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| Suggested Reading | |
Below are some of the books you may find interesting to learn more about the polygamous culture. | |
| Zero Chance: | |
| Power of Love...Love of Power | |
| By Jason Williams (Author), JM and Anthus Williams (Contributor) | |
| Book Description | |
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When religion and family turn on you, what is left? This is the amazing story of a young man willing to do whatever is necessary to maintain a relationship with his children. After growing up in a polygamist family and life-style, Jason Williams is given zero chance for salvation from the leaders of the FLDS. His wife and children are kidnapped from him and he is instructed to have nothing to do with them. Instead of giving in, read the true story of how Jason took on the FLDS leaders and saved his children.
Ordering Information | |
| Book Review: Illegitimate: How a Loving God Rescued a Son of Polygamy by Brian Mackert with Susan Martins Miller | |
| Part of: It's All About Him | |
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By Jennifer Bogart Books Blogcritics.org - Aurora, Ohio Originally published May 4, 2009 | |
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Brian Mackert’s childhood is a tapestry of the familiar; wide open spaces, mischief, farm animals, and the secret solidarity of brothers. A strictly frugal and distant father, a timid yet loving mother, all of these elements form the backdrop for a life that might be taken from the pages of any number of works of classic Americana. While the details, nuances and flavours of childhood may seem so familiar to us, the larger picture of Mackert’s childhood is strikingly foreign and unfamiliar.
One father, four mothers, 31 children: Mackert’s birth into a Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) community sets his experience of early life in direct contrast to those of the vast majority of North Americans. Related in a straightforward narrative Illegitimate: How a Loving God Rescued a Son of Polygamy transparently shares the logistical difficulties, emotional challenges and fear of persecution that the life of an FLDS child is filled with. Boasting a familial ancestry tracing itself to the earliest Mormon church fathers, they held firmly to the doctrine of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young despite raids, pressure from mainstream Mormons and mainstream culture. Read more | |
| Survivor of Violent Polygamist Cult Shares Her Story | |
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PR Web (press release) - Ferndale, WA Originally published February 17, 2009 | |
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It began as a quest for a peaceful existence in an unorthodox religious society. It ended in mayhem, murder, and tragedy.
Grants Pass, OR (PRWEB) February 17, 2009 -- First time author Kim Taylor has surprised members of her small community, including some of her own family and friends, with the release of her tragic memoirs in a book that reads stranger than fiction. For the first time ever, the easy-going Oregon housewife shares in detail the fascinating events that took place in her young life. In her story, titled Daughters of Zion: A Family's Conversion to Polygamy (212 pp, tpb, $15.95), Taylor chronicles being uprooted from her family's comfortable middle class home in Utah at the tender age of seven to be raised in a polygamous cult in Mexico. Her life takes unbelievable twists and turns as her older sisters become plural wives, and young Kim herself is eventually courted by the polygamist fathers of her close friends. All semblance of a peaceful life is shattered when violence erupts within the ranks of the priesthood leaving one sister a widow. Kim fears for her own life as some of the people she cares most about become murderers in the name of religion. Read more | |
| The Essentials | |
| City Weekly's Entertainment Picks Dec 25-31 | |
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BOOKS By Dallas Robbins Salt Lake City Weekly Originally published December 25, 2008 | |
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With an endless stream of books on polygamy and its discontents, do we really need another one? If the answer includes mention of NAUVOO POLYGAMY: "... but we called it celestial marriage" by George Smith, it would be a definitive yes. Ten years in the making, Nauvoo Polygamy traces the origins and establishment of Joseph Smith's vision of "spiritual wives" before it ever stepped foot in the State of Deseret. The book should dispel forever the common misperception that Joseph pined after only one wife, and polygamy was Brigham's idea while crossing the plains.
