Was I In A Cult? - The Cult of Warren Jeffs’ FLDS PT2: “The Great Escape”

Episode Date: July 28, 2025

Last week, we met Jorjina Broadbent — mother of twelve, former sister-wife, and low-key badass hiding in plain sight.This week? She stops hiding.We pick up where we left off: deep inside the world of Warren Jeffs’ FLDS cult — a place where girls are married off as teens, obedience is salvation, and hairstyles left something to be desired… like choice. But for Jorjina, something inside her starts to shift. As the leash tightens and the rules get crueler, the exit comes into view.What follows is a breathless series of near-escapes, terrifying threats, and secret plans that might as well have been scribbled on fast food napkins. Also, Tyler’s gorilla-style documentary filmmaking at its most high-stakes gets to be part of it all. How will she make it out? And all her children?Get the popcorn ready… This is Part Two of Jorjina’s extraordinary story.___Follow Us for More Culty Content:Instagram & TikTok: @wasiinacultWATCH THE FILM:Sons of Perdition (Tyler’s baby)Stream on Amazon, Tubi, Apple TV, YouTube TV, Sling, PlexFREE for Patreon members!Help Jorjina get some Abba shoes! (Venmo @Jorjina-Broadbent)Support the Show:This show is listener-powered. If Jorjina’s story moved you—please rate, review, and share. Thank you to our Patreon members!! We appreciate you. And if you would like ad-free episodes and exclusive content, consider joining our Patreon.Share Your Story:Have a cultic experience of your own? We want to hear it.Email us at [e-mail] Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The views, information, or opinions expressed by the guest appearing in this episode solely belong to the guest and do not represent or reflect the views or positions of the hosts, the show, Podcast One, this network, or any of their respective affiliates. James come down, so I went and listened to my ear on the door, and I could hear him talking to somebody say, Yeah, Hillary, she's going to go get married. So when I went out and told Hillary that night, she goes, Mom, we've got to do something.

We've got to get out of here. I do not want to get married. And I think she was 14 at the time. I said, I don't know what to do because I don't know who to turn to. ["Was I in a Cult?" by The CW plays.] Welcome back to Was I in a Cult? This is the podcast that reminds you, dear listeners, that leaving a cult is difficult.

But making fun of douchey cult leaders is quite easy. I'm Tyler Meesom. And I'm Liz Iacuzzi. Now last week we introduced you to one Georgina Broadband, a badass woman who spent 27 years inside the FLDS, a fundamentalist Mormon offshoot run by convicted predator and infamous prophet pedophile Warren Steed Jeffs. Now there may not be multiple wives in prison, Warren, but I'm sure you're getting multiple peni.

Congratulations, sir, you've made it to celestial heaven. I also suggest spitting over swallowing and... You just can't, you gotta take it from one to the other, don't you? You got another one in there, Liz, why not? Stay away from the beans and the prunes. You don't wanna make the boys mad by making a mess. It's just.

He started it. Yeah, okay. He started it by being the world's worst pedophile. I'm sorry. He kinda did, it's on him. He wrote that. He wrote that first. Okay, now if you of course haven't listened to the first episode, well, there is an order here, folks. There is an order.

There's rules here, folks. There is an order. There's rules here, folks. This is a cult, after all. But the lead Tyler is sort of burying here is that he met Georgina while making a very good documentary about the lost boys of Mormonism called Sons of Perdition. Did you come up with that title, by the way? We did. It was one of the titles, Sons perdition in the Mormon term, or I think it's just in Christianity in general, is someone who had the faith and had religion and then actively turned against it. And supposedly, sons of perdition live not in heaven or even the lower tiers of Mormon

heaven. They just wander about in nothingness. So pretty harsh thing to tell someone they are. Well, it's a very powerful film. And if you have not seen it yet, there are links to the film in our show notes. Yeah, it's a good film. I'm very proud of it. We followed three teenage boys who had escaped Colorado City, known as the Crick.

And we're trying to figure out life on the outside. And it's old school doc making Tyler. It's raw. It's just you and a van and a camera. Pretty much. I mean, it was me and my partner, Jenny Lynn Merton running around for two and a half years filming these kids going into places that are crazy. And you will see the last episode didn't have many crazy places. This episode, we were full on in escapes. We were in it. And yeah, we were in it. We were actually part of the story in a big way.

Yeah, very much so. We became a part of these people's lives. We were a part of the story and part of the escapes. I just feel like they don't make docs like that anymore. They don't. Networks don't necessarily give filmmakers the time to spend two and a half years following people Not knowing what the story is gonna be

I mean, I know Netflix did a documentary series about the FLDS and no bash on Netflix I love my Netflix and I love working for them when I did work for them But they did a series on the FLDS and it was basically just interviews, you know Whereas for two and a half years, we really became a part of the story. So sometimes if you're going to make a documentary about war, you put on a flak jacket and a helmet and you go to war. And I don't think they do those anymore, which is unfortunate. TITLE So last week we learned about Georgina's life inside the crick, as she says, as they call it, the crick. And today we hear how she did it her great escape

Multiple escapes actually so last week if it was my kids are escaping this week is and now it's my turn It's a ride. It's scary. It's hopeful. It's chaotic and surprisingly Musical oh is it a surprise that we're gonna sneak some kind of music into this episode or every episode? Sometimes it's forced. This one, sort of. Sort of. Last episode, forced. Forced. This episode, not.

People are still like, why am I still thinking about Abba? Abba. Whatever. Abba. Abba. So grab your popcorn. This is part two of Georgina's story, The Great Escape. Quick name reminder Joe is Georgina's son and he obviously escaped from the crick in last episode One night, someone tapped on the back window and it was Joe. I said, what are you doing here? And he says, mom, one of these days I'll come back and get you. I'm like, oh, I wouldn't even think it.

