Rotten Mango - #168: The Real Handmaid’s Tale - 100 Teen Brides

Episode Date: May 29, 2022

The authorities burst into the room and their jaws dropped. The entire room was completely white. Even the books on the shelves were bound in white leather. But the most shocking was the pure white bed in the middle of the room surrounded by an arc of chairs. As if people sat around the bed like it was some sort of show. Which they did. Authorities found audio recordings of middle-aged men assaulting underage girls while their friends watched. Some victims are as young as 12. There are hundreds if not thousands of victims. What kind of monsters would do such a thing? Book Rec: “The Witness Wore Red” - by Rebecca Musser Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rambles. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are, whenever we need it, download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier or pay to description starting at 12.99 per month. Butterbeam Butterboot

Welcome to this week's mini-sode of Rotten Mango. I'm your host Stephanie Sue, and the authorities have been planning this raid for months now. They knew they had to be careful. They weren't just dealing with anyone or any organization. This was one of the worst. They got to the third floor, ram down one of the quote unquote sacred doors, and their jaws dropped in horror. They entered this room that was completely white from bottom to top, in eerie white, almost like that still white color that makes the hairs on your arms stand up. There was white carpeting, white walls, dark white ceilings, even the books on the shelves were bound in white leather with gold lettering.

In the middle of the room was the scariest part though. It was a bright white bed, with chairs surrounding the bed in an arc-like shape. The chairs were sitting there as if they were gonna watch some sort of play. Some chairs were taller than others, signifying that maybe the more important people sat in the taller chairs. This is where Warren would rip underage girls and his friends would watch.

They were in their 50s, all the way up to their 90s. The girls were as young as 12. And each time an audio recording would be made. In one Warren, with a 12-year-old girl, we'll call her Mary. This is the transcript. Warren starts off by saying, always praise him. This feels good. Now repeat the words from your mouth. How do you feel, Mary? A literal child voice responds. Feels good? Question mark? There's rhythmic heavy breathing in the background.

Warren instructs Mary on what to do while he orders other women standing around to come forward, do things back off, back and forth. Warren's breathing becomes heavy in the transcript, agonizing minutes go by, and Warren asks this literal child again, what do you feel Mary? She says, I feel fine, thank you. And when Warren is done, he tells a woman to untie them. And another woman, and I quote, come distract the child. There were other graphic audio tapes found.

Warren instructing miners how to behave to please him. He went into vivid detail, graphically explaining to these miners how to showerors how to behave to please him he went into vivid detail graphically explaining to these minors How to shower how to shave their pubic hair how to dress in white robes before they come to him He said and I quote you have to know how to excite sexually and be excited you have to be able to assist each other each one who touches me and assist each other will have my gift It's not clear exactly how many victims worn has, but it's easily in me hundreds if not the thousands. So let's talk about this monster.

As always, Full Show notes are available at rottonminglepodcast.com, but there's a really good book on this. It's called The Witness Were Read by Rebecca Musler. She was the 19th wife of one of these men. And honestly, this book reads like the Handmaid's Tale. It's such an intense read, even the second time around, and the story is incredibly soulful at times. There's so many parts of this book where it's just moving. It feels like Rebecca has to unlearn everything she's ever been taught and thought about the world and seeing the journey from Rebecca being this oppressed girl who was sexually assaulted, who virtually

had no free will or choice in life, and she starts transforming into this woman that demands change and equality. It's incredibly empowering. This is a book that I think everybody should pick up. I don't even know if I would really consider it a true crime read. Underlying all of the horrible things that the group was partaking in, there's almost this like beautiful message of hope, like this beautiful little thing that you can hold on to so you can sleep better at night. So please go check it out. Now let's talk about polygamy. Polygamy means multiple marriages. Plural marriages. more than one marriage. So like when a man has multiple wives. Now I'm going to put a quick disclaimer here. I think any legal marriage set up where nobody's a minor, nobody's getting hurt, no incest is involved,

I think it's fine between two consenting adults. But more often than not, polygamy is exploitative and it usually involves religious back coercion. Now that's not to say that you can't be, polygamy is exploitative and it usually involves religious back coercion. Now, that's not to say that you can't be a polygamous and religious and everything is like perfectly dandy, but when you're indoctrinated by a religion, to believe that this is the best setup for you, even when maybe you don't want it, or maybe you're like, oh, I have my hesitations, that's where the problem is. Typically in polygamous marriages, there's big gaps between the wives age and the husbands age.

And on top of that, there's almost this underlying expectation of total or partial submission on the wives part, which is something I will not get behind. So theoretically speaking, I'm all for it. I just haven't seen a pan out well in the real world, personally speaking, because polygamy is often accompanied by misogyny and inequality Now don't get me confused with Polly Amory. Okay, so real quick. Let's dive into the history and the way it works and the different versions Polly Amory is when you have multiple relationships. I feel like this would be similar

But not necessarily the same as having open relationships Typically both partners are having multiple relationships outside of that one. This is the one that most people including myself can get behind pretty easily as long as everybody's an adult. Now, polygamy is having multiple marriages. Sometimes you live together. Sometimes each unit, like each wife gets their own house that they grow their family in and have kids and the husband will rotate between houses. So on Monday, he's with wife number one, Tuesday, he's with wife number two, Wednesday,

wife number three, so on and so forth, having kids with them all. Think like sister wives. Now polygamy is when someone has multiple wives. Polygamy? Yes. So polygamy, there's two variations underneath. Polygamy is when someone has multiple wives, typically our husband. And then polyandry is when someone has multiple husbands. Typically a woman has multiple husbands.

So side note, polygamy, multiple marriages is illegal in all 50 states of the United States. Completely illegal. You can only marry one person. Oh, I thought you say legal. It is illegal. Oh, I thought you say legal. It is illegal. Oh, I thought you said legal. Oh, you're like, let me go get wife number two. Utah though has recently lowered the punishment if you're found guilty of polygamy. This is the only state I believe. It used to be classified as a felony. But now they've decriminalized it, and it's now equivalent to getting a traffic ticket,

which is interesting. Now, in most instances of practicing polygamy, it seems and it's now equivalent to getting a traffic ticket. Which is interesting. Now, in most instances of practicing polygamy, it seems that there's this interesting connection between social class and socioeconomic status. How many partners you have? I mean, even in today's generally monogamous society, a lot of wealthy men, a lot of celebrities. They've got multiple families with multiple women sometimes at the same time, but it's usually, oh, I got my ex-wife and all these kids with her. And then this is my new wife and then all these kids with her. This is my ex-girlfriend and all these kids with

her. And they're typically linked around this one man that is paying some degree of child support, maybe they're housing and they all live separately from each other. And it's almost impressive to some that you can pay that much child support. Because it's kind of a feeling of, wow, it's already so hard to feed and support one nuclear family consisting of two partners in children. Think of adding another mouth or five into the mix. So it's a flex.

It's almost a flex, you know? Like when celebrities do it, we're not thinking, oh, disgusting, come on. You know, we're thinking, wow, we're not thinking, oh, disgusting, come on. You know, we're thinking, wow, little kids, you know. It's interesting. It's almost in some societies considered a luxury in which only a small minority of rich people can indulge in. There's actually, it's called serial monogamy,

and it's kind of considered polygamy. I know, these are a lot of weird terms, but apparently to a lot of people that study the nuclear family and like monogamy and the family structure of humans and evolution and all of that, they said that serial monogamy is a version of polygamy where you marry a one person, have kids with them,

divorce, they live in one house. Then typically the man will move on, start a new family with a new wife, have kids and then another and another. Exactly how polygamy became a thing isn't really known. It is suspected that it came from farming. So typically during a time when children didn't survive past the age of five, and family

members would need to have more than one child bear, like one person with a uterus, so that they could produce more children to become economically stable. Like, you got this big farm. You can't hire people to work for you. So what's free labor? Your wife and your kids. So your wife, if she's having, let's say, one baby a year max for, I don't know, like, let's say, five to ten years, that's not enough workers.

You're trying to employ like 20 kids. Because, you know, what's child labor? So essentially, men wanted to monopolize the production of women. Women were valued workers and child bears who would bear children that grow up because, you know, what's child labor? So essentially, men wanted to monopolize the production of women. Women were valued workers and child bears who would bear children that grow up and become workers. So the more wives you had, essentially the more workers you're gonna have,

which results more money, which means, you know, a larger family almost always was considered a source of pride and success. It was your status as a man, versus a smaller family was a symbol of failure and shame. And of course kings and emperors, they fucking love that shit. Of course they did, but it wasn't necessarily considered polygamy for them. The more common word was concubinage, like a concubine, it means to live with someone that's unmarried. Like a married man or a married

woman lives with someone who is unmarried to them and is sleeping with them. For men, it provides pleasure and producing more errors. And for women, this relationship would provide financial security. They're like, oh, I live with the king. Yeah, I'm not his wife, but at least I get free rent. I know I never have to go hungry. But not always because oftentimes, women were kidnapped and sold as sex slaves. But they were still considered concubines.

