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INSIGHT

Polygamy in the United States

Aired May 16, 2006 - 18:00:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JONATHAN MANN, CNN HOST (voice-over): The prophet of polygamy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Many young men, when they receive their first wife, are just so untrained. The woman, if he is not careful, will be overbearing and always ask permission for what she wants.

MANN: One of the most wanted men in America isn't robbing banks or killing cops. He's a religious figure with a powerful hold on fowlers, taking the women for his own and leading them all with faith and fear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Hello and welcome.

There is a quiet part of the United States that one law enforcement officer now compares to Afghanistan under the Taliban. It's a community of believers who call themselves the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints. They have no connection to the larger mainstream movement with a similar name, the people that the rest of us call the Mormons. Instead, the Fundamentalists live in a strange world where men are taught to take at least three wives. Those wives, often young girls, are given to men by their prophet, and their prophet is a wanted man named Warren Jeffs.

Like many countries, the United States has had its share of strange religious cults, but the most infamous example, the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, ended with disaster, a police raid that led to the deaths of more than 70 people. So the police who are now hunting for Jeffs, wanted for molesting children and arranging for other men to molest them as well, they're doing it very carefully.

On our program today, the search for a small town tyrant.

Here's CNN's Rick Sanchez.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is south central Texas, isolated, quiet, but there is a building boom of sorts here around this temple erected by Warren Jeffs' polygamist followers.

And look at this. A rare glimpse into this new world of Mormon fundamentalists, one of the only photos of women and children working the fields of this 1,700-acre compound under construction by Jeffs' chosen followers. It's called YFZ, or Yearning For Zion, because this is where the man they call the prophet has told them they need to be when the world, as we know it, comes to an end.

For other residents here, though it sounds alarmingly like what happened in another Texas town.

(on camera): Are you worried that this could be the next Waco?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They have the manpower, they have the financial resources, and they're in an isolated area.

SANCHEZ: We're going to go ahead and try and drive into the compound, but it's surrounded by other ranches, so this is really the only road in.

We're told that it is protected by guards in all-terrain vehicles. And some of the locals that we've talked to say they're armed.

(voice-over): Nobody really knows whether Warren Jeffs, who is now one of the FBI's top 10 fugitives, is in the compound. Sheriff David Doran is one of just a handful of outsiders who have ever been inside.

(on camera): How do you know Warren Jeffs isn't there right now?

DAVID DORAN, SHERIFF: I can't say. I mean, I don't know. I don't know if he is or not.

SANCHEZ: So why not get a bunch of your guys in there and raid it right now and find out if he's there?

DORAN: Well, you know, one would speculate that's what needs to be done. There's all -- you know, critics would say, why aren't we doing that. We have to get good, credible information that he's on the property. We have to have a sighting by law enforcement.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): But they haven't. Nor have they received reports of any criminal activity. And although Jeffs is accused of sex with a minor and suspected of arranging marriages between young girls and older men, there's been no evidence of that here. It's a possibility that repulses locals.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's sick. They shouldn't be able to do that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's nasty. It's just wrong. It shouldn't be like that.

SANCHEZ (on camera): We've essentially come as far as we can go because there's a locked gate here that prevents us from going any further.

But if you look all the way down the road, you see a massive stone temple jutting over the horizon that seems to be in the middle of nowhere.

(voice-over): It now seems Jeffs' followers originally intended to conceal what they were doing when they placed a 10-foot sign that read "Whitetail Hunting Lodge."

School Teacher Ernesto Barrero (ph) was among the fist to realize something was amiss.

ERNESTO BARRERO (ph), SCHOOL TEACHER: I told my wife, I noticed right away they misspelled whitetail.

SANCHEZ (on camera): Whitetail was misspelled?

BARRERO: Yes.

SANCHEZ: They lied?

BARRERO: Oh, yes. They lied. They said that it was going to be a hunting resort.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): A work permit that explains what the property really is. YFZ, a religious church organization. We called the number on the permit to ask for Ernest Jessup.

