Polygamy means having one wife too many ... as does Monogamy

One of the oddest trials to play out in a US court has revealed how the country’s largest polygamous cult was ruled by a sex criminal who proclaimed himself the “purest man on Earth”.


The Yearning for Zion Ranch, where Jeffs and hundreds of his followers lived
Warren Jeffs, the head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a century-old, breakaway Mormon sect, was venerated by 10,000 followers. They called the gangly, bespectacled 55-year-old “The Prophet” and believed he could speak directly to God.
Now the law has caught up with a man whose devotees believed him to be a descendent of Jesus. After being found guilty in Texas of raping a girl of 12, and fathering a child with a girl of 15, Jeffs faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison.


From his pulpit in a remote Texan compound, Jeffs taught that polygamy would bring exaltation in Heaven and that a man needed at least three wives to win salvation. He practised what he preached: he is believed to have at least 80 “wives”, including 24 who are underage and several dozen who were previously married to his father, a former leader of the sect. He may have fathered as many as 250 children.


In a recording he made of a sexual encounter with the 12-year-old girl that was played in court, he was heard saying: “Just don’t think about the pain, you’re going to Heaven.”
Men who opposed him had their wives and children taken from them, to be given to other followers.


In 2007 Jeffs was found guilty in Utah of being an accomplice to rape, but the charge, which stemmed from the arranged marriage of a 14-year-old girl to her 19-year-old first cousin, was overturned on appeal. But police raided the Yearning for Zion Ranch again in 2008. The authorities took 468 children into protective custody. They were later returned to their parents while Jeffs was charged with child sexual abuse, setting the stage for a trial that often threatened to descend into farce.


At the last minute, he fired his lawyers to defend himself. After sitting mute when asked for his opening statement, he then made a 55 minute objection to the judge. It took the form of a soliloquy on the history of polygamy and religious freedom. His religion, he claimed, was being unjustly persecuted. The objection was overruled.


He refused to stay in court for his sentencing hearing yesterday and was held in an adjacent room, having promised a “whirlwind of judgment” on the world if God’s “humble servant” was not freed. He faces a bigamy trial.


After Jeffs’ conviction, other polygamous sects condemned his behaviour. “We are alarmed that such depravity could have been perpetrated by anyone,” said the Principle Rights Coalition, which represents five polygamist groups in Arizona and Utah.