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[narrator]
In 1830, Joseph Smith formed

the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints.

During his lifetime,
God delivered

more than a hundred
commandments to Joseph.

One of these commandments,

recorded by a scribe
on July the 12th, 1843,

nearly destroyed Joseph's
new religion in its infancy.

Plural marriage was part
of what Joseph Smith called

the most holy
and important doctrine

revealed to any man on Earth.

Each Mormon male would need
at least three wives

to reach the celestial kingdom.

Joseph himself married
approximately 40 women.

Thousands of believers
followed Smith

on a forced migration across
the eastern United States

in search of the American Zion,

eventually settling
in Nauvoo, Illinois.

In 1844, Joseph Smith was
indicted and jailed for treason.

The governor of Illinois

personally guaranteed
his safety,

but a mob stormed the jailhouse

and shot Joseph in the back.

As he fell to his death,
Joseph shouted,

"Oh, Lord, my God!"

Brigham Young assumed
leadership of the church

and led 15,000 saints
across the Rocky Mountains

to their new Zion,

a swath of wilderness
that belonged to Mexico

but would soon be annexed
to the United States

as Utah Territory.

Over the next 30 years,
federal agents visited

almost every town in Utah
to arrest polygamists.

Giving in to the increasing
pressure from the government,

the LDS church renounced
polygamy in 1890.

Disgruntled Mormons,

unwilling to abandon Joseph's
most holy principle,

splintered off from
the mainstream LDS church.

In 1986, a single family,
the Jeffs family,

gained control
of the Fundamentalist Church

of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints,

or the FLDS,

and Rulon Jeffs
became the Prophet.

Rulon took more than 50 wives.

Merilyn Steed,
his favorite wife,

gave birth to five sons.

Her second son,
Warren Steed Jeffs,

was determined to become
the Prophet himself.

[man] Summer of 1999,
I was on a climbing trip,

and I'd never driven across
this really remote road.

It goes across southern Utah.

Blistering hot day.

There was a gas station,

mini mart at the side
of the road,

nothing on this highway,
little town off in the distance.

And I pulled in,
and it was really strange.

The girl at the counter, when I
went to pay for my Gatorade,

you know, was dressed
like in this pioneer dress

and completely covered.

It was 103 degrees.

And I look around,
and there's like, I don't know,

more than a dozen
other girls dressed like that.

And I was at my car,
about to leave,

and they walked away,

and they're being escorted
by this old guy

with a long-sleeved shirt,
button collar.

And, whoa, what's going on?

And then I paid more attention
to this town,

and these huge buildings.

It's like a mile off the road,
so I drove down there

and, man, these are
big fuckin' houses.

And pretty soon
there's a car behind me,

and wherever I go,
he's right on my tail

and really aggressive.

So I got the hell out of there,

and he stayed with me
all the way to the highway.

And I was pretty freaked out.

So I kept heading east
towards Colorado,

and I saw a National Parks
Service truck and a ranger,

and it was the closest thing
to a cop I could find.

So I was kind of
all freaked out and--

"Man, I was just chased,

and there's this weird,
really agro--

And Colorado City."

And he's like, "Oh, yeah, yeah.
No, it's just Colorado City.

That's the polygs.

You know, that's the biggest
community of polygamists

in the United States."

My head was spinning.

And what I didn't know
at the time

was I was just seeing
the tip of the iceberg.

Things were way stranger
and way creepier

than I ever could have imagined.

[children's choir]
♪ A precious child ♪

♪ Sent from above ♪

♪ Given a mission ♪

♪ A work of love ♪

♪ God will walk beside you ♪

♪ He will hold your hand ♪

♪ He is there to guide you ♪

♪ He will understand ♪

♪ Each time you whisper ♪

♪ Or kneel in prayer ♪

♪ He sends His spirit ♪

♪ To show He is there... ♪

[Warren Jeffs]
For your own children's sake,

raise them up
as calves in the stall,

protected from evil influences.

Our young people

need to be surrounded
by the celestial law

in their growing years,

to give them the advantage
of loving God,

so that when
they must face evil,

they already have a natural love
for the truth.

Warren's mother, Merilyn,

was the sixth wife
of my father.

She came to Father's family

through a family that's called
the Steed family

that was taught to believe
that their bloodline

was a royal bloodline

and that,
through their bloodline,

an individual
would be brought forth

that would become
a great person

and become a leader
of the world.

Merilyn was
very protective of Warren.

Whenever he did
something wrong,

she would blame other people

or bring up
other people's faults

to try to cover up
what he did wrong.

I got to know Warren
when I was 19 years old.

We were thrown together
in school.

We were thrown together
in a lot of things.

His father promoted it.

Rulon saw that it was
an advantage to have me around,

for both himself
and for his sons.

I was basically vice principal

of Alta Academy for 19 years.

During those 19 years,
I was also in security.

I put in the security system.

I knew when doors
were opening and shutting.

I had pressure-sensitive mats
in it.

I had cameras.

I had phone equipment

that recorded all incoming
and outgoing phone calls.

Originally, Rulon Jeffs
started the Alta Academy

for his own huge family.

He had scores and scores
of children,

and pretty soon the word
started getting out,

and it became a school
for all the FLDS faithful

from both Salt Lake
and Short Creek.

I first came here to visit
the Alta Academy back in 2004.

I had to see the place
where Warren got his start.

When Warren graduated
from high school at 17,

he was placed in as a teacher
in the Alta Academy.

Within a couple years,

he was made principal
of the Alta Academy.

So now he was running
the school.

The school was set up for
just grades one through eight.

That's all Warren thought
they needed.

And the curriculum
was very specific.

It wasn't-- They didn't teach us
regular U.S. history.

They taught us
Priesthood history,

which is the history
of the church, you know,

not Abraham Lincoln
and George Washington

and all these things, you know?

It was about the history
of the church and Joseph Smith

and all these things.

He was an expert at teaching
the Priesthood history,

and that was the only history
these people needed to know.

And once you get
to the eighth grade,

you really don't need to go
any further than that, really.

[Warren]
School is not your top priority.

It is your preparation

to be filled
with the Holy Ghost.

That is the most important
labor you have,

individually

and in your families.

We are here,

as the people
of the prophet Joseph,

to live the law of celestial
and plural marriage

and the holy United Order

so that we can be
that favored people

the prophet Joseph can use
in redeeming Zion.

The brainwashing
that went on--

Even being little kids,

the brainwashing
would start, you know.

You gotta start--
You gotta start the footsteps

of, you know, you're gonna be,
you know, a father one day,

you're gonna be
a husband one day,

and you need to be
perfectly obedient to ev--

all of your teachers,
and your father,

and all the church leaders.

And, you know, that is
what they beat into us

every single day of our lives.

Anyone that stepped outside
of the bounds

of what he set for everyone,
we were targeted,

and that was me.

I was always one who stepped
outside of the circle

and questioned things,

and he didn't like that one bit.

Warren's office is
down here on the end.

It's not like it's
some big, grandiose office.

In fact, you know, you have
the valet from the roof

coming down in here
and everything.

But this is where he wanted
his office to be

because he could get up

and watch all the children
on the playground

and know when somebody
was doing something wrong.

He would bring--

Like, a lot of the young girls
that I talked to,

he was like the dress code cop.

[Wallace] Warren pretty much
made the dress code himself.

He did that as a means

to bring girls
into his office alone.

[Brent]
I remember seeing kids

constantly being pulled
into his office

and the door closed,

and seeing them come out
with this look on their face.

I know what the look is,
you know,

the look of--

For me, it felt like

your soul being ripped out
of your heart,

out of your body.
You have nothing left.

Behind closed doors,
he is a predator.

He's abusing these kids,

and nobody knows about it.

And he's putting such a fear
of God in these kids,

that none of them
will ever say anything.

[Ron] Well, my daughter,
my oldest daughter,

was sent to Warren's office
numerous times.

Warren did rape her as well.

She didn't tell me about it
till years later,

but, yes, this was going on.

[Warren] You can tell right now
if you're passing the test.

If you're keeping sweet
no matter what,

you're a person
ready to give up your own will

and just obey
the priesthood over you.

[attorney] Did there
come a time when your father

had some strokes,

a series of strokes?

[Warren]

[attorney]
And did there come a time

when you became
your father's mouthpiece?

In other words,
you communicated on his behalf

with the FLDS people?

When he saw that he could be

the next one in line
to take his father's position,

I think that's when Warren
went really off the edge.

I really do.

He started first by taking
charge of Father's wives.

He would tell them
that he was Father's caregiver

and that everything
that they did with Father

had to go through him.