(on camera): Hi. Is this Mr. Jessup?

(voice-over): But we're told we had the wrong number.

We also tried to catch up with one of Jeffs' followers driving a truck, loaded with fill. But he spotted us, ran, and then drove away.

From the air, Pilot J.D. Doyle showed us the massive temple, the three-story housing units where Jeffs' chosen followers now live, the water tower, the school and community center, the dairy and cheese factory, even a massive concrete mill.

J.D. DOYLE, PILOT: Warren tells them that the end of the world is near, and it will be so many days after the last corner is set on the temple. And then after that, God is going to come, destroy the earth. They're going to be the only people left because they believe that they are the only true tribe of Israel left.

SANCHEZ: Surrounded by nothing but cactus and brush, followers are completely isolated. Locals say only men are allowed to leave the compound. They believe only those with at least three wives will reach heaven, and women will only reach heaven if they have their husband's blessing.

(on camera): What's going to happen if the feds come in here and try and arrest him?

DOYLE: Waco.

SANCHEZ: It will be another Waco?

DOYLE: Without a question.

SANCHEZ (voice-over): Rick Sanchez, CNN, Eldorado, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: Many polygamist are not followers of Warren Jeffs, but they also live outside the law. CNN's Gary Tuchman went to two towns in the United States where polygamy is actually common and support for Jeffs is divided.

Either way, the spotlight on the closeted community was unwelcome.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We're 110 miles north of the Grand Canyon on the state line of Arizona and Utah. Behind me, Colorado City, Arizona.

This is Hilldale, Utah. They're basically twin cities, two different states, but the people who live in these two towns, ignore the state line. They live one particular type of life.

(on camera): It is not unusual for homes to have more than 10 wives and more than 30 children. You can see some of the wives and children here, going into this home. The wives wear long dresses. They wear their hair tied up in a bun, very traditional, old-fashioned clothing.

We haven't seen one woman here in this town here in Arizona who's been wearing clothing you'd consider more typical.

We're driving now because the fact is, it's very hard for us to shoot in front of people's homes without making them angry, without making them suspicious. Lots of these people have had their parents and grandparents end up in prison because of polygamy. They do not trust the police. They do not trust the news media. They are not particularly happy to see us.

This is the center of commerce here in Colorado City. This is the Food Town. This is where the families come to get their groceries. They won't allow us inside with the camera, but we can tell you it is very busy, as you might expect. There are many households. And you can see there are some angry people here who don't want the camera to be...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No cameras allowed here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Say again?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sorry, this is private property, no cameras allowed.

TUCHMAN: So, now we're off the property where legally we're allowed to shoot.

We can tell you that according to local authorities, the district attorney's office, which pays visits here with their investigators, 99 percent of the families here are polygamist families. Most of those families...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are going to have to ask you guys to not video by our store. Please don't point that at me.

TUCHMAN: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't want you on this store parking lot or videoing customers in and out. It makes them nervous so they don't want to go in our store.

TUCHMAN: OK, this will just take one minute. We're on public -- we're on a public sidewalk.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, this is private property.

TUCHMAN: We were saying that authorities estimate 99 percent of the families here are polygamist families. Most of them are supporters of Warren Jeffs. But it's very important to point out, there's a town just two miles to the south of here, called Centennial Park.

Centennial Park was formed about 20 years ago by people who did not want to be loyal to Warren Jeffs and his father. They are not supporters of Warren Jeffs, but they also practice polygamy.

That, the people in Centennial Park and the people here, agree upon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: Gary Tuchman.

We take a break now, but when we come back, how could they? Women that say that one husband between them is really all they want.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANN (voice-over): Tom Green was a husband to five wives who publicly championed polygamy until he was jailed for it in 2001. One of his wives was 13 when he fathered her baby and in addition to polygamy he was convicted of child rape. Through it all, she and the rest of his extended family defended him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I agree that at 13 years old, most girls are not old enough to decide to be married. I was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANN: Welcome back.

