I just finished reading Triumph by Carolyn Jessop.
In the first half of this book, she talks about the raids in Texas on the Yearning For Zion (YFZ) ranch where her ex-husband was in charge. She gave stats about the women and children taken into custody, like out of the 469 people, there were only 18 last names. (My numbers may be slightly off, I don’t have the book to reference to since I loaned it to my mom. Like I have always said since the raid happened, the state of Texas handled the situation completely wrong. The men should have been removed from the compound, not the women and children.
In the book, she talked about the trials she has testified at and the different tactics the FLDS used to try to prevent the trials. A lot of the trials, they flooded the court house, so people couldn’t get into the courtroom. One, they had lots of boys there with pocket knives so that clogged up security. The FLDS were all told to lie about everything, that if they didn’t, their children would be taken from them and given to “a more worthy woman.” Or, like in the case of Barbara, one of Carolyn’s former sister wives, just pleaded the 5th to all questions. Carolyn says that the state should have made it clear to them, that if they didn’t comply with them, their children would be taken by the state. The state was in such a hurry to get through the cases, that they never really investigated the abuse like they should have. So 96% of the cases were closed prematurely.
There have been several trials against men for sexual abuse of the children. Carolyn’s own daughter was molested by one of these men. Warren Jeffs would marry children as young as twelve. You can search the webs and find pictures of Jeffs kissing a twelve year old bride. This child is one of Carolyn’s step-children. While they were still living in the community, one of her daughters thought it would a great honor to be one of these child brides to the prophet, Warren Jeffs. Now after living in the free world, she sees how disgusting and wrong that is. At one point, the FLDS has put out a press release stating that they will no longer marry anyone under 18, but I think that’s just a bunch of lip service and these abominations will continue.
Carolyn gave a brief look into what her children are doing now and also people from the FLDS that were once her friends. All of the women she knew, now looked very aged, tired, and worn.
I recommend that this book. It is heartbreaking though that this kind of stuff goes on in America. These charges are felonies, yet the government won’t do anything to stop it. And not even necessarily stop it completely. At least regulate it so that the woman and children aren’t being abused and neglected.
Definitely a ***** 5/5 stars
