20/20 - The Doomsday Prophet: Truth and Lies

Episode Date: August 27, 2024

Examining the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints community, and the unconventional, controversial life of its prophet, Warren Jeffs, including the rise of the sect and its practice of polygamy. Aired on 02/15/2024 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, 2020 listeners, it's Deborah Roberts. We're bringing you more true crime stories from our colleagues at ABC News Studios. Truth and Lies, Doomsday Prophet examines the secretive fundamentalist Latter-day Saints community with exclusive never-before-seen interviews with FLDS members filmed inside the community. Take a listen. I was actually born and raised in Salt Lake until I was in about the fifth grade. And then our family moved to here, and I've been here pretty much ever since. And I've loved living here. It's a great place.

We have gorgeous mountains around us that we like to go hike in. I grew up in Salt Lake, and your friends and family, they're spread out all over the place. And you gather for church, but you don't see each other. Where here, you get to deal on a daily basis, a personal basis, with people that believe in the same thing you do. For the Fourth of July, we'd have celebrations. Everybody would gather together, play games. celebrations, everybody would gather together, play games. We had dances, we had social functions.

It was one of those little America towns that I loved growing up in. FLDS means the fundamentalists of Latter-day Saints. It started out as a group of people that wanted to believe a certain way. They believed in plural marriage, which is having more than one wife. My name is Kristen Decker. My father had 13 wives and 23 biological children. I had eight mothers. We had 62 brothers and

sisters. My name is Brielle Decker. I'm one of 14 children and I did have two mothers. My name is Donia Jessup. I come from a family with one dad and two moms, 25 siblings. 25 siblings. Salt Lake City, Utah, and the home of Dr. R.C. Allred, fundamentalist believer in plural marriage. Here the state of Utah has challenged with man-made law what Dr. Allred believes to be divine law, the practice and preachment of polygamy.

The origins of this story are that this group came into the western United States led by Brigham Young, settled for the most part the state of Utah, and the practice of polygamy became fundamental to that territory, to that land. And when it became clear that Utah was crosswise with the federal government. A prophet said, we're done. But a lot of people said, we're still practicing polygamy. And a whole bunch of them went to this little out-of-the-way place called Short Creek in the middle of nowhere. This area is kind of isolated, and of course back then it was a lot more isolated.

They want to go down there and be left alone and continue to practice polygamy. We have been persecuted as a people, but we still feel like that what we believe in is the truth. There's a lot more to life than just on this earth. We believe in a hereafter. We was always taught that a man had to have three wives in order to get into heaven, and seven if he was in a leadership position. We are sure grateful for the little, little one that gets to help us make the whole circle work. We're very different in personality, in character, but there are similarities that come out that we understand as a family.

It's a team. There's a good phrase, many hands make light work. So get as many hands involved as possible if you want to get something done. It's been really fun having the children kind of in groups of two and together. I really think the little children depend and lean on each other. I really wanted to have a boy too, so we could have two boys together, but that didn't work out. I had two children before Barbara was married to Richard, and having her there to carry the other side of the load when I am not quite up and going, especially with the new baby,

I am so grateful. And you know, I want to be there for her. There's so many heartaches of plural marriage and our husband taking another wife. I was married at the age of 18. I was one of nine wives. I believe that polygamy breeds abuse. And it starts with jealousy in the women and it is control and narcissus in the men. I was 17 when I got married. Right off the bat, my husband was looking for other wives. The men know they're going to get other wives, so it's okay for them to look at other girls and flirt with other girls. It was just heartbreaking. Plural marriage always is in the eye of the beholder. For some,

it's nothing but patriarchal male-dominated power. But for the men and women in plural marriage, it becomes a profound daily act of faith. You've got to be doing this because you want to. Do it because you love what we're about. There's a lot of people that don't. They believe, truly, truly believe, that they are following one of the doctrines of God given uniquely unto a small gathering of people. If I want my children in the afterlife, in eternity, I will approve of my husband having other wives. And we have to do this. It's a requirement of God. And yet it's hurtful. There were times that I thought I would just curl up and die and wanted to die. It is a patriarchal order. So they do have a lot of control or authority over the women,

and it always has been that way. It was always the cutest girls and the older man who wanted those girls, and I'll give you my daughter if you give me yours, and the decisions that were claimed to be from God, I don't think that God would have done that. I think the predation on young girls has been a hallmark of this religion as long as they've been practicing it. The bottom line is the role of these young women is basically to be breeding stock for the prophet.

Growing up in plural marriage, I didn't really know anything different. I was a child. I was a very happy, innocent person. It was what I knew. It was the way I lived. And so I thought I had a great childhood. I had a couple moms, and my mother was a wonderful mom. My mother had 14 kids, and my dad had 25 altogether.

They love their children, but they don't have a full comprehension that the environment that they're in is not safe for the kids. And I had many tough days. One of them would very likely be the day I was married. In this culture, in the FLDS, it is a girl's greatest goal and her ultimate accomplishment. But for me, it was very much the opposite. I was living home in Hildale, and we were at a family gathering with lots and lots of people. All the family members and the extended family members and my stepfather just

casually announced to the family that three of his girls were going to get married. Now mind you, he had several, well over 10 girls in a certain age range and so at that point of time I had no inkling that it would be me and then a couple of days later he took me aside and told me that I was going to be one of those girls and I wanted to be married I did because I knew that culture how much it was what I was working towards I just didn't want to be married at 14. In most situations the prophet would decide who they're going to marry. In many cases these girls and men didn't even meet their partners until the day of the wedding.

the day of the wedding. We was taught here that you're married first and then you fall in love. I met my wife on Sunday and married her on Monday. You know, I had no idea who she was. She didn't know who I was. She told me later, she says, yeah, I just wanted to swing in and see,

and if it was your little brother, I was just going to keep on driving. But she says, then it was you. And I thought, well, I just wanted to swing in and see. And if it was your little brother, I was just going to keep on driving. But she says, then it was you. And I thought, well, I can do this. So we ended up getting married the next day. She didn't tell me that for years later. My father picked me up from work. And then we were driving out of the parking lot.