There would always be like a headwife but they were still considered concubines. There would always be like a headwife who was higher than the concubines, and the concubines children were typically regarded with less respect than the actual wives kids. They were considered illegitimate at times. Now some records said that kings and emperors would have their concubines buried with them when they died, like buried alive. Not even buried with them. Like, oh, let me save this little plot of land for you when you die, so you can come

with me. No, if I die, you're getting buried alive in my coffin with me to end quote, keep me company in the afterlife. Now, that's how it started. Later studies show that certain parts of the world that had higher female agricultural contributions and other parts that had higher rates of polygamy, I mean, because, you know, they're trying to study, are people still really practicing polygamy

because they're trying to get more in the workforce of their farms? Not really. They did not, the statistics weren't doing it. So the reason behind men marrying multiple wives typically were sexual and reproductive, rather than economic and productive. Side note, economists concluded that countries that allow and support polygene, they typically

have higher fertility rates, fewer savings reserves, and overall a lower GDP. Studies show that nuclear family units like monogamous society present a surge in economic productivity. So you have less mouths to feed, you're not spending a lot of money trying to port your next wife, so you have more savings. But also, polygamy happens more frequently in places where men just die more frequently. In some religions, it's cited that they allow polygamy because it's harder for women in these countries to make a living. So if a man can provide financial protection to more than one woman who wouldn't have that support elsewhere, then it's allowed. So typically in this religion you're supposed to have separate houses for your separate wives and

family and you have to promise to treat them all equally and you have to prove that you're financially capable of doing so. You even have to legally get permission from all your other wives that say I will allow this man to marry this woman as like his third or fourth wife. But even then in 2000, the United Nations Human Rights Committee said polygamy and polygamy violates international covenant

on civil and political rights. Even Canada believes polygamy and polygamy is a violation of international human rights and is a form of gender discrimination. So side note, the household setup, just because you have a lot of wiser husbands, doesn't mean that they all live in the same house, or that they all have kids in the same house.

Sometimes they live in separate houses and don't ever interact with one another, sometimes they live in one massive mansion. So yeah, polygamy is more common. It's a lot more common than, let's say someone having multiple husbands. But what's interesting about polyandry is that a lot of the times brothers marry the same wife. Oh my gosh. Yeah, let me explain. And the wife has quote sexual access to each brother. The reason behind polyandry

being a thing was because men are the ones that keep their land. But if let's say a family has four boys and they have an acre of land and they're farming and living off this one acre of land. So these four brothers, they go off and marry somebody else. That means they would divvy up the land into 25% a quarter acre per brother. Now with that 25% of the land, it's not going to feed his brother and a new wife and their new kids. land, it's not going to feed his brother and a new wife and their new kids. So, the way this is to keep all the land together, there's not as many mouths to feed because a woman can only get pregnant one at a time. I mean, sure, she can have twins, but it's not like, imagine if all four women had twins at the same time. You're talking about that would cause

destruction on the whole family structure. Fascinating, right? So they're just making sure it protects the family land from division. It's believed to limit human population growth and enhanced child survival. So it seems to be more beneficial in today's time to practice polyandry versus polygeny because, you know, population control, child survival enhancement, you get it. So it's more likely to be in societies with scar, scarce, environmental resources. Then you have group marriage, which is also polygamy. Group marriage is when three or more adults are essentially married, living in the same house. There's sexually, romantically intimate with one another.

I mean, not everybody's intimate, but maybe there's a web. Maybe they do have group sex. We don't know. They share to a degree the finances, the housework, taking care of the children. They like to enjoy life pleasures as a group. So it's said that group marriages typically have a stronger commitment to be faithful. Like imagine a monogamous relationship,

but just plus three. They all just only have sex within the group. It's more of a long-term thing versus an open relationship. I feel like group marriage is becoming more popular and accepted, but it's still pretty rare. I read some polygamous, though. They did ask me anything on Reddit, and these were some of the answers. Obviously, these are not representative of all polygamous, but it's interesting.

So this guy has four girlfriends, and when he was asked, what draws you personally to a poly relationship? Do you have a crazier sexual appetite for one partner or the other? Do you have emotional fulfillment to more than one partner? Like, what is it? And he responded, you know, it's a mixture of those things. Emotional fulfillment is a big one.

The fact that I don't believe in having the one is huge. But instead, I have multiple different women that fill my different needs. Do I just want to play video games, but instead I have multiple different women that fill my different needs. Do I just wanna play video games all day? I have a partner for that. Do I just wanna have deeply intellectual conversation? I have a partner for that. Do I just wanna go hiking through the woods one day?

Got one for that too. Hey, just, listen, I don't know. I see some problems with this one. Most men would be working 40 hours a week full time and still fail to fulfill a woman's needs. So I cannot imagine how he's fulfilling all four of their needs, meanwhile his needs are being met. Another question, what's the dynamic between the girlfriends?

Do they get along? Where do you guys sleep? Like do you switch it up or do you have a big bed? Like what's going on? Well, they act very much like sisters in the way that they act. They get mad at each other over simple things, but they hug it out in the end. The sleeping is rotated. We all have our own rooms, and each night I have a different companion.

If I have an argument with the scheduled companion and she doesn't want to share my bed, then I sleep alone that night. Which like, I'm not on board with this one. I don't know. The whole... Listen, I want more polyandry setups, okay? Then another AMA made me feel a little bit different about the whole situation. Her name is Sister Wife, OR on Reddit, and she was asked, why do you want to be the third

wife out of three, tier husband? She said, I don't like feeling smothered by my husband. I hate that. I get to live with my best friend. I get to have a large family without having to push out 10 kids myself. I only have to cook dinner half the week. When I get home from the hospital with my brand new baby and felt like I had no idea what I was doing,

my sister wives guided me. And when my baby wouldn't sleep for more than two hours a night, my sister wives took her in so I could get some sleep. When I flipped my car and had to spend two nights in the hospital a few months after giving birth, I trusted that my baby would be taking care of just as well as when I was home with her, by people that she knew, and she was comfortable with. And all the while, my husband was by my side while I was recovering. I don't ever feel lonely, but I also don't ever feel overcrowded.

If anything ever happens to me, my baby will still have a mother. And I could continue, but that's the gist of it. It's like really taking, it takes a village to raise a kid very literally, and I don't know if I'm on board. I'm like, I kinda like it, I kinda have an hesitant, kinda like it. So again, I love what this feeling of. Okay, fine, as long as nobody's getting hard and it's legal, then who am I to judge? And that's how most polyamorous relationships probably are.

But not today's story, of course not. Today's story is about some of the most vile people in polygamy. It's not about shared love, it's not about expanding love, providing funds, sharing resources, building community, it's about power, it's about rape, it's about minors, and it's disgusting. So let's talk about the FLDS church. Now the FLDS church is very different from the LDS church. The LDS church is Mormon, that's Mormonism, the FLDS church where a bunch of members that were excommunicated from the LDS church and started their own thing. And I don't know if they did this on purpose, but like just the extra F in there.

A lot of people get confused and the Mormons have to come out all the time and be like, Hey, guys, that's not us. And that's why a lot of people confuse polygamy with Mormonism. It's actually not the same. The LDS church, I would think that most of them don't believe in polygamy. Maybe some of them are in open relationships with that's not our business, you know? So polygamy is typically associated with the FLDS church. FLDS stands for the fundamentalist church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Now, the FLDS is probably the most commonly known religion in the US that practices polygamy. And by polygamy, I mean polygamy. Then can have multiple wives never vice versa.

In the FLDS church, it's considered an honor for a man to have multiple spouses. That means he's worthy. That means the prophet is going to allow him to marry a second time. That's a big deal. Wait, wait, wait. So if this is legal for the church... Oh, they still get arrested. Oh, okay. So it's not above law. It's not above the law, but what happens is a lot of law enforcement will look the other way. Why? I guess, you know, you never really want their powerful, they have funds, they have money, and I think another thing is you never really want to rip kids from their parents. So I think they've got other things that they want to do like harass innocent people

on the streets and then they just kind of let it go. But this part they couldn't let go because so many miners are involved. I'm talking hundreds of miners. So the profit would allow you to marry a second time. That's huge, that's big. But the real price? Yeah, price. Mm-hmm. Is when a man is

awarded his third wife. Awarded his third wife. The wording on all of this is driving me nuts, okay? Three was the magic number. Three was the number of wives that Abraham had. So if you had three wives that meant that you and your entire family, all three wives and all your kids will receive eternal salvation in the celestial kingdom, the highest kingdom of glory in heaven. But if you do not have three wives, you just have two wives? Maybe one? You were doomed, starting to break it to your bed, back of the line.

In heaven, your two wives would be demoted to just servants in your eternal household. So the goal is to have more wives. Yeah, some of them will have. That's the end goal. Yeah, like a hundred. servants in your eternal household. So the goal is to have more wives. Yeah, some of them will have. That's the end goal. Yeah, like a hundred. Okay, so basically, dudes are out there,

like, let me get my next wife. Let me find my next wife. Let me recruit a wife. And you see the wording in this? In heaven, your two wives would just be demoted to servants in the husband's eternal household. You see that? Little incentives for the woman to want their husbands to get

a third wife. It's like if it's just us two will be servants if there's another girl with us sleeping with our husband will be in the highest kingdom of heaven. Now Rebecca's story starts with Donald Wall. Her father. Now her story is interesting. Donald actually started his life outside of the FLDS church. He wasn't born into it, which is what a lot of the followers are. He had a really rough childhood. He came from a broken family, his mom had abandoned him emotionally, physically, and for most of Donald's life, he was a monogamous, boring, normal person, I guess. Well, actually, I don't know if boring is the word. The guy was quite frankly a genius. He was a brilliant engineer in the aerospace industry. And he owned a company that manufactured mechanical parts for NASA's space shuttles.

