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True Crime Documentary - Married at 16 - Inside a Secret Cult · The Evolution of Evil - True Crime Stories

0:04
Speaker 1: For nearly a century, an isolated, secretive, and abusive community
0:10
Speaker 1: flourishes in the American Southwest.
0:13
Speaker 2: Unlike anything I think we've seen before since truly a
0:16
Speaker 2: real theocracy running right in the heart of America.
0:20
Speaker 1: Its members suffer under strict religious rules.
0:23
Speaker 3: You are trained only to do as you're told and
0:28
Speaker 3: not think outside the box.
0:31
Speaker 1: A polygamous society where arranged marriages and sexual abuse of
0:35
Speaker 1: minors is commonplace.
0:37
Speaker 4: Ruth, how old were you when you got married? Sixteen.
0:40
Speaker 1: Sixteen years old.
0:43
Speaker 2: How old were you when you became pregnant with your
0:45
Speaker 2: first child?
0:46
Speaker 5: Sixteen.
0:48
Speaker 1: With unconditional obedience to a leader that they believe to
0:51
Speaker 1: be a prophet.
0:52
Speaker 6: According to their religion, the only one who could really
0:55
Speaker 6: communicate directly with God. So the orders that you are receiving,
1:00
Speaker 6: We're coming from God.
1:01
Speaker 1: A cold-blooded leader who rules with true dictatorial power, controlling
1:05
Speaker 1: every aspect of the lives of those who believe in him.
1:08
Speaker 7: Everything was just getting stricter and stricter and stricter and stricter,
1:12
Speaker 7: and everybody was in trauma mode.
1:16
Speaker 1: The prophet's name is Warren Steed Jeffs, a man with
1:20
Speaker 1: a depraved and evil mind.
1:23
Speaker 8: He's a pedophile. He is probably a psychopath. Certainly he
1:29
Speaker 8: has no sympathy or empathy in any meaningful way for
1:33
Speaker 8: all the victims that he has terrorized and done harm to.
1:51
Speaker 1: Somewhere in the U.S. West, where the Utah and Arizona
1:55
Speaker 1: borders meet, is a town called Colorado City, Arizona. Some
1:59
Speaker 1: of its residents are members of a fundamentalist and polygamous
2:02
Speaker 1: Mormon offshoot group. They had isolated themselves from the mainstream
2:07
Speaker 1: and followed a special leader. But one day, some of
2:11
Speaker 1: them managed to escape his powerful grip. It's a quiet
2:15
Speaker 1: evening in the town of Leverkin, Utah. Veteran reporter Mike
2:19
Speaker 1: Watkiss reports on a perilous rescue.
2:23
Speaker 9: My dad sexually molested us, all of us girls.
2:30
Speaker 10: I just want to cry.
2:31
Speaker 3: I'm afraid to even make more friends because I feel
2:33
Speaker 3: so dang bad at the sorrow.
2:35
Speaker 9: The women go through.
2:36
Speaker 2: How many brothers and sisters do you have?
2:38
Speaker 11: 56.
2:39
Speaker 12: Everybody's living in fear. I wish I wouldn't have got
2:41
Speaker 12: married when I was 16 because I'm too young to
2:44
Speaker 12: have three kids.
2:45
Speaker 3: These kids are being abused and authorities refuse to help them.
2:54
Speaker 4: Let's go get my kids.
2:56
Speaker 1: The two best friends, Fawn Hahn and Fawn Broadbent, both
3:01
Speaker 1: just 16 years old, are on the run.
3:04
Speaker 4: You're a runaway at this point.
3:06
Speaker 2: I am. You're a runaway.
3:07
Speaker 10: Yeah.
3:09
Speaker 7: I just, I don't want what's out there.
3:12
Speaker 1: And trying to escape a life of servitude within the
3:15
Speaker 1: fundamentalist religious community they grew up in, a few miles
3:19
Speaker 1: away in Colorado City, Arizona.
3:22
Speaker 11: I don't want to become.
3:23
Speaker 9: some 50-year-old man's wife or something like that. We've always
3:28
Speaker 9: been told that people out here are wicked. And I
3:32
Speaker 9: don't believe.
3:33
Speaker 4: Everyone is wicked.
3:35
Speaker 1: Now, they look forward to starting a new life with
3:37
Speaker 1: the help of Flora Jessup. Flora's life mission is to
3:42
Speaker 1: help desperate people like them.
3:44
Speaker 3: When it comes to babies, I'm willing to stand my ground.
3:48
Speaker 3: I'm willing to go to jail. I'm willing to lay
3:50
Speaker 3: my life down to protect children. because I know what
3:54
Speaker 3: they go through.
3:55
Speaker 9: I was them.
3:57
Speaker 1: Also a Colorado City native, Flora Jessup was born and
4:01
Speaker 1: raised in the same polygamist community as these two runaways.
4:06
Speaker 3: I was born and raised in the FLDS cult. My
4:10
Speaker 3: dad was married to my mother and her younger sister.
4:14
Speaker 3: And between the two of them, they had 28 of us.
4:18
Speaker 3: I got out when I was 16 years old, the
4:20
Speaker 3: first girl that ever got out and lived.
4:23
Speaker 9: It took courage to leave at 14.
4:24
Speaker 10: They forced that courage on me. It wasn't a choice.
4:28
Speaker 10: A lot of the girls that did leave at my
4:30
Speaker 10: age didn't make it, were, you know, on the streets,
4:35
Speaker 10: prostituted out, stabbed, shot.
4:38
Speaker 4: I got lucky.
4:39
Speaker 1: Flora Jessup and Penny Peterson have been running an underground
4:42
Speaker 1: network to help women and children escape from the clutches
4:46
Speaker 1: of the fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
4:50
Speaker 1: and their supreme leader, Warren Jeffs. Jeffs is a polygamist
4:54
Speaker 1: with dozens of wives and fathered to perhaps 100 children.
4:59
Speaker 1: His followers believe he's a living prophet, and God speaks
5:02
Speaker 1: through him. He dictates how they must live their lives,
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Speaker 1: including who they will marry.
5:08
Speaker 11: What will the Lord do to an immoral people? They
5:11
Speaker 11: shall be destroyed.
5:13
Speaker 8: Warren Jeffs is not like other cult leaders, charismatic, charming,
5:18
Speaker 8: a good speaker. In fact, he can be deadly dull.
5:22
Speaker 4: And boring.
5:23
Speaker 8: What he is instead is the heir to the throne.
