In the last month I've read two new books about the FLDS and the people trying to escape from them. The first being Prophet's Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints by Sam Brower. This book is by a (non-FLDS) investigator who worked for years to collect information to help prosecute the many perpetrators of harm in the FLDS "cult". The primary being Warren Jeffs of course, but others that worked with and for him were also included.
Sam Brower is part investigator, part bounty hunter and he applied a great deal of tenacity and committment to get the job done. He appears to have motivation out of conviction more than compensation to bring Jeffs down, often working for no or little money. He crisscrossed across the country in an attempt to catch Jeffs and to collect increasingly more disturbing evidence.
This book was under the true-life crime section at my library which just about tells it all. Read it and you'll have a hard time believing it isn't crime fiction!
Sam Brower is part investigator, part bounty hunter and he applied a great deal of tenacity and committment to get the job done. He appears to have motivation out of conviction more than compensation to bring Jeffs down, often working for no or little money. He crisscrossed across the country in an attempt to catch Jeffs and to collect increasingly more disturbing evidence.
This book was under the true-life crime section at my library which just about tells it all. Read it and you'll have a hard time believing it isn't crime fiction!
The second was Answer Them Nothing: Bringing Down the Polygamous Empire of Warren Jeffs by Debra Weyermann. This book was very in-depth, covering a variety of cases and investigations over a timeline. Although I've read many books and accounts of the major (and minor) players in this saga I was still at times confused by the many many people involved. Of course it doesn't help that the majority of the people in this community have the same or very similar names!
Debra Weyermann is a journalist and her book read more like a terribly in-depth novel, a shocking one at that. I'd already heard of the underage marriages, routine abuse and cult mentality but this book still often left me with my mouth open in disgust and shock at what I read! I found it hard to believe how completely entrenched the towns of Short Creek are, and how powerless the people are who oppose the FLDS. For example, a family could be assigned a house (by the trustee, a non-FLDS man assigned by the court to oversee the land) and the next day the FLDS posse would come and actually dismantle the house rather than let the family stay there. Or they might surround the house physically with men and not let the occupants to in or out, or turn off their electricity and water. And the most shocking part is that the "police" were there assisting the FLDS the whole time. If the family resisted or complained they would be arrested. Can you believe that?
I found it hard to believe that just a few hours from where I live here in Arizona there are whole communities living as if they were another country, while at the same time using the resources of the US to pay for their religion (schools, police dept, a airport and of course welfare benefits).
If you have never read about the FLDS you may want to start with an easier (less shocking) read. I recommend the following:
Debra Weyermann is a journalist and her book read more like a terribly in-depth novel, a shocking one at that. I'd already heard of the underage marriages, routine abuse and cult mentality but this book still often left me with my mouth open in disgust and shock at what I read! I found it hard to believe how completely entrenched the towns of Short Creek are, and how powerless the people are who oppose the FLDS. For example, a family could be assigned a house (by the trustee, a non-FLDS man assigned by the court to oversee the land) and the next day the FLDS posse would come and actually dismantle the house rather than let the family stay there. Or they might surround the house physically with men and not let the occupants to in or out, or turn off their electricity and water. And the most shocking part is that the "police" were there assisting the FLDS the whole time. If the family resisted or complained they would be arrested. Can you believe that?
I found it hard to believe that just a few hours from where I live here in Arizona there are whole communities living as if they were another country, while at the same time using the resources of the US to pay for their religion (schools, police dept, a airport and of course welfare benefits).
If you have never read about the FLDS you may want to start with an easier (less shocking) read. I recommend the following:
- Escape by Carolyn Jessop
- Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs by Elissa Wall
- Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife by Irene Spencer
- and of course Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
For a less intense book on the subject of polygamy I recommend Love Times Three by the Darger Family (a family with 3 wives, Big Love was loosely based on them).
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