What? So educated, smart. Exactly. Successful dude. Everything. He ends up meeting his first wife Irene. They get married. They're having a regular, normal, boring,

monogamous relationship, right? And Irene's parents, they get married, they're having a regular normal boring monogamous relationship, right? And Irene's parents, they become convinced that the FLDS church is the right path to take. That plural marriages are the only way to live life. Now Donald and Irene, they're shook. They're like, no, how can you guys believe such crap? What's wrong with you guys? That's a cult! And a parent's like, no, you have to hear it from the prophet. He's the real deal. Just give him a chance. You don't understand. Now, Donald and

Irene, they're going into this, going into the FLDS church with one goal and one goal only. To poke holes in the theories and beliefs, to convince Irene's parents, you're being dumb, you're being brainwashed. But while they're diligently studying the FLDS teachings, they get sucked into them. And they convert into the FLDS church. How are they that good? They're so good.

You know, I think a lot of people are catching onto it now, but a lot of these extremely religious cult-like behavior is you're depriving people of sleep, you're it's genuinely physical, like you're messing with the human body. It's almost to a science, you're depriving them of sleep, you have them standing dehydrated, sometimes fasting. And of course, your mind, you know when you're so tired, you almost feel like you're high. Like you're so tired. Have you ever done like two all nighters? You're like, I don't even know what I'm saying. Why am I giggling?

I'm so tired. It's almost like that feeling. And when that washes over you and you have this music, this melody and the background, sometimes there's chanting, there's loud prayer involved. You feel like there's this spirit moving within you? And I'm saying this because I have experienced this, I grew up in a really religious background, right?

No longer religious, but you get the idea. So it's probably that. And then maybe they were intellectuals their whole life, they never experienced something like this. You know, they go to school, they go to work, they have a regular day-to-day, and when they experience this, they're like, wow, this is real, I felt it.

How can you tell me it's not real? Now after joining the church Irene is super into plural marriages. She's like come on Donald get a second wife. What are you doing? It's natural God wants this. Donald at first is like no babe I love you. But then like the next day he sees this beautiful, talented woman singing at the church service, and he convinces himself that this is what God would have wanted for her to be my second wife.

He goes home, he asks for Irene's blessing. She gave it of course. She said, you know, I had a dream that this would happen, so it must be God's will. And just like that, Donald was quote, given his second wife Sharon Steed. Well, not legally his second wife, because like I said, it's illegal, but he took her in as a wife in every other sense. They had a wedding, a ceremony, everything.

Now, here's where it gets fascinating. Donald Stone makes parts for NASA, which is bad because the FLDS literally doesn't believe in NASA. They think the moon landing was a hoax. But they want Donald to work there because he's making good money and he's contributing a lot of finances to the FLDS church. Wow, that's definitely some kind of mental car world they have to do.

Oh, it gets worse. The FLDS church believes that minorities and LGBTQA-plus communities were going to be the cause of the end of the world They believed that minorities were unless they're making good money and they want to be part of it And they have some young underage girls to contribute They believed minorities were wild ignorant immoral filthy. They were cursed. They loved Satan They loved evil and not one soul of them were clean, pure or righteous.

Yeah, because every Korean adjima that goes to church is just twerking for Satan. That makes total sense, okay? Really nice people, but Donald, he couldn't sell this company, he couldn't quit, because the FLDS wanted his money, and because, well well he's got two wives to feed and sometimes he would have to bring home business partners or investors because he's trying to live a normal life outside of church. He has to, he has to blend in,

this is illegal what he's doing. Now, polygamy is not generally accepted, especially in the field that he's in, you know, these NASA people. So Donald would literally have to hide his second wife. Irene had the honor of being his main official first wife. Yeah, it was just really weird. So Irene and her nine kids, yeah, they don't believe in contraception. It's made by the devil. So they live in the upstairs of the family's townhouse and Sharon was sent to live in the basement with her kids.

And when people came over, they weren't allowed out of the house. They would have to just stay quiet in the basement. Irene was the favorite wife, which it really isn't like this in other religions where all the wives have equal power and resources. But in the FLDS church, you get to pick your favorites. So Irene got dibs on everything. She gave all the kids and even her own hand me downs

to Sharon and her kids to wear. Irene and her kids got to eat a nice meal in the dining room. Irene's a new wife for the old wife. The old wife. Okay. So old wife was the favorite. Yeah. Oh, okay. Well, yeah, yeah.

She got to eat a nice meal in the upstairs dining room. Sharon and her kids were forced to just eat crackers all day in the basement. Sharon had to do all the housework while maintaining a full time job, birthing multiple kids. Meanwhile, Irene just got to be a stay-at-home mom. So the way that it works is almost manipulative, it's straight-up manipulative. It's the husband is incentivized to not have a great setup for the second wife. Because eventually that makes the second wife feel like I'm so tired if he could just get another wife and she could pick up some of the slack in the housework or maybe like add some income to the house

Maybe I could just like rest a little bit So Sharon's living in the basement in a space that is way too cramped for her and what would eventually be her 14 children This is like a small townhouse, you know, Donald is making good money, but he's not he's not Jeff Bezos Wait, so how many total? 14 plus nine. Oh my God. Yeah, and that's just with his two wives. He's one T three kids. Yeah. The basement was cold. There's barely any furniture. There weren't even enough beds for everyone. All the kids were packed in there like sardines. And Donald would split his time evenly between his two wives. So he would go sleep with Irene, then come downstairs, sleep with Sharon, back and forth, and since Irene was older, she stopped having kids. Meanwhile, Sharon's still getting pregnant.

Listen, I don't know if it's that, or over time Irene just didn't like this set up anymore. Which you know, I get it, it's understandable, you're jealous, who wouldn't be. Watching your husband have 14 children with a younger woman, I'm sure it's infuriating. And it's not like Irene can tell Donald when I take it back, I don't like this. Sharon's already living with them, she has kids with Donald. Besides, in the FLDS church, women were second class citizens. They don't get to make decisions about themselves, they certainly don't get to make decisions for their husbands. Now, Irene is kind of stuck in this predicament that she chose for herself, but she decided to take it out on the most vulnerable and the most innocent in the entire

situation. Sharon's kids. Donald and Sharon both worked out of the house full time. Irene was left to watch Sharon's kids. She decided she's going to start abusing them. She would verbally abuse them every single day, calling them little shits, little bastards. Sometimes she would brutally beat the kids. Just pluck one out of the basement, drag them upstairs. For no reason, they didn't even do anything wrong. Not that that would justify it. She would unleash her wrath.

The kids were oftentimes beat to a bloody pulp, nearly dead. It was so severe. They were so scared, whenever they heard noise they would huddle in the basement together, to avoid Irene singling one of them out to beat up. This is the type of environment that Rebecca or Becky was born to. Becky was Sharon and Donald's fifth child. And ever since the day she was born, she remembered being taught. The outside world is a bad, bad place full of Gentiles. That's what they called people that weren't part of the FLDS church. Gentiles are bad. They don't understand and they don't know the truth.

Why would you break into these apartments? For money, for drugs, whatever was in there. Why aren't you afraid of getting caught at doing this? No, who's going to catch us? What a police. It was the height of the crack era, and instead of locking up drug dealers, some New York City cops had become them. I would suit up in my uniform and we're gonna want some drug dealers. And I know how to do it really well. This is the inside story of the biggest police corruption scandal in NYPD history and the investigation that uncovered it all.

Did you consider yourself a rat? 100%. I saved my soul just like everybody else does. Listen to and follow the set, an Odyssey Originals documentary podcast series available now in the Odyssey app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your shoes. I'm not a big guy, man, but I love being that dirty mother s***er. Becky's dad would sit her down and tell her,

it's not about if, but it's about when the Gentiles will hurt us. It will serve you to remember this always. And as a warning about how dangerous the outside world was, the church would get all the kids together and non-stop pound this incident into their heads. About the 1953 short Creek raid. Short Creek raid was one of the largest arrests of polygamists in American history. It happened in a community of the FLDS church in Arizona. There were about 400 members in that group out of which 263 of

them were children. The children were ripped from their parents placed into the care of CPS. Half of them were not even allowed to go back home to their parents for two plus years. some parents never regained custody of their kids. Now the police were out there trying to tout it as this great big police bus like look at us doing our job so well. The FLDS church was trying to convince members that the kids were taken to be sold as white slaves.

I don't know, the last part was weird. But overall the public had a bad taste in their mouths. Not they didn't think that the kids were being taken as white slaves, but it was just so handled poorly. You can't throw 200 plus kids into foster homes and then pat yourself on the back for solving a problem. Like these kids are so confused, they're not adjusting well, they've been ripped from everything that they know. You can't just be like, alright, job done, let's go home. Now the FLDS Church was using this incident to villainize the police, CPS,

and really anyone that was in part of their church. Everyone from the outside was bad, and they just wanted to rip you from your mom's arms. Do you want that? You want to be ripped from your mom's arms? No, you don't. So you better hate them all. Becky had nightmares that her house

was gonna get raided in the middle of the night, and she would never see her parents again. I mean, that is not a normal kind of stress that any child should have to deal with Another stress in young Becky's life was that her parents and the church didn't believe in medicine This statement always boggles my mind. I They just don't believe in it. What does that even mean? You like I don't believe in that bill. It doesn't exist. I don't understand, okay? They don't believe in it. It was to the point where one day Becky is riding a bike

that was so old. It didn't even have a seat. Instead, it was just this rusty metal rod that was sticking out where the seat should have been attached to. So you would just have to hover over the seat while you rode it so that, you know, you can't sit on this rusty rod. While Becky is riding the bike, she loses control. And she slams down with a bit too much force.