And my father turns to me. He says, you're going to get married. And I turned to him. And I'm like, who am I marrying? What's his name father you know he's like oh you want to know the name and as soon as he told me his name I was like okay he's not ugly was my first thought he's not ugly it was a honeymoon phase for about a month and then after that it was it was really, really hard. My Aunt Dorothy, she was devastated when she was 18 and had to marry an 80-year-old man.

And this was common over the years for them to be assigned randomly and just like that, real quick. It was a very patriarchal society. And you were just obedient. We were taught how to be obedient. The FLDS was founded by men who were very self-centered, self-serving. There's a picture of the prophet, Rulon Jeffs, with his wives and I don't know how many there were but it would fill half a basketball court. My name is Rachel Blackmore.

My father is Warren Jeffs, and his father was Rulon Jeffs. I was three years old when my grandfather Rulon took over the church. I feel honored in being able to carry on the foundation laid by that great and glorious prophet, Leroy is. We felt special that Grandfather Rulon was the prophet. Well, shoot, it's a small town. We was hearing stories. I mean, Rulon was married to a lot of young girls.

Young girls. These are vibrant girls. So as a grandchild that was very odd to me to see my grandfather have two and ten and twenty and all these younger ladies. Something just felt like this is off. Rulon Jeffs had his first major stroke in September of 1998. That was compounded by more mini strokes. And during this process, his son Warren Jeffs started to take over.

Rulon treated Warren a lot different than he did the other children. Warren was born premature, and they fed him with an eyedropper to keep him alive. They talk about how he was born in a shoebox, and they liken that to the manger of Christ. This is a picture of our family in 1990. Warren, his first two wives, Annette and Barbara, and that's me. I was embarrassed he was my dad.

I just always felt like he was weirder than most guys. And he was. He wore weird clothes. He looked ugly. Even though I didn't even realize how oppressive he was, he was very oppressive. Warren had been calling the shots for a long time already. Roulon in his final years was really a decrepit man who was in decline. The way he took control was just one teaspoon at a time of manipulation until the entire people were very used to taking his directive. Warren puts Rulon in isolation, where nobody could really go see him or talk to him.

Warren Jeffs was manipulating Rulon Jeffs. I was at meetings where Rulon Jeffs would be speaking and he actually would turn to Warren and say, did I say everything you wanted me to say? Did I get it all? And I think Warren took advantage of his helpless situation. I think Warren, as he slowly gained power, is the one that implemented the strict rules. He didn't let us have TV. He took all the books away. And our world was a lot more restricted. Grandfather Rulon knew Warren was doing these things, and he let him do it.

When Rulon finally died at 92, there is a massive gathering. It was the largest gathering of the faithful ever in the history of Shore Creek. Six thousand people. How big a loss is it to this community, sir? It's a loss, but it will be continued on. The watchword is to carry on. And Warren became the prophet. it is to carry on. And Warren became the prophet. Things were starting to go downhill.

Things were starting to get dark. Things did not match with the teachings that I had been taught my whole entire life. I didn't particularly care for him. I couldn't put my finger on it. The hair on the back of my neck would just stand up, and I don't know why. It's just stuff you just can't put your finger on. But you know something's not right. Turns out

that there were some things going on that were not right. I want all of you to learn the heavenly gentle touch. Your every desire and prayer is that I will be strengthened. And that is how you are strengthened. And the key word is humility, the humility of service. Pray for me and you'll be ready for me. I was prey. being pulled underwater, and how a hiker in Alaska survives a 1,000-pound moose attack after the animal crushes her limbs. I Was Prey features audio from hit shows like This Came Out of Me, Nature's Deadliest, and Still Alive, and Monsters Inside Me. Listen to I Was Prey wherever you get your podcasts. Still has epigastric abdominal pain consistent with previous findings. My name is Mary Mahone.

I'm a certified family nurse practitioner. I worked at Dixie Regional Medical Center for around 16 years doing the med surg for the intensive care unit, Life Flight, and the doctor surgical center. I then went back and got my master's degree through Westminster College. I came back here and have been here doing primary care for the past 11 years and I love it. It's very enjoyable. This is our first patient. Levi, he's here to have his ears looked at today. Last time we saw Levi, he had an ear infection that wasn't going away,

and we put him on Omnistab in the hopes to try and get that to clear up. Can I listen to him first? He hasn't had a cough or anything. No? Okay, good. Hi. Good to meet you. The perspective that people have is how could you possibly be intelligent at all if you believe in this religion? Why would anybody want it is their perspective.

They can't understand us because they judge us from their eyes. Why would someone want to live like that? We're just normal people. And we're not a big scary cult, so to speak, that the world likes to paint us as. We do love our children. We have five children, four boys, and this is our first little girl. I hope that she will be a good mother. I'm sure that she will want to be a mother. Most little girls like dollies and they like to cuddle babies. I hope that she is a good singer. I love music

very much. I prefer Warren Jeff songs. They're very sweet and lovely. sweet lovely so little ones come we will worship together offer thanksgiving in prayer and with song love warms and cheers us in winter's cold weather and mid the summer's heat, faith makes us strong. After his father died, Warren Jess became the prophet. And the FLDS people consider him next to God. They believe that Warren Jeffs can do no wrong. It would be impossible for him to make a mistake. He's our spiritual leader and the spiritual contact with the Prophet is what gives you that degree of fulfillment and happiness and joy

inside. The women believe and trust in the prophet so much. They honestly believe, and I did, and so did my mother, that God sent down inspiration from heaven, like a strike of lightning, down to the prophet, and he knew what was the very best thing. When Warren took over, it went from an organized church that believed in a basic set of principles, it went from that to just believing in a man.

Warren would like to say it was a benevolent dictatorship. And after his father died, Warren started marrying the wives that were married to his father. It really troubled a lot of them to see Warren marrying his father's wives because that was, you know, that was completely inappropriate. Warren Jeffs was interested in a form of control that had not been before seen in the FLDS. been before seen in the FLDS and so many arbitrary rules and regulations were imposed in order to achieve that level of unprecedented controls. No holidays, no birthday parties, no board games, no video games, no music, no novels, no movies. At home, then you couldn't have any toys. You couldn't have any toys.

