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Prisoner of the Prophet (2023) Season 1 Episode 2 - Blood Atonement
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00:00I went into that marriage not knowing what I was even signing up for and it probably would have
00:15been worse if I knew. It probably would have been worse. She's married off to this dude that she
00:22believes she has to marry. He's right off the bat perverted and she's resisting so he punishes her
00:29for it. I mean and then it just gets worse and worse and worse. I didn't know if I would be able to
00:35survive. Like I didn't know if I'd be able to get out. The prevailing wisdom in both Utah and Arizona
00:42was don't touch it. It's going to take you down politically. That was part of the problem. No one
00:48wanted to talk about polygamy. Mark and I were able to change that narrative by initiating a variety of
00:57investigations. The charges started with the abuse of young children. That was what the
01:03common denominator was between Utah and Arizona. Finding complaining witnesses was very difficult
01:10because nobody would leave the community. We knew we had lots of stories about child bride marriages
01:16that Warren Jeffs was not just marrying but forcing many girls to marry older men. But we didn't have a
01:22willing witness come forward and you can't prosecute a case or investigate one without one. And then
01:27Alyssa Wall came forward and said I had been forced to marry this older man by Warren Jeffs. And he said
01:34if I didn't I'd burn in hell. And so we elected to charge him with rape of a child as an accomplice
01:42and he took off. He is the fugitive leader of a polygamist church. He was wanted for marrying
01:49underage girls. He went on the lam in order to avoid having to answer consequences for criminal
01:55prosecutors. Even though the police were after him he was definitely in control. I felt trapped and that
02:02to escape that was almost like I'd have to give up everything I ever knew. They were going to kill me
02:08like they really were going to kill me.
02:38If you've always had freedom it's hard to realize what being trapped physically can do to your mind.
03:05This cult that I was raised in there's mental illness, domestic violence, isolation.
03:13Warren Jeffs created this solid prison. I'm sorry I have a cute sweet training and I smile too much. I hate it.
03:26Oh yeah this is a really serious topic. It's really it's I'm trying really hard to like yeah it's really it's really sad.
03:49After being married to Warren Jeffs and all the trauma that he put me through it changed me.
03:59Because he's running from the law it was really really intense.
04:05You have to understand this how tight-knit this community was. He always had access to cash. He always had access to communication.
04:14And he did an exceptional job of basically being on the run but being in control.
04:20He did travel a lot. And he would spend most of his time going from compound to compound.
04:28He had great information that he was provided all the time by his loyal followers. And he was virtually untouchable.
04:36He did tell us though he was going like all over the world to the worst places and that God commanded him to like curse them.
04:44We couldn't find him. I mean he had multiple safe houses. He had multiple vehicles. He had an army of guards watching him and moving around.
04:55You know he had all the money he needed in the world.
05:00Warren had a lot of control over people not knowing what he was accused of doing.
05:06And to the extent that they did hear things about him they thought they were lies.
05:12They thought it was people persecuting God's prophet.
05:16And so they had no reason to believe that Warren did anything wrong.
05:22He was always acting in God's name and according to God's will.
05:27So when he was on the run he was overwhelmingly paranoid.
05:32He lived by fear himself so much.
05:37And Warren just he didn't trust me.
05:40One time when I was in Texas he did take me on a walk. Just me and him.
05:45He asked me have you ever thought about having kids before?
05:48That's to me now it's like code of saying do you want sex?
05:53I didn't really want it. So I said no.
05:57I don't want to be part of Warren just orgies.
06:02I don't want a part of being a part of anything of it.
06:05Like none of that goes for me.
06:06When I told him that I didn't want kids with him.
06:10He was angry at me.
06:12So because I turned down his invitation for sex.
06:18He was going to punish me. He did send me away.
06:28They sent me to a house in hiding in South Dakota.
06:33When Warren just first set up the elite groups he also set up houses in hiding.
06:41You'd go there to qualify to be among the holy elite people.
06:46Going to a house in hiding was a punishment.
06:50He wanted us to go there and just like work, pray and read and think about what we did.
06:57And you know atone for it and just focus solely on getting that phone call back to the elite group.
07:04The FLDS playbook in breaking people down is to isolate them.
07:19Warren Jeffs maintained compounds in South Dakota, Colorado and British Columbia and then ultimately in Texas.
07:26The yearning for Zion Ranch.
07:28And what he was able to do was totally control and manipulate families.
07:33He could have the father in one place and the mother could be moved to another place and the children to yet another place.
07:41And they would be trafficked from place to place based on his whims.
07:46And so in this way he could control everyone.
07:51I'm going to see this place that was used for pain and sorrow and trapping people.
08:13When it comes to Brielle having left the group, certainly she must have experienced what we call complex PTSD.