5:28
Speaker 1: Born in Sacramento, California on December 3, 1955, Warren Steed
5:33
Speaker 1: Jeffs is the son of Rulon Jeffs, a high priest
5:37
Speaker 1: apostle from the Circle of Friends, a fundamentalist splinter group
5:40
Speaker 1: of the Mormon Church. The group preserved the Mormon polygamous
5:44
Speaker 1: teachings of its founder, Joseph Smith, after the original movement
5:48
Speaker 1: was abolished early in the 20th century.
5:51
Speaker 3: You typically need three or more wives in order to
5:55
Speaker 3: reach the level in heaven to become a god in
5:59
Speaker 3: your own right and have your own planet to populate.
6:03
Speaker 1: Warren's mother was Marilyn Steed, the fourth of as many
6:07
Speaker 1: as 75 wives that Rulon took during his lifetime, some
6:11
Speaker 1: as young as 14. From an early age, Warren strives
6:15
Speaker 1: to catch his father's attention while competing with his many siblings.
6:21
Speaker 1: His ambition leads to cases of abuse and perversion.
6:25
Speaker 3: But Warren was a nasty cat from when he was
6:31
Speaker 3: very young. He was abusing his sisters sexually way back
6:37
Speaker 3: before his father ever became prophet.
6:39
Speaker 1: Although it is unknown if Rulon Jeffs abused his wives
6:43
Speaker 1: and children, which may have served as an example to
6:46
Speaker 1: his sons, The incestuous abuse of minors is all too
6:49
Speaker 1: common among other polygamist families.
6:52
Speaker 9: Many of the.
6:52
Speaker 13: Women spoke about the rampant child abuse that had gone
6:56
Speaker 13: on in their lives, but either by their father or
6:59
Speaker 13: by other relatives. And in many instances, they were told
7:03
Speaker 13: by their mothers to just expect this kind of behavior
7:07
Speaker 13: by men.
7:10
Speaker 1: Warren Jeffs grows up in Little Cottonwood Canyon on the
7:13
Speaker 1: outskirts of Salt Lake City, Utah. His father, Rulon, opens
7:19
Speaker 1: the Alta Academy as an alternative school for the children
7:23
Speaker 1: of their fundamentalist group. Rulon appoints his son, Warren, as
7:27
Speaker 1: the principal.
7:28
Speaker 6: So this was his first opportunity to really start to
7:32
Speaker 6: wield power, and he would wield it in a very
7:36
Speaker 6: strong and strict way in many ways.
7:38
Speaker 2: He was 21, you know, this dorky 21-year-old kid, and
7:42
Speaker 2: suddenly telling all these kids how to live their lives.
7:45
Speaker 1: Warren Jeffs also starts to reveal some of his sadistic traits.
7:50
Speaker 6: He had his wife come up and he started to
7:53
Speaker 6: twist her hair until it became obvious in front of
7:56
Speaker 6: the class that it was becoming more and more painful
7:59
Speaker 6: and her face was turning more and more red.
8:03
Speaker 1: According to their religion, a woman's natural duty is to
8:06
Speaker 1: serve her husband. Her only value is based on how
8:10
Speaker 1: many children she can provide. women are required to always
8:13
Speaker 1: act sweet and subservient. Brielle Decker, a former student at
8:18
Speaker 1: the Alta Academy, who is destined to become Warren Jeff's
8:21
Speaker 1: 65th wife, remembers.
8:23
Speaker 7: I was the 65th wife of Warren Jeff, and I,
8:30
Speaker 7: after I escaped almost eight years ago. So you don't
8:37
Speaker 7: have the right to get angry, you don't have the
8:38
Speaker 7: right to get sad, you don't have the right, and
8:40
Speaker 7: you're bad if you do any of those things. If
8:44
Speaker 7: you're not just like happy with whatever your leader, your
8:48
Speaker 7: priesthood head, your person over you says, then you're not sweet.
8:56
Speaker 1: They also believe that women can only get to heaven
8:59
Speaker 1: by being invited by their husband, either as a queen
9:02
Speaker 1: or a slave.
9:05
Speaker 3: I've seen women get in, knock down, drag out, black
9:09
Speaker 3: your eyes and rip your hair out of your head,
9:11
Speaker 3: to see fighting over who gets to deliver his plate
9:16
Speaker 3: of food when he comes home or give him his slippers.
9:20
Speaker 9: I didn't come out of it hating men. I came
9:22
Speaker 9: out of it hating women.
9:24
Speaker 1: These fundamentalists spread to various communes, where plural marriages often
9:29
Speaker 1: involve teenagers or even close relatives. They are arranged by
9:33
Speaker 1: the priesthood, a council of seven high priests who dictate
9:37
Speaker 1: the rules to their congregation. presiding over this council is
9:40
Speaker 1: the leader. Fundamentalists believe he is a living prophet and
9:44
Speaker 1: his commands come directly from God. Members of the church
9:48
Speaker 1: are taught from the cradle to obey their leader and
9:51
Speaker 1: not have any independent thought outside of their religious beliefs.
9:55
Speaker 1: They must embrace a life of total submission.
9:58
Speaker 9: We didn't have books.
10:00
Speaker 3: Or music or games, toys, that kind of stuff. We
10:06
Speaker 3: didn't have that. Typical day was getting up and working
10:11
Speaker 3: in the garden or cleaning or... sewing clothes, doing laundry. Laundry,
10:18
Speaker 3: always had laundry.
10:19
Speaker 1: The largest fundamentalist community and its stronghold is found in
10:23
Speaker 1: Colorado City, Arizona. Flora Jessup, born and raised there, suffers
10:27
Speaker 1: a deeply traumatic childhood. Unable to rely on those she
10:31
Speaker 1: is supposed to trust the most.
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Speaker 3: Because I reported the abuse of my father, they walled
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Speaker 3: off the end of a hallway, and I spent three
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Speaker 3: years in solitary confinement. because I was going against God's
10:44
Speaker 3: commandments and I was telling secrets that I shouldn't be
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Speaker 3: talking about. I was not allowed to have any association
10:51
Speaker 3: with my mother or my siblings because I would corrupt them.
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Speaker 1: At the age of 16, Flora Jessup manages to run
11:01
Speaker 1: away from her family. As terrible as it was for Flora,
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Speaker 1: it will turn from bad to worse when Warren Jeffs
11:09
Speaker 1: becomes the leader of the community.
