WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.840 I want you to try and visualize something with 00:00:01.840 --> 00:00:04.700 me. Imagine you're driving through the American 00:00:04.700 --> 00:00:08.640 Southwest. You've got that incredible, vast scenery, 00:00:08.839 --> 00:00:12.980 the red sandstone cliffs, the deep blue sky, 00:00:13.279 --> 00:00:16.579 that stark, beautiful desert landscape right 00:00:16.579 --> 00:00:19.320 on the border of Utah and Arizona. It's breathtaking 00:00:19.320 --> 00:00:21.519 out there. It really is. It's the kind of place 00:00:21.519 --> 00:00:24.140 people go to get away from everything. And then 00:00:24.140 --> 00:00:26.960 right there, straddling the state line, you come 00:00:26.960 --> 00:00:30.610 across these two towns, Colorado City. Arizona, 00:00:30.610 --> 00:00:33.750 and Hilldale, Utah. And they are, I mean, technically 00:00:33.750 --> 00:00:36.070 two towns on a map, but for the people who live 00:00:36.070 --> 00:00:37.850 there, it's just one community. They call it 00:00:37.850 --> 00:00:40.469 Short Creek. Right, Short Creek. But as you're 00:00:40.469 --> 00:00:42.170 driving through, you realize pretty quickly that 00:00:42.170 --> 00:00:43.950 this doesn't look like your typical American 00:00:43.950 --> 00:00:47.329 small town. It feels off. Very off. You start 00:00:47.329 --> 00:00:49.149 seeing these massive homes. And I don't mean 00:00:49.149 --> 00:00:52.509 mansion in the Beverly Hills sense. I mean these 00:00:52.509 --> 00:00:56.439 big, boxy, almost... industrial -looking structure. 00:00:56.780 --> 00:00:58.600 Unfinished, a lot of them. Yeah, they look unfinished. 00:00:58.759 --> 00:01:00.219 Some of them are 8 ,000, 10 ,000 square feet. 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:01.899 But they don't look like they're built for a 00:01:01.899 --> 00:01:04.239 mom, a dad, two kids. They're built like barracks. 00:01:04.359 --> 00:01:07.959 That is a very deliberate architectural choice. 00:01:08.319 --> 00:01:10.980 Those houses are designed to hold dozens and 00:01:10.980 --> 00:01:14.500 dozens of people, multiple wives, scores of children, 00:01:14.599 --> 00:01:16.500 all under one roof. And then there's the other 00:01:16.500 --> 00:01:18.120 thing you notice, the thing that really stands 00:01:18.120 --> 00:01:21.409 out. The walls. The walls. are everywhere high 00:01:21.409 --> 00:01:24.689 walls privacy fences that go up six eight maybe 00:01:24.689 --> 00:01:27.650 ten feet and they aren't just there to mark property 00:01:27.650 --> 00:01:30.090 lines they are designed to create a complete 00:01:30.090 --> 00:01:32.769 visual barrier to keep the outside world out 00:01:32.769 --> 00:01:34.790 to keep the outside world completely out and 00:01:34.790 --> 00:01:37.010 maybe more importantly to keep the inside world 00:01:37.010 --> 00:01:40.030 the family hermetically sealed in you can't see 00:01:40.030 --> 00:01:41.689 what's happening behind them and then there are 00:01:41.689 --> 00:01:44.069 the people if you happen to catch a glimpse of 00:01:44.069 --> 00:01:46.739 someone walking down a dusty street It's like 00:01:46.739 --> 00:01:49.260 you've stepped through a tear in the fabric of 00:01:49.260 --> 00:01:52.140 time. It really is. You see women and young girls, 00:01:52.260 --> 00:01:55.079 and they're all dressed almost identically. These 00:01:55.079 --> 00:01:59.480 pastel prairie dresses. Long sleeves, high necks, 00:01:59.519 --> 00:02:02.159 hems right down to the ankles. No patterns, usually. 00:02:02.340 --> 00:02:05.340 Just solid colors. Pinks, light blues, purples. 00:02:05.439 --> 00:02:08.639 And the hair. Oh, the hair is incredibly distinct. 00:02:08.939 --> 00:02:11.780 It's often done up in these very elaborate coiffed 00:02:11.780 --> 00:02:15.139 styles. You see braids and swoops and this sort 00:02:15.139 --> 00:02:17.879 of wave at the front that almost defies gravity. 00:02:18.099 --> 00:02:20.919 It creates this incredibly striking, almost jarring 00:02:20.919 --> 00:02:24.020 visual. You have modern SUVs driving down the 00:02:24.020 --> 00:02:26.099 street, but the people inside them look like 00:02:26.099 --> 00:02:27.900 they've just stepped out of the 19th century. 00:02:28.080 --> 00:02:31.580 And that visual isolation, that deliberate strangeness. 00:02:32.199 --> 00:02:35.060 It's not an accident. It is the physical manifestation 00:02:35.060 --> 00:02:37.819 of a psychological reality they've built. Absolutely. 00:02:38.020 --> 00:02:40.120 You mentioned Colorado City and Hilldale, which 00:02:40.120 --> 00:02:42.460 is sort of the historic heartland of this movement. 00:02:42.620 --> 00:02:44.699 Yeah. But the geography is actually much wider, 00:02:44.819 --> 00:02:46.319 isn't it? We also have to look at places like 00:02:46.319 --> 00:02:49.379 the Y of Z Ranch in Texas. Yes, exactly. And 00:02:49.379 --> 00:02:52.159 the Y of Z Ranch wasn't just another town. It 00:02:52.159 --> 00:02:54.599 was a fortress. It was built in the middle of 00:02:54.599 --> 00:02:57.879 nowhere, specifically to escape any and all scrutiny. 00:02:58.409 --> 00:03:00.210 And that is exactly where we're going today. 00:03:00.349 --> 00:03:02.289 We aren't just talking about a quirky religious 00:03:02.289 --> 00:03:04.689 group or some historical footnote. We are doing 00:03:04.689 --> 00:03:07.210 a deep dive into the fundamentalist church of 00:03:07.210 --> 00:03:10.030 Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints, the FLDS. 00:03:10.110 --> 00:03:13.969 And it is a heavy, heavy topic. It is. But our 00:03:13.969 --> 00:03:17.210 mission here is to really unpack how this happened. 00:03:17.490 --> 00:03:19.629 Because it's so easy to look at the headlines, 00:03:19.870 --> 00:03:21.550 you know, the arrests, the Netflix documentaries, 00:03:21.710 --> 00:03:24.810 and just see the sensationalism. But I want to 00:03:24.810 --> 00:03:27.370 understand the system. The mechanics of it. Yes, 00:03:27.389 --> 00:03:29.990 the mechanics. This is a case study in what they 00:03:29.990 --> 00:03:33.229 call one -man rule. How does a community become 00:03:33.229 --> 00:03:36.349 a world unto itself? How does one man convince 00:03:36.349 --> 00:03:39.789 thousands of people that he and only he is the 00:03:39.789 --> 00:03:41.909 mouthpiece of God on earth? That is the central 00:03:41.909 --> 00:03:43.870 question, isn't it? It all comes down to authority, 00:03:44.030 --> 00:03:46.849 absolute, unquestionable, unchecked authority. 00:03:47.169 --> 00:03:49.430 So before we dive into the history and the doctrines, 00:03:49.449 --> 00:03:51.569 we really need to do some housekeeping because 00:03:51.569 --> 00:03:54.050 names matter here and definitions really matter. 00:03:54.150 --> 00:03:55.789 I know there's a lot of confusion about who these 00:03:55.789 --> 00:03:58.189 people actually are, especially in relation to. 00:03:58.599 --> 00:04:00.900 The Mormons we might know, our neighbors, our 00:04:00.900 --> 00:04:02.539 co -workers, the missionaries you see on bikes. 00:04:02.659 --> 00:04:05.199 Yes, we need to make a very, very crucial distinction 00:04:05.199 --> 00:04:08.159 right up front. The FLDS is not the mainstream 00:04:08.159 --> 00:04:10.139 church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints, 00:04:10.259 --> 00:04:12.599 which most people know as the LDS Church. So 00:04:12.599 --> 00:04:14.560 if I meet a Mormon missionary in Salt Lake City, 00:04:14.719 --> 00:04:17.959 they are not part of this group. No, not at all. 00:04:18.019 --> 00:04:20.720 In fact, they would be vehemently opposed to 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:23.480 everything the FLDS stands for. The mainstream 00:04:23.480 --> 00:04:27.339 LDS church officially prohibited polygamy over 00:04:27.339 --> 00:04:30.060 a century ago. With the 1890 manifesto. Exactly. 