08:23And it's seen in people who've had extended trauma, like long term trauma.
08:28So we see it in cult members for sure, our former cult members.
08:34So it's a very courageous thing to go back.
08:38It's part of like facing my fears.
08:41Conquering some of my history.
08:46Knowing that I'm going back to the compound, it almost feels like an achievement.
08:56My biggest concern is I have to watch my triggers.
08:59Like when I go into like places that could be triggering, I have to like be more cautious.
09:07I have to make sure I have good people around me and I'm safe and that's just a really big deal for me.
09:19I'm going to one of Warren Jeff's compounds to meet with Andrew, Seth and Patrick, men that become apostates.
09:26An apostate is somebody who leaves a fundamentalist Mormon faith.
09:30And to me they are like really good people and really good friends of mine.
09:37This is a property in the southern end of South Dakota by Custer that Warren Jeff's bought in 2003.
09:44And Brielle's told me she was here for two years and lived here on the ranch.
09:49Seeing the guard tower brings back memories.
09:53It is a symbol of confinement.
09:56Warren Jeff's was serious about keeping people trapped in and forcing them to do what he wanted them to do.
10:07And this is what it is and look how there is just so much rotten food and stuff and crap everywhere.
10:18Look there are even cobwebs on the old guy.
10:20I knew Brielle as a little child in school.
10:26Her father is my first cousin.
10:28Brielle would be my second cousin.
10:30We're all related, yeah.
10:33I really agree with her telling her story and want to help support her everywhere I can.
10:39There we go, a little brighter.
10:43So how does it feel coming back here?
10:47With the support system, I'm fine.
10:49With good people around me.
10:51Right, right.
10:52So yeah, that.
10:53Warren Jeff's would break them apart.
11:02He would isolate people so that he could work on them psychologically and emotionally.
11:09And when they were in this isolated situation, they had no one to support them, no one to help them,
11:16other than whoever Jeff's had selected that would be their handler, the person that would supervise them at the compound.
11:31A caretaker is really like a prison guard.
11:33It would always be a male caretaker watching over the women.
11:37And to tattle every, like whenever you even think about stepping out of line.
11:42They decide what room you stay in.
11:44They also like lived in the house.
11:47So they had control over what we eat.
11:49They listened to your footsteps.
11:52They also have security cameras that they're watching.
11:56They're armed.
11:57And they're going to do whatever Warren just tells them to do.
12:03This whole compound to me is a village.
12:06Yeah.
12:07There's a lot of houses, all the water lines that they put in, the roads.
12:11It's a whole complete village.
12:13I think there was close to 150 to 200 people on this property at the time that I was here.
12:22Wow.
12:23Yeah.
12:24That's a lot of workers.
12:25They're bringing them from other places.
12:27I don't know always where.
12:29We had to work every single day.
12:32Like all the kids, everybody.
12:34You saw them being driven to the point of being slaves and feeling like they're in a concentration
12:41camp because they didn't get enough sleep, didn't have enough food.
12:45It was just like isolation to the max.
12:48It's like a prison, but it's supposed to be like a work in progress to where we want to be.
12:54It was like a repentance house.
12:57So they had these Bose speakers everywhere throughout the house and they were always playing Warren Jeffs' sermons.
13:05Yeah, that was, for me it was constant psychological abuse.
13:09First principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
13:15First, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
13:19Second, repentance.
13:21Third, obedience to covenants of baptism and other covenants.
13:28And fourth, the result of the first three, keeping the Spirit of God.
13:36When you hear Warren Jeffs speak, like on the recorded tapes and when he would give sermons or lectures, you will recognize that he uses a very slow, monotone voice.
13:49And that's an example of what I might call trance talk.
13:53By talking in that very slow way to people, right, you're basically shutting them down.
13:58You're in a sense kind of putting them to sleep.
14:01Of course, they don't dare go to sleep, so they go into a sort of trance mode.
14:06When you're in that state of mind, it shuts down your critical thinking.
14:11What cult leaders do is they use coercive persuasion, which can be seen in three stages.
14:18First, break people down.
14:20Second, manipulate them, change them how you want them.
14:24And then the third phase, lock them in.
14:27And you do that largely through control of information, control of socialization, and control of the environment.
14:36Jeffs had all these tools.
14:40When you can control people to that extent, you are controlling everything that goes into the mind.
14:48And that is how you can control the mind itself.
14:53He really was not living like he was requiring me to live.
14:58And I'm realizing through my own self-teaching and awareness that Warren Jeffs is a false prophet.
15:08Why didn't you just leave?
15:10Why didn't I just leave?
15:12With a gate and a guard tower.
15:14The caretaker is watching me all the time. They have cameras.
