Daughters of Former Mormon Bishop Walton Hunter Accuse Father of Rape

The story of allegations of child sexual abuse in the Mormon Church expands from Gordon B. Hinckley to Bishop Walton Hunter.

In the late 1980’s a documentary titled The True Story of Mormon President Gordon B. Hinckley was produced and screened among churches that would dare host the heresy. This film alleges that now-deceased former Mormon President Gordon B. Hinckley engaged in affairs with prostitutes, men, and young boys.

Our previous report placed this documentary in its historical context and outlined the various witnesses involved in the making of the film. One of those witnesses was Louis Sims, an employee of the Hunter Motor Company where some of the affairs are alleged to have happened.

The Hunter Motor Company was owned by brothers Alvin and Walton Hunter. The Hunter’s were also members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). In fact, Walton Hunter was a bishop for 10 years in Salt Lake City, Utah.

During his interview in the documentary, Louis Sims alludes to his belief that Walton Hunter was given his bishopship in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) by Hinckley because of their close relationship.

The witnesses in the documentary place both Alvin and Walton Hunter at the alleged sex parties with Hinckley. This implies that Alvin and Walton were either witnesses or participants in what took place at the apartment and house.

Deliver Us From Evil

Walton Hunter died in January 1995 at the age of 75. His obituary reads, “Born October 25, 1920, Enoch, Texas, to Walter W. Hunter and Verna Ann Hall. He was an officer in the Army Air Force during World War II.”

It also notes his service with the LDS Church, “He served twice as LDS bishop (Grant 9th Ward, Salt Lake City, 10 years and So. San Jose, Calif. 10th Ward six years). As bishop he was dedicated to missionary work and called many young people to serve missions, giving them complete love and support.”

What the obituary does not mention is that Walton Hunter was accused of sexually abusing two of his own daughters and was excommunicated from his 2nd bishopship in San Jose, California as a result of these accusations.

The story of sexual and mental abuse at the hands of Walton Hunter is documented in the book Deliver us from Evil written by his adult daughter, Deborah Hunter-Marsh. Self-published in 2014 by Ms. Hunter-Marsh, the book seems to have gone largely unnoticed, a tragic example of forgotten abuse.

The book doubles as a personal diary with Deborah Hunter-Marsh sharing her father’s family history, his involvement with the church, and, of course, his constant sexual abuse of her and her sister Rebecca. At times Hunter-Marsh seems to be searching for an explanation for her fathers behavior. She writes:

“He did not have a warm, loving home environment as a newborn, filled with the cooing and cuddling that usually comes from a mother and a father. His dad, Walter, detested him and he was called ugly until his teen years and he was beaten severely by his father.”

Besides her personal experiences and those of her sister, she also uses her father’s personal journals to tell the story of her family.

“Dad never says anything good in his entire personal journal about his grandfather that took him in, but made special mention of his “loving, kind” Grandma Hall. There were such deficits in his being that he used sex and drugs, lots of prescription drugs for anxiety and what my father called “nervousness.” He needed success, both within the church and as a forthright businessman, and he needed lots of sexual attention as well as public notoriety. His goal was to do whatever he wished to do with whomever he wanted to do it with, but to “never get caught.” This was evident throughout his journals.“

As an adult, Deborah Hunter-Marsh says she began to recall repressed memories from her childhood. Initially, she didn’t believe the nightmares she was having could have been real, or that her father was involved. Eventually, she would come to accept that her father had been raping her since she was a young girl.

“As I recall, my father appeared in the middle of the night and climbed onto my body, hurting my body and soul. I remembered wondering how he could do this to me. My father was a bishop in the Grant 9th Ward and he only did what God told him to do, so if he was raping me, I must be very bad. I was a bad, bad person.”

Hunter-Marsh recalls a time when her father’s extramarital affairs with another woman were discovered by his wife who went to their Bishop for help. Walton was almost excommunicated but the bishop allowed him to stay. However, Hunter-Marsh writes that “the truth of how naughty he had been, or was being, came out in little ways in 1964.”