And the metal rod, not fully but gouges her private part a little bit. Becky could have easily gotten tetanus because this is a rusty metal rod. She could have gotten a whole list of complications from this rusty metal rod But her parents refused to take her to the hospital. They didn't want to get accused of sexual assault and because well like I said Simply they just didn't believe in medicine. So the dad that works for Really doesn't believe it. Yeah, he's like, I don't know what I'm doing. Oh, huh Now one day this is one back. He was super young. She wasn't even eight yet She was home alone with all the other kids Donald and Sharon there at work Irene is out of the house getting groceries. There were no adults home

Sterling one of Irene's oldest sons and favorite kids comes downstairs finds Becky and says hey, you want to go play with Lillian's dolls? Now Lillian was one of Irene's daughters So of course herys are so much better than Becky's. She was always reminded of it. Lillian was the type to purposely flaunt her pretty little dolls in front of Becky and the other girls of Sharon's kids, and Becky was so confused.

But she's young. She couldn't resist. She couldn't not take the chance to see the pretty dolls up close in person, so Sterling leads Becky out of the basement and then up the stairs to the third level. Becky said it felt forbidden, she was never allowed to leave the basement except for Sunday school. So he's like, follow me right this way, he opens up the door and Becky's confused. But this is your room, why would the liens dolls be in here? And before Becky knew it, he pushed her in and locked the door behind him.

This is her half-brother, not a step-brother, not that that would make it any better, but they're genetically related. He lunged at her, robbed her wrists, held both of them in one of his hands. He was a lot older, he was a lot bigger than her. She could not fight him off. He stuck his other hand down her dress, and she started feeling searing pain between her legs. She started screaming, and tears are streaming down her face, she started feeling searing pain between her legs. She starts screaming and tears are streaming down her face and when she thought it was

over sterling got up and unzipped his pants. So Becky uses this opportunity to lunge at the door. She runs down the hall tears are just streaming down her face. She could barely see anything and at that exact moment Irene had come home and they collide. They run into each other. Irene's looking at Becky. Becky is clearly terrified. Irene's putting two and two together. She sees Becky out of the basement, crying.

She looks up and sees sterling, slowly closing the door to his room. She's pissed. Oh hell no. How fucking dare you. You little. She screams at Becky, grabs her by the braids, and using her braids like her pigtails. This how young she is.

Using her pigtails, hold her head in place and start slapping her over and over and punching her. She screaming, it's your fault. It's your fault that Sterling did this to you. You did this to him. You made him do this. You're a little flirt. You're just a whore, just like your fault that Sterling did this to you. You did this to him. You made him do this. You're a little flirt. You're just a whore.

Just like your mother, you piece of shit. And Irene beat Becky to the point where her white dress was stained with blood. She kept hitting and hitting and wouldn't stop. Becky was bleeding out of her nose, her mouth, everywhere. And when Irene was done, she collected herself, dragged Becky to the bathroom, cleaned her up, scrubbed the blood off her dress, and calmly told her dragged Becky to the bathroom, cleaned her up, scrub the blood off her dress, and calmly told her, this is your fault, remember? You're a whore.

Do you hear me? And if you ever tell anyone, I'll kill your mother." Becky took the threat seriously, I mean what kid wouldn't, what adult wouldn't. She told nobody what happened to her that day. Thankfully that year, things started looking up for Becky just a little bit. She was quote unquote blessed with the opportunity to attend all-to-economy. So all-to-economy is one of the elite educational facilities for children and families who strictly observed all the principles of the FLDS.

Questionable on the elite, questionable on the educational, it was just like pretty much just a facility for kids whose families were really strict on FLDS stuff. The community of FLDS considered it the Yale of FLDS, that's what they called it. It was considered an honor to go there. If your kids went there, that meant you did something great. You were blessed by the prophet. The academy was in this enormous white mansion that belonged to Uncle Rulon Jeffs, the prophet Rulon Jeffs, a little bit about the Jeffs family. They are the most powerful family in the FLDS church. Rulon's son, the prophet's son Warren, he runs the school. And I used the word school really loosely. The kids main education was based on FLDS religious teachings. The kids were taught, hey anything you learned in public school? I mean anything at all, like even the freaking math. Forget it. Forget what the stupid Gentiles taught you. Unlearn everything. And focus solely on this religious

scripture. The only non-religious thing that they did was the girls were sent to home heck where they were taught domestic chores. The boys attended workshops. Oh my gosh, this is giving me religious trauma. They always did that where the girls would be set aside and they would go through like modesty training and then the guys were like, oh let's go outside and shoot some hoops. What's modesty training? It's like how to dress so you're not showing your titties everywhere. So how are you supposed to dress? you're not showing your titties everywhere So how are you supposed to dress like they were so crazy that we ran a lot to show shoulders Nothing I remember when I was in church. I couldn't wear a bright red I could wear burgundy red, but I was never allowed to wear bright red

I was allowed to wear flip flops. I guess everybody's got a foot fetish in that church I don't know because red is like Satan's color Ah, I see yeah an interesting fact is that the building the school also had birthing rooms. Oh, yeah It's exactly what you think women from the Jeff's family were told to have their babies in this room without I don't know Any medical attention any sterile environment and epidural nothing just pop out your baby here So you don't arouse the suspicion of outsiders. Since each one of you's got like 10 kids and polygamy is illegal,

it was normal for the kids to be walking to class and just hear the nail scratching screams of women in labor. So what did they learn all day? Are there really enough religious teachings that the FLDS had for them to study that long? Every single day, five days a week. Well the main thing that they focused on was not touching each other. Let me explain.

Warren would pound into the kids' heads that they shouldn't be mingling with the other sex. He straight up told the boys, treat the girls as if they're snakes, hands off. And all the girls, you better treat the boys the same way till you're placed by the profit So the way that young flds woman got married was Rulan the profit decided Yes, about time for you to get married So he would arrange the marriage between whoever he thought would work or please him Sometimes he would even gift pretty brides to good followers Like hey, you gave me a lot of money last week. Let me give you this 18 year old bride

Becky was so scared. She didn't even talk to her male family members at school. She felt like it was wrong to even talk to her own brother because he was male. Modest clothing was also mandatory. If anyone wore anything that was even, well, if any girl wore anything that was even slightly suggested, suggestive, you would be sent home or even expelled. Which is really dumb because listen, the FLDS think that men should lead women. But you

were telling me that these men lose their marbles over seeing some bear shoulders? I don't know. Doesn't sound like leadership qualities to me. Sounds a little bit like the weaker ones. More fragile, more emotional, wouldn't you say? So on a daily basis, we're impounded into the kids' heads about morality, purity, and how important it was for a girl to keep her integrity. Becky didn't know why, but any time Warren mentioned the word body, she just felt so sick in her stomach. All of it just made her feel so uncomfortable.

It just seemed like this old man was way too invested in his female student's purity. But the girls did care about their purity, and I use that in quotes, purity a lot, mainly because nothing mattered more than their purity. It directly affected a woman's ability to marry a good husband, and that was the only thing they could hope to achieve in this life.

Because women in the FLDS church would never be able to get a higher education, never be able to build a career. she would never be able to give, get a position of authority even within the community. The most young woman could dream of, and this is the biggest dream you could have, was to marry a prominent man in the community, and spend the rest of your life serving him. But let's say you're really ambitious, the only thing you could really hope for is that you're his first wife, and maybe you have a few months, maybe a year before additional wives and additional children come into the

picture. But you can never voice that wish because it would be selfish to want your husband to only be with you. Once in class Warren said, raise your hand if you think women should have the right to vote. Becky raised her hand and she looked around, she was the only one holding her hand in the air. When Get's Up walks over to her desk. Get's eye level with her and says, Why on earth do you think a woman should vote?

Do you think a woman has the faintest idea on what to even vote for? And he gets up and he says, Class, the only reason a woman should vote is to give more power to her husband and this church. That is it. And when Becky started going through puberty, she was really confused about all the changes happening in her body.

She was, she was awkward like any other teenager, but she didn't have anyone to explain to her what was going on. She had no idea why suddenly boys were looking at her or why there was even a book that was being passed around by the younger girls, it was called fascinating womanhood. And it had nothing to do with womanhood. It had everything to do with men. The book talked in depth about how to be respectful to men, but stand out in set-aways that were not slutty or horish, such as make yourself appear weaker than a man to please his ego. Damn.

Yeah, which is a thing like, you know, we all do. Unfortunately, we should just stop, but have you ever seen those TikToks? That's like one of my husband's not home and it's all the girls rearranging the couches and the furniture lifting up the fridge moving it to a new place And then when the husband's home she's like, I can't reach it honey So Becky hated this idea, but her mom insisted she stopped winning all the races Whenever they would do like small mile runs, I guess with all the kids She would say no man ever wants to marry a girl that's going to beat him in a race.

