FLDS move to Texas said to be gaining momentum; ‘Uncle’ Fred Jessop dies
 
By Tom Vaughan
The Mancos Times
 
Recent news stories in Arizona and Texas have heightened the speculation that Warren Jeffs, self-proclaimed Prophet and leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is relocating his most faithful followers from their homes in Colorado City, Ariz., and Hildale, Utah (a community known as Short Creek, with a state line running through it) to his fast-growing compound in Schleicher County, Texas.

The FLDS congregation that follows Jeffs is one of a number of polygamous groups that broke away from the LDS Church when it suspended the practice of polygamy in 1890 and banned it in 1904. The Jeffs group is estimated to number anywhere from 6,000 to 10,000 adherents, mainly concentrated in Short Creek, with other settlements near Creston, British Columbia; Beryl, Utah, and now the YFZ compound near Eldorado, Texas (YFZ is thought to be the initials of a song written by Jeffs, "Yearn for Zion"). Two 60-acre parcels several miles north of Mancos have been bought by Jeffs’ son-in-law, David Allred, and the group is thought to have holdings in Mexico, as do other polygamous groups.

The Allred purchase of the first Mancos parcel in July 2003, followed several months later by his purchase of the 1,691-acre property in Texas, set off a flurry of construction in both locations. In a few short months, working round-the-clock, workers at the 15252 CR 39 parcel north of Joe Moore Reservoir remodeled a barn and added two additional residences to the one on the property at time of purchase.

They increased the lodging capacity from two bedrooms, two baths to 16 of each, increasing the assessed value of the property tenfold in the process. Work in the Mancos Valley seems to have ceased when the Texas acquisition was completed, although another 60-parcel, near but not adjacent to the first, was acquired in October 2004.

"Uncle" Fred Jessop’s death reported

At the time Allred’s connection to the FLDS and the Texas compound hit the news, there was speculation that the Mancos site might have been acquired as a hiding place for Jeffs and/or "Uncle" Fred (Fredrick Meade) Jessop. Jeffs was being sought in connection with three civil suits filed in Utah. Jessop, a former Second Councilor in the FLDS and a trustee of the United Effort Plan (the trust that manages FLDS assets), disappeared from public view just before being relieved of his post (and family) by Jeffs on Jan. 3, 2004.

The Eldorado Success Web site (www.myeldorado.net) reported Thursday that the 94-year-old Jessop died March 15 of congestive heart failure at Sky Ridge Medical Center in Lone Tree, Colo. His whereabouts in the year before he entered Sky Ridge a few days earlier has not been determined. The Success also reported Friday on new action in one of the civil suits against Jeffs. Shem Fischer had filed suit in federal court, alleging his First Amendment rights had been violated when the Hildale cabinet company he worked for — Forestwood Company, allegedly under FLDS control — fired him and then blacklisted him when he left the sect. When Jeffs failed to respond to the suit, the judge found him in default.

In the two other civil suits naming Jeffs (and others) as a defendant, both filed in Utah state court, the Times previously reported that Jeffs’ failure to respond has led to the plaintiffs’ attorney’s request that the assets of the UEP be put in receivership and a new board of trustees be named. Attorney Greg Hoole informed the Times Monday that he is "Still waiting for the judge to take action."

Relocation by April 6?

The feverish pace of construction at the YFZ compound has led to speculation that Jeffs, under pressure from law enforcement officials in Utah and Arizona, has decided to relocate his core followers from Short Creek to Texas. The repercussions of that would be widespread. The attorneys in the two Utah state suits are convinced that Jeffs is looting the assets of the UEP trust to finance his construction program in Texas (neither the Mancos nor Texas properties are held in the name of the UEP, which is the legal owner of more than $60 million worth of real and personal [trailer houses] property in Short Creek). This conviction is shared by Winston Blackmore, the former bishop of the Bountiful, B.C., FLDS community, ousted by Warren Jeffs’ father, Rulon Jeffs, in 2002.

Blackmore has also expressed concern to the Times that the British Columbia FLDS members faithful to Jeffs — whose lumber mills have contributed large quantities of lathed logs to the numerous 20,000+-square-foot buildings constructed at the YFZ compound — will be severed from the church after their usefulness to Jeffs is finished. In fact, Jeffs has been steadily excommunicating members deemed not sufficiently loyal to him, including a mass excommunication of 20 senior Short Creek FLDS members (including four of his brothers) on Jan. 10, 2004.

In the twin cities of Colorado City and Hildale, FLDS members are reportedly concerned about the security of their homes and businesses, many of which are owned by the UEP or are on UEP-owned land. Warren Jeffs has not been seen in public for more than a year, with the possible exception of a New Year’s Day aerial photograph showing someone who may have been Jeffs leading a gathering at the foundation of the three-story temple nearing completion at the YFZ compound. He has parted ways with the legal firm that was representing him. His orders are delivered through subordinates, as in the Feb. 19 "adjusting" of Robert Blackmore, Winston’s brother. (As Winston Blackmore explained to the Times, "Adjusting means they will take away their families, reassign them and leave the men single, lonely and working their hearts out to be restored.")

The isolation and secrecy Jeffs practices personally, augmented by his refusal to allow his followers access to newspapers, television, the Internet and other contact with the world outside the FLDS, gives rise to endless speculation about his intents. One rumor speculates that April 6 — the 175th anniversary of the founding of the Mormon Church in Seneca County, N.Y., — will be a significant date in Jeffs’ timetable. The truth of that will be known in 14 days.
 
Mancos Times
Originally published March 23, 2005
 
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