He began taking over

all of my father's
appointments

and dictating to him
who he would see.

He was basically
telling my father

what he needed to say
and what he needed to do.

All I want to say is,

to prepare for the judgments...

and establish Zion.

You know what I mean?

[people] Yes.

[Ron] Warren put into
his father's head

that the end of the world
was coming,

and Rulon started to believe it.

I mean, he really did.
He started believing

that computers
were gonna crash in 2000,

power was gonna go down,
there was gonna be havoc,

nuclear war was inevitable.

All of this stuff
that Warren was feeding him

made him believe that,
by the year 2000,

it was going to be over.

[Warren] Soon a day
of judgment will be upon us.

The prophets described
it would be

an entire separation

of the righteous
from the wicked.

It will be such a judgment

that will usher in
the great millennial reign

and only a faithful remnant
will stay on this land.

The year 2000,
the Lord's gonna come down

and wipe the Earth clean,

and we're gonna be lifted up
on some spaceship thing,

and we're gonna be
sent back down,

and it's all gonna be good.

And all of a sudden,
the year 2000 comes.

Nothing happens.

Well, then he would come back up
in front of the people and say,

"Well, you guys
weren't good enough.

The Lord felt like
that you guys needed more time

to perfect yourselves
and be more like Him."

And so he would just move on
to the next thing.

[Warren] Do I have to send
a scourge upon us

to remove those who cannot
endure His presence?

Is that what
we're demanding of God?

[Wallace]
We all moved to Short Creek

in January and February of 2002,

just before the Olympics.

We were told the Olympics
were going to come

and that Salt Lake
was going to be destroyed.

So, we were supposed to move to
Short Creek to save our lives.

To welcome the world into Zion,

which is supposed to be pure
and holy and so forth,

is like saying,
"Sinners, evil doers,

you're all welcome here."

And that's the way
they viewed it.

And so, we had to separate
ourselves from them.

And if we did not, then we
would be-- we would be damned.

[Sam] And they picked
this spot out purposely

because it's
geographically isolated.

On one side,
these vermilion cliffs.

On the other side is desert
and the Grand Canyon.

They wanted to be isolated

because their beliefs
were illegal.

The practice of polygamy
was illegal.

There's a street going through
the middle of town.

It's called Uzona,

and on one side of the street,
you're in Arizona.

The other side of the street,
you're in Utah.

They did that on purpose

because, if something happens
on one side of the border,

they can just cross the street

and they're in
a different jurisdiction.

As we come into town,

you can start to see cameras

all over the place,
on all these buildings.

Church security
and the town marshals

already know we're here.

They probably picked us up
out by Canaan Gap.

And, in fact,

there's church security
right here.

On our right is Phase Concrete.

This is where Ben Thomas
used to work.

It's one of the prominent
businesses in town.

Like nearly all the businesses
in Short Creek,

it's run in the shadows
by the FLDS hierarchy.

So one way the Phase would help
funnel money to the church was:

Let's say the men working,
they worked 400 hours.

So we could actually bill
that contract,

a general contractor,
for 400 labor hours.

Then, we would talk
to the guys and say,

"You know what?
We need to donate."

And they would say,
"Okay, I'll donate my time."

And so, out of
that 400 billable hours,

we only paid maybe 200
of those hours out in payroll.

[Sam]
They don't put it on paper,

and they don't put it
on paper on purpose.

The businesses are put out there

to fall on their sword

and take the heat
for the church,

but the church
gets all the money.

This isn't just
a recent problem.

FLDS-operated businesses

have been bleeding the American
economy for decades.

In fact,
one of the earlier examples

even has ties to NASA.

I had been instructed

by the president
of the priesthood

to get into
something different

than what I was in
with that engineering company

because I was traveling way
too much to have a big family.

I left Fenway Engineering
and started HydraPak.

We sent Thiokol
the first set of O-rings.

At that time,
the Space Shuttle program

was at a complete halt

because they couldn't put
the shuttle together.

And they said,
"Well, you're the only one

that knows how to make
these things.

Do you wanna get into business?"
We said, "Sure."

And the--

[chuckles]

the first set of O-rings
was built in my kitchen.

We had had over 5,000
hot shots with our O-rings,

and no failures,
so we were quite confident

that we knew that there was not
an O-ring problem.

I regret that I have to report

that, based on very preliminary
searches of the ocean

where the Challenger
impacted this morning,

these searches have not revealed

any evidence that the crew
of Challenger survived.

Somehow,

there was some blame
with HydraPak,

who manufactured those O-rings.

I think there's controversy
over that to this day.

But it was
an FLDS-owned company.

The businesses here

are set up
to distance themselves,

but the church owns them.

In fact, that's a covenant--

to turn your business over
to the church,

and all the assets.

Everything you make
belongs to the church.

[Ben]
I was working for Phase.

I would monitor the jobs,

from Seattle
down to Gallup, New Mexico.

Huge commercial
concrete projects.

My jobs involved Walmarts.

I did a hospital.
We did the Family Dollar.

[Sam]
Western Precision is

one of the very big
manufacturing companies.

It's been around for years,
and it's still operating.

They manufacture
aerospace parts.

They manufacture gun parts,
you name it.

[Ben] When I first
started working here,

we were required, as elders,

to donate $1,000 a month
plus the tithing.

And then, when Warren Jeffs
or Lyle,

whoever started
the United Order,

it was basically
turn everything over.

One of the companies,
Reliance Lighting,

is one of the largest,
if not the largest,

lighting distributor
and manufacturer in the west.

They do millions of dollars'
worth of lighting fixtures

in casinos and hotels

and commercial buildings
all over the country.

And they bring in
not small amounts of money,

millions of dollars a month.

All that money goes straight
into the church's coffers.

It's not like any other job.

Lots of people take pride
in their work

and want to do a good job.

But your salvation
depends on you succeeding.

And your status and stature
within the church,

and how you grow
within the church,

depends on how well
you succeed in your businesses.

[children's choir]
♪ How blessed I am ♪

♪ I look around ♪

♪ And here I fly ♪

♪ I'm growing in His love ♪

♪ Each bright new day... ♪

The Jeffs compound's
right here on our right.

This is where Rulon Jeffs lived,

and then Warren
after Rulon died.

This encompasses a whole block,
a whole city block.

♪ A chance to give... ♪

On the right,
this is the meeting house.

That's the kind of command post

for all these cameras
that are set up all over town.

We found out that that's
where they monitor them at.

[Jon] They gave up
all these businesses,

turned over the assets
to Warren.

By the time they all
moved down to Short Creek,

the assets of the trust
that he controlled

were worth $110 million,

a boatload of money,
and it's all his.

[Wallace] We did over 250
truckloads of furniture

for families in 30 days,

from Salt Lake to Short Creek.

And he did that so that he
could control the people easier

by concentrating them
in one location.

When we moved down, I had
18 children and two wives,

and I had a half-million-dollar
home in Draper,

I had a very successful
business here in Salt Lake.

And I just walked away from it.

It was a way
to concentrate the finances

so they could control
the finances of the people.

In other words,
Warren's telling you

you have nothing to lose.

-Right.
-Yeah.

It doesn't matter.

You're not gonna have
to pay it back

'cause the destructions
are gonna kill everybody.

So, max out everything,
get all the money you can,

give it to me, and you'll
never have to pay it back.

And our last truckload left

the day before
the Olympics started.

That's how they control
the people,

is through these deadlines.

If you don't do this,
the Lord is going to punish you

and you're gonna die
in the destruction.

This was all done
because Warren knew

that his father
wasn't gonna live for long.

And he was setting himself up
as the next king.

[Sam]
As time went on,

Warren regularly kept marrying

more and more young girls
to Rulon,

and the ages kept getting
younger and younger.

And in one
of Rulon's lucid moments,

he pounded the desk and said,

"Why are you marrying
all these young girls to me?"

The reason Warren was doing it

was to set up a harem for
himself after his father died.

And one of the wives
became pregnant

before Rulon
had a chance to die.

Rulon could not
have children, okay?

So it was definitely
Warren's child--

children.

It was twins.

So, Rulon had to die.

He had to.

All they had to do
was feed him the wrong things,

which they did.

[Wallace]
The fact that he always felt

that he could cover up
everything that he did wrong,

he definitely would have...

taken father's life
to cover that up.

[Warren]
I want to remind you

what the prophets
have taught us:

that whenever a man of God

is commanded to kill
another man,

he is never bloodthirsty.

But a righteous man
never loves to kill.

Instead, I'll tell you
what a righteous man does.