00:04:30.139 --> 00:04:31.899 The 1890 manifesto, which we'll definitely get 00:04:31.899 --> 00:04:36.300 into today. The mainstream church strictly excommunicates 00:04:36.300 --> 00:04:39.240 anyone who practices or even advocates for plural 00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:41.819 marriage. They've actually stated very clearly 00:04:41.819 --> 00:04:45.060 that they consider the term Mormon to be incorrectly 00:04:45.060 --> 00:04:48.560 applied to the. FLDS. OK, so when we say FLDS, 00:04:48.560 --> 00:04:50.279 we're talking about a fundamentalist breakaway 00:04:50.279 --> 00:04:53.660 group, a sect, a sect, a spinoff. And in many 00:04:53.660 --> 00:04:56.899 contexts, both legal and sociological, it really 00:04:56.899 --> 00:05:00.480 fits the definition of a cult or a high control 00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:03.189 new religious movement. And just to give people 00:05:03.189 --> 00:05:04.790 a sense of scale here, we aren't talking about 00:05:04.790 --> 00:05:07.230 10 guys in a bunker somewhere. No, not at all. 00:05:07.250 --> 00:05:09.569 At its height, we are talking about roughly 10 00:05:09.569 --> 00:05:12.730 ,000 members. And it's a transnational network. 00:05:12.850 --> 00:05:14.790 You have the headquarters on the Utah -Arizona 00:05:14.790 --> 00:05:17.629 border, but they have had major compounds in 00:05:17.629 --> 00:05:19.850 Pringle, South Dakota. Pringle, okay. A very 00:05:19.850 --> 00:05:22.509 significant and controversial presence in bountiful 00:05:22.509 --> 00:05:25.490 British Columbia in Canada. They've had colonies 00:05:25.490 --> 00:05:28.569 in Mexico for generations. It is a very sophisticated 00:05:28.569 --> 00:05:31.769 and well -funded organization. So let's go back. 00:05:31.790 --> 00:05:33.430 Let's start at the beginning of the split. How 00:05:33.430 --> 00:05:36.089 did this happen? You mentioned the 1890 Manifesto. 00:05:36.290 --> 00:05:38.430 I'm assuming the FLDS didn't just wake up one 00:05:38.430 --> 00:05:40.149 day and decide to ignore their church leadership. 00:05:40.449 --> 00:05:43.329 They have a specific reason, a theological argument, 00:05:43.470 --> 00:05:46.689 for why they think they are right and the entire 00:05:46.689 --> 00:05:49.740 mainstream church is wrong. Right. And to understand 00:05:49.740 --> 00:05:52.319 the FLDS, you have to understand the immense 00:05:52.319 --> 00:05:54.759 pressure the Mormon church was under in the late 00:05:54.759 --> 00:05:58.240 19th century. The US government was, for all 00:05:58.240 --> 00:06:00.500 intents and purposes, crushing them. This was 00:06:00.500 --> 00:06:03.259 the war on polygamy. It was. Congress had passed 00:06:03.259 --> 00:06:05.720 laws like the Edmunds Tucker Act, which effectively 00:06:05.720 --> 00:06:08.319 disenfranchised polygamists. They were seizing 00:06:08.319 --> 00:06:10.660 church assets, millions of dollars worth. Church 00:06:10.660 --> 00:06:12.839 leaders were in hiding, living on what they called 00:06:12.839 --> 00:06:15.439 the underground. It was a genuine existential 00:06:15.439 --> 00:06:17.680 threat to the institution. So the government 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:20.490 basically gave them an ultimatum. Stop practicing 00:06:20.490 --> 00:06:23.029 polygamy or we will completely destroy the church. 00:06:23.230 --> 00:06:26.990 That's a perfect summary. So in 1890, Wilford 00:06:26.990 --> 00:06:29.269 Woodruff, who was the president of the LDS church 00:06:29.269 --> 00:06:32.670 at the time, issued the manifesto. It was a public 00:06:32.670 --> 00:06:34.889 declaration that officially ended the practice 00:06:34.889 --> 00:06:38.470 of plural marriage. It was a strategic move to 00:06:38.470 --> 00:06:41.629 save the institution and pave the way for Utah 00:06:41.629 --> 00:06:44.829 to finally achieve statehood. OK, so that's the 00:06:44.829 --> 00:06:47.110 official history. The mainstream church says 00:06:47.110 --> 00:06:50.970 God told us to stop. So we stopped. But the fundamentalists, 00:06:51.009 --> 00:06:53.129 they don't buy that for a second. They do not. 00:06:53.170 --> 00:06:56.779 They view. The 1890 manifesto as a political 00:06:56.779 --> 00:06:59.420 capitulation, a surrender to the United States 00:06:59.420 --> 00:07:00.980 government, not a commandment from God. But, 00:07:01.060 --> 00:07:02.980 you know, you can't just reject the prophet unless 00:07:02.980 --> 00:07:05.279 you have a rival source of authority. You need 00:07:05.279 --> 00:07:06.699 your own story. You need your own story. And 00:07:06.699 --> 00:07:09.480 this is where the 1886 revelation comes in. This 00:07:09.480 --> 00:07:12.199 is the absolute cornerstone of all FLDS theology. 00:07:12.600 --> 00:07:15.360 The 1886 revelation. I've read about this and 00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:17.180 it really feels like a scene from a movie. Can 00:07:17.180 --> 00:07:20.660 you paint the picture for us? So the story, and 00:07:20.660 --> 00:07:22.240 this is according to fundamentalist tradition, 00:07:22.480 --> 00:07:42.740 takes place in center. So he's on the run. This 00:07:42.740 --> 00:07:44.980 is a high tension, middle of the night kind of 00:07:44.980 --> 00:07:47.319 situation. Got it. Now, Lauren Woolley, years 00:07:47.319 --> 00:07:49.519 later, it's important to note claims that on 00:07:49.519 --> 00:07:51.660 one specific night in September, while President 00:07:51.660 --> 00:07:54.300 Taylor was in his room praying, a light was seen 00:07:54.300 --> 00:07:57.360 under the door. Voices were heard. And Lauren 00:07:57.360 --> 00:07:59.500 Woolley claimed that Jesus Christ and the deceased 00:07:59.500 --> 00:08:02.040 founder of the church, Joseph Smith. appeared 00:08:02.040 --> 00:08:04.939 in the room to john taylor wow so a direct visitation 00:08:04.939 --> 00:08:07.079 a direct divine visitation and what did they 00:08:07.079 --> 00:08:09.459 supposedly say what was the message they supposedly 00:08:09.459 --> 00:08:11.819 told taylor that plural marriage was an eternal 00:08:11.819 --> 00:08:14.040 principle that could never be abandoned by the 00:08:14.040 --> 00:08:16.660 church the text of this revelation which the 00:08:16.660 --> 00:08:19.759 flds treats as holy scripture says things like 00:08:19.759 --> 00:08:23.120 i have not revoked this law nor will i Nor will 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:26.060 I. That is about as definitive as it gets. So 00:08:26.060 --> 00:08:27.879 if you believe that happened, if you believe 00:08:27.879 --> 00:08:29.899 Jesus Christ himself showed up and said that, 00:08:30.040 --> 00:08:32.720 then Wilford Woodruff coming out just four years 00:08:32.720 --> 00:08:35.940 later and saying, actually, we're stopping. It's 00:08:35.940 --> 00:08:38.519 like apostasy. It looks like heresy. That is 00:08:38.519 --> 00:08:41.100 exactly the logic. They believe the mainstream 00:08:41.100 --> 00:08:43.779 church went astray, that their leaders broke 00:08:43.779 --> 00:08:46.919 a direct covenant with God just to please the 00:08:46.919 --> 00:08:48.840 government. And here's the crucial part, right? 00:08:49.059 --> 00:08:51.580 The transfer of power. This is the linchpin. 00:08:51.909 --> 00:08:54.110 Lauren Woolley claimed that before John Taylor 00:08:54.110 --> 00:08:57.070 died, he secretly set apart a small group of 00:08:57.070 --> 00:09:00.429 men, including the Woolies, and gave them the 00:09:00.429 --> 00:09:02.649 authority to keep the principle, as they call 00:09:02.649 --> 00:09:05.370 it, alive, regardless of what the main church 00:09:05.370 --> 00:09:07.659 did. So they believe there was a secret transfer 00:09:07.659 --> 00:09:09.759 of power. Like the corporate church went one 00:09:09.759 --> 00:09:12.379 way, but the true priesthood authority was passed 00:09:12.379 --> 00:09:15.139 down to this secret parallel group. Precisely. 