The book argues that good brother Joseph engaged in extramarital affairs - e.g., Fanny Alger - before officially marrying his first plural wife, Louisa Beaman, in 1841. Afterward, he married women at an average rate of one per month until late 1843. By early 1846, nearly 200 men and 717 women entered the practice, making up the polygamous pioneers who would later lay the foundation in the Great Basin. The book fills a gap in exploring how polygamy was established and worked at this early stage. Read more | |
| In Review: "Under the Banner of Heaven" | |
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By Sara Kaufman The Ponte Vedra Recorder - Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida Originally published December 29, 2008 | |
| During the holiday season, it's difficult not to focus on religions and their interpretations of the miracle of the season. With that in mind, I picked up "Under the Banner of Heaven" in the hopes that I would get a more in depth look at the details of the Mormon Church. What I found wasn't exactly warm and fuzzy. Jon Krakauer is most well known for his books "Into thin Air" and "Into the Wild," both of which achieved commercial and critical success and were turned into movies. In 2003's "Under the Banner of Heaven," Krakauer stepped away from outdoor topics and tackled the roots of the fundamentalist Morman culture. In 1984, Brenda Lafferty and her 18 month old daughter Erica were killed by Dan and Ron Lafferty. The Lafferty brothers are fundamentalist Mormans who believed they were ordered by God to end the lives of Brenda and Erica. Krakauer's book tells the story of this gruesome murder through interviews with the brothers and others close to them and tackles the history of the Mormon Church from its roots to the modern day and circles around the most highly disputed doctrine in the church - polygamy. Read more | |
| Bookshelf for October 25, 2008 | |
| "Under the Banner of Heaven" | |
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By Susan Orr Evansville Courier & Press - Evansville, Indiana Originally published October 25, 2008 | |
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"Under the Banner of Heaven"
By Jon Krakauer (nonfiction, Doubleday, 2003, paperback, $14.95) With the arrest and rape conviction of religious leader Warren Jeffs and the federal raid last April of its Texas compound, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has made headlines often in recent months. But several years before the polygamous sect became so widely known, author Jon Krakauer wrote about the group in his book "Under the Banner of Heaven." Krakauer, who also wrote "Into Thin Air" (an account of a fatal climbing trip on Mount Everest) and "Into the Wild" (about a young man who dies in Alaska's wilderness), is known for writing heavily researched nonfiction books that explore extreme aspects of human belief and behavior. "Heaven" is no exception. Read more | |
| Former FLDS Member Reveals the Truth Behind the Headlines in a New Book | |
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Press Release 7thSpace Interactive Originally published Monday, September 29, 2008 | |
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The shocking news of polygamous cults has sparked a national dialogue on religious sects. Splintered from and repudiated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, these secretive families exist in a world far removed from mainstream American culture.
Yet for Brian Mackert, life inside this sect was all too real. As the 28th child in a family of one father, four mothers, and 30 siblings, Brian experienced firsthand the devastating realities of polygamous cults. Brian's family belonged to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), the same splinter group that made headlines when its Texas compound was raided and children were taken from their families due to suspected abuse. In a provocative new book called Illegitimate: How a Loving God Rescued a Son of Polygamy (October 1, 2008 - David C. Cook), Brian Mackert takes readers behind today's shocking headlines of this controversial sect, and gives us a glimpse as to what it was like to grow up as a child in the FLDS. A heart-wrenching and gripping account, it is the first-ever memoir written by a man raised inside the FLDS. Read more | |
| New York Times Best Selling Author Stephen Singular to discuss his new book – When Men Become Gods | |
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Press Release The Book Cellar - St George, Utah Originally published June 20, 2008 | |
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For Immediate Release - Historic Downtown St George, Utah, The Book Cellar, June 27th, 6pm:
The Book Cellar will be hosting Stephen Singular discussing his newest book When Men Become Gods, Mormon Polygamist Warren Jeffs, His Cult of Fear, and The Women Who Fought Back on Friday June 27th at 6pm. In May 2006, Jeffs was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List for crimes in Arizona (alleged) and Utah and was arrested in August 2006. This book exposes the social impact of plural marriage, the dangers of religious extremism, and the intersection where faith meets criminal behavior. Twenty years ago the author was nominated for a national award for documenting the rise and fall of the neo-Nazi group known as The Order. Two decades later the subject of violently fanatical theology has become a worldwide issue. When Men Become Gods examines Jeff’s story, how it fits into this larger phenomenon and offers a different approach to fighting terrorism. With new revelations into the nearly impenetrable world of the FLDS, a place of 19th century attire, inbreeding, and eerie seclusion, bestselling author and veteran crime journalist Stephen Singular provides a rare glimpse into a tradition that’s nearly a century old, but only now gaining wide exposure. In Singular’s new book he discusses forced under-aged marriages, young "lost boys" being kicked out of their homes and the community, the rise to power of FLDS prophet Warren Jeffs, the courageous women who helped bring Jeffs to justice, the efforts of investigators and what the Mormon church has (or has not) done to help the victims of the FLDS. Read more | |
| Book Review: Stolen Innocence by Elissa Wall | |
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Written by Alyse Wax BlogCritics Magazine Originally published June 30, 2008 | |
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This book deals with the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), the extremely conservative sect of Mormonism that has recently been in the national news with the raid on a Texas FLDS camp. Mainstream Mormonism is not a factor in this book. All references and opinions in this review are strictly based on the FLDS as presented in these pages.
