Quote:On February 13, 1935, police charged Yelnock with a more serious crime. The accusation against him this time was three counts of “infamous crimes against nature.” Yelnock had allegedly sexually assaulted one of Frieda’s daughters three times over four months – once in November and twice in February.[18] Five days after being arrested, Sema was excommunicated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for unchristianlike conduct.[19]A jury then convicted Yelnock of the charges and a judge sentenced him to serve between five and twenty years at the Utah State prison then located at Sugarhouse. After several attempts at early release, a parole board eventually granted Yelnock’s petition and he was released on March 12, 1942.[20]

After his prison term, he continued to associate with Reverend Harold W. Gretzinger, a pastor at the First Church of the Nazarene who he seems to have met during his incarceration.[21] There is no evidence that he ever returned to membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Yelnock continued to live in Salt Lake City until at least 1948. He worked at a variety of jobs, including as a self-described psychologist before eventually returning to his earlier occupation as a barber.[22] During these years, authorities charged Yelnock with other major and minor crimes. In 1945, he pled guilty to indecent assault against a fourteen-year-old girl and received a three month jail sentence.[23] Other cases involved fortune-telling and providing a prescription without a license.[24]

After his time in Utah, Yelnock eventually reverted to his original name, James Conley, and returned to Texas. Social Security records indicate that he died in September 1973, in Texarkana, Texas.

J. Willard Marriott Library, Univ of Utah