You couldn't ride bikes either. Some of us, two of us kept our dolls hidden in the closets. I always felt like you could do the very best you could in that religion, and it was never good enough. They always wanted more. Part of the logic there is that when you have so many rules to keep track of, your brain space, your capacity to push back or to question or to think about other things becomes limited. They started putting cameras up around town all over.

They would zero in on certain people that they suspected might not totally agree with what was being said, and they'd watch them. And in about 2004, he actually came in and all in one fell swoop, he asked 21 men to leave. I was one of those 20 that time. He picked four of his big brothers. I was kicked out right after my father died. After my father died, I was considered, well, I'll put it very bluntly, Warren wanted one of my wives. They were like, you leave, you leave, you leave, you leave. And Warren was my grandfather. We didn't know why.

We weren't allowed to ask why. They're like, oh, he must be a bad person. He must have did something. He'd be sitting on the edge of the bed just kind of rocking back and forth and he's like, I don't know what I did. You know, why? He kept asking why. Like, I don't know what I did. He told us all that we're supposed to go and write up some letter of repentance and give it to him and list every sin we'd ever done in our entire lives. We were told that our wives had all been released from us. They says, if your family's with you at this time, you're not to say goodbye.

And their wives were given to other men and their children were given to them as well. Just like that, there was probably a thousand children that lost their dads that day. They'd moved my mom and they've moved her three times now. So my dad's been having a hard time getting them back. Yeah, this house right here is where I grew up, this tiny house on the left.

I'm going to go and try to find my mom. I'm not even sure if she's here but I'll try it out Is anybody here? Hello? Wow They must have just cleaned out the rooms. None of my sister's clothes are here. So my sisters have already been moved somewhere.

This house is unoccupied. As of right now. I have no idea where to even look for them. Oh, this is a note from Melina. It says, Dear Father, I just snuck in the back door to get my sunglasses I left. It sure looks lonely in here. We are praying for you. And you know, Uncle Warren loves you even more than we do. We miss you and hope to see you again on the right side.

It's about to make me cry. It's so lonely in here. But Heavenly Father loves us all the most. Anyway, better get going. Love you lots and lots. Love, Melina. Anyway, better get going. Love you lots and lots. Love, Moena. And they believe that anyone that's not for Warren Jeffs is against Warren Jeffs. And they believe it's a sin to talk to ex-members and outsiders because they believe that we're corrupt. And now he realized he could just tear people apart, play with their lives, have any woman he wanted, take all his father's wives. You know, he went nuts.

I desire here today. It was just really crazy. It just got worse and worse. And he would literally come up with the most bizarre, wicked things and then say that you were doing them. People are like, how could you believe that? How could you do that? How could I do what? Live my religion?

So it's one of these situations where the leaders increasingly become more fanatical. The people follow that fanaticism, and they go off the cliff with them. Initially, the walls around Colorado City were constructed to keep the outside world out to protect the true believers in the community and keep them safe within their faith, away from prosecution. Now they're viewed as walls of retention, keeping people on the proper path to make sure they don't leave the faith, they don't walk at variance with the faith's tenets and beliefs. This is not an open dialogue-based society.

This is a very closed order with a strict set of operating orders. You look at the way they dress, you look at the way they interact in a social setting. It is very finely defined down to daily activity. setting it is very finely defined down to daily activity the reason most people think we look alike is because first of all we're in dresses and they're modest well give you an idea this was big last year they like to have the pleats they're playing works good and it's easy to sew. This was three years ago. They really liked this. Everybody was into collars.

That was the big thing, plain dress, beautiful collar put on it. Everybody had an embroidery machine. This year, everybody's selling their embroidery machines. And as the styles and the patterns and the fabrics change, then we change. After Rulin passed away, Warren really started attacking the way we dress. God wants the women to remove ties from their dresses or buttons from their dresses. We can't have prints anymore. It should be all solid colors. And then it was all one color. I mean, before they weren't near as strict when I was way younger. I mean

we wore prints all the time. And I remember seeing it going to the harvest fest and seeing like really frilly dresses and things like that. Zion is the pure in heart and as Uncle Zion is the pure in heart, and as Uncle Rulon says, Zion is growing. We keep it below our knees, we keep it to our wrists, and we keep it up to our neck. Of course they're not allowed to wear red. So when they said no red, people threw away so much fabric and stuff. No, you're not going to see a solid red dress. I think it represents Christ. I thought it was silly, but we were just told we couldn't wear red.

Then it was our hair. He wanted the front of their hair, which we called the wave, he wanted it higher. And then some were going so high, it was like, hey, man, you need a building permit for that wave. The braids were okay it was you know French braids all the way at that point but no you get used to it it's like it's a habit it's like putting on a shirt every day you just put it on so coming out here it was really weird wearing these pants because I've always been taught, you keep your legs covered. You know, no one should see in between your legs because that was immodesty. What the girls were told is that you just obey your husband and you do your job and

you have as many children as you can and do the best you can and keep husband and you do your job and you have as many children as you can and do the best you can and keep sweet and you will fall in love. The chorus class will sing one last song, Keep Sweet. Model girls for you, keep sweet, keep sweet. It's a model tried and true, keep sweet, keep sweet, it's a model tried and true. Keep sweet, keep sweet. Keep sweet meant you could have no emotions except for sweetness. That was the only emotion allowed.

If you had any other emotion, you could actually be punished for it. You just need to keep sweet. You just need to be obedient. That's what you need to be working on. Not worrying about your mind. As a kid, I really didn't understand what that meant. I was kind of scared of it, to be honest. Like, if I'm not sweet, then what? Like, what's going to happen if I'm not?

Sweet is a word that we all know. It means dulcet or kind. But sweet meant something else in FLDS terminology. It meant obedient. And so keep sweet was used at every turn to keep women, primarily Warren Jeff's many wives, in check so that they wouldn't question and so that he could remain in power. in the community, probably bearing and raising children to procreate like God said in the Bible, procreate and replenish the earth. In this culture, in the FLDS, it is a girl's greatest goal and her ultimate accomplishment. But for me it was very much the opposite. Once I found out that

I was going to marry Alan, something in me just rose up and I really resisted. My mother and his father are related, they're brothers and sisters, and so he's my first cousin. And he was my husband that they had arranged for me to marry. I remember thinking that's weird that she had to marry her cousin. But it comes down to that same thing. Don't question the prophet. He, in my mind, was a bully. And so in my mind, he was one of the worst people on the earth.

I was trapped. I felt like I had nowhere to turn. And I so bad did not want to go through with this marriage. And I was crying out for help. And my mother, she couldn't stand up and say, no, you're not going to do this. You'd have to understand the culture completely to realize how powerless she really was. how powerless she really was and how because of her beliefs she had forfeited some of the tools she needed to protect me and I was just so broken and I felt so betrayed

I remember we drove up and I very much remember that office sign. And then the actual ceremony happened in that little building. I remember the gravel, the crunch of the gravel, walking into that building and stopping at the doorway. Thinking, if there was somewhere to run, I would. I was coming to the point of no return. Elisa Wall was, I mean she was a little younger than me but she got married underage while Grandfather was alive. So it was Grandfather Rulon, Uncle Fred who was supposedly her stepdad and Warren were all there and organized that marriage.

All I knew was that she got married underage and she wasn't happy. Came to the point where they wanted me to take my vows, say I do, and I was quiet. I could not bring myself to say it. That should have been enough for them to see how much I really did not want this. I finally, after a lot of silence, just said, okay, I do. By then, tears were just falling from my face, and I just bowed my head. I was ashamed.

I was ashamed and hurt, and Warren just looked right at me and just told me to kiss Alan. And finally, I just turned turned up and I kissed Alan. In my mind, I now belong to Alan. I was his wife. I was to take his direction. I was his wife and property for the rest of my life. And that's been the thing that's gotten these guys into trouble chronically over the years, that they just can't lay off the little girls. When you really care about someone, you shout it from the mountaintops. So on behalf of Desjardins Insurance, I'm standing 20,000 feet above sea level to tell our clients that we really care about you

home and auto insurance personalized to your needs weird i don't remember saying that part visit dejaden.com care and get insurance that's really big on care did i mention that we care? As this little isolated, dusty town grew, it morphed into an actual municipality that is completely controlled by a cult. They got power companies and water companies and a police force, elected city officials, and all of them were basically put in office by Warren Jeffs. And that's the way the town ran for many, many, many years.

Quit it, my hell! Get out of here! You back off! Back off! I was just trying to find out some answers about the town, just in terms of whether or not Warren Jeffs is still creating the rules within all of the government buildings here. Once again, a locked door. It's becoming a theme here. The police chief is out of town,

the mayor is out of the office, and the fire chief is not there either, and we're not allowed to enter any of the buildings. FLDS communities are very very much controlled when it comes to the information that flows into and out of families. They hold the motto up in their school classrooms perfect faith is perfect obedience. Neither boys nor girls were really getting educated and so they became dependent. The girls because they got pregnant and the boys because they were working on work crews. I did construction from about six years old till I was 18 when I left. Eight year olds, you know, six year olds, seven, just packing bricks all day long. The girls were at risk for being placed in a marriage. Ruth, how old were you

when you got married? 16. 16 years old. How old were you when you became pregnant with your first child? 16. Ruth Stubbs is probably one of the most historically significant figures in this entire drama. Ruth had been given as a 16-year-old to a 32-year-old police officer by Warren Jeffs. When she's 16, he's 32, as this man's third bride. Is Ruth's husband, Mr. Holm, is he guilty of some sort of statutory sex crime against your client? Absolutely. Sexual conduct with a minor. My understanding is that you are a sworn police officer in both the state of Utah and the state of Arizona, and that you have teenage brides and perhaps impregnated this young woman when it would be a statutory rape.

We don't have anything to say except to the court. They brought Rod home to trial on basically raping this young girl, and they found him guilty. I think women should have the right to say yes or no, or, you know. I think they should have a right to say what's going on with their lives and what's going to go on with their children's lives. Did you have any say like that in your life? No.

Warren, I think, realized at that point that if they can come after a certified police officer for polygamy, it's only a matter of time before they come after me. And I think this was one of the few times that Warren Jeffs was actually prophetic. He was shopping for places where he could hide his wives. And that's when they went down to Texas, this little town called El Dorado. El Dorado is a small town in West Texas. I think the population is about 1400 people. It's the kind of community where you see your friends on Friday night, you know everybody from church, you see them at the coffee shop. In 2003, we had a local businessman who was convicted of defrauding the bank.

We had a bus wreck. We had a murder trial. And on New Year's Eve of 2003, I told Kathy, we'll never have another year like 2003. And then on March the 15th of 2004, we found out about the FLDS. It was like an alien landed right outside of town. And they told all the local folks that they were going to have a corporate hunting retreat.

It did not look like a hunting retreat. It looked like three very large log cabin type buildings going up with lots of other equipment around. And it was pretty obvious that something was going on. From the information we had, it was kind of a religious oriented group. And we had heard rumors of polygamy, but we had not seen was kind of a religious-oriented group, and we had heard rumors of polygamy, but we had not seen any evidence of that. And so they were on our radar, but we weren't all that concerned. We started hearing about the yearning for Zion Ranch back in about early 03, I would say.

back in about early 03, I would say. And it wasn't until about 2005 or 2006 that they started realizing that, yeah, there was a temple being built down there. They poured millions of dollars into that, building the temple, building the grounds, building the houses around the temple. The money for that temple and stuff, that all came from here. In fact, they were charging businesses here $2,000 a month per business and $1,000 a month for every adult man and then women could contribute what they could that money all all headed down to Texas they were building a town their intentions were to

bring in enough people that they could effectively take over the government of the county, which would mean they could take over the government of the school district and the hospital district and others. When Warren was gone to Texas, we didn't know he was in Texas. We knew that Zion was being built, that when you were worthy, you would go to Zion. People were slowly disappearing at that time. We knew then they were going to a gathering place for those that had qualified for greater blessings. But then I talked to people who got called to go down to Zion and work.

I remember hearing from one person, he says, I wouldn't wish Zion on my worst enemy. Because Warren would say, you are going to work 20 hours a day and pray for the strength to work more. These people were coming back emaciated. Warren Jeffs was mandating that children be taken from the community to the YFZ Ranch in Texas. And it was supposed to be an honor to have them called forth, but all it was was heartache. When my oldest son, Thomas, was called forth to Zion, I really thought I was going to die inside.

He didn't want the parents raising the kids. He wanted control over them. It became where he was actually sending parents away like, you are wicked, you will never come back. In the FLDS community, there's no question the children belong to the prophet. They don't belong to their mothers and fathers. I'm not totally sure why Warren built that Texas compound other than things were getting really hot for him here in Arizona and in Utah.

But that turned out to be the biggest mistake of his life. The nationwide manhunt for a polygamist who became one of the FBI's 10 most wanted has ended. Police arrested Warren Steed Jeffs. Texas blew a hole in him because those Bible Belt folks down there thought the devil had arrived. It's a close-knit community and you feel comfortable going for a walk down the street

and nobody's going to be making fun of you or yelling obscene things out the window at you. The isolation is such an important element in groups like the FLDS because you need to create a sense of solidarity within the group. We are blessed. We are Heavenly Father's children. We need to create a sense of solidarity within the group. We are blessed. We are Heavenly Father's children. We are unique from everyone on the outside. We can, there's our families in an environment that's a little more protected from, say,

the world influences that we don't want our children exposed to. Outsiders were ideologically a threat, and so you need to separate yourself physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually from those outsiders. You see the gangs on the streets, and you hear the reports of the news, and it just makes you really glad to come home. The FLDS has become increasingly isolated, increasingly, if you will, inbred, to the point where they're having less and less interaction. Out there, they say, why would you want to dress modestly? Why would you want your husband to have more than one wife?

dress modestly. Why would you want your husband to have more than one wife? They think we're brainwashed and that we're not capable of deciding that this is what we want. And we know it's a matter of time before they're planning to come do something to us. There's been indications already that have showed us that that's what's going to happen. In 1953, that have showed us that that's what's going to happen. In 1953, the US government raided the town of Short Creek,

which is the city that borders Utah and Arizona, where the FLDS members resided. They came in to really enforce the laws against polygamy. And so they came in with buses and removed the women and children and arrested the men. And the FLDS children have been taught from a very young age, do not trust law enforcement. They have to accept persecution and prosecution as inevitable elements of their lives.

They know society will come after them because society has come after the true believers of plural marriage for more than 100 years. In about 2003, Utah started looking into some cases of polygamy and underage sexual abuse. We knew that we needed to find somebody who could possibly be willing to talk to law enforcement. And that person that we identified as a potential witness was Elisa Wall. My half-sister Elisa was married at the age of 14. I had no idea that she was married off to her cousin, full-fledged cousin.

When I was married, I truly did not know that people did more than sleep in bed. I truly did not know that people did more than sleep in bed. So for him to touch me, even in just the private areas, very, very hard for me to accept and deal with. And because I was his property and I was his, he was able to do what he did to me. And no one was there to stop it and I couldn't stop it and it's taken years to get to at the point where I am today where I can talk about it and

I finally understand the weight of what happened and the true meaning of rape criminal charges were brought against Warren Jeffs for his involvement in putting girls into underage marriages with other men. And he was placed on the FBI 10 Most Wanted list. And they were looking for him. The FLDS were hiding him, and the FLDS police officers were facilitating all of that. And Warren Jeffs went on a massive road trip. He was living high on the hog as a fugitive running around in an Escalade.

His young, cute, selected wife, Naomi, and all kinds of things that would sustain him on the run for a really long time. People were sending him as much money as they possibly could and he was just off galley-vanting around the country having a good time. And then we were all told tighten up your belts, pay your bills, buy your food, and turn everything else into the priesthood. I got a picture of him on a couple of motorcycles, expensive motorcycles. I mean you're talking a thirty thousand or forty thousand dollar bike. We had a little jar in our house with a picture of Warren Jeffs and it said pennies for the Prophet. They found a penny, a dime, a

nickel. Yay you can give it to Uncle Warren! They'd put it in a little jar and feel so proud. He was traveling to cities all over the United States. He was going to Disneyland and he had living high in Vegas. I think he was going to strip clubs. We thought he was in the YFC ranch being holy in the temple. We had no idea that he was doing everything that he told us not to do. Warren was caught just outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. There was a reward out for him. I believe they were offering about $100,000. The nationwide manhunt for a polygamist who became one of the FBI's 10 most wanted has ended. Nevada police arrested Warren Steed Jeffs.

He was arrested after the red Escalade that he was riding in was pulled over as a traffic stop. Warren gets pulled over and the trooper walks up to the car and sees a vein on this guy's neck pulsating like that and he realized these guys are scared. He had, oh, I don't know how many thousands and thousands of dollars, and it was a lot of money. He had all kinds of phones, keys to Porsches.

He had tickets to Disney World in his pocket still. And FLDS people would see that, and they'd go, well, that's just made up. It's just fake. It's not real. But it was real. He was living two different lives. I remember the day Warren Jeffs was arrested like some people talk about knowing exactly where they were when John F. Kennedy was shot.

I'd like to announce the rest of FBI top 10 most wanted fugitive, Warren Steve Jeffs. He's been arrested on federal charges. These charges include two counts of rape as an accomplice. We were told that wasn't possible. How can it be? Are you absolutely positive that it was him? And he's like, yes, they arrested him. I can tell you that Mr. Jeffs did indicate to the interviewing agents that he was being subject to what he termed religious prosecution. And the entire town went into mourning. When my husband called and said the prophet was arrested, all I could, just what came in my mind was he has to pay for what he did.

I remember getting a telephone call about 2 o'clock in the morning and thinking, Elisa Wall's life just changed. She was going to testify against her prophet. I was forced to face him. I was forced to get on the stand, face him, and say, you did this. Looking back at it, it's almost like watching someone else's life. I was no longer just an innocent little girl who just did everything out of fear.

I had a voice, and it was starting to become heard. Let's wait until we can have a preliminary hearing. Let's wait until we can have a trial. They needed a case that directly implicated Warren. And they found this young woman who had been placed in a marriage with an older cousin when she was 14. And this seemed like a really good case. The purpose of the preliminary hearing is to make a determination whether a crime was committed

and if Mr. Jeffs committed it. I did not know what he had been arrested for at all. We were instructed to stay off the Internet, stay off the TVs. Let's wait until we can have a trial on this matter before people jump to the conclusion that Mr. Jeffs is guilty of anything. Elisa Wall is the bravest girl I know. in this matter before people jump to the conclusion that Mr. Jeffs is guilty of anything.

Elisa Wall is the bravest girl I know. She never wavered in a courtroom and was able to testify and look Warren Jeffs in the eye when nobody else could. That was when I was able to start to throw the shackles that he had on me mentally. We do anticipate that the victim in this case, who's been identified as Jane Doe number four, will be present at that time and will testify. We're going to confront the witnesses against this, and there will be spirited cross-examination. I was, in their minds, testifying against their prophet. Who performed the ceremony? Warren Jeffs did. Why did you feel betrayed by Warren Jeffs? testifying against their prophet. Who performed the ceremony?

Warren Jeffs did. Why did you feel betrayed by Warren Jeffs? Because he completely overlooked the fact that this was something I did not want to do. Did you know at that point how babies were created, anatomically? No, I did not. And that was just the beginning of a very hard experience for me. What did Mr. Steed say to you? This was what he was supposed to do to me. This is what married people did.

It was so overwhelming and very, very hard for me to understand. And I asked him to stop. Then I was crying and I was like, please, I don't know what you're doing. It doesn't feel right. Please stop. Please quit. Just begging him to stop

or at least explain to me what he was doing. I reached a point where I couldn't take it anymore. I was a child trying to deal with adult experiences. And I just wanted to scream out to the world how unfair it was. And Warren would tell me that under no circumstances do you ever, ever, ever tell your husband no. And don't you ever resist him. I was forced to face him. I was forced to get on the stand, face him and say, you did this.

He stared at me quite a bit. I stared right back at him. I looked him right in the eye and I would not break. Ultimately, finally, it was him that shook his head and just looked down. Justice would come later, but for me, that was liberating and so empowering to be able to look him in the eye. Has this jury reached a verdict? Would you hand that to the bailiff, please, sir? Mr. Jeffs, would you please stand as the verdict is read? Just a few hours ago in Utah, a jury found Warren Jeffs,

the leader of a renegade Mormon cult, guilty of being an accomplice to rape. Well, the truth broke him. That's what broke him. And I did everything I could. I, the truth broke him. That's what broke him. And I did everything I could. I told the truth. Well, without her testimony, Warren Jeffs would never have been convicted. He would have been released from prison. I'm just a number of many that went through that. And I know that, I know that there are many out there who've spent nights crying themselves to sleep. Each generation, a handful of brave women step forward and say, hell no. And they have been the instruments of change.

This video just into the newsroom of Warren Steed Jeffs on his way back to the purgatory correctional facility in Hurricane, Utah, where he has been incarcerated for more than a year. in Hurricane Utah, where he has been incarcerated for more than a year. This predation on young girls has really spiraled under the leadership of Warren Jeffs. Alyssa Wall, Jane Doe number four, now speaking to the media. We're going to go to that camera now. I hope that all FLDS girls and women will understand that no matter what anyone may say, you are created equal. You do not have to surrender your rights or your spiritual sovereignty.

I know how hard it is, but please stand up and fight. Fight for your voice and power of choice. I will continue to fight for you. We prayed. We fasted. We worked harder, we did everything that we were told down to the minute detail. Because we knew the only reason he was in prison is because we hadn't kept Sweet. And we knew that he would come out of prison if we would keep Sweet. We miss our prophet.

We're in Jeff's. We know he's innocent. And we know he'll be delivered in Heavenly Father's way. And we miss him dearly. We'd always been taught that law enforcement was out to get us, that the government was out to get us. So it was like, these prophecies are true. They're coming to get us. The Utah Supreme Court reversed his conviction in Utah

based on a faulty jury instruction. Texas raided the YFC ranch. So there were a lot of disturbing pictures of him kissing underage bride after underage bride. More details emerging about what happened inside the compound and what's happening now to the more than 400 children. Warren Jeffs was arrested in August of 2006, and while he was being held for that, Texas raided the YFC Ranch. The YFC Ranch stands for yearning for Zion.

It was to help us become that Zion on earth, and Zion means heaven. Early April of 2008, a call came in to a local battered women's shelter, and it was from what sounded like a young girl who was in distress. Sarah Barlow, claimed to be age 16, mother of a child already and pregnant with another. That is the domino that fell that ended up with the raid at the YMCA ranch. Once the search warrant was gathered, we began preparations on how do we execute such a large

scale operation because Texas has a history with Waco and then Ruby Ridge had happened. history with Waco and then Ruby Ridge had happened. We knew children were going to be at the ranch and we knew there was a large population there. The concern was that they were either going to attack outwards or that they were going to hurt themselves. April, so spring was coming on, so we could see the temple, you know, from a distance. And even from then, it had become an ominous presence, like, here I am. You knew that going in, it wouldn't be like any other search warrant that you'd ever served. They rolled the armored personnel carrier up and said, you can either deal with us or you can deal with this. When the law enforcement made entry to the ranch,

their initial goal was to find Sarah Barlow. We went up and made contact at the front gate. It was something out of Little little house on the prairie. We received word that there were police officers at the gate wanting to come in. We had no idea what they wanted, what they were after, what they were doing. When they came to our home to take the children, they literally brought an army with them. Our home was totally surrounded. My sister, she had a nursing baby, and they literally ripped that child off of her breast.

I mean, they took that baby away from her. Well, we demand a lawyer. How can you just come in and take us out? We have a search warrant. Can we see that? Sarah Barlow was never located. Turned out later that it was a hoax call. But as they were looking for her, they saw the underage girls who were pregnant.

They saw scrapbooks and letters supporting the fact that these girls were being married off at a very young age and were having babies. The adults at the ranch were trying to shield or hide those girls from the authorities. And at that point, the judge said to get them off the ranch and we will sort it out. They are in imminent risk of harm, imminent risk of being abused, and it would not be safe for those children to remain in the compound for another day. Texas Rangers and all those heavily armed cops roll in.

You've got the mothers crying outside. And the optics of that were terrible. Why can't I leave my mother? The world didn't know that Warren had already stolen those kids from their mothers and reassigned women to other men to marry. State authorities now have custody of the children found at the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-day Saints compound, but the legal battles are just beginning. Right after the raid and the kids were separated, there was a day when they invited every media in America.

They were brought in for the show, and they put on a show. And a lot of the media just lapped it up. We were happy and peaceful here, and all of a sudden, attacked. Our children's purity is sacred to us. Our children are all we have left. This huge PR move was put on to try to embarrass Texas, and it worked.

It did work. They selected several members of the sect to go on national television, Larry King. So you have never, to your knowledge, seen a younger girl marry an older person? Not that I'm aware of. To look the camera in the eye and say they had never witnessed any underage marriages was infuriating because one of them was the midwife to one of the underage marriages that we knew about. In Texas, lawyers representing that polygamous religious sect went to court today arguing that officials did not have enough evidence to raid a rural compound and remove 416 children and

their mothers. We have now interviewed all of the children involved. And the information that they have given us tells us that we have more victims. It was a hot potato. They didn't want to hold it. And so the kids were sent back. In one fell swoop, we lost access to almost every single one of our victims or potential victims. To his everlasting credit, Attorney General Abbott, now Governor Abbott, did not fold his tent. He carried on with the criminal prosecution.

I've always thought that Warren's worst career move was moving to Texas. By that time, Texas had developed evidence of him raping 12 and 15-year-olds. For many years, I mean even still sometimes, but I have had nightmares about Warren sexually abusing me. Your every desire and prayer is that I will be strengthened, and that is how you are strengthened. Also, I've been shown that all of you need to become more fervent. I need to know the heavenly fire is being reached for and increasing within you. When Warren became prophet, he had this dirty little secret, but nobody knew.

How do I say this? Warren wants to control the children because he's a pedophile. He has a very sick, disgusting, immoral desire toward kids. And it's all about sex. It has nothing to do with God or religion. We welcome you to the high school chorus program, Alto Academy.

When he ran Alto Academy, you know, that was up in Salt Lake back in the 80s and 90s. That's when he got a sense of the power, you know, that he ran the school. That takes some getting over. My father put him as the principal and president of the private school. That's when he started taking interest in young girls. He would be attracted to the lambs, be attracted to the meek, the quiet ones,

the ones that could easily be persuaded. He would call the students to his private office and that is where he would molest them. Obviously this is a pattern. He was sexually abusing young girls for a very long time. The first time he sexually abused me was in his office in the Alta Academy School. And particularly as far as my memory serves me, it started for me when I was eight years old. When he first started, I was ashamed. So I felt like I didn't want anyone to know.

So you want to keep that secret because in the first place, you're terrified that your dad would do that like it's a shame on you too right when your parent does something like that it's it feels shameful on you too and then it kept happening and so then I just would try to avoid him and try to not be alone with him and then I would just cry because I just like I really didn't I really hated him for it. Warren has shown signs that he is a sexual predator from early in his life. That's not the kind of guy that should be wielding that kind of power. They started marrying girls younger and younger, 17, 16,

started hearing about 15- and 14-year-olds. It's like, whoa, you know, this is really getting radical. When Warren became prophet, he started what he called the new law of Sarah, which was all about group sex. Everything he did, he made it seem like it was the holy way, the law of Sarah. This is the Lord's way. He would have the women touching each other to get them excited and ready for him. He would have them hold the young girl's hands and tell her, this is what God wants.

When you're called by the prophet and told your daughter needs to come to Texas and you can kind of figure out that it's gonna be a marriage to the prophet, that helps you, you know, have a punched ticket to heaven. And then the father would ascend in the leadership of the sect after that, or the father would be rewarded with a young bride of his own. And what the world perceived as child rape was often considered a great honor within the FLDS.

I wasn't attracted to Warren Jeffs at all. That was a problem for him, because I was one of his wives. At the age of 18, I became the 65th wife of Warren Jeffs. I was in the kitchen and I was doing dishes. The sister wife came in and said Warren wants you to come to his room. So I went into the room. He put five people in front. So he told us at first to stare at him and to not look away. And then we could hear the door opening and closing, but we couldn't look back there.

And then he said, if you believe, then I want you to show me and take off your clothes. I remember thinking there's a guard tower, there's a gate around, like, what am I going to do? I think I was the last one to start to take off my clothes out of the five, but I didn't feel like I had a choice and then after we did that he said okay now I want you to turn around and when I turned around

is when I saw the entire room filled with women in the same situation he was staring at somebody and I remember looking over there and it was an underage bride and I remember feeling just disgusted. So he actually fathered a child with that same 12-year-old that I saw in the room. New details of one of the vestiges found inside that polygamist compound in West Texas. Court documents now showing special beds were found on the third floor of the temple behind locked doors. The first time that I saw the temple, it was almost surreal.

The walls were thick and the doors were 13 foot tall. I remember walking in on the third floor, it was all white. And the curtains were white and the furniture was white and the carpet was white and the all white. And the curtains were white, and the furniture was white, and the carpet was white, and the tables were white, and the chairs were white. We had had information that there would be a bed up there, and it seemed an odd fit. Why would a bed be up here?

And ultimately, they found a hidden door that led to a vault door, which was like a bank vault. And it contained all the priesthood records. He dictated morning, noon, and night his every thought. In Warren's priesthood records he directed the construction of the bed and also directed that there be plastic placed on the mattress for what he considered what would occur on the bed. We strongly believe that this is the bed where the 12-year-old was sexually assaulted with, you know, some of her sister wives or Warren's other wives standing around the bed. The 12-year-old was tied down and raped by Warren in front of other women, his wives. I was horrified, but at the same time, I guess I'd lived it.