00:09:15.139 --> 00:09:17.620 They believe the actual priesthood authority, 00:09:17.700 --> 00:09:19.860 the keys to heaven, were transferred to this 00:09:19.860 --> 00:09:22.179 separate line of men. This is why they call themselves 00:09:22.179 --> 00:09:24.080 the remnant. They believe they are the only ones 00:09:24.080 --> 00:09:26.919 left holding the true original keys of the kingdom. 00:09:27.120 --> 00:09:29.600 So this group of holdouts, these fundamentalists, 00:09:29.639 --> 00:09:32.240 they start gathering somewhere and they pick 00:09:32.240 --> 00:09:35.639 Short Creek. Why there? Of all the places in 00:09:35.639 --> 00:09:38.580 the desert? Isolation. Pure and simple. It was 00:09:38.580 --> 00:09:41.600 the Arizona Strip. Incredibly remote, harsh, 00:09:41.759 --> 00:09:44.779 hard to get to. In the early 1900s, it was the 00:09:44.779 --> 00:09:46.919 perfect place to hide from the law and from the 00:09:46.919 --> 00:09:49.240 mainstream church. But there was also a prophecy, 00:09:49.360 --> 00:09:51.340 wasn't there? Something about Brigham Young. 00:09:51.480 --> 00:09:54.120 Yes, that gave it a divine sanction. Brigham 00:09:54.120 --> 00:09:56.700 Young had visited the area decades prior and 00:09:56.700 --> 00:09:58.980 reportedly said that Short Creek would one day 00:09:58.980 --> 00:10:01.960 be the head and not the tail of the church and 00:10:01.960 --> 00:10:04.580 the granaries of the saints. So they felt like 00:10:04.580 --> 00:10:06.559 destiny was pulling them there, that this was 00:10:06.559 --> 00:10:08.840 the appointed place. It was their promised land. 00:10:09.139 --> 00:10:11.019 And originally, this wasn't a dictatorship. When 00:10:11.019 --> 00:10:12.659 they first set up shop, it was run by a council, 00:10:12.799 --> 00:10:15.340 correct? Yes, the Council of Friends. It was 00:10:15.340 --> 00:10:18.279 originally comprised of seven high priests. And 00:10:18.279 --> 00:10:20.500 while it was very strict, there was a sense of 00:10:20.500 --> 00:10:23.429 shared governance. You had debate. to reach a 00:10:23.429 --> 00:10:25.730 consensus. It wasn't one man calling all the 00:10:25.730 --> 00:10:28.529 shots. But that didn't last. No. Power tends 00:10:28.529 --> 00:10:31.210 to consolidate. Over the decades, specifically 00:10:31.210 --> 00:10:33.730 under a leader named Leroy S. Johnson in the 00:10:33.730 --> 00:10:36.570 mid 20th century, and then really accelerating 00:10:36.570 --> 00:10:39.570 under Rulon Jeffs, the entire structure shifted. 00:10:39.809 --> 00:10:43.830 We moved from a council to the doctrine of one 00:10:43.830 --> 00:10:46.899 man rule. One man rule. It sounds like a political 00:10:46.899 --> 00:10:49.340 term, but for them it's a core theological belief. 00:10:49.559 --> 00:10:52.059 It is the defining doctrine of the modern FLDS. 00:10:52.620 --> 00:10:55.240 The belief is that God is a house of order, not 00:10:55.240 --> 00:10:58.240 of confusion. Therefore, God speaks to one man 00:10:58.240 --> 00:11:00.840 on earth at a time, the prophet, the president 00:11:00.840 --> 00:11:02.879 of the priesthood. Which means if you disagree 00:11:02.879 --> 00:11:04.679 with the prophet... You're not just disagreeing 00:11:04.679 --> 00:11:06.440 with a man. You're disagreeing with God himself. 00:11:06.720 --> 00:11:09.340 Exactly. It creates a theological funnel. Every 00:11:09.340 --> 00:11:11.559 decision, every revelation, every single bit 00:11:11.559 --> 00:11:13.779 of truth comes through one specific individual. 00:11:14.080 --> 00:11:16.929 It makes dissent... impossible because dissent 00:11:16.929 --> 00:11:19.289 is immediately reclassified as blasphemy. If 00:11:19.289 --> 00:11:21.190 the prophet says the sky is green and you look 00:11:21.190 --> 00:11:23.669 up and say, no, it's blue, you are structurally, 00:11:23.690 --> 00:11:26.710 theologically wrong. That is terrifying. It removes 00:11:26.710 --> 00:11:29.330 any kind of safety valve, any checks and balances. 00:11:29.629 --> 00:11:32.480 And that brings us to the modern dynasty. The 00:11:32.480 --> 00:11:34.799 Jeffs family. Let's talk about Rulon Jeffs. He 00:11:34.799 --> 00:11:37.580 took over in the 80s. Yes, Rulon Jeffs. Uncle 00:11:37.580 --> 00:11:41.220 Rulon, as many called him. He was really the 00:11:41.220 --> 00:11:43.580 bridge from the old fundamentalism to the extreme 00:11:43.580 --> 00:11:45.940 isolation we see today. And the numbers associated 00:11:45.940 --> 00:11:48.639 with him are, well, they're difficult to even 00:11:48.639 --> 00:11:53.860 comprehend. I saw the number 46. 46 wives. At 00:11:53.860 --> 00:11:56.059 least 46 wives that have been documented. And 00:11:56.059 --> 00:11:57.779 the number of children is estimated to be over 00:11:57.779 --> 00:12:00.539 60. Just... Pause on the logistics of that for 00:12:00.539 --> 00:12:03.100 a second. I mean, 46 wives. How does that even 00:12:03.100 --> 00:12:05.299 work structurally in a family? How do you remember 00:12:05.299 --> 00:12:07.360 everyone's name? You don't run it like a family. 00:12:07.399 --> 00:12:09.600 You run it like a corporation. You have schedules, 00:12:09.720 --> 00:12:12.399 rotations, assigned duties, sister wives in charge 00:12:12.399 --> 00:12:14.879 of other sister wives. It is not marriage in 00:12:14.879 --> 00:12:16.980 the romantic or companionate sense we would recognize. 00:12:17.120 --> 00:12:20.340 It's an organizational chart. Rulon was the undisputed 00:12:20.340 --> 00:12:23.960 CEO. But he was often seen as sort of this grandfatherly 00:12:23.960 --> 00:12:27.389 figure. He was. He presented a much softer, more 00:12:27.389 --> 00:12:29.429 benevolent face compared to what was coming. 00:12:30.129 --> 00:12:33.490 But when he died in 2002 at the age of 92, the 00:12:33.490 --> 00:12:36.490 mask came off the organization. His son, Warren 00:12:36.490 --> 00:12:38.850 Jeffs, took over. And this transition wasn't 00:12:38.850 --> 00:12:41.690 exactly a smooth democratic process. Oh, no. 00:12:41.809 --> 00:12:44.830 There was chaos. Some people within the community 00:12:44.830 --> 00:12:47.169 questioned Warren's claim to be the next prophet. 00:12:47.529 --> 00:12:49.570 There were other high -ranking men who felt they 00:12:49.570 --> 00:12:52.309 had a right. For instance, Winston Blackmore, 00:12:52.429 --> 00:12:54.710 who ran the huge group up in bountiful Canada, 00:12:54.950 --> 00:12:57.669 he had a legitimate claim. So there was a succession 00:12:57.669 --> 00:13:01.009 crisis. There was. But Warren was absolutely 00:13:01.009 --> 00:13:03.850 ruthless. He excommunicated Blackmore and his 00:13:03.850 --> 00:13:06.769 followers. He excommunicated anyone who posed 00:13:06.769 --> 00:13:09.769 even a remote threat. He consolidated power almost 00:13:09.769 --> 00:13:11.929 instantly through fear. And then he did something 00:13:11.929 --> 00:13:14.269 else that I think shocked even some of the lifelong 00:13:14.269 --> 00:13:16.529 members. He married his own stepmothers. Yes. 00:13:17.000 --> 00:13:19.279 This is a practice that sounds almost medieval 00:13:19.279 --> 00:13:22.720 to modern ears. Shortly after Rulon died, Warren 00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:25.000 Jeffs took several of his father's widows as 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:27.360 his own wives. Is there a theological justification 00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:29.940 for that or is it just a raw power move? It's 00:13:29.940 --> 00:13:33.769 both. The stated logic is about caretaking. The 00:13:33.769 --> 00:13:35.570 widows, you know, providing for them, keeping 00:13:35.570 --> 00:13:37.830 them within the highest level of the priesthood 00:13:37.830 --> 00:13:41.129 family. That's the justification. But the practical 00:13:41.129 --> 00:13:43.769 effect. The practical effect is a massive assertion 00:13:43.769 --> 00:13:45.529 of dominance. It sends a message to everyone. 