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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?
20:29So people that never came to an elite compound would dream of this holy, wonderful place.
20:54They 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...
21:19Living in these houses and hiding, it was all about working.
21:22Everybody had a role.
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.
21:35So I was like, okay, I'm just here, existing,
21:38and I just need to stay busy.
21:41At this point, I was like, I just need to, like, survive.
21:45These bags were a survival bag.
21:51So they could grab this bag and run if they had to.
21:55Basically, the end of the world's coming or if the law was after you.
21:58But Warren was always telling us that you had to be ready to go at a moment's notice.
22:03Because if the destructions came and you were asked to go or anything like that.
22:09This here looks like it's a baptismal outfit.
22:13We were told, if you didn't wear your long underwear in the last days,
22:17there were Indians that were going to come around, Indian spirits.
22:22They'd check you, they'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 air lobe to air lobe.
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.
22:36South 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 were 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 wondering at the meaning of a possible doomsday cult threat.
23:10On the 175th anniversary of the founding of the Mormon Church, Jeffs is promising something big.
23:16The 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.
23:23Warren, Jeffs 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 become more and more apocalyptic
23:37and more into those ideas because they see it as a safety valve.
23:42So 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.
23:50And so Roland and Warren were hyping on that this is how it was going to roll out.
23:54China here was going to attack from the West and then Russia's going to come in and attack from the East.
24:00The English nation clipped of its power.
24:03China's going to go into India and Afghanistan.
24:06And then after the wars are over and all the destructions happen, which God will contribute to,
24:11which is like natural disasters.
24:13San Diego would be destroyed by earthquake and a big tidal wave.
24:17The earthquakes and the hurricanes and all that stuff.
24:21And the Netherlands 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.
24:29So I guess there's going to be a bunch of wild animals in San Diego running around eating up people.
24:33So 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.
24:43They wanted it to be self-sustaining and they did go to great lengths to make that possible
24:49by planting their own gardens, canning a lot of vegetables and fruits.
24:54But there was certain things that they still did get shipped in.
24:58So when you say shipped in, was that like from...
25:12From FLDS people.
25:14From the FLDS people sacrificing everything that they had down there to maintain this place up here?
25:21Yeah.
25:22A lot of the abundance here reminds me of Warren's greed and his selfishness taking it from people that were less fortunate.
25:39It's just stuff that people gave like this right here, you know?
25:42That they thought if they didn't turn it in, they were going to be destroyed is what Warren Jeffs told them all the time.
25:47And at the end of the day, it wasn't self-sufficient.
25:52They were living off the money of the people.
25:54Then they were just taking those monies and just blowing, living lavishly and blowing on whatever they wanted.
26:02It 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.
26:15All of these resources and Warren just literally just took it from the people.
26:21And left them with nothing and left them starving.
26:36It 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.
26:57So Warren is driving down Interstate 15 in Las Vegas when a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper happens to come up behind the Escalade.
27:06And the trooper's testimony has been that he couldn't read the temporary tag in the back windshield of the Escalade.
27:13So he pulled the vehicle over.
27:15The Nevada Highway Patrol trooper, he ran information on Warren Jeffs, realized he's the most wanted list.
27:25We got him.
27:29One of the FBI's most wanted was nabbed in Las Vegas.
27:35Polygamous leader Warren Jeffs was arrested during a routine traffic stop.
27:39It was just a sharp eyed highway patrolman that was able to figure, put the pieces together, realize what he was seeing, and then decided that he had to make an arrest.
27:51We had wigs and he had lots of cash and everything in that suburban that he needed.
27:58He 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.
28:45Meanwhile, these people are fasting and praying and tithing and sacrificing their lives for Warren Jeffs.
28:54So how did that feel when you found out that he was caught?
29:01I was so excited, but I didn't dare tell anyone.
29:04When you looked at the other ladies, did they look like they were totally in shock?
29:08They looked like in panic.
29:09They were in panic mode.
29:11Yeah.
29:12When he went to jail, he wanted to be on the phone like all the time.
29:14Right.
29:15It was his way of controlling the church from the jailhouse.
29:19I knew Warren would still lead the people from jail.
29:22I made the decision.
29:24Now is the time that I had to escape.
29:31The first time I escaped was in South Dakota.
29:34As far as I knew, we were far away from civilization.
29:43I didn't have very many options.
29:46So I got up really early that morning.
29:48And I had my hair all ready and everything.
29:51And 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.
30:06And the caretaker got out with his wife and went in.
30:10And I said, I need to go use the bathroom.
30:13I knew I had to leave at that moment.
30:16So I walked in there and went around the whole store.
30:19And just walked straight out, went out the back, and ran.
30:23To escape someone like Warren Jeffs, you have to have the perfect scenario.
30:36And I ran and ran and ran.
30:38I 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.
30:49They tried 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.
31:07I didn't share anything with you guys.
