The FBI Top 10 Most Wanted Cult Leader With 78 Wives

On the border of Arizona and Utah is a small community living in complete isolation. And the people that live in that community are part of the extremely secretive and controversial religious group called the F-L-D-S. And to many people outside of the F-L-D-S, the F-L-D-S is as culty as cults come. And their cult leader controls every single aspect of their entire lives. And one of the main pinnacles of this religion, this cult, is that men have to marry multiple wives. And a lot of these women that are getting married are not women at all. They're actually children. My father is Warren Jeffs. Warren Jeffs is the F-L-D-S leader and prophet. He is considered next to God in our religion. My father has around 80 wives, and he has 53 kids. And their cult leader still has complete control over every aspect of their lives while sitting behind bars in a maximum security prison. Warren Jeffs committed some of the most horrific crimes imaginable, which includes marrying multiple wives, the youngest being that we know of, only 12 years old. And he claims that all of this is completely justified because he is the prophet. The chosen one by God, and everything he does is directly ordered by the big man himself. Over the weekend, Osama Ben Laden and eight other men were joined on the FBI's most wanted list by Warren Jeffs. The FBI's top 10 most wanted fugitive, Warren Steed Jeffs. We will also be definitely diving into the subject of Netflix's most recent true crime and docu-series, a man that tried to step into the role as God's chosen one, who is as evil and as disgusting as Warren Jeffs, maybe even much, much worse. It's the fear it's poking out of the trailer. How old are you? Forty. How old are you? What were you living? How old are you? I'm 14-year-old. She had a ring on her finger. On her ring finger, they've all kind of hidden those. I mean, we know what's going on. This is the dark secrets behind the FLDS church, the crimes of their cult leader, Warren Jeffs, and the false prophet Samuel Bateman. We've got a lot to go over, so we're diving right in. My name is Brianna, and I'm hot on the case. Not only are we going to be diving in to some extremely heavy topics today, we're also going to be talking a lot about Mormonism and then the FLDS church topics that I am in no way an expert on. And also because of how secretive the FLDS church is, a lot of details are pretty fuzzy when it comes to this case, but I did my best to compile all the information that I believe to be the most accurate on this case. But if you think I left anything out or maybe got something wrong, please just let me and your fellow detectives know down in the comments. The darkness inside the FLDS church started long before Warren Jeffs was even born, and to really understand this case, you first need to understand what the FLDS is. FLDS, or the fundamentalist church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is a religious sect branched off of Mormonism or the LDS church. The founder of Mormonism was a man named Joseph Smith, who in the 1800s claimed himself as the self-proclaimed prophet, who had been receiving messages directly from God since he was 14 years old. And it was God that wanted Joseph Smith to write the book of Mormon, which according to him was like the sequel to the Bible, and God wanted him to create his own religion, his own church, which became Mormonism. And amongst the many messages that God relayed to Joseph Smith, probably the most well-known one, or at least the most controversial one, was that men should marry multiple wives. And actually according to Joseph Smith, the more wives you married, the better your afterlife would be, and you needed to marry at least three wives, but the more you married, the better celestial kingdom you will be brought into, and eventually you'll actually become like a God yourself if you happen to marry like a bunch of wives, and it's been said that Joseph Smith himself had between 30 and 40 wives. Eventually, multiple laws were passed that outlawed polygamy in the United States. By then, polygamy, or plural marriage, was already such a big part of the religion and also a big part of their lives, so they just kept performing the practice, but just in secret. But after Joseph Smith's death, the third prophet that came after him succumbed to the pressure of the government, the shame, and also the threat of legal repercussions, and officially ended the practice of polygamy in the Church of Mormon in 1890. A majority of people in the faith accepted the change, but there was a very loud minority that did not, and wanted to continue practicing plural marriage. And these people went on to create their own branches, off of Mormonism, and one of them being FLDS. To escape criticism and legal repercussions, the FLDS members relocated to more isolated remote areas where they could continue with their controversial illegal practices in secrecy. And the most inhabited of these areas was in the remote desert on the Arizona, Utah border known as "Short Creek." So that was our very brief history lesson on Mormonism, Joseph Smith, and how the fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Lyrida Sates came to be. Obviously, there's a lot more information. If you want to seek that out there, if you're really interested, there's a lot more information out there, but that was just a very brief history lesson so you know how we got here. And what was once a very real religion, yet very controversial one, started to slowly morph into something that actually had very little in common with traditional Mormonism. And instead is today more than likely just a cult. And within the FLDS group, there always has to be a prophet. This is the person that directly gets messages from God so anything that the prophet says is supposed to be seen as God's direct word. And typically the way that the prophet is chosen is that God chooses the prophet, so typically the prophet will choose who their successor is going to be. Or a lot of the time people will have like visions from God or past prophets that will tell them who the prophet is going to be next. After the passing of the FLDS prophet, Leroy Johnson, a new prophet stepped into power, and that was a man named Rulon Jess. Rulon would go on to have many, many wives, and he would have many, many children, but there was one that seemed more exceptional than the rest. And that was a boy named Warren Jeffs. Now with one of his many wives, Marilyn, Rulon had Warren Jeffs on