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Speaker 2: Warren Jeffs was a historic inevitability. A guy like him
11:16
Speaker 2: was going to come along in that community because for
11:19
Speaker 2: so long, there were no checks and balances.
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Speaker 1: From an early age, Warren Jeffs displays his burning ambition
11:31
Speaker 1: for power and control. The son of the high priest
11:34
Speaker 1: of a fundamentalist polygamous Mormon splinter group, he climbs its
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Speaker 1: hierarchies by abusively gaining his father's favor. This secretive community
11:44
Speaker 1: is the perfect breeding ground to support Jeff's lust for
11:47
Speaker 1: perversion and sadism. In 1986, Rulon Jeffs is named the
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Speaker 1: new president of the priesthood and assumes the role of
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Speaker 1: the prophet. Instead of relying on the other high priest
12:00
Speaker 1: to run the church, he makes Warren his trusted main counselor.
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Speaker 1: Warren Jeffs is now just one small step from grabbing
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Speaker 1: the power he craves.
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Speaker 6: The other six members of the priesthood were no longer
12:12
Speaker 6: as important. Some of them had broken off, started their
12:16
Speaker 6: own town, their own sort of branch religion from this.
12:20
Speaker 6: So he had become much more important than some of
12:23
Speaker 6: the earlier prophets.
12:25
Speaker 1: Under the Jeffs' absolute rule, the congregation renames itself the
12:30
Speaker 1: Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-day Saints, or FLDS.
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Speaker 1: By the late 1990s, Rulon and Warren Jeffs control almost
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Speaker 1: every single aspect of the life of their nearly 10,000 followers,
12:45
Speaker 1: including their assets and their homes. Their possessions belong to
12:50
Speaker 1: the United Effort Plan Communal Trust, an organization that grows
12:54
Speaker 1: to be worth many millions of dollars.
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Speaker 6: So that meant that individual people really did not own
12:59
Speaker 6: their property, but the trust, the FLDS, owned their property. Again,
13:04
Speaker 6: it's another way of maintaining control over people.
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Speaker 2: There's corporations that are basically FLDS controlled that have made,
13:12
Speaker 2: there's one company that has made a fortune in the aerospace,
13:17
Speaker 2: finely precision machinery. You know, they're not stupid business people.
13:22
Speaker 2: They know how to make a buck. They work hard.
13:25
Speaker 1: Construction proves to be the fundamentalist's most profitable business. Not
13:30
Speaker 1: only within their own community, but with large-scale projects. They
13:36
Speaker 1: secure these lucrative contracts by dramatically underbidding their competitors. They
13:41
Speaker 1: gain their competitive advantage by using unpaid laborers, boys as
13:46
Speaker 1: young as 12 years old.
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Speaker 3: We've had a lot of boys, young boys die working
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Speaker 3: on huge construction projects, running huge equipment.
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Speaker 1: Another source of income is the skillful abuse of the
14:02
Speaker 1: state and federal welfare systems. which our taxpayer funded. It's
14:07
Speaker 1: a practice that the community calls Bleeding the Beast.
14:11
Speaker 13: With this many wives, the first wife was not entitled
14:14
Speaker 13: to food stamps or welfare, but all the second and
14:17
Speaker 13: third and subsequent wives would be, and they would be
14:20
Speaker 13: collecting food stamps and welfare for the numerous children.
14:24
Speaker 3: They get law enforcement grants, they get city grants, they
14:27
Speaker 3: get highway department grants. As a matter of fact, after 9-11...
14:35
Speaker 3: Colorado City and the FLDS received the third largest homeland
14:39
Speaker 3: security grant in the state of Arizona.
14:43
Speaker 2: They have made a lot of money and all of
14:45
Speaker 2: that sort of goes into the church kitty run by
14:48
Speaker 2: the prophet.
14:49
Speaker 1: But perhaps the Jeff's most valuable asset are the women
14:52
Speaker 1: they control in a polygamous society. The number of wives
14:56
Speaker 1: is seen as a status symbol for men. It is
14:58
Speaker 1: said he who bestows them has the community in his hands.
15:02
Speaker 8: The women could only be married to people that were
15:06
Speaker 8: approved by the leadership. That had been done by ruling Jeffs.
15:11
Speaker 8: That had been the way their community had been run.
15:14
Speaker 1: Young women have no voice in who they are going
15:16
Speaker 1: to marry. And many become wives and mothers in their teens,
15:20
Speaker 1: long before reaching adulthood.
15:24
Speaker 7: People go by what the leader is acting like. Like,
15:28
Speaker 7: who do they think he's going to partner you up with,
15:31
Speaker 7: instead of teasing you about, like.
15:33
Speaker 9: You like so-and-so.
15:35
Speaker 1: Despite the oppressive control, Rulon Jeffs remains a revered living prophet,
15:40
Speaker 1: protected by his followers, who help keep their community closed
15:43
Speaker 1: to the outside world.
15:45
Speaker 8: We're not going to have the camera on in here.
15:47
Speaker 4: Are you a police officer?
15:49
Speaker 11: No.
15:50
Speaker 8: It's private property.
15:51
Speaker 4: Are you his private security?
15:52
Speaker 8: You're not welcome. At one time, the FLDS controlled Colorado
15:59
Speaker 8: City and Hilldale completely. It was like a fiefdom carved
16:04
Speaker 8: out of two states in which all public funds, the
16:08
Speaker 8: police department, the mayor's office, all government, the schools, everything
16:14
Speaker 8: was controlled by the FLDS.
16:18
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, Warren Jeffs continues his most obscene and sadistic activities.
16:23
Speaker 8: He's a pedophile. He was raping children long before anyone
16:27
Speaker 8: knew about it. And he raped his own children, including
16:31
Speaker 8: his own son, who couldn't live with the memory of
16:35
Speaker 8: what his father did to him. And he killed himself.
16:43
Speaker 1: On August 8, 1998, a stroke renders the aging Rulon
16:48
Speaker 1: incapable of ruling over the FLDS. Warren Jeffs steps in
16:52
Speaker 1: as the acting president of the church.
16:55
Speaker 7: I only remember Warren Jeffs basically being in charge. I mean,
16:59
Speaker 7: he tried to say his father was in charge. He
17:01
Speaker 7: tried to use his father's words, but his father was handicapped.
17:05
Speaker 3: Kind of.