31:11I had been threatened.
31:13And I didn't know how to tell you guys that.
31:15I didn't know how to prove it.
31:17I was always taught to be afraid of police.
31:20I was scared.
31:22Like, I just hoped that I could just like, you know, figure out my own stuff.
31:29I didn't really want them to help me.
31:32And 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.
31:57I 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.
32:20I'm sure.
32:25No 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.
32:43Everybody 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.
32:57And 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, because they had no means to go anywhere.
33:10I had no idea how mad it would make Warren Jess and how the danger in doing that would, what it would bring and what it would cause me.
33:21Why are they doing all they're doing for you, even enduring your weaknesses, building you up, even when you're disobedient?
33:31It's because they love you, and all they want you to do is obey our problem.
33:36I tried your pictures.
33:43These 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.
34:03All these girls are underage.
34:04This one right here is my cousin, and she had a baby at 14.
34:10This one and the 12-year-old.
34:12This 12-year-old, the 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.
34:34Warren Jeffs was in court Tuesday to learn if he will go to trial for allegedly forcing a 14-year-old girl to marry an older man.
34:45Prosecutors have charged Jeffs with rape as an accomplice because 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 before returning with a guilty verdict for Warren Jeffs.
35:00We 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, citing 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.
35:41And if they're 10,000 followers and they're tithing 10 to 20%, that's a lot of money.
35:47Utah'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.
35:55Well, the Utah Supreme Court overturned Warren Jeffs' conviction based on technicality, jury instruction issue.
36:03So he was due to be released in a number of dates.
36:07I immediately called Greg Abbott, who was the attorney general of Texas at the time.
36:11They had not yet filed criminal charges.
36:14They were building their case, so I encouraged them that now is the time if you're going to do it.
36:19And said, hey, I know you're interested in Warren.
36:22He's about to be released here.
36:24He was on the run for over a year.
36:27Can you come and pick him up?
36:33And 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, he has his attorney,
36:45he has members of the organization that visit and convey his orders, his 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 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, put them in isolation in another, and basically break them.
37:18All of Warren's power is based on people's beliefs.
37:22To all who qualify, of course I am.
37:30So it's by inference and it's by the indoctrination of knowing what the cult leader would want you to do that gets people to act in these ways that we find it very difficult to understand.
37:43You are the prophet.
37:46We love you. We love you.
37:52He's still the prophet. He's still the head of the FLDS with absolute control over all of its members.
38:02Picture of him in jail.
38:09When he's smiling at you like that, that's creepy.
38:12And can you imagine some young kid on the other side that he's doing that to?
38:16Hello everybody. Wonderful to see you. We love you. I 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.
38:34He would call random times in the daytime.
38:38Lord God of heaven.
38:39He was not only gathering information from me and what I was willing to say, it was everybody in the house.
38:46They're all telling him about me because I tried to escape.
38:50In 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.
39:10Mothers and daughters were against each other.
39:12And basically they informed on each other and the information would flow to Jeff's.
39:18The Lord showed me that David Fisher and family should be sent back to Shrook Creek when he moved from the land.
39:27And he showed me that Lindsey 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.
39:41Like I'm not, how can I be safe in this house in hiding?
39:44Were you ever able to meet Warren Jeff's in the jailhouse or?
39:52No, I was one of the only ones that never went and saw him in the jailhouse.
39:56Most of his wives did see him in the jailhouse.
39:57He 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.
40:15Because he walks around and masturbates all day to the pictures.
40:20This is not a test.
40:37This is a revelation.
40:38After Warren Jeff's arrest, he started implementing crazier edicts from the jailhouse.
40:46Just a minute.
40:51The Lord's still dictating.
40:52He told the men that they were no longer married.
41:02He unmarried everybody.
41:05Told them no more than a three-second handshake.
41:08This is classic Warren Jeff's playbook.
41:12He would basically take the family and pit them against each other.
41:16You know, to me it's immoral.
41:19Everything 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.
41:47We were hearing rumors and stories of young women being forced to do things against their heart and against their will.
41:57Warren Jeff's from prison declared who would be able to have sex.
42:04And there was like a designated pool of men that could have sex with the women.
42:11They would plant the seed.
42:16So 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.
42:31Lay her on a bed.
42:37And she had to be Velcroed down on this bed that they had all set up.
42:41And the men had to wear all white clothes, which is a long, like a gown, and a white hood over their face.
42:56And the only thing those ladies saw was the sex organ.
43:03Okay, the penis.
43:05They would hold a sheet up between her while one of those 15 guys would have sex with her, get her pregnant.
43:12And then when the baby come, then they would take the baby and they would give the baby to somebody else, not either parent.
43:30So 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 orchestrating sexual intimate relationships, of getting these young girls married and starting to have children.
43:57I mean, that really goes to the top of the charts, in my opinion, of the kinds of abuses that 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.