December 3rd, 1955. Warren was born two months premature, and the midwives did not believe that he was likely going to survive. But Warren's mother claims that one night she had a dream where God and a bunch of past prophets came to her and told her that her baby was going to live, and he was going to be very special. He might actually become the next prophet after his father. So when Warren actually started to thrive, both of his parents saw him as a miracle baby. That was obviously destined for great things. Rulon Jeffs reign as prophet was one of absolute control. He was extremely strict and stoic, and was definitely one of those like no nonsense kind of guys. Rulon didn't even like jokes. He didn't like it when people smiled or laughed or really showed any kind of emotion, and especially the women. He didn't really like it when women showed any kind of emotion. And it was Rulon Jeffs Warren's father that really popularized a phrase in FLDS, and that phrase is keep sweet, and keeping sweet pretty much meant to always have a smile on your face where a mask don't show any emotions at all. Women were told to honor their husband, their God, and their prophet. Don't question anything. Just pray and obey. And of course, like I said, as prophet, Rulon was the only one receiving messages from God directly. So Rulon's word was seen as God's word. The prophet had control over everyone in short creek. And as prophet, having all this control, Rulon, banned watching TV, reading newspapers, speaking with anyone outside of FLDS, and he even banned dogs. And at this point, a lot of people had dogs as pets. It's a very normal thing to do. I have a dog. So after he banned dogs, he forced men to go around the community and just kill everyone's pet dogs. Every last one of them. In FLDS, there are no stepmothers or half siblings. They're all one family. A child born to a man with many wives sees all of his father's wives as their mother. Warren and his many mothers and his many siblings all live together, but they were definitely not one big happy family, even though they might have looked like that from the outside. Girls were not taught anything about sex at all, not until their wedding day. And even thinking about such things was seen as extremely sinful. But Warren, as he stepped into his teenage years, became interested in such things. And first started to show disturbing signs of what was going to come, because even as a child himself, Warren Jeffs has always been a predator. All of his mothers and his siblings would actually cover up their windows at night, because little Warren Jeffs 13 years old liked to sneak out at night and try to peek through windows to try and see if he could catch a peek at one of his mothers or one of his sisters undressing. And that was just the half of it, because Warren at like 13, 14 years old actually began to sexually assault his siblings. I saw an interview with one of his younger sisters who said when she was about eight years old, Warren Jeffs took her into the bathroom and asked her if she wanted to see how babies were made. And that is obviously so sick on just so many different levels. It horrifies me. It makes me feel so bad for her. And she remembers thinking in that moment, if this was normal, like did all of her brothers do this to all of her sisters? I remember thinking, "Do all my brothers do this to all my sisters?" It's just a common thing. I didn't know I was never taught one way or the other. But of course, she couldn't confine in anyone because she was brainwashed since birth to always keep sweet. Don't make a fuss. Shortly after Warren graduated high school, he stepped into a teaching job at the school for the young FLDS children in the community called the Ulta Academy. He's only like 17, 18 years old, by the way, when he steps in to a teaching position. So I don't know what qualifications he had. But shortly after that, he actually became the principal of the school. So someone that just a few years ago, like three years ago, has already prayed on children is now in a position where all of these already brainwashed children completely look up to him. And this is when Warren gets his first taste of power and control. And he really started to change the rules within FLDS, but starting with the children at the Ulta Academy. And it wasn't just that. This is where Warren Jeffs also began to groom these children, three-year-old girls, five-year-old girls. He would get them to trust him, look up to him, love him. And then as I got older, he would marry those same girls when they were 12, 13, 14 years old. The rules at the Ulta Academy under Warren Jeffs rules were strict, and discipline was harsh. And he even began to rip out a bunch of pages out of textbooks that he didn't like, so he could teach these children, brainwash these children, into his own fabricated version of history. And as Warren's father, Rulon, who was still the prophet, got older, he started to suffer with some really, really severe health problems, which included suffering to strokes, which left Rulon pretty much without the ability to speak anymore. And Warren, who already has positioned himself as his father's right-hand man, began speaking for his father, and he would tell these people that his father was using his body to speak to them because he couldn't anymore. And so now Warren's words are the prophet's words, which are now the God's words. So whatever Warren says, even as his father, the prophet was still alive, was seen as God's word. He's speaking for God now. And then on September 8th, 2002, Rulon Jeffs died at the age of 92 years old, having fathered 62 children, and in marrying 65 lives. And there really wasn't a question on who the new prophet was going to be. Of course, some men tried to throw their hat into the ring, but Warren had already manipulated a bunch of his father's wives into fabricating stories that they received messages from their late husband, Rulon, that told them that Warren was the new prophet. He was the next prophet. So Warren Jeff stepped into being prophet. And within one week of his father dying, Warren married nearly all of his father's wives. And even for the members of the FLDS Church, this was extremely odd, very much a red flag. This was not how things were done here. In the eyes of the religion, these women were Warren's mothers yesterday, and are now his wives today. So icky, even for them. After becoming the prophet, Warren Jeffs took even more control than his father did of the people in Short Creek. Communication