That's the most horrible thing to think about, wanting to leave and take your children with you. I thought that was horrible. But when it started changing, the things that were happening in church and stuff, and Warren started coming down on the people really hard with things that we couldn't do anymore. Now, as you remember from the previous episode, we used a few clips from the film. Now, this next one is a scene with former member Deloy Bateman and author John Krakauer. Who is the author of Under the Banner of Heaven, the bestselling book about the FLDS. And it's a great read, by the way, and also a good show. Did you see it? Did you watch it? Did you like it? I did. I did watch it, yes.

One of my favorite actresses, Daisy Edgar Jones, stars in that. Nice. Warren, you know, was born three months premature in 1955. He was seen as this miracle baby by his father, the prophet Rulingefs. So he got away with murder. In some ways, it's the child abuse and sexual abuse that is most repellent, but the more you learn it's all these little things of just ripping off his own people. The leader says something, you don't let your mind say,

is this the right thing to do? If he says it, then it's basically what God's asking you to do. And you just don't say, well, I wonder if God's right or not. This religion isn't going away. And in fact, it's the history of the Mormon faith that whenever the prophet is persecuted, the faithful become even more faithful and more believing. I mean, it's been it's been that way since 1830 and it will be that way forever. So just in case anyone needs to hear this, Warren Jeffs eventually married over 80 women, some as young as 12. Yes, he did.

He had a tight fist around his flock, exiling boys, breaking up families, policing millions from his followers. This man is a genuine piece of shit, and that is not metaphorical, Tyler. I mean, in the most literal, gastrointestinal, septic tank clogging kind of way, he is a walking, talking, song-stealing, predatory turd. Editor's note, I'm gonna do the listeners a favor

and cut out about two and a half minutes of poop stuff. I'd flush his ass so hard and I'd watch him swirl around that stainless steel toilet bin and then I'd send him off to wherever the hell R. Kelly's getting peed on. Amen. You know, I thought maybe we got all your, your poopoo dirty talk out in the first minute, but apparently not.

You wrote this. And this 155 pounds sack of manure was making life difficult for Georgina. No shit. I was just, I was done being treated like I was a bad person, which I wasn't. But I just, I just got so tired of it. I wanted to do something else. I wanted my children to have a happy childhood like I had, where they could go where they wanted to and do the things they wanted to.

Now, remember, most of Georgina's kids had left the community. Suzanne, Jimmy, Joe and Emma. But Hillary was still around. Hillary was a very sweet and innocent young girl, wise beyond her years, but obviously still naive and shy from, well, growing up in a cult. In 2007, Hillary and I were talking about we wanted to just leave. I think she was 13 and Hillary was seeing that all her brothers and sisters were leaving and she wanted to leave, too.

She says, I want friends, I want to be able to go to school, I want to be able to do things and go places and have money. And I said, I would too, I'd like to get out and do something, but I don't know what I do. I have six kids to try to take care of. What would I live off of? What would I do? And we'd just go back to, oh no, we need to do what we're told to do because that's the only way we're going to be happy and be obedient and be taken care of. Or Georgina did give one piece of advice to Hillary. If she ever did leave.

Give me a head with hair, long beautiful hair. I told her to cut her hair. I said, if you cut your hair, you won't be able to come back for a while. Yeah, you can't cut your hair. You have to keep it long and beautiful because it's supposed to be a symbol of anointing Jesus' feet, I guess, when we get to heaven. My hair was cleared down to probably my butt. They said a woman's hair is sacred, so we don't cut it.

It had to be what they call done up, which means you can't have no dangling hair in the face. I didn't want to be a play kid, but I was just there, you know? And like people would stare at us and point at us and laugh at us. And it was almost like I wanted to scream because I wanted to yell at them and say, I don't want this. Just because I'm like this doesn't mean I want to be like this, you know? Do you remember when Hillary left?

Joe come one night and got her with, I think Jenny was driving. Yeah, and they took Hillary. OK, so we'd been filming this particular documentary for a solid year and a half at this point. We'd become very close to the three boys featured in the film, Joe, Sam and Bruce, also Suzanne and her husband Don. Now they were all living in St. George, Utah, this is about 45 minutes outside of Colorado City. And one day, we were with Joe, Georgina's son, and Sam, both of them about 17 years old, and they wanted to go find Hillary.

Well, maybe I'll drive out to the creek and see if she's out there. If she's not, I'm gonna go beat up that. Okay, so it's dusk. We're driving into Colorado City. Sam and Joe are in the back seat. I'm shooting from the passenger window, and I have a wireless mic on Sam and Joe and they pull up to Joe's old house in the creek. The truck's not there. The minivan's not there. That means mom's gone. Let's do it Sam. Sam and Joe both get out of the car and they just walk into the house. And I'm filming, but I can't see anything, but I can hear them.

And I can hear Hillary, and I'd never met Hillary before. And then Sam comes out, he runs out, opens up the back door and he puts a small plastic bag and he sets it in the back seat. And basically, this is just Hillary's underwear. She just told him to take this and go. And then I look and I see a little scared girl in a blue polygamous dress and she comes running out.

She jumps in our car and says go go go. Come on come on. And we drive off, taking a 14 year old girl with us. Wow. Sam, we're lost often at the house because Dad could be there any fucking minute. We're going straight to Jeremy's. Who's Jeremy? The rich guy. Totally different, Hillary.