Stolen Innocence is the autobiography of Elissa Wall, a former FLDS member who managed to break free from the religion. Elissa was born into the FLDS. Her mother – who birthed 18 children - was the second of three wives. All three were "assigned" to Mr. Wall, and it led to a strained home life. After much shuffling, Sharon Wall and all her birth children were removed from the Wall residence. After staying with relatives, the prophet "assigned" them to a new man, Fred Jessop. He was an elder in the FLDS community, and was to be Elissa’s new father. She was not allowed any contact with her biological father. The FLDS operated much like a cult. Television and pop music were banned. Clothing was restricted to heavy prairie-style dresses that covered clavicle to ankle, even in the summer. For a brief time, children were allowed to attend public school. But when prophet Rulon Jeffs fell ill, and his son Warren took over, things became even stricter. Children were forbidden to attend public school. Their education came from church elders, was completely based in religious teachings, and often children were pulled from school by the time they reached their teen years. Throughout her childhood, many of Elissa’s siblings were either "married" off, shipped off to "behavioral camps," or simply excommunicated. But the trauma doesn’t end there for Elissa. At age 14, she is assigned to "marry" Allen, her first cousin, a man of 18 who was quite a bully to Elissa in their childhood. Despite constant pleas for help – from church elders, from her new father Fred, from her mother, from her older siblings – no one would allow her to postpone her "marriage." The marriage is not a legal one; the FLDS members marry in secret across the Nevada border to avoid the attention of the authorities. Read more | |
| Book review - Stolen Innocence, Elissa Wall and Lisa Pulitzer | |
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By Stephen Davenport The Independent Weekly - Adelaide, South Australia Originally published July 28, 2008 | |
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Warren Jeffs was the leader in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a polygamous sect which has been accused of widespread child abuse. A raid on Jeffs’s ranch in Texas resulted in the removal of hundreds of children from their homes and thrust the church’s practices into the spotlight. Arguably the darkest secret of the sect unfurls at a secluded motel in Nevada, where girls as young as 14 are forced into wedlock. Elissa Wall claims she was one such under age bride and had no choice but to marry her 19-year-old first cousin Allen Steed. In Stolen Innocence: My Story of Growing Up in a Polygamous Sect, Becoming a Teenage Bride, and Breaking Free of Warren Jeffs, Wall tells her story.
Her vivid account of the sect’s behaviour is by turns shocking, bewildering, harrowing and compelling. Wall emerges as a courageous and credible woman who testifies against a twisted criminal. However, it is her childhood perceptions on life and the harsh realities in a closed community that prove to be the most haunting and inspirational. She discusses her turbulent youth, her family’s devotion and Warren Jeffs’s influence over the church. Then she reveals the truth about her marriage. Insisting that it was her duty to submit to his every desire, Allen nightly raped his bride Wall found the strength to break free and give evidence against her husband and the church. Read more | |
| Polygamists' secrets laid bare | |
| Journalists takes governments to task for not acting | |
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Catherine Ford, For the Calgary Herald Originally published Sunday, March 23, 2008 | |
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The Secret Lives of Saints:
Child Brides and Lost Boys in a Polygamous Mormon Sect by Daphne Bramham (Random House Canada, $32.95, 432 pages) - - - - The fatal flaw in polygamy is arithmetic, writes Vancouver Sun columnist Daphne Bramham. Given that a society normally produces as many boys as girls, what does a polygamous community do with all the extra men? Kick them out, of course, preferably before they present a challenge for the charms of girls their own age. But the story of these "lost boys" is incidental to the focus of The Secret Lives Of Saints, although they are the collateral damage of the tale. The real damage is the fate of young, pubescent, nubile girls. This is one society where protection would come in the form of physical ugliness. Bramham is unsparing in her criticism for the "religion" of fundamentalism, for the law, the legislatures concerned and, ultimately, the lies that underpin the promotion of polygamy as some sort of normal, albeit alternative, lifestyle. She is scathing in her condemnation of the notion that it is appropriate to marry off girls barely in their teens to men old enough to be, and in some cases are, their own grandfathers. Read more | |
| Secrets of Bountiful | |
| BOOK REVIEW | |
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By Jan DeGrass/Arts and Enterainment Writer Coast Reporter - Tsawassen, BC, Canada Originally published Friday, May 30, 2008 | |
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There are two reasons why the latest book from Vancouver Sun columnist Daphne Bramham, The Secret Lives of Saints, is a riveting read. One is the sheer power of the story itself: an investigation into the complex machinations of the sect known as the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) who live in Bountiful, near Creston, B.C. The book’s sub title is Child Brides and Lost Boys in Canada’s Polygamous Mormon Sect, and the stories cover similar territory to newspaper articles from the award-winning journalist.