15:17There was a ton of security there.
15:19Like everything is like set up to trap you in physically.
15:23And then that plays into the mental.
15:28I was really scared of caretakers.
15:31I had a lot of bad experiences with them.
15:35And their biggest threat is the Hotel Warren Jeffs?
15:39Their biggest threat was they would kill me.
15:49Warren Jeffs was able to evade law enforcement capture.
15:54We checked places where he performed marriages in Nevada.
15:57We knew about the Texas compound.
15:59People were keeping eyes on him there, but no one had seen him.
16:02So because this is now multi-state and perhaps even cross-border in Canada,
16:07we went to the FBI and asked for their assistance.
16:10There's a new name on the FBI's 10 most wanted list this morning.
16:20It is Warren Jeffs.
16:22The list includes Osama bin Laden, murderers and violent robbers.
16:27Warren Jeffs is the newest member.
16:29He's wanted in Arizona and in Utah.
16:31Somebody who is adept at staying undercover.
16:34He's obviously proven to be very good at it.
16:37And he used the fact that he was on the run as additional power.
16:43Basically saying the almighty is protecting me.
16:46The United States government with all of their majesty and all their power can't touch me.
16:51And for a long time it looked like he was right.
16:53He was sending us a Mary chase all across the country.
16:57Even as a federal fugitive, authorities say Jeffs runs a $200 million empire.
17:04He had this national, even international organization that provided money, technology, transportation, information to him wherever he went.
17:17He is a leader of thousands of people in this country and yet finding him seems very difficult.
17:23And even the local sheriff here told us they were within five minutes of catching Warren here with the FBI.
17:44And he said that he jumped on a foiler and headed out into the trees with somebody on a foiler and him.
17:50We found five different pieces of property around here that are owned by the church.
17:56Where Warren could run from here to the house here, to one over here.
18:02But they had approximately 72 from what we've researched.
18:07But they weren't all compounds.
18:08They had houses of refuge that were just like on a five acre parcel or an acre of land somewhere across the United States.
18:14These little dills right here were hung on all of the doors so nobody could see into the room.
18:33And you see how normally a door swings against the wall.
18:36But this way you can stand in here and nobody can peek in because you got these dills here.
18:43He was being a pervert and he probably had kids in here doing whatever he's doing to them.
18:49I get pissed that we've been conned so bad.
18:54You know, we were taught if you're not part of this religion, you were evil.
18:59And what I found is I've gone out and it's just a big bunch of bullshit.
19:03I was really confused why he did so much pastel until an FBI agent told me they did a study on pedophilers.
19:11And they found that most pedophilers love the pastel colors.
19:16Don't know why, but they prefer pastel colors.
19:19You've got the dresses and the carpet and the beds and the chairs and things.
19:24The pastel colors are really weird.
19:25Typically, every wall in the house would have one of these pictures hung on it of Warren Jeffs.
19:33So it was just a common thing on every darn wall.
19:36That's Warren, Roland Jeffs is Warren's dad.
19:39I'd say there's upwards of four or five hundred of these pictures here just on the property.
19:43Our family was definitely destroyed by the Jeffs, and I believe it's my responsibility to do my part in bringing these men accountable to the abuse that they're doing to the children, to the families.
19:59Yeah, a lot of anger when people say that.
20:02There's some real...
20:03A lot of ladies, they don't even want to see this picture.
20:07Turn that picture around, get rid of it, get out of my sight.
20:13My biggest fear is getting on the other side and being face to face with people that are still in the FLDS church.
20:22And them putting me on the spot saying, how come you didn't do more?
20:29That's all I'm doing.
20:34So people that never came to an elite compound would dream of this holy, wonderful place.
20:55They don't really know what it's like.
20:57The laundry and cleaning go all day and night.
21:03It gets quite exciting when we stay inside.
21:09Our skins and our house from room to room.
21:14Our energy levels are as high as the moon.
21:19Living in these houses and hiding, it was all about working.
21:22Everybody had a role.
21:24Sweet experience.
21:30I didn't know if Warren Jeff was going to get caught.
21:32I didn't know when he was going to get caught.
21:34So I was like, OK, I'm just here, existing,
21:38and I just need to stay busy.
21:40At this point, I was like, I just need to survive.
21:48These bags were a survival bag.
21:51So they could grab this bag and run if they had to.
21:56Basically, the end of the world's coming or if the law was after you.
21:59But Warren was always telling us that you had to be ready to go at a moment's notice.
22:04Because if the destructions came and you're asked to go or anything like that.
22:08This here looks like it's a baptismal outfit.
22:13We were told if you didn't wear your long underwear in the last days,
22:18there were Indians that were going to come around, Indian spirits.
22:22They'd check you.