and access with the outside world was even more limited. It was pretty much just outright forbidden. They weren't allowed to listen or consume any media from the outside world, music TV news. They couldn't even read fiction novels. The only thing that people had for entertainment were their prophet, Warren Jeffs' sermons and teachings. And if they weren't at home listening to Warren's sermons, they were being broadcasted through PA systems and speakers that were put all throughout the community. So they could listen to their prophet 24/7. There were also hidden cameras throughout all of Short Creek. Just watching everyone's every move. You know, you gotta make sure that everyone's keeping sweet all of the time praying and obeying. Within FLDS or something called tithing, pretty much members had to give 10% of all of their income to the prophet, to the church, but it really went into the prophet's pocket. But under Warren, that percentage started to rise. It went from 10% to 15% to 20% to 25% until Warren Jeffs was taking absolutely every single cent of his followers income. He also demanded ownership of their homes, their lands, and their businesses in addition to all of their income. And then as the prophet, Warren would dispense the money out to the members as he saw fit. Obviously, keeping a lot for himself, but then conveniently, the most money would go to the people that were most loyal to Warren. And through this, Warren became a multi-millionaire. More money than you think. In his community of Short Creek, he lived in a luxurious mansion. He was over 20,000 square feet and had 40 bedrooms and a secret vault where he would keep all of the marriage and birth records, which will be really important for later. Trust me. Within FLDS, within the Short Creek community, there were very strict dress codes. And they only got stricter as Warren came into control. The men had to dress in dress pants and always had button-up shirts and girls, whether they were adults or children, wore pastel dresses that covered absolutely every inch of skin other than their heads and their hands. Yeah, absolutely. Cannot see these girls' ankles. And their hair was always done up in these very intricate, updews and very intricate braids. The women were also forbidden from ever cutting their hair. Because once they got to heaven, their hair had to be long enough that they could wash their husbands' feet with their hair in heaven. There was zero individuality in Short Creek. The women were also forced to get onto their knees and hold hands and pray together every single hour. This was obviously also a doomsday cult because it's a cult, even a cult, that the cult leader isn't telling you that the world's gonna end soon and you're all going to die. Warren told his followers that that judgment day was coming soon. And if you wanted to get into heaven, you better follow every single thing that he says. One of his followers was quoted saying that the people within LFLDS were not afraid of death. They would rather die than disobey the prophet. Because as you will see in every case we cover when there's a cult, the best way to control people is to terrify them. Fear is the best way to control people. And Warren definitely wanted there to be an us versus them mentality. He did not want people to escape, so he would teach them brainwash them since birth that the outside world was evil. It was corrupt. They were the enemy. A woman's job within LDS is a cook, clean, get married and have babies. Something that these women were actually taught was that they would not be able to go to heaven if they weren't married because women couldn't get into heaven unless they were brought in with a man. They had to be tied to a man to get into heaven. Girls were told, don't question anything. Don't think, just listen, pray and obey. And obviously the phrase, pray and obey was painted down the chimney of Warren's mansion as a constant reminder, overlooking all of his followers. And the control that Warren had over his followers at Short Creek does not end there as the prophet Warren would not only choose who got married, and because it was taught the more wives a man had, the better an afterlife he would have. So Warren literally held these people's eternal happiness in the palm of his hands. He chose which men got the most wives, and he chose which girls would get married. And he would choose when they were ready to get married, and they were typically married to very, very old men. It was Warren's job to decide when a girl was ready for marriage, and a lot of the time these girls were underage. The FLDS owned a crappy motel in New Mexico, where child-bride laws was pretty much, "Hey, if you're under 16 but your parents say it's okay, yeah, you can marry that creepy 50-year-old dude." These marriages that were performed at this crappy motel in New Mexico were not a celebration and they were not a party. It would be children in these scheezy motel rooms with Warren performing the ceremony and a creepy old man as their husband, and these girls would typically be crying and begging not to get married. And just when you think that this can't get any worse, of course it does, Warren would sometimes marry these children off to their own relatives, their adult cousins, their adult uncles, and because incest more times than not results in very serious health problems for the baby, there was a baby graveyard at the short creek compound for all of these little babies that did not survive. Warren would have 78 wives, and I use wives very loosely because not only are they not wives in the eyes of the law, but they're not wives at all because they are forced into doing this, their brainwash, their victims, obviously, and he would marry children. The youngest of Warren's wives, when he married them, that we know of was only 12 years old and we will talk more about her later on in this episode, but by the time he married this 12 year old girl, she hadn't even started puberty yet, and he was in his 50s. And because Warren and the FLDS believed that a woman's only purpose is to have children, we all know what happened to these little girls next. Warren would have over 50 children, and I'm sure a lot of you have already suspected that some of Warren's children, both sons and daughters, have bravely come out and let people know that their father sexually abused them when they were only children. There was no sex education and FLDS. These children were not taught anything about sex, their bodies consent, they didn't even know how babies