She needed to be a refined lady. I mean, it was just all so confusing. She's going through puberty and she's confused. My body is changing. I'm not trying to get married. What are you talking about? I don't even know what's going on with myself. Donald starts getting protective of his younger daughters around this time.

And it's because Uncle Rulan, the prophet, had married Becky's aunt, aura. She was 50 years younger than him. This opened the door. The door was open. And all the older women in the FLDS started to see younger and younger women as options for future brides will live the prophets doing it. If he's marrying someone 50 years younger, I could get away with 40 years younger. One day, Uncle Rulan comes to Becky's house, sits down with Donald, and asks about Becky's older sister, Christine.

If Christine would mind coming to a meeting with him. A.K.A. Uncle Rulan is trying to marry Becky's sister. Donald tells everyone, listen, Christine, nobody is going to force you to do something you don't want to do. That's just what they say. Every girl knew that.

If you don't pick the choice that they give you, those same people that say nobody's forcing you to do something you don't want to do, they will punish you. It's all for show. They say it's your choice, but it's not your choice. Becky even asked Warren once, what happens if I marry someone I don't like? He looked at her and told her, you'll grow to love him. But if I don't like him, it won't matter to him, no? Because he's promised to have hundreds, even thousands of wives in the eternities.

You said that as his wives, we must all serve him whether we like it or not. Becky, if you honor his priesthood, you will grow to love him, Becky. It seemed Christine had no choice. She was to marry the pedophile. I mean, the prophet, sorry. Becky was shocked. She seemed to be the only one that was shocked. Christine was in her 20s and Rilan was 84 years old.

This cannot be normal. But Becky did not dare to speak up because Christine seemed happy enough. So what happened when they died? The 84 year old. Oh, just you wait. He dies and it gets really bad. So Becky's half sister Victoria, one of Irene's kids that was actually nice to Becky and her siblings, was married off to this crusty old guy, which by the way, after the profit married Christine, the old men in the FLDS church got an even bigger hint.

They start calling a brule on. Dear profit, I had this dream that I was to marry, listen, I know I'm 60, but God told me to marry this 19 year old girl. They told me she was the one for me. That's what God wanted. And then they would do some favors for the prophet. And the prophet would say, I talked to the Lord and he said yes. Becky was terrified of marriage. She tried to keep her head down and avoid any and all guys. After she graduates high school, all to Academy, with honors, she's allowed to even return and teach there. They threw a book at her and told her to teach them this.

They didn't even give her any training. And the one thing that she noticed while she was a teacher was just so sad. The kids, they all came from these big families where it was so easy for them to not feel important or special. They were just a number, just another kid. But Becky loved to teach because she would compliment each kid using their name and their eyes would just light up. And they would feel so special and it was the highlight of Becky's job. But her new found piece did not last long. A year into her teaching, Becky,

come to my office. It was Warren. She knew it was bad. Her heart was sinking. It was the worst case situation. Warren tells her she needs to check in with father, and her jaw just dropped in horror. She was gonna be placed for marriage. She wasn't even 19 yet. She didn't want to get married. She's like, okay, try not to cry, try not to cry. She goes to see Uncle Rulon the Prophet. He asked her about her day, some small talk, and quickly, he goes down to business. I need to ask you a very serious question, Becky. Do you have anyone in mind you want to marry? She feels like it's a trap. She doesn't want to make it seem like she's thinking about boys,

because you know, they've been taught that it's unpear and evil. seem like she's thinking about boys because you know They've been taught that it's unpearing evil. So if she's thinking about who to marry before she gets married That means she's thinking about boys which is against the religion The only person that has ever crossed my mind was you Shit, I mean I Wait, I didn't mean it like that. I meant I haven't allowed myself to think of anybody else because Because we're only supposed... What back you wanted to say was I never thought about any man because I don't want to get married. But he's asking her who do you want to marry.

And now it's almost coming out as if she wants to marry this guy that's nearing his 90s who also is married to her sister. And she just says, please, I didn't... I just want to marry the man that heavenly father thinks I should marry. Rulan looks at her and says, I will take it up with the Lord. And she is dismissed. Becky soon learns, Uncle Rulan decided she would marry him. She was disgusted. She cried and she said, Mom, please, I can't marry the prophet. I can't I'm sorry, but he's so old. Becky, your sister is married to him,

and she is not struggling with his age. But I'm not Christine. So Becky goes to her little mattress. I was gonna say her room, but she doesn't have a room. And she says, well, I'm gonna do something so bad. Something so bad that won't be good enough for him to marry. I am going to ruin this marriage, which like, yes, Becky, start a fucking food fight.

Arsene! Attempted murder of Rulon. No one will blame you. Assault. Do it. No, in Becky's mind, something so bad was wearing lipstick. Or cutting her hair. Both of which were considered outrageous for an FLDS woman.

Because cutting hair was just unheard of in the FLDS. Why? Let me tell you. An FLDS woman had to have long hair, not just so she could do her hair in a very specific style that was considered pretty and feminine, which they did. And it's honestly really outdated. So they would tie their hair,

but in the front, they would do this big swoop up top, set in hairspray, and it'd be clicked back. It's kind of given like prairie days, you know, where they would wear the prairie dresses. So it's kind of like those hair styles. And I'm judging the hairstyle because it's not like they wanted to do it. It was forced upon all of them. Now, the woman also had to have long hair because when they get married, there's a blessing and a ritual that they were honored to be able to do. The woman was to wash her husband's feet, rub them with oil, and then dry them with her long hair.

What? Yeah, that's why they needed long hair, one day to marry an old piece of shit and rub his feet on your hair. And I'm not saying that to say, oh my God, what were the girls thinking? I'm saying that because what the hell are the men thinking coming up with these bizarre things for newlyweds? It's just strange.

Regardless, Becky wouldn't go through with it because she was scared. She was scared to cut her hair. She was scared to wear lipstick. But she did think maybe she could wear stripes in front of real-on? He hated stripes. But when she told her sister her great plan to wear stripes, her sister said, �Beckey, what the hell? Stripes? What are you trying to do? Damn the whole family to hell! What is wrong with you? Don't you dare? We will all suffer because of you�over a striped shirt���So that plan failed as well. Becky was having a hard time processing her situation. In just a matter of a few days, Becky learned that she would marry someone old enough to be her grandpa.

She was so stressed her dad took her to McDonald's, which is a crazy rare treat. The FLDS church hated junk food. Imagine being told that you're marrying a 90 year old man and your consolation is McDonald's. Her sisters tried to comfort her while they were helping sew her wedding dress, but the comfort wasn't really comfort. Her sister Brittany told her, My husband forced me to consummate our marriage on our wedding night. I told him I wasn't ready and I begged him for more time.

He said he would give me some time. He only gave me one day. And a tear-slip down Brittany's cheek and she went back to sewing. Becky had no idea what that even meant. There was no sex at in the FLDS. But she would later learn it was very common in the FLDS for wives to be pressured into consummating a marriage by their older husbands.

And again, sure, they were told that they could say no, but in reality, the only right answers were, yes, husband and right away husband. A lot of FLDS members didn't hesitate to rape or beat their wives into submission. And this is how Becky became the 19th wife of Rulon Jeffs, the prophet of the FLDS church. The marriage ceremony was awkward to say the least, Becky's own father officiated the ceremony. And afterwards, Becky was going to her new house,

Rulon's mansion, where she would meet 18 sister wives who were all pleasant enough, one of them being her own sister. She was offered a glass of wine which she was shocked by because it's typically frowned upon in the FLDS community. Becky would slowly realize that powerful people in this church had special privileges. And they did not follow the lessons that they so passionately talked. Of course they didn't. Now slowly, one by one, all the wives left and Becky was all alone with Rulon. And it was so awkward, he demanded that she help him to his bed. He needed help walking.

Yeah, Becky's not even 19 yet and she had to help her husband support his body weight as they walked because he couldn't on his own because he was almost 90 years old. Now go upstairs and get your night down on. She changed, met him in his bedroom, and he tapped the top button of his white shirt. Like, unbuttoned. So she starts unbuttoning it, and she was really uncomfortable, then he motioned for his pants.

And after and dressing him, Becky put his oxygen machine on, the one with the tubes in the nose and behind his ears. Oh my god, what is he, what? Yeah. Honestly, I think that your health would be better if you just don't keep bearing people. He wanted her to lay next to him, and her heart is racing she doesn't know what to do, so she sat as far away from him as possible, just laid down gingerly without trying to stir up any movement.

And Rulan with a surprising amount of strength grabs Becky in for this wettest, sloppy-est kiss she's ever had. It was disgusting, but thankfully that was all. He said, Goodnight sweetheart, a kiss is enough for tonight. He rolled over and started snoring. And Becky felt so dirty. She lay there next to her husband, the prophet. I mean, marriage to the prophet should be a blessing.

You should be honored. This should feel divine. But why does she feel the opposite of that? Why does she feel so gross and so dirty? The next day, Becky was told what her life was gonna look like. Each wife had 24 hours to spend with Rulan, catering to his every need and then when it was time to switch to the next wife, another wife would come in, take her shift.