00:13:45.710 --> 00:13:47.970 I have literally stepped into my father's shoes. 00:13:48.230 --> 00:13:51.649 I own his legacy. I own his family. I own his 00:13:51.649 --> 00:13:54.570 wives. It's the ultimate power play. Owns feels 00:13:54.570 --> 00:13:57.009 like the right word there. Because under Warren 00:13:57.009 --> 00:14:00.049 Jeffs, the control over people's lives went from 00:14:00.049 --> 00:14:03.909 just strict to completely totalitarian. And nothing 00:14:03.909 --> 00:14:06.129 illustrates this better than how they handle 00:14:06.129 --> 00:14:08.509 marriage. We have to talk about placement marriage. 00:14:08.649 --> 00:14:10.450 This is absolutely critical to understanding 00:14:10.450 --> 00:14:13.610 the system. In the FLDS, you do not date. You 00:14:13.610 --> 00:14:15.490 do not fall in love and propose. Marriage is 00:14:15.490 --> 00:14:17.470 an assignment. It is handed down directly by 00:14:17.470 --> 00:14:19.129 the prophet. So let's walk through this. I'm 00:14:19.129 --> 00:14:22.690 a young man in the FLDS, turned 19 or 20. I don't 00:14:22.690 --> 00:14:24.549 go out and look for a girlfriend. I just wait. 00:14:24.750 --> 00:14:27.950 You wait. You work. You prove your loyalty. And 00:14:27.950 --> 00:14:29.990 you wait for the prophet to deem you worthy. 00:14:30.509 --> 00:14:33.830 of a wife and then one day he might call you 00:14:33.830 --> 00:14:35.929 into his office or make an announcement and he 00:14:35.929 --> 00:14:38.669 reveals who your wife will be and it could be 00:14:38.669 --> 00:14:40.570 anyone it could be a girl you've known your whole 00:14:40.570 --> 00:14:42.490 life it could be a total stranger from another 00:14:42.490 --> 00:14:45.590 compound it could be someone much older than 00:14:45.590 --> 00:14:48.870 you or terrifyingly much younger and the woman 00:14:48.870 --> 00:14:51.029 has absolutely no say in the matter whatsoever 00:14:51.029 --> 00:14:53.970 her consent is not part of the equation and for 00:14:53.970 --> 00:14:57.690 the men There is a massive theological hook, 00:14:57.750 --> 00:14:59.889 right? It's not just about having a wife and 00:14:59.889 --> 00:15:02.909 family. It's about your eternal soul. That's 00:15:02.909 --> 00:15:05.110 the leverage. That's the ultimate control. The 00:15:05.110 --> 00:15:07.549 FLDS theology teaches that to reach the celestial 00:15:07.549 --> 00:15:09.929 kingdom, which is the highest level of heaven 00:15:09.929 --> 00:15:12.049 where you can become a god yourself, a man needs 00:15:12.049 --> 00:15:14.870 a minimum of three wives. Three is the minimum 00:15:14.870 --> 00:15:17.210 entry fee for the highest level of heaven. For 00:15:17.210 --> 00:15:20.070 the highest glory, yes. So women become a form 00:15:20.070 --> 00:15:21.629 of spiritual currency. If you want salvation, 00:15:21.889 --> 00:15:24.389 you need wives. And the only person who can dispense 00:15:24.389 --> 00:15:26.090 that currency, the only person who can give you 00:15:26.090 --> 00:15:29.049 wives, is the prophet. Which means the prophet 00:15:29.049 --> 00:15:32.110 holds your eternal soul in his hand. If you displease 00:15:32.110 --> 00:15:34.490 him, he doesn't just, you know, fire you from 00:15:34.490 --> 00:15:37.289 your job. He can cut off your access to heaven. 00:15:37.409 --> 00:15:39.350 And he can take them away, too. That's the other 00:15:39.350 --> 00:15:41.950 side of the coin. Reassignment. You can break 00:15:41.950 --> 00:15:45.289 up a family. On a whim. If a man is deemed unworthy, 00:15:45.490 --> 00:15:48.429 maybe he questioned a decision. Maybe he didn't 00:15:48.429 --> 00:15:50.129 pay enough in tithes. Maybe the prophet just 00:15:50.129 --> 00:15:53.409 wants his wife for himself. Warren Jeffs would 00:15:53.409 --> 00:15:56.110 dissolve his marriages. He would take the man's 00:15:56.110 --> 00:15:58.590 wives and his children and reassign them to another, 00:15:58.789 --> 00:16:02.149 more worthy man. Just try to imagine the psychological 00:16:02.149 --> 00:16:04.870 terror of that, waking up every single day knowing 00:16:04.870 --> 00:16:08.190 that your entire family, your whole world, could 00:16:08.190 --> 00:16:10.389 be dissolved by a text message or a phone call 00:16:10.389 --> 00:16:12.789 from the prophet's office. It created a culture 00:16:12.789 --> 00:16:16.090 of total abject fear and snitching. Everyone 00:16:16.090 --> 00:16:17.889 was watching everyone else trying to prove their 00:16:17.889 --> 00:16:20.629 loyalty, terrified of being next. But it gets 00:16:20.629 --> 00:16:22.309 even darker. And I'll be honest, this part was 00:16:22.309 --> 00:16:24.269 genuinely hard to read about during the research 00:16:24.269 --> 00:16:27.049 phase. The seed bearer doctrine. This came out 00:16:27.049 --> 00:16:29.590 in legal documents later from witness testimony, 00:16:29.669 --> 00:16:33.139 right? Yes, specifically from the testimony of 00:16:33.139 --> 00:16:35.799 a woman named Charlene Jeffs, who was married 00:16:35.799 --> 00:16:39.779 to Lyle Jeffs, Warren's brother. This doctrine 00:16:39.779 --> 00:16:43.820 is, it is effectively ritualized, state -sanctioned 00:16:43.820 --> 00:16:47.080 rape within the marriage. Explain how it works. 00:16:47.340 --> 00:16:51.070 Because the name itself, Seed Bearer. sounds 00:16:51.070 --> 00:16:54.049 so weirdly agricultural and detached. It is. 00:16:54.049 --> 00:16:57.110 It's dehumanizing. The doctrine, as it was alleged, 00:16:57.289 --> 00:17:00.669 stated that some men, even faithful, loyal men, 00:17:00.870 --> 00:17:03.990 were not worthy to produce children for the priesthood. 00:17:04.109 --> 00:17:06.390 Their bloodline wasn't pure enough or their spiritual 00:17:06.390 --> 00:17:08.490 standing wasn't high enough in Warren's eyes. 00:17:08.609 --> 00:17:10.269 So the prophet would just decide this about you? 00:17:10.410 --> 00:17:13.329 He would. And so he would designate a seed bearer, 00:17:13.349 --> 00:17:15.450 one of the elect men, usually someone high up 00:17:15.450 --> 00:17:17.630 in the leadership. So... The husband is married 00:17:17.630 --> 00:17:19.430 to the wife. They live together in the same house, 00:17:19.490 --> 00:17:21.990 but he isn't allowed to be with her intimately. 00:17:22.069 --> 00:17:24.180 Correct. He's denied that. When it was determined 00:17:24.180 --> 00:17:26.099 to be time for the wife to conceive a child, 00:17:26.240 --> 00:17:28.400 the seed bearer would be brought into their home. 00:17:28.559 --> 00:17:31.019 And the testimony described a horrific ritual 00:17:31.019 --> 00:17:33.279 where the husband was required to be in the room. 00:17:33.480 --> 00:17:35.819 He had to hold his own wife's hands while the 00:17:35.819 --> 00:17:38.680 seed bearer performed the sexual act. I don't 00:17:38.680 --> 00:17:40.859 even have words for that. It's not just about 00:17:40.859 --> 00:17:43.579 controlling reproduction. It is about the ultimate 00:17:43.579 --> 00:17:45.779 humiliation. It is the ultimate degradation. 