PAULA ZAHN NOW Video Voyeurism; The Lost Boys; Protecting Against 'Upskirting'; Security Camera Use Climbing

CNN

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. Glad to have you with us tonight. A mystery town out in the desert desperate to shut out the rest of the world. ZAHN (voice-over): A lost generation, boys with multiple mothers and dozens of brothers and sisters thrown out by their families. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Many of them have had nowhere to go, food to eat. ZAHN: Right here in America. So, why is a renegade religion banishing so many young men? ZAHN: We begin tonight with the lost boys. Would you disown your son because he refused to obey your rules? Would you banish him from your house, from your entire community, even at the age of 9 and 10? Well, that's what investigators say has happened to hundreds of boys over the last seven years at a secretive religious sect in the West. And these boys' alleged crimes? Watching movies, swearing, even just wanting to go to public school. And, as you'll see, it gets even more sinister. This is a story we've been working on for a long time, a major investigation into this reclusive community. In a moment, my conversation with two of the lost boys. First, here's Sean Callebs. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At the edge of the desert straddling the Utah and Arizona border, a community of breakaway Mormon fundamentalists lives in shuttered houses behind walls and gates, miles from other towns. In Utah, it's called Hildale, and, in Arizona, Colorado City. For generations, this group of about 7,000 people has shunned the rest of America and the opinions of outsiders. GARY ENGELS, MOHAVE COUNTY INVESTIGATOR: They put these walls up for privacy. CALLEBS (voice-over): County investigator Gary Engels has come to know a lot about this secretive group. (on camera): Do they really believe they're the chosen ones? ENGELS: Yes. CALLEBS: When judgment day comes, what happens to these chosen people? ENGELS: These chosen people believe that they will be lifted up while God sweeps the Earth clean of the wicked people. And then they'll be set back down to rebuild the Earth and replenish it. CALLEBS: Engels has been sent to this town to investigate a variety of disturbing allegations and criminal charges, ranging from child neglect to rape and theft. ENGELS: And I came to be here because of all of the different types of accusations and rumors that have been coming out of this place for some time. CALLEBS: The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or FLDS, has been here since the 1930s. It broke away from the mainstream Mormon Church more than a century ago. The breakaway sect wanted to pursue polygamy, a practice renounced by mainstream Mormons for more than 100 years and outlawed in every state. The group considers its leader, Warren Jeffs, a prophet to be obeyed without question. Former members say Jeffs has several dozen wives. He selects multiple wives for other church elders, sometimes reassigning wives from one man to another, and imposes rigid rules. SAM BROWER, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: Warren Jeffs does need to be stopped. He has to be reined in and stopped. CALLEBS: Sam Brower is a local private investigator. BROWER: If they argue with him or voice any dissension, they're kicked out. Brower has been hired by some of those who have been kicked out, a group of adolescent boys. Over the last seven years, investigators like Sam and Gary estimate as many 400 boys, some as young as 13 years old, have been banished by Warren Jeffs for seemingly trivial infractions. RICHARD GILBERT, RAISED BY POLYGAMISTS: I was excommunicated by the prophet Warren Jeffs at the age of 16 because I decided that I wanted to go to public school. CALLEBS: Author Jon Krakauer wrote about this community in his book "Under the Banner of Heaven." At a news conference not long ago, he warned about Jeffs. JON KRAKAUER, AUTHOR, "UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN": An absolute tyrant rules the lives of 10,000 people and seems to take pleasure in destroying families. CALLEBS: Alongside Krakauer, some of the so-called lost boys, all banished by Jeffs, told their stories. TOMMY STEED, RAISED BY POLYGAMISTS: I had nowhere to go, no food to eat. CALLEBS: Tommy Steed committed the crime, he says, of watching movies. Each of these boys has his own story, having a girlfriend, using curse words, going to beer parties, refusing religious instruction, all causes for excommunication for these and so many other boys. GIDEON BARLOW, RAISED BY POLYGAMISTS: I just loved my little brother. And he was always on my mind. I was just thinking about him 24/7. CALLEBS: Seventeen-year-old Gideon Barlow was banished by his family from this same community. BARLOW: Now I just try to -- to push him out, because it hurts to think about him. CALLEBS: Gideon was reluctant to talk about his family in Colorado City. But authorities and his adoptive family told us he was kicked out of his home for wearing short-sleeves shirt and listening to popular music. Gideon, then only 16, was sent packing with a little more than the clothes he was wearing. ENGELS: Imagine what it's like to be told, you know, get out. He's sent down to St. George looking for someplace to live. None of his family will take him in down there, the men that are out. And, fortunately, he was able to make contact with some good individuals and ended up where he is today. CALLEBS: Through an informal network of concerned people, he arrived less than a year ago at the home of Stacia (ph) and Neal Glausier (ph). they adopted him after reading about the plight of these young boys. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Being a mother, hearing about a boy being out on the street. CALLEBS: She remembers how frightened Gideon was. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He said, I am dead to my mother, so I might as well be dead myself. CALLEBS: When he left, Gideon was forced to live hand to mouth on the streets, sleeping on the floors and couches of people he met along the way. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When he first came, he had been two months in that world of drugs, alcohol. BARLOW: I hate my past. I wanted to take my mind off of it. I don't want to be a lost boy. So many of them have drug problems and addictions that they got to get over. CALLEBS (on camera): There's also speculation that the boys are kind of drummed out because they're competition for these young brides. BROWER: Right. That's -- I mean, that can't help but be true. Mathematics alone would dictate that there has to be a lot more hens than roosters in the community. CALLEBS (voice-over): The prophet, who investigators say created this situation, Warren Jeffs, is now on the run. He faces an arrest warrant issued by the state of Arizona, which alleges a series of abusing, including engaging in sex with a minor. (on camera): Where he Warren Jeffs today? ENGELS: I have no idea. CALLEBS: Is he dangerous? ENGELS: Well, when you have a radical person like he is that has the control over the people he has, I think he's unstable. CALLEBS (voice-over): As for Gideon Barlow, he's determined to put his past behind him. BARLOW: Nobody was sent to Earth to be a nothing. There's got to be a plan for everyone here. So, I'm just trying to make the best out of mine. I'm not a lost boy. (END VIDEOTAPE) ZAHN: That was Sean Callebs reporting. As for what the FLDS has to say about all this, it's kind of hard to know. The mayor of Colorado City told us the people in his community are content and don't want to say anything to reporters. He said past experiences with the media have been mad. Meanwhile, the Utah State Attorney General's Office told us they're looking into the various allegations against members of the FLDS. So, I'm sure you have dozens of questions, as I do. Coming up, what is it like growing up in a family with rotating mothers and literally dozens of brothers and sisters? (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't really think much of it then, because I didn't know anything else. We couldn't watch TV. (END VIDEO CLIP) ZAHN: What else couldn't they do? Two of the banished boys tell me their stories next. ZAHN: You're about to meet two teenage boys who grow up in the polygamist community we told you about before the break. John Jessop and Carl Ream's families are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. John has 13 brothers and sisters and, when he was 13, was kicked out of the community by its leader, Warren Jeffs. Carl has at least 30 brothers and sisters. And he was 10 when he ran away. I talked with boys and their lawyer, Joanne Suder. And I started off by asking John what it was like growing up in a polygamist family. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JOHN JESSOP, RAISED BY POLYGAMISTS: I didn't really think much of it then, because I didn't know anything else. We couldn't watch TV. We were not allowed to associate with girls, not even really look at them. We couldn't listen to music, wear long pants, not baggy. And we had to keep a clean haircut all the time. ZAHN: At what point did you say, I can't live this way anymore? JESSOP: Actually, what happened was, when I was 10, my mom got reassigned to the bishop in Colorado City. When I moved there at the time, he probably had like 30 -- about 32 wives. When my mother got reassigned to him, there was a lot of kids. I decided, I can't stand this anymore. I was about 13. And I started to kind of rebel a little bit. I disappeared for three days, didn't tell anybody where I was going. ZAHN: Did anybody care? JESSOP: They did. They found out where I was. My brother got ahold of me and told me, the prophet wants you out. Come and get your stuff or else we're going to put it out. I told my mom goodbye. It was kind of hard. She was crying. I didn't really know what to say. So I just left. ZAHN: How hard was that for you? JESSOP: It was really hard. It's still affecting me now, I mean, just thinking about it. ZAHN: You describe what happened to you in a very matter-of-fact way, because that was your life. You were 13 years old. How scared were you? JESSOP: At first, I thought it was cool. I was like, hey, I'm free. I can go out and have a lot of fun. And -- but after a little bit, I decided this isn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. ZAHN: Did you feel guilty about thrown out? Did you feel that you had done something horribly wrong? JESSOP: Yes. I used to blame myself a lot for it. But I don't know really anymore. I don't really know what to think about my family. I never talk to them anymore. I can't get ahold of my mom anymore. I have to send a letter to her P.O. box. ZAHN: How long has it been since you have had any contact with your mother? JESSOP: Probably about four months now. ZAHN: It's got to hurt. JESSOP: Yes. It does. ZAHN: What do you think that she thought she did wrong? JESSOP: She's brainwashed in the community. She thinks that that's the only way. She thinks that she didn't teach me what was right, I guess, according to the community. ZAHN: Now, Carl, your story is completely different, because you weren't thrown out. CARL REAM, RAISED BY