You know, I knew, I already knew, I already knew all that. It wasn't new to me because I had lived through that with him. I've been prosecuting cases for a long time, and rarely do we know what's in the mind of the defendant. Here, through the priesthood records, we had that. In January of 2004, Warren put in his priesthood records, there's a girl the Lord wants me to take. She's 13. If the world knew what I was doing,

they would hang me from the highest tree." That quote was one that we used at trial because it showed a very clear consciousness of guilt. They found the audiotapes of Warren ceremonially raping a little girl. You have to know how to be decided sexually, and you have to be prepared to be trained to do this. Polygamist and self-proclaimed prophet Warren Jeffs quietly walked into this Texas courthouse Thursday and in a bold move told the judge he was firing all seven of his defense attorneys and that he'd represent himself. In the latest testimony from Warren Jeffs' trial on sexual assault, the prosecution revealed DNA evidence allegedly showing Jeff's fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl. Texas tried him for having sex with two minors, a 15-year-old and a 12-year-old. So Warren told everyone, no one can hear the trials. No one can be at the trials.

No one can hear the evidence against me. That's because there was all the proof of him touching these underage girls. Warren himself married 24 underage girls, and he presided over the marriages of at least 67 underage girls to older men. He was establishing an entire pattern of sexual assault of young girls within a whole community. They find these records of everything that Warren has ever, all the marriages that have ever been performed, they're great record keepers. And they find the audio tapes of Warren ceremonially raping a little girl. And that was And hearing that in court, I can understand why cops,

soon as they heard that, said, our case is made. I want to know God and His power and feel His presence. Everyone else, like God, I can't go anywhere. We hear him ask her, how does it feel? Says her name. And you hear her in a really teeny tiny child voices, feels good, feels good. And at the end, he says another prayer.

And then you hear her little voice saying thank you. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. But the FLDS people, they didn't hear any of that. As soon as they said that they were going to play an actual recording of an actual rape, they all packed up and left. I remember when I was on the stand and we played the audio of Mary Ann's sexual assault. I looked over at the jury panel, and two or three women in the front row were leaning forward and tears were streaming down their face.

And from that moment, I knew, guilty is where you're headed. For Warren Jeffs, Judgment Day. Late today we learned a jury in Texas found polygamist leader Warren Jeffs guilty of child sex assault. His final sentence was life in prison plus 20 years. To this day I think if he hadn't been stopped his next stage would have been 11 and then maybe the next stage would have been 10. He was going younger and younger. After listening to some of that stuff, you just wanted to just go and wash your brain out with a bar of soap. He ain't getting out.

Well, howdy. Hello. Hi. Another beautiful day. Yeah, I brought my book. While Warren was convicted and imprisoned, his power grew. Even from behind bars, Warren has been able to lead the FLDS. The only ones that become gods and goddesses

in the celestial world are those that can be trusted. After Warren was convicted is when really bizarre rules started coming out. How you had to wash your hands, right hand only, and then left hand, and if you did it out of order, you were out of order, Lord's way. He eventually told us we couldn't have marital relationships, we could only shake our husband's hand, we couldn't sleep together.

We could no longer hug our kids, kiss our kids. He's now been behind bars for 15 years. And so he's stood down in his own insanity in this Texas prison cell and has taken this clearly unstable man and made him even crazier. Is he still in charge? He is absolutely 100% still in charge. We live in such a wicked day. in charge. We live in such a wicked day. Prophets have declared, I would rather have my son or daughter in the grave than commit

sins of immorality. What we are concerned about right now is that Warren Jeffs from his jail cell in Texas seems to be running the church through his son Helaman. Helaman has been issuing written revelations purportedly from his father. The revelations say that within five years, the children will be translated to heaven. But the problem is, you have to die first. This is cult 101. The end is near. The big outside world is there to take us down, and

only the truly righteous are going to be raised up with me. Could that be ominous for his following in all seriousness? Absolutely. I have a concern that those who are the most faithful, if he did order them to kill themselves, that they would. If the law officials, FBI, whoever, doesn't stop Warren, thousands will die if they don't stop it. This was the main hall. I'm really proud of what we're doing here. Really proud. This is a story about a culture, a community that has chronically oppressed women.

The women are the victims and the women have been the forces and instruments of change. We were the ones that chose to step out of the confines and shackles that we were cultured with. To leave the church was the hardest and best decision of my life. And I believe that's how it is for most everyone who leaves. It's not easy to leave these cults and then heal and be OK. It's just people expect you're out.

Oh, now everything should be fine. It's a big process. So me and my kids moved up here about four years ago, and they were so scared. They didn't know what to think because, you know, FLDS Church alienated them against me. So it took them months to even acknowledge that I was their mother.

And one day, I was with the girls walking out of a store, and all of a sudden, I heard someone say, mom. And I'm just like, yeah they were I don't know the word um they were happy the most important change that I think Short Creek has undergone is healing as people returned and came back bringing all of their experiences for them they were coming home. So this is the building that the judgments happened in. All of the people came and were judged, first the men, then the women and children, to decide if they

were worthy or not worthy. A lot of pain was inflicted upon the people from these walls. So this was the main hall. And when we would have church, this would be clear, full of people all the way to the back. This would hold 8,000 people in this room. So we want to recreate a place, a community building, where we can come together and celebrate the things that we've always loved.

My hope is for the abuse of the children to cease, the abuse of the women to cease. My hope is to rescue as many that want to be rescued. We are at the house that used to be Warren Jeff's house. So in the past, it was a place of fear. People didn't really want to walk through these doors because they were afraid of being corrected or abused. And then now it's a place of warmth.

I've been out almost 12 years and I feel like my life now is just so different than it was. I feel like more lives are being touched than that I could have ever possibly imagined. We are not bound by our past. We are not bound by the destiny that powerful men laid out for us. Hold it up like a set to liberty. When I look back on my own story, the most significant decision I made was to move back to Short Creek.

It gave me an opportunity to have, once again, a sense of home and community with the people that I love the very most. It has given me a sense of peace and wholeness. I'm a different version of Elisa than the one that grew up here. I've been able to come together. I'm flawed, I'm authentic, I'm here, and I'm real, and I love being who I am today.

Truth and Lie's Doomsday Prophet was produced by ABC News Studios and is streaming on Hulu. Thanks for listening. you