00:17:46.240 --> 00:17:48.920 It strips the husband of his manhood in their 00:17:48.920 --> 00:17:52.000 eyes. It strips the wife of any last shred of 00:17:52.000 --> 00:17:54.759 bodily autonomy. It reduces everyone involved 00:17:54.759 --> 00:17:57.500 to the level of livestock. You are just breeding 00:17:57.500 --> 00:18:00.720 stock for the prophet's kingdom. It really emphasizes 00:18:00.720 --> 00:18:04.099 that one man rule means one man. Everyone else 00:18:04.099 --> 00:18:06.119 is just an object, an extension of his will. 00:18:06.799 --> 00:18:09.599 And speaking of erasing women's autonomy, we 00:18:09.599 --> 00:18:12.059 have to touch on the law of Sarah. Right. Now, 00:18:12.119 --> 00:18:13.940 in historical Mormon theology, the law of Sarah 00:18:13.940 --> 00:18:15.539 generally referred to the principle that the 00:18:15.539 --> 00:18:17.380 first wife had to give her consent to her husband 00:18:17.380 --> 00:18:20.039 taking on plural wives. But under Warren Jeffs, 00:18:20.059 --> 00:18:22.099 it was twisted into something unrecognizable. 00:18:22.619 --> 00:18:25.859 It became a code for absolute unquestioning submission 00:18:25.859 --> 00:18:29.269 of women. It was used as a theological justification 00:18:29.269 --> 00:18:32.109 to force women to perform sexual acts on each 00:18:32.109 --> 00:18:34.509 other for the pleasure of the men or to force 00:18:34.509 --> 00:18:37.230 them to accept being redeemed, which meant being 00:18:37.230 --> 00:18:39.410 sent away from their families and reassigned. 00:18:39.529 --> 00:18:42.190 It was a catch -all justification for any kind 00:18:42.190 --> 00:18:44.470 of sexual abuse the leadership wanted to perpetrate. 00:18:44.670 --> 00:18:46.690 So you have this total control over people's 00:18:46.690 --> 00:18:48.849 bodies, their families, their salvation. But 00:18:48.849 --> 00:18:51.150 you can't run a town on theology alone. You need 00:18:51.150 --> 00:18:53.970 money, you need resources, and the FLES had a 00:18:53.970 --> 00:18:56.470 very specific, very effective way of handling 00:18:56.470 --> 00:18:59.339 problems. property. The United Effort Plan, or 00:18:59.339 --> 00:19:02.319 the UEP. This started way back in the 40s, right, 00:19:02.400 --> 00:19:05.700 as a sort of communal trust. Yes. The concept 00:19:05.700 --> 00:19:08.720 on paper is consecration, a religious principle 00:19:08.720 --> 00:19:10.900 where you give everything you have to the church 00:19:10.900 --> 00:19:13.259 for the building of the kingdom of God. So if 00:19:13.259 --> 00:19:15.480 you join the FLDS and build a house in Colorado 00:19:15.480 --> 00:19:17.619 City, you don't put the deed in your name, you 00:19:17.619 --> 00:19:20.359 sign it over to the UEP trust. Which sounds kind 00:19:20.359 --> 00:19:22.240 of noble and communal on the surface. We all 00:19:22.240 --> 00:19:25.349 own this together. But in a dictatorship, we 00:19:25.349 --> 00:19:29.230 always means him. The prophet has total control 00:19:29.230 --> 00:19:32.490 over the trust. So if you decide to leave the 00:19:32.490 --> 00:19:35.690 FLDS, or more likely if you get kicked out. You 00:19:35.690 --> 00:19:37.150 don't just lose your church, you lose your house. 00:19:37.250 --> 00:19:38.990 You lose your house, your business, your car, 00:19:39.089 --> 00:19:40.849 you lose everything. You walk out of town with 00:19:40.849 --> 00:19:43.009 the clothes on your back and nothing else. The 00:19:43.009 --> 00:19:46.349 tractor you just bought. It's UEP property. The 00:19:46.349 --> 00:19:48.109 house you spent 20 years building with your own 00:19:48.109 --> 00:19:51.109 two hands, it's UEP property. It is a massive 00:19:51.109 --> 00:19:53.990 economic barrier to exit. It traps people. But 00:19:53.990 --> 00:19:56.049 they also needed cash flow from the outside world. 00:19:56.289 --> 00:19:58.410 And this is where the hypocrisy just becomes 00:19:58.410 --> 00:20:01.009 breathtaking. The concept they had of bleeding 00:20:01.009 --> 00:20:03.690 the beast. This is a fascinating bit of mental 00:20:03.690 --> 00:20:07.289 gymnastics. The FLDS theology views the U .S. 00:20:07.309 --> 00:20:09.390 government as the beast from the Book of Revelation. 00:20:09.609 --> 00:20:12.250 It is corrupt. It is worldly. It is the enemy 00:20:12.250 --> 00:20:15.220 of God's people. they'd want nothing to do with 00:20:15.220 --> 00:20:17.740 it no contact no government handouts you would 00:20:17.740 --> 00:20:20.880 think but the doctrine says that because the 00:20:20.880 --> 00:20:23.779 government is evil plundering it is actually 00:20:23.779 --> 00:20:26.440 a virtuous act they felt they were entitled to 00:20:26.440 --> 00:20:29.339 the money of the wicked and they found a massive 00:20:29.339 --> 00:20:32.299 glaring loophole in the american welfare system 00:20:32.299 --> 00:20:35.559 the single mother loophole exactly in the eyes 00:20:35.559 --> 00:20:38.099 of the state of arizona or utah a man has one 00:20:38.099 --> 00:20:41.819 legal wife Maybe. If he has 10 other spiritual 00:20:41.819 --> 00:20:44.539 wives, the state doesn't recognize those marriages. 00:20:45.119 --> 00:20:47.799 Legally, those 10 women are single mothers. And 00:20:47.799 --> 00:20:50.019 a single mother with five, six, seven or more 00:20:50.019 --> 00:20:52.819 children qualifies for a lot of government assistance. 00:20:53.200 --> 00:20:56.519 A huge amount. Food stamps, WIC, Medicaid, cash 00:20:56.519 --> 00:20:58.579 assistance. They utilize this systematically. 00:20:59.019 --> 00:21:01.420 The women would be coached on how to apply as 00:21:01.420 --> 00:21:02.920 single mothers to claim they didn't know where 00:21:02.920 --> 00:21:04.880 the father was or that they were abandoned. The 00:21:04.880 --> 00:21:06.960 welfare checks would come in and the money would 00:21:06.960 --> 00:21:09.190 often be pooled or funneled. directly back to 00:21:09.190 --> 00:21:11.970 the church leadership. So they are publicly denouncing 00:21:11.970 --> 00:21:15.130 the government as the devil while privately cashing 00:21:15.130 --> 00:21:17.150 millions upon millions of dollars in government 00:21:17.150 --> 00:21:20.750 checks. By 2003, one report showed that Colorado 00:21:20.750 --> 00:21:24.230 City, a relatively small, isolated town, was 00:21:24.230 --> 00:21:27.549 receiving about $6 million a year in public funds. 00:21:27.829 --> 00:21:30.890 They were literally funding their rebellion with 00:21:30.890 --> 00:21:33.009 the enemy's money. It's incredibly cynical, but 00:21:33.009 --> 00:21:35.269 you have to admit, it's efficient. Now, I want 00:21:35.269 --> 00:21:37.049 to shift to who was allowed in this community. 00:21:37.559 --> 00:21:39.500 Because we've talked about the seed and bloodlines 00:21:39.500 --> 00:21:42.059 and purity. And unfortunately, that leads us 00:21:42.059 --> 00:21:45.160 directly to the issue of racism. It does. The 00:21:45.160 --> 00:21:49.099 FLDS maintained and in fact amplified some 19th 00:21:49.099 --> 00:21:51.779 century theological concepts about race that 00:21:51.779 --> 00:21:54.480 the mainstream LDS church has long since disavowed 00:21:54.480 --> 00:21:57.099 and apologized for, specifically the curse of 00:21:57.099 --> 00:22:00.059 Cain. This is the old, awful idea that black 00:22:00.059 --> 00:22:02.759 skin is a literal mark of a curse from God. Yes. 00:22:03.079 --> 00:22:05.460 And Warren Jess was extremely explicit about 00:22:05.460 --> 00:22:07.640 this. He taught that the black race was the vehicle 00:22:07.640 --> 00:22:10.140 for the devil on earth. They rely on this bizarre 00:22:10.140 --> 00:22:12.039 interpretation of the Old Testament where Cain 00:22:12.039 --> 00:22:14.579 kills Abel, gets marked by God, and then that 00:22:14.579 --> 00:22:17.359 lineage supposedly survives the great flood through 00:22:17.359 --> 00:22:20.059 Noah's son Ham and his wife, Egyptus. It sounds 00:22:20.059 --> 00:22:22.180 like twisted mythology, but the real world impact 00:22:22.180 --> 00:22:24.190 is just straight up hate. Which is why the Southern 00:22:24.190 --> 00:22:27.069 Poverty Law Center designated the FLDS as a hate 00:22:27.069 --> 00:22:29.849 group. Jeff's taught that what he called Negro 00:22:29.849 --> 00:22:32.529 blood makes a person unworthy of the priesthood. 