I'm not going back to the country. So you helped her escape? Was that the plan from the beginning? I mean, not necessarily. We were just helping him. He wanted to find out where she was. He was curious where she was. It wasn't an intent to get her to escape. But when he walked in the house and she saw him, she said, I want to go get me out of here. So, I mean, it was a surprise to me when she jumped in the backseat and said, Go, go, go. And of course, you know, what do you do?

What? Did you have a camera in her have? What was I supposed to do? Did you have the camera in her face? And she was like. Yeah I mean I was kind about it. I set the camera down on the dash so she couldn't really see it but she knew there was weird people. She didn't know who they were.

They were better than the weird people in the house. Right. That's amazing. It was it was quite an insight. It was very like my I remember my heart beating. Yeah. That's amazing. It was quite an insight. It was very, like I remember my heart beating just intently. Also because her dad was in the backyard. Like he was back there and she was in the,

the mother was in the backyard. He was gonna be home any second. And we're parked out in front of this house in Colorado city, a town where I get followed every time I go in anyways. And we just haul ass out of there with an escapee. That's incredible. Now there was a very wealthy, very Mormon man

that I had met previously. His name is Jeremy Johnson, and he was very keen in helping out these political refugees, right? Now side story, he was later arrested and indicted in 2011, right after we finished the movie, for 78 charges of fraud, conspiracy, money laundering, and he also bribed the Utah State Attorney General.

But that's not this story. No big deal. That's not this story. This particular story is that he was helping out these polygamist kids. Yeah, he helps out kids. He's just got an issue with his bank accounts. That's all he does. Right. Look him up. It's an interesting story. And we took Hillary to his house, not knowing what else to do. Jeremy, he then went and met Hillary's mother, Georgina, in a Burger King parking lot. I had him mic'd and I was filming from another car. She's at my house right now. I'm Jeremy Johnson.

Oh. How are you? Good. She didn't want to come so I wanted to come down and meet you anyways. I want to see if Hillary will come with me and just stay with me for a week and then she can figure out from there. And if you want to talk to my husband and tell him that's what's going to happen. Can we do that? Is this James? Your daughter's at my house. Does he want me to go up there and talk to her? Yeah, he wants you to go talk to her. I don't think you're going to be able to change her mind. Okay.

So the short story is Georgina then went and met her daughter, Hillary, at Jeremy's house. And at this point, James had lost four children to the quote evil outside world, including two precious gems, his marrying age daughters and his standing in the cult was starting to slip. So with this pressure from James, Georgina took Hillary back to the community. I'm sorry that she didn't say. For some reason, Milla was help on Hillary move out. the community. to make the sacrifice, she's going to regret it. This message is sponsored by Greenlight. True story, my son, he recently discovered that he's actually earning money from his investments, like real

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greenlight.com slash cult. So Georgina returned her own daughter to the mouth of the tiger. But that's how indoctrination strangles you. It hijacks your brain's operating system. Your limbic system, which controls emotion and survival, gets overloaded. Your amygdala goes into chronic danger mode, making you hypervigilant and therefore seeing threats everywhere, even if they're not even present. Meanwhile, your prefrontal cortex, the part that handles logic and decision making, takes a nice long nap because when your brain is

stuck in constant fear, there's no room for critical thought. Obedience feels like safety because anything that challenges the doctrine gets flagged as danger. And over time, your brain rewires to survive like a wild animal just trying to stay alive. Lizziacuzzi, neuroscientist. That was my best, Tyler. How did I do? Not bad. So Georgina takes Hillary back to the crick, but a few months later after being more confined

and the rules ever tightening, something shifted in Georgina. Yeah I've been keeping a journal since I was 15, so I was reading in my journal. It was 2006, November. Joe, Suzanne, Dawn and Megan came and seen us. They came to the back door. Hillary was outside and she was talking to them and then she came in and we sat and chatted and stuff and I said, Suzanne, I want out of here. I can't take this anymore. I don't want to be here anymore. So we start talking about it and they started planning it. And he says, we've got to figure out a way. Dad's not going to know about it and Rachel's not going to know about it.

So they thought about different ways to how to get me out of there. And I said, no, that's not going to work. And so Joe says, give me a couple of days and I'll come back and get you and Hillary. You'd planned a certain day? No, just a day that I knew James was going to be home. Rachel was out for the day. And I had to figure out how to get out of there without them finding out. Okay, so my side of the story, right?

So Jenny Lynn and I are deeply entrenched in the making of this film. But it was just us. No crew, no team, me shooting and running around with her. I'm living in Salt Lake. This is a full four and a half hours from Colorado City. One day I get a call from Joe who says, mother wants to leave and take the whole family tonight. We want you to film it. Wow.

Hillary and I were putting a bunch of different stuff in the big white van just sitting on the floor under the mat, things I wanted. And my kids are saying, Mom, where are you taking all this stuff and says, well, I gotta go to drop a whole bunch of this stuff off. So we grabbed the gear, we hop in the car and we drive 100 miles an hour down I-15 towards St. George, we get pulled over. I get a very

expensive ticket from an asshole cop who did not care that we were out saving lives, of course. Never have I ever met a cop to just give a warning. If you're a cop and you have delivered just a warning for speeding, please email us. We want to hear your story. info at wasinacall.com. So all the while, as I'm driving down as fast as I can, Joe is calling saying, where are you? Mother has packed everything in her van. She's ready to go. How crazy.

Liz is literally like eating popcorn. She's literally eating popcorn, waiting in anticipation. What's gonna happen next? I'm stress eating over here. Gonna go out to the creek and bail my mom out of there. She wants to start her life over. I'm not sure what's gonna happen. Mother's gonna get an excuse to go get some milk or something.