44:17The 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.
44:39I 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.
45:07I 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.
45:29I 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.
45:42They 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.
46:01So it didn't matter if they were lying or not.
46:03Because like none of it made any sense to me that I had no internet.
46:06I couldn't Google my symptoms.
46:10I couldn't do anything.
46:12That drug is usually for extreme bipolar patients.
46:16It's more than just sleeping.
46:18It's like mood changer.
46:21Yeah, it's really strong.
46:24I'm 23.
46:27I'm locked up in a compound in South Dakota and I am being drugged.
46:33I couldn't hardly walk.
46:35I 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.
47:02How 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.
47:30Over the years, I've come to interpret this as basically Warren hiding evidence.
47:35All 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.
47:43And I really think Warren was keeping these women and girls just because he didn't want law enforcement to get access to them.
47:52Precious taking time was never just a game.
47:58Always been a pleasure that you cannot refrain.
48:04I felt so trapped that I didn't know if I would ever, ever, like it was like almost hopeless. Like, is this even worth fighting?
48:13It's what you put your efforts into, the time you choose to spend, the moment that you win.
48:24I've come this far, you know, like, it 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.
48:36I just got to the breaking point where, like, there was, like, no way out.
48:47I was cornered pretty much. I did think about ending my life.
48:51There is a pattern of suicide. You can see that as being something that the leader has caused through the incredible stress that the leader has made his followers endure.
49:09In my mind, it's murder. The leader has murdered his followers by controlling them to death.
49:24I went to the laundry room that was on the same floor and just looked in the cupboard for anything, really, and I found bleach.
49:37I didn't know what would happen to me either. I knew it was a bad thing. It 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, when I threw up all night and was still alive in the morning, I'm like, okay, well, that's what happens.
49:58I was hoping I would be on the ambulance in the morning or something where there would be people from the outside world, but that didn't happen.
50:08So one day, DCFS hotline in Texas gets a phone call from someone claiming to be a 16-year-old girl named Sarah Barlow.
50:26Sarah Barlow. And Sarah Barlow claims she is being held against her will on the yearning for Zion Ranch and 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. There's no one here by those names. But 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 suspicious 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 where officials suspect hundreds of young people were abused.
51:22Warren Jeffs built a temple down in Texas. And inside the temple, he had a lot of ability to keep secret what he was doing.
51:32They kept all the records there and they were in a place where they didn't think anybody else would find records.
51:38Officials say they finished taking all 416 children from the ranch. Court documents said a number of the teenage girls were pregnant.
51:47When you touch someone, the fire of the Spirit of God is felt by that person, by that child, by the thing you're handling.
51:58Heavenly 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.
52:12In the case that stems from two young followers he took as brides in what his church calls spiritual marriages.
52:28Jeffs is accused of sexually assaulting two girls and could go to prison for life.
52:34Warren Jeffs knew that I saw a child bride and that he was having marital relationships with them.
52:41It wasn't a question anymore.
52:43And authorities were very frustrated.
52:48How can I make a case against this man who is revered as a prophet, as the only prophet living on earth to speak for God?
52:58Who will testify against him?
53:00Who will become a government witness?
53:03I can't exaggerate the courage that it would take for anybody to leave this community.
53:10Very few people did.
53:12And the ones that did bore very severe scars for having left.
53:17Like if he let a loose end out, that would hurt him.
53:23And 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.
53:48Blood atonement is about judgment.
53:52It's about punishment.
53:53It is about having to die for your sins so you can be accepted into heaven.
53:59It's not something that you can legally practice.
54:02So it's like they make it staged as an accident.
54:05So I was told to kill myself because that was like Warren's way of practicing blood atonement.
54:14In 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 could 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.
54:52Blood 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.
55:17They moved me into a house in hiding close to a reservoir.
55:28Caretaker said is if you kill yourself, we'll tell everybody it's an accident.
55:39But 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? And he said, yeah.
55:55They literally put the weight of the world on me.
55:58All the people that were loyal to Warren in South Dakota and Texas, the people that he put there to drug me, the people that he put there to threaten me.
56:13They'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.
56:29I actually went to the reservoir.
56:31I chose a place that was deep and I went all the way in the reservoir up to my neck.
56:46I just stood there.
56:47I was praying like, what should I do? What should I do? I remember just, I don't know, every little thing mattered then.
57:03I 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.
57:37After I made the decision that I was not going to kill myself no matter what.
57:40So I went back to the house.
57:44The 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.
58:00I had to leave. I had to escape.
58:05I had to escape.
58:29I'm sorry.
58:30I don't know.
58:31I was left.
58:33I was left.
58:34I was left.
58:36I was left.
58:37I was left.
58:39I was left.
58:40I was left.
58:43So I was right.
58:45No, no, no.
58:49I was left.
58:52I had to escape.
58:54I can't believe this.
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