00:22:33.509 --> 00:22:35.630 Interracial relationships of any kind are strictly 00:22:35.630 --> 00:22:38.329 forbidden. It is white supremacy baked directly 00:22:38.329 --> 00:22:40.910 into their core theology. And while they are 00:22:40.910 --> 00:22:43.690 actively excluding people based on race, they 00:22:43.690 --> 00:22:45.990 are also purging their own children. We have 00:22:45.990 --> 00:22:48.230 to talk about the lost boys. This is the part 00:22:48.230 --> 00:22:50.029 of the story that I think just breaks the heart 00:22:50.029 --> 00:22:52.819 of anyone who hears about it. It is the inevitable 00:22:52.819 --> 00:22:56.240 mathematical tragedy of polygyny. It's simple 00:22:56.240 --> 00:22:59.480 biology. Nature produces boys and girls in roughly 00:22:59.480 --> 00:23:02.099 50 -50 numbers. Right. For every 100 girls born, 00:23:02.180 --> 00:23:05.039 there are about 100 boys. Exactly. But the FLDS 00:23:05.039 --> 00:23:07.279 theology says a worthy man needs at least three 00:23:07.279 --> 00:23:10.640 wives. The leaders, like Warren Jeffs, have 50, 00:23:10.740 --> 00:23:14.160 60, 70 wives. If one man takes 50 women out of 00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:16.400 the dating pool, that means 49 other men will 00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:19.059 have zero women. The math is just impossible. 00:23:19.319 --> 00:23:21.710 So you have a massive surplus of young men. They 00:23:21.710 --> 00:23:23.589 are competition. They are competition for the 00:23:23.589 --> 00:23:26.170 older, powerful men who want to accumulate more 00:23:26.170 --> 00:23:29.670 wives. So the leadership began systematically 00:23:29.670 --> 00:23:33.109 looking for reasons to get rid of them. They 00:23:33.109 --> 00:23:35.509 targeted boys, usually between the ages of 13 00:23:35.509 --> 00:23:37.369 and 21. And the reasons they were kicked out 00:23:37.369 --> 00:23:39.170 were just trivial, right? We're talking about 00:23:39.170 --> 00:23:41.650 boys committing serious crimes. Not at all. We 00:23:41.650 --> 00:23:44.250 are talking about listening to a rock song on 00:23:44.250 --> 00:23:46.789 a hidden radio. Wearing a t -shirt with short 00:23:46.789 --> 00:23:49.529 sleeves, talking to a girl you weren't assigned 00:23:49.529 --> 00:23:53.430 to, being a rebel, these were all just pretexts. 00:23:53.430 --> 00:23:56.569 The real goal was to cull the herd. To remove 00:23:56.569 --> 00:23:58.630 them from the equation so there were enough women 00:23:58.630 --> 00:24:01.150 to go around for the elite. So just imagine for 00:24:01.150 --> 00:24:03.289 a second you are 14 years old. You've grown up 00:24:03.289 --> 00:24:05.369 entirely behind these walls. You probably don't 00:24:05.369 --> 00:24:06.930 know who the president of the United States is. 00:24:07.049 --> 00:24:09.130 You've never handled money. You have no real 00:24:09.130 --> 00:24:11.930 job skills. And then suddenly your father tells 00:24:11.930 --> 00:24:13.869 you you're wicked and you're put in a van and 00:24:13.869 --> 00:24:16.309 dumped on the side of a highway in St. George 00:24:16.309 --> 00:24:19.230 or Las Vegas with nothing. It is catastrophic. 00:24:19.410 --> 00:24:21.809 They are called lost boys because they are truly 00:24:21.809 --> 00:24:24.349 lost between two worlds. They don't have the 00:24:24.349 --> 00:24:26.519 social or education. skills to survive in the 00:24:26.519 --> 00:24:28.559 modern world, but they're forbidden from ever 00:24:28.559 --> 00:24:31.259 going home. Many of them fell into drug addiction, 00:24:31.539 --> 00:24:34.720 crime, homelessness. It was a brutal, systematic 00:24:34.720 --> 00:24:37.700 culling of their own sons. So for decades, this 00:24:37.700 --> 00:24:39.940 is all happening. The abuse, the welfare fraud, 00:24:40.160 --> 00:24:42.799 the culling of young men. And the outside world 00:24:42.799 --> 00:24:45.660 kind of knows, but mostly stays away. But eventually 00:24:45.660 --> 00:24:48.500 the law did come knocking. And we have two major 00:24:48.500 --> 00:24:52.099 pivotal events, the raid in 1953 and the raid 00:24:52.099 --> 00:24:54.970 in 2008. And the contrast between those two events 00:24:54.970 --> 00:24:57.589 is a perfect lesson in how modern policing works 00:24:57.589 --> 00:25:00.609 and how it can fail spectacularly. Let's start 00:25:00.609 --> 00:25:04.039 with 1953, the Short Creek Raid. This was a massive 00:25:04.039 --> 00:25:06.400 operation. The governor of Arizona at the time, 00:25:06.400 --> 00:25:08.720 Howard Pyle, ordered the National Guard and state 00:25:08.720 --> 00:25:11.079 police to storm the town at dawn. We're talking 00:25:11.079 --> 00:25:14.019 102 officers. They rounded up and arrested almost 00:25:14.019 --> 00:25:16.200 the entire adult population. And he took the 00:25:16.200 --> 00:25:18.940 kids. They took 263 children into state custody. 00:25:19.140 --> 00:25:21.299 They put them on buses and drove them away to 00:25:21.299 --> 00:25:23.660 Phoenix to be placed in foster care. Now, looking 00:25:23.660 --> 00:25:25.700 at all the crimes we just discussed, you'd think 00:25:25.700 --> 00:25:27.980 the public would be cheering. Finally, they're 00:25:27.980 --> 00:25:31.700 saving the kids. You would think that. But this 00:25:31.700 --> 00:25:35.660 is 1953. The optics were absolutely terrible. 00:25:35.940 --> 00:25:39.099 The newspapers and magazines ran these heart 00:25:39.099 --> 00:25:41.799 wrenching photos of crying mothers reaching for 00:25:41.799 --> 00:25:43.980 their children as they were being dragged onto 00:25:43.980 --> 00:25:46.819 buses by armed men. It didn't look like a rescue. 00:25:46.920 --> 00:25:48.700 It looked like government overreach. It looked 00:25:48.700 --> 00:25:50.720 like religious persecution. So it completely 00:25:50.720 --> 00:25:53.039 backfired on the state. Completely. It destroyed 00:25:53.039 --> 00:25:55.859 Governor Pyle's political career. The public 00:25:55.859 --> 00:25:58.579 outcry was so great that the families were eventually 00:25:58.579 --> 00:26:01.779 reunited after years of legal battles. But more 00:26:01.779 --> 00:26:04.440 importantly, it taught the FLDS a powerful lesson. 00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:07.819 The world is out to get you. It validated every 00:26:07.819 --> 00:26:10.680 single paranoid sermon they had ever heard. So 00:26:10.680 --> 00:26:12.819 the raid, which was meant to break them up, actually 00:26:12.819 --> 00:26:14.960 made the walls higher. It strengthened their 00:26:14.960 --> 00:26:17.119 resolve for 50 years. It became a foundational 00:26:17.119 --> 00:26:20.140 myth. We survived the raid. God is on our side. 00:26:20.299 --> 00:26:22.660 It made them more secretive, more defiant. Okay, 00:26:22.720 --> 00:26:26.099 so now fast forward 55 years. It's 2008. The 00:26:26.099 --> 00:26:28.720 YFZ Ranch in Texas. This was a different beast 00:26:28.720 --> 00:26:31.160 entirely. Completely different. First of all, 00:26:31.180 --> 00:26:34.519 the location. The YFC Ranch, which stands for 00:26:34.519 --> 00:26:37.519 Yearning for Zion, wasn't a public town. It was 00:26:37.519 --> 00:26:40.599 a private, fortified compound. And the catalyst 00:26:40.599 --> 00:26:43.500 for the raid was very strange. It started with 00:26:43.500 --> 00:26:46.299 a phone call to an abuse hotline from someone 00:26:46.299 --> 00:26:48.400 claiming to be a 16 -year -old girl named Sarah 00:26:48.400 --> 00:26:50.859 trapped inside. Who said she was being abused 00:26:50.859 --> 00:26:53.579 by her much older husband? Right. Now here's 00:26:53.579 --> 00:26:56.480 the plot twist. It turned out to be a hoax. The 00:26:56.480 --> 00:26:59.299 caller was a woman in Colorado named Rosita Swinton 00:26:59.299 --> 00:27:01.740 who had absolutely nothing to do with the ranch. 00:27:02.099 --> 00:27:04.839 She was a known serial prank caller with a history 00:27:04.839 --> 00:27:06.799 of mental illness. Wait, wait. So the biggest 00:27:06.799 --> 00:27:09.119 law enforcement raid in Texas history was... 00:27:09.130 --> 00:27:11.990 started by a completely fake call. It was, but 00:27:11.990 --> 00:27:13.650 the call was specific enough that it gave them 00:27:13.650 --> 00:27:16.109 probable cause to get a warrant. And when law 00:27:16.109 --> 00:27:18.210 enforcement went in, what they found was very, 00:27:18.269 --> 00:27:21.970 very real. They ended up removing 439 children 00:27:21.970 --> 00:27:24.029 from the compound. And this time, the public 00:27:24.029 --> 00:27:26.849 sentiment didn't swing back to the FLDS. This 00:27:26.849 --> 00:27:29.210 time, people were horrified. Why the different 00:27:29.210 --> 00:27:32.670 reaction? Because of the evidence. In 1953, the 00:27:32.670 --> 00:27:35.230 debate was about a lifestyle choice, about polygamy. 00:27:35.450 --> 00:27:38.789 In 2008, investigators found the temple. They 00:27:38.789 --> 00:27:40.809 found the vault. They found the records. They 00:27:40.809 --> 00:27:42.970 kept records of the crime. Oh, obsessively. They 00:27:42.970 --> 00:27:45.170 kept meticulous records. They found spiritual 00:27:45.170 --> 00:27:47.410 marriage certificates written in the prophet's 00:27:47.410 --> 00:27:50.150 own hand, sealing 12 -year -old girls to 50 -year 00:27:50.150 --> 00:27:52.470 -old men. They found photos of the ceremonies. 00:27:52.750 --> 00:27:56.190 They found audio recordings of Warren Jeffs dictating 00:27:56.190 --> 00:27:58.950 these marriages. The sheer volume of physical 00:27:58.950 --> 00:28:01.670 documentation proving child sexual abuse was 00:28:01.670 --> 00:28:04.329 undeniable. So you couldn't spin it as religious 00:28:04.329 --> 00:28:07.460 freedom anymore? No. This was unambiguously crimes 00:28:07.460 --> 00:28:09.400 against children. And that was the beginning 00:28:09.400 --> 00:28:12.160 of the end for the leadership. Warren Jeffs, 00:28:12.160 --> 00:28:14.640 who was already on the run, became a top fugitive. 00:28:14.799 --> 00:28:17.460 He made the FBI's 10 most wanted list. He did. 00:28:17.680 --> 00:28:19.799 He was a ghost for a while moving between safe 00:28:19.799 --> 00:28:22.359 houses. And how he eventually got caught is almost 00:28:22.359 --> 00:28:24.960 anticlimactic. It wasn't some dramatic shootout 00:28:24.960 --> 00:28:27.509 at a compound. No, not at all. It was a routine 00:28:27.509 --> 00:28:30.829 traffic stop on Interstate 15 in Nevada in August 00:28:30.829 --> 00:28:34.470 of 2006. A state trooper pulled over a Cadillac 00:28:34.470 --> 00:28:36.630 Escalade because the license plate wasn't visible. 00:28:36.849 --> 00:28:39.650 And inside, he found Warren Jeffs surrounded 00:28:39.650 --> 00:28:43.250 by over $50 ,000 in cash, burner cell phones, 00:28:43.549 --> 00:28:46.470 laptops, wigs, and disguises. A traffic stop. 00:28:46.650 --> 00:28:49.210 The banality of evil. He was eventually extradited 00:28:49.210 --> 00:28:51.309 to Utah and then Texas, where he was convicted 00:28:51.309 --> 00:28:53.410 of sexual assault of a child. He was sentenced 00:28:53.410 --> 00:28:56.509 to life in prison plus 20 years. and that opened 00:28:56.509 --> 00:28:59.490 the floodgates. Other leaders like Meryl Jessup, 00:28:59.609 --> 00:29:02.130 Raymond Jessup and many others also face convictions. 00:29:02.589 --> 00:29:04.769 The legal system finally stopped treating it 00:29:04.769 --> 00:29:06.549 as a religion and started treating it as what 00:29:06.549 --> 00:29:09.509 it was, a sophisticated criminal enterprise. 00:29:09.910 --> 00:29:11.349 You know, we've talked about the legal walls, 00:29:11.509 --> 00:29:13.190 the psychological walls that keep people in. 00:29:13.269 --> 00:29:16.029 But there is one more consequence of this intense 00:29:16.029 --> 00:29:18.650 isolation that we have to discuss. And it's not 00:29:18.650 --> 00:29:20.450 something you can see in a court document. It's 00:29:20.450 --> 00:29:22.630 written in their DNA. It's in their blood. This 00:29:22.630 --> 00:29:25.529 is the truly tragic biological legacy of the 00:29:25.529 --> 00:29:27.970 FLDS. It's a textbook. of something called the 00:29:27.970 --> 00:29:30.109 founder effect. Can you explain that for us? 00:29:30.150 --> 00:29:32.690 What is the founder effect? So, because the entire 00:29:32.690 --> 00:29:35.289 community was founded by a very small group of 00:29:35.289 --> 00:29:38.410 men, principally two patriarchs, Joseph Smith 00:29:38.410 --> 00:29:41.390 Jessup and John Ye Sparlow, and because they 00:29:41.390 --> 00:29:43.930 have practiced intense endogamy, which means 00:29:43.930 --> 00:29:46.250 marrying within the group for over a century, 00:29:46.569 --> 00:29:49.750 the gene pool is incredibly small and concentrated. 00:29:50.230 --> 00:29:52.730 Everyone is cousins. Everyone is related to everyone 00:29:52.730 --> 00:29:55.569 else multiple times over. And when that happens, 00:29:55.710 --> 00:29:57.849 rare recessive genes, which are harmless in the 00:29:57.849 --> 00:30:00.059 general population, population can suddenly show 00:30:00.059 --> 00:30:01.880 up at a rate that is statistically impossible 00:30:01.880 --> 00:30:04.940 anywhere else on Earth. In this case, it's a 00:30:04.940 --> 00:30:07.519 devastating genetic disease called fumarase deficiency. 00:30:08.000 --> 00:30:10.400 And what does that do to a person? It is catastrophic. 00:30:10.599 --> 00:30:13.039 It causes severe intellectual disability, profound 00:30:13.039 --> 00:30:16.059 brain malformation, frequent seizures, and an 00:30:16.059 --> 00:30:18.559 inability to speak or walk. In the general global 00:30:18.559 --> 00:30:20.759 population, this disease affects maybe one in 00:30:20.759 --> 00:30:23.460 millions. In the Short Creek area, it is shockingly, 00:30:23.460 --> 00:30:25.900 tragically common. So in their attempt to create 00:30:25.900 --> 00:30:29.180 a pure and separate... they actually created 00:30:29.180 --> 00:30:32.019 a genetic crisis. Biology does not care about 00:30:32.019 --> 00:30:35.069 your theology. If you close a genetic loop that 00:30:35.069 --> 00:30:37.289 tight for that long, you will eventually break 00:30:37.289 --> 00:30:40.430 the code. It is a slow -moving humanitarian disaster 00:30:40.430 --> 00:30:42.609 that the community is still dealing with today. 00:30:42.930 --> 00:30:46.130 So here we are in the 2020s. Warren Jeffs is 00:30:46.130 --> 00:30:48.609 in prison for life. He is never getting out. 00:30:48.710 --> 00:30:50.910 You would think the spell would be broken. You'd 00:30:50.910 --> 00:30:52.250 think the members would look around and say, 00:30:52.390 --> 00:30:55.089 OK, our prophet is a convicted child predator. 00:30:55.289 --> 00:30:57.309 This is all a terrible mistake. Let's pack it 00:30:57.309 --> 00:30:59.430 up. But that is not how high control groups work. 00:30:59.609 --> 00:31:02.539 In fact, in a bizarre and terrifying way, Warren 00:31:02.539 --> 00:31:05.059 Jeffs has continued to rule his church from behind 00:31:05.059 --> 00:31:07.579 bars. How is that even possible? He's in a maximum 00:31:07.579 --> 00:31:10.599 security prison in Texas. He uses proxies and 00:31:10.599 --> 00:31:13.240 communication channels. For a long time, it was 00:31:13.240 --> 00:31:15.079 his brother, Lyle Jeffs, who ran things on the 00:31:15.079 --> 00:31:18.259 outside. Then, when Lyle messed up or got arrested 00:31:18.259 --> 00:31:21.000 himself, the power shifted to others. Warren 00:31:21.000 --> 00:31:22.839 would smuggle out letters, which are treated 00:31:22.839 --> 00:31:26.160 as revelations. He'd make phone calls. In 2011, 00:31:26.380 --> 00:31:29.059 from his prison cell, he managed to purge 45 00:31:29.059 --> 00:31:31.799 high -ranking leaders from the church just with 00:31:31.799 --> 00:31:35.069 a letter. And recently... It seems to be ramping 00:31:35.069 --> 00:31:37.470 up again. There's this talk of a gathering for 00:31:37.470 --> 00:31:39.869 the end times. Yes, this is the current very 00:31:39.869 --> 00:31:43.289 alarming chapter. Since roughly 2022, there has 00:31:43.289 --> 00:31:46.130 been a major resurgence. Warren's son, Helaman 00:31:46.130 --> 00:31:48.289 Jeffs, has taken on a more visible leadership 00:31:48.289 --> 00:31:51.250 role on the outside. New revelations have come 00:31:51.250 --> 00:31:53.049 out of the prison claiming that the end of the 00:31:53.049 --> 00:31:55.089 world is imminent. And the central demand of 00:31:55.089 --> 00:31:57.109 these new revelations is to bring the children 00:31:57.109 --> 00:32:01.029 back into the fold. Yes. The edict was that God 00:32:01.029 --> 00:32:04.190 cannot allow sin living to dwell. and that all 00:32:04.190 --> 00:32:07.750 fathers seeking to get back in the prophet's 00:32:07.750 --> 00:32:10.369 good graces must gather their wives and children 00:32:10.369 --> 00:32:13.220 who may have left. There is a five -year timeline 00:32:13.220 --> 00:32:15.279 mentioned for the end of the world. And this 00:32:15.279 --> 00:32:17.960 isn't just talk. We are seeing actual kidnapping 00:32:17.960 --> 00:32:20.619 charges being filed. Right. We've seen cases 00:32:20.619 --> 00:32:22.900 like Keeper Jeff's, another one of Warren's sons 00:32:22.900 --> 00:32:25.660 facing federal kidnapping charges. Mothers who 00:32:25.660 --> 00:32:27.779 escaped the cult years ago with their kids are 00:32:27.779 --> 00:32:29.680 suddenly reporting that their children are missing, 00:32:29.880 --> 00:32:32.299 fearing they've been snatched by relatives to 00:32:32.299 --> 00:32:33.980 be taken back and be part of this gathering. 00:32:34.220 --> 00:32:37.259 And they're on the move again. Investigators 00:32:37.259 --> 00:32:40.240 are tracking them to North Dakota, of all places. 00:32:40.299 --> 00:32:43.099 Yes, rural North Dakota, tiny, isolated places 00:32:43.099 --> 00:32:46.059 like Russo. They're buying up large tracts of 00:32:46.059 --> 00:32:48.500 land, setting up remote compounds, communicating 00:32:48.500 --> 00:32:51.400 via Zoom calls with the faithful. They're trying 00:32:51.400 --> 00:32:53.819 to recreate the isolation of the 19th century 00:32:53.819 --> 00:32:56.119 Arizona Strip in the 21st century. It's like 00:32:56.119 --> 00:32:58.480 a never -ending game of whack -a -mole. You raid 00:32:58.480 --> 00:33:00.519 the compound in Texas. They move to South Dakota. 00:33:00.720 --> 00:33:03.400 You arrest the leader. His son takes over. And 00:33:03.400 --> 00:33:05.859 when the center weakens, even a little, splinkers 00:33:05.859 --> 00:33:08.319 form, which is why we have to mention a figure 00:33:08.319 --> 00:33:10.319 like Samuel Bateman. Oh, this guy. This is a 00:33:10.319 --> 00:33:12.220 perfect example of the virus mutating, isn't 00:33:12.220 --> 00:33:14.579 it? It is. Bateman was a devoted follower of 00:33:14.579 --> 00:33:17.700 Jeff's who broke off around 2019. He started 00:33:17.700 --> 00:33:19.940 his own small splinter group near the Arizona 00:33:19.940 --> 00:33:22.640 border. He claimed that Warren Jeff's had lost 00:33:22.640 --> 00:33:24.720 the prophetic mantle and that he was now the 00:33:24.720 --> 00:33:27.160 true prophet. And the details that came out when 00:33:27.160 --> 00:33:29.559 he was arrested were just as horrific as the 00:33:29.559 --> 00:33:31.880 main group. Maybe even worse in some ways, he 00:33:31.880 --> 00:33:34.859 was arrested in 2022. He had accumulated 20 wives, 00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:37.299 many of them underage girls, and he allegedly 00:33:37.299 --> 00:33:39.619 was seeking to marry his own teenage daughter. 00:33:40.220 --> 00:33:42.819 It shows that the structure of one -man rule 00:33:42.819 --> 00:33:45.420 is the fundamental problem. It attracts predators. 00:33:45.740 --> 00:33:47.839 As long as you have a theology that says one 00:33:47.839 --> 00:33:49.539 man holds all the power and can take whatever 00:33:49.539 --> 00:33:52.099 women he wants, you will always have men stepping 00:33:52.099 --> 00:33:55.349 up to fill that role. So let's try to synthesize 00:33:55.349 --> 00:33:57.430 all of this. We started with that visual of the 00:33:57.430 --> 00:33:59.869 twin towns, the unfinished houses, the prairie 00:33:59.869 --> 00:34:02.430 dresses, the high walls. We've walked through 00:34:02.430 --> 00:34:04.549 the history of the split, the rigid theological 00:34:04.549 --> 00:34:07.589 hierarchy, the abuse disguised as salvation, 00:34:07.829 --> 00:34:10.889 the systematic fraud, the genetic tragedy. It 00:34:10.889 --> 00:34:12.909 is a tragedy in every single sense of the word, 00:34:12.969 --> 00:34:15.909 from the theology to the biology. And for me, 00:34:15.929 --> 00:34:17.630 the biggest takeaway from all this is the sheer 00:34:17.630 --> 00:34:20.429 power of the narrative they created. They built 00:34:20.429 --> 00:34:23.380 a world where fraud was a virtue. Bleeding the 00:34:23.380 --> 00:34:25.639 beast wasn't theft. It was a holy act. Abuse 00:34:25.639 --> 00:34:27.820 wasn't rape. It was a placement marriage for 00:34:27.820 --> 00:34:31.199 God. They completely inverted morality. That 00:34:31.199 --> 00:34:33.840 is the ultimate success of a system like this. 00:34:33.940 --> 00:34:36.800 It completely rewrites reality for its followers. 00:34:37.000 --> 00:34:38.800 If you can convince someone that the outside 00:34:38.800 --> 00:34:40.840 world is not just different, but fundamentally 00:34:40.840 --> 00:34:43.480 evil, and that their eternal soul depends on 00:34:43.480 --> 00:34:45.719 staying inside the wall you've built, you can 00:34:45.719 --> 00:34:47.880 get them to do absolutely anything. Which leads 00:34:47.880 --> 00:34:49.559 me to the question I want to leave everyone listening 00:34:49.559 --> 00:34:52.480 with. Warren Jeffs is in a maximum security prison. 00:34:52.739 --> 00:34:55.440 The secrets are out. The evidence of his crimes 00:34:55.440 --> 00:34:58.139 is on the internet for anyone to see. And yet... 00:34:58.269 --> 00:35:01.469 Right now, as we speak, there are families packing 00:35:01.469 --> 00:35:04.030 up U -Hauls and driving to the freezing cold 00:35:04.030 --> 00:35:06.570 in North Dakota because a convicted child predator 00:35:06.570 --> 00:35:08.769 in a prison cell told them to. It completely 00:35:08.769 --> 00:35:13.429 defies logic. So if prison and evidence and the 00:35:13.429 --> 00:35:15.309 destruction of your own family can't break the 00:35:15.309 --> 00:35:18.969 spell, what possibly can? Is there any way to 00:35:18.969 --> 00:35:20.610 reach someone who has been taught their entire 00:35:20.610 --> 00:35:23.630 life that listening to an outside voice is a 00:35:23.630 --> 00:35:26.409 mortal sin? That is the question that keeps former 00:35:26.409 --> 00:35:28.789 members and law enforcement and families with 00:35:28.789 --> 00:35:31.710 loved ones still inside awake at night. And I 00:35:31.710 --> 00:35:33.230 honestly don't think we have the answer yet.