It may seem strange, but some women in polygamist marriages really say that they are happy that way.

Once again, here's Gary Tuchman. He spent some time with a few.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): A daughter and a mother.

CHRISTINE, CHILD OF POLYGAMIST: I've never had people make fun of me, but I don't think they know.

TUCHMAN: What they don't know is that daughter, Christine, lives in 32-bedroom house with many siblings and many mothers. For security reasons, mother, Linda, doesn't want to give exact numbers.

(on camera): Do you know how many wives there are?

LINDA, WIFE OF POLYGAMIST: Yes, I do.

TUCHMAN: Is it between 10 and 15?

LINDA: Yeah, that would be safe to say.

TUCHMAN: OK. And the kids, the range, how many kids?

LINDA: More than 30. Al my kids are sweethearts.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Most polygamists' homes are not this big, but size is a nice luxury to have in these kinds of families.

The children are all fathered by one man, one husband, who, because polygamy is against the law, doesn't feel safe appearing on camera. Neither do the rest of his wives, who in most cases have paying jobs. They won't tell us what their husband does to pay for such a big house.

Here in the neighboring communities of Colorado City and Centennial Park, Arizona, most homes are polygamists. People don't want their last names used because they're afraid. But Mark doesn't mind talking. He's only married to one woman, but that's just temporary.

(on camera): Would you like to have 10 or more wives, like your father did?

MARK, SON OF POLYGAMIST: Sure, why not? The more the merrier.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): It's not only men who talk like that here. We gathered a group of polygamists from different families who say as Fundamentalist Mormons, God has obligated them to live in pluralistic marriages.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And we do believe that he has commended it.

TUCHMAN: Joyce doesn't want to divulge how many wives she shares her husband with and how many children they have, but she says they're very happy.

(on camera): Aren't there times when you say I just wish he was with me and had me alone?

JOYCE, WIFE OF POLYGAMIST: No. Honestly, no.

TUCHMAN: I mean, you're sharing your husband, right?

JOYCE: Yes, yes.

TUCHMAN: And that's OK with you?

JOYCE: You know, they're my best friends.

TUCHMAN: Your other wives?

JOYCE: Absolutely. They really are. In fact, I love my husband dearly, but the only ladies in the house, I might have a closer relationship with them.

TUCHMAN: In an effort to avoid trouble, most of the polygamist families in this community get an official marriage certificate only for the first marriage in the household.

Priscilla lives with several sister wives, as they are called, and many children.

(on camera): I mean, when you see women out there who say you guys are just being taken advantage of, you know, by men who want to be with lots of women.

PRISCILLA, WIFE OF POLYGAMIST: We say you're being taken advantage of. That's what we would say to them.

TUCHMAN: Why?

PRISCILLA: Because so many of them don't have a committed relationship.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): They know their childhoods and their families sound very unusual to most people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We had more than four mothers.

TUCHMAN (on camera): And how many brothers and sisters?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Total, at the end of the family, we had more than 30.

JOYCE: I had three, and we had more than 20 children in our family.

TUCHMAN: How many of you have had relatives who have gone to jail for polygamy? So, six of you. Grandparents? Parents? In jail for polygamy? How did that affect your families?

(voice-over): the people in our group say they are not followers of polygamy leader Warren Jeffs, who is wanted by the FBI. But they are not ready to vilify him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have no idea. I don't know what he's done.

TUCHMAN (on camera):: Would any of you let your 14-year-old or 15- year-old daughters get married?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely not.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

TUCHMAN: Sixteen or 17?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely not.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

TUCHMAN: Not until they're 18?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Or beyond.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Or older.

TUCHMAN: They say they've all watched the new HBO show about polygamy called "Big Love."

(on camera): Do you like it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's entertaining.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's television.

TUCHMAN: Is it realistic?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

TUCHMAN: There's a lot of sex on that show, isn't there?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Too much.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Which is why a lot of our people stopped watching after the first couple of episodes.

TUCHMAN: So, that's unrealistic?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I don't know.