Bramham’s stand is clear. Though her account employs a journalist’s training — it is detailed and factual and she has checked her sources and done extensive research into the roots of polygamy — her repugnance lies close to the surface. Bramham recounts tales of child brides of 14 or 15 "assigned" to husbands by the self-proclaimed prophets of the sect. She describes stories of rape and abuse from those who have left the group, and of the despair of boys forced to work on construction projects owned by the sect’s leaders at slave wages or banished from their community because they are rivals for the gene pool of young women. Families are torn apart with wives and children "reassigned" to other men and homes taken away because husbands did not comply with the revelations of the prophets. It seems no one wins: women, children, young men or disobedient husbands — except for the prophets themselves, which in Bountiful means Winston Blackmore with his dozens of child-bearing wives or Warren Jeffs, the accused in a U.S. rape trial, both of whom own companies that have made them wealthy and powerful. Read more | |
| The Secret Lives of Saints: Child Brides and Lost Boys in Canada’s Polygamous Mormon Sect | |
| New book examines the religious sect that infringes on human rights | |
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Book Review By Sheryl Spencer United Church Observer - Toronto, Canada Originally published Tuesday, September 2, 2008 | |
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The Secret Lives of Saints: Child Brides and Lost Boys in Canada’s Polygamous Mormon Sect By Daphne Bramham (Random House of Canada) $32.95 In 1843, Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, had a revelation. Only men with multiple wives would reach the highest realm of heaven, Smith proclaimed before taking on additional "celestial" wives himself. Smith’s successor, Brigham Young, also practised polygamy. But in 1890, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints renounced the practice, which was, and remains, illegal in both the United States and Canada. Still, dissidents persisted in believing that they must abide completely by all the commandments set down by Smith. The polygamous communities located in Bountiful, B.C., and the twin cities of Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah, are the creation of one such splinter group, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), and the topic of Daphne Bramham’s exhaustive research in The Secret Lives of Saints. For the most part, FLDS polygamists have been treated with a "live and let live" attitude by their neighbours and by all levels of government in both countries. Bramham is determined to point out, however, that the FLDS developed from a religious sect into an economic and social construct that infringes on human rights. She illustrates this by detailing some of the FLDS’s more abhorrent practices, such as assigning marriages of girls as young as 14, imposing child labour and systematically expelling boys into the "outside" world, for which they are woefully ill-prepared. Read more | |
| Young Wife's Tales of Polygamy | |
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By Carolyn See Washington Post Originally published Friday, November 2, 2007 | |
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ESCAPE
By Carolyn Jessop (with Laura Palmer) Broadway. 413 pp. $24.95 Up against the Arizona-Utah border lies a town comprising about 10,000 zealots, members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They differ from conventional Mormons in that they continue -- with enthusiasm-- the practice of polygamy. Their current prophet, Warren Jeffs, recently was convicted of being an accomplice to rape. They've been the subject of some marvelously over-the-top journalism, from Michael Fessier's landmark magazine piece decades ago in New West magazine to Jon Krakauer's "Under the Banner of Heaven," which appeared in 2003. Carolyn Jessop's "Escape" is different from Fessier's or Krakauer's work because it's written in the first person by a woman who was raised as a member of FLDS, and lived by the tenets of the faith until the age of 35, when, with her eight children, she felt she absolutely had to get out. It must be said up front that her narrative is inconsistent at times and irritatingly vague. You never know, for instance, whether she thinks that her escape has ruined her chance for salvation, whether she even believes in God, or whether, indeed, she ever did. But the book is fascinating for all that, mainly because of its close attention to the details of her everyday life and how it seemed to her. She took each event as it came, until her existence became unbearable, untenable, and then she came up with the courage to radically change her life. Read more | |
| Carolyn Jessop's Escape from Eternal Oppression | |
| Read Review of Carolyn Jessop and Laura Palmer - Escape | |
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By Bryan Carey Epinions.com Originally published December 28, 2007 | |
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Pros The ultimate triumph of the human mind and spirit Cons Writing a little too detailed at times The Bottom Line This is a very good book for all to read. Carolyn gets a little carried away with details at times, but her story is still very inspirational. Full Review "For the first time, I began to see how religion could suppress something positive and life- giving. Failing to educate our children was unconscionable" - Carolyn Jessop, reacting to the decision of cult leader Warren Jeffs to oppose the opening of a new charter school in the community, based on the concern that educated children were a threat to his religious sect. Religious extremism can take on many forms. When most of us think of radical religion, we conjure up images of radical Muslims or other groups threatening to destroy an enemy in the name of God or actually following through on their threat via various means of force. We think back to the attacks on September 11, 2001, and wonder what makes some individuals so willing to commit such heinous acts under the banner of religion. Most of us don’t associate Christianity with extremism, but there are certainly radical groups in the Christian ranks. One such group is the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) and at least one of its members has escaped from the cult and lived to tell her story. The woman’s name is Carolyn Jessop and in this book, Escape, Jessop explains how she went from neglected, disrespected polygamist wife to a free woman with a newfound outlook on life. Read more | |
| His Favorite Wife: Trapped in Polygamy | |
| A true story of violent fanaticism | |
| By Susan Ray Schmidt | |
| Book Description | |
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His Favorite Wife details the experiences of a young girl raised in a fundamentalist polygamist sect. At the age of 14, Susan becomes the sixth wife of Verlan LeBaron, one of the sect leaders. Woven with jealousies, and heartache, her story leads the reader through a murderous power struggle between the LeBaron brothers. Polygamist women are taught that obedience and unquestioning acceptance of polygamy will assure them a crown in heaven as a goddess. Few search out truth for themselves. Living a cloistered, sheltered life and giving birth to many children, traps them. Susan's book deals with these issues, as she too, was one of these women.