He goes humbly,

and he is asking the Lord
to strengthen his hand

so he can do the Lord's will,

and keep sweet,
even in doing that.

When Father died,

Warren never declared himself
the Prophet.

But he said that he was
in contact with Father

on the other side

and that Father was still
running the people

from the other side
through Warren.

But then he eventually
slowly stopped saying that,

and he started saying,
"This is what the Lord wants.

This is what the Lord
has revealed to me."

[Warren] I know the Lord,
through his prophet,

has the right to rule,

and we have the right,

privilege and duty to obey.

When he asked me
to marry him at 16,

I honestly believed
that that's what God wanted.

Basically, my mom just
woke me up and says, you know,

"Hurry. We got to
get you dressed.

You have an appointment
with the Prophet."

And my dad took me
down there to talk to him.

And I kind of knew
what was coming.

I knew, 'cause I'd never had
an appointment,

first off, with him.

So I kind of knew
what he was going to ask me.

Not him specifically,

but I kind of knew
that I was going to get married.

Basically, I just went in there,

and I sat in front of him,

and he asked me straight out,
"Will you marry me?"

And, honestly,
I was still a kid.

I didn't understand what
it means, what it truly means.

I feel like
being married at 16...

took away my entire life.

Giving all that up at 16,

I feel like... I just,

at that point--
from that point on,

my entire life has been chaos.

[Warren]
Dear wives,

realizing happiness
is only being a part

and a strength to your husband.

Get close to him.

Confide in him.

Turn to him with a full heart,

and give him the opportunity
to lead you right.

At night, we'd all get in a line

and give him a kiss goodnight.

It's almost like-- I don't even
know how to explain that.

It's really weird
to think about it now.

It's really weird.
It's like being in prison.

Instead of getting your food,

[chuckling]
you're giving him a kiss.

[Wallace]
He wanted to remove any man

who would be a threat
to his power or his influence.

So he called a meeting--

it was a Saturday
work project meeting--

and he got up and read

what he called
a revelation from God:

that certain men,

who were leaders
among the people,

no longer held priesthood,

were not worthy
of their families.

And he started casting out

anybody that he felt
was a threat

to his power or his authority.

When his father died
and he took over,

I think he felt like
whatever decisions he made,

whatever he did,

no one should question.

And if they did,
there were severe consequences,

they would lose their family.

And he made sure
that they understood that.

[Warren] A man can only have
and hold a woman as his wife,

if he has the priesthood.

If he loses the priesthood,

his family
is automatically released.

[Ron]
I was sent away

simply because I had
some serious liability issues,

as far as
Warren was concerned.

And I was the only one
that really knew enough

that could probably destroy

his taking over
his father's position.

My third wife
was Warren's full sister.

She had been molested.

And she says
it was by one of her brothers,

but she couldn't tell me
who it was

'cause she was under an oath.

And she says,
"But you can guess."

She suffered
some tremendous trauma.

I was sent out,
and he told the whole church--

He says, "If any of you
sympathize with Ron,

you will have the same thing
happen to you and your family."

[Elaine]
Nearly 40 years in the religion,

things started to change

once Warren took over

and started imposing

all kinds of tyrannical,
mind-control things

on the congregation
and my children.

So, I left

without my children,
because I was deemed not worthy.

And so, I remained very discreet

because I did not want Warren
to have any excuse

from this apostate

to break up their families.

[Warren]
An apostate is one

who has altogether turned
from the Prophet.

If you have a willful connection
with apostates,

you will not survive.

[Jon] You know,
when Prozac became popular,

Warren prescribed Prozac

to probably most of the women
in the religion,

and I'm not exaggerating.

They're all depressed.
You better believe it.

And it was a way to sort of,
you know, quell their anxiety--

he believed-- and, you know,
make them more docile.

We believed that it's
disrespectful to wear red

because they believed that,
when Jesus comes down,

when he comes back,

he'll be dressed in a red robe.

So, it's disrespectful
if you are to wear red.

So, I would wear red.

And I'm like--
Sometimes I'd do it on purpose

because I thought someone
would come out of the sky

and kill me, literally.

No kidding.

The FLDS had always followed
their leaders blindly,

but things were really different
under Warren.

The lives of the faithful

were much more constrained,
much more restricted.

So he started
taking away television.

[Jon] Basketball hoops
were taken down.

No more toys.
You couldn't play any games.

[Sam]
Going to the movies,

reading the newspaper,
getting on the Internet.

[Jon]
No pets. No dancing.

Stop celebrating Pioneer Day.

Stop celebrating Christmas.

You know, all these things,

taking bits
of people's lives away,

you know, just one inch
at a time,

and seeing how much
they would tolerate.

[Jon] He just kind of removed
all the joy from Short Creek.

It was just, he just hated
people to be happy.

[Sam]
This is a people

that are used to
obeying authority.

[Jon]
You know, paradoxically,

it made the faithful
more loyal than ever to Warren.

The more afraid they became,
the more threatened they felt,

the more they bonded to Warren.

They believe in the Prophet,

and they believe
in blind obedience.

So, they were willing to do
whatever Warren told them.

The more they feared him,
the more they depended on him,

the more he controlled them.

He's an expert at mind control,

and all mind control
is through fear.

He wanted them to be miserable.

And he did it,
and it was no exceptions.

You kowtow, or you're out.

People within the FLDS,

a few of them had enough
and have found the courage

to come forward
and tell their stories.

[reporter]
Ross Chatwin is striking back

against the Prophet who
stripped him of his priesthood,

ordered him to leave his home
and leave his family.

We are being told to leave,
leave our home here.

And we want to make a firm stand
that we do not plan on leaving.

[reporter]
The edict means wife Lori

must take the couple's
six children

and leave their father,
her husband,

something she just can't do.

When you tell a family...

they can no longer love
their father,

that you've got to create
something cold inside of you

to no longer love your husband
or your father.

You know, we knew that
there were certain things

that had to happen.

One of those was take away

Warren's control
of people's homes here.

And we knew, as long as Warren
controlled the homes,

he would control the people.

We need your help and support

to help stop Warren S. Jeffs

from destroying families,
kicking us out of our homes,

and marrying our children

in some kind of political,
dollar, Brownie-point system.

[Sam]
It blew people's minds here

that somebody was standing up
to Warren Jeffs.

Nobody had done
that kind of thing before.

And so, word
started getting out.

And some of the people
that were out there

started finding out that
I was a private investigator,

and that I had been
doing work down here,

and I was hired
on the Lost Boys case

and Brent Jeffs' case
against his uncle Warren.

[Brent] There was a bathroom
down in the basement

when we would have
these Jeffs family meetings,

these special Jeffs meetings,

when Warren would be up
on the stand with Rulon.

And then Rulon
would start to speak,

and the class would separate,

and the children would all go
downstairs into the classrooms.

Well, Warren would disappear
off the stage,

and this is when he would have
his chance to walk around,

somehow sneak
down into the basement.

And he'd pull 'em
into the bathroom,

and this is where
he would molest the kids.

And then he would go right back
upstairs on top of that stage

and preach the word of God
to these people.

And I don't know how many
other kids he did this to.

When Warren was molesting me,

he would say, you know,

"This is the word of God.
This is God's will.

If you say anything to anybody,

you're turning your back on God.

You're gonna burn
in hell for that."

[Warren]
An apostate goes away

accusing, blaming others
for their apostasy...

that all these things
aren't right with the Prophet

or those around him.

Don't be tricked.

These were
courageous young people

who were willing to-- urging
the state to press charges.

And they were taking huge risks,
but they decided to do it.

And once they did it,
the floodgates opened,

and more and more people
started coming forward,

telling their stories
and how they'd been abused.

In July 2004,
on the steps of the capitol,

Mark Shurtleff announced,

"I want Warren Jeffs to know
I'm coming after you."

And he created
this polygamy task force.

He started using these methods

that had been used against the
mafia to put them in prison--

you know, racketeering laws,
the RICO laws.

It was,
"We're gonna get you

for interstate trafficking,
for fraud."

Those were the things that
could bring down the church.

And, thanks to Sam's work

and the attorney general's
statements,

you know, finally it looked
like the tide had turned

and now, you know, this was
gonna be taken seriously.

[Brent]
I started this.

And then,
soon after my lawsuit,

there was these kids that were
out of the church as well,

wanted to file a lawsuit
against Warren.

And then another lawsuit
with Elissa Wall followed.

I mean, it was just like
this huge ripple effect started

and people finally getting
enough courage

to finally go after him.