TUCHMAN: Which brings up this question: how is it decided which wife the husband sleeps with on a given night?

JOYCE: We draw straws, and the one with the short straw has to.

(LAUGHTER)

JOYCE: We love our husbands very much. We communicate.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): These women say their husbands do have significant stamina.

(on camera): What an ego boost for the man, to be loved by so many women.

JOYCE: What an ego boost for the women, to be loved by such a good man. It's a win/win proposition.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): These people enjoy joking around, but they get very serious when they declare the mainstream Mormon church made a mistake when polygamy was banned more than a century ago.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We stand in support of the principle of plural marriage as a sacred religious tenent.

TUCHMAN: Polygamy will not be disappearing any time soon from this nook in Arizona.

TUCHMAN (on camera): Are any of you ladies at the point where you would not want your husband to take another wife?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, absolutely not.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The more, the better.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

MANN: The more the better, happily ever after.

But happily ever after ends quickly for some women when the husband does take another wife or when life becomes repressive or abusive.

CNN's Randi Kaye has Vicki's story, the story of a woman who had enough when one wife wasn't enough.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Vicky Prunty still remembers her wedding day. She was looking forward to years of marital bliss. Instead, after seven years, her husband became a polygamist and added another wife.

(on camera): What does it feel like to share your husband with another woman?

VICKY PRUNTY, FORMER POLYGAMIST: It's not a natural feeling to share the one you love with other women. And it brought a lot of sorrow.

KAYE (voice-over): For Vicky, it was unbearable. She ran away with her children. Her husband thought she was Satan.

PRUNTY: He would pray for my death with the children, but even before that, they really believed that I had demons, and he would try to cast the demons out of me so that I was more obedient.

KAYE: Unsure where to turn, Vicky married another polygamist. The marriage lasted just a few months.

PRUNTY: The husband sat all of his wives down and said, he never believed in it, but what men wouldn't want to have sex with more than one wife?

KAYE (on camera): Was that a breaking point for you?

PRUNTY: Oh, I absolutely felt exploited. I remember going into the shower after hearing that and just scrubbing myself.

KAYE (voice-over): Again, Vicky ran. This time for good. But she was now a single mom with six children, no identity, no money, no knowledge of how the rest of the world works.

PRUNTY: I was afraid of even going into the grocery store and the scanners that you see today, all the labels on the food items, the bar codes, to us was the mark of the beast.

KAYE (on camera): Vicky says she felt like a refuge in a new world. A lot of polygamist wives don't have driver's licenses or credit cards, no bank account or social security card. And their children don't even have birth certificates. They just don't believe in them.

(voice-over): Vicky landed on her feet and started Tapestry Against Polygamy, a group to help polygamist wives enter the mainstream.

PRUNTY: Our lives are so interwoven, and because of our experiences, we're in a way unraveling a tapestry and creating a new one.

KAYE: Hundreds of women have turned to Tapestry for help, but helping others means danger.

(on camera): Have you personally been threatened?

PRUNTY: They talked to one of my children and asked them if I was their mother and said that they were watching them as they walked home from school.

KAYE: Why are you so determined to help the other women?

PRUNTY: Once you know what's going on, you have a moral responsibility to do something about it. I felt an obligation to see things to an end.

KAYE (voice-over): And to Vicky, the only end is the end of polygamy.

Randi Kaye, CNN, Salt Lake City, Utah.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: We have to take a break once again. When we come back, the other side of polygamy. A man who once had three wives. He's now down to one. We'll find out what happened in just a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MANN: Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the 1830s. He not only preached polygamy, he practiced it, taking several, maybe even dozens, of wives.

In 1862, Abraham Lincoln outlawed polygamy and in 1890 the Mormons gave in and banned the practice themselves. But a handful of believers never gave it up.

MANN: Welcome back.

The strange Fundamentalist Mormons we've been telling you about aren't even a minority in the Mormon world. They're a microscopic aberration, a closed world of their own. But some women do emerge. We've heard from them. So do some men.