remained, and it was drilled into their heads since birth to always be modest. And then one day, this creepy dude decides that at 14, 13, 12 years old, they are ready to get married, and then they're married off to some creepy old guy, maybe their relative, and then they're undressed and assaulted by these creepy old men, sometimes, like I said, their own relatives, that they were forced to marry, and in some cases, they were even undressed and assaulted by their own father, Warren Jeffs, the prophet, the holder of God's word and desires. It's so heavy, it's so bad, and I know I'm just like chucking at you like every terrible thing, all these awful things, just one right after the other, but Warren Jeffs might actually be the worst cold leader that I've ever looked into. He might be like the most evil cold leader I've ever looked into, ever. I know I always bring these cases back to my favorite TV shows, but as I was working on this script, I kept thinking about Shameless, and don't worry, this isn't like any spoilers if you haven't seen Shameless, but if you have seen Shameless, the character Ethel is like 100% inspired by Ethel Diaz and the Warren Jeffs cold, right? She's a 14-year-old girl that had a baby with her 65-year-old husband who had four other wives, and she's dressed just like it has her hair, just like the women that were in the Ethel Diaz Warren Jeffs cold. I went back and I looked, it's not directly stated in the show, but I'm absolutely convinced that her character was 100% directly in attempt to reference Ethel Diaz and Warren Jeffs. Okay, I just looked it up, and season 1 came out a few years after this case kind of comes to a conclusion, so yeah, you heard it here, folks. Ethel is 100% in attempt to reference Ethel Diaz and Warren Jeffs. Let's talk more about the control that Warren Jeffs had over his community and his followers. To assert his dominance and control over his followers, he started to rip apart families and just started to swap them all around. If there was a family that was really really close, Warren would see this, I guess that's a threat, or like I said, just wanted to assert his dominance and he would rip these families apart. He would take a man's wives and he would trade them with another man's wives and he would especially do this if he didn't like one of these guys and that guy really hated another guy. So then he would like, take that guy's wife and give him to the guy that that guy hated just a mess with his head and he would also take children away from parents and put them with other parents, just to screw with people. So Warren Jeffs, he wants to be the top guy, so when he stepped into his role as a prophet, he began excommunicating all of the respected and influential men out of the community. Yeah, one day he just exiled these guys out of town and forbid any member from ever talking to them ever again and these men would have businesses. He would have friends, he would have family, he would have children, that he would never ever get to see again. They were just thrown out of town without anything because Warren Jeff owned everything that everybody owned and that was another huge reason why no one ever intervened or tried to really ever escape. Not only were they completely brainwashed since birth but if they left, they would have literally nothing. And that is just something that I don't think any of us can truly understand, even if some of you listening have unfortunately been kicked out of home and have had no money and no family, you might have had connection with friends or had an education or a driver's license or at least had knowledge about the outside world and that brings us to yet another disgusting thing that Warren Jeff's did to maintain control. The Lost Boys If you haven't already thought about it, let me ask you a question. Since the FLDS Short Creek compound does not live in a world where we can just snap our fingers and decide at the gender of the babies that are born into your community, what do you think happens to a majority of men living under the FLDS if babies are typically born? 50% female and 50% men and the pinnacle of your faith is having to marry a bunch of wives so you can get into heaven and there's men like Warren Jeff's marrying 78 of the women. Yeah, there's a lot of guys that won't ever get married. And because that's something that Warren Jeff's really didn't feel like having to deal with and he wanted less competition for his own creepy ass and his old creepy friends Warren began forcing the parents of young boys to put their sons in the car, drive them out of town, drive them 50 miles away, open the car door, kick them out in the middle of nowhere, drive away and never speak to their children, their sons ever again. And these boys were as young as 13 years old when this happened to them and one of the hardest things for these young boys considering how they grew up, if you were ever exiled, excommunicated out of the community, that meant that you were condemned, which meant that you could not get into heaven, you would go to hell. Without family, friends, connections, money, jobs, driver's licenses, education, they grew up believing the outside world was corrupt, evil, the enemy and had zero comprehension on the outside world, no real life experiences, these young men were exiled by the hundreds. They all started to just kind of group up together, lost nowhere to go. So the people that saw them started to refer to them as the lost boys and their stories started to be told to the public and with support, the lost boys sued Warren Jeff's and the FLDS Church for being thrown out onto the streets with nothing for no reason. And in case you didn't know, if you sue someone and when it's time to show up for court, and the person you're trying to sue does not show up, well that's an automatic win, and that's what happened here and that's how the lost boys won their lawsuit. The state of Utah seized $100 million from the FLDS Church from Warren Jeff's and gave it to the lost boys because Warren Jeff's and no other member from the FLDS Church decided to show up for court. And the reason for that was because Warren Jeff's was on the run. And the reason that Warren Jeff's was on the run at the time that he was sued by the lost boys was because young girls, child brides, started to escape his reign of terror and tell their stories, and this is the real beginning of the end of Warren Jeff's. 16 years old roofstubs was chosen to be married by her prophet Warren Jeffs and Warren Jeffs her prophet