Okay, not bad, 19 wives, that means maybe one day a month, right? Maybe, right? He's not always home. She could do that. But Rulan, the holy prophet, only wanted the younger wives on rotation, and there were 13 of them. So it was more like once every two weeks. Which side note, there was a hierarchy amongst the sister wives, and it had nothing to do with the order in which they married Rulan. It mattered more who was willing to do more wilder things in bed. Since, you know, men are influenced by penises. So in order to have more sway with Rulon and have more freedom was to have more fun with him in bed. Becky

refused. She actually had this little trick. Anytime it was her night, she would rub his feet so good that he would knock out. And she wouldn't have sex with him. And it was this almost perfect plan. But after Becky's wedding, Rulon marries another two young girls, practically back to back. Now this is where weird human emotions come to play. Obviously, Becky doesn't like this marriage. She respects Rulan as the prophet, but she doesn't want to sleep with this guy, she doesn't want to be with this guy, this is not her envision of a husband.

But something about Rulan marrying right after her so quickly, adding two new wives, it just made her feel so unimportant. So forgotten. And that is the opposite of how you should feel in a marriage. I mean, the whole thing for Becky just felt so often, so gross. Once she had gone out to a restaurant with Rulon, her husband and a few other wives and some of his kids like Warren and their sister wives, which by the way, Warren I guess is also like her stepson. I don't know how that works.

No, the restaurant was not run by the FLDS. So the waitresses, they were just wearing normal clothes. I guess one of the waitresses was showing a lot of cleavage and she was wearing some lipstick. Becky was shocked to hear the men. The holy men, the priesthood men say things like, did you see how big her boobs are? Did you see those things they were just in my face?

I can't, this is oh my god. Warren's brother said, oh my god, one of my wife's boobs are so big. She said she used to buy an over-the-shoulder, boulder holder. Becky's sister wife giggled and said, then make mine a pebble holder. And Rilan, this 90-year-old man, said, hers are pretty good and started fondling Becky's breasts right there in the restaurant in front of his sons and their sister wives and Becky's sister wives.

Becky was mortified. I mean, these are the same men that we're talking about immoral desires and how that is the end of the world. I don't know, last fucking Sunday. How are these men of God? She did not understand. But it didn't end there. Of course it didn't.

This led to conversations about other wives' bodies in the FLDS church. Whenever they talked about Curvea or Woman, they would call her a fat ass or a fat slob. So after this enlightening moment, Becky really did not like having sex with Rulon, so she kept distracting him with her foot massages, and I guess he noticed. Because he complained to his own son Warren and asked him to talk to Becky. So Warren sits back and down and yells at her. You never, ever, ever tell your husband no, especially you, because he's the prophet. I repeat, do not say no again.

If you do, you will be destroyed in the flesh. Wow, the man can't even talk to her, but what in the world? And you know what happens to rebellious women? Becky knew there was a saying, there was a solution. Rebellious woman just need to be bread. Warren loved that phrase. He would joke about it during dinner and swing a loaf of bread around. It's said that the men will breed the rebellion right out of woman. Warren would say it's because women should just be obedient and don't question anything. The greatest freedom you can enjoy is in obedience.

What are you saying that doesn't even make sense? Stop trying to make it sound deep. It's just oppression and inequality and stupidity. Becky was indoctrinated the same, but I think so she was told you know you gotta have sex with the guy. You can't say no, shocking because the prophet is supposed to know everything. I mean, of course he does, but he didn't see this coming. He said he was going to live till he was 150. But now he can't even walk alone, he can't do anything alone.

He was so delusional, he barely recognized his wives. He would yell at them. Oh, and while Rulon was in the hospital, he was going to be a little bit more patient. And he was going to beional he barely recognized his wives, he would yell at them. Oh, and while Rulong was in the hospital, all of his wives were forced to fast, for days, they could only sip water, mint tea and apple juice. Yeah, because that's gonna help him heal. It's so dumb, they were forced to do this.

When he comes home, everyone is shocked at how bad he is, because he's just screaming random things at his wives, demanding that they all die their hair black. This was strictly forbidden. The FLDS did not believe in hair dye. There was no way the rest of the church could see their leader like this. It would not be a good look. So naturally, one of Rulan's sons had to take over and be the temporary leader. Ah, good old Warren Jeff steps up. He was a conniving one that one. He tried to make his transition seamless. He would say things like, well you know, this is what Father Rulan would want. And when people would take the orders, he would stop talking about Rulan and just start

ordering things be done in a specific way. It was a seamless transition. And people would just do it. Why? Well the women have no say. And the men, they're told, if you do this, I'll let you marry someone. Who do you want to marry? Take your pick. 18-year-old, let's do it. Warn started officiating 20 marriages a week. That meant that most of the young eligible brides

quickly ran out. So what does Warn do? He opens up the dating pool and starts making underage girls viable for marriage. Girls were pulled out of school and married. It really was two birds once done with Warren. He got an older prominent member that doesn't like you and wants Rulon back. Well here's the 16 year old bride to shut you up.

And it was working. 16 year old girls were being married off to men in their 60s and 70s. Well, the FLDS men suddenly had a whole harem of teenage brides. Even Rulon was getting new brides. Warren wanted to keep him delusional and occupied at all times. And you know what they say? These men, they just could not resist a new young minor underage wife who could be molded into their desires

before she even had a mind of her own. Because, you know, that's really what men want when they go for a very, very young girl at that age. It's not because she's mature for her age. It's not that. It's not because you guys just click on a new level. No, you want someone who hasn't found her independence, who hasn't found herself yet, and you want to be able to shape them into the perfect wife, into the perfect subordinate.

That's what you want. For example, let's talk about Tom. Tom was another member of the polygamous cult. He was 35 years old when he married his first wife, Linda. She was 14. Soon after, he met his second wife, who was 15 years old. Now, this is where it gets really wild. Tom decides his third wife should be none other than Shirley's mom. He married Shirley, his second wife, who's just 15. His third wife was Shirley's mom. I don't know why he marries his own mother-in-law. He marries his second wife's mom. And after that, he marries one of her step-doters, her daughters, that is not related. She was interviewed and the step-dotter said, yeah, I was his step-daughter and I just, I didn't

see him as a fatherly figure for long. Tom went on to marry two sisters, like Rulon did with Christina, Christina and Becky, but Tom did this within three weeks of each other. And when they were interviewed, they talked about their relationship with Tom. And, you know, most of them married him when he was in his 30s and 40s, and these girls are miners, but they talked about their relationship as if they pursued Tom. One of them said, we were in the backseat of the car, and it just, it just happened. I was looking into his eyes and they were beautiful, and I told him, your eyes are are beautiful and I want my kids to have

eyes just like yours. And he said, I know a way we can make that happen. Tom was asked, why did you marry your wife so young? And he said, I married the wives that I have because these are the wives that God brought to me and informed me that these are the girls that I should marry. These girls wanted to marry me and they demonstrated to me their extremely rare quality of being capable of handling responsibilities at such a young age. You know, a lot of people have criticized me, soundly, for marrying young girls.

And I agree, there's hardly any girls at that age that are ready for marriage. But these girls are. These girls have demonstrated that they were not too young, because they have succeeded in building a successful relationship in marriage, which people sometimes twice their age or more have not been able to do. One of the wives said, I think when most people see plural marriages, they see this horny old man that just wants

to have sex with a young woman. And that's not Tom, that's not him at all. It's a woman's choice. It's a woman's issue, you know what I mean? It's more about our rights and our freedom than it is about his. We get to decide when we have sex with him. He doesn't get to ask, that's not his place. It's a young, it's a girl's place to choose her husband. I think she was about to say it's a young girl's choice. And we chose Tom. I chose Tom. I mean, he let me know he was interested, but it was me that went to him and said, I'd like to be your wife. Another wife was asked, do you feel

jealous, sharing Tom? And she said, no, I don't mind sharing Tom. He's a very good man. And I would feel very selfish and guilty if I had him all to myself because he is very capable of loving other women and taking care of them and filling their needs and he's a very good father and I would feel very selfish limiting him to just me and my children. And I have all the freedom in the world and I get to make all my choices. Exactly. Like these girls have been indoctrinated by this religion so it's like this example of they're literally going on this interview and Tom genuinely thinks the world will see it as while these women are making their own choices like this is empowering. But it's like this is insane. Another

wife said if Tom wants another wife well that's what Tom. And that's what he wants is what I want. And I might get jealous, I don't know, but I'll try not to, because it'll just cause me more sorrow and sadness than there needs to be. See I think this is the difference between open relationships that are more accepted in today's time, because you are not trying to suppress these very normal feelings. In fact, you know, yeah, of course, people in open relationships are going to be jealous from time to time, but overall, it's a positive experience for every single party involved. This is only positive for fucking dumbass Tom.

One of the wives said, like, this is the one whose mom was also married to Tom. They asked her, did it feel strange watching your mom go to spend a night with your husband? Cause they take shifts. It may sound very strange to think that my mother was with my husband, but you have to realize that this is the way that I believe life ought to be lived. And this is a very deeply held religion for me and my family. And through my whole childhood growing up, I was taught the values, the reasons, and the wise, and the house. And for me, it was very natural. Mom and daughter actually gave birth to Tom's kids

on the same day. So if you're the daughter in this, that means your son is half-brothers with your mom's son, as well as your mom's son's nephew, but you also have siblings with your mom's son. But also your husband is your half-brothers dad, but also the father of your child, and your mom is also the grandma of your child, and she's sleeping with your husband.

The interview is straight up as Tom. What do you have to offer these young women? Side note, Tom, his wives and his kids, there's 35 of them, and they're living up $40,000 a year. The wives. The wives do all the housework, the wives go door to door selling magazine subscriptions. They do everything. Tom doesn't do shit. Like mentally, emotionally, sexually, physically.

He's not even there for all of his wives because Yardy has a bunch of wives and a bunch of kids. He's not a great father because, do you know how hard it is to be a good father to one or two kids? Imagine like 30 of them. So what do you offer a young woman? You're in your 50s, you've got 35 people to feed no money, a receding hairline, no fence, let's be real, you probably don't know where the clitoris is, what do you have to offer this young woman with a life in front of her? And he responds, a more likely question maybe, what does a young girl have to offer me? Oh my god!

Yes, she can give me children, but there are lots of young girls that can give me children. There are wives that have already given me children. Whatever a young girl has to offer me, I already have. I can't think of much a young girl can offer me that I don't already have with the wives I have. What can I offer her? The same thing that these ladies have gotten. That's this family.

Tom was also asked about how he feels about potentially being arrested for marrying girls that are underage and having kids with them, aka pedophilia and rape. He says, how would I respond to that? For about 95% of the recorded history of man. Listen, anytime someone starts with that phrase right there, I run the other way because whatever's coming out your mouth is not evolved. Okay, you don't know how to adapt. You don't know anything about culture. Go back to the stone ages. You don't even know how to start a fire with two sticks you idiot.

Anyways, for about 95% of the recorded history of man, girls got married when they were ready to have babies physically. I think that God had a design there. And if it's a mistake for girls to get married when she's able to conceive children, then the mistake is God's for making them be able to become mothers long before they are ready. But I think it's not that. It's not the physical problem.

It's that they are physically able to have children before they are mentally able to handle it. That's that fault. And that fault lies with society. It's society's fault that we stopped preparing young women for the responsibility of a family and instead prepared them for the working west. Yeah. It was crazy.

You hear that young girls? Stop thinking about college. Stop thinking about getting a job, putting food on the table. Think about receding hairline Tom. And what he can offer you. Or know what you can offer him. Shit. So yeah, the indoctrination, the brainwashing, the religious coercion, it was bad. And I know from the outside perspective, it sounds dumb. I mean, as a woman, it's hard to think there's no way that would happen to me. Yes, there's no way that would happen to me because I was born in a nuclear family

that did not believe in polygamy. It wasn't shoved down my throat. I wasn't born into this religion. But imagine if you were. And that's all you knew. And that's all you were taught. I think it would be just as hard for us to say, you know what? F*** monogamy, let's go into polygamy. It's the same for them to say, polygamy, let's go into monogamy. So by 2000, the FLDS community in the US had grown from a few hundred members to over 10,000 members. But over 60% of the population was under the age of 16.

It's really disgusting when you think about it. So is this a bunch of people that keep having kids, right? Like, these men. So here's what happens. It's a bunch of old men, having kids with young girls. And these sons, they grow up. And if they are not considered prominent members of the FLDS, they do not get to marry.

And they have been taught their whole lives that they need to marry so they will leave the community. So majority of the community were women and girls, marrying like a couple handful of men. I mean think about it, Warren had over 100 wives at one point, Uncle Rulon had about 75-78 wives, so yeah it was like majority just wives and children. Even local law enforcement were under the thumb of the FLDS church. They would look the other way, which led to the FLDS doing more and more atrocious things.

For example, Warren decided Becky's 13 year old cousin would be old enough to be married. Not only was she old enough to be married at 13 years old, but he was going to marry her to her first cousin. It's incest. And this is one of the times that Becky tried to talk to Uncle Rulon to get him to change Warren's mind. He is still the prophet after all. And Rulon sat there, listened to Frantic Becky and Alyssa on the side, and she's just saying, I just seen more time, please. And Rulon soaked it all in and smiled.

He grabbed Alyssa's hand, pat it in, and said, follow your heart, sweetheart, just follow your heart. She was relieved, they both were! And then they soon realized, follow your heart meant, get your heart to say yes or else you're in trouble. Alyssa was forced to marry her first cousin shortly after her 14th birthday. Her cousin forced her to consummate the marriage almost immediately, and he would rip her nearly every single night, violently.

But when Alyssa went to warn about the rape, he just told her, go home and follow your priesthood head. Whatever that meant, I mean, if it wasn't already clear, these men are marrying off minors, even into incestuous marriages, and they don't give a shit about anything or anyone but themselves. They don't even care that these minors are being raped, beaten, nothing. Alyssa's marriage was one of the big events that shaped Becky's decision to escape the

FLDS. Another was Warren's power tripping. Rulon was horrible, don't get me wrong, but Warren was worse. He wanted to tighten the reins on everyone. He had what he called the God Squad. And they were essentially his henchmen that were going around, following members around, making sure that they were following the rules. Warren forbade everyone from wearing the color red, he hated the color, it was a sinful color. Warren reiterated over and over again to his followers during all of his sermons that passion and pleasure in the bedroom were for men only. He was even overjoyed by 9-11. He said, times have changed. We as people must focus on preparing.

Father says we are being too light-minded. We must cut down on the laughter. We must restrict traveling and fancy entertainment. Restrict your camping trips and remind ourselves and families that this is time of focus and preparation. We should be rejoicing about 9-11. Terrorists are attacking the government and are leading to the weak-11. Terrorists are attacking the government and are leading to the weakening and demise of the evil that the government has become. Becky was so confused she didn't understand how worn and others could rejoice over people dying even if they were considered Gentiles or outsiders. So anyway, September 8, 2012, Rulan Jeffs kicked the bucket. Listen, I know it sounds harsh, but the guy, he kicked the bucket.

And the FLDS community was shocked, not only because their leader was dead, but because he said he was going to live till he was 150 years old. And that didn't happen. And all of his 75 wives were shocked and confused because what do we do? Rulon had 65 children, 65 listen this is a small town that he's created, 75 wives and 65 children, it's honestly terrifying when you think about it. I think this degree of polygamy, I don't think anyone would agree with it, it's just not sustainable. Like sure go on have a couple husbands

but don't create a small city with your offspring, it's just too much. Becky was 26 and the thought of being with another man as marrying another man was terrifying. It's not that she loved Rulan, but up until this point, she still respected him as her prophet, and the idea of remarrying just felt dirty. She felt like she needed to stay faithful to her husband who was the prophet. But a few days after Rulans funeral Warren had other plans. He wanted to remarry all of them, especially the younger ones. In fact, seven of the younger ones married Warren, a week after Rulans funeral. Are you kidding? Warren announced it like this. We're all going on a honeymoon trip to play baseball at the park. This is the next

step for the other ladies of Rulans. This is what Father wants you to do. These seven women came to me. These women were so pure they received Father's revelation first. This is Father's will. And I, I'm just his little boy. Just his little boy. He said it as if he's just so innocent in all of this, just a little boy. Becky did not want to remarry and she tried to make it clear to Warren, and he sat her down, and she said, I don't want to remarry. I don't know that this is what God and Father would want for me.

Warren looked at her and said, I will break you. Do you hear me? I will train you to be a good wife, and you have had too much freedom for too long, Becky. No matter who you marry, I will always have jurisdiction over you. Becky realized not moment, she would be enslaved to Warren Jeff's. He would claim her marriage, her body, and her soul, and she couldn't do it anymore.

She ran from the Jeff's mansion, ran across the grounds, came to the fence surrounding the property, the gates were locked. She scaled the six foot tall iron gate, jumped over to the other side and started running. There were so many times she said she wanted to run back, she felt like she was abandoning her sister wives, her whole family, everyone, but she couldn't, she kept running. She had arranged to meet up with a guy named Ben who was also part of the FLDS and they were going to escape together and go live with Becky's brother. So a lot of Becky's brothers, they left the church. They were like fuck this. So they start finding work wherever they could, typically in restaurants.

Ben and Becky also start sleeping together and she ended up having two kids. They get married, but it was short lived. Some habits take a lot of time to be untrained. And Ben hated the FLDS church, but he still acted like one of the men from the FLDS church. He believed the wife should be in care of the kids. He would do no housework. He would be treated like a king. So yeah, I wasn't going great.

There was also a lot of adjusting for Becky. Becky, even though she knew English, she felt like everybody was speaking a different language. All the modern slang, so they were taught like very older English, you know? They would speak a little bit different, you know, even things like, that's how life ought to be lived, you know, it's not really something we say casually. She just felt like it was so hard to understand anybody. You're like, okay, well, this is the end of the story because Becky is going to go get her life back, her freedom and it's going to be beautiful. go get her life back, her freedom, and it's gonna be beautiful. And that does happen, but not before,

Warren Jeffs is taken down. Warren was busy after Becky left. He was trying to build a sanctuary for his followers. He purchased a 1,371 acre property in Texas, and he was gonna build a temple there and called it the Yarning of Zion Ranch. Or if you wanna be a bit more casual about it, the Kingdom of Heaven, that's what he called it, the Kingdom of Heaven. The ranch was surrounded by a tall gate,

security cameras, and it was to be guarded 24-7. It was more like a fortress. Members, especially little girls that didn't want to get married, they would just disappear and be sent to the ranch for training. Becky's own sisters went missing. They were 12 and 15. Becky filed missing persons report and the police they were intrigued because they were already investigating this ranch. The authorities were shocked at how powerful and how massive the FLDS church had become. What's wild is that a huge reason that the FLDS church was able to grow at such a rapid speed is because men just couldn't resist the opportunity to rape and marry a 14 year old girl. That's genuinely why, like, that's why maybe people even joined the FLDS Church. Becky's cousin would

eventually escape and take legal action against her husband slash first cousin, and that would ultimately set off a chain reaction that led to the unravelling of the FLDS community. Warren kind of thought coming though. He was out in hiding most of the time. He had his trusted agents run the community, but randomly he would sneak into perform marriages. He liked these droppings because everybody would stay in line and devoted him. They were kind of spooked.

Warren would force his followers to give up their hard earned money. I mean he always did this, but more so during this time so he could stay on the run essentially. They were probably given some godly excuse for the money. During all of this, you would think that Warren wouldn't have time to have a romantic life, but he did. He had more than 100 wives at this point, some of them were as young as 12 years old. Warren treated them all horribly. He raped them, he played mind games with them, he wanted them to all be up against each

other and try to outdo each other. He would eventually make it to the FBI's top 10 most wanted list. And in August of 2006, he was finally arrested. He was pulled over in a brand new Cadillac Escalade. They found $55,000 of cash in the car, letters from his followers, 15 cellphones, walkie-talkies, computers, credit cards, keys to several other luxury vehicles, a police scanner, a ton of wigs, sunglasses, I guess that's his disguise. And to top it all off, none of the letters from his followers had even been read.

They were just open enough for warrant to check for cash and remove any cash inside. He didn't give a shit about his people or their money. Which by the way, he used this money to take him and his God's God to Disney World. I don't know, I feel like that should be against the FLDS, no? Disney World, that sounds crazy. But the most damning evidence that couldn't even be heard in trial later on because of how horrific it was, were the audio tapes of Warren molesting his wives.

There was one where he molested the 12-year-old girl, remember in the white room. In the audio recording, he was talking about how he suffered at night from visions from God, and it would wreck his body with pain, and his only solace was comfort from his wives, often more than one wife at a time. He talked to the recorder about a man's needs and how is the duty of a wife to pleasure him always on demand without question. Becky was shocked at the audacity.

First he shamed women for desiring sexual relations, but in the next breath he shamed those women who didn't desire him by saying that they were cutting themselves away from the presence of a heavenly father. The way he removed Mary was heartbreaking. He stood behind his fake religion to do it. He said, dear sister Mary, she's 12. With the authority of the Holy Priesthood, by the keys and powers thereof and oneness

with the priesthood in the heavens, placing hands upon your head, thinking of the Lord, please get on the other side of the bed. We seal the holy love of God in your mind and heart, just loyal to you as a baby and peace from this time forth and even moment by moment. We bless you with the power of God. To now become heavenly sensitive, we bless you with the power of God. To now become heavenly sensitive, we bless you through the power of God. Let the heavenly comfort hear us, your child like heavenly comfort wife. And in between this impassioned fake religious speech, he would instruct Mary on what to do with his body. And he would say things like the all-consuming fire from heaven.

And after the rape, Warren would end with a prayer to God about his wives. He said, God, deliver my wives from all the light-mindedness and selfish will they have. Light-mindedness? Selfish will? They're being raped. They're being tortured. And after the rape, Warren demanded Mary come give them a hug. In another journal entry, Warren talked about his disgusting obsession with underage girls. He wrote, these young girls have been given to me to be taught and trained. They have come to me from the presence of God to help redeem Zion from their youngest years. Before they go through teenage doubts, fears, and boy troubles, I will be their only boy trouble, and I will guide them right.

May the Lord help me. What's fascinating, and I don't know if it's the trauma coming out for me, but I can't think of one time in history. Listen, any group of people with power that goes unchecked is a recipe for disaster. But why is it that when a group of men go unchecked in their power, women will almost always, if not, every single time become

victims in the story. I understand it's not all men, but if history tells us something and if current statistics tell us something, it's a lot of men, it's too many men. So later, Warren's own nephew will file charges against Warren, and a few other uncles for sexually assaulting him when he was a child. It seems everyone was ready to see Warren pay the price for his actions. Becky cooperated with the police and she was, she was shocked. She expected them to be grossed out. Even Ben, she later married her member at the former FLDS member. When she opened up about her trauma with what

Rulon made her do, he would say things like, Ilw, why did you let Rulon do that to you, Becky? As if she had any say in her abuse. She thought the police would do the same thing, but they sat there quietly, and surprisingly, they were even visibly angry when they heard details about her sexual abuse, not angry at her, but at her abusers. And Becky said she was shocked by their compassion.

She had never received this understanding from anyone before, and for the first time, she felt validated. She wanted to testify against Warren during his trial, and a lot of other women did too. And the one thing that they always remember to do every day in court was to wear a splash of red while testifying. A lot of shady things started to come out during the trial. The fact that more girls were running away because the minute that they started to develop breasts they would be picked off for marriage. The police found diaries from other kids in Altai Academy. They kept a journal of all of when their sister

siblings, like their female siblings, were married off and they were so young, illegally young. They found records of underage patients being pregnant, CPS started removing the children and the underage girls, a lot of the underage girls who already had children of their own, but there was this huge barrier. Nobody trusted the CPS. These girls did not. Remember the stories they were told?

So they would lie, they would say they never had sex, they never gave birth. They were never forced to marry anyone. When it was clear that they were either pregnant at the moment or had already given birth. In fact, the girls even went on TV to claim that CPS was holding them in concentration camps to create white slaves. They claimed that CPS made them line up and stripped down for male workers who were checking them by hand for pregnancy.

In reality, they were only required to give a urine sample and whenever CPS had to deal with these girls, they would send female employees so that they would feel more comfortable. They were being treated better, more respectfully by authorities than their own husbands, yet they were so indoctrinated that they would not see that. Some of the girls would go on TV to say that their situation with CPS was like, and I quote, like Jewish people and Nazi concentration camps. And Warren, he started doing some weird things in prison. Now, I don't want to say he was losing it because I don't want to make it seem like he's mentally unfit to stand trial or pay for his crimes. But it was wild. He would, um, let's say at least 15 times a day masturbate in front of the guards in cameras. Why? No idea. No idea. Okay. He admitted to immoral

actions with his sister and daughter. I don't know if he was using that as like a daughter of God phrase or his actual daughter and he's admitting to incest. I wouldn't be surprised. He said he said that he tried to commit suicide by running into walls and banging his head against the walls. He said that he tried to commit suicide by running into walls and banging his head against the walls. Warren also attempted to hang himself but was unsuccessful, and even with all of this, he continued to run the FLDS church from prison, and you would be surprised at how many people still followed him. Even while he was in prison, he didn't believe others should be having fun without him,

so he said nobody was allowed to have sex till he was released. His bins were only caretakers, and they were not to sleep with their wives. Any children conceived during this time would be considered evil. I mean, come on man, you're in jail. Who's like, are they really still taking him seriously? Come on. Yeah, he would also send them letters, which was just full-scale guilt tripping, saying that he's in prison because they're not praying hard enough.

They're not being holy enough. Sir, you're there for raping underage minors. I don't think any prayer is going to set you free. Later, Warren would allow his followers to have sex with their wives, but at first they would have to write to him and get his permission. The honor was only bestowed upon people that proved their loyalty to him. Probably through money, there were only about 15 men that could have sex. And if any woman in the FLDS church wanted to have children, you would have to go have sex not with your husband, but with these 15 men and your husband was supposed to watch. The community

is still huge, it's estimated that there are still 10,000 members. Now, this is why I want to do a disclaimer. I think the Jeff's family are some of the most despicable, vile people. I am sure that there must be some people in the FLDS community that are not married to minors. I do not excuse any of that behavior to be married to minors. Like, that's your fucked up. Okay. Maybe there's some that are not, but a part of me feels bad because they've been indoctrinated probably since the day they were born. But another part of me is, if you are a parent, you have a duty to protect your kids. And you are not fulfilling that duty and it is illegal. Now in a sick twist of fate, Warren's charges were overturned due to faulty jury charges.

But Warren was soon extradited to Texas where he would face more charges. And in August of 2011, Becky testified again in his second trial. She wore a bright red blouse. And when she took the stand, she looked up. And everyone in the courtroom was wearing red. Whoa. Red ties, red dresses, red flowers in their hair.

She said it was the most beautiful display of solidarity and support, and it gave her the strength to testify yet again against Warren. The jury found Warren Jeff's guilty of sexual assault of a child and aggravated sexual assault. He was sentenced to life plus twenty years. He had arranged the marriages of 67 different men with childbrights. Many of them were his own daughters. And he constantly reassigned new wives and new husbands to one another. It said that he personally destroyed at least 300 families, but he still continues to run

FLDS behind bars and controls every aspect of some people's lives. Even to this day. To this day. It's estimated that there are 10,000 members. Protect your kids. I don't know. I definitely think seeing my sister have a kid and seeing how vulnerable these children are makes these cases so much harder to talk about and I'm sure it's worse when I have my own kid. Let me know your thoughts on this week's mini-sode and I will see you guys on Wednesday for the main episode. Bye.

on this week's mini-suit. And I will see you guys on Wednesday for the main episode. Bye.