What's it like having three wives at the same time? CNN's Anderson Cooper met a man with firsthand experience.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a cramped office in his home outside Salt Lake City, John Llewellyn is working to stop the spread of polygamy.

JOHN LLEWELLYN, FMR. POLYGAMIST: It has brought badly needed attention to the problems of polygamy here in Utah.

COOPER: An expert on polygamist sects, John gives interviews and writes books about the hidden world of polygamist groups like Warren Jeffs'.

LLEWELLYN: It's amazing the power and this is why they're cults. And the pro-polygamist get very upset, they're very sensitive if you use the word cult. But there's no other way you can define it.

COOPER: John says Warren Jeffs has total control over his followers, routinely breaking up marriages and destroying families.

(on camera): That families can be ripped apart is hard to imagine.

LLEWELLYN: I know it's hard to imagine, but when you're raised from infancy, from the time that you can understand in a word, and you have been indoctrinated to believe that he controls every aspect of your life, that he's the spokesman for God, that's why they do it.

COOPER (voice-over): What makes John Llewellyn particularly knowledgeable about polygamist is that he himself used to be one. He once had three wives.

(on camera): Where did everyone live?

LLEWELLYN: Well, I had a house about 100 yards away from here. Two wives lived there, when I had the three, one upstairs and one downstairs, like a duplex. Then the other wife lived right here.

COOPER: I see.

LLEWELLYN: So it took me 30 seconds to walk from one place to the next.

COOPER: So would you spend one night in one house or how would you arrange it?

LLEWELLYN: I tried to average it out evenly so I'd go from one house, you know, one, two, three, just make the rounds.

COOPER (voice-over): John raised 13 children with his three wives. He now has 27 grandchildren.

(on camera): What was it like having three wives?

LLEWELLYN: Well it wasn't the bed of roses that you might think. There were times when all three of them were mad at me and I'd tell myself, Llewellyn, you've sure got yourself in a mess this time. Most of the time was spent in keeping the peace.

COOPER (voice-over): In 1994, the peace shattered. John says he lost faith in the leaders of his polygamist sect and decided to leave the life.

(on camera): So your first wife divorced you, became the fifth wife of another polygamist?

LLEWELLYN: Right.

COOPER: And your third wife stayed.

LLEWELLYN: She divorced me, and she stayed with the priesthood, and I left.

COOPER: So your wife now was your second wife back then.

LLEWELLYN: Right, right.

COOPER (voice-over): It's confusing, but John's wife, Shawna, was once his second wife. They're still married. She runs the family's flower business. They both renounce polygamy but live in a community where there are still dozens of polygamist families.

LLEWELLYN: Polygamists live right here in this house.

COOPER: John took us to the temple where he used to worship with other polygamists.

LLEWELLYN: There are some kids playing. These guys here, they don't recognize any other marriage. So if they see another man's wife and they want her, they'll try and convert her if they can. And a lot of these guys have done it.

COOPER: John Llewellyn is hoping that Warren Jeffs' story wakes the rest of the country up to the realities of polygamy and fundamentalist sects.

LLEWELLYN: Look at it this way. It attracts fanatics, it attracts pedophiles. It attracts con men. It attracts people that are looking for power.

COOPER: And based on his own experiences, he believes, even if Warren Jeffs is caught, the desire for power will lead someone else to try and take his place.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MANN: A final thing before we go. Police are still searching for Jeffs, but they have two bad memories in mind, 40 years apart.

In 1953, police in Arizona raided a polygamist enclave and made mass arrests. Men were taken from their distraught wives and children in a display of force that made headlines nationwide. The country was appalled. Not at the polygamists, though, but at the local political leaders who took them on.

In 1993, another raid, the one we alluded to earlier, Waco, Texas, where more than 70 people were killed.

Officially, police in the United States need a good and specific reason to search private property for a suspect. They need what is known as probable cause. In this case, they need something more: reassurance that history won't repeat itself again.

That's INSIGHT. I'm Jonathan Mann. The news continues.

END

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