Prophet's Prey
Page 36
For instance, newly discovered documents report that on September 27, 2004, Warren admitted his plan to put together “a quorum of wives” who would do anything for him, including “assist me against the time of needed blood atonement … a sacrifice required for the redemption of Zion to go forward and perhaps given many times.” A million words would do no more than scratch the surface in exposing the depravity of Warren Jeffs and his henchmen—and women.
We live in a country in which the practice of illegal, arranged incestuous marriage, the sexual exploitation of women and children as part of religious rituals, the trafficking of children across interstate and international boundaries, and the tyranny of breaking families apart has never been tolerated. There is no question that great strides have been made in this worthwhile cause, and I have faith in the ultimate outcome; but the lasting changes needed to provide for the safety and security of thousands of children have yet to be achieved. Until the FLDS hierarchy, whoever that may eventually be, finds the human decency to stand before the world and accept responsibility for their criminal actions, and sincerely apologize to their many victims with a commitment to never again abuse or neglect another child, it will never truly be over. Until that day, I will remain vigilant.
Picture Section
Warren Jeffs with his twelve-year-old bride Merrianne Jessop, daughter of the bishop of the Yearning for Zion Ranch, Merril Jessop. Merril gave at least nineteen of his daughters and granddaughters in marriage to FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs.
Merrianne Jessop on her wedding day, just over a month before her new husband, Warren Jeffs, was captured.
A recently married and newly pregnant Veda Keate, the thirteen-year-old daughter of convicted child molester Allen Keate. Shortly after Allen gave Veda in marriage to Warren, he took an underage bride of his own. He is serving thirty-three years in Huntsville State Prison in Texas.
Ora Bonnie Steed posing with underage sister wife Veda Keate. Warren wrote that both conceived their babies during the same "heavenly session" with him. Veda also appeared in a photo in a National Geographiccover story on the FLDS, along with her daughter Serena. The caption in the magazine identified them only as two of the children taken in the raid on the YFZ Ranch.
Fourteen-year-old Loretta Jane Barlow and Warren Jeffs. Loretta is one of Bishop Merril Jessop’s granddaughters, and the daughter of Rulon Barlow, who was excommunicated for asking Warren Jeffs to hand him some nails while working on the temple.
Fifty of Warren Jeffs’s eighty-plus wives, including underage brides Merrianne Jessop, Veda Keate, Brenda Fischer, and Loretta Barlow, posing beneath a photo of their husband and prophet at the YFZ Ranch compound in Eldorado, Texas.
Forensic technicians examining the temple bed on the YFZ compound. Jeffs consummated many of his marriages to underage brides in bizarre group sex rituals on this specially made bed.
Temple at the YFZ Ranch. Also depicted are the temple annex and a couple of the typical H-homes common in FLDS compounds. (Photo by Kathy and Randy Mankin.)
El Cap section of the Vermillion Cliffs, as seen from Maxwell Park, Short Creek, Utah. (Photo by Sam Brower.)
The real Short Creek, where chickens peck on dirt roads roamed by large plyg-rigs and most people live in squalor. (Photo by Sam Brower.)
Ross and Lori Chatwin with three of their children at a family reunion in Cottonwood Park, Hildale, Utah. (By permission of Ross Chatwin.)
Giant cottonwoods in Cottonwood Park, Hildale, Utah. (Photo by Sam Brower.)
Like father, like son. Warren Jeffs and his father, Rulon T. Jeffs, enjoy a double wedding. Warren would later take his widowed stepmother (sitting on his father’s lap) as his own bride.
After the death of Parley Harker, Warren Jeffs (left) usurped the position of first counselor to his father, the prophet Rulon T. Jeffs (center). Second Counselor Fred Jessop (right).
Author Sam Brower (left) with Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran, attempting to serve a subpoena on Warren Jeffs at the front gate of the YFZ Ranch. Bishop of the YFZ Ranch, Merril Jessop (right), is stonewalling, insisting that Warren Jeffs had not been seen in months. (Photo by Randy Mankin.)
Candi Shapley (second from left), leaving the Mohave County Courthouse after refusing to testify against Randy Barlow. Candi had previously testified under oath at a grand jury proceeding that Barlow had raped her repeatedly. (Photo by Sam Brower.)
Front entrance to the Hildale medical clinic and bishops’ residence where Sam Brower had just served papers for Will (Timpson) Jessop. (Left to right) Deputy Town Marshall Sam Johnson (picking up papers and attempting to return them to Brower), Hildale deputy marshall Helaman Barlow, Washington County deputy Matt Fischer, and author Sam Brower.
Press conference at the home of Winston Blackmore in Bountiful, British Columbia, Canada. Winston Blackmore (center) and his wives (left to right) Leah, Ruth, Edith, Marsha, and Zelpha. (Photo by Sam Brower.)
A guard tower that overlooks the FLDS "place of refuge," code-named R-23, near the town of Pringle, South Dakota. (Photo by Cookie Hickstein.)
Town cemetery, Colorado City, Arizona. Note the mounds of red earth stacked on the graves, an FLDS tradition dating back to the original settlers in the early twentieth century. (Photo by Sam Brower.)
Warren Jeffs renounces his position of prophet in open court: “I’m not the prophet …”
Warren Steed Jeffs’s booking photo at Mohave County Jail, Kingman, Arizona, February 2008.
Author Sam Brower (left) with Brent Jeffs, nephew of Warren Jeffs, who sued his uncle Warren for raping him from the ages of five to seven. Photo taken in front of the courthouse in San Angelo, Texas, during the hearings following the raid of the YFZ Ranch. (Photo by Trent Nelson/Salt Lake Tribune.)