22:23They'd open your shirt and check your long underwear on.
22:25If it wasn't on, then they were going to slit your throat from earlobe to earlobe.
22:29They pushed that as one of Warren's edicts so you had to have long underwear in the last days
22:34that you'd be destroyed by the destroying angels.
22:42South Dakota was a lot different.
22:44From what I could see, there was approximately 200 people that lived there at one time.
22:49And they were basically creating their own community that was just self-sufficient.
22:55They called it a refuge.
22:57It's supposed to be a refuge, a place for the end of the world that you can go and survive at.
23:03A small west Texas town is on edge this morning,
23:06wondering at the meaning of a possible doomsday cult threat.
23:10On the 175th anniversary of the founding of the Mormon church, Jeff's is promising something big.
23:15The fear tactics that Warren was using on the people, saying the end of the world's coming,
23:20he harbored on that all the time.
23:22Warren, Jeff's, and others have this fascination with apocalyptic ideation
23:27or believing the world's going to come to an end or there's going to be some kind of upheaval.
23:31And sometimes groups that become more and more sequestered
23:34become more and more apocalyptic and more into those ideas because they see it as a safety valve.
23:41So this is a map that we found here on the ranch about the coming events.
23:47The year 2000 was supposed to be the end of the world. And so Roland and Warren were hyping on that
23:52this is how it was going to roll out. China here was going to attack from the west. And then Russia's
23:59going to come in and attack from the east. The English nation clipped of its power. China's going to
24:04go into India and Afghanistan. And then after the wars are over and all the destructions happen which
24:10God will contribute to, which is like natural disasters. San Diego would be destroyed by
24:15earthquake and a big tidal wave. The earthquakes and the hurricanes and all that stuff. And the
24:21Netherlands are going to be left as Sodom and Gomorrah, completely destruction by flooding.
24:26They're going to have famine and slaughter by wild animals. So I guess there's going to be a bunch of wild
24:30animals in San Diego running around eating up people. So that's what they said there.
24:35The world was going to end and we had to be ready to be lifted up off the earth.
24:40There's so much stuff in here. They wanted it to be self-sustaining and they did go to great lengths
24:48to make that possible by planting their own gardens, canning a lot of vegetables and fruits.
24:53But there were certain things that they still did get shipped in.
25:09So when you say shipped in, was that like from?
25:12From FLDS people. From the FLDS people sacrificing
25:16everything that they had down there to maintain this place up here?
25:20Yeah.
25:25A lot of the abundance here reminds me of Warren's greed and his selfishness taking it from
25:31people that were less fortunate.
25:39It's just stuff that people gave like this right here, you know, that they thought if they didn't
25:43turn it in they were going to be destroyed is what Warren Jeff's told them all the time.
25:47And at the end of the day, it wasn't self-sufficient. They were living off the money of the people.
25:54Then they were just taking those monies and just blowing or living lavishly and blowing on whatever
25:59they wanted.
26:00It overwhelms me just walking through here and you're like, wow, they left a lot behind.
26:07It makes me feel like, like people worked their lives to make something that was a waste.
26:16All of these resources and Warren just literally just took it from the people.
26:21And left them with nothing and left them starving.
26:39It makes you really sick inside.
26:40Putting Warren Jeffs on the 10 most wanted list made him a national figure for law enforcement,
26:55not just national, but even international.
26:58So Warren is driving down Interstate 15 in Las Vegas when a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper
27:04happens to come up behind the escalade. And the trooper's testimony has been that he couldn't read the
27:10temporary tag in the back windshield at the escalade. So he pulled the vehicle over.
27:18The Nevada Highway Patrol trooper, he ran information on Warren Jeffs, realized he's the most wanted list.
27:29We got him.
27:31One of the FBI's most wanted was nabbed in Las Vegas.
27:35Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs was arrested during a routine traffic stop.
27:40It was just a sharp-eyed highway patrolman that was able to figure, put the pieces together,
27:46realized what he was seeing, and then decided that he had to make an arrest.
27:51He had wigs and he had lots of cash and everything in that suburban that he needed.
27:56He was extradited back to Utah to stand charges here.
28:02Warren Jeffs was like so many cult leaders that I've dealt with and testified against in court.
28:09I mean, this was a guy who said one thing to his faithful followers and did another.
28:15Are you Warren Jeffs?
28:18When he was arrested, he was driving a red Cadillac Escalade.
28:23The color red is evil, unless I want a red Cadillac Escalade to run around it.
28:29When Warren Jeffs was on the run, he was living a lifestyle that was totally corrupt.
28:35He would indulge himself with strippers, with going out to clubs.
28:40Let's just say Warren Jeffs wasn't keeping sweet, which is what he required of his people.