performed the ceremony And he married the 16-year-old roof off to a 32-year-old man who already had two wives one of which was roof's older sister And if math's not really your thing 16 and 32, yeah that man was double roof's age She was married at 16. She had her first baby with this grown man at 16 She had two children with this grown-ass man before she even turned 18 years old And when Ruth bravely escaped and told her story the world first really started to hear about the horrific crimes of Warren Jeffs and the FLDS all of their secrets were exposed and the people were shocked Because not only was Ruth forced to marry at 16 years old a 32-year-old man who already had two wives That man Rodney Holm was a police officer Ruth, how old were you when you got married 16 16 years old How old were you when you became pregnant with your first child 16 16 And this was an arranged marriage by the religious leaders of that town. Yes Rodney Holm was a resident he went to court and he was found guilty on two counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor and big of me I'm a reporter here in Phoenix. I know who you are sir My understanding that you have Teenage brides and perhaps impregnated this young woman when it would be a statutory rate We don't have anything to say except to the court And Warren Jeffs saw that the writing was on the wall Because if they can send that man to jail find him guilty in the court of law for a marriage that he performed What would they do to him? Warren is the one that performed the marriage Warren Jeffs performed your marriage to Rodney Holm. Yes For 16 years of age and he marries you to a 32-year-old man that he knows has already has two wives. Yes For all the little girls that he married to different adult men for the 78 wives that he had Remember the youngest one that we know of was only 12 years old. Okay, don't forget that Warren Jeffs was actually quoted saying if the world knew what I was doing They would hang me from the highest tree Which honestly is enough evidence to prove me that he knows he's a liar that he's a false prophet that this isn't God's will and he's actually just evil So Warren Jeffs after Rodney Holm goes to prison he goes on the run and no one really sees him for a really long time To maintain control of his loyal followers, which had to be done through mostly fear and anxiety, of course Warren told his followers that he had to leave short Creek because they were no longer worthy of his presence So keep sweet keep praying and obeying and maybe I'll come back In March of 2005 the state of Arizona began an investigation into the FLDS church and into Warren Jeffs But he was already gone and he began to buy a bunch of land under aliases to build secret compounds in different states He had a secret compound built in Colorado He had one built in South Dakota and he had one built in Texas And he told his followers to build these compounds to prepare for the end of the world And also of course the men that were building these compounds for Warren Jeff they were not paid This was unpaid labor for sure and the most well-known compound that Warren Jeffs had built in secrecy was in El Dorado, Texas And it was called the yearning for Zion ranch or the YFZ ranch Now this compound was fairly large and it was completely surrounded with concrete walls That were two feet thick and reinforced with steel And within the yearning for Zion ranch Warren Jeffs had this big temple built for himself And this was unlike anything that had ever been done in the FLDS church before They weren't really like the temple building type of religion And this temple remember it because we will be coming back to that later Warren had transported by like the hundreds by the thousands to the ranch all of his favorite followers Which were mostly women and children And Warren Jeffs would return to the ranch every few months with a new young girl that he planned to marry The youngest was said to only be 11 years old and this was the girl That would be freshly 12 years old by the time that she was married to Warren Jeffs The girl that hadn't even had her first menstrual cycle by the time she became a 50 year old's wife Warren Jeffs wife And this isn't also the only 12 year old girl that he ever married there was a few And Warren Jeffs would tell his followers that we're living at the yearning for Zion ranch That he couldn't stay for very long because he had to go and do some missionary type work He was going out into the outside world to try and save people's souls But that was a total lie that was total bullshit Because even after the state of Utah seized a hundred million dollars for the lost boys Warren was still a millionaire and he was out there living the high life And doing all the things that he would condemn his followers to hell for doing Warren was riding motorcycles He was going to Vegas He was going to strip clubs But he would not be having fun for much longer Because we're finally about to get into the final nail in Warren Jeffs coffin And what finally sealed Warren Jeffs to his stay in a maximum security prison All came down to a brave little girl that he forced to marry an adult Alisa Wall was born into a polygamous family inside of FLDS She had three mothers and over 20 siblings And as a little girl born into the FLDS Alisa was raised to be really excited about the day that her prophet chose her for marriage placement Which is what he called it But at 14 years old Not only was she chosen to marry an adult male But it was her adult first cousin that she hated Because he was a jerk and always really really mean to her On the day that Alisa was meant to be married and she was going to be brought to that shady motel in New Mexico Alisa was crying and begging her mom not to take her She told her mom "I can't do this" And her mother who was a really Loyal FLDS mother told her 14-year-old daughter "You can do it and you will" 14-year-old Alisa was married to her 19-year-old first cousin Alan Steed Warren Jeffs performed the marriage This cousin, husband, Alan was extremely abusive In every single way Physically, verbally, mentally, emotionally, and sexually And like I've already said Alisa 14-year-old raised an FLDS She did not know what sex was She also was one of the girls that didn't even know where babies came from Up into her wedding day She didn't know what sex was but she knew that it didn't feel right And she did not believe that it was God's will for her first cousin Who was an adult that she hated to do this to her at 14-years-old So