Cascading with well-developed characters, this true story will capture your soul and imagination as the author reveals how a group of kind-hearted, sincere people are led to embrace this controversial lifestyle in their pursuit of the highest degree of glory. Laced with surprising brush-strokes of humor, this heart-rending saga will take its readers on a journey that outsiders whisper of and shudder about. It answers the question that a polygamist's wife is asked countless times: How can you tolerate sharing your husband? Read more | |
| Book details woman's life while married to polygamist | |
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By Patrice St. Germain The Spectrum Originally broadcast May 9, 2007 | |
| After leaving her husband of eight years, Susan Ray Schmidt starting writing as self-therapy, to try and make sense of her life and her own belief system. Eventually, her writing evolved into a book - "His Favorite Wife" - in which Schmidt writes about her marriage at age 15 to Verlan LeBaron and the struggles she endured before, during and after the marriage. Schmidt was married for only eight years, but the marriage produced five children as Schmidt took on the role of the sixth wife to LeBaron. Schmidt will share her story as well as discuss her book and polygamy in general Thursday at the Book Cellar in St. George. "The personal account (in the book) is amazing," Book Cellar owner Margi LaPorte said. "Susan is an inspirational person, and people need to listen to her story and see how far she has come." The LeBaron family was head of the Church of the First Born in Mexico, where Schmidt's family moved from Utah to join the church, which held plural marriage among its tenets. She married Verlan, whose brother Ervil was excommunicated and began his own church - Church of the Lamb of God. Schmidt said Ervil orchestrated several murders, including the slaying of his own brother, Joel, and the attempted killing of Verlan. Schmidt said since she left that life behind in 1974, she has developed strong convictions. She said that she hopes people will read her book for a deeper understanding of what living in a polygamist group is like. Read more | |
| Escaping a lifestyle | |
| Author Susan Schmidt shares polygamy story | |
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By Patrice St. Gemain The Spectrum Originally published May 11, 2007 | |
| ST. GEORGE - Susan Ray Schmidt believes that she is truly one of the lucky ones - one who escaped a life of polygamy. Yet as Schmidt talked about her life, which she turned into a book, "His Favorite Wife: Trapped in Polygamy," Schmidt had a message for the more than 100 people who attended her book discussion: Help others who want to leave the life. Schmidt spoke at the Book Cellar in St. George about how as a young girl living in a polygamist community in Mexico, she became the sixth wife of Verlan LeBaron when she was still in her teens and he was 38. A member of the audience asked Schmidt if she ever questioned what she was doing, especially marrying so young or questioned the wisdom of the church leaders. "You are not allowed to think for yourself," Schmidt replied. "You don't feel there are any other options." Read more | |
| Keep Sweet: Children of Polygamy | |
| By Debbie Palmer and David Perrin | Winner of the 2005 VanCity Prize for the best book published in British Columbia on women's issues. |
| Book Description | |
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Best Selling Author, Dr. David Perrin, co-authored Keep Sweet with Debbie Palmer so that readers could understand what it would be like to be a young girl growing up in the polygamous Mormon community of Bountiful. The foreword was written by Jon Krakuer, author of Into Thin Air, Into the Wild, and Under the Banner of Heaven.
Although the book is set in the early 50s and 60s, Debbie's experiences are representative of those that many children of polygamous groups are currently experiencing. Keep Sweet is non-fiction, but names have been changed to protect the safety and privacy of people mentioned. Based on Palmer's early memories, letters, and diaries, the memoir takes the reader inside the daily lives of children, sister-wives, husbands and leaders and provides an in-depth insight into the teachings of the fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Palmer's story begins when her father takes her to the polygamous community near Creston, BC in 1957. We follow Debbie from age two as she struggles to integrate into a strange society and culture. At age fifteen she becomes the sixth wife to the community's fifty-five year old leader. Keep Sweet follows Debbie's trials until the death of her husband in 1974. Palmer remained in the community until 1988 when, pregnant with her seventh child, she managed to escape. Read more | |
| THE POLYGAMISTS: A HISTORY OF COLORADO CITY, ARIZONA | |
| By Benjamin G. Bistline | |
| Book Description | |
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The author has received a warning. The FBI is now involved.