28:46Meanwhile, these people are fasting and praying and tithing
28:50and sacrificing their lives for Warren Jeffs.
28:58So, how did that feel when you found out that he was caught?
29:01I was sorry, but I didn't dare tell anyone.
29:04When you looked at the other ladies, did they look like they were totally in shock?
29:08Like in panic.
29:09They were in panic mode.
29:11Yeah.
29:11When he went to jail, he wanted to be on the phone like all the time.
29:14Right, it was his way of controlling the church from the jailhouse.
29:20I knew Warren would still lead the people from jail.
29:23I made the decision, now is the time that I had to escape.
29:31The first time I escaped was in South Dakota.
29:33As far as I knew, we were far away from civilization.
29:43I didn't have very many options.
29:45So, I got up really early that morning and I had my hair all ready and everything.
29:50And then the ride came to take us to go off the property.
29:55And we were going on a phone run, is what they called it, where they would drive off the property,
29:59because we couldn't use our phones on the property.
30:01And they were afraid of being tracked.
30:04We went to Dollar General and the caretaker got out with his wife and went in.
30:11And I said, I need to go use the bathroom.
30:14I knew I had to leave at that moment.
30:17So, I walked in there and went around the whole store and just walked straight out, went out the back
30:21and ran.
30:31To escape someone like Warren Jeffs, you have to have the perfect scenario.
30:36And I ran and ran and ran.
30:37I don't really know how far I ran.
30:41And then I was picked up by the police.
30:44The police, they took me to their office and they talked to me like all day asking me questions.
30:49Tried to get me to talk.
30:53You know, we had a call of a suspicious person walking through some yards.
30:58It was cold out and there was snow coming down.
31:01And you were walking down the Mickelson Trail in a prairie dress.
31:04So, I knew right away where you were from.
31:08I didn't share anything with you guys.
31:11I had been threatened and I didn't know how to tell you guys that.
31:15I didn't know how to prove it.
31:16I was always taught to be afraid of police.
31:21I was scared.
31:22Like, I just hoped that I could just like, you know, figure out my own stuff.
31:30I didn't really want them to help me.
31:33And I remember being way too scared to talk to them.
31:37They're hearing all the time that you cannot trust police, law enforcement.
31:43They're all against us.
31:45They're all here to hurt us and stop us from worshiping God in our own way.
31:51So, I was like, I got to figure this out on my own.
31:55But I didn't really have to.
31:56I just didn't know how to say what I needed to say.
32:05So, I actually went back.
32:08Yeah, when I found out you left and went back, I was disappointed.
32:12We tried to watch and figure out what was going on.
32:14But due to the location, one way in, one way out, we were being watched more than we were watching them, I'm sure.
32:21No matter what I seemed to do, it felt like that it was futile.
32:29Like, there wasn't an exit route for me.
32:33I did feel like I was fighting alone.
32:37So, for someone like Brielle, who was born in the group, it makes it even more difficult to think about leaving.
32:44Everybody you know and your entire family is part of that system.
32:48Remember, you probably don't have any assets that are your own, especially if you're a woman.
32:54You probably have no assets, no credit history.
32:58And so, you have nowhere to go.
33:00And that is why so many people stay in the FLDS or at least stayed as long as they did.
33:06Because they had no means to go anywhere.
33:11I had no idea how mad it would make Warren Jeffs.
33:14And how the danger in doing that, what it would bring and what it would cause me.
33:22Why are they doing all they're doing for you?
33:25Even enduring your weaknesses.
33:27Building you up.
33:29Even when you're disobedient.
33:31It's because they love you.
33:32And all they want you to do is obey our problem.
33:42Tried your pictures.
33:44These are Warren's, ladies.
33:46Right.
33:49This is the stuff that we found on the property.
33:52We got boxes and boxes of this.
33:54All these girls are underage.
34:04This one right here is my cousin.
34:06And she had a baby at 14.
34:10This one and the 12-year-old.
34:12This 12-year-old.
34:14The guy was a sicko.
34:15I'm telling you, just a pedophilia sicko.
34:18What is Warren Jeffs creating?
34:20What is his purpose?
34:22You know, like, he's establishing pedophilia.
34:26He's trying to make it okay.
34:35Warren Jeffs was in court Tuesday to learn if he will go to trial
34:38for allegedly forcing a 14-year-old girl to marry an older man.
34:45Prosecutors have charged Jeffs with rape as an accomplice
34:48because they say he arranged the marriage.
34:50Mr. Jeffs, would you please stand as the verdict is read?
34:54Jurors deliberated for about 16 hours over three days
34:58before returning with a guilty verdict for Warren Jeffs.
35:02We prosecuted Warren Jeffs in the state of Utah for rape as an accomplice.