POLYGAMISTS: Yes. ZAHN: You left on your own. REAM: Yes. ZAHN: Why did you get out? REAM: I got so restricted. I mean, I got to where it was so bad, my mom would call the cops just because she didn't know where I was and she knew that cops was the only authority that could even really even halfway control me, because I really didn't want to listen to anybody else, because just pretty much the rest of them betrayed me. And so, she would call the cops even in the middle of the day, and they would come and get me and take me home. ZAHN: Where would you be? REAM: I could be working, helping somebody out. As long as my mom didn't know where I was, I pretty much was in danger of being picked up and taken home. ZAHN: How old were you? REAM: I was -- when I started rebelling, I was right around about 10 years old. ZAHN: And what were you rebelled against? REAM: I got really curious about traveling and curious about the outside world, you could say. And when I started looking into it, then my parents and everybody else bit back so hard, it was almost abnormal, that, you know, they would shun it that much. ZAHN: How many brothers and sisters did you have? REAM: My family consists of about 30 to 32 brothers and sisters. ZAHN: And what was it like to live that way? REAM: Well, for a while, then, the mothers each had their own house, which is common there, because mothers do not get along very good, for the most part. JESSOP: We were all forced to grow up real fast. REAM: Yes. Because we were... JESSOP: We all grew up really fast. ZAHN: What do you mean by that? REAM: We were raising our own brothers and sisters. JESSOP: We had to learn everything in a short period of time. That's just kind of the way it's always been for all of us. I mean, talk to any of us. We all grew up real fast. ZAHN: Do you think you lived in a cult? JESSOP: Yes. I think I did. ZAHN: Explain to us why. JESSOP: I have seen a little bit of -- I have heard a little bit and seen a little bit about different cults. And it's -- they're so similar, the way the people behaved, what they'll do. It's how far they'll go to please the leader. ZAHN: And that is Warren Jeffs? JESSOP: Yes. REAM: Yes. ZAHN: What do you think of Warren Jeffs? JESSOP: He ruined my relationship with my family, totally destroyed it. ZAHN: How? JESSOP: I -- they all think I'm wicked. They all think I'm going to go to hell and they don't want to have anything to do with me. Even now, I still have thoughts about -- I wonder if I'm going to go to hell and they're going to all be lifted up. ZAHN: Did he ruin your life? REAM: Yes, he did a good job at it. He tried. ZAHN: You said he tried. REAM: He tried. ZAHN: He didn't succeed? REAM: No. I still have the rest of my life to make up for it. ZAHN: And how do you plan to do that? REAM: I plan on making my little brothers and sisters' lives better than mine. And that will make my life. ZAHN: Are you bitter what's happened to you? REAM: I guess you can say not verbally. But, in my mind, I wish -- you know, I'm a little bit bitter about it. I think it makes us all a little bit that way. ZAHN: How many nights have you cried yourself to sleep? REAM: A couple about my little brothers and sisters and stuff like that. ZAHN: It seems to be more about them right now than about yourself. Do you feel like you're getting along fine? REAM: I can't do much about myself now. I mean, that's the past. That will just pretty much hurt all the worst, if I concentrate on that, because I can't anything about it. But I can do something about my little brothers and sisters. ZAHN: Joanne, as I sit hear and I listen to Carl's and John's stories, I'm absolutely amazed and absolutely saddened. Why does this go on and on and on? It perpetuates itself. JOANNE SUDER, ATTORNEY FOR REAM & JESSOP: Well, it does. And what we're dealing with abuses that would be an abuse in any religion. We're not taking on polygamy, although we're -- that's a matter for the attorney generals of the states. It's is illegal in Utah and it's illegal in Arizona. But the abuses of polygamy, marrying teenage girls, multiple wives, reassigning children from one wife, a wife to another man. All of her children, the next day, they wake up, they have a new last name, a new father, a new person they have to call father. If their father's kicked out, they're never allowed to speak with him again. He's considered the devil. He's going to burn in hell. And it's tragic. It's completely tragic. These kids need so much help. ZAHN: How hard was it for you, John, to adjust to the outside world that you were taught was wicked? JESSOP: It's -- it was really hard. I didn't even know where to start. I'm still -- I'm still adjusting, even now. There's so many choices after you get out of there. When you are in there, they make your decisions for you. ZAHN: You're young men who have never had a childhood. You've never been able to play. You haven't been allowed to be curious. How do you look at the future, Carl? SUDER: It's bright. I got all sorts of options. ZAHN: Well, you two have extraordinary attitudes. Thank you for sharing your story with us tonight. JESSOP: Thank you. ZAHN: Best of luck to you. And good luck with your broader effort out there... SUDER: Thank you. ZAHN: ... to help all these lost boys. ZAHN: Meanwhile, the Utah State Attorney General's Office tells us that, unless the boys themselves press charges and actually provide evidence against their own parents, which none of them has done so far, there's nothing the attorney general can do about their heartbreaking stories.

CNN.com Originally broadcast August 4, 2005 - 20:00 ET

Back

For more information email: