The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints operated in plain sight for decades — a polygamist cult running across the American Southwest, into rural Texas, and up into the mountains of southeastern British Columbia. What they built wasn't a church. It was a supply chain for the sexual exploitation of children, protected by theology, enforced by economics, and ignored by governments for half a century.
This episode covers the full history: the 1953 Short Creek raid that backfired and gave the FLDS fifty years of immunity, Rulon Jeffs and the doctrine of absolute obedience, Warren Jeffs' rise to power and the marriages he arranged for girls as young as twelve and thirteen, the 2008 Texas raid on the Yearning for Zion Ranch, and the Canadian arm of the operation in Bountiful, B.C. — where girls were driven across the US border and handed to Warren Jeffs while investigators spent twenty years trying to figure out if they were even allowed to charge anyone.
It also covers the people who got out. And what they did after.
In this episode:
- What the FLDS actually is and why it has nothing to do with modern Mormonism
- The 1953 Short Creek raid and why it gave the FLDS fifty years of political cover
- Rulon Jeffs, the "One Man" doctrine, and how the UEP trust trapped members financially
- Warren Jeffs: how he consolidated power, performed marriages from a fugitive SUV, and ran his church from a Texas prison cell
- The "Lost Boys," the "seed bearer" doctrine, and the Law of Placing
- Elissa Wall's testimony and why she chose to be named
- The 2008 YFZ Ranch raid... 439 children removed, triggered by a fake call
- Bountiful, B.C.: Winston Blackmore, James Oler, and the human trafficking operation four hours south of Calgary
- The constitutional fight over Canada's anti-polygamy law — and what happened when it finally moved to trial
- Samuel Bateman: a ten-year-old bride and three children found locked in a trailer
- The women who got out — and what they built after
Sources & further reading:
- Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall
- Escape by Carolyn Jessop
- The Witness Wore Red by Rebecca Musser
- Breaking Free by Rachel Jeffs
- Lost Boy by Brent Jeffs
- Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer
- FBI affidavits re: Samuel Bateman (filed December 2022)
- BC Supreme Court Reference re: Section 293, Criminal Code (2011)
- Southern Poverty Law Center: FLDS designation
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