[Sam]
At 14 years old,

Elissa Wall was placed with
her 19-year-old cousin

by Warren Jeffs.

She was married to him
in a ceremony.

She was
an unwilling participant.

She was scared to death.

So, Elissa went through
a long period

of abuse and horror.

It wasn't a slam dunk.

They didn't have the goods
to get Warren

for rape of a child themselves,

but it was
an accomplice to rape,

which is a serious charge
in Utah.

And Sam helped get
all these witnesses,

and that was the case.

Can we prove that Warren Jeffs
is responsible

for this girl being
married off to this guy

and being raped?

When I was young,
my mother taught me

that evil flourishes
when good men do nothing.

This has not been easy for us.

The easy thing
would have been to do nothing.

[Jon]
Sam is really obsessive.

I mean, I'm obsessive,
but not like Sam.

And he was on this case,
and he was not gonna let it go.

[Warren]
They talk to the Gentiles,

and the whole world
gets angry at us,

calling us wicked.

We have a strength

stronger than all the anger

the world could bring upon us.

[Jon]
Sam was smart.

He knew local law enforcement
was worthless.

They were all FLDS.

They were all
in Warren's pocket.

They weren't gonna do shit.
He had to go further than that.

And the goal was,
we gotta get him

on the FBI Ten Most Wanted list.

And he had good connections
with the FBI.

And I spoke to some
of these FBI agents,

and it worked.

It took some luck,

and it took a lot of agents
sticking their neck out,

but they got him on
the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list

with Osama bin Laden.

I mean, he was in the big time,
and that changed everything.

So, now Warren has
a target on his back.

The feds are after him.

He knows he's gotta go on the
run, he's gotta go underground.

[Warren]
I am not safe here.

There is not a oneness
drawing from the heavens,

the protection needed
to keep me here.

And now the Lord has declared
that my only protection

will be to go into hiding
among the wicked.

Think of it.

Warren Jeffs set it up
before he was caught,

a structure to carry out
his orders

in case he did get caught
or he had to go underground.

And so, Lyle Jeffs, his brother,

has been put in charge.

Father is his little patsy
to do whatever he wants done.

After Warren had
moved out of town

and was hiding from the law,

then he became the bishop.

And he's been loyal to Warren

as long as I've known him.

Even up to the day that I left,

he was perfectly loyal.

Whatever Warren
wanted to happen,

didn't matter what it was,
he would do.

The people there
that follow Warren Jeffs

have taken it upon themselves
to do everything Warren says,

to be completely obedient.

And Warren has told them
to give him their paycheck,

everything they make.

Not a portion of it,
all of it.

The only things they have,
including food,

is what the bishop, Lyle Jeffs,
says they can have.

So they're
in a real predicament.

[Warren]
There is only one man

on the Earth at a time,

who holds the keys of power...

and all other priesthood bearers

only have authority to do
the Prophet's will.

Warren's being pursued

by law enforcement
all around the country,

but that doesn't mean we're
just gonna sit on the couch

and wait around
for him to be caught.

Sam was out beating the bushes--
more tips, more information.

And every time we got a tip,
you know, he and I were on it.

I had found out
about this compound in Mancos,

and that's when
Jon and I decided

that we needed
to go check this place out.

[Jon]
He called me up and said,

"You're not gonna
believe this story.

This young girl, Janetta Jessop,

you know, disappeared
from her family in Short Creek,

and she was married off
to be one of Warren's wives."

I got to where I couldn't sleep,
I couldn't eat,

I couldn't focus,
I couldn't think.

So I broke the rules on purpose.

I just used the phone,
that's it.

And another sister, who had
already left the religion,

you know, was trying
to rescue her.

And Sam said,
"We gotta do something.

Here's the details."

I told her, "I'm somewhere
I don't want to be,

and I need your help.

I want to get out of here,
you know."

So, you know,
he drove from Utah,

and I drove from
the front range of Colorado.

And the next day,
we went out to check out

this weird
and these beautiful mountains.

I mean, Warren has
really good taste in real estate

and he picks good places.

He's got unlimited money.

It's this beautiful place
below the San Juan Mountains,

and he built these, you know,
really attractive log homes.

Our secrecy was blown
by a television reporter

who told us, you know, he'd wait
until we checked it out.

[reporter]
Nestled at the base

of the majestic
Rocky Mountains,

in the southwest corner
of Colorado,

the tiny town of Mancos
rocked today

with talk about the new folks
in the community:

the polygamists
who recently bought

about 60 acres
just outside of town.

[Jon] Warren Jeffs
was there at the time.

Janetta Jessop was there.

It was an opportunity we lost.

When one of the other ladies
found me, she told me,

she says, "If you don't
tell him what you did,

then I will."

And she was serious. I'm like,
"Okay, then I'll tell him."

So, that night I told him,

and that night
he sent me home to my parents.

And the very next day,
the very next day,

that's when
Child Protective Services came.

And they took me down
to St. George without my parents

and questioned me.

And 20 questions, you know.

But Warren Jeffs told me,
he says,

"If you tell them
what they want to know,

then, because you're not 18,

they'll put you
into foster care."

[Warren]
Outwardly,

you're all beautiful.

You dress right.

You learned to do
your hair right.

But, inwardly,

some of you ladies are
so far distant from me,

you don't even comprehend
what oneness is.

Your condition
of a lack of oneness

is driving me away.

And over a period of time,
we start finding out

that, my gosh, Warren's
spreading out, you know,

which is really disconcerting,

you know, from
a criminal justice standpoint.

[Jon]
This place is important.

It looks like they're
building a deep bunker.

They built
a concrete batch plant

'cause they're gonna be pouring
so much concrete.

It looks like, if I had to
guess, this could be a bunker

where the elite will ride out,
you know, the apocalypse.

[Sam] Is that-- What is that,
a hole in the ground?

[man]
Yeah, there's--

I mean, there's like
three football fields there.

Three football fields? Wow.

I'll bet it is.

[Rick] I mean, this is
as remote as it gets.

-It's quiet down there.
-Yeah.

The girls are always quiet.

You hear kids,
but very seldom now.

Before, we used to hear
the kids.

Yeah. Have you seen any--
like those big Conex boxes,

sea containers, coming in
or anything like that?

[Karl] Well, that comes in
on the flatbed,

if not once a week,
every other week.

-Oh, yeah?
-There's a semi that comes in,

and it's usually about six
o'clock, seven o'clock, at dusk.

[Sam] They're not static.
They're dynamic, you know.

And they're at the whims
of a madman.

So, anything can happen
at any time.

[Jon]
This is beautiful this morning,

but it's kind of
the least attractive.

You know, Colorado.
It's Mancos.

And the beautiful woods
below the San Juan Mountains,

and South Dakota.

-It's in the Black Hills and--
-Yeah.

It's really, uh...
[chuckles]

I guess when you got
unlimited money to spend and--

But this is where he built
a new church--

Jerusalem-type.

-Yeah.
-Zion. This is Zion, yeah.

[Jon] You know, they bought
this 1,800 acres or whatever

four miles down the road
from what turned out to be

this brilliant and dogged
reporter, you know,

one-man newspaper,

who, uh...
[chuckles]

-I know.
-who didn't just blow it off.

Mm-hmm.

You know, ten years ago,

we had never heard of
Warren Jeffs or the FLDS,

or didn't even think polygamy
still existed in America.

So, when we first learned
about this,

we were afraid

we were gonna blow this story
out of proportion,

that we were overreporting it,

and that we weren't gonna
do service to the story.

So, you came into town

just as we were putting out
our very first paper.

And I walked in.

Kathy and I had not met you yet.

And you kind of put us at ease
and explained to us

that you thought we had gotten
the story about right.

[Jon] It must've even freaked
you out when they came here

and you found out that
they'd bought 1,200 acres,

-or something like that.
-More like 1,600.

[Kathy]
No, 1,691.

-1,691 acres.
-1,691 acres.

Wow. I mean, that's a big ranch.

Back in 2004,

our local newspaper editor,
Randy Mankin,

made a phone call to me
at my house.

So, that's the first that
I actually had heard about it.

By then, you know,
the newspaper had already done

an article on it and what
it was possibly linked to.

So, there was a lot of interest.

There was a lot of fear
in the community--

what they may be about,
what they could be about.

When it was confirmed

that they were Fundamentalist
Latter-day Saints,

that's basically what we had,
you know, to overcome,

a huge learning curve,

in order to find out
about this group,

'cause we, frankly, didn't know
anything about 'em.

-JD? Good to see you.
-How're you doing, buddy?