17:06
Speaker 1: Warren Jeffs is now perfectly positioned to take over the
17:10
Speaker 1: full leadership of the FLDS. He redefines much of the
17:14
Speaker 1: church literature and restructures the school's curriculum. He institutes the
17:19
Speaker 1: new edict supposedly on behalf of his father. In 1986,
17:27
Speaker 1: Rulon Jeffs is nominated to be president of the priesthood
17:30
Speaker 1: of the Fundamentalist Circle of Friends, assuming the power of
17:34
Speaker 1: the prophet. Lurking in his shadow is his son, Warren
17:37
Speaker 1: Steed Jeffs. After Rulon suffers a stroke, Warren restructures the
17:42
Speaker 1: leadership of the FLDS to solidify himself as a sole
17:45
Speaker 1: authoritarian ruler.
17:47
Speaker 8: The FLDS was not a good community. It was extremely authoritarian,
17:53
Speaker 8: very controlling. very harsh on women, very harsh on children.
17:58
Speaker 8: It depended in large part on child labor. Through the
18:02
Speaker 8: United Effort Plan, the UEP controlled all the property, all
18:07
Speaker 8: the housing. There was nothing that the Jeffs family did
18:11
Speaker 8: not control.
18:13
Speaker 1: Then in 2002, Rulon Jeffs passes away.
18:17
Speaker 2: I'll never forget the day we went up to Colorado City.
18:21
Speaker 2: It was cold and overcast, and they were It was
18:24
Speaker 2: the funeral for Rulon Jeffs, the ruler, the guy, the prophet,
18:29
Speaker 2: Warren's father, who had been the leader for 18, 20 years.
18:34
Speaker 2: And there was big, about 6,000 people showed up in
18:41
Speaker 2: that little town. They buried him.
18:42
Speaker 11: It's a loss, but it will be continued on.
18:48
Speaker 4: The watchword is to carry on.
18:50
Speaker 6: Everyone seems very much at peace.
18:52
Speaker 1: Within weeks, Warren Jeffs officially assumes the power of the
18:56
Speaker 1: prophet and the presidency. A new era of the church begins.
19:00
Speaker 8: Rulon Jeffs arguably was a much more reasonable ruler than
19:06
Speaker 8: his son Warren. And Warren Jeffs became the end of
19:12
Speaker 8: the FLDS as it was known because he was so disruptive.
19:17
Speaker 7: So bad became good and good became bad. And it
19:24
Speaker 7: was so fast. He did it within a few years.
19:28
Speaker 7: He had reversed so many things at a consistent rate.
19:33
Speaker 1: Protected by security, inside a walled compound, he lives with
19:37
Speaker 1: his numerous wives. The count skyrockets after he marries many
19:41
Speaker 1: of his own father's widows. Jeffs quickly issues edicts. aimed
19:45
Speaker 1: to further restrict freedom of movement and thought, always using
19:49
Speaker 1: the argument that God commands these decisions.
19:52
Speaker 11: We live in such a wicked day. The people on
19:55
Speaker 11: this land of America are an adulterous generation. We do
19:59
Speaker 11: not want to be like them. The prophets have declared,
20:04
Speaker 11: I would rather have my son or daughter in the
20:06
Speaker 11: grave and commit sins of immorality.
20:11
Speaker 13: They didn't have any education because Warren Jeffs had banned
20:15
Speaker 13: the internet. He banned television. He banned movies. He got
20:18
Speaker 13: rid of all the dogs. There were no pets to
20:20
Speaker 13: be seen. It was very quiet. You might see these
20:23
Speaker 13: giant oversized trampolines, but sports were banished too, basketball.
20:28
Speaker 1: He even finds ways to profit financially while increasing his
20:32
Speaker 1: mind control over the community.
20:35
Speaker 2: Warren pulled all of the FLDS kids out of public schools.
20:40
Speaker 2: and insisted on homeschooling. So suddenly you had these schools
20:44
Speaker 2: that used to have hundreds of kids, now they've got
20:46
Speaker 2: a handful of kids who are not FLDS, still being
20:48
Speaker 2: run by the FLDS community, and they've bankrupted the school.
20:52
Speaker 14: Well, I think the invitation from the church to strengthen
20:56
Speaker 14: the homeschools and the private schools had a very significant impact.
21:01
Speaker 10: It's a cult. All those children up there are out
21:03
Speaker 10: of public schools and they're not being educated. I wish
21:06
Speaker 10: the children to be educated. I wish them to leave
21:10
Speaker 10: the girls alone and the boys alone until they're 18
21:13
Speaker 10: years old before they pick on them for marriage.
21:16
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, tax money pours into a virtually empty school, eventually
21:21
Speaker 1: ending up in the pocket of Warren Jeffs. Jeffs uses
21:25
Speaker 1: this money to expand his loyal entourage and also indulge
21:29
Speaker 1: in activities that run counter to his own preaching.
21:32
Speaker 9: He was out traveling around. and partying.
21:38
Speaker 3: He was going to New Orleans to Mardi Gras and
21:42
Speaker 3: going to strip clubs and all kinds of things like
21:47
Speaker 3: that because God wanted him to witness the wicked world.
21:53
Speaker 1: And like all dictators, there comes a time when Warren
21:56
Speaker 1: Jeffs feels the need to assert his power. and excommunicate
22:00
Speaker 1: anyone whom he believes may threaten his authority.
22:03
Speaker 2: They're excommunicated from the church. They have to walk away
22:06
Speaker 2: from the homes they've built. They have to leave the wives,
22:09
Speaker 2: multiple wives, and usually dozens of children.
22:12
Speaker 1: Warren Jeffs wields the power because all the homes, businesses,
22:16
Speaker 1: and other assets of the followers belongs to the United
22:20
Speaker 1: Effort Plan, and the UEP is controlled by him. Women
22:24
Speaker 1: and children are also considered church property. One of these followers...
22:29
Speaker 1: Ross Chatwin resists Jeff's commands and refuses to leave the
22:33
Speaker 1: town and his family.
22:35
Speaker 15: My family and I do not plan on leaving our
22:37
Speaker 15: home anytime soon. I am pleased to report that my
22:40
Speaker 15: wife has committed to stay by my side regardless of
22:43
Speaker 15: Jeff's commandments to leave me.
22:45
Speaker 1: But for others, this would mean the beginning of the
22:48
Speaker 1: end of their families, as well as isolation from the community.