Hunter-Marsh discusses the history of the controversial film The Godmakers discussed in our report on Gordon B. Hinckley. She believes the claims regarding her father owning a “party pad” where “prostitutes of every race and gender” would drink, smoke, and have sex with her father and others.

However, while describing the focus of the film, Hunter-Marsh chose not to name Gordon B. Hinckley, instead refer to him as a “high-ranking church official”. She says her and her sister, “do not believe that any high Mormon Church official was involved.” Still, they do acknowledge their father’s friendship with both Charles Van Damme — an employee of the Hunter Motor Co and alleged lover of Hinckley — and the unnamed Mormon Church official.

Hunter-Marsh also mentions the possibility her father may have laundered money via Van Damme as he claimed. She also hints at potential legal troubles. She writes:

“Checks for $75,000 or more were cashed. I also remember Mother and Father bemoaning the fact that all of Dad’s cars on both car lots were stolen overnight. By whom, I’m not sure, but they mentioned Chuck Van Dam’s name as a possible thief. My parents were extremely upset. Shortly after this, we had to move from our large house up on Idlewild Circle by Mt. Olympus to a small condominium in Granger that we rented for about six months. This move was just out of Salt Lake City, completely across town with no hope of seeing our friends from the Mt. Olympus area forty miles away with both parents working at the time. I think we were in hiding because a few months after we moved into the condominium, we loaded up our car with our clothes and a few personal items and left in the middle of the night to move to California, leaving behind important large or bulky personal items such as our scrapbooks, knickknacks, furniture, etc. We took only what would fit inside two automobiles. Our parents didn’t tell us why, just that we had to move.“

Justice Delayed

Deborah Hunter-Marsh says her adult sister Rebecca also began remembering incidents of sexual abuse by her father. In the book, Rebecca states that she confronted her mother and father about the abuse, but they refused to listen. Rebecca continued to allow her children to see their grandparents, but told them they could never be alone at Grandma and Granda’s house.

However, when Rebecca was away one afternoon, her son, called Alex in the book, was left alone in the house with his grandfather. Once he returned to his mother he immediately began displaying various behavioral and learning disabilities. It was later learned that Alex had been sexually abused by his grandfather Walton Hunter. One of Rebecca’s daughters also claims to have witnessed her grandmother, Rebecca and Deborah’s mother, creating the circumstances for the child to be alone with his grandfather.

“Unfortunately, everyone’s sexual abuse was outside the statute of limitations for prosecution criminally, except for Alex’s, but he was only six years old and too traumatized and threatened by his grandfather to testify. He had to be older before he would tell, so we never put him through the trauma of a trial or anything,” she writes.

Since there was not a possibility for legal recourse against Walton Hunter, Rebecca went to her father’s “Stake President” in the LDS to see if they could get him removed from his position. Eventually, Rebecca and Deborah participated in a Disciplinary Counsel where they would each testify to twelve men about what they claimed their father had done to them and their children.

“To face a monster and twelve men’s serious faces, judging and examining our facial expressions, our body
language, and our words was dreadful. I very much felt like I was being judged, not Dad,” Hunter-Marsh writes.

Following their testimony to the Disciplinary Counsel, they returned home to celebrate their bravery. They received a visit from the Stake President who notified them that Walton Hunter had been excommunicated from the 10th Ward in San Diego, California.

Later, they would learn that Deborah’s daughter Bethany was also molested by Walton Hunter.

After getting Hunter excommunicated from the Mormon Church, his daughters also pursued a civil lawsuit. Before the trial could ever begin in July 1995, Walton Hunter died of a congestive heart failure. The case was settled out of court and Walton’s wife was forced to use his remaining money to pay the settlement. 

Deborah Hunter-Marsh says that her mother told her that in his final days, Walton Hunter was scared and restless. He reportedly told his wife he could see “dark figures assembling around him and he was very frightened“.

Regarding the potential that her father could have molested other children, Hunter-Marsh writes, “we do know that our father had a candy dish in his church office and the children would go in there to get some each Sunday. There may be other victims we don’t know about or he might have kept it just to the family. If this book finds more victims, we would like to know, and we will try to help him or her as much as we can.”