For the media, a synopsis of the development of and recent events in Colorado City can be found by clicking here. What some of the people have been forced to endure in Colorado City is little different from living in a third world country. Ten-year-old Benjamin Bistline moved with his parents to Short Creek (Colorado City), Arizona, in 1945 to join with a group of excommunicated Mormons who believed in honoring the law of polygamy as revealed by the Prophet Joseph Smith and instituted by Brigham Young. Mr. Bistline has compiled A DETAILED HISTORY of the significant events that shaped and sustained this community from the beginning. He tells of the shifts in power, changes in leadership philosophies, persecution from outside forces – and from within. Mr. Bistline’s goal in writing this history is to reveal that the original leadership structure of a Council of men holding common and balancing power has slowly descended into a ONE-MAN TYRANNICAL RULE over the people. Bistline has observed:
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| Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith | |
| By Jon Krakauer | |
| Book Description | |
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Jon Krakauer’s literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. In UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN, he shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief within our own borders. At the core of his book is an appalling double murder committed by two Mormon Fundamentalist brothers, Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a revelation from God commanding them to kill their blameless victims. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this "divinely inspired" crime, Krakauer constructs a multilayered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, savage violence, polygamy, and unyielding faith. Along the way, he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America’s fastest-growing religion, and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.
Krakauer takes readers inside isolated communities in the American West, Canada, and Mexico, where some forty-thousand Mormon Fundamentalists believe the mainstream Mormon Church went unforgivably astray when it renounced polygamy. Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establishment in Salt Lake City, the leaders of these outlaw sects are zealots who answer only to God. Marrying prodigiously and with virtual impunity (the leader of the largest fundamentalist church took seventy-five "plural wives," several of whom were wed to him when they were fourteen or fifteen and he was in his eighties), fundamentalist prophets exercise absolute control over the lives of their followers, and preach that any day now the world will be swept clean in a hurricane of fire, sparing only their most obedient adherents. Read more | |
| Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith | |
| By Jon Krakauer | |
| Hilary Spurling with The Telegraph (UK) reviews this book | |
| The core of this book is an interview with a Mormon, handcuffed and shackled by the ankles in Utah State Prison, who hasn't cut his hair or shaved his beard for 18 years because he believes himself to be a reincarnation of the prophet Elijah. "I'm here to prepare the way for the return of the Son of Man," Dan Lafferty explained to Jon Krakauer. "I will be the one who will identify Christ when He returns." On July 24, 1984, Dan turned up on the doorstep of his sister-in-law, Brenda Lafferty, who refused to let him use her phone. "I was kind of silently talking to God," he explained to Krakauer, "and I asked, `What do I do now?' It felt comfortable to push past her and enter the house, so that's what I did.'" A few minutes later, Dan's elder brother Ron burst in to find him sitting astride Brenda on the floor, still being talked through his mission by remote control. "And I kind of said to myself, `What am I supposed to do, Lord?' Then I felt impressed that I was supposed to use a knife. That I was supposed to cut their throats." So he did, murdering first his baby niece, then her mother, with a butcher's knife supplied by Ron. Both men insisted they had committed no crime, since they were acting on orders from heaven. Read more | |
| Jon Krakauer Responds to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints' Official Response To 'Under The Banner of Heaven' | |
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Jon Krakauer - Interview BookBrowse.com Originally published July 3, 2003 | |
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At the end of June 2003, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints issued an official "response" to my new book, Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith. Disseminated nationwide more than two weeks before my book was scheduled to appear on bookstore shelves, this preemptive attack was authored by Richard E. Turley, Jr., a high-ranking church official who serves as managing director of the LDS Family and Church History Department. In his lengthy, carefully worded screed, Elder Turley characterized Under the Banner of Heaven as "a decidedly one-sided and negative view of Mormon history." According to his assessment, my book was written as "a condemnation of religion generally," and the Mormon faith in particular.
It saddens me that Elder Turley, speaking for the LDS leadership (and by extension for the church as a whole), elected to regard my book in such a reductionist light. Other reviewers have assessed Under the Banner of Heaven quite differently. As critic Edward Morris wrote in the July issue of Bookpage, "Raised among Mormons he greatly admired, Krakauer treats their religion--in all its theological shades--quite seriously. There's never a snide remark or sarcastic aside. But the studiously balanced reporting can't soften the savagery of the [Lafferty murders]." In fact it is impossible to comprehend the actions of the murderous Lafferty brothers, or any other Mormon Fundamentalist, without first making a serious effort to plumb their theological beliefs, and that requires some understanding of LDS history, along with an understanding of the complex and highly fluid teachings of the religion's remarkable founder, Joseph Smith. The life of Smith and the history of his church may be considered from myriad perspectives, of course. And therein lies the basis for the Mormon leadership's profound unhappiness with my book. Read more | |
| HICKMAN: 'Banner of Heaven' shakes church book club | |
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By Kathy Hickman Columns The Sun Chronicle - Attleboro, Massachusetts Originally published Monday, March 5, 2007 | |
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"This is scary stuff going on here."