Alisa bravely went to speak with her prophet Warren And she told him about what her husband did to her And she asked to be released from this marriage And Warren told this scared little girl That her request was simple And that she was evil And her only option to absolve her of her sins was atonement Meaning that Warren Jeffs would slit her throat So she could give her life to God And then maybe he would let her into heaven Alisa was 17-years-old when Warren Jeffs told her that 17-years-old And the most powerful man in her eyes The one that speaks God's desires is telling her You don't want to be married to your adult male cousin That beats you Assults you Then I can slit your throat Alisa escaped the FLDS Her older sister also escaped and her sister was named Rebecca Rebecca was actually one of Rulon's wives You remember Rulon Warren Jeffs father? Well she was forced to marry and have sex with Rulon Jeffs When he was 85-years-old and she was only 19 Rebecca and Alisa knew that something had to be done And they both agreed to help the police And their investigation and testify against Warren But because Rebecca was, yeah, still a teenage or 19-years-old That's a teenage or at the time she married Rulon She was still legally an adult because she was over 18-years-old So most of the burden would be on Alisa And she agreed to be the face of this criminal trial That was going to be against Warren When I was young, my mother taught me That evil flashes when good men do nothing This has not been easy for us The easy thing would have been to do nothing And I do have to say That that takes some real courage for her to do that And Alisa is a total badass Warren was still on the run And he was actually put on the FBI's top 10 most wanted list Right next to her to Osama bin Laden. Over the weekend, Osama bin Laden and eight other men were joined on the FBI's most wanted list by Warren Jeffs. FBI top 10 most wanted fugitive, Warren Steed Jeffs. The FBI considers him armed and dangerous and he's allegedly known for crimes against children. Media journalists began flooding the short creek area trying to get any of Warren's loyal followers to speak about what was going on inside of short creek and to speak about where Warren was. I just wanted to check with you. Do you have any idea where Warren Jeffs is? Any idea at all? Do you know where Warren Jeffs is? No, sir. Ain't nobody seen him just for years. I don't know. What do you think of him? He's a great prophet and you're damn food for bothered me. And then on August 28, 2006, during a routine traffic stop near Las Vegas, Nevada, Warren Jeffs was caught and arrested. In his car, he had multiple cell phones, he had multiple laptops, he had $55,000 cash on him, and he also had a bunch of wigs and disguises. And obviously, as you can see, if you're watching the video version, he is not following his own strict dress code. He's wearing like a t-shirt and shorts. Warren was charged with being accessory to the rape of a child for what happened to Elisa. At 51 years old, he was found guilty and he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. And if you're listening to that and hoping that now his thousands of followers might finally see the truth, we'll sadly you'd be wrong. If anything, they just looked up to Warren even more now. Warren Jeffs was like a martyr, giving up his freedom, going to jail for their religious beliefs. Now more than ever, it wasn't us versus them mentality. The people of Short Creek thought that the world stole something from them when they took their profit to jail and then started the raids. A hoax 911 call was made following all the media press surrounding the FLDS and since the secretive FLDS compound, the yearning for Zion Ranch became public knowledge. This hoax 911 call claimed to be a little girl being abused and being trapped inside the ranch. So even though this later came out to be a hoax, before they knew that on April 3rd, 2008, swarms a police raided the ranch and what they found inside horrified them. It seemed like everywhere they looked, they saw a little girl who barely looked old enough to even be in high school. And she's pregnant. CPS got involved in every single child. 463 children were removed from the ranch. And if you think that that would continue to ruin Warren Jeffs image again, you'd be wrong. It did a lot more good for Warren at the time than it did bad. From behind bars, Warren urged his followers to make use of all the news cameras and journalists that were constantly surrounding the ranch and constantly surrounding Short Creek. So crying mothers went outside and spoke to the media, spoke to journalists and these tearful mothers were televised to the public, televised to millions and people were horrified, seemingly forgetting all that transpired that led these children to be removed from custody. All they saw were these innocent, appearing women crying because their babies were stolen from them. So after all of the public backlash, a judge ordered to have all 463 children returned to the yearning for Zion Ranch compound. But the police were not done yet. Police were able to secure a search warrant for the ranch and all the buildings inside of it, which included that big temple that Warren had built. When they first walked inside the temple, it looked like any other temple, it looked normal enough until they got to the fourth floor. These images looked like something out of the back rooms. Floor to ceiling, everything was bare and white. And inside one empty white room was just a white bed. You can only imagine the horrible things that happened on that bed. They also found on the fourth floor a vault and after breaking into the vault, they found all of the secret marriage and birth records. All of the evidence of what transpired was finally exposed. Men in their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, marrying young girls as young as 12 years old. Also in that vault, they uncovered recordings that Warren made of his wedding nights with his child brides, little girls crying, Warren moaning. And one of these recordings was him assaulting his 12 year old bride. Remember the one that he brought there when she was still 11 years old, the one that he married before she even hit puberty? And they were actually able to DNA test some of these babies that were born to these 12, 13, 14 year old girls and confirmed that these babies were born to these 12, 13, 14 year old mothers and fathered by Warren Jeffs who was in his 50s. So Warren was indicted on two counts of felony