Manhunt for cult's prophet of polygamy who has 70 wives

[emad]

From Chris Ayres in Los Angeles



A CULT leader in Arizona with a reputed 70 wives has become the subject of a nationwide manhunt in a move that could mark the end of America�s long-tolerated polygamist sects.

The search for Warren Jeffs, the 49-year-old self-proclaim- ed prophet and president of the 10,000-member Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, marks the first time that Arizona has offered a reward for information leading to the capture and arrest of a fugitive.

The reward has been set at $10,000 (�5,600).

The FBI is also searching for Mr Jeffs on a federal warrant for �unlawful flight to avoid prosecution�.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-1694944,00.html

[Maddy McCall]

1. I was waiting for that situation to explode.

This cult has built a huge commune in West Texas, at El Dorado. It's going to get really ugly.

Thanks for this heads-up. I'm going to search the news sources in West Texas and see what's going on there.

Warren Jeffs is a lunatic. A very scary man. He has kicked young boys out of the cult, leaving them homeless, just so he would have less competition for the young girls.

I hope the find and convict this guy.

[emad]

2. The Times paints a grim picture:

His church, which has had absolute control over the town, stands accused of forcing teenage girls to marry elders as rewards for loyalty, and of driving young men away from their homes and families to thin out the male population. Women are taught from infancy to be subservient or to suffer eternal damnation.

For years the authorities turned a blind eye to such activities, but not any more. �We simply need to zero in on this guy,� declared Terry Goddard, Arizona�s attorney-general, who said that Mr Jeffs was wanted on charges of arranging for a 16-year-old girl to marry a much-older sect member who was already married.

�Mr Jeffs�s influence over the members of the church has led to numerous child-abuse charges. His hold on the community continues to hurt its members, and it is time he answered to these charges in a court of law. He is not above the law.�

A wanted poster featuring a five-year-old photograph of Mr Jeffs dressed in a black suit with white shirt and tie will be distributed in at least three states. Mr Jeffs has also been named as a defendant in a civil case brought by a nephew accusing him of sodomy, and in another brought by a former church member accusing him of covering up the behaviour of paedophiles.

Eight other sect leaders wanted for sexual misconduct with underage brides have surrendered to the authorities. One was a former police officer with three wives.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-1694944,00.html

[Maddy McCall]

3. I've got to do something right now...

got a home responsibility to take care of. As soon as I can, I'll post some info about the El Dorado branch of the cult.

[King Coal]

4. Maddy, he may be at the Mancos, CO location as well.

[emad]

10. FBI sightings:

The FBI said last week that Mr Jeffs had been sighted at a polygamist community in British Columbia. It is thought that he could be in Mexico or at a compound in Schleicher County, Texas, where polygamists are building a four- storey temple.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-1694944,00.html

[emad]

9. End of polygamy was 'predicted' say The Times....

The end of polygamy in America was predicted three years ago when Mr Jeffs�fs father, Rulon T. Jeffs, died aged 93. He left an estimated 20 widows, about 60 children and hundreds of grandchildren. His pallbearers included 33 of his sons.

Those doomsday predictions are now coming true. �gI figured we would have one of three scenarios: he would either be indicted, or someone from his own group would turn him in, or he would do a Jonestown kind of thing,�h Ben Bistline, an Arizona historian, told the Arizona Republic newspaper, referring to the 1978 murder-suicide of 912 sect members in Jonestown, Guyana.

Mr Jeffs�fs is the most-prominent of the polygamist sects that broke away from America�fs mainstream Mormon church when it outlawed multiple wives in the late 1800s as part of a federal deal that granted Utah statehood.

The dissidents fled to the desert, where they founded communities such as Colorado City, which straddles the Utah-Arizona border to make it easier to escape raids by either state�fs authorities. Even today, Colorado City is populated by older men and young girls with long braided hair and ankle-length dresses. Make-up and jewellery are banned, as are newspapers and television. Outsiders are not welcomed.

The last time the sect was seriously challenged was in the 1950s, when police cars roared into the town at 4am, only to find that the residents had been tipped off. The present crackdown began in 2002, when a sect member called Tom Green, 37, was convicted of child rape after impregnating his 13-year-old �gspiritual wife�h. Mr Green, who lived with his 5 wives and 29 children in a trailer home camp in Utah, was the first polygamist prosecuted in the state in half a century.

Since then, Utah and Arizona have moved aggressively against the sect, most recently by stripping Colorado City�fs polygamist leaders of financial control over their community, which includes the town of Hildale, less than a mile away in Utah. A hearing is scheduled for July 21 to appoint new trustees to the estimated $150 million United Effort Plan Trust, created in 1940 with the utopian mission of collecting all community possessions and sharing them among the faithful.Church members also pledge their earnings to the trust.

Although polygamists say that their communities encourage strong families, community spirit and volunteerism, the virtual dictatorships of the towns have failed to provide any economic infrastructure for residents; it is thought that about 78 per cent of them receive food stamps.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-1694944,00.html

[barbaraann]

5. Is Dog going to look for him?

Go, Dog!!!

[livinginphotographs]

6. I saw a new show about this a while back.

They were talking about the people who literally had to escape, because even the cops there work for this guy.

That town seems like a really creepy place.

[sam sarrha]

7. the Polygamist "Wives" tend to be about 14 and very related..

[fasttense]

8. The wonders of religion will never cease, sodomy, pedophilia, polygamy

all in the name of religion.