Jailhouse Threats From an accused Pedophile ‘Prophet’
These are tough times for America’s most infamous polygamous sect. Their prophet, Warren Jeffs, has been slinging orders to his people like lightning bolts — from a pay phone in his jail cell. Followers have been told to rebaptize, to regulate their sex lives and to build, build, build as he prepares them for Zion and the end of the world. Three years after the raid that brought his fundamentalist Mormon sect to national attention, Jeffs is suffering the consequences of incendiary evidence seized by authorities, but it’s his followers who are suffering the wrath. As Isaac Wyler, one of the church’s most vocal apostates, says: “He’s a madman.”
As Jeffs awaits trial on child sexual assault and bigamy charges in West Texas, members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or FLDS, are struggling to pay his thousands of dollars in attorney fees. They live in poverty and suffer his condemnation but don’t ask questions because they believe Jeffs holds the key to Zion. A rambling 900-page warning recently sent from Jeffs to President Obama may signal his desperation.