35:06He was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
35:19The Utah Supreme Court overturned Jeffs' 2007 rape as an accomplice conviction,
35:24citing faulty jury instruction.
35:27Jeffs' attorneys say Jeffs should remain in Utah until prosecutors decide on a retrial.
35:32Warren Jeffs had some absolutely extraordinary legal minds that were protecting him.
35:38He had the tithing of his followers, and if they're 10,000 followers and they're tithing 10 to 20%,
35:45that's a lot of money.
35:46Utah's attorney general acknowledged to Fox 13 that prosecuting Jeffs a second time may not get another conviction.
35:53We aren't left with a lot based on this decision.
35:55The Utah Supreme Court overturned Warren Jeffs' conviction based on technicality,
36:02jury instruction issue, so he was due to be released in a number of days.
36:07I immediately called Greg Abbott, who was the attorney general of Texas at the time.
36:12They had not yet filed criminal charges.
36:15They were building their case, so I encouraged them that now is the time if you're going to do it,
36:18and said, hey, I know you're interested in Warren. He's about to be released here.
36:24He was on the run for over a year. Can you come and pick him up?
36:32And they picked him up here and took him to jail in Texas.
36:36Warren Jeffs was held in jail, but he keeps running the FLDS, because he has visitors,
36:43he has his attorney, he has members of the organization that visit and convey his orders,
36:49his desires, his dictates to the rest of the FLDS.
36:56He had lots of visitors that would come in and take directions from him and
37:02and report those directions back to the community.
37:05So if someone disputes his authority or upsets him in any way, he can yank them out of one compound,
37:13put them in isolation in another, and basically break them.
37:17All of Warren's power is based on people's beliefs.
37:22To all who qualify, of course I am.
37:31So it's by inference and it's by the indoctrination of knowing what the cult leader would want you to do
37:38that gets people to act in these ways that we find it very difficult to understand.
37:45You are the prophet.
37:49We love you. We love you.
37:52We love you.
37:54He's still the prophet. He's still the head of the FLDS with absolute control over all of its members.
38:07Picture of him in jail.
38:08When he's smiling at you like that, that's creepy.
38:13And can you imagine some young kid on the other side that he's doing that to?
38:16Nah.
38:17Hello, everybody.
38:20Wonderful to see you.
38:21We love you.
38:22I love all of you.
38:25Like he wanted to be on the phone like all the time.
38:27Right. It was his way of controlling the church from the jailhouse.
38:31Yeah. He would call random times in the daytime.
38:39He was not only gathering information from me and what I was willing to say.
38:44It was everybody in the house. They're all telling him about me.
38:47Because I tried to escape.
38:51In Warren Jeff's web of power, he had information on everyone.
38:57He had a spying program within the community that would report to him.
39:03They had a telling on each other.
39:05Fathers didn't dare talk in front of the sons because the sons would turn them in.
39:09Mothers and daughters were against each other.
39:12And basically, they informed on each other and the information would flow to Jeff's.
39:19The Lord showed me that David Fisher and family should be sent back to Shrook Creek
39:24when they move from the land.
39:27And he showed me that Lindsay Bartle and family should move to where David Fisher's family is.
39:34After I tried to escape, I was a really big target.
39:38I started to realize I'm not safe.
39:40Like, I'm not, how can I be safe in this house in hiding?
39:48Were you ever able to meet Warren Jeffs in the jailhouse or?
39:51No, I was one of the only ones that never went and saw him in the jailhouse.
39:55Most of his wives did see him in the jailhouse.
40:01He required everybody to write to him five pages every single week.
40:10The prison has actually asked people to stop sending him letters and pictures and stuff like that.
40:17Because he walks around and masturbates all day to the pictures.
40:24This is not a test.
40:32This is a revelation.
40:38After Warren Jeffs' arrest, he started implementing crazier edicts from the jailhouse.
40:46Just a minute.
40:50The Lord's still dictating.
40:52He told the men that they were no longer married.
41:02He unmarried everybody.
41:04Told them no more than a three-second handshake.
41:07This is classic Warren Jeffs' playbook.
41:11He would basically take the family and pit them against each other.
41:17You know, to me it's immoral.
41:18Everything about it is wrong.
41:22He broke up the family units.
41:24The men were put in group homes.
41:26The women were put in group homes.
41:28The children were scattered.
41:31There wasn't hardly a mother that was raising their own children.
41:34And he started to implement the seed-bearer program.
41:38We were hearing rumors and stories of young women being forced to do things against their heart
41:54and against their will.
41:57Warren Jeffs from prison declared who would be able to have sex.
42:02And there was like a designated pool of men that could have sex with the women.
42:10They would plant the seed.