She'll jump in her big van and meet us out there. Meet us out there. It got dark and Hillary and I went to go get milk and then we came back and put the milk on the back table and then we went and got back in the van and was going to meet Joe. I have Willie and

Hillary and Bryce. Philip and Russell was playing with Stephen, which was Rachel's boy, and I said, no, you guys need to go back in the house and play. And Hillary says, Mom, we can't leave them. I says, well, I don't know how to do this. This is very scary for me. So we just took the kids that I had and we left. So we finally get down to St. George. We pull up Joe, Suzanne, and her husband, Don,

and they're waiting by the truck. And we get there and we haul ass out to the rendezvous point just outside of Colorado City. It's the only restaurant in town, the oddly named Mark Twain. Mark Twain was a restaurant that was out the right on the border of Colorado City and Arizona. And we drove out to Mark Twain and met there with

you guys and Joe. We pull up to this dark parking lot and there's a big white van filled with kids. And we decided rather than filming, we would help them unload because we knew how quickly this had to happen. So we quickly grabbed bags and we started moving them from the white van into Dawn's truck. It's just insane.

Here we were taught that everybody out here is evil and wicked and corrupt. So I didn't know what to expect. When I met you and Jenny, I'm like, wow, these are some nice people. And I remember this little toe-headed girl in a little polygamist dress, about four years old. She's scared, but she's kind of intrigued by the excitement, excitement she doesn't really ever see living in the crick.

And she looks up at me, and she hands me this little suitcase to put in the truck. She was four? Yeah. Was she one of the kids? Yep, she was Georgina's daughter, Valay. Aw, and so sweet.

She's like, I wanna go on this adventure. Didn't know what was happening. And loaded up some stuff into Dawn's truck, and then we drove down to Suzanne's. I turned off my phone because I didn't want James to find me or know where I was. I remember I was so freaking scared because I felt like I had... I don't know.

He threatened so many times to take my kids away if I ever tried to leave. So I figured he'd probably gonna find me, take my kids away from me. Now, the next morning, the kids and Georgina found themselves in a new place in St. George, sleeping on the floor of an apartment safe for now. We were filming This Is Joe with his sister, Hillary. I was so damn happy to see my little brothers, my mother, my sisters. So awesome.

Hopefully that father doesn't wash her brain out to where she wants to go back. I hope not. Is it scarier the day you're leaving or scarier the next day? Probably both. Yeah. Especially fall. Yeah. You don't know if you're gonna come chop your head off. Exactly. Chop your head off. Kidnap you. Go in jail. Chop your head off exactly chop your head off

We stayed there for that night at Suzanne's and the next morning I turned my phone back on and James was he had a tracer thing on it So he knew exactly where I was he wanted to come and talk with me and I said I don't want to talk to you I want you to leave me and my kids alone. He said well, they're not your kids and I said, I don't want to talk to you. I want you to just leave me and my kids alone. He said, well, they're not your kids. And I said, yes, they are my kids. And he says, no, let's go talk for a little while. And I says, no, I don't want to come back because you're going to take me and the kids and take us back to Colorado City.

He says, well, if you come back, we can make things a little bit different. And I says, no, it's going to be the same. And I says, I don't want to come back. There's that scene in the film when he comes for you and you're inside. Yeah I don't want I didn't want to talk to him. You there? She's staying here she's done with you she don't want to have anything to do with you and she's staying here. She's done. He's gonna be here. Walk the door. Now that is Don.

Now Suzanne's husband on the phone with James. Now Don also left the crick a few years prior. He's barrel-chested and intimidating from afar, but he's kind of a teddy bear when you know him. But he's hell-bent on protecting his family. And at this point, the family is inside the house with Jenny Lin, my co-director, me and I, I'm parked across the street.

I'm literally hidden in a car. I've got a blanket over my head. I've got the camera aimed at the home and I'm awaiting the arrival of James, the husband. This is crazy. He pulls up in a massive pickup truck. High stakes. Yeah.

And I was in the back seat and the camera had the top of the camera had like the microphone and everything. So I literally had to film it upside down with the screen pointing down cause I didn't want him to see me. So I'm tucked in the back seat with just the, just the bit of the camera sticking out the window. It was crazy cause I didn't want him to see me so I'm tucked in the back seat with just the bit of the camera sticking out the window.

It was crazy because I didn't want him to see me. This is not the time to forget to hit record. Don walks confidently from the house and he goes straight to the truck window and he confronts James. There's your phone. Go. She doesn't want to come out here and talk to you. She will not. You've done enough to screw with these people.

She's not coming out to talk to you. Why do you tell her that they're going to take her kids from her? You don't answer to anybody but yourself? Because you're so high and mighty? Is that it? So Don reaches for his phone and he calls the sheriff. Little Joe comes out to back up his brother-in-law. No way. I need a sheriff to respond to a domestic disturbance at 3555 East Silver Creek Drive. What did she say? They're at my house and I'm protecting them. We're trying to get a protective order and he won't leave. Now we just drove off because I called you guys, so...

As the truck drives away, Joe screams at his father, the man who once terrorized him with fear, By the way, fuck you! he screams. Come on way, fuck you. He screams. Come on. I got chills. I actually know this story and I have chills. He drove down the street, but I don't know how far away he went. Basically, he'd do whatever he had to. He'll break and tire up and haul her back against her wheel. And then I tried to get a protective order,

but without signatures from James and Rachel, the judge wouldn't sign anything, so I had to go back home. So he picked up me and the kids and took us back home. Hey, let's talk about all the things you can do with a great set of sheets. Okay. Sure, they can cover a bed. But they can also be turned into a ghost costume. Yeah, you can knot them into a rope. You can escape prison. Wear them as a toga for a party that you're most definitely too old to attend.