[Jon] Randy arranged for me
to fly with JD in his plane,

and we got up at dawn
and took off through the fog.

And, you know, just through
our first pass--

you know, we're moving fast,
and I had a telephoto lens--

I saw people and cars
on the right side of the temple.

So, I just start clicking.

And, you know, I didn't really
know what I was seeing.

And did another pass, and
clicking, clicking, clicking.

And by the third pass,
they were all gone

and there were a couple
of SUV's zooming away.

So, we landed, and I went
to Randy's office

and downloaded
my digital camera and--

"Holy shit. Look at this."

There's a tall, skinny guy
surrounded.

When we first flew over,
they were kind of a loose group.

And then they all
huddled around him,

like to protect him
like penguins or something.

And I looked at this picture

and, man,
that's Warren, I think.

And there's like 70 people,

and they're all dressed
in their Sunday best.

[Randy]
Once we saw

the enlarged version
of this photo,

we were fairly certain

that it was, indeed,
Warren Jeffs who was here.

Something fairly important
was going on.

As it turned out,
we learned that

that was the temple dedication.

And so, we knew then
that was not just--

it wasn't just gonna be
a cluster of little houses,

that they were, indeed,
gonna build something grander.

Yeah, it was gonna be
the world headquarters

of the FLDS church right here.

Of Warren Jeffs'
theological empire.

Right here in Schleicher County.

[Randy] Right. That was
a breakthrough photo.

[Jon] We knew that this is
where they're coming,

and we had suspicions
that this is the big place,

this is the Zion,
this is the new--

this is Zion.

[Thomas]
You know, I was in my truck,

watching 24 , season six,
I remember.

I was right in the middle of it,

and Father called me up

and says, you know,
"What are you doing?"

And I'm just like, ah,
"Oh, nothing really.

Just kind of just, you know,
cleaning up the shop."

Just trying to evade,
you know, being caught.

And he says, "Well, come over
to my office and talk to me."

And I thought,
"Oh, man... I am caught.

I'm in big trouble."

You know, so I went over there
and we chatted for a minute,

and he says,

"Well, the Lord has whispered
your name to the Prophet,

and you get to go
down on the ranch.

So, pack your bags."

And I was just like, "Really?
Is that what all this is about?"

I thought I was--
for sure I was in trouble.

But he--

You know, it was, like, okay.

So, you know, I left there,
and you know what?

I'm not gonna get another chance
to watch a movie,

so I'm gonna go finish this.

So, I went and finished
that season.

And then, of course,
I packed bags

and moved down on the ranch.

[Warren] To go on with me
in the redemption of Zion,

you must be filled
with the heavenly fire,

or you will be damned

and you will lose your place.

How much more straight
do I have to talk?

I was sent away
in December of 2010...

because I was,
supposedly, immoral.

I don't know why.

I was actually put in charge
of the dairy down there.

My schedule was
pretty darn full.

I mean, I had to wake up
at 2:30, go milk cows.

After that, it was prayers

and had to go straight
into working construction.

Working, doing whatever project
they had going on.

And they only gave you
two hours of sleep.

I went to bed at midnight,
one o'clock.

Had to get back up at 2:30
in the morning, every morning.

All the men--

I mean, even the boys were
supposed to work those hours.

I mean, boys that are,

you know, 13, 14,
all the way up to--

Even the old men.

I mean, men that are,
you know, 60-plus years old,

they had to be
out there working, too.

So, it was really just
a slave camp, to say the least.

You could see in a lot
of the people's eyes

where they...
they didn't feel good,

but they had to keep pushing.

I mean, if--
The way he put it is,

you work until you're tired,

and you ask the Lord
for strength to continue on,

and you keep pushing.

[Sam]
If you're a young man

and you want to try and
distinguish yourself somehow,

you want to do well
in the church.

About the only way to do that

is to contribute more money.

If you can bring in more money,
you can get a wife.

If you can get a wife,
you can have children.

If you can have children,

you can start placing
these children,

you know, if they're girls,
in prominent homes

and maybe with church leaders.

And you can start getting
more wives.

And your sons can go to work,

and you can have lots of labor

and build up your business,
and make more money,

and contribute more,

and get more wives,
and have more children.

And that's the cycle of things
within the FLDS.

The currency is,

without question,
women and children.

That's what makes this society,

this... this..

syndicate, run.

Man, a couple of times,
we thought, "We got him.

He's in our grasp."

But it turns out he was
always a step ahead of us.

You know, he was a fugitive
from justice through the FBI.

So, that was, you know,
through the whole United States.

But he was being
looked for in Utah.

He was being looked for
in Las Vegas, Nevada,

and up in that area where
he was known to travel a lot.

They actually did
pretty good, I'd say,

as far as evading the FBI.

You know, they kept
the burner phones.

That's what we called them.

It's the cheap pre-paids.

He kept just
each different circle,

and those phones in that circle

did not call
outside that circle.

And, really, that's kind of how

they kept away from the law
for that long.

[attorney] Let me call
your attention to Exhibit 7.

It says there:
"No person, no court,

no government, no people
on the face of the whole Earth

has the right or authority
to bring God into question

what He has His prophets do
in the celestial law."

[Jon] He went on
this kind of tour of America

where he got his people
he trusted most,

and they dressed
in civilian clothes,

and he went to some of the
famous places in the LDS history

because the FLDS think
they're the true church.

The Mormon Church was perverted
when it gave up polygamy,

you know,
in the nineteenth century.

It was not about him running,

although that's the impression
he gave the people.

It was about him being able
to live the good life

and drive big, fancy cars,

and go to the beach,
and go to Disneyland,

and live this double life,

and then come back
and be this pious prophet.

I don't know how many times

he might've been pulled over
for speeding,

or he was pulled over
when he was riding a motorcycle.

He had definitely been
in the clutches.

He didn't have his I.D. saying
"I'm Warren Jeffs."

He'd give a fake name.

But because he was on
the Ten Most Wanted list,

he happened to be pulled over

20 miles north of Las Vegas
on Interstate 15

by a cop who was aware.

Warren Jeffs' name stuck
in the back of his mind.

There was Warren
and one of his wives

and his brother in the car,

and they were carrying
all this cash.

They had all these computers.

[Sam] And then he looked
in the backseat,

and Warren was in the backseat,

and he was eating a salad,

and he wouldn't even look
at the trooper.

He just kept eating the salad.

But the trooper said,
in his testimony,

that when he
looked at Warren,

he could see
the jugular vein on his neck

throbbing and going
back and forth,

and he said that was
a sure sign something was wrong.

So, he had them all
get out of the car.

[Jon] He stopped them because
they had a temporary plate.

It was legal, but it
was kind of obscured.

And he separates them
and starts asking questions,

and they all give the cop
a different story

about where they're going,
what they're doing,

and he can just smell it.

And finally he asks,
"Are you Warren Jeffs?"

And Warren says, "Yes."

And once they realized
it was Warren, word spread.

It was like,
"My God, they got him."

[officer]
I'd like to announce the arrest

of FBI Top Ten Most Wanted
fugitive Warren Steed Jeffs.

I saw on TV that he had been
caught down in Las Vegas.

You know, all these years,
he preached about,

you know, not being worldly,

which meant not dressing like
the people in the outside world,

and the color red is forbidden

and, you know, all these things.

And how perfect
that he got caught

basically, you could say,
with his pants down

and in such a stupid,
little traffic stop.

I mean, it was just perfect
how everything went down.

[Elaine]
I can only imagine

that there was
some kind of devastation

that he even got caught,
in the first place.

I think he imagined that
he was so far above the law

and that he could
get away with anything.

[Jon] He went through a period,
when he was on trial,

where he started telling
the closest people to him--

his brothers, his wives,

his bishops, his lawyers--

that "I'm a fraud."

It was sort of the one moment
when he was lucid

and honest and seeing reality.

But, you know, whenever
he'd tell this to people,

they said, "No, no, no, this is
just the devil speaking."

The people still believed
that he was the Prophet.

They didn't believe that
that was even true.

They said that,
"Well, he was drugged"

or "It was a stunt double."

Eventually, he realized,

"Huh, you really can fool some
of the people all the time.

I was just testing you.
You know, I was just--

It was just, Satan came
to my cell and told me this,

and then I realized it was
Satan making me say this."

And then he went back to:

"No, I'm the dude,
and you better listen."

You have to be willing

to pass the tests
that come upon you.

And the test will always be:

Will you love Heavenly Father
and his prophets

more than your own selfishness?

While Warren was on trial

in southern Utah
for the Elissa Wall case,

back in Texas
things were developing fast.