42:18So the only children being born would be born to these seed-bearers.
42:26So they would have the husband and wife, he would bring his wife in.
42:32Lay her on a bed.
42:36And she had to be velcroed down on this bed that they had all set up.
42:47And the men had to wear all white clothes, which is a llama like a gown, and a white hood over their face.
42:56And the only thing those ladies saw was the sex organ, okay, the penis.
43:05They would hold a sheet up between her while one of those 15 guys would
43:09have sex with her, get her pregnant.
43:23And then when the baby come, then they would take the baby and they would
43:27give the baby to somebody else, not either parent.
43:31So it's being raised, and they called it as one of God's children.
43:37This is an example of like what he did to families when he tore them apart.
43:42Really invasive control that he had on people's very personal, intimate lives of
43:51orchestrating sexual, intimate relationships, of getting these young girls married and starting
43:56to have children.
43:58I mean, that really goes to the top of the charts, in my opinion, of the kinds of abuses
44:03that I've seen happen in cults.
44:06We had to wrap our mind around the dynamics of the abuse.
44:10And I tell people, I says, I knew the rabbit hole went really deep.
44:14I just didn't realize how much darker it can keep going.
44:29The South Dakota compound is really hard for me to think about because so much happened there.
44:35Like, I remember just like sobbing and sobbing and sobbing and nobody cared.
44:40I had so much abuse, so much trauma, there was no hope there.
44:44Warren Jeffs feared that if I escaped, I would tell people what I know about the underage brides.
44:54Warren Jeffs remained in county jail awaiting the trial.
45:00But he himself had the power and could send his loyal followers and give me drugs.
45:06I believe it's because he didn't want me telling people what I knew about him.
45:14They had my caretaker give me prescription drugs.
45:21So they're just passing me this bottle and telling me it's for sleep.
45:25Standing around saying, you have to take this.
45:27I didn't actually see the doctor.
45:31There was no, like, initial interview to, like, diagnose me or decide that I needed it.
45:36It was just a commandment from prison for Warren Jeffs.
45:40They were giving me 800 milligrams of Seroquel, which is so much.
45:47They're telling me it's Seroquel, but I have no idea what Seroquel is, so it didn't matter if they were lying or not.
46:03Because, like, none of it made any sense to me.
46:06I had no internet. I couldn't Google my symptoms. I couldn't do anything.
46:12That drug is usually for extreme bipolar patients.
46:16It's more than just sleeping. It's like a mood changer.
46:20Yeah, it's really strong.
46:26I'm 23. I'm locked up in a compound in South Dakota, and I am being drugged.
46:34I couldn't hardly walk. I was on so much medication.
46:38Many days just stayed in bed because there was no way to get down there.
46:43Giving people drugs in order to control them as a cult leader is nothing new.
46:48The fact that Warren Jeffs would dole out some type of sedative or tranquilizer,
46:57it's just another example of how to control the people.
47:01How to control and keep them passive, keep them compliant, keep them docile.
47:10Warren Jeffs drugged me.
47:13They were hoping that I wouldn't be believed as much.
47:23I've heard a lot of people, especially women, talk about how they were hidden away, stashed away.
47:29Over the years, I've come to interpret this as basically Warren hiding evidence.
47:33All these girls and women knew the things Warren was doing or at least could help law enforcement build a case against Warren and his top men.
47:42And I really think Warren was keeping these women and girls just because he didn't want law enforcement to get access to them.
47:50I felt so trapped that I didn't know if I would ever, ever, like it was like almost hopeless.
48:11Like, is this even worth fighting?
48:22I've come this far, you know, like I had been already about a year when I realized that like, this is not ending and there's no place for you here in this religion.
48:37I just got to the breaking point where like, there was like no way out.
48:48I was cornered pretty much.
48:49I did think about ending my life.
48:51There is a pattern of suicide.
48:57You can see that as being something that the leader has caused through the incredible stress that the leader has made his followers endure.
49:11In my mind, it's murder.
49:13Uh, the leader has murdered his followers by controlling them to death.
49:24I went to the laundry room that was on the same floor, um, and just looked in the cupboard for anything really.
49:33And I found bleach.
49:34I didn't know what would happen to me either.
49:44I, I, I knew it was a bad thing.
49:46It says on the bottle, it's like bad for you, but I didn't know if it was really going to kill me or if it was just going to like,
49:52when I threw up all night and was still alive in the morning, I'm like, okay, well,
49:56that's what happens.
50:00I was hoping I would be on the ambulance in the morning or something,
50:04where there would be people from the outside world, but that didn't happen.
50:19So one day, DCFS hotline in Texas gets a phone call from someone claiming to be a 16-year-old girl
50:25named Sarah Barlow.