22:51
Speaker 6: One man named Richard Holm. He'd given millions of dollars
22:54
Speaker 6: to the FLDSU, a very successful businessman. Warren came to
22:58
Speaker 6: him and said, essentially, you know, you're a sinner and
23:02
Speaker 6: you need to repent for your sins. Go away and
23:05
Speaker 6: write down your sins and then you send me what
23:08
Speaker 6: they are and I'll consider letting you back in. While
23:13
Speaker 6: he's doing that, Warren is taking his multiple wives and
23:16
Speaker 6: children and giving them to other men, assigning them.
23:20
Speaker 8: To other men.
23:21
Speaker 1: Over time, the number of available adult single women decreases.
23:26
Speaker 1: This leads to more instances of child brides, as well
23:30
Speaker 1: as a dramatic rise in teenage pregnancies. Women start to
23:35
Speaker 1: be seen as a valuable commodity, as the unbalance between
23:39
Speaker 1: the number of girls and boys leads to fierce competition
23:42
Speaker 1: between the younger males.
23:45
Speaker 9: And only the most loyal.
23:48
Speaker 3: Boys, the ones that are shown that they can be
23:51
Speaker 3: more loyal to the prophet than to their own families,
23:55
Speaker 3: those are the only ones that are allowed to stay.
23:57
Speaker 14: Hundreds of boys aged 13 and above have fled or
24:03
Speaker 14: been expelled from this society and at the demand of
24:08
Speaker 14: its fanatical prophet leader, Warren Jeffs.
24:14
Speaker 1: To avoid future competition for wives, and also a potential
24:18
Speaker 1: threat to his authority, Warren Jeffs has to suppress the
24:22
Speaker 1: male population. He expels many of the community's young men
24:27
Speaker 1: after using them as slaves for a good part of
24:30
Speaker 1: their youth. When they reach their teens, he declares them
24:34
Speaker 1: as degenerate for reasons like watching a film or listening
24:37
Speaker 1: to music. Families must choose between the prophet and their
24:42
Speaker 1: own blood. Many of the FLDS members, and especially the women,
24:47
Speaker 1: feel like hostages trapped in the powerful grip of Warren Jeffs.
24:51
Speaker 2: There were all kinds of mechanisms to keep women in line.
24:53
Speaker 2: If they started to raise hell, they could put them
24:55
Speaker 2: in mental institutions, and they had a cozy relationship with
24:58
Speaker 2: a couple mental institutions, so they could put women who
25:01
Speaker 2: caused trouble into one of these mental institutions, then have
25:04
Speaker 2: them diagnosed as crazy, so if they ever went back,
25:07
Speaker 2: they could never get their kids.
25:09
Speaker 1: The local authorities are not an option these victims can
25:12
Speaker 1: call upon.
25:13
Speaker 12: What I got from them is that they're trying to
25:15
Speaker 12: communicate to me that I don't have the right to
25:18
Speaker 12: go in there and make a complaint about the fact
25:21
Speaker 12: that my daughter could be being raped right now by
25:25
Speaker 12: a 39-year-old man.
25:27
Speaker 1: Members of the FLDS also work within local law enforcement,
25:31
Speaker 1: being polygamists themselves. They have been instrumental in keeping the
25:35
Speaker 1: local community practices away from the state authorities.
25:38
Speaker 4: Is there a pattern of girls being married in this town, 15-,
25:42
Speaker 4: 16-year-old girls being married to older men? I understand many
25:46
Speaker 4: of the law officers have young wives. Well, I'm not
25:48
Speaker 4: going to comment on that. That's personal business, and do
25:52
Speaker 4: you talk about your personal business? I'm not married to
25:56
Speaker 4: teenage girls. Neither am I. Okay, are any of your officers?
25:59
Speaker 5: No, they are not.
25:59
Speaker 2: None of them.
26:00
Speaker 4: None of the law officers in this town are married. Actually,
26:02
Speaker 4: I'll make no comment on that. Make no comment. It's
26:04
Speaker 4: none of your business.
26:05
Speaker 9: They sent.
26:07
Speaker 3: men out to become law enforcement certified. The problem with
26:10
Speaker 3: that is these people don't adhere to the law of
26:14
Speaker 3: the land.
26:15
Speaker 9: They adhere to God's law, which is the rules of
26:19
Speaker 9: the prophet.
26:20
Speaker 16: My understanding is that you are a sworn police officer
26:24
Speaker 16: in both the state of Utah and the state of Arizona,
26:28
Speaker 16: and that you have teenage brides and perhaps impregnated this
26:34
Speaker 16: young woman when it would be a statutory rape.
26:37
Speaker 13: We don't have anything to say except.
26:39
Speaker 6: To the court.
26:40
Speaker 1: With complete control over the FLDS and its community, Warren
26:45
Speaker 1: Jeffs rules like an authoritarian dictator, protecting his most loyal
26:49
Speaker 1: followers and terrorizing those who fall from the ranks of
26:53
Speaker 1: his privileged elite.
26:54
Speaker 7: I think he likes pain, like seeing people go through pain.
26:59
Speaker 7: He likes to take away their hope really slowly, so
27:01
Speaker 7: he had tactics like he would find out what you
27:03
Speaker 7: really wanted and just take it away from you in
27:06
Speaker 7: little tiny pieces. It was torture.
27:09
Speaker 2: Whatever sort of psychological diagnosis, he's just a mean bully
27:15
Speaker 2: who found a convenient way to get power. Not because
27:18
Speaker 2: he's a charismatic, good-looking, great orator, because he's a conniving
27:22
Speaker 2: little b * * * * who went on the
27:25
Speaker 2: coattails of his father, seized power, and realized, I can
27:28
Speaker 2: get away with whatever I want.
27:31
Speaker 1: How long will Warren Jeffs be able to maintain his
27:34
Speaker 1: authoritarian rule in public and his sadistic perversity in private?
27:39
Speaker 1: How long will his victims tolerate his brutality? After years
27:48
Speaker 1: of operating in his father's shadow, upon the death of
27:52
Speaker 1: his father, Rulon, Warren Jeffs ceases control of the FLDS.
27:58
Speaker 1: This begins a new age of absolute dictatorship over the
28:01
Speaker 1: fundamentalist community. Stricter and more extreme rules limit the freedom
28:06
Speaker 1: of movement, thought, and choice. Those who Warren Jeffs perceives
28:13
Speaker 1: as a threat to his authority are expelled from the church.
28:17
Speaker 1: They are forced to leave behind their families and the
28:19
Speaker 1: homes they built. People in the twin towns of Colorado
28:26
Speaker 1: City and Hildale live under the rule of an undisputed
28:30
Speaker 1: leader and his loyal followers.
