Utah Polygamist Marries Himself in Defiance of State

 

Stares at Reflection in Full Length Mirror During Ceremony

Harold Grayson, a noted Utah polygamist who has 14 wives and 97 living children, added wife number 15 when he married himself in a historic wedding ceremony at the family farm outside Bountiful.

Experts on Utah's polygamous clans said they believed it was the first time that a polygamist had married himself. "It's possible there were some of these marriages in the 19th Century, but certainly not in the last 100 years," said Edward Vinzetti, executive director of the Polygamy Institute in Salt Lake City.

The ceremony, attended by more than 500 members of the Grayson clan, was performed by Leland Grayson, who is the groom's uncle, half-brother, grandson and half-sister.

Grayson, who is 73 years old and says he hasn't trimmed his beard since 1953, stared pensively at his reflection in a full-length mirror that had been erected as part of bridal arbor on the edge of an alfalfa field.

Also present as uninvited guests were three investigators from the Utah attorney general's office. They attended under a court order issued yesterday by a district court judge in Provo that allowed them to witness the ceremony.

Attorney General Harold Robin, who is expected to run for governor in 2006, has been targeting openly polygamous groups under Utah's marriage laws which forbid incest, polygamy and same-sex marriages. The practice of obtaining court orders so as to monitor possibly polygamous weddings around Utah has raised an outcry from civil libertarians.

After Grayson and himself were pronounced man and wife, he turned to the crowd and somberly said, "We will dispense with kissing the bride." Then he marched down the aisle to the row where the three investigators sat and confronted them. Raising both arms as if pronouncing a benediction, he cried out in a stentorian voice, "What God has wrought in his splendor, let no mere mortal put asunder."

A reception followed and the Attorney General's investigators were seen mingling with the crowd, laughing, joking and eating from plates piled high with food.

"They sure know how to put on a feed," said one of the investigators, who refused to give his name. "I guess when you have so many wives running around, they compete in the kitchen."

A second investigator, who would only say that his name was George, grumbled about liquid refreshments. "I've been to a lot of these things. They're really nice people but I just wish once in a while they would serve something besides iced tea to drink, if you know what I mean."

Vinzetti of the Polygamy Institute said that the act of an elder marrying oneself in a polygamous group would normally be seen as a means of testifying to the unity of the clan.

"There are some vague references to self-marriage in writings from the 1880s or thereabouts," he said. "In this case of Elder Grayson marrying himself, there could some of the unity symbolism. But given the Attorney General's actions, it could also be a finger in the eye, you know. He's saying ,'Let's see you try to prosecute this.'"

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