I'll give David Doran
credit for this.

I think he had a plan on the
shelf that had been worked out

with the Texas Department
of Public Safety,

with the Texas rangers.

They had a plan ready to go
in case something happened,

and that something happened
in April of 2008.

[Warren]
All around us,

there are forces and powers

determined to enter in
and destroy us,

our lives, our virtue,
our faith.

[David]
Child Protective Services

received numerous calls
that there was a young lady

that was being abused
on the ranch.

And the counselor there had felt
it was a legitimate call,

and she felt there was a need

to call law enforcement
and call CPS.

[Jon] And this is not
that far from Waco.

So, hanging over
this whole thing is,

-That cloud.
-we got all these kids.

We cannot have another Waco.

[automatic gunfire]

So anytime you get
a group in your community

that has communal living,
you can't help but think,

"Hey, we have a potential
problem here like Waco."

The situation got
a little more tense

when we were serving

the building-to-building
search warrants.

In one of the areas
was the temple.

They physically surrounded
the walls of the temple.

And from our understanding
at that point in time,

they were actually praying
for our destruction

before we went in.

The children knew nothing.

[Randy]
CPS got in the ranch.

They saw all these little girls
that were either pregnant

or had already had a child,
or both,

that were clearly underage.

What do you do?

Well, they started taking
the kids off the ranch,

thinking there were just a few
and they were gonna sort it out.

By the time the sun came up
the next morning,

the state had a tiger
by the tail.

And what do you do?

So, eventually, the judge,
Judge Walther, said,

"Just get 'em off the ranch,
and we'll sort it out."

At that time,
we still only thought

there were only a handful
of kids out there.

And when they started
coming off the ranch,

they just kept coming
and kept coming and kept coming.

A hundred, 200, 300.

I have three daughters in there

with little children still,

and I have five children
that were my sister's,

and she passed away.

I'm the legal guardian.

And then I have six of my own,
besides that,

that are still there,

and I don't know
what's happening with them.

But I am-- I feel responsible
for all those children,

and they took 'em away.

The appeals court
ultimately ruled

that the district court
had overstepped its bounds

in ordering all the children
off the ranch,

and they ordered the kids
to go back.

And the supreme court upheld
the appeals court ruling.

The kids were all sent back.

We know now that
a lot of the children

were returned to people
who were not their parents.

It was just a fiasco.

[Sam]
There were CPS investigators

that felt like they
were doing the right thing.

They were there on the ground.
They saw what was going on.

And they made
a really tough decision

to pull all the children
off that ranch,

because they were
all in danger.

They had 'em here,
and then they gave 'em back.

[Jon]
But the raid wasn't a bust.

I mean, some good things
came from the raid, right?

[Sam] Yeah. You know,
there were 12 men arrested.

There were 11 convictions.

And it produced a treasure trove
of documents, pictures,

and the Priesthood Record,
which was used as evidence,

even now, and it will be
for years to come.

They did find evidence
of underage marriages.

They found evidence
of pregnant underage girls,

and that led into
the Texas rangers

doing a subsequent
criminal investigation

in where they identified
the suspects

and they identified, you know,
Warren Jeffs, as well,

being implicated in this crime,

in the crime
of sexual abuse of a child.

I mean, we always knew
how sick Warren was.

We'd have people tell us
some of the things he'd done.

But we never really knew
the magnitude of it--

how sick he really was,
how young the girls were.

There were so many insights
into Warren's character

and his deviancy
and his insanity,

that now here was the proof
in his own words.

[attorney]
Do you remember dictating

on November 24, 2003:

"The Lord is showing me the
young girls of this community

will be taken care of
at a younger age.

As the government
finds out about this,

it will bring such a great
pressure upon us, upon me,

and also upon the girls
who are placed in marriage."

When Warren went
to trial in Washington County,

there was a little bit
of evidence, a recording,

of the rape of 12-year-old
Merrianne Jessop.

And the tape portrayed
just the most vile,

disgusting,

um, twisted...

scene you could ever imagine.

That tape was discovered,

and it was not admitted
into evidence

because it was determined
by the court

that it would be
too inflammatory

to introduce it as evidence.

I want to congratulate
the victims of Warren Jeffs,

who first were willing
to come forward

and tell their stories
to law enforcement,

who had the courage
to go up against a man

who everybody around them
believed to be

the representative
of God on Earth,

if not God himself on Earth.

It took great courage for them
to come forward.

All this hard work.
Utah, tough case.

The prosecutors did
a brilliant job.

You know, the case looked
like they were losing,

and the prosecutor gave this
tremendous closing argument.

You know, saved the day,
conviction, jury votes,

convict this guy,
send him away forever,

you know, we hoped.

[reporter]
Jurors deliberated

for about 16 hours
over three days

before returning with a guilty
verdict for Warren Jeffs,

seen here on the far left
of the screen.

He showed no emotion
as the verdict was read.

He was convicted,

and then it was appealed to
the state supreme court of Utah,

and it was overturned
by a judge who had an agenda.

You know, it was--
it was very depressing.

[female reporter]
Polygamist leader Warren Jeffs

getting a new trial
after the Utah supreme court

reversed the convictions
against him,

the court ruling
the jury members

received the wrong instructions
when they made their decision.

The court announced its decision
on the very morning

Jeffs was supposed to have
his extradition hearing

for charges he faces in Texas.

Once the raid happened,
suddenly Texas charges

were much more serious
than those Arizona or Utah had,

and those two states

were willing to step back
and let Texas take the lead.

When I first met Warren,
what struck me is

he was kind of like a guy
that was in his own bubble,

in his own world.

There was times that we'd
observe him on camera,

that he would just--

Well, right here,
he would just sit there,

and he would stare
in the mirror.

I mean, he would stare
at himself in the mirror

for 30, 45 minutes.

Just sitting there,
staring at himself.

Or he may stand
in the middle of the room,

and he may just be
looking down at the floor.

And he would freeze
in that position,

sometimes up to an hour.

And I believe that was his way
of receiving revelation,

or whatever may be going on
in his head at the time.

He watched the news religiously
every day-- CNN, Fox.

Anytime there was any kind
of a natural disaster,

we noticed he started putting
that out in letter form

to the people
that he mailed letters to.

Like the incident,
the tidal wave that hit Japan.

He talked about that
and how he brought that on.

[Warren]
Our prophet has told us

there would be
a great destruction.

The wicked were swept off
by earthquake,

storms,

tidal waves.

Within three hours,

millions of people were killed

and the Lord kept his word.

And every time
there was a disaster

or a natural disaster,

he had some kind
of revelation about it

that he would put forth
to people in his letters.

[Thomas] There was many more,
you know, tsunamis

that were supposed to happen.

There was hurricanes.
There was...

many more destructions.

Um, there was supposed to be

a massive windstorm
to come through Texas,

and we were supposed
to prepare for it.

So, you know, of course,
we tied down everything

to get ready
for this big windstorm,

and he said it would happen
the next week.

The next week went by,
and there was no windstorm.

[Sighs]
You know.

♪ How many roads ♪

♪ Must a man walk down ♪

♪ Before you call him a man? ♪

♪ The answer, my friend ♪

♪ Is blowin' in the wind ♪

♪ The answer
is blowin' in the wind ♪

[children's choir]
♪ Each bright new day ♪

♪ Another gift ♪

♪ A chance to serve... ♪

[Sam]
This is the UEP community farm,

and we also call it
the launchpad.

It's one of
the places that Warren--

When the end of the world
was coming,

Warren had everybody gather
out in this field

and wait for the end to come.

And they came out here
at like 6:00 in the morning,

anticipating being lifted up

and ushering in the millennium.

And when it never happened,
about 6:00 at night,

Warren came out and told them

that God had forsaken them

because they were not
righteous enough

and that they needed
to try harder.

[Warren] Were it not for
the transgressions of my people,

they might have been redeemed,
even now.

But behold, they,

the priesthood people,

have not learned to be obedient

to the things which I required
at their hands.

And my people
must need be chastened

until they learn obedience.

In fact, that's the reason
Warren's in prison,

is because he's... atoning
for their unrighteousness.

And that accomplishes
a couple things.

It keeps the people
really loyal and obedient,

but it also puts him
on the level of deity,

of a god.

[children's choir]
♪ And blessed I am... ♪

[Randy]
He tried to fire his lawyer

right at the last moment.

Judge Walther made them stay
in the courtroom

to be available to him.

He offered no defense

except for the long, rambling
religious dissertations

very similar to some
of his revelations

and proclamations
that he releases now.