"I couldn't bear to go back to it." "It was the most horrendous book I've ever read!" "The 'sacred' underwear intrigued me." Fuse together a lurid murder, an award-winning author, and his exploration into "the roots of brutality andthe nature of faith," add Murray Universalist's fervid First Sunday Book and Lunch Bunch, and you have all the ingredients to ignite an incendiary book discussion. Club members Linda Censorio, DJ Campbell, Joan Macauley, and the Rev. Sandra Fitzhenry, whose comments appear above, were among nine group members who recently shared spirited reactions to "Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith," Jon Krakauer's shocking account of Mormon "fundamentalists." After investigating the terrifying extremes of climbing Mt. Everest and of challenging the wilds of the Alaskan wilderness, Krakauer's 2003 book, "Under the Banner of Heaven" turns a critical eye on a "religious extremism" that has its roots in "the underbelly of the United States' most successful homegrown faith." He takes as his starting point the savage murder of a mother and child committed in 1984 by brothers Ron and Dan Lafferty, excommunicated members of the Latter Day Saints, who to this day insist that they received a personal "revelation" from God to act as instruments of death. Read more | |
| God's Brothel | |
| By Andrea Moore-Emmett | |
| Sandra Dallas with The Denver Post reviews this book | |
| When she was 4, Lillian was sexually abused by a half-brother. As a young child, she was raped by another half-brother and fondled by a half-sister. At 12, she was courted by one of her father's friends, and when she slapped his straying hand, the enraged man screamed that she didn't have the right as a child or as a woman to reject him. Instead of chastising his friend, Lillian's father punished her. On Lillian's 13th birthday, her sister's husband gave her a wedding cake as his way of proposing to her. She married him at 17, and four months later, Lillian's husband began looking for yet another wife. Some years later, she had flashbacks of being raped by her father and his friends and forced to eat rats. A half-sister had identical nightmares. Read more | |
| PREDATORS, PREY AND OTHER KINFOLK | |
| By Dorothy Allred Solomon | |
| Susan Whitney with the Deseret Morning News reviews this book | |
| In a new autobiography, "Predators, Prey and Other Kinfolk," local author Dorothy Solomon tells of growing up as the 28th child of polygamist Rulon Allred. Allred, as most Utahns will remember, was the naturopath who was murdered in 1977, shot by members of a rival polygamist group led by Ervil LeBaron. The murder was not the only drama in Solomon's family. Before she was born, her father served a jail sentence for polygamy. Then, when Solomon was 5 and it seemed that federal agents were again on his trail, she and her mother and some of the other wives and children fled to Mexico and hid out for a time. They were afraid that social workers would take the children. They were also afraid the wives would go to jail. The LeBarons came to Mexico, too, as Solomon recalls. She remembers being afraid of them. Soon after the Allreds returned to the United States, Rulon's families scattered. For years they lived separately, avoiding detection. Solomon and her brothers and mother were in Nevada. Solomon describes all the upheaval and intrigue in a straightforward way. Read more | |
| Prisons of the Mind | |
| By Kasiah May Hancock | |
| Book Description | |
| A powerful story of an unscrupulous man using religious compulsion in the extreme to subject and exploit other human beings to his own personal gain. By adding a word where it was convenient and subtracting words so as to give the Holy Scriptures a new meaning, then claiming power and rights, he locked naive victims into a trap. Preach long enough, loud enough, often enough and they will begin to believe it. Control the environment. Do not allow your subjects to have outside communication, then capitalize on their labor. And what do you have? Prisons of the Mind - a true story you will never forget. Read more about this remarkable lady | |
| MURDER OF A PROPHET The Dark Side of Utah Polygamy | |
| By John R. Llewellyn | |
| Book Description | |
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A riveting story of intrigue, murder, and sex. Lusting for worldwide power and recognition, the fanatical leader of a Utah polygamist cult launches a plan to become "the prophet" of all the polygamist cults—and then to take over the entire Mormon Church. Detectives fear a doomsday Waco-type standoff with women and children. Investigator John Llewellyn, polygamy expert, creates a fascinating tale of fiction based on real-life events.
As the drama unfolds, the personal background stories of individuals portray a realistic portrait of —
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| POLYGAMY UNDER ATTACK: FROM TOM GREEN TO BRIAN DAVID MITCHELL | |
| By John R. Llewellyn | |
| Book Description | |
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The worldwide bombshell of Brian David Mitchell, the itinerant sidewalk preacher who kidnaped Elizabeth Smart, finally brought the world’s attention to what Oprah Winfrey’s show labeled as third-world Taliban-type abuses in Utah and Arizona. The entire world had been focused on publicity hungry Tom Green and his claim of a peaceful life as a polygamist, when Mitchell and his accomplice wife shocked the world by their crime against Elizabeth Smart.
