafia in  Mexico and when they could not grab him, they went after his children, " says Petersen.

Pennie Petersen, who is estranged from her sisters, said the men who were killed were two of Black's sons and his stepson. She said she was told by members of her extended family that the deaths were a drug cartel hit, possibly because Black either stole money or drugs. He wasn't home and the cartel killed the others instead, she said.

"They told the family when they killed those boys, if William doesn't turn himself into us, we're going to come back, kill everybody over the age of 6 and we're going to take everyone under the age of 6," Petersen said.

Their statements coincide with the version of an American federal agent assigned in Texas, who works in the investigation:

"The murderers watched the El Negro ranch for about three days, waiting for Black, ie, to kill him. As they did not find him, they went after the young men and left the threat that they would go for other members of their family, they threatened to kill everyone, and TAKE, ie kidnap those under the age of six" confides the agent, who asks that his identity remained anonymous.

However, Carlos Huerta, a spokesman for the Chihuahua Public Prosecutor's Office, says that the investigations in Mexico have not reported any link between Black and the drug traffickers.

Wild animals:

Orson Black Jr, along with 26 other Americans illegally residing in Mexico, had five properties: four houses and a ranch of more than five hectares. He also owned a dozen mobile homes distributed throughout the properties. All 27 persons, including 4 wives , one "concubine" and  minors, had illegal residency status in Mexico and all were deported.

El Rancho Negro is on the Mennonite field number 12 and is the last property on a rural road that ends at the foot of a mountain. Here is where they murdered the three young men and it is also where, according to the neighbors, the cult practiced the rituals of worship to Black himself.

"We did not really know what was happening there at the ranch, but they had several bears and other animals that fed on the viscera of the cows they sacrificed for some kind of ritual," says Juanito Peters, one of Black's few neighbors.

Proceso had access to the ranch, inside there are three huge cages with skin remains of different animals. Presumably they were the bears that the neighbor had mentioned.

There were over 50 exotic animals found; exotic birds from Asia, stuffed birds, buffalo, elephant feet and legs, butchered zebras and a lion, stuffed and mounted heads, in addition to  freezers with dozens of frozen animals.

Luckily for everyone, I failed at adding photos the of the Dead, Frozen, Mounted and Stuffed animals and heads
not to mention the elephant feet and even exotic chicken, fox and goat breeds from Peru

20 horses still walk around, grazing on the property. After the operations, Mexican agents confiscated a total of 65 animals and parts of stuffed animals: the pair of elephant legs, a lion skin, a buffalo head and several exotic birds. Black has also been charged with animal cruelty.

Area with Large Animal Cages and Dog Kennels

At the entrance of the property there is a document with the stamp of the Attorney General of the Republic in which it is noted that the ranch is under the protection of the federal authorities.

There are five mobile homes in the boundaries of the area. Inside at least these three of these trailers there are electronic items such as screens, laptops, remote controls, cameras, cell phones, radios and antennas.

One of the lines of investigation points to the possible transmission of child pornography from this ranch, says an agent that protects the property. "We commandeered seven hard drives and in all the properties we found encrypted antennas and equipment to transmit live over the internet," he explained.

At the back of the ranch there is also a pile of burnt bones, the authorities are currently carrying out the investigations to find out if they are human.

The rest of Black's properties are in the Mennonite camp number 8C with the numbers 19, 26 and 37. In the first, the number 19, was where the authorities found Orson with one of his wives. Property 26 was used as a kind of warehouse and for dog breeding; there were also three storage trailers  with different types of goods.

On the wall of one of the kitchens, Black had pictures of members of his sect and images of characters/ prophets like Kennedy, Gandhi and Einstein.

While Black was in control of the entire place, the properties are in the name of Leroy Reynolds, a Mennonite with ties in Arizona. According to the authorities, Reynolds rented the properties to Black, the leader of the sect. The primarily German Canadian Mennonite community that emigrated to the area years ago in the 1920's practice an agrarian pacifist Christian monogamist lifestyle.

Revolving door:

On Wednesday Nov 8, Chihuahua authorities deported Orson William Black Jr. to the United States through the Santa Fe International Bridge, between Ciudad Juarez and El Paso, Texas, along with 26 

of his "followers" due to US demands. All 27 were considered illegal residents of Mexico.

US Authorities demanded of  him to face five charges of "criminal conduct" against two teenagers. After being accused by  Pennie Petersen of having sex and procreating two children with her sisters while they were still minors, Black's defense argued that he never touched them and that he only inseminated them artificially.

Black was imprisoned only one day. He was released on Thursday, 9, because the Arizona Attorney's Office dropped the charges, the El Paso County jail confirmed that to this weekly.

Records from the 2003 case show Black had been estranged from the polygamous community since the 1980s but still followed its teachings. The case was the first in a series of efforts to crack down on men in the sect and the community's police, which refused to arrest Black, said former Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, who brought the charges. Goddard lamented that Black is apparently not going to face consequences. "If somebody can just skip the country and then avoid what I believe was a very legitimate child molestation rap, that's a very sad development," he said Tuesday.

Mexican Prosecutors have not ruled out that Black could be a suspect in his son's deaths, and  a Mexican official said Tuesday that the case remains under investigation.

Black's whereabouts are not known. He is not in federal custody, the U.S. Marshals Service said.

Meanwhile Pennie Petersen has started a change.org petition to try to persuade Arizona prosecutors to file charges once more against Orson Black Jr. in defense of her sisters.

In a statement, the General Prosecutor of the State of Chihuahua demanded Black be returned to Mexico to be charged for his crimes in Chihuahua and requested an explanation of the case from the US authorities.