Uh, but when
he would be doing those,

[deep voice]
he would invoke his God voice.

He kept saying
the same things over about,

um, "You're trampling
on sacred documents"

when they would present
something,

and that we were defiling that
by viewing it.

[attorney]
Mr. Jeffs, isn't it true

that this has nothing to do
with religious persecution?

Doesn't all this boil down

to your desire to have sex
with little girls?

[attorney #2] I instruct
my client not to answer that,

invoke his Fifth Amendment
privileges.

[attorney] Are you gonna
follow that counsel?

We all certainly believe
in freedom of religion.

That's what our country--

the principles
of our country's based on,

and you always want
to respect that.

But, at the same time,

anybody could use that
as a defense for any crime.

I mean, a murderer could say,
"That's my religion.

I believe in killing people."

It just doesn't--
It doesn't fly.

[Warren] The world
so far outnumbers this people.

But by logic and reason,

the world justifies themselves
as being right

and we are wrong.

But we have a personal witness

that all the world
does not have,

that God lives,

the Prophet of God on the Earth,

and this Prophet
tells only the truth.

[Mary] The hardest part
was listening to the victims.

You could tell they were trying
to hold back their emotions.

And then, as they were
telling their stories,

all of a sudden
the emotions would just explode,

and, um, it made you wonder,
you know,

"Is this just
the tip of the iceberg?

Is there--
Is there more?"

There was never any doubt
in anyone's mind.

After all of the mountains
of evidence that were presented,

there was no doubt
in anyone's mind

that he was guilty.

The tape sealed it.

I mean, that was just--
You couldn't deny it.

[heavy breathing]

[heavy breathing]

[sighs]

[Randy] From that moment
forward, that trial,

for all intents and purposes,
was over.

And in the closing arguments,

Warren Jeffs stands up,
and for 45--

Do you remember
how long it was, Kathy?

Forty-five minutes,
something like that,

without saying a single word,
just standing stark still.

[Mary] He went down the row
of all the jurors.

He went from one person to
the next one, to the next one,

and paused for just a moment
or two at each one,

and kind of tried
to stare us down, I guess.

And then at the end,
he turns to the jury and says,

"I'm at peace."

And he sits down.

And the jury returned
a very quick verdict of guilty

and a very quick sentence

of life plus 20 years.

He was too big of a coward

to even be
in the same room as me,

and asked to be taken out
of the courtroom

and placed into a room outside,

in another room in the hallway.

But to be able to stand up
in front of everybody

and tell them my story,

and... testify against him,

and have everything that I say

and everybody else
that testified,

you know, shape this whole
entire thing against Warren

and have justice to be served

was the most liberating

and amazing experience
I've ever had.

[Elaine] I wanted to see him,
in person, get it.

[chuckles]

Yes.

I'd been angry with him
for years

for keeping my son and daughter
and my grandchildren from me,

and dictating that they could
not communicate with me

or even let me
in their home anymore.

I'd have been--

I'd have been really upset
if they hadn't convicted him.

[Brent] These awesome,
awesome Texas marshals

that were my buddies
down there at the time,

they had Warren
in shackles and everything.

And when we had left
the courtroom,

I was out in the hallway
by the elevator.

And, wouldn't ya know it,

they had brought Warren
up that elevator,

and out came Warren in shackles
and an orange jumpsuit.

And I got to walk straight up
to him and stare him in the eyes

and say,
"You got what you deserved.

Justice has been served."

And I just felt ten feet tall
to be able to say that to him

and put this monster away
where he belongs.

[female attorney] Mr. Jeffs,
we've heard a lot of evidence

that is, frankly, shameful,

and it's odious
to every decent human being.

And, for that reason,
a jury convicted you

of heinous crimes
against children,

and you've been sentenced
to life in prison plus 20 years.

Do you feel any remorse
for what you've done?

Actually, Warren
has everything he wants.

You know, he's been martyred.

He's more popular than ever
among the faithful because--

He's just proven all his points.

"The evil state, you know,
is afraid of me,

and they're trying
to bring me down."

In some ways, he has
more control than he's ever had.

But we've all been wounded
by this

because it was just this--

this overarching sense of dread

that just hung over this county
for ten years,

and it's not just been
suddenly lifted.

It's just kind of easing up,

and then we're left
with these lingering questions

of what do we do,
and how do we handle it,

and where do we go from here.

I'm left with the question of:

What's going to happen
to those children?

'Cause even though
that group of children--

a lot of those are now
grown up and adults--

they're being followed
by others.

And what's happening
in Mancos, Colorado?

What's happening
in South Dakota?

What's happening in Short Creek?
Is anybody paying attention?

[Ben] I don't know what was
bugging me that day.

The voicemail came
over the phone, telling me

to cancel off school for a week
and send my kids down here.

I think it was cold.

[phone ringing]

[man]
Good afternoon.

This is a message
from the bishop's office.

This is a call for all schools

to take the rest
of the week off of school

to help with the nut harvest,

and families and school groups,
while supervised,

to meet at the Foothill School
at eight o'clock in the morning.

We need all the available
15-passenger vans

to also be brought
to the Foothill School.

[reporter] We received
a tip that Warren Jeffs,

the imprisoned leader
of the polygamist FLDS sect,

had ordered all schools closed
for a week

so children could go to work

picking pecans off trees
at a private ranch.

Obviously, they didn't have
the employees

to cover this size of field
in a week,

and they would just get
the free labor

from the mothers and the kids.

It was my oldest daughter.

She would be in charge of our
kids while they came down here,

kind of keep track
of where they were.

[Sam]
When we pulled up out here

and we saw all these children,

I mean, obviously,
they didn't want to be seen.

And we heard somebody yelling,
"Run! Run!"

And they took off

way down to the end over there.

And it was chaos.

Kids were running
back and forth,

and there were just children
as far as the eye could see.

[Warren]
The Lord is with our prophet,

and he still leads us right.

He is being renewed
and strengthened,

and his renewal

will bring fear
upon the enemy...

and also fear

in the hearts of any of us...

who have not prepared.

[attorney] You're still
operating the church, correct?

Isn't it true that you meet
with lawyers on a periodic basis

and give them instructions which
they write down and record?

And those instructions
go to your brother Lyle, right?

I know he knows the truth

about most of the stuff
about Warren.

And...

I don't appreciate how he's--

he's really just continued
to lie to the people.

And I'm really ready to see

that even Father
be brought to justice

for continuing
to lie to the people

and keeping them
under Warren's...

rule, really.

My mom is my dad's
first and legal wife.

He's got nine wives in all,

I guess excluding Mom now

because she's turned

and considered fighting
the priesthood.

So, it's really
been hard on her.

March is when my mom left,

and she went after the kids

and has gotten full custody
of two of 'em.

Two out of the ten
were underage.

All the others
are 18 or older.

The two youngest,
they treat her like dirt.

They won't talk to her.
They say, "If we talk to you,

then we're breaking
our covenants."

My dad, he's in a lot
of trouble. I know that.

That's what the Department of
Labor is coming after him for,

which he did show up
to a couple court cases,

and now he's held in contempt
for not showing up

because he couldn't provide them

with the answers
that they needed.

My current status
with the church is,

I was cast out
in January of 2010.

I was told I could not return,

that I had sinned a great sin--

which they never told me
what it was--

but that I could not return,

that I was not worthy
of my family,

that I was to leave my family
in Lyle and Warren's care.

I had to file a lawsuit
to find out where my family was.

They were all in hiding.

We received a phone call
from the FBI

saying that they had located

my daughter Sherilyn

and that she was
in a trailer house

and had been so
for as much as two years.

The reason they put 'em
in trailers like that

is because they are
too mouthy,

they have their own opinions
or something of the kind.

And so she was being corrected.

They called and asked us

if we were interested
in taking her into our home

and basically receiving her
as my child,

and I said, "Of course."

I had to contact the FBI,

the Washington County
sheriff's office,

and we had to physically go
to Short Creek,

to Lyle's home.

They were able to gather
the children out of the home.

We met at a park.

[Ron]
They basically told us

that we needed to disappear
for a little bit

until they got
some things put together.

[Ron's wife]
She didn't have anything

except for the prairie dress
she was in,

and the undergarments,
and a pair of shoes.

And we were in jeans,

and that's what we wore
for four or five days.

When I met the four girls
at the park...

they all told me
that I was not their father...

that they did not want
to go with me.

They wanted to stay
with Lyle in the church.

They said they hated me.

[Ron's wife]
I had taken her into T.J. Maxx

and got her a skirt

and a black top
and a long jacket...