Polygamy expert and retired law enforcement officer John Llewellyn provides a dramatic inside look at each of the polygamist groups, how they began, how they rule their people, their beliefs, and how many are living off your tax dollars. He explores serious human rights abuses that occur in many groups such as forcing young girls to marry men old enough to be their father. A former friend of Tom Green, the author provides deep background on Tom’s life and polygamist activities. John explores the fascinating underground fraud by the various groups and evaluates Brian David Mitchell’s efforts to turn Elizabeth Smart into a compliant plural wife. And finally, he takes a hard look at the possible value of decriminalizing polygamy so that the many hidden abuses, including tens of millions of dollars of welfare fraud when polygamist wives pose as single mothers with children, can be brought out into the open and finally be dealt with realistically. Read more | |
| Child Brides | |
| By Carole A. Western | |
| Book Description | |
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CHILD BRIDES is an illuminating, intimate story of Julia Jefferson, who on her thirteenth birthday becomes a polygamous wife. In a religion where men have absolute control, Julia retaliates and saves her sanity by writing her memoirs. Through her journals, we experience the deprivation, jealousy, humiliation and abuse of being one of many women serving the sexual fantasies of one man. We learn how she and her daughters finally realize they are valuable human beings as they make their dangerous escape to the outside world and freedom.
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| Holy Murder: Polygamy's Blood | |
| By James R. Spencer | |
| Book Description | |
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HOLY MURDER is a look into the dark underground of polygamous Fundamentalism, practiced by more than 50,000 people in the West. Here sex and blood mix in religious excess. Men driven to obey God's devotion to "The Principle" live and die for their beliefs. Sometimes the violence spills over and touches people outside the system.
HOLY MURDER is set in the Wyoming of the Author's youth and describes the saga of Jan Kucera, a retired AP Bureau Chief who retires to the old homestead along the Bighorn River in Wyoming. Now freelancing, he writes a story for the New York Times about a polygamous sect located on a compound near the mouth of Shell Canyon at the foot of the Bighorns. Shortly after that account is published, a car bomb meant for him kills his wife. Now Jan has to face down his fears and the head of the cult, Prophet Hansen. Hansen is wealthy, politically savvy, and stealthy. State authorities are unable to connect the prophet, convincingly, to the crime. Read more | |
| New Book on Warren Jeffs' Polygamy Sect Provides Insight into Lives of Women Enslaved by Fundamentalist Group | |
| Women Who Escaped Tell Their Stories; Author Went Undercover to Interview | |
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Business Wire - San Francisco, CA Originally published February 27, 2008 | |
| ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A new book, Inside the World of Warren Jeffs, by author Dr. Carole A. Western, takes the reader inside Short Creek, two nearby communities in Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz., where the Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) leader ruled until his arrest and conviction in the fall of 2007 as an accomplice in the rape of a 14-year-old girl. Western details the experiences of several young women enslaved in Short Creek and lets them tell in their own words how they were coerced into virtual servitude and forced into unwanted pregnancies by the "husbands" they were ordered to marry. In addition, Western explains the power of the "First Wife," family sleeping arrangements and how polygamists manage to receive support from the U.S. Government under its welfare programs as well as Medicaid. Western also covers how teenage boys in polygamy sects are forced out of the colony, so as not to create competition for older men. Read more | |
| Anti-polygamy activist pens book on FLDS | |
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By Ben Winslow Deseret News Originally published Friday, Aug. 1, 2008 | |
| An anti-polygamy activist who has been a lightning rod of controversy when it comes to the Fundamentalist LDS Church will publish her autobiography next year. Flora Jessop's "Church of Lies: The True Story of Escaping Slavery and Polygamy, and Rescuing Women and Children from the Notorious Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints" will hit bookstore shelves in February 2009. It's being published by Jossey-Bass, a division of Wiley Publishing. "It's a book about my life, about what I come from and why I do what I do," Jessop told the Deseret News on Thursday. "I think that it's important to know why I do what I do, and for people to know why I'm fighting for these children." In the book's preface, Jessop said she was one of 28 children born to her father and his three wives. At 8, she said she began being sexually abused and tried to run away throughout her teenage years. She finally left the church about 20 years ago, enduring a rough life until she became an advocate for abused children in polygamy. Jessop now heads the Phoenix-based Child Protection Project, where she has helped women and children seeking to leave the FLDS communities of Hildale, Utah, and Colorado City, Ariz. She once proclaimed she'd be willing to go to jail for harboring runaways, if it meant protecting children from abuse. Read more | |
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