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It's worth it. And here's the deal. Yeah, here's the deal. You buy a set of Bowlin' Branch sheets, I will personally come over and take a hot nap on them. It's not creepy. It's respectful, just quiet, consensual napping. A hot nap makes it just sound so gross.

Get the best savings of the season during Bowlin Branch's annual summer event. You get 20% off plus free shipping on your first set of sheets at bowlinbranch.com slash you guessed it, Colt. But not that you guessed it, it's just slash Colt. That's Bowlin Branch, B-O-L-L-A-N-D, branch.comcom slash cult to save 20% and unlock free shipping limited time only exclusions apply. What was life like when you got back home? Both Hillary and me were watched very closely. I got my phone taken away from me so I didn't have a phone. Naturally, Joe was crushed by losing his mother

and siblings back to James and Colorado City. For him though, he was this single-minded, skinny little bastard who wanted to strike a blow to his father as a retribution for all the blows he took from him. I had the police over last night at our house. Dad signed some papers to where if me, Don, and Suzanne come close to Hillary, Mother, Philip, and Russell,

he can have us arrested. What do you think your dad's thinking about Hillary? Are you going to want to marry her off real fast? Is she somebody that could be married? Oh, she could get married definitely when she's 14. All Warren has to do is make a phone call and bam, they're married. A few weeks later, well, Hillary escapes. My partner Jenny Lynn goes down to the creek late at night with Don and Joe and busts her out. She jumps in the truck says go go go. She had escaped the

cult one more time. No. But of course James was determined to find his daughter the precious marrying gem. In so much that he actually found my number and called me after she'd escaped. What? Are you aware of that I had a conversation with James on the phone? No. So yeah, James called me and he said, do you know where Hillary is? And I said, yes I do. And he said, where? And I said, I'm not gonna tell you. But she's safe and she's fine. What he didn't know gonna tell you but she's safe and she's fine What he didn't know is that I knew she was safe and fine because she was upstairs. Yeah, she was staying with us Yep, that is right. Not wanting to make the same mistake as last time

We took Hillary somewhere that James would never find her She was living in my spare room in Salt Lake City She was living in my spare room in Salt Lake City. What? And Jenny and I were taking care of her. Wait, and her mom didn't know? No, no one knew. The only people that knew was Joe. Joe knew. Wow.

She was scared. I mean, she was scared. She was nervous. She had nightmares all the time of her father, who had his face on a train chasing her. And she didn't want to leave the house. And she only left the house twice. Once for her 14th birthday dinner, which we took her to, and second to do as her mother had suggested should she ever leave.

We went and got her hair cut. Short. Girl, you get that hair done. But the funny thing is, the thing she was most excited about was being able to watch TV, because obviously she couldn't ever watch TV. And she was fascinated by the show, Hannah Montana was a wildly popular Disney show that ran from 2006 to 2011. It starred a young Miley Cyrus as Miley Stewart, a totally normal teenage girl

with a totally secret identity as a global pop superstar named Anna Montana. Yeah, she wore a blonde wig and somehow no one could figure out that she was a pop icon. Clark can't eat your heart out. Relax. I'm sure your dad's just late because the Jonas Brothers are arguing about his music

or changing his lyrics and making you miserable. Woo! I love the Jonas Brothers. Wow, that was way off. Where have you been? You were supposed to be home two hours ago. Start talking, mister. Now the show Hannah Montana was about leading a double life, trying to balance school and friends during the day with fame, concerts, and paparazzi at night. So you can see why it hit hard for a girl like Hillary. Raised in a cult, told what to wear, who to marry,

how to braid her sacred hair. Hannah Montana wasn't just a show, it was a possibility. Hillary didn't want to be famous, she just wanted to be free and have a locker with a spin combination lock. That would have been cool too. Now, Hillary lived with us for about a week, but at the advice of a lawyer who reminded us

that we were in fact harboring a minor who had been taken from her home against her father's wishes and crossed state lines. Yes, there's possibly some trafficking in there. We decided that perhaps she should go to her sister, Sabrina, who had left the community at this time, but was still was still unfortunately in contact with James. Oh no. I think it was like two weeks later, James called me and told me he found Hillary. She'd been staying in Salt Lake with Sabrina or something. He says, I'm going to go get her. I'm going to bring her back.

And sadly, that's exactly what he did. Hillary was returned once again to the creek. But were you sad when she came back? I was, because I knew that now she was going to probably get married. And he took both me and Hillary to a hotel in St. George and said that we were going to stay down there for a couple of days. We drove out there and yes she was in pants and a shirt and made her change into her long underwear and her long dress and I could tell she didn't want to but her hair was right to her shoulders it was up here. Looked

really cute on her and we were to go and repaint and I was supposed to teach Hillary that what she did was wrong and so the first night that we stayed there in the motel in St. George her and I sat and watched Hannah Montana. She says I watch this all the time in Salt Lake with Tyler. They're just gonna keep wanting more dad and then other people will and then. And I won't have time for Hannah Montana? Or Miley. Since Hillary had cut her hair, Warren told him to take me and Hillary

to a place where he can watch us more because he'd be on one of the jobs. So he took us to Sholo, Arizona. Sholo, Arizona, yes, that's a real name and that's S-H-O-W-L-O-W, Sholow, is a small mountain town tucked into the White Mountains of eastern Arizona. Its population is around 12,000 and the elevation is over 6,000 feet. But now according to Town Lore and its own website, Sholow got its name from an old school

poker game. Two settlers, Corydon Cooley and Marion Clark, were co-owners of a 100,000 acre ranch, but decided it wasn't big enough for the both of them. So naturally they played a game of seven up to decide who had to leave. Clark reportedly said, if you can show low, you win. To which Cooley flipped over Deuce of Clubs, the lowest possible card and said, if you can show low, you win. To which Cooley flipped over Deuce of Clubs, the lowest possible card and said, show low it is. And that folks is how the town got its name.