28:33
Speaker 12: He has absolute control over these people.
28:36
Speaker 2: He really does.
28:37
Speaker 7: This is a new leader, and if he was to
28:38
Speaker 7: ask for violence, there's undoubtedly that's what he would get.
28:42
Speaker 1: But an underground rebellion begins to take shape among former
28:47
Speaker 1: members of the FLDS.
28:49
Speaker 2: You had a number of women who had escaped and
28:51
Speaker 2: gotten out, Flora Jessup, Penny Peterson, a couple of women,
28:55
Speaker 2: you know, names that should be enshrined in history, women
28:59
Speaker 2: who had gotten out, and they were not going to
29:01
Speaker 2: take it anymore. I started this knowing that there were
29:04
Speaker 2: the abuses going on, but nobody was really telling the
29:09
Speaker 2: deep story.
29:10
Speaker 10: I was 14 years old. They come, told me I
29:13
Speaker 10: was going to marry a man, 48 years old. I
29:16
Speaker 10: was going to be his fifth wife. I didn't want
29:19
Speaker 10: to do it.
29:20
Speaker 4: I ran, fast and as hard as I could go.
29:26
Speaker 1: Some of the women who escaped organized an underground railroad
29:31
Speaker 1: to support other women and young boys desperate to flee
29:33
Speaker 1: the church.
29:36
Speaker 3: And then came back and started fighting for my siblings
29:39
Speaker 3: when my 14-year-old baby sister was forced to marry her
29:42
Speaker 3: stepbrother and raped so brutally on her wedding night that
29:47
Speaker 3: she nearly died from the hemorrhaging. And that began my
29:52
Speaker 3: fight to take them down. Somebody had to be the
29:55
Speaker 3: one who stood up on the front lines and took
29:59
Speaker 3: the hits. And I accepted the choice, knowing that I
30:03
Speaker 3: was not going to be able to have a relationship
30:05
Speaker 3: with my mom and my brothers and sisters.
30:08
Speaker 5: I say the crimes that are committed here that the
30:11
Speaker 5: state law enforcement should address are such things as statutory rape.
30:18
Speaker 4: Does that happen here?
30:19
Speaker 5: Oh, definitely. These plural wives, none of them are legally married.
30:24
Speaker 4: And are some of them younger than 16?
30:26
Speaker 5: Yes, some of them are.
30:28
Speaker 4: And they marry first cousins?
30:29
Speaker 5: Oh, definitely a lot closer. They have aunts marrying nephews
30:33
Speaker 5: and uncles marrying nieces.
30:36
Speaker 4: They're that close.
30:38
Speaker 5: That's quite prevalent.
30:39
Speaker 1: Yet the prosecutors encounter a persistent problem.
30:43
Speaker 6: Court day would be set. Women wouldn't show up. They
30:46
Speaker 6: were too afraid to testify, to come into court and testify.
30:49
Speaker 6: They knew if they did, Warren would tear apart their
30:51
Speaker 6: families or do something to them.
30:54
Speaker 1: But accessory to rape isn't the only possible charge against
30:58
Speaker 1: Jeffs and his community. Like many other congregations, the FLDS
31:03
Speaker 1: has a long history of fraudulently receiving government benefits.
31:07
Speaker 8: Very often it is because people who create cults also
31:12
Speaker 8: like not paying taxes. And if you create a 501c3
31:17
Speaker 8: religious nonprofit, no property tax, no taxes on contributions, less accountabilities.
31:24
Speaker 1: As authorities seek to charge Jeffs with crimes ranging from
31:28
Speaker 1: conspiracy to commit sexual misconduct with a minor to tax
31:32
Speaker 1: and welfare fraud, he decides to flee the area. He
31:37
Speaker 1: establishes a new secret commune in the town of El Dorado, Texas.
31:42
Speaker 1: This new ranch, where some of the most prominent FLDS
31:45
Speaker 1: families move, is named Yearning for Zion. After the dedication
31:51
Speaker 1: of the ranch's new temple on January 1, 2005, Warren
31:55
Speaker 1: Jeffs goes on the run again.
31:58
Speaker 6: There were people scattered all throughout the West that were
32:02
Speaker 6: in cahoots with Warren Jeffs to keep him underground and
32:06
Speaker 6: not found. They traveled a lot at night, for one thing.
32:09
Speaker 6: I mean, he would have a car in Colorado, for example,
32:14
Speaker 6: and then they would drop off the car. Maybe in Utah,
32:17
Speaker 6: they would pick up another car.
32:19
Speaker 1: While on the move, Warren Jeff shows up at member
32:22
Speaker 1: gatherings to lead services and conduct marriages. Some involve child
32:27
Speaker 1: brides in secluded chapels. He moves some of his wives
32:31
Speaker 1: to various states. At the same time, he takes new brides.
32:36
Speaker 1: Brielle Decker will become his 65th wife.
32:41
Speaker 7: Well, I don't remember registering that he was on the
32:43
Speaker 7: run until after the ceremony. I remember when he was
32:46
Speaker 7: talking to my father when he was sending me back.
32:47
Speaker 4: To his house.
32:48
Speaker 7: She can't do all this stuff because I'm running for
32:51
Speaker 7: the law. I wasn't able to wear my wedding dress. Like,
32:55
Speaker 7: I didn't even have time to get it. My mother
32:59
Speaker 7: was not invited. My wedding was not anybody there except
33:03
Speaker 7: for who Warren Jeffs wanted there, which was he had
33:05
Speaker 7: to have three witnesses, so he called in, like, two
33:07
Speaker 7: of his brothers, and my father.
33:08
Speaker 4: Was a witness.
33:09
Speaker 1: Fearing they will be questioned by state authorities, Jeffs also
33:13
Speaker 1: relocates his children. By this time, The states of Utah
33:18
Speaker 1: and Arizona are offering $ 10, 000 rewards for the capture of
33:22
Speaker 1: Warren Jeffs. Once the FBI gets involved, the reward balloons
33:28
Speaker 1: to $ 100, 000. Jeffs is placed on their most wanted list.
33:32
Speaker 2: So now everybody's looking for Warren. It just so happens
33:35
Speaker 2: that a state trooper in Nevada just outside of Vegas
33:41
Speaker 2: sees this flashy burgundy Escalade, racing down the freeway, and
33:45
Speaker 2: he can't really see the plates very well, so he
33:48
Speaker 2: pulls it over. State trooper Eddie Dutchover made himself quite
33:54
Speaker 2: an arrest that night.