sexual assault on a child. He was going to go back to court, but in a shocking turn of events, Warren did not want a lawyer. He wanted to represent himself. His followers continued to support him, women that we know through these marriage and birth records were there when these little girls were married off and were there as midwives when these little girls gave birth to these adult men's children lied and said that they never saw a little girl get married or a little girl give birth in the FLDS compounds. But did you see others at the ranch getting married younger? Not that I'm aware of. So you have never, to your knowledge, seen a younger girl marry an older person. Marilyn had you. Not that I have ever seen. So all these stories are false or just you haven't seen them. I believe they are false, I believe they are false, they are false. Warren's defense was one of the most deporable and blatant things of victim blaming I've ever seen. His defense was that everything that happened to these little girls were things that they wanted. There was no. There absolutely was no. Lisa's version is highly improbable. It happened because Elisa wanted it to happen. And he also said that everything he did was protected under religious freedom, which is a constitutional right. But just because you assault little girls, you cannot just claim it's my religion. I'm allowed to do so. It's not how it works. So Warren just was found guilty on all charges. And it took the jury only 30 minutes, which included a coffee break and some lunch to come back with what they thought Warren Jeffs should be sentenced to. And he was sentenced to life in prison. He will only become eligible for parole when Warren Jeffs is 100 years old. To this very day, his loyal followers still stick by him. And they truly see him as a prophet and a martyr. And as of 2016, we still know that Warren is out there still calling the shots even behind bars by sending messages through his visitors in the form of secret recordings and coded letters. If anything, he's just more powerful behind bars because they do see him as a martyr. That is now in prison for the rest of his life in support of them and their religion and their beliefs. He still decides which girls get married and which men are exiled from the community. He has even decided, apparently, allegedly, that men are no longer allowed to have sex with their wives and conceived children. And instead, in FLDS, men can hold their wives hands while their wives have sex with seed bearers. And seed bearers are special men chosen by Warren. And they are the only men that are allowed to breed and have sex and conceive children. The cult and crimes of Warren Jeffs really started getting talked about online after Netflix released a docu series on him in 2022 called Keep Sweet, Pray and Obey. And even more recently than that, I'm talking this month, like two weeks ago, a week ago, on April 8th, 2026, Netflix released another docu series on the FLDS and on Warren's successor called Trust Me, The False Prophet. And this docu series is about a man named Samuel Bateman. Samuel was raised in the FLDS short creed community. And he was born into a family that was apparently not generally liked by the rest of the community. And everyone pretty much just saw Samuel his entire life as just a huge loser. And I definitely agree. In 2019, people were really questioning Warren Jeffs since he had been in prison for so long that they hadn't really heard anything coming from him in a really long time. They weren't getting any more messages, any more recordings, any more secret coded messages. No one heard from Warren Jeffs in a long time. That's when Samuel claims that he had a vision directly from God. And God told Samuel that Warren Jeffs died in prison. And that Samuel was the new prophet. And because the people in FLDS don't have. internet, they don't get the read newspapers. They just, you know, any time anyone ever said, "I got a vision from God." That was their newspaper and they would just take it as fact. So they really had no choice but to take Samuels word for it and that's how Samuels set himself up as the new FLDS profit. In short, Creek, Samuels immediately began taking a lot of money from his community and his followers. He bought himself multiple homes in multiple states and started driving around in Bentley's. He also started taking all of his followers' wives to be his wives and taking his followers' daughters to be his wives. He would just walk into his followers' homes and just point out the women that he wanted to take in Mary. It would be these literally these people's wives, their daughters, and the youngest girl that Samuels went in and stole from her bed to become his wife was 90 years old. Samuels even claimed one of his own underage daughters to be his next bride. He told his daughter his own flesh and blood that he would give her 50 bucks and two bags of Doritos if she would marry him. Luckily his wife and that girl's mother escaped with her so that did not happen. Now this is pretty crazy but Warren Jeff's and Samuel Bateman both finally got arrested like the exact same way, almost. They were both arrested after being pulled over by the police and actually 16 years to the day. After Warren Jeff's was pulled over and arrested in the Vada on August 28th 2006, while 16 years later, to the day on August 28th 2022, Samuel Bateman was pulled over in Flagstaff, Arizona after a cop saw little hands and little fingers poking out of a horse trailer that he was dragging behind his big old truck. Inside the trailer they found a bunch of little girls and three of these little girls were under age and they were ranging from 11 to 14 years old. And this wasn't unventilated trailer and I don't know if you've ever been to Arizona. Like in Arizona you're lucky if it's not like 112 degrees on any given day so we have these little girls dressing head to toe you can't see their skin in an unventilated trailer no AC they're using a bucket as a bathroom and if that wasn't horrific enough for these officers they then look down and they see that the 14-year-old girl is wearing a wedding ring. So if you're poking out of the trailer come over here please and I'm gonna get that knife off your chair okay. Any other weapons on you? Okay I'm over here please stop reaching your pockets. What's your name? What's that? What's your name sir? Samuel. Samuel? No what are you saying about pockets? Do you have any other weapons on you? We're out here because there is supposedly people there. How many