Their main street is still called Deuce of Clubs, naturally. Nice. Wow. I did not know that Liz. Look at me, Tyler, me some facting your ass! Facting it up. But it is Sholo, Arizona, where a douchey prophet decided it was the perfect place to hide a potential wife. Poker face indeed. James told me to pack for a couple of weeks and you can only take William. He was three and he says I'm not gonna leave him because he's your baby but I'm

not gonna let you take and the late was only four. I saw what she gonna do he says um I don't want her to see what Hillary looks like. So you just get to take your baby and that's all. So it was a miserable trip, a whole eight-hour trip down there to Cholo. All he did, all the whole trip was berate me and bitch at me the whole time that I wasn't perfect and I wasn't his perfect submissive wife. And so he had a house down there and he said to take Hillary down there and teach her about repentance and obedience and submission and that's all he wanted us to do while we were living down there was listen to Warren's tapes all day and get some kind of message out of them.

Young ladies just know it there will come a time in your marriage where he must step out and be the boss. Did you get that? When he'd go to work every day, Hillary and I would just, we'd listen to a passage of Warren's and we'd write it down and we figured out how to hack into the TV. So we had TV to watch while he was gone to work. We listened to music and all sorts of stuff and while he was gone. And then when he'd come home for the night, he says,

so what did you learn today? And we just read that off to him. He says, so I guess you guys are learning how to be sweet and obedient and submissive. Yeah, that's what we need to be doing. Meanwhile, we weren't. What they were actually doing was watching Hannah Montana spiral into an identity crisis after double booking herself at her own Sweet 16 party as both Miley and Hannah.

Now that's real drama. I think it was like a month and a half later. James come down and I could hear him talking in the room. So I went and listened to my ear on the door and I could hear him talking to somebody say yeah I'm gonna bring Georgina home and her baby Hillary she's gonna go get married So when I went out and told Hillary that night she goes mom. We've got to do something We got to get out of here. I do not want to get married and I think she was 14 at the time

Yes, I don't know what to do because I don't know who to turn to So the neighbors that lived across the street from us were Mormons. We'd become really good friends and they kind of found out what we were doing there and stuff and her name was Dixie. Her and her husband were saying, what can we do to help you?

And I says, will you help me get out of here? But this time we were going to be a little bit smarter and I wasn't going to leave any kind of evidence behind. And so that night we called James and asked him, so are you going to be coming in? We were thinking of making a really nice dinner for you. Wondered if you'd want to come for dinner. And he goes, no, I'll probably be way late into the night.

So that was our chance to get out of there. So they loaded up their truck and she took the other stuff and put it in her house and got into their truck and they drove us to Flagstaff and got us a room. Well later that night they come in the room and said James is at the house and he was frantically had his flashlight he his phone, he was walking around the whole place and going back and forth and he's very, very mad. He is looking everywhere for you and Hillary. I was still terrified. I was just really terrified that he'd still find me and try to get me back. But Dixie says, don't you worry about it, he cannot touch you now. And that was the first night in a long time that I actually slept. I hadn't slept in probably a month and a half.

When did you take off your long underwear? The night I left. I didn't even take any of my clothes with me. I left them all there in the sack. We'll be right back. Hi, I'm Jessi Prey. And I'm Andi Cassette. Welcome to Love Murder, where we unravel the darkest tales of romance turned deadly. Our episodes are long-form, narrative-driven, and deeply researched, perfect for the true crime aficionados seeking stories beyond the headlines.

Like the chilling case of Blanche Taylor Moore, the so-called Black Widow who left a trail of poisoned lovers. Or the shocking murders of Chad Shelton and Dwayne Johnson, where family ties masked a sinister plot. Subscribe to Love Murder on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. So Georgina was finally free. But now they needed to get that protective order, the one they couldn't get before. And so then the next day,

we went and met with Judge Kalali. And he wanted to know why I wanted to leave. And I really couldn't give him any story. All I did was tell him that I loved my sister wife and she was good to my kids. And he goes, I don't have any reason to sign these papers to let you have custody of your children if you can't tell me anything that is going to help your story and then my stepmom Azora she was sitting there saying well doesn't he hit your children? I said yeah

well she says then tell him so I got up there and I says does it count that my husband beats my children? He goes, you got it woman, you got it. And he signed the paper. He says, now don't you go get the local officers that are there in Colorado city. They will take you back home. You need to call the ones in St. George

and let them come out and help you get your stuff and get out of there. And one of the police officers from St. George came up and we drove out to my house, all the lights were off. I'm like, oh no, where are my other kids? Cause I was coming to get Bryce, Philip and Russell. So they hadn't seen me for a month and a half. And one of the police officers came to the door

and Rachel opened the door. It was just a crack. She had her foot right there and the officer says you need to take this paper and move aside so Georgina can get what she needs to and her last three children and she says well they're not here so Hillary and I we get out of the van because we weren't supposed to and we go to the house around the backside and it's all locked. Everything's locked. And Hillary goes downstairs where her room was. And so she climbed through her window and went clear down to Rachel's room.

And Rachel had locked all her children in their closet and told them not to come out and make any noise. And she says, well, where's Russell and Phillip and Bryce? She says, oh, they're up in the kitchen. So Hillary runs upstairs and all three, they're up in the kitchen. So Hillary runs upstairs, and all three of them are hiding in the kitchen. But I just remember going in the house, grabbing each of them. I remember the look on their face. Mommy, where have you been?

And Valette was only four. And she looked at me, and she just cried and cried. And Valette was only four. And she looked at me and she just cried and cried. She didn't let go of me for at least a month and a half. Which was fine, cause I didn't mind holding her all the time. She says, dad says you were sent away because you were wicked. And I says, I wasn't wicked.

I says, I was trying to figure out how to get you guys so you could come live with me. I was trying to do everything I could. And they're like, Dad was telling us that you were an evil, wicked woman and so you were sent away. We gathered up stuff and I remember one of the police officers coming in saying, Georgina, you don't have time to get a lot of stuff. Let's get out of here before your ex shows up. And I know James, he's got a temper. We just grabbed a few things and then we all left. And we passed James on the way down the Hurricane Hill. And I remember ducking

clear down in the back seat. And Jeremy starts laughing. He goes, Georgina, he can't see you. I said, he can see everything. And he says, well, you don't need to worry about him anymore. You've got the law on your side, and you got your kids, all six of them. Out, safe, away from her abusive husband and the confines of the cult, out among the weird people that she was told were going to corrupt her and her children. We found out when we were out of how decent the people out here really are. We met so many wonderful people that took care of us around the holidays and just to pay our rent or just to give me some gas money or bring food.

And there were so many wonderful people out there. When we went to court and everything and the judge talked to James and told him, don't talk to her, don't call her, don't have anything to do with her. So for a whole year, I did not have to listen to James's voice or anything. And he'd come and get the kids on every other weekend or something. And that lasted for maybe two months after that. He says, oh, I can't keep coming and taking the kids out. And I says, well, okay well they're all mine and he's signed over everything and if there are

papers that we have still show we have joint custody but he has never fought me on it he paid child support and just left me alone let me make the decisions and whatever I did which was very nice do you ever talk to him now He always makes it the point to say something on our anniversary. He thinks I'm still married to him that I'm going to go back to him after I'm done sowing my oats is what he says. I says, you have three wives. What am I going to come back to? He goes, well, you're going to come back fulfill your promises and your and I says, no, I don't believe in any of that crap anymore I don't believe in all the stuff that Warren taught I says I believe in being honest I believe in loving your neighbor as yourself do unto

others as you'd have others do unto you I says those are your basic fundamental things I said that's all I need that That's all my children need. They don't need all this bullshit from Warren and from you anymore. And so he left me alone and he tells me, if you ever need anything, call me. I'm like, I didn't need anything. I am just fine without you. God damn right she is. That was two and a half years of your life? I mean, just the filming was two and a half years of your life. I mean, just the filming was two and a half years of my life and it was a lot of my life.

Then we spent about two years editing the film. What was that whole experience like? I mean, look, it was my first documentary. It was a part of me and it was a part of Jenny Lin. Jenny Lin had also left the Mormon faith. So in many ways we were both exploring our loss of faith and our family who was still in the religion while we were telling the story of these boys who were dealing with their loss of faith because it's one thing to lose your family. It's one thing to lose your community.

It's another thing to be told you're going to hell. And these boys who had been instilled with this threat and fear of hell their whole life now had to face it on a daily, you know, a daily occurrence. And that's what I had to deal with to much lesser degree when I left the Mormon faith. So in many ways, it was cathartic for me to make this film. It was also exhausting and tiring and frustrating and I ran out of money and we kept going and kept running out of money and kept raising money, but there is a happy ending to the film as well. Not just the film itself, but the filmmaking.

Another thing that we did is we kind of ran an underground railroad of kids, to be honest with you. Like, I kept having kids showing up at my door. I kept trying to help kids rescue. I kept putting together fundraisers for these polygamous kids. It really honestly overwhelmed my life for many, many years. Wow.

You became the guy. Yep. But then the film, the film was finished. Sons of Perdition. We finished it and it premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City and we sold out five screenings in less than an hour. Wow. And the kids, Sam, Bruce, Joe, Georgina, and Hillary, they all got to come to New York City, stay in fancy hotels, and stand up after

the screening. Wow. Yeah, it was amazing. Tell me a little bit about Sons of Perdition, the film and the screenings and the festivals. That was awesome because I didn't know anything about it until we went in there and watched it for the first time when we went to New York. And I think Joe and Sam and Bruce and me and Hillary were all crying. We're just like, what the heck? But I thought it was wonderful how you captured the emotions and the story and the right to the storyline of what really happened. And that was a lot

of fun. And of course, the movie has a happy ending. Phew. Put my popcorn down. A lot of kids think that, okay, we're leaving, so we're gonna bring a piece of hell with us. Like there's hell in our hearts. But in my mind, yes, there is a God.

It's weird how I think about life now. Opened my mind to a whole new book and I'm just sitting there writing down my new life. Again if you want to watch Thunder Perdition yourself, there's links in our show notes. It's on Amazon, Tubi, Plex, again, whatever that is, YouTube TV. Or you can buy it from Apple TV or our Patreon members can watch it for free. It's up there right now. I'm very happy because I moved up here with Suzanne. She moved me in with her and her family about a year ago. with Suzanne. She moved me in with her and her family about a year ago. I get to see all my children and we get to do a lot of really fun things together. We go to the museums,

we go swimming. I really feel good. Joe now has children of his own and Hillary is also a mother living on a ranch in Colorado. Which is kind of perfect because after everything she went through, she really did get the best of both worlds. Do you have any spirituality now in your life or religion? I know that there is a spirit out there that guides me and tells me what I can and can't do and I'm happy about it and I can decide my own fate and not have anybody else tell me what I can and can't do. I'm happy about it and I can decide my own fate and not have anybody else tell me what I can and can't do.

Twenty-seven years I was in a cult. Warren Jeffs was the leader. What, you've been out what? I left in 2009. I mean, imagine still being there. Yeah, I'd probably be an old hag and have gray hair and bald. I probably wouldn't be the same person. I'd be a bitty old grandma that wouldn't want anybody to be around. Well you're not. You're out and you're great. Yeah I've had a wonderful life. Anything

else you want to say? No I just love you and Jenny what you did for us and I appreciate it. I love you guys too. I love all of your family and how you were such a part of my life for so long. I'm in awe. What a badass inspiration this woman is, right? Yeah. Escaping, pulling all our kids out. Yeah, amazing. Now before we go, Georgina and her family, they became friends of mine. And Georgina, yes, she did get out.

And for years, she was a single mother and she took care of her kids working by cleaning hotel rooms. And, you know, she never really had extra funds to take care of herself. Now, I help where I can with my meager earnings. But if anyone is moved by her story, please feel free to just pitch in. Give her a gift. Let's give her something nice.

Right. She deserves that. Woman escaped polygamy and took care of six children on her own. And because she's not in the FLDS anymore, she has Venmo. So you can Venmo her. Right. Her Venmo is Georgina Broadbent. That is J-O-R-J-I-N-A- Dash Broadbent B-R-O-A-D-B-E-N-T.

We will have the link as well in our show notes. Yeah, let's do something nice for somebody who did something nice for her kids, who really took a risk in her life to make the world a better place for her children. So maybe she can get those Abba CDs that her husband smashed. Or a nice cup of the devil's coffee. Yes, there you go. You know, she should get some nice shoes. Girls like shoes, right? Abba shoes, Abba shoes. And a bit of good news on the Warren Jeffs front. Justice finally caught up with them.

Breaking news this morning, the FBI just announced that they have polygamist leader Warren Steegeffs in custody in Las Vegas. Jeffs was wanted in Utah and Arizona on suspicion of sexual misconduct for allegedly arranging marriages between underage girls and older men. Jeffs has been charged with various criminal violations, including sexual conduct with a minor, conspiracy to commit sexual conduct with a child,

and rape as an accomplice. Just don't drop the soap, Warren. Don't drop the soap. Now, not to make this about me, but... You already have. We're too late for that. Ah! Back when Jenny Lynn and I were working on Sons of Perdition,

we collaborated with the Texas Attorney General's office. They were struggling to find anyone willing to testify against Warren, anyone who had left the community. And we introduced them to the brave witnesses who eventually took the stand and helped put him away. Which witnesses? These guys? These peeps? No, no. There were women who had been married to Warren Jeffs. Wow. Yeah, who had escaped.

Good for you. I mean, initially they were afraid of talking. There was retribution. They were afraid of, you know, people coming after them, but eventually they spoke out against Warren. So thank God. Thank the heavens, the celestial heavens they did. Yep.

So if I've done one thing right in this life, it's help put away a monster monster. Congratulations. If it's help, put away a monster. A disgusting monster, congratulations. He was found guilty on two counts of sexual child assault and sentenced to life in prison, plus 20 more years, because that makes sense. Put those extra years in. Keep that corpse in there for 20 more years, rotting away in that jail cell. I think they do that just to be like,

this is how big of a piece of a shit you are. That your life sentence isn't enough, we're going to add more after your death. Yeah, yeah. We're going to bring you back to life and keep you in jail for 20 years. We're going to clone you. We're literally going to clone you and keep your clone in there for 20 more years. Yeah, I agree. Warren Jeff still sits in a prison cell in Palestine, Texas serving a life sentence for assaulting two underage girls he calls his spiritual wives.

The long fall from the self-declared prophets of a desert kingdom. To inmate number 267358. Oh, and Warren, by the way, fuck you. By the way, fuck you. Thank you so much, Georgina, for telling your fantastic story. Thank you, everyone, for listening. We'll be back next week with a wild story about a shape shifting, computer obsessed cult leader.

computer-obsessed cult leader. There's evil in the world, and we are good with magic powers, and we can see things that other people can't see, like we can see dragons. If we see someone who's evil, we can tell they're evil, and we can start psychically controlling them. And it was exciting! There's nothing more motivating than good versus evil and you're on the right side. Was I Nicole? is written, hosted, produced by Tyler Achekey Breaky Heart Meesum. You know why I'm saying that, right?

Billy Ray. Billy Ray, who played Hannah Montana's father. And me, Liz, a lot of Hannah, very little Montana, whatever that means, Tyler. That's funny. I should also read what you write on the paper before I just say it. Yeah, that's true. And Rob Rico Suave Pera, who was, as I just learned, one of the characters in Hannah Montana.

You're like secretly obsessed with this show now. And Greta Smiley-Miley Strongwrestl. I don't know. I don't know. We're stretching these nicknames every week. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Tyler, for sharing the behind the scenes of that. I mean, we're in what? Season four? It's about time I did the cult story that got me into cult storytelling. Yeah, about time. All the way? Fuck you. All summer long with movies like Gladiator, Mission Impossible, Beverly Hills Cop, Good Burger, and Transformers Dark of the Moon. Optimus!

Bring the action with you and stream for free from all your favorite devices. Pluto TV. Stream now. Pay never.