33:56
Speaker 1: Inside the car, Dutchover finds Warren Jeffs, his brother Isaac,
34:01
Speaker 1: and one of his wives, Naomi. A search of the
34:04
Speaker 1: vehicle uncovers computers, mobile phones, a GPS tracker, an assortment
34:09
Speaker 1: of disguises, including several wigs and sunglasses. and a stash
34:14
Speaker 1: of more than $ 50, 000 in cash. When these items are
34:18
Speaker 1: pulled out of the car, Jeff's displays no reaction.
34:22
Speaker 6: You know, he just stood along the side of the road,
34:25
Speaker 6: and he was very quiet. And I think he was startled.
34:28
Speaker 6: I think he was absolutely stunned that, you know, that
34:30
Speaker 6: he'd finally been caught.
34:34
Speaker 1: On August 28, 2006, after nearly 21 months on the run,
34:39
Speaker 1: the chase for one of America's most wanted criminals finally ends.
34:43
Speaker 13: Warren Jeffs had been brought up in this very enclosed
34:47
Speaker 13: society and somewhat privileged and could do whatever he want
34:55
Speaker 13: without any kind of ramification and now for the first
34:58
Speaker 13: time in his life he was finally going to be
35:01
Speaker 13: in a situation that he did not control.
35:08
Speaker 1: In the early 2000s a group of FLDS escapees create
35:14
Speaker 1: a secret network to help women and children flee the
35:17
Speaker 1: polygamist Mormon group. Aided by reporter Mike Watkiss, authorities launch
35:24
Speaker 1: an investigation into the church and its leader, Warren Jeffs.
35:29
Speaker 1: After being on the run as one of the FBI's
35:31
Speaker 1: most wanted, Jeffs is finally arrested on the outskirts of
35:35
Speaker 1: Las Vegas.
35:39
Speaker 6: By Early 2007, which is about four or five months
35:43
Speaker 6: following his arrest, he's throwing himself against the walls, essentially
35:48
Speaker 6: trying to end his life because he's in such misery.
35:52
Speaker 6: He's fasting. At one point they have to take him
35:55
Speaker 6: out of there and take him to a hospital and
35:58
Speaker 6: try and, you know, build him back up.
36:01
Speaker 1: Warren Jeffs also makes a shocking confession to one of
36:04
Speaker 1: his followers.
36:05
Speaker 6: He tells him, you know, I'm not the prophet. I'm
36:09
Speaker 6: a wicked man. I was never the prophet. And he
36:13
Speaker 6: goes into this whole confession, basically renouncing everything that he
36:18
Speaker 6: has apparently stood for up until this time.
36:22
Speaker 1: Jeffs claims that before dying, his father Rulon told him
36:26
Speaker 1: that after his death, William E. Jessup should take leadership
36:30
Speaker 1: of the FLDS. Instead of following his father's orders, Warren
36:35
Speaker 1: Jeffs usurps the power of the president and the prophet.
36:41
Speaker 1: Jeff's problems have only just begun. In 2007, Elisa Wall,
36:47
Speaker 1: a former member who at age 14 had been forced
36:50
Speaker 1: into a marriage with her own cousin, becomes the first
36:53
Speaker 1: woman willing to come forward and press charges against Jeffs.
36:59
Speaker 9: This trial has not been about religion or a vendetta.
37:02
Speaker 9: It is simply about child abuse and preventing further abuse.
37:06
Speaker 1: The court finds Warren Jeffs guilty of being an accomplice
37:10
Speaker 1: to rape. He is sentenced to 10 years in prison.
37:13
Speaker 1: But this is not the only charge leveled by authorities
37:16
Speaker 1: against Warren Jeffs. On April 3, 2008, a woman identifying
37:21
Speaker 1: herself as Sarah makes a phone call to a domestic
37:24
Speaker 1: abuse hotline claiming to be a 16-year-old minor who is
37:28
Speaker 1: being abused by a 50-year-old man. The crime is taking
37:32
Speaker 1: place inside the Yearning for Zion ranch. The ranch was
37:36
Speaker 1: the new FLDS secret compound that Warren Jeffs dedicated in
37:39
Speaker 1: El Dorado, Texas, where part of the FLDS relocated and
37:44
Speaker 1: kept living according to their religion despite their prophet being
37:47
Speaker 1: in prison.
37:48
Speaker 8: And when the authorities became aware of that, They raided
37:52
Speaker 8: that compound and they took out 400 children.
37:58
Speaker 1: The children are taken into custody by the Texas Child
38:01
Speaker 1: Protection Services and placed in foster care for several weeks.
38:07
Speaker 3: For the first couple of weeks that they had those children,
38:10
Speaker 3: they said that they were very quiet when they first
38:13
Speaker 3: got there. And then after about two weeks, they started
38:18
Speaker 3: playing and, you know, laughing a little bit, and just
38:23
Speaker 3: started to act a little bit like kids.
38:25
Speaker 1: But when the concerned biological parents demand that their children
38:29
Speaker 1: keep taking vitamins supplied by the FLDS, the foster care
38:33
Speaker 1: families notice something odd.
38:37
Speaker 3: And as soon as they started taking these vitamins, the
38:40
Speaker 3: family said these kids turned into zombies. Sat silently, didn't move,
38:46
Speaker 3: didn't participate, just sat there. We don't know what they
38:51
Speaker 3: were providing them with. There was no questions asked.
38:55
Speaker 1: Some foster families also suspect that many of these children
38:59
Speaker 1: are victims of sexual abuse.
39:02
Speaker 9: In the family that had the nine.
39:03
Speaker 3: Children, four of those children, those little boys, had been
39:10
Speaker 3: sodomized so badly that they had no bowel control. This
39:16
Speaker 3: is the type of abuse that is very typical in
39:22
Speaker 3: this community.
39:24
Speaker 1: In the end, authorities find out that the phone call
39:27
Speaker 1: was made by Rosita Swinton, a woman who had a
39:30
Speaker 1: history of mental problems in making similar types of calls.
39:35
Speaker 1: Without a real witness, the case ends up being dropped.
39:42
Speaker 14: In ruling this way, the Third Court of Appeals has
39:44
Speaker 14: stood up for the legal rights of these families and
39:47
Speaker 14: given the mothers hope that their families will be brought
39:50
Speaker 14: back together very soon.
39:52
Speaker 3: They gave all of those children back, and those caseworkers
39:55
Speaker 3: have told me that they physically had to push children
39:58
Speaker 3: across the room while they begged them not to make
40:01
Speaker 3: them go back.
40:03
Speaker 1: Ironically, there's an upside to this hoax call. During the raid,
40:07
Speaker 1: authorities discover a troubling case involving one of these children,
40:11
Speaker 1: 14-year-old Mary Ann Jessup.
40:13
Speaker 6: Based upon the raid that was conducted at the ranch
40:16
Speaker 6: and the documents that were produced and the photographs that
40:19
Speaker 6: came out of that, she was married to Warren Steve
40:24
Speaker 6: Jess at that age. Again, obviously against the law.
40:30
Speaker 1: Besides the documentation... Authorities also find shocking audio recordings filled
40:35
Speaker 1: with bizarre details.
40:37
Speaker 2: That temple had an interesting little feature, a big long bed.
40:40
Speaker 2: Morin's a big tall.
40:42
Speaker 4: Man, you know.
40:43
Speaker 2: I mean, basically, he built himself a little rape bed
40:46
Speaker 2: right there in the temple, you know, all white, supposedly
40:51
Speaker 2: ordained of God.
40:52
Speaker 3: He would take these little girls as his wives. and
40:57
Speaker 3: have his adult wives hold them down while he raped
41:00
Speaker 3: them and recorded it.
41:03
Speaker 1: When the state of Texas brings Warren Jeffs and some
41:06
Speaker 1: of his closest followers to trial in 2011, these recordings
41:10
Speaker 1: serve as hard evidence.
41:12
Speaker 2: During the course of that trial, they played for the
41:14
Speaker 2: jurors an audio tape that Warren had recorded. Well, he was,
41:20
Speaker 2: in essence, raping Jeffs. 12-year-old girl, and you hear this
41:26
Speaker 2: guy's creepy voice sort of groaning this child and her child,
41:30
Speaker 2: this meek little voice of this.
41:39
Speaker 2: This little girl as Jeffs was raping her.
41:46
Speaker 1: With clear proof of his guilt, the judge and jury
41:49
Speaker 1: are merciless with Warren Jeffs. On August 9, 2011, He's
41:54
Speaker 1: sentenced to life in prison plus 20 years. The state
41:58
Speaker 1: of Utah takes over the church-controlled United Effort Plan Trust,
42:02
Speaker 1: returning all its assets and property to current and former
42:06
Speaker 1: members of the FLDS. One of them is Brielle Decker,
42:12
Speaker 1: who left the church and started a new life.
42:15
Speaker 7: I applied for Warren Jess House and was granted it.
42:20
Speaker 2: And I.
42:22
Speaker 7: I had to find a buyer, and so it's 45 rooms.
42:27
Speaker 7: I found a buyer, and it is a worldwide organization
42:30
Speaker 7: called the Dream Center.
42:32
Speaker 1: Warren Jeff's former house, once a symbol of his authority,
42:35
Speaker 1: is transformed into the Short Creek Dream Center. It becomes
42:39
Speaker 1: a place to support the local community, including women and
42:43
Speaker 1: children who left the FLDS.
42:45
Speaker 7: I do work there as an advisory board member. The
42:47
Speaker 7: difference between how dark it was to now how much
42:51
Speaker 7: hope there is how much freedom I have to choose
42:54
Speaker 7: and sort out what I want and all these options.
42:58
Speaker 7: It's very empowering.
43:01
Speaker 1: So how has life changed in Colorado City and Hildale
43:03
Speaker 1: over the last several years?
43:05
Speaker 2: There's been a real breath of change. They've got a
43:08
Speaker 2: wonderful new high school up there that I understand is
43:10
Speaker 2: doing very well. So the community, I think, is doing
43:13
Speaker 2: pretty good. But, you know, the faithful, there's still pockets
43:17
Speaker 2: of them up there. There will always be. adherence to
43:20
Speaker 2: the religion, and they've scattered off into new little compounds
43:24
Speaker 2: in South Dakota.
43:25
Speaker 1: Despite being in prison, Warren Jeffs still runs the FLDS
43:30
Speaker 1: from his cell in Texas. In 2011, he reasserted his
43:34
Speaker 1: position as prophet.
43:35
Speaker 9: So who's leading it.
43:37
Speaker 10: Now, the group?
43:40
Speaker 8: Warren Jeffs is.
43:46
Speaker 2: I mean, his family, you know, it's... wives and his
43:49
Speaker 2: kids and his brothers, they all still suck up to
43:52
Speaker 2: him and they go in to see him regularly and
43:54
Speaker 2: he doesn't seem to have any problem getting messages out
43:57
Speaker 2: to his community. I think he's still running the shots
43:59
Speaker 2: for the most part.
44:00
Speaker 13: Warren Jeff is the prophet of God.
44:04
Speaker 12: He was in the beginning from the time he was
44:07
Speaker 12: ordained to that office.
44:08
Speaker 4: And he is now.
44:10
Speaker 1: Recorded sermons and written edicts keep reaching the community. These
44:14
Speaker 1: include his arranging marriages, that his followers obey like they
44:18
Speaker 1: always did.
44:20
Speaker 9: This is our religion.
44:22
Speaker 4: We love our religion.
44:24
Speaker 3: It is the people who follow him that have enabled
44:27
Speaker 3: him to become who he is.
44:30
Speaker 9: The parents need to be.
44:32
Speaker 3: Held accountable for the crimes that have been committed against
44:36
Speaker 3: their children because they are the first line of defense
44:39
Speaker 3: that a child has.
44:41
Speaker 9: And every one of the mothers up there have failed that,
44:45
Speaker 9: including my own.
44:47
Speaker 1: Warren Jeffs has left a dark traumatic legacy and the
44:51
Speaker 1: consequences of his evil somehow seem to never end.
44:55
Speaker 8: There are so many people who have suffered under this
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Speaker 8: man's authority for so many years and many suicides, many
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Speaker 8: people that have really suffered, especially the children.
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Speaker 2: The pain is knowing that there's still a lot of
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Speaker 2: suffering in that community and The young women are still
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Speaker 2: being abused and little boys are being exploited as slave
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Speaker 2: labor and then kicked out of their families. You know,
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Speaker 2: to know that you want to put a stop to
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Speaker 2: these kind of things. And as much as things have changed,
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Speaker 2: I know that a lot of that's still going on.