-And she loved it.
-so she would be comfortable.

She actually loved it, and she
looked so cute in 'em, too.

And she did.

You could see
that she really enjoyed

the time that we spent together.

[Ron]
And she put her arm in my arm,

walking on the beach
several times,

and kind of snuggled up to me,

and calling me Dad
and things of that kind,

which is very unusual
because she was very...

-Programmed.
-programmed,

brainwashed,
whatever you want to call it.

[Wallace] I told them,
I said, "I've got to do this.

You don't realize it,
but you're truly in danger,

and I'm doing this
to protect you."

They would plug their ears
if I tried to tell them

anything about Warren,

or the truth about Warren,

or the truth
about the church.

[Ron]
Her phone basically was locked,

and she only had four people
that she could call.

That was it.

When I looked in the phone,

I could see it was like
every 15, 20 minutes

she had to report in.

[Ron]
We were called by the FBI

and told that they
needed us to come back,

and they had a warrant
to go through the phone

and get all the information
out of it and so forth.

She was in the car.

She had slid over to the other
side of the car and gotten out,

and I walked over.

I wasn't more than 15 feet
away from her

when a white pickup pulled up.

They just basically grabbed her,
pulled her in...

-and took off.
-She was gone.

They were gone.

They were burning rubber
all the way down the driveway

as I was running behind them,
talking to the FBI agent,

giving them
the license plate number.

[Wallace] My daughters just
sit in their room and paint,

comb their hair, read.

They do a lot of reading.

Life with them is very strained.

There is little
or no communication.

Whenever they want something,
they give me a note

of what they need--
food or clothing.

I say, "Let's go to the store
and do it together,"

but they refuse every time.

We have been told by the FBI

that her, her mother,
her brother and her sisters

have been all gathered up
and taken to Mexico.

In their estimation,
they're buried,

they've gone underground.

I probably will not have
the opportunity

to see them ever again.

Warren always has to take it
to the next level.

He's never gonna be satisfied
with his latest edict.

The people,
the most zealous people,

they feel like they're--

one step at a time,
one little baby step at a time--

passing the test.

So, when Warren requires
that a mother

take her 11-, 12-year-old
daughter by the hand

and give her to some lecher,

that's her test.

That's what's
being required of her.

Throughout the week, people
will stop by and donate food.

And so we collect it,

and then we go make sure
that it's given to somebody

that's going hungry
in the church.

So, everybody's doing
what they can

to help counteract the hunger
that is going on.

And the clothing,
you know, coats--

We're starting
to collect coats now

because we know
winter's gonna be coming.

So, I've got a lot of donations
that I'm starting to collect,

so we can forward it
to the people

that are needing them.

Sometimes we'll get
a call saying,

"Hey, a grandmother
just got kicked out.

It's winter time.

It's almost
five degrees outside.

And she's sleeping in her car."

So, we'll get up
in the middle of the night,

and we'll drive around,
trying to find a person

that has been--
that doesn't know where to go.

And as soon as we find 'em,

or however we can locate 'em,

we'll get 'em appropriate help
as quickly as possible.

You have to appreciate
how isolated

and how much they've been taught

for how many generations that
this is your life, you know.

This is all they know.

[Sam] You know, we talk
about brainwashing,

but it's not brainwashing.

The level of devotion comes from
an ingrained cultural thing.

It's indoctrinated with them
from birth.

All they have is
what they grew up with.

They don't know
what the outside world is like.

All they know is what
their grandparents have done

and their great grandparents
and their parents

and what their mother has--

who stays at home 24/7
indoctrinating them--

tells them.

Well, my mom's known
as the flower lady at home.

People would come
to our home all the time

and get starts from flowers

'cause her entire yard
was covered.

So I thought, well, if I
get a job at Star Nursery,

I'll bump into her, you know.

So, when I got a job there,
I did bump into her once.

I had my little boy
with me and...

It's weird, because he
had never even met her,

and he gave her a big old hug.

And she-- she hugged me.

She told me she loved me.

And I said,
"Mom, can I have your number?"

She told me no.

To me, she chose religion
over her children.

And so, you have a guy who's,
by any measure, is crazy.

He's, you know, he's not--
he's not a rational person,

and he has this megalomania,

and that, you know,
is disturbing.

But what was
really disturbing is

how all these other
thousands of people

buy into it
and don't question it.

He's able to persuade them that
"No, this is the truth,

I really do speak to God,

and your salvation
depends on me."

And he does
terrible things to them.

He takes away their families.
He takes away their fortune.

He sends them out to repent.

And they still must
turn over their income.

And they still believe him
and continue to believe him.

And that's what--
that's mind-boggling.

And it speaks
to something disturbing

about, you know, human nature,

or how once
you believe something,

you know, once you've been
brought up to believe something,

it's very, very difficult
to give that up completely.

I got your license plate number.

[Sam]
That's great.

I'd like to know who you are
and what I can do for you.

Well, my name's Sam Brower.
You can't do anything for me.

Sam Brower?

[Jon] Like so many things
in life, nothing is simple.

Nothing--

You know, it's always four steps
forward, three steps back.

And if you're lucky,

eventually you end up
further ahead than behind,

but there's no guarantee
that happens

in the short-term
or even the long-term.

How're you doing today,
Sam Brower?

[Sam] I'm doing great.
How are you doing?

Good.

It's nice to...

see your vehicle.

[Jon]
You know, it's just...

You just got to keep pushing
the rock up the hill.

And it rolls back down,
and you push it up again.

And that's kind of
how I view this.

And I'd be happy if the rock
stayed up there

and I could go do other things,
but, you know--

I think Sam feels the same way.

We're not going to quit now.

You know, we've had
plenty of reasons to quit

when all seemed futile,
and we've kept at it.

So, I'm sure
we'll keep on the case.

[Warren]
The Lord will tell me first

when the judgments are coming,

and those judgments
are going to be furious.

All of you
are not going to survive.

I worry most of all

that he is going to incite
some sort of bloodshed,

either inadvertently
or intentionally.

Intentionally probably.

He has no reason
not to do that.

It would be a way
to show his power.

He's certainly capable of it.

So, that's what I worry about.

He prays for my destruction.

Well, if I was religious,
I would pray for his destruction

because, you know,
I would have no qualms about--

I hope that fucker
dies right now.

The fear of people
following Warren to the grave

has always been something
that's been a worry.

I know for a fact that
they are completely obedient.

The ones-- the FLDS,
the United Order FLDS--

are completely obedient.

And if Warren told them to,
for instance,

die at their posts
over some kind of standoff,

they would die at their posts.

And the worry is,
you have this madman

running the church
from his prison cell in Texas.

And if he decides he wants
to go out with a bang,

or make some sort of statement,

or prove to the world
how loyal his people are

and have them do
some kind of crazy thing

like happened
in Jonestown or Waco,

that's surely a possibility.

In fact, it's wise and prudent

not to discount
that possibility.

[female attorney]
You can't change the past.

You can't undo what you've done
with these young girls.

But are you willing
to do something

to help the people
in the future?

[male attorney]
I'm gonna object.

That question is confusing.

I'm not sure I get
the connection

from the way it was phrased.

[female attorney] Mr. Jeffs,
did you understand my question?

I suspect he did.
Did you understand my question?

Do I need to restate it?

Do I need to restate
my question, Mr. Jeffs?

I'm sorry. What?

Well-- [chuckles]

I need to restate it
if you didn't understand it.

Did you understand it?

Well, all I can say, Mr. Jeffs,

is you still have
the opportunity

to turn your life around

and have something worthwhile
to present to the Lord

before you go
to meet your maker.

I'm finished.

[Warren]
Obey the Prophet when he speaks,

and you'll be blessed.

Disobey him,

it is death.

[Warren] This is
another "keep sweet" lesson

with an eternal vision,

in the name of Jesus Christ,
Amen.

[rock music playing]

[woman]
♪ Little girl won't play ♪

♪ Looks the other way ♪

♪ Staring at the past ♪

♪ Her eyes have turned
to glass ♪

♪ Oh, glass eyes ♪

♪ She's lost ♪

♪ All her dreams to dust ♪

♪ On her wedding day ♪

♪ Don't know how to play ♪

[vocalizing]

♪ Gold on her finger ♪

♪ Giving her blisters ♪

♪ She don't look eager ♪

♪ And he don't act younger ♪

♪ The first sin with thee
♪

♪ Equal as they'll be ♪

♪ Most of you ladies ♪

♪ Most of you ♪

♪ Frida ♪

♪ Your life's a miracle ♪

♪ And you are... ♪