other people are in the truck? Well I just want to know who's inside the truck right now so that way I know who else we're dealing with. What else do I call everybody out? As you can see there's a pretty serious deal here sir. What is your name? Samuel. Samuel what? Is he the driver? Yeah. What are you doing? I just got here explaining me what's going on. Come down first. I haven't come. You're being videoed as well. Stuff? On the curtain. Keep your hands up for me. Go and walk out towards me okay. Turn on to slip all right. Put your hands behind your back. It's not doing this right now huh? You are being detained to you identify yourself. I have to tell my name. Yes you have to identify yourself. You are being detained for a crime. We're still putting you in handcuffs so sit tight. I'm all just saying it now I'm not going to say it to you. Okay if you want to come stand up please put your right foot in first. If you know what we're investigating to a child in danger. How old are you? I'm 14. I'm 14. 14 year old. She had a ring on her finger on her ring finger. They've all kind of like hidden those. I mean they're we know what's going on. Samuel was taken into custody and arrested on three charges of child endangerment but he quickly posted bail. FBI investigation began which uncovered Samuel had over 20 wives many of which were minors at the time he married them and nine of them were still under age. Short Creek was once again rated. Samuel was once again brought into police custody and CPS once again removed children from short Creek. The nine child brides of Samuel Bateman were taken into productive custody and placed into group homes and then were questioned by police multiple times due to the unusual circumstances in which these young girls have been raised having no concept of the outside world other than being taught that the outside world is the enemy and out to get them. They allowed these young girls to have contact with some of the older women in the community particularly three of Samuel's adult wives. The first time that these young these nine young girls were questioned by the police they denied absolutely everything. The next time they were questioned one of them admitted to being present during one of the orgies that Samuel would put on at short Creek. Slowly the girls started to admit more and more but they were still not cooperating fully and the police believed that they were being influenced by the adult wives of Samuel not to talk to them. So they decided to separate them from the older women completely and when they did that the girls started to admit that they had been sexually abused by Samuel Bateman a man in his 40s but shortly after that eight of the nine young girls disappeared they vanished from their group homes. They were kidnapped by Samuel Bateman's adult wives after being instructed by Samuel to kidnap these children. He was able to relay this message to his adult wives behind bars to go kidnap his nine child brides. The only girl that refused to run away was an 11 year old girl and she was actually married to Samuel when she was between the ages of nine and ten years old. Again he's in his 40s. By late November police and FBI discovered that one of Samuel Bateman's adult wives that kidnapped these girls well one of their cousins booked an Arabian B and they thought that maybe this is where the wives took the child brides and that's where they were all hiding out. On December 1st they arrived at the Arabian B and the wives attempted to escape with the underage girls but were caught and the eight underage girls were saved and the three adult wives were charged with kidnapping and were facing 20 years to life in prison. These three adult wives were named Naomi, Dania and Moreta. Now they were facing these very harsh sentences but again due to the unusual circumstances where these girls were both perpetrators but also victims at the same time they received much lighter sentences than 20 years to life. Samuel and again very shocking turn turn of events actually pled guilty to all charges which included taking children as brides having orgies which included children and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. He was sentenced to 50 years in prison and since he's in his 40s there is very little chance that he will ever get out and it's very likely that that will be a life sentence. And this is one for the very first time the FLDS members, the followers of Samuel Bateman found out that everything that he told them was a lie. Warren Jeffs did not die in 2019 and he is actually still alive right now. His access to the outside world had been extremely limited because he was caught sending his followers secret messages so he was still able to control all of their lives and keep committing crimes behind bars. But Warren Jeffs was still very much alive and even has since denounced that Samuel Bateman is a prophet like we didn't know that already. So Samuel Bateman's loyal followers found out that everything they did, every crime they committed was actually not the word of God. Today within the FLDS there is a split. There's still a lot of people that still follow and support Warren Jeffs. There's still people out there that still follow and support Samuel Bateman. These are people that have been groomed and brainwashed since a day that they were born. But even after these evil men were brought behind bars for some of the most horrific crimes against children that I've ever heard, these men are still praised and adored by thousands. Guys that was such a heavy episode. If you made it to the very end, thank you so, so much. I put a lot of effort into researching this episode because I know that there was like a lot of stuff that I'm not familiar with. I don't really know anything about the Mormon religion. LDS, FLDS, so I knew this was something I really wanted to carefully curate for you guys, so I really hope that Ugh, enjoy is not the right word. Not that you enjoyed this episode, but maybe I really hope that you learned something and Yeah, this episode disgusted me. Those are very very disgusting disgusting men So let me know all of your thoughts and opinions even though I'm pretty sure I know where that's gonna go Let me know. Did you watch the 2022 DocuSeries and Warren Jeffs keep sweet, preional bay and did you watch the new DocuSeries that just came out like a week and a half ago on Samuel Bateman the The false prophet one, but that's all I have for this week's episode. I will see you guys all next Friday with the next episode