Lyle S. Jeffs, younger brother of Warren Jeffs and the new “prophet’s mouthpiece” during Jeffs’s incarceration.
Raymond Jessop (left) and his brother Leroy Jessop (right), leaving the court in San Angelo, Texas. Only a few months later both would be found guilty of child abuse for their roles in a bizarre triple wedding ceremony with Warren Jeffs involving three underage girls as young as twelve. (Photo by Sam Brower.)
Willie Jessop stalking Sam Brower as the author leaves an appointment with his cardiac surgeon prior to open heart surgery. (Photo by Sam Brower.)
Room 15, the marriage suite at the Caliente Hot Springs Motel, Caliente, Nevada. (Photo by Sam Brower.)
The interior of Room 15. Rulon and Warren Jeffs performed scores of underage marriages here. (Photo by Sam Brower.)
Front gate of the YFZ Ranch after the rescue attempt. Security cameras are visible, as are the guard tower and temple in the distance. (Photo by Sam Brower.)
Acknowledgments
Those in the trenches
Gary Engels, Jeff Lennert, Special Agent Rob Foster, Special Agent Jeff Goins, Special Agent Scott Schons, Debra Brown, Special Agent Rick Fagan, Special Agent John Broadway, Ranger Captain Brooks Long, Sheriff David Doran, the Honorable Joe Lodge, Deputy Attorney General Angela Goodwin, Ranger Nick Hanna, Flora Jessop, Jim Hill, Jeff Schmidt, Joan Dudley, Joanne Suder, Kirby Lewis, Deputy Matt Fischer, Steve Bailey, Roger Hoole, Greg Hoole, Charles Childress, Angie Voss, Elaine Tyler, Lynn McFadden
Special thanks
This book never would have happened without the help of Jon Krakauer; my agent, Stuart Krichevsky; my editor, Nancy Miller; George Gibson, Don Davis, Dr. Dan Fischer, Marty Shapiro, Stacey Butler, Michelle Blankenship, Peter Miller, Ellis Levine.
My guides
Ross Chatwin, Lori Chatwin, Andrew Chatwin, Michelle Chatwin, Isaac Wyler, Rebecca Wall, Elissa Wall, Deloy Bateman, Brent Jeffs, Brandon Jeffs, Ward Jeffs, Susan Jeffs, Jethro Barlow, Winston Blackmore, Richard Holm, Susie Barlow, Jane Blackmore, Candi Shapley, Cookie Hickstein, Esther Shapley, Rose Swinton, Ezra Draper, Katie Cox, Laura Chapman, Susie Johnson, Lester Johnson, Marvin Wyler, Charlotte Wyler, Merril Stubbs, Leroy Stubbs, Patrick Pipkin, Richard Rheem, Don Fischer, Jane Blackmore, Tom Steed, Jo
hnny Jessop, David Jeffs, Robert Richter, Ruth Lane, Shem Fischer, Sterling Harker, John Nielsen, Arthur Blackmore, Arnold Richter, Edith Barlow, Zelpha Chatwin, Leah Barlow, Marsha Chatwin, Don R. Fischer, Walter S. Fischer, Richard Gilbert, Ephraim Barlow, Bruce Barlow, Sam Zitting, Joe Broadbent
Invaluable help and encouragement along the way
Rita Brower, Cassie Meredith, Josh Meredith, Patrick Brower, Amanda Brower, Lee Brower, Brad Brower, Jon Brower, Dawna Woslum, June Beal, Jim Beal, Les Brower, Liz Brower, Brent Hunsaker, Ben Winslow, Bryan Jackson, John Hollenhorst, Willard Bishop, Stephen Este, Carolyn Jessop, Randy Mankin, Kathy Mankin, Kim Edmundson, Ben Bistline, Doyle Dockstader, Beth Karas, Gary Tuchman, Tim Sandler, Shirley Davis, Brock Belnap, Matt Smith, Jerry Jaegar, Chuck Marshall, Deborah Dockstader, Carol McKinley, Dr. Larry Beall, Harry Phillips, Doyle Dockstader, Jennilynn Merten, Tyler Measom, Jon Davis, Kathryn Wallace, Patrice St. Germain, Dr. Richard Cox, Scott Davis, Steve Singular, Dr. Wynn Summers, Jeffrey Shields, Zack Shields, Bruce Wisan, Susie Gentry, Mike Watkiss, Joseph Reeves, Kinzie Ambrose, Marilyn Butler, Senator Harry Reid, Gavin Parke, Dale Smith, Catharine Yrisarri, Oleh Rumak, Dr. Cory Woodbury, Butch Scott, Gene Seleya, Theran Heap, Jennifer Dobner, Special Agent John Walser (Ret.), Dr. Galen Wooley, Dennis Gray, Ryan Shaum
A Note on the Author
Raised in the Mormon Church (the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or LDS), private detective Sam Brower is the investigator who pushed forward the long and hard legal battles against the radical FLDS and Warren Jeffs. He lives in Cedar City, Utah.
Copyright © 2011 by Sam Brower
Preface copyright © 2011 by Jon Krakauer
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles
or reviews. For information address Bloomsbury USA, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Published by Bloomsbury USA, New York
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA HAS BEEN APPLIED FOR.
ISBN: 978-1-60819-275-5 (hardback)
First published by Bloomsbury USA in 2011
This e-book edition published in 2011
E-book ISBN: 978-1-60819-325-7
www.bloomsburyusa.com