50:27And Sarah Barlow claims she is being held against her will on the yearning for Zion Ranch.
50:33And that she's supposed to marry a man and she doesn't want to do it.
50:38The residents of the ranch say, we don't know what you're talking about.
50:42There's no one here by those names.
50:45But they allow the sheriff and the DCFS worker to come onto the ranch and kind of look around.
50:51The sheriff and the people with him saw some pregnant teenagers and just generally were
50:58suspicious of kind of the evasive answers they got about who was there and what was going on.
51:04And they use this as a pretext to get warrants and start this massive raid of the ranch.
51:13State police in Texas are combing the rural compound of a polygamous sect tonight,
51:18where officials suspect hundreds of young people were abused.
51:22Warren Jeffs built a temple down in Texas.
51:26And inside the temple, he had a lot of ability to keep secret what he was doing.
51:32They kept all the records there.
51:34And they were in a place where they didn't think anybody else would find records.
51:40Officials say they finished taking all 416 children from the ranch.
51:44Court documents said a number of the teenage girls were pregnant.
51:49When you touch someone, the fire of the Spirit of God is felt by that person,
51:55by that child, by the thing you're handling.
51:59Heavenly Father's Spirit is working through you now, from now on.
52:03Texas is now trying Jeffs for two counts of sexual assault of a child.
52:21In the case, that stems from two young followers he took as brides in what his church calls spiritual marriages.
52:29Jeffs is accused of sexually assaulting two girls and could go to prison for life.
52:34Warren Jeffs knew that I saw a child ride and that he was having marital relationships with them.
52:41Like, it wasn't a question anymore.
52:46And authorities were very frustrated.
52:49How can I make a case against this man who is revered as a prophet,
52:54as the only prophet living on earth to speak for God?
52:58Who will testify against him?
53:01Who will become a government witness?
53:04I can't exaggerate the courage that it would take for anybody to leave this community.
53:11Very few people did.
53:13And the ones that did bore very severe scars for having left.
53:17Like, if he let a loose end out, that would hurt him.
53:24And because of that, he wanted me dead.
53:27In the FLES, they have a doctrine in the end of the purity book.
53:45And it talks about blood atonement.
53:50Blood atonement is about judgment.
53:52It's about punishment.
53:53It is about having to die for your sins.
53:57So you can be accepted into heaven.
54:00It's not something that you can legally practice.
54:03So it's like they make it staged as an accident.
54:07So I was told to kill myself because that was like Warren's way of practicing blood atonement.
54:13In the Mormon lore, you have this idea of blood atonement, which a number of the offshoot groups have put that into practice.
54:26You can see where someone like Jeff's having that kind of power that he had over people
54:31could easily implant an idea in someone that should anything go awry or should you get to the point where you're just a completely lost soul.
54:43Well, then it would be fine to just commit suicide because that's what your dear leader would want you to do.
54:50Blood atonement is an example of the absolute obedience of the people and the complete lack of morals or ethics that the leadership that Warren Jeffs had.
55:06And for someone to oppose that and to imagine that it's wrong to think that it's something they shouldn't do is a very difficult choice to make.
55:20They moved me into a house in hiding close to a reservoir.
55:35Caretaker said is if you kill yourself, we'll tell everybody it's an accident.
55:42But if you don't kill yourself, I'm going to kill you and tell everybody you did it yourself.
55:46And so I was like, should I just go to the reservoir?
55:50And he said, yeah.
55:54They literally put the weight of the world on me.
55:58All the people that were loyal to Warren in South Dakota and Texas,
56:05the people that he put there to drug me, the people that he put there to threaten me.
56:11They're afraid that if I left and I escaped, I know too much about Warren Jeffs.
56:20The idea was that I would drown myself and then he could tell everybody it was an accident, I guess.
56:24I actually went to the reservoir.
56:38I chose a place that was deep and I went all the way in the reservoir up to my neck.
56:44I just stood there.
56:55I was praying like, what should I do, what should I do?
56:58I remember just, I don't know, every little thing mattered then.
57:02I don't want to go to the other side this way.
57:17This isn't the way I want to go.
57:18So I decided to just climb out.
57:38After I made the decision that I was not going to kill myself no matter what,
57:41I went back to the house.
57:42The caretakers, they did tell Warren Jeff and he's mad at me anyway.
57:51But I thought I wasn't going to give up.
57:57They were going to kill me, like they really were going to kill me.
58:02I had to leave. I had to escape.
58:12And that's so cool.
58:20We loved it.
58:23We was given up last few years.
58:33I was going to kill her.
58:34Alright.
58:35We got all these things.
58:36We're going to kill her.
58:37